Buddist Meditaion

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Well I spent the last houre writing about my Buddist Meditaion only to loose the entire script to the internet gods.
So lets begin again... I spent the last two weeks in a Thai Buddist Forest Monistary in Northern Thailand. The monistary was located in the Jungle and surrounded by rock mountains, rivers, waterfalls, caves, ponds, and the usual array of Jungle flora and founa. On arival I was imidiatly shown to my Kuti(hut) and given a set of white clouths to be worn while at the monistary. The place was a buautiful as I had imagined and the upkeep was the responibility of the people living nearby. Including the landscape work and arriving at 5:30am daily to cook food for the meditatoras and the monks.
Meditation occured throughout the day and invloved 1hr of walking meditation, 1hr of sitting meditation and 1/2hr laying down meditaion, which reminded me more like naptime then meditaion. We did this twice a day and the rest of the time was filled with eating, cleaning, reading and moring and evening meditation on your own.
The meditation instructions were minimal as the language barrior was present. So I was glad to have a strong foundation in meditation prior to arrival. But very simply they tought mindfulness. To do this they suggested that we keep our attention on the breath. Breathing in you say to yourself BOU, breathing out you say to yourself DOUH. As my prior practice involved awareness of breath without the use of the words I left that part out and no one was the wiser, except perhaps me. This techniques is designed to increase mindfulness be keeping the mind in the present moment and not allowing it to run to the past or future.
The highlight of my stay there was the monks. Ever since I started meditaion I wanted to meet a monk to sit with them and find out what they know. What I learned as that they have no magic powers, and in fact are subjust to the same ups and downs of life that all humans suffer from. The differnce is their awareness of the ups and downs and their understanding that it is just that, "an up and a down" no good no bad, no wrong no right just arising a passing away. The Head monk or the Abbot asked me to join him ever day for tea to speek english with him and the other monks so that they can learn. I was very happy to do this because it is what I wanted. Sometime I felt like he was a bit of a mind reader. Anyway I woud sit with the monks and point at things or draw pictures and write the name in english. I tought the alphabet and other simple things like colors, and days of the week. I becam very close to the monks and them to me. It is considered on of the more noble proffesions to be a teacher and they all showed me great respect for helping them. I was moved to the front of the line for walking meditation and things like that. Which I had no interest in as I was there to deflate the ego, not give it a shot of adrnalin. But I accepted the kind gesture all the same.
For the rest of my life I will rember the Abbot. This man radiated with love and compassion, kindness and understanding, acceptance and equanimity. He laughed and smiled all the time and claimed that his mind was never agitated, and that he was allways calm. And form what I saw I would say that is true. He spent 7years 7months and 7days walking throught the jungles of Thailand, Burma, and India with nothing but an Umbrella and water. Eating food once a week and meditating in caves and sleeping on the Jungle floor. He told storied of encounters with tigers and snakes and laughed at the whole thing. He was really an extrodinary person, full of so much love and happieness. All in all it was a very wonderful experience and I will rember it for a lifetime
Be Happy,
Graham

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Photos

Home Sweet Home
Notice the roof is made form leaves, worked like a charm

Monks
Im the one in the middle