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Published: March 6th 2008
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This week I lived as a Buddhist monk and learnt all about Buddhism! What an experience that was!!!!
We started the week off getting up bright and early at 5am to greet the monks as they walked past- they walk through the village every day at this time to collect food from everybody in the village for the day.
So the majority of the group got up and were waiting with the food we had prepared for the monks, and the Monks didn't turn up, so then one of the people that live next door said that they may be in the Temple so at 6am we started to walk to the temple. At this point however- very annoyingly some members of the group decided this was too much effort and it was too hot for them - poor little lambs eh? despite the fact it was a 10 ish minute walk and then cross the river, (and also despite the fact we are in Thailand, that they supposedly wanted to experience the culture in Thailand and also, learn about the Buddhist way of life) So after they went back to bed we waited for the monks and greeted them
and gave them the food. They had LOADS of food with them and very grateful that we'd made them food etc etc.
Later that day the monks came to the ecohouse and taught us how to meditate and chanted infront of us- apart from my legs going numb (during chanting you jave to sit on your feet, quite difficult for about 20 minutes) but if was fine, the chanting was incredible. I was kneeling there in a state of shock it was just fascinating. The chant was so long, the cheif monk had different parts than the others, the different tones that the chants were it, it was just incredible!! After that we visted some temples in the afternoon, and saw the biggest statue of Buddha in the world! We had to run round it 3 times for luck too apparantly- my word, at 38 degrees, with trousers on and a pash round me (as you have to have your knees and shoulders covered around monks and in any temple) i was hot!!! It was absolutely huge! Unfortunately the battery in my camera ran out at this point. BOO.But will steal some off my friends here when they get round
to uploading them!
Tuesday we started our temple stay, we woke early again, and headed to the temple. We were shown to our room and it literally was just a room with a marble floor. (we were staying in the nuns section of the temple) So we put our stuff down and went to meet the monks!! They were very friendly and just as keen to learn about England as we were about Thailand!! We meditated and chanted again and got the chance to ask the monks anything and vice versa. After learning about their religion, one of their 5 rules states that you musn't kill anything- including animals, so the monks were all vegetarian, and if you did kill any animal you would potentially go to hell. They said that id they saw a mosquito biting them whist meditating then they had to leave it and not squat it! Shocker! So I asked them, if they were walking in the jungle and a tiger came towards them and attacked them, are they allowed to fight back in self defence/harm the animal to save themselves- or if a pack of dogs started to attack them ( there is a
HUGE problem with dogs in Thailand, there are stray dogs EVERYWHERE, people get bitten in the day time for no reason and one person where i'm staying was attacked by a group of them so it was a realistic question!!!) can they defend themselves etc or accept their fate. The monk answered no!!! They said they'd accept their fate and sacrafice themselves- as the reason they'd be getting attacked was Karma and meant to be???? Everyone was a little shocked at that one. Also, the monks are supposed to be following the life of the prince that gave up all his riches to acheive self enlightenment and total happiness- however we saw lots of monks at various temples on mobile phones, watching tv and on laptops- so their lives didn't appear to be too simple.
Monks don't eat food after 12pm so neither did we- that also was testing!! We chanted in the afternoon and walked around the beautiful gardens there. After evening chanting and meditation we had an early night- it wasn't my best nights sleep I must admitt but it was fine. We woke up early again the next day and walked through the village with the monks
collecting food with them. They were given SO SO SO much food it was unbelievable! I was so shocked! Considering they had to eat it all by 12pm as well!!!!
It took us an hour to walk around the village collecting the food, and in bare feet (the pavement gets hot hot hot!!!)
We planted a tree for peace in the afternoon which was a really nice touch- they said we were welcome to back at any point and the trees should be fully grown in 20 years so we need to go back then at least!! I grew quite fond of my little tree stump in the end!! Thought that was a really nice touch!!
It was such an incredible experience to sample their lifesyle, a real eye opener as well. I really enjoyed it. Made me miss my bed that tiny bit more though......(if thats possible) hehe.
xxxx
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