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On the morning after the mahout training we donned the all white clothes that we'd previously bought at the Chiang Mai night market, got in a songthaew (adapted pick up truck with benches in the back and used like a bus) and went to Wat Rampoeng for the toughest 10 days of our trip so far. We had signed up for 10 days of vipassana meditation at the wat which is just outside Chiang Mai and were feeling quite nervous. The website we'd seen (http://www.palikanon.com/vipassana/tapotaram/tapotaram.htm) promised a wake up bell at 4am, no food after noon, 10 hours of meditation a day and no talking at all, amongst a host of other rules and regulations. We had visited the wat earlier in the week to sign up and the surprisingly hostile monk who took our details and put us through a rather difficult interview asking us why we wanted to undertake the course had only served to heighten our anxiety about how hard the 10 days would be. He had also told us to each buy 11 yellow or orange candles, 11 sticks of incence and 11 lotus flowers and bring them to the wat for our opening ceremony and we
had spent most of the previous day anxiously scouring Chiang Mai for cheap lotus flowers.
Upon arrival at the wat we met 4 other nervous looking farang who were joining the retreat that day too and we all filtered into the office for registration. Fortunately the monk who met us was a different one to the one who had interviewed us previously and seemed much more approachable. He signed us in and issued us with bedding and a meditation mat before showing us to our rooms. Men and women had to be seperated so Amy and I had a room each, in different sections of the grounds. The rooms were basic but better than we had expected. The showers were icy cold but we're used to that now as only a couple of places we've stayed at have had warm water. The toilet was western instead of the usual Asian "squat" toilet and the bed was hard but surprisingly comfortable. The only real down side was that the mens' rooms had no curtains which was a little disconcerting. After dropping our stuff off in the rooms we went with the monk to a quiet area of the wat to
learn basic meditation techniques and to walk us through what we would have to do when we met the abbot of the wat at our opening ceremony that evening.
Vipassana (which means "insight" in the ancient Pali language of the early Buddhist texts) is one of the most ancient forms of meditation and essentially involves clearing your mind of all things except the present moment. You must not think of anything in the past, future or abstract. You must only allow thoughts that are true and not allow any supposition or conjecture. So, you are allowed to think "I am walking on a marble floor in a temple" but not "I wonder how old this floor is". You must also be mindful in every physical movement and actually think about the sensations that you are experiencing as you move your body around your daily life. Think about the breeze on your skin, the itch of a mosquito bite, the pull in your muscles as you stand up. This helps to clear the mind of other thoughts.
The two forms of meditation that the monk showed us were walking and sitting. For the walking meditation you must walk slowly
and with mindfullness, saying in your head "left foot thus", "right foot thus" as you move forwards. If you need to stop or turn, say in your head "stopping, stopping, stopping", or "turning, turning, turning" as you do so. With each step you need to focus on the feel of the ground beneath your feet, notice any pebbles or stones, which part of your foot is actually in contact with the floor and any other feelings that you sense in the present moment.
For the sitting meditation you are to sit cross legged with your hands folded in your lap and close your eyes. Then you clear your mind and focus on each breath and how breathing in makes your stomach rise and breathing out makes it fall. With each breath, say in your head "rising, falling" and try to concentrate only on that. You must also try to observe your breathing, not control it. As you can imagine, sitting with eyes closed for any length of time did mean that Amy fell asleep with some regularity!
We practiced with the monk for a while and then he briefed us about how to greet the abbot, and his
translator, who we would have to report to each evening. Every time we go to their room we had to kneel at the entrance, edge into the room on our knees and prostrate to the buddha statue in the room three times, then to Ajary Suphan (the abbot) three times, then to Bhikkhune Akayanee (the translator) three times. Then we must say hello to them both in Thai which is "Sawat de ka" for a woman, and "Sawat de krab" for a man. To prostrate you kneel, put your hands together in front of your chest, touch them to your forehead then lean forwards and place them on the ground. Then you touch your head to your hands, rise back up to your knees, put your hands together again and touch then to your chest, then forehead, then chest again. All this must be done slowly and with mindfullness.
Once we had practiced prostrating and the walking and sitting meditation with the monk for a while he told us to go back to our rooms, or explore the grounds, and try meditating on our own until the opening ceremony that evening. We were told that almost anywhere in the
grounds was open for meditation, with the exception of the areas around the opposite sex's rooms. He said that we should always start meditation with mindful prostration three times which is viewed as a kind of mental limbering-up. Then we should move onto walking meditation, followed by sitting meditation and then rotate between the two. At the beginning he suggested we start with 15 minutes walking and 15 minutes sitting.
Feeling slightly daft, and breaking the rule of non-communication between meditators, Amy and I explored the grounds and found a nice spot under some trees to start our first meditation session. There were several monks and other white-clad outsiders on various courses all meditating around us and we slowly prostrated three times before starting the walking meditation. We found that the slower we walked, the easier it was to concentrate on the present moment and stop other thoughts from entering our heads and this was clearly a view that was shared by most people as almost everybody meditating around us was inching forwards at glacial speed with a look of utter concentration etched on their faces. Once 15 minutes was up we found a nice shady spot each and
folded our legs to begin focusing on our breathing. At the beginning it was easier than the walking meditation but towards the end our legs started to hurt and we were glad to get back to walking. We practised throughout the day until 7pm when we went to the reporting room for our opening ceremony.
We waited outside the abbot's room nervously until we were all ushered in and prostrated and greeted both the abbot and his translator. He then led us in the opening ceremony which involved following chants and offering up the lotus flowers, candles and incence sticks to buddha. Once the ceremony was complete, Ajarn Suphan welcomed us to the wat and gave us a brief introduction to vipassana, echoing much of what we'd been told by the monk that morning. The abbot's English was very good and we were all glad to find that he actually had a keen sense of humour. Far from being the intimidating, distant figure we had expected, he was actually very warm and friendly. He elaborated on the techniques we had been taught and explained to us that it is natural for our thoughts to wander when meditating and that
nobody is able to meditate perfectly. If your thought wander, rather than admonishing yourself you should simply acknowledge that you are thinking by saying "thinking, thinking, thinking" in your head and repeating it until you are able to clear your mind again. The same technique is also applied to any pain in your legs that you experience when sitting. If you feel that you can not bear the pain, say "pain, pain pain" to yourself and try to observe it rather than be distracted by it. Before dismissing us for the day, he said that we should try and meditate for 6 hours before reporting the next day, with intervals of 15 minutes of walking and sitting. Suitably daunted, we left and turned in for an early night.
At 4am the next morning, the bell sounded and Amy and I awoke in our separate rooms for some meditation before breakfast at 6am. We had been told to arrive promptly before breakfast as we would be required to chant before eating and latecomers would not be served. We arrived at the dining area and sat with the other people who had joined with us, Hayley and Lauren from Essex and
Hertfordshire respectively, and Stephen and Nicole from America. Most people around us were breaking the no-talking rule so we followed their bad example and chatted in hushed whispers before breakfast was served. At around 6.30am, large cauldrons and metal serving trays were wheeled out. Oddly, there actually was the option of eating meat which is against the Buddhist mantra but we had already decided to go vegetarian for the duration of the course to try and live as much like a Buddhist as possible so lined up in the vegetarian queue. I can't remember exactly what we had that first day but most of the meals blended into each other and invariably contained large quantities of soggy tofu, limp vegetables and bland stodgy rice. Fish sauce, chillies and the occasional treat of fruit were the only things that made the food bearable. We each grabbed a sheet of the words to the chants from the end of the dining table and sat down. Once everybody had been served and seated the chanting started. First of all the monks and nuns were led in song for around half an hour, then we were allowed to join in. There were different chants
for breakfast and lunch, and then both were followed by another chant that was for all meals. Each line was sung in Pali, and then in Thai. There were also English translations on the sheets but these were not sung. The full lyrics, are below. I'm sure few of you will want to learn this but I thought the English translation was quite interesting. Plus, there are some cracking, ridiculous length Pali words in there.
Atanatiyaparittum (Sapparoka) - For breakfast
SUB BA-ROKA VINIMUTTO
Jong pen jak sappa roke thang buang
May you be free from all sickness
SUB BA-SANTA PAVAJJITO
Jong pon jak kwam dual ron thang buang
May you be free from all troubles
SUB BA-VERA MATIK KANTO
Jong dab sia seung wen thang buang
May you be free from all dangers
NIB-BUTO CA-TUVAM BAVA
Jong luang sia seung took thang buang haeng than took muah
Cầu mong bạn luôn tránh được đau May you always be free from all suffering
SABBI-TIYO VIVAJJANTO
Kwam chan rai thang buang jong bumradd pai
May you be free from all bad things
SABBA ROGO VINAS SATU
Roke thang buang khong than jong hai
May all
of your sickness be cured
MA-TE BHA VAT-VAN TARAYO
Antarai ya mee gae than
May you never be faced by danger
SUKHI DIGHA -YUKO BHAVA
Than jong ben phu me kwam sook mee ayu yune
May you be happy and live long
ABHIVA DANASI LISSA NICCAM VUDDHA PACAYINO CATTARO DHAMMA VAD-DHAN-TI AYU VANNO SUKHAM BALAM
Porn see pra karn kue, ayu wanna suka phala, yom ja rern gae bukkon phu mee prog ga tee wai grap, mee prog ga tee on nom tor phu yai pen nit.
The four blessings of long life, bright skins, happiness and health will be for those who are always humble
Bhojanadananumodanagatha (Phochananumotanakata) - For lunch
AYUDO BALADO DHIRO
Phu mee phan ya hai ayu hai kam lung
The wise who give out long living health
VAN-NADO PATIBHANA DO
Hai wanna hai phat-di-phan
Giving out brightness and wisdom
SU KHASSA DHATA ME DHAVI
Phu mee phan ya hai kwam sook
The wise who give out happiness
SU KHAM SO A DHI GUC CHATI
Yom dai pra sob sook
Will gain happiness
AYUN DATVA BALAM VANNAM, SU KANCHA PATI BHANA DO
Bukkon phu hai ayu phala
wanna suka lae phat-di-phan
Those who give out longevity, health, happiness and wisdom
DIGHA YU YA SA VA HOTI, YATTHA YATTHU PAPAJJATITI
Bang gerd ani tee dai dai, yom ben phu me ayu yern, me yot nai tee nun nun dang nee leah
sẽ được ban thưởng những báu vật đó
Will receive all these treasured things
Contenplation on food for all meals
PATISANKA YONISO PINDAPATAM PATISEVAMI
Rao yom pijarana doiy yeb khai, leaw chan bindhabath
We must contemplate on the food before eating it
NEVA DVAYA
Mai hai pen pai pua kwam plurd plurn sanook sanaan
So that it is not eaten for pleasure and fun
NA MADAYA
Mai hai pen pai pua kwam mao man gerd kam lung pa lung thang guy
So that it is not gluttonously eaten for physical energy
NA MANDANAYA
Mai hai pen pai pua pradap
So that it is not eaten for beauty
NA VIBHUSANAYA
Mai hai pen pai pua tock taeng
So that it is not eaten for attraction
YAVADEVA IMASSA KAYASSA THITIYA
Mai hai pen pai pua
Only for the continuation and nourishment of this body
YAPANAYA
Pua kwam pen pai dai khong atthappap
For the possibility of simplicity and peace
VIHIM SUPARATIYA
Pua kwam sin pai haeng kwam lum bark thang guy
For freeing the physical suffering of hunger
BRAHMACARIYANUGGAHAYA
Pua a nu khroe gae karn pra prud prom ma chan
For supporting the ordination
ITI PURANANCA VEDANAM PATIHANKHAMI
Duai karn kra tham yang nee, row yom ra ngup sia dai, seung tuk ka weh ta na khao, kue kwam hiew
For I shall destroy the feeling of hunger for a while
NAVANCA VEDANAM NAUPPADESSAMI
Lae mai tham took ka weh tan a mai hai gerd kune
And not produce a new feeling of overeating
YATRA CA ME BHAVISSATI ANAVAJJATA CA PHASUVIHARO CATI
A neung kwam pen pai doi sa duak haeng atthapap nee duai, kwam pen pu ha thot mee dai duai, lae kwam pen yuh doi pah sook duai, juk mee kae rao dung nee.
That I will be free from bodily trouble and able to live in comfort
On the last day we filmed one of the chants from the point where everybody joins in. The dining area was under a particularly spiteful mango tree which kept hurling mangos at us and the giggling halfway through is because one of the mangos almost tore through the canopy over our heads. That and the fact that we were excited about nearly leaving. Most mealtimes were much more sombre affairs, honestly! The video is on youtube at the following address:
By the time we had finished chanting the already unappetising food had invariably gone cold and even less enticing but as we were only fed twice a day we almost always finished everything on our plates. At 5pm each day we were also given a mug of thick sweet drink to keep us going until breakfast but the quality of this varied massively. Some days we were treated to watermelon juice, others we had lukewarm sweetcorn puree or soya bean juice. Tasty. Luckily there was also a small shop that you were allowed to buy food from but only before midday. After midday you were allowed to eat plain yoghurt and frozen milk but no solid food.
After breakfast we separated for more meditation until 10.30am when we met up again at the dining area for a similarly torturous session of chanting and tofu. The saving grace was chatting to each other and the other westerners on the course who we quickly became good friends with. After lunch we were free to meditate some more until reporting time which varied daily. At each reporting we had to prostrate to buddha, Ajarn Suphan and Bhikkhunee Akayanee three times each, say hello in Thai and then talk about our meditation that day. The abbot would then ask about whether we had any pain or problems meditating and offer advice and, occasionally, new methods such as repeating different things to ourselves while sitting or different ways of placing our feet when walking. Depending on how successful our meditation each day was, the abbot would ask us to do more hours the following day and with longer intervals of walking and sitting. By the last day we had both been given 10 hours of meditation to do at walking and sitting intervals of one hour. Oddly, although we had both assumed that sitting for one hour without moving would be nearly impossible, this actually turned out to be easier than walking for an hour. After a few days we had learnt how to block out the excruciating pain in our legs through focusing on it (yes, it actually can be done!) and sitting meditation quickly became our favourite as you can really lose yourself in a trance-like state, concentrating only on your own breathing. Walking, on the other hand, was far more difficult as trying to think of nothing other than your feet moving incredibly slowly for an hour was almost impossible and thoughts invariably wandered.
On the one Thursday we were at the wat we took part in the weekly Buddha Day celebrations. At 8pm everybody (around 150 people including monks and all visitors) met in a large hall to listen to a talk by Ajarn Suphan which was unfortunately not translated from Thai. We sat and listened nonetheless and, although we couldn't understand what he was saying we were struck by the fact that it was clearly very amusing and light hearted as at various times he had the crowd in hysterics. Assuming that the abbots sense of humour and general good mood are indicative of all enlightened Buddhists, it does seem to be a very happy religion. After the talk we each collected an offering consisting of a lotus flower, three incence sticks and a candle each. We lit the incence and the candle and walked around the stupa and temple three times in a clockwise direction, following the monks, before placing all the items on one of the various altars. Partly due to the fact the ceremony was carried out at night by candlelight, it was a very ethereal and beautiful hour or so and definitely one that neither of us will ever forget.
During the first couple of days our concentration was generally good and we both found that we could block thoughts other than the present moment fairly well. When we couldn't and our minds wandered we generally thought of the obvious things such as moments from our trip so far, plans for the future, friends and family and random songs and films. These were fairly easy to push out with the repetition of "thinking, thinking, thinking" but as the days wore on and we became better at meditating we found that very bizarre things would pop into our heads. We would be happily meditating under a tree, thoughtless for hours and then suddenly something random and unremembered for years would appear, not necessarily bad but often just very odd. Something that we hadn't thought of since childhood or just the face of somebody we had met once many years ago. When sitting we both also found that sometimes perceptions would change. Amy sometimes felt like she was floating above the ground and I often had a weird sensation of shrinking. Some of the other guys we spoke to had similar feelings and a couple of them felt like their bodies were becoming larger and larger. Along with the ability to block out pain these led to some very enjoyable meditation sessions!
By the end of the 10 days Amy managed to meditate for 10 hours a day once but the best I managed was 9 hours. Most days we managed at least 7 or 8 hours which is significantly more than we thought we would be able to do. At the closing ceremony Ajarn Suphan said that he hoped we would continue with our meditation in our daily lives and we have both agreed that we will try. It is an excellent way to clear your mind and, even if we only manage half an hour after work when we get home, it is definitely worth it for the floating!
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Dad and Kathy
non-member comment
Hippies...true.
Well Im currently blocking an image of my son in robes, sitting cross legged and meditating under a tree! Couldn't you have found a mountain or something?...Seriously though, what a great experience for both of you. Well done for doing the ten days, I can't imagine either of you silent for that long. Who was the first one to speak, and what did you say?