The foundation

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Where to start... This feels like a million miles away from the craziness of the city. 65 acres of farm land, forest and lake. Another sensory explosion but the smells and noise of traffic replaced by crickets chirping and geckos squawking and the fragrance of jasmine and eucalyptus. After only a week it felt like a luxury to unpack my bag and have my own secure space- It's tiresome repeatedly checking I have all my possessions about my person, especially as invariably I don't (lost items to date: 1 cardigan, 1 cash card, iPad lost and recovered twice).



This place was founded by two Belgian guys who travelled independently to the notorious thai detox centre Thamkrabok, located in a monastery where they feed you some herbal shit and you spend 5 days puking. By all accounts it successfully treats the physical part of addiction but with no therapy or after care many people end up relapsing in bangkok before the flight home. Julian (the on site director) met Johan (a mega rich property developer with a rampant coke habit) and between them New Life was founded 3 years ago- offering a recovery program based on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness (the focus of attention and awareness; paying attention in a particular way non judgementally).



Current occupancy is about 55- consisting of guests (people that pay to come and relax and or join the various programs on offer) volunteers (like me- bed and board for a few hours "working mediation" per day- able to access yoga and meditation and various other workshops) and residents ( recovering addicts who have to do working meditation but also have life coaching and all sorts of other therapies they have to participate in).



There are some extraordinarily interesting people here with some very sad stories. It's a fairly even mix of Europeans , Americans, Australians. Most of them have tried every form of detox and recovery offered in their own countries and see this as last chance saloon. Many have been through the detox at Thamkrabok prior to NLF.



At the moment there is a four day retreat here led by an internationally acclaimed master of Vipassana (analytic meditation) -some bloke called Jeff. A lot of it is silent meditation. Didn't fancy it.

The days are pretty structured which suits me after 3 months of having no routine. Up at 6 for yoga/meditation, breakfast at 7, community meeting at 8, working meditation 8.30 - 11, lunch at 12, more work 13.30 - 15.30 , yoga/meditation at 1700, dinner at 1800. There's usually something happening in the evening then noble silence starts at 21.30- I.e bedtime.



Working meditation is all kinds of stuff from helping with meal preparation to milking Blossom the cow. They don't mind particularly if you work really slowly or do a crap job- it's just important that you work mindfully. All I've had to do so far is sweep and mop the

awakening hall- a big covered space for meditation, empty other than an enormous bell. Half way through mopping I straightened up hitting the bell with my head with full force. I'm now sporting a large lump in the middle of my forehead. My language wasn't very mindful, needless to say.



I've only been here a couple of days but I know already this is going to be a very interesting experience. There are some things which are spiritually beyond me, or just complete bonkers, but some stuff actually makes sense. And yes, I do now own a tie dyed skirt.



NLF FAUX PAS TO DATE:

Forgetting noble silence and talking to the cat.

Forgetting to take my shoes off repeatedly when entering buildings.

Being insensitive by using my glasto bag, slogan in big letters "get your rocks off"

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Comments

[Alice Courtney]

Looks amazing!
Wow the place looks amazing. Hope you have a relaxing mindful time. I am very jealous. It took me four attempts to read you page in between having various electronic devices thrust at me by the kids and fixing a can opener disaster in the kitchen. I would love silence and meditation.