Blogs from Loei, Northern Thailand, Thailand, Asia

"Troubles, you see, is the generalization word for what God exists in. The thing is not to get hung up." ......................Jack Kerouac This could just as easily have been titled The Travels of a Postmodern Monk: Zen by Zak and the Art of Motorbike Abuse. Much of my recent visa run to Laos involved riding over 1,400 miles (2,281km) on my (vintage 2004) 100cc Honda Wave Scooter. I found myself riding over mountain ranges, through cities, towns, villages and along the roughly paved borderlands of Thailand and Laos. Along the way, I incurred three flat tires and somehow cluelessly ran the engine without oil for a long stretch in the afternoon heat. This doesn't include another 700 mile journey in which I returned to the Thai-Laos border, by bus, to pick up the visa I had ... read more

The Chinese new year was fast approaching and one resolution the people of the East make every year is to de-clutter. I think these last two years I may be taking this custom a little too seriously as after clearing away my property, car, stuff and now internal body colon clutter I felt it was time for me to de fragment and empty my muttering mind with a seven day consciousness enema. I found an organisation that seems to be right up my street, it is called The Middle Way they practice a form of Buddhism I had never heard of before, DHAMMAKAYA. Dhammakaya is a Pali word meaning Enlightenment Dhamma means truth, pure nature and Kaya means the body, this dates back more than 2500 years ago,but was lost to the world after the Buddha ... read more