Meditation Retreat

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Well i decided after to listen to many stories and with some encouragement to go and experience a 10 day meditation retreat. Not knowing much about meditation i thought it would be interesting to learn and a great experience, however, i was slightly nervous about the silent part and the 'no eating after midday' rule!! (Yes I know you are now all thinking there is no way lauren could be silent for ten days, let alone stop eating!)

The retreat was at Suan Mokkh which is just outside Chaiya half way down thailand. We took the night bus from bangkok and arrived outside the monastry at 4.30am, needless to say there were not many people around at this time but we were soon greated by a friendly monk who got us to sign the visitors book and then sent us to the international part of the monastry. On the way there Erik changed his mind at least 20 times as to whether he was going or not, but i had decided that no matter what i was going to do this, if only to prove to all you lot that i could last that long without speaking!!

At the monastry once we had signed up and paid 500baht for our ten days food and accomodation we were allowed to go to our rooms. There were two seperate buildings, one for men and one for women, and all the rooms faced out onto a central courtyard. Each room basically resembled a prison cell!! We were to sleep on concrete blocks with only a straw mat underneath us and a wooden pillow - yes i said wooden pillow!! Now i was really wondering what i had gotten myself into and then i found out we were to wash using the water in the wells in the central courtyard and we were to get up at 4am!! But on the positive side the grounds of the monastry were stunning and there was a beautiful hot spring that we could use every day.

So this is the daily routine -


4am - woken up by the sound of a huge bell being struck
4.30am - a reading from a member of the group and then group meditation
5.15am - yoga, yes i said yoga at this time of the morning!!!
7am - more group meditation
8am - breakfast, chores (everyone had their own job to do) and free time - for sleeping in my case!
10am - dhamma talks
11am - walking meditation
11.45am - sitting meditation
12.30 - lunch and chores (more sleeping!!)
2.30pm - meditation talks
3.30pm - walking meditation
4.15pm - sitting meditation
5 pm - chanting pali verses - my favorite part of the day! apart from lunchtime!
6pm - hot drink time!
7.30pm - sitting meditation
8pm - group walking meditation around the pond
8.30pm - sitting meditation
9pm Bedtime
9.30pm lights out and no more electrcity until 4am!

Now if having read this you think i must be slightly mad for signing myself up to something like this i have to day that for the first 5 days i completely agreed!! I couldnt meditate and just spent every minute counting down the hours till the day would be over. I found it bloody uncomfortable sitting still for so long and kept falling asleep, in fact to say i wanted to kill Erik for bringing me there wouldnt be far from the truth!! However, i really enjoyed to yoga everyday, the food was amazing, the hot spring relaxing, the spiders and snakes in the dorms exciting and believe or not i found not talking really easy and actually really nice!! And finally on day 6 i managed to meditate! Or at least started to get the hang of it and by day 8 i could sit for hours and it was amazing, so relaxing, a really incredible experience. So all in all i am really glad i went. Meditation is definately something that i am glad i have learnt and will continue to use, and i proved to everyone including myself that i can be quiet for more than five minutes and that i do not need to eat 24/7!!

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Photos

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The meditation hall

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Meditation grounds

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Our group