...in Thailand.
I don't have picture this time because I stayed home most of the trip and didn't take many pictures. But I have words.
My mother and I went to a meditation retreat for three days at a Buddhist temple in Lampang, the province where my mother lives. I was taught some beautiful things. The first day, we were taught the underlying reasons for meditation and what we are looking to achieve through meditating.
We were taught that objects and names as we know it are not real. Meditation is a way to recognize this fact and eventually become detached to them. You might argue that things are real because we can see, feel, taste, smell them. As an example, our hands. They are there. We can see them and feel them. But if we look deeper, our hands are made of skin and bones and blood, etc. And what are those things made of?
We were taught to look at things by their properties: earth, water, wind and fire. Earth as in the lightness or heaviness (not the physical soil because that's also not real.) Water for togetherness. Wind for looseness or tightness. And fire for hotness and coldness.
We were given 3 exercises to do during the whole conscious time that we were there. A walking meditation, sitting meditation and all other daily activities. These are to be done slowly with our minds being present focusing on every single action at all time. If, at any point, we were distracted, we were to recognize the distraction and the emotion that comes with it. Then get rid of it.
There were lots of distractions at the beginning. But it got easier as the time passed. By the end of the third day during my last sitting meditation, I sensed a calm and overwhelming bliss that I had never felt before. It was mind blowing. I never believed that my mind would be quiet enough to achieve any kind of meditative state. Of course, I shouldn't be attached to that feeling either. But as a beginner, that is something.
Here's the link to the temple's website: http://www.wattamaoh.com/
