I made it! I am finally back from the six days of meditation. This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life! I went on the meditation retreat as part of a class. Being that I am still getting adjusted to life in Thailand, this was a big jump. The center was not at all like I imagined, but it was still very neat. We slept in the nun quarters, which were individual cabins. We only got a wooden board to sleep on with blankets and a bathroom. It took me three days to figure out how to use my toilet! It got extremely cold there at night and was very uncomfortable.
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| View from near where we ate |
The first day we were given one pair of white clothes each, which we wore the whole time. The nun helping us lost my clothes afterwards and there was a large language barrier in communicating with her. We also didn’t shower for 6 days… gross! At 4:30 am we woke up to gongs and drums, then breakfast, meditation, lunch and more meditation. We were not allowed to eat after noon, just meditating and no talking! A monk who spoke English taught us, he was extremely nice and helpful.
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| Me and the monk who taught us on day six! |
The rules and the environment was the easiest thing to get used to, it was the meditation that was hard. We did vipassana meditation, which unlike tranquility meditation. In vipassana meditation you try to be mindful and not happy or concentrated. You basically narrate to yourself everything going on to you at that moment. It’s more complicated but I won’t go into the details. We meditated for 3 hours at a time. This was hard to sit and do, but also was painful. Legs falling asleep and back pain took a toll on me. But I am happy that I got through it and can say this is something I have experienced. Never again will I have the chance to live amongst monks and nuns!
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| View of the lake nearby |
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