One Week in a Buddhist Monastery (1/2)

When I decided that I’d come to Asia, I knew that I’d spend some time in a temple to expand my spiritual practice. Meditation and mindfulness are two things that I value deeply and getting the chance to learn from Buddhist monks was something I always dreamed about. Most of the time, foreigners need to plan to be at a temple, but one was quite liberal. Wat Pa Tam Wua is located about 2 hours north of Pai, a hippie town that I fancy. You don’t need a reservation to get there and expenses are donation based.

Here’s what life in Wat Pa Tam Wua is like:

Getting There

I felt like the ride to the temple was a living hell. There were 15 people crammed in the back of a truck along with bags of rice and other produce for the monastery. I was fortunate enough to be by the door, but unfortunate enough to have a metal bar in the middle of my back. One woman was sitting on a bag of rice while another was sitting on the floor with her feet dangling out of the truck. The last person was holding on to a ladder off the back of the truck.

The ride was 4 hours.

In a car, it should take 2, but given the nature of our vehicle, heavy and slow moving with multiple stops, our time was doubled. When I arrived, I cried and then decided without a doubt that I’d hitchhike or walk back to town.

Arrival

Depending on when you arrive, you are greeted by some volunteers who give you a set of white clothes, assign you a dorm or kuti, give you bedding, and tell you all the rules. After that, you jump in on the next activity of the day.

Vow of Silence

When you arrive, the volunteers will invite you to take a vow of silence during your time at the temple. Ever since I saw Eat Pray Love, I wanted to go to a temple and wear a badge that says, “In Silence.” Well, dreams really do come true! I already knew that silence would be a part of my experience and it was a very good teacher. I also made a commitment to be without my phone for the week (with one afternoon as an exception to take pictures.)

Schedule

05:00 Morning meditation in your kuti

06:30 Rice offering to the monks

07:00 Breakfast

08:00 Morning Dharma talk, and meditation class

10:30 Food offering to the monks

11:00 Lunch

12.50 Afternoon Dharma talk and meditation class

16:00 Cleaning the area and helping in the monastery

17:00 Free time

18:00 Evening Chanting and meditation

20:00 Meditation on your own, or have tea, coffee, hot chocolate & relax

22:00 Rest time

5 AM? Yeah, right.

This temple is very relaxed compared to others. For 5 am, there is no wake up call or organized activity holding people accountable. This means that between 5-6 am, a series of alarms would ring as people slept through them or kept hitting snooze. A few dedicated practitioners would go to the meditation hall, but many would snooze until the rice offering or sit in the dining hall clutching a cup of coffee with a weary expression on their face.

An invitation that I accepted 6 out of 7 days in the morning was to go to the kitchen to help prepare the food. After someone else’s alarm would wake me up, I’d wipe the crust from my eyes and feel into my body. Usually, I’d do a short 15-20 minute meditation in bed before putting my clothes on and quietly walking to the kitchen. In the kitchen, we were mostly responsible for chopping and peeling vegetables while 2 local Thai people did all the cooking.

Rice Offering

At 6:30, a little wind chime rang and the monks descended from their side of the property to receive rice offerings. All of the practitioners would kneel next to each other, lift a plate of rice to their forehead, and offer each monk one scoop of rice. Honestly, while I was at the temple, I didn’t understand this practice. For the purpose of this article, I did some research. Typically, monks go to villages to receive food. This is known as “almsgiving.” It’s a way for the faithful to have a positive merit. I assume the morning rice offering was a way of representing this practice, but its significance wasn’t explained.

Dharma Talks

We would receive a “Dharma Talk” or lesson on Buddhism 3 times a day. Once in the morning, once before lunch, and once in the afternoon. The quality of these lessons would vary greatly depending on which monk was giving it. The Abbot, or head monk, was a cheerful man, but when he spoke, I never understood what he was saying. I hope that the Thai practitioners felt more inspired by his speech. In the mornings, a younger monk would often repeat the same thing about letting go of thoughts and focusing on the breath, but in the afternoon? There was a teacher who spoke English well enough to answer all the questions and provide a coherent explanation on what we were doing and why.

Because this place wasn’t strict, most of us would bring a book during the Dharma Talks that we couldn’t understand the monk’s lesson.

Walking Meditation

For 1 hour per session, we walked in slow motion around the monastery. Sometimes, we stayed on the path and other times, we walked in the forest. The purpose of walking meditation is to practice absorption or samatha. Absorption is when the mind becomes one with the thing that it’s focused on. For example, think about when someone is “absorbed” into their phone or a TV show. It might take a few minutes to get their attention because they are so focused. It is possible to do this with the breath or sensations in the body. The practice leads to a relaxed state of being and causes the mind to slow down or become still.

Seated Meditation

For 30-45 minutes per session (depending if we did a meditation lying down), we sat in the meditation hall listening to the lawn mowers and the birds. Sometimes, we’d get a brief introduction guide from one of the monks, but after that, we were on our own. The purpose of this is to practice concentration or vipassana. Contrary to anything I ever believed about meditation, the monks encouraged thinking. Yes. We did the walking meditation first to calm the mind and during the seated meditation, we were encouraged to observe it. To do this, one mind focuses on the meditation object and then another mind, the observer, is born to study the first mind and understand it better.

The monks encouraged questioning and contemplation. Part of the Eightfold Path (the directions the Buddha left for others to reach enlightenment), is right understanding. But there’s a difference between being told the truth and finding it out on your own. This practice is meant for practitioners to find the truth on their own by studying their mind.

Afternoon Dharma Talk with Ajahn Anek Thanissaro

Food and Fasting

All the food was simple and filled with veggies. It was all vegan except if there were cookies or sweets donated that had milk or eggs in them. As an avid fruit eater, I went through withdrawal from not having access to fruit, but other than that, most of the meals were quite flavorful and tasty. If you didn’t notice, there are two meals served at the temple.

Breakfast at 7 am.

Lunch at 11 am.

They say it’s supposed to support your meditation practice. You could eat as much as you want and since this temple is geared towards tourists, there was also a shop on the grounds where people could buy snacks and cup of noodles for a snack in the evening.

For me, I brought some tangerines and would eat them in the afternoon, but a few times, I went to the store to get a bag of chips and some oreo cookies - more for comfort than physical need.

Free Time and Service

There were a lot of breaks in the day to give us the chance to process and rest from all the meditation we were doing. Many people spent this time catching up on sleep, laying in the sun, chatting with other people, or reading books. I read a lot at the temple and if I ever need to study something without distraction, I think I’ll just go back to the temple.

In order to practice good merit, people were also encouraged to do service for 1 hour in the afternoon. Since I helped in the kitchen in the morning, I was more relaxed about doing work in the afternoon, but typical tasks included: cleaning the dining hall, organizing the library, and raking leaves. Simple things, but they helped keep the place in order.

Evening Chanting & Meditation

The worst part of every day. Oh my gosh, the worst! Really. I couldn’t do it. I sat there because that was part of the agreement (the activities are mandatory), but it was loud, boring, and went on forever. The first night, I sat on my cushion staring blankly ahead of me the entire time. It reminded me of how I felt being in the truck on the ride to the temple: trapped. After however long of misery, they turned off the lights and we all meditated. I have to admit, the evening meditation was always the best one of the day.

Chanting is not singing. The purpose of chanting is to express truths about Buddhism such as: everything is impermanent or words on loving kindness, but the delivery is meant to limit the possibility of emotions arising so it is intentionally boring to keep you from feeling.

Oof, reasons I’m not a Buddhist: I love my body and trust in her nature (which includes feeling and expressing emotions).

In Conclusion

Even though Wat Pa Tam Wua wasn’t strict and there were a lot of distractions, I’m grateful for its openness and its structure. I arrived at the temple physically empty (from food poisoning) and numb (from emotional/mental fatigue) and left it feeling energetically pure and clear. It was good. If given the chance to go to a temple, I recommend stepping up to the challenge. The space holds you. You have very few responsibilities or decisions to make and it gives you the chance to really be with yourself. Don't let that scare you.

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