De-stressing At Chiangmai Temples

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De-stressing

Foreign tourists trade spas for temples to practice meditation and unwind through the unity of body, mind and soul

Roy Hamric

Foreigners first began visiting Chiang Mai in the late 19th century when the British opened a "mountain station" to extract teak trees and other timber. During the Vietnam War, Americans found it to be the most beautiful and sleepy of Thailand's mountain cities.

Today, it's ranked among the top of Asia's most livable cities list and an increasing number of Chiang Mai's Buddhist wat, or monasteries, are drawing in more and more Westerners seeking introductory classes on Buddhism and meditation retreats.

A growing number of farang (Westerners) are forsaking the more traditional spas and venues that offer massage, Thai cooking and yoga classes for Buddhist studies classes in English and Thai meditation retreats that run from one to 21 days or longer.

Wat Umong, one of Chiang Mai's 300 Buddhist monasteries, rests in the foothills of Mount Doi Suthep, rising 5,478 feet above the 1,000-year-old city. Wat is a Thai word from the Pali-Sanskrit word meaning "dwelling for pupils and ascetics." Wat Umong's history goes back to the 14th century.

On the densely wooded monastery grounds, limestone sculptures of the Buddha are scattered over the ground, some nearly completely covered by climbing vines. Small kuti - self-sufficient huts that house monks - are bathed in yellow sunbeams filtering through the leafy canopy. The deep murmuring sound of monks' chanting sutras filled the evening air one day this fall.

On a pathway, blue signs with white lettering offered helpful aphorisms: "Today is Better than Two Tomorrows." "I have not failed - I found ways that don't work." Sixteen foreigners sat quietly in a red-roofed Chinese pavilion beside a two-acre pond. Green algae circled the pond's edge almost to its centre, leaving a circle of water where large turtles poked their snouts into the air.

Nirodho Bikkhu, an Australian monk who lives in a nearby kuti, walked into the pavilion and sat down. He adjusted his brown robe and smiled.

"I would rather answer your questions and just talk. Does anyone have a question?" he asked. Moments of long silence. Finally, a young girl with bronze skin from days on the road asked: "Is reality real?"

The monk smiled. Speaking slowly, he explained what the Buddha said about objective and subjective views. He talked about meditation as a way to experience the mind, the senses and the body. He talked about a concept in Vipassana Buddhism of small, discreet divisions of mental activity that can take years of meditation to fully distinguish. "They pass by unnoticed by most people," he said.

More silence. Then an American lady asked: "What about bardos," the different stages of the death-journey found in Tibetan Buddhism.

"I speak only about what the Buddha said," Norodho Bikkhu answered. "Bardos are concepts found only in the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead'."

A young woman listening to the monk, Laura Robbins, stayed the full two hours. After everyone left, she had a private conversation with Nirodho Bikkhu.Later, walking beside the pond, she said she was starting a 21-day meditation retreat at a nearby monastery in two days.

"A little serendipity got me to this point," said Robbins, an English teacher from Portland, Oregon. While on vacation in Prescott, Arizona, she had a conversation with the owner of a Thai restaurant who gave her the name of an American woman who teaches meditation.

"I choose that temple," she said, "because of what the woman teacher said, and I liked it that there were a lot of nuns there."

In the past, it took a lot of effort for Westerners to find a wat where they could receive introductory lectures on Buddhism or go on short or long meditation retreats. Like many temples, Wat Umong is rapidly expanding its offerings to Westerners. .

"We will be friends to anyone who wants to know more about Buddhism," said Songserm Bikkhu, the teaching monk who directs Wat Umong's newly-opened International Buddhist Education and Meditation Practice Centre, which has 17 rooms for foreigners who can choose from one to four-day retreats. There is no cost, just individual donation. Many Westerners give US$6 a day.

"If people would like to take a retreat or to ordain as a monk and practice here, they can," Songserm Bikkhu said. "If they would just like to come, learn and go and practice on their own, they can."

Most Chiang Mai wat teach Vipassana meditation, a system based on meditation and attention to the four foundations of mindfulness. Exercises are based on mindfulness of body and movement, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of mind and mindfulness of objects. In Pali, Vipassana means "to see things as they really are."

The retreat schedule is the same at most wat: rise at 4am followed by morning chanting and mediation, breakfast, dharma study, followed by lunch, afternoon walking and sitting meditation, a one-on-one talk with the supervising monk, rest time and evening chanting, concluded by more sitting and walking meditation. Students are encouraged to do sitting and walking meditation up to 12 hours a day.

A short distance down the road from Wat Umong is Wat Ram Poeng, built in 1451, with touches of Burmese Buddhist architecture. A popular meditation centre with Asians and foreigners alike, the wat is home to the Northern Insight Vipasanna Mediation Centre.

Eric Stirnweis of Fort Collins, Colorado, was in his second week of retreat, along with other Americans and people from Sweden, Canada and France. While waiting for his daily interview with the abbot, he said he had already increased his walking and sitting meditation to about 12 hours a day.

"Here you eat, sleep and meditate - that's it," Stirnweis said. "They push you."

At the end of the retreat period, he said, each student goes through "termination" - a three-day period of very little sleep and constant sitting and walking meditation.

The daily interviews are helpful, he said, but the practice is tough with lots of ups and downs.

"It's different - no telephone, no email, six hours of sleep a day at most, but it's a healthy focus," he said. "The abbot is definitely perceptive. I didn't even say anything one morning, and he said, 'Ah, there's much negativity here.' He seems to know you without talking to you."

Wat Ram Poeng is in the process of expanding facilities to house up to 30 foreigners.

Frequently, foreigners who want even longer retreats are sent to Wat Dthat Sri, a sister temple. It also is in the process of creating a foreigner-housing area complete with small cottages outside the wat grounds.

An American, Kathryn Chindaporn, who co-directs the meditation centre for foreigners with her Thai husband, Thanat, recalled her phone conversation with Laura Robbins.

"This is a good place for basic or long-term practice, tailored to individuals," said Chindaporn, who is from Everett, Washington. "We use the mental libelling technique. It is easy. You think, 'I'm taking a step with my right foot, or I'm feeling content or sad.' It's easy to use, but the practice makes it very deep."

Chindaporn said she was on her way to India in 1986, but found herself staying on in Chiang Mai to practice full-time at Wat Ram Poeng, where she took classes in Buddhist studies, learned Thai and has since translated early Thai meditation texts into English.

Meanwhile, Laura Robbins had started her retreat at the wat and had begun daily interviews with Thanat Chindaporn.

"It's going fine," she said on her second day of the retreat. Ten days later, she took a two-day break, but planned to return the next day for another 10-day stay.

"It was very difficult," she said. "I wanted to leave at least three times. I was surprised how hard it was - the simplicity of it was frustrating.

"My mind was running everywhere," she said. "At the end we tried to practice for 72 hours straight. I had some very set ideas about who I am. I found that by pushing past that I've come out being much more gentle with myself."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Horizons/12Jan2006_hori01.php