Life and Conduct at Wat Suan Mokkh

Travel Day 1096 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND

In comparison to Life and Conduct at Kopan Monastery in Nepal, everything at Wat Suan Mokkh was a bit more strict and regulated…

Scorpion in my Room at Suan Mokkh

First of all the five usual Buddhist precepts were extended to eight and the definitions were a bit more specific: 1. No Killing (no taking away of any breath), 2. No Stealing (no taking what is not given), 3. No Sexual Conduct (keeping the body and the mind free from any sexual activity), 4. No Lying (not harming others by speech), 5. No Intoxicating Substances (not to harm ones consciousness with substances that lead to carelessness), 6. No Eating between Noon and Dawn, 7. No Beautification, Music, Dance or Shows and 8. No Sleeping or Sitting on Luxurious Beds and Seats…

Those eight precepts alone were already quite a task to master, especially the sleeping and eating conditions, but there was a lot more we had to watch out for. We were not allowed to use phones, cameras or internet, we were not allowed to speak and we were not even allowed to read or write anything. There was absolutely no lying-down allowed anywhere inside the compound of the Dhamma Hermitage of Wat Suan Mokkh besides in the own personal room. But the entire sleeping complex was locked 5 minutes prior to every class…

Vipassana Dictator, the Bell Tower

The locking process itself was posing the next challenge as technically no watches were allowed and we were all meant to live only by the Vipassana dictator bell while not worrying about the actual time at all. Unfortunately this meant if one would miss a bell, the doors would be locked until the next meal time and everybody would see who was missing in class as we had a fixed seating system in the meditation hall. So especially in the first few days keeping my personal alarm clock was absolutely vital, even if technically against the rules…

Since we were only given about 6 hours to sleep every single night, I ended up sleeping in all the short breaks we had. Especially the morning rest seemed important after breakfast, but unfortunately my time was always cut short by my chore, which was the same as seva or karma yoga. In the afternoon we had at least time to visit the hot springs but we had to make sure not to sun bathe, to cover our shoulders along the way and to even wash ourselves while wearing our underwear. Girls actually had to wear a full sarong while bathing and washing…

Washing with the Bucket in Underwear

While all accommodation was as basic and simple as possible, there were no mirrors to be found anywhere as well. I guess it was supposed to be part of the “no beautification” reinforcement but it still would have been nice to at least be able to shave once in almost two weeks time. Besides that we were not allowed to point our feet to the front, to stand, sleep, or lean against columns during class and we always had to wait for the monks to get up first and leave the hall before we could do so. Additionally we were supposed to arrive at least 5 minutes before every single class…

It became actually quite a challenge to fully follow the tight schedule throughout the day, but what also became a challenge was to live with all the wild-life in the jungle of Thailand. Many people had frogs and snakes in their rooms while I personally had to face big spiders and a scorpion. Now getting mosquitoes and moths out the door as we had to do at Kopan Monastery was one thing, but catching big spiders and a scorpion to set them free in the forest was definitely something else and so besides breathing and mindfulness, I had a few extra life lessons to learn at Wat Suan Mokkh…

Find all Wat Suan Mokkh Photos here.