Travel Day 1102 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND
It was already the last day of our Vipassana retreat at Wat Suan Mokkh and for some strange reason our entire schedule was changed again…
On the Way to Suan Mokkh Labor Camp
After finally having such a great and intense day yesterday, which had actually felt like what I had expected from a Vipassana retreat, today we managed to completely loose the momentum. It was really strange but I was thinking that the last two days would be the same, like a two day strict retreat as the final climax of the whole Vipassana, but instead, whatever we had built up over the last nine days was torn down and ripped apart again on our last day at Wat Suan Mokkh…
Overall the schedule all of a sudden jumped back to what it had been on the first four days, but with so many little changes in-between that it was absolutely impossible to keep track of them. The result was that we all found ourselves sitting and waiting for a teaching in the main meditation hall until someone showed up and told us that the teaching would happen in a different hall. After moving all our cushions to the other and waiting around again, we were then told that the schedule required us to go back in the first hall and do sitting meditation instead of any teaching that we expected…
Ready for Wat Suan Mokkh Labor Camp
It really seemed that even the organizers were not able to fully agree on the schedule and so instead of having the most memorable experience in the end, the last day turned out to be rather pathetic than anything else. And all that came after a great motivational speech in the morning, encouraging us to take the last day as seriously as possible and to stay focused. But after all the scheduled confusion and the strangely organized labor camp in the afternoon it was simply impossible to retain what we had built up so patiently over the last couple of days…
In fact because nobody understood any more what was going on and what was supposed to happen or when, everyone started talking out of necessity. When we then were ordered to grab a shovel plus basket in the afternoon and we were walked over to a labor camp site in the forest, even the last person broke-in and started chatting, laughing and making jokes about the overall situation. Nobody really understood why we were finding us on our last day of a Vipassana meditation retreat, shirtless in a forest, moving heavy stones and shoveling sand…
Sweaty Work, Suan Mokkh Labor Camp
It was actually quite a comic situation and after being drenched in sweat and covered in mosquito bites, we all agreed that hot chocolate and hot springs did not sound as good today as it usually did and a cold beer on the beach seemed all of a sudden much more desirable. The second thing that totally backfired was that Suan Mokkh deliberately did not provide us with any transport information until tomorrow morning, the morning of day 11. Since we all wanted to know how to get from our forest location back to civilization and straight to the closest beach with refreshments, we all started getting our guide books out while discussing possible transport options and teaming up with similar destinations…
Overall our Vipassana retreat at Suan Mokkh had been a really interesting and great experience and even if it was beyond my understanding why the last day was wasted in such a strange way, I still appreciated everything I had learned and I would definitely recommend the experience to others. But through this very different experience, I was also even more curious to find out next what the Geonka Vipassana had to offer in comparison…
Find all Wat Suan Mokkh Photos here.
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