Travel Day 1094 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND
Today was our first full day of the Vipassana retreat at Suan Mokkh and the day started with the wake up bell at 4am…
Main Meditation Hall, Wat Suan Mokkh
Well, actually we were supposed to be woken up at 4am, but as the bell was really far away from my room this time, I slept right through it and only woke up with my personal alarm at 4.15am. By this time I saw already all the other Vipassana participants walking by my window with their lights and I really had to hurry up to make it to the morning reading on time. So after washing my face and putting on my new yoga/meditation pants that I bought here yesterday, I was off to the first reading about “The World of 5am”…
While this definitely was an appropriate title for a reading in complete darkness at 4.30am, I still couldn’t help but think that “The World of 5am” was not quite the kind of world I liked to live in. The sun wouldn’t come out for another 2 hours and after my second night on a not too comfortable straw mat and wooden pillow, I was just simply wishing to be in “The World of Real Beds and Sleep” right now. After the reading we had a short meditation and then almost two hours of mindfulness in motion, meaning yoga and Tai-Chi…
Chanting Hall at Wat Suan Mokkh
Both yoga and Tai-Chi were a really good way to start the day and balance all the coming hours of motionless Vipassana meditation. And even if the teacher managed to talk continuously without a single break, I still enjoyed it very much. What I did not enjoy on the other hand was the following Dharma talk by an 81-year-old monk fossil with no ability to speak any complete sentence in English. I totally understood that this Yoda monk, he actually looked and spoke like Yoda from Star Wars, must have been a really wise man, but unfortunately I simply didn’t speak his language…
In fact his Dharma talk was so painfully boring that the only way to stay awake was for me to start writing a little dictionary while trying to decrypt his language. This was obviously quite a task since he couldn’t speak any “s”, “d” or “f” sounds and the rest appeared to be mostly a blur. But luckily the Meditation instructions that were given after breakfast were in actual English and quite simple. All we had to do while sitting was to concentrate on the breathing and all we had to do while walking was concentrate on the sensation at the sole of our feet…
Yoga and Tai-Chi Hall, Wat Suan Mokkh
After lunch we then continued our Vipassana program with a Dharma talk by a somewhat cranky or arrogant appearing Western monk. But even if his talk seemed to be very cynical and full of personal attitude, it became the highlight of my whole day. On the one hand he seemed to know what he was talking about and on the other he was not shy to talk about his own experiences and lessons learned while travelling or living in India for many years. Besides that, he mainly talked about Anapanasiti, or Mindfulness with Breathing and the teachings of Buddhadarsa…
The rest of the day was then pretty straight forward. We had more walking meditation, sitting meditation, chanting, loving kindness meditation, hot chocolate and hot springs, again sitting meditation, another walking meditation and one last time of sitting meditation. By 9pm we were finally getting ready for bed and at 9.30pm all the power was turned off. After this really long first day of our Vipassana program, I had not the slightest trouble to fall asleep again on my almost comfy concrete bed…
Suan Mokkh Vipassana schedule day 1 to 4:
- 4.00 wake up bell
- 4.30 morning reading
- 4.45 sitting meditation
- 5.15 yoga/tai-chi, mindfulness in motion
- 7.00 dharma talk
- 8.00 breakfast and chores
- 10.00 dharma talk
- 11.00 walking or standing meditation
- 11.45 sitting meditation
- 12.30 lunch and chores
- 14.30 meditation instruction and sitting meditation
- 15.30 walking or standing meditation
- 16.15 sitting meditation
- 17.00 chanting and loving kindness
- 18.00 tea/hot chocolate and hot springs
- 19.30 sitting meditation
- 20.00 walking meditation
- 20.30 sitting meditation
- 21.00 bed time
- 21.30 lights off
Find all Wat Suan Mokkh photos here.
Leave a Reply