Live in the Present Moment

September 21st, 2003 at 12:00am

Today I am choosing to write about the food here, because I’m sure people are curious and today all the food was delivered so it seems appropriate to discuss. As I said before, we eat twice a day, once at 6am and again at 10:30am. In the food hall they have both meat and vegetarian food every day. You enter the hall (in silence), pick up a mat and a copy of the prayers, put them on a table, and get in line for food. You help yourself to the food, then sit down (on the floor, no chairs), and do 3 prostrates to Buddha. You wait until everyone has sat down before eating. When everyone is sitting then the prayers are chanted, both in Pali and Thai. Then you eat (mindfully). When you are finished you prostrate 3 times again and clean your dishes before leaving.

The food is all Thai-style (no French fries or burgers), and is sometimes good, sometimes edible. There is always rice and then some type of potato curry, or tofu or vegetable dish, and sometimes fruit. Same style food for both meals. All the food is donated by local Thai people, and today they brought the offerings to the temple (bags of rice, crates of vegetables), and then sat with us in the hall and had lunch there before leaving. It is very humbling to see how much is donated here, and makes me want to practice even harder.

No solid food is allowed after 12 noon. There is a small store where you can buy drinks and plain yogurt and if you want to stock up on cookies and chips to munch in your room ‘after hours’ you can do so, but they will not sell you any solid food after noon. I have not done that so far because I am trying to be good and do it right. After all, hunger is a form of suffering which can be a distraction and hindrance to your practice, and you must face it in order to overcome it.

There is also a Thai woman with a food stall just outside the temple and she sells warm soy milk for 3 Baht, so I have been having that in the afternoon and it really helps to curb the hunger. I’m amazed that I have not been more hungry than I am because I thought that was going to be one of the hardest things. I haven’t even been craving anything (yet). Oh, one other thing you are allowed to have is ice cream, as long as there is nothing solid in it, and every day there are 2 ice-cream men who come to the temple after lunch. The other day I had a vanilla berry swirl, and it was especially good because it was quite humid outside. But afterwards I was so full that I felt sick, and one of the things we chant is that we will not overeat for pleasure, so I figured that I better not do that again.

Technically speaking, a monk is only allowed to eat what has been offered to him and is not allowed to go buy his own food. So sometimes in the temple, if it is before noon, someone may hand you a banana or a cracker and you are allowed to eat it. That has happened to me twice so far. I really like the ‘system’ and am so glad that they have veggie food for me.

Other thought of the day is: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

Be mindful in everything you do, and practice loving-kindness!

More images of Wat Ram Poeng

Entry Filed under: Chiang Mai,North,Thailand