The Race to Enlightenment

October 2nd, 2003 at 12:00am

I want to make some comments about the other foreign meditators here, but I am feeling too tired to engage. It’s 9:45pm and I’ve done 6 hours of meditation since 2pm today. I have 10 days left to complete the full 26-day ‘course.’ It’s mainly called a course because you meet with the head monk for 5 minutes every day to discuss your progress, but other than that there are no lessons – you are on your own. Today I told Phra Ajun Suphan that I was thinking about pizza a lot. He thought that was funny. I am glad to know that I have 16 days behind me now and only 10 ahead. I’ve got no books left to read except one on learning Thai, so I’m gonna either get serious with the practice or learn Thai in the next ten days. I think I will choose the practice.

As far as I can tell, there is only one other guy and myself, that’s 2 people out of 25 foreign meditators, who are taking the vow of silence seriously. Everyone else is gabbing away. I find the vow a bit more difficult to keep when I see this, mostly because I worry that they are talking about me and wondering why I won’t chat. Why should I care anyway? Yeah, I know.

Monks receiving their Alms (food for the day)

Entry Filed under: Chiang Mai,North,Thailand