Thailand Meditation Retreat News

On posture:

When the body posture is well refined, it has a great effect on the mind.  Conversely, when the body is not elevated and not refined, when the body is slouched over, the effect on the mind is great.  We’ve discussed at length what the conditioning effect on the breath is, when the body is in those slumped-over positions.  When the body is slumped over, the breath becomes shallow.  The shallow breath then conditions the mind and the emotions to produce states of agitation, anxiety, it could even be depression.  But mostly, short, shallow breaths are associated with the mental affliction of irritation.

Seven Factors of Awakening:

The Buddha actually gave these instructions about the Seven Factors of Awakening a few months before he died.  He realized he would be dying soon, so he gathered his closest disciples around and this was part of the last instructions that he delivered.  They were based on his own deep experiences.  He said, ‘Let me give you some instructions about what it is that you’re going to need in order to stop suffering.  You’ll need these seven things.’  You notice that these instructions are all about the best way to practice meditation.  He didn’t give a philosophical lecture.  That’s what I want you to hear more than anything else in this narrative, that what the Buddha offered as his most precious advice, given when on the point of his death, was seven experienceable qualities that are most important for realization, not a deep philosophical treatise, as you might expect.  It’s those Seven Factors of Awakening that we’re practicing here.

Every year participants in Karuna Meditation Center Thailand’s three-month Rains Retreat take a long, deep, introspective look at the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. This is the same time of year that the Buddha took a few months to continue his meditation, even after enlightenment, and is a tradition followed in Southeastern Asia by many monks, nuns, and lay practitioners to this day.

The environment in the center is expressly set up around creating a relaxed, conducive atmosphere to meditation and quieting the mind. The daily schedule has plenty of meditation time as well as breaks that allow meditators to not feel so pent-up; one can go to the beach, get a massage, or just sit quietly and comtemplate the teachings during the three-hour afternoon break. Meals are healthy, light yet satisfying, and suited to western tastes and include the flavors of Thailand.

In the three months of retreat, practitioners will explore extensively the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as given in the Mahasatipatthana Sutta:

• Mindfulness of Body (kaya)
• Mindfulness of Feelings (vedana)
• Mindfulness of Mind (citta)
• Mindfulness of Objects of Mind (dhammas)

Meditations will follow the Mahasatipatthana and Anapanasati Suttas, and the final month will be specially devoted to the last two foundations (mind and objects of mind) by way of study and practice of Mahamudra as presented in the classic text, The Ocean of Definitive Meaning, by the Ninth Karmapa.

The length of retreat is a perfect amount of time, as many practitioners find that it takes some time, more than just a few days, to settle their minds and bodies into retreat, and the order of meditations is suitable to this. By the last month of retreat, the mind and body is sufficiently calmed and focused to be able to look deeply during meditation.

Although attending the entirety of the retreat is highly recommended, we understand that, due to practical constraints, some students may not be able to come for the whole retreat. If you are interested and would like to come for part of the retreat, contact us and we can discuss and make arrangements.

Even if you are unable to make this particular organized retreat, the center is open to retreatants wanting to come to practice for any amount of time the rest of the year. We have found meditation in Thailand to be a particularly good experience for practitioners who want to  come and practice in a Buddhist country but with English-speaking teachers.

Awareness of breath in Anapanasati:

Now as you progress more and more subtly in this practice of Anapanasati, you become aware of how the breath is conditioning the body, conditioning the feelings.  That’s the first point.  You begin to notice how the different types of breath condition the body and the feelings in different ways.  With the long breath, the body will be very relaxed and at peace.  With the short breath, there will be a lot of emotions – it’s the type of breath that you have when you’re angry or when you have anxiety or depression.  So you learn to take long breaths because this type of breath condition the body, condition the feelings, in a soothing, relaxed manner.

Tonglen:

Tonglen, or taking and sending practice, is done to work on our own minds, our own concepts of suffering, our own concepts of compassion, our own concepts of loving kindness.  It works on our understandings of karmic projections.  It works on our understanding of emptiness.  It works on our pride and other mental afflictions.  Truly, when it is understood, it is a full and complete practice of Buddhism.  Really, it represents everything.

While visiting Phuket, there are quite a few wonderfully-Thai Buddhist wats (temples) and sites available to those wanting to get a feel for the country’s religious style and architecture, as well as seeing how Thais relate to their religion and integrate it with their daily lives.

On their days off and national holidays, Buddhist Thais often go to their local wat to make offerings and say prayers. From talking to them, they see this as something they genuinely enjoy doing, rather than seeing it as a cultural responsibility. They also really appreciate foreigners taking an interest in their religion and are very happy to see foreigners curious about and taking care to observe temple etiquette when visiting these sites, such as wearing modest dress (long pants and at least a short-sleeve shirt for men, long pants or skirts and tops that cover the shoulders for women) and removing shoes before entering a holy area (it’s easy to spot where to take them off, just look for where all the shoes are lined up at the entrance to a spot; often there are signs in English as well).

Wat Chalong

By far the most visited Buddhist site on the Island is Wat Chalong , located between Phuket Town and Chalong. The grounds are fairly large with several buildings worth going into.

One building contains statues of the founding monks of the wat , two of whom were well-known healers (one a herbalist, the other a bone-setter) and were key in negotiating a settlement in an 1870’s Chinese miners uprising.

Another building here is a tall tower adorned inside with colorful murals in the Thai style depicting stories of the Buddha. Continue to the top and you will see a enshrinement of what is said to be a bone shard of the Buddha as well as other relics. The view of the island from this point is very nice as well, with a view of Buddha Mountain (more on that later).

It is on the standard tourist route, so it can be fairly busy; the best times to go are before 10 or in the late afternoon, when you can tag on a trip to Phromthep Cape for and unforgettable sunset.

"Phuket’s Big Buddha Statue"

Six years and 60 million Baht (about US$2 million) so far in the making, the Phra Puttamingmongkol Akenakkiri, as it is officially called, will be an impressive monument on the island at about 45m tall sitting atop a hill whose view spans the island.

The project is expected to be completed in 2009, but visitors are welcome now to watch construction on this large undertaking.

Wat Pra Tong

This temple houses the mysterious half-buried Buddha statue that, depending on who is telling the story, either sprung up out of the ground and confounds those who try to dig it up, or was buried in silt as a result of the change of course of a nearby canal.

Wat Phranang Saeng

This is the oldest temple on Phuket, built more than 540 years ago, and home to some historically significant statues.

Other Temples Around the Island

All-in-all, there are 29 wats on Phuket Island, each with its own story and character. I’d encourage you to stop by the local wat wherever you are staying to find out what you might discover. Make an offering, circumambulate a stupa, or just sit and feel Thailand. Meditation can be found anywhere.

This is an excerpt from a talk given by Genla Michael Gregory on some practice points.
“So in every practice session you should begin with refuge, and bodhicitta.  After that, you should ask yourself, “what is the purpose?  Why am I sitting here?”  The chances of you wandering mentally go up dramatically, if you don’t know why you’re sitting down.  That’s the purpose of this step.
“Some people have the attitude that, ‘each session is a mystery and we’re here to discover that mystery.’  What they actually ‘discover’ is only a bunch of story lines.  Every single time, even for 20, 30, 40 years, a bunch of dramas is what’s going to come up.  They might call it meditation, but they’d be better off getting out pen and paper and doing what’s called free association, just writing down thoughts.  That’s what happens without a clear-cut purpose of why you’re sitting.
You can talk to anybody who’s done it 20 or 30 years the wrong way, and they’ll pretty much tell you that that’s exactly right.  They maybe considered it meditation, but it’s not; not any Buddhist form.  There’s no Buddhist practice where you sit there and let thoughts roll around.  No text ever mentions that that’s a good thing to do for the rest of your life, just spending an hour a day letting thoughts roll.  So, know the purpose in each session before you sit.
“Then, what’s the method for the achievement of that purpose?  What method?  What do I do exactly?  That should also be a known quantity before you sit.  This is the purpose, and if you don’t set the method, what can happen?  A lot of confusion, frankly; there’s nuts and bolts to every practice.  You should know what they are before you sit down.  What are the nuts and bolts of all this?  All right?
“Then, intention.  Intention of this practice:  setting the intention before you begin, ‘This is what I’m going to do.  I am most likely going to waver.  I know my mind:  I’m most likely going to waver,’ that seems pretty obvious.  So I set the intention that when I do waver, I’m going to come back rapidly.  I want to check in with myself a few times during the session, [to] make sure I’m still on target in terms of purpose and method.
“If you’re going through lethargy or periods of what’s called dullness, subtle or gross, that finally leads to lethargy, one of the clearest ways to defeat that is to reinstate the purpose and method of the practice, right there in the middle, halfway through.  Reinstate it mentally, a mental recitation to yourself:  what is the purpose and method of this practice.  It’s actually recommended by the Buddha and teachers for the last couple thousand years.  You just go back.  If that doesn’t work, you can recite prayers and aspirations, sutras, the points of certain sutras.  And then try to return back to the method and purpose of the practice.  Re-set the intention.  If you have to re-set it four or five times in a session, it’s okay.
“The point is, it’s a lot better than sitting here in session just wondering about what you have to do tomorrow, or what you’re going to do when the bell rings.
“When sensations arise during the practice, sit still.  Sit perfectly still, and label the sensations:  pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  Or if the sensation is just pain:  pain, pain, pain.  The point in doing this is that it’s got nothing to do with any sense of “I”, sense of self.  It’s an arising; it’s an experience.  There’s absolutely no self or subject involvement whatsoever.  No involvement.  That is the point of labeling these things.
“These things are typically treated as important because when there’s sensation, there’s attachment, aversion, or indifference, and there’s a sense of self that’s normally built in with these things.  So here, you’re breaking that down.  You’re actually getting down to the experience.  Just the experience.
“The final part of this checking in with yourself is the review at the end, to see if you’ve actually worked with the purpose and the method.  What I mean by, “worked with,” is that you don’t have a sense of grading yourself.  Review doesn’t mean what it might have meant in school to you, that you achieved the result of the practice.  It does not mean that.  It just means that you worked with the purpose, the method, and the intention.  That’s all.  And that if there were problems in there, like lethargy, dullness, agitation, proliferation of thoughts, that you saw that in the practice, during the review.  Or, if there was a misunderstanding, that you actually set the purpose and intention and then when you went to practice, it wasn’t what you thought.  This happens all the time, so in the review, that’s what you’re looking for, these factors.
“And then, ‘what can I do about it?’  You say, ‘Oh, I had dullness but for some reason, it didn’t occur to me to use an antidote.  For some reason, I just thought the story line was so interesting that I just didn’t even bother applying the antidote.  I had proliferation of thoughts, and I know what to do, but I just didn’t even apply the antidote.  I don’t know why, but that’s what happened.  So I need to work on this.’
“But when you say this, it’s not a matter of self-criticism.  It is a critique, of course.  But it’s not a sense of judgment.  The idea behind review is, again, a sense of friendliness about your practice.  You see it like, ‘Hmm, this is actually a habit!  I just sit here all the time and this is what I do.  And I’ve got to stop doing this.  I’m putting all this effort and attention into my practice, but I’m wasting my time here.  I need to stop this.  This is a recurring theme.  You know, I’m actually starting to wonder, when I do this, am I purposeful?  Is there some part of me subconsciously that’s trying to evade this practice?  Is that why I let myself go through this, session after session?  I like it, you know, when we have dharma talks, and we read books and stuff like that.  But I that find that the rest of the time it’s just really a lot of work to sit here and I really don’t like it.  And what’s that about, when I like to intellectualize but I don’t like to actually do the practice?’
“And everyone goes through phases of that.  Everybody.  ‘What’s that about, that I want to keep this compartmentalized in my mind, but I don’t actually want to experience what’s being talked about?  Is there some fear there that I’m going to break into a habit pattern?  A reaction that this is actually uncomfortable?  What’s that about?’
“The review sessions help break through a lot of misconceptions about our own practices.”