Training The Monkey Mind- Conclusion

Suan Mokkh, Southern Thailand

While walking in the hills, a man is confronted by a fierce tiger. Try as he might to evade the beast, he soon finds himself chased off the side of a cliff. Grasping for dear life on a vine he caught hanging during his fall, he notices a bunch of ripe strawberries growing on the small rock ledge alongside of him. While the fierce rocks below threaten to rip him to pieces and drag his body to the murky depths, two mice, one black and one white, begin to chew away at the vine to which he holds for dear life as the tiger above waits restlessly for his meal to climb within reach.
What should he do?

-Zen riddle

So the final few days of the retreat were scheduled much as the middle, wake up early then meditate, yoga then meditate, breakfast then meditate, dharma talk then meditate, and so on and so on. The expectation was that the guests should know the basics by this stage and should just practice in order to develop their skills more fully, and this is just what everyone would do.

As the final days approached people got alot more relaxed, a few conversations could be heard around the bodhi tree during walking meditation time and three of the group were expelled for using the hot springs when they should have been doing walking meditation, they were actaully busted by the rest of the group when they filed past the springs during the group walking meditation. Unlucky, I actually thought it was a bit harsh to kick them out for a minor transgression such as this.

The retreat wrapped up on the morning of the 11th of November, after that everyone was free to talk again and that was what everyone did as if desperately trying to make up for the previous days of silence. I met a few Canadians, a mad Irish bloke and his wife and a whole heap of other people from all over the place including a Canadian oilman and an ex US marine. In the group there were a few retreat veterans, it seems that alot of people do these things as a regular occurance all around the world, especially in India.

It gave me a few ideas for my next adventure.

Earthmans Indian Walkabout- Enlightenment or Bust....?

Who knows, it's got a nice ring to it though doesn't it?

Walked over the highway to the main temple and for guided tour by the Indian monk, a special reward to guests who stuck it out over the whole duration where we were treated to a viewing of the lodgings of Buddhadasa Bikkhu whose interpretation of the buddhist suttas (teachings) made Suan Mikkh so famous (or infamous) through the buddhis community, many amazing things to see here including a wax sculpture of our man Buddhadasa himself (very lifelike) and the Museum of Spiritual Enlightenment which was full of buddhist art and stuff.

Said my goodbyes around twelve and hopped in a sangthiew on the highway to the Surat Thani airport, a bit of a mission to get there but got there in time for my flight to Bangkok at 2:30pm. A word on Thailand, when i got to the airport gates I was met by a uniformed official who enquired ino my destination. I told him I needed to get to the international terminal and he said '150baht' and motioned for me to jump on the back of a motorcycle that was parked by the office and took me to the front door of the terminal. I guess airport security has to make cash any way they can in Thailand. Went to clean myself up in the airport and caught a glimpse of the bearded, multi coloured writbanded, fishermans panted hippy looking being that I had become, I wish I had got a photo because it was a sight to behold, even for me.

After a strong coffee I boarded the flight to Bangkok airport and got in in the late afternoon but didn't check in to my guest house until evening due to the horrendous traffic on the road, it was all very weird going from silence to chaos in the matter of a few hours but was still very relaxed from my time in Suan Mokkh for a long time to come after that.

Oh, and the answer to the riddle?

Eat the strawberries.