Training the Monkey Mind- Part 2

Suan Mokkh, Southern Thailand
Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans
-John Lennon

It is awfully hard to just switch off your brain, and after about three days at the retreat the numbers were beginning to dwindle, the leavers were conspicuous by the unattended mats lying on the floor of the meditation hall. Being a silent retreat (no talking allowed for the duration), the participants became adept at finding other ways to communicate to their friends and partners, at one stage when returning to the dormitory after the evening session we were greeted with a message written in the sand in front of the entrance:

Back Is Killing Me
Mosquito Bites Itchy
So Hungry

I could definitely empathise with whoever was reaching out with this message.
The good news was that the mind was beginning to calm down now, the songs which were playing over and over in my head were fading away and I was beginning to experience some real calm and mindfulness when I sat down to meditate. It's amazing how, when you eliminate all the clutter going on in your head that you become so much more observant of the world around you. After the retreat was over, I had a chat for an hour with one of the other participants on the habits of ants in their natural environment and how the big ones worked together with the little ones in their daily chores. The modern human spends the majority of his time lost in thought, either about things which have passed, or things that are yet to come, never on the moment that is at hand. This is a shame because nature is pretty interesting when you stop to observe it, even the ants.
I had come over the border on the 28th of October which meant my visa would expire on the 12th of November, the day after the retreat finished. This only left me one day to get from the middle of nowhere to Kuala Lumpur, so I broke the rules and left the retreat to use the internet to make a flight booking in the nearby small village of Chaiya. This involved walking 2 kilometres down to the highway and waiting by the side of the road for a truck into town, when I got into town it was a pretty unpleasant experience after being in a peaceful, natural sanctuary after so long and I was very eager to get back to the retreat as soon as possible. Very few people in town spoke any English, the first place I came to to use to use their computer I was greeted with a flat no when I asked if I could use it. The second place the proprieters daughter was on youtube watching cartoons so she asked me to come back in a few days, it took a few minutes of pleading and explaining my situation before she reluctantly let use the terminal, much to the disgust of her daughter. There isn't much of a sense of urgency in these small towns, I suppose that there is never any cause to rush or deadlines needing to be met hence the very casual nature in which requests are met by the local villiagers. Nonetheless I needed to book a plane ticket so I left a nice tip for the owner to compensate her for her daughters hardship, she seemed to appreciate this and I felt bad about kicking her kid off her cartoons.
Booked a ticket from Surat Thani airpot to Bangkok, meaning I would be able to spend one last night in Khao San Road, the backpacker mecca and my favourite place in Bangkok. Had to take a motorbike back to the retreat and sneak back in, got ripped off by the rider but was very happy to be back in the peace and quiet just in time for Tan Ajahn's dharma talk for the evening.
After day 5 everyone who was there was there to stay, the Full Moon Party on Koh Phagnan was long finished so that temptation was removed and the basic disciplines of meditation was strong enough to enjoy the last stretch of mindfulness and quiet in the retreat.
Happy Days :)

Training The Monkey Mind- Part 1

Suan Mokkh, Southern Thailand

Okay... so I sort of wrapped it up before I left Bangkok in order to stick with the whole 80 days theme but since 1st November I have been pretty active on the travel front all the way up to my return to my adopted home of Perth, Australia. I will take the time now to log the previous couple of weeks because it has been an amazing experience, far off the beaten trail with activities you won't find in any Thomas Cook travel guide anytime soon.
Left Bangkok on the evening of the 30th October, destination Surat Thani, Southern Thailand. Surat Thani is famous mainly as being the middle point between Bangkok and the islands (Koh Samui, Koh Phagnan, Koh Tao), there's not much else to say about the town apart that it's a major transport hub for nautical and road and rail transport, there's also an airport about 50k's away which is remarkable given the remote location of the place. I made the mistake of confusing the town with another that was alot closer to BKK so with arrival and registration deadine of 12pm 31st Ocrtober I found myself fretting about whether I would get there in time, luckily there was a night bus running so I made it with a few hours to spare.
The hardest thing I have found with travelling is trying to organise movements without speaking the local language, the further you get away from capital cities the more difficult this becomes. Difficult in that it becomes impossible to negotiate a fair price for yourself, the touts will generally trying to force the most expensive mode of transport upon you whether you want it or not, I have rarely received the rates listed in any budget guidebooks but there's not much you can really do about it. The general consesus on the best way to handle these annoyances is to accept it with good humour, but as I mentioned in my last post I was not quite there yet, hence the reason for this journey...
Got into Surat Thani at 6am on the 31st, from here got a Sang Thiew (public transport- pick up truck with two benches in the back fo passengers) into Chaiya about an hour away.
Chaiya is one of the aforementioned places where no-one speaks any English, simply because they don't see many foreigners so there is simply no need to. I was lucky enough to find another traveller who was going the same way as me so we hopped another Sang Thiew to our destination, Suan Mokh Monastary in time to register for the 10 day retreat which begins on the 1st of every month.
The actual retreat is about 1.5 kms off the main road, in the opposite direction from the monestary. All in all there were about 100 foreigners who had arrived for the retreat, the site is a massive lush spanse dotted with open, pillared halls and compound style dorms, a dining hall at the entrance and natural hot springs and reflective ponds around the perimeter.

A real oasis of nature in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from the hustle and bustle of the city as was to become more and more evident as time went on.

At 4pm on the 31st we were directed to the main meditation hall adjacent to the field for the abbot's opening talk.

The floor of the main hall is sand, with mats and a few cushions put down to soften your seating posture on the floor. This is where I would spend the majority of my time over the next 10 days, at times in agonising pain from back and leg ache whilst trying to focus on settling my restless mind, in complete silence apart from the sounds of nature and the constand bite of hungry mosquitos determined to suck all the blood from my body and leave me covered in itches to scratch as I slept on the concrete slab and half inch bamboo mat that was provided for our sleeping comfort, along with a wooden pillow on which to rest your head until the bell would ring at 4am to signify the start of another gruelling day....

Club Med this was not.
By day 3 about a third of the participants had left, bound for the party islands or Bangkok, anywhere away from this spartan place where the only distractions were one vegetarian meal each day and a 45 minute yoga session to ease the horrific pain endured when the body sits contorted on the floor for over six hours each day with only the breath to focus on while your mind does everything it can to distract you and all you can do in reply is direct your attention back to your breath inthe hope you will have the discipline to maintain a still mind and the overwhelming sense of calm and happiness which is earned from such rigorous discipline. You are basically training like a buddhist monk, in complete silence, not allowed to talk or even make eye contact with the other participants lest you break their focus and spoil their meditation. Like I said, it is not for everyone but I was keen to see if I had the willpower to see out the whole 10 days.
We shall soon see...