From my handwritten journal
Yesterday I woke up at 8. Well, I got up at 8. I was woken up at 4 by the ringing of the bell and barking of the dogs. When I got up I took my first cold bucket shower. I had a dream that I had a sink in my bathroom. Waking up was pretty disappointing. I took my time getting ready and organizing my stuff, and by 9:30 Graham brought us our breakfast. I think I'm going to come home pretty thin. My size 2 pants are already falling off. Although they just might need to go in the dryer. I've been eating just mostly rice. I think I want to eat vegetarian while I'm here. It's not a Thai Buddhist thing--as long as you didn't kill the animal yourself or it wasn't killed especially for you--but it'll earn me "merit."
So anyway, Yesterday we went to a government school that had some sort of festival with food and performances. I got some awesome photos of the children and events. A few military people did a freaky snake show which yielded some great facial expressions for the photos. The Dutch family was there again. One of the performances was storytelling "The Tortoise and the Hare" in English. Adorable! After that (still riding in the back of the truck) we stopped for lunch before stopping at the supermarket. Luckily I was able to find some flesh-colored underwear for when I'll be wearing white cotton after I take on the 8 Precepts. We stopped there to pick up drinking water for Serene's stay at the forest temple. She's been here for two weeks and she's spending ten days at the isolated temple. She's in her thirties and from Singapore. The temple was pretty amazing. It's a cave. We sat around and talked with the Abbott for a while. After that we left and Max and I went for a one hour Thai massage. I don't know how why I keep getting them...they hurt! we came back, ate dinner, then hung out. We went to evening chanting at 6:30 which was pretty cooo. Pretty uncomfortable to sit for that long (roughly an hour,) but luckily we had little cushions. The chanting is all done in Pali--the ancient language of Buddha's time. It's only a spoken language, so it's written phonetically with any alphabet that you'd like. In the evening Sam, Max, and I shared music and talked. Sam and I actually ended up staying up until midnight--yay bonding! It was mostly me talking about my life and such (what else is new) but next time I'd like to learn more about him.
This morning I once again got up at 8. I think I'm going to end up "showering" every other day..it takes forever and it's not exactly enjoyable. Breakfast at 8:30 (rice, fried eggs, some sort of greens and little bit of chicken,) then my first Dhamma lesson at 9! It lasted two hours and it was Fred teaching all four of us. We dipped our feet into a discussion about karma and rebirth and the different 31 Planes of Existence (hells, heavens, human life, animal life, crazy bodiless states..etc.) It was explained that the Dhamma is just discovered truths, not made up by Buddha or anyone else. To be honestly I'm not really buying this stuff but it's great to learn about it and think about it for myself. Fred talked about certain monks who have reached levels of enlightenment who acquire special powers and all sorts of crazy things. They can't show off/speak about it or else they'll be asked to disrobe. How convenient...We just had lunch with Ben (Australian who is a big part of The Blood Foundation) and now Sam and I are sitting outside writing. I actually didn't eat lunch. Not hungry yet! They have two big pens here, one with two monkeys and one with a bunch of bunnies. I want to snuggle the bunnies so badly!!! After I'm done writing I'm going to start reading Introducing Buddha. At some point I need to reinforce the flag patches on my backpack. RIP Cayman Islands patch :( I really hope we start meditation classes soon so I can practice. Once I take the 8 Precepts I can't read leisurely or entertain myself. I should get all of that stuff out of the way. Since the lessons started late I'll probably take them at the very end of the week or maybe even Sunday. Okay Saturday, probably. I think that'll be good. So that means I can to not eat after noon, no makeup or jewelry, no dancing, singing, or entertainment, and no comfy beds, chairs, or putting my feet up. I'll have to wear white robes, too. Man, what a crazy experience!
"What did you do this summer?"
"Oh, just lived amongst monks in a Buddhist temple in Northern Thailand"
At least once I want to give an English lesson to the school here on temple grounds. How cool!
***
I took a little nap and woke up to a huge storm. I went to evening chanting again; there's one part that has such a beautiful melody. I want to start learning the pali chants for my 8 Precepts! Apparently tomorrow is our first meditation lesson! Ben told me that on Saturday someone else will be at the temple to teach us more. I'm really excited! While I'm here I hope to cross the Burmese border. I know the country is in shambles but Ben said that it's quite safe for us--everything in terms of conflict is internal. Plus, I'd only be right over the border and for not very long. I can't blieve that tomorrow is Thursday already. I think either tomorrow or Friday we're going ot go up to the Daylight school. It's now 10:30 and I should really try to get to sleep. I need to start waking up earlier...it'll make eating lunch at 110:30 and dinner at 5 a lot easier. I actually skipped both meals today because I wasn't hungry...I did have a bag of chips and a popsicle, though..gross. I'm definitely tinking I'll be fine with just consuming liquids after noon. I'm clearly not very hungry here anyway. I still have yet to open up Introducing Buddha (however I did manage to read the first 20 pages or so of Elephants on Acid.) I'll do the entertaining things pre-precepts and the Buddhist things AKA readings/entertainment once I take them on.) I think I'll read a few page of this book before heading to sleep. I've got a bit of a cold so that sucks. Goodnight!
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