This is a little place which makes gongs by the side of the road. Unfortunately they are to big for us to bring back for the Newport Buddhist meeting!
We are back in our "River Moon Guesthouse". Although we haven't travelled very far at all during these last 2 days, we both feel we have made a significant personal journey.
On Thursday morning, we got up at 5 am, packed and were delighted to find our little restaurant open at 6 am! We had a delicious breakfast (rice porridge and strong "Lao coffee" - very strong and sweetened with very sweet condensed milk) and cycled to Wat Pha Nanachat and arrived in a different world. Just off the road, about 15 km from Ubon Ratchatani is this small forest monastery established by the famous Theravadan monk Ajahn Cha. I think we talked about Ajahn Cha during one of our meetings at Dave's? Ajahn's Cha's straightforwardness and sense of humour are just extraordinary simple and powerful, and on his death, in 1992, thousands of people came from all over the world to Ubon Ratchatani...
Wat Pha Nanachat was established for the many foreigners who wanted to learn this traditional Thai way of monastic training and (luckily for us!) English is spoken as well as Thai. On our arrival we had to relinquish mobile phone and camera so we couldn't take photographs but if you are interested to learn more here is their website: http://www.watpahnanachat.org/
A day in the monastery by John:
3am: the day starts with the early morning gong calling us to the sala for chanting and an hour's meditation
5 am: chores, sweeping leaves off paths (with lighting on as it is still dark)
dawn: monks go out for their daily collection of alms food
7 am: preparation of the food for the one daily meal
8 am: chanting, blessing of the food and procession to the dining area where we collect our food in a bowl
8.30: sitting on mats on the floor, we eat our meal with the novice monks in silence
9.30: wash up and more chores (more sweeping) then time for personal meditation, reading and free time
2.45 pm: more chores
4.30 pm: drink in the outer sala (in the forest - only for the monks, novice monks and laymen, not women)
6.00 pm: chanting and an hour's meditation
8.00pm: bed
My room was 10 feet by 15 feet, open to the roof, 2 windows on each side with wooden shutters. The only furniture was clothes line and a hook. I was shown a cupboard from which I could take a mat to go on the floor, blankets and a pillow and a mosquito net that opened like an umbrella. I was given a white top and white trousers to wear. the trousers have no elastic and you have to roll the top over to keep them up, a technique I will need to refine as I found them round my ankles during a particularly vigourous sweeping session!
The community is inside a forest, so although you can hear traffic in the distance, there is a sense of being away in peace and quiet. Time stands still. Everybody helps and works together. Everywhere is beautifully clean and ordered. The monks have a serenity about them. There is time to search one's inner self that I don't have the discipline to do in everyday life.
Much to my surprise (and Nicole's) I didn't have any difficulty in only eating once a day!
Wat Pha Nanachat's impressions by Nicole
When we arrived, slightly puffed after our cycle ride, I was glad I was wearing long trousers rather than shorts. We found the Guest Monk, Tanyio, a young English born Australian, who combined serenity with matter of factness and approachability. John was directed to the men's dormitory and I found Aram, a young Korean woman who showed me the women's "residence", a compound separated by a high wall and I hardly saw John after that. Keo, a shy and helpful Thai novice nun invited me to share her Koti (a wooden hut on stilts with 2 rooms and a bathroom, scrupulously clean and free of ants because it was surrounded by a 5 cm wide little moat of water). She took me under her wing and tried to be very helpful but as her English was practically non-existent it was hard work for both of us! Arum lived in a smaller Koti on her own and so did Tid, an Lao born American laywoman, who was always busy and bossy. I was given a white blouse and a black sarong which I found a bit cumbersome during meditation. There were only the 4 of us as women and there were many areas of the Wat we were not allowed to go to. However we were allowed in the sala for the chanting and meditation and also allowed to sweep the leaves (incessantly! - my arms are still aching...) As a diversion, we were also allowed to clean the toilets.
Nonetheless, the silence, punctuated by the chanting (very moving), the birds songs and the shrill drumming of the cicadas at dusk (at first I was mystified as what it was- it sounded like a continuous bicycle bell!) was a wonderful gift and I felt at peace. The only wildlife I saw were hundreds of scampering squirrels (apparently the other forest monks had to cope with tigers in the past - a test to their faith!). John saw a rat running along the altar during the 3.am meditation... I was too sleepy to notice! In fact, the following day I slept most of the midday free time (instead of meditating, resting and having a shower...) in an attempt to recover from all the sweeping of the leaves around the Bot in the morning (do look on the website for a photograph of this beautiful temple), and I had to recommence sweeping in the afternoon... Sweeping is another form of walking meditation...
I liked one of Ajahn Cha's many saying posted here and there on trees: "if you have time to breathe, you have time to meditate"
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