Wat Stay Weekend

This past weekend we went to a forest temple to stay over night. It was actually really cool. At first I wasn't totally sure what to think about the whole idea and was kinda bummed about getting up early on my weekend, but it turned out to be super awesome. The temple was about 2ish hours away in Lampung. And when we got there it felt just like a weekend retreat at camp. All the girls stayed in this huge room and slept on the floor. The bathrooms were outside and a few were actual toilets and the rest were squatties. No big deal, I could handle it!
On our way to the temple we stopped at a few other temples to look around. One of which had the "Buddha Footprint" at. This thing was huge. Not what I was expecting at all. Some people believe that it represents that the Buddha was actually there and he carved it in the ground to show that Buddhism is there. But other believe that he wasn't really there and it's just kinda a symbol. I was talking to a monk who went with us..actually he was a monk for like 14 years or something like that and he derobed a few years ago...meaning he was done being a monk. And he told me that he didn't believe that Buddha was actually there.
We went to a market that was right across from the temple and I found the awesome pants that are pictured below. They just made me laugh so hard. Gotta love em!
Then we had lunch in this really good restaurant and continued on our journey.
We finally arrived at the temple and had some relaxing time before dinner. Dinner was amazing! It was all sorts of good stuff. I can't remember exactly what it was...but it was good.
After dinner we had our first meditation session. One of the reasons that we went to stay at the Wat for the weekend was to understand Thai culture better. Plus it was an experience that we would never have if we just visited here for a week. We got to learn so much about the monks and what they do. So part of that was meditation. We went into the temple meditation room area and all sat on mats on the floor. Eventually the Abbott of the temple arrived...he's the head monk. And then the other monks trickled in....there are 5 monks at this temple. Most Wats have more. But some have only a few. Anyway, they did their evening chant....which lasted nearly an hour! It was all "next verse, same as the first, a little bit the same and a whole lot worse!". It just went on forever. They gave us copies of what they were saying in English, but I was just so lost that I gave up trying to look at the sheet. It was even longer than usual because it was "buddhist day"....which happens once a week. I guess it's like Sunday's to Christians...only it rotates each week. So the chanting was super long! After the chanting they taught us about mediation. The one monk whipped out his reading glasses and started to show us a power point presentation. Please note that at about this time we had been sitting pretzel style on the floor for almost 2 hours now.... and you can't point your feet at the Buddha image and it's just so hard. So first we tried meditation in the sitting position. Basically the goal was just to clear our minds. It turned out to be very relaxing. I was reading in a book that we got that monks practice this idea of clearing their heads over and over and over again. Then after they have that mastered they move onto to trying to receive enlightenment...a/k/a trying to understand life and suffering. After sitting meditation we trying walking meditation. This was actually kinda cool. The derobed monk (his name is Gabe) that came with us was our translator so he walked us through it...no pun intended. haha. You just consentrate on walking. The movement of your foot. And it's a really quite way of walking. You walk really slowly and instead of putting your foot down heal first you put your whole foot down at the same time. Kinda interesting. We did this for like 20 min. They set a little kitchen timer. It was kinda relaxing to just head Gabe's voice over and over again saying "walking.......walking.....standing.......standing....walking......".
Then we all were so exhausted from the day and went to bed. The monks told us that we could join them for early morning chanting at 2:30am! We said nooooo thank you! haha
We got up super early the next morning...5am! And went to the market with the monks to collect alms. Each day the monks get up early to go to the market and people there give them alms...food....for their meals. Monks don't cook or buy things. The people of the community just give it to them. It's a way of supporting the monks and getting good merit. Also the left over food goes to the poor people of the community. So there is very few hungry people in Thailand. If you are ever in need of a meal, just go to a temple. There is an over abundance of food. It's kind neat to see the way the community and the temple rely on each other. Monks also cannot prepare food so they rely on local people to come help them do that. Then the local people eat too.
So anyway, we walked about 1 1/2 miles to the village. It was still dark out so we could see the stars. We left with 4 of the 5 monks. I think the other one was sleeping in or his alarm didn't go off or something. Because about 1/2 way through the walk he appeared from behind. Really funny.
At the market we watched the locals give alms to the monks and then we all bought food for them too. Aj Mike told us that we should buy what we want to eat because it will end up being left overs and we will eat it for breakfast. So we all bought a variety of good food...from bananas and other fruits, to sticky rice and donuts! Then the monks came back from the next market and we all gave them the food. It was a very unique cultural experience. Similar to what happened on my host brother's birthday.
We all went back to the temple, but we took the rot-dangs and the monks walked. Once the monks got back we went to observe another chanting session. Not nearly as long as the previous nights one...but still rather lengthy. Then it was eating time! This buffet that was set up with all the food was HUGE! I'm talking HUGE HUGE HUGE!! There was so much food. And it was all so good. It was like everything at the market was there. So I stuffed my plate full and then stuffed my belly. I was full nearly all day from that meal. Which is good because the monks only eat 1 meal a day. Some eat two....but both must be before noon.
After breakfast we had meditation session number two. Which was good because there was no chanting at all! So it was a lot more bearable. We just did what they had taught us the night before. Then we were told we could use the herbal sauna....
This was unique. I did it only because I figured I wouldn't ever have the chance to go in an herbal sauna at a temple again. So a bunch of us girls put on our bathing suits and headed over to it. Wow! It was kinda small so only 6 fit in sitting and 1 could stand. I choose to stand next to the door because I felt better knowing I could get out if I wanted to. It was like sitting in a cup of tea. It was all foggy in there so you couldn't really see anything and it was all herbly smelling. It was also hot, but that didn't bother me as much as the smell and the idea that I couldn't see. It made me feel like I couldn't breath. Which I could, just the whole idea freaked me out. Hence my reason for standing by the door. I lasted about 1 minute the first time. Then I stood outside the door for a little while. And then finally made a second attempt. This lasted another minute or two. Then I tried again a final time and we girls tried to be quite for 30 seconds. It was cool but then I was done. Couldn't take it anymore and I was outta there! Showered off and it felt so good. It was so hot outside but coming out of the sauna it felt so wonderful!
After that we had some lunch...which no one was hungry for because we had all filled up on breakfast and then we headed home.
It was a pretty fun weekend!
After I got home on Sunday afternoon I sat down and watched The Proposal....my valentines day treat to myself. I figured I would watch a happy love story in honor of valentines day. It was quite fun. My youngest brother watched some parts of it...like the part where the eagle steals the dog and he laughed so hard. It was kinda funny. Then later that night my host family was all watching a movie in the TV room and my oldest host brother invited me to watch too. It was so nice and it is something that I've been wanting them to do for a while now. The family always goes in there and shuts the door and watches movies and I've always wanted to be invited to watch with them too...even if it was in Thai. And this time they invited me. It just felt so good. Of course the movies was X-Men....but hey, they invited me at least! And it was in English!
It was a good weekend!