Thoroughly Modern Yogi OR 2 Days in Bangkok

This moment is what is  called “worlds colliding”. I am happily sitting on the deck of the Ratcha Ferry bound for Koh Phangan and my silent retreat at Wat Kow Tham. Typing what will become a blog entry on a tiny laptop as the calm, green blue waters slide by. The modern era technology of laptop and blog; the 2500 year old tradition of silent mediation retreat on the other end of this ferry ride.

I’m fairly certain today is Saturday and have been en route essentially since leaving SF at midnight on Monday; feels like I’ve traveled a long distance and I’m not quite “there” yet.

In one way being here is a culture shock, but really not that much. I’ve been soliciting information and opinion about traveling/practicing  over the past months.  A woman I met who has gone forth for a 3^rd time, and has spent time traveling and practicing alone in Asia, told me that Thailand was a good entry point. She said that it was accessible, that it would be different from the US of course but not so completely foreign as to be a hard place to start (like India would be).

Having navigated myself through Bangkok for 2 days and then 400+ miles to the south by train and ferry, my initial impression is that she was right. It is different of course but it is also the same… People take taxis and buy train tickets and stay at hotels. All the traveler logistics function the same way. And the train, the bus to the ferry and the ferry all followed their schedules on time.

I will say that (since it’s early in my travels) every time I actually get to where I am attempting to go it feels like an accomplishment. Whether a tuk tuk ride to the train station or a bus to a ferry; successfully getting myself where I want to go is quite a satisfying feeling. Particularly since almost every time I am communicating my intentioned destination in Thai.

My first 2 days in Bangkok were interesting and fun.  I felt surprisingly awake after the 20 hours of travel and have not experienced any significant jet lag. Thanks Denise for telling me about adjusting my liver and eating schedule in advance!

The first day I arrived at the guest house about 2:00 and just wandered around the neighborhood where the guest house was located. Taking in the sights, stopped by a Wat (as I mentioned in my earlier post) and figured out how to feed this vegetarian self.

Bangkok “food vendors” are all over the streets. Carts with open flames, big pots boiling, piles of meat in bags (no refrigeration), items that I can’t begin to identify all on display. Fresh juice in little plastic bottles, little tiny bananas roasting on open flames in their skins and the occasional selection of fruit.

I saw a man carrying 2 large round flat woven baskets on either side of his back via a long pole over his shoulders. On the flat baskets were eggs in their shell. As I got closer I noticed that there were coals underneath the baskets cooking the eggs as he was walking down the street. Ok, that is different from what I’m used to seeing.

I was really hungry and needed to eat by the time 4:30 arrived. Since I am 100% committed to not eating any animals,  (including no fish sauce) and not being able to identify a good portion of the food that was available on the street, my first Thai meal was  a little challenging. 

I saw a “restaurant” that had a sign in English “vegetarian” (which I did not yet know how to say in Thai). There were about 6 pots of food, completely unidentifiable to me, some fried items (again, who knew what they were) and a tray of what looked like peppers stuffed with kong (Thai for “something”).  I asked the woman behind the counter “khun po passa anglik die mei ka” (do you speak English). Mei ka (nope) was her relpy. 

I pointed at the stuffed things and said “vegetarian” and she nodded assent. But having just landed and being a tad spacey I just wasn’t ready to take a chance that there’d still be fish sauce in it so I kept walking.

A few minutes later I found a cart that had lots of meat but also lots of veggies and a woman had a big pan to stir fry things. I pointed to each meat and each fish and said “mei” then pointed to each veggie and said “ka” (yes). For 55 bhat (about 2 dollars) I sat outside in this little alley by a canal and had my first, excellent 100% vegetarian Thai meal.

Right after that I walked to Wat Suthat where I had a sweet encounter with some Thai school girls. As I said in the other post, the Wat was quiet and pretty empty. As I wandered the courtyard 2 girls who were about 12 years old, in white and blue school uniforms reminiscent of the US navy, said shyly in English “Excuse me, can we talk to you?”

I smiled and stopped, said I’d be happy to talk to them. The bolder of the two explained that they had a school project where they were supposed to speak to a foreigner, could they please explain something in English to me? 

Going back and forth twittering between themselves in Thai and speaking in English to me,  the bolder girl told me about an attraction in the city that was clearly a speech they were supposed to learn how to say. Then she asked how well she spoke, did she do ok? Actually her English was excellent and I told her so. 

Kong stuffed peppers still fresh in memory, I said “Hey! Maybe you can teach me something!” 

I told them about being Buddhist and vegetarian and needing to learn what to say. They taught me to say “Mong sa we lot” my new favorite Thai phrase. I wrote it down in English so I’d remember and then she wrote it down for me in Thai. I’ve been successfully saying it all over the place to the often surprised looking people preparing my meals.

As it turns out, after a long and enjoyable 2^nd day in Bangkok I found myself back at the vegetarian restaurant where after verifying that really, it was a vegetarian restaurant, I had some excellent yellow curry for about $2.

Is Buddhism Here Buddhism There?

From my point of view, there is a dryness in the way Buddhism is being transmitted in the West, a focus on the cerebral.

In 12 years I have never heard a Dharma talk on devotion, never heard a Dharma talk about service. And these are aspects that have become vital to the way I walk the path.

After 12 years of study and practice I know nothing about the Buddhist holidays. What are they? When are they? What is their purpose, the symbolism behind them? And until now it never occurred to me to research them because they simply do not seem part of my Buddhist American life.

One of the things I’m most curious about in this visit to Thailand is how Buddhism manifests in a different cultural context. Is it a different experience in a place where there is an inextricable link between the culture and the religion, where there is a tight bond between the monastic community and lay society.

I arrived in Bangkok 2 days ago and took a walk near the guest house in the hours before I hit the jetlag wall. I happened  upon a big (by my current standard) Wat (temple complex) called Wat Suthat a few blocks from the guest house. This was not one of the well known Wats I’d read about or noticed on the tourist maps. Just one of many, many Wats in the city.

Because it was not a tourist spot it was relatively empty and quiet. There was an open courtyard and a gallery surrounding a central shrine building. The gallery was essentially a recessed area, covered overhead but open to the air, in which a hundred or more full sized golden Buddha statues resided, all facing outward toward the courtyard and the shrine.

About 8 monks were assisting, i.e. veritably carrying, a very old and frail monk out of the shrine. I stood back and bowed in the way that I think is correct in the Thai Theravadan tradition; palms together with thumbs against the forehead. Wondered what they thought of this rare western woman making this gesture (I’ve not seen a lot of westerners in Bangkok and only 2 or 3 other western women alone).

I had entered the shrine from the back entrance and as I walked toward the front door came across my first really big Buddha statue. It was of course the central feature of the shrine. A golden image of the Buddha sitting on a lotus; I’m not great at estimating size but I suspect it was at least 20 feet tall.

I paid homage in the way I learned from the bhikkhunis; kneeling on your heels with your butt NOT sticking up in the air, hands in prayer, bow 3 times (to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) touching the head to the floor each time.  Noticed that more them half of the people who entered also paid homage in this way; the others did not bow at all.

I spent some time meditating and then some time contemplating. 

Contemplating this huge icon, the ornately painted walls with scenes that I do not understand, the long line of golden Buddhas in the gallery, the saffron robed monks, and this self sitting there. Actually being there in this world so far away.

Literally shook my head in disbelief (as I’ve done a number of times these past 2 days in Thailand, this past 7 months in the US). 

Wondering…

How did I get here??? (here Thailand, here this journey). How is it that this self is open to this search for the divine? What, if anything, will be found on this journey?

It occurred to mind that one creates ornate imagery in such large scale to attempt to make accessible that which cannot be understood; to ascribe name and form to the divine. And when I think in those terms it makes the search acceptable to this mind.  And intellect allows that which spirit demands.

All The Mumbling Worked!

Eleven.  I would like to have lunch at the Sea Fah restaurant. Do you know where Sukomvit Road is? Two in the afternoon!

For over 6 months I’ve been wandering the streets of San Francisco mumbling unintelligibility in Thai. Almost every morning as I’d make my way to BART to go to work I’d take a Thai lesson on CD. “Pimsleur Thai, the world’s most effective language method” promised the man with the sparkling English accent. 

I know that the journey that I’m on cannot simply be for the benefit of this self alone, this is very clear. It occurred to mind that if I could learn Thai I could be of use at meditation centers in Thailand. It seems from the outside that more and more westerners are going to Thailand to attend retreat. It also seems that there are not a plethora of English speaking people at some the retreat centers. So I decided it would be a good idea to attempt to learn Thai. 

I do not know if I have “an affinity for language” as a few people have asked me. I put a minimum of effort into learning Spanish when I was in high school, learned a little German when I backpacked through Europe in 1987 and that was it.

My attitude in learning Thai has been to approach it differently from the way I have previously undertaken most tasks (which is to put in a lot of effort and try very hard to get it right). In this I employed the new way I’m starting to inhabit the world, i.e. calmer about everything. So I just listen to the CD, repeat the phrases and relax about it.  Treat it like a fun brain teaser puzzle, like a game. 

And as I’d walk around I’d think about how someday before too long I would actually be walking the streets in Thailand saying these things in context. Well some of them anyway… 

There is virtually no chance that I will say “Sam mee dichon u ti nown ka” (My husband is over there) or “Dichon kaw bier song kua” (May I please have 2 bottles of beer?)

The interesting thing is the way that mind chose to learn (I say it this way because it was not a deliberate strategy to learn this way). What happens when I listen is that I hear the word and mind sees it phonetically. So I hear the sound and mind “sees” sigh gwah nan di mei ka (literally -  more late that, can it be?). Then, when I try to remember how to say “Later then that ok?” mind sees the phonetic words.

  

As I type this I’m sitting on a train traveling from Bangkok (Thai’s call it Glug Teb) to Surat Thani en route to Koh Phangan to attend a 10 night meditation retreat. Having just spent 2 days in Bangkok I was stoked to have numerous interchanges in Thai where I was understood; and I understood their, admittedly simple, responses.

Although I knew they would speak English at the information booth at Hua Lumpong train station I had this interchange in Thai with the info woman:

Me: hello, tomorrow I’d like to go to Surat Thani. Where can I buy a ticket?

Info woman (referring to the bank of 20 cashier windows): 15 – 20

Me: thank you

I negotiated a tuk tuk ride (3 wheeled open air taxi) to Hua Lumphon train station. The following conversation was all spoken in Thai between myself and the tuk tuk driver:

Me: Hello. I’d like to go to Hua Lomphong. How much do I have to pay?

Driver: 100 bhat

Me: That’s too expensive. How about 50 bhat?

Driver: 70 bhat

Me: ok, 70 bhat. Thank you.

I climbed in and he laughed out loud and said in English, you speak Thai really well. 

<English accent speaking> Pimsleur Thai, the world’s most effective language method.

 Indeed!!