Going On A Meditation Retreat In Thailand

If you’re looking for some real peace and quiet, then going on a meditation retreat in Thailand will provide not only silence and solitude but also perhaps some profound changes in your own outlook

JJ Maurage recently wrote a brilliant, in-depth, honest and funny piece about his second meditation retreat in Thailand. JJ has kindly let me produce the first couple of paragraphs here, and I definitely recommend you read the whole thing on his website if you’re interested in pursuing the idea of a retreat yourself.

“It doesn’t matter how often you’re told not to have any expectations about what will happen at a retreat, the reason you’re there is to stop your chattering monkey mind from fretting about what might happen, what will happen, what has happened and what the hell you’re going to do about it (or what you should have done about it). So while the advice is essentially correct, it’s near impossible to follow. If you’re capable of having no expectations then you probably don’t need to go on the retreat.

The first one I attended at Suan Mokkh was back in 2001. I arrived fat (16 stone I think…) and quite miserable, with terrible insomnia and a raging alcohol habit. By the time I left Thailand I guess I had lost about 2 stone – and would lose 2 more as I travelled through Australasia – and I drank a lot less: about a quarter of my previous intake. More importantly, I felt happy for the first time I could remember. If I think about that time now, I didn’t fully understand Buddhism – this latest retreat, and one monk in particular has clarified many things for me – but I understood the calm that resulted from focusing on my breathing and from attempting to look beyond my very ego driven character; ego that was born of insecurity: a defence mechanism.

I learnt on that retreat that to get annoyed with other people was a way of damaging myself. Being angry with someone doesn’t affect them, it affects you. I resolved then that I would be more accepting – for purely selfish reasons: my own well being. The overall effect though is the same: you don’t allow people to get to you, you treat them as an even better friend if they cross you. And by jove it worked. The problem is though, that you gradually creep into old habits and after 7 years, although I still felt the same intellectually, I wasn’t living my belief system any more. Theravada Buddhists are clear that ‘understanding’ Buddhism and experiencing it are very different things. In many ways an intellectual understanding of Buddha, Dhamma, Dhukka, the 4 noble truths, the 8 trainings and all the rest of the teachings ‘in and of itself’ is worth nothing. The Buddha never asked anyone to believe his teachings, he asked them to meditate and find the truth of his teachings themself, and not to believe anything he or anyone else said unless they could verify if through their own experience. Which is why I was back: to rediscover my practice.”

Read the full meditation retreat article at JJ’s site

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