Temple Healing
Had a rough morning trying to get myself motivated. I fell asleep the previous evening around 8:00pm which tells me that I’m feeling some of the strain of teaching.
Started my morning off by researching tattoo’s by Ajarn’s in my area. I ended up finding one through a Facebook search and used Google Translate to communicate with him via Facebook messenger. His name is Ajarn (Teacher in Thai) To and he is located at 50/968 soy jatuchot 20 orneng saimai Bangkok 10220. During our messaging conversation, he advised that he was out of town but would be back next weekend and I made an appointment to receive my first Sak Yant tattoo!!!
Just north of Bangkok. If you have trouble finding him look on Facebook!!!
I decided to visit one of the local temples in Rangsit and located a temple that was approximately 10 minutes away. I talked to the motor scooter driver down in the parking lot area where they wait for customers and had a tough time explaining to him where I wanted to go. I finally found a picture online of what I thought was the temple I wanted to see and we began our journey. After about 15 minutes on the motor scooter, I noticed we passed several temples that I thought looked familiar from the internet but I’ve learned to go with the program because of the language barrier.
I sat patiently behind the driver and let any anxiety release from my body as we continued through the city of Rangsit. Thirty minutes later, he dropped me off at Wat Phra Dhammakaya (Temple of a million Buddhas). I walked into the international welcoming center and was politely told by the front staff to sit down and wait for the international tour. Soon thereafter, a golf cart being driven by an older gentleman and a young man (Champ) arrived and they warmly greeted me. They then drove me to the main headquarters of the sprawling temple campus (900 acres) and advised that they would be providing me with a free tour of their temple.
They supplied me with clean white linen clothing (pants and shirt) that covered my knees and elbows because everyone at the temple who was not a monk wore white.
I ate lunch (grilled whole fish, vegetable soup, a spicy fish paste, white rice, and condiments) with them in a cafeteria and learned that the complex was built with the mission to bring world peace through meditative practices. After lunch, we went to their office building which was a massive 12 story cement globe and I watched a video explaining their belief system.
I had the opportunity to meditate for 20 minutes and during my meditation my jaw released (Quick Note: 5 years ago, my jaw locked during a fight when I was trying to apprehend a junkie and it hasn’t opened since that time)! This experience left me speechless, thankful, and optimistic about what I was going to experience.
The tour itself lasted approximately seven hours. They took me through their art museum, allowed me to place three gold flakes on globes for blessings, I saw the temple of a million buddhas (1 million 18” x 18” buddhas) that is surrounded by a stadium complex that can hold one million people, I placed four lotus flowers in a gold container for further blessings, listened to monks chant, and learned a lot about a beautiful religion.
I rode in a taxi back to my apartment and while walking along the pathway; I saw two other teachers who were going out to drink beers at the local bar. They asked me if I wanted to come along and I said, “Yes!” Four of us drank Chang beers on a floating barge called “Robin Hood” moored in the canal. During our conversation, I obtained a better understanding of why American’s make the conscious choice to leave everything and teach in Thailand. We went to one other bar close by and I ended up drinking way too much beer. I ended the night by stumbling home and passing out.