Day 13: Happy Birthday Mom!

I'd like to first dedicate this post to my mom since it is her birthday today, so Happy Birthday Mom!

Today was amazing. I woke up at at the usual 5:10 am for morning chanting, but after breakfast, Venerable Dhammananda held meditation class in the room with the Medicine Buddha. We spent the first 20 minutes listening to her dhamma talk for guided meditation. Almost all of it was in Thai, except the part when she scolded me about falling asleep...which I actually was not doing, but I have a hard time keeping my back straight during meditation, so I start slouching. Then we did 20 minutes of walking meditation in the room. We focused on 3 parts of stepping: picking up the heel, stretching the leg out, and placing down the foot. It reminded me a lot of theater exercises for using space, like walking fast or slow around the stage. I got scolded again for not turning correctly, but no one gave me instructions, so how should I know to make two 90 degree angles to turn around? The last 20 minutes consisted of silent meditation in which we were not allowed to move at all. I definitely became more mindful of my movements after class.
I had some free time before lunch, so I videochatted with my mom for a bit. For some reason, a bunch of people brought donations and joined us for lunch today. Perhaps because it is the weekend? At 2 pm, the Bhikkhunis, samaneris, another layperson, and I left for Bangkok in a big van.

 The big van

The Bhikkhunis were originally invited to chant at the emerald Budda, but Ven. Dhammananda changed the location to Wat Ratchanaddaram because it holds the only known Bhikkhuni statues in Thailand.

 Wat Ratchanaddaram

The site was truly an inspiration - 52 little statues of ordained women listening to the teachings of the larger-than-life sized Buddha. They prove that not only did Buddha ordain and approve of ordaining women, but Thai society accepted Bhikkhunis at some point in history.

 

The 52 Bhikkhuni statues

 My personal favorite - someone even put money in her bag!

Me with the Bhikkhuni statues

I did not bring my book because I did not expect to chant with the Bhikkhunis and samaneris, but I realized that I actually knew most of the chants, either by heart or by hearing some words from the others. I hope I can memorize all of them by the end of my stay!

The Bhikkhunis and samaneris

Everyone chanting

Before we left, we visited the monks at the wat, specifically the abbott. He was sitting in what looked like a library fanning himself...I assume he expected us to visit, unless monks really do sit alone in rooms and fan themselves? I guess I will never know since a woman can never be alone in a room with a monk.

 Monk living quarters

I know they live simply, but ...what is this?

Walking back to the van

Saw this in a doorway...

On the ride back to Nakhon Pathom, I talked to the samaneri who will disrobe on July 5th . I found out that she knows Thai, English, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish! She teaches all of these languages and she did the Peace Corps in Thailand - she is such an inspiration. I will miss her a lot when she leaves.

Day 12: Blessings

Having the bhikkunis here makes the place so much more lively and it feels more like a true wat (even if the government will not officially call it one). The voices of the bhikkunis and 3 samaneris during the chant before breakfast sounded like a beautiful song. It blew me away.
Ven. Dhammananda, 4 bhikkunis, a volunteer, and I left at 8:30 am to go to her youngest son's house and prepare it for the baby on the way. A bhikkuni and I sat in the truck, which is common here (along with no seat belts), but my tummy had the "ut oh" feeling the whole time.

View from the trunk

His wife is 7 months pregnant, so the 5 bhikkunis prepared the house by doing a chanting ritual. I did not know where to sit when we entered the house because I did not want to block the view of the bhikkunis or sit somewhere where I was not allowed. I learned that I must sit lower than the wife.

 Blessing the family

Afterwards, we went to her middle son's art gallery and Ven. Dhammananda blessed it by drawing with some sort of cream on the door. There was a painting and ukelele that I would like buy, but I do not know if I will ever find the place again. Ven. Dhammananda bought me a small notebook as a memory of the place. I did not know how to thank her for the gift and the invitation to come meet her family and watch the ceremony.

 Blessing the art gallery door

 Sign of the art gallery

We returned in time for lunch and her family brought us pizza from nearby. It made me smile since I just had some yesterday, but this was the kind that everyone puts ketchup on here...so I do not consider it true pizza. It tastes good without the ketchup though. They saved me some spaghetti with cheese sauce and mushrooms, which I appreciated and enjoyed for dinner. Having food that I eat in America for dinner really helps my homesickness.

Day 11: Prison Break

Okay well not really, but I got to take the day off today.
The day started off by my usual trip to the bathroom before morning chanting. Little did I know, thousands of tiny, vicious ants covered the sidewalk in front of the bathroom stalls. When I opened the door, I felt painful prickles all over my ankles and feet. I looked down to find at least 30 ants on each leg! I quickly rushed to the shower stall and ran water over my feet. We cannot kill any living beings here, but I did not know what else to do and I figured these resilient ants could probably survive in water.

Scene of the ant attack

After chanting, we had a surprise alms round. At least no one told me about it...everyone else probably knew. We went on the route that I missed last time, so I got to see more of the surrounding area. The push-cart did not fit on the highway, so the layperson wheeled it on a lane in the highway. It did not seem so safe, but the cars made sure to avoid us and the bhikkunis. We encountered 3 monks collecting alms along the route as well. I did not know where they came from, but they must come from another wat nearby.
The alum hired a driver to get me from Nakhon Pathom at 8:30 am, but unfortunately he arrived at 9:30 because of traffic. I slept on the way to Bangkok since I did not get as much sleep as I normally get. You know you're in a rural area when a frog's mating call wakes you up at 2 in the morning.
First, the alum, his friend, and I went to the Emporium, a mall in Bangkok with a nice market and some higher end stores, like Prada. My face lit up when I saw the Cinnabon sign and I could not resist getting a cinnamon bun and mocha drink. I went through most of the aisles in the market and found lots of snacks to keep me going at the monastery.

Entrance to the Emporium

Some items were a bit pricey, so we went to Big C's, a supermarket like a Thai Walmart. We spent more time there than I wanted to, so we did not have time for any touristy locations. Instead, we went to a pizza restaurant called Scoozi's. I ordered a garden salad, margarita pizza, and fettuccine alfredo for us to all share. It still did not taste quite as good as pizza from America (or Italy I am sure), but the meal was just what I needed. We also ordered gelato; I thoroughly enjoyed my ferrero rocher cup.

Scoozi's

View of Bangkok on the ride back

Then it started pouring...this is an example of what some bridges look like here.

Even though I left at 4:30 pm, the traffic and quick stop at 7-eleven for yogurt made me late for evening chanting. I got lost again because they used a different chant book. We went to the Medicine Buddha and did our 108 chants.
When I finally returned to my room, I set up the new fan and put my food away. It felt like the first few days of college - organizing my new stuff so that everything had a place to go. I realized on the ride back, I felt like I was returning home from a day in the city. I wanted to leave the walls of the wat so badly in the beginning, but I realized today that I really did enjoy spending time in the wat. I liked the routine (even the waking up early) and the people here. It made me happy to know that I was finally settling in to life here.

Day 10: Lazy Thursday

I definitely felt my sludge workout when I woke up this morning. The pain was mostly in my back and shoulders from using the shovel. It only makes sitting for chanting and meditation harder.
I found 13 ticks on Dotcom today...ah lucky 13. I need to be careful around these dogs.
I think the weather makes everyone less compelled to do too much work. Today seemed hotter than other days, so I checked weather.com to find that the forecast said "haze". I have never seen haze as an option before - usually it says sunny, cloudy, rainy, or something like that. For temperature, it said "93°F, feels like 106°." Ha okay now I understand why it feels hotter today. The wind at 2mph really helps...
Around 5 pm it got really dark and started raining like crazy. The rainstorms usually last for only an hour or 2, then it gets sunny again.
Tonight in evening chanting, we used some chants from another book and it felt like we were doing marathon chanting. The book only had about 6 pages, but the words were written in a small font size and took up two columns per page. We chanted so long, I became thirsty for some water. Hopefully I will find out why we used a different book tonight since there must be a reason. I have stayed here long enough that people forget to tell me these things.

Day 10: First female sangha in Thailand

To be honest, I don't even know what to call what I did today, but it wore me out! Removable cement blocks cover the water pipes here, but water and dirt leaks in from rain. It forms this kind of dark mud, which reminded me of the "sludge" that I learned about at the sewage plant for a Geology field trip (strangest field trip ever). Every month, the people here lift up the cement and remove the sludge. We used picks and shovels to get the mud out and throw it onto the base of nearby trees. Apparently it makes good fertilizer. We took a break for lunch, but returned to finish working until it got dark. I stopped shoveling early to eat dinner and shower before evening chanting. The mini ice cream from 7-eleven could not have tasted better after a hard day's work.
3 new bhikkunis (samaneris from here who received ordination in Sri Lanka) returned to the wat today, along with another bhikkuni. We now have the first female sangha in Thailand! After chanting, we went to the library and watched some of the footage of the women getting ordained in Sri Lanka. I could not believe how hard the ceremony looked and how the men clearly had the power in the process. The women chanted from memory for hours holding their hands near their foreheads in a prayer position. When their arms got too tired to stay up, two men in uniforms would hold their hands up for them. The monks watched this process, fanning themselves while sitting on the ground. I feel great respect for the monks in Sri Lanka because they ordain women to become bhikkunis; however, the ordination ceremony seemed more grueling than necessary. Perhaps monks in all countries make these ceremonies arduous so that they can get rid of those who are not ready for monkhood yet.

Day 9: Helping friends...and sleeping

Today wasn't too eventful. I did some laundry and helped someone with her friend's English presentation about the king. Whoever wrote the presentation did not understand the concept of English sentences. For example, "Sufficiency. The government officials, lawyers, businessmen at all levels. The result of the economic boom." Maybe it was her way of doing bullet points, but most of the slides had full sentences so I tried to correct these garbled messages as best as I could. It made me think about my essays in French. Do I think I write well when in reality, I write incoherent sentences? I hope not.
I saw my first cockroach in the bathroom today. It gave me quite a scare when I opened the door and it raced out at me. I also found out that ticks don't just live in the US, they live in Thailand too! The stray dogs get lots of them, it must be so uncomfortable. I helped pull some off of my favorite dog, "Dotcom". He's a dalmatian mix and he wags his tail every time he sees me. I think he's everyone's favorite dog since he's fatter than the rest of them. I think I found 6 ticks in all.
They were cutting down trees today for some reason, but I got sleepy and took a nap in the library. So much for helping them...oops. I told Ven. Dhammananda that the doctor said to come back Monday if my rash did not get better and since it was getting worse, I should probably go back to the hospital again. I also felt sick to my stomach (I think from not eating enough here). She decided that the medication  was making me sick and that I should try homeopathy instead. Not the answer I thought I would get. Oh well, hopefully I can take a day off soon, I think I need it.

Day 8: Goodbyes

Today I actually woke up to one of my earlier alarms, despite going to bed "late" (around 10:30 pm), but my back hurt during chanting/meditation. Afterwards, we went straight to the road to collect alms. I tried observe my surroundings while still respectfully keeping my head towards the ground and not making noise with my shoes.
I saw many snake and reptile skins along the road. 3 stray dogs from the wat came this time and they did their business wherever they felt like it. I think they do that anywhere possible to mark as much territory as they can. Oh man, the air smelt like doggie business too. In one area, there must be at least 5 golden retreivers and they barked at us (or the dogs) as we walked by their fences.
I do not think the government enforces rules against littering because garbage lined all the streets. I recognized some of the families from last Sunday and it made me happy to see their dedication to the bhikkunis and the temple.
As usual, we sorted the food when we returned to the temple and had breakfast. Ven. Dhammananda told me that she received an email from my mother and now I have "two mothers." I assume she meant herself, which put a big smile on my face. She gave me her duran fruit to try, but I did not enjoy it that much, so I gave it to two laypeople. Ven. Dhammananda gave me a specific job today - I will email an American regarding the Living Buddhism retreat in November. I offered to help with the English website, so that will give me another responsibility here. I need to work on the transcriptions, but I have gotten very sleepy since the heat rash started and take naps during the afternoon.
The bhikkuni from Burma and Buddhist scholar from Malaysia left today after staying for three or four days. I gave the woman from Malaysia a big hug and it made me sad to know that I may never see her again. In fact, I may never encounter many of the people I meet here again in my life. It gives me a strange feeling - I want to get to know people, but I want to keep my distance because I know that we may not see each other after this trip. I think my fear of trusting and rejection keeps me from reaching out more to the people here, but I want to start putting more effort into knowing the bhikkunis and other laypeople at the wat.
I had bread and butter for dinner again with my yogurt, it was exciting. When I went to the shower, my frog friend was sitting right near the door. I kept the door open thinking that maybe he would like to finally leave the shower. He did not move. This may sound silly, but I actually hoped he would stay in the shower. I realized that I enjoy the company of another being, even if it means a frog (or a toad...) sitting on the shower floor. This probably means that I should start talking to people more.