When my day in Bangkok was about meditation… not food.

Three Spanish guys; and I have to say they are one of the nicest people I have met during this trip so far, they love to sing a lot and I kept listening to them talking in Spanish as if I understood every single word because it just sounds good! So, they made me realize I should do maybe a tad bit more than discover Thai food when in Bangkok. Temples are off my list though, I had my fair share of that last year when I visited Ayutthaya; the old capital of Thailand. I stayed in Bangkok three times during this trip already and I haven’t set foot in one temple. Yet as I was checking some bookmarks; that I saved before traveling and often forget to check, I found a free daily meditation session in English being given at a less famous temple called Wat Mahathat, near the famous Grand Palace.

The session is 3 hours long and I decided to go with the afternoon one, I didn’t want to get too far from the hostel as well, I always seem to get lost on my way back and eventually find myself walking for 2 hours -no exaggeration here and that story’s for later- to get back to the hostel, since I had to meet up with some friends and later have an airport sleepover for an early flight. It was also a good way to avoid the heat and not just escape it by grabbing an ice cream or iced Thai milk tea from every cart I pass by. Never had much interest in yoga and these sorts of stuff but I wouldn’t mind trying a one time thing. And I was like now I’m going to know sure how bad I’m going to suck at meditating and clearing the mind for someone who spaces out as a hobby.

The Thai owner of the hostel drew me a map of where to find the temple and which bus numbers to take, also wrote the destination and the hostel location in Thai in case I got lost. Unfortunately that got me nowhere on the way back, thankfully it was a 25-min walk but that Thai sun and humidity sure know how to make you feel like a melting lollipop following a snail.

Got on the bus; and I do love taking the local buses here with their colorful tickets which I’m collecting btw but in my phone cover this time since last year all the tickets that I collected were gone with that small pocket that I forgot just hours before leaving Thailand (so typical of me) and heading back home. They have modern version of these buses but the older ones are my fave, with stainless steel little blue fans in the ceiling and the driver hanging all sorts of Buddhist related decoration from small statues to the orange and white flowers.

Got to the temple, but since it’s a temple with monks and nuns living there it had many buildings. A nun dressed in white gave me directions to the building where the meditation class is. I got there 30 minutes early, so I waited at an office -surprisingly- with another monk who spoke very little English and a German guy who was actually looking for specific statutes but the monk thought he’s here for the class as well and he was stuck there. The guy said the monk was so nice and very friendly so he couldn’t refuse the class.

I don’t know why I had this idea that the monks would be like all shy away and not look directly in your eyes or not talk much but once he knew I was from Egypt he was very surprised and told me he saw this movie in the cinema about Egypt or some scenes were in Egypt.

Wait, monks see movies and go to cinemas?

Yea, apparently I have a completely wrong perception about monks. He’s English was hard for me to understand, he also mentioned Star Wars so I’m not sure if Egypt is involved in that or what brought it up, but he kept asking me questions about my time in Thailand and where I’m heading next, he was so nice he even gave me his orange juice before it was time to head to the session.

When we first entered the room I was let down a bit because it’s not as traditional as i thought it would be, it had a farang; which is what Thai people call any foreigner, touch to it making it lose points for the authenticity of the experience. It had plenty of positive and optimistic posters with funny designs. An empty space to put squared mattresses for sitting and in the very front several buddha statues and a chair from where the monk will be leading the session.

The monk first got to know from where we were then said that our time here is to only focus about connecting our mind and body, no religion is involved, meditation isn’t Buddhism, meditation is for your body and mind and involves just yourself. To get us to understand what meditation is, he kept repeating the word “Now” a lot, to focus about the current moment we’re living in, not the past and not worrying about the future. Just now. Understand your body now. Observe now. He also said something like feelings are not real, like when you’re having a good meal and it’s so delicious, that is not real. That good food taste in your mouth is not real since it’s only a temporary satisfaction, it feels good for a few moments then that feeling goes away. At that point I was like, “Oh hell no! Ice cream is so real ma man!”
He then showed us the common ways to sit with the placement of our hands, there’s no right or wrong, it’s about maintaining your body’s balance while sitting upright and that was harder than I expected, sitting for 30 minutes straight, upright and no wall to your back. By the end of the session we all were resting our backs against the wall.

We started with the sitting position and all we were to try and do is close our eyes and mentally note the NOW of our body, in this position it’s the abdomen, while breathing you note mentally it’s activity. 
So while inhaling you say to yourself, “Rising — rising.” While exhaling,”Falling — falling.”

For 30 minutes, he left the room and left us for the meditating time while sitting trying to do nothing but just observing the movement of our abdomen and mentally noting it.

The next 30 minutes was meditating while walking… slowly, and also noting mentally your steps. So, while moving your right feet, sloooowly, you note mentally “Right foot step.” Then you start moving your left one and say “Left foot step.” When you reach the wall you give your body time to note mentally that now you are ,”Standing — Standing” And to walk back to the other end, you start turning in three steps, “Turning — turning” then you start walking back. And repeat… for thirty minutes. After that it was another thirty minutes of the sitting meditation.

How did that hour and a half of self-meditation go for me?
“Rising — rising, falling — falling, rising — rising… Are they all still closing their eyes? Someone is moving too much, stop moving yo I want to concentrate! Ugh, my back. I should get an amulet from one of the shops beside the temple. Should I get it with the long beads necklace? Maybe the short one. I should write a blog post about yesterday’s Muay Thai match. Also the shaved ice dessert I found on my way back, hmm that was nice wonder what kind of fruits and beans were in it… Oh shoot! Rising — rising… Falling — Falling… ugh, my back…”

After every session he would ask us how we felt, when I told him that I tried to focus but the pain was also taking much of the energy he said you should then stop and let your mind realise that pain for some moments and realise that it’s not real, it’s temporary and will fade away. I like this concept of realizing that feeling are only temporary especially when it’s a bad feeling but the part of it not being real is what I’m not sure about, something not being permanent doesn't make it unreal. Still haven't figured my alternative stance on that.

My meditation wasn’t successful of course but I knew it won’t be, you won't float away from the surroundings from one session but it was interesting to have an idea and experience how it’s done. And I gave my tummy it’s own meditation session filled with a hot cookie topped with a generous scoop of salty caramel and popcorn ice cream ;))