A Forest Full of Dhamma Friends

I can't even tell you how happy I am to be here, at Wat Baan Taad Forest Monastery in Udon Thani, Northeastern Thailand. I've been looking for a place like this, a place to come to be with myself and practice the Dhamma. It's not that I'm happy in the sense that I'm elated, but a more profound sense of connecting with my purpose. The late Abbot, the Venerable Luang Ta Maha Bua, was arguably Thailand's greatest monk of the 20th century. Having died just a few short years ago, I feel like his presence is still here, and the monks here (most of them) are diligently following his teachings.

My walking meditation path.

With virtually no schedule, other than an 8am meal and 30 minutes of sweeping at 3pm, the whole day is left to the meditator to practice at their own pace. There aren't many rules here. Talking is permitted, as is reading, writing, and listening to recorded Dhamma talks, if you have the electronics to do so. You don't even have to wake up at a certain hour, what freedom!

You may think it's so lax that I've come here just to lounge around and eat free food. The truth is, I've been so inspired that I've done nothing but practice or read Dhamma books the entire time. For the time being, I've given up the luxuries of the modern world, as I sit on the hardwood floor and write this by candlelight. No phone, no internet, no electricity, just the animals, the Dhamma friends of the forest, to keep me company, and there are plenty of them! Chickens and peacocks are everywhere, and the trees are full of white squirrels that jump from limb to limb. Last night, I had to stop for a turtle to cross my walking-meditation path, which was also lit by candles. I'm getting used to creatures stirring in the bushes, so I'm not as jumpy as I was when I first got here. Back and forth I pace, contemplating the ever-passing moment.

White rabbits, snakes, giant lizards five-feet long, frogs that almost glow in the dark, spiders the size of your palm, and miniature deer, about the size of a wiener dog, also call this place home. I've never seen a forest so abundant with wildlife! I guess people aren't the only ones privy to the greatness of Maha Bua.

I'm so full of the Dhamma right now that I didn't bother taking the one meal of the day today, and I'm not the least bit hungry (I actually ended up skipping the next day's meal as well). I've got 3 full water bottles, a stack of candles, Dhamma books, and mosquito coils, and am determined to use my time here wisely. As I continue to dive into Maha Bua's teachings, and put them into practice, I feel in my heart that there is enough here to discover the true nature of the mind. The citta, what Maha Bua calls
"the essential knowing-nature of the mind," is never born and never dies, it is the deathless.

He emphasizes the use of Samadhi, or a concentrated state of one-pointedness of mind, to develop wisdom and eventually find peace. I've largely neglected developing samadhi in my practice, and have spent most of my time trying to use wisdom directly to perceive of the truth of the passing moment. While this has been effective, to some extent, as Maha Bua puts it, the practice becomes "pachy" if you don't have a strong base of concentration.

His instructions are quite simple, to use a "preparatory meditation-word whose continuous mental repetition acts as an anchor that quickly grounds the meditator's mind in a state of meditative calm and concentration."

From that point of stillness and clarity, the real work of investigation can begin.

I've come across this teaching before, but I sort of wrote it off as being an elementary practice, this just repeating a word or focusing on the breath. Now, I'm getting back to the basics...

Miniature deer!