Somewhere in Dhamma...

Monday Morning Blues; Morning Blues

2012-02-27T11:00:00.000+09:00

Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band § Morning Blues

There isn't any obvious connection with this song and the teaching I'm posting with it. Just a sweet little song about feeling the blues and Buddha's explanation for its causes.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth

"The blues, as a noble truth, is this: Birth is the blues, aging is the blues, sickness is the blues, death is the blues, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair are the blues; association with the loathed is the blues, dissociation from the loved is the blues, not to get what one wants is the blues — in short, the blues is the five categories of clinging objects.

"The origin of the blues, as a noble truth, is this: It is the craving that produces renewal of being accompanied by enjoyment and lust, and enjoying this and that; in other words, craving for sensual desires, craving for being, craving for non-being.

"Cessation of the blues, as a noble truth, is this: It is remainderless fading and ceasing, giving up, relinquishing, letting go and rejecting, of that same craving.

"The way leading to cessation of the blues, as a noble truth, is this: It is simply the noble eightfold path, that is to say, right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep & Wat Chiang Man, Chiang Mai

2012-02-27T02:10:00.001+09:00

October 29th, 2007 part 2

The main attraction of Doi Suthep Mountain is Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, a fairy tale temple over looking Chiang MAi. Before, I wrote that Wat Pho would be a good setting for a scene in a Thai Alice in Wonderland, well, at least a portion of the same film would have to filmed here, as well!

The first thing you are greeted by are the 309 steps, with two long serpent banisters, that you must climb before entering the extravagant temple. The temple was founded where a white elephant, carry a bone shard said to be from the shoulder blade of Buddha, dropped to the ground and died. The shard was immediately enshrined in the chedi at the centre of the temple.

My friend Joe asked if I would bring him back a string from a Thai temple that monks tie around your wrist, so in one of the halls in the back, I found a monk who was doing just that. Joe was a bit disappointed when I got back to Korea and he saw it was really just a plain white string. Well, actually, a little less white after being carried through India, Nepal, Singapore, Indonesia, and my final visit to Thailand!

After driving back to Chiang Mai, the driver asked for his pay, but I couldn't understand he English very well, actually, I think he was confused with his English numbers, and I only knew a few Thai numbers. He was either asking for 190, 90, or 19 baht, but I handed him 900. He tried to correct me but then I felt bad, and he had been a really great driver, so I decided to just let him have it, about $30. He told me if I needed anything at all to call him and I thanked him.

Chiang Mai also has a large amount of amazing temples within the walls of the old city. I thought I would visit a few with the remaining daylight but managed just to see a couple, including Wat Chiang Man, likely the oldest temple in the city, with a beautiful chedi with rows of carved elephants for its base, then was about to cross the street to see another temple when a tuk-tuk driver stopped to talk to me and offered to bring me on a temple tour.

We quickly drove passed a few temples, which he named as we putted by, then brought me on an unsolicited shopping tour. I couldn't believe I'd fallen into this trap again, and was do my best to hide my displeasure, but he did end up bringing me to an interesting craft shop that made paper boxes, lacquered, then decorated with egg shells. I bought a box with a horse on it, which they shipped to my mom for me, then we continued on to a few more shops, where I wasn't inclined to buy anything. The shops he brought me to were pretty far from the old city, way passed the train station, and the sun was long gone before we got back. I still had a couple more days before I was heading back to Bangkok, though, so I could still make a day to tour some of the other temples.

Hmong (Meo) Hilltribe, Doi Suthep Mountain "20 baht I show you everything!"

2012-02-26T03:41:00.000+09:00

October 29th, 2007 part 1

From Chiang Mai, I arranged a ride out to Doi Suthep Mountain to visit a famous temple that looked remarkable from the small photo in the Lonely planet.

A really nice man in a pick-up drove me out and was actually the first person in Thailand ever to talk politics with me. I'd heard it can be a very taboo subject, maybe stemming from the fact that if you speak badly of the Royal family, you could be put to death, but I just listened without any opinion. The first of the major demonstrations in Bangkok began not long after I left, so there must have been a lot more political talk around this time.

As we wound our way up the mountain, he suggested that we visit a hill-tribe further up the mountain first, then make our way down, stopping at a look-off, and then the temple.

Arriving at the Hmong Meo village was exciting, I'm always a sucker for these kinds of places, but it very quickly started to feel like a tourist trap, since the first thing you are lead through is a market set up selling clothes and bags, and even a Tibetan shop that somehow managed to set up there. I did buy a bag of Thai oolong tea, though my expectations for it weren't high, which kept it from being disappointing but didn't make it any more impressive!

The village was nice, with certain houses set up almost like museums that you could walk through. It was lively with people and happy looking children and the further into the village I walked, the more beautiful it became with flowers blooming and a great view of the misty hillside.

I followed a path that lead to a sort of a waterfall, more of a stream running down a steep rock, and was soon joined by three little girls who'd be running around playing. The began scampering up the rocky slope then stopped and began shouting at me, "Mister, 20 baht we show you everything!" I thought they were offering me a tour, which wasn't really necessary, I'd seen the whole place, until one repeated, "20 baht, we show you everything!" while pointing at her friend's crotch, who was giggling hysterically. It sent a chill up my spine and my head started spinning and it made me a little sick to my stomach. I looked around to see if anyone was looking, somehow, I felt as though I'd done something wrong even though I hadn't, an I saw an old man sitting across the slop on a chair with a cell phone in his hand. I sort of wondered if it was a trap and he was ready to call the police or someone but was too confused to know what was going on.

I pretty much made a B-line back to the entrance where my driver was waiting, sure I never wanted to come back to this village again!

Chiang Mai's night market

2012-02-22T23:30:00.000+09:00

Wat Umong Suan Puthatham

2012-02-22T23:00:00.000+09:00

October 28th, 2007

A friend who'd I'd become close with during my time in Daegu was in Chiang Mai, studying massage at ITM. She invited me to spend a few days with her, so I took the overnight bus from Bangkok and arrived in the morning. The tuk-tuk driver took me to a massage school way on the outskirts of the city, but they told me there was no one by that name at the school. Eventually, I was able to find a computer and looked through my emails and found that her school and guesthouse were way back, close to the centre of the city.

When I arrived, Lana suggested we go to Wat Umong, a 700 year old temple in the mountains outside of the city. I'd read about it in the Lonely Planet on the bus ride north, and actually wanted to go already. It's popular for its ancient meditation caves and chedi just behind them, but as we walked through the grounds, it was a group of forest monks tending to some cattle and dear that really impressed me. The whole place was absolutely gorgeous!

Wat Pho, October 27th, 2007

2012-02-21T23:30:00.000+09:00

[Now that I've finished the trip, I might as well go back to the beginning and visit the places I skipped. My intention was to just go through my India trip, which stated with a week in Thailand, so here it is...]

After getting settled the first day back in Bangkok, the first place I headed this morning was to Wat Pho, famous for it's Parinirvanna Buddha, the "Sleeping" or "Reclining" Buddha. The word reclining doesn't quite say enough, and, personally, I find Sleeping Buddha to be an oxymoron, but Parinirvanna means the final nirvana, which occurred upon the physical death of the Buddha as he attained complete awakening.

Having already visited the temple a few other times, in previous trips, it was nice to explore the grounds more thoroughly. Just beside the hall built around the Buddha (literally) I found a beautiful Bodhi tree to sit beneath, after I had enough of watch a Siamese cat stalking the red and gold carp in the pond.

I thought this would be a nice, auspicious place to begin a journey.

Monday Morning Blues; Call of the Road

2012-02-20T11:00:00.000+09:00

Doc Watson § Call of the Road

When I was a boy, I had to know what I would find just over the hill
And while still a lad, I had to go, and so you see I'm rambling still

Life's golden cup, was filled for me, with happiness and measures untold,
But I left the one who cared for me, a treasure worth so much more than gold.

Young men that roam, take heed to this, the call of the road can be so unkind.
It will lead you on like a fickle kiss, and a wasted life is all that you'll ever find.

the end...

2012-02-19T23:29:00.000+09:00

It's always difficult to leave Thailand, and this time was no different.

At the same time, it was a relief to get back to a stable life, even though I was back in Korea with little money and no apartment.

My job didn't start for a couple of weeks but I had to come back to deal with work visa difficulties. Christopher Paul Neil, the child rapist from Vancouver, was teaching in Korea just before German police unswirled his face and in response the Korean government made it really complicated to get a working visa. I spent most of my last few days in Thailand trying to deal with the Korean Embassy in Montreal and the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, but they both just had me spinning in circles. Finally, I had to come back early to deal with things in person.

I arrived in Incheon early in the morning and caught a bus to Bundang. I was literally repulsing to look out the bus window at the long rows of uniform, grey apartment buildings after a few months away. It was like landing in Lego Land, but all the coloured pieces had been removed. I was excited to be able to visit a Korean temple, though, was I was settled. At times in India, I really craved a Korean temple visit.

After a few days, I got my visa paperwork sorted out, and was going to do a temple stay but ended up filling in for a sick teacher, which was good, because now that I was finished traveling, I had to start paying off my credit card!

Mentally, I was caught between to places. Half of me wanted to work one more year, take another trip through China and Tibet, visit Nepal again to do some trekking, than come back to Korea and become a monk. A friend who is a monk in Jogyesa's head temple in Seoul was ready to set everything up for me. I knew the one struggle I would have would be to give up on the thought of ever having a wife and family. Maybe I would get over it, but that's really hard to say.

While I was in Indian, my friend Joe was emailing me about a sangha he'd been going to on Saturdays to discuss a book written by a Korean Bhikkhuni, Zen Master Dae Haeng, who Joe thought is probably enlightened. (People who know her would agree that Joe was right!) I began attending the group with Joe, and met Chong Go Sunim, who lead the group, and Marcus, who'd developed a bond with Joe while I was away. Both Chong Go Sunim and Marcus have been a great influence on my development since then. At one meeting, I asked Chong Go Sunim how many monks tend to struggle with celibacy, and he responded, "How many monks are many?" It wasn't the answer I was hoping for, but, honestly, it was a good one!

May and I kept in touch for a while, but it was obviously finished. Even while we were together, she would get a phone call from a friend telling her what her ex-boyfriend was doing and which one of her friend's he'd slept with the night before, which would set her to crying with me sitting next to her a little confused by the situation. And, honestly, I'd never really loved her well.

Meanwhile, after all the talk of getting married I had in India and Nepal, and random marriage proposals in other places, it had set the thought in my head that I wanted to get married. At the same time, May was sending me emails, saying she missed me and talking about getting marriage, but, despite my feelings, I knew I didn't want to marry her. Finally, I sent a difficult email telling her just that, and that week, I met EunBong. After only two weeks, I knew I she was who I wanted to marry. I wondered if it was because of my trip but I didn't have a single doubt that she was the one. A year later, not only were we married, but we also had a two week old Fina!

There have been a few difficult times when I asked myself why I didn't run straight to the mountains and join a temple, but I couldn't imagine a world without Fina, now! Besides, the are a lot of important things one can learn through a committed relationship, and that's what the Dharma realm apparently thought was best for me. (At least, that's what my mind tells me!)

The Grand Palace & the Temple of the Emerald Buddha พระบรมมหาราชวัง & วัดพระแก้ว

2012-02-17T23:30:00.000+09:00

My last day in Bangkok, and Thailand, there was really only one place to go. Even thought here were a few places I hadn't been to yet, I could leave without one last visit to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (the original one).

The grounds are like walking into another dimension, as everywhere you look there's some mind blowing example of Thai architecture, stretched to the limits of elegance as aesthetics.

And if you don't believe photography is hard work, try shooting a comprehensive collection of photos from the Grand Palace in a single day! ^_^

last stroll through Chinatown

2012-02-16T23:30:00.000+09:00

February 16th, 2008

Today, I set out on a bit of an expedition unlike the usually touristy stuff in Bangkok, to find a street famous for its production of alms bowls, known as monk bowl village. I thought I'd be able to find the forges where they are crafted, but I ended up only finding the shops that sell them. I also thought they would be nice gifts to bring back for friends, but they were a lot bigger than I imagined, and about twice as expensive. Another thing I didn't realize is that people generally don't buy these unless they are going to become monks, and need them for collecting their morning alms. The shop keeper reached into several stacks of folded cloths on a shelf and was either asking me what size or colour I wanted. I clued in that they were piles of monk's robes to go along with the bowl and it caused some confusion that I just wanted the bowl, well, actually, three of them!

It was my last night in Bangkok before returning to Korea, and the life I confuse with reality. May works the night shift at her hotel so after she got some sleep we met and headed by Kao San Rd. and headed to a little vendor by a canal that sold soup on the side on a long row of tables on the sidewalk. There was a big bowl of greens, none of which I could name, that you could pick from and break up into the soup, along with little meat balls and steamed chicken feet. I really liked these long green bean sort of greens that were nearly a foot in length.

After eating, we took a tuk-tuk into Chinatown and went into Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, busy with visitors for the Chinese New Year. We headed over to the large candles burning in the courtyard to light some incense and when I put my incense in the same flame as May's to light it, she said I shouldn't do that because it interferes with each other's karma, yet another thing I didn't learn in school!

After admiring the lanterns and the statues we headed into the core of Chinatown and enjoyed the street food and the atmosphere one last time.

Chiang Rai's Wat Phra Kaew, Temple of the Emerald Buddha

2012-02-15T23:30:00.000+09:00

February 15th, 2008

Probably the most revered Buddha image in Thailand is the "Emerald Buddha" (it's carved out of jade) enshrined at [the other] Wat Phra Kaew, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, at the Grand Palace, back in Bangkok. The Buddha was actually discovered here in Chiang Rai in 1434, when a chedi (Thai pagoda) was struck by lightning, revealing an object inside. When uncovered, the people thought it was made of emerald, hence its name.

I feel a kinship with this Buddha, he moves around about as much as I do! Legend tells that it originated in India, then passed through Burma before coming to Thailand, but historians think it's more likely that it was carved during the Lana dynasty. Either way, after its discovery, it traveled around Thailand to a few places and even made a stop in Loas for a while, before eventually settling in Bangkok.

There is a copy of the Emerald Buddha in Chiang Rai now, and it's enshrined in one of my favourite Thai temples, also called Wat Phra Kaew, behind the Buddha hall, in an intimate little shrine of its own. The original one, in the Grand Palace, is high up on an elaborate pedestal, surrounded by a busy crowd of adornments and adorers, but this one is very accessible. Its shrine is still busy but also elegant and beautiful, prevalent Thai traits.

The Buddha hall at Wat Phra Kaew is worth a visit, too. The massive bronze Buddha is impressive, especially after all the little bronze Buddhas I saw in Kathmandu.

Just down the street, passed the big pink temple, is Chiang Rai market. We made one more round through the tables, then headed to the bus station for the long ride back to Bangkok.

Karen Village, ceremony for Grandpa Joe, Chiang Rai market

2012-02-14T23:30:00.000+09:00

February 14th, 2008

On our first visit to Chiang Rai, we visit a Burmese refugee camp a little ways outside Chiang Rai city. Our tour guide was a little girl named Sinoi, who lived at the camp, and what she lacked in size she made up for in personality! May was so in love with her, she wanted to ask her parents if we could take her with us and raise her in Bangkok. I had other opinions but this time around I did agree that it would be fun to go visit her again.

When we arrived at the camp, we skipped the first two villages and went straight to the Karen tribe. It had been a couple of years since our last visit but I could still remember all the beautiful faces we'd met before. We found Sinoi and she was a lot bigger and didn't remember us a single bit but seemed to enjoy the fact we came to see her! She had a new baby brother to show us.

The children in the village seemed really happy, running around laughing and playing, trying to make us laugh. They were on break from class and some of them brought us to see their classroom, which I hadn't noticed before.

A couple of days earlier, I received news that my grandfather had passed away in his sleep. It wasn't unexpected, his mind had been deteriorating for a while. I really wanted to do something for him, and May said if we could find a monk he could do a death ceremony for my grandfather. From the hill where the Karen tribe was, I noticed a huge pagoda on the adjacent hill, so we wound around the little roads for a while, getting a bit lost, until we finally found our way to a giant, amazingly beautiful Avalokiteśvara statue. We climbed the stairs up to the pagoda but there was no monk around. May had already told me there probably wouldn't be, but I wanted to see anyway. Around the corner, we walked passed a heard of cows to a big temple but the two farmers with the cattle told us there wasn't a monk there at the moment, either. I didn't consider it a waste, though, it was a beautiful spot to visit.

After lunch in the village, we headed back towards the city. It was fun driving through the countryside on a scooter, but every time I went around a turn, May had to remind me get back on the right side of the road (which was actually the left).

As we got closer to the city, May took over driving and she found a beautiful old temple on the outskirts of town with a small community of monks. May explained that my grandfather had died, so one monk came over and brought me inside the temple. He gave me an envelope to put a donation inside, along with orange robes, a day's worth of rice, and some candles that the donation would pay for. The merit of the donation would be transferred to my grandfather. He told me to write my grandfather's name in the centre of the envelop and my name in the upper corner. When he noticed that I'd written the same name, he let May know that I'd made a mistake then laugh when she said we had the same names. In Thailand, this doesn't happen, I guess! Next, I held a beautiful, lotus-shaped offering bowl in the palm of one hand and a pitcher of water. I slowly filled the bowl and prayed for Grandpa Joe to have a good rebirth, while the monk chanted an ancient Khmer sūtra. After the chanting, I took the water outside and poured it under a tree by the entrance. I didn’t get a clear explanation, but what I gathered was that the water collected my grandfather’s negative Karma, which I then poured out to feed the tree.

Back in Chiang Rai, and hungry, we stopped by the market and picked out a bag full of Thai street treats to bring back to the guesthouse, which is always an adventure in itself! All I'll say is, chicken feet are surprisingly good!

Wat Rong Khun วัดร่องขุ่น, Khun Kon Waterfall

2012-02-13T23:30:00.000+09:00

February 13th, 2008

The bus ride from Bangkok to Chiang Rai is about 16 hours, and I've learned from previous trips to pack warm clothes for the long drive. They blast the air conditioner nonstop the whole way and you spend the whole time freezing. The first trip, I plugged our vent with toilet paper but then everyone else on the bus copied me and soon the fans were blowing like crazy until the plug didn't make much of a difference.

Our plan was to go back to visit a Karen hill tribe where we'd met a little girl May had fallen in love with and see her again. It was too late to make the journey to the village when we arrived in Chiang Rai, so May surprised me with a visit to Wat Rong Khun, a brand new temple still under construction.

It is unique from any other temple in Thailand in that it is completely white, adorned with white glass and interesting sculpture. Entering the temple from the front bridge, you cross over a disconcerting sea of hands reaching up desperately from the lower realm. The temple is covered with so much dizzying imagery that it's difficult to really see what you're looking at, but your eyes eventually come to rest on a peaceful white Buddha, sitting in meditation over the door.

Soon, the hot, sunny sky turned to showers and we ran for cover until it passed then had a nice lunch in the market then headed out to a small hiking spot to see the Khun Kon Waterfall just north of the temple.It was beautiful as we walked through the jungle like forest, bamboo groves, banana trees and beautiful flowers I'd never seen before.

Monday Morning Blues; โทรมาทำไม Why Call?

2012-02-13T11:00:00.000+09:00

DDC • Why Call?

When I spent a month in Thailand in 2006, I heard this song on the radio in the taxi. May told me it was a new song that was very popular and I spent the next few days trying to find it but it was sold out at every single store we went to.

This time in Thailand, I went back to the CD stores but they said it was too old so they didn't sell it anymore...

Finally, I found it online!

waiting for the bus to Chiangrai

2012-02-12T23:30:00.000+09:00