Our Thai friend Aom, who works at the Foundation office, invited Armelle and me to her Buddhist Temple on the mainland in Phrang Nga province. Armelle and I joined Aom and her mom for two days at the temple toward the end of November.
After about an hour's drive, Aom's SUV pulled onto a small road an into the wooded compound of the temple. Aom travels all that way for a charismatic head monk there, referred to as Porpu (Paw poo).
When we met Porpu, Aom told us to kneel on the ground and wai, taking our head and hands to the earth, five times as a show of respect. (Porpu in photo on the left)We stayed in a small room that belongs to Aom's family with kitchen area (refrigerator) and bathroom with toilet that flushes by pouring water into it and a cold bucket shower.
We slept on the floor. That is beautiful Aom in the photo below.
This temple is a place for visitors and pilgrims. All are welcome. Porpu keeps a 24 hour kitchen for anyone that shows up
and wants food. Special food was prepared for us farang - not as spicy so we could eat it.We meditated sitting, and we were also taught walking meditation which is done saying "Nor" (pronounce Naw) with each step. Nor means empty. On Saturday night about 20 of us dressed in white and gathered for chanted prayers in Pali, and then Porpu came in and did a Buddhist teaching. After his teaching, but with all 20-25 nuns, monks, compound residents, and visitors in the room, Propu asked us many questions and it became an evening full of humor (He predicted one of his monks and I would get together as a couple - either by me becoming a nun or his monk leaving the monk hood for America. (In the photo above, you can see "my fiancee", as Armelle and Aom teasingly referred to him, in the background). Once, in the middle of Porpu's talk, I got excited about a rat running on the rafters above. Porpu wove that incident into the message about being and staying present - not letting the peripheral rats in the rafters take our focus.
Over our weekend there, the community worked together. I hosed down a new sala for a statue of famous monk Lampau taut, and we cleaned out and rearranged the gift shop. We worked with the nuns, monks and others. We laughed together.
It was community and it was wonderful. They want us to come back, and we want to, too.
