What a Day It Was

Yesterday I wandered around Chiang Mai searching for items to be used in my unicorn costume. I got lost walking around and found an interesting cafe and eventually the big day market where i found the ~perfect~ unicorn shirt...it's white and entails sequins and lace!

And then we went to Wat Suandok to see Thich Naht Hahn and his crew from Plum Village (his monastery in France). First, they taught us these wonderful chants and we all sang and did some sitting meditation. It's really amazing how much energy you can feel in a room full of meditating people! and then all the plum village monks and nuns sang a beautiful, heartbreaking song in french. *i cried.* and felt a little homesick but it was lovely. TNH spoke about breathing practice, sitting meditation and mindful living. Here are a couple of quotes I found particularly enlightening:

"The mind must recognize and reconcile with the body. This is the practice of love and kindness directed toward our whole body."

"It's easy to think of happiness as something attainable in the future but not the present moment. Walking meditation teaches us to recognize joy and beauty in the now, in every step."

"The purpose of compassionate listening is to help the other person to suffer less. Don't stop the other person or try to correct them. You have to recognize the suffernig of the other in order to fully understand them."

"You cannot hlep the other person to change except through changing yourself first. Likewise, you cannot love the other person unless you love yourself."

Oh and my favorite part of the night was when there was a big lizard (we call them "du-kaes") started calling and TNH stopped his speech and then said, "I enjoy that sound." And then he proceeded to talk about bringing listening into our breathing practice. Ahh it was such a nice talk.

And then it was followed by a nice dinner with Hilary and Otto. And then Otto took me to this amazing place called Le Brasserie, home to probably one of the most ridiculously talented musicians in Thailand. Tuk played a short set by himself first and pulled out some wicked blues and folk rock. Then a band joined him and they played songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young. Mind you, these musicians are rarely known by most Thais so it's doubly wonderful to hear them played here. Everyone in the place was mesmerized. It was completely quiet and the candlelight made it feel like even more of a religious experience. Yes, it was a beautiful night.