Dhamma Garden Meditation Center F.A.Q.

FAQ
How much does a stay cost?

In keeping with the spirit of the Dhamma, the stay at Wat Sri Boen Ruang International Buddhism Center Vipassana retreat(Dhamma Garden) is donation based only.
Note: If you have paid or are intending to pay a fee to a third-party to come to practice at the Dhamma Garden meditation center, please be aware that the meditation center has no involvement with,or support any such activity and does not gain any financial benefit from such parties.

How long can is the course?

In order to get as much as you can out of the Vipassana meditation practice a minimum of 10 days would be of benefit. People can stay to do the 26 day course.
Shorter stays can also be arranged, depending on room availability.

Do I need to be a Buddhist?

No. Many people who come to Thailand are not buddhists, but wish to learn more about Vipassana meditation.

Will I need to prostrate before statues of Buddha?

Yes. In many asian countries prostrating, or holding the hands in a prayer like position is a sign of respect.
Prostrating before a statue of Buddha is not worship as may happen in other religions. It is purely an act of respect to the teacher and teaching of the Dhamma. It is not idol worship.

Why do I need to take precepts?

Precepts are a formal way to remind us about morality. It is normal practice in buddhist temples for people staying to take the precepts in the presence of a monk.

How can I not eat after midday?

This worries many people who are used to three meals a day. Most people find that it is not as hard as they think to give up eating later in the day.
People on medication that need to eat, either before or after their medication is taken, of course are exempted from this precept.

Will I have to shave my head?

Only if you are intending on ordaining as a Novice or a Mae Chi otherwise it is entirely up to you.

I have never meditated before. Will this be a problem?

No. The meditation sessions here are tailored so that a complete beginner can take part, guided by an english speaking monk from New Zealand. A daily meeting with your teacher will give you an opportunity to ask any questions you may have and also allow your teacher to assess your progress.

I do not know much about Buddhism. Will this be a problem?

Again, no. Dhamma talks will be given by an English monk. He will be more than happy to answer any questions about the teachings of Buddha that you may have.

How can I book a stay with you?

You can contact us directly by using the comments box below or use the contact us form. If a couple of weeks notice could be given, that would be helpful, however we may be able to fit someone in at shorter notice.

Can I practice Yoga, Thai Chi, etc while I am on the course?

No. We do not have any problem with people doing Yoga, Thai Chi etc, however, in order for you to get the most out of your Vipassana meditation teaching, we ask that you put aside other meditation techniques while you are here.

What do I need to bring?

Photocopy of information page of your passport and current visa.
Two sets of loose, modest, non-transparent white clothing.
An alarm clock and a countdown timer (for timing meditation sessions).
Toiletries, towels and personal items.

Please note that you use of mobile phones and laptops is not allowed during your stay at the Dhamma Garden Meditation Center.
We ask that you finish up all of your business and any travel arrangements that need to taken care of, before your arrival.
This is so that your time is spent on the practice.
For emergency contact we ask that you give your friends or family our email address.

Dhamma Garden Vipassana retreat daily schedule.

Day 1- Registration Day.
Meditators should arrive at the main temple between 9:00am and 14:00 pm for registration and orientation.

15:00- Going for refuge and taking 8 precepts.
This will be followed by a short talk and Vipassana meditation instruction.
(Noble silence begins here)
Meditators will now begin individual practice.
17:00- 1 hour group meditation. This will also involve a short talk by your teacher.
18:00- Individual practice.
20:00- 1 hour group meditation.
21:00- Evening chanting.
21:30- Sleep.

Daily Schedule
04:30- Wake up.
05:00- Morning chanting.
1 hour group meditation.
06:15- Individual practice.
Monks and novices- alms rounds.
08:00- Alms round in center- Breakfast, followed by free time and/ or individual practice.
09:00- 1 hour group meditation.
10:00- Individual practice.
11:00- Lunch, followed by free time and/or individual practice.
13:00- 1 hour group meditation.
14:00- Individual practice.
15:00- Reporting, followed by individual practice.
17:00- 1 hour group meditation.
18:00- Individual practice.
20:00-1 hour group meditation.*
21:00-Chanting.
21:30-Sleep.

Schedule- Day 10.

04:30-Wake up.
05:00-Chanting- Taking 5 precepts.
05:15-1 hour group meditation.
06:15-Individual practice.
Monks and novices- alms rounds.
08:00-Alms round in center- Breakfast.
08:30-Tidy rooms. Make sure you have all belongings and return keys to office.
Noble Silence ends- Noble Speech begins.
09:00-Monk Chat (Optional)

Please note that chanting and group meditation are compulsory.
Alms rounds for monks and novices is compulsary, unless there is good reason not to go.

*Every tuesday, thursday and saturday there will be a Dhamma talk at 20:00 hours.
Dhamma talks will also be held on Buddha days at 20:00 hours.

Vipassana retreat.

We are happy to announce that we have begun taking bookings for the Wat Sri Boen Ruang International Buddhism Center Vipassana retreats.
While we await funding to continue work at our new ” Dhamma Garden” meditation center we have decided to rebuild some of our old kutis at our original center for meditators to use.
Our vipassana meditation retreats are being run separately from our Thai temple stay program as they will be concentrating solely on the practice of vipassana meditation, and therefore will not involve going on pindabaat in the mornings(resident monks and novices will do pindabaat ) or any outings to various places.
All retreats are by donation only and we do not use third party tour operators or agents, so please do not give money to anyone claiming to be our representatives.
Anyone interested please feel free to contact either myself or Phra Fred for further information.
We are expecting our first guest early in february.
By this time we will have a few kutis (Huts) available.

Just Put It Down.

People are often asking me about mindfulness and what it really means.
Some people come to Vipassana meditation retreats because they want to get something through meditation.
There are others who come to Vipassana meditation retreats because they want to get rid of things through meditation.

Both of these reasons are incorrect reasons reasons to practice.

While they might not seem to be bad reasons to practice Vipassana meditation, they are still based on grasping and aversion.

When we take up the practice of Vipassana meditation we are actually just seeing things as they are.

We bring our awareness to see how things arise and pass away, due to conditions that also arise and pass away.

Lets take a look at the basics of the practice.

We have gone to a quiet place, secluded and peaceful.

Sitting down, cross legged( if you can sit like this) with our hands in our laps.

Take a couple minutes to get comfortable, keeping the back straight, but not rigid.

Take a couple of deep breaths( this helps to begin the calming process) and follow these deep breaths. Be aware of where these breaths reach.

Now we can begin the actual practice of Vipassana meditation.

Some people will start the session by using the word “”Bud-dho”
When they breath in, being aware of the breath entering at the tip of the nose, they mentally say-” Bud “
When exhaling , they note-”Dho”
In-”Bud”
Out-”Dho”

You may wish to keep this up for a while, perhaps ten minutes will do.
By keeping the mind focused on ” Buddho” it can begin to calm down quite quickly.

Now we are going to bring our awareness to the rising and falling of the abdomen.
Nothing more.
When the abdomen begins to rise, we are aware of the rising.
The beginning, middle and end of the arising.
The whole body of the arising.

When the abdomen begins to fall, we are aware of the falling.
The beginning, middle and end of the falling.
The whole body of the falling.

Try it. Rising,falling,rising,falling.
Nothing else, just stay with the breath.
We are not forcing or regulating the breath, we are just breathing.
Easy?

Actually it is harder than it may seem.

Some people think that with mindfulness(Vipassana) meditation, your mind goes completely blank and there is no awareness of anything.

The truth is, you have not closed of the six sense doors.
They are still open and therefore intruders can get in, just as if you have left your front door open, while you are relaxing in the garden out the back.

We can still see, hear,smell, taste, touch, and think.

All of these senses tend to come with judgements attached-pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant or unpleasant(neutral).

This is where we begin to see why we don’t come to a Vipassana meditation retreat to get, or to get rid of anything.

I will give you an example.

Here in Thailand, it would not be acceptable to most people to put their pets to death when they get too old, or when people just don’t want them or for whatever other reasons, just can’t keep them.
This leaves a couple of alternatives.
Abandon them at the side of the road somewhere, or leave them at a Buddhist temple, because the monks are sure to take care of them.
So at my temple, we have dogs.
Many dogs.

So, to my point.
You are sitting, practicing Vipassana meditation and the dogs start barking and howling, this tends to be a group activity in which the majority of dogs take part.

Even though I am meditation there is an awareness of sound.

How do you deal with this.

Maybe you are enjoying the sound.
If you are, you will want it to continue.
This is craving and will lead to suffering.
The barking is not continuous.

Maybe you are not enjoying the sound.
If you dislike it, you will want it to stop.
This is aversion and will lead to suffering.
While the barking is not continuous, it may continue for some time, and even though it will eventually stop, it will also eventually start again.

So what to do?
Let it go.
Don’t attach to it, and don’t have aversion to it.
Just be aware, there is hearing.
And then let it go.

It is exactly the same with the other senses.

We will all at sometime during our practice,see things, hear things,smell……
There is nothing we can do about it.
We cannot stop it from starting, and we cannot stop it from ending.
When we truly understand this, not from book knowledge, not from listening to people telling us, but from actually experiencing it for ourselves, from actually coming to that personal understanding that all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, are the cause of suffering and are outside of our control, then we have seen the Dhamma.

I always warn students of Vipassana who come to me and say-” Bhante, I just had a great meditation session, not many thoughts, the pain in my legs came, but went very quickly, without me having to change position, it was brilliant”,- don’t get attached to this.
The next meditation sitting may be full of thoughts, barking dogs, children shouting as they play and aches and pains that just don’t seem to want to stop.

On the other hand, students who come to me and say-” Bhante, I am rubbish at this, thoughts keep arising, the dogs are waiting for me to take up my position on the pillow, and my legs start to ache the second I think about meditation”- I tell them that this too will change from session to session. Don’t develop an aversion to the practice. It can become so easy to just give up.

When we start the practice of Vipassana meditation, we quickly come to see that this is a practice that we can actually do all day.

Brushing our hair,sitting on the toilet, eating, walking, sitting,standing,lying down.

We can do the practice all the time.

Ajahn Chan said “if you have time to breath, you have time to meditate”.

Now we can start putting things down.
Hate, lust,greed,anger and aversion will all be put down.

We don’t have to try to get rid of them.

We just put them down.

As I said earlier, we are still aware of what is going on around us.

Some people have said that monks who go off and meditate are not in touch with the “real world”. All we are interested in, is our own enlightenment and don’t care,or aren’t aware of what is going on around us.

This could not be any further from the truth.

Just over 2500 years, Siddhartha Gautama sat down under the Bodhi tree and began to meditate. That night he attained enlightenment and from that moment on was known as The Buddha, The Perfectly Enlightened One.

He grappled with the idea of teaching the Dhamma, such a profound teaching had he rediscovered. “Surely”, he thought,” Who would understand such a thing”?

As we all know, Lord Buddha did go on to teach, for he understood the suffering of all beings in all of the different realms and so made known the Dhamma.

Lord Buddha knew of the suffering, but the suffering never caused his mind to become disturbed.
He was aware and yet unaffected and so can you.

May you be successful in your practice of Vipassana meditation.
May you all be happy,
May you all be healthy,
May you all attain Nibbana in the shortest possible time.

New International Meditation Center.

Bhante Dr.Apisit is pleased to be able to announce that work has begun on the new international meditation center attached to Wat Sri Boen Ruang. We are beginning to clear the land where the center is to be located and soon hope to begin building the first of the kuti’s where the meditators will be housed during their stay with us.
Thanks to all of you who have so kindly donated to BCDC in order for this project to go ahead.
If anyone is interested in donating to this worthy project then please feel free to contact me and I will let you know how donations can be made.
I will try to get up to the site every few days and take some photos of the work as it progresses and then will post them for you all to see.
With Metta,
On behalf of Bhante Dr. Apisit,
Phra Greg Chuntawongso.

Wishing Our Guests Well.

Today, Kerry, Mikaela and Mark will be going up to the cave temple for a few days to continue their Vipassana meditation practice in the quiet of the forest.
We wish them all the best and look forwards to their return.

Vipassana Meditation-Sitting Meditation.

Yesterday we discussed walking meditation, and spoke of being mindful of the whole movement of the foot as we noted- right goes thus, left goes thus, etc.
How did this exercise go for you?
When doing your walking meditation, what percentage of the time was the mind with the movement of the foot, and what percentage was the mind off wandering( Thinking ).
Think about this for a minute and be honest with yourself.
It is not unusual for new students to see that perhaps, 30% of the time, the mind was with the foot, and 70% of the time, the mind was off wandering.
This is because we have never really tried to be mindful before. Our minds are used to wandering off and doing their own thing.
You might compare it to a small child,who after being outside, running around here and there, playing, and having lots of fun is called inside by mom or dad who tell the child it is time to sit down and be quiet now.
The child does not want to sit quietly, it has become used to running around having a good time.
He or she then reluctantly sits down, but on the inside is still playing.

As you can see we need to just keep practicing. The mind constantly wandering does not mean you can not do Vipassana Meditation.
It merely means we have to keep trying.

Today we are going to look at sitting meditation.
Immediately after finishing our 10 minute walking meditation, we will begin the sitting meditation practice.
We begin by being mindful of the intention to change from a standing position to a sitting position.
It is important to try and do this mindfully as it sets up the practice of being mindful at all times and this is what Vipassana Meditation is all about.

A couple of important points about your sitting meditation is that first of all, it is not necessary to sit in the full lotus position, or even in the half lotus position. With practice you may be able to sit for longer and longer periods like this, but unlike Asian people, many of us are not used to this style of sitting and just get all sorts of aches and pains in our legs, which we are not yet ready to use as an object of meditation.
So, we find a sitting position that we are comfortable with, sitting in a chair is fine for people who may have a medical condition that does not allow for sitting cross legged on the floor, however try not to lean back against the back of the chair as this tends to be more conducive to sleeping, than meditating.
The back should be straight, but not rigid.A back held too tightly will just cause pain and discomfort, and you may feel like giving up.
I normally have my hands on my lap, with the back of my right hand resting on the palm of my left hand.
Having established a sitting posture that we feel comfortable enough to meditate in we now bring our awareness( mind ) to know the rising and falling of the abdomen.
The reason I teach the rising and falling of the abdomen, and not the sensation of the in and out breath as it enters the nostrils is that the rising and fallen of the abdomen tends to be a more gross sensation and there fore easier to bring the mind to.

As the abdomen starts to rise, we note- rising, rising, rising.
We are aware of the full length of the rising.
Next we bring our awareness to the falling of the abdomen-noting-falling, falling, falling.
We are aware of the full length of the falling.

We do not try to control our breathing.Breath normally. It is not necessary to try slowing the breath down. We are merely observing the natural rising and falling of the abdomen.

As with the walking meditation, we want the mindfulness to occur at the same time as the rising, and at the same time as the falling.

We do not want to be thinking rising, before the rising starts, nor do we want to be thinking rising, after the rising has begun.
We want to try to do this at the same time.

If you find your mind has gone off wandering, gently bring it back to the rising and falling.

Today I would like you to do 10 minutes walking meditation, followed by 10 minutes sitting meditation.
See how many sessions of this you can do, and remember, don’t give up.

Tomorrow we will discuss the four major postures and the six sense doors.
I will also post a list of questions for you to consider in regards to your practice.

You will have to email your answers to me as I want people to think about these things themselves. I will answer your emails as quickly as I can as these questions can really help with your understanding of the practice of Vipassana Meditation.
Have a great day.
With metta, Phra Greg

Vipassana Meditation- Walking Meditation.

Today I want to talk about walking meditation.
Why do we teach our meditators this form of meditation.
First of all, we see that it is taught in the suttas.
Walking meditation has a few things going for it, not only mindfulness.
Walking aids in the digestion of food.
Walking is a good cardio- vascular exercise.
Walking gives us energy which helps to balance us up when we are doing sitting meditation.

When we are doing walking meditation we are bringing our awareness to the whole movement of the foot.
We begin this practice by standing upright, feet together, and gazing downwards about 2 metres in front of us.
Looking straight down at our feet can be distracting as can looking straight ahead.
I find that having my hands either on top of one another in front of me, or behind me is the best position.
When we have stood to begin this phase of our Vipassana Meditation, we bring our mind to know that we are standing.
Getting a mental picture, how am I standing, where are my hands, how is my back, we simply note- standing, standing, standing.
Now we are ready to bring the mind to the movement of the feet.
Beginning with the right foot, we bring it up from the floor, move it forwards and place it back on the ground, in one smooth fluid movement, just in front of the left foot, with the heel of the right foot level with the big toe of the left foot.
At the same moment of the beginning of the lifting of the foot, the mind should begin noting the movement- Right goes thus, or stepping right.
The noting should be in sync with the entire movement of the foot.
If we begin the movement of the foot and then the mind that knows comes, we are thinking in the past.
If we begin noting right goes thus, and then begin to lift and move the foot, we are thinking in the future.
The knowing( noting) and the movement must happen together.This is momentary concentration.
When then begin to lift, move forward and place the left foot down, noting- left goes thus.
Again the knowing(noting) and the movement must happen together
If we can have an area where we can walk for 4-5 metres this should be fine.
At the end of your walking area you will need to stop and then turn around.
To come to a stop, you will need to bring your feet together first.
To do this we will bring the foot to the rear level with the foot in front, so slowly and mindfully we bring the foot forward, noting- stopping, stopping, stopping.
Having come to a stop we will once again bring our mind to be aware of standing.
Now we need to turn 180 degrees.
Turn your right foot 90 degrees while noting, “turning.”
Draw this noting out for the duration of the whole movement of the foot.
Now we turn the left foot 90 degrees, bringing it back along side the right foot, again noting “turning” for the whole movement of the foot.
Repeat these two movements again, noting the same way.Now we are facing the direction we just came from.
Again we can note, standing, standing, standing, before once again moving off, noting, right goes thus, left goes thus.

It is important to understand that we will need to slow our movements down.
If we try to do walking meditation too fast then we will struggle to keep the mind on the movement of the foot.
As you continue your practice of Vipassana Meditation you will see that an awareness of other things in relation to your walking meditation will come up.
I will cover these things at a later date, at the moment it is important to begin the practice.
Try to do 10 minutes walking meditation now and see how you go.
Remember that your mind will still want to go off wandering, don’t be dis-heartened, with practice this will improve.
Again I will give some advice on the wandering mind in a couple of days.
I don’t wish to cause confusion by giving too much information all at once.

I wish all the best for all of you as you begin and continue with your practice.
Tomorrow we will look at sitting meditation.
With metta,
Phra Greg.