Today is New Year's Eve and it has been amazing. We got up very early and left the hotel at 5:45 am to give alms to the Monks. Every morning the Monks walk the street to collect their food for the day in large copper alms bowls. Thai's call giving food to the Monk's "making merit" and it goes like this; You approach one or several of the Monks on the side of the road and you place your offering, (usually rice, soup, cookies, and bottled water), in their bowl and then you kneel before them with your hands together in the "wai" position and the Monks then say a chant and prayer blessing your offering, your family and your coming year. As I mentioned yesterday, it is especially auspicious to do this on New Years Eve.
After we gave alms, we returned to the hotel for breakfast then headed to a Buddhist Temple/Buddhist University in town for "Monk Chat". One of the senior Monk's talked to us in a classroom environment for about an hour about Buddhism and the Thai culture. He gave a great lecture about how to find happiness in life through meditation and being a good person. Then we toured the temple with another Monk and he explained more about life at a Monastery and what it means to be a Buddhist Monk. As he showed us around he explained all of the details of a typical Buddhist temple and how to worship there. After the tour several of us gave a small donation to the temple in exchange for another blessing. This blessing included the tying of a string around your wrist. The string has been taken from a huge web of yarn that has been hung inside the temple from the statue of Buddha and is woven throughout the room. The Monks have chanted and prayed in the room with the yarn 4-5 times a day for several days so it holds a lot of great energy within.
The rest of the day is free time to rest, swim, get a Thai massage, or... hit the Internet cafe. Tonight we are having dinner at a beautiful restaurant by the river and we will ring in the new year there. We should have a good view of the local fireworks and later we will release large paper lanterns into the sky to release our intentions for 2009 into the sky.
This may the last post for a while as we leave for the elephant park first thing in the morning and the Internet is hit or miss there. We will be there for 8 days and I can hardly wait!!!
After we gave alms, we returned to the hotel for breakfast then headed to a Buddhist Temple/Buddhist University in town for "Monk Chat". One of the senior Monk's talked to us in a classroom environment for about an hour about Buddhism and the Thai culture. He gave a great lecture about how to find happiness in life through meditation and being a good person. Then we toured the temple with another Monk and he explained more about life at a Monastery and what it means to be a Buddhist Monk. As he showed us around he explained all of the details of a typical Buddhist temple and how to worship there. After the tour several of us gave a small donation to the temple in exchange for another blessing. This blessing included the tying of a string around your wrist. The string has been taken from a huge web of yarn that has been hung inside the temple from the statue of Buddha and is woven throughout the room. The Monks have chanted and prayed in the room with the yarn 4-5 times a day for several days so it holds a lot of great energy within.
The rest of the day is free time to rest, swim, get a Thai massage, or... hit the Internet cafe. Tonight we are having dinner at a beautiful restaurant by the river and we will ring in the new year there. We should have a good view of the local fireworks and later we will release large paper lanterns into the sky to release our intentions for 2009 into the sky.
This may the last post for a while as we leave for the elephant park first thing in the morning and the Internet is hit or miss there. We will be there for 8 days and I can hardly wait!!!
1 comment:
Christian,
Thank you for this wonderful blog - a great way to "share" in what you are all up to! I am in "awe" of each one of you - please give Sarah a hug from her "momma" - Thank you, each of you, for the love and peace you are showing and sharing - Blessings, Connie
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