ordination
Thanks to merikus for posting this on my behalf, and greetings from Thailand!
This will probably be a one-time thing, but I thought it would be nice to let everyone here know that I ordained as a monk on the 6th of June. My Pali name is Supañño, which means "Good Wisdom," but I seem to still be going by Greg (or Than Greg, or Kruba Greg--Thai forms of address for monks) for the most part. The ordination ceremony went off without a hitch--I remembered to answer "no" to "do you have leprosy?" and "yes" to "are you a human?" in Pali, among other things. My parents managed to attend the ceremony, one of many instances of their being supportive of something many parents might regard as excessively weird.
At the moment I'm away from the main monastery, staying at a branch temple in Khorat provence near Khao Yai National Park. I'm hoping to spend the rainy season here. This place has only five monks (myself included) and one novice, and is considerably less busy than the main temple (with ~40 monks). There is little work and no morning or evening meeting here, which makes it ideal for intensive meditation practice. Earlier this year, one of the monks discovered this super-awesome cave on the temple groups. It's quite spacious and it has already been set up for people to meditate inside. There is, apparently, only one bat living there, which is, to my mind, enough bat to add atmosphere without making things terrifying and full of guano.
I'm the only foreign monk here, which should be interesting if I stay for the rainy season. I've renewed my efforts at studying Thai, which while not the most difficult language in the world, is not exactly the easiest either. In general I've found that my tendency toward shyness does not magically disappear when I am stripped of the ability to express myself in English. But, overall, I'm looking forward to this by way of actually being immersed (or perhaps "out of my depths") in another culture (as opposed to being, like, "It's midnight in Chiang Mai--where can I get enchiladas? Rawr! I am an American!").
flamingjune07 and taintedlord, I received and enjoyed both of your letters. Sorry that I haven't sent a reply yet. flamingjune07, can you receive mail over the summer at your school address? I will probably wait until the Fall to reply. In general I plan to try to cut down on both reading and letter writing for the rainy season, as I find that my meditation has a tendency to turn into thinking about things I've read or composing letters in my head. That being said, I really miss all of you and will try not to be too late in returning to the, uh, world of letters--perhaps once I'm back at the main temple. They should hold mail for me there until I return, in case anyone wants to write in the next few months (the address is in a friends only post a couple of posts back, I believe).
As for how things are going overall, I'd say on the whole they're going well. Certain things about monastic life that initially seemed imposing, e.g., doing with less food and sleep, now seem familiar, if not exactly comfortable. Progress in meditation has been slow to come, especially with things being unexpectedly busy at the main temple. But I hope to be able to focus more on formal meditation practice over the next few months. Of course there much more to say, but I will leave it at that for now and wish you well for your summer and/or rainy season.
This will probably be a one-time thing, but I thought it would be nice to let everyone here know that I ordained as a monk on the 6th of June. My Pali name is Supañño, which means "Good Wisdom," but I seem to still be going by Greg (or Than Greg, or Kruba Greg--Thai forms of address for monks) for the most part. The ordination ceremony went off without a hitch--I remembered to answer "no" to "do you have leprosy?" and "yes" to "are you a human?" in Pali, among other things. My parents managed to attend the ceremony, one of many instances of their being supportive of something many parents might regard as excessively weird.
At the moment I'm away from the main monastery, staying at a branch temple in Khorat provence near Khao Yai National Park. I'm hoping to spend the rainy season here. This place has only five monks (myself included) and one novice, and is considerably less busy than the main temple (with ~40 monks). There is little work and no morning or evening meeting here, which makes it ideal for intensive meditation practice. Earlier this year, one of the monks discovered this super-awesome cave on the temple groups. It's quite spacious and it has already been set up for people to meditate inside. There is, apparently, only one bat living there, which is, to my mind, enough bat to add atmosphere without making things terrifying and full of guano.
I'm the only foreign monk here, which should be interesting if I stay for the rainy season. I've renewed my efforts at studying Thai, which while not the most difficult language in the world, is not exactly the easiest either. In general I've found that my tendency toward shyness does not magically disappear when I am stripped of the ability to express myself in English. But, overall, I'm looking forward to this by way of actually being immersed (or perhaps "out of my depths") in another culture (as opposed to being, like, "It's midnight in Chiang Mai--where can I get enchiladas? Rawr! I am an American!").
flamingjune07 and taintedlord, I received and enjoyed both of your letters. Sorry that I haven't sent a reply yet. flamingjune07, can you receive mail over the summer at your school address? I will probably wait until the Fall to reply. In general I plan to try to cut down on both reading and letter writing for the rainy season, as I find that my meditation has a tendency to turn into thinking about things I've read or composing letters in my head. That being said, I really miss all of you and will try not to be too late in returning to the, uh, world of letters--perhaps once I'm back at the main temple. They should hold mail for me there until I return, in case anyone wants to write in the next few months (the address is in a friends only post a couple of posts back, I believe).
As for how things are going overall, I'd say on the whole they're going well. Certain things about monastic life that initially seemed imposing, e.g., doing with less food and sleep, now seem familiar, if not exactly comfortable. Progress in meditation has been slow to come, especially with things being unexpectedly busy at the main temple. But I hope to be able to focus more on formal meditation practice over the next few months. Of course there much more to say, but I will leave it at that for now and wish you well for your summer and/or rainy season.