English language article

You do not need to become a livetime nun or monk in order to experience the life in a buddhist temple.

You can simply join a meditation course at the Northern Insight Meditation Center at the Buddhist temple of Wat Rampoeng in the northern part of Thailand.

Or you can become an interim nun or monk for periods down to 2 weeks depending on your own preparations.

The meditation courses (10, 15 or 26 days or more) at Wat Rampoeng will provide you with new insight knowledge of yourself and your personel capabilities as well as an introduction to the life in a buddhist temple.

Turn up at the main entrance to the temple in the outskirts of the city of Chiang Mai - on your right hand side you have the office of the Foreign Meditation Center (open daily from 8-17). You can discuss your participation with the munk or nun who are responsible for foreigners on the day you visit the office. You can also discuss your participation beforehand by e-mail or on phone.

The meditation center attracts a lot of foreigners from the States, from Europe, India, Australia and other Asian countries outside Thailand. And the capacity sometimes is not big enough to accomodate all those who wishes to attend the meditation center. Therefore it is advisable to arrange your booking on beforehand.

When you are accepted at the course you also at the same time accept a set of rules and restrictions during your stay in the temple.

Although the center states that it invites christian and muslim followers along with buddhist's, Wat Rampoeng is a buddhist temple and the overall guidelines for the meditation courses are based on respect for Lord Buddha. If this would create a problem for you - don't join. On the other hand, if you join it will give you a rare insight of the life in a Buddhist tempel. No buddhism is taucht to meditation students although it is expected that the students go on their knees and prostate three times each time they pass a Buddha statue.

You do not need to bring paper, pencil, books, radio, i-pod, MP3 players, mobile phones etc. The only electronic gadget allowed in the temple is a timer to measure your different meditation routines.

Walking and sitting meditation

Unlike other meditation techniques very little attention is paid to breathing and physical excersises in the Wat Rampoeng. The Meitation Center offers a basic training in what it calls mindfull walking and sitting meditation. The training is individual and based on basic individual designed excersises with the monk or nun who will be your instructor and on daily reporting with the abbot of the temple the Ajan (Master) Suphan. The teachings are following a special thai tradition within Buddhism - a tradition also allowing you to be aqcuainted with the phenomenon of a Buddha day, celebrated each full and new moon and each half moon - giving four celebrations within a moon cyclus.

Day starts at 4 a.m.and ends at 10 p.m.

As a "yogi" (the title for meditation students and even some teachers) at the temple you are supposed to follow the temple routines, which starts at 4 a' clock in the morning when the morning bell rings. The monks start their chanting in some of the various temples within the compound. Yogis are supposed to get up as well and start meditation and/or cleaning the rooms/cells accomodating the male and female yogis in separate quarters.

At 6.30 there is breakfast if you manage to join in - sometimes one can be carried away by the meditation and forget everything about food.

Again at 10.30 there is lunch served.

The meals are provided by donations given to the beggar monks and the temple and therefore the menu varies according to the donations.

The breakfast normaly consist of rice, soup and noodles, maybe a bit of cake and some juice.

The lunch is more varied and there is both af vegetarian and a non vegetarian buffet, where the yogis can help themselves on aluminium pressured menu plates (like those used by US inmates on films, although they are not used to make noice with here).

Men eat together and women together, the buffet and the dishwashing is not gender divided as the eating.

One eats alone, which means there should be silence during the meal.

The food is praised by singing/praying both for breakfast and lunch.

These are the only daily meals and yogis are not expected to eat at any other time except drinking water as well as coffee, tea, juice (which are allowed). Sometimes the temple will serve drinks in the late afternoon depending on the donations - it could be juice, a hot chocolate or pumkin drink.

The temple shop is allowed to sell some biscuits and juice to yogis - after noon only juice and water and white clothes.

meeting points

As a "yogi" (the title for meditation students and even some teachers) at the temple you are supposed to follow the temple routines, which starts at 4 a' clock in the morning when the morning bell rings. The monks start their chanting in some of the various temples within the compound. Yogis are supposed to get up as well and start meditation and/or cleaning the rooms accomodating the male and female yogis in separate quarters.

At 6.30 there is breakfast if you manage to join in - sometimes one can be carried away by the meditation and forget everything about food.

Again at 10.30 there is lunch served.

The meals are provided by donations given to the beggar monks and the temple and therefore the menu varies according to the donations.

The breakfast normaly consist of rice, soup and noodles, maybe a bit of cake and some juice.

The lunch is more varied and there is both af vegetarian and a non vegetarian buffet, where the yogis can help themselves on aluminium pressured menu plates (like those used by US inmates on films, although they are not used to make noice with here).

Men eat together and women together, the buffet and the dishwashing is not gender divided as the eating.

One eats alone, which means there should be silence during the meal.

The food is praised by singing/praying both for breakfast and lunch.

These are the only daily meals and yogis are not expected to eat at any other time except drinking water as well as coffee, tea, juice (which are allowed). Sometimes the temple will serve drinks in the late afternoon depending on the donations - it could be juice, a hot chocolate or pumkin drink.

The temple shop is allowed to sell some biscuits and juice to yogis - after noon only juice and water and white clothes.

Tilbage