My week at วัดป่าถ้ำวัว — A Buddhist Monastery in Thailand
24 hours fasting. 7 hours of daily meditation. 7 days in silence
Wat Pa Tam Wua, aka “The Forest Monastery” in Northern Thailand, is quite the spiritual adventure. The kind of experience that changes the way you see the world (and the Universe), for those of us strange enough to dare do things a little bit ‘out of the norm’.
The Monastery itself is located about 4 hours from Chiang Mai, a city full of life - and widely recognised as the “digital nomad mecca” - which is perfect for those of us striving to work remotely, so we can pay for our huge traveling obsession.
Just over a year after working for a global company, I decided it was the right time to take a little vacation. But what kind of vacation does one take when they’re already traveling from one exotic place to the next? In my case, instead of a geography-based vacation, it was going to be more of a spiritual vacation.
After several weeks of online research, chatting with locals and querying my fellow travellers, the search paid off with Wat Pa Tam Wua, Forest Monastery: A Buddhist retreat where one could practice Vipassana meditation for a week, surrounded by nature, in near silence, and without breaking the bank (it was actually free, based solely on donations).
Having already let my team at work know that I would be unavailable for 7 days, I grabbed a truck from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son, a town nearby my destination. It is common to take this route to get to the Monastery, so the driver already knew where to leave me, and I only had to walk half an hour on a dirt path alongside a small river, to finally reach Wat Pa Tam Wua.
Once there, and before registration or anything else, an assistant approached me to calmly point me towards where everyone else was sitting, all of whom (except me) were dressed in white. The reason being that at that time they were actually in mid-meditation, which was difficult to avoid, as one spends most of the day there doing some kind of meditation.
About 90 minutes of confusion later, asking myself what the hell I was doing there, their meditative session ended, and the same assistant greeted me at the reception to take my information and give me the key to my ‘Kuti’. Fortunately, being the low season in Thailand, I got to spend all 7 days in that Kuti, a small private house, of the type used by Buddhist monks.
There were also dorm rooms, so having my own place helped immensely in being able to be at peace and in silence, so I could reflect on the experience. I was also loaned two pairs of white pants and shirts, which we were meant to wear the whole time. The white clothes are part of the purification process of Vipassana, which I would later learn means ‘seeing things as they really are’.
This type of meditation is among the most ancient. It’s described as a technique to ‘eradicate suffering’, with roots in India of more than 2,500 years, where it was (and in some places, still is) an integral part of their culture. There, it’s seen as the universal cure for universal problems, also described as “a process of self-purification, through self-observation.”
According to this belief, the process of purification is the knowledge of the truth through direct experience, and has little to do with any organised religion, belief system or sect. Therefore, anyone can freely practice it at any time or place, without conflicts of race, community or religion. It is also equally beneficial for each and every one of those who decide to try it out.
At the start of every meditation, whether you’re a beginner or ‘expert’ in meditation, we’re all taught to begin by observing our natural breathing. This calms down our thoughts and become aware of our mind. Then, while in this state of mindfulness, we observe the changing nature of the body and mind — as separate from ‘ourselves’. This helps us start feeling, and understanding, the universal truths of suffering, impermanence and the absence of ego.
Each Buddhist Monastery has its own version of this purification process, and at Wat Pa Tam Wua, it went on like this:
5am — Wake up to meditate in your Kuti
6:30 am — Offering of the alms to the monks (spoonfuls of rice, previously cooked by volunteers)
7am — Breakfast, based on white rice and light vegetarian dish
8am — Morning meditative group session, until 10am, divided into: Introductory talk (always excellent, lead by a wise young monk) of about 30 minutes, walking around the garden for 35 minutes, sitting in lotus position for 35 minutes and lying down for 20 minutes
10:30 am — Offering of lunch to the monks (as in the morning, but now with over a dozen vegetarian dishes)
11am — Lunch, the same dishes as for the monks, buffet style
12pm — Cleaning of dishes and kitchen area
1pm — Afternoon meditative group session, until 3:30pm, divided into: Introductory talk from another monk for 20 minutes, walking around the garden for 50 minutes, sitting in a lotus position for 40 minutes, lying down for 20 minutes and chanting of mantras for 20 minutes
4pm — Active mediation, which meant cleaning around the Monastery for an hour, to which I devoted myself, like many others, to pick up the many leaves that fell from the trees. I was really not looking forward to this at first, though this ended up being one of my favourite meditative activities
5pm — Rest Time, when I would listen to a fantastic audiobook by Alan Watts called “Out of your Mind”, about Buddhism, meditation and the ‘self’ illusion
6pm — Evening meditative group session, until 8pm, divided into: Introduction talk from the abbot (monk leader) of 15 minutes, chanting of mantras for 45 minutes, sitting in a lotus position for 45 minutes and evening talk of 15 minutes from the abbot
8:30 am — Meditation in the Kuti, though I often used this time to continue listening to my audiobook for an hour or so
10am — Sleep time
5am (the next day)— The cycle repeats…
That was more or less what happened every day, though it was somewhat flexible and sometimes we started a bit earlier or later than usual; or if it rained, we walked inside the Monastery, which is a roofed open space, so one would not feel cloistered. The truth is that I also rarely woke up for the meditation at 5 in the morning, and often woke up after 6am.
In fact, I arrived late twice to the offering of the alms, so those days I skipped breakfast and spent nearly 24 hours in fasting, to which one actually gets used to surprisingly quickly. It was also rather fun that every time they called us to meditate they would do so with a bell, which caused the resident Akita-mix dog Pui to howl melancholically like a wolf… an always adorable event.
The silence was important, too. There was the option of having a badge which said “Silent, but Happy”, so that others would know that you were striving to be in total silence — aside from the daily chanting. Only a handful of us (out of maybe 50 people staying there) chose to do this, as it proved to be quite challenging, yet a totally worth it aspect of the experience.
All in all, it was an incredible time of personal expansion, where one truly learns to understand (if fleetingly) the universal truths of impermanence, the illusion of “I” and how the root of suffering stems from the intense desires of the ego. The place itself is also quite beautiful, filled with little animals everywhere. The surrounding mountains are evocative, and the long river going alongside the area leads to magnificent garden, with a peaceful lake.
I highly recommend this experience to anyone looking for a little peace, quiet and understanding of themselves, ‘others’ and the Universe.
For more details, you can check out their page: https://www.wattamwua.com/