Monday, June 22, 2009

My meditation retreat at Hua Hin with Ajahn Brahm




Wednesday 17 June 2009 I travelled to Hua Hin, Thailand to attend a 5 day executive meditation retreat with Ajahn Brahm organised by Buddhist Fellowship and stayed at the Sheraton Resorts. I just knew that I had to be there to learn more so that I can be a better meditator as I have been meditating since 1994 and not getting anywhere. This retreat with 8 precepts would be able to help me get deeper into my meditation. The keyword here is "deeper" and also to allow me to give better predictions for 2010 (that was my hidden agenda).

Our Meditation Schedule went like this : (Bangkok time)
6am - meditation at the lawn (I was always the first one on the lawn at 5am)
8.30am - Dharma Talk and meditation
3pm - Question and Answer session on our meditation
8.00pm - Dharma talk and meditation
10pm - Good nite

FSQ NOTE: I can tell you that this is worse than working ! you can expect me to WANT to go home on the 3rd day of my retreat ! But an amazing thing happened. On the first day at the lawn, 6am meditation, I obtained a "jhana" which means that I saw the "bright light" and continued to "still" the mind till the breath disappears as I speak on this topic, it all comes from my personal experiences. Let me show you what "enlightenment" means.
During one of the 3 Question and Answer sessions, I asked a question on the orange pencil as Ajahn Brahm took out a pencil and asked us what do we see ? He was giving a talk on "insights" on friday, 19 June 2009, one of my all time favourite topic and the best talk that I have heard so far.
A few people gave their replies : some said they saw that it is a pencil and some said they saw the orange colour and I said that I saw the production workers working hard to produce this pencil. I thought that I was already very enlightened on this one but Ajahn Brahm replied that it is more than that and that, it is endless. wow !
I wanted to understand this MORE and so when I reached home, I meditated on this again. Finally, it "came" to me that : there is no more pencil as you tend to look deeper and deeper and then, there is "nothing" !!!
This was my own final answer as I came to realised that. Realisation has to come from within and not hear say or read. Then you can always be wise all the time.
It is like other questions that he asked : what is "peace of mind" ? you want to have "peace of mind" and yet you never really know what you are LOOKING FOR ? He also asked, do you know "love", what is the meaning of "love" and do you know what you are looking for ? Go deeper into this yourself and see if you can find any "deeper" meaning into : what is love ?
It is like my fengshui question to all those non believers : You don't believe in fengshui and is because you never really know what it is ! then how can you say you don't believe when you don't even know what you are looking for !
I also meditated further on "feng shui" and felt that "wind" and "water" are inseparable in obtaining the results and why they work for all of us. They both have to work "hand in hand" together like "wisdom" and "compassion".
FSQ NOTE: This means that the wise one or someone who is able to see anything DEEPER will be the wise one and the one most respected. When one is wise, people will naturally give you the most "respect" and "honour".
Finally, this morning when I woke up and meditated before going out for work at 12 noon to check a condo and as I turned to one side of the bed, I saw "stillness" and a clear vision and finally I saw "nothing" it is not there anymore, it is "empty". hei ! I was so happy that I am finally more enlightened !!!
FSQ NOTE: Ajahn Chah has one great, famous student, Ajahn Brahm and someday, somewhere, someone is going to be a great, famous student of Ajahn Brahm.

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