Berry's SEAJ trip Day 32: Beginning of the Meditation retreat (7/7/15)

Had a chill morning before we head out to the temple to begin the retreat. The guy who runs Non let us leave our bags in the hostel as we only needed a change of clothes for this trip. So we get to the temple and our monk leader (KK Marma) gave us an introduction into Buddhism (apparently Thai Buddhists do not believe Buddha to be a god and therefore is not considered a religion by them; which seems to be counter my understanding of Buddhists in other countries but then again I am no religious scholar.) before heading to the retreat center which is a nice little compound.

After arriving, we explore the grounds of the mediation compound. Berry likes the quiet.

The grounds were pretty with tons of space that would come in handy in the upcoming retreat.

Different Buddhas for different days of the week. 

The rest of the week  along with the big bad Buddha. Berry likes all the statues.

Berry and I have found our room for the night.

Berry and I in our mediation outfits. We are ready for a day of silence.

From the outside, I can understand how this compound could be confused for a cult; we were all wearing somewhat matching white outfits, were supposed to be in silence (we had a group of American high schoolers who not only weren't silent but not even quiet), had designated times to eat for everyone, and a gong to signal when to congregate. KK leads us for our first mediation practice that destroys my hips/knees as I am not built to sit like that for any period of time. I try to push through and I should have just wussed out from the beginning and got another pillow to ease the strain cause my legs were hurting in places I didn't know they could after trying to sit cross-legged for that long (sad I know but my flexibility is what it is). After a couple of sessions and learning some different ways to meditate, we break for dinner before more practice. KK has a great personality and a friendly guy. After some practices, we break for bed where me and my roommate take showers and get ready for bed without talking which was kinda cool to be able to communicate just with hand gestures.