January 21, 2016

Today is Thursday, and my last Thursday in Chiang Mai this winter. After a fun day of shopping with Jo yesterday, I went back to my familiar routine today: early morning meditation at Wat Chedi Luang, breakfast at 3-Sis, 10 AM yoga at Wild Rose Yoga. Then I spent a few hours managing a problem with the backups on the computer systems I manage in Southern California. Managing in this case translates to determining what occurred that led to a partial backup failure, then constructing a means to prevent the problem from reoccurring, and finally implementing and testing the solution (code improvement). Backups are one of the most important parts of my job, to reduce risk to the company, part of which is ensuring that we have good and reliable system backups. While this took me away from doing things in Chiang Mai, it felt good to have solved a problem and made systems backups more reliable.

Wat Pan Tao

Right next to Wat Chedi Luang, and almost across the street from 3-Sis is Wat Pan Tao. Wat Pan Tao was built about the same time as Wat Chedi Luang, in the late fourteenth century. It was one of four monastic temples service the royal temple next door. The most interesting and obvious feature is the large teak viharn (worship hall). While not the original, this structure was formerly a royal residence, and became unused after the next king built his own new palace. The old palace buildings were often recycled into other uses, as was this – it was dismantled, moved, and reassembled as a new viharn at Wat Pan Tao in 1875.

A side view, giving an idea of the rich teak structure.

Inside the viharn, the rich teak continues; it is dark, rich, and beautiful.

This is the largest chedi at the back of the teak viharn. A year ago it was covered in scaffolding and construction netting, and was apparently undergoing a restoration. The scaffolding is gone now, and this unusual pewter-colored chedi with a red top is the result. different and interesting.

Being right next door, I walked over to Wat Chedi Luang. This is a view of the inside of the large viharn. It is a very large viharn (although not as large as that at Wat Suan Dok).

This is a very gold interior. And being an important temple, it is always busy, not crowded, but there are always many people.

Green Papaya Sangha

This was also my last Thursday attending the Green Papaya Sangha meditation group. Tonight is the first of three consecutive nights with a guest, the venerable Tenzin Namjong, presenting a practicle guide of various tools, techniques and methods to overcome anger and hatred. The workshop will be based on the “Patience Chapter” of great classic Indian text Bodhisattvacharyavatara by Shantideva.  It will include several meditations so that participants may learn how to integrate these teachings within their minds and hearts, leading to real transformation and healing.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Venerable Tenzin Namjong, is now in his tenth year of the Geshe (Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy, an 18-year program) at Sera Je Monastery in Bylakuppe, India. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Princeton University and is a registered teacher within the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and teaches regularly in Bangalore, India. He has studied and trained in Zen and Theravada traditions.

At a typical meeting of the Green Papaya Sangha there are about 30-40 people. Tonight, there were over 150, including a number of monks from local temples. It was a long evening, but very, very  interesting.

Next: Yoga Inversion Workshop