My schedule

This is to update my schedule.
I will be very busy in the next few weeks - til 20th April (I think). It seems I dont have much time to write the blog quite often. There is always stg I think about or stg interesting about mindfulness - but no time to write. Sorry about this.

I will have the IELTS test for my Ph.D.application on 5th April. It's terrible that I dont have much time to do my study - I was sick for 2-3 days and I also have stg to do all the time. The test will depend mostly on my current English skills and the tests I am now practicing. OH! Thanks a lot for Barrie Brown, my Australian teacher who taught me English 6 years ago. He has lent me the IELTS stuffs. This saves me a lot of money. I really appreciates his help. I intend to pay him a dinner after I know the result - no matter what I get.

I will have a meditation retreat on 11-19 April at Petchaboon. It's a part of my Buddhist studies at MCU (www.mcu.ac.th). I have to have 30 days retreat. but I cant do it in one year. So I have divided it into 3 years (10 days per year). And this is the last 10 days I have to have. However, this year I can go for only 9 days as I have a lot of work to finish at my office. i hope that this retreat would be good as (I think) I understand what/how should I do to develop my mindfulness. Hope it's the right understanding.

After the retreat, I intend to start my thesis for MCU and translate another Buddhist book for Ven.Anan Akinjano. I hope i can finish both works soon. In addition, I might go to visit Ven.Noah at his new meditation center, Chiangmai on May. (Hope he allows me to stay there as i will be there only a few days).

Anyway, this is just a rough plan. I can follow this if I pass the IELTS test - my first priority now.

Hope you have a peaceful mind for most of the time

Trang

On 13-16March 2007, I went to Trang with 200 colleagues. It was a hard trip (in my opinion) as I had to travel back and forth overnight for 10 hours. It was a great chance to consider physical and mental suffering arising during the travelling time.

On 14th Mar, I went to the sea of Trang - I went to 4 islands and did snokling diving. I was a bit disappointed as undersea worldsare not beautiful as the last 9 years. But the view of the sea is still worth seeing- blue sky, green sea and beautiful fish.

On 15th Mar, I didnt go out with other people as I had to catch a bus back to Bangkok at 5.30 pm. So i hired a motorcycle taxi (with a driver) to drive around Trang city. It took 4 hours to go to 4-5 temples, 2 parks, 1 house (of the former P.M. - it's just a house actually!) and 2 Chinese temples. I like this city tour a lot as I got a chance to see this small city, though i was sunburned and tired.

There was not much mindfulness during this time. I still need to improve myself a lot.

My trip

I haven't written a blog for a while as I went to Vietnam on 26 Feb - 2 Mar. I went to Hoion, Danang, Hue and Hanoi. I intend to write about my lost mindfulness. But I am too busy to do so. briefly, Vietnam was good, though not very impressive at some stage. I have found that I did not have mindfulness most of the time due to my exciting, tired and sick feeling. I dont blame anything apart from myself that my mindfulness is not strong enough. It indicates that I should meditate more. When i came back home, I have meditated more and it's a bit better (in my opinion). Anyway, I still need to do a lot of work for this.

Another good news is i have finished my translating work. It's a book about mindfulness and meditation practice. I have spent 3-4 months on this work as I am busy and lazy sometime. I really feel good about this cos it will be useful for foreigner who is interested in Buddhism. I told my sister and my friends that i dont have much money to offer to Buddhism, just time and energy. And I can do it.....ANumodana with me ka.

I will go to Trang (located in the south of Thailand) this evening and come back on Sunday morning. i dont think I can maintain my mindfulness there. But i plan to meditate when my roomate is sleeping. I will listen to the Dhamma talk on my MP3 player when I am on the way to the place. It takes several hours to be there. I think I will get something from the talk during the trip.

Hope everyone is good.