Southeast Asia adventure: Meditation at a Temple

Hoa, Madamae Xuyen and I went to meditate at a temple. I had little knowledge of what Buddhist meditation was going to be, I figured we would go, kneel in front of a Buddha for a couple of minutes and then be done. So, here is how meditation works at a Buddhist temple. You go, you spend 20 minutes with your eyes closed, sitting still in the temple, silently meditating. Then you walk for 20 minutes slowly and silently, concentrating on placing your feet down onto the path, after you walk you then spend another 20 minutes silently meditating, before you bow down to the Buddha sitting at the front of the temple. It was an interesting hour, and the temple Madame Xuyen took us too actually had many foreigners and the monk leading meditation spoke English!

Afterwards Madame Xuyen showed us a nun's house. It was neat, tidy with a beautiful garden. She also showed us the sauna and massage that is next to the temple. While we did not use the sauna or massage, it was interesting to see how a tradition Lao herbal sauna works! The Lao build a fire in a metal container that is underneath the house, burning herbs; the smoke and heat rises into vents in the floor of the building heating one small room that is so filled with steam that you can hardly see the person in front of you!