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Meditation
According to a Chinese proverb, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. There are many journeys that we take and there is one that combines and surpasses them all. Our own unique journey begins before we're ready to take our first physical step and develops as does our awareness of the world around us and awareness of our selves.
Meditation is the conscious development of a mindful awareness, enabling a sense of calm clarity and insightful understanding into our lives. It allows us to quiet our minds, watch our breath and be more peaceful within ourselves. Our Meditation Retreats provide Buddhist perspective and meditation practice to help us reach our potential for fulfilment and quality of life.
Ajahn Chah is perhaps a similar figure in Theravadan Buddhism as the Dalai Lama is in Tibetan Buddhism. His teaching is simple: train the mind for happiness. Why repeat behaviour that causes suffering? Meditation can help us on our journey, teaching us to be more mindful and helping us to reach a calmer way of being, through patience and discipline. It can develop a sense of inner peace and compassion, fundamental to happiness. Theravada Buddhists today number over 100 million worldwide and it is gaining increasing popularity in the West.
According to Buddhism, everything is impermanent and through meditation we can maintain a sense of balance in an ever changing world, moving with the ebb and flow of life. Moods change and we are affected by different things around us. Rudyard Kipling famously wrote "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same...yours is the earth and everything that's in it." We cannot always change the world around us, but we can change our own inner lives. And perhaps that is the most fascinating journey and the one over which we have the greatest influence.
It is not essential to live a monastic life to deal with the pressures of life. We can incorporate a daily meditation practice into our regular lives. The Byron Bay retreat is held in a peaceful forest location, with panoramic views of the ocean. By staying in one place for seven days, we are encouraged to be quiet and relaxed, supported by the seclusion of the location. This journey is a unique blend between the meditative retreat of a forest monastery and the activities of a relaxing vacation. There is the option to remain quietly at the venue or explore both the coast and the hinterland, with Byron Bay nearby.
A meditation teacher can provide encouragement and guidance and is someone from whom we can learn, who is willing and keen to share their wisdom as it has been passed onto them, from generation to generation right back to the teachings of the Buddha himself 2,500 years ago.
Ajahn Chah
Ajahn Chah was born in a rural village in Northeast Thailand and at the age of twenty took higher ordination as a monk. Later he practiced meditation under the guidance of several of the local Meditation Masters in the Ascetic Forest Tradition. After many years of travel and practice, he was invited to settle in a thick forest grove near the village of his birth. Around him a large monastery formed as more people came to hear his teachings and stay on to practice with him.
On entering Wat Pah Pong there is a sign on the path that says: "You there, be quiet! We're trying to meditate." The heart of the meditation is the way of life. Monks do manual work and live simply following the ascetic precepts of eating once a day from the alms bowl and limiting their possessions. Scattered throughout the forest are individual huts where monks live and meditate in solitude, and where they practice walking meditation on cleared paths under the trees. It is here that four nights of the Meditation Tour are spent and the visit coincides with the annual tribute to Ajahn Chah in January, to mark his passing, when thousands of visitors both lay people and monastics come and pay their respects.
Ajahn Chah's simple yet profound style of teaching had a special appeal to Westerners, and many came to study and practice with him. In 1975 Wat Pa Nanachat was established near Wat Pah Pong as a special training monastery for the growing numbers of Westerners interested in undertaking monastic training. Now there are disciples teaching more than forty mountain and forest branch temples throughout Thailand and in England. His followers have begun the work of spreading the Dhamma to the West and Ajahn Chah himself travelled twice to Europe and North America, and established a thriving branch monastery in Sussex, England.
John Barter
John Barter has been intimately connected to Buddhism and Thai culture for over 25 years, growing up with parents who regularly attended a Thai Buddhist Temple in Sydney. John spent 11 years as a Buddhist monk of the Theravada Forest Tradition, living and practising in forest monasteries in Australia, Thailand, Britain and Switzerland. Six of those years were spent at Wat Pah Nanachat, the international forest monastery established by Ajahn Chah and John was inspired by his presence and teachings.
Now a Psychologist and Meditation Teacher, John holds weekly meditation groups on Monday mornings from 10:00 - 11:30am and Thursday evenings from 7:30 - 9:00pm at Well-Aware-Ness Living and Health, in Darling Point and Crows Nest, NSW. Please phone John on (02) 9328 1973 if you wish to attend a class of either an ongoing group, or see him for individual meditation training. John is the spiritual tour leader for our meditation retreats, which offer daily reflections, discussions and meditation under his guidance.
Recommended Reading List
Being Dhamma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings by Venerable Ajahn Chah
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by The Dalai Lama
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Mindfulness in Plain English by Venerable Henepola Gunaratana
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