Role Models in Meditation: A Retreat at Panawat : หน้า 96/164

Meeting #17 18 March 2010 – Panawat Approximately two hundred teachers have gathered at Panawat from around Thailand, for several days of talks with Luang Por about being role models for their students. Panawat is a beautiful retreat center that holds up to 500 people, some in dormitory style buildings, and some in spacious executive suites. There is an amazingly beautiful garden that has been built by the gardening staff there and these people who have traveled around the world to collect species of plants and fish for the site. It is a meditation space that is impeccably cared for by many people. We meet for breakfast each morning around 7AM and always have a beautiful buffet set in a spacious, and incredibly clean, dining hall. Lots of rice, lots of vegetables, and lots of coffee. The following is the first in a series of talks. They begin at 9AM: Luang Por walks briskly into the large meditation/seminar room. He bows to the Bud- dha, then to the photo of Luang Pu, and then, turning, faces the crowd with a smile. We all then bow to him, paying respects to him as our teacher. "How is your meditation?" he asks the crowd, and looks around to see if there is anyone who is going to be brave enough to respond. Most of the time, he starts off the sessions like this because meditation is about the only thing that the Abbot and the Vice-Abbot are interested in talking about! He then begins by describing various types of meditation – full moon, stars, crystal spheres – and he is using humor to get the teachers to lighten up and eliminate the tension that all people feel when they are around people of super-significant importance. Many of these teachers have been with Luang Por their whole lives, and treat him as though he is a national treasure, which, for these Thai people, he is. He describes his own journey with meditation and how important it is to always keep our mind at ease and with no tension: "Don’t put too much effort into it. Relax. Sabai. Easy. That is the secret to good meditation!" He also talks about the bio-chemical reaction of meditation and the chart that he uses to describe exactly what happens to our body when we meditate.