It’s exhausting after the continuous 5 days 4 nights village expedition, the village stay over is a test to me physically and mentally. When you’re extremely exhausted, tired or depleted, your mind becomes more sensitive and reluctant to think. Thank goodness, no major displeasure or unhappiness disrupted. I’m able to see it as impermanence. Any feelings arises never seem to last forever. I’m glad I push myself even though at times the mosquitoes and the sleep deprivation seem impossible to carry on.
I return from Poeam Muang Village, half awake to Wat Thung Si Muang. I never thought I’ll miss the temple so much. Life goes back to 6 days ago. It has been almost a week since I started this “Ahram boy” mission. So far, I’ve yet to fully comprehend what this mission is about or how I feel entirely, I guess we need to take some time to look back and digest this experience because now I’m really focusing on the present.
Immediately, after one hour of much needed nap, Khun Paul picked me up from the temple to University Rachapat. Teaching English at this moment seems like a chore but I’m sure it’s for the best. Education is important, isn’t it? They seem to have difficulty in pronouncing “Share” and “Chair”. Since this class majors in Science, Khun Paul suggests we talk about 4 noble truths in the class, pragmatically and let those uses science to counteract with Buddhism, of course, using English as the media. I started explaining about 4 noble truths, how at a different stage of life, reading it seems to have different interpretations every time. Khun Paul also introduce the Dhammapada, Saying of Lord Buddha every week, this time the quote is
“Whoever lies not goes to hell,
also whoever denies what they have done
Those two, after death, will deserves the same in the world to come.”
When Khun Paul is trying to explain the verses, most of the student told him, they are afraid of going to hell. I begin to explain Hell is a state of mind in Buddhism context. It’s not a place. Even in the world we’re living in, we’re already experience what hell is like. The mental torture arises from our desires; of not having what we want; living not as we expected to be and thinking that everything in your possession will last forever. Thus, nothing really belongs to you and nothing is permanence. Once we use wisdom to diminish this attachment, we’ll be able to see the absolute truth in all nature.
So much so for dharma, the day carries on as usual and this Ahram boy needs to go back to his sleep.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammapada
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