Monks in Thailand define mindfulness as raluk dai, or 'recollecting the mind,' and apply it in everyday monastic life. The chapter contrasts a rural wandering thudong monk at a remote monastery in Mae Jaeng with an urban monk at Wat Suan Dok in Chiang Mai to illustrate common definitions, affective uses, and meditative practices for cultivating mindfulness. It also presents well-known textual renderings of mindfulness drawn from Thai versions of Pali-language texts.
Meditative techniques in Thailand train mindfulness through bodily and mental practices. An ethnographic encounter with a man who spent a month meditating at Wat Rampoeng in Chiang Mai introduces the subject, followed by the author's personal experiences at five retreats. These include training in mindfulness of sensations and saṅkhāras at S.N. Goenka's vipassana courses in India and Phitsanulok, mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) at Buddhadhasa Bhikkhu's Wat Suan Mokkh monastery in Southern Thailand, and mindfulness of walking (yup naw phong naw) at the rural cave monastery of Wat Tham Thong near Chiang Mai. The phenomenological descriptions show how mindfulness is trained in body and mind in Thailand.