The Feeling of Mindfulness in Meditation

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter investigates some of the main meditative techniques practiced in Thailand, as well as what it feels like to practice them and improve over time. It begins with an ethnographic encounter with a man who has just spent a month in meditation at Wat Rampoeng in Chiang Mai, and then follows the author’s personal experience at five different meditation retreats to learn about mindfulness in meditation. These meditative retreats include the training in mindfulness of sensations and saṅkhāras at S.N. Goenka’s vipassana-based courses in India and Phitsanulok, the mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) at Buddhadhasa Bhikkhu’s monastery of Wat Suan Mokkh in Southern Thailand, and the mindfulness of walking (yup naw phong naw) at the rural cave monastery of Wat Tham Thong near Chiang Mai. Together these close descriptive examples of the phenomenological experience of meditation show how mindfulness is trained in the body and mind in Thailand.