What We Can Learn from This Tsunami Disaster...

Dear Readers,

I hope everybody and family is all right and not affected by the recent tsunami disaster. I don't know what you all think about this event. For me it serves as a reminder that death and disaster can happen any time to any of us.

I mean, who would think that a young man of 21 years of age born into a family with supposedly a lot of Boon (merit) will perish at such a tender age? Many of you reading this blog are in your early 20s, well, what do you think if your friend dies in the Tsunami like Khun Poom, grandson of H.M. the King. He is your age, you know!

Lord Buddha said the "Avijja" or ignorance ingrained in our mind for many lives only make us see the happiness of life. Just a few days ago my Nitade Class 21 saw the picture of the birth of Kaewjai 21's 2nd son and we congraturated her and think of it as the moment of joy and happiness and nothing else...

And now with the news of the tsunami, it'd be better if we take all the necessary precautions about our life and the lives of our loved ones, isn't it? Both in the daily life, safety-first, way, and in the mental way.

I mean, those who have children might understand it better now than the rest of us ner? Think about Princess Ubolrat, who would want to go to their own child's funeral? How tough would it be?

Are we all mentally prepared for death and other kind of big losses in our lives? My humble suggestion is not to wait until you are "older" to think about this.

Contrary to many people's thought, the average age-range of people who go to the meditation center in Chiangmai is 25-35. I have attached a sample of Jan's applicants for you to see for yourself in the link below na ja.

http://www.vipassanachiangmai.com/webboard/view.php?category=general&wb_id=317

As popular among the world now with Dalai Lama's endorsement, it is no debate anymore about the necessity in training one's mind. As Lord Buddha pointed out, it is not something you can just read about or think about and practice at home. Like sports, we need a coach that can bring out the best in us in our individual way and can answer all questions we have during practice and to steer us away from possible injuries. We all heard of stubborn people who become sort of crazy (เพี้ยน ๆ) before.

I hope you all have a chance to try going to a good mind-training school near you before it's too late na. The younger you are, the better. Remember, Lord Buddha ordained and went in search of the best mind-training technique when he was only 29 na!! He didn't wait until he's "older" to try to do it!

And it took him as many as 6 years to perfect the skills and another 49 days and nights to come up with the solid curriculum that has been withstanding the test for more than 2,547 years. You can all have a crash course within 7 days, that's the minimum you need according to Lord Buddha himself.

Now, how many thousand days have you lived now in this life? If you are 22 years old, you have lived at least 8,030 days. Considering Thai people's average life expectancy, we all have gone passed the first quarter of life already, if you think about it like an NBA game or American Football game na.

7 days out of 8,030 is almost 1/1150. You've spent your lives running, searching, waiting, trying, working so hard before. Assuming you'll live at least more than the national average to 76 yearsold, don't you think it's worth it to spare 1/4000 of your time for giving your life your best shot?

Reward yourself with the time that you would be spending totally for the benefit-only of yourself and loved ones, undisturbed. It's a worthwhile investment of your most valuable resources: time.

Have you ever been sitting around waiting? Like 10-20 min for your clients, half an hour for your friends at pubs, 1 hour in a traffic jam? That is the valuable time that you can effectively use. This mind-training will show you how to make the best out of it, and out of your daily activities like driving, walking, showering, etc. also.

It's not hypnotizing or trying to detach you away from the world na. It is NOT about closing your eyes and thinking only of one word only na.

Mindfulness Meditation (what farangs call Vipassana Meditation) lets you totally live and engage in your life, loved ones, work as always, but with an extra perspective to look at things, extra immunity against the world's problems we all have to face, extra understanding of the world around us: work, nature, people, etc. And all will come automatically to you, once you have trainined your mind how to do it.

It's like giving your life a bonus na, so to speak. It takes only 7 days to bring out the part you don't know existed in your mind to come into work. Scientists said we only use 10% of our brain. Same idea. Don't you want to try to use the other 90%? Well, if I can use another 10% I'll be so happy already!

And until we get enlightened, we won't really know actually how many more percent we can use but it will come to help you in time of disaster or serious unexpected problems na, this is all I can say now. Have you heard about people suddenly can carry heavy stuff when their house's on fire? Well, that's adrenaline to the body. But what triggers it is the mind. Your mind can do many other wonderful things and you may have known that already, right?

Well, back to the issue, Khun Poom was only 21 years old and it didn't come to his mind at all that he wouldn't live long enough to have lunch on Dec 26., let alone seeing the 2005 countdown.

How do we know we'll live long enough for lunch or dinner today? What insurance company will guarantee that you'll live to see the 2005 countdown?

We all have plans in our lives, either short-term plan like where we'll go for vacation next year or what to do to have enough money for a new car, condo, etc.

But what if we don't live long enough for next year or long enough for the new car, do we have enough foul-proof plan long into next life or life after death?

Do you notice we all don't want to talk about this? Or, even if we want to talk about it and be prepared, we don't know what to talk about?

At least prisoners with death sentence more or less know when they will have to die (some die earlier, though), but we don't have the luxury of seeing the dates of our death in advance. Or even how our death would come.

If you see the big Tsunami wave in front of your eyes about to hit you, what would your mind say to you? Are you prepared?