I Just Had a Life Changing Chat With a Buddhist Monk
If you have been following my writing for a while you will know that I am a spiritual person, but I do not believe in God, at least not in the “old man behind the clouds judging everything I do” kind of God.
I believe that we are God. Yes, I mean: you, me, the clouds, your cat and even the air that we are breathing. That is what God is for me: everything. Which I could say in a simpler way as: the universe.
Today I had a quite incredible experience with a buddhist monk. I am in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand that is full of temples. In some of these temples you can find novices and monks sat in the gardens waiting for you to come by and chat with them.
I couldn’t resist, I knew that I would enjoy the conversation but it was so more incredible than what I was expecting. We started talking about where I was from, what was I doing in Thailand and then I answered a couple of rehearsed questions by this young monk in his not so broken English.
After this initial “get confortable” conversations, so similar to the first few minutes of a date with a girl that you don’t know that well, I launched a couple of big questions that I really wanted to know his answer. Not because his answer would be THE answer, but I was deeply curious about the way he thought about some spiritual stuff that I am very interested about.
We talked about karma to which he said that karma is not the usual definition that we give to it: karma is simply your doing. From there we dived deep in the different schools of buddhism and about Gautama and many more stuff that is really fascinating for me but that you’re not that interested into.
But then I had to ask him the BIG question:
“What is God?” — I asked him slightly amused, smiling in challenge and joy.
He remained calm and serene. He simply said with the most natural voice that a human being can have:
“I know no God, I only know Dharma (Life).”
Boom! There, so simple, so easy and so clear.
The answer to every single question that a human being can ask another. I only know life, I am only interested in doing good, I only care about kindness.
This was already worth every single mile that I’d done to reach that temple. It was not really a surprise or that I’d heard something that I didn’t know already. But when you hear a truth as old asthe world and perhaps two seconds older than existence itself you can’t help but to feel in awe, shocked, electrified. You feel alive.
From there the conversation followed a more two humans talking about mundane stuff path. He liked Liverpool but he couldn’t play, — it is against his vows. He had a smartphone. He wanted to know more about my tattoo and I struggled for the first time in my life to come up with a good enough definition for “adventure”.
It was a really pleasant experience.
I have to say that the only thing I didn’t fully agree with him was about desire. To him to desire is a bad thing because you get attached to stuff, people and life and since we are all going to do die some day… to be attached is a source of pain. I do get it, I seriously do and I believe that if most people were less attached to stuff, people and life itself we all would live in a better world. But…
Isn’t to not desire… to desire (not to desire)? Isn’t to be totally unattached a way of being attached to your own condition? Doesn’t it all go together like their own wheel of Dharma with no beginning and no end?
A certain dose of attachment is needed, after all is what makes us humans and not golden buddha statues. Isn’t to be human a natural thing: to love, to desire, to remember and to feel slightly in pain because not so good things happen to us and to the people around us?
I think it is. But again I am not attempting to be saved or to reach a state of jivanmukhta. I am just a guy, like everybody else.
I believe that we are God. Yes, I mean: you, me, the clouds, your cat and even the air that we are breathing. That is what God is for me: everything. Which I could say in a simpler way as: the universe.
Today I had a quite incredible experience with a buddhist monk. I am in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand that is full of temples. In some of these temples you can find novices and monks sat in the gardens waiting for you to come by and chat with them.
I couldn’t resist, I knew that I would enjoy the conversation but it was so more incredible than what I was expecting. We started talking about where I was from, what was I doing in Thailand and then I answered a couple of rehearsed questions by this young monk in his not so broken English.
After this initial “get confortable” conversations, so similar to the first few minutes of a date with a girl that you don’t know that well, I launched a couple of big questions that I really wanted to know his answer. Not because his answer would be THE answer, but I was deeply curious about the way he thought about some spiritual stuff that I am very interested about.
We talked about karma to which he said that karma is not the usual definition that we give to it: karma is simply your doing. From there we dived deep in the different schools of buddhism and about Gautama and many more stuff that is really fascinating for me but that you’re not that interested into.
But then I had to ask him the BIG question:
“What is God?” — I asked him slightly amused, smiling in challenge and joy.
He remained calm and serene. He simply said with the most natural voice that a human being can have:
“I know no God, I only know Dharma (Life).”
Boom! There, so simple, so easy and so clear.
The answer to every single question that a human being can ask another. I only know life, I am only interested in doing good, I only care about kindness.
This was already worth every single mile that I’d done to reach that temple. It was not really a surprise or that I’d heard something that I didn’t know already. But when you hear a truth as old asthe world and perhaps two seconds older than existence itself you can’t help but to feel in awe, shocked, electrified. You feel alive.
From there the conversation followed a more two humans talking about mundane stuff path. He liked Liverpool but he couldn’t play, — it is against his vows. He had a smartphone. He wanted to know more about my tattoo and I struggled for the first time in my life to come up with a good enough definition for “adventure”.
It was a really pleasant experience.
I have to say that the only thing I didn’t fully agree with him was about desire. To him to desire is a bad thing because you get attached to stuff, people and life and since we are all going to do die some day… to be attached is a source of pain. I do get it, I seriously do and I believe that if most people were less attached to stuff, people and life itself we all would live in a better world. But…
Isn’t to not desire… to desire (not to desire)? Isn’t to be totally unattached a way of being attached to your own condition? Doesn’t it all go together like their own wheel of Dharma with no beginning and no end?
A certain dose of attachment is needed, after all is what makes us humans and not golden buddha statues. Isn’t to be human a natural thing: to love, to desire, to remember and to feel slightly in pain because not so good things happen to us and to the people around us?
I think it is. But again I am not attempting to be saved or to reach a state of jivanmukhta. I am just a guy, like everybody else.
No comments have been added yet.
