Suffering Without A Camera Battery

There are times when you leave the mind and body connection and today was just one of those days. After taking the boat to the pier close to some temples I wanted to visit, I walked in the hot sun with the brain still ticking, constantly asking ….how will my stay at a temple change me?

I have already met and talked to a couple of people. Yesterday, while waiting to have my hair cut a monk walked in. He was tired from a bus ride back to Bangkok from Chiang Rai. We talked until it was my time for the chair came up and I offered to him. He said, “You go ahead.” A quick buzz later, and before biding good-bye offered to get him something cool, and again he said, “ No, thank you.” This short encounter showed me some of his wisdom and pure heart. He was friendly and interested in me as an equal …albeit suffering person.

Back to today, I walked to Wat Ratchapradit, just in time to sit and watch and pray with the Monks. They do it all in Pali, but the first prayer of refuge is to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha(Buddham saranam gacchami). That I can join in, knowing it in English, but thinking about next month I’m curious how much Pali I will have to learn. It was just me and older folks in a beautiful painted temple. Oh, wait I am old, I'm one of those, sorry I forgot. I watched the monks when they entered and during the prayers, holding hands in prayer for an hour(difficulty), and few times they would glance at the asperas painted on the wall above. It was hot, even with the fans in the temple, and I saw a couple of older people fight sleeping. But extreme peace came over me and made me separate mind and body. I moved with purpose with this calm.


I did not take photos after my battery needing charging from earlier. It was just as well. I think it would have been rude. Just outside I had a talk with a sangha member, who was in a chair because it hurts too much to sit. I sat down and talked to him, peaceful and attentive to his questions. The number one question I get is, You are not Christian???? Once I get past this, it seems to open a door with everyone including my cab driver later. I am a farang in looks only, but we all bleed the same!

Patience in Hong Kong

I went to Hong Kong with my partner as a gift for him working too hard at his job while completing college. He recently got a new Sony camera, so he was determined to figure it out by shooting himself everywhere there. For me it was bit too much, but with my Buddhist teachings if it makes him happy then I kept my mouth shut. I found hard with my own ego wanting to do other things at the same time, but once I let go of what I wanted it became much easier. Plus in the middle of the trip my camera fell off a hook in a bag, and crashed to the ground. The shutter stopped working, and so I shelved my ideas of photographing here after the first 24 hours.. I did not want to rush out a buy a new camera in a rush, plus I could use my partner’s in between. I am trying to get in fixed by tech wiz kids in Bangkok, because it is now an old model so if they wreck it, so who cares. New cameras like computers are outdated as soon as they come out. I did enjoy HK again as it our second time and even with rain that made shooting difficult. At least was cool. I worked on being cool headed at the same time, so like anything it was a work in progress. I just kept imagining the fact that if I let anything bother me I could easily make the trip miserable. So we kept rushing around at a non-stop pace for 4 days, even in the rain. We found a cheap guesthouse frequented by Africans who buy clothes to sell back home that was central, Ate lots of reasonably priced noodles with duck, because we can eat almost anywhere. We managed a ferry to Macau on the only hot day, so it was like dusty Portugal with some Chinese spice. That day I told my partner just imagine you are in Portugal, because for now that is the closest you have come.

On the way back I helped an African load huge clothes bags on the airport bus, and it turned out he was on the same flight we were on. We talked while waiting in check-in line. He asked to use our baggage allowance for his bags, but I said we had one bag each ourselves and it said on the monitor…ONE BAG PER PERSON. I did not want this trip to land us in Thai jail! So, on the plane back, we agreed this trip went too fast, and where is our next one? We got a handful of great night shots, and I helped my partner to learn his camera more. These shots are from my old camera now out for repair.