Wat-Pae Pae

There was recently some talk on places to ordain so just want to write a bit as I recently ordained in Pae Pae at iMonastery in July...It's really easy to ordain here, and they have really a really well structured training program to get one up to speed on how to live as a monk, in terms of etiquette, vinaya, how to dress properly in various styles, etc.It's really comfortable living here. There is a big emphasis on being "sabai". The accomodation is up to western standards. The new monks here all live in their own tent underneath individual salas. We have a nicely staffed kitchen that cooks an assortment of food everyday. We go to the local villages for bindapat every weekend, but the food we recieve sort of gets put to the side and given to the workers and other people.We have work out equipment, heated shower, heating pad for mattress. If you need anything that's allowable, they do not hold back to get it for you. Someone wanted an mp3 player for chanting practise or Kindle for dhamma books and they got it pretty quickly.I plan to stay here at least until the end of the rain's retreat. I think I would like to stay a monk, but try moving around to a different wat.I should say I am personally not the biggest fan of the Dhammakaya tradition— I like their technique of practice, though the talk of rebirth and cosmology is abound, and I think the tradition may even doubt scientific evolutionary theory as some of the books I found here point to that.Entrance into buddhist monasticism was also the window for me to fully experience the "merit business" happening here in Thailand. It's something you don't hear much of in western Buddhism.

whether it is on a bridge over a river, a swing hanging from a tree, inside of a wooden building with panoramic glass windows, or around a bonfire under a night sky littered with twinkling stars, the countless meditation spots that span across the retreat's broad property provide meditators with a "spiritual playground" of sorts to explore and reconnect with nature and themselves