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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 25

So I entered Buddhist practice, in this lifetime, by
doing a ten-day meditation retreat with twelve hours
of formal sitting meditation per day. It was the most
excruciatingly painful thing I had ever done! I was also
completely unaccustomed to sitting on the floor. But on
the eighth day I experienced a few moments of profound
peacefulness, and there was a sense of deep recognition,
that this inner calm and fullness was something that I
had been searching for a long time. The Dhamma talks in
the evenings were very informative, and I was relieved
Main statue, Anandagiri Monastery With Tan Ajahn Anan upon hearing the teachings on the Four Noble Truths.
That conditioned reality is unsatisfactory, the First Noble
Truth, was something I had definitely been noticing. And
I was relieved to learn that there was a path and practices
that could lead to something more dependable.

The Teacher, SN Goenka had stressed that daily
meditation was essential if one wished to progress, and
being deeply moved by my experiences on the retreat I
did commit to daily sitting.

Bodhgaya-Ananda Chedi at Anandagiri Forest Monastery A year or so after the retreat I decided to travel to
Thailand and explore Buddhism more in depth. One
day, a lady walked into the restaurant where I was
working, looking for a job. I found out that she had just
come from Thailand— where I was planning on going.
She then told me about a meditation centre on Koh Pha
Ngan island in the Gulf of Thailand, where Western
teachers were teaching ten-day retreats to foreigners. I
asked her to write the name of the centre for me.

At the meditation center there, Steve and Rosemary
Anandagiri during rainy season Weissman taught several methods of Buddhist practice.
I stayed at the center for about five months, alternating
It wasn’t until I was living and working in Sydney as a between sitting the retreats and serving. It was at this
young adult that I learned some Buddhist meditation center that I met a German man who told me about
methods. I was working in both a coffee shop and a Wat Pah Nanachat, the International Forest Monastery
vegan restaurant, and doing informal acting classes in in Northeast Thailand. When I went there Tahn Ajahn
my spare time. One of my acting teachers also utilized Jayasaro was the teacher and abbot.
visualization and white light in the method of acting
that she taught. Some of my work mates had done So you can see that my entrance to Buddhist practice
a ten-day retreat at a meditation centre in the Blue was quite intuitive and organic. Not a very heady,
Mountains, and having heard about my visualization academic or intellectual approach. Just a sincere interest
and white light meditations they recommended that in and appreciation of inner peace, a love of truth, and a
I try the ten day Vipassanā retreat. Being interested, I commitment to doing practices that supported realizing
committed to doing so. this. Personally, I believe that the merit of committing