Monks at the Taj

"Master" Monk from Thailand

So we were at the Taj today and some monks caught our eye for a photo opp, they soon noticed us taking a picture or two and with a big smile started to chat to us.  Thats what I love about travelling, you never know who you are going to meet from one day to the next.  It turns out that this group below were visiting from Bangkok, Thailand and this monk above is the "Master" he didnt speak english but a young girl translated for him, he wanted to know if we meditated?  we said that we did, he was happy, he said that we needed to continue and go deeper, now this was beginning to be a really interesting conversation and right in the middle of our visit to the Taj.  She went on to say that the next stage in meditation after feeling completly at peace was to image shedding your skin, then your organs and the worms eating you up and you returning to the dust on she went until you realize that you are not your skin, you are not your mind, you are so much more.  That the love you have for each other is no longer for husband and wife but pure love and compassion for another, beyond love, wow!  I had actually just read about this next stage of meditation in a Paulo Coelho book called The Pilgrimage so i understood what she was saying.

Cool, she was a lovely girl and he smiled all the time at us too, she said that they were from Thailand and so we exchanged emails and I have no doubt that we will see them again when we are there in a couple more weeks.  Once again what an interesting journey this is turning out to be.

One thing we both noticed right away was that when they all wanted to be in the picture, it was like having our families around us, they all felt so comfortable and warm, we are excited for Thailand.