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Monday Night Meditation with the Little Bangkok Sangha in Asok
freestyle meditation every week
Suk 23 (Asoke), 6:30 – 8:00 pm
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Overview:
This month we are delighted to announce that in addition to our regular teachers, we are able to offer two longer Monday evening teachings from senior monastics in the Thai Forest tradition.
On December 9th Ajahn Jayanto, the abbot of Temple Forest Monastery in New Hampshire, USA, will be leading us, and on December 16th we are happy to welcome back Ajahn Cattamalo, the senior monk at Muttodaya Monastery in Stammbach Germany.
We are a friendly group who meet to mediate every Monday night from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm in Asok. Everyone is welcome, from beginners to experienced meditators. We meet to support and encourage each other in our practice. If you are a beginner, some instructions will be given; experienced meditators can develop their own practice.
You are welcome to arrive from 6pm so you can get to meet new people, have a cup of tea or coffee, and start to let the tensions of the day slip away before you sit.
As the Rojana Centre is a Thai Buddhist Centre, please wear something that is comfortable to sit in, and avoid tight-fitting clothes, shorts, sleeveless tops, and short skirts.
Donations:
As is usual with Buddhist teachings, there is no charge for this event. When the evening is led by a monastic or invited lay teacher, however, the Little Bangkok Sangha follows the Buddhist custom of Dana. Dana is a Pali word which translates as generosity. The teachings are offered as an act of generosity, and those receiving them can, if they wish, reciprocate by making donations. These go towards the teacher’s costs, which include food, travel, and medical expenses. A box for Dana will be provided.
Details:
Every Monday
• 6.00 pm the Rojana Center opens (see map below)
• 6:45 pm Basic meditation instruction followed by group meditation
• 7:50 pm Meditation ends
• 8:00 pm Rojana Centre closes
Schedule:
- Monday 2nd December: Michele Topel
- Monday 9th December: Ajahn Jayanto SPECIAL EVENT (NB: see separate announcement. Meditation starts @ 6.30pm sharp)
- Monday 16th December: Ajahn Cattamalo SPECIAL EVENT (NB: see separate announcement. Meditation starts @ 6.30pm sharp)
- Monday 23rd December: Robin Moore
- Monday 30th December: NO MEDITATION. Rojana Centre closed for the holidays.
Our teachers:
 Michele Topel is the co-founder of Mindful Life in Washington, DC which offers meditation classes, retreats and workshops to a diverse and underserved community in the urban area. She has been practicing insight meditation since 2011, and her teachers have included monastics from the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah as well as Sharon Salzburg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach and Joseph Goldstein. She recently completed a two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification offered by The Greater Good Science Center at The University of California at Berkeley. She currently divides her time between Washington, DC and Bangkok, Thailand. |
 Ajahn Jayanto was born in Boston in 1967. He grew up in Newton and attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison. After living at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, he joined the monastic community of Ajahn Sumedho in England, as a postulant at Amaravati Monastery. In 1991 he was ordained at Cittaviveka Monastery and continued his training there and at Aruna Ratanagiri Monastery. In 1997, he embarked on a period of practice in Thailand and other Asian Buddhist countries. He returned to the UK in 2006, where he lived at Amaravati until moving to Temple in 2014. He now serves as abbot of Temple Forest Monastery in the US. |
 Ajahn Cattamalo was born in Germany and ordained in the Wat Nong Pa Pong tradition of the Venerable Ajahn Chah, in N.E. Thailand in 1988. He spent seven years in various monasteries throughout Thailand, practising and studying with different meditation teachers within the Thai forest tradition. He lived at Bodhinyana Monastery in Perth, Australia for 13 years and for the last five years he was the vice-abbot of the monastery, helping Ajahn Brahmavamso. He is the senior monk at Muttodaya Monastery in Stammbach Germany. |
 Robin Moore was a monk in the Thai Forest tradition of Luang Por Chah for 18 years, living in both Thailand and the UK. The latter included four years (2003 to 2007) as abbot of Hartridge Monastery in Devon, UK. He is a translator from Thai into English, and his work includes Bhikkhu Payutto’s Buddhadhamma. He lives in Bangkok. |
Getting there:
Please follow the map. It is VERY precise. It is easy to find: there are only one or two turns depending on which direction you are coming from. It is an 11 minute walk from Asoke BTS and even closer to Sukhumvit MRT
Go down Sukhumvit 23 to the first four way intersection. Turn right, and then turn right again at the end of the road.
Or just ask the motorcycles inside Sukhumvit 23 – they know the way. Tell them ‘Rojana’
Or if you need more definite pointers:
A few tips:
- Don’t ask locals or taxi drivers the way – they will not know the Rojana Centre, and will send you somewhere else instead. They will all know Sukhumvit 23, so go there and find your own way.
- Follow the map – plenty of landmarks are shown and it it extremely precise!
- In Thai the centre is known as Rojanatam
- Quite a few other foreigners will be heading there at the same time.
Here is the Google Map link, if you prefer this method
Here are the GPS coordinates if you prefer : 13.739356, 100.564748
The little Bangkok Sangha: