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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:
Join a friendly group for meditation every Monday night from 6.30 pm to 8.00 pm in Asok. Instruction will be given by either Phra Pandit, the British monk who created the Little Bangkok Sangha, a former monastic or by experienced lay teachers.
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 early 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.
Details:
Every Monday
· 6.30 pm Meet at the Rojana Center (see map below)
· 7:00 pm Basic meditation instructions
· 7:20 pm Group meditation
· 8:00 pm Finish
Schedule:
Monday 1st July: Phra Pandit Bhikkhu
Monday 8th July: Andy Lowe
Monday 15th July: Mary Pipes
Monday 22nd July: Phra Pandit Bhikkhu
Monday 29th July: NO MEDITATION – CLOSED FOR THAI HOLIDAY
Meditation is not so easy – there are always countless distractions to waylay you. And even if you do sit, there are countless thoughts and worries that will claim your attention. Take the long view – like anything good, it takes lots of practice and patience. If it is new to you, the only way to go is to jump in and try it! Coming out once a week to sit with others is a really strong tool for strengthening resolve and making a statement to yourself that this monkey mind is something that can be refined. |
Phra Pandit Bhikkhu is a British Buddhist monk who has been living in Thailand for 22 years. He chose Thailand as his place of ordination in 1996 after studying Buddhism and non-dual spirituality in various parts of the world for a number of years. He is the founder and principal teacher of the Little Bangkok Sangha which, for a long time, was the only sangha offering Dhamma in English in Bangkok. He is also a psychologist and University lecturer. Phra Pandit Bhikkhu has a reputation for being a very engaging speaker who effortlessly makes links between the Buddha’s wisdom teachings and contemporary understandings of consciousness. | |
Marisa Cranfil is our regular Qi Gong instructor as well as a Vipassana teacher and yoga instructor. She is an experienced Qi Gong teacher who has studied Qi Gong for seventeen years with Masters in China and around the world, from whom she has received direct transmissions. She is the founder of YOQI (yoga and Qi Gong), and has also developed a clothing range for Qi Gong practice. You can view videos of her Qi Gong practice videos on YouTube and find out more about the training programmes she runs on her YOQI site. | |
Andy Lowe has been a Buddhist for 38 years since he joined the Tibetan Buddhist Karma Kagyu group. Prior to his retirement he led and ran the Glasgow Karma Kagyu Buddhist Centre in Scotland UK for ten years. His main Buddhist teacher is the Venerable Ringu Tulku Rinpoche who is the 17th Karmapa’s main representative in Europe. He has benefitted from instruction in meditation from several of the world’s leading Tibetan Buddhist teachers. Andy is a research methodologist specializing in grounded theory and lives in Bangkok when not travelling to different countries to teach. | |
Mary Pipes has been following a Buddhist path for over 20 years. Her principal teachers are Kittisaro and Thanissara, both of whom were monastics with Luang Por Chah. After training with the Karuna Foundation in the UK, she worked as a Buddhist Psychotherapist for many years in the UK and Asia. She is engaged in a two and a half year Dharmapala training with Kittisaro and Thanissara. Since living in Bangkok she has helped Phra Pandit organise events for the Little Bangkok Sangha. | |
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. | |
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. | |
Visiting Teachers
During the year, visiting teachers will take some of the Monday nights for us. Keep a look out on our Facebook page and Meet Up for announcements on these special events as the starting time may be different from our normal Monday night.
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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:
Video Channel for the group is here