Daily Reflections – 6 January 2016

I took away much from my visit to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Firstly, I was able to better understand Buddhism through visiting the temple premises. With the use of paintings on the wall, my tour guide explained the story of how the Buddha came to be. I was intrigued by the story of how the Indian Prince, Siddhartha Gautama, attained enlightenment after sitting under a Bodhi tree, meditating about the truth of life. He would later become the Buddha. I think this story gives me insights into why people meditate – so they can clear their mind from distractions and hence focus on higher order questions like what the meaning of life should be.

Secondly, I saw how committed the locals in Chiang Mai were to their religion through this trip. Walking around the temple premises, I could see many locals praying to images of the Buddha or engaging in rituals like walking around the temple with stalks of flowers. The trip to go up the mountain and then climbing up 306 steps to the temple was probably tiring for them. Yet, they continued to pray to the Buddha in the temple with so much faith and focus! Although I am not Buddhist, I was very inspired by how devoted they were in taking time off their schedules to travel great distances to Doi Suthep to seek Buddha. As a Christian, I am reminded of how I want to put this much commitment and devotion into my own spiritual walk with God this 2016.

Thirdly, I found the act of climbing 306 steps up to the temple compound on Doi Suthep no mean feat. I felt really tired and somewhat breathless after climbing up the flight of steps to be honest. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the chance to climb up the steps to Doi Suthep because it reminded me of one of my personal weaknesses: that I do not put enough effort into keeping fit! Through this experience, I realised that I should not simply focus on the intellectual pursuit of knowledge, but on other things like keeping fit as well. A healthy body is linked to a healthy mind after all. I endeavour to exercise more regularly from now on.

Besides visiting Doi Suthep, I also had the chance to visit MAYA Lifestyle Shopping Centre in the afternoon. I found it to be a rather modern mall, not unlike the malls we have in Singapore, such as Jurong Point. Apparently, this mall was one that had just opened in recent years. I noticed that many shops in the mall were of high class brands and retailers and that there was also a cinema, SFX Cinemas in the mall. Seeing this, I deduced that people in Chiang Mai must be getting more affluent in recent years which is why world class brands perceived that there might be a market for their products in Chiang Mai. I am glad that Chiang Mai is progressing in development even at a time in history where there remains uncertainty in the world economy from the persisting economic woes of the Eurozone for instance.

Lastly, I engaged in conducting surveys for my research’s data collection today. This was really a step out of my comfort zone for me because I would be doing this without the help of the CMU translator in my group. Our CMU translator therefore taught me how to say “Can you do this survey for me?” in Thai. I found having to ask locals to do the survey awkward at first. However, the more I sought locals for their survey input, the better I got at it. I realised that locals were more receptive to doing the survey when I asked them to do it with a smile. Truly, sometimes a simple smile is all we need to break awkwardness between ourselves and others. I also found that the locals were more willing to doing the survey when I spoke to them in Thai. This affirmed the opinion I had in my pre-trip projections – locals would open up to me more if I conversed with them in their language.

Today has certainly been a fruitful day where I was reminded of my own personal goals in life and got the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone. I am excited for what tomorrow will bring!