Prema, Parvati, Myri Dakini, Shivadam and Phyllis Moses
are guiding a group of pilgrims through Bangkok to India. The first report of
their adventures....Prema writes
My flights were uneventful…..well….not exactly uneventful but relatively
painless.
In order to line up my flights from Maui to
Honolulu and on to Narita me and my darling caretakers, Joshua and David did
have to get up at 5 AM. But once at the airport our friendly Maui porters
checked my overweight, stuffed with costumes luggage all the way to Bangkok with
not a penny in baggage charges. Then I was wheeled away (I do use a wheelchair
in airports) zipping through priority security, and, once in Oahu, resting in
the United Red Carpet lounge where I was plied with cappuccino and other
delicious fare.
Held on the tarmac for two hours in Narita
because of weather vagaries…..and the fact that they had shut down all but one
runway….it was not a problem since I had booked a business class ticket. United
business international means seats that fold out into a flat bed.
Ahhhhh….
And…..my neighbor turned out to be a Tibetan
Buddhist practitioner …. We had a lot of friends in common ….. so lots to chat
about, the time passed pleasantly. And …. oh yes ….. he was also
an international wine consultant, in business class one is plied with decent
wine.
I was to meet seven of our delegation in the
Bangkok airport but my flight arrived three hours later than expected. I had
heard that flights stopping in Korea had been held over because of unseasonable
snow, so I wasn’t expecting to really connect with anyone. But for some reason I
felt compelled to take a left turn instead of the right turn towards the taxis
and lo and behold ran right into Elaine. Darling Elaine had left her cell phone
in the airport security in Korea and was wondering lost without any reference
point at all. All her information was in her cell phone. We studied the arrival
board and could see that Shivadam, Parvati and Carey had arrived long before us
and were probably already on their way to the hotel.
Phyllis and Suzie’s plane wasn’t even on the
board…..so we had no idea what happened to them. We hopped into a taxi, and
finally managed to settle into our room around 6 AM.
The hotel was as lovely as I remembered, right on
the great Chaophaya River. The buffet breakfast was
marvelous and as the rest of our pilgrims trickled in all day we rested in
preparation for welcoming the New Year at Mae Chee’s Dharma Center.
The vans arrived to pick us up and we inched our
way through Bangkok traffic. I kept nodding off, wondering if I would ever
recover from sleep deprivation and…there we were.
Her center opens right onto a busy street. Our
dear contact Joy was waiting to greet us and usher us into the meditation area.
There were several thousand Thai sitting in meditation, most of them teenagers
or young adults. Everyone had a candle in a glass holder beside them.
There were 15 perfect chairs arranged for us off
to the side so we could sit comfortably as honored guests. At the center of the
gathering was a lovely Buddha, to the far right Mae Chee, leading a long and
evocative chant. I went into a deep meditative state. The midnight hour
approached and she began a series of bells chiming….outside the center fireworks
exploded. She then welcomed us publically giving a little speech about the Tara
Dance to all assembled and then everyone moved towards the Buddha with their
candles and left them before Him a dance of light in the soft breeze.
Mae Chee embraced me and then proceeded to gift
each one of our delegation with a tiny, perfectly crafted Tara statue in a tiny
red velvet box.
Welcome 2013!!!
Back at the hotel we took over the dining room to
put together our little performance. When I told Mae Chee we were coming to
Bangkok and wanted to offer her some Tara Dance something she said to do 10
minutes of performance and an hour of instruction. Our merry band of 15 had
never danced together, several had never danced in Tara’s mandala at all, so we
needed something simple yet effective.
To the great enjoyment of the hotel staff, we put
our simple offering together in the deserted restaurant and then around 2 AM
tumbled into bed.
I will continue this story in photo albums……
please check them out
Arriving in
Bangkok – a few pictures of our glorious hotel and some temples and Buddhas
in bustling, New Year’s Eve Bangkok
Mae Chee 1 – 11 PM
we arrived at Mae Chee’s Dharma Center to join in a meditation ritual of
welcoming in the New Year
Mae Chee 2 –
January 1 we returned to Mae Chee’s Center to offer some dance and teach some
dance
Mae Chee 3 – Mae Chee’s center
is so wonderfully beautiful we wanted to share as many pictures of the place for
you to enjoy
