Recently I took a boat trip to visit an old temple by ThaChang Pier. The name of the pier means ‘a place for mounting elephants’, as it’s very close to the Grand Palace. This area was used by royalties to mount on their elephants and boarding boats at the nearby pier. Elephants used to be an important part of life in the old Siam; a bit like how Americans depended on horses over a hundred years ago. Nowadays the old dark pier has been renovated and transformed into bright and modern looking pier fit for welcoming hundreds of visitors coming to the Grand Palace.
The front yard has been widened and the old shops had a new coat of bright paint. These shops have started to do roaring business after a flood of tourists in last December. I was so glad to see crowds of tourists on the road near the Grand Palace. Taxi drives and tuk-tuk had a field day in persuading unwitting tourists to accept high fares. Some tourists did their research and just kept on walking towards their destination such as Wat Pho. The five minutes’ journey could be incredibly costly for some tourists.
I knew I would have no chance of visiting the Grand Palace as the crowds and long lines were building up at the entrance. I had my special destination in mind anyway. I surveyed those small shops selling snacks and cold drinks. But the attraction was the cluster of shops selling traditional herbal medicines such as herbal soaps, ointments for backache and sprained muscles.
I used to buy special massage balms and ointments but they were quite heavy to carry around during a sightseeing. So, I ordered these from online stores, then I could stock up half a dozen at a time. Elderly friends and my gardener really appreciated the ointment as souvenirs for the New Year presents.
Wat Mahathad was built in 1685 during the reign of King Narai (Lopburi Kingdom). It was originally an old and dilapidated temple which was renovated and transformed into a new bigger temple during the reign of King Rama l. So, Wat Mahathad was the first royal temple of the new reign.
This year the temple had organised the first celebration for its 338th anniversary. Wat Mahathad was the birthplace of teaching of Buddhism and free classes of meditation to the public. Thr first Buddhist college was established here. In the past, the temple was very famous for having very good meditation instructors.
Many foreigners came to the temple to meditate seriously. Nowadays, there are several forest monasteries offering meditation classes in provincial areas. Most monks who were serious about meditation would seek quiet temples close to nature and far away from crowds.
There used to be a popular weekend market of amulets, lucky charms, anti- black magic amulets and many strange or superstitious objects on displays. People would come from further afield to sell their collections on hundreds of stalls around the temple. These days, the weeks market had been moved to proper stalls in a market complex in a new location. ( I planned to visit this antique and curiosity market complex one day; perhaps I could sell some of my old antique pieces there).
Wat Mahathad (or Mahathat) looked very tidy and clean, the management did a good job of keeping the place in top form. The Ubosod (or Main Hall) is supposed to be the biggest hall for temples in Thailand. The Buddha statue was so big that they had to build even a bigger hall to house this Buddha statue. I always got confused about sense of direction; I entered the back door which meant I got to photograph the Buddha statue from the back.
The vibes of the big Buddha overwhelmed me so much that I forgot to survey the rest of the Main Hall (This caused me to have to visit this temple once more the next day. The important object of the purpose of my journey was completely forgotten!). I did a ten minutes meditation in front of the big Buddha statue. There’s a sense of ‘deja vu’ somehow, the vibes were just very special that my whole body was electrified.
That’s why I had to meditate and ground myself. That was very beneficial to my mind as a peaceful trance seemed to be surrounding my body the whole time I was at the temple. Life seemed very easy and care free; friendly atmosphere was spreading around the temple. I wondered why the special vibes despite lots of visitors moving around all the time.
I discovered that there was a special hall nearby which was built to house the Buddha’s relic. King Rama l rebuit this temple to house this special Buddha’s relic and to establish this as the first royal temple under his new dynasty. We believed that Buddha’s relics would always be guarded by some angels who had been assigned the protective tasks for a period of time. Other angels would take their turns in guarding Buddha’s relics. This task would give lots of merits or accumulated good karma which would enable the angels to move to higher realms or dimensions.
Usually I would be able to pick up strange or special high frequency vibes from places where there was Buddha’s relics and guarding angels. But this time I was too overwhelmed by the powerful vibes of the big Buddha statue. Perhaps there were just too many special vibes in this temple for me to get used to.
The Vihara (smaller hall) was also very speciai. There were more holy items inside the Vihara which just boggled my mind. I just looked around and walked softly in amazement. Some old stone Buddha statue was just incredibly holy. And other statues were giving out timeless vibes of their own. I felt very ‘high’ as if I had taken all the potent herbal ingredients from the mythical forest. I ought to go back there on working days.
The ‘Mon-Dop’ where the Buddha’s relic was housed had a very strong personality Buddha statue guarding at the entrance. I assumed that the senior monks who were in charged of all the building plans and placements of holy pieces, must have been very highly accomplished meditators. They seemed to know about holy energies and how they worked in protecting important religious objects.
I used to hear stories about some famous monks at this temple as a youngster. But I had no idea about the synergy between meditation and energies or supernatural power. It would take years before I learned to meditate seriously that I began to get a glimpse of what hidden potentials people didn’t bother to uncover and develop for themselves.
There were too many things to survey slowly under a few hours. I could only try to take in as much details I could in each hall. It was just impossible to do justice ti this historical temple with so many stories and important religious pieces. My mind was very light and peaceful the whole time I was walking around the ground. Things seemed to be effortless and interactions with people seemed easy and harmonious. I even had my dinner at the flea market in the temple. The atmosphere was very pleasant without confusing vibes at most temples’ fairs.
I knew there were still some puzzles to be answered to during my visit. I had to find out why I had very strange feeling as if I should have been there years ago. Someone or something invisible had been waiting for me to be there and to do some kind of spiritual ‘ceremony’. This feeling only happened to me once at an old temple ruin in Ayutthaya several years ago.
I wondered if I had owed someone from my past life or I had an unfinished conflict which needed to be resolved amicably in this lifetime. I pushed that doubting state aside so that I could enjoy a pleasant evening at the temple. I knew someone was missing, there’s an empty hole inside me but I couldn’t fix it yet. So, I had to let go and get on with life. I found my answer during my second visit thr following day.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
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