robot levi says 'standing, standing, standing'

so today was buddhism day i guess.... i actually managed to wake up early, had a rad breakfast (mango shake, spicy bean/greens salad, vegetarian lotus seed fried rice) downstairs, figured out how to use a phoen with the help of a friendly thai girl who ought to've been manning (womanning) her information desk at one of the many random events that seem to always be taking place (every night i walk through the central park and this university near it theres some concert or event happening, and always different), called Wat Maharathat to inquire about meditation instruction, got a positive answer for one o clock, so i took one of teh public trans. boats down teh river to bangkoks famous Wat Pho (the massive reclining buddha from Street Fighter II). i had a really nice moment on the river, watching these temples slide by and the multitude of different boats--some of them basically canoes with massive diesel engines strewn with flowers and driven by the elderly--and the sunshine twinkling from teh caps of the waves, fresh watered breeze on my skin... good stuff. i sort of wish someone was here to share it with me, but no one is, so ive got to share it with you. did you feel like you were there? hope so. maybe i can add a picture later, which will be worth more than these words but still not do it justice. anyhow, i disembarked amid the everpresent street market (there are seriously no streets here that arent markets. i think half the population is employed in selling secondhand books, buddha figures, amulets, pirated CDs and all sorts of indescribable possibly edible products), made my way to the temple... saw the buddha... which is fucking huge, that being the best and only phrase for it in english, forty two meters long and twelve tall, totally covered in gold, inside this massive hall barely big enough to house it... so much bigger than in the video game... the folks at CAPCOM had obviously never been to Wat Pho-- that said it was a pretty powerful presence. i stayed al ot longer than teh other folks, and actually went through twice, pausing the second time to rub gold leaf on a buddha statue and offer a cut unopened lotus flower to the buddha... i think thats such a profound symbol, a cut unopened flower... you know it has/had the potential for beauty, that it wont have it now that its cut, as a physical plant, but as an offering, a metaphysical being, its like the promise or hope for beauty or goodness not yet revealed--i took it as that promise on my own part, to do my best to break open the buddhahood resting inside. and i guess took myself up on that promise right quick--bought fresh mango sprinkled with hot pepper and spiced sugar and booked myself over to the other Wat (she said specifically on the phone not to be late), and after a confusing serious of partial-english speakers leading me around the temple, i found section number five and a couple nuns who could speak my language. i spent the next two hours talking to a nun about vippassana meditation and how its different from what i did in california, and about some basic questions i have with buddhist practice, and as an odd accompaniment to that serious sort of intercourse another nun was taking photos of us for their website (ill be famous! wat maharathat.com! maybe.), and wed occasionalyl stop and look as though we were on the brink of enlightenment for the benefit of the folks at home accessing through teh 'intranet,' such as yourself. anyhow, the method itself was interesting--i wont go into detail because (knowing whos reading) you either know all about it already or prolly arent interested. but at a certain point in walking meditation youre supposed to stop and just stand there thinking "standing, standing, standing." i couldnt help but smile every time i did it, cause i felt like such an inane robot. after a bit she took me downstairs to practice with some other folks just starting (there was a whole nother class going on in Thai), and after about twenty minutes of struggling through it, she cam eand got me and another american there (who id been shocked to see... walking down into that half-basement room and seeing this red-haired guy sweating out some sitting meditation i suddnely felt as though i was being sucked into some far east cult. and theyd soon poison me with avian bird flu for the scientific benefit of the community. but thats not the case! mom.). as it happened, today was the second saturday of the month, when an english speaking buddhist scholar comes to give a talk... we ended up being the only native speakers there, btu three folks from japan (whom i was happy to see, cause im halfhomesick for this place thats not precisely my home. though i guess i have more than one home now... and the place that oughta be precisely my home is in a town and state ive never been to... agk. its all just words.) and a couple guys from India and a Thai fellow (who cornered me after the talk and tried to instill his superior knowledge of buddhism into me) showed up too, and we had an interesting, informal (rambling) session of question answer an dlecture. i took some good notes, and asked some questinos thatd been smoldering on the back burner since i last really practiced meditation... a women there, Helen i think, who was there to help the visting scholar, was really interesting (moreso than the shcolar, im afriad to say), and answered me pretty straight with some unexpected answers. anyways, it was a good experience, and i got to wander around monks quarters and be for a bit on the inside of a monastery... i was surprised to see a few monks smoking, and the nun who taught me seemed kinda sleepy... but everybodys just practicing on the way. anyways, the scholar mentioned a place for foreigners to learn adn practice up north in the town ive been planning to go to, Chang Mai, so i guess Ill check it out when i get up there (maybe tomorrow on the night train or the next day). bangkok has already become too noisy and dirty and nonstop for me--and now that im here and can manage to find my way around and have reliable places ot eat and sleep and sort of understand life here, ive started to wonder just what it is im doing here. im not really that into just going sightseeing... so if i dont find a place to volunteer, i might as well do something else that ive been wanting to for a long time (since junior year of university in our eastern psych class), and live for awhile at a monastery... which will be a radical 180 from the chaos of street vendors and drunken europeans and three-wheeled taxis roaring outside this cafe--pulling me out into it--more tomorrow--