What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand! A few days ago, I found myself standing under a sea of lanterns drifting up into the night sky.
It felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean, watching thousands of fluorescent jellyfish floating up above me.
It was New Years Eve, and I was in the main plaza in Chiang Mai’s old town. Each year, locals and tourists gather together there to release the lanterns throughout the evening, sending thoughts of well-wishes into the air.As I watched the lanterns drift away, and as the clock ticked over to the new year, I asked myself, if I only had one year left to live, what would I do differently?
For a number of reasons, I have been thinking a lot about how I’m spending my days, and my life. Over the past year I have witnessed a number of close friends and family members deal with sickness, cancer, aging, disappointment, and loss. I have spent a fair amount of time contemplating my life, and the inevitability of my own death.
As the poet Mary Oliver so beautifully wrote,
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?Tell me, what is it you plan to dowith your one wild and precious life?
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on the blog, so I wanted to send a quick update to let you know what's been going on in my life in the past year or so, and also give a little glimpse of what I have planned for the future.
A year and a half ago, I packed my bags and moved to Thailand to start working as a Mindfulness Specialist at the American School of Bangkok. I enjoyed my time in Thailand, and learned a great deal from my coworkers and friends, but ultimately, I felt that in order to continue growing emotionally and spiritually I had to find a different path. I decided to leave Bangkok after one year and returned home to California. Back in the US, I started working at a meditation app tech startup in San Francisco and got to experience the "tech culture” first-hand. It was during that time that I stopped writing blog posts on Untangling the Mind. This was mostly due to the fact that I was too busy with work (a common symptom of the techie lifestyle), but also because I decided to put my mindfulness blogging on hold while I devoted myself to the company.
After 4-5 months of working at the startup, I realized that my strengths were not being put to good use at the company (nor were they really needed there), and so I decided to leave the company. During those few months in SF, I realized how much I missed the culture in Southeast Asia, particularly the kindness, generosity, and gentleness of the Thai people. And so it wasn't long after I left the company in SF that I had booked a one-way ticket back to Asia, with the intention to get back to doing what I love most: reading, writing, photographing, and most of all, meditating.
My first stop was back in Thailand, where I headed down to a monastery just south of Bangkok, to spend some time in retreat. The monastery is called Wat Marp Jan, and is in the Thai Forest tradition of Ajahn Chah. I had a lovely time there, and plan to return again soon for a longer retreat.
I’m now in Chiang Mai, a city in the northwest of Thailand, where I spent NYE. In a few days I will be heading off to Myanmar (Burma) for a 3-week silent meditation retreat led by Michelle MacDonald, Steven Smith, and Sayadaw U Pannananda. This will be my longest retreat yet, and I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with you after after I get out.
In the coming months you can expect to see a lot more on the blog (although there may be long stretches of time where I’m tucked away inside a remote monastery with no access to email). I hope to continue writing about mindfulness and meditation, and many of the wonderful teachings of the Buddha, as seen through western, secular, and scientific eyes.
As always, I would love to hear how things are going in your world. If you just want to say hi, that would be great. Or, if you have a question about meditation or mindfulness that has been bugging you, feel free to reply to this email and let me know. I might devote a blog post to it.
Wishing you a lot of peace and happiness as we embark on a new year.
With metta,
Jeremy