Hidden Mysteries...
They have left us in the dust…
”Clean Up in Aisle 3” (link below) put me in mind of a special Thai story…
In that post, I mention the Thai practice of being a temporary monk or nun…a kind of annual spiritual sabbatical. A time to reconnect with that deeper part of us that can get obscured in our busy, noisy culture.
A welcome respite from the ordinary demands of life. An opportunity to refocus and re-member ourselves. You may choose a monastery in the cool of the mountains or refresh yourself by the sea…as you like. It is a time for quiet, for thinking your own thoughts, hiking, journalling and taking stock. Meditating and learning from the masters… It is built in to the culture and accessible to all. One returns refreshed and elevated…
What a wonderful system that allows for such attendance to one’s spiritual needs. I would later learn that becoming a temporary monk or nun was a common feature of Thai life.
In my first years of going to Thailand on business, I spent a lot of time walking through the various neighborhoods of Bangkok. There was so much to discover! One place that I was always drawn to visit was a small shop that specialized in hand painted T-shirts. I would try to buy a couple every time I went. The shopkeeper always remembered me and we struck up a friendship over time.
The next time I saw him, he greeted me enthusiastically, saying “I made something special for you. Please come in!”
I stepped inside and for the first time he took me into his small workroom at the back of the shop. He told me to make myself comfortable while he prepared tea. We relaxed and caught up on things.
Then came the proud moment when he presented his gift to me. It was an extraordinary piece of art. Not at all the sort of thing he would normally sell to a tourist. He typically painted simple black slogans and designs on white shirts.
Manasilp had drawn the figure of a Buddha in shades of charcoal. In rich jewel tones, he had also drawn a setting sun, and a kind of mandala with unfamiliar symbols. He surrounded this with Sanskrit characters and color blocks of gold leaf.
It was and is still a mystery to me. All I know is that it is a very powerful blessing or at least, that is how I experience it. He did not explain it to me other than to say that he was inspired to paint it for me.
That day he told me a little bit about his personal life. He was about 30 years old, still single, something he was careful to point out as a similarity in our lives. He then shared with me that he was getting ready to close up shop for a month, shave his head, don the monk’s robe and go up to the mountain to his teacher.
He was in a high-rent district in Bangkok. I remarked “That must be very expensive for you.”
“Yes, but doesn’t matter,” he replied. “I do this every year. Very good for me. We must feed the soul, not only the body.”
He then stood up and reached for a small black and white photograph that was tacked to his wall. He placed it carefully in my hands, saying with gentle reverence “This is my teacher.”
I saw a diminutive older monk seated in the lotus position on a raised platform. His head was lowered in meditation.
Nothing striking…that is, until I saw the array of thunderbolts that emanated from his body. The lightning extended beyond the edges of the photograph.
It was a photograph taken in daylight. I was stunned. My mind could barely comprehend what I was seeing.
“How can this be!? Who is this monk? Why wasn’t this man famous?”
Maybe that was the point. A no-name monk in a no-name monastery hidden deep in the mountains, giving instruction to people like this man. It was no wonder that he willingly left everything behind for a month each year to go to the mountain…to his teacher.
“My God,” I thought, “They have left us in the dust…”
That was the last time I ever saw him…. I never found the path back to his shop, if it was even there anymore.
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When God Knocks a Leg Out from Under YouDebra Robinson·May 10, 2025Read full story
After the accident and the subsequent re-arranging of my life described in “When God Knocks a Leg Out from Under You, I was led to turn loose of all my material possessions…
At the time…a farm, factory and home, along with all the gathered libraries, collected art and cherished artifacts from my travels.
From there I went to live on a houseboat…a simpler life…the fresh canvas.
It was a series of little heart lacerations to release everything, and I did manage to do it. But, truth be told, when all was said and done, my heart was still a bit torn in regard to that T shirt.
In one of Life’s curious twists, one year later, when I went back to sign off on the sale of the farm, I took a last look around at the shell of my old life. The auctioneer had emptied the place and swept up. I had only ever seen it filled to the rafters…
In one corner of the factory, there was a barrel of sweepings. Crumpled up in a ball was a colorful mass of something. I picked it up to find that it was the moth-eaten remains of that t-shirt. All that remained intact was the design. I got the message.
I took it with me, washed it lovingly, trimmed away the old part, smoothed it out and framed it...
Clean Up in Aisle 3Debra Robinson·May 5, 2025Read full story
Thank you for reading…and wondering at Life along with me…
Feel free to share or restack, as seems good to You…