Gap Year Meditation Program and a Vision for Wandering Meditators

Matthew Schojan is a unique figure within the small group of lay foreign meditation teachers in Thailand. For the past three years he has been facilitating annual one-week retreats for gap year students traveling through Southeast Asia. But he also has a vision for a program to help foreigners interested in meditation further, and this is called Wandering Meditators. Matthew has an interesting perspective and ideas about how foreigners should be taught in Thailand and expresses this through this teaching of gap year students and in his vision for Wandering Meditators.

Matthew started teaching in New York City about mindfulness and meditation to help people deal with the aftermath of 9/11. He has been a student of young teachers such as Noah Levine and Vinny Ferraro, as well as veteran insight meditation teachers Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. When he told some of these teachers of his idea to practice meditation in Asia, he was advised instead to first practice in America and get a good foundation of the practice first.

Matthew eventually did travel and settled down in Thailand. He has participated in international retreats in the Chiangmai area and through these experiences found that some of his fellow meditators would benefit from more guidance. He feels that many Westerners do not already know about meditation and Buddhism as many Southeast Asian Buddhists do, so there needs to be more clarification and information for this group. Matthew has respect for the methods that focus solely on individual practice but finds its not right for everyone. For some people this works but for others he finds just being told to go meditate is not enough. Matthew keeps coming back to wh! at he le arned in America and this is what he mainly focuses on when he teaches.

The gap year program is held on an organic farm in Sankampheng and is run through the Carpe Diem Education International Educations study abroad program on Southeast Asia. Matthew runs the course as an introduction to Buddhism and meditation that is geared towards American teenagers who havent come to Asia specifically for the practice, as this is just one of the many activities these students participate in while traveling in Thailand. He attempts to offer an accessible, non-dogmatic, non-denominational, non-sectarian retreat and to present meditation as a necessary and useful tool for training our minds as one would perform physical exercise to train their bodies. Over the five-day course, the participants gradually build concentration with samatha exercises like breath awareness (anapanasati) and repetition of the mantra let go (used instead of the Buddho mantra that is used in the forest tradition). Then the practice expands into vipassana, with the four foundations of mindfulness, guided meditations and Dhamma talks. Many of the talks center around suffering, impermanence, and non-self, and how these characteristics arise in our bodies, lives, and the world. Another large part of the retreat focuses on the Brahma-Viharas through guided meditations and talks on compassion, loving-kindness, joy, and equanimity. He teaches therefore with minimal references to religion or Buddhist culture. He can do this because the retreat is conducted in a farm instead of a temple.

For his idea of Wandering Meditators, Matthew focuses on teaching beginners and in helping those who want access to Thai teachers but are not! familia r enough with the culture or practice to be able to take advantage. He finds that in many meditation retreats offered to foreigners, many times much is lost in translation, not explained well enough, or just not suited for beginning English-speakers interested in learning about meditation. This is due to language barriers and differences in learning styles where Western-educated peoples often seek to understand deeply and to want explanations for practices. As well often beginning meditators expect more group sittings and more guidance than is offered in Thai meditation centers where one only meets the teacher for a daily interview. Of course there are places where instructions and information about Buddhism is given such as the International Dhamma Hermitage but in many places the format is very solitary and this can be difficult. Many advanced foreign meditators are looking for this kind of practice but a large number find this style inaccessible and limits their interest in further practice.

Matthews vision for Wandering Meditators will help to support this kind of meditator through filling in the gaps of the meditation retreat that arent currently offered. Through Matthews experience of practice in Thailand and America, he has learned much about meditation and the different techniques. He feels he has benefitted from all of the experiences he has had and respects all of the teachers and centers who are trying to teach international meditators. But he feels that Wandering Meditators would help to enrich the experience of Western meditators by aiding them in overcoming the obstacles he has observed while practicing in Thailand. Thus the offerings in Thailand, from Matthews point of view, are not inadequate, but they can be enhanced so that the gaps between Eastern and Western can be further bridged.

Matthews plans for wandering meditators is to be a liaison for Western travelers. He wants to create mindful pilgrimages so that people can travel and also practice sitting and walking meditatio! n togeth er. He would like to get some assistants/facilitators to aid beginning meditators as they go through the retreat process. They could get together for discussions after the retreat, before, or even during to have some information exchange. For this he would choose temples that are more flexible and make sure to tell the monks that he is working with them to help the students, not taking over for them. Matthew finds that many students are put off at the devotional aspects of temple life and because they dont know how to act and arent introduced to it they become disenchanted with all of Thai Buddhism and dont pursue meditation anymore.

Therefore Matthews experiences have led him to see some gaps in the teaching of beginning international meditators and he is interested in filling these in. His gap year program is an example of how he feels international meditators should be taughtwith a mix of guided meditation, dhamma talks, information about Buddhism, and with a secular approach to meditation. Matthew is still working on the details of this program but be on the lookout for this interesting new opportunity for international meditators!