Please find my series of writings spurred my travel to Thailand in July and August 2023. As a short introduction: my family came here this year for a confluence of reasons that were “a perfect storm,” if you will. My wife (who is Thai) had a paid trip here from her work – so it saved us one air ticket price. Also, my son just graduated high school, and this was a perfect “gap year” experience for him. He will stay in Thailand until nearly Christmas, accompanied by my wife. Further, my youngest kid will just be entering high school. Also, I have just transitioned from academia, to teaching people from working class backgrounds. We, all travelers at heart, have also just come out of the COVID years, which have held us rather confined to Edmonton.
But on another level, I have just spent 2 years reading many works Thomas Merton, the Catholic monastic and mystic. He died in Bangkok in 1968, 55 years ago. At the end of his writing career and life, he had been deeply exploring Zen Buddhism and mystical traditions from Taoism to Sufi-ism. This movement into contemplation is something that pulls me strongly. And so I would like to invite you along with me (and us) along this 6-week exploration of, and through, contemplation as we move through Bangkok, a southern beach, Chiang Mai and beyond.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Seeds-Contemplation-Thomas-Merton/dp/0811217248
July 13 – Dimensions:
July 15: Authenticity: Being Yourself in a World Designed to Make You Someone Else
July 19: A Peace Manifesto
July 27: Renunciation
August 3, 2023 – Sower, Seeds, Sown
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 