I had a specific image in my thoughts when I was thinking of Thailand until I discovered the #spiritual side of happiness!!!
It is true that in #Thailand you can find the amazing exotic beaches and the idyllic scenery that can make you fall in love! I am wandering through the islands and the nature and I see the most extraordinary sky, looking like the clouds want to tell me a story, uniting with the blue and green sea waters that invite me to follow them in a #mystical #journey. The white sand beach that surrounds basically all the country looks like a soft powder that fell from the universe to make the land-sea transition feel like returning to the womb.
It is though something different that makes my mind ‘erect’. The happiness of the Gods!
I feel that the real reason my intuition told me to travel in Thailand is to learn about happiness. And it is not by random choice that I invited to my journey my 9 friends (one of them being my dear partner George who accompanies myself in most of my journeys and is responsible for the photos you see me in). I guess 10 people can really help in the matter of #happiness although I start to discover that this could not happen in a different place.
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I am on a ferry to go from Surat Thani to Koh Samui, a little island on the east side of the country and as I explore the surroundings I see with the tip of my eye something gold shining like a mirror in the sun. I turn to have a better look and I see a huge Buddha on the green shore smiling like the happiest baby in the world. I am intrigued. I think ‘how wonderful a creature, a person looks when they smile’! I go off the ferry and I start the rest of my journey. I see the people around me and they all seem happy. Even if they are not smiling, even if they are deep immersed in the troubles of their lives they seem to have a different intake on happiness. I go around the temples in almost the whole country and everywhere the Gods are smiling, transmuting this happiness to me. I cannot feel sad when I look at their smiles. All I want is smile and dance and breathe and be happily grateful even for my own quirkiness.
Here people even if they are not smiling, even if they are deep immersed in the troubles of their lives they seem to have a different intake on happiness
#Exercise: I sit on the floor of the temple with my legs crossed like the Buddha. I close my eyes and I imagine that my skin is a billion smiling Buddha faces. Then I imagine all the parts of my body, starting from my feet up, and all my internal organs like they are a billion smiling Buddha faces. I feel my whole existence smiling and I also form a big smile with my lips. Finally I imagine that the Buddha sends me a white ray of light that is entering from the top of my head goes through my body and unites with the center of the Earth.
In Thailand the main religion is the Theravāda Buddhism which is the most ancient form of Buddhism that survives in the sacred classical Indian language. It is the teachings of the Siddhattha Gotama (the Guatama Buddha as called in the Pāli language) that are written in the Pāli Canon which is the collection of all the Theravāda scriptures. Studying the Thai Buddhism I can see a pretty conservative philosophy but there is an element that serves in a different way. Seeing the smiling Buddha everyday for the whole duration of your life, you actually decide to see a big smile for the whole duration of your life. And when you have this picture in front of you the whole time you are always reminded about happiness.
The Thai Buddha is not to be confused by the fat Chinese laughing Buddha. The Thai Buddha is not actually laughing. He is always in a deep meditation state and this state is the natural state of Man (human) when he/she reaches the divine state. In this state there is no pain there is only happiness and gratitude.
The Thai Buddha is always connected with the universe thus wearing a hat in the shape of the #mountain and he resides inside the Pāli vāṭa (#temple) that matches this particular shape. He stands all over the country and works as a command to your brain for happiness. You do what you see and this is smiling.
(Find about the meaning of the #mountain_shape)
I continue to wander in the Land of Smiles and I feel this spiritual happiness driving my every move. I have many things to take from my journey to Thailand and they all lead to an eternal internal happiness!
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*Danai Fassouli is a writer and self-development consultant traveling around the wold with the sole purpose to decode the ancient sacred truths and use them for her personal development as well as to spread them to all women that want to work for their own health of the mind, body and soul. The articles are purely informative and do not replace the doctor or the psychologist and generally any specialist in physical and mental health.