Buddist monk visits Utah State
Tranquil meditation can help to calm the mind, Thra Suthivorayan, a Buddhist monk professor from Bangkok, Thailand, said in a class at Utah State University Friday.
Suthivorayan, the vice president of academic affairs at Mahachula University, was the guest speaker in the Foundations for Community Health Education class.
“By making note of everything we do, we can make our mind calm,” Suthivorayan said. “Life is a combination of physical systems and mental systems.”
Suthivorayan said there are different types of meditation which can be used to block negative feelings from the body and the mind. These include breathing, sitting, walking and climbing meditation, he said.
“One type of meditation is the breathing meditation. You place your hands in your lap, like a lotus blossom with the right hand on top with your palms upward, and then focus on your breathing. Your chest must rise when you breath in and fall when you breath out,” Suthivorayan said.
After meditation, he said, it is important to give compassion and loving kindness to all living beings.
Thawatchai Puakta, a graduate student in education at USU, has been a Buddhist monk since the age of 11. He said there are two categories of meditation. There is concentration meditation, which focuses on tranquility and calming, and insight meditation, which deals with receiving wisdom.
“The purpose of meditation is to learn mindfulness and awareness in all daily life in order to gain concentration and wisdom and to eliminate negative emotion,” Puakta said.
Puakta said for meditation to be useful it must be done every day for at least 15 minutes.
Both Suthivorayan and Puakta are from Thailand, and have taken a vow to become a Buddhist monk, which includes following 227 precepts. Among these, monks are forbidden to intentionally touch women, Puakta said.
Puakta is the abbot and director of the Buddhist Meditation Center located on 644 E. 1000 North in Layton. For more information on Buddhist meditation practices e-mail Puakta at thwatcha9@hotmail.com.