Zen Teh
Interview with Locals
“Being closer to the mountain is like being closer to God”
– excerpt from interview account with Pastor Waipot at St. Stephen Catholic Church, 24.09.2023.
Being able to feel a sense of connection to something larger than us – nature or natural forces — never ceases to pique our curiosity, and consequently display a more-than-human worldview, and potential post-humanistic ways of thinking. Perhaps meditation can provide such experiences? Teh’s interview accounts from meditation practitioners and non-practitioners aware of meditation have revealed polar opposites of responses — one of promise and another of utter disbelief. Despite the diverse responses gathered, what was telling was the dependence of one’s meditative journey on the belief, awareness and faith of an individual, while one works through the elusiveness of fleeting thoughts and sensations, and what “enlightenment” could mean. Such endeavours could also be life changing, especially seen in a few interviewees’ drastic uprooting of themselves from Bangkok to Chiang Rai searching for enlightenment.