Yoga, Buddhism and 18 Years in Asia: Is it More
Comfortable There?

A couple of months back, this writer was chatting
online with a long time acquaintance about this and
that.

During our conversation I expressed to him my interest
in moving to Cambodia at sometime in the future (I
currently live in Bangkok, Thailand).

His reaction was an interesting one.

He said to me “is it more comfortable there”?

In many respects this reaction was not and should not
have been a surprising one.

It seems that much of what we aspire to in life does
have an element of a desire for greater comfort.

Usually this idea of comfort is based on something
that is within the physical realm of our being.

We would like to have a bigger house or apartment,
with luxurious surroundings, a plush carpet, air –
conditioning and nice furniture.

It could be within our immediate environment or the
town or city we live in also.

We may be living under the illusion that physical
comfort leads to mental comfort, which is the thing
that most of really want and desire.

Of course, with experience in life and a degree of
insight into the lives and experiences of others, we
can find that this is not true.

The rich individual in a penthouse in Manhattan can
have the same tendency to and capacity for suffering
as the poor peasant in a hut in Papua New Guinea.

Perhaps a better path of living would be to examine
those things that are causing us to lack comfort in
the mental realm of our being.

In order to do such a thing, we need to have a set of
criteria with which to conduct and measure this
examination by.

The teachings of Yoga and Buddhism do offer us such a
set of criteria.

In order to get the benefits from them, we have to
take and make some time to study them.

And Is Cambodia more comfortable then Bangkok and
Thailand?

The Thais would certainly like to think so, thinking
that a proliferation of shopping malls, beer bars and
bridges signifies some kind of progress or superiority
over another ethnic group.

And in thinking this, the Thais do not always clearly
see the suffering in their own life and that of the
people in their own country. 

How in the desire for material and physical comfort we
lose contentment and appreciation for the things that
we have already and how in chasing after these things,
we make materialism the king and sole motivator behind
our actions, instead of the health and welfare of our
fellow countrymen and compassion in our actions to
them.

We also forget to see that a way of life that we have
been brought up in and exposed to for hundreds of
years is a good one, in both its simplicity and
peacefulness.

We may fail to see and understand that anything that
creates desires through the senses is something that
can also lead to greed and violence. 

As far as Cambodia goes, there are people there who
live simple and contented lives, perhaps because they
appreciate the peace that they have now, after so many
years of hardship, civil strife and warfare.

Cambodia offers the same comforts and conveniences
that Thailand does, if one is in need of such a thing.

But some may see life as being something beyond this
constant quest for physical and material comfort and
see that the ability to be comfortable may be more of
a mental state then a physical state.

They may also see that the need for physical comfort
is more a reflection of an imbalance in the body, mind
and consciousness, then in anything else.

With such an understanding, they would be quick to
appreciate the benefits that practicing Hatha Yoga
would bring them, in how it makes the mind and body
more at ease and in a state of comfort, regardless of
the state of the surroundings we may find ourselves
in.

©2004 John C. Kimbrough

(John lives and teaches in Bangkok, Thailand. He can
be reached at johnckimbrough@yahoo.com)