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How Buddhist meditation kept the Thai boys calm in the cave
Vox ^ | 07/10/18 | Eliza Barclay

Posted on 07/10/2018 8:59:18 AM PDT by Simon Green

When the 12 Thai boys who were trapped in a cave and were rescued one by one were first discovered by British divers a week ago, they were reportedly meditating.

“Look at how calm they were sitting there waiting. No one was crying or anything. It was astonishing,” the mother of one of the boys told the AP, referring to a widely shared video of the moment the boys were found.

Turns out that their coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, who led them on a hike into the cave when it flooded on June 23, trained in meditation as a Buddhist monk for a decade before becoming a soccer coach. According to multiple news sources, he taught the boys, ages 11 to 16, to meditate in the cave to keep them calm and preserve their energy through their two-week ordeal.

“He could meditate up to an hour,” Ekapol’s aunt, Tham Chanthawong, told the AP. “It has definitely helped him and probably helps the boys to stay calm.”

Ekapol, 25, went to live in a monastery at age 12 after he was orphaned. According the Straits Times, he trained to be a monk for 10 years at a monastery in Mae Sai, Thailand, but left to care for a sick grandmother. He then was hired to be the assistant coach of the team, known as the Wild Boars.

Coach Ake, as he is known, still maintains close contacts at the monastery. The abbot there told the Wall Street Journal he’s “a responsible young man who meditates regularly.”

(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...


TOPICS: Religion
KEYWORDS: autohypnosis; buddhism; buddhist; meditation; thailand
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian

>>It depends on what you are meditating on. If it is internal, ‘emptying yourself’, as in Buddhism, it is the work of the devil. <<

Of course not.

All that does NOT encompass God and Christ is not evil. Clearing your mind is not evil if it does not fill it with Christ. No more than writing a computer program that is agnostic and does not reference Christ.

What a bizarre world you must live in.


21 posted on 07/10/2018 10:46:28 AM PDT by freedumb2003 ("please pass the winnamins" (/Principled on 6/27/2018))
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To: Larry Lucido

All will be explained when the movie comes out, I say with a bit of sarcasm, but I’m sure there will be a movie at some point.


22 posted on 07/10/2018 10:49:49 AM PDT by uptowngirl
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To: I want the USA back

“Imagine if they had been muzzies. Yelling and screaming, half the heads piled up in a corner. Religion does have an effect on actions.”

Best comment of the day!!!!!


23 posted on 07/10/2018 10:52:39 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Chivalry is not dead. It is a warriors code and only practiced by warriors.)
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To: freedumb2003

Of course, to a non-Christian, Christianity IS a ‘bizarre world’.


24 posted on 07/10/2018 10:53:23 AM PDT by A Formerly Proud Canadian (I once was blind but now I see...)
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To: txrefugee
Totally agree, the coach is NOT a hero in my book, the rescuers were the only "heros". Coach Ekaphol “Ake” Chantawong, 25, has come under criticism for allowing the boys to venture so far into the treacherous cave complex which honeycombs the jungle-clad peaks on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Acknowledging his responsibility in his own missive to parents from the cave, he wrote: “All parents, all of the kids are fine. Staff here are taking care of the kids very well. I promise I will take care of the kids at best. Thank you for your kind support and I would like to say I’m really sorry to you all.”
25 posted on 07/10/2018 10:55:05 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian

Your statement wasn’t Christian, it was ill-informed, to put it nicely.


26 posted on 07/10/2018 10:58:37 AM PDT by mlo
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To: Simon Green

Not a Christian concept - meditation, but sometimes it comes to, “Whatever gets you through the night”. Maybe some day they’ll discover God and prayer.


27 posted on 07/10/2018 11:05:53 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian; freedumb2003

Should Christians Meditate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7sAiePxIts

“For nearly ten years, Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon sat down in TBC’s broadcast studio in Bend, Oregon to discuss God’s Word, Dave’s books, events of the day, and questions from listeners.....”


28 posted on 07/10/2018 11:17:03 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: Simon Green

It works outside of caves too! :)


29 posted on 07/10/2018 11:23:50 AM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: Simon Green

Whatever works. Much respect for the coach - this young man kept his kids alive and kept them well and in good spirits until they were rescued.


30 posted on 07/10/2018 11:37:21 AM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: A Formerly Proud Canadian

>>Of course, to a non-Christian, Christianity IS a ‘bizarre world’.<<

I am 100% Christian.

You are not in a position to say otherwise.

Yours is an extreme radical form of Christianity which normal Christians eschew.

There is nothing more to be said.

Have a blessed evening.


31 posted on 07/10/2018 2:48:15 PM PDT by freedumb2003 ("please pass the winnamins" (/Principled on 6/27/2018))
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