Original subtitles

Like so many people today,

I sometimes feel lost in this globalised, frenetic world.

HIGH-ENERGY MUSIC

TRAFFIC BLARES

I'm caught in a stampede of consumerism, social media,

so many different stimuli from all directions.

It's like a traffic jam in my mind.

And the solution for many people to this mental clutter and confusion

seeking release and enlightenment, in one country in particular -

which has always sold itself as a spiritual refuge. And that country is...

Thailand.

MONKS CHANT

Thailand has changed hugely in recent times

but its belief system, Buddhism, has been around for over, 2,500 years -

since the journey to enlightenment of its guru Gautama Siddhartha.

Most Thai people regard themselves as Buddhist

and follow one of the three main forms of this doctrine called Theravada Buddhism.

If I have to put a simple word, what is Buddhism?

Buddhism is the teaching which cleans your mind.

Buddhism, strictly speaking, is not a religion. No god is worshipped.

It has a reputation for being less dogmatic and easier

to adapt into a modern lifestyle, hence its appeal to Westerners.

Mind you, getting intoxicated, lying or gossiping

and stealing are all no-nos for the observant Buddhist.

The aim is to control our earthly desires, both material

and sensory, as craving them leads to suffering.

Ultimately, through spiritual development we lose

our attachment to the idea of a self and live in the here and now.

Simple, huh?

Now, I've visited Thailand on many an occasion

and have never really witnessed the spiritual side of the people.

If anything, I've seen a country on a mission of economic growth,

engrossed in consumerism and instant gratification.

MELODIC CHIMING

So now, I'm on a journey to test whether it still deserves to be seen

as the place to go for spiritual insight.

How is that?

CHANTING

There are 30,000 temples in Thailand

and this one in Bangkok is marking the first anniversary

of the death of its spiritual leader of 24 years, the Supreme Patriarch.

The people, they come from every corner of the country.

They come here use this flower of eternity...

Playing host today is Phra Anil, he's going to be my guide on this journey.

'Donating lotus buds and food, lighting candles and incense sticks

'is for the lay people a form of what Buddhists call merit-making...'

The pink ones go where? On the pink? Right here.

'..doing good stuff that may get you higher up the karmic chain.'

Your one is better. That's right.

I'm not sure about that.

This is what I...

what we can guess is the power of faith, the power of religion.

This is the power of faith, people come from everywhere... Yes.

..just to volunteer to do this. Yes.

'And my first question? Am I in the right country to find peace?'

I think you are in the right country and the right place,

because, basically, when we go around, we are trying to find

somewhere with good atmosphere and especially the spiritual atmosphere.

And as Thailand is a Buddhist country, where you can see

the religiosity in everywhere, every corner, of the city.

My mentor's suggestion is to avoid the temptation

to search for a quick fix, instant karma, as it's known,

and to go and visit a monastery in the countryside,

but, hang on, I've only got a few days here and Thailand does do

a good line in luxury spiritual retreats -

where they promise you, you can get a taste of spirituality, austerity. Very tempting.

And they don't get much more luxurious or exclusive than this -

the Chiva-Som International Health Resort

with 200 different treatments and service like crystal massage,

reprogramming therapy, shirodhara and sound therapy.

Let your mind connect to all this vibration.

PING!

It's not about listening to the sound, like you listen to music.

It's more allowing a different vibration penetrate,

first in your mind, allowing your brain, changing a pattern first,

and then let those vibrations just spreading down to your system.

Now let the vibration penetrate.

That is genuinely fantastic, really is,

the vibrations that are going through you,

whether it's on your chest or whether it's on your head,

the effect of it being 360 degrees around your head

and, at one point, I really was back in the womb.

Those were deep, deep vibrations.

Fact is, upmarket spas for mind and body pampering are a real fad

across the world, especially in five-star hotels,

and the buzzword here is mindfulness.

I think a lot of people who come here, interestingly,

they're really high achievers in many aspects of their life,

but they may have something that they've ignored for a bit too long.

And regaining that balance and getting themselves sorted,

in a sense, where there's a balance

of emotional, physical, mental health.

My guru back in Bangkok is not so sure.

This is a new development and a new trend,

it's called religious tourism, I guess,

but catering for the people who are still longing for the comfort,

who are still longing for the consumerism, but at the same time

they feel so bad and then that is a new choice we are having.

Of course, I think that's better than nothing.

Ultimately, you're left feeling that this is, at most, a healing process

in a very comfortable and expensive environment.

Good for health and well-being on a surface level maybe,

but not really spiritual.

There's still something missing I have to find.

But there is a problem.

Thailand is a country in which 85% of the population say

they are Theravada Buddhists...

..and yet you sense that amongst younger people, especially

in the big city, organised Buddhism is losing its grip.

The kids of my generation, have a lot of access to the world,

like internet, cellphones, so there's lots of things out there

so it's hard for Buddhism to stay relevant in this new age.

ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Pete is very much a globalised Thai.

He's a cameraman and loves his gadgets.

Every Thai male is expected to enter monkhood

and be ordained as a rite of passage after school.

Many like Pete, though, only did it to please their parents.

I think my generation is a bit more sceptical about Buddhism

because the world is much more open now.

We have the whole world in our cellphone,

we can look up anything we want.

So the younger generation,

if they're not believing exactly what their parents are teaching them,

they have a chance to look up on their cellphone.

And the fact is,

many people in Pete's generation see Thailand as a place to find

a very different kind of release to the one Buddhism offers.

POUNDING DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Koh Samui - exotic island, where hedonism and commerce rule.

This would have been a Half Moon Party

if there hadn't been a recent ban imposed on them.

Nonetheless, at slickly-run events like this,

there's still plenty of fun to be had.

They can relax, they want to be free, you know?

They work hard for a whole year, that's what they tell me.

They want to relax, they want to enjoy.

Would it be fair to accuse these revellers

of not respecting or exploring Thai spirituality enough?

Personally, I don't think so,

but neither do I think that this is quite what I'm in search of.

I need to immerse myself

with Thailand's traditional upholders of spirituality - monks.

Mind you, the monkhood aren't doing themselves any favours at the moment.

If you believe the stories about bogus monks, corrupt monks,

and monks behaving badly.

The country has even created a monk police force to prevent the

bad apples from tarnishing the image of Thai Buddhism.

CHANTING

As well as being open to abuse,

Buddhism in Thailand stands accused of not keeping up with the times.

This temple is located outside Bangkok,

and is the only one in Thailand for women.

It's not recognised by the Buddhist hierarchy,

and neither is this lady...

In the Thai tradition, it is the monks - the male monks -

who go out for alms.

And it's women, always, make offering.

..the first and only such nun and abbess in the country.

Could this be one reason why Buddhism is losing its grip

on younger Thais?

In our country, what I see Buddhism is going through

is, we are so materialistic.

Our goal, even though we are Buddhist,

we do not seem to share the spiritual goal.

And once, when you do not have direction,

this being Buddhist is going to be corrupted -

no, it's not going to be corrupted, it IS corrupting.

It is corrupting, and hurting Buddhism itself,

and hurting also Thai society.

THEY CHANT

Modern Thailand is changing,

and Buddhism is clearly facing a battle to keep itself relevant.

But I'm still in search of the essence of Buddhism -

the reason why people around the world, like me, are so drawn to it.

And to find this, you have to go deep into rural Thailand.

OK, so this is it. Enough tiptoeing around with Buddhism lite -

we are now two hours, roughly, outside Bangkok, heading east

heading towards the forest and a monastery.

This is judgment day for the city kid, here. And here we go.

MONKS CHANT

And in the monastery, all novices and lay people like me

are expected to follow certain rules.

OWL HOOTS ALARM CLOCK RINGS

Wake up at 3am for two hours' meditation

followed by monastery duties like cleaning.

Two more long sessions of meditation are expected

during the rest of the day.

No eating after noon. That basically means one meal a day at breakfast.

No mobile phones or Wi-Fi, music or TV,

and reading material that is not related to Buddhist study

is discouraged.

No sleeping on a soft bed.

And you must dress respectfully.

Why am I doing this, again?

What did my spiritual guide tell me?

Our lifestyle drives us mad...

TRAFFIC BLARES

..because we need money to live,

and money is only earned through our hard working.

HORNS HONK

If you can have spare time, some places that you can hide

and then rest yourself, just like - what do we call this? -

charging the battery.

The grounds of the Wat Boonyawad monastery are vast - some 160 acres.

We're off to the right, here, which is the men's area.

Matthew has lived here for the past 19 years.

In a Buddhist culture like this, Thais, by nature, are very generous.

OK, so, um...

Matthew has now gone, and I'm here in this room.

Now, let's practise being a Buddhist.

It's now the allotted time for meditation

and one trick is to focus on your breathing.

Apparently Buddha himself sat cross-legged meditating

for 49 days nonstop - so I should be able to manage five minutes.

And now I'm getting hungry.

If I've got this right, in Buddhism,

craving or the desire for instant gratification

is the root of all suffering.

Well, I tell you what...

I'm suffering now.

And sleeping on a hard floor isn't much better.

OK, it's 5am, it's still pretty dark,

and I'm on the porch outside my room.

I've been awake since 3am,

when there was a - I think recorded - chanting

from the central area of the monastery,

which I guess is supposed to be a wake-up call.

I think I was supposed to be meditating for the last two hours,

but I feel a bit like a zombie, so I haven't done that very well.

But I've had a cold shower and I'm ready for the new day.

The first duty of the new day

is collecting alms - food - from the local community.

Every morning there's a number of routes from this monastery,

and the monks divide into small groups and go out to each route.

As I'm soon to find out,

this is not the only source of sustenance for the monks.

There you go.

This is a feast.

It's only once a day, but it's a good feast.

After breakfast, a chance to talk to the abbot,

who's been here since 1990.

We were lucky to be to be accepted in this monastery.

Many others turned us down, saying a TV crew would be too worldly

and therefore disruptive, presumably.

SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

INTERPRETER: 'People coming from non-Asian countries

'have grown up in a different culture environment,

'but when it come to the practice of developing one's mind,

'the potential is there for anybody to do it.

'If people can train dogs to be obedient,

'people have the same ability to train themselves.'

Next on the agenda is one of my daily duties.

Where's everyone else gone?

You might have noticed that the, er...

the task of sweeping up is given, really,

to the most enlightened person here in the monastery.

That's why I'm doing it.

And after that's complete,

a chance to meet some of the foreign monks as they finish their jobs.

Some, it transpires, have had rather colourful previous lives.

I am from a hippy from the Woodstock generation.

Just about when I was 20 years old,

we were trying to look to find some meaning in life.

Something like when I saw people driving the car to work

and having kids and raising family, and build expensive houses,

and buy all the plastic stuff -

But when you become a monk, you are also not happy at the beginning.

Why? Because you have to do all the things you don't like.

Like? All these chores, working and getting up in the morning -

you don't have money, you cannot go when you like.

You have such a lot of rules - it's worse than prison. Really?!

Yes, yes, yes. Definitely.

And then there's the enigma that is Michael.

I used to be a photographer. You used to be a photographer? Yeah.

And I travelled through the world, enjoyed myself, so...

What kind of pictures? Er, fashion. Fashion? Yeah. Oh, really?

Yeah. I was a...

Fashion magazines, catalogues, this kind of thing.

And successful? Er, yes. Yes, quite.

Successful enough.

Matthew later told me that Michael was also

the model Claudia Schiffer's manager for three years.

He was then a monk for a short period in 2001,

and returned to the faith a year and a half ago.

And this time he says it's for good.

Mostly my family thinks, yeah, I should have a family,

I should make lots of money, and what people normally think in the West.

No, no possessions any more. No health insurance, nothing at all.

Nothing in the bank? Nothing in the bank.

No safety net.

On the one hand, it's quite simple - you train yourself daily,

seven, eight, nine hours, in meditation,

and when you're able to still your mind, it becomes very peaceful.

And this experience is actually much better

than all the money that you have. Mm.

You know, when you can buy yourself an expensive meal

for $200-300 or euros or whatever, you know?

It's gone in half an hour or so.

When you have a peaceful mind, it stays with you for a long, long time.

That's what we're all after, aren't we?

Michael hasn't completely forsaken his old life -

he's still curious about the English Premiership football scores -

Arsenal, especially.

And then reveals the abbot is a secret Liverpool fan.

THEY CHANT

Monks have to observe 227 strict precepts or rules,

so really my efforts were rather pathetic.

But, in truth, as I left,

I realised I did gain something out of the experience.

In that short period, I appreciated the routine, the simplicity,

and the absence of empty choices you frequently have to make

in the outside world.

The point, though, is most of us live in that world.

So, I've reached the end of my voyage of discovery

here in Thailand,

and I've got to say, I do feel a little more enlightened.

I left every monastery I visited with

a lot of respect for the monks.

But they've got a tough challenge ahead -

especially in the big cities.

I get the impression that this country

is becoming increasingly polarised,

between rampant materialism on the one side

and moral purity on the other.

And the answer, as Buddha himself put it,

lies not at the extremes, not black and white, but somewhere in between.

The middle way.

And, for the time being, as Buddhism also says,

I think I'm going to try and embrace the moment

and live for now.