Hello people of the Dharma Overground community. I'll try to be brief and get to the point, but I wanted to quickly introduce myself and give my thanks to Daniel for both writing MTCTB and providing this community. The book has been a welcome reality check, and a source of motivation.

My name is Tim, and I've been interested in Buddhism, meditation, and all that jazz since I was in my mid teens. At some point I developed the strong feeling that I would one day have to go on an extended spiritual journey and search for truth through meditation. However, due to fear of both the imagined momentousness of that challenge and of stepping away from the material world, I tried to ignore the call and put those thoughts in the back of my mind. Within the last year or so I came to accept that this simply wasn't possible, and so I began to set myself up to be able to devote myself to explore those questions that have always lingered somewhere in my mind.

After taking a well-earned holiday through Southeast Asia with friends, I now feel ready to throw myself into the process. I am currently in Bali, but plan to head to Malaysia within the next few days. From there I am looking for a centre to go on retreat.

From these forums I have seen recommendations for the MBMC, the Buddhist Hermitage Lunas, and Appamada Vihari Meditation Centre. I am currently in the process of emailing all three of these centres regarding staying there, and the conditions for doing so.

This has raised some questions for me.

1. Are there any major DO's/DON'Ts regarding contacting centres? I have never done this before, and it seems a little odd to send off a message along the lines of, "Hi, I'm someone you've never heard of before and have no links to you. Can I come stay for an undefined period of time?"

2. Following on from that question, any suggestions as to how long I might plan for for this first retreat? I realise this depends on the individual a lot, but having only been on one retreat two years ago (a 10 day Goenka taught Vipassana course) I'm not sure what is the right balance between too little time to see results and so much so that one goes mad with the isolation. FWIW, I have been rather naughty and not kept up a regular daily practice. Since reading Daniel's book I am attempting to change that, but I realise that I have likely disadvantaged myself by not being more disciplined.

3. Any other advice? I've read MTCTB twice now, am combing through this forum, and trying to track down every text I see strongly recommended. Mahasi Sayadaw's Practical Insight Meditation is top of my list.

Many thanks to anyone who reads this and responds! I am very excited to participate in the discussion here, and plunge deeper into the search for truth and wisdom.

Given what you've written, rather than pop off to a self-retreat of unspecified duration, why not opt for a 7/10/30-day guided retreat? You'll receive instruction and should have a chance to talk about your practice with a teacher. I'd think there also shouldn't be anything stopping you from doing retreats back to back if you wanted to immerse yourself more fully.

With a little research, you should be able to find something suitable in Malaysia or Thailand easily. The latter may have more options, and as you know Thailand is very accesible from Malaysia.

Best of luck!

Thank you for the response Small Steps.

I would be fine with going on a guided retreat, and, being relatively inexperienced, I would probably appreciate the guidance a lot. I'm not exactly sure where to go for this though. I definitely want the centre to be in Malaysia, as I already have a flight to KL booked and unfortunately arriving in Thailand by land only gives you 15 days stay.

I've googled around for places to go on guided retreat, but haven't found much out there. A lot of centres have barely functionable websites or they aren't in English. I've looked into doing another Goenka-style retreat, but the next one with any availability doesn't start until mid-September.

I have also emailed Appamada centre, as they seem to offer a teacher-guided practice. This would be my preferred option as they seem to offer flexible start/end dates.

If anyone is aware of any other centres in Malaysia that they think might be suitable then please let me know! As I said above, it can be difficult to google because so many websites are barely functional or aren't in English.

Just FYI, I think most of the retreat centers in Malaysia are not going to be near KL. MBMC and others are to the north, e.g. Penang, Kedah, if I read their websites correctly. If nothing else, go to Penang for the best cuisine in Malaysia (I'm biased; part of my family lived in this area

A 15-day visa would surely allow you to do a 7 or 10-day retreat at a place like Wat Kow Tahm, Suan Mokh, or Dipabhavan on Koh Samui etc. in Thailand, head back to Malaysia (e.g. Penang) for a few days then return if you wanted to for another retreat. I understand logistics is hard to puzzle out especially while you're there already and in the midst of planning, but I'm sure you'll figure something out.

An alternative to the short visa would be to book a flight into Thailand from Penang or KL. I think Air Asia and other local carriers are pretty affordable.

I haven't done a retreat in Thailand, just FYI. Just think that if you're looking for a Theravadan practice, you might have a larger range of options there. When I visited Chiang Mai earlier this year, it seemed that every wat of significance was offering a vipassana course. Guide books and the Internet clued me in to many others too.

Edit: Just to add, Burma is another option, of course, but I think visa requirements may be more complicated.

I've been accepted to come to Buddhist Heritage Lunas any time I like, which is very generous of them. They mentioned that they had some foreign yogis come who had not followed their method of following the rising and falling of the abdomen and that they "could do without them"! I assured them I would take their instructions seriously.

I also applied to Appadama Vihari. Their teacher, Sayalay Susila, is currently away so they could not accept my application. However, they will be able to do so when she returns in about a week.

As a general FYI, MBMC is currently still unable to accept foreign students because they are awaiting approval for their meditation master. So I'm guessing they have someone who is looking to take up the position, but they need to get approval from whoever is in charge of their particular lineage?

SmallSteps, Thailand and Myanmar are certainly options for me in the future, and I will consider them. So thanks for your advice on those. For the moment I have 90 days in Malaysia to use up, so I'm going to try to make good use of my time here.

Also, I'm very excited to try the excellent cuisine in Penang! I had a laksa today and it was not up to scratch. I'm sure I'll be satisfied up north though.

Sad to hear that about MBMC. I'm planning on travelling into Malaysia in October and was looking for a place to get retreat experience as well. Continued updates about Malaysia (or southern Thailand?) would be highly appreciated. Gracias for the thread

Hi Tim

Congrats on getting to go to Buddhist Heritage Lunas! Can you please let us know when you're back what the experience was like, as there isn't a lot of info out there about their centre. Specifically, Daniel Ingram started a thread here asking for details on the place. So let us know how it goes. 

Peter