I've been Buddhist for about three years, since I wandered into my local Thai Wat (a branch of a Wat Nak Prok in Bangkok) in an effort to improve my Thai. My Thai is still pretty poor, but my Dhamma is improving.
We have, off and on, a couple of monks who speak good enough English to teach Dhamma in English (they originate from Bangladesh and the US) and meditation here follows the Mahasi Sayadaw approach, though I have done a couple of retreats and some workshops using other methods, particularly during a sojourn based in Hong Kong that took up most of 2007. Righ now I'm a week out from a two-week retreat where I stayed at the Wat over New Year
and am starting to miss the clarity that has now faded somewhat... It is an interesting coincidence that this board started up while I was "away"... Much of my in-depth study has been based on Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations (and co-translations) of the Nikayas and his incredible in-depth talks.
See the Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48054011290
And the anthology In the Buddha's Words: http://wisdompubs.org/Pages/display.lasso?-KeyValue=104
which is what really oriented me in the Suttas.
Metta
Mike
