Sadus, Sufis and Septum Piecings

Get your mind out of the gutter.
A septum piercing is the piecing on the inside of the nose, in the cartilage between the nostrils. The piercing that makes you look like a bull.
Both Atomic and Jeremy had it pierced and I met up with them both last night for dinner.
Atomic is a punk rocker vagabond from Austin Texas who I met over couchsurfing because I was talking about San Francisco Stencil Graffiti, and he'd just come back from SF and was on his way to Thailand. Through them I got in touch with the thai punk scene. As it turns out "Oi" is a truly universal way to get a punk's attention.
I've met such an array of people in the past few days. Something within me has shifted and I'm attracting people now whereas before I was deflecting them.
As I sat at Tha Pae Gate waiting for Atomic, I was near a glowing man with perfect posture dressed all in white.
I pegged him.
I sat next to him and asked 'Alright, what sort of meditation do you do?"
He laughed and listed off several different kinds--most of which I'd never heard of . His name was Paul and was originally from London but he had been walking across India, Nepal and China for years studying and practicing all different sorts of things and was currently fixated on Qui Gong. I explained my confliction with the meditation course and he agreed to meet me for breakfast this morning.
It always makes me nervous to drink tea in front of the British.
After alot of talk about eastern systems and quantum physics I'm still just as conflicted. I think I owe it to myself to check out the temple tomorrow. And not let my pride keep me from leaving.
My dad is going to try to talk to China Airlines and extend my flight, which would be amazing. Because I just got the email address of a Prince in Laos who founded an art school in Luang Prabang whom I'm told I need to meet.
I also definately want to go back to Pai and spend more time with Puk and Pat and Willow. Willow is a an old sage of a person who has traveled the entire world as a sadu and other things, including an organic farmer on Maui! (WHAT?!). Puk introduced me to him and his Anka hill tribe wife Buti. I've never seen such a harmonious marriage. Willow never taught Buti any English and he spoke only a few words of thai. He'd travelled all over the world without learning language (sudu are silent). He said he has no interest in language, but communication is the most important thing. Big difference.
People are terribly afraid of silence. On the 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai I sat next to a Greek couple who talked the entire time. I counted. There was no more than a 4 second lull of silence between them. We aren't comfortable with quiet.
I'm supposed to go to the temple tomorrow for 21 days and spend those days completely silent and mostly in meditation, except for a once a day meeting with a teacher.
It's a rigourous program that imitates the monastic lifestyle and I'm really really nervous about it. I might not be able to complete it. I'm not positive its the right time for me to go.
But-- I will go up tomorrow and try. So, don't expect any blogs until I come down off the mountain.
Oh goodness.....