Hello everybody,
It's the end of my second week, and I'm very happy and healthy. Thanks to everyone who has been following along my journey; I love reading your comments. A brief note: because most internet cafe computers lack anti-virus software, there's considerable risk in plugging my digital camera into them to upload pictures, and that's why I haven't managed to share them with you all just yet. Thanks for being patient. If I ever do find a safe computer, I'll do my best to post them.
Last time I left you I was about to go through temporary monastic ordination (1 week) in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition. Well, I currently type from inside a humid internet cafe, adorned in my brown monastic robes and American sneakers. This is the first time I've wanted to leave the vihar since ordination; I'll definitely be getting out more after I "de-robe" on Monday and return to lay life. This experience as a temporary monk has been deeply satisfying and reflective for me. Taking on 5 additional precepts has made me reflect more on the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of my thoughts and actions, and the benefits of following the vinaya, or Buddhist monastic code. Most meaningful has been going through this with other curious American students. Every night at 7pm we (the ten monks who ordained) get to sit, sip honey-lemon tea and discuss Buddhism, philosophy, Burmese culture, ice hockey, and a whole range of topics with our Vipassana teacher Uh Lha Myint. This weekend the ordination experience ends with a 48-hour silent Vipassana retreat, which we'll spend most of in Vipassana sitting and walking meditation. Needless to say, I anticipate it with great joy. It will certainly be a challenge.
This week I also got to write and turn in my first paper . . . all hand-written! I started a week early and it took a lot of time. As many of you know, I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to essays, so I had plenty of loose-leaf thrown about my room scribbled with black, red, and blue print, arrows, 'x's, and editing comments. I wrote this paper for my philosophy class on petas, or "hungry ghosts", as they are seen within the Theravadan Buddhist tradition. The idea was sparked by constant references to ghosts in Bodh Gaya, and the ubiquitous belief in ghosts among Theravadins. For them, hungry ghosts occupy one of the six major realms of being - humans occupy a higher one. I learned a lot, and have a lot to say about the subject if you're curious to talk about it. Or, you could just pack a bag of raw meat and head into the cemetary at midnight and engage them yourself. But most Buddhists don't recommend it.
The Philosophy class has been wonderful. It's taught by an alum from this program who has gone on to study in Tibet, get his masters from Naropa in Tibetan Buddhist Studies, and who is now completing his Phd at Harvard. He's ridiculously knowledgeable, but easy to talk to. His lectures are dense and trance-like, and I'm constantly impressed and appreciative of my peers' engagement and probing questions. Our professor really engages students outside of class too, so there's already a very strong back and forth between us on a whole range of topics, which seem to be pushing his understanding too.
Well, I have to be getting back to the vihar (monastery). Hopefully through these entries I can drop not only updates but also more consistent pieces of the experience so that you all can get an image of what it's like to live in Bodh Gaya.
Again, thanks for keeping track. It's always securing to have a few tethers back home.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Bodh Gaya - First Week
Namaste all,
Hello from Bodh Gaya, my home for the previous ten days. Our group arrived from Delhi and began classes last week. The moment I stepped off the bus, I knew this was the right place and the right time for me. Simply put, the spiritual vibration of Bodh Gaya is quite intense, especially around the Mahabodhi Temple - the central temple grounds around the Bodhi Tree (where the Buddha attained enlightenment). This is, of course, compounded by the regular Indian, half-modernizing, half crumbling, half-ancient, half-renovated environment. The road outside the vihar is littered with every imaginable 5-note combination squanking out of tourist buses - their horns are more like broken-trumpet ringtones than anything else, an interesting addition to our meditation practice!
The program has been wonderful in terms of accomodation: decent rooms, clean facilities, clean, nutritious food, and countless tips for staying healthy. I've had no illness so far, and, apparently, our group has been record breaking in terms of health. Hardly anyone has gotten sick: some colds and diareha, but nothing abnormal.
Some fun cultural experiences . . . Toilet adjustment has been a blast. Most toilets are fancy holes in the ground with no toilet paper. But squatting has turned out to be a nice leg stretch, and water is more effective than you'd think for anal cleanliness!
Generally (but not absolutely) speaking, Indians have a much more liberal sense of personal space, are friendlier and looser, are crude in conversation with each other but very gentle with Westerners (unless they want your money), and they have no problem staring at you for 5-10 minutes straight. Long eye-to-eye glares aren't considered rude here, nevertheless they make me feel the whole range of awkard, spectacle, handsome, intrusive . . . There's no blaming them though; a 6'4'' white guy in traditional white Indian clothing is probably quite the sight. The shaved head certainly adds to it.
On the subject of clothing, like many other students I've adopted traditional Indian dress, even though most Indians actually where Western clothing these days. The clothes are amazingly comfortable, light, and beautiful. If you want to google-pic: corta, pajama pants, and doti. I really wish I could pull off a doti in the States (basically a man's, Greekish, white, skirt). Indians give me the strangest compliments, "You. Doti. You know you're whering a Doti? Good! You look good! Like Gandhi. You Indian man now! Very rich, very high." What makes me feel really nice and priveledged are my tailored clothes and sandals. They fit wonderfully and were ridiculously cheap.
Speaking of tailors. I befriened my tailor Makshud of "Good and Best Tailors" -- a 26-year-old, kind, but soft-spoken Muslim man. One night, a friend and I got to join him for dinner at his home. It was wonderful. He lives in a quite small tenement near the monastery with family members and a cow (the cow's outside, sort of . . . in India, very little is definitively outdoors or indoors.) We hung out and watched Indian TV (obnoxiously entertaining), although the power switched off every hour or so because it was raining.
I could speak volumes about the curriculum, but I have to keep it short. In brief, the classes are like any other good liberal arts classes; they're definitely enriched by living with the professors! The way in which they teach the meditation course is in three three-week segments. One focusing on Vipassana, the next Zen, and the last Tibetan. We have asian teachers from the traditions who come in and instruct, which has been wonderfully enriching as well. Perhaps, I will illucidate more about the curriculum and meditation in my next entry.
Next week, I will be participating with about 15 others in Burmese temporary lay ordination. Which basically means we get to become monks for 10 days -- taking on additional precepts, wearing the robes, and behaving like monks and nuns. This is a regular ritual in Burma and other Theravadan Buddhist countries, and I'm quite eager and grateful to be participating in it.
Two weeks from now will be our first long weekend. My friend Matt and I will be heading to Varanasi. Perhaps, in future entries, I will discuss some of the friends I'm making: a lot of really interesting, wonderful people who have made this trip a joy for me.
You can expect entries about every week or two because there is not a lot of time to get out of the monastery during the week.
Take care.
Hello from Bodh Gaya, my home for the previous ten days. Our group arrived from Delhi and began classes last week. The moment I stepped off the bus, I knew this was the right place and the right time for me. Simply put, the spiritual vibration of Bodh Gaya is quite intense, especially around the Mahabodhi Temple - the central temple grounds around the Bodhi Tree (where the Buddha attained enlightenment). This is, of course, compounded by the regular Indian, half-modernizing, half crumbling, half-ancient, half-renovated environment. The road outside the vihar is littered with every imaginable 5-note combination squanking out of tourist buses - their horns are more like broken-trumpet ringtones than anything else, an interesting addition to our meditation practice!
The program has been wonderful in terms of accomodation: decent rooms, clean facilities, clean, nutritious food, and countless tips for staying healthy. I've had no illness so far, and, apparently, our group has been record breaking in terms of health. Hardly anyone has gotten sick: some colds and diareha, but nothing abnormal.
Some fun cultural experiences . . . Toilet adjustment has been a blast. Most toilets are fancy holes in the ground with no toilet paper. But squatting has turned out to be a nice leg stretch, and water is more effective than you'd think for anal cleanliness!
Generally (but not absolutely) speaking, Indians have a much more liberal sense of personal space, are friendlier and looser, are crude in conversation with each other but very gentle with Westerners (unless they want your money), and they have no problem staring at you for 5-10 minutes straight. Long eye-to-eye glares aren't considered rude here, nevertheless they make me feel the whole range of awkard, spectacle, handsome, intrusive . . . There's no blaming them though; a 6'4'' white guy in traditional white Indian clothing is probably quite the sight. The shaved head certainly adds to it.
On the subject of clothing, like many other students I've adopted traditional Indian dress, even though most Indians actually where Western clothing these days. The clothes are amazingly comfortable, light, and beautiful. If you want to google-pic: corta, pajama pants, and doti. I really wish I could pull off a doti in the States (basically a man's, Greekish, white, skirt). Indians give me the strangest compliments, "You. Doti. You know you're whering a Doti? Good! You look good! Like Gandhi. You Indian man now! Very rich, very high." What makes me feel really nice and priveledged are my tailored clothes and sandals. They fit wonderfully and were ridiculously cheap.
Speaking of tailors. I befriened my tailor Makshud of "Good and Best Tailors" -- a 26-year-old, kind, but soft-spoken Muslim man. One night, a friend and I got to join him for dinner at his home. It was wonderful. He lives in a quite small tenement near the monastery with family members and a cow (the cow's outside, sort of . . . in India, very little is definitively outdoors or indoors.) We hung out and watched Indian TV (obnoxiously entertaining), although the power switched off every hour or so because it was raining.
I could speak volumes about the curriculum, but I have to keep it short. In brief, the classes are like any other good liberal arts classes; they're definitely enriched by living with the professors! The way in which they teach the meditation course is in three three-week segments. One focusing on Vipassana, the next Zen, and the last Tibetan. We have asian teachers from the traditions who come in and instruct, which has been wonderfully enriching as well. Perhaps, I will illucidate more about the curriculum and meditation in my next entry.
Next week, I will be participating with about 15 others in Burmese temporary lay ordination. Which basically means we get to become monks for 10 days -- taking on additional precepts, wearing the robes, and behaving like monks and nuns. This is a regular ritual in Burma and other Theravadan Buddhist countries, and I'm quite eager and grateful to be participating in it.
Two weeks from now will be our first long weekend. My friend Matt and I will be heading to Varanasi. Perhaps, in future entries, I will discuss some of the friends I'm making: a lot of really interesting, wonderful people who have made this trip a joy for me.
You can expect entries about every week or two because there is not a lot of time to get out of the monastery during the week.
Take care.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
6th Day - Delhi
Our group arrived yesterday morning in Delhi airport after an 8 hour flight, and the day transpired into quite the adventure. It was my first day outside of the U.S./Canada/UK and my first in a third world country, so, of course, there was a lot of new sights and experiences on the trip from the airport alone: ridiculously chaotic traffic, lots of road construction w/o the American safety amenities, low ceilings, amazing and terrible smells, and people napping everywhere from roadsides, to gutters, to on top of buildings and cars.
We arrived at our YMCA hostel, checked in, etc. I showered, but actually shrugged off the initial groups of people heading out to eat and such because I wanted more rest. By mid-afternoon, I decided to go out, grab something vegetarian/cooked/safe-looking/water-free to eat, perhaps find a cheap rate on a phone, and see if I could find my peers who were heading towards one of Delhi's (perhaps India's?) largest Sikh temples close by. Well, I went out alone, which was a fantastic idea, yet something I'll avoid doing in the future. Within twenty minutes I had made two complete rotations through the six realms of being: heaven (beautifully new smells, flower arrangements, people, clothing), human (massive amounts squeezed into confined spaces), titan (aggressively friendly street-vendors, motor-rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, teenagers looking for a kick), hell (poverty you just have to see for yourself), hungry ghost (all kinds of beggars/scam artists) , and animal (monkeys, cats, dogs (alive and dead)). Well, twenty minutes later and only one task achieved (a safe-looking veggie sandwich), I found some of my friends in a market -- boy did they stand out -- and we made our way to the Sikh temple.
The Sikh temple was quite beautiful; here's someone else's pic (http://www.worldchanging.com/temple.jpg). We kind of just wandered in, found out what was expected in terms of hair coverage, prostration, donation, feet washing, and enjoyed sitting, listening to tabla/sitar music and Sikh proselytizing (presumably in Hindi) booming from speakers all around: a tremendous spiritual vibration to absorb. Meditation was quite effortless; all you needed to do was close your eyes.
Well, nothing too interesting after that. Today at 1:00 PM, I meet with my acarya (teacher, adviser, friend) from Ananda Marga, Dada Rudraprakeshananda, who led me through my experience at the retreat center this summer at Ananda Kanan. We arranged to meet some time ago, and I'm very excited to see him again and have a trustworthy Indian lead me around!
In terms of culture shock, I'm doing surprisingly wonderful at the moment. At the moment . . . I'm sure that'll all change as time goes on.
That's all for now.
We arrived at our YMCA hostel, checked in, etc. I showered, but actually shrugged off the initial groups of people heading out to eat and such because I wanted more rest. By mid-afternoon, I decided to go out, grab something vegetarian/cooked/safe-looking/water-free to eat, perhaps find a cheap rate on a phone, and see if I could find my peers who were heading towards one of Delhi's (perhaps India's?) largest Sikh temples close by. Well, I went out alone, which was a fantastic idea, yet something I'll avoid doing in the future. Within twenty minutes I had made two complete rotations through the six realms of being: heaven (beautifully new smells, flower arrangements, people, clothing), human (massive amounts squeezed into confined spaces), titan (aggressively friendly street-vendors, motor-rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, teenagers looking for a kick), hell (poverty you just have to see for yourself), hungry ghost (all kinds of beggars/scam artists) , and animal (monkeys, cats, dogs (alive and dead)). Well, twenty minutes later and only one task achieved (a safe-looking veggie sandwich), I found some of my friends in a market -- boy did they stand out -- and we made our way to the Sikh temple.
The Sikh temple was quite beautiful; here's someone else's pic (http://www.worldchanging.com/temple.jpg). We kind of just wandered in, found out what was expected in terms of hair coverage, prostration, donation, feet washing, and enjoyed sitting, listening to tabla/sitar music and Sikh proselytizing (presumably in Hindi) booming from speakers all around: a tremendous spiritual vibration to absorb. Meditation was quite effortless; all you needed to do was close your eyes.
Well, nothing too interesting after that. Today at 1:00 PM, I meet with my acarya (teacher, adviser, friend) from Ananda Marga, Dada Rudraprakeshananda, who led me through my experience at the retreat center this summer at Ananda Kanan. We arranged to meet some time ago, and I'm very excited to see him again and have a trustworthy Indian lead me around!
In terms of culture shock, I'm doing surprisingly wonderful at the moment. At the moment . . . I'm sure that'll all change as time goes on.
That's all for now.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
3rd Day - London
Yesterday I met my new group of friends on the Bodh Gaya program and have begun the orientation with them. Orientation will last until the 9th, but will be in London, Delhi, and Bodh Gaya. Today we had a few prep discussions at a local university, visited the British Museum (which I've been to every day since I arrived), and ended with a fantastic Indian meal. A few favorites: buddha statues, rice pudding, and a conversation about being aware of both our fears AND hopes going into Bodh Gaya, and letting neither pull us away from open-minded, healthy, and maturing experiences.
Right now, I'm sitting in the hotel lobby, surrounded by a dozen of my peers, typing away on a laptop. So far, I've encountered some pretty fantastic personalities. Many calm, mindful people. Generally liberal, but I'm genuinely surprised and excited to find a diversity of intellects attracted to Buddhism, India, and this program. From eavesdropping I can tell you that conversations include: non-profits combatting racism in Mississipi, lost luggage, cheating on a girlfriend and the subsequent regret, developing spiritual education in grade/high schools, and poetry.
Of course, we're all having difficulty untangling ourselves from each other. My meditation/yoga practice has slacked a bit, but it'll all start up again with our relatively rigorous schedule in Bodh Gaya.
The students come from a whole range of experience with religious study, Buddhism, meditation, and yoga. From no experience to years of study, travelling to Tibet, and meditation retreats. From my brief interaction with the instructors, their knowledge and compassion are both pretty vast, and I can't wait to learn more.
Well, next you'll hear from me I'll be in India.
So long!
Right now, I'm sitting in the hotel lobby, surrounded by a dozen of my peers, typing away on a laptop. So far, I've encountered some pretty fantastic personalities. Many calm, mindful people. Generally liberal, but I'm genuinely surprised and excited to find a diversity of intellects attracted to Buddhism, India, and this program. From eavesdropping I can tell you that conversations include: non-profits combatting racism in Mississipi, lost luggage, cheating on a girlfriend and the subsequent regret, developing spiritual education in grade/high schools, and poetry.
Of course, we're all having difficulty untangling ourselves from each other. My meditation/yoga practice has slacked a bit, but it'll all start up again with our relatively rigorous schedule in Bodh Gaya.
The students come from a whole range of experience with religious study, Buddhism, meditation, and yoga. From no experience to years of study, travelling to Tibet, and meditation retreats. From my brief interaction with the instructors, their knowledge and compassion are both pretty vast, and I can't wait to learn more.
Well, next you'll hear from me I'll be in India.
So long!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
1st Day - London
Hello from London! I'm currently sipping Earl Grey tea at an internet cafe, typing on someone else's laptop. I arrived this morning at 9:00 am London time. The flight went quite well, I spent most of it napping, meditating, and concentrating so hard on this beautiful blonde baby's crying until it was surreal and annoying-no-more.
This was after my Mom and step-dad, Jim, barely shoved me out of KCI airport in Kansas City. You see, up until that point, I exerted a special effort not to stress or worry about my trip, but to rather let go of anxiety and trust that all would be OK. One way I did this was by going over my list of possessions and body parts and vividly imagining each one broken, lost, stolen, or even violently ripped from my person. So, by the time of my flight my mind was ready for anything to happen, the chillest I've ever been for a trip -- too chill, frankly. Perhaps chill to the point of carelessness. After loosing track of my itinerary, almost missing my flight (they were calling my name on the intercom), and flying to an unplanned airport (I thought it was Heathrow, but apparently it was Gatwick . . . Heathrow, Gatwick. They sound similar . . .) I exerted a little more effort to control my situation. After doing so, I made it my hostel, ate some Pad Thai, and now here I am -- caffeinated and ready to go museum hopping.
Jet lag? More like Wet Bag. That's my only complaint so far. 46 lbs. is enough, I don't need London drizzle saturation. It's off my back and in a locker now, so I'm good.
I meet my Bodh Gaya program people tomorrow; we begin orientation, then leave for Delhi on the 7th. Stay tuned.
This was after my Mom and step-dad, Jim, barely shoved me out of KCI airport in Kansas City. You see, up until that point, I exerted a special effort not to stress or worry about my trip, but to rather let go of anxiety and trust that all would be OK. One way I did this was by going over my list of possessions and body parts and vividly imagining each one broken, lost, stolen, or even violently ripped from my person. So, by the time of my flight my mind was ready for anything to happen, the chillest I've ever been for a trip -- too chill, frankly. Perhaps chill to the point of carelessness. After loosing track of my itinerary, almost missing my flight (they were calling my name on the intercom), and flying to an unplanned airport (I thought it was Heathrow, but apparently it was Gatwick . . . Heathrow, Gatwick. They sound similar . . .) I exerted a little more effort to control my situation. After doing so, I made it my hostel, ate some Pad Thai, and now here I am -- caffeinated and ready to go museum hopping.
Jet lag? More like Wet Bag. That's my only complaint so far. 46 lbs. is enough, I don't need London drizzle saturation. It's off my back and in a locker now, so I'm good.
I meet my Bodh Gaya program people tomorrow; we begin orientation, then leave for Delhi on the 7th. Stay tuned.
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