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.