Sitting in the Mumbai airport...
My train ride flew by in no time [edit]. Now I've got 12 hours to kill, so I thought I'd let you share in my boredom with a pointless airport post!
I'm pretty sure I got ripped off on the taxi ride from the train station, but my mind is too mushy at the moment to care.
Hmm, so my general impressions of India: chaotic, exotic, diverse, perverse... colourful, beautiful, spiritual, obscene... dirty, innocent, incoherent, serene.
And every other adjective you can think of, except maybe "boring" - outside the airport, that is.
Actually though I'm glad to be going home... Since I decided in Delhi not to leave for Nepal or Pakistan to renew my visa I've had a hankering to get back and replenish my energy reserves. Out of all the countries I've been to though, this is one that I really think I'll have to return to someday. India is HUGE, and there are quite a few places I've yet to see and really want to, as well as some that I want to see again.
It was nice starting out with my parents and friends this time. I've only ever travelled overseas by myself before - having company makes a big difference. Friends and family take note: travelling partners wanted!
Anyway, if I get too bored in another few hours maybe I'll get back on and bore you some more... Ciao!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
The Tree
Well,
Here I am in Bodhgaya, in the state of Bihar, a state which the Buddha predicted "would continually suffer from 'feud fire and flood.'" And now, more than 2500 years later, "besides flooding, there is widespread government corruption, sporadic intercaste warfare, banditry and Naxalite violence, all of which contribute to the region being the poorest, least literate and most lawless area of India"(from my Lonely Planet guide). Despite these conditions, or perhaps because of them, this is the very spot where Siddhartha achieved enlightenment and developed his theory of reality. I sat under a descendant the bodhi tree where Buddha sat so long ago, and which is now surrounded by a fence and marble wall, which seems sadly ironic; but I guess it would be worse if it was covered in carved names and such. Then again, I don't believe this tree has any magical enlightening power - but it is certainly a beautiful, quiet place to think and reflect.
Every nation with a sizeable Buddhist population has a temple here - I meditated in the Japanese temple today. Other nations represented in temple form include Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Tibet, and Nepal, among others. It's amazing to see all the different styles.
I leave for Mumbai tomorrow via a 2-day train ride, and then, providing my train isn't too late, home.
So, did I achieve enlightenment on this trip? Not sure... In fact, I am even more confused as to what enlightenment actually entails. Maybe we are all already buddhas. At any rate, I definitely learned a lot, and added some interesting experiences to my life. And perhaps most importantly, I had fun!
Bye for now - I'm looking forward to seeing some of you soon back in Vic!
Here I am in Bodhgaya, in the state of Bihar, a state which the Buddha predicted "would continually suffer from 'feud fire and flood.'" And now, more than 2500 years later, "besides flooding, there is widespread government corruption, sporadic intercaste warfare, banditry and Naxalite violence, all of which contribute to the region being the poorest, least literate and most lawless area of India"(from my Lonely Planet guide). Despite these conditions, or perhaps because of them, this is the very spot where Siddhartha achieved enlightenment and developed his theory of reality. I sat under a descendant the bodhi tree where Buddha sat so long ago, and which is now surrounded by a fence and marble wall, which seems sadly ironic; but I guess it would be worse if it was covered in carved names and such. Then again, I don't believe this tree has any magical enlightening power - but it is certainly a beautiful, quiet place to think and reflect.
Every nation with a sizeable Buddhist population has a temple here - I meditated in the Japanese temple today. Other nations represented in temple form include Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Tibet, and Nepal, among others. It's amazing to see all the different styles.
I leave for Mumbai tomorrow via a 2-day train ride, and then, providing my train isn't too late, home.
So, did I achieve enlightenment on this trip? Not sure... In fact, I am even more confused as to what enlightenment actually entails. Maybe we are all already buddhas. At any rate, I definitely learned a lot, and added some interesting experiences to my life. And perhaps most importantly, I had fun!
Bye for now - I'm looking forward to seeing some of you soon back in Vic!
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Varanasi: dust to dust
saw my first burning corpse today...
it wasn't disgusting,
or depressing.
i pictured myself on the pyre,
untouchables poking and flipping my bubbling remains with sticks -
this body that I've taken care of and kept alive all these years
reduced to ashes in just a few hours.
like bubbles in the ocean,
or sparks from a fire -
arising, disappearing,
without a trace.
how fleeting!
it wasn't disgusting,
or depressing.
i pictured myself on the pyre,
untouchables poking and flipping my bubbling remains with sticks -
this body that I've taken care of and kept alive all these years
reduced to ashes in just a few hours.
like bubbles in the ocean,
or sparks from a fire -
arising, disappearing,
without a trace.
how fleeting!
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Crazy Wisdom
Just got back into Delhi today...
It was sad to leave McLeod Ganj, but actually I feel great! I had some wonderful experiences there. Since my last post I saw some beautiful Tibetan opera at TIPA, joined in on a mass cleanup, and went to an enlightening teaching at Tushita by Lama Zopa. His teaching style is very different from the Dalai Lama's - more experiential. It was hard to listen to him because of the incredible quantity of throat-clearing and ums and ahs, but I couldn't help feeling that it was all an act to make us listen more attentively. He was scheduled to talk for an hour but went on for about four. It was funny to see the reverence paid to him by the other monks - his robe would slowly fall down, and one would come to put it back on him. A couple times a monk would come and lift his water for him, and he would just let him stand there for half an hour holding the water before taking a sip. At one point he read from some sutras for about thirty minutes at auctioneer-on-speed pace - without clearing his throat. As far as content goes, he emphasized that things do exist, but are empty, so do not truly exist. During my course my teacher talked about him, saying that he never slept and could read minds and fly and things... Not sure about that, but he was definitely a very unusual sort of person.
Anyway, I'm feeling awesome, even though it was 36 degrees here today.
My roomies gave me a going-away CD full of pictures of life in McLeod Ganj - here's one of monks in line outside the temple during the Dalai Lama's teachings:
Ta!
It was sad to leave McLeod Ganj, but actually I feel great! I had some wonderful experiences there. Since my last post I saw some beautiful Tibetan opera at TIPA, joined in on a mass cleanup, and went to an enlightening teaching at Tushita by Lama Zopa. His teaching style is very different from the Dalai Lama's - more experiential. It was hard to listen to him because of the incredible quantity of throat-clearing and ums and ahs, but I couldn't help feeling that it was all an act to make us listen more attentively. He was scheduled to talk for an hour but went on for about four. It was funny to see the reverence paid to him by the other monks - his robe would slowly fall down, and one would come to put it back on him. A couple times a monk would come and lift his water for him, and he would just let him stand there for half an hour holding the water before taking a sip. At one point he read from some sutras for about thirty minutes at auctioneer-on-speed pace - without clearing his throat. As far as content goes, he emphasized that things do exist, but are empty, so do not truly exist. During my course my teacher talked about him, saying that he never slept and could read minds and fly and things... Not sure about that, but he was definitely a very unusual sort of person.
Anyway, I'm feeling awesome, even though it was 36 degrees here today.
My roomies gave me a going-away CD full of pictures of life in McLeod Ganj - here's one of monks in line outside the temple during the Dalai Lama's teachings:
Ta!
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