Rajgir was the first place Nick and I settled down for a few days and gave up the rather intense pace at which we had been moving. We needed to recover from our illnesses, get our practices kick-started once again and I assured him that Rajgir was a far better place to accomplish those goals than Varanasi. Old Rajgir, especially as seen from Vulture's Peak (the setting of numerous important discourses delivered by the Buddha and home to Ananda's and Sariputta's Bodhi caves) is a hilly, beautiful town, decorated with Hindu, Buddhist and Jain shrines and temples, and is usually rather quiet...usually. This time however, in keeping with the preceding few days (or the preceding couple months for me) it was not quiet. There was indeed a Hindu holiday or festival of some sort during which it was deemed appropriate to blast, sometimes deafeningly, from more than a dozen loudspeakers strapped to telephone poles all over town, swamiji's personal conversation with the Maharaj ("Great King") or Mata ("Mother"...I believe usually a reference to the goddess Durga) from 5 or so in the morning to 11 or so at night. (Got to give a guy credit for stamina.) I have often let the noise get to me on this trip...it has really changed from the last time I was here. It seems like the culture that did so much to develop the contemplative, silent sciences is systematically destroying one's ability to find a silent locale, conducive to contemplation and investigation. That being said, I have been learning, though it isn't always easy to see, tolerance and patience from the discomfort/dukkha that arises from my own frustration...as well as a deep appreciation for quiet times when I can hear the leaves in the wind. It also reminds me of how much of my life I have spent "loud-ing" over others hoping that the volume of my voice would make the words or views they were wedded to more legitimate. Perhaps reflecting on this dynamic would be more skillful than complaining...or fantasizing about snipping electric cables.
In any case...Nick and I got out the ear plugs when we needed to sleep and were generally OK with the noise after a while. We also escaped up the hills to a much quieter Vulture's Peak, where we sat twice in Ananda's Bodhi Cave and chanted with some Thai monks and pilgrims. Over and over again they chanted the qualities of the Buddha, "Iti pi so bhagava, arahan, samma-sambuddho...",in a seemingly primordial tone and rhythm that revealed the OM for a short time. Nick and I are working on the Pali now so that he can join in fully next time). We also took the long, steep uphill climb to Saptaparni Cave, home (theoretically) to the site of the first council, where five hundred arahants (there's no way 500 dudes fit in that cave, hence theoretically) are said to have standardized the Pali cannon. We also spent some time sitting in Venuvana/Veluvana (the Bamboo Grove), the site of the first Buddhist monastery. We hitched a ride on a tractor (the driver of which wouldn't accept any money from us...a rare...really rare thing in this part of the world in my experience), ran into the bushes to get away from the Indian police, rode the "famous" (slash locally known) Rajgir rope...ski-lift thing, up to the Shanti Stupa/peace pagoda and met some cool people along the way.
We also took a day trip to the ruins of Nalanda University, the first Buddhist University (roughly fifth to thirteenth centuries CE...though I'm still trying to figure out how this timeline works since Nagarjuna, a significant Buddhist philosopher, founder of the Madhyamika school and formalizer of the all important notion of shunyata ["emptiness/void"] as viewed by the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, who lived in the second and third century CE was supposed to have served as the head of the University for a stint...I'll have to look more into that in the future). These ruins were far more impressive than I was expecting them to be. (You get used to Buddhist ruins being a pile of red brick with a sign that says something about destruction during the Mugal invasion in the 13th century...but at Nalanda they have done a lot of work to unearth and, in a limited way, reconstruct enough so that you get a sense of the size and significance of the campus.) This University was the Alma Mater of such big Mahayana names as Atisha, Naropa, Padmasambhava, Xuanzang, Shantarakshita, Chandrakirti and on. Nalanda was also the birth and death place of the Buddha's disciple, foremost in wisdom, Shariputta and one of the temples on campus is said to be a reliquary for this great historical figure. Nick and I did a short sit facing the temple from within one of the ruined cells. It was certainly a worthwhile excursion.
There is a great deal more to say about Rajgir and about how the practice has continued to develop since the retreat and my re-entry into India, but its time to get back to our ashram and the internet spot is closing down soon. Posts on our four days in Bodhgaya, site of Siddhatha Gautama's Awakening to Buddhahood, our travels through Ayodhya, the birthplace and setting for much of the Ramayana (though to tell you the truth, its a pretty unexceptional place nowadays and I probably won't write that much about it...it only remains special because it reminds me of a wonderful summer studying Sanskrit with my two beautiful friends Aaron and AJ), and hopefully a part II of my retreat haikus will be forthcoming. I make no promises...we are doing a lot of moving around again. Be good and be well. Thank you for participating.
P.S. I played cricket for my first time today (in Ayodhya)...we won...I still don't really know how or why...but I definitely scored a lot of runs and bowled reasonably well. I will continue trying to decode this game.
P.P.S. Oh...and I am doing pretty well healthwise. Thank you for asking :)
In any case...Nick and I got out the ear plugs when we needed to sleep and were generally OK with the noise after a while. We also escaped up the hills to a much quieter Vulture's Peak, where we sat twice in Ananda's Bodhi Cave and chanted with some Thai monks and pilgrims. Over and over again they chanted the qualities of the Buddha, "Iti pi so bhagava, arahan, samma-sambuddho...",in a seemingly primordial tone and rhythm that revealed the OM for a short time. Nick and I are working on the Pali now so that he can join in fully next time). We also took the long, steep uphill climb to Saptaparni Cave, home (theoretically) to the site of the first council, where five hundred arahants (there's no way 500 dudes fit in that cave, hence theoretically) are said to have standardized the Pali cannon. We also spent some time sitting in Venuvana/Veluvana (the Bamboo Grove), the site of the first Buddhist monastery. We hitched a ride on a tractor (the driver of which wouldn't accept any money from us...a rare...really rare thing in this part of the world in my experience), ran into the bushes to get away from the Indian police, rode the "famous" (slash locally known) Rajgir rope...ski-lift thing, up to the Shanti Stupa/peace pagoda and met some cool people along the way.
We also took a day trip to the ruins of Nalanda University, the first Buddhist University (roughly fifth to thirteenth centuries CE...though I'm still trying to figure out how this timeline works since Nagarjuna, a significant Buddhist philosopher, founder of the Madhyamika school and formalizer of the all important notion of shunyata ["emptiness/void"] as viewed by the Mahayana branch of Buddhism, who lived in the second and third century CE was supposed to have served as the head of the University for a stint...I'll have to look more into that in the future). These ruins were far more impressive than I was expecting them to be. (You get used to Buddhist ruins being a pile of red brick with a sign that says something about destruction during the Mugal invasion in the 13th century...but at Nalanda they have done a lot of work to unearth and, in a limited way, reconstruct enough so that you get a sense of the size and significance of the campus.) This University was the Alma Mater of such big Mahayana names as Atisha, Naropa, Padmasambhava, Xuanzang, Shantarakshita, Chandrakirti and on. Nalanda was also the birth and death place of the Buddha's disciple, foremost in wisdom, Shariputta and one of the temples on campus is said to be a reliquary for this great historical figure. Nick and I did a short sit facing the temple from within one of the ruined cells. It was certainly a worthwhile excursion.
There is a great deal more to say about Rajgir and about how the practice has continued to develop since the retreat and my re-entry into India, but its time to get back to our ashram and the internet spot is closing down soon. Posts on our four days in Bodhgaya, site of Siddhatha Gautama's Awakening to Buddhahood, our travels through Ayodhya, the birthplace and setting for much of the Ramayana (though to tell you the truth, its a pretty unexceptional place nowadays and I probably won't write that much about it...it only remains special because it reminds me of a wonderful summer studying Sanskrit with my two beautiful friends Aaron and AJ), and hopefully a part II of my retreat haikus will be forthcoming. I make no promises...we are doing a lot of moving around again. Be good and be well. Thank you for participating.
P.S. I played cricket for my first time today (in Ayodhya)...we won...I still don't really know how or why...but I definitely scored a lot of runs and bowled reasonably well. I will continue trying to decode this game.
P.P.S. Oh...and I am doing pretty well healthwise. Thank you for asking :)
No comments:
Post a Comment