Pictures!

This is part of the group in front of the Mahabodhi temple:
(top left to bottom right: Robert, Meg, Suzanne, Camille, Keith, Guliano (philosophy professor), Dierdre, Kaitlyn, and Chimi, I took the picture)



This picture I took from atop a hill near Bodh Gaya famous for the cave that the Buddha meditated in for six years. It is a very auspicious thing to put prayer flags at this point so there weremany. Bodh Gaya is on the other side of the river shown below.



This is also from the top of the hill.

This is the Japanese Zendo where we did Zen meditation.

After the Deewali festival everything is cleaned in shops and houses because the monsoon season has ended. Painting cows and goats somehow represents this??


This is Tibetan class in the Library from left to right: Chimi, Me, Punja, Manny, Jon.

Classes

My classes are turning out very well. I'm taking Buddhist Philosophy, Tibetan language and Meditation traditions. I am also beginning to research my plans for the independent study period approaching quickly.

In philosophy we have loosely covered the history of the many Buddhisms over the last 2500 years. It is difficult to get an appropriate feel for the transmigration of ideas because all groups practice differently. This (our author argued) allowed Buddhism to adapt and flourish in the many cultures it expanded to. So, pretty much all classifications of Buddhist schools are flawed to some degree. It is also important to not apply the Western notion of religious schisms to the progression of schools. Simply, it is built into the framework of Buddhism to be apt to change. We are now studying key philosophical concepts revealing the epistemic and metaphysical nature of reality: such as emptiness, non-self, and impermanence. The interesting difference is that knowledge is only helpful in as much as it progresses one further down the path to liberation. It is therefore not the case that complete understanding of the concepts is expected or even possible as it is in the west. The concepts then are meant to help the practitioner in his or her practice. All in all its an interesting class.

Tibetan is fantastic. We meet in the morning and at noon everyday. In the mornings we learn classical written Tibetan; we are working on translating some mantras (ritual texts). The afternoon is dedicated to conversational Tibetan. Three times a week two Lamas (monastic teachers) come to our class from the local Bhutanese monastery to talk with us. We can have a very basic conversation, its really fun. Basic conversational Tibetan will be very useful next month in Sikkim, I'll still have to hire a translator though.

Meditation traditions is great too. Every school of Buddhism meditates differently, I had no idea. We have studied a tradition from SE Asia called Vipassana and a tradition from Japan, Soto Zen. Next week we will move onto a Tibetan tradition. The practices generally reflect the culture they grew out of and also each tradition places different levels of emphasis on the practice of meditation itself. I am learning a lot.

Relaxing weekend, sort of

Bodh Gaya continues to offer unique experiences and activities. Today we hiked to a nearby cave on the side of a sizable hill. This is the location the Buddha practiced asceticism for 6 years before discovering the middle path. It was great to get out of the Vihar and hike. We walked through many small villages which is completely different (and nicer) from meeting people in the town. The structures in these villages haven't changed for 1000's of years. The farming tools, apart from steel tips, haven't changed either. Even at 8:30 the sun was smoldering hot. At the summit I could look south to Bodh Gaya, north to Gaya, and behind me to the east, barely visible was Rajgir. Bodh Gaya is connected to the very wide, and low, Niranjana river. Apart from development the land is covered by rice fields.

Work is demanding, time is flying, I put an order in for Meditation cushions so please speak up if I could bring something back for you from the tailor. Tomorrow I have plans with some local children to play soccer, hopefully there is some cloud cover but regardless it should be fun. It's difficult to find ways to exercise with the Indian sun.

Tonight I am going to a local Tibetan Restaurant for Veg Momos. They're great.

Starting Zazen

Back at the Vihar life never seems to slow down. We have finished the first segment of the program and are now moving to the segment oriented around the Zen tradition of Japan. Yesterday I went for a bike ride and remembered the feeling of not being in a city. The surrounding area is composed of green rice fields dotted with large trees and hills in the distance. There are some ponds where children swim, so do the water buffalo and the boars. I still have not figured out whether these animals belong to individual families or just roam. The Vihar has six bikes so it is really convenient and fun to take them out.

Zen is interesting, very distinct from Vipassana. The way you enter the meditation room, move about in it and sit are very structured. Also, you are supposed to meditate with your eyes open. Tonight for the first time we are going to go and practice at another temple, the Japanese Zen center because the room even should be specifically designed with the specificities of the practice in mind.

At the end of this week I need to turn in my first outline for my independent study project. I am beginning to research monasteries in the Yoksum area of western Sikkim to see which ones have retreat programs. I want to study the role of structured, 3 year retreats common in the Vajrayana traditions of the Himalayas. This of course needs to be seriously refined in the coming months but I want to see why monastics believe retreat to be more conducive than living in the Monastery; I also think it is an interesting paradox that Monasteries have formed the habit of structuring something that grew out of a tradition of wandering ascetics.

Hope everyone is well.

Traveling without a guide

The week went quickly and I remained busy. My classes ended Thursday morning for a three-day weekend. Three friends and myself organized transportation to Gaya station headed for Varanasi. It was extremely difficult to navigate the station because there is no information desk and no consisent method for identifying the track you are on. The train arrived about 4 and a half hours late so we didn't get moving till 7. Finding a taxi was quite an experience at the Mughal Sarai station, which is 17 kms from Varanasi. This is because about twenty drivers wanted desperatly to take us, at about 11:30, and were all shouting prices and leading us in different directions. We finally found our bearings and arrived at Assi Ghat (most southern main ghat in Varanasi) at about midnight. The lodge I made reservations with earlier had fogotten them or something so we didn't have rooms. We ended up squeezing four to a room and quickly falling alseep.

Over all it is new and an adventure to try to negociate India without experts (like the faculty of the program), but we made it alive. I want to stress this point because of the aggressive nature of the driving in India, somehow there appear to be very few accidents.

Today is full and so far great. We took I 5 am boat ride on the Ganges and saw more than I can express. Most of the buildings standing today are not older than the 18th century and many in the style identified with the Gupta period. Ghats are sections of steps leading to the river where people daily bath and dump the remains of the dead. Like so much in India I doubt this would be possible with the relgulations in the states. We had a great breakfast, at a fancy restaurant, and then worked our way back to Assi ghat in the south. I bought many things. Benares (common name for Varanasi) is famous for its silks so as you can imagine it is very colorful. The allyways, with foundations dating back to 1400 BCE, make it difficult to pass the meandering water buffalo. Tonight we have plans to attend a concert of classical Indian music which will be sweet.

Tomorrow I will take a cab to Sarnath (where the Buddha gave his first sermon). There is a archeological musuem as well as the Institute for higher Tibetan education.

On Sunday we start the Zen meditation tradition which I know nothing about so I'm looking forward to it. This means however that 1/3 of the program (excluding the Independent study) is already over, which feels impossible. Hope all is well on the other side.