Bohdgaya and environs

We pull into Bohdgaya at about 2.30 a.m. Even the beggars are asleep. We can't find a way into the main grounds, so we walk past the threatening packs of wild and mangy dogs, sitting down just outside the gates. We fix our mosquito nets and I can barely observe breath with the constant hum (and at times roar) or mozzies outside my ear. It took me several minutes upon sitting down to assure that there was absolutely no opening in the net and all sides are covered. This also makes me sit longer with pain on the hard concrete-- changing positions increases the chance the net will also shift. Several mozzies bite me though net and pant both , and my knees end up with some big welts. As we sit many of the dogs end up getting attracted to our vibration and come over to lay near us. After some time Bhanteji asks us to remove the nets so as to see our faces, we do so and he gives a discourse on correct behavior around monks and nuns. As he is speaking one dog comes toward him and continually tried to nudge him warmly-- over the course of the next couple weeks such behavior from animals and humans alike to our group will become the norm... and at about 4 am the gates are opened, and with some monks, nuns, and Asian pilgrims who have gathered, we entered the grounds together. We go to the very spot where Gotama was enlightened and sit here. Having only been given anapana to this point, Bhanteji gives us Vipassana for the first time here at this place-- it is extremely powerful and I can barely work. The whole thing is intense and surreal-- the latter a word I don't really like using much because it seems a lazy and intellectual way of saying you can't put your finger on what was different or special about the experience. We leave to catch the 6 a.m. breakfast we have reserved at the Thai monastery, which being on Thai and not Indian time, has expressed a little displeasure towards our group (through poor Lek of course) that we have consistantly not been able to arrive when we said we did, and their preparations for a clean room and food went for naught. The dogs come back to welcome us, they walk with us to the bus and often jump just ahead of us and then stop, forcing us to change our path and go around them-- this happens so many times it bring much laughter.

We eat at the Thai monastery, serving Bhanteji his one meal of the day before we start. It is challenging for me at times. When I feel humble and reverential and happy I can't enjoy serving him enough, and my mind is in a very right space. But sometimes my Western conditioning comes up so strong. I am hungry and tired a bit negative and I just want to ignore everyone and everything and eat. But somehow I know I must serve, and do it with no negativity anywhere in my heart if I wish to benefit from an actual meritorious deed, though everything Western in me is screaming and cringing in resistance. I don't know whether to force myself to do something and observe the unpleasant sensations which I think shouldn't be there, or respect this part of myself and stay in the background. I do the former, feeling that the greater effort I put in now, the more I will benefit later. The ego gets in my way and becomes very hard indeed to reconcile... giving up its attachments surely seems the wise way to go, but it can be tough eh!

After washing up we all wonder how we would ever get through this day of intense sightseeing and meditation, and survive that night when we would not sleep but spend the entire time sitting within the gounds of Bohdgaya. Our condition was best epitomized by Alastair's shaving experience. The vast chunks of growth he missed and left splattered around his face was impressive as it was stunning... merely the outer manifestation of what most of us were experiencing.

We stopped at some Japanese monastery grounds first to admire a giant Buddha that looked to be an exact replica of the one in Kamakura, Japan. Many Japanese Buddhist buildings were in this area, and the aesthetics were nicely Japanese as well. To get from the bus to Buddha we must wage a miserable battle with the persistant beggars and postcard sellers who hound us relentlessly from before we even open the door to the moment before we drive away. Just as the scorching sun begins to blast its furnace, the bus drops us off at some rice and wheat fields, and led by Bhanteji, we negotiate the very narrow paths between the paddies. Again we are accosted by streams of beggars, all of them either very young or very old, and all looking like they are on their last days, missing teeth and wearing rags for clothes, dirt emeshed in hair, with withered hair and figures. The despair is overwhelming and such a contrast to the peace that the Buddha taught in this very place. How to put these two thoughts together I don't know, and struggle with for some time. We eventually get to a small building where we find a couple other pilgrims and monks, and find this was the very spot where Gotama discovered that harsh ascetic practices alone could not give way to liberation, and he accepted a milk rice dish from a village girl, Lady Sujata, whose house still exists. Once he decided to opt for the Middle Path, he moved to the Uruvela forest near the village of Senanigama, which is where we now found ourselves. We meditate here for some time, the other Indians coming to stare at us open-jawed from start to finish. We sit before a small description of the place and a Disney-like representation of Gotama receiving the food. As we get up to leave and slip into our shoes, the Hindu "care-takers" begin to pester us for money. Here they are on this sacred earth and all they can think of us is more ways to take money from gullible travellers-- something we will see time and time again as the days pass... Below is a photo of some of the children begging from us, these two were contented with just a photo...

And here is where Gotama ate his first rice meal...

We are then led across this incredible wasteland that vaguely resembles some of the lonely stretches I've driven across in Utah. It's pretty desolate here too, but this soon changes (doesn't everything!) into a real oasis of lush green trees in the middle of it. We are told this was around the area (one of many spots) where Gotama practiced his austeries. We meditate here and are again accosted by the Hindus trying to get a few rupees off of us. The walk and drive back to Bohdgaya gets us into the central area and Lonely Planet recommended Om restaurant. We order just about everything we see first as we walk in, though due to their slow kitchen we have about 7 minutes to each lunch. Although the menu boasts everything from calzones to wonton soup to katsudon, just about everything on it tastes almost identical. I use their toilet before leaving, which is, by far, the most amazingly disgusting toilet I have ever experienced in my entire life. Not wholesome to tell in detail here, ask me later if you are curious...

After we finish we make a quick stop at the bank, and are trying to buy some bags to carry our meditation belongings with us, we are rushed in the bus and wisked away on an hour drive to Dungeswari. Look at this photo of Alastair and Gilad at the bank and you can discern our state fairly well at this point... Prior to enlightenment, the Bodhisatta was staying on the other side of the Neranjara river in a cave. This cave is on a hill, now known as the Dhongra hill, and here he was practicing self-mortification and eating just a grain of rice a day for six years. It is important for us to leave sooner as we are heading into rather dangerous areas and must be out by nightfall-- again, how much changes in 2500 years. This is really in the middle of nowhere, at least in modern times. We pass through small towns until even the towns disappear, and find ourselves in a rather desolate areas with few trees growing, and beggars beseiging us once again. We climb a hill and on top come to a cave, where we sit for some time. Knowing the heat we have braved to get here, Bhanteji chants and then gives us brief instructions reminding us that even our heat and sweat and fast heartbeats are also anicha, to observe these with absolute equanimity. We sit before a golden statue of Gotama with his bare bones showing. Upon leaving more Hindus ask for money. I pass the Tibetan prayer flags and use the toilet-- this one is like one of those amazing Old West cartoons with the outhouse dangling over a cliffside-- this is for real, the hole in the toilet going over a steep cliff!

We go back down the hill and our bus takes us to another series of steps to climb, called Gayasisa, or Gaya Hill. As with the previous place, the view of the towns and land below is incredible. This is where Buddha found Kassapa and his three brothers, who had 1000 fire-worshiping ascetics with them. Kassapa was convinced he was an arahant, and when Buddha revealed to him he was able to read his mind, his arrogance was shattered and he and his whole retinue became disciples. This happened soon after Buddha's enlightenment, and the event shocked the local communities and kingdoms. He said these words (which T.S. Eliot later used for The Wasteland):

"All things are on fire; the eye is on fire; the body is on fire; the perception of the eye is on fire; the impressions received by the eye are on fire; and what ever sensation originates from the impressions received by the eye are also on fire. And how are these things on fire? Lust, anger, and illusion—these are the fires that consume the eye and the other senses and the mind. This is why the wise man experiences disgust for the things of the senses, rids himself of desire for the things of the senses, and so removes from his heart the cause of suffering. "

We sit here until it gets dark, and then Bhanteji reads a letter from a German Vipassana student who will come back to India and ordain with him. We make our way back to the bus and get to the Burmese monastery, where we are staying, for a short rest before our all night meditation at Bodhgaya. But the hours keep getting away, and there really remains so little time for rest, so we go to make a formal application for staying overnight in the grounds (they lock the gates and it is impossible to leave until 4 a.m.), we get some requisite chocolate and juice, and just as we enter, we find out that it is not possible. Now many monks from many Asian countries are in the process of chanting the entire Tipitika, it is taking several months, and they are not permitting it until the project is done-- sadly for us, this will be in just a few days, but we are too early. So, we head back to the monastery and actually get a few hours of bed-sleep.

Here are pics of Bohdgaya, click here.