Rangoon

This is the part that, unfortunately, I really can't say much, and even more, I can't really say what I can't say anything about or why. Hopefully it should be fairly evident. It was great to be back in the country, and to pass the glowing and gleaming gold spires of Shwedegon Pagoda. It was a long wait for baggage and more security clearance, and another hotel check in with just a few hours sleep. I was up very early, before 4 am, and finally decided to stop fighting it when I realized with a rush that I was in Rangoon, that Shwedegon Pagoda was literally visible from my hotel room and was within walking distance. I found myself jumping out of bed and stuffed some things into a day pack-- some water and energy bars, a clock, an inflatable cushion, money. I took a taxi to the pagoda and climbed hundreds of steps to reach the top and see the glowing statues of Buddha, the monks and laypeople, the clean marble-like floor where everyone must carry their shoes in bags.

Here are some pictures I took as I walked around the pagoda... and it's a big pagoda, it probably takes a good 30 minutes to walk around it completely. Whenever I took my camera out, the steam from the humidity immediately clouded everything up. Here are some pictures I took before and after clearing the lens with my shirt...


I thought I had made it safely past the tourist police who demand five US dollars to visit the pagoda. I actually had a letter written for me in Burmese from Dhamma Jyoti, the Vipassana center in Rangoon, that said I was here for Dhamma-- this was from my last visit of 2003. This got me out of paying the “tourist prices”, as my intention for being in the country was very noble and it would not be correct to charge anyone additional fees who is coming for Dhamma. But silly me, I was coming to Oaxaca for a few months and had no idea I'd take this side swing into Rangoon so it was left safely home in Boulder. So, instead, I smiled and told the men asking about the money this with as much metta as I could... “how can you charge me for coming here, I am not here for taking pictures but for Dhamma and meditation practice. Now please be so kind as to tell me the best place here to practice sila samadhi and panna.” Eventually I was charged 500 kycat, about 40 cents. Here are other people sitting various forms of Vipassana:

With a scattered mind from much travel, little sleep, and reduced sittings, I sat for some time in the pagoda. Later on I made it back to the hotel for another buffet breakfast, and then went to sleep until 1 pm when I was to have a meeting. I woke up feeling a bit out of it and that the past number of days had finally caught up. For the rest of the day I fared no better and was having a hard time concentrating... after several hours we grabbed some food and tea at a stand as the rain struck, and I caught a taxi back to my hotel. I watched a few minutes of the Rugby World Cup, which would follow me through Mexico, Thailand, Rangoon, and back again, and was out at 7 pm. With a quick breakfast the following morning and a call to my friend, I went back to sleep and didn't get up until I was called at 2 pm. By now I was rather feverish, weak, and dizzy... the last several days had definitely not been accounted for and it was now that my book-keeping had to be straightened out. We met for lunch and I managed to stay awake a few more hours, then had another early night's sleep and late morning... I counted I'd now slept 25 hours in two nights and could barely keep my eyes open when I wasn't in bed.

It wasn't until the trip was nearly over that I really began to feel in better shape... a shame given how extraordinary some things were that I could not give one hundred percent. I made another trip to the pagoda for meditation, then picked out some nice Burmese gongs to donate to the Rocky Mountain Vipassana Association and somehow stick in the small luggage I'd brought. I made a trip to the Bogyoke Market as well and picked up some nice Shan style shirts, as well as some women's styles lungyis. This I was thrilled about, as I use this for the Culture module workshops on the Cert courses, and have only had the men's fabric and folding style as an example. I also made several quick videos on my camera of the woman showing how to tie it... though despite my best (and repeated) efforts, she simply couldn't do it slow enough to adequately catch it. Also, the camera kept fogging up because of the steam and blurring the images.

Here is the view I had from my hotel room of the pagoda:


And here is a picture of people cleaning a Buddha statue: