Prajna Vihar

I had a wonderful visit today at the Prajna Vihar school in Bodh Gaya. I arrived while class was in session and stood just inside the school yard to watch two classes of young children being conducted outside in the shade of trees and the building. The building is two stories in an L and the school grounds are bounded by a low brick wall a few feet high. The children all wear uniforms, dark red pants or skirt and a white shirt or blouse. They seem to all have those wide-open eyes of innocence and the ready smiles of happy children. In spite of not understanding Hindi, I could tell the closest class was testing spelling as the teacher called out words, being particularly careful to enunciate clearly, and paused while the children scribbled in their notebooks. After a bit, a free adult wandered near and I was sent to the principal's office. Browsing bulletin boards while I waited showed the schedule for upcoming finals: Hindi, English, Sanskrit and the usual collection of math, biology, chemistry, geography, even physics. (10th-grade finals, which ends their basic, pre-college education, is tough for Indians as they must pass tests on all subjects they have studied for the past three years!)

Presently, I met Shobha, the principal. "Insight Meditation South Bay" was a mouthful for here to recognize, but she recognized Shaila's name and a warm smile melted the ice. Shobha is one of those people you easily come to like right off and we had a nice chat over tea as she told me about the school. There are about 560 students spanning grades 1-10. Shobha said they do loose some children along the way who drop out for one reason or another, but the senior grade has 25-30 students. The grounds and the building are particularly clean and well kept, which is a bit in contrast with what you normally see in this part of India and really feels like a positive environment. It turns out this is Shobha's influence as she finds it important the children learn more than reading and writing. In fact, if children come to school dirty in the morning, she makes them go back home and get cleaned up! Text books and notepads are provided by the government, which also mandates the basic curriculum, but general reading and topical books only amount to one bookshelf in Shobha's office, which is managed as a mini-library. But, Shobha hopes to buy two adjoining plots to create more open field area for the children and to build more buildings, including a proper library. But, Shobha's first priority if they acquire the land is to plant fast-growing trees to provide shade for the kids. You can see the vision reflected in her eyes as she speaks of it. It was a pleasant day when I visited, with a gentle breeze easing the heat, but the hot season approaches and school hours will shift earlier in the day as it gets hotter. Classes will slide all the was to 6-10 am before the district Manager surrenders to the heat and declares summer vacation until the weather cools. Imagine summer break not dependent on the calendar, but on the weather!

The mid-morning break came to an end and as the school bell made me feel like I should get up and go somewhere, I decided it was time to free Shobha of my disruption. As I passed out of the building and through the class forming in the shade of the courtyard, Shobha unleashed their open curiosity with an instruction to say good-bye to the stranger. Blank stares twisted into wrinkles and smiles as waving hands shot up to fan the shouts, "Good-bye! Good-bye!" It was a fine day in India.

(Prajna Vihar is a charity that IMSB supports. More info is available at http://imsb.org/about/charityProjects.php)

Bodh Gaya

There are many temples in Bodh Gaya as all countries with a significant Buddhist population want to have at least a temple, if not a monastery, dedicated at the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment. I visited temples from Burma, Bhutan, China Japan and Thailand and there are more. But, the crown jewel, of course, is the Mahabodhi Temple. I saw it first at night and the lights and glitz and fanfare was a bit too much. But, the sea of monastics and pilgrims and interested tourists is amazing. There were particularly a lot of Tibetan and Theravada monastics, but also monks from Japan and Korea who I think represented Pure Land and maybe Shinnyo-en traditions. Some groups were just monastics and some monastics from Thailand, Korea and Japan led groups of laypeople. In all, a magical mix of pujas and devotional practices of all kinds: chanting, bowing, thousands of prostrations, dharma talks, parambulating around the temple and in spite of the buzz, some even simply meditating. Since my first night there was a fully moon, there were also a few camped out in mosquito nets for the all night vigil of Uposatha. There were also many Indians, some perhaps following some form of Buddhism, some seeing the site as a holy Hindu place, and others just paying their respects at a profound holy spot. Some of it is a bit overdone - there is even one smaller temple building with strings of blinking colored lights around it that even change colors. I am pretty sure the Buddha would not approve of the excess and I find it detracts from the importance of the site; but, the devout faces of monastics and pilgrims from around the Buddhist world, the flow of the many expressions of faith and the air filled with homage and Dharma, make the Mahabodhi Temple a special experience. And to sit at the base of the Bodhi tree... breathe, let go, join the flow - Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dhammaya, Namo Sanghaya.