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.

Varanasi to Bodh Gaya - a first train ride

A week in Varanasi and it was time to leave. At least by the end of the week the street salesmen started to recognize me as an opportunity they had already worked and left me alone a bit and some walks around the city, away from the normal hot spots, helped to see Varanasi as it is. Although, a trip to the Durga Temple - one donation to get in and five donations to get out - was a rude reminder of just how thoroughly and persistently Indians work tourists. Feb 27 and I finally left, getting my first train ride in India. Boy is that confusing! Schedules are in Hindi, as most signs at the train station (unlike commercial areas where English and Hindi are heavily intermixed), platforms are not well marked, if at all, and schedules merely suggest a time when you should start waiting for your train and listening to the announcements for when and on what platform your train might arrive. But, once we were off in the countryside, the passing view was a new introduction to India: open green fields of small farms, trees and rolling peace drew me in. This quiet is an India I want to see.

On to Varanasi

The Gathering in Sarnath was a nice introduction to India as I got to meet others experienced in traveling in Asia and learned a few basics like the difference between an auto rickshaw and a tuk-tuk, how to overpay for everything, and how to say no - not that saying no necessarily works.

Like Sarnath, Varanasi is a prime destination for pilgrims and tourists, both from inside India and abroad. As the area around Deer Park in Sarnath, the walk along the ghat's on the Ganga (Ganges river) is festooned with beggars and hustlers. In particular, here in Varanasi, there are many helpful people along the river who act very friendly and ultimately try to talk you into going to their friend's silk store, where they will get a finder's commission, or ask for a donation to an unnamed organization to help the poor, or go for a boat ride on the Ganges, or buy candles with flowers to make offerings on the Ganges; beetween them are snake charmers, sadhu's (a few may be real and others appear to "set up shop" every day), and professional beggars. Of course, as a holy place for Hindu's, there are many travelers from around India and the many tourists from the west and the east, among them seekers, travelers, the curious, young people having an adventure and modern hippies looking for a convenient place to smoke ganja. This is all intermingled with life and faith - from washing clothes and fishing in the Ganges, to ritual bathing in the Ganges, the burning ghat's where some 100 bodies are cremated each day and the evening Aarti ceremony performed to a packed audience. The constant hustle of "Hello, sir, how are you? What is your name? Where are you from?", "Boat, sir?", and pleas for baksheesh have come to make a walk along the Ganges exhausting and there is little place to quietly observe and contemplate. Becoming a bit cynical, I find little spiritual - the performances and ceremonies are highly ritualistic and the greatest act of faith is brushing one's teeth in the Ganges.

Still, there are also the passing bright spots. I have also met a number of nice and helpful people, both Indians and fellow travelers. The visit to Deer Park in Sarnath was wonderful. A small temple there has relics of the Buddha and murals around the inside walls depicting the life and teachings of the Buddha. Nearby is a great Bodhi tree nominally marking where the Buddha gave his first teaching to his first five disciples. As I entered the shrine area and stood beneath the tree next to statues of the Buddha and his disciples, there was a gentle flutter and a leaf from the tree fell next to my foot and the groundsman gave me permission to keep it...and then offered to sell me a Tibetan flag. Sigh. Between the pilgrimage spots, I just need to get away from the destinations a little more.

A couple more days for Varanasi to make arrangements and maybe see some of the town away from the Ganges and then I will be off to Bodh Gaya.

Safe and sound - sort of

Arrived on schedule Thursday.  Westerners are concerned with getting sick in India; I solved this problem by getting sick on the way: perhaps not dysentery but the symptoms were in that direction.  Spent Friday in bed and am well enough now and hooked up with the retreat. Nothing like meditation and dharma instruction to help with perspective. India is a bit of a shock. The poverty and  squalor is overwhelming, the noise a little overbearing and the driving is totally insane.  The hour-long drive from Varanasi to Sarnath would qualify as a ride at a theme park in America. But, walking this small town, it is easy to get a smile from people.  Yet, it is also a spiritual tourist and pilgrimage destination so has all the usual trappings  of street-side vendors and beggars.  Still, my perspective changes...