Decisions, decisions, decisions...

I'm back in Colombo and after a couple days here it will be time for me to leave Sri Lanka. What to do next? I still have a desire to go to Thailand as there are several good meditation monasteries there, and things seem to have settled down enough in Thailand. Plus, oddly enough, of all the things I have seen and done in Asia, I haven't spent good, focused meditation time in a refuge or center. Hmmm...

On the other hand, between my travels in North America and now in Asia I have been on the road a long time and the sense that I need to settle down in one spot for a while grows.

What to do, what to do? The difficult decisions of life without the mundane duties of life. Woe is me. ;)

Arankele

Arankele is a meditation monastery. A new monastery to the front of the site has about 30 monks. This ancient cave shrine is still in use.

The walkway from the cave shrine runs about 300 meters to the main monastic complex. A great place for walking meditation.

The large tank which once supplied bathing and drinking water for the monastics is still full of water, but  is now full of water grass and purple lotus.

Something I haven't seen in other temple ruins, this building had a long narrow runway in the middle of it which made me think of walking meditation.

Yapahuwa

A sign at the bottom of these steps says something like "WARNING! You have hereby been warned that these stairs are dangerous." They are both very step and very shallow, making them quite difficult to descend. But, the view from the top is nice.

Hatthikucchi

I particularly like Hatthikucchi for its peaceful forest setting, the very few visitors and for this rock hill in the middle with nothing on top but a wonderful place to sit down and meditate.

This is the only structure I've seen that is oval shaped.

Tanthirimale

Tanthirimale monastery is spread out in an area of low rolling granite hills.

The reclining Buddha is unique in that the legs are not straight, but slightly bent at the knees.

Both sides of this narrow path are small lakes of murky water. As I approached the path, there was something large on it at the other end that sort of resembled a decaying cow carcass. As I stepped onto the path it moved - and a very large crocodile slithered into the water. Step, mamo buddhaya, step, namo dhammaya, step, namo sanghaya, ignore the water...