Here Siddartha, prince of Kapilavastu, aka the Buddha, sat beneath a bodhi (peepul) tree and attained something mysteriously called enlightenment. When the demons of illusion raged at him and questioned his daring, he called upon the earth to witness his right to claim his newfound freedom from suffering. A descendant of the original tree still stands in the center of the grand MahaBodhi temple complex.
Bodh Gaya is in Bihar, the poorest state in India with dust for fields and known for its bandits and miscreants. We arrived in Bodh Gaya during a cold wave that killed 40 people a night, passing through mist from which emerged occasional villages and berobed fire-huddlers. Today, in the wintertime, Bodh Gaya is a small slice of big Indian chaos. The main street is flooded with exhaust and a sea of maroon robed Tibetans with rosy cheeks and gently laughing eyes, dotted here and there with saffron colored Thai or Burmese monks, and the occasional triangular straw-hatted Vietnamese.
The journey from the south took us two full nights and two full days. During the boredom of train delays we made our biggest mistake. If you think sprouted garbanzo bean salad on a train in India is too good to be true, IT IS. Much of our time in Bodh Gaya was spent in bed huddling for warmth or in the bathroom. 5 years before I had arrived in Bodh Gaya during March, a much more peaceful time there, and also became sick upon arrival, so I tried to make myself feel better by chalking it up to the power of this place burning karma.
All the big names of Tibetan Buddhism visit Bodh Gaya during the winter months. The Dalai Lama and the Karmapa were both there just before us, and we had the blessing to receive teachings from the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the main honchos of the Nyingmapa lineage. He is 20 this current lifetime, a sweet serious youth. His topic was bodhicitta. The main thing that distinguishes the Mahayana (great vehicle) Buddhism of Tibet and the various Zen traditions from Theravada (classic school and best known for it's Vipassana and Insight traditions) is the concept of bodhicitta. This means the motivation that all practice be rooted in the motivation to free all beings from suffering, and to stay in the cycle of life- without peacing out into nirvana- until every single creature in the multi-dimensional cosmos is enlightened.
It was a bit of a mind fuck to receive this teaching in a place where tiny, barefoot, wild-haired, hungry-eyed five year olds carrying infants in their one blanket cried to me for food and money every time I left my guest house. And yet more questions of integration, for which I have no answer, was raised. What is the relationship between practice and engagement? How do I confront the world with open eyes, without the despair driving me either to escape or to burn myself too far down? How do I care completely and not care at all?
Bodh Gaya is in Bihar, the poorest state in India with dust for fields and known for its bandits and miscreants. We arrived in Bodh Gaya during a cold wave that killed 40 people a night, passing through mist from which emerged occasional villages and berobed fire-huddlers. Today, in the wintertime, Bodh Gaya is a small slice of big Indian chaos. The main street is flooded with exhaust and a sea of maroon robed Tibetans with rosy cheeks and gently laughing eyes, dotted here and there with saffron colored Thai or Burmese monks, and the occasional triangular straw-hatted Vietnamese.
The journey from the south took us two full nights and two full days. During the boredom of train delays we made our biggest mistake. If you think sprouted garbanzo bean salad on a train in India is too good to be true, IT IS. Much of our time in Bodh Gaya was spent in bed huddling for warmth or in the bathroom. 5 years before I had arrived in Bodh Gaya during March, a much more peaceful time there, and also became sick upon arrival, so I tried to make myself feel better by chalking it up to the power of this place burning karma.
All the big names of Tibetan Buddhism visit Bodh Gaya during the winter months. The Dalai Lama and the Karmapa were both there just before us, and we had the blessing to receive teachings from the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the main honchos of the Nyingmapa lineage. He is 20 this current lifetime, a sweet serious youth. His topic was bodhicitta. The main thing that distinguishes the Mahayana (great vehicle) Buddhism of Tibet and the various Zen traditions from Theravada (classic school and best known for it's Vipassana and Insight traditions) is the concept of bodhicitta. This means the motivation that all practice be rooted in the motivation to free all beings from suffering, and to stay in the cycle of life- without peacing out into nirvana- until every single creature in the multi-dimensional cosmos is enlightened.
It was a bit of a mind fuck to receive this teaching in a place where tiny, barefoot, wild-haired, hungry-eyed five year olds carrying infants in their one blanket cried to me for food and money every time I left my guest house. And yet more questions of integration, for which I have no answer, was raised. What is the relationship between practice and engagement? How do I confront the world with open eyes, without the despair driving me either to escape or to burn myself too far down? How do I care completely and not care at all?
oooo good entry!
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