posted 27 Feb 2013, 06:59 by Akasharaja Bruton
I could write about all sorts of things - and that was my intention when I got to India about 5 days ago - about first impressions, the long train journey across northern India, about arriving at Gaya and being driven down streets with wandering cattle, tuk-tuks, cycle rickshaws, dust, heat and smells to our land at Bodh Gaya, about meeting other Order members, both Indian and western. But all of that is, if truth be known, a side show - even the International Order convention, with its discussion groups and talks, meals and meetings. A side show to the main event, which is the Vajrasana, the seat of the Buddha's Enlightenment, the spreading boughs of the ancient Bodhi tree underneath which we have sat to meditate, prostrate and practise puja, at the heart of the Maha Bodhi temple complex.
Here I no longer have to be an Englishman, a westerner or even a foreigner. Here I can just be what I most deeply feel called to be - a Dharma farer, someone who wants to practise the Dharma, to Go for Refuge more and more deeply. Worlds away from the neat streets and green gardens of Shrewsbury,rubbing shoulders with ochre-clad bhikkhus, Tibetan monks, Japanese lay followers with their prim face masks to keep out the pollution - and it is dreadful here. Sitting to meditate and being photographed by practitioners from all traditions, some of whom will no doubt be marvelling at the sight of a motley crowd of Indians and westerners, men and women, being led in puja by a Scottish woman and an Indian man, hearing the cacophony of Tibetan drums and trumpets, the amplified chanting of Pali verses by Theravada bhikkhus - which, when I stop to listen, I recognise as the words of the Tiratana Vandana! You might think it impossible to find stillness under such conditions, but such is the concentrated flow of devotion that it is easy to be carried along by it to a place of deeper contentment and significance. Outside the walls of the temple complex, the noise of car and tuk-tuk horns and the commercial bustle of rows of stalls hawking Buddhist artefacts add yet more richness to the fascinating and, at times, contradictory mix that is this place.
But, having spent some time here, one thing I feel very deeply. The spirit of Buddhism is vibrant and alive here, as all the various traditions converge on their common fountainhead and source. And to think that I wasn't originally intending to come! I am so very glad I did - and this time I won't wait another 25 years before returning to India.
Akasharaja, Bodh Gaya, February 27 2013
I could write about all sorts of things - and that was my intention when I got to India about 5 days ago - about first impressions, the long train journey across northern India, about arriving at Gaya and being driven down streets with wandering cattle, tuk-tuks, cycle rickshaws, dust, heat and smells to our land at Bodh Gaya, about meeting other Order members, both Indian and western. But all of that is, if truth be known, a side show - even the International Order convention, with its discussion groups and talks, meals and meetings. A side show to the main event, which is the Vajrasana, the seat of the Buddha's Enlightenment, the spreading boughs of the ancient Bodhi tree underneath which we have sat to meditate, prostrate and practise puja, at the heart of the Maha Bodhi temple complex.
Here I no longer have to be an Englishman, a westerner or even a foreigner. Here I can just be what I most deeply feel called to be - a Dharma farer, someone who wants to practise the Dharma, to Go for Refuge more and more deeply. Worlds away from the neat streets and green gardens of Shrewsbury,rubbing shoulders with ochre-clad bhikkhus, Tibetan monks, Japanese lay followers with their prim face masks to keep out the pollution - and it is dreadful here. Sitting to meditate and being photographed by practitioners from all traditions, some of whom will no doubt be marvelling at the sight of a motley crowd of Indians and westerners, men and women, being led in puja by a Scottish woman and an Indian man, hearing the cacophony of Tibetan drums and trumpets, the amplified chanting of Pali verses by Theravada bhikkhus - which, when I stop to listen, I recognise as the words of the Tiratana Vandana! You might think it impossible to find stillness under such conditions, but such is the concentrated flow of devotion that it is easy to be carried along by it to a place of deeper contentment and significance. Outside the walls of the temple complex, the noise of car and tuk-tuk horns and the commercial bustle of rows of stalls hawking Buddhist artefacts add yet more richness to the fascinating and, at times, contradictory mix that is this place.
But, having spent some time here, one thing I feel very deeply. The spirit of Buddhism is vibrant and alive here, as all the various traditions converge on their common fountainhead and source. And to think that I wasn't originally intending to come! I am so very glad I did - and this time I won't wait another 25 years before returning to India.
Akasharaja, Bodh Gaya, February 27 2013