Hello friends,
Happily settled in here in Tiruvannamalai. The weather is lovely and warm, my cold is almost gone, and I'm thinking that this is definitely more aligned with my hopes and dreams. You can breathe the air here, and there's a relaxed feeling about the people, and I think I might have mentioned already, it's warm.
Left Bodhgaya at 6 am on the 10th of January. Our taxi driver was waiting for us, which was a relief (you never know...). Traveled with my friend Michel from Montreal, and an Indian photographer from Bombay called Desai. Had a pleasant drive to Patna during which Desai told amusing stories about his adventures. One thing I learned is that taxi drivers, and specifically taxi drivers in Delhi, rip off Indians as badly as they do foreigners. He described incidents that involved either the police, or physical violence, or both. Somehow that made me feel a bit better, and also more confident in negotiating with them for a reasonable fare. Our plane to Delhi was "delayed," actually cancelled I suspect due to low ticket sales, and we went on a later flight. Michel and I parted company at the airport in Delhi, and as I had missed my connection to Chennai I had to arrange to get a seat on the next available flight. That gave time for some book shopping (got Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw) and a meal. Then the flight to Chennai; arrived 11:30 pm. My luggage did not make it to Chennai, so that involved some filling out of forms and sort of a hope and prayer that maybe they would get it to me eventually. The taxi driver had waited for me since 6 pm and we set off for the three and a half hour drive to Tiru. Two thirds of it was on a good four-lane highway with a lot of truck traffic. Easy going, the main problem being how to pass some of the slower trucks, some of them only going 40 km/h. About half the vehicles had no tail lights, and many of the trucks were moving building materials, mainly rebar for the concrete buildings that are everywhere. Also a lot of buses on the road taking people home for a big 3 day festival that's on right now. We passed a big new Ford plant that is just getting into production, and a lot of trucks were delivering shipping containers there. Then onto a two-lane paved road for the last bit. The road had some bad spots here and there, big potholes or broken pavement, but the driver seemed to know where they all were and would be slowed right down before we got to them. Arrived in Tiru at about 3:45 am. I had made a reservation at a guesthouse two days earlier, and let them know when I landed in Chennai that I would be arriving very late, and nothing seemed amiss. The front gate of the building was locked and a guy was asleep just inside the gate, so we had to wake him up. He woke up grumpy, opened the gate and right away started saying there were no rooms. I explained to him that I had reserved a room two days before, and confirmed a few hours earlier, but he kept saying there was no room. My friend, Meena, had told me that there are times in India when you don't take no for an answer, and it seemed like this was one of those times. I didn't argue with the guy, but I was inside the gate and I had set my hand luggage on the ground, and I just stood there and made it clear that I wasn't going anywhere. He kept saying over and over for maybe ten minutes that there were no rooms, to me in broken English, and to the driver in Tamil. When he realized that I wasn't going anywhere, the story abruptly changed, and it turned out there was a room after all, that had been vacated that day and hadn't been cleaned yet. I wasn't about to be too picky about that, so he showed me the room and I took it. Slept very soundly, negotiated the rate the next morning (only Rs300 per night), got the room cleaned, and all is well. I got a phone call at 10:30 the next evening and a guy showed up in an autorickshaw with my backpack. Amazing. Really didn't know how that was going to turn out.
So, Tiruvannamalai. When I was in Bodhgaya I was sure that I was at the holiest place on the planet. And now I'm living at the foot of Arunachala, and this seems like the holiest place on earth. How to decide these things? In any case, this place has definitely cast its spell on me. A fellow student of Mingyur Rinpoche, Bindu, arrived here on the 11th and we spent most of three days together. We were up early and circumambulated the holy mountain, starting at 5am in the dark, and back in town again by about 7:30 for breakfast. Then off to Satsang with Mooji (see him at mooji.org and search for him on Youtube), then lunch, then some wandering or a little shopping or whatever, and some dinner, then off our separate ways, and do it all again tomorrow. She was one of the people who planted the seed in my mind to come to India in the first place, and it was really great to have the chance to spend time with her here and walk and talk and just let our minds roam around in each other's company. Her Indian adventure is almost over, she's back in Delhi now for her flight home to Belgium, so now I'm on my own, doing mostly the same things. I slept in this morning though and didn't do the walk :-). The Mooji Satsangs have been a revelation. I knew him only from his website and Youtube, but in person the effect is very powerful. And it seems that the effect is cumulative and every day it goes deeper.
It's getting pretty near time to be thinking about booking my flight to Delhi for the trip back. A somewhat melancholy thought. If things were otherwise, I'd be staying until my visa expired. As difficult as it can be, India does get under your skin. Something changes. Hard to be more precise than that. So I'll just coast for these last days, let India do its magic, look at this mountain, listen to Mooji, let it all sink in...
Still planning to post some pictures.... :-)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
last few days in Bodhgaya
Hello friends…
Writing this in the evening at my guesthouse room. It’s the beginning of the end in Bodhgaya, and thoughts are turning to the next thing: Tiruvannnamalai and the Ramana Maharshi Ashram. It looks like I’ll be traveling alone: my potential traveling companion, Prasad, met a girl, and she’s going to Thailand, and he’s showing a brand new interest in Thailand himself. But I have heard of several others who will be heading to “Tiru” as well, so I’ll have some friends there when I arrive… The distance is about 2000 km, which takes something like two and a half days by train, which I would do if I had more time, but things being as they are, I’m going to fly. Will make the arrangements tomorrow with a local guy who has a reputation for being honest (a pretty unique trait for this town). Am spending mornings doing Phowa practice with other students from the course. For the next two afternoons Dilgo Kyentse Yangtsi Rinpoche will be teaching. He’s the reincarnation of one of the greatest Tibetan masters of the 20th century, now in his late teens and just beginning to teach. As much as I really don’t want to be running around all the time, it makes no sense either to have come all this way and not attend these events. Much of the conversation at mealtimes is about travel plans away from here: everyone is on their way somewhere. I’m very pleased to be heading to the south, which everyone says is more relaxed and cleaner. It will be warmer as well. The nights have been cold here. Wearing layers and with two thick wool blankets on top I’m just barely staying warm overnight. (There’s no heat of any kind in the buildings here, of course.) Even during the day I have one or two sweaters on and am glad to have them. This is as cold as it ever gets here, and is due to warm up again before the week is over. I haven’t taken as many pictures as I intended to and I plan to fix that before I go. It’s still difficult, but not as bad as when I first got here. I know the ropes better, and the locals know me somewhat, so it gets a bit easier. I want to take pictures of the vehicles, more various than it’s possible to describe. Motorcycles, mostly Hero Hondas (an Indian joint venture with Honda), with a very few Royal Enfields around and a local make, Bajaj, and not much else. I’ve seen one Yamaha and one Suzuki and one Kawasaki. I have so far not seen a motorcycle with more than one cylinder. The smaller displacement bikes are 100cc, and most are about from 125 to 175cc. The Royal Enfields are 350cc, which looks and sounds like a monster here. Sort of the Harley Davidson of India. Apparently there is a 500cc Enfield as well, but I haven’t seen one. For all the talk of the Tata Nano (a tiny, very basic car, meant to be one step up from a motorcycle) I haven’t seen one yet. I have seen families of five on a Hero Honda, or four adults, and the bikes seem to handle it okay. The bikes here are all set up for the passenger (the wife) to sit side-saddle, with a foot rest and guard alongside the rear wheel, as all the Indian women here wear saris, never pants. Another observation: I haven’t yet seen a woman driving any kind of vehicle here. Maybe one percent of motorcycle riders here wear helmets. The one saving grace for all of Indian traffic is that with the poor quality of the roads and the volume of traffic, nobody really ever gets going very fast, so accidents tend to be few and minor despite the seeming chaos of the driving. Actually the driving has a pattern, and Indian drivers actually must always be very much more alert than we in North America are used to, which must also serve to limit the frequency of really bad accidents.
(The next afternoon...) The cold is back with a vengance. Had a really rotten night, but got some good Tibetan noodle soup for lunch, and a pot of tea, 4 glasses worth of really strong, sweet, milky stuff, and I seem to be feeling a bit better. Much sneezing and blowing of the nose still though. The air ticket to Chennai is in hand, still working on the details of getting to and from airports, and accommodation in Tiruvannamalai. It's coming together. Traveling is work, and I'm reflecting again as I have many times before that I'm really glad that I have a reason for being here. I keep promising to post pictures, and I will... sometime... Stay tuned... :-)
Writing this in the evening at my guesthouse room. It’s the beginning of the end in Bodhgaya, and thoughts are turning to the next thing: Tiruvannnamalai and the Ramana Maharshi Ashram. It looks like I’ll be traveling alone: my potential traveling companion, Prasad, met a girl, and she’s going to Thailand, and he’s showing a brand new interest in Thailand himself. But I have heard of several others who will be heading to “Tiru” as well, so I’ll have some friends there when I arrive… The distance is about 2000 km, which takes something like two and a half days by train, which I would do if I had more time, but things being as they are, I’m going to fly. Will make the arrangements tomorrow with a local guy who has a reputation for being honest (a pretty unique trait for this town). Am spending mornings doing Phowa practice with other students from the course. For the next two afternoons Dilgo Kyentse Yangtsi Rinpoche will be teaching. He’s the reincarnation of one of the greatest Tibetan masters of the 20th century, now in his late teens and just beginning to teach. As much as I really don’t want to be running around all the time, it makes no sense either to have come all this way and not attend these events. Much of the conversation at mealtimes is about travel plans away from here: everyone is on their way somewhere. I’m very pleased to be heading to the south, which everyone says is more relaxed and cleaner. It will be warmer as well. The nights have been cold here. Wearing layers and with two thick wool blankets on top I’m just barely staying warm overnight. (There’s no heat of any kind in the buildings here, of course.) Even during the day I have one or two sweaters on and am glad to have them. This is as cold as it ever gets here, and is due to warm up again before the week is over. I haven’t taken as many pictures as I intended to and I plan to fix that before I go. It’s still difficult, but not as bad as when I first got here. I know the ropes better, and the locals know me somewhat, so it gets a bit easier. I want to take pictures of the vehicles, more various than it’s possible to describe. Motorcycles, mostly Hero Hondas (an Indian joint venture with Honda), with a very few Royal Enfields around and a local make, Bajaj, and not much else. I’ve seen one Yamaha and one Suzuki and one Kawasaki. I have so far not seen a motorcycle with more than one cylinder. The smaller displacement bikes are 100cc, and most are about from 125 to 175cc. The Royal Enfields are 350cc, which looks and sounds like a monster here. Sort of the Harley Davidson of India. Apparently there is a 500cc Enfield as well, but I haven’t seen one. For all the talk of the Tata Nano (a tiny, very basic car, meant to be one step up from a motorcycle) I haven’t seen one yet. I have seen families of five on a Hero Honda, or four adults, and the bikes seem to handle it okay. The bikes here are all set up for the passenger (the wife) to sit side-saddle, with a foot rest and guard alongside the rear wheel, as all the Indian women here wear saris, never pants. Another observation: I haven’t yet seen a woman driving any kind of vehicle here. Maybe one percent of motorcycle riders here wear helmets. The one saving grace for all of Indian traffic is that with the poor quality of the roads and the volume of traffic, nobody really ever gets going very fast, so accidents tend to be few and minor despite the seeming chaos of the driving. Actually the driving has a pattern, and Indian drivers actually must always be very much more alert than we in North America are used to, which must also serve to limit the frequency of really bad accidents.
(The next afternoon...) The cold is back with a vengance. Had a really rotten night, but got some good Tibetan noodle soup for lunch, and a pot of tea, 4 glasses worth of really strong, sweet, milky stuff, and I seem to be feeling a bit better. Much sneezing and blowing of the nose still though. The air ticket to Chennai is in hand, still working on the details of getting to and from airports, and accommodation in Tiruvannamalai. It's coming together. Traveling is work, and I'm reflecting again as I have many times before that I'm really glad that I have a reason for being here. I keep promising to post pictures, and I will... sometime... Stay tuned... :-)
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Hello friends,
Very sorry to have left this for so long. I spent about 10 days doing what a friend grimly referred to as "shitting meditation." The local germs finally got inside me and had a field day. Along with the other symptoms comes a lethargy that had me sleeping 12 hours a night and taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoons. I really resisted taking antibiotics, hoping that nature would take its course, but on the other hand sometimes nature kills you, so I didn't want to take it to extremes. On the worst day I was sitting in my room with the bottle of ciprofloxin in my hand, reading the label and counting the pills. I'd had breakfast that morning and had to wait another 2 hours before taking the pill. Amazingly, before the 2 hours were up, my guts didn't feel so bad, so I held off and I've been getting better and better ever since. I don't remember ever being cured before by holding pills in my hand. I'm now at a point that another friend colourfully described. He said, "The unemployed acrobats in my guts do a backflip every now and then just to remind me that they're still there." The Phowa course is in full swing, actually nearly done, just 2 more days to go. It is very good and I am ever so glad to have had this opportunity to take it. When the course ends some students set up an informal practice group that I will take part in for a week or so. We'll practice once in the mornings and then I'll have the rest of the day to decompress. The course is pretty intense, lasts from 8am till about 8pm with a 2 hour lunch break, and there's a lot of content, and the practice sessions are pretty intense too. Still planning to head to the south afterwards, but haven't made travel arrangements yet. No rush.
I'm still adapting to India. Getting better. It does wear on you. It's largely annoyances, but they're constant, and your patience can wear thin. The local kids have mostly given up on scamming me for money, so now we just chat. I say, "What are you up to today?" and they say, "Looking for tourists." Every now and then one or another of them will take a lame stab at the soccer ball scam or the dictionary scam, and I just look at them and raise my eyebrows and they give up. They're good kids with very few options trying to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves.
An unusual sight, even for here, the other day there was a guy riding a camel heading down the street I was walking up, and another guy riding an elephant going up the cross street. Don't know what that was about, but then again we're in India and you have no idea what is going to come around the corner. Usually it's an autorickshaw swerving around the people and cows, stereo blaring at 11, horn almost drowning out the stereo, one monk on each side of the driver, four more monks in the back seat, four more in the back behind the back seat, and three riding on the rear bumper, and sometimes it's a guy riding an elephant. You just never know.
There's a big black and white bull who lives in the area in front of the Mahabodhi Stupa where there's a sidewalk market of fruit and vegetables. The other day I watched him bee-line to a woman sitting on the pavement with a basket of pears in front of her. She was slow in seeing him coming and in her rush to get up and pick up the basket she spilled some of the pears on the ground and the bull snatched up three or four really quick before she and some other people managed to push him away. Nobody here would hit a cow (or bull) but pushing and yelling seem to be within bounds. The bull seemed like he had done that trick a time or two before.
Crazy busy at the Mahabodhi Stupa today for the New Year's holiday. The vast majority of the tourists are Indian and the street vendors definitely try to sell to them, but when they see a foreigner they forget all about the Indians and their pitch revs up to redline. I'm getting better at the balance between polite and firm. Smile, say "no thanks" so they hear it, look away (the most important part) and keep walking.
Enough for now. Hope everyone is well. Please feel free to email. I'll reply eventually...
Very sorry to have left this for so long. I spent about 10 days doing what a friend grimly referred to as "shitting meditation." The local germs finally got inside me and had a field day. Along with the other symptoms comes a lethargy that had me sleeping 12 hours a night and taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoons. I really resisted taking antibiotics, hoping that nature would take its course, but on the other hand sometimes nature kills you, so I didn't want to take it to extremes. On the worst day I was sitting in my room with the bottle of ciprofloxin in my hand, reading the label and counting the pills. I'd had breakfast that morning and had to wait another 2 hours before taking the pill. Amazingly, before the 2 hours were up, my guts didn't feel so bad, so I held off and I've been getting better and better ever since. I don't remember ever being cured before by holding pills in my hand. I'm now at a point that another friend colourfully described. He said, "The unemployed acrobats in my guts do a backflip every now and then just to remind me that they're still there." The Phowa course is in full swing, actually nearly done, just 2 more days to go. It is very good and I am ever so glad to have had this opportunity to take it. When the course ends some students set up an informal practice group that I will take part in for a week or so. We'll practice once in the mornings and then I'll have the rest of the day to decompress. The course is pretty intense, lasts from 8am till about 8pm with a 2 hour lunch break, and there's a lot of content, and the practice sessions are pretty intense too. Still planning to head to the south afterwards, but haven't made travel arrangements yet. No rush.
I'm still adapting to India. Getting better. It does wear on you. It's largely annoyances, but they're constant, and your patience can wear thin. The local kids have mostly given up on scamming me for money, so now we just chat. I say, "What are you up to today?" and they say, "Looking for tourists." Every now and then one or another of them will take a lame stab at the soccer ball scam or the dictionary scam, and I just look at them and raise my eyebrows and they give up. They're good kids with very few options trying to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves.
An unusual sight, even for here, the other day there was a guy riding a camel heading down the street I was walking up, and another guy riding an elephant going up the cross street. Don't know what that was about, but then again we're in India and you have no idea what is going to come around the corner. Usually it's an autorickshaw swerving around the people and cows, stereo blaring at 11, horn almost drowning out the stereo, one monk on each side of the driver, four more monks in the back seat, four more in the back behind the back seat, and three riding on the rear bumper, and sometimes it's a guy riding an elephant. You just never know.
There's a big black and white bull who lives in the area in front of the Mahabodhi Stupa where there's a sidewalk market of fruit and vegetables. The other day I watched him bee-line to a woman sitting on the pavement with a basket of pears in front of her. She was slow in seeing him coming and in her rush to get up and pick up the basket she spilled some of the pears on the ground and the bull snatched up three or four really quick before she and some other people managed to push him away. Nobody here would hit a cow (or bull) but pushing and yelling seem to be within bounds. The bull seemed like he had done that trick a time or two before.
Crazy busy at the Mahabodhi Stupa today for the New Year's holiday. The vast majority of the tourists are Indian and the street vendors definitely try to sell to them, but when they see a foreigner they forget all about the Indians and their pitch revs up to redline. I'm getting better at the balance between polite and firm. Smile, say "no thanks" so they hear it, look away (the most important part) and keep walking.
Enough for now. Hope everyone is well. Please feel free to email. I'll reply eventually...
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