My Holy Pilgrimage to Bodhgaya – India - October 2010
My thoughts of the Pilgrimage to visit the Four Holy Buddha’s places.
By power of transportation I am back to my heaven in just one day, last Sunday. Not to say that with the same power I was in hell seeing the reality of samsara of suffering just two weeks prior.
It was overwhelming to see the hardship of the citizens of India. I think even the whole country is suffering together without knowing it. On one point of view about life value, they are truly living in harmony with the environment ,the animals, the pollution, the noise, the dust, the having of nothing, (not to mention with their imaginary gods.) Perhaps with their "thick coat of teflon" there seems nothing else can bother them more than they have been enduring. The mind of the India is at peace even they live in hell. The mind of the rest of the world is in hell when they do not realize they are in heaven. I also learned that the Buddha is their ninth Deity, now that they have acclaimed. They just opened a huge ,billions of dollar, temple to worship another one, their tenth God: AkshardhaM of Swaminarayan. It is like the Versailles of India with a Disneyland theme within.
Their train system is as old as their acquired freedom from England years ago. Some "4-5 stars" hotels are bearable. Bottled water is available, thank goodness. Make sure you have facial cover and wear hat. Bring with you lot of medicine. Clean water is rare.
Do not eat anything sold on the streets. Absolutely no ice cream!
The whole country stinks. Even their soap has that cow dung smell. If not for the Buddha's life history, India would not have been visited by westerners.
Charles and I were in New Dehli years ago, the streets were clean, empty, dust was pure red dust. Now, it is unbearable. India is worse than China, Vietnam...
People live on almost nothing, among the deads, the sicks, animals, trash, their own eliminations, in the extreme weather condition in summer months and in winter. And by being there, Buddhists will know why and how the Dharma teaching portrays the very reality of suffering or dukka.
The Buddha was truly a social reformer, a wise revolutionist in many ways. He while as a Prince, could just asked his father to share the wealth to the people of his kingdom, but He chose not too. He found a different and sublime way of offering to all sentient beings his perfect Dharma to follow. Pity for the Indians, the ones that neglect the teaching. Only 2.7 percent Indian people are Buddhists.
The caste system of India has made this country stand still, it is always looking toward the future but never gets there. And their Government or their upper caste keeps creating new Deity to sooth their suffering, and to give them a new hope, it seems.
Sorry I can't help but being opinionated here.
The Indians are proud of their spirituality, their philosophy, their 5000 year-old civilization but in the mean time they hardly have anything to cheer about their humanity. Everyone seems having a mark on their forehead to identify themselves where their status in life stands. They are kind to their trees, their animals, but disregarding the people of different caste. Our tour guide was told to stay outside the restaurant where we had our lunch stop. Bahir state, once a kingdom, where all the bad, the ugly, the good, the great live and where there many great IQ's people come from. Offering to beggars seem tempting but it only creates problem to yourself and help them stay begging until their next many lives. You may rather want to help those who give you service instead.
That's the way it is with India. Indian people recycle their destiny among themselves in their own karma. They are good people nonetheless. In the whole two-week trip, we saw no road accidents. Our bus driver was excellent in his driving skill. The Indians are great drivers, they respect each other's space on the narrow, crumbling roads and worn out bridges.
From the Heart Sutra, we chant: "leave this up-side-down world behind, reach the other shore to nirvana..."
India, the very samsara place ,will always be where Boddhisattvas of the past, the present, and the future reach Buddhahood.
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
Kim Morris
No comments:
Post a Comment