Zen Mind, Travel Mind

Well I've got the weekend off and I decided not to travel and bum around Bodh Gaya for the weekend. Today we went to Gaya to go to a movie theater to see a Bollywood movie. That was a trip. Theaters in India are huge! The balcony is about the size of a normal American theater and those are the good seats where we sat. There is a huge floor on the bottom which are the cheap seats. In India there are no rules about talking during movies. Not only can you answer your phone you can have a fifteen minute coversation on it. People yell at the screnes and hold normal conversation while the movie is going on. The movie was a horror movie, I think, with more attractive Bollywood men. It was so much fun and they gave us free sodas! This week I have been doing a lot of prep work for Thailand. That means interviewing monks and finding monks to translate for interveiws with other Thai monk and currently I am searching for Maechii which I am assured exisit here though I have not yet found one. I have also been reading a lot. My hope is that I will be able to get a lot of work done now so I am have more time for myself in Thailand. Speaking of which I got a yellow shirt made today to wear on Mondays and I will be there for the King's birthday which is one of the biggest holidays of the year. They are releasing a animated movie of the life of the Buddha that day and we have been given the name of a movie theater that will for sure show it with English subtitles. What a better way to celebrate the Thai monarchy then to learn about the Buddha. It makes sense to Thais beleive me. Anyway I've been buying gifts and hanging with the friends I have made in Bodh Gaya. One firend left for Bangkok this week and I went to goodbye dinners three nights in a row. It's great to be away from people on the program. I've found the place where cool Western or non-Indian locals go to hang out and now I am one of them. It's great. I also got offered a job to manage a store where I could get free room and board and Hindi lessons along with a stipend of 100 rupees which is only like two dollars but a lot of money in India. I said no though because I have made myself promise that I will finish up my degree before I go running off to be the Western local in some third world country. Our Sensei left yesterday and it was sad to see him go but I am assured a place to stay should I ever end up in Melborne Australia. I love Zen a lot and if I find the time and money I am totally there. Plus I've never been to the land down under so it gives me another excuse to go. Oh, I've got to get going, it's a full moon and there is a festival at the temple. I love being in Bodh Gaya!

Note for Nick (because I can't figure out how to comment on comments): I beleive the Cusack movie was called Bull Run or something . I don't know how familar you are with Buddhist meditation but I'll be detailed anyway. We first started with Vipassana using the Mahasi Sayadaw techniques for the first three weeks. Our teacher was taught by the same man who taught Joseph Goldstein, well one of his teachers. We then moved to Zen, our teacher was kind of removed from the Japanese system but he most closely identifies with the Soto movement. We will start Tibetan tommorow but I haven't really figured out which style though we are have a Rinpoche teach us which is pretty cool even if you don't beleive all that crazy Tibetan stuff. I have to save the paticulars of the Zen retreat for our discussion when we get back.

Raise Your Hand If You Like Effigies

Hey all! Well I've bought my tickets to Thailand so I suppose it is set in stone. I am loving Zen though I think I'm allergic to something at the Japanese Temple. I got to speak to our Sensei in Japanese and it made me realize how much I miss Japan. I thinking somewhere in my near future I will be making another trip but a much longer stay. It's still so much fun here. This weekend in durga-puja which is a HUGE festival in Northern India, Robert compared it to Christmas so you can imagine the craziness. In Varanasi and Calcutta they make a huge effigy of Rama and fill it with fireworks and light it on fire. They might do that here but we don't know yet. Speaking of effigies there was a huge protest the other night. We were at a travel agent figuring out Thailand stuff with the six students going and two of our professors and they locked us in as a huge mass of protesters with torches walked by and the burned a effigy in front of the Mahabodhi. The government has been pulling down shops on land any government owned land which means the pulled down a large number of shops here making it very empty. They shop keepers are protesting and hear there is talks of a strike. See I don't have to be in Michigan to witness a good union strike. So yeah that's crazy. Tonight is Bollywood movie night which is going to be a barrel of fun. This weekend I am going on a 24 hour silent Zen retreat which I think I will actually enjoy. I never realized until we started Zen that meditation could be fun. By the way I am lately bruising easier then normal so I am trying supplements my health advisers are giving me. Sensei hit me with a stick and it wasn't incredibly hard but a bruise took over about a quarter of my back. A couple days after it had time to heal I measured it and it was still four and a half inches. Pretty cool huh? I know you all are jealous. Beyond that it is fun as always and the Queen song "Havin' a Ball" is playing in my head right now. Love you all and talk to you next time I go into town to do some good modern-fashioned internet research.

Oxbridge School of English and the Other Six Wonders of India

Today has been absolutely fantastic! This morning we went to a holy cave. According to Theravadan tradition this was the cave where Buddha meditated for six years before coming down to Bodh Gaya. The Tibetan Buddhist and Hindus have different stories as well. Regaurdless this cave is in a mountain (not a very high one) which we climbed up. Doing Zen meditation on top of a mountain was amazing. Getting there was a adventure. We rode over to this "shallow" spot in the river but we still got wet up to our thighs. It's funny Robert, the program director, is always warning us about not touching anything and walking seldomly etc. etc. but he was perfectly fine allowing us to wade a Indian River. I don't know what I was stepping on and I don't want to. We could only hike up our pants so far so we ended up all getting wet. It was tons of fun. We also walked through rural India which was a lot of fun and astoundingly not many people asked for money. The walk was great until after all of that we had to walk part way up the mountain which was tiring but we all survied. We saw the cave and our Tibetan teacher told us all the stories related to the cave. Then we hiked up the rest of the way and it was as I have kind of already said: blow-your-mind astonding. We spent about a half an hour exploring and meditating. Most of us have decided we are definatly going back. It was just was the most amazing experience thus far. As I said I was at peace for the rest of the day. Even the boy coming around me asking for books and biskets didn't bother me. I went to this shop called the Kudrun Bazzar to exchange something and I met this really terrific lady who will be in Bangkok the same time as I will. She was fasinating to talk to and before you know it 2 hours have passed by. I was going to see the Thai monk again but I spent way too much time there but there is always tommorow. I went to the Taiwanese temple today which was and saw a lady who didn't speak English but I assume she was Tiawanese and she showed me around the temple. It was small and it I know now why I didn't see it before. I met a Japanese monk the other day who was pretty cool but I haven't been to the Thai forest monestary yet. I'm still looking for cool monks and other people in Bodh Gaya. I don't know if I have said this or not but I have been making it my personal mission to get out and see more of Bodh Gaya. I have done well except I got a really awful case of food poisoning which resulted in one terribly awful night by my friend the toilet and one morning where it hurt to get out of bed. I was fine by the late afternoon and my travels have continued. I am falling more in love in India as each day passes and I can't imagine at the moment how I will ever be able to return home. It's so weird my manner has changed in little way since I have left. I really now can't imagine after hand washing my clothes how having a washing machine will be. Today I have decided that if I hope for anything from this trip it will be that this manner that has resulted from my experiences here will continue has I come home. Today I realized that I don't care what I do in life as long as I can spend as much time out of the country has possible. This women I met is European and she runs a shop here with her Indian boyfriend and she teaches during the off-season. I could be happy doing that. I could teach. I could be a peacekeeper. I could be a Buddhist nun. Really the thing I have realized that really matters to me is seeing the world and I'll do it in anyway I can. Just sitting here thinking about today makes me realize how great it was and how great this trip is. I have met so many interesting people. One of those people is my Anthropolgy professor who is sitting next to me right now reading celebrity gossip and cackling. Erick is a interesting person. Ever since I decided that he would be a ideal candidate for Satan's quirky sidekick he has embodied it. Someday I will write his unathorized biography about his exploits with the devil. Speaking of which I have been writing so much this week! We started Zen meditation which is really great. Our Sensei is amazing and he has two Australain assistants who are great. Anyway they were talking about how in Zen you can make anything your practice. Peter applies Zen practices to his sculpting while Tom is apparently a absolutly fabulous Jazz pianist. So I have been making writing my practice and it is going wonderfully. On a side note yesterday we all gathered in one of the shacks that we here in India call a resturaunt and watch Ferris Bueller's Day off. I sat next to Sensei and there was something great about being in a room full of Americans in India watchig that movie with a Japanese monk giggling beside me that was a experience I will never forget. Oh India! I so look foward to my next weeks here. Watch out, I might never come back!

Hello Again!

So I am currently researching on the internet and I figured I should stop by and post while I'm online. Plus it is a much needed break from studies, and the computer froze but notepad is still working. Well next week I buy my tickets to Bangkok which is very exciting. The more exciting news is that I haven't gotten sick yet which is much cause to celebrate...not that there is much you can do to get your party on when you live in a monestary. No word yet whether my pictures are safe or not. Hopefully they are so lets cross our fingers. If not it's anicca (see the bottom of the blog for translation). If not so many people on this trip have cameras I will still be able to access a plethera of pictures. So don't worry friends you will still be able to see great pictures of Robyn's adventures in India. In other news we started Zen this morning and unfortunatly this paticular teacher will not be hitting us with sticks. I know collective sight right? Our Zen teacher is very cool along with both of his assistants all who hail from the land down under. Melborne to be exact. Tommorow I will continue my quest to meet cool and interesting monks by going to the two Japanese temples. I also have a lead, i.e. a friend who met him, who says the abbott of the Thai Forest Monestary in town speaks decent English and is pretty awesome. He greeted my friend with a machete. I wish I knew more then some Japanese and a little Hindi because I feel like I missing out by only talking to those who speak English. I am going to see if one of the Thai monks can teach me some elementry Thai since I will be leaving to go there in a little over a month. Also I have been trying to use English words in my post but I am going to make a small Pali dictionary at the end so if I use any of the original words you can understand:
Bikkhu - Buddhist Monk
Bikkhuni - Buddhist Nun
Anicca - Impermenance
Dhamma - The Teachings of Buddha
Sangha - The Community of Monks and Nuns
That's all for now I might include some more words later on but I have to go. Oh, I'll have to wait until next time to rant about tourists who go to the Mahabodhi and decide after reading on book they are Buddha scholars!

Well That Was Fun!

Well I am back from Varanasi. I didn't realize how much Bodh Gaya has become a home to me until just the sight of the numerous monestaries brought me the comforting feeling of home. Varanasi was fun. I bought tons of gifts and ran out of money way too quickly but it was worth it. I didn't swim in the Ganga but I did put my hand in it. I had it all planned out, how I was going to do it, but my plans were thawarted by my mind and my friends. I'm sure my parents are happy about that. The first morning we went on a river boat tour at dawn all the was up from Asi Ghat, the southern most ghat where we were staying to the main cremation ghat. We got out and had a tour of it and I saw my first dead body out of six in the three days I was there. One was floating only a few feet from out boat on the way back. We went shopping which was fun and I got some gifts and we did a lot of just plain old good wandering around Benares. We went to Saranath with Pat which marks my second out of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites. I got a Bodhi leaf from the tree there which was great because it takes mad skill to get one from our tree in Bodh Gaya because there are so many others including monks lying in wait for one to fall. What surprised me about Varanasi was how remarkably not modern it was. The ghats were mostly in disrepair and the hotels and shops were only small step above our own in Bodh Gaya. Plus the power still went out. It was for no more then 10 minutes and happened rarely but it was very surprising. India has made me realize how funny it is that Americans are so used to their rich lifestyle that after three days without power we were rioting in the streets. People can be so uncivilized. I watched some Indian tv and I saw a Western with John Cusack in it in English but the Audio wasn't synched with the Video and Hulk Hogan show in Hindi. Well I have to get going but all and all it was a good trip away from the Vihar but I'm happy to be back. Oh I didn't get any comments in my last post, this isn't me being vain but can someone comment so I know I have fixed the problem.

Hey Again

I realized that somehow my comments were turned off. They are back on. I am leaving today for Varanasi AND I now know what I am going to do in Thailand. I will be studying the women's bikkhuni movement there. Hopefully I will be staying with Chatsumarn Kabilsingh who is simpley amazing a leader of the movement. If that goes through I will be staying in a monestary (all women so perhaps you would prefer I call it a nunnery but I hate that term) near Bangkok. So I've got that going for me. Beyond that I've been working on school work and harboring a theory that you can't reincarnate as a inverterbrate. A theory which was destroyed by a Jataka tale involving a crab...oh well. I am very excited about leaving today it is going to be SO MUCH FUN! I can not wait! Beyond that life in India is going great but I can't beleive how much time flies!

Well That Was Fun...

So I am out of robes after 8 days of nunhood. My feelings are mixed. On Saturday I went to this Thai monestary across the river to talk to the abbott. Me and a friend had to interveiw him for a assignment so we asked all sorts of questions about the monk hood. He started talking about his first month and such as a monk and how hard it was. I realized that What I was experiencing was just the adjustment period which of course is going to have a lot of setbacks and I started feeling bad that I am not going to have a chance right now to get over it and just experience being a nun. SO with regret I disrobed today. Perhaps another time will call me to ordain again. Perhaps not. I am glad that I could leave it all with a positive. On Sat. I was like "Yeah it was nice but I'm never doing that again" and now I'm considering ordaing again. So we'll see. I mean it is difficult at first. I can't handle money so buying anything is out of the question. I can't touch men. I can't eat after noon. I can't sing, dance, or listen or watch any form of entertainment. Those are just the rules for a novice. "Real" nuns have to take over 200 precepts. So I don't know how I feel about it all yet. I do know that even if I do decide I didn't enjoy the experience I have some great stories. I mean how many of your friends can say "This one time when I was a nun in India..." It is pretty awesome. As a result of the ordination last week was touch and go. There were times where I was ready to move and live here and others I was asking myself what possessed me to go to India. I feel that's to be expected. I can't beleive however that is is October! How did that happen? I am leaving Thursday to spend the weekend in Varanasi with some friends here. There are about 12 of us going along with Pat our history teacher who is simply amazing. She is going to give us a tour of Saranath which is about a half an hour from Varanasi which is where Buddha gave his first sermon. Also don't worry folks I will not be swimming in the Gangha...well at least not in Varanasi but I may or may not make a detour to a safer part because it is the freakin' Ganges! If I come back with five arms I'll kind of look like a Hindu god so it will be cool. You will all still love me...right? Well I am for sure going to Thailand from Nov. 17 until Dec. 11 so that will be fun. I have no idea what I will be studying there yet. I hoping to find that some crazy man will stay next to me in my hotel room and give me a map to a secret island. That way I could do my experience on "When Utopias Go Wrong: A Investigative Report." I really wanted to go to Cambodia to study reconcillation practices after the Khmer Rouge but it's still too dangerous to go. I really wanted to go to Burma but then...Oh man I'll have some interesting "This one time I lived with 100 Burmese pilgrims in a Buddhist monestary when monks were getting shot in their home country..." stories for when I get back. So I'm off to Thailand and hopefully I can study the same subject in the Cambodian refugee communities. If not maybe Political Legitmacy and the Thai Monarchy or How I Got Thrown in a Thai Jail for Speaking about the Goverment. Or perhaps I could become a school teacher for the King of Siam...How My Uneventful Life With the King Became a Musical. Yeah really I've got nothing except I know that Thailand is going to be fun and I'll figure out what I'm going to do sometime between now and NOvember. In other news I am enjoying classes and I have no idea how I will ever be able to return to normal college after this. It is strange though when you live with your proffesors. You have to make sure you do the readings. Not that I didn't do all my homework right on time before...*nervous laughter*. This weekend most people went on a meditation retreat and the few of us who stayed behind and bonded. Other then that last week I pretty much did nunly things and I did lots of homework an reading and hung out with a Thai monk who spent four years in Queens. Ah I love the things I can do in India. Oh one note. I have been using way less internet time then expected so I think you guys need to send me way more emails.