Silence in Bodhygaya

Bodhygaya, India - where the Buddha attained enlightenment, claimed to be one of the most secred places in the world. I now know what that means. The profound spiritual energy that emanates from this place is highly healing to any sort of mind or persona. If I had to choose a word to best describe this place it would be the 'silence'.

Noises are many here, yet this is the silence that all of those sounds appearing from, including your mental noises. Have a look to see for yourselves. Place to look is within and I guarantee it's always present where ever you are, what ever the time of the day. It is like writing on a blackboard. No matter what gets written on it the blackboard is always present. All noises (within and without) appear from that silence and disappears to that.

Locals here refer to it as the village, and specially from where I am staying (about 15min on bicycle), I guess it is the village to go in order to find food, Internet, post office and shops. The place is full of many devotees, spiritual seekers and monks from all walks of life. It is actually not so hard to find oneself in the middle of a deep spiritual conversation with someone you just have met while you are sitting down for dinner. Countless reasons, all personal and individual have led all these people here. It may have been out of devotion, pilgrimage, in search, or even holiday.

It is hard for me to explain exactly what Bodhygaya is. To me the mare explanation of how the place looks like or how it's people are is unacceptable, rather it is a place to feel. Yet there are no words I can find that can describe the feeling...


~Bodhygaya main stupa~


~Candle light festival~

Kolkata, India

That's where I am at the moment. What a place to start off in India (for the first time). I guess until today I was struggling to fully comprehend this place. I mean it is so different from everywhere I have been.

Taxis are still old school Indian manufactured cars (just like the old Indian movies, not the new Bollywood). Road code is hardly any. To get from A to B without bumping into anything is the mission when you are in the road. Street I'm staying in is hardly wide enough for two cars to pass, nevertheless it is crowded with people, taxis, rickshaws, beggars and sellers. Makes me laugh when I thought back: I have to cunningly avoid this certain beggar lady with a kid asking for milk money - I mean she wouldn't take "no" for an answer sometimes! Moreover, both foreigners and locals here think I am Indian because of my Sri Lankan appearance. Would have been great if I could speak some Hindi. Nevertheless, when it comes to buying something there is the constant bargaining. I did discover that it is bad luck when the first costumer of the day leaves the shop empty handed, so the shop owner will drop the price down to whatever it is necessary so you would buy something. I bought a Lonely Planet Guide Book (I was just having a look really) for one third of it's selling price! But I must confess, I did get ripped off here more times than I would expected to. Oh well, once the lessons are learned it would hardly repeat twice; I hope.

Today I feel much more comfortable, I guess I am finally prepared to accept the way of life here for what it is. Now it is not too bad, and I see why some foreigners tend to live here or spend weeks or months. It is active, fast phase, and almost a struggle and a challenge to get anything done here in Kolkata, specially the mare survival. But the relaxation/peace that flows underneath it all is the magic. It's all chaos outside, but the flow itself is at peace. I guess it is the faith in the unknown that gets people through - or the faith in Gods that would hopefully make tomorrow alright for them...

The Life (like the flowing river)

..

Stop and be the Witness of it all, here and now.
You will see the life that you live is like a -
River that flows from the mountains to the sea.

Around the bend in front of you, you can't see.
Twists and turns along the way that had been,
because of that the river had brought you here and now.

The beauty and excitement the river had to offer,
you must flow down the river (gladly) to discover -
as you are here and now, in the journey of life that you live.

..

Magick River and The Bamboo Palace

"Why this place then?", I asked Antares who was kind enough to let me stay in his Bamboo Palace for a couple of nights (expecting nothing in return). I was a total stranger to him at the beginning; I just happened to sit next to a friend of his, Naima in the bus, crossing the boarder from Thailand to Malaysia.

His answer was simple, "it is the beauty of this place". I knew exactly what he meant, there was a definite magic in that place. It is hard to put it to any sort of order, so I thought I rather share my experience instead.

It was the first night. We watched the sun setting over the mountains. Antares cooked us a delicious dinner, followed by tea, a little chit-chat and music. It was dark by the time I made it back to the bamboo palace. I relaxed on the hammock, staring at the mountains in the distance. I remembered that the mountains were in all shades of green during the day, but now it was misty blue.

The surrounding jungle comes to alive at night. Within that certain quietness, I could extract individual noises out. There were hundreds, if not thousands of different sources of noises. Combination of all is the voice of jungle at night.

With the moon shining behind the mountains I could see some clouds starting to gather. Naima said, "it's going to rain". She was right. The jungle quietened down to a mare whisper. The wind brought hints of cool wet rain. Suddenly it started to pour.

I could no longer hear the river as the rain fell hard on the roof. Some rain which managed to squeeze through the coconut leave sheltered roof, it made a splatter on the bamboo floor. Flashes of light from the lightning over the hills helped me to find my sleeping quarters in the dark.

Slipped in to my sleeping bag, and more blankets to cover, I was wide awake. I knew I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Rather I would listen to the approaching storm with a certain unrest mixed with a joy of excitement.

...

Couple of days later Antares showed me a place, a bit up the river from where the kids took us swimming earlier. There, we could dive in to the river from a height without getting our heads smashed on the rocks underwater. There was something surreal about this place. To top it off, one or two Angle Flies who happened to glide in.

I wanted to take a picture of this place but didn't know where to start really. Then it occurred to me, Antares who calls this place home is as much part of this place as the river itself.

Don't we tend to overlook the people, the animals, the trees and the birds from the landscape? Don't we separate it's people from the land itself? I guess it comes down to even you and me: we think we are so different from the nature, but we are essentially as much part of it as a mare plant sprouting out of the ground - I guess we tend to forget that...

~chilling out in the Bamboo Palace: watching the day go by~

~jamming session with the random Cuban musicians who happened to rock up~

~The Magick River and the Magick Man (Antares)~



~The Bamboo Palace~

~with the kids from the village~

Phuket

Phuket, an island in the South East Coast of Thailand could be summarized in two words: Western Playground. Completely outrun by Thai's who are after the tourist dollar and tourists who are willing to pay double/triple prices. I was in the heart of Patong Beach where it's all about go-go bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants and street stalls. It wasn't my thing, I thought. However, walking around for two hours with this sense of disgust it occurred to me, my judgements of what I am seeing is not going to change anything.

Don't we do this all the time? Don't we have a "point of view" about almost everything? I guess it is in our nature to judge, define, find meaning (why and how) and categorise. But is this so necessary? Rather one could simply view it with no point of view for what it actually is.

Then, I was having fun in Phuket. Of cause there were certain things I didn't do. Why? Because the desire for this and that is spawned from the same source as my point of view. If I don't listen to my point of view, then why not the desire also. Hence, there were many things that I would find enjoyment or pleasure in. In fact, almost everything I came across.

One could only enjoy it truly, only upon accepting it for what it is - whatever it may be..



~Waiting for the tourists~



~Lizards and girls on the street (50baht to take a pic with em) - haha just joking, Nanna is just a friend~



~Setting Sun, colorful skies~

What are you complaining about..?

Two senior members of Rabbi Goldberg’s synagogue came to visit him and while they were waiting to be ushered into his presence, Mrs Goldberg brought them two cups of lemon tea and a plate with two cakes on it, one small, the other big.

“After you,” said one disciple to the other, offering him the plate.

“No, after you.”

“No, no, I insist, after you.”

“No, you take first.”

Eventually one of the two helped himself first — to the bigger cake.

The other was incensed: “What! You helped yourself first and took the bigger cake!”

“So?” said the other. “And if you’d chosen first, which cake would you have taken?”

“Why, the smaller one of course!”

“Well, what are you complaining about? You’ve got the smaller one!”

Our contradictoriness

.

We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the futures. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never lived.

Paulo Coelho, from the book 'Like the Flowing River'

Ko Phangan and Fullmoon Party

Beautiful Ko Phangan, a remote island in the south east coast of Thailand. There is such a laid back atmosphere here compared to the other places I stayed in Thailand (Bangkok and Ko Samui). The little bungalow/hut I found is cheap, traditionally built, bare minimum really, but the front door opens out to a beautiful sandy beach. Being able to wake up to that cool sea breeze in the morning, I guess, sums up living by the sea.

The main reason for my visit to this island was to catch the October Fullmoon Party. Having to travel by myself for over a month now - I was looking forward to a party. There is a lot more to this place than a mare party. However, the fullmoon party was nothing like any other party.

It was travelers of all sorts, reunite over a massive festival in the beach on a fullmoon night. There were tunes to suite all tastes: trance, house, drum n' bass, hip hop techno, jungle, reggae and it wasn't hard to find something fit your rythem. There was skipping ropes and limbo on fire. One would describe the lights, colors, shapes, people, fire, music, moon, beach and sea as quite "trippy". I guess it was simply a party that was held in a secluded island, massively populated by all sorts of party goers, and creative to the max in all sorts of party aspects.

Eventually, I sat down in the beach looking out to the sea and there it was the rising sun in the horizon, behind me playing trippy trance. That was one of the most amazing site I've ever witnessed. It is funny to realize that I have never actually sat through a sun rise over the sea. Darkness was fading, and all that aliveness (which I knew existed) coming to light. The world is waking up - and it was beautiful. There were no pictures to show for it, but I guess no experience can completely be described by photos, even with words for that matter.

I like it here, and I think I will stay behind for a few more days. My only means of transport is by walking or bicycle. However, there is something sweet about the simple life.



~North of Ko Phangan~



~Jenny, a friend from Vietnam, stumbled upon in Ko Phangan~



~Sunset view from my bungalow~



~Fullmoon Party Oct.09`~

~my little bunglow on the beach~

The Moment

...

Yet no sort of magic can kindle anew
a past that is over for ever,
nor summon the future before it is due:
our moment is now – or it’s never.


Piet Hein

Freedom

Economically, you can, perhaps, arrange the world so that man can be more comfortable, have more food, clothing, and shelter, and you may think that is freedom. Those are necessary and essential things, but that is not the totality of freedom. Freedom is a state and quality of mind.

J. Krishnamurti