Sarnath: The Four Noble Truths

Sarnath is where the Buddha first gave his teaching on the Four Noble Truths: Life includes stress, our attachment increases our stress through clinging to what we want or pushing away what we don’t want, but there is an end to stress through following the Eightfold Noble Path, which includes right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right awareness, and right concentration. Here is the Dhammekh Stupa in Deer Park, where the Buddha first gave this teaching.  

 

The stupa is 100 feet tall and very impressive. The carvings now only exist on part of the stupa, but give an idea of how beautiful it must have been in the 4th century.

After meditating in front of the stupa, we decided to circumambulate for 108 minutes, counting the number of times we walked around: 54, or if you count both of our circles, 108. Very auspicious!

One of the more intriguing aspects of going on a pilgrimage is seeing your fellow pilgrims. Almost all, or at least the most obvious to us, are from Asian countries. At the Deer Park, for example, we saw Tibetans, Sri Lankans, Burmese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Cambodians. Some of the groups are solely monks, but the majority are householders led by a small group of monks. They usually perform some type of prayer or ceremony, often chanting, and then sit down in a group and chant some more. After the chanting, there is usually a dharma talk by the lead monk or teacher. All of this, of course, is broadcast for all to hear over small, hand-held amplifiers.  Pete made some recordings of the chanting over a driving disco beat from a tuktuk radio.

There were a number of monasteries in Deer Park, which are now in ruins. The grounds also included a great number of smaller votive stupas, as seen here.

In the early 20^th century, a Sri Lankan named Angarika Dharmapala travelled to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath. He was appalled that the important Buddhist sites were neglected, so he made it his life work to restore them. He built this temple, and also a university and medical center in Sarnath. The temple has lovely murals by Japanese artist Kotsetsu Nosu depicting scenes from the Buddha’s life. 

We are staying at the monastery that Angarika Dharmapala built, Maha Bodhi Dharmashala.

Sarnath is a pleasant change from the hectic pace of Varanasi. Its wide streets have much less traffic, the vendors are much calmer and not so insistent, with an atmosphere that allows for a contemplative pace. 

We also visited a number of temples in Sarnath: Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese and Tibetan. Here Pete is spinning the prayer wheel at the Tibetan temple. 

We have been enjoying very delicious food on our trip. Pictured here are sesame shish kebabs cooked in a tandoori oven. The inside of the balls are sesame seeds mashed to a paste.

One of our favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer (pureed spinach with fresh cheese). Also shown is chana masala, spicy chick peas, which is also tasty.

For breakfast we have had a wonderful variety. Here shown are masala dosas and roti with vegetables, other days we’ve had idli sambar and paratha with potatoes or vadus (savory lentil donuts with coconut chutney – yum!) The quality of the food has been quite high, and we’re still enjoying all the variety of Indian cuisine.

We have two more destinations to go, in order to complete our Buddhist pilgrimage.

Varanasi: The Ganges River and Ghats

We figured out how to book train tickets online, and left Bodh Gaya very early to catch a train to Varanasi.  We were on a waiting list, and were glad when our actual seats were confirmed by SMS message to our local phone. The train station in nearby Gaya was jammed at 4:30 in the morning when we arrived. The train was an hour late so we spent time talking with a Jain family who were making their own pilgrimage trip. We had booked ahead a room in the Hotel Surya for two nights, and they offered pick up service from the train station, so we had an easier time getting to the hotel (since the train station was jammed). The hotel is an old colonial mansion that was converted years ago, and it is charming.

  

There was a 3 day wedding going on at the hotel, with elaborate decorations. 

 

Varanasi is an ancient city built on the Ganges river. The Ganges is a very holy place for Hindus, and there are many rituals that are performed there, such as cremation, praying and bathing.

Through our yoga study we have been exposed to some of the Hindu gods. The river is named for the goddess Ganga, who rides a crocodile. Shiva is the most important god in the Hindu pantheon, and there are a many Shiva lingam shrines and pictures of Shiva.

 

 

Our favorite Hindu god is Hanuman, the monkey king, who represents dedication. The name for the splits pose in yoga is Hanumanasana, as the yogi is leaping forward into the unknown, a move which takes flexibility and also faith. We saw both Hanuman shrines and pictures of Hanuman.

 

Varanasi is a colorful place. Even the laundry was rich with colors. The boy is flying a kite, and we saw many kites in the air as we walked.

 

 

We took a ride in a boat at dusk, and were awed by the beauty of the river when it was lit with floating candles. We enjoyed watching a ceremony/performance that included chanting, ringing bells, burning incense and waving candles.

This Hindu family was in a boat next to ours, and they were doing puja (offerings) and prayers with their candles. They let us bless ourselves with the smoke before they set the candles into the river. 

Because it was the full moon, this temple had lit hundreds of candles on the steps leading down to the river.

Tomorrow we are back to our Buddhist pilgrimage, but we’re glad we spent a few days here so we could experience the power of mother Ganges (Maha Ganga) and the bustling pace of Varanasi. 

Rajgir and Nalanda: Visiting Ancient Buddhist Sites

We hired a car and driver to take us to nearby Rajgir and Nalanda for a day of visiting significant sites in Buddhist history. We awoke to dense fog, so the 2 hour drive to Rajgir was cold with little visibility. Somehow, though, our driver was able to see well enough to navigate the sometimes treacherous road. Our first stop was Vulture's Peak where the Buddha gave many important teachings. We were eager to see the landscape and imagine what it might have been like 2,500 years ago.

The Buddha's cousin and attendant for over 30 years, Ananda, reached enlightenment in this cave. His enlightenment story is that after so much effort to become enlightened, on the eve of an important meeting of all the enlightened monks at that time, he gave up from exhaustion and decided to go to sleep. At the moment before he lies down, he lets go and reaches his goal. There was a monk meditating there when we looked in. 

The altar at the top was crowded with pilgrims, and it was inspiring to hear them chanting the Great Heart Sutra, Prajnaparamita, as this is where the Buddha first gave this key teaching on the concept of emptiness. We meditated at the peak for a while.

From Vulture's Peak we climbed up many steps to the Shanti Stupa, one of 80 Peace Pillars built by Japan. 

While walking around the stupa, we heard drumming and so we walked in time and chanted "shanti, shanti" which was fun.

Then we went to the temple to check out the drumming. A lone monk was pounding a huge taiko drum and chanting the Lotus Sutra, myoho-renge-kyo. This school of Buddhism that built these peace temples was greatly influenced by Gandhi's doctrine of non-violence. Pete made a recording, but we weren't allowed to take photos. This beautiful carving was near the temple.

Next we went to the bamboo grove, Velu Van, where the Buddha and thousands of monks spent several rainy seasons. We enjoyed walking around the peaceful grounds and meditating there.

After visiting these sites in Rajgir, we headed 20 minutes down the road to nearby Nalanda. Nalanda had a booming university and monastery for over 500 years. It was interesting to walk around the ruins of the eleven monasteries where the monks/students had lived.

There were four temple ruins that we also explored. In the background here is the temple that includes Shariputra's stupa. He lived at the time of the Buddha and also reached enlightenment. Both the Tibetan and Thai monks visiting the ruins chanted at this temple.

 

Some of the temples still have intricate stone carvings.

And all of them had impressive brick work.

Our last stop in Nalanda was the Xuan Zhang memorial. He was a Chinese scholar who had an amazing life. He traveled to India and studied for many years in Nalanda then taught in India before returning to China with 1,200 sutras (Buddhist teachings) on scrolls. He set up an organization in China and oversaw the translations into Chinese. We also learned he translated the Tao Te Ching into Sanskrit and sent it to India.

Bodhgaya: Beginning the Buddhist Pilgrimage

We flew from San Francisco to Taipei, then to Bangkok, and lastly to Gaya, India. After 30 hours in transit, we were so happy to finally arrive. We are staying at the Mahayana hotel which is run by Tibetans and is clean and quiet.

January is a peak month for pilgrims to visit Bodhgaya, where the Mahabodhi Temple is the main attraction. It's the location where the Buddha reached enlightenment.

It is here that a large Tibetan Buddhist celebration for world peace, the Nyingma Menlon Chenmo festival is happening. The Mahabodhi temple is decorated and filled with monks chanting and praying.





 

The festival is so large, it seems that there are more Tibetans and Bhutanese here than Indians. The contingent of monks crosses generations and includes many young monks. 

We also visited the 80 foot Buddha statue that was built by the Japanese and inaugurated by the Dalai Lama.



Bodhgaya is filled with temples and monasteries from all the major Buddhist countries. This is the Bhutanese temple.

And this is one of the Japanese temples here.

The temple had this large bell that we heard ring at noon, it is very low pitched and loud.

San Francisco: Packing up the house and finalizing travel plans

We've lived in Bernal Heights since 1997, and we've accumulated a bit of stuff in that time period. It's been a big project to go through all our stuff and decide what to keep. Fortunately for us, our friend Alice had recently moved and gave us all her empty boxes, bubble wrap, dish sleeves and tape gun. Here's a picture that shows some of the boxes of stuff that we're keeping - we have about 80 boxes in total.

We loaned out or sold a lot of our furniture, keeping just 2 bed frames, 2 desks and some bookshelves. The challenge with the cast offs is to try to find a new home for stuff we don't need. We learned about SCRAP from our friends Mary and Heather, and we've donated all kinds of art supplies and materials. Here's a picture of the pod storage where our stuff is loaded - it's 18 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet tall. Tomorrow it will be picked up and taken to a climate-controlled warehouse.

Our plane departs tomorrow night at midnight. We've been finalizing our 2013 Roadmap, and have included the following countries that we want to visit:

Month	Month	Highlights
Jan/Feb	India - Middle Land, and Nepal	Buddhist pilgrimage, Meditation retreat in Bodh Gaya
Feb/Mar	South India - Kerala	2 week bicycle tour
Mar	Sri Lanka	Elephants at the Uda Walawe Nat'l Park
Mar/Apr	Thailand	scuba diving, meditation retreat, Thai New Year celebration
Apr/May	Laos	old capital of Luang Prabong
May	North Vietnam	Hanoi
Jun/Jul	Indonesia	scuba diving, Bali - we hope some friends will visit!
Aug	China - Sichuan	4th Ancestor of Zen temple, Yangzi cruise
Aug	China - Shanghai	Amazing city and sights
Sep	Hong Kong & Guangzhou	like NYC!
Sep/Oct	Japan	Patty and Bill visit us in Kyoto
Oct	China - Beijing	Great Wall
Oct	China - Gansu, Qinghai & Silk Road	Dun Huang Buddhist carvings
Nov	South & Central Vietnam	Cynthia visits us in Vietnam and Cambodia
Nov	Cambodia	Angkor Wat temple
Dec/Jan	Myanmar	Meditation Retreat

Our next post will be from India!

San Francisco: December Bon Voyage Party

When we started planning for our trip to Asia, one of the first things we decided was we wanted to have a Bon Voyage party. In December we hosted an afternoon/evening fete at our home in Bernal Heights. We were happy to see many of our friends and talk with them about our travel plans for 2013.

There was Asian food and drink served - with delicious additions from our culinarily-inclined friends who each brought a dish to share: Lance's smoked pork, Humberto's samosas, Eric's pot stickers, Danielle's cured salmon and Chris' quichelets.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity for a Hi Neighbor Band reunion concert. It was a lot of fun for us to play two sets of music.

Thanks to Matty Jo, awesome drummer, for being willing to come play with us! Cynthia took these photos.