Feeling Dizzy

Recently I have been feeling strange – dizzy, nausea, headaches – not sure what the cause (maybe old age or maybe the stress of deciding whether to buy a house in Melbourne at auction from Nepal! No house bought - it was quite cute but also quite exe - at least for me but maybe not for Melbourne. Had Pixy and Adz and Meang on the job.) Once the worst of the symptoms settled and I could get out of bed without totally spinning out I had strong need to be outside in the fresh air. I went down to the Maya Devi temple garden to hang out and watch the passing parade. It is probably the cleanest and quietest accessible place outside the centre, which is what I needed after being confined for a while and feeling delicate. A lot of people come and go into the garden here including monks and nuns of various traditions either from local surrounding monasteries or visiting from various countries. Frequently these monastics are accompanied by a group of their supporters who are travelling on pilgrimage to all the major Buddhist sites. The people on pilgrimage often choose to wear white – the colour of purity – and so are very distinctive as they weave around the garden looking at the various points of interest. Sometimes the monk leading a group will have an attached mike and amplifier or megaphone and give a running commentary as they walk around – not so peaceful! Or they sit in a group and receive a talk, or chant and meditate together. In their devotion (if somewhat misguided - at least for the preservation of the ruins) pilgrims throw milk and coins and various other things onto various sacred objects or use the remains of 2000 year old stupas to sit on for a rest or to have their photo taken on.

Lumbini, being Buddha’s birthplace is high on the list of pilgrimage places – although it is slightly inconveniently located in Nepal while all the other main sites  - the Buddha’s place of enlightenment, where he gave his first sermon, where he died – as well as various other sites related to his teaching life are in India. This means a trip over the border for this one place. I recently heard that India is creating some other Lumbini to keep the tourist pilgrims within its borders.  At this stage it seems unlikely that it will succeed in redirecting people. But it is often the case that the large pilgrimmage groups doing a flying visit to Lumbini, sometimes in and out of the country in a few hours – the border is about one hour away.

Other people to be seen in the garden are general tourists either Nepali’s on holiday, who do generally have some sense of veneration to the Buddha, at least as part of the Hindu pantheon, and foreign travellers on there to or from Kathmandu or Pokhara.  Also there are, in Sayadaw Vivekanada’s words, “false monks” locals in robes who hang out for long periods of time aiming to look ‘holy’ while scrounging for donations from unwary and devout pilgrims. And the local staff, a local police presence, a variety of bird life and the odd dog, squirrel or monkey are there too. So an interesting mix to sit observe.

A few days ago I travelled to the border with 4 yogis who needed to renew their visas. It wasn’t a very inspiring place but it’s the closest I’ve been to India for some time. Sunauli – the Nepali border town is a dusty busy strip of hotels, moneychangers, food stalls and shops with lots of people and traffic on the move. I do still have a few months left on my Indian visa before it expires so maybe I’ll try to do a bit of a trip somewhere in the interim. While waiting for the visas I walked over the the tourist info office and chatted to the tourist police who as it turned out I had met when taking the monk to hospital a month or so ago. They were very friendly and gave me lots of freebies to give to people here at the centre. After the visas were I went with the yogis to Bhairahawa, where they proceeded to make the most of their day of ”escape” from retreat and indulge in some serious talking, a meal out, the use of the internet, shopping and ice-creams at the supermarket.

At present the retreat with Sayadaw U Pandita is going on – and all the people who came down from Kathmandu are settling down into the retreat. They have made a few demands on me, after finding out that I have been helping out with people’s needs – and I also get some of the complaints. One of which was about bells not being rung to end a session – I’ve missed two - which was due to my forgetfulness and getting caught up with work on the computer or talking with Sayadaw. So although I may have been watching the time for the last 45 minutes the critical bell ringing time seems to fall in the midst of some other task, which means the meditators had to sit patiently but uncomfortably on until they realized that the hour was well past. Obviously bell ringing is not my forte.

At present at the centre there are also a couple of young men from Kathmandu staying here hand making the decorative cement work for the new back gate. They are vey lovely and quite talented. I have been swapping language lessons with them during theri evening meal - am trying to learn Nepali but it's a slow process -  I don't get a chance to practice much and my skills as a linguist are virtually nil - school girl French was my last real foray into learning another language. But I was heartened by an English woman today who has been here a number of times and speaks passably good Nepali  although says she was also very slow. I meet some interesting people here - Sandy, called Santi here is in her 60's and is a volunteer teacher in a local school. I sat outside the Nepali temple today drinking tea talking with her and the resident monk, Venerable Sagaradhamma who is fluent in English. He organised the tea and then invited me to come for a meal sometime. 

And the other evening just before dark while I was having a short walk  one of the rickshaw drivers  - a young teenage boy called Ali, who was on his way home - offered to give me a free ride. When I asked why he wanted to do this he said because "you are my friend". So I finished the day yesterday with a ride around the waterways surrounding the Maya Devi temple area at sunset  - very lovely.