Bodh Gaya

We've finally made it to Bodh Gaya.

We left from Delhi (which was an adventure of its own) on Tuesday, and spent our 17-hour train ride to the Eastern side of the country looking out the window, singing songs on guitar (and learning them in Swahili), eating rice and dahl, talking, sleeping - and dressed in our beautiful new Indian clothes. We made it to Bodh Gaya, which is in the state of Bihar, around 10 in the morning.

It's been quite an adjustment to be here, in ways that I can't explain very well over a blog. The hot/humid weather, the number of people, the land, the housing, the poverty unlike anything I've ever seen before...One image that stays with me is of this kid, who looked about 6 or 7, who held my hand all the way out of the train station, begging and pointing to his stomache. I wanted to help him, but a teacher on our program asked me not to, because kids often get in fights over money at the train station since there are so many of them. And even buying things for kids is difficult...I bought a kid a dictionary the other day, but then learned that kids will frequently sell the dictionaries back to the store for money, which they often don't even get to keep (but are forced to give to street leaders in order to make their weekly "quota." Anyway, I could clearly go on and on about this, but its enough to say that being here is quite a transition, and I'm learning a ton.

I got a wonderful welcome shortly after arriving here. My friend Angus, from Wesleyan, made some friends in Bodh Gaya when he participated in the program last year, and he told them about Noa and me before we arrived. So Angus' friend Rohit was here to welcome me. We went out on his motorcycle, and he took me to his village, Sujata, named after the woman who offered milk-rice to the Buddha before he attained enlightenment. He show me Sujata's house (now a stupa), the hills where the Buddha wandered for 6 years, and took me to his own house and introduced me to his family. I felt really welcomed.

I haven't even gotten to explaining how amazing our program itself has been - the people on the program, the meditation teachers, everything - but I already need to head back over the the vihar for tea and evening practice. In short, everything is amazing. I'll elaborate more later. For now I leave you with a picture of the Mahabodhi Temple, which is located right in the spot where the Buddha acheived enlightenment 2500 years ago, and is about a five minute walk where we live. It's beautiful and radiant. We've gone a few times to meditate under the Bodhi Tree and sit where the Buddha sat. It feels alive. But really, so does our Vihar, and the rest of India. My heart is opening and opening everyday, one little crack at a time.