Bodh Gaya
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
19
23
Trip End
Ongoing
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Bodh Gaya,
Bihar,
India
Monday, September 1, 2008
The train pulled up and we began searching for the correct car. The sheets of paper usually taped outside each car had been ripped free in the breeze and the car numbers didn't seem to be arranged in any logical order as we walked up and down the platform. After a few hectic minutes we found the right car and settled in. As the train started rolling Tom went to the opened door to have a cigarette and I sat and watched the moving scenery transition from the city of Varanasi to the rice fields of rural India. We were approaching Bodh Gaya, the site where the Buddha had attained enlightenment, and during the five-hour ride we discussed the Buddha making this same trip on foot.
We arrived at the Gaya station a little past 10 pm and as we were leaving the platform we unexpectedly saw Andrew, who we had last seen the previous day in Sarnath. He was about to catch a train for Calcutta and had only great words for Bodh Gaya. We wished him luck with the rest of his journey and caught a rickshaw into Bodh Gaya. As late as it was the only hotel that could accept us was a dodgy one on the main road where the flies fluttered freely in the lighted hallway.
The next morning we switched hotels and as we were walking a young boy in a maroon monks' robe approached us. "You just arrived? You must visit the Mahabodhi Temple. I will show you around when you go." The kid seemed to appear from nowhere every time we walked down the street. He was a little high strung and I doubted his monk status but I didn't mind him too much. When Tom and I sat down in a random restaurant for lunch the kid was sitting at the table behind us and, lacking any desire to get rid of him, we let him show us the Mahabodhi Temple. This temple was built around the very spot of the Buddha's enlightenment. The original bodhi tree that the Buddha sat under was killed by King Ashoka's wife but, prior to this, one of Ashoka's daughters brought a cutting from the tree to Sri Lanka. A cutting from that tree was, in turn, brought to Bodh Gaya and planted at the original location.
This has always been the most significant pilgrimage site for Buddhists around the world and under the tree the diversity was prevalent: Sri Lankan pilgrims in white robes, Thai monks in orange, Tibetan monks in maroon, a multitude of Japanese visitors as well as those from all over the Western world. Under the shade of the tree was a stone marking the very spot where the Buddha had meditated 2,500 years before.
After paying what would be the first of many visits to the bodhi tree I wanted to visit the Japanese Temple for the afternoon meditation and our new "monk" friend would show me the way to Buddha Road where we passed the Thai and Bhutanese monasteries before settling upon the Japanese Temple.
We entered the main shrine room of the temple and joined a crowd of mostly Japanese pilgrims sitting on floor cushions. A monk in a black robe sat in front and led the program, which involved the chanting of some verses followed by an hour-long meditation session. About five minutes into the silence something was odd. My monk friend was scratching the floor and in my periphery I could see his head turning to look around the room. After another minute he had given up completely, walking out of the temple in the middle of the session. It was obvious that our friend was just a kid in robes as a real monk would have had no problem meditating all day.
I felt like I had reached a point where I could stop traveling for a while and if I were to hang out in Bodh Gaya I would need something to occupy the time. My eyes were now open for the possibilities.
