Bumming it with the Buddhists in Bodhgaya

I've had some real beautiful experiences in Bodhgaya, the city where Buddha recieved enlightenment. The town is small and full of monestaries and temples built by Buddhist countries. Bodhgaya was my favorite stop on my last tour of India. Unfortunantly it was overrun with loud and obnoxious Hindu pilgrims dressed in orange. So I missed the quiet of the place. But I still had a few great experiences I wanted to share--

Sitting under the Bodhi Tree where Buddha recieved enlightenment talking quietly with a monk from Cambodia. He's studying world religions at a university in India and his mother who provides for his schooling has come from Canada to travel to these sacred spaces in India. She was dressed in white and he in deep gold robes, both had the shaved heads, and were chatting congenially before we approached him. He told me about what prayers he repeats while fingering his 108 prayer beads. He also talked about why he wanted to become a monk at the age of 13. He was aware of suffering and wanted to escape (or was it learn to deal with) that suffering. I don't know what his life was like in Cambodia, but at 13 I think I was concerned with my own ugliness and awkwardness and not the suffering in the world. The conversation was beautiful and insightful.

One afternoon I sat at the temple and contemplated life as I listened to the breeze in the tree. It was a windy day and I decided I wouldn't leave until I had a Bodhi leaf to glue into my journal, a piece of this peaceful place. I sat and waited and watched as a few precious leaves fell, but people would scury and pick them up. I didn't want to get my leaf that way--I may get my train tickets by elbowing my way in line, but not this. I wanted getting my leaf to be a good memory. After some time I decided that maybe it was time for me to seek after my leaf rather than wait for it to come to me. I walked in the yard behind the tree. I picked up one leaf, but found it was quite dirty, maybe this wasn't the leaf. I kept walking and a small leaf blew towards my feet. I picked it up. I was beautiful--small, light green, with some speckles. I loved it and I loved that it came to me in such a way. I think that's what I love about India--it teaches me to love and appreciate the small things. Enjoy the process not just the outcome.

My last night in Bodhgaya I went back to hang out at the temple. I watched a woman dressed in white water the tree with her water bottle--it was a bit of a process to get the bottle through the bars. She then sat down and started chanting prayers from a book. Her voice was melodic and beautifully solemn as it quietly piered the night. The first morning I walked into the temple a butterfly happened across my path and stayed to flirt a little with me. I thought to myself, "Enchanting. This place is enchanting." And as I walked back up the steps to leave the temple that last night I felt that again. Enchanting. Simply enchanting.