Offering to do dishes? unheard of...

Day two (28th):

so after going to bed at around 1am we awoke at 5am to see the sunrise. which didn't happen till around 7:30am. and wasn't even that great. but we had chai and breakfast to look forward to so all good.

the day was spent washing dishes after breakfast with around a hundred other indian volunteers. fun when there are that many of you.

ok, so the kitchen is open 24 hours every day of the year. it serves free food throughout as well as chai. it is all run by volunteers who make, cook and serve the food (and clean up too). it is open to everyone. all races, all religions, all everyone. it is an amzing idea. no beggars around as they can just move in (though there were suprisingly few. maybe because food is free they can save more money?). the kitchen is a big 2 story building (one floor is serving while the other is cleaned every 15 minutes) with washing and food preparation going on around it.

after washing dishes for a couple of hours we wandered the temple again and then had lunch. somehow filled the day? probably did something i can't remember. it'll come (o: me and the aussie girl did go for a wander through the streets and to visit a park. that took us a bit.

i visited the babel temple and some other sights at some stage but i can't remember when (o:

Then at night I helped serve food in the kitchen. Very fun times. me and a dutch lady i had met offered but as a woman she was not allowed to serve to the Sikh men and so she went and made chapattis instead.

I was handing out the chipattis and half the indians i was serving too were so surprised to see a westerner serving them that they forgot to even say they wanted one (o: But it was a lot of fun. i had to move up and down the aisles, saying "Pra sha da" (means food for god) and when someone wanted one they had to put their hands together (both hands) and i would drop one or two in. i knew how it went as i had of course eaten there myself. but that doesn't stop half the community trying to help you and that is where it got a little stressful towards the end. i was getting conlicting orders from all these different sikhs and so in the end i followed a boy who must have been about 9yrs around calling him 'sir' and saying he was my boss. this went down well with everyone and of course he loved it.

it was also fun to say random english phrases and see them smile and take it anyway. i was also very strict (whilst smiling) as they had been to me (without smiling) and would wait until both hands were offered before anyone got a chipatti.

then afterwards when i sat to have dinner myself (with my 'boss'), they of course all came to offer me everything under the sun and would rummage through to find me the best of each.

all in all it was again really worth it.

The bad side of fame

So for some reason we are like movie stars or something to the sikh people in this temple. every time i sit down, stand up, cough, sneeze, pee, breathe, smile, scowl, blink, whatever! i am accossted by like a dozen locals wanting to talk with us or take "one snap please?" (a photo) of us. don't know why. i was even meditating and they still come up to you.

there seems to be a system to it too. they usually stand back a bit for around 5 minutes maybe working up some courage to say hello (and this is old men, young kids, teenagers, ladies everyone). the courage building either ends with one person coming to say hi, asking for a pic or sometimes their courage isn't enough and they run off again (sometimes they try again in a bit). or sometimes one guy will get pushed the whole way up to or into us, say a quick sorry and then run off.

mmm. but we couldn't sit without a crowd forming around us. hence the foreign only room was a blessing at times. otherwise we didn't mind spending some time talking with them (sometimes for over an hour) and if it was a son or daughter with a mum or dad, i'd be sure to throw in some loud "your english is really good!" which always got a big grin from the parent, being so proud.

Borderline party

You can visit the pakistan-india border where each night they have a celebration of sorts. it is a demonstration of border bravado really and it like a show. it happens around when they take down the flags each night and is quite an event.

they all march around yelling and high step marching (i swear the almost kick their own heads) in fancy uniforms with fans on their heads (or what looked like one). they're all huge too. they must grab you from the indian army if you're like 6 and a half feet tall and put you in it (and with a billion people they'd have a few choices).

you get popcorn to eat and sit in a grandstand to watch; quite weird. we sat (me and the german guy) on the road side though as it seemed a better view and when it all started they began with dancing. i was sitting nect to an idian girl who had been beofe and she said they never dance usually so there must have been something on. there were tv cameras and so on too. so all these indians get selected to come dance on the street with the camera on them and then one of the girls comes and grabs me to make me join in. i jump up (pulling germany with me) and dance around for all of 5 seconds before feeling like a prat and jumping down again. germany follows me 2 seconds later.

only regret in india so far. should have just gone for it (o: would have been on tv! but i felt like i was blushing worse than a tomato in a red light district (and probably was) as every person was staring at the white guy (who stood out just a bit) trying to dance to crazy indian music! mmm. next time, haha.

on the way back from the border we also stopped in at a Hindi temple. Now this was tops. You enter and are immediately surrounded by wire fencing so it is like you are in a cage. you walk around this path and then hit a cave you have to crawl through to go on. you enter an area with bells you bang and clash as loud as possible (to let god know you exist) and then you head further up, through another cave, past some crazy statues that look like drunken kindergarten students made them (but i am assured they're the official images of these gods), wade through a man made river (yes, this is a temple remember)through a room of mirrors (this whole place was like a fun park and had us searching for the house of horrors through out) and you reach a holy man who draws an orange dot on your forehead and gives you some candy coated popcorn to eat.

then you get to head down again (it's all a one way path) and do a tour of the more conservative temple area. here you get more orange on your head if you smile nicely, some food from another guy if u ask a question and then if u talk to another holy guy for 5 minutes, smiling throughout, repeating what he says but not really understanding a word of it, you get rewarded with a big lump of yellow sticky dessert stuff (i should really stop asking questions!).

top place really.

then after a quick chai (made specially, and only for us and it does get annoying being treated special when we are the ones who need it least! our chai was also accompanied by biscuits which i never otherwise saw) we headed to bed at around 1am.

Now if you're wondering why so late...

Golden days

Day one (27th): anyways, so when we woke up the next day i went with the english guy and french girl again to look around. we first had breakfast (chipatti and dal) and then headed to the temple to look inside.

we bought some sacramental food to feed the gods of the temple (about 20c) and then joined the que to get in. about 10 000 people enter the compex every hour but the line moved remarkably quickly in spite of this. 20mins to get in maybe?

at the entrance you hand over your food and they take half and give you half back. you carry this round with you and then when u leave the temple they give u a top uo so it is full again and then u get to eat it. weird huh? it was a sort of brown pudding. kind of like rice pudding but made with couscous (texture / size wise). it was sweet and nice and came wrapped in leaves.

inside the temple is an amazing work of art too design wise but sadly i don't think i truly appreciate this as it doesn't really do it for me (architecture). the roof is also made with 750kgs of pure gold! and inside there are also four holy men reading constantly from their holy scriptures to whom everyone donates money (for the temple - except me).

i just wandered around bowing to all sorts of gods, not having a clue who anyone was but figuring it's the act (not thought) that counts in this case. they have 10 guru gods i think and one main guy above the rest. after the temple we visited the museum which told of the sikh history - bloody, bloody and more bloody - before heading for lunch (chipatti, brown dal, yellow dal, some bitter pickled fruit thing and you also get water and chai if you want with meals).

not sure what else we did. the days just kind of passed us by. a lot of them was spent relaxing and talking i guess. we also visited the nearby temple and pool that night and, ah of course, we went to the border (a german guy Tim, israeli lady Segull, aussie chick Aya and myself).

Gold rush

First night (26th-27th):

When we got to Armristar we caught a rickshaw together to the Sikh's Golden temple (free trip for me) and then we went to find the accomodation.

this was a dorm room with a row of rooms coming off it. i opted for the dorm (all free but i don't need fancy) and the beds were all the same anyway (they all resembled giant slices of stale toast after two weeks of hardening in the sun with a white sheet over it). the room also had a 'shower' (two taps and a bucket) and some lovely communal toilets outside. the actual room we stayed in is for foreginers only (maybe for cultural and safety reasons) and it can provide a nice safe plce at times. after we locked our gear in the lockers provided in the rooms we went to explore a bit before bed.

i had also met an indian / english guy and a french girl who offered to show me the kitchen and so the first thing we did was eat. it was a good dinner of green dal (tasted like mince), rice, chipatti, and a fruit dessert. we also did a quick tour around the temple complex and a bit of outside around the complex but otherwise i was pretty tired and headed to bed soon after.

the temple itself is located in the middle of a man-made lake maybe 100m by 100m in area. the temple is maybe 40x40 i think. i'm not too good with judging distances. It is a real work of art on the outside with more fancy trimmings than the queens birthday cake and at night four bright golden lights are diirected at it and make it resemble a mini sun. it is shaped like the taj (i think) with the roof being an uposide down lotus flower.

The actual complex surrounding the temple is a lot bigger and has the rooms, museum, towers, religious areas etc inside of its walls. It is made of marble or some other white stone and looks amazing.

the whole place is well designed and has a relaxing atmosphere or almost. you'll see what i mean soon...

Bus to Mcleod

I travelled down to Armristar by bus from Mcleod to see the golden temple because i was curious what the Sikh religion was like and, lets be honest here, it offerd free food, accomodation and sights for the few days until i had to see Jo.

the bus ride was interesting but nothing too special. sometimes the bus couldn't even turn the corners and it would take a number of '3' point turns to get around. that was about the most interesting thing to happen. when we reached the temple i also thought i'd be ok without a shower for a bit but when i wiped my face on my sleeve it came off black so it must have been a ver dusty ride. and i think that is sugar coating it too because everywhere down here in India it looks like a car just back fired in your face! it is much more likely to be pollution changing your apparent race than dust sadly.

anyways, i met an Israeli lady and a guy from me meditation course at the station in Mcleod who also happened to be heading to Armristar. so i had people to travel with (as usual). And then on the bus down we met some french guys and another israei lady. so there were quite a number of us and it was a good trip.

we arrived safe and with no hassles.

BLANK

Mantra meditation

Here's an example of one of the meditations. This one is a mantra lead example from the second day...

We went into evening meditation as usual. Sat down. Did some single focus breathing and warm up exercises. Then the teacher Tim introduced the mantra "Öm mani padme hum" which we all chanted together in unision.

It rose. It fell. It hovered and repeated. It flowed around us. Meanwhile we've been told to think of love for our neighbours, those people around us in the group and perhaps of a white light emanating from our heart out to them and spreading; spreading our love with it.

Sounded cheesy at first and I held my doubts close to heart rather than a white light. But I dutifully started the mantra, chanting quietly along with many others. Then the intensity inrcreased and our voices followed suit.

I couldn't help but smile as the mantra wore on and i got more into it.

Wow.

I wanted to laugh, cry, smile and feel happiness. I wanted to hug and share the joy inside of me. Gone was the ache in my legs as they battled to stay awake from the single half-lotus posture. Gone was the pain in all my body. Gone was the stiffness in my back (from sitting straight up for hours on end); there for all other meditations so far. Gone were my sniffles from the pollen, rife in the area this time of year - gone were everyone's sniffles and coughs and shuffles in fact.

Most importantly, gone were all thoughts other than those of the moment. I was in the present.

I now see what all this stuff is about.

Peace
Serenity
Unconditional love for all
HAPPINESS!

Buddhism is the search for happiness.

And this was but one of the first meditation sessions. They varied in intensity and 'wowness'
but each offered something new. Mmmm. Try it. It's worth it.

Tushita holiday camp

Ok, so I don’t want to discuss the meditation too much. It’s not something like that. But I know I need to say something so I will describe one day and maybe an outline of our daily programme…

Each morning we'd wake up around 6am. Someone would come around with a dong at 5:50 to wake us. I slept in a four person dorm room with 3 other guys. Room with squatting toilet bathroom, comfy single bed with three duvets and a few shelves with Buddhist images – Dalai lama etc. Otherwise just a basic room maybe 3m by 5m.

We’d then all meet up in the gompa at 6:45 (this is the meditation hall) to take our place on our cushion spaced out on the floor of the room (we chose our position on the first day. I was near the back in eye-line with the teacher). The teacher sat at the front; raised up around a foot or so above us.

I usually got there around 6:15 or so and would either have maybe a quick chai before hand (milk tea) down in the kitchen otherwise I would just go and relax in the gompa until the class started reading books on Buddhist philosophy.

There were around 35 of us doing the course all up. We all sat on square pillows around a square foot in size and we sit on maybe 2 or 3 of them as it is comfier to sit raised up when sitting cross legged for an extended time (we’re shown how to sit on the first day but it takes some getting used to). The room has buddhas at the front, a little temple type thing on one side you can prostrate too (kind of like praying – shows your humbleness and lack of pride) and otherwise apart from books on a few cupboards it is bare except for the pillows covering the floor on which we sit. Lots of pictures of high ranking Buddhist people around the walls too; High lamas, Dalai lama etc

The group...

We would then do mindfulness meditation in the morning for 45 minutes which is where you clear your mind of all thoughts and focus on the present. only. Single point concentration. This process usually takes a while to fully understand and control. Like say 20 years or so we’re told (o: For now we might get it for moments at a time but then our mind wanders again.

Try sitting there thinking on nothing but your breathing. Watch how your mind begins to wander off constantly. And then you realize, bring it back to the present and then it starts to wander again!

We would do this for 45minutes and then have breakfast. All vege food but it was good. Porridge and Tibetan bread for breaky. Numerous vege dishes for lunch and tea, always with fresh baked bread – delish! Lentils, chick peas, soups, salads, lasagna, rice, curries…

Then it was a half hour break to think for a bit and then we would meet for 2 hours or so of teachings on Buddhist philosophy back in the gompa again. We were taught by a Buddhist nun called Venerable Sarah who is a friend of the Dalai Lamas and gave up her spot to travel with him to America to be with us.

When I entered this course I find I knew everything and yet nothing. And in the course, I have found that I have learnt nothing and yet everything. What we are taught is common sense. You know it all already and yet you don’t. It is hard to explain. Teachings on compassion for instance. You already understand the concept of being nice and how it is beneficial but in this way it begins to make sense. You focus on it in a way that it becomes something to do in life. A way to live, not just something to think about every now and then. These concepts are a way to live.

After teachings we would do yoga for an hour until 12am when we would go down for lunch. We would also do some Yoga-sutra which is a job like sweeping (mine), washing toilets, cleaning dishes etc. Something to again help us get over pride and laziness etc. (nice excuse for it huh? I didn’t see anyone question it at all!)

Then it was time for another 2 hours of teachings. This was followed by an hour of discussion groups (here we were divided into four groups of 8). Except for this period, the entire time is spent in silence. And here we only discuss mehana based concepts (those pertaining to Buddhist thought) and sometimes, if you had nothing to say you would remain in silence. We’d sit on the lawn and discuss our thoughts.

Afterwards we would have tea break from 3pm till 3:30 and then we’d meet for another meditation. This time guided. This means it was analytical or mantra or visual. Analytical is where we were given a thought to focus on. Something to think about for the 45 minutes. And the teacher would prompt us as we went on where to steer our thoughts. We covered such aspects as our own death, love for all beings, karma, the reasons behind anger, ego and so forth. Mantra meditation is where you recite a mantra as you meditate. Kind of like a prayer but not. More a thought process. You are thinking of positive things while reciting the mantra over and over. For visual, you focus on an object like Buddha which helps you to center your thoughts and give you positive energy (do the course, you’ll understand).

Dinner would follow and then after another hour or so break (we’d read about Buddhism and related concepts in these breaks), we’d do a final evening guided mediation.

Then it was off to bed ready for the next day. Maybe some mindful thought before bed, a bit more reading, and then when you awake, you repeat A to Z again.

On the last two days however, the teachings were replaced with meditations so that you are doing seven 45minute meditation sessions on those days - Trust me, your legs and back hate you to begin with!

Then today it finished and I leave with a lot to think about, a lot to process and a whole new approach to life. Can I transfer what I have learnt to real life? That remains to be seen.

P.S I call it a holiday camp because compared to the Vipassana meditation course it is one! There you get up at 4am and meditate all day before bed at 11pm. Around 4 hours sleep and 10 hours of medtation in very tough conditions - no moving at the end etc. And I was gonna do this if the dates had been right! Boy was I lucky.

Mmm...

Tomorrow i head in to the meditation retreat.

Felt I should write something but find i have little to say. Probably a good thing seeing as I'm about to not talk for 10 days...

Wish me luck.