ON CLOUD NO.9
No phones! No 3G, so no WhasApp
or smses! No internet connections, so no FB, Gmail, LinkedIn, Google! It is
almost three days now since I got my last phone call. There is no ‘chaos’
except for some ‘angry birds’ in the tall pine trees, which are unimpressed by
the non-stop chirping and sway its branches ever so gently in the rhythmic
breeze which blow once in a while, with small intervals of light drizzles,
while the clouds play peek-a-boo with the sun. The air carries with it a sense
of calm and the chime of the huge prayer wheel located a short distance away!
And from where I stand at the door of our room overlooking the valley below,
the clouds come to kiss me all over as if seducing me to stay a little longer
and dance with it! Ah, what bliss!
The serpentine and hair-pin bend road
leading to Bomdila was perfect till we got to certain points, which needed a
lot of expertise and patience not to get the car bottom bumped and grazed. But
the BRO signage saying “Thankyou for your patience” and “Sorry for the
inconvenience” somehow dissipated whatever animosity we would have harboured
throughout the broken road. One particular aspect that impressed me was every
car driving down gave way to us in the most courteous manner unlike what I have
serially noticed in our roads, where it’s always like
I-own-the-road-and-so-I-want-to-go-first-attitude! Very impressive! So, by the
time we arrived at the gate welcoming us to Bomdila, we were well versed in the
mannerisms of the people, at least, the etiquette of the road!
My body had been crying for a
much-needed detox and ‘defragmentation’ for a long time and it looked like I
was in the right time and place for Vipasanna.
So when, after a restful night of sleep, we were woken up a soft-spoken
care-taker of the Doe-Gu-Khil guest-house to a morning of heavy shower and
clouds gambolling into our room, I just wondered if there could have been a
better moment.
We had decided earlier on that
this time during a holiday we would just sleep, eat, meditate, read and do them
all over again every day of our stay. No shopping or site-seeing either. Just
laze and do nothing. And that’s exactly what we did in our monastery guest
house cocooned in a crevice at the bottom of the monastery at Bomdila at 8100ft
above sea level. Yes. And that is why we had clouds hanging right near us as if
we were on a flight and that was also another reason why I felt breathless and
light in the head at times!
Far from the world I knew; the
world of chaos, stress and strain, of anger and jealousy, I felt I needed to
find myself, to search for that one thing I have been looking for so long;
peace! I had as a little girl thought peace meant being happy, even against the
odds. I actually did find peace then because of the simple thoughts I was attached
to. But as I grew, the constraints and complicacies of life made me wonder if I
would ever be able to transform myself to the little girl I knew so well but
couldn’t touch anymore.
I was definitely breathless by
the time I reached the Gontse Gaden Rabgyaling (GRL) monastery at the top of
the hill after walking through the pine-tree lined road leading from the
guest-house but I knew this journey was surely going to shape a lot of thoughts
inside me by the time I left Bomdila.
After praying in front of the
more than 20ft high gold-coloured Buddha statue inside the monastery, I turned
the huge coloured prayer wheel outside the monastery and then the smaller
prayer wheels lining one side of the road leading away from the shrine, while I
chanted OM MANNI PADME HUNG. I was
waiting for Tenzinjambey, a young monk.
While I waited in the reception
area, like they say, around 60,000 lazy, nondescript, ambiguous, disconnected
thoughts crossed my mind. I played with my phone, being interrupted from my
reverie time and again by quizzical, yet friendly monks, who wanted to know the
business of my visit. I said, I wanted to know some answers from the teachings
of Buddha. Ah, Buddha and their face lighted up in sheer contentment!
As I sipped piping-hot yak
milk-tea, the sereneness of Tenzinjambey talking of anger and how my mind can
control almost anything was almost like a prayer in the darkness. I had always
been so impressed by the teachings of Buddha, since I was a girl, I told him.
The mind is the biggest creator and the Universe is a thought, Buddha had said
and today several countries in the West are taking up Buddhism, its philosophy
finding way into the chaos and indefiniteness of their lives. Buddha preached
humbleness and humility and every day, we live by his teachings, he said. We
talked of politics, of the degradation of the young generation and the
responsibility of parents of making ‘good human beings’, of the environment;
planting trees and conservation of the wild. Finally, Tenzin gave me a pamphlet
and said, “I wish Buddha’s blessings for you.”
On turning the pages to
Panchsheel, the Five Precepts, Tenzin said that these tenets are the foundation
of Buddhism:
1. I
undertake to refrain from destroying living creatures
2. I
undertake to refrain from taking that which is not given
3. I
undertake to refrain from sexual misconduct
4. I
undertake to refrain from incorrect speech
5. I
undertake to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to
heedlessness
As we sped down the same road
from Bomdila back to the land of the 15th Century saint and
philosopher Mahapurush Srimanta Shankardev, my Axom, I closed my eyes only to
see the essence of Buddhism in the humility and the soft-spoken nature of the
Mahapuruxiya bhakats (priests). My
heart pounded in pride for being born in the land of this noble seer and
breathed in deep contentment and peace!
