Inspiring excerpt from Sri Aurobindo's "Savitri"

A hand from some Greatness opened her heart's locked doors
And showed the work for which her strength was born.
As when the mantra sinks in Yoga's ear,
Its message enters stirring the blind brain
And keeps in the dim ignorant cells its sound;
The hearer understands a form of words
And, musing on the index thought it holds,
He strives to read it with the labouring mind,
But finds bright hints, not the embodied truth:
Then, falling silent in himself to know
He meets the deeper listening of his soul:
The Word repeats itself in rhythmic strains:
Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body's self
Are seized unutterably and he endures
An ecstasy and an immortal change;
He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power,
All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:
Transmuted by the white spiritual ray
He walks in naked heavens of joy and calm,
Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech:
An equal greatness in her life was sown.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

The air is motionless, hot, humid, burning the earth with scorching pre-monsoon heat. The Australian tress sway their flexible tops with the slightest trickle of a breeze, a vague reminder of the coolness and freshness of the nearby coast on the Bay of Bengal. The only relief comes while I board my one-gear moped and cruise along the well paved roads of Auroville and Pondicherry and enjoy the wind cooling off my sweating body, or after a night dip in the pool before going to sleep, to avoid sweating all night.

It's the beginning of May in eastern Tamil Nadu, when the nights are as humid as the days, clothes get drenched with sweat after 10 footsteps in the sun and frequent cold-bucket showers and dips in the mud pool are crucial for survival and well being. The local Tamils drink fresh coconut water and manage to keep their mud and kit homes cool. Temperatures average at 39-40 during the day and its gradually getting hotter.

Here in Auroville, the utopian international community envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and founded exactly 40 years ago, most Europeans escape the heat and either spend these months in the nearby hill-stations, built by the British for the exact purpose back in colonial days, or in Europe, where they can enjoy a mildly warm summer and indulge in some of the treats they may been missing since they left their homeland and settled in India.

But here in Sadhana Forest, life goes on. Nobody is going anywhere and reforestation and water conservation work is carried out every day in the early hours of the morning, before the heat creeps up on us.

I remember when I first arrived here in the end of March, 2004, for the first time. I was picked up by Aviram and his 3-year-old daughter, Osher on a dilapidated moped and taken on a long dirt road passing through a very simple village (Morattandi) and leading to a gate in the middle of nowhere. The place was not attractive: a couple of bamboo huts, an improvised kitchen which consisted of 2 tables and a net over them for shade, and a half built compost toilet. 10 sweating volunteers greeted me with big smiles on their faces and their sense of deep satisfaction was still a mystery to me. There was no other reason than curiosity that led me to spend 4 weeks here. 4 weeks that managed to change my outlook on life and brought me back here now, 4 years later, accompanied by Gali and a lot of enthusiasm.

The place has evolved: Trees were planted in the compound, gardens have been made, more huts have been built to house up to 70 volunteers during the peak months of December and January and a kitchen with stone floor and rocket-firewood stoves, solar panels, an electrical water pump, a swimming pool and high-speed Internet. All this may seem simple in conventional terms, however, seeing how this place started out, I feel awe and respect to its founders and to the work that is being done here by dedicated volunteers throughout the year.

Yorit, Aviram and Osher (7) came to this arid piece of land 4.5 years ago with a dream and their life savings to fulfill it. They wanted to create a reforestation project on this land, which used to be a flourishing tropical dry evergreen forest until it was deforested by the British during colonial times; this caused massive land erosion and put the entire Eco-system out of balance. This project could have easily been done with a lot of money and paid local workers to carry out the task, but an integral part of this dream was to have this work physically executed by volunteers, coming from all over the world and creating a sustainable community, interacting with each other and with the locals around it. The compound itself is not connected to the local power grid. Every light bulb and outlet works solely on solar power; the food is cooked on firewood dishes washed with the ashes, floors washed with lemons, bodies bathed with biodegradable soap and shit is collected and composted in a dry-compost toilet, later to be used for the nourishment of the trees, planted during the rain season, together with the food compost from the kitchen.

The community is totally Vegan. That means no meat, no fish, no eggs, no dairy products and no honey, as well as no processed food. This is where I personally see this place as a haven and sanctuary of healthy eating, as well as an opportunity to enhance my cooking skills and contribute to the rest of the community with providing good food to nourish the cells, so far with great success and appreciation from my fellow volunteers.

They set out to create a warm and safe environment for children as well. They practice "unschooling", meaning not sending their daughter to school, but rather doing nothing and allowing her natural inborn curiosity teach her about life; providing answers when questions are asked and not imposing any structured knowledge or beliefs (even veganism) at any stage. Osher is constantly in contact with nature, the cycles of the season, interacting with people from all over the world from all cuts of society on a daily basis (so learning English and other foreign tongues is not a problem). She is sensitive to sounds, smells, tastes not dulled by television and junk food, is in great health and has a brightness and intuitive intellect that is rarely seen in 7-year-old children today and surprises all the people that come through this place. Most kids today don't get chance to develop this self confidence and natural interest in the world. They are placed in schools where they are expected to conform and be at the exact same level of understanding as all the other kids, prescribed by an international or national standard from K to 12. The long hours, the often abusive attitude of the teachers and the lack of natural stimulation cause these kids to come home at the end of a school day exhausted, blanking out their minds in front of the television which brainwashes them into liking the same stars, music and products, which cost a lot of money and make their parents go out and work long hours so they can buy them these products. Seemingly they would be happier since the parents can provide these material items for them, but then the parent has no time to spend with them and they suffer from depression and a list of psychological disorders, at an increasingly young age. Breast-feeding till naturally weened, natural environment and stimulation, while spending more time with Children and providing them with wholesome, natural food at the earlier stages of life is what is practiced here in Sadhana forest and seeing Osher, and Shalev, her 3 month old baby sister, I feel inspired and have learned a lot about how I would like to raise my children in the future.

Sadhana forest is also a fertile ground for learning how to live with the earth and with natural processes, rather than living off the earth, exploiting it and interfering with these processes by speeding up and pushing ourselves and our children into gaining more and more material assets. At the end these products consume us, time-wise and physically as they destroy the earth. Living here for even 1 day reduces the impact of another person on the earth's fragile state. Not using fossil fuels, gas, too much water, eating fruit and veggies full of pesticides, shopping excessively and all the other things we do unknowingly to our planet, has a great effect on the world, even if it's a small group of people. More than 1000 people have gone through this place and learned a thing or two about being environmentally conscious. So I see this place as a model, planting seeds in a new generation of people who might be able to save earth before it's too late.

All this is allowed to take place under the guardianship of the larger web of communities that is Auroville. Although Sadhana forest is a strange bird in Auroville, in a way more adehering to the actual vision of the place than the other communites here. There is a true intention to make the least impact on the planet, while cooperating with the local Tamil community and building strong, long lasting connections with them.

Many of the communities here have gone quite far from the original dream and vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity." This was part of the Mother's (Mira Alfassa) vision. Much adoration and devotion is seen here in auroville to these ideas and to Mother herself, but when one spends some time here and sees the undercurrents, he can sense and touch neo-colonialism here. Many of the westerners living in Auroville live a very comfortable life, and often have local Tamil maids and servants or have them doing the lowliest work for them for minimal wages. They make use of the ridiculously cheap labour in India to live like kings. Not that this is wrong, this is probably the lifestyle they are used to. however, when you talk about "human unity" in light of what is happening in the world today, where the western so-called developed world is consuming most of the world's resources at the expense of the "third world" countries, there must be some kind of change in the way the white man perceived the darker skinned human being, escpecailly if Auroville is to be an example to the rest of the world. It seems to me there will always be that gap, and that idea which puts the white man's interests in a higher and more important place when it comes to making decisions on a global level that effect all of us, and also down to the simplest interactions between people.

Sri Aurobindo, one of India's greatest sages in the early 20th century and the person whom Auroville is named after, had a unique and profound philosophy and message to our age. He beilieved the human race is at a crucial evolutional stage right now, where human beings have the capacity to bring earth and mankind into a higher, if not the highest state of conciousness. As matter evolved into life in nature, and life evolved into intelligence; this intelligence will naturally evolve to its next stage - spirit. This will create a new human being which is naturally harmonious with its surroundings, with nature and with the universe and the forces and energies working in it. It is known that the human mind-body is a microcosm of the universe. Everyting which exists in the universe can be found within us. Thus we are inseperable and part of eachother. In the past 150 years, mankind has been in a darkness; the industrial revolution started a desctructive exploitation of earth's resources and a degradation of the human mind and free spirit. Certain movement and religions thruoghout history have always reminded us that we are going down hill, destroying ourselves and the earth, but as long as they were put into form and religious dogma, where ego reigns, no one would take it seriously (and by seriously I do not mean going to war over religious ideals!!). Thus, a transformation has to come from within. And this is where spiritual practice, whatever it may be, has the power to change the world and the future of our society and the earth. Since the Earth and human being share the same conciousness in the cells, when we transform into a higher state of being, our cells mutate and physically embody this change just as they did when fish grew feet and started walking on the earth, and when reptiles evolved into mammals. Our cellular harmony with the earth will naturally effect our relation to it. We will immediately realize we cannot harm the earth, or our fellow inhabitans of it because they are part of us. Actaully we really do not have to wait until this happens. It's self evident that everthing we do, speak or act upon effects us as will determine our well being. This is karma. We just have to open our eyes and start seeing clearly that we are part of something greater; some immense force which moved everytning into creation, preservation and destruction, while constantly balancing itself out. That someting great may be called god, or the universe, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we are it and we cannot keep on living as if we are some exclusive creature that has to take care of himself alone.

Om

Some intersting websites:

About sadhana forest: http://www.auroville.org/society/housing_s.htm

About Auroville: http://www.auroville.org/

About Sri Aurobindo & Mother: http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/

One nation under a groove

Finally, After several months, I wake up in India to the sound of silence. Only the early morning birds calling and announcing the break of dawn. Soon the sun will rise over the dry, black-rocked mountains.

The Krishnamurti Foundation study center where I attended a 7 day workshop on his teaching this week, is situated on a hill station named Tiwai hill, near the village of Rajgurunagar in the heart of the high Deccan plateau in the state of Maharashtra in western India. These hills are the northern end of the Western Ghats, the long mountain range which starts here and stretches all the way down to Kerala and the southern tip of the subcontinent along its west coast. The landscape is high and very dry with tall grass and black basalt rock, the only witnesses to the powerful volcanic activity which took place here millions of years ago. It reminds me a lot of Ramat Hagolan in August. Around the hills is a huge water reservoir, collecting the heavy monsoon rains to supply water to the city of Pune, one of India's most modern cities, only 2 hours away, with a population of over 6 million and an advanced high-tech industry. The sunsets over the big kineret-like lake is stunning and meets Krishnamurti's (and my) great love and appreciation of natural beauty.

We are 4 westerners among 20 upper-class Indians, teachers, engineers, doctors, pilots and lawyers from the big cities in south India: Mumbai, Banglore, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur, Goa and more. Our schedule here is very lax and consists of discussions in the morning and watching Krishnamurti's talks in the evening. The rest of the day is spent in nature, contemplation, reading and talking to eachother.

The thoughts I have after the evening talks usually have nothing to do with the talk's content. but just things the K's words have triggered in me. He actually doesn't say much, but the little he says has a lot of power to it when i'm fully present in the listening. The inner activity - mind and emotion becomes clear in light of his words, or the way he conveys his ideas. I sense he was truly awake, but had a bit of a hard time explaining to people what this actually means. He speaks of sudden perception, where thought, time and fear are completely eliminated from human consciousness by seeing through them very clearly. This moment lasted and stuck with him until he died. These moments do occur to me occasionally, as they do to many people, but the mind goes back gradually to its habitual patterns of thought. However, not completely. This is where I find a slight lack of correlation between K's teachings and my personal experience. I see a gradual process of awakening, unfolding constantly on many levels.

What I realized this week is that significant processes are happening all the time. Even at times when I think I am just idling and having doubt weather this workshop is "doing" anything for me. But I feel the real reason why i'm here is sneaking up to me through the back door (excuse the hebrew term) and Krishnaji is just a comfertable excuse to raise new and important questions into my field of conciousness.

All the people I have had interaction with this week have tought me something important. The funny and heart warming conversations with D, the Jewish writer from NY, have opened me up to new aspects of my jewish identity. She spotted me as a "Lanzman" the minute I told her where i'm from, and hasn't let go of me since. Her life story is interesting: Her family escaped from Germany before the second world war and she grew up with a heavily Jewish-German conditioning, carrying the horros of her cousins getting killed in the camps into her life which led her to years of alcoholism and 4 dysfunctional marriages which finally brought her to Krishnamurti 30 years ago. Now she is publishing books together with Kishore, the Director of the center here and a very wise and gentle man. She talks to me like I was her grandson, very funny and energetic, at the age of 73, the same age my maternal grandmother died, whom she reminded me so much of. She gave me a sense of being looked after and protected, a feeling i've been carrying with me since I left the Dharma gathering in Sarnath. Our conversations about the Holocaust and about Israel were raising questions again about my identity as an Israeli jew. These thoughts easily come about while travelling in foreign countries and constantly meeting people from different backgrounds. They provide great mirrors sometimes.

So does this identity I carry have any significance when I look at the world and at myself very clearly? Why do I have such a need in the past few years to declare at every opportunity I get that I want Israel to be my permanent home? Why is there such a strong connection to the earth, the people and the language? Is it just because I grew up in Israel or is it "in my blood" as D pointed out several times to me; this innate Jewish characteristic of learning and thinking and trying to find ways to reach god, or something greater than the self. Even Jack Kornfield, a world famous Insight meditation teacher, said once than Jews are naturally inclined towards spirituality.

To add to all of this, my encounter with H, a retired scientist from Hanover, Germany has been very illuminating. At first he was just plain interesting, with many historical and scientific facts about India and the world, but then he shared with me the story of his father: Drafted to a military academy at the age of 12 after being abandoned by his parents, raised to be an officer at the highest service of the 3rd Reich and the Nazi party in Germany in the 1930's. He fought on the front lines against the Russian army in Lithuania in WWII and reached a point where he rebelled against his high commanders, following the confusion and disorder in the way the war was being fought towards its end. Word got out to his superiors that he was rebelling and he was to be hunted down and killed. After writing letters to his wife and father, explaining he'd rather die in dignity than to be killed by the defunct and brutal Nazi regime, he shot himself. A few months later H was born, a product of his father's last visit home from the front line. Having never met his father, he tried for years to question his mother as to what happened and probe into the truth of his father's death, being told for years that he was killed in the line of duty. His mother closed down the walls and refused to touch the issue, trying to avoid the great pain of losing her husband so tragically.

So here it was again! The holocaust, being Jewish, descendant of Polish jews who would have been in the camps (my grandmothers' families actually were), facing the son of a Nazi officer 60 years later, both of us trying to make some sense of this violent, crazy world we were born into and how it affected us as human beings; our relationships, fears and behavioral patterns, through the teachings of J. Krishnamurti in India. Kind of surreal no?

Who would of thought 60 years ago that this would be possible? I'm hoping that in less than 60 years, my son will travel to India and meet a Palestinian guy his age and together they will see the futility and ignorance in the senseless battles that were fought over the land they live in; how that conditioned their psyche, their sense of national and religious identity. I feel a lot of love when I bring all these life stories together and look at the present, and at mankind's ongoing, relentless striving for happiness and clarity of mind; freedom from the fog and from the dividing constructs which drove our parents and theirs to conflicts and war. Over what?! For god's sake! what the fuck for?! Ignorance has killed so many people, and for what? for having a country? God knows how long that's going to last. We've only been on the land for 60 years now, who can guarantee the next 60? Is it worth dying for? I feel that this has been the agenda for which I have come here, oddly enough.

All this is reinforced by the Indians in this workshop, constantly asking me questions about Jerusalem, Israel and Judaism. I'm happy to reply, and it brings to my attention again the fact that this is an identity I have constructed for the past 29 years, despite the fact that on a deep level it is not WHO I AM.

At times, the morning dialogues were a bit frustrating. Going on and on about theoretical terms without penetrating the actual essence of the teaching. Kishore is very intelligent and concise, but his facilitating skills are a bit poor and the thread of conversation is often broken going into the hands of a babbling mass of old Indian intellectual men. I saw how I very easily started labeling these people as this mass, incapable of authentic insight and only concerened with terminology. But as the days went by, I was proved wrong. My heart opened to them completely during a ride 12 of us took to Bhima Shankar temple, a Shiva temple 40km from the center. I suddenly found myself getting to really know them, up close, this fascinating cut of Indian society, melting the barriers i've created in my mind and realizing how alike they were to me.

These people have worked hard to be where they are in life and they do not take for granted the affluent lifestyle in which they live. Many of them own several cars, live in big houses, have servants and maids and send their kids off to study in Europe and America. But at the same time they see on an everyday basis the other side of India; the poverty and the corruption and the mass idolatry and carelessness for the environment, and found them selves also struggling with the less attractive sides of their own country. They see more clearly than any other Indian I have met the absurdity and dangers of India's fast development and the problems of holding on to traditions such as the caste system and religious beliefs. This is what brings them here, to the radical teachings of Krishnamurti, instead of running off with the rest of the millions to Sai Baba, Amma or any other of India's popular present day gurus. They are seeking answers that their ancient culture could not give them, although they feel an integral part of it. They still closed their eyes and chanted to Lord Shiva in the temple, and prostrated to the Shiva Lingam covered by a silver cobra. But that does not give them security like it does to many other Indians. They are thinkers, articulate english speakers, demanding more from life, even after achieving the comforts of living a high-class life in modern India.

And I couldn't help but feeling the same. Growing up with a sense of being Jewish, that Zionism is important and that without Israel we'd all be killed by our neighbors or by all nations of the world, but feeling there must be more to it than that. These stories don't provide answers to the deeper questions of life. Who am I? What is the nature of our existence as human beings, without these titles and identities? Why is the system so defunct? Why is the violence never ending if this is the "right" thing to do? Why did my friends have to see people blown up to pieces in Lebanon at the age of 20? Why is there such neglect of our environment and of resources while we clearly see the world being destroyed in front of our eyes? Why the apathy and blindness? Why do people have to be so bull-headed? Including myself. Isn't it much simpler to love? Is holding on to ideas and images so much more important? Can't we see it's leading us nowhere as a human being on this planet?

I think this is part of what brings me to India. Gaining some perspective, being away from the routine and having the space and time to look deep within and investigate. look clearly into the movements which are going on inside my mind and heart, and maybe to understand the way I act out of conditioning, the way I react to the world around me. What makes this human organism of mine tick? Why does the world function as it does? Not to take anything for granted, appreciating the capacity to question life given to me by the love being human and being able to think and feel, and eventually realize something which is greater than myself, great than the self; a reality which encompasses all of life and all experience which all phenomena comes out of and dissolves back into in an ongoing, ever changing flux of natural interactions arising and passing away, being born and dying in every second without leaving a trace.

This wild journey has no path. No comparison; no way of evaluating where I am, how I'm going, what is happening to me. It is a path not yet trodden and only I am walking it. It is forming as I step on it, each step revealing new and fascinating realities. There is no security in this journey. No one who can tell me I will reach somewhere at the end of it or who knows when it actually began. It may have began before I was born, much before I knowingly did anything about it. Doing implies that there is someone actually on this path, but the more I see the less I sense myself actually doing anything or making any real choices. Life is just unfolding itself and showing it's grandeur more and more, bit by bit, non sequential and non-chronological because time is not a factor for it. I put my experience in terms of time and I am not in the experience anymore. Time implies there is movement of thought, but who is thinking? Thought is just commenting on it, trying to fit into habitual ways of thinking, associating it with me, the ego, the self and everything happening in relation to it. But I am a part of this journey just as everything else and new aspects of its existence, or non-existence unfold just as other aspects of reality show them selves.

Thank you for listening.

(The title to this entry provided by brother George Clinton. Long live the funk!)

Light in the Indian sky

I finally arrived in Pune after over 15 hours of travelling with every type of vehicle possible: Rickshaw, plane, train and taxi. It was tiring but I'm now settled in pune and tomorrow I'm going to the Krishnamurti Center.
I had an amazing experience on the flight over. As I was riding on the rickshaw from Sarnath to the Varanasi airport, I was getting very emotional. I had just said goodbye to all the wonderful people I met in the retreats and felt like i'm leaving family. But as the emotions were coming up, a true sense of happiness was there, and I saw the streets of India in a new and bright light, with a fresh feeling that nothing can go wrong. Everything is ok.

So at the airport, I finished my check-in and as I was waiting for the boarding to the flight I found myself right in the middle of a huge group of tourists from Argentina. It felt like being in Meflasim. Very loud and noisy and a lot of spanish. But I felt at home with it in some strange way, like I was connecting with Gali's family through these people with their fun and spicey energyies. As they got on the plane, the waiting hall got quiet and a strange group of middle-aged American women, all wearing pink and white Saris took seats around me. Immediately I felt good for some reason, being near them. Something about their faces kept me drawn to looking at them with a strange fascination. They had calm, soft eyes and I saw a aura of light around them. I never felt anything like this before. I had to find out who they were, I was very curious. So I started chatting with this woman, Caroline, and she told me that they are a group from a community of women in Iowa (central USA) of TM, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi disciples. Kind of like Hararit in Israel. They all came for the funeral of the Maharishi who died on Feb. 5th, and they poured his ashes into the Ganga at Allahabad and Varanasi with a big ceremony. Then she started telling me all about the maharishi and the practice they are doing for world peace, building communities all over the world where they are determined to raise the collective consciousness of the world through reciting vedic mantras and connecting to the cosmic TEDER of the universe. She was so passionate about it, and I just sat there listening, drinking her words.
After that, as if by cosmic plan, my seat on the plane was right in the middle of the group, and sitting next to me was one of the managers of the Maharishi University in Iowa. He looks like a typical rich american in his 60's but he had this softness in his eyes that just melted my heart and we had an amazing conversation all the way to Mumbai. He told me more about how their practice is changing the consciousness of the world and how the vedic sciptures are built in correlation to the human body and mind and embody the powers of nature in the text (much like the kabalah...). On the breaks between talking we both just naturally closed our eyes and went into meditation. At one moment I opened my eyes and saw the whole row of seats to the left of me, 3 men and 2 women, sitting and meditating and I felt the great power and sweetness of this moment, that everything is ok as it is.

So I just feel there is some force protecting me from the moment I left Sarnath, My heart is open and the world is in it giving me back love and support.

Om

The land of awakening

Bodhgaya 2008. 5:30 AM at the Thai monastary. The Temple loudspeakers begin to greet the the dawn with reminding us to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Almost 30 secondes later, as if planned, the quadruple minaret mosque a block away annonces Allah is great and Muhamad is his messanger. And as if trying to remind me i'm still in India, a little chai shop starts its day with loud playing of a poppy "Om Nama Shivaya" tune. All of them tying to point to the direction of a reality larger than ourselves, something beyond the mind's capacity to grasp, but each in it's unique way, modified by centuries of religoious thinking. The sun starts to flood the green gardens and glittering gold temple, and the bells start going off and another day of silence and meditation begins.

Originally, a cluster of small mud houses on the banks of a big dry riverbed, the village of Bodhgaya in the poor state of Bihar has turned into the Jerusalem of the Buddhist world. The word Bihar (or vihar in sanskrit) means place of learning, and functioned as the ground for the development of one of the most profound and revolutionary schools of thought 2,500 years ago - Buddhism. Today, while the local Biharis are living in the poorest and simplest conditions, cooking in clay stoves fed by cow manure outside their small houses, living the lives of Dalits, the lowests of the untouchable casts in India, forced to live at the edge of the village, outside of the system and deprived of any real rights to work in dignity (although by law they are equal), across the road a fancy 2008 Toyota minivan filled with Japanese pilgrims cruises to the fancy 5 story hotel where they can be far enough from the smell of burning garbage and sewage and easily reach the object for which they came - the glorious Mahabodhi Temple, at the site of the tree where the Buddha reached full awakening. For 3 months out of the year, the village gets packed with pilgrims from all Buddhists countries: Japan, Thailand, Sri lanka, Burma, Tibet and many more and provide the local population (who is mostly muslim) with a bit of tourist money to help them get by the rest of the year, which is just too hot and humid for any foreigner to bare.

In the past year, the government of Bihar, notorious for being one of the most corrupt administrations in India, has formulted a master plan to "improve" the site of the holy temple. This includes wiping out the entire commercial and residential area of the town and surrounding the temple with gardens and a small number of luxurious hotels which will cater to rich tourists. If the life of the locals was hard, then this was the last blow that would make their lives complete misery, depriving them of any kind of decent livelihood and relocating them to places where they will not be able to find any work or even have a small rice field to feed from. There has been some protest, but they feel so powerless in front of the government officials, especially because they believe that they themselves are powerless, after years of accepting the caste system into their society and treating themselves as outcasts of society.

But with all the hardships of this town, there has been a steady group of people, numbering in about 150 each year, from all different countries in Europe and America, Israel and India, who spend almost 3 weeks together, in silence, to practice what may be what the Buddha had originaly taught and bringing more clarity and understanding into their lives. Ironically, it is the western, non-buddhists who are actually practicing meditation, while the rest of the Buddhist tourists are satisfied with a short pilgrimage to the Holy sites, where famous scenes from the Buddhas life took place. This is an active group, and our presence in Bodhgaya provides a great support for the local villagers and shopkeepers, as well as some of the money donated for the retreats going to Charity organizations helping the locals get an education and bring themeselves out of poverty.

I had the privelage of accompanying a group led by Sister Mary, a catholic Indian nun from Pune, to a small village nearby, where she decided to find ways in which women of the untouchable cast can feel better about themselves in their families and in society and empower them to get an education and open small businesses by using the micro-loan system (small loans with low interest managed within the community). It was heartbreaking to listen to these women tell their stories, of how they are treated not only as members of the untouchable caste, but as women, who'se place indian society is very low, and are often deprived of education and even of the right to leave the house and socialize with other women. With this initiative, they suddenly realized they have power as a group of women supporting eachother and being able to transcend the constrictions of caste and society and realize themsleves as human beings. They open small workshops where they make clothes and artifacts they can later sell in the town, and shops where they can sell their local produce. This all sounds simple to us westerners, but you should see how these people live; in the simplest conditions, beautiful mud houses with no electricity and not buying anything they don't actually need and does not come directly from their own village. It was inspiring to see such simplicity of living, and that the human capacity to find hapiness and new sources of power in such conditions is possible. All it needs is a shift of awareness, a freedom from what we have always thought life and reality was like and a fresh way of looking at our future, boundless and free from conditioning.

It is always strange for me to see that 3rd world countries who are deeply stuck in their social and religious structures, often need the intervention of people from the west to help them be free from it. not that we do not have our own social and economic problems, but there is more freedom to act and move around in the west, more freedom to investigate and question our own reality, and that is something I am learning to really appreciate in my life and in the society which I come from. The huge movement of a new kind of awareness taking place mainly in the western world today can happen as a result of this freedom to move around, travel to places like India and the east and see that there are other ways we can live and empower oursleves to make the most out of our lives and be free from social and psychological conditioning.

I've just finished reading a fascintating book named "The Buddha and the Sahibs" by Charles Allen. It tells the story of the first Englishmen who were stationed in India during the 1700's and 1800's as scientists and soldiers working for the Royal court and the East India Company. It was the more eccentric of these people who were actually the first westrners to ever have a fascinations with Indian culture and mysticsm and with amazingly patient detective work, started uncovering the history of Buddhism in India. It wasn't an easy task, the folks back home were very conservative and treated the local Indian culture as barbaric and dangerous to white people. But these people were determined. They were seen living in remote places in the indian planes, wearing Kurtas and sarwals, amoking chillum and translating ancient Sanskrit texts. These were truely the first India-wallas!! They had a passion and saw the magic and the revolutionary thought and practice that was the cultural foundation of India for centuries. It's thanks to their persistence that these profound doctrines reached the west eventualy and influenced our society and thought of several generations, including the beatniks in the 40's, the hippies in the 60's, who renewed the contact with India with the oveland "hippie trail" from Europe to the east, and the rediscovery of spirituality taking place in the present, not to mention the profound changes in the outlook of psychology and psychotherapy today.

My love and passion for this country are increasing as my days here go by.

Namaste.

In the Jungle

Nepal is turning out to be a wild experience, and a gorgeous country for that matter, like nothing I've expected.
After spending 3 days in the valley town of Pokhara, Nepal's 2nd largest city, surrounded by the awesome Annapurna mountain range, I set way for the Chitwan national park in the southern part of Nepal, as an excursion on my way back to the Indian border. Little did I know this would be a truly "wild" experience.

After losing my camera on the ride over, I got to the village of Sauraha in the eastern Terai region of Nepal a little distraught, thinking of the fact that I won't be able to take any pictures of animals in the jungle, and losing an important medium in conveying my experiences to other people. The place is a typical Nepali rice growing village with small mud houses and very simple style of living. Kids bathing outdoors and ducks and chickens in the front yards. the small wave of tourism that hit the village due to its proximity to Asia's most important national park brought up the building of fancy bungalows and hotels for rich safari tourists. But all that didn't seem to affect the slow pace and simple life in the village.

The next morning I was off to the jungle to see some wild animals and felt a little better about losing the camera. My to-be guide, Ramu, informed at about 7am that he won't be leading me into the jungle in the end, because he has to take his mother to the hospital, but his brother, Jenwa. A few moments later, Jenwa appeared in the mud house that functioned as a common room, office and restaurant in the guesthouse. A man in his late 30's, tall and skinny, black skinned, almost African-looking, soft spoken with a bee sting in his right eye and a long bamboo stick in his hand. "This is Jenwa, he lives in the jungle" Said Ramu with pride. And indeed, from the moment I set my eyes on him, I could feel he is a man who lives in nature. I felt this is a man I can trust to lead me into the vast wilderness where wild animals dwell, unbothered by human civilization. Jenwa's soft tone and relaxed character didn't seem to have to prove anything about his capabilities in the wild, as other guides I saw did. He just appears when called, and quietly does what he needs to do, much like an animal in the wild. He opened by saying: "I have little English, but I know the jungle". Later I learned his English was just fine, and he even knew the Latin names of some of the plants and animals we saw along our 10 hour walk in the park.


Lunch and water in our backpacks, Jenwa, me and another local boy set out to the other side of the Rapti river, where the boundaries of Chitwan begin. The rules of the park require at least 2 local people to accompany tourists in the park. So the boy had to join us, and it was good being only 3 - less noise and more chances of seeing the wildlife. We began with a short canoe sail along the river in the morning fog. The quiet of being in the middle of wilderness immediately took over my senses and I could relax. Sitting in the boat, I could see on the bank flocks of Siberian ducks who migrate to Nepal every winter, small blue kingfisher birds, peacocks crying out to eachother and black-tailed monkeys coming down to the river for a morning drink.

Our party of 3 got off the canoe, which we shared with another group of German tourists, led by clean-cut Nepali guides with good shoes and expensive clothes. For a moment I felt inadequate that all I could afford was this local jungle-boy, but I was quickly brought to my senses when Jenwa whispered to me as we got off the boat:"These guides, they from Kathmandu, they don't know the jungle, they only walk where jeep goes. I know where the animals are... come". As we started walking down the narrow animal trodden paths, I soon saw what he meant. He started walking very quietly and very slowly, so we are not noticed by any animal. This way we can get to see them and also to respect their natural habitat by remembering we are only guests here. And, as meditation practice has taught me, walking slowly and mindfully sharpens the senses and allows me to be truly present with all there is to experience in the nature around me - the sound of the crickets and the birds and the smells of different plants and animals. Every few steps, Jenwa halted, looked to the side where he heard a rustle in the bushes, a cluck or a whisper of anything that might be alive in the bush. He stopped when he smelled something and whispered to me:"Tiger piss" or, "Bison, close by" . Every mound of shit we passed he checked the freshness of it and what direction the footprints of the animal indicate its going and made his evaluations as to what direction to go. I felt like i'm walking with a Bedouin in the desert. The long hours of being alone in nature make their senses very sharp and in tune with what is happening, much like the animals can sense what is happening far from them.


Only half an hour into the walk, we saw our first big animal - a full size male crocodile on the banks of a stream, bathing in the early morning sun. It was exciting. Seeing these reptiles in Hamat Gader when I was 10 years old was nothing compared to seeing this vicious thing in its natural habitat. We were silent, mindfully approaching him not to get him nervous. After a few minutes he sensed us and plunged into the water. He could have been dangerous. Jenwa explained to me before we set off into the jungle the ways we are supposed to act if we are charged by a rhino, attacked be a bear or a tiger. I felt secure though, being with Jenwa and his big stick. I was happy to be deep in nature in such climate and vegetation which I have never seen before and about to see animals such as Rhinos, Elephants, Deer, Bears and Bisons which I have never seen in the wild. This was coming full circle with all my childhood years of taping animal documentaries on video and watching them over and over again. I have now learned to appreciate what hard work and patience these filmmakers and zoologists needed to get the footage and explore these animals in the wild.

As we moved along the bush got thicker and we were already deep in green, moist, swampy jungle with Sal trees and different vines climbing on them like snakes. The double billed birds with black and white feathers greeted us next, along with huge colorful peacocks on the trees. We crossed some high grassland for some time, Jenwa following a Rhino's track and moving the tall grass aside with his stick. I felt like an ant walking across a football field. Then we spotted the large Sambar Deer, a male and a female. The large black male with branching horns moved away while the female saw us and simply stood and stared at us with huge black eyes. She was beautiful, brown fur and large rabbit ears and a look of surprise and purity in her eyes. it was exciting. Later we also saw the spotted deer, running in flocks at the first sound of our feet on the dry leaves on the ground.


Jenwa took me in tiny trails to places he believed we would see the bigger animals. Once in a while he took off his deteriorating shoes (I so much wanted to buy him a good pare of shoes in Kathmandu...) and climbed up a Mango tree, high up to see if there is any Rhino or other animal in the area. After a couple of times he just kept walking barefoot in the jungle, shoes tied to his stick. When there were areas of deep water to cross, he put me on his back and carried me through, even though I insisted I can too take my shoes off and walk in the water. He pointed out big holes in the ground, dug by the mighty vegetarian Sloth Bear, looking for Termites he likes to eat. After walking on a path with a bunch of those holes, there he was, a black Bear with a white face, standing on fours about 10 meters in front of us, staring. we fell silent and all I could hear was the crickets and the tension in the air. The bear started coming closer ever so slowly, until he got scared and started running away. Jenwa started chasing him and signaled me to come after him. This was exhilarating, chasing a bear in the jungle. He finally disappeared in the bush, making loud stepping sounds, making clear this was a big mutha of an animal!

It was getting late, and Jenwa was getting restless, wanting to earn the trophy of having me see a wild Rhino. He told me that if we do not See a Rhino today, he will knock on my door at 6am the next morning and he will take me for another 2 hour walk, free of charge just to see the grey beast. But that was not needed. As the sun was approaching the last quarter of the sky, the bush was colored in yellow and orange and Jenwa set out to the waters where he was sure the rhinos were drinking at this time of day. He came back 5 minutes later with a look of excitement on his face, but silent as always. He took me, partially on his back through the waters to see one of the most exciting sights I have ever seen. It was a full size female Rhino, a huge thing, I may add, having a feast on the tall grass. I was practically in tears from excitement. I felt all my childhood dreams of seeing these animals in the wild come true. The calm and gentleness in her simply standing there, where she has lived for years as did generations of Rhinos before her, in a land which was once all this jungle before man inhabited the Indian sub-continent, and covered all of India with Elephants, Tigers, Lions and hundreds of other animals. Today they are restricted to small areas tagged as national parks, although they still suffer being killed by the occasional poacher, selling their horns and teeth for a lot of money in the black market. Jenwa used to live in a village inside the park, as did many other locals who were uprooted from there by the Nepali government for the sake of the animals. Surprisingly, the villagers accepted this and didn't mind too much moving their rice fields and homes to the other side of the river. In Israel it's done for the sake of peace with our human neighbors, and here it's for peace with our animal ones. That said, every night wild elephants and rhino cross over the river and eat the villagers' crops.


This was a new experience of nature for me and hopefully not the last of its kind. There is an amazing stillness in the jungle that takes time to really plunge into, and feel the simplicity and love that exists from just being, and allowing nature to take its course, animals to do what they were born to do, and humans leaving it alone, and maybe learning a thing or two from these beautiful creatures which, unfortunately, are becoming more scarce and extinct by the day. Today there are around 250 Rhinos in Chitwan national park. 10 years ago there were over 500, and the numbers are not getting higher. Wild elephants are rarely to be seen and most of them are bred in the park's "breeding center", and they are trained for taking tourists for elephant rides in the jungle. It is people like Jenwa that inspire me in believing it is possible to live in harmony with nature, if we just tap in to its rhythm, smell the smells and listen to its subtle vibrations of life and the silence from which it comes.

I'm back in India now, in the city of Gorhakpur, waiting for a train to Varanasi. The smells, the filth and Indian chaos are reflecting the peace and beauty of the nature I've experienced in Nepal this past week. But this is also a kind of national park, where we are the animals and are interacting with eachother in a world which none of us have personally created. What animal am I?

Love,
Daniel

Travelling without moving

When I first started practicing Vipassana meditation I never imagined I would find myself 5 years later, spending 30 days in a Buddhist monastery in Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha, in Nepal, observing complete silence, not eating after 12 noon and practicing intensive meditation from 4AM to 9PM. It was not an easy experience, facing me with such harsh and simple conditions, but nevertheless, it turned out to be one of the most deep and profound experiences I have had since I set foot on this wonderful path.

Lumbini is one of the 4 most important places to the Buddhists and is filled with temples and monasteries from all Buddhists countries in Asia. The monastery was beautiful, full of blossoming gardens, lotus ponds, vegetable gardens & banana trees (from which we ate every day), lots of colorful birds & butterflies and four cats. The place is run by a team of tireless Burmese volunteers nuns and a few Nepali locals who took care of us faithfully and cooked some delicious meals, catering to the variety people from different nationalities who were practicing with us (lots of seaweed and shitake mushrooms for the Japanese and Koreans, yum!). The people who come to retreat in Panditarama are an interesting mix: Burmese, Korean and Taiwanese monks and nuns along with people who came from the US, Germany and other European countries who left their jobs and lives in the west for periods of up to 6 months, to take up a life of intensive meditation practice.

The teachings were led by a German monk named Vivekananda (bliss caused by seclusion of the mind, in Sanskrit) who was trained and ordained in Burma 20+ years ago and teaches the vipassana meditation known as the Mahasi Saydaw tradition, one of the many branches of Theravada Buddhism in Burma. The practice is very logical and almost scientific: It entails applying full attention of the mind on one point, in this case it's the breath noted by the rise and fall of the abdomen, for lengthening periods of time. in this time, the mind gradually becomes calm and clear, but above all focused and sharp. It becomes very sensitive to very subtle movement taking place in the body. It is then used like a microscope to penetrate other physical sensations in the body. Choosing any physical object in the body, like pain, and looking into it deeply, with the bare attention which has been developed, it is able to penetrate into its true nature. It is no longer just pain, as perceived earlier by the coarse, untamed mind, but just as a flux of constantly moving pulses and vibrations arising and passing away. By applying this on different physical and mental objects for a long period of time, one is able to gain insight into 3 main characteristics of human existence. One, is the fact that everything in the universe is constantly changing, always in motion, phenomena arising and passing away. It is true regarding everything in nature, including our own bodies, mind and even consciousness itself. Second, and deriving from the first, is that none of these phenomena which are in constant flux has any self, or inherit identity. Even ourselves, which we perceive as fixed and continuous personalities in the way in we usually function in the world, are merely sequences of matter and mind, energetic reactions constantly arising and passing away. This looks sustained and real our everyday minds, but when one practices meditation for a long enough, he begins to see the reality behind the mind-body phenomena. It's like taking a drop of water and placing it under a microscope. Under the the lens we don't see water as we know it, we see movement of tiny particles in constant reaction to one another. This is what we are made of as well as is everything else in the natural world. The third one is that our whole human predicament, the reason for suffering in the world and for our own unsatisfactoriness in different situations in our lives is all caused by our ignorance in seeing this true nature. We cling onto our perception of reality and expect it to act according to our expectations. Understanding the first two, it is easier to comprehend how silly it is to expect a reality which is in constant change and flux to suit the wills and needs of a mind which is derived in itself out of a false sense of self, and in its essence is made up of exactly the same stuff, particles as the reality from which it is in demand of. So ultimately, there is absolutely no separation between me and the world around me. I cannot manipulate reality to serve my egotistical needs because I am reality, reality is me. So who is serving who? This false notion causes us to divide, conceptualize, and judge everything that happens to us as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, trying to prolong the good, indulge in it and stop the bad, creating stress and addictions which are unnecessary once we understand the true and objective nature of things. This has tremendous implications to the way we live, from the micro cosmos of our own bodies' health and well being, to relationships, family dynamics, societies, nations and humanity as a whole. It is a true healing of the human mind.


So the practice here is of letting go of this clinging on to reality and tapping into this natural flow of events, only to learn that we are part of it, and can flow in it with great ease and comfort. This is something which can be studied endlessly by intellectualizing and philosophising about it, but this practice is all about actually experiencing it, first hand without analyzing and filtering reality through our conditioned minds, smart as we may be. Just having the bare senses in touch with what is happening, without creating a story around it and associating it with with my sense if self. The more I practice, the insight into this reality becomes deeper. Being cut off all sensual distractions for 30 days, allowed me to open up to the subtle and fine reality of my body, mind and how it reacts to the world around me. It was a lot like going back to being a baby and experiencing sight, sounds and smells as they are, as if I'm experiencing them for the first time. It's not just a mere sitting in bliss and cutting myself from the world to perceive calm and peace. It's true, calm and tranquility of the mind are part of the fruits of the practice; Deep, one pointedness of the mind can bring tremendous amounts of relaxation and peace to the body and mind. This is why meditation is prescribed to many people suffering from stress disorders and stress related illnesses. It does require a still and calm mind & body to look deeply into oneself and gain insight. But the thrills of meditation are also just momentary events, arising and passing away in and out of the stream of consciousness just like everything else in the world.

When it comes down to it, I'm practicing in this method in order to apply these insights into my life. Seeing these realities and other aspects in a direct and experiential manner, changes the links made in the brain which are have been enforced by my habitual behavior on a daily basis. Once these links, or behavioral patterns are seen as they are, and not as a fixed psychological reality, then something changes, lets go and behaviour patterns start to change accordingly. Things which used to upset me or make me nervous or agitated no longer do. Relationships change, the ability to function under pressure and more. Reactivity to exterior events changes and it becomes easier to see through the true intentions of people and other influencing powers like the media and governments, pick up on the "game" they are playing with my mind and and decide for myself, according to my own personal experience, what matters and what doesn't; What is conducive to living a happy, wholesome and well-balanced life and what is not. It's a process, a life long one which has many turns and surprises, but it keeps unfolding itself in a fascinating way as life goes on and insight deepens. It's no fixed doctrine to believe in, no system of rules or ideology. It is merely pausing our high-speed lives for a moment to sit still and look at what is happening in a pure, clean and objective way.


Being on retreat for a month was not at all easy. All the needs and comforts I'm used to and the speed and absent mindedness I was used to in everyday life (even while travelling) caused agitation and restlessness at start when I bring it down to slower pace and try to be mindful in every action I do. Making note of the physical sensations while walking, eating, going to the toilet in every minute of my waking hours. It was hard especially coming from a long 10 hour bus ride from India, followed by a border crossing where I had to bribe a clerk, getting cheated by a drunk money exchanger at the border and spending the night in a crappy hotel which was located right near a bus station where large groups of noisy Indians were getting on bus continuously from 3AM on. The next day there was a demonstration by the Maoist rebels in Nepal and the roads were blocked by burning tires. We had to take a cycle rickshaw with all our baggage to Lumbini in the blazing sun with a drunk driver. After these experiences we reached the monastery, tired, hungry and extremely agitated, only to find everyone there immersed in deep silence and mindfulness, walking at snail pace, mirroring to us exactly how agitated we really were.

The form and style of retreat was also something I wasn't very used to and tended to be very rigid, monastic and lacking the heart and sensitivity I believe has a crucial part of meditation practice. It was deep and straight forward and I was able to go deeper than i have ever gone before, but at the same time made me truly appreciate the way Vipassana is practiced in most places in the west, and the Israeli teachers specifically, with their warm, heart filled and embracing approach to the delicate matters of life which this practice touches upon.

We are now in Kathmandu, the bustling high pace capital of Nepal. Our senses are all open and sensitive and so are out hearts. We are trying to take it easy for the next few days. There is a new wind blowing in the air and a light and magical feeling of travelling these fascinating parts of the world and seeing life in its intensity, hardships along with its beauty and joy and the ongoing quest of mankind to simply be happy.


Thank you for being in my heart during this precious time of self exploration.

Happy Hanukkah to most of you, Merry Christmas to part of you and a happy new 2008 to everyone.

Peace & love,
Daniel