Jundo's India Diary: A Month of Travels & Pilgrimage

[RichardH]

Have an amazing time Jundo. We'll mind the shop, collect the mail and water the plants ... and Treeleaf will be here in one piece when you return.

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

[Toun]

Have a wonderful trip Jundo!

Gassho
Mike
Sat2day

[Risho]

Maybe now is a good time to implement the April 1st initiative that Jundo keeps talking about every year - namely, no more chanting or sitting right? I mean we're all Buddha's, time to let the proverbial "wind" fan itself? hahahah

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Shokai]

Travel well and may you return with much wisdom

nine bows

sat Today

[Kyotai]

Enjoy your trip and travel safe.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[Jundo]

Dear All,

Well, I am about out the door, heading for the airport. Catch ya in a while crocodile (which, by the way, they really have in the river of the town where I am heading next week. I won't be swimming.)

Among other perils, welcome to our dystopian future: Delhi is suffering a freak smog alert this week that is setting records, enough for me to consult with my doctor before going, and to invest in industrial n95 face masks.

CNN: New Delhi is the most polluted city on Earth right now

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/asia/india-new-delhi-smog-pollution/index.html

India's capital is choking under off-the-charts smog, with some parts of the city reporting levels almost five times those considered "unhealthy" by the US environmental protection agency. ... Measurements taken at the US Embassy in Delhi put the city's Air Quality Index at 999 on Monday, off the standard chart, which finishes at the "hazardous" level of 500. By comparison, the highest AQI level recorded Monday in Baoding -- China's most polluted city -- was 298.

No problem: Until I head out of Delhi into the Dessert, don't drink the water, don't eat raw vegetables, and don't breathe!

(Let's also hope that the EPA isn't about to be eliminated in the USA)

I will leave you with a rather acerbic comment I found by Master Dogen on what he thought of pilgrims to India ... It is the grumpier version of his "Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you" that I posted above. He didn't even mention the pollution ... (from Shobogenzo-Gyoki):

... there were some who went to India. What was the use of that? It was the most extreme stupidity. Led by bad karma, they wandered astray through foreign lands. With every step they were proceeding along the wrong path of insulting the Dharma; with every step they were fleeing from their father’s homeland. What was to be gained by their going to India? Only hardship and privation in the mountains and the waters. They did not study the principle that the Western Heavens (India) had come to the east (China) and they did not clarify the eastward advance of the Buddha-Dharma, and so they uselessly lost their way in India. They have reputations as seekers of the Buddha-Dharma but they did not have any will to the truth with which to pursue the Buddha-Dharma, and so they did not meet a true teacher even in India. They only met fruit lessly with teachers of sutras and teachers of commentaries. The reason is that they did not have the right state of mind with which to pursue the right Dharma, and so—even though authentic teachers were still present in India—those [wanderers] did not get their hands upon the authentic Dharma. Some who went to India claimed to have met true teachers
there [but] no mention was ever heard of who those teachers were. If they had met true teachers, they would naturally name some names. There was no [meeting] and so there has been no naming.

I guess it is just my own stupidity and bad Karma leads me to sully the Dharma so. Oh well, time to get going.

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Jakuden]

Dear All,

Well, I am about out the door, heading for the airport. Catch ya in a while crocodile (which, by the way, they really have in the river of the town where I am heading next week. I won't be swimming.)

Among other perils, welcome to our dystopian future: Delhi is suffering a freak smog alert this week that is setting records, enough for me to consult with my doctor before going, and to invest in industrial n95 face masks.

CNN: New Delhi is the most polluted city on Earth right now

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/07/asia/india-new-delhi-smog-pollution/index.html

No problem: Until I head out of Delhi into the Dessert, don't drink the water, don't eat raw vegetables, and don't breathe!

I will leave you with a rather acerbic comment I found by Master Dogen on what he thought of pilgrims to India ... It is the grumpier version of his "Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you" that I posted above. He didn't even mention the pollution ... (from Shobogenzo-Gyoki):



I guess it is just my own stupidity and bad Karma leads me to sully the Dharma so. Oh well, time to get going.

Gassho, J

SatToday

You rebel, you! [emoji1]
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


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[Myosha]

Hello,

Fare well.


Gassho
Myosha
sat today

[Byokan]

Have a great trip, dear Jundo! Wishing you good travels, safe passage, lots of luck, and lots of wonder. Miss you already, but we will be fine, now go have fun!

Gassho
Byokan
sat today

p.s. watch out for the vindaloo!

[Jundo]

Dear All.

It is hard to believe I have been travelling just a week. Seems fast and ages longer all at once. So much experienced each day, so many new things. Nothing I can say can convey this place, nor scratch the surface of its complexity. The little I learn, that much more I do not know. I am trying to taste a bit of Indian culture, both good and bad, beautiful and ugly. I am not sure how things compare now to in the Buddha's time, but today screams "Samsara" wherever I look.

There is grinding poverty, yet most people strike me as about as happy or sad in mood as folks in the suburbs of middle class America. People work hard here, unbelievably hard and and long and they are industrious. It puts to rest any assertion that poor people are poor for lack of trying, but instead, lack of opportunity and social systems keep them so. Many just don't get paid a lot for their industry and unbelievable long hours. It is a place of class and caste and rich and poor, where beggars sit in front of walled private residential compounds for the wealthy, and Mercedes with drivers rush through traffic alongside pedal rickshaws and woman balancing the day's wares on their heads.

And the traffic! In Delhi, no formal rules that I can see, buses zig zagging in front of bicycles and pedestrians, stop signals and lane markers are just an option. Cars come from every direction, cows wander many roads, and the individual brains of tens of thousands of drivers somehow keep each from crashing into each other in the chaos. There are rules, but unwritten. This in not my film (I cannot access my pictures now), but one someone took ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDLCd70iTeE

Delhi also experienced pollution literally off the scale while I was there, up to five times what doctors consider safe levels ...

http://www.ecowatch.com/most-polluted-city-new-delhi-2083377091.html

It left me with a hacking cough, my industrial level facemask black (as are probably my insides even with wearing it). The pedalcab drivers just breathe it in as they sweat down the roads. Environmental laws as loosely enforced as traffic laws. There are runs on the banks too, long lines snaking in front as folks try to get their cash ... all breathing this stuff.

It has left me tremendously grateful for a western economic system that has somehow organized society, labor and resources to bring unprecedented levels of wealth to people. Even America's poorest have access to material goods that only the upper classes have here. We have developed so much in science and industry. At the same time, we are unhappy so often, complaining about our "first world" problems like bad internet connections, office promotions and health care premiums. Modern "Samsara". We should appreciate more what we have. We don't. We are foolish (although, my belief is that homo sapiens are hard wired never to be fully satisfied even if becoming kings or Hollywood celebrities, scaling Mt. Everest or winning a Noble Prize ... we still find some dissatisfaction which drives us on. Zazen is the medicine for that, allow us satisfaction and dissatisfaction at once, being still and moving forward as one. However, enough about that). We should cherish the environment, clean air and water, too.

I was able to witness a parade held by the Seikh community to celebrate their founding Guru. It was amazing, snaking through the streets of Delhi for miles and miles, I walked the whole thing through neighborhoods I would usually never think to enter. I went to see the Taj Mahal (it is beautiful), but was touched far more by the burning bodies on pyres next to the river, ashes being scattered, that my friend and I stumbled on during a short hike which followed. The Indians did not seem to mind our presence as we took a wrong turn, but we discreetly Gasshoed and went on our way.

Today I am out of Delhi (breathing a better) in the small country town of Bundi, for a festival of Rajastani dance and sports. Looking forward to that, and to moving on to the sacred Hindu town of Pushkar to sit in quiet contemplation for a few days next to the world's only temple to Brahma before moving on to the Buddhist pilgrimage part of my travels. Nothing to complain about.

On another note, I have been looking in on the forum from time to time. It is now in the fine and guiding hands of Kyonin, Shokai, Shingen, Shugen, Daizan and Sekishi.

I am concerned by the level of discourse in some of the threads, especially those with regard to American politics. There is an Emptiness which transcends all thoughts of left and right and middle, win and lose, social policy choices. Yet, we simultaneously live in a world where people will disagree, and choices have to be made about social policy, left right and middle. Choice have to be made that impact all citizens and the whole world, for good and bad in the future. No problem, for we transcend all choices and thoughts of right vs. wrong, yet make choices and have beliefs on right vs. wrong at once (this is our Zenny Way of choiceless choices). Stand up for what you believe, and sit down in Zazen too! HOWEVER, in doing so, good and gentle speech must be maintained in this place. Our Community has only one rule besides sitting Zazen each day, and that is to use gentle, softly spoken and humbly asserted, kind and understanding speech with each other even when topics can be the object of serious disagreement. I will ask our priests who are in charge of this Forum to take a firmer hand if anyone forgets that.

I also continue to offer metta and to sit for the folks here, and I am still around even if just a bit quiet and observant during travels.

More soon.

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

PS - I visited a wonderful charity for the runaway kids who end up living around Delhi station. Supported by folks of many religions here, affiliated with none in particular. They get the kids some healthcare, education and friendship on bare bones and shoe strings. They claim to reach 60% of such kids to get them some assistance and a safe place to go. Please consider a donation through their paypal if it moves you.

http://www.salaambaalaktrust.com/who-we-are.html

http://www.salaambaalaktrust.com/what-we-do.html

[Mp]

WOW Jundo, what an amazing experience you have had thus far, sounds exciting and frightening at the same time. I am glad you are doing well and have some cleaner air to breathe. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your journey with us ... wonderful! =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Kyotai]

Thank you for the update. Safe travels.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[Jakuden]

Thank you Jundo, sounds intense! Your words remind me to spend more time being grateful for what I have and not to fret about how I wish it would be--e.g. Dukkha 101. But yes wherever we are there is the opportunity to make things better for others.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


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[Joyo]

Thank you, Jundo. Your account of life in Delhi leaves me with guilt as I tuck my kids into their warm beds, and look forward to a walk with my dog tomorrow morning, being able to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful environment.

Metta to all. These people of India and their stories of life and struggles for survival will be near to my heart in the days to come.

Enjoy your pilgrimage, Jundo. Happy and safe travels to you.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Shokai]

Thanks for the update Jundo.
Much metta for the millions enduring less than optimum conditions all around our planet.

Gassho,

sat Today