Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 P U R I T Y 06So we moved on. The Indian bhikkhu, embarrassed but relieved toget out of the shop, waggled his head and walked off in his directionwith stooped shoulders—for another three thousand years probably.We hadn’t gone far when the Brahmin came by on his bike, dismounted,chatted politely to us, and invited us to come and stay at his house. Butit felt easier to keep moving along our own road: somewhere in thatdirection was the Buddha and some clear reflection.He who shows no anger toward those who are angry, peacefultoward those who are violent, not grasping among those who arebent on grasping, is one I call a brahmin...The clear, calm, stainless,moonlike quality where the shackles of constant becomings are cutand thrown away; this is what brahmin means...No one is born a brahmin; no one is born a nonbrahmin. A brahminis a brahmin because of what he does.After breakfast with the abbot, Nick and I sought out the shrine commemoratingthe Buddha’s parinirvana; it was in the park immediatelyadjacent to the vihara. I didn’t expect to see neat, green parks in India,so the gardens that the shrine presided over were a pleasant surprise. Itwas still early morning and there were not many people about. Birdswere decorating the silence with trills and calls. Broad-leaved creepersgracefully adorned the trees; the vegetation was soft and yielding to theeye. The sensory world for once was on its best behaviour, gracing thesimple shrine where, millennia ago, the Buddha took leave of it. Withthe hardships of the way sloughed off, a tingling eagerness carried us upsome steps and into the simple tomb-shaped building that served as thetemple of the shrine. Reclining along the length of the interior so thatthere was a passage of about two metres around it, was an image of theBuddha in the last moments of his life. The statue was about three timeslife-size. His head was pointing to the north and he lay on his right side,with his gently smiling face supported by his right hand. His left arm layalong his left thigh with the fingers of the hand resting against the side8 5