Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06violent attack of dysentery. With his loyal attendant, Ananda, the Buddhahad slowly and painfully made his way onward to pass away in the salgrove outside of Kusinara. Of his last acts, one of the most generouswas to tell Ananda to absolve Cunda from any blame. The smith’s intentionshad been good, and after all, the Buddha’s body was old andpainful: “kept going by being bandaged up” as he put it. In fact hereflected that Cunda’s deed could even be seen as a blessing: it was allowinghim to pass into the Ultimate Nirvana that he had guided so manyothers to over forty-five years.I had to admit the setting was appropriate. The dung-strewn field andthe buzzing flies befitted a place of dysentery and death. The warmthof the morning wafted excremental odours over the fragrance of theincense that I lit and offered. Nick produced some yellow sponge cakewith a cheerful remark. It was wrapped in greasy paper and tasted likeit had been steeped in ammonia. I felt like keeping the Buddha’s resolveto eat on, no matter what, but Nick, munching some himself, was comingto the same conclusions: the mysterious “pig’s delight” must be noneother than this rancid cake! Not being ready to follow the Buddha’sexample yet, I ate half, spat some out and gave the rest to the flies. Forthem it would probably make a change from excrement.We picked up our bags from the resthouse and moved on into FazilNagar. Down a back street, a strange hill (with another blue enamellednotice beside it) could only have been an ancient stupa that had becomegrassed over. There was a Muslim shrine on it now. Past that and acrossthe fields we went; a farmer offered us a meal in a tiny village, and thenwe were on a small road leading back to the trunk road.N I C KThat morning as we had walked into Fazil Nagar we had talked aboutVenerable Ananda, the Buddha’s faithful companion. We would gettalking like that sometimes, hit on a new topic of conversation and1 0 4