Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 F I R S T M O O N 06chomping. “Giant fruit bat,” comments Nick-Who-Knows when I goover to where he is slumped.Eating upside-down is anyway no more contrary than sitting andpacing on a roof in the moonlight. It depends what position you take.For us this full moon night of November 2 is the uposatha night. In thetime of the Buddha, the Sangha would sit up on these moon nightsmeditating and giving talks until dawn. In the forest monasteries ofThailand and Britain, we still carry out this observance. Or attempt to.Having arrived in New Delhi only yesterday at two in the morning aftera flight from Heathrow, we’re jetlagged and in a time warp, but wemight as well get used to it—disorientation is going to be a normalmindstate for the next six months at least. If we survive. Our aim is towalk around the Buddhist holy places of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar andthen head for Kathmandu; avoid the main roads, wander across countryliving on alms food and whatever.... “It’s a bit risky,” said Nick a fewmonths ago, “I’ve made out my will and given away any money that Ihad left in Britain.”“I can arrange a car for you!” Ravi, an Indian guest at my homemonastery, had exclaimed. “Bihar is very dangerous! Bandits, murderers—noone travels on foot in Bihar!” Or sleeps out in the open. However,Bihar and the eastern section of Uttar Pradesh were the “MiddleCountry,” the land where the Buddha was enlightened and wanderedteaching for forty-five years. “Bihar” even comes from the old wordvihara, meaning a dwelling place for a Buddhist monk. Remains ofsome of the old viharas were still visible. After the death of theBuddha, the Middle Country—then called Magadha—prospered asthe centre of the empire of the Buddhist monarch Ashoka (268–231B.C.E.). Some of the stupas that he erected over portions of the Master’sashes, as well as towering pillars engraved with the emperor’sedicts on righteous conduct, still loom over the paddy fields of theGanges plain. Even after his death and the dissolution of the empire,the wisdom of the Buddha continued to mould the culture: from the4