Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

12Letting GoA J A H N S U C I T T OBy the time we reached Rajgir, we were almost running: striding verybriskly into Rajgir to arrive at the Burmese Vihara in time for the meal,which would surely be occurring around eleven o’clock.The town of Rajgir was clearly marked by a line of hills that rose outof the plain and that had been visible from Nalanda, fifteen kilometresaway. At last, something to rest the eyes upon, something to give rise tothe impression, however illusory, that there was somewhere to get to ...the first sign that the world might have an end to it since the glimpse ofthe Himalayas six weeks previously. Those blue hills promised a coolvantage point over the tangle and swelter of the world. The Buddha,born within the sight of the Himalayas must have loved this place! InKing Bimbisara’s capital, then called “Rajagaha,” he was a welcome andrespected guest: when he was not staying with the Sangha in the BambooGrove—the park that the king had given him just outside thetown—he would have been living in those hills on “Vulture’s Peak.”From that crag he could have looked over the town and the forestedplain, with the great birds slowly wheeling below him.To arrive at such a serene place within oneself is difficult: for the pair ofus to feel balanced and calm simultaneously for more than the occasional2 1 9