Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

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^0 G I F T S 06along at a steady pace with the kilometre posts counting off the distanceto Bodh Gaya. The ease and the beauty combined with the steady walkingto quiet and centre my mind. We were carrying so little since therobbery that at times it felt like I was floating. As we made our way, wewere passing the usual assortment of pedestrians, bicycles, bullockcarts, and wandering cows. There were few vehicles—just the occasionalthree-wheeled taxi carrying pilgrims and tourists between BodhGaya and railway station in Gaya.Eventually we caught sight of the Bodhi Temple up ahead; the top ofits intricately carved tower just showing above the trees. The BodhiTemple, built on the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment, is the centreof Bodh Gaya, most of which is Buddhist temples, viharas, and otherplaces for visitors to stay. The Burmese Vihara was beside the road intotown, and it was the first building we came to. We turned in at the biggates and asked for Katie.I had been introduced to Katie the previous summer in England. Shewas about to leave for India to help with a course in Buddhist studiesorganized by an American university, and she had invited us to stay withthem.WewaitedatthegateforherwhileseveralyoungWesterntravellerscame and went. Then Katie arrived to collect us. About our age with longlight brown hair, an English rose complexion, and a flowing skirt, she wasalso the first person from home and the first woman we had really met fortwo months. I was slightly mesmerized as we trooped along behind her.She took us to a modern block of accommodation behind the old vihara,climbing up two flights of outside stairs to come out onto a wide verandaon the roof. There were three rooms up there facing a magnificent viewacross Bodh Gaya. They were the best rooms in the vihara. They also hadthe only hot showers in Bodh Gaya and the first we had seen since comingto India. Our room had been Katie’s; she had vacated it for us.We sat on the veranda enjoying the view while we were broughttea—in a teapot, with the milk in a jug as in England. There was somefood too: including very English-looking slices of cake. Katie seemed2 6 7
^0 T H I R D M O O N 06a ministering angel—an English one with a very proper accent. We toldher all about the robbery, the police, and our trials of the past twomonths. She listened attentively and reacted in all the right places. Thereis nothing quite like the concern of a sympathetic woman.Katie had encouraged me to get to Bodh Gaya in time for Christmas,and we had just made it. Tomorrow morning, she explained, therewould be a big gathering on the veranda in front of our rooms to whichwe were invited. It happened each year. Most of the Westerners stayinglong term in Bodh Gaya came for a shared Christmas breakfast.At some point—I think it must have been later, after we had had ourfirst warm shower and rested—we were taken to meet the monk incharge of the vihara. Venerable Nyaninda was Burmese, probably in hisfifties, and was sitting on a chair outside the old building. This, we soonlearned, was where he could be found most of the day, smoking aBurmese cheroot and available to talk to anyone who came by. Thereare a lot of people “coming by” at Bodh Gaya, and as often as not hewould be sitting there listening to someone’s problems. He was a niceman, quiet but affable, with a laid-back and slightly ironic tone to hisBurmese English; he had seen it all from his chair outside the vihara. Hetold us that we were welcome to stay as long as we wished, that weshould join him for the meal each day, and that we were not to pay foranything while we were there.A J A H N S U C I T T OWe had to visit the Maha Bodhi Temple, the shrine at the site of Siddhattha’sgreat Awakening. Of course, I tell myself, Bodh Gaya is justa place on the planet, a scruffy Indian village among a hundred thousandscruffy Indian villages, though marked by its fame with clustersof rickshaw drivers, beggars, and the rest. Transcendence is nothing todo with a place, I tell myself. So the brain holds on, grateful for the ordinariness—thedingy chai stalls, the indeterminate drab buildings—2 6 8
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RUDE AWAKENINGS
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The mindful exert themselves;they a
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^0 F O R E W O R D 06mystically emb
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PrefaceWhat follows is the narrativ
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The First MoonT H E M I D D L E L A
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^0 F I R S T M O O N 06chomping.
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^0 F I R S T M O O N 06deities with
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^0 P I L G R I M S 06things around
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^0 F I R S T M O O N 06and pedestri
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^0 F I R S T M O O N 06government w
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^0 F I R S T M O O N 06too attracti
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A J A H N S U C I T T O^0 F I R S T
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2Over the BorderA J A H N S U C I T
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^0 B O R D E R 06managed to ignore
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^0 B O R D E R 06Buddhist holy plac
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^0 B O R D E R 06a Buddha except th
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^0 B O R D E R 06the maelstrom, som
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^0 B O R D E R 06I read a sign in t
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^0 B O R D E R 06to Bhairawa, the n
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^0 B O R D E R 06of homage to the B
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^0 B O R D E R 06the grass bank fac
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3Leaving HomeA J A H N S U C I T T
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06ascertain
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06take arou
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06region an
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06wanted us
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06mother: s
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06We stoppe
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06to allow
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^0 L E AV I N G H O M E 06conversat
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The Second MoonL U M B I N I T O VA
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4The ObserverA J A H N S U C I T T
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06with a lot of t
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06contemplative b
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06After that we e
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06forbidden. Reli
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06told me about t
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06to sit beside t
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06With this move
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^0 O B S E RV E R 06the back; the d
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06live in th
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06Eventually
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06to a prese
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06of his kne
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06found so d
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06of them sp
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06stupa, try
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06wanted to
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06and a dark
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06from the e
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River Gandak, Part 2
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06ebbing out
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06violent at
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06That topic
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06friendly f
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06The boat w
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^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06was time t
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7The Kingdom of the LawA J A H N S
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^0 T H E L AW 06A sub-lieutenant in
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^0 T H E L AW 06was built in the gr
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^0 T H E L AW 06to get over the wor
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^0 T H E L AW 06accept any fare at
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^0 T H E L AW 06and milk sweets I b
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^0 T H E L AW 06the surrounding tre
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^0 T H E L AW 06a small house near
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8CyclesA J A H N S U C I T T ONovem
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^0 C Y C L E S 06long while for the
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^0 C Y C L E S 06thosebirthsanddeat
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^0 C Y C L E S 06There was a tea st
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^0 C Y C L E S 06The land we were p
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^0 C Y C L E S 06the Indian “West
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^0 C Y C L E S 06parothas straight
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^0 C Y C L E S 06ignore thirty boys
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A J A H N S U C I T T O^0 C Y C L E
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9The Deathless DrumA J A H N S U C
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^0 T H E D R U M 06Once...when I wa
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^0 T H E D R U M 06was a way of enh
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^0 T H E D R U M 06Sangha at Amarav
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^0 T H E D R U M 06scriptures descr
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^0 T H E D R U M 06job, but had eno
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^0 T H E D R U M 06Vaishali’s gre
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^0 T H E D R U M 06less.” And the
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^0 T H E D R U M 06had been a notic
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^0 T H E D R U M 06Striding across
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Mid-Bihar
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06is losing it
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06I had learne
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06cycle—a va
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06the way acro
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06in Bettiah.
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06newspaper th
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06There is not
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06that India h
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A J A H N S U C I T T O^0 T H I R D
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^0 T H I R D M O O N 06bigoted mons
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11Dark AngelA J A H N S U C I T T O
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06on. Then for
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06directly in h
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06something cos
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06a cycle ricks
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06is generously
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06body in order
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06majority of t
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06there are man
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06wound about w
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06It happens to
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^0 DA R K A N G E L 06there. After
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Page 236 and 237: 12Letting GoA J A H N S U C I T T O
Page 238 and 239: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06enough for A
Page 240 and 241: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06marketplace.
Page 242 and 243: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06to be comple
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Page 248 and 249: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06blue antelop
Page 250 and 251: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06formlessness
Page 252 and 253: ^0 L E T T I N G G O 06even, about
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Page 260 and 261: 13Landing PlaceA J A H N S U C I T
Page 262 and 263: ^0 L A N D I N G 06gone. And the di
Page 264 and 265: ^0 L A N D I N G 06more assertive.
Page 266 and 267: ^0 L A N D I N G 06manager facing e
Page 268 and 269: ^0 L A N D I N G 06I was left alone
Page 270 and 271: A J A H N S U C I T T O^0 L A N D I
Page 272 and 273: ^0 L A N D I N G 06Ajahn Sucitto in
Page 274 and 275: ^0 L A N D I N G 06Ahlee, and the m
Page 276 and 277: ^0 L A N D I N G 06moment we were b
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Page 281 and 282: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06admit that a
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Page 287 and 288: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06to think of
Page 289 and 290: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06filter like
Page 291 and 292: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06More than an
Page 293 and 294: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06Gotama milk-
Page 295 and 296: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06the sun, alw
Page 297 and 298: A J A H N S U C I T T O^0 T H I R D
Page 299 and 300: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06many-headed
Page 301 and 302: ^0 T H I R D M O O N 06abandoned Ed
Page 304 and 305: EpilogueSo many people helped us bo
Page 306 and 307: NotesP R E FA C E“The mindful exe
Page 308 and 309: ^0 N O T E S 06C H A P T E R 6 : S
Page 310 and 311: ^0 N O T E S 06C H A P T E R 1 0 :
Page 312 and 313: GlossaryAbhidhamma (Pali) one of th
Page 314 and 315: ^0 G L O S S A RY 06chillum (Hindi)
Page 316 and 317: ^0 G L O S S A RY 06Mahayana (Sansk
Page 318 and 319: ^0 G L O S S A RY 06sabong (Hindi)
Page 320: Vinaya (Pali) the monastic discipli
Page 323 and 324: ^0 B I B L I O G R A P H Y 06Conze,
Page 325 and 326: ^0 B I B L I O G R A P H Y 06Raven-
Page 328 and 329: Recommended ReadingB U D D H I S T
Page 330 and 331: IndexAAbhidhamma, 213, 284, 295Adi
Page 332 and 333: ^0 I N D E X 06HHajipur, 171-73, 18
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^0 I N D E X 06Nalanda and, 210-11,
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