Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 T H I R D M O O N 06Gotama milk-rice just prior to his enlightenment. I followed a path wornby the locals across the sands of the river, wading through the two channelsof water up to my knees. Beyond the expanse of sand and the lineof trees on the far bank, and nearly lost amid the paddy fields, was theslightest of mounds with a small shrine beside it. Having lit and offeredincense to the shrine’s small Buddha rupa, I then sat there contemplatingthe mound, the villagers working in the fields around me, and somethoughts of my own on women and how appropriate it was that it wasa young woman who broke into the Buddha’s fixation on the asceticpath in the story of his enlightenment.Women are good at doing that, breaking into men’s absorptions.They can bring us out into a sensitivity to what is going on around us,which can seem quite delightful. The problem for me was that I tendedto confuse the effect with the cause, and fall for the woman. Romancewas a cycle I had got to know well. How following it brings both you andthe woman into a heightened awareness of the present moment, andhow, when it is over, you come down much as one does if one uses drugsto get the same effect, except there is usually an emotional mess one hasto deal with as well. I envied the monks their rules of restraint with theirvery clear lines: lines that cannot be continually adjusted, as I was proneto do with mine.It was pleasant sitting out in the fields warming myself in the lateafternoon sun and musing on the ways of the world. Around BodhGaya no one took much heed of me; they were used to Westernerswandering aimlessly about. I remember enjoying being able to do thatwhen I first came to Bodh Gaya in 1973. I spent many afternoons exploringthe surrounding area, Indian village life being a novelty then. It wason that visit, and at the Burmese Vihara, that I met my first TheravadanBuddhist monk. He was a big friendly American who had beenordained in Laos, where he had spent several years, until he was forcedto leave by the encroaching Vietnam War. I was at the vihara to enquireabout the Goenka course that I later did in Rajgir, and I met him in the2 7 6