Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 F I R S T M O O N 06revealed this to me very clearly. It was like having a helpless child withme sometimes, except the child did not mind being left on his own tolook after the luggage for hours while I foraged. However, once we werewandering on foot across the Middle Country, he would return to thekind of life all his rules were originally designed for. It should be likereturning a duck to water.Buddhist monks have a lot of rules, hundreds of them. Ajahn Sucittocomes from a tradition that emphasizes trying to keep them all. Manyof the rules just define the best way to do things; the restraint they createmakes it easier to live a spiritual life. There are also five moral preceptsthat all Buddhists are encouraged to keep: to refrain from killing,from lying, from stealing, from intoxicants, and from sexual behaviourthat harms others. These I try to keep. But for this trip I had undertakeninstead to keep the eight precepts traditionally taken by lay Buddhistson pilgrimage. With these the sexual precept is celibacy, as for themonks, and I would be keeping three of the monks’ training rules: notgoing to shows or entertainments, not using luxurious sleeping places,and not eating after midday. I could not imagine wanting to break anyof them while travelling in India, except, that is, for the last one.No eating after noon was a rule the Buddha introduced for his monkspartially out of compassion for the laypeople. He did not want themonks going to collect food at all times of the day. It also simplified themonks’ daily life. It does feel pleasant to have evenings free from thebusiness of eating, free for practicing meditation. However, it also gavethe final twist to the daily travel problems: not only did I have to sortout train tickets and shop for both of our various needs, I also had tomake sure we ate by midday and that we both got enough to last untilthe next day.From the border we decided to walk to Lumbini. It was twenty-eightkilometres (seventeen miles) away, and walking seemed the right wayto arrive at our first holy site. It would also be a practice run for the onethousand miles to come. Walking along the short road from the border3 4