Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

^0 S E C O N D M O O N 06cool breeze with beautiful views, well away from people and surroundedbywildlife.Walkingwaspleasant.Insteadwewerepassingthroughalandscapeof endless flat fields all much the same, constantly pestered by peopleso that it was unpleasant to linger, there was hardly any wildlife, andwe were walking in the heat. I’ve never been much good in heat; I havethe kind of big and bulky body that is good in the mountains or on polarexpeditions, but even in Kew Garden’s palm house I have to sit down afterten minutes. In India, I enjoyed walking for the first hour in the cool of theearlymorning.Oncethesunwasinthesky,theheatwasbearabletilleight.Then it started getting really unpleasant and I would begin to wilt.What made it worse was that Ajahn Sucitto was so much more able tocope with it than I. He was not so affected by the heat, he was much morepatient with all the inane questions, and he could walk so fast on thoseflat roads. The strange walk he has, feet slightly turned out like some kindof duck, seemed to be an adaptation for walking fast on the flat.I remember particularly walking beside the railway; I had noticed onour map that a small branch line followed the road we were on andthought it might be better away from the vehicles and all the people onthe road. However, there were also far fewer trees, and so the pools ofshade that I had crossed back and forth to walk under on the road hadgone. The single railway line ran ahead through a landscape washed outby the brightness of the light, and as the heat increased, I would beginto drop farther and farther behind with my mind starting to whinge likesome eight-year-old. In mid-afternoon it would eventually get so badthat, pissed off and way behind Ajahn Sucitto, I would come to a haltunder a tree and just collapse. I was seething so much that I was not upto asking if we could stop, and anyway Ajahn Sucitto would usually beout of sight. Eventually I would calm down and trudge on to find himwaiting patiently for me. During this period I decided not to shave myhead. I had enough to deal with just trying to do the pilgrimage.Somewhere along this stretch dawned the realisation of our differencein expectations. We were exchanging experiences of past walks; he7 0