Lunch time

The gate

Buddha Smile School (cont.)

Yesterday I went back to Sarnath to visit that Buddha Smile school to meet the students and take photos. Entering the school the noise level is overwhelming; kids are everywhere. Some kids are running to the bathroom, some getting their cuts and scratches tended too, some doing errands for the teacher, some being naughtily, some arriving late and some small ones crying over something or other. When I arrived the little kids were having their health and hygiene practice class; i.e. cleaning their teeth and washing their faces. So you can image the teachers rolling up the sleeves of 30 small jumpers, fights over who had the toothpaste, kids splashing water on each other and 30 small toothpaste filed mouths saying Namaste! to the visitor. Mayhem, is maybe the best way to descried the scene but everyone was smiling and with a great feeling of happiness pervading the air.

Teachers lunch break

lesson time

The school is very small and teaches kids from ages 5 to 15, each classroom holding anywhere from 15 to 30 students in a class and there are 8 classrooms. As I may have mentioned earlier the building is bare concrete with some paint on the walls and each class is furnished with benches which serve as tables and chairs. The children come to school at 7.30am and have breakfast before their lessons they are also served lunch before classes finish at 1.30 pm. For many of these kids this will be the only food they get in a day.

Principle and doctor

 Each subject, which includes Hindi, English, math, social studies, history and art, is taught for about 40 minutes then the teachers rotate classrooms to teach another subjects. In this way, since space is tight, time is not wasted moving the children from classroom to classroom. 

Rajan and Sukdev

Each child has a uniform complete with woolly hat and scarf however many of these uniforms look like they have not been washed since they were handed out. Rajan tells me that for many of the children their home is a tent on the side of the road, or a broken down room with no light and no running water. She tries her best to keep the kids clean but with limited washroom facilities in the school it is a constant battle to keep the school and the kids clean. The children’s parents are the poorest of the poor. Their job include driving rickshaws, cleaners, labourers or unemployed doing odd jobs now and again. Unfortunate many of the parents are also on drugs and alcohol so the children are left often to fend for themselves. Rajan says that many of the kids either bring their friends or siblings to school to get fed and be taken care of. Many of the kids also to go to work or beg after school in order to supplement family income.

These children have been born into terrible conditions and it is more than admirable just how dedicated Rajan and her husband are to educating these kids so that as they grow they can help themselves get out of poverty. By providing love, care and education and a safe place to dream these children have a much better chance to have a positive future. Thank you Rajan and Sukdev !!!

 http://buddhas-smile-school.org/

Bye Bye Sarnath Hello Varanasi

deer in the park

It has been a great 6 days at the teachings and visiting the stupa which marks the palace where Buddha gave his first teaching. I met some great new friends and caught up with Dharma buddies from before. Before leaving I had a stroll through the deer park and a few rounds around the Stupa and doing some prayers. When Buddha taught in Sarnath 2500 years ago he taught to 5 disciples and it is said that also the deer in the park came to listen. Today there are still deer in the park maybe descendants, who knows. The dear are beautiful but keep behind a wall which is hard to see them Anyway as is India there is buisness surrounding the deer. Children collect guava from the trees and gather vegetable and parcel them up in plastic bags and sell these bags to the tourist for a few rupees. Sucker that I am I bought some guava from Joyti, a young girl around 12. It was a Sunday and she assure me that she does this job after school and on day off. Anyway she was just too cute and took a stone and smashed up the Guava for me and we both fed the deer. She says she like t do this job because she makes some money for the family and also enjoys helping the deer get  good food.

Joyti

puja at the stupa

Varanasi, Benaris or Kashi

Varanasi is only half an hour away so I could not miss the opportunity to visit other Ganga (the Ganges River) and spent some time in the Zhiva holy city of Varanasi, also known as Benares and Kashi. I came here in 1998 and it has not changed much since then , probably because the city is so built up and old there is no where to build by the Ganga.

The first thing that hits you is the contrast between the busy streets teeming with cycle rickshaws, pedestrians and cows and the stillness of the ghats alone the river. It is as if you go back in time here by the river and time also just seems to slow way down. I came here a day ago and needed a day to just adjust and a bit of a rest to fight off a cold and clear the lungs form all the smokes inhaled form the cow dung fires. Yuck!!!

Luckily with in Goa I met Rajesh who has a family guest house at Assi ghat, which is the last or first ghat on the Ganga and is not only away from all the crowds but a wee bit quiet too. Asish guest House and restaurant is  just on the ghat, basic, very friendly, has hot water and the food is great; only 300 rupees ($5.50 approx a night) Call Rajesh at 91991829128 as they do not have a web site. Rajesh also has another guest house in Dharamkot, near Dharamsala  so it seems to be a small world as I keep bumping into folks for Himachal Pradesh. Rajesh tells me that he does a lot of clean up of Assi ghat and gets the locals involved. He gets groups together to pick up and dispose of the rubbish and has gotten all the chia sellers to use traditional pottery cups instead of plastic. Many people at the ghat have great things to say about Rajesh’s efforts and he seems like a really nice guys.

sadhus ready for their purifying dip

This week also sees the beginning of Kumbha Mella; a Hindu festival where thousands of Sadhus (Hindu holy men) come down from their caves in the Himalayas to take a bath in the Ganges.  

http://kumbhmelaallahabad.gov.in/english/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbh_Mela
Allahabad, which is 125 km’s from Varanasi, is a holy city where three rivers meet, the Ganges, the Yumana and the Saraswati.  This city is holy as it is believed that bathing in the meeting point of these three holy rivers purifies ones negative karmas.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allahabad
The mella( festival) will last for one month and many pilgrims will make there way from Allahbad to Varanassi. Already the people form near by villages are coming to Varanassi to beg for the month. For more a recent news article on the preparation of the Kumbha Mela see th following links;
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Is-Allahabad-ready-for-10-crore-pilgrims-during-Kumbh/articleshow/18001894.cms
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowpics/17928195.cms
and for some photos try http://www.washingtonpost.com/conversations/day-in-photos/2013/01/04/5440e2ae-566d-11e2-a613-ec8d394535c6_gallery.html

Tomorrow is also another festival, the kite festival. All the kids in town are preparing their kite flying skills for the big day. Really as I sit her overlooking the Ganges, every roof to has a t least one kid ( all boys as kites is a boy thing) flying his kite. It is really quite beautiful watching all these bright coloured kites play in the breeze. So in the next few days there will be lots to see and do, lets see what keep me busy in Varanasi. This afternoon maybe a meditation on impermenance by watching events at the burning ghats.

Kids with new winter clothes

Buddha Smile School

http://buddhas-smile-school.org/

I heard about Rajan Kaur Sini from a friend at the teaching. She started the Buddha Smile school around 2002 and in 2009 was awarded  an Unsung Heroes of Compassion Award from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  http://buddhas-smile-school.org/tag/unsung-heroes-of-compassion. The school is just across the street from the teaching ground so of course I had to meet this lady.
Right away I could see and feel that Rajan was a very open hearted and loving person. She greeted me with a hug and sat me down for a cup of chai. She too had been at the teachings and like me was on a Dalai Lama high. She told me her story of how she came to be in one of the poorest states in India working to educate the poorest of children from low caste families.

She and her husband, Sukdev were forbidden to marry by their families but she says they 'have a very deep and true love" so eloped to Sarnath. Sudev befriended many of the low cast homeless people who do the street sweeping and dirty job. She was very proud to tell me that she had three  low cast people be witnesses at her wedding and that they signed their names with a thumb print. Over the years they settled into the town and wanted to somehow repay the kindness of the local. Being a teacher Rajan decided to start teaching small children. They were very fortunate in that Sukdev's father eventually accepted their marriage and became involved in the idea of creating a school. Buying a small portion of land they decided to build a restaurant, which Sukdev runs and a school which Rajan runs. The building is sparse with bare concrete with a few paintings. The classroom are small with low wooden benches and a black board. She funded the school with her own money and some profit from the restaurant. She and her husband have two of their own girls, Daisy 16 and Rosie who is 11 who are just great girls, brimming with confidence and have been fully involved in helping mum run the school. Rajan firmly believes that it has been the love between her and Sukdev that has made the school a success; she may well be right.
As if their lives have not been hard enough Sukdev lost his leg in a road accident but was luck not to loose his life. He is a tall man, well build and walks with a limp. You would never think he had lost a leg. For his story click on http://spectrummagazine.org/node/1807

Presently Sukdev is building a small guest house on top of the restaurant in the hope of generating more money for the school and Rajan would like to turn a few store room which are half built into a secure home for women and girl at risk of abuse or sex trafficking. We briefly discussed her plans to buy more land for building a proper secure home for women and girls.
I will be headed back to Buddha smile school in a few days when school re-opened after holiday to meet the kids and see the teachers in action. I promise to post photos of her and the kids.

HH DL Tenzin Gyatso

Queing

Approximately 7 thousand people attended the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Sarnath; this is great but standing in line to get in can take a long time. Since there have been attempts to take His Holiness life, at lease seriously injure him either by Chinese agents or  people under Chinese command, security at teachings is always tight. Most times I can deal with queuing but dealing with the people in the que can be a huge test of patience.

Chenrazig diety of compassion

On day the last day of the teaching His Holiness gave a blessing to the crowd in the form of a ceremony, where the student had to engage in a meditation with visualisation. The blessing ceremony gives the students permission to practice a particular meditation practice which is designed to encourage the practitioners mind to become more compassionate. Of course the 4 days of teaching compliments the mediation practice. Anyway many of the Tibetan and Himalayan peoples love to come for the blessing ceremony and often either skip the teaching or sit and have a picnic and not listen to the teaching. So you can imagine even more people turned up on the last day which meant the security have their work cut out and the que was extra long.
Kiran, my French room mate and I showed up at the teaching ground around 7.30 am. First things first; get a cup of tea in my cup and find the end of the que. That done we had to then endure the onslaught of beggars and sellers.
First there were the local woman from the village with their babies squatting on the path holding out their filthy, torn sari head cover piece to put money in. Many of them have a home and pretend to be beggars in the hope of  getting a few extra rupees. They use their babies as props, often pinching then to cry and then pulling a very sorrowfully face which just pulls at your heart strings. However some of these women are genuine beggars. They may be widows or have left their husband due to abuse and with no home and unable to return to their parents home live on the street. It is just hard to tell  who is in need and who is not because by western standard they are all in need. There are so many women begging if you give to one then you should give to them all. I try and at least look them in the face and give a smile, even some look empathy for them.
The there are the children  who run around  in their bare feet with their hands out pulling on your clothes, running at after you and constantly calling for money. Again who is really in need and who is not. Some of the kids play beggar as a game and I can have some fun with the kids  but again it just so hard to see such poverty and think that these kids have very little hope of ever getting out of poverty. The problem is if you give a kid money he or she will either buy sweets or give it to their parents who may well be booze it away.
Next were the Indian Buddhist monks. They are a rag taggle looking bunch and must be the poorest of any Buddhist Sangha on the planet. Many are from Bangladesh or Bihar and  follow His Holiness where ever he is teaching. Now when monks beg they are supposed to patiently stand, with eyes cast down and accept  whatever they are being given. Unfortunately the disciple or knowledge of the teachings, of these monk is not so good and they stand begging bowls in hand with huge eyes,desperation written all over their face, often fighting with each other over who gets the offering. Of course there are one or two who do not do this but the majority have the habits of beggars but are dressed in monks robes.
Fourth is the disabled people. So many people with missing limbs or blind with leprosy or effected by polio in wheelchairs on crutches or just plain deformed at birth. Again it is hard to see such suffering  but I found that the beggars with disabilities are often the nicest and most patient. They will smile and even chat with you and always say a thank you, many speak different languages; after all they are the professional beggars.
Oh yes and then just as you think your finished with the begging, you get through the security gate and are faced with tables and tables manned by monk and nuns asking for donations for their monastery or nunnery.

So as if dealing with the many hands out with the accompanying facial expression designed to wrench your heart out and get you to dig deep into your wallet  is not enough, there is the pushing and shoving of the crowd. Hey if I were 6 ft tall then no worries but being 4ft 11  it can bet a wee bit annoying even scary at times. The Himalayan and Tibetan people just love to push and shove in line, for them it is a big game. With a    bigger crowd on the last day all semblance of order went out the window; the ladies line was infiltrated by men; the monk and nuns lines were infiltrated by lay people and the special guests had no hope of finding their line. It was one big mosh pit with the security trying their best to maintain order.
It was in many way also a teaching on how selfish people can be and in so many ways funny to watch.
The richer Tibetan ladies in their silks Tupas (dress), gold jewellry with their face full of make up and nose in the air would try to stride past everyone shooing away the beggars as they went. The new-comer Tibetan women with babies strapped to their backs  and smelling of rancid butter used their brute force and ignorance of etiquette to battle their way to the front. Some westerners, with their nose and mouth gaurds to protect them selves from the dust, simply used being western as an excuse to try and skip the que. Then their are the Mongolian who with their Gangas Khan blood  just barrel over everyone regardless of who is ordained or not. The Russians  are not much better. The Taiwanese and Korean groups always came late and would bring their Indian guides/security/servants  to help them barrel through the security gates just before His Holiness started teaching upsetting everyone as they went.
Anyway I started that morning in a very happy mood and with the sun finely out I was very content. However after one hour of being in the que I was emotionally exhausted. I must have said over a thousand Om Mani Padme Hung mantras as I tried to practice patience, given a few rupees here and there to the monks, played with the kids to avoid giving then rupees, talked with the disabled and again a few rupees here and there, made sympathetic faces to the women with children and the elderly, defended my place in line  from intruding monk, nuns, Mongolians, Russians, posh folk and rude westerners and still managed to have a few cups of tea and chat with Karin. By 9 am I was on my cushion with the teaching about to start and I was ready for a nap.  It is tough work attempting patience and generating compassion to difficult sentient beings;  hmmm but is that not the teaching? 

Day 2 of Teachings in Sarnath

Teaching Buddha in main Sarnath Temple

Another great day at the feet of the Guru. His Holiness is really making the need to train ones mind away from negative selfish thoughts very clear. The Guide to the Bodhisattvas way of Life Text is the premier text on developing compassion and being less self centred  but as His Holiness said today,  is is hard work. He even likened the practice of training the mind to going to war against our own destructive emotions, i.e. the spiritual warrior. For those interested the text can be found  http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Bodhisattvas-Way-Life-Santideva/dp/8185102597/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357649436&sr=1-2&keywords=guide+to+the+bodhisattvas+way+of+life

Today we went through 3 chapters, which included the practice of conscientiouness and alertness. Both  practices very much needed when one is trying to train the mind toward more postaive/ virtious thoughts and actions. We are now working on the chapter on Patience and finished the day on verse 76 of 134 verse. It is the longest chapter so that alone shows how hard it is to vanquish anger. Anyway I think this chapter is a true gem with practicle advice on how to keep a lid on anger, why it is important to do so and how to use the the knowledge of emptiness in the paractice.  Now if only I can follow the instruction and keep it up !
"The enemy, anger creates sufferings but whomever assiduously overcomes it, finds happiness now and in the hereafter."  Shantideva


For anyone who interested  the teaching in Sarnath are on Live Web Cast at the following link.  http://www.dalailama.com  (India is ahead of the UK by approx. 5 hours; ahead of east coast USA by approx 10 hours and west coast USA by about 14 hours.)


Thupten Chodron
I also noticed today a highly respected western nun in the crowd.  She had written several excellent books one of which is based on Shantidevas text and is very good guide on overcoming anger.

Thupten Chodron

"Working With Anger can be found at   http://www.amazon.com/Working-Anger-Thubten-Chodron/dp/1559391634/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357650976&sr=1-4&keywords=thubten+chodron

Venerable Thupten Chodron has been a nun for over 20 years now and is an excellent teacher who can relate to our western mind and culture. She is based in Portland Oregon and her home page is at .http://www.thubtenchodron.org. She left such a positive impression on me years ago when I first met her, not only because she embodies kindness and patience but beacause I was able to understand the teaching more deeply due to her ability to connect with her audience.

D. Foundation.
After the teachings on the way back to the guest house as I weaved my way through the crowd, dogging rickshaws, cows and beggars I came upon a sign saying D Foundation with an arrow pointing down a muddy lane. This foundation also has a branch in Bodhgaya and last year I was hoping to learn more about their work with women.  So I took a detour and went to get more info. The Foundation has a few different project including a mobile health care unit and a small school I am however very interested in learning more about their work with homeless children, young men and women. I found out that the government houses homeless young people, providing them with basis food and shelter. Unfortunately the conditions are very bad, so D Foundation works with the government to first make the shelter more comfortable then also train the young people in some types of income generation and also tries to get some of the girls married into good families. There project is in Varanasi, a few miles away  so after the teachings I will visit and see for myself what the situation is and if I can contribute in some small way.. For  more info on D Foundation click on http://www.dfoundation.net  and http://www.roterlotus.org/en/dfoundation   

Meet Nyima

Nyima

Nyima has to be in his late 60's. We met in the chia shop over a breakfast of chapatti, omelette and chai. He does not speak English so we had a funny conversation with me practicing my very bad Tibetan and Hindi, the shopkeeper filling in the blanks and  lots of hand and facial expressions. I just love these conversations with older Tibetans because when in doubt they just laugh, which is a  great policy which I have  trying to adopt more.

 Anyway  I believe Nyima came out of Tibet 50 years ago not long after His Holiness fled to India. He is a skinny, tall man but by no means frail. Looking at Nyima, I bet he has lived through tough times, with basic amenities and very little luxuries. His robes were well worn and shoes broken and re-stitched.

Tso Pema

He lives in Tso Pema in Himachal Pradesh which is a holy lake of Guru Rinpoche. The lake has a few ministries as well as many meditators in the hills surrounding the lake. I would have like to know if he was a meditate and asked his advice on practice but I think his teaching to me was to laugh more. Nyima is also here for the teachings and will also visit Bodhgaya before heading back to Himachal Pradesh. 

He says I am welcome to come visit him anytime I am in Tso Pema; hey yi never know.http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/751/43961/Rewalsar,+Tso+Pema,+Lotus+Lake,+Himachal+Pradesh,+India?destId=356262

 .

At the Sarnath Stupa

Indian monks bearing the cold

Teachings in Sarnath

Had a great  first day at the teaching of  His Holiness Dalai Lama. His Holiness spent most of the day talking on the importance of developing love and compassion and training our minds away from negative/selfish thoughts  and action.
He talked broadly on the fact that while material wealthy may bring comfort, it will never bring peace or happiness of mind. He explained that human greed  is causing the destruction of the environment, corrupt business as well as bad politics and is overall increased distrust, jealously, competitiveness and inflated egos among us humans; all of which have negative effects on our health and happiness. When he teaches he talks as a spectator with no agenda, making it very clear just how harmful we humans are to each other and our planet. Maybe I am just hearing him loud and clear these days but  for me he is the only leader that makes sense anymore.

street market

He also mentioned the need for more ethical society stating that with more divisions between people, broken families, poverty, disease and war torn societies that ethics compassion needs to be taught to children early on in schools. Of course he also linked this statement to religion and said that out of the 7 billion people on the planet, 1 billion  do not have religious belief and that 6 billion have one religious faith or another; however out of those people more than half are not practicing their religion. His point being that ethics and morals which came out of the various religions are no longer being practiced and  that religion is becoming corrupted and or treated only as cultural ritual. Less and less people are no longer studying and using the guidance from religion to train their mind towards positive thoughts and actions. I have to agree with him; e.g. today after the teaching I saw many ' Buddhists' walk around the temple saying their prayers or making offerings to the Buddha statue while elbowing each other out of the way, ignoring the beggars, kicking the stay dogs and shouting at the rickshaw drivers.  Hmmmm  not much patience and compassion there. It is easy to make offerings, do confession, fast for a month,or wear the religious garb but so much harder to control one's mind and mouth; and I stand guilty as charged too. Anyway His Holiness is advocating the teaching of ethics and moral based on human values not necessary  religion. He teaches this not to be all Kum buy ya  (ok promise one day I will learn to spell) or trendy but out of practical need because if we humans keep on going with selfish greed we will destroy the planet and kill each other. Anyway he was very inspiring, yet also harshly true; looking forward to tomorrow.

Making cow dung fuel

t-shirt wearing goat stealing a treat

Cows wearing sack to beat the cold

It has also been fun walking around Sarnath taking in the sites and just getting used to being in a village where most people live in poverty. A day in Sarnath includes such things as inhaling the smoke from the cow shit fires, walking along muddy broken paths with open sewers or fields that double as the common toilet by torch light and then bumping into  or trying to avoid cows, goat, chickens or water buffalo. The there are the kids and the beggars and the sellers of everything from, fruit , chia and plastic Buddhas. Here's a few pics of the day.

Sarnath

Buddha teaching his first 5 disiples

Ground of  Sarnath park.

Now in Sarnath which is a few miles out of Varanassi and is the first place the Buddha taught after his enlightenment.    http://varanasi.nic.in/tourist/tourist7.html

Surprisingly Sarnath is a small village but a very important site for Buddhist as well as Jain's, as the 11th Trithika was born here For resourse and info on Jainism try .http://www.jainworld.com  and   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism also has some god basic info on Jainism.
I was here in Sarnath over 10 years ago and it has not grown much in that time. Today it has been freezing cold  and foggy, so not so pleasant after being in Goa; my joints and bones feel like ice. However, I got settled in to The Vidya Vihar which is an institute of Thrangu Rinpoche of the Karma Kaygu lineage. He is a very well respected teacher  with many student one of which is His Holiness the 16th Karmapa.  Ten years ago when this center opened I was luck to take teachings from him. A truly kind and brilliant teacher.

Trangu Rinpoche

For information on Thrangu Rinpoche click on http://www.rinpoche.com
     
For info on the Vajra Vidya click on http://www.rinpoche.com/sarnath.html

Tomorrow the Dalai Lama starts teaching on Shatideva's text; A Guide to he Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Below is a link to His Holiness giving this teaching on a previous occasion.  (Hmmmmm  maybe stay home and watch this on TV; nae  it would not be the same) Anyway,  life is good will keep you posted
http://dalailama.com/webcasts/post/94-shantidevas-guide-to-a-bodhisattvas-way-of-life


Place to stay in Sarnath include  Jain Paying Guest House, call Mr Jain at  0091-542-2595621 and 09936251407
Namo Buddha paying Guest House call Chris 09935529619