Notes from Varanasi

Manu has shaved off his beard for the first time in 20 years.  He says not only is he cooler, but that somehow he feels lighter!  I think it makes him look about 5 years younger :)  What do you think?

WATER BUFFALO IN BODH GAYA FIELDS

KIDS BEING KIDS, MONKS OR NOT.  THEY WERE PLAYING GRAND THEFT AUTO!

:)

A PICTURE FROM THE THAI TEMPLE IN BODH GAYA

KIDS AND PARENTS BURNING SPARKLERS IN THE ROOT INSTITUTE COURTYARD DURING DIWALI FESTIVITIES

ROOF TOP YOGA 

WAITING FOR THE TRAIN TO VARANASI YESTERDAY

SHARING A LOCAL SNACK DURING THE  3 HOUR TRAIN RIDE

Reflections:

Everything they say about massive amounts of stimulation here in this part of the world is true!  Colors, sounds, smells, swoop and swirl and pour over one time and time again.  Luckily, we had a wonderful introduction to this phenomenon while we were staying at the Korean Temple in Lumbini.  There, one day, during one of our sittings in the Buddha Hall, the late afternoon silence gradually was displaced by an ever swelling sound of human voices.  Eventually these voices entered the hall where we sat facing the wall washing over us like a spring flash flood in a desert arroyo.  Words we could not understand bathed us in shared humanity, and the fact we could not understand what was being said only increased the wonder of it all. What sounded like 100 people speaking all at once filled the hall to bursting. Children's laughter rode lightly on the top of adult's more measured tones, and we, still sitting stones, sat and burbled along with, and within, this temporary whirlpool of the great river of life.  Then, slowly, the sound of the human river began to recede, growing ever more quiet with distance, until at last, we could hear them no more. 

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