Sacred Space and Elephants

Hi Dear Ones,

All is wonderful; I love Sri Lanka.

Yesterday we received permission to start staying in what will be at some point in the future the Satchidananda Tapovanam (ashram) here in Tennekumbra.

But some things are universal, construction projects being one of them.  The construction was supposed to be completed in December and now is slated to be done this summer. (Gun you know all about that!).

So while this is and will be an ashram, currently it is a very nice new big house. No one is living in the house and the workers live outside. Based on the number of workers here and the pace at which they move I think it's going to be a while before the ashram is ready to be opened.

For whatever reason we are allowed to stay here; Swamiji says that our mission here is to "charge it up ".

That means it is our duty to meditate, do asana and for Swamiji to perform pujas here. Which as you all know suits me just fine!

Yesterday we transitioned from the hotel to the Ashram and then did a spontaneous  trip via tuk tuk into what they call Kandy town (meaning downtown Kandy). We had an excellent Sri Lankan meal for Rs.225 which equals $1.50 and looked around a bit. (Yes Joan I took a picture for you!)

A quick aside to say that in every way Sri Lanka is a peaceful place. It is quite different from India, which is frenetic. The peacefulness permeates absolutely everything. Even the monkeys and the dogs are calm here, which is quite a contrast from the monkeys in India and the dogs in India and Thailand.

On our way back from Kandy town we were walking down our street and we had our first monkey citing, a family which were on top of the roof quite close to us. We walked a little further and there were some young teenagers in front of their house who struck up a smiling, giggling conversation with us in quite good English. 

We were invited into their courtyard and chatted with them for a while, let them practice their English, they like everybody else around here were very sweet. 

Another one of the things that I love about road life is being invited in to stranger's homes. Never ever ever happens in America.

We then came back and cleaned the ashram which, although had someone staying here only two weeks ago, already had quite a few large spiders and dust from the construction.

Today we went to see the Temple of the Tooth. It is said that one of the Buddha's actual teeth taken from his funeral pyre is enshrined here as a relic. This is sacred space; it was an experience to sit there.

We could not see the tooth itself, I was later told by a lovely young Sri Lankan woman named Sumudu that they only let people see the tooth once a month on the full moon. 

Despite not seeing the tooth with my eyes I could feel the energy of the tooth quite powerfully.

As you may have all figured out by now, witnessing true spiritual devotion moves me deeply. It's one of the reasons I love being in India and one of the things I love about Sri Lanka.

The tooth is enshrined down a long hallway behind an opulent door. The hallway is all dark wood and fairly narrow. Many people, Swamiji and I included, bring sweet scented flowers or lotus flowers as an offering to leave in front of the tooth.

Along the left-hand side of the hallway (where the shrine is) is a long table filled with the beautiful flower offerings. Along the right-hand side all the Sri Lankan people, many wearing white, sit on the floor and chant and pray and meditate.

Once again there were not many Westerners proportionally and we were the only Westerners who actually sat down and meditated and prayed with the Sri Lankan people. I ended up sitting there for over an hour. It was a beautiful experience.

There are many buildings as part of the temple site, it's quite a large compound. On our way out we decided to see if we could leave via the back of the compound to get out to the street. No one else was there and as we walked down the lane we saw two men washing and feeding palm leaves to a huge elephant! More accurately I should say the elephant was being fed entire palm tree branches.

I had wanted to see elephants on my trip here. It was such a random place for an elephant to be that for a second I didn't quite get that it was real.

As we approached the man washing the elephant waved us over and then he waved us even closer and let us touch the elephant. Another item off my bucket list!

As usual when I'm over here every day is so full with new experiences that to me it seems like I've seen and done so much already and it's only been a week while to you it seems like I haven't been gone at all...