At this moment I'm hearing the braying of water buffalo, the chirping of various varieties of birds and am watching people on the riverbank below where I'm sitting bathing and doing laundry.
I'm In a town 6 Km outside of Kandy called Tennekumbra.
The ashram renovations are still happening so not sure if we will stay there or not. Tonight at a nice hotel a few minutes walk from the ashram. It was recommended by one of Swamiji's friends but it's a little pricey so we're sharing a room.
A very nice hotel but I don't understand what the Westerners are doing here. It's in the middle of nowhere so I don't know why they would be here, despite the fact that there is a very clean pool.
It's a full moon tonight, in a Buddhist country that means today is a holiday.
The road was lacking in traffic on the three and a half hour drive from Negombo so the journey was quite mellow.
There were not many cars on the road, so when we would have cars driving at us or when we would be passing the tuktuks and motorcycles and trucks into the oncoming lane it wasn't scary at all!
We saw a Buddhist temple on the main road about 15 minutes walk from the hotel so knew there would likely be a service because of the holiday.
We went in and there were a few hundred women, all wearing white, sitting on mats on a tile floor in the very simple room I take to be the monastery.
There were just a few men, also wearing white, all of whom were sitting on the stage at the front of the room.
When we entered every head turned and a little bit of chattering went up in the crowd. As if we wouldn't of stood out enough in our colorful clothes but here we were Westerners. The only Westerners I saw in town at all. I love when that happens!
A little boy monk was doing some chanting and we sat down in the very back. Then another little boy monk came to chant and then an adult monk came at the end.
After the first little boy monk was finished a young girl came up to us and told us to sit in the front; we did and they put a mat down for us to sit on.
It was sweet the way these women of all ages were turning and looking at us a bit shyly. I would look at them and smile and they looked at me and smiled back.
I've been very well trained by my dear Aloka Vihara sisters...I could understand and knew most of the prayers being recited although the melody they use in Sri Lanka is different from the one used by the nuns, who are in the Thai tradition. (Danielle, you would've understood some of it, they were the same chants we were saying a few days ago.)
It made me happy to understand exactly what was going when the refuges and five precepts were offered.
It thrilled me to be able to rattle off the Pali as quickly as the women sitting there, particularly since I know I was being watched with curiosity; I represented!
At the end of the ceremony a number of women came and spoke with us, smiling and kind. One had spent nine years living in Fairfax, VA where Bertie lives. It's a very small world nowadays.
As we walked home we had our first coconuts, deftly hacked open with a machete by the woman in her tiny stall.
Now I am writing this and waiting for dinner to be served at 7 pm. A buffet of what a I hope will be real Sri Lankan food, as opposed to something westernized for the tourists.
The road life is wondrous to me every time. I have no idea what I'm going to see or where I'm going to go.
I feel that I have hurled myself halfway around the world. It feels very far from home and yet... I know how to behave in temple and I met a woman from my sisters' hometown.
As always, I feel incredibly blessed to be sitting here.
Much love,
Satima
I'm In a town 6 Km outside of Kandy called Tennekumbra.
The ashram renovations are still happening so not sure if we will stay there or not. Tonight at a nice hotel a few minutes walk from the ashram. It was recommended by one of Swamiji's friends but it's a little pricey so we're sharing a room.
A very nice hotel but I don't understand what the Westerners are doing here. It's in the middle of nowhere so I don't know why they would be here, despite the fact that there is a very clean pool.
It's a full moon tonight, in a Buddhist country that means today is a holiday.
The road was lacking in traffic on the three and a half hour drive from Negombo so the journey was quite mellow.
There were not many cars on the road, so when we would have cars driving at us or when we would be passing the tuktuks and motorcycles and trucks into the oncoming lane it wasn't scary at all!
We saw a Buddhist temple on the main road about 15 minutes walk from the hotel so knew there would likely be a service because of the holiday.
We went in and there were a few hundred women, all wearing white, sitting on mats on a tile floor in the very simple room I take to be the monastery.
There were just a few men, also wearing white, all of whom were sitting on the stage at the front of the room.
When we entered every head turned and a little bit of chattering went up in the crowd. As if we wouldn't of stood out enough in our colorful clothes but here we were Westerners. The only Westerners I saw in town at all. I love when that happens!
A little boy monk was doing some chanting and we sat down in the very back. Then another little boy monk came to chant and then an adult monk came at the end.
After the first little boy monk was finished a young girl came up to us and told us to sit in the front; we did and they put a mat down for us to sit on.
It was sweet the way these women of all ages were turning and looking at us a bit shyly. I would look at them and smile and they looked at me and smiled back.
I've been very well trained by my dear Aloka Vihara sisters...I could understand and knew most of the prayers being recited although the melody they use in Sri Lanka is different from the one used by the nuns, who are in the Thai tradition. (Danielle, you would've understood some of it, they were the same chants we were saying a few days ago.)
It made me happy to understand exactly what was going when the refuges and five precepts were offered.
It thrilled me to be able to rattle off the Pali as quickly as the women sitting there, particularly since I know I was being watched with curiosity; I represented!
At the end of the ceremony a number of women came and spoke with us, smiling and kind. One had spent nine years living in Fairfax, VA where Bertie lives. It's a very small world nowadays.
As we walked home we had our first coconuts, deftly hacked open with a machete by the woman in her tiny stall.
Now I am writing this and waiting for dinner to be served at 7 pm. A buffet of what a I hope will be real Sri Lankan food, as opposed to something westernized for the tourists.
The road life is wondrous to me every time. I have no idea what I'm going to see or where I'm going to go.
I feel that I have hurled myself halfway around the world. It feels very far from home and yet... I know how to behave in temple and I met a woman from my sisters' hometown.
As always, I feel incredibly blessed to be sitting here.
Much love,
Satima
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing, dear Satima, so I can travel vicariously with you! Love your blog!
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