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| Thursday, 8-Feb-2007 02:03 |
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Bodhgaya, India
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Bangkok Airport
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Intl Conference
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Intl Conference
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Group at meditation Park
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Group at Temple
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group at japanese temple
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80 feet Buddha statue
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Sujata Village
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dried grass
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Temple
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Mahayana hotel
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Relics of Buddha, Sariputta, & Mogallana
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Relic Stupa
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Reic procession
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My trip to Bodhgaya, India. Planning for the trip took me lotz of effort and luck
to get leave for a period of time from 30 January to 6 February 2007. It was indeed
an enlightening trip as at first, me and my family are supposed to follow Ven
Mahinda to Bodhgaya as he is invited to the International COnference on Buddhism &
the 21st Century. However, as time got nearer to the date, Ven Mahinda opened the
trip of other people to join. Therefore, 40 of us went.
The purpose of the trip: To visit the MahaBodhi Shrine where the Buddha gained
enlightenment under the sacred Bodhi Tree (Peepal Tree) and to visit various sites
where the Buddha spent after enlightenment. Also, to stay in the vicinity and
practice meditation.
Bodhgaya, a place located in the town of Gaya, in the District of Bihar, India.
Bodhgaya is among the most Holiest site in India. However, Gaya town is a very poor
town, beggers ranging from the very old to young adolescents all over the town,
along the roads. The air is dry and dusty. The water is Dark in color, not safe for
us to drink but as for the locals, they are pretty much immuned to it.
Every morning, we woke up at 4.30 am, then go to the shrine, under the Bodhi tree,
we then chanted the usual chantings and meditated until 6.30 am. After that, we
walk round the Bodhi tree. at 7 am, we walked back to the hotel for breakfast. We
stayed at Mahayana Hotel, a hotel managed by the Tibetian Monastery under the
lineage of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
After breakfast, it will be temple visiting. We visited a number of temples around
the place. they are the korean temple, tibetian temple, japanese temple, and the
sri lankan temple.
As we arrived at the hotel, the tibetian said that the Dalai Lama will be coming in
the next day. We were then very excited. In the afternoon, at about 4pm, we went to
the meditation park inside the MahaBodhi shrine to meditate until about 6,30pm.
Then we head back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner at about 8pm, we gather at
the conference hall in the hotel as Ven. Mahinda will talk to us for about an hour.
After that, we wil then spend afew moments to share merits with all beings lead by
Ven. We did this everyday.
We also visited Sujata's village and the cave where Buddha used to practice before
his enlightenment.
Later that week, Ven Mahinda wrote a letter to HH Dalai Lama, seeking an
appointment, for us to meet in private. The next day or so, the reply came and we
were allowed to go into the tibetian temple for the private visit. It was a wish
come true for all of us as we didnt expect to get the opportunity to meet him.
He was full of joy, compassion and happiness. as you see him, you can feel it
coming from him and around his surroundings. It was a great experience to meet him.
Also, while we were there, we didnt know that the Jaya Sri MahaBodhi temple society
had invited HH the Dalai Lama to enshrine relics of the Buddha, Sariputta, and
Mogallana in their newly built shrine. We were then invited to be flag bearers for
the procession of the relics form the japanese temple where the relics where kept
for safe keeping. The relics were given by the the president of sri Lanka to this
society to mart the 2550th year of the Buddha's enlightenment.
In the evenings, we took alot of pictures and most of the pictures had orbs ( light
balls) believed to be the presence of devas in the buddhist context and
scientifically, it is clusters of energy. And some are very bright and some very
big and most of them are sphere in shape and also, it is believed that it exsist in
different forms and shapes.
...to be continued...
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