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Felt Tibetan
A Pilgrim Visits The Great Buddhist Stupa at Bodhinath, Kathmandu, Nepal
Several years ago, my students and I began a meditation retreat near the great stupa of Boudhanath in Nepal. For them it was amazing to be able to join in the flow, the river of people circumnambulating the great monument dedicated to the Buddha.
This is one of the eight original great stupas containing holy relics of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni and other great Buddhist teachers. The devotion and the feeling around the stupa is palpable. However this is lost on people arriving with the mindset of a casual tourist who can hardly wait to get quality photographs. The exotic Tibetans holding prayer beads in their hand or turning a prayer wheel while walking clockwise around the relics inside the Tibetan prayerflag draped stupa barely see the tourists while murmuring prayers and mantras.
It is perhaps also lost on some others with the mind of a shopper taking the shortcut around the stupa counterclockwise to get to the shop to buy something. But for those who have the mind of a pilgrim, who have come from far away and they are there...I watched my students glow with the happiness of actually being there.
In my just before life, as the eight Domo Geshe, I did not go to the holy Buddhist places in Nepal. However, Geshe Ngawang Kalsang, the seventh Domo Geshe, went often from Tibet taking groups of his students there and also on to India on Buddhist pilgrimage. It was an especially nice feeling to be in a place visited by my predecessor even though this was my first time there in this life or my just previous life.
The Stupa that holds relics of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni is enormous, the largest of all reliquary sites. A large community of Tibetan exiles live in the surrounding areas and are active in the religious practice of kora or circumnambulating a holy place. Entering the stupa area, we bow and turn to the left, keeping the stupa on the right side, (considered from ancient times to be the virtuous side). It takes about ten minutes to walk completly around the stupa once, and it is considered correct to circumnambulate at least three times. Many elderly Tibetans who can barely walk are seen daily moving slowly in their devotions to the Buddha, requesting blessings from the enlightened ones. The more able bodied, and especially teenagers zoom around the slow elders and probably do their three kora in ten minutes, then off to school or work.
There are always many young monks and itinerant monks seated on the ground surrounding the path of the pilgrims of the stupa to do their evening prayers. By placing a little handkerchief down or a little plastic bag on the ground in front of themselves, many people would offer them one or two rupees as they passed. This is the tradition, to support those who are practicing dharma. Perhaps some poor monastery in the area would send monks to go down to do prayers there, collecting the money for the monastery.
The rising and falling of chanting voices of these many groups - two, four, six in each, spread around the stupa. You could hear small boys with little high-pitched voices chanting. One especially small child of five or six years old was sitting cross legged by himself on the path. As I was going to give him some money I leaned down and thought, "What is he saying, what is he saying?" I had to listen carefully because of the sound of others chanting prayers loudly and also the amplified music from a nearby shop blared the tune of a popular CD --OM MANI PEDME HUM, OM MANI PEDME HUM.
Leaning closer to this small boy, I ask him "What? What are you saying?" He looked up at me and I could tell that he did not even know the mantra, he was only making a sing- song sound. But he had such a sweet, innocent little face I gave him the money anyway.
I had quite an extraordinary experience at the great stupa. I was standing at the side, out of the way of the people are moving by. The sound of the monks chanting and the quality of the light as the sun is going down caused me to look at the people again. Some people seemed like they were directly from Tibet, wearing traditional clothes and burnished cheeks from the high windy plateaus. Among the many local Tibetans, Newari Buddhists, Nepalis I noticed many foreign people. There were many Oriental foreign people, I'm sure, but I also saw many Western people moving among them. You know that they are pilgrims and not there just to see a curiosity of ancient Buddhist culture.
It pleased me greatly. I stood there looking at the great stupa, this pilgrimage place with my heart and not my eyes for a long time, transfixed. This magnet was created for practitioners to come for pilgrimage or retreat to practice the awakening process. I looked again and suddenly a larger frame of reference came into my mind from my early, early, early times. The process of calling to wake up, called the great path of Dharma, is not just happening inside Tibet; the process is alive and vibrant and goes on and on.
I felt the sky move away and experienced down to my bones the unlimited potential for the dharma to continue. Whatever small activities I had done in this present lifetime, other lifetimes and even more distant eras as a teacher guide was connected to a larger whole. I felt connected through the deep transmission process of the natural and organic calling to evolutionary transformation that extended from the very earliest times and yet I am still participating. I felt connected to these dear people, these pilgrims, through authentic Tibetan lineage transmission back in time to the Buddha himself and felt joyful. I felt like everything was okay, but the work still goes on, no doubt. I was transfixed in this state for some time. Then it dawned on me that it was getting time for dinner and my students were waiting for me. I turned clockwise, the stupa on my right side and joined the flow.
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About the Author
Domo Geshe Rinpoche is a reincarnate Lama of the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Domo Geshe Rinpoche lineage includes Je Pabongka Rinpoche, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and the great Geshe Jampa Chombe. As a reincarnate, Domo Geshe Rinpoche has accomplished extensive training and retreats in the traditional manner. Rinpoche's current incarnation has been teaching in the United States for a number of years, held numerous retreats and given other spiritual training from the Geluk and tantric lineage.
what do you feel about poor tibetan's and Dalai Lama? what is the solution for this?
According to me Tibetans are caught in the cross-fire between the Chinese policies and the Buddhist philosophy. China in its war against Buddhism is targeting its stronghold- The Tibet. Dalai Lama is just trying to get international support against China to counter its oppression- Its natural !!
I think nobody here is ignorant of the autocratic and cynical policies of China. It is not the first time they are arguing about their 'One China' policy. China's aggressive foreign policies have long been criticized in the world. I can see that China is slowly and steadily following the path taken by Germany prior to the World War-2. Whenever a country disregards the freedom of other people, clashes naturally occur. It is now a wait and watch game as now the countries of the entire world are coming together to face the menace which China has spread in Tibet.
The solution will not come as a solution but a consequence in this scenario as China's not going to budge and Tibetans are not going to stop. International pressure will surely play its part in this situation.
Tibetan Buddhist Monk's Documentary Reveals CCP's Atrocities