MUNDGOD TEACHING

MUNDGOD, KARNATAKA

NIGHT SKY FROM THE ROOF OF THE MONASTERY

Last time we were here was about 27-years ago.  Then, the only thing I remember was visiting Robert Peel at a very modern boys’ boarding school outside Hubli of which he was the principal.  The red earth was parched in the pre-monsoon heat and the cattle were skeletal with many dying in the drought.  There had been no significant monsoon rain for three-years and the mango trees surrounding the school ground were looking dusty and dry. 

Robert was the great, great grandson (not sure how many greats) of a previous Prime Minister after whom the peelers got their name, the first established police force in England.  Robert, a corpulent figure with florid features, was very welcoming; and as I sat in his office talking, he opened the top drawer of his desk and produced a bottle of whisky. This spurred our conversation as he pointed out the architecture of the main building having tinted glass openings on the roof to capture the rare draughts of cooling air.

From the school, I can’t quite remember how, we got to Mundgod which at that time had the largest Buddhist monastery in India with 11,000-monks herding about in a sea of maroon. 

A THERAVADAN MONK FROM SOUTH INDIA

Now the suburb of Mundgod is Tibetan with various monasteries and Tibetan homes well-established as well as restaurants selling mo mos, thukpa and various other dishes with noodles as a base.  Surprisingly, there is no butcher and therefore no meat in the whole village so some of the monks go to the nearby town and eat there.  And so far, I have seen only a couple of people smoking.  (In Sikkim, public smoking is completely banned.)

Ahead were 12-days of teaching by HH Dali Lama of philosophical Tibetan texts, mainly based on a compendium of teachings presented in the Lam Rim Chen Mo of Je Tsong Ka Pa.  The teaching was not easy and I found myself at a loss with most of the convoluted arguments about the nature of reality and emptiness repetitive with various analogies based on objects from the past such as chariots and their various parts.    

LAMA SOPA RINPOCHE'S HOUSE WITH HIS TEACHER AND FRIENDS 

The hall and the grounds outside were filled with thousands of people, mostly monks, some following the readings but the younger ones playing around fighting or just sleeping: hundreds of westerners from Asia, Europe and the Americas also attended the teachings, all looking deadly serious and focused.  The teachings were translated into the various major languages and we were able to tune in on short wave.  Towards the end of the teachings I did find myself listening to music on my mp3 instead as most of the discourses were way beyond my ken.

YELLOW HAT MONKS

Each day begins with the growling sound of the older monks’ low voices as they chant out the prayers.  The voices are amplified and are loud enough to scare the shit out of small children…and some adults, including me.  The volume increases to a high crescendo as HH Dali Lama arrives, preceded by lamas wearing the yellow hats of the Gelugpa sect, unchanged for thousands of years.  One Asiatic girl closes her eyes and goes into a trance, her mouth forming a tight sphinctre, shaking her hands as if ridding them of water.  The young monks come charging in with large pots of butter-salt tea and we hold out our mugs for the tea-blessing ceremony.

HH Daila Lama expounds his own views on Buddhist beliefs:  Our pujas and ceremonies are as if we are praying to gods.  This is totally wrong!  We have to take responsibility for ourselves.  We pray to the lamas and yidams (personal guides for visualisation) and live a humble life.  We have to use our own wisdom.  Why are we so fatigued?  We have to see reality as it is.  Whatever appears seems to have some objective existence:  What appears dissipates into reality.  The fatigued child takes refuge in the forest hut and sees things as they really are.  See the emptiness – there is no other way out of this. [Emptiness has a philosophical context here.]

To the best of your ability, meditate on emptiness rather than the empty words.  Do not be complacent with mere appellations.

The rest delves deeper and deeper into the argument for nothing being intrinsically existent but is the effect of various causes beyond our comprehension.  It is a beautiful argument but too involved for this piece so rather than leave you addlepated, let’s leave it here.

I BELIEVE THAT THE VERY PURPOSE OF OUR LIFE IS TO SEEK

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