Y2K THE ANCIENT WAY

Articles in this Topic Discussions in this Topic

Dec 4, 1999

At http://www.fpmt.org/hhdlbodhgaya/index.h... we get an overview of upcoming teachings by His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya, India, December 20th to 29th, 1999. For ten days preceding what will either be the end of the world, or,well, not the end of the world, a crowd that may number over 100,000 will hear the Dalai Lama complete commentaries on :

Shantideva's Compendium of Advice (Shiksa Samuccaya)
Guide to Bodhisattva's Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara) which he began in December last year.

His Holiness has also consented to give several initiations and is expected to lead prayers for world peace at the Great Mahabodhi Stupa of Bodhgaya in the early morning of January 1, 2000, to enable people to celebrate the arrival of the new millennium in a meaningful way.

Yours truly will be among the throngs of crazed ex-hippies, monks, nuns, tourists, tea sellers, fortune tellers, beggars and bodhisattvas participating in this event. Our party of 11, shepherded by the endlessly patient Lobsang Samten, will arrive by rail in Bodhgaya on the 20th and stay for the duration of the teachings. Then we will probably head up to Dharamsala for a day or two before returning home. Our schedule is not tight. Lobsang says we'll decide every day what we want to do: "like a family."

Bodhgaya in central India is the place where Shakyamuni Buddha gained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago. Here is the sacred Bodhi Tree, a decendent of the actual tree under which the Buddha sat.

As such, Bodhgaya, and the Great Mahabodhi Stupa in particular, is the most holy of all Buddhist sites. Here the positive results of pujas and offerings are multiplied inconceivably.

Thousands of Prajnaparamita Sutras, Tara Pujas and Medicine Buddha Pujas will be chanted by over 400 monks and nuns before a three storey high Maitreya Buddha Statue in Bodhgaya..--a small example of the devotions to be offered in this holy site.

In preparation for my pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, I visited http://www.lonelyplanet.com which is the wittiest travel website on the Net and also the most honest. At the Thorn Tree, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorn/,which is an online bulletin board for travelers, we get a look behind those pictures of the Taj Mahal and kneeling elephants so commonly associated with India. We get the scoop the travel agent won't tell us, for instance, several megabytes devoted to toilets in India.

From hundreds, I have chosen some of the more family-rated examples of the postings at Thorn Tree. These are from the Indian Subcontinent section: