Enlightened places, soy in my belly and a cool breeze in my hair...

Bodhgaya is amazing. I arrived here last Thursday night and am totally in love with it!

The Mahabodhi temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabodhi_Temple) is MUCH bigger than I expected and so is the Bodhi tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_tree) (where the Buddha sat when he was enlightened).

Every day I wake up (around 5:30 am) and walk around the temple for about an hour. It's called "kora." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(pilgrimage)) There are still a lot of Tibetans here (they come during the winter for pilgrimage). There are also a lot of Sri Lankans here because they are having their yearly meeting with prayers. The Tibetan Buddhists did theirs in January. It's really beautiful listening to the chanting at sunset and when they finish they carry flowers, incense and candles around the temple as offerings to the Buddha. Also, part of their tradition is to dress in all white, which I also find stunning.

I've been going to the temple every evening to do meditation, prayers and then kora. It's so easy to do my practice there. There are so many people meditating and praying around you and it's quiet (except for the chanting, which is somehow not distracting in the least). I've also begun doing my prayers in Tibetan (slowly), which I have to admit, I'm excited about! I feel like I really learned a lot from my 3-month Tibetan course! I can hold simple conversations with Tibetans (which they get a kick out of!).

I also reconnected with my friend, Thomas, whom I met at HH Dalai Lama's teaching in Sarnath. He's the German that also stayed in my dorm room and I ate dinner with every night. He's staying here until May to finish a particular practice and he has been giving me great information about Bodhgaya since he's come here every year for the last 9 years. The restaurant he likes to go to has western food- yay!!! I even had delicious tofu, a fake meat philly cheese steak (w/ fries!), and home made apple cake. They have this ginger lemonade (home made) that is amazing!

I'm making plans to go see the ruins of Nalanda University (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda_University), where so many of the great Indian, Buddhist, scholars studies. Then, near Nalanda, is Rajgir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajgir), where the Buddha gave a famous sermon on Vulture's Peak Mountain. This sermon is as the "Prajnaparamita" sutra, or "Heart Sutra." These places are about 2 hours from Bodhgaya, so I'm going to go on a day tour with a guide (and group).

I don't know how long I'll stay here, at least until the end of the week...then I'm going back to Sarnath (where the Buddha gave his first teaching after enlightenment).

The weather here is AMAZING! I think it's the only time of year when it's not excrutiatingly hot and there's a cool breeze. At night, I sit outside (my room is in a famiy's home/ guesthouse and I'm on the roof!) and look at the stars and trees blowing in the wind. The temperature is amazing. The mornings are cool when I do kora (which is nice because I don't sweat too much) and the afternoons get pretty warm, but breezy and nice in the shade.

I'm off to drink a "lassi" (or what we'd probably call a "smoothie")!

LOVE