Bodhgaya

Took a short flight to Gaya then a tuk-tuk to Bodhgaya.
According to Buddhist belief, Bodhgaya is where the Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree. Now, this small town is one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists from around the world.
We’d visited here before and attended an introduction to Buddhism course ~8 years ago. Having enjoyed it, we decided to return to the same monastery/temple for another retreat – this time for teachings about the human mind.
Over 4 days, with participants observing silence, we meditated a few times a day and attended a Tibetan monk’s lectures discussing Buddhist’s concept of ‘what is the mind’. The summary, following several days of esoteric discussion on the nature of the human mind - and probably the bottom line for most Buddhist teachings - was: BE NICE (god-dammit!!) or your mind will not be at peace. The monk did not say ‘god-dammit!’ we added that for comedic value. Clearly we still have a ways to go on our dharmic road.
Accommodation at the Root Institute was very basic, but clean. Unfortunately, there were lots of huge mosquitos since in Buddhism it’s forbidden to kill or harm any living being. Fortunately we had a large lizard in our room, which hid behind a portrait of the Dalai Lama and helped to keep the mosquito count down.Read more