Tibetan medicine and more on Kathmandu
There are a few Tibetan medicine clinics in Kathmandu. I went to the one which is in Boudonath - a Tibetan refugees aera. There's the biggest Buddhist stupa - or holy place - there. It's white and cone-shaped. Like in Llasa people walk around it with praying wheels, burn candles and incense. The nearby Sechen Clinic looked really nice and I saw a doctor who diagnosed me on the basis of my pulse, bodily composition and interview. It was a very accurate diagnosis. I am to take pills for 10 days (which I have to crush with teeth and swallow with warm water - the pills smell of dog poop and are the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my mouth). After that he will tell me what to do next. I also asked him about schools of Tibetan medicine and he told me that if I wanted to study Tibetan medicine I would have to go to Daramsala or Darjeeling in India as only in these places I could get a certificate after completing my studies. I will also go to the Auyrvedic clinic in Kathmandu to see what this type of medicine is like. I am reading books which compare the different types of treatment so that finally I can make the decision.
Boudonath is about half an hour away from Thamel where I am staying and the first time I went there Roland, who is from Germany (in case I haven't mentioned him before), accompanied me there. Many years ago Roland spent some time meditating in the Buddhist monastery of Kopan. We walked to the top of the hill where the monastery is located since I thought that maybe I could go there from time to time and listen to some teachings and meditate myself (I did that in New York in Tibet House and I liked it a lot). However, when we got there I lost my interest in the place entirely. I expected it to be a peaceful place, free from distractions, commerce and western "consumption" influence (not that I am totally against "consumption" but maybe not in the monastery). The monastery is very commercialized. There are workshops on Buddhist teachings for $350 (seems like a very steep price considering the prices in Nepal), a shop with souvenirs, a cafe, nice dormitories for the practicioners, and flyers advertising Kopan and asking to "sponsor a buddhist monk for just $1 a day!" (don't miss that opportunity, dear friends, to sponsor a monk, you'll feel soooo good after you have done it! you'll never be closer to nirvana...). The Kopan monastery resembles very much the San Marcos village in Guatemala: a bunch of spaced-out westerners lying on the grass around a luxurious fountain, sipping coffee, reading books, meditating... I have nothing against doing all this, really. It's just that the Buddhist teaching, as I know it from the books I have read, of renouncing the comfort and practicing modesty is very far away from what I have found in the monastery. Hipocrisy always gets to me when I see it. I know that among the monks there are children and old men who need to be taken care of but majority of the monks are young, healthy, strong men and if I am to choose between sponsoring an orphaned child or a victim of a natural diseaster I will choose them over a monk. A monk can work, just as anybody else can, and he can meditate and save the world while working - according to the teaching of Buddha you can meditate everywhere and everytime. Yesterday I went to a meditation session at the Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center and instead of meditating for 1,5 hours I listened to the story of a converted Buddhist's life (a man from Australia) who was telling us how he was a rich, spoiled kid, smoking pot, doing drugs, no meaning in life whatsoever, lucrative job, girls, etc. and he got to be a monk and he is so happy now! staying in the center, giving three daily meditiation sessions to people - it's such a hard work, it makes him so exhausted at the end of the day, but he feels soooo good about helping the humanity... This was the last meditaion session I have gone to, I swear (the one that is not about meditating but about psychoteraphy). I have heard this story a few times already. Every time I am polite, of course, and I stay till the end but as much as I don't want to I just boil inside (Why don't you go to a Potosi mine, sweetie, or work the land on these tarrases side by side with the Nepali farmers all day long to see what hard work means? - this is the question I want to ask). I would say that it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich spoiled kid to become unspoiled kid. What I want to say is that the teachings of Buddha and of Jesus (I only know about these two; I haven't looked at Islam and Judaism yet) are very far away from religions which are based on these teachings. I would say that from the distance (from the Tibet House in NY and my readings about Buddha's thought) Buddhism as religion looked like something very pure and true to the teachings but seeing it, with as much objective and unbiased eye as possible, in Lhasa and Kathmandu, it is not. It is just as far from what Buddha said as Christianity is from what Jesus said. I would say that both Christians and Buddhists are much more occupied with ritual and religious gadgets than with practicing the teachings in their daily life. I would like to tell this little story that I got from the answers to the famous Steve's questions: There was a man on the subway train in NY, dressed all in white, his hair and beard long as that of Jesus, and he was telling everyone how Jesus changed his life, how He is the light, how we should be good to one another, love one another, because love is the salvation, it will conquer the world, etc., etc., etc. and just as he finished his talk and was ready to go out a woman came in pushed by the crowd behind him, bumped into him and stepped on his foot. "Watch were you are going you stupid bitch!" said the "Jesus." It may not be as drastic as this but it portrays what I want to say well. So I do respect all human beings, even the monks who live on the $1 dollar a day provided by some elderly woman who worked hard all her life and raised ten kids. But I would not consider the monks my teachers. I would consider the woman who raised 10 kids my teacher. When we were walking down from the monastery we again saw Nepalese working in their gardens, women cooking their daily meal, kids running around - the regular day as it happens everywhere, simple and modest. I told Roland that I so much prefer this life and I can learn so much more from it than I could ever learn at that monastery, so fake and distant from life as it happens. And that's how I feel. I saw a very good movie right after we visted the monastery. It's precisely about that. The title is "Samsara" and I very much recommend it. In the movie a wife of a man who was a monk before he married her and who after some time wants to go back to the monastery because he can't cope with this daily life full of suffering, tells him that so much is said about Buddha but so little about his wife and son whom he abandoned when he decided to look for enlightment. Is that not the most selfish act? So, my path, I think, is to never believe any teaching blindly and never follow anybody just because he thinks he "knows." What I liked most in Buddha's teaching is that we are our own teachers and we should listen to our own reason and intuition above anything else.
Thinking about Buddhism (and Hinduism since they are both practiced in Nepal) brought my thoughts to culture and what I see on the Kathmandu street. I read in one of the guide books that the Nepalise society is prudish. It seems to be true. Men friends can walk holding hands and embracing each other, women friends can do the same, but boyfriends and girlfriends can't. A kiss in public would be an offence. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by law. Women walk and talk in their circles, men walk in groups. It looks as if the two worlds don't mix except at home. Feet are considered dirty parts of the body and should not be put on chairs or pointed at people (while sitting or lying down). Men to whom I talked have a rigid idea of a woman's place in the world. In The Kathmandu daily I came across a big article about what the society thinks about couples living together before getting married - many people contributed responses and most were opposing such degradation of tradition. Also, men shake hands but women don't (you can imagine what torture this is to me, used from South America to throwing myself at people, hugging and kissing them as if they were my family). I was expecting to see here as much physical warmth and openess in contact between people as I saw in South America. I had this idea that if people who were influenced by Christianity (with its rigid ideas about women, marriage, contact between sexes, etc.) was still such an open society than here with Buddhist ideas they should be equally open. People seem also much more fatalistic here than in South America. Some of them told me, when we were talking about feelings and relationships, that their heart was broken by former girlfriends or boyfriends and they could never love anyone else... Instead of living in the present and forgetting the past (as the predominant religions say) people seem to have this unhappiness in them which comes from the past events. People in South America seemed to really live in the present. Past girlfiends are past girlfriends, welcome new love! What I want to say is that Christianity with the idea of the original sin and people as being soiled and imperfect from the very birth, having to work hard to earse the sin, the flagellation of the flesh - now it's out of fasion but flagellation of the mind is very much in use among Christians - masochism to chase out the evil thoughts and deeds, etc. as opposed to Buddhist idea of a man being born as a perfect being, the way he should be, equipped with everything he needs to be enlightened and achieve nirvana if only he lives in the present... What really does shape culture? That is the question.
Boudonath is about half an hour away from Thamel where I am staying and the first time I went there Roland, who is from Germany (in case I haven't mentioned him before), accompanied me there. Many years ago Roland spent some time meditating in the Buddhist monastery of Kopan. We walked to the top of the hill where the monastery is located since I thought that maybe I could go there from time to time and listen to some teachings and meditate myself (I did that in New York in Tibet House and I liked it a lot). However, when we got there I lost my interest in the place entirely. I expected it to be a peaceful place, free from distractions, commerce and western "consumption" influence (not that I am totally against "consumption" but maybe not in the monastery). The monastery is very commercialized. There are workshops on Buddhist teachings for $350 (seems like a very steep price considering the prices in Nepal), a shop with souvenirs, a cafe, nice dormitories for the practicioners, and flyers advertising Kopan and asking to "sponsor a buddhist monk for just $1 a day!" (don't miss that opportunity, dear friends, to sponsor a monk, you'll feel soooo good after you have done it! you'll never be closer to nirvana...). The Kopan monastery resembles very much the San Marcos village in Guatemala: a bunch of spaced-out westerners lying on the grass around a luxurious fountain, sipping coffee, reading books, meditating... I have nothing against doing all this, really. It's just that the Buddhist teaching, as I know it from the books I have read, of renouncing the comfort and practicing modesty is very far away from what I have found in the monastery. Hipocrisy always gets to me when I see it. I know that among the monks there are children and old men who need to be taken care of but majority of the monks are young, healthy, strong men and if I am to choose between sponsoring an orphaned child or a victim of a natural diseaster I will choose them over a monk. A monk can work, just as anybody else can, and he can meditate and save the world while working - according to the teaching of Buddha you can meditate everywhere and everytime. Yesterday I went to a meditation session at the Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center and instead of meditating for 1,5 hours I listened to the story of a converted Buddhist's life (a man from Australia) who was telling us how he was a rich, spoiled kid, smoking pot, doing drugs, no meaning in life whatsoever, lucrative job, girls, etc. and he got to be a monk and he is so happy now! staying in the center, giving three daily meditiation sessions to people - it's such a hard work, it makes him so exhausted at the end of the day, but he feels soooo good about helping the humanity... This was the last meditaion session I have gone to, I swear (the one that is not about meditating but about psychoteraphy). I have heard this story a few times already. Every time I am polite, of course, and I stay till the end but as much as I don't want to I just boil inside (Why don't you go to a Potosi mine, sweetie, or work the land on these tarrases side by side with the Nepali farmers all day long to see what hard work means? - this is the question I want to ask). I would say that it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich spoiled kid to become unspoiled kid. What I want to say is that the teachings of Buddha and of Jesus (I only know about these two; I haven't looked at Islam and Judaism yet) are very far away from religions which are based on these teachings. I would say that from the distance (from the Tibet House in NY and my readings about Buddha's thought) Buddhism as religion looked like something very pure and true to the teachings but seeing it, with as much objective and unbiased eye as possible, in Lhasa and Kathmandu, it is not. It is just as far from what Buddha said as Christianity is from what Jesus said. I would say that both Christians and Buddhists are much more occupied with ritual and religious gadgets than with practicing the teachings in their daily life. I would like to tell this little story that I got from the answers to the famous Steve's questions: There was a man on the subway train in NY, dressed all in white, his hair and beard long as that of Jesus, and he was telling everyone how Jesus changed his life, how He is the light, how we should be good to one another, love one another, because love is the salvation, it will conquer the world, etc., etc., etc. and just as he finished his talk and was ready to go out a woman came in pushed by the crowd behind him, bumped into him and stepped on his foot. "Watch were you are going you stupid bitch!" said the "Jesus." It may not be as drastic as this but it portrays what I want to say well. So I do respect all human beings, even the monks who live on the $1 dollar a day provided by some elderly woman who worked hard all her life and raised ten kids. But I would not consider the monks my teachers. I would consider the woman who raised 10 kids my teacher. When we were walking down from the monastery we again saw Nepalese working in their gardens, women cooking their daily meal, kids running around - the regular day as it happens everywhere, simple and modest. I told Roland that I so much prefer this life and I can learn so much more from it than I could ever learn at that monastery, so fake and distant from life as it happens. And that's how I feel. I saw a very good movie right after we visted the monastery. It's precisely about that. The title is "Samsara" and I very much recommend it. In the movie a wife of a man who was a monk before he married her and who after some time wants to go back to the monastery because he can't cope with this daily life full of suffering, tells him that so much is said about Buddha but so little about his wife and son whom he abandoned when he decided to look for enlightment. Is that not the most selfish act? So, my path, I think, is to never believe any teaching blindly and never follow anybody just because he thinks he "knows." What I liked most in Buddha's teaching is that we are our own teachers and we should listen to our own reason and intuition above anything else.
Thinking about Buddhism (and Hinduism since they are both practiced in Nepal) brought my thoughts to culture and what I see on the Kathmandu street. I read in one of the guide books that the Nepalise society is prudish. It seems to be true. Men friends can walk holding hands and embracing each other, women friends can do the same, but boyfriends and girlfriends can't. A kiss in public would be an offence. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by law. Women walk and talk in their circles, men walk in groups. It looks as if the two worlds don't mix except at home. Feet are considered dirty parts of the body and should not be put on chairs or pointed at people (while sitting or lying down). Men to whom I talked have a rigid idea of a woman's place in the world. In The Kathmandu daily I came across a big article about what the society thinks about couples living together before getting married - many people contributed responses and most were opposing such degradation of tradition. Also, men shake hands but women don't (you can imagine what torture this is to me, used from South America to throwing myself at people, hugging and kissing them as if they were my family). I was expecting to see here as much physical warmth and openess in contact between people as I saw in South America. I had this idea that if people who were influenced by Christianity (with its rigid ideas about women, marriage, contact between sexes, etc.) was still such an open society than here with Buddhist ideas they should be equally open. People seem also much more fatalistic here than in South America. Some of them told me, when we were talking about feelings and relationships, that their heart was broken by former girlfriends or boyfriends and they could never love anyone else... Instead of living in the present and forgetting the past (as the predominant religions say) people seem to have this unhappiness in them which comes from the past events. People in South America seemed to really live in the present. Past girlfiends are past girlfriends, welcome new love! What I want to say is that Christianity with the idea of the original sin and people as being soiled and imperfect from the very birth, having to work hard to earse the sin, the flagellation of the flesh - now it's out of fasion but flagellation of the mind is very much in use among Christians - masochism to chase out the evil thoughts and deeds, etc. as opposed to Buddhist idea of a man being born as a perfect being, the way he should be, equipped with everything he needs to be enlightened and achieve nirvana if only he lives in the present... What really does shape culture? That is the question.
posted by Asia Kabat at 11:54 PM
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