Looking for Nirvana. Part 2

Day 2.

So we got to the monastery the next day early morning and found Mutia washing dishes. That is one of the chores that monks and nuns have to do. According to Mutia, sweeping the floor and washing the dishes helps to calm and clean the mind, similarly to meditation.

And so we saw monks getting ready for the ceremony:

Though don’t ask me what the monk in the middle is doing… Special striding ceremony?..

Since being a monk is supposed to somehow help enlighten his family, it’s a big event and honor for family members, thus they come, support and take pictures. Then the ceremony begins with monks and family members (or volunteers) going round the temple:

Then, in the temple they pray and bow:

In case you were wondering, it is totally okay for non Buddhist to bow alongside everybody. It is just respectful.

Then they literally crawl with their knees to the center of the room:

It looks..totally and utterly humble..

Then they listen to the master monk preach:

The preaching lasts for about an hour (sermons in the church doesn’t seem so long now, huh?). The nun sitting next to me was kind enough to write down in English what the master monk was talking about. He was holding the preaching in ancient Pali language in which Buda spoke thousands years ago.

The monk talked about duties of monk novices and their everyday lives. Monks usually get up at 3 o’clock in the morning, shower, eat, do their morning chores, study, meditate, perform ceremonies, do charity, paperwork, etc. They usually have to meditate for half an hour or an hour and then walk for the same period of time. If you would try sitting with your legs crossed for hours on a hard marble floor, you wouldn’t ask why they have to walk… When I asked the nun when do they go to sleep, she just laughed resignedly…. 21,22, 23 ..she wrote. A lot of paperwork and things to do. Life of monk or a nun doesn’t sound so much fun even with the superpowers, does it?

Don’t worry it gets worse. Similarly to Ten Commandments in Christianity, monks have 10 precepts. Although these are applicable only to monks, not to regular people. The harshest of those sound like: do not sing, do not dance, do not listen to music, do not sit on comfortable sofa or sleep in a luxurious bed, do not touch women, do not hug women, do not use perfume or jewelry,  do not eat after 12 in the afternoon… No comments there.

Then the chief monk spoke about human body. Classified it into outside body (hair, skin, etc.) and inside (lungs, liver etc.). He told that body is dirty and smelly (I’m citing the nun who did the translation). Therefore, monks and nuns have to take a shower everyday and learn to be free of their body, not to give in to its cravings and try to reach nirvana. I don’t know how they find the balance between just being humble and actually  despising your own body...

In case you’re wondering, there is a way out. Monks novices are monks until they graduate from Buddhist university (4 years). Then they can choose to disrobe and become a regular Buddhist or to further continue on the path of the monk.

In the end of the ceremony, they receive a brown robe, indicating their new status as novices:

The boys are young, from 18 to 22 years old.

And then receive they packages with toothbrushes, towels, some food etc.:

Now they have no money or other personal belongings. They live from donations, similarly to Christian priests.

Here is the donation ceremony:

Although this donation is special one for the ordination ceremony, as I understood that normal donations are much less bombastic than this one.

After the ceremony, monks went to eat. I wouldn’t blame them if they want to eat a lot before 12! Then they have to fast until 6am next morning. And all the onlookers had to pour water from one glass to the other thinking about good things and then water any plant growing in the garden with this water while making wishes. I have to admit, it felt like a huge blast of positive energy with all the people doing the same act.

After the ceremony, we walked around in the territory of the monastery and then visited a neighboring town of Batu. Since there are no more stories to be told, photos of that coming up next on Facebook!

P.S. no comments=no readers

no readers=no blog... :P

Looking for Nirvana. Part 1

Kids,

In the fall of 2011 one rainy Saturday evening me and Angeliki, intern from Greece, decided to visit a Buddhist temple in Malang. Just so you know, Buddhism is nowhere near the leading religions in Indonesia (1% of people, still gives you roughly 2 million).This story will involve looking for enlightenment, being in the right place at the right time and meeting many strangers which at least for a second had impacts on our lives.

Thus after work (yes, we work on Saturdays) we got into a public transport carrier (it is NOT to be called a bus) which looks something like that:

And yes, they do drive with open doors. If you fall out, it’s your own fault. Just be sure to pay before you do.

Usually these “carriers” are not so empty and you have trouble squeezing your buttocks somewhere between screaming kids and Muslim women too lazy to motorbike and too poor to take a taxi. And it’s never boring in public transport. You can, e.g. play a staring contest with kids (usually kids win) or talk with strangers on the carrier. They aaaalways talk, trust me. That particular night I had the luck to sit between two babies one of which was kicking my leg and the other was pinching my arm. Ahh, that damn romantic and cheaper than nothing (0,2 euro) public transport…

After getting out, we were greeted by the amazing view of the temple at that stormy night:

And also by some Buddhist nuns which are somehow really adept at noticing bule’s (white men in bahasa Indonesia). Common, we’re not THAT different..are we??? They started talking to us and asked if we wanted to see their “headmaster” (I have no clue how the highest Buddhist monk in rank should be called..). So here he is:

 A happy old man. Free of all the physical desires. Or so he should be.

After a short small-talk with the chief monk (later I heard he’s the chief of the chiefs, has the highest rank in all Indonesia or something) we met a nun called Mutia. I’d like to elaborate more on her since she’s definitely an outstanding personality you don’t meet on every corner. To begin with, she was Hindus, then converted to Christianity and then chose the path of a Buddhist monk. On top of that, she studied medicine. An extremely smart and helpful woman who finally found her path.

Here she is, lighting the incense:

She offered us an hour’s worth of Buddhism wisdom and generosity as well as invitation to stay at monastery overnight. Unfortunately we couldn’t benefit from this offer because of host families which patiently wait for their kids to come back home before the curfew. Still, we found out more about Buddhism that we ever would from books.

The guy standing with hands put for prayer besides Budha (cf.picture above) is supposed to be both holy and to have superpowers. If you’re holy, you don’t necessarily have superpowers or the other way around. The guy was a lucky one apparently. Or so I thought until I found out what his superpower was. And it was to transform into a dragon! (naah, please, I wouldn’t take this superpower even if someone offered..) But this superpower was beneficial for him and Budha as, while in dragon form, the guy defeated the other dragon which was plaguing the village.

 BUT apparently there are some monks which have cooler and more useful in everyday life superpowers, e.g., mind reading. Mutia assured us that she has experienced that superpower herself as there are a few monks in the monastery who can do that. She asked us half jokingly if we would like to meet them. Would we? I wasn’t so sure. But damn.. mind reading superpower. Kinda tempting to convert to Buddhism, isn’t it? 

The monastery keeps the cremated remnants of Buddha’s body under the glass: 

The unenlightened skeptic within me was wondering how many more Buddhist monasteries in the world pride themselves in having remnants of Buddha’s body. Doubts aside, the room itself had an amazing atmosphere of calm and serenity. Mutia lighted three sticks of incense which symbolized Buddha, his teachings and the holy path of brotherhood (being a monk or a nun).

Then Mutia told us about the meditation, that monks have to partake in.

WARNING. The picture below depicts atrocities and gore.

Ok ok I know, it is not that bad. Not when you look at it. But imagine that you would have to sit a long period of time, clear your mind of everything around you and contemplate the death and decay of your body for hours. How you die, how your body starts to collect gas, how you rot and decay, how your rotting body attracts animals, the animals and weather contribute more to the decay until there’s nothing more left than a few white bones glinting in the sun… I feel bad only writing about it, and thinking for hours???? The purpose of it is to realize the temporality of your physical body and gradually become free of it, not to be reborn anymore and be able to reach enlightenment.

Since that night we couldn’t stay long, Mutia offered us to come early Sunday morning to witness a ceremony of ordination of 11 new monks novices that happen only once a year.

To be continued….

Fun

I feel the compulsive need to categorize my experiences in Indonesia. And the ones described below definitely falls under “fun”.

Fun in the nature. Waterfall

After yet another out of town tourism conference my boss suddenly decided to be really nice (not that he’s usually bad..) and take me to see a waterfall on the way back home to Malang. This wasn’t exactly planned so we ended up climbing up 1 km up the mountain with office clothes and shoes. Oh yes, we must have looked totally out of context for the normal tourists. Imagine: nicely dressed boss with shirt and tie, perfectly polished shoes and at the same time sweaty from head to toes climbing up the mountain. And asking me to stop every five minutes. Told him to quit cigarettes and coffee … not that he ever listens. On the top he actually decided to reward himself with meatballs from a stall that possibly breached all the hygiene requirements there are. The conversation was something like that:

Boss: “Do you like meatballs?”

Me: “Not really…”

Boss: “I buy you meatballs”.

I just love his listening skills...

And baaack to the topic. Check out the waterfall:

And you might as well take a look at one of the volcanoes:

Fun in the shopping mall.

Massage

Some time ago me and some other interns had a massage in a shopping mall. Probably the most accurate word to describe it would be powerful. It felt like thumbs of steel were slicing through my ribs and backbone. I still felt my back after two days! Remember the movie “Eurotrip”, when one guy forgot the safe word at one place of…hmm, special kind of experiences? Similarly situation happened to me. One American, who has been living here long enough to speak some bahasa Indonesia, told me what to say if the massage was too hard. Needless to say, I forgot the word after not more than two seconds.

P.S. I paid for the back and shoulders massage and got my ass and legs massage included.. According to our American friend, that is totally normal. Not that I’m complaining.

Different kind of massage

Well, this one was for the feet:

http://www.google.dk/imgres?q=fish+that+eat+dead+skin&hl=da&biw=1639&bih=800&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=_pYTLCsnJ6HgPM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sodworking.co.uk/category/all-countries/singapore%3Fsubmit%3DGo&docid=SCEa7rXaVAeyEM&imgurl=http://www.sodworking.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/kl-singapore/p1030652.jpg&w=800&h=450&ei=GYDYTvryHMbprAfc2uX5DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=175&vpy=519&dur=300&hovh=111&hovw=198&tx=203&ty=151&sig=101395844449798654266&page=1&tbnh=112&tbnw=199&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:0

Special fish which eat the dead skin.

And then top the day with live haunted house and fresh coconut juice. Mhmm.