I am not sure when I first heard the phrase, Coincidences do not exist but much sonorous in Spanish, Casualidad no es tan Casual..but one thing for sure. It was in the languor of Baracoa and its nights in the eastern end of Cuba in the company of my friend, the Little Poet of Baracoa.
I have had an incredibly beautiful week in Fort Cochin, it is as if I was living all those words of all the sabidos, learned ones, from Our America to the Magnificent India and its Persianate literature and the ancient culture of innate India of the South..
I was also surrounded literally and figuratively by IRAN, a country that fasinates me, and has done so since my childhood..
the therapeutic massage brought its proposed effect and the sleep was sound and sweet.
I sauntered to the bistro at a late hour for breakfast. The wait staff are at a loss to provide me with a variety of local dishes once i am here for a few days running, so a proud SriKanth the lead waiter announced: We are going to prepare something we have not done in many years, a Kerala/Tamil Nadu specialty, The Masala Idly!
A photo arrived at 0930 am local time on my Whatsapp. It was from Mandalay. I had recommended the Katodaw pagoda the largest book pagoda in the world to a traveller and it was a photo of the pagoda. It brought back sweet memories of my visit there with my brother at the beginnings of my asian adventure with him many years ago.
I thanked the lady for the photo, forwarded it to my burmese brother Ko Maung Maung in Siem Reap, as he is a devout Buddhist and would appreciate a photo of the pagoda from his native land.
I was thinking of the buddhist world and enjoying my Masala Idly, looking lazily at the Arabian sea lapping just ten meters away, when suddenly a Monk appeared ..
a MONK? I asked myself?
I knew he was of Tibetan lineage as he was dressed like the well known Monk in the west Mathieu Ricard, a molecular scientist from Pasteur Institute turned Monk..
there are plenty of images and statues of Buddha in this hotel and he was slowly inspecting the images of the Buddha.
I greeted him in the traditional Buddhist manner and asked him if he was Tibetan. He is from a village in the Nepali-Tibet border but currently he is in the Buddhist community of Tibetan Exiles in Karnataka and undergoing his training as a Buddhist Monk.
We talked a little about meditation and the beautiful vista as the manifestation of spirits. I remembered that I had a book on Walking Meditation in the room , by the well known Viet monk Thit.. I excused myself and got the book and showed him and read aloud..
Someone queried the Buddha, what do you and your disciples do?
we sit, we talk, we eat
the confused seeker said: but Buddha, every one sits, everyone talks and every one eats?
what is the difference with you and your disciples?
then the Buddha said
when we sit, we know we are sitting
when we are talking, we know we are talking
when we are eating, we know we are eating ..
I added, this mindfulness of being present, without the fear of future brings clarity to mind
the humble monk agrees
he wanted to take a picture of the page with the saying, when I said: you can have this book, and wrote a short note to him
How do I address you, I asked him
You can call me Geshe
I am only one year away from being a Monk
My given name is Nyima which in Tibetan means the SUN.
I gave him my card.
I will always remember this, said the humble monk from Tibetan plateau.
and I will be in touch with you, he said.
We greeted each other in the traditional manner and he slowly walked away.
Are the events of this day, connected?
Native americans would say
Mitakuye Oyasin
we are all related
To me, my heart is so pleasantly full of so many things and people and places
primarily Iran but also other places that I love .
Cambodia Myanmar
things do not happen to you in isolation, it is almost as if the Monk was looking for me, or that I have to meet him..If Yehuda does not find the Monk,the Monk will find Yehuda..
extraordinarily pleased with IRAN its people rather than the bad news we hear about them.
We would belt out Thiago de Mello's poems
the rights of humans
it is a beautiful collection of thoughts of that Brasilian poet
I was also surrounded literally and figuratively by IRAN, a country that fasinates me, and has done so since my childhood..
I sauntered to the bistro at a late hour for breakfast. The wait staff are at a loss to provide me with a variety of local dishes once i am here for a few days running, so a proud SriKanth the lead waiter announced: We are going to prepare something we have not done in many years, a Kerala/Tamil Nadu specialty, The Masala Idly!
A photo arrived at 0930 am local time on my Whatsapp. It was from Mandalay. I had recommended the Katodaw pagoda the largest book pagoda in the world to a traveller and it was a photo of the pagoda. It brought back sweet memories of my visit there with my brother at the beginnings of my asian adventure with him many years ago.
I was thinking of the buddhist world and enjoying my Masala Idly, looking lazily at the Arabian sea lapping just ten meters away, when suddenly a Monk appeared ..
a MONK? I asked myself?
I knew he was of Tibetan lineage as he was dressed like the well known Monk in the west Mathieu Ricard, a molecular scientist from Pasteur Institute turned Monk..
there are plenty of images and statues of Buddha in this hotel and he was slowly inspecting the images of the Buddha.
I greeted him in the traditional Buddhist manner and asked him if he was Tibetan. He is from a village in the Nepali-Tibet border but currently he is in the Buddhist community of Tibetan Exiles in Karnataka and undergoing his training as a Buddhist Monk.
We talked a little about meditation and the beautiful vista as the manifestation of spirits. I remembered that I had a book on Walking Meditation in the room , by the well known Viet monk Thit.. I excused myself and got the book and showed him and read aloud..
Someone queried the Buddha, what do you and your disciples do?
we sit, we talk, we eat
the confused seeker said: but Buddha, every one sits, everyone talks and every one eats?
what is the difference with you and your disciples?
then the Buddha said
when we sit, we know we are sitting
when we are talking, we know we are talking
when we are eating, we know we are eating ..
I added, this mindfulness of being present, without the fear of future brings clarity to mind
the humble monk agrees
he wanted to take a picture of the page with the saying, when I said: you can have this book, and wrote a short note to him
How do I address you, I asked him
You can call me Geshe
I am only one year away from being a Monk
My given name is Nyima which in Tibetan means the SUN.
I gave him my card.
I will always remember this, said the humble monk from Tibetan plateau.
and I will be in touch with you, he said.
We greeted each other in the traditional manner and he slowly walked away.
Are the events of this day, connected?
Native americans would say
Mitakuye Oyasin
we are all related
To me, my heart is so pleasantly full of so many things and people and places
primarily Iran but also other places that I love .
Cambodia Myanmar
things do not happen to you in isolation, it is almost as if the Monk was looking for me, or that I have to meet him..If Yehuda does not find the Monk,the Monk will find Yehuda..
extraordinarily pleased with IRAN its people rather than the bad news we hear about them.
