LUMBINI
The trip was quite interesting. At some point, the mountainous terrain ended and we started traveling through a plain. I hadn’t seen flat fields for more than a month and I simply couldn’t get enough of them. As we descended from the mountains the temperatures rose by at least 10 degrees. I was so happy to feel the burning sun on my skin that I almost forgot the uncomfortable seat below me I had to bare for so long. Everything had started to hurt and I simply couldn’t wait for this trip to be over.
The skin color of the locals was different around here. It was a lot darker compared to the people from the mountainous areas. I saw different clothes and different houses. At the end of the trip there were only a few fellow travelers with me remaining on the bus, mind you, I was the only foreigner on it the entire time. That didn’t worry me one bit; for the time spent in Nepal, I was convinced that Nepalese people were very friendly.
We arrived shortly after 5 in the afternoon and I got off the bus at the perfect place – the gates to the complex of Budda’s home. I was starving so I went straight into the only food spot there and swallowed something I had no idea what it was. There were three or four guesthouses in the village and I chose the one with the name “Seven Steps”. The building was new and the room was nice. I took a shower and went to bed early.
During the night I woke from the touch of something on my back. I woke up without moving too much, I wanted to be sure I wasn’t dreaming. It took me a minute to be sure that someone was in fact touching my back. The previous evening I had seen a cute lizard in the room so I decided it had to be him, gently caressing my back, so I decided to turn around and see it with my own eyes. It wasn’t the lizard but the curtain that was being blown almost horizontally by the wind outside. I got up to close the window and saw the bolts of lightning of the coming storm. I enjoy observing the spring rainstorms so I remained by the window awaiting to see what this one was going to offer.
It was a beast. The wind was so strong that I thought it was going to blow away my hotel. The bolts were coming one after another and the rain was pouring as if the sky had opened up. It was quite the spectacle. After it passed I went back to bed and didn’t wake up till the morning.
The storm had made the morning fresh and cool. I entered the complex sometime around 10 and I went for a beautiful flower alley with no end in sight. The complex spread over several square kilometers so the distances were enormous.
I was incredibly happy, that I could make it to Buddha’s birthplace. Through the years I had researched a few religions and philosophical studies and with Buddha and his teachings, I felt the least resistance, so he had taken the central part of my heart.
Here is his story in short. Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was born sometime around 580 BC in a family of emperors. His parents followed the advice of the three old wise men, who witnessed his birth, to protect him and keep him away from the pain and suffering of the world. That is how the young prince grew up happily and carelessly, and all his needs were met. All the personnel that worked for him were regularly replaced, in case one of them got older or ill.
When he came of age 29 he decided to secretly leave the palace and for the first time in three consecutive days, he saw one old, one ill, and one diseased man. That shook him deeply and made him realize that in life nothing is permanent and even the most joyous experiences and the best conditions one day will vanish.
He had already married, and even had a child but that didn’t stop him from leaving the palace in search of the answer to the question that wasn’t giving him peace, “Why does suffering exist?” He wanted to find lasting happiness and meaning in life, that weren’t influenced by any outside conditions. He wrote a letter to his wife and left.
The next six years Sidharta Guatama spent with the best teachers in India trying a variety of techniques to control the brain and even put his body through asceticism which almost led to his death. However, that didn’t lead to finding the answers he was seeking. In the end, he went into a meditation under a big tree in today’s Bodhaya (which I had the pleasure of seeing with my own eyes when I went to India later) and achieved a condition of full realization called Enlightenment. It is basically the transformation of all that obscures the clarity of the mind and the full development of its inherent perfect qualities. There under the tree Buddha got to the Four Great Truths which he bequeathed to the world. From that moment onward, in the span of forty-five years, he wandered the world and preached his teachings.
After seeing with my own eyes exactly where Buddha had appeared in this world, I decided to take a walk in the complex. It has temples built by many countries, where Buddhism is a preferred religion. The atmosphere was very pleasant and warm and I could feel the high vibration and energy inside me. I sat down under a tree to meditate. Sadly I didn’t get any enlightenment, I guess I still had a long way to go, so I got up and got busy with the next adventure Life was going to offer me.
This was my last day in Nepal. I had gone through so much and collected so many memories that I could have come back to Bulgaria even then with a heart full of joy with everything experienced.
My adventures in the Himalayas, the crazy days with Raj in Kathmandu, my experience with the earthquake while in Pokhara, and my close-up meeting with Buddha’s birthplace were huge gifts from Life. He was hinting at me though that it still wasn’t time to go back home. I could sense it with my entire being. Clearly, my guide had something planned for me, and if that was what He had decided the only thing I could do was to simply trust Him, as always.
India, here I come!
THE END