"pilgrim-igatpuri" Archive
My Nominee For Nobel Peace Prize
When we walked into town, not knowing anyone, we knew that this is the place that gave birth to a mini revolution around the world. But we didn't think we would be able to experience it first hand.
Through our host in town, who asked his son, who knew a shopkeeper, who knew a coordinator, we get admission into a ten-day Vipassana meditation camp in Igatpuri. We are told that these tickets go like hot cakes; for 650 slots, almost 3000 folks apply every ten days. Lodging, food and everything else is paid for by some anonymous donor from a previous course; all you have to commit to doing is sit in silence for about thirteen hours of the day, per their schedule that starts at 4AM, and not read, write, or talk for the entire duration.
It's an interesting offer. On one hand, it's counter intuitive to commit ten days to just sitting cross legged and not doing anything! On the other hand, what an experience to sit in silence for dozen hours of the day with hundreds of other people and without a single material worry in the world!
We not only took the offer, but felt fortunate that we got admission on a one-day notice.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jun 30 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Crossing Milestones
A few minutes back, I got word of a secret plan brewing at Ahmedabad's Gandhi Ashram. A group of friends are heading out on a one-day pilgrimage at 5:30AM; their plan is to walk to prayer places from all different traditions -- a Church, a Mosque, a Temple, a Monastery and so on -- and spend the day doing small acts of service.
Today, it will be a year since Guri and I publicly exchanged our wedding vows.
As if that weren't enough, those same Manav Sadhna friends also presented us with the painting below (the milestones read: love, cultivation and truth) to commemorate 1000 kilometers of our walk:
Only a soul brother like Jayeshbhai can think up an offering as grand as this.
Thank you, Jayeshbhai. Thank you, everyone. If we ever cross the milestones of love, sadhna and truth, we are dragging all of you with us. :)
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 1 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
An Inevitable Coin Toss
I once asked John Robbins, "In your experience, how much of service is internal and how much is external?" Some would say 50-50, some would say 90-10, some might even say that's an irrelevant question. Very spontaneously, John responded: "Hundred, hundred."
When we walked into Igatpuri, we didn't have an admission into the popular 10-day meditation course. A fortunate halt at Biharilal's house, though, and circumstances gave way for us to be cross-legged in complete silence from 4:30AM to 9PM for almost two weeks.
After walking through 1000 kilometers of rough Indian terrain, this is a very intense walk through the depths of our own minds. For the last two months, everything has been impermanent for us: new bed every other night, new people at every corner, new conditions to experience at every blink of an eye. Changing, changing, changing. The more you try to grasp something, the more it slips away. After two and a half months of that kind of training, we come to complete halt. No reading, writing, talking, walking, moving. Stillness. Such a sharp contrast can do you in, if you aren't careful. Although Guri and I have done many such, this definitely feels like our most intense one.
On the 11th day, Guri comes out thinking we need to go deeper within and I come out ready to walk till the end of dawn. By the 12th day, we flip entirely; I am fired up to take on the meditation challenge and Guri is ready to hit the slippery roads. By the 13th day, we are both confused. :)
We are back to the question I asked John: how much of change is internal, and how much is external? If it really is a 100-100, do we meditate or walk?
So many questions, absolutely no answers. In fact, these questions were always there, even before we left for our pilgrimage. But instead of ready-steady-go, we just go, hopefully steady and ready someday, if at all. If we waited to answer all our questions, I would still be writing page 342 of the CharityFocus business plan. :) In the end, you just gotta do it. Now. And now.
So we did the only thing left to do: a coin toss!
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 3 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
More Stories Coming Soon
Guri and I have been in meditation for a bit. I'll add some blog entries as I can. In the meantime, you might want to check out the iJourney newsletter.
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Belated Wedding Offering
It would've been the ultimate conspiracy: take monastic vows, for a short period, on our wedding day itself! It was the only offering good enough to express our deep gratitude for the officiant of our blessing ceremony -- Rev. Heng Sure.
But then, Guri and I figured it would be a little too much shock-and-awe for our already shocked-and-awed family and friends. :) Instead, the universe afforded us the opportunity to cook for all the monastery monks (and Viral), for our first month together.
We didn't forget our debt to Rev. Heng Sure, though. You can't, even if you want to.
[ read more ... ]
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 22 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Attention, Please
I've been thinking about attention lately. Samadhi is what the ancient yogis called it, mindfulness is what modern day monks call it, and market share is what marketers call it. And I'm afraid none of us really have really have a handle on it.
Somewhere along the way, we messed up our equations; instead of technology keeping pace with humans, human beings frantically started multitasking to keep up with technology. If computer chips can double their performance every 18 months, why can't we do the same? Move over Moore's Law, we are now working on Moron's law. :)
Linda Stone, who quite her VP role at Microsoft for a children's librarian job, recently coined the phrase "continuous partial attention" -- keep top level items in focus and keep scanning the periphery in case something more important emerges. We don't want to miss any opportunities, we want to be a live node on the network, we want feel alive by being busy, busy, busy. Maximize contacts, get connected, cash-in before someone else does. This is the age of Friendster and LinkedIn, where the more people who know you the higher your rating. So much social networking, so little time.
Speed, agility, and connectivity are at the top of everyone's mind but now we're over-stimulated, over-wound, unfulfilled. We ignore call-waiting, companies have email-free Fridays just to see if employees will be more creative when they discuss things face-to-face, executives disarm you of your "blackberrys and cellphones" before you enter the meeting rooms. Our technology is getting in the way. Dan Gould recently said, "I quit every social network I was on so I could have dinner with people."
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 23 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
"Form" Checking Adventures
I have had the opportunity to eat lunch with a homeless man, to console terminally-ill patients on their deathbeds, to stand on busy street intersections with a "Got Smile?" poster, to bring home a slum child and give him a shower, to approach a nun at an airport and given her my spare change, to bind books for a Tibetan peace ceremony, to dail a random room number at the intercom of a senior center and spend couple hours with an aged woman.
Each of these service opportunties has its own feeling, a soul satiating stillness.
Today, though, I did something for the first time in my service life. I volunteered to serve a group of 320 male students who would be meditating for ten days. At first, I got pulled into doing strategy and organizational development stuff, but after I insisted on "cleaning toilets", they let me. :)
My first task was "form checking". A mundane task, I figured.
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by Nipun Mehta on Jul 24 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Running Into Myself
I ran into myself, while doing a Google search recently. Very zen.
It was a couple year old interview that apparently got published in Sun Magazine in November 2004. It always interesting to read your old interviews ... to see if your path has changed.
Skipping the introduction by Preeti Lal, the rest of interview goes like this:
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 25 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Thinking of 'Guri'
Today, I was missing Guri. I've seen her for a few minutes over the last several weeks. Techincally, I think, missing your wife is illegal at a monastery but shhhh, I don't think anyone noticed. :)
So I sat there asking that same question, again and again. I mean, we all know that one day everyone dies. Guri will die too. If I'm still alive, what will I do about my "missing Guri" syndrome then? It's an unavoidable question, especially when you've been meditating a lot.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 26 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Rescued By a Coin Toss
Bombay had 37 inches of rain today, the most ever recorded in India. Trains are jammed, buses are stuck, cell phones are dead, lives have come to stand still, hundreds have died, millions are stranded.
Thanks to a "random" coin toss, Guri and I are in contemplative silence on top of a hill 100 miles from Bombay.
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 28 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
The 4AM Lemonade
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Sometimes when you get lemons, though, you run out of water and sugar or can't find the lemon-squeezer tool. Life certainly has an uncanny track record in shelling out exactly you need but we mostly lose the opportunities because we're not ready.
Take, for example, my volunteer job at the meditation center. At the end of the first day, everyone is distributed into different shifts. I really didn't mind doing anything, except waking up at 4AM. And of course, came the announcement: "Nipun Mehta: Group A, Open the Halls at 4AM." I get to sleep last at 11PM, wake up first at 4AM and work with drowsiness for the rest of the day. ;)
I've happily signedup for many all-nighters and odd-houred sleep schedules, but never for ten days straight! It's lemonade time. :)
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 28 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Best Compliment Ever?
Conversation at breakfast, with my newly made Canadian friend -- Louie.
| Louie: | Hey, good morning. |  |
| Me: | Gooood morning, Louie. | |
| Louie: | So did you sleep well last night? (He knows about my 4AM shift!) |
|
| Me: | Well, no. :) Why, do I look really tired? | |
| Louie: | No, not really. (Takes a second to inspect me further.) You look happy. |
It turns out, I actually am happy!
by Nipun Mehta on Jul 29 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Rat Race II: The Karma Edition
Spiritual volunteers are a rather curious bunch. I recently asked one of them why he serves; he noted, "Well, Buddha said that the greatest gift is the gift of dharma. And this is dharma, so I come here to give that service." Extending a helping hand to a slum child or lending an ear to a lonely elder or reaching out to an absue victim isn't as interesting for him.
No arguments with Buddha's quote; after all, to give someone the gift of dharma, the gift of happiness, is indeed an ultimate offering. But my problem comes with the "And this is dharma" part. What is dharma? This concept, this meditation, this establishment, this teacher? Can you grab dharma in your hand and show it to me?
The real problem, yet again, is the ego. Instead of giving the gift of dharma, people subtly play games with the concept of Karma. In theory, Karma says that for every action, there's a consequence; whatever intention you sow, those fruits you will reap. Simple and elegant. Unfortunately, in practice, people start counting what can't be counted: 1 good-merit point to smile at a stranger, 3 points to give a meal to the homeless, 5 points to give eye sight to the blind, 11 points to go to a temple, 15 points to meditate at a monastery, 50 points to serve monks and nuns, 100 points to help give the gift of dharma. The more points I gather, the merrier my after-life. Rat-Race, the sequel.
As the famous story goes, a leaf falls down and a monk becomes enlightened. Is the leaf keeping track of its karma points, is it trying to give dharma, does it have a grandiose plan of personal enlightenment? Or is it simply an instrument along its own journey?
Dharma, of course, is neither here nor there; it's hidden at the bosom of each of your actions, it's latent underneath the materials of our mundane life, it's in constant motion to the ocean of our collective consciousness. Dharma can't be captured nor can it be given; it has to be experienced. Lao Tzu eloquently says what all sages have endlessly repeated, "The Tao which is spoken is not the eternal Tao."
If we keep score while doing an action, even subconsciously, it's simply a waste of an action. Far from the eternal Tao.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Jul 30 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Unstuffing An Envelope
Almost two years ago, I received a stuffed envelope. It's still there in a hidden corner of my brother's drawer. I just opened that envelope few days ago.
After a meeting of some like-minded folks, an almost-80-year old man follows me to the exit door and gently places a stuffed envelope in the top left pocket of my half-sleeve shirt.
"Nipun, here, I want you to take this. It's from your uncle," he said very compassionately.
"What's this?" I ask, cracking a curious smile. I figure it's a thank-you letter from him or perhaps a project proposal for review. He puts his right hand on my left shoulder, swings me around and tries to push me out the door, "Just go. Open it later." With all my curiosity, I swing back around and ask him, "No, come on. What is it? Can I open it right now?" Without waiting for him to answer, I childishly grab the envelope from my pocket and open it in front of him.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Aug 2 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Temple of Accumulated Error
My friend Wavy Gravy has a great line for his introduction: "I am a temple of accumulated error."
It takes effort to churn through the accumulated errors, but sooner or later, we are bound to get a glimpse of our templehood.
In the ever flowing rivers of our pure consciousness, we have ignorantly created icicles of rigid tension. Icicles are pointy edges that block our own vibrant flow and unnecessarily hurt others around us. The only thing left to do, then, is to melt our own icicles, become nimble, and return to innocence.
Whether you are walking on the sidewalks of India or sipping coffee on the busy streets of New York, whether you are climbing the corporate ladder in the Silicon Valley or volunteering in shanty towns of Guatemala, whether you are watching your breath an a Thai monastery or working the night shift at Hyderabad call centers, ultimately, the Work must be done.
Till the end, a bow to all temples of accumulated error.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 2 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Most Inspiring Blog Entries?
On this pilgrimage, we've shared several dozen stories and experiences through our blogs. Unlike journalism, we don't go out to find or create stories; rather ours was a process of sharing whatever happens to us -- sitting, walking or even sleeping :) -- with the simple hope that gives an extra umph to the reader's own journey.
Often, we find ourselves in position of finding the "top ten" stories that people have found value in. You can't always gauge by the number of comments or the number of hits or the number of emails, and it's impossible for us to rate 'em; so I thought I'd just ask the readers -- which story (or stories) inspired you the most?
Please consider all the writings on this blog, Guri's blog, and iJourney.org. Inner-net stories also have a chronological listing. Following that, just post a comment on this thread or email your inputs.
Thanks for you readership; it's a big support to know that others are with you.
[ P.S. My blog will return again after two weeks of solitude. :) ]
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 2 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
An Invisible Pilgrim
July 31, 2005
It was March 30th, the night before we left. Guri and I were leaving into the hands of the unknown, within four hours. No one knew the plan; we were just gonna take off "south" with a back-pack. Mark Peters, the night before, gave us a guess that was as good as anyone else's, "Hey, we'll see you next week."
We wake up at 4:00AM to find a note on our door with a huge smiley face (from one of the two Anjali's sleeping over that night): the force is with you. It definitely felt like it. Viral asked us to wake him up, so I reluctantly did; he woke up immediately as we exchanged our brotherly, always-together hand-shake.
Jayeshbhai and Anarben, whose house we were at, also insisted on waking up. Jayeshbhai was going to walk with us to the Gandhi Ashram, where we were to meditate at Hriday-Kunj (Gandhi's residence) for a few minutes before officially launching ourselves into the abyss. Anarben stood at the gate waving goodbye, with unstoppable tears in her eyes. I valiantly lifted both of my hands up in the air, to inform the forces around us: "We rest in your hands now."
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 14 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Inspiring Billboards
For a long time now, I have loved the idea of inspiring ads and media. CharityFocus's Inspiring Messages does it in a small way, and so does Foundation For A Better Life. But I think much, much more can be done in this area.
In fact, Indu-Aunty (who teaches slum children on railroad platforms) was recently featured in PBS's premiere of the New Heroes project (also featuring Dr. V); it's a project by an eBay founder to use video to profile good people doing good things.
If you have related ideas, or know of other efforts in the same arena, I'd love to hear about it.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Sweet Samadhi
Just as we finished the last 10-day meditation course, a new student yells, "Oh man, I really miss ice-cream." On hearing that statement, I cracked up.
For the last six months, our diet has been ... well, not much of a diet. Not one sip of Thumbs-Up, Mazza, or Pepsi. Not one ice-cream bar (except for one night stay in Mandvi three months ago, where our host insisted we have two ice-cream bars each after our 42 kilometer walk). And most importantly for me, no regular input of sweets!
Now, the menu at the monastary here is set. Every four or five days, you can expect the same item. No onions or garlic or tasty spices either. Since I don't eat after noon, sometimes I wonder if the good stuff is saved for dinner. :)
But then ... but then, there's this one breakfast item served every alternate four days ... sweet "laapsi". Oh, I love it! I would look forward to it everytime. And then right before I take the first bite, I would pause for a moment just to smile right before I dive right in and just before ending my feast, I would setup a countdown timer for my next dose. Sometimes it was day or two off, and I think I started having withdrawl symptoms. ;)
One time, I got real greedy and took so much that I could barely finish it. As I was trying to finish it, I said to myself, "Don't you love this item? Why are you stopping now?" Then, I started analyzing the mathematics of it all. I waste so much energy in hyping up to the dish of 'laapsi' and then when I get it, it's almost a let down. Kinda like the good movies that get awesome reviews and you are left expecting something more.
So, two months of laapsi ambivalence later, I don't think I really look forward to it anymore. I still enjoy having it, but I don't count down or get greedy when I see it.
Until I walked down the street two days back ... oh, the aroma of so much tasty stuff. And I saw a bakery proudly showing off a chocolate cake. Hahahhaha. I will never learn. Life is so much fun, isn't it? ;)
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
iJourney, We All Journey
Since the beginning of this pilgrimage, we have received many notes from people inspired to start their own journeys. Any sincere action is its own reward, but to help others through it is certainly icing on the cake. :)
Today, I got an email from the ever-so-happy Madhusudan Mittal. He's an independent filmmaker, who has started journeying around the Himalayas to interview saints; his first stop was the Dalai Lama in Dharmasala. On Dalai Lama's birthday, Madhu got to be up close with him and asked, "How can all the religions of the world work together?" Dalai Lama smiled and responded, "Well, we can start by going out to lunch together."
Raj Kanani and Sameer Sampat are two roommates from UCLA who also took off on their own journey two weeks back. They plan to travel around India to profile progressive nonprofit organizations.
And of course, there's the creative Mark Peters and John Silliphant duo, who are unleashing their acts of service in Ahmedabad under the guidance of Jayeshbhai. Their most recent act was delivering 4000 "love letters" from India to Pakistan on Independence Day.
All their blogs are also included in the Tao Jones Ticker and their submitted works will be posted at iJourney.org.
May we all walk together in service.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
My Design Principles
It dawned on me recently: I'm a designer. Throughout the adult part of my 29 years, that's what I have done. It feels natural to me. They even have me designing things at the meditation center here. But today, I was thinking about the principles behind design.
In 7th grade, I got a horrendous paper route where most carriers lasted a maximum of one or two months. I redesigned the entire route for efficiency, "acquired" nearby routes to soon quadruple my daily delivery, converted everyone to automatic billing, and did some outreach in particular areas to maximize throughput. By the end of two years, I had "subs" delivering papers and I was making money sitting at home. All I did was design. And my design principle was utility.
In my first (and only) "real" job, I got the task of optimizing the C++ compiler. I had to make things run faster; again, I was in a group of half a dozen PhD's, three of whom had helped design C++ programming language (which is the base of hundreds of billions of software industry business), so this isn't quite your textbook work either. The job was not just to think out of the box, but to crush the box, send it to the recyclers and innovate from scratch. Interestingly, I wouldn't classify any of my ultra-smart teammates as intellectuals; one of them was into dancing, another into horse-back riding, another into Japanese art, another into languages and calligraphy and so on. Raw intellect sits in a cubicle for $100K a year with a supervising manager; but this was about innovaters who aren't told what to do. They just do. :) And the major design principle here was what I could call "creative intellect."
And then there's CharityFocus. When we started CharityFocus in April 1999, everyone was skeptical of the strength of a distributed, moneyless organization. It was new. No one had previously created a web-based organization for service, without any overhead. My design challenge here was organization itself: how can you harness all this positive energy into action without the beauraucratic overhead? In the last six years, CharityFocus delivered millions of dollars in services. And I feel it can be improved even more. Key design principle? Spirituality. In my talk at the Sante Fe Institute several years ago, I called it 'Ancient Wisdom, Modern Application'.
At each step, I would keep learning and today, I have three major design principles in my repertoire: utility, creative intellect, and spirituality. Utility comes from the ability to see things as they are without projecting your dreams onto it, creative intellect is the fusion of left and right brain such that you can seamlessly step inside and outside any box, and spirituality is the ability to draw lessons from nature itself.
Now, here is my aha-moment for today -- when I go deeper within myself, I am affecting all three of my design principles very directly: see reality as it is, master your mind and be in tune with nature.
by Nipun Mehta on Aug 16 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
Pain is All in the Mind?
It's day six of one of the ten-day meditation courses that I'm signed up for. Half an hour into my 1PM, half-lotus meditation sit, I am about to shift my posture slightly to give myself some much needed relief. With numb calves, sore quads, and aching knees, it's a natural response. But then, is it?
Over a decade ago, I remember repeatedly telling all my friends that "pain is all in the mind." To be honest, I would come up with all these wild conclusions that somehow "felt" right, and then hunt for rationalizations for it. Quite the inverted process, but it always made for good conversation. :) One of my very good friends, Paul, would argue back in his characteristically vulgar language, "Alright $%@#$, you stand right here and I'll run my car right over you. Then let's see how real pain is." :)
Well, alright, I personally wouldn't take a chance with a car :) but if Jesus can wish compassion for people driving nails into his body and if Gandhi can bless the assassin who pummeled his thin frame with three rapid-fire bullets, come on, there's gotta something else going on.
Pain, actually, turns out to be a very intriguing phenomena. This is what science tells us about it:
When we stub our toe, it hurts – but only because our brain says so. Damage-detecting sensory neurons flash a message to the spinal cord, spinal cord neurons relay the message to the brain, and the brain decides (a) damage has occurred, (b) it has been inflicted on the toe, and (c) something needs to be done (we start hobbling, raise the foot, utter an expletive). It may feel as if our toe is throbbing, but the experience is all contained within a mental projection of the condition of our toe within our brain.
Now, neuroscientists note that each time we react to a sensation in a particular way, it reinforces that "neural pathway" in our brain; ie. the next time we experience that sensation, we will react in an even stronger way because we have taught ourselves that. Our pain -- and pleasure -- then, is just a conditioned response aggregated over millions of experiences. Science stops there, but sages invite us to go a step further: step out of your ignorant patterns of dis-satisfaction and see what happens.
What would happen if we didn't react to the sensations we feel? Would they go away? What would happen next? What exactly remains, when we uncondition our brains of all its neural patterns? Perhaps an unconditioned mind was what prevented Gandhi and Jesus from not uttering a single cry for help in the face of intense pain?
I don't know what it is, but today, I am in the mood for some serious investigation. Maybe it is the culmination of our meditation binge or the solitary lifestyle or the bland diet or the commercial-free thoughts or the resurfacing of some past life as an Himalayan ascetic. :) I don't know, but today, I am going to unflinchingly stare down my pain, mano-e-mano, and see what happens. Sometimes in life, you gotta pull all the stops and on pilgrimages, those sometimes come a little bit more often than usual.
My lab is the 3x7 foot meditation cell, my instrument is this body labeled as Nipun, and my experiment is to finally test my decade-old, "pain is all in the mind" hypothesis.
Deep breath. Another deep breath. The next eight hours, from 1PM-9PM straight, would be one of the gutsiest experiences of my waking life.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Aug 23 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
The Blind and The Kind
It was an absolutely compelling sight -- a 35 year old blind man holding a shoulder of an unknown volunteer, being escorted into the meditation hall. For the next ten days, that volunteer will take this blind student from his residence to the meditation hall to the dining hall to everywhere else he needs to go. They have had no verbal introduction.
What a vivid metaphor of inter-dependence to see a blind person's quest for "vision" supported by the kindness of a seeming stranger, and to see a kind person's search for compassion supported by the need of a blind man. What beauty of a shared human existence!
Oddly enough, just a week ago, I had read an inspiring story of a blind roomate, retold by William Brody in this year's commencement address at Johns Hopkins:
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Aug 25 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'
A Whisper At My Doorstep
"Nipun-ji," I hear a voice. It's the crack of dawn, my room is way out in the boonies, and no one is allowed to utter a single word in this area. Who is calling my name? I shift in my bed and look at the window to notice that it's dark.
Perhaps I'm hearing things. After all, I slept at 2AM the night before, talking to a meditation student having suicidal thoughts.
Ten seconds later, in a crackling, timid voice, "Nipun-ji". Ok, someone really is at my door. How could that be? Only a couple people know where I stay and they would never speak around my room.
I open the door, with my eyes half open. It's Sri, the 34-year-old guy I was counseling just a couple hours ago. Dazed and confused, he says, "Nipun-ji, I couldn't sleep again. Nipun-ji, please help me. Please do something."
I am one of five people signed up to serve 240 meditation students in "Dhamma Hall 2". With 240 students, most of whom have never taken 10-days to look within themselves, you're bound to get some drama. But this is going way above and beyond the call of duty I anticipated.
I scratch my eyes, just in case I'm dreaming. No such luck. It's Sri for sure.
[ read more ... ]by Nipun Mehta on Aug 29 '05 | add comment | permalink | more 'pilgrim-igatpuri'