Bodh Gaya pt. II

I changed my place of accommodation to the central Bodh Gaya, since services (food, internet, stores, Japanese temple) are much nearer here. The only thing here bothering is the constant noise from the road, where horn is used nearly all the time by the Indian lot. Oh well, fortunately I have my earplugs. Zen-meditation has been really nice, I like the way the monk plays the bells and chants. It gives me a good reference point for concentration, although I must admit, my knees and back are killing me whilst meditating.

I also found my way to the international meditation centre. I spent there one afternoon stretching and resting, until I was told visitors are not allowed at this time (there was some ceremony starting). Today I went there to meditate, but the chief monk said that the mediation must be at least 5 days. I have only 3 days. So I decided to do meditation more or less on my own, either in my hostel room or then in the serene surroundings of the mahabodhi temple. It’s nice and relaxing here now, when there is no need to run around seeing stuff or something like that. I can just sleep late, watch movies, eat well, get better from the stuff that plagues me, meditate, have an ayurvedic massage, exercise, surf the internet, and so on.

In my routines here in Bodh Gaya my daily schedule seems to follow more or less this: I wake up at 8-9 a.m., I then listen to some music and maybe watch a movie or check out the latest news from BBC. Then I do a bit of exercise. In some cases I would also go downstairs to Om restaurant to have breakfast. Sometimes I just go straight for the lunch, as I did today: fruit salad and chocolate pancake. In the early afternoon I might do some meditation and maybe check out some movie . At 5-6 p.m. I attend the daily meditation session in the Japanese temple, where this monk chants and tells us about zen-meditation. Usually there are some new faces every day, with whom I conversate after the meditation session. Usually we end up eating at Om restaurant. Less surprisingly, usually these people are Japanese. Today there was also one Canadian girl.

Instead of Saturday early afternoon laziness, I went to this fantastic Ayurveda place, where I had the best massage I have had in India. The place is called AMDA Ayurvedic healthcare and is situated just the opposite of the Japanese temple. The place was nice and what’s most important, it did not have the all-too-well-sensed scammy feeling to it at all. The woman was all excited and talking about Ayurveda and I also asked her about chakras, which she later on demonstrated to me (actually she stimulated them by using her own energy). She massaged me with force unwitnessed earlier, and she did genuinely seem to know what she was doing with all the pressure point stuff and so on. After the 1h15min massage she “steamed” me with some kind of ayurvedic-mixture of boiling water. She said I would sweat more than usually for the next two days, but that I should not be worried – it’s supposedly the toxins coming out through my skin. I was happy to tip this lady. I felt soo relaxed after this treatment that I now know I wasn’t treated properly in Jaipur. Man, I really need to find more about this stuff and go to Kerala at some point!