29~ On the Way to Bodh Gaya: An Approach to Something.

Of poverty and religions.

January 9.

The train finally arrived 6 hours later than planned. Night journey from Varanasi to Gaya station, a city in eastern India near Kolkata. I had chosen to do a Vipassana there, a 10-day silent Buddhist meditation retreat in a monastery.Synchronously, the retreat had also chosen me.

The state of Bihar is one of the humblest in India. The event took place in a small village called Bodh Gaya, the very place where the last Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, attained enlightenment. An incredibly devotional place of endless Buddhist pilgrimages, home to the great temple with the sacred Bodhi tree where Buddha became enlightened after 49 days of meditation.

Besides that, a small countryside village, very peaceful, very small, and very, very poor.

As always, I was traveling alone. I had planned not to arrive too late at the station, but with the unexpected delay, everything had changed, and I arrived at Gaya station at 3 am. I had to take a taxi for about 30 minutes to the village, so I decided to wait until dawn. Then, I chose a spot on the floor and sat down to wait.

I had never felt poverty so close as here. Was it because Kaare had warned me about it or simply because I had opened my eyes wider? It was impossible not to feel it.

This place was different. It wasn't like Rishikesh or other places in India, where you can still see tourists wandering around with their dollars and their yoga mats, and the locals managing to make a living with them, paying higher prices and bringing a bit of balance to the situation.

This was a very local rural town, and as soon as you stepped a few paces away from the main temple – which was almost the only attraction – everything felt double.

India always confronts you with situations of poverty and with people in great need, in the corners of India and not-so-cornered places. Children, adults, people with deformities asking for help or with their mutilated bodies trying to make a living. Situations for which we are never truly prepared, neither in India nor anywhere else... How can you really prepare for that?

It is difficult to talk about this and put it into words, because I can only speak for the places I have known and the perceptions I had while I was here, which were limited compared to the vastness that is India. So I will only speak from my own experiences, far from being complete or socially exhaustive, but I feel the need to put it on the table and, along with it, to reflect on it together... So I will do so with my utmost humility, and I apologize if this does not reflect the entire reality.

I have mostly moved around small towns, and from those my own experiences, what I have often felt is that perhaps because of their religion, their beliefs, and their way of life, people do not need so many material things to get through their daily lives. Their priorities and routines seem to lie elsewhere. The massive and violent capitalism that exists does not appear at first glance in the small villages. Life seems "easier" and requires less. Less technology, less thirst for possessions, less consumerism, luxury, and material greed – of course, the modern city of Bombay and the wealthy sectors of Delhi will look quite different from this, of course – but capitalism does not look like that here.

On the contrary, what you can feel are its effects. The repercussions of the British colony that India once was, the results of domination, exploitation, and a very recent freedom: only 78 years. The age of my grandfather... in the history of a country, that is nothing.

I wonder if it is poverty or humility, or perhaps a wise blend of both.

Being a colony for so many years left them with a devastated economy and an intentionally poor education system that, along with their religion, has shaped a particular way of life.

Amidst all this, it seems that people's needs are more spiritual than material, and I say this as a compliment. It seems...It seems that it is easier to survive here, both for them and for oneself... Perhaps more so for oneself coming with foreign currency, right? – and here once again we begin to speak from our own privileges – but it seems that greed, longing, and the importance given to possessions do not rule the minds or the behaviors of people, and you can feel this quite easily in the way they relate to them. At first glance, you don't see that unconscious drive for attachment to material things that, although we work on it, we still have. What you see is a certain beautiful and enviable indifference to all those little things that tempt the devil, that naturally tempt us. And that, at the very least, is inspiring.

No one touches your things, no one takes what is not theirs – often even if it has been left abandoned – no one rejoices greedily when they find something that is not theirs but could easily be by the right of having seen it first; you only see indifference towards these situations. You leave something in a place, and most likely, you will find it there later, exactly where you left it. Surely not all of India, of course – in the cities, as always, it is the law of the strongest – but in the small towns where I have moved, these have been traits that have caught my attention countless times while traveling here, and that alone is something worth noting. Feeling safe, something you don't find everywhere anymore.

It seems that this way of life is an arm-wrestle against fierce capitalism...Maybe it was capitalism that struck the blow to India many years ago, and now it is in the process of recovery...

– The more material things you have, the more effort it takes to maintain them, and attachment grows.For what? If by living only with what we need, we are calm, we need nothing more, and thus we have more time and fewer pressures... – Wise.

Life is cheaper and simpler here. You don't need so many clothes, nor so many shoes, nor so many material things, and there aren't even many places to show them off or buy them, so everything becomes simpler. We tourists come and walk barefoot on the mountains and rocky paths. We connect with nature, with Pachamama, and with the gods. The Indians look at us and laugh quietly to themselves.

Of course, it is not like this for everyone. Many come here to buy cheap things and consume, both material goods and spirituality in quantities. For many, it is simply a vacation where they dress in expensive natural cotton clothes bought cheaply and acquire twice as much of everything as if it didn't matter. Because they can and because it probably doesn't matter to them.

Others try to distance themselves from those people and stay alert enough not to become that.

Here, everything is very simple, as if one didn't need so much to be happy. Like when you go deep into the mountains to backpack and realize that, in the end, you didn't need so much to survive, that life can be less complicated and more natural. That with just a few things, in the end, it was enough, that you didn't need that much. And you feel lighter, freer, with fewer worries. It should be something obvious, but we still have to come to these places to remind ourselves.I think many of us come to India to recover, in a way, from the modern capitalist frameworks that have devastated our minds.

So, for what purpose then give away your time, spending your hours only in the pursuit of material possessions? If in the end, they don't have as much meaning as we thought, if it is possible to live differently. With another purpose and more meaning.

Perhaps this is what we tourists feel when we come to India – to India and to many of those rebellious towns far from meaningless consumerism that we find as a refuge. – For me, India is a bit of all that.Perhaps that is why we stay so long here, because, in the end, it is this: TIME. A detox from the capitalist world and a return to the origins, to the connection with the divine and also with oneself, with the invaluable addition of its spirituality, of its magnificent chaos that becomes a teacher even if we don't want it to, and a great dose of Indian Magic. Stolen time in a bubble suspended in the air. Time of peace.

Religion helps in this way of thinking, it is immersed in their culture from many sources: the Vedas – the ancient sacred Hindu scriptures –, the renunciation of possessions, Buddhism, and the essential principles of Yoga:

Ahimsa (non-violence), Aparigraha (non-attachment and austerity), Santosha (gratitude and contentment), Satya (truth), Tapas (discipline), Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to a higher power).

The Yamas and Niyamas, the ethical guidelines for yogic conduct and personal discipline outlined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the sacred books – the true bible of Yoga.

From the other side but towards the same direction, the Buddhist precepts and the path of the Dhamma, which from other perspectives invite us to awaken from the material illusion we tread every day, to understand ourselves and reality from our true essence, putting others on the same level as ourselves. And here are the Buddhist precepts:

Not to kill any living being and to respect life.

Not to steal or take what belongs to others.

To abstain from improper sexual conduct.

Not to lie or use harmful speech.

To abstain from consuming intoxicants that cloud the mind.

Quite similar to the Christian commandments, but it seems that here, at least for some, they are a bit more a part of real life.

Realization – or what is truly important – is placed on the spiritual plane and in religion, and this gives direction to the mind and shapes behavior. And even if many do not know the theory in depth, these notions become ingrained through practice, shaping a culture of non-attachment.

What I can say – or at least think – is that for many, the fortunate ones, the disciplined ones, those in search of a spiritual path, the material is not the true goal, as it is in other places, and India is more than fertile ground to cultivate that.

So, the triumph is somewhere else. It is not money, nor possessions, nor how much you have "progressed in your life" that marks success. Personal realization, spirituality, samadhi, moksha, nirvana or enlightenment – depending on which tradition you follow – are not placed there, and when this is understood and achieved – even to a minimal degree – that alone begins to fulfill you.Of course, it is not an easy or simple path, but at least understanding where and why we walk is minimally motivating.

The utopia that is on the horizon, as the Uruguayan Eduardo Galeano would whisper in our ear: "When I walk two steps, it moves two steps away and the horizon shifts ten steps further. So, what is the point of utopia? For this,it serves to keep walking..."

_____________________

"The knowledge acquired through the senses, the mind, and the intellect is insignificant compared to the one that emanates from the vision of the seer. It is a true intuitive knowledge.When the clouds disappear, the sky clears and the sun shines brightly...When the sun shines, who needs artificial light?"

Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

B. K. S. Iyengar

If material success is not the goal, if we can seek fulfillment elsewhere, it is at least a bit more hopeful.I f this life is not all there is, if spiritual realization lies in the cessation of suffering and the evolution of the soul, then there are more important things to worry about. And this, from many different traditions, unites all believers, who are the majority in India. Both the wealthy and the humble.

Then religion, their gods, and that belief in something, saves.

That belief in something that we have catastrophically lost in many parts of the world, which often makes life meaningless.And so we come here, seeking that, trying to believe again.

"There are many scientific studies that prove the evolution of the soul, that confirm reincarnation," a friend told me, listing several experiments that my mind almost automatically blocked at the very moment he said it.

"I honestly don't care much about those numbers," I replied. "I have to be honest with you. In the end, I don't even care so much about the exhaustive truth of it, or how well-proven it is. What holds more value for me is the purpose. I choose to believe in this because it gives my life a deeper meaning. It gives it a path, a cause. A way of looking and a way of being."

If you understand it this way, as they see it, everything that happens in life is teaching you something. Every mistake, every difficulty, every suffering has a meaning.I wake up each day thinking that this life is a lesson, and in this way, everything becomes more understandable, more bearable, lighter, more livable. It gives me a reason, a motive, and fundamentally, it gives me hope.

"Every time I wake up, I feel like a man taps me on the shoulder and says: Welcome to the gift of life! You are alive for one more day, this is a blessing!How are you going to celebrate that today?"

So...

What is the evolution of the soul?

Buddhism and a part of Hinduism as well – each in their own way and in less simplified forms – understand that suffering is caused by ignorance: a misunderstanding about the true nature of things, a mistaken way of perceiving reality and ourselves.

Of thinking of ourselves as separate from the environment, from the Supreme Power, from God, from the Universe, from the material reality, or however you want to call it, attributing – and attributing to ourselves as well – false, mistaken, illusory characteristics. According to Buddhism: inherent, absolute, and permanent. Wrong and implausible, yet taken as real and unquestionable by all. The introspective – and liberating – work, then, will be to start questioning all those "truths" we have adopted for so long, through study, meditation, and our sadhana – our own spiritual practice.

The path to be traveled is one of questioning, self-discovery, self-inquiry, and the recognition of what we already are. That immaculate crystal that is already our essence and that we just need to polish, cleanse, and shine so it can return to its true nature: transparent. And it is here, through different names and techniques, that many spiritual traditions converge: Yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Advaita Vedanta, among others.

So, the true path of the spirit – of the soul or consciousness, depending on where we stand – is more about a re-direction: achieving the dissolution of the Ego so that what is enclosed in this body-container can understand and assimilate the true nature of things – its own and, as a reflection, that of reality. To go beyond the illusions that our mind and our "self" perceive. The Maya, the Matrix. It is a path of opening consciousness.

From the Buddhist perspective, it is about understanding impermanence, the emptiness of inherent existence, insubstantiality, equanimity, the natural law of Karma, and interdependence. From a more "Hindu" or yogic perspective, it is about achieving Union with the Supreme Power, with the divine. A union that, as we see, has always existed but that we ignore or forget due to ignorance. The dissolution of the Ego, the recognition of the non-duality between ourselves and the divine, and detachment from the material.

It is interesting to see how, with different names and specificities, both traditions speak almost of the same thing. All roads lead to Rome.

So, this journey on Earth is about returning to the source, about remembering, re-connecting – in other words, about returning to the deepest part of who we are.

I like these ideas. In a modern world where everything pushes us to "heal," to transform, to rebuild, to redesign ourselves, this seems like the opposite path. A path of going back, of doing "less," of stopping.Surely the greatest challenge in these times.

"There is no destination, because you never left: You are what you seek."

Astavakra Gita

Supreme.

Reincarnation, multiple lives, cyclical existence, or the wheel of Samsara is the path of that evolution of the spirit, and all the opportunities our soul has to grasp this and finally liberate itself. So, we can think of this path as overcoming the duality between our consciousness and the external reality – a duality that exists only in our mind, a product of the Ego and the idea of a false individuality.

To transcend the body, the mind, the "self," and merge into that ultimate union to experience the peace of genuine happiness – to experience who we truly are.Each tradition explains it in its own way and with its own techniques, but the direction is the same.

"God is within you" We hear it everywhere, in different religions, even in Christianity. One of the branches of Hindu philosophy, particularly Advaita Vedanta or Non-Duality, proposes that there is no separation between God (Brahman) and the individual soul (Atman). Both are connected by the same divine nature, and the separation is just an illusion. This is why we must understand – and above all, feel – that the potential of God, of the divine, also resides within us, and that we only need to remove the layers of dust and confusion to simply be able to see it.

We too are God.There is no difference in essence, only in magnitude, and of course, to realize this, we must vibrate – and once again, live – in alignment with it.That God, or that something greater than ourselves – the Higher Power, the All, the Universe, the Supreme Reality, the Universal Consciousness – is not something "out there" to reach, but something that is already within us.

So, when we seek outside, we are actually choosing the wrong path. If God is within, then that is where the path of the spirit leads.

From a Buddhist perspective, we suffer because of our misunderstanding of reality – and not just that! – because we substitute it with a false reality that overshadows it.Then, we suffer from our improper attachment to this illusory reality, which is why we feel separate, isolated, incomplete, small – in pain.

Mistakenly, we believe that we are our "self," our Ego, and that this has form, permanence, and substance. As a consequence, we also believe that we are all the sensations that inhabit this self – that we are all those ever-changing emotions and thoughts, and that they too are substantial and permanent, thus reinforcing our identification with them even further.

And in the end – to top off this story (which, seen this way, really does sound like one) – we believe that reality and its material objects are also substantial and permanent.And there, in our drive to grasp these objects that we perceive as "real, permanent, and substantial," we develop an exaggerated attachment to them, fearing their loss, assigning qualities to them that, in truth, they do not possess.

Yes, a whole domino chain of implausible illusions, but turned into a reality that no one questions – one that permeates us and shapes us. One that makes us slaves.

The ending of the story? Every time we don't get what we want – that which was impossible from the start because it was an illusion all along – we suffer. And that can be quite often or quite intensely.

Damn, it really does seem like a tale, doesn't it? But it's real. It's the story of our lives, one we live out quite often. So, to dismantle the illusion, we have to go back to square one.

Does it sound simple? We all know it's not, right? Because that "reality" has become so deeply ingrained in us that it feels like the only possible one. It will be a deep journey of study, meditation, introspection, and a constant examination of reality to truly shake the foundations of such ignorance.

We spend our time fighting the wrong battle, as if the "real" stakes were there, but we are playing the wrong game.We step into a hamster wheel that isn't even ours – or is so deeply ours that we don't even notice it.A world of false premises, endless desires, and voids that cannot be filled by their very nature.Impossible to provide the lasting satisfaction or stable happiness we seek, simply because the equation itself is flawed. So, we keep running, stuck in the realm of the impossible.

Translated: suffering, suffering, suffering... until we step out of The Matrix.

– We live in this material world, but we belong to another one – Kaare told me some time ago.– The art is in remembering this... We need to have one foot in this reality and the other in “the other one,” so we can play. Play like a board game, with pieces and moves, with grace, enjoyment, and enthusiasm... Like what it truly is: a game of cause and effect. The wisdom lies in understanding this, deep down. In being able to move in and out, without attachment, without so much drama, because that's not the real struggle. The goal isn't in those results, but in the way we play the game.

Just moves, trial and error, and if you see it this way, it can even be fun – a constant learning process... What's the next adventure to overcome? – he laughs. What's the next level waiting for me?

We are much more than what we can see in this plane, and that is what we must remember. When we understand this, everything changes shape and meaning.

Different practices or disciplines seek, through different paths, to bring us closer to an experience of unity. Yoga does it through the union of body, mind, and spirit.Bhakti Yoga through devotion, Jnana Yoga through knowledge, Karma Yoga through selfless action. Buddhism does it through questioning and understanding the true nature of existence and suffering. Advaita Vedanta through the experience of non-duality. Through the body, through consciousness, through introspection, through energy, through intellect, through devotion, through surrender... but in the end, everything we seek outside is within us. It has always been there, we have always had it, we just need to return to it.

In the end, the path is always inward.With the help of the external, moving through and acting in the outside world, but heading inward... and towards the All.

"There is nothing to accept, nothing to reject, nothing to dissolve. Nothing to cling to, nothing to let go, nothing to dissolve. This is the truth: there is nothing to embrace, nothing to renounce, nothing to dissolve!

Free from attachment, free from desire, stillness. This is what I am, the Real, Oh, how wonderful!

But in this self, there is nothing to embrace, nothing to reject. When this small, poor-quality 'I' ceases to exist: there is freedom. When the 'I' exists, there is bondage.

Consider this. It is simple: You are the clear space of consciousness. Pure and still, unlimited and free, serene and undisturbed. In whom there is no birth, no death. No mental activity, no 'I'.

Know that you are free. Forever and truly free. Free from the 'I', free from the 'mine'.

When you know this in your heart, that there is nothing, you are very still,as if you have finished everything."

Astavakra Gita

And a gift from Kaare (Vijay Shyam), my Danish Guru (1)

(1) https://nondual.dk/

Give it a read, I highly recommend it! On his website, you'll find many beautiful writings, meditations, and also free weekly online talks and satsangs. I share it with you with much love – it's everything that's right.