A Whole New World

Hi readers! Didn't realize it has been a month since the last time I posted! Actually there has been a lot of things happening in between (actually just the past 2 weeks had been pretty intense, the other 2 weeks were pretty boring). Just as a preview, I went to Xi'An with "the girl from the summer trip" (here onwards will be referred to as "the girl") and some bull crap happened during (or rather, after) that trip. But that's a story for another post (don't worry, this time I MOST LIKELY will post it since I already wrote the hard copy during the train ride back to Beijing). Also, last Thursday, I just experienced the first snow in my life! And it was a pretty one at that! (the rather thick kind, doesn't make you drenced if it falls on you, and can be used to build snowman and throw snowballs). Those two are not going to be about that trip, however. Just a few days ago, a monk from Indonesia came over to Beijing to celebrate Kathina with the Indonesian Buddhist society here. Apparently I forgot to mention in any of the earlier posts (from a quick ctrl+f scan) that I participated in a weekly Buddhist service with the Indonesian Buddhist society in Beijing, so I am just going to elaborate on it first before going to the main topic of what I actually wanted to write for this post.

Anw so yeah, I have been participating in weekly Buddhist service with the Indonesian Buddhist society in Beijing. It was an amazing community; I enjoyed every moment I am with them. Perhaps there were some bias in that statement; it's been a long time since the last time I had a service with Indonesians of my age (talking about throwback to my childhood/youth). Other than that, my elder brother is actually one of the prominent figure in the society, so the moment I stepped into the room, everybody was already looking at me with questioning face and the braver ones gathered up the courage to ask me if I am in any way related to him, so I don't have to spend so much energy mustering up my courage to talk to people hahahaha. Moreover, most of them somehow recognized me from the vihara I went to back in Indonesia (although to be honest, I don't remember most of them lol) so the starting is not so awkward. Shortly, I have got a lot of head-start when socializing with them. But regardless of those advantages I had while getting to know them, they are in general are very nice and awesome bunch. I went so far as to participate in their side events (something that I don't usually participate in back in Indo and Singapore) and even went so far as to help them out for their major events i.e. the Kathina event I was talking about!

To the main topic now. So the monk who came over to Beijing to celebrate Kathina with us came a few days earlier so that he can visit some places around Beijing. The exco (executive committee) of the society offers us the members to accompany the monk visiting the places and I took up the opportunity without a second thought. Actually, I have always wanted to get to know this monk, who was always being talked about among the people in the society, aside from another monk who turned out to be this monk's master (so to speak, but not really. If I were to explain it would get too long so if you are really curious can ask in comment or PM me). So the offer was like a no-brainer to me. So as it turned out (and as expected), most of the people accompanying the monk were actually the exco. I don't blame them though, it has always been like that in any organization. Not that the exco is being exclusive, but members are usually rather passive unless they have the intention to serve in the exco, or are close to the people in the exco. I kinda fall into the second category, or actually the first, if I were to stay longer in China.

Despite the little time I spent with the monk, I am impressed by him. From him, I got to know more about Mahayana Buddhism, which I have always dismissed as a Buddhist sect that assimilated too much with Chinese culture and legends. He is also a very friendly and down-to-earth kind of monk. One of the evening he invited his old Malaysian monk-friend to have dinner with him and the society's people accompanying him. To my surprise, the meeting was much, much more exciting than I thought. They started out by teasing each other, how the Malaysian monk commented that our monk is getting fatter (he IS fat), which was retaliated by him saying that the Malaysian monk is getting taller (he IS tall). The whole dinner was really fun and enjoyable because of the two keeps teasing each other, like two best friends. One would not have guessed that they have not met for 2 years!

There was a Dhamma class in one of the evenings he was here in Beijing too, but I can't remember what he talked about. All I remember was that I was awed by how much he knows about things and how much he has experienced as a person, before as well as after he renounced his layman life. And I was awed again by his talk on the Kathina day itself. I got teary-eyed, realizing how fortunate I was to end up going for an exchange here instead of my other four choices, being able to hear him sharing his life experiences. I finally decided to get Visuddhi (something like getting baptised in Buddhist term) under him which, to my dismay, turned out to be actually under his master I talked about earlier. Not that I think lowly of His Excellency, but it just feels weird to take someone who you never met before as your spiritual teacher. I have doubts that I will actually meet him any time soon, though I hope I will some day.

That concludes this post. Again, I cannot express how much I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to go for an exchange to Beijing; meeting awesome people in the society, going to new places, and learning Chinese while I'm at that. Not to mention learning about myself as a person. It has been an amazing experience, and I hope it will stay that way if not better until the end of my exchange.

All the best in your future endeavours! :D