My original plan was to visit Bodh Gaya and stay at a Buddhist retreat and hopefully spend a few days learning the proper way to meditate. Since Bodh Gaya is the city where Buddha reached enlightenment it seemed like a fitting place to do it. What I didn’t realize was that Bodh Gaya has tourist seasons and I was not there for one.
What this meant was that none of the schools and retreats in town were offering classes. Many had just closed up shop until the tourists arrived. Even so I managed to get in touch with the people at the Root Institute and even though they had no classes I was able to stay on site with them in one of their rooms for students.
Bodh Gaya is a very small town, other than the Buddhist temples there is not much to do here for a tourist. If you were just a tourist you could see everything in one day. But I booked a full week in town and had a wonderful time.
The first two days were me doing the tourist things in town and after that I got into a daily meditation schedule. I figured that if there was no class that doesn’t mean I couldn’t do it my self. After lunch I headed over to Bodhi temple and meditated (and chatted with locals) until 4:30PM. Then I went over to the Japanese Buddhist temple because they held a nightly service. After service I had dinner and headed back to my room to read the book I was on.
This may sound a little boring but it was what I wanted and more from Bodh Gaya. I met many people while here and had some great experiences. It was off season and 110F degrees outside but I loved every minute of it. I hope that they next time I visit I will be able to find a open course on mindfulness.
