8 years ago in Feb, i made my first maiden trip to this beautiful island nation of 30 million. Today, the pretty busy road that serves the main throughway from Colombo to Kandy has been widen, resurfaced and thus i see even huge tour coaches and container trucks passing by as i stand above about 5 storeys high at the main meditation hall as i start my walking meditation before THE SIT. Yesterday, an american-vietnamese resident nun living here gave me a surprise by giving me a local sarong and a illuminated statue of the buddha; she wished my happy new year as the sinhala new year is on the 13/14 Apr. PMC is located up the granite slopes to mitigate the noise from the traffic; however, the train tracks that probably runs at least 5 times a day is on the same height as the Dhamma Hall. Gotten used to the symphony of train, vehicular traffic and the sound of nature (birds, insects, whispering of the leaves).
The year end north-easterly winds truely is infamous...bringing down the temperature to 15C; before taking considerations for the wind-chill factor; i was mostly in my windbreaker as i didnt do much manual work this time round; instead running up to the 2nd story study or the hill beside the monastry to do meditation and catch up on reading...one of the more insightful book i read while there is this book of a monk who studied under Ajahn chah for 5 years in the late 70s; he disrobed after the 5 years but continued to live a "monk w/o the robes" life.
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