Some days are beautiful and interesting, like for example today. Lot of little moments of fun and also self realization. Well the day started with rain, interestingly, I do not hear rain in my room unless the windows are open. I always relate to sound of rain than seeing the rain. So i walked out of my room happily at 8.45am for school and only when got onto the street, I realized it was raining.
The class today was in Institute of Philosophy. Sometimes I get lost looking at the technological advances in the classrooms here. The overhead projector in its modern avatar, fancy LCD projector, beautiful green colored glass board for traditional writing with white chalk, but this blackboard or lets say green board is also with technological upgrade, one can slide it as per requirements. Today's classroom did not have a cross but had a wash basin instead and I kept wondering if it is expected that students would need to splash water on their face to remain awake and alert. My friend explained to me very seriously that the facility of washbasin is for the professor to wash his hands after the class or he would go home with hands covered in chalk. I somehow never thought of that. The class today was by a philosophy research professor, these were the terms he described himself in. He talked about 'is there a death after life?' . Yes we discussed this huge ethical, moral question about death and life for 3 hours and my brain was ready to die. In the middle of the class, suddenly we started hearing a strange beeping sound and the professor had to go and slap a small machine which looked like a small screen. He said it was essential to let the technology know that the class is still on and it is sensitive to motion and not the sound. I remembered some of my funny experiences in hotel rooms/bathrooms where the lights were sensitive to the body movements, where i was in the dark if i did not make enough physical movements. But I was never in a class where the lights would go off in the absence of motion.
But this is not the main highlight of my day. 2day was a day of great food cooked by a friend, someone who hates vegetarian food but cooked only vegetarian for me. It felt wonderful to be treated so well, with so much concern and care. I met few more people, all students off course, a girl trying to figure out how to decalc the water kettle, a Belgian boy who dreams to speak Spanish like a Spaniard and who feels that taking salsa classes is a best way to get closer to your girlfriend, another Belgian guy who is studying criminology who is vegetarian by choice against unfair trade practices in meat industry in Europe. While we are having food and enjoying talks, the fire alarm goes off and we had to be out in the open. That was quite funny i must say and cold to stand outside while the maintenance men were trying to figure out if there was really any fire.
After all this lovely food, I had to go for meditation. There was no way I could concentrate on breathing and inner peace. My stomach was full with great food, my body sleepy and thoughts hovering over life and death discussion from the morning along with plans to visit police station 2row morning for registering myself as a foreigner in Belgium. Trust me, I dont think I really meditated even for 2 minutes today. I was all over the world, from India to Bangladesh to Europe to China, all in mere one hour. Thanks to my ever wandering mind which refuses to sit quiet. But the day still had more surprises to unfold. I made few more aquentances in meditation class 2day. I think people in this city are very warm and friendly. Each person who comes to my meditation center has such a warm, loving, happy smile that sometimes I find myself staring at their smiles. I want a smile like that.. that is not a bad goal at all. I do zen meditation to achieve a happy and warm smile which comes from within.
As we were getting ready to leave the meditation center, Ii was told that my meditation buddies go for a drink every third Tuesday and I was more than welcome to join them. I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of going for a drink 'after' the meditation. I spontaneously agreed to go with them without realizing 2day was the third Tuesday. A drink after meditation was quite an interesting idea for me, I could not say no. But what was most interesting is that I agreed to go out for a drink with people that I met today. That is strange. My friends in Amsterdam are going to kill me for this as I always avoided going to bars with them. In fact last Thursday I to go out for a drink with my classmates in leuven and here I was today, all eager to experience the beer after meditation. May be I wanted to figure out if alcohol has different effect on one's mind if you have been practicing meditation. Guess what most of my drink companions today were practicing meditation for at least 8 years or more.
We walked to a beautiful restaurant just outside Begijnhof, six of us together. I kept wondering about my comforts with this Belgian group that I agreed to go for a drink with them. My decision was great as I felt glad to have joined them. The group consciously spoke in English so that I could be involved. They made sure I had something to talk to them about. I learned some interesting work that some of them are involved in. When I told them about my weekend to understand biblical references through museum M with the help of my anthropology professor, one of them suddenly said, could you help my daughter understand Hindu gods and goddesses, she has to write an exam about them soon and she says she cant remember the details of each of them, thanks to the large no of gods and goddesses that we have. It turned out that this girl is studying inter-religion communication. I happily agreed to help her as I know how it feels when you are the only one in the class who doesn't know who is Samaritan, who is the 'neighbor' and who is St Augustine? I am terrible in talking to people that I do not know. I am very shy in social contexts, can sit there like a dumb person or at the least I can say as a most boaring person. Today i could effortlessly talk to this group and I kept wondering if it is really me. Trust me it was even before the drinks arrived, so I was not drunk. I ordered my first Belgian beer in Leuven. I enjoyed my first beer and the great conversations that went along. I offcourse got a little lost on my way home in the rain and the darkness but I was happy. I felt a little bit alive again, lets say 1/1000th part of me came alive. but nonetheless it gives hope and I think hope is all I have right now to hold on to.
The question on my mind still is was it really me coming alive or the beer after meditation that did the trick? But may be it is not essential to analyze every aspect of life. I am going to bed with a happy heart and a smiling face hoping that i will sleep well tonite and eventually will have a warm smile on my face for rest of my life irrespective of circumstances I create for myself.
Goodnight...
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