Dharma Week: Day 5

Original Post: Sunday at Shwedagon
Date: September 9, 2008 at 11:17AM

[NOTE: Posted from my hotel in Mexico City. Off to Guerrero tomorrow by bus at 5:30 AM. Had a wonderful meeting this afternoon with my friends at GEA (see Meeting in Acateyahualco)]. 

One Sunday in early January of 2005, I spent a quiet morning at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.   There is a palpable serenity and magic here, which, I am convinced, is at least partly due to the eight strands of Buddha's hair that are enshrined on the site.  There is also an impressive banyon tree (Ficus religiosa) which is said to have been grown from a branch of the original tree in Bodh Gaya under which Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment. [NOTE: The monks are "bathing the Buddha" with little cups of water].