February 10, 2023
 
The foot-traveling Sangha stayed at Wat Thai 960 temple to rest before leaving India to cross the border with Nepal. It wasn’t too far, but several issues arose, causing a brief delay.
 
Do you still remember in the Journal Days 49-51, there was a person who pondered about how “death would be swiftly ‘sweet’ when being crushed by an overturned and crashed sugarcane truck”? We passed by a traffic accident where two large trucks loaded with sugarcane had fallen into a ditch while a bus crashed into the roadside. We asked the locals and learned that the driver of one of the trucks had died. Only police cars were at the scene, surrounded by people, and piles of sugarcane were being dug up, probably to retrieve the driver’s body. Such a death cannot be sweet; on the contrary, it must be very painful.
 
At the time, I also heard the news of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that had caused many casualties and tremendous property damage. Everything turned to ruin in an instant. People were enjoying and sharing happiness and warmth with family over a meal, gathering the company of friends, playing with their children, or even lulling their children to a sound sleep. But that was also the last time they saw each other. How can we express all the pain and suffering in this impermanent, illusory realm?
 
What we can do now is practice with unwavering faith, perform wholesome actions, accumulate merits, and prepare to board the boat of perfection to cross the river. As with many others, I can only direct my mind to share merits with the departed and offer blessings to sentient beings who are suffering from the earthquake.
 
The distance between Wat Thai 960 temple and the border is only 3km. After the Sangha chanted suttas to offer blessings and share merits, we walked across the border. The customs procedures for 100 people at the Indian border office took a long time. At the border, there were not only the foot-traveling Sangha but also numerous pilgrimage groups from Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Tibet. Following the Indian procedures, the Nepalese customs took just as long. We did not finish until late afternoon. We hurriedly walked towards our overnight stay and crossed the Rohiṇī River, which, in ancient times, divided the two mighty kingdoms of Sakya and Koliya.
 
The people of the two Sakya and Koliya kingdoms belonged to the Warrior (Khattiya) lineage of the Solar Race (Ādiccavaṃsa/ Ādiccabandhu). They became close friends since no other clans in the region could be compared to them. Both clans took great pride in their purity in maintaining a royal bloodline and always upheld a longstanding tradition of marriage within this lineage. For example, the aunt of King Suddhodana, Sulakkhaṇā, was married to King Añjana of Koliya. Then their daughters, Queen Mahāmāyā and Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, both married King Suddhodana, the chief of the Sakya tribe. Similarly, Yasodhara, the daughter of King Suppabuddha, who was Añjana’s son, was married to the Sakyan Prince Siddhattha. Therefore, both of these clans had maintained extensive marriage relationships with each other for many generations.
 
Even so, there were times when rifts between the two clans turned into hostility.
 
The Tarāī territory, a fertile land at the foot of the majestic Himalayan mountain range, was home to the gentle flowing Rohiṇī River. This river had been the lifeblood of the agricultural region, which spanned both countries. When the rough patches of land along the river were developed to meet the needs of a growing population, the Rohiṇī water fell short of what was needed for daily life and farming. As a result, ownership of the water source became a primary concern, leading to conflict between the two countries.
 
Finally, we were officially standing on Nepalese soil, which has been peaceful for many generations. The sun was out, the northeast wind came in, and we arranged to rest before it got too cold.

#chuahuongdao #chuahuongdaotemple #sbsstupas
#buddha #buddhism #Dhutanga #dhammajourney
 
Source: Dhammacetiya