Background Page 1 of 10 INTRODUCTION Madhyamaloka. Raining. Title: Birmingham, UK. Current home of Sangharakshita, founder of the fwbo Park then Sangharakshita with tea. Shrine. Young Sangharakshita at holy site. Then aged Sangharakshita. Music of a distant time and place. Sangharakshita: I was studying with Jagdish Kashyap. He was a very eminent Indian Buddhist monk, a very great scholar and I was studying with him abhidharma, which is, in a way, Buddhist philosophy and also logic and I spent many happy months studying with him. Indian images Sangharakshita: I stayed with Kashyapji in his hermitage where he lived more or less on his own. One day Kashyapji decided he had enough of working as a professor in the university so he suggested we went and had a pilgrimage in Bihar, to the Buddhist holy places and then he said we go up to a hill station called Kalimpong. But it was very different to any town down in the plains, it seemed a much happier, livelier, more colourful place. Title: Some 50 years on, pilgrims pay visits to the places where teachers have been. With Danus, Manish & Suryaprabha (unseen) and Ratnaketu (guide) 1 BHIKKHU SANGHARAKSHITA Dharmodaya Academy (Vihara) Ratnaketu: So we better knock on the door... We are disciples of Sangharakshita. PB Shakya: Yes. You've come from where? Ratnaketu: We've come from different places - from New Zealand, from England and from Bodhgaya. PB Shakya: I see. You've come here just to see the place where Bhikkhu Sangharakshita has stayed. Ratnaketu: That's right. PB Shakya: I see. And here you have got a picture... In this picture you'll find Sangharakshita. Ratnaketu: Aha! So it is… PB Shakya: He's stayed here for few years. 1951 or ‘52, most probably ’51 0r ’52. Background Page 2 of 10 Ratnaketu: This is the bedroom that Bhante slept in when he was here. The Dharmodaya Vihara as it was then called. PB Shakya: This is the computer room and this is the children’s work… He started preaching, he started teaching English and the young boys used to come to his place to learn English. He opened a branch of the Mahabodhi Society here. Ratnaketu (off-mic): [...it was constructed. …in the forest cut it back to the roots and then, what they do traditionally, they wrap it in leaves and this man said, ‘OK you leave my portion here… We had this problem. He discovered…] PB Shakya: He was previously monk, his name was Mahaprajna. Ratnaketu: Mahaprajna PB Shakya: Then after that he went back again to Saranatha, then, most probably, he didn't come again, he didn't come back. Ratnaketu: That’s the stairs where all Bhante's belongings were thrown down the bottom of the stairs, where he learnt that he'd been kept out of Dhammodaya Vihara. And this is where Burma Raja came and rescued Bhante, took him up the hill to Panorama. 2 PILGRIMAGE Country scenes Sangharakshita: A pilgrimage reminds one of the Buddha and his original disciples and, even now, in some ways India is not very different, especially village India from what it was like in the time of the Buddha. One can find the same little villages, the same mud huts, the same village ground, the same lotus pond and sometimes if one were sort of to close ones eyes one could very easily imagine the Buddha just coming round the corner of one of these little huts on his begging round, So, a pilgrimage of this sort can give one a more vivid sense of the Buddha and of the fact he was actually a real human being and not a myth or a legend even though legendary elements may have crept in later in the story of his life. Yiga Choling, Ghoom Title: the monastery is associated with Tomo Geshe Rinpoche, died 1936 (b 1866) Lama Anagarika Govinda, died 1985 (b 1898) Dhardo Rinpoche, died 1990 (b 1917) whose stupa is here Interior. Music. Then Exterior Ratnaketu: This is where Lama Govinda became a Tibetan Buddhist, because he started off as a Theravadin. He came up here to Darjeeling to a conference hoping to convert some of the Tibetans to the Theravada and he got snowed in at this monastery Yiga Choling at Ghoom, he got snowed in and slowly the atmosphere, the spirituality of the place really had a very powerful effect on him and it was he who got converted to Mahayana by this place. Background Page 3 of 10 Tomo Cottage (ruin) Ratnaketu: The first Tomo Geshe Rinpoche did his, one of his retreats here when Lama Govinda was staying down here, Tomo Geshe Rinpoche was up here. He began to feel the Rinpoche's presence. This is quite an important place for Western Buddhism I think: the transmission of the Buddhism into the West. It's a pity that it's in such a bad state... Really this monastery has such a strong connection with Western Buddhism through Lama Govinda who made it famous in his book 'The Way of the White Clouds'. 3 BHANTE’S HERMITAGE The Hermitage, Kalimpong Ratnaketu: This is the hermitage that Bhante stayed in and it's been fixed up now, it's a guest house. Danus: Ah, the octagonal room in the garden. Ratnaketu: Yes, this is, yes, the meditation room, Bhante's shrine room. This is where he came back from one visit with Lama Govinda and found the gold statue of the Buddha that Dhardo Rinpoche had blessed... So, I believe this is Bhante's room when he stayed here, (this room…) This was where the famous ping-pong table was and Bhante describes the room was just big enough just to fit the ping-pong table and you could squeeze down either other side and it’s true. In the first chapter in 'Sign of the Golden Wheel' you know he describes on one Wesak everybody just kept bringing gardenias until the whole place was filled with those flowers and their scent. He wrote a lot of poetry, of course, here and articles and, towards the end of his stay here, this is when he began the Survey. But this is also the room where Lama Govinda, Li Gotami came. Li Gotami showed her drawings that she'd done from the expedition to the West of Tibet. Near Samten Choling, Ghoom Ratnaketu: This is a stupa in memory of Lama Govinda and Li Gotami. Interesting to see that Lama Govinda founded the Siksapracchar Sangha in Darjeeling 1933... a long time ago... He would have, in fact, only been 35 years old... Gompu’s Restaurant 4 CHETUL’S MONASTERY Phuntsog Nyab Choling, Jorebangla, Nr Ghoom Tibetan monk: Sangharakshita… Background Page 4 of 10 Ratnaketu: So, this is Chetul Sangye Dorje's monastery, it's one of Bhante's teachers, and this is also one of Bhante's teachers, Dudjom Rinpoche, who is the head of the Nyingmapas and he is also a teacher of Chetul Sangye Dorje. To me Chetul Sangye Dorje is important because he is a bit outside of the tradition. He is.. he is not recognised as the tulku of any of great previous person, he's just somebody who emerged, in the same way that Bhante is not recognised as anybody but as someone who has emerged. And there, of course, is His Holiness the Dalai Lama and behind on the wall is…? Tibetan monk: Khenpo Dasan Rinpoche. Kalimpong Café Ratnaketu: And in the same way I believe that other Buddhist teachers in the world and some of them are teaching Buddhism...Well, they're all teaching Buddhism...but, erm, some of them... Triyana Vardhana Vihara Ratnaketu: Bhante was looking for some permanent place in Kalimpong. And one day Chetul Rinpoche just told him, 'Yes, you are going to get a place' and he wrote out this poem in Tibetan and he said, 'You should call it this name: The Triyana Vardhana Vihara', it’s the place where three Yanas - Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, where they’re practised. And that was very much what Bhante wanted to do: was to practice the Dharma as a whole, not just one school, not just one path. Manish: So had Bhante to pay something here? Ratnaketu: No, he was very lucky, an Indian millionaire had said to Bhante, 'Well, if you ever need any money, then let me know…’ So he would have come here in 57, that’s when he got the place, right at the end of 1956, I believe, or the beginning of 57. He finished The Survey here, he wrote, you know, quite a lot of 'The Rainbow Road', 'The Eternal Legacy', quite a bit of, I think, 'Three Jewels' was written here and lots of poetry. Manish: [Hindi] Christian, no? Jen: Christian. Manish: His name is Jen, he’s Christian. Ratnaketu: He's in the lion's den. Manish/Jen: [Hindi] Ratnaketu: [You have to pull out that thorn.] Vikshukuti (was Triyana Vardhana Vihara) Ratnaketu: You stayed here with Bhante, yes? BK Gahatraj: Of course, I stayed with Bhanteji. Background Page 5 of 10 Ratnaketu: How old were you? BK Gahatraj: It was in ’59, I was 18 years old Ratnaketu: 18? BK Gahatraj: 18. Well, Bhante was also, as I see it, quite young. And this place, in fact, was not cemented, it was a wooden floor here. And this room coming outside was not here. This is wooden floor that Bhante used to pace the floor most of the time up and down... Yeah, he was meditating or thinking something, some investigative studies, writing work.