Why are Americans afraid of Bodh Gaya? - an open letter

Christopher Titmuss

DEAR AMERICAN PRACTITIONERS OF THE DHARMA AND OTHERS,

The Background

Since 1975, I have had the great privilege of teaching annually the Dharma retreat in Bodh Gaya, India, where the Buddha realised enlightenment. India is the Mother of the Dharma and Bodh Gaya is its heartbeat.

We are in the 33rd year of offering these retreats, mostly to the international community; backpackers, pilgrims, spiritual seekers and tourists. Since the mid-1980’s, I have invited around 20 teachers of Insight Meditation in the West starting with Norman Feldman from Canada, Sharda Rogell from the Bay area of California and Fred von Allman from Switzerland to teach with me. All the teachers, past and present, have given tremendous service to these retreats.

The teachers need to deal with many challenges in this remote, poverty stricken and somewhat desolate corner of Bihar, the poorest state in India. The rundown hospital, jammed full of very sick and dying people, is in Patna – three hours away along a dangerous road that no Indians will travel on at night. The health of the emotions and body of a tiny handful of retreatants may be fragile. Teachers interview each participant before the retreat to check their health and readiness for the 10 days.

The conditions in the Thai Monastery for our retreats are simple. All of the men sleep under the temple on straw mats amidst old Buddha images and artefacts while the women are in dormitories or sleep along the veranda. Unlike the luxurious retreat centres in the USA, our Bodh Gaya retreat is truly the lower middle way, not the upper middle way. We also give permission for some to stay in the small hotel opposite the monastery and join the retreat daily from 5.15 - 22.15.

Dharma teachers, Subhana, Mark Coleman and myself prepared in Bodh Gaya some years ago a comprehensive 5000 word Spiritual/Psychological Emergency Report in terms of what signals to watch for and what to do in an emergency for new teachers and managers here. (Go to Articles on Menu of home page of www.insightmeditation.org). We have to deal with some intense situations that are very rare in Western centres, as well as listen and respond to a variety of profound and liberating experiences of men and women whose depth suddenly bears great fruit in Bodh Gaya. It is an amazing event.

Teachers, managers and seniors really take care of everybody. We conduct two 10 day retreats in the Thai Monastery. Martin Aylward, co-founder of the Tapovan Dharma Centre in south west France, leads the first 10 day retreat with a guest teacher and Jaya Ashmore, our resident teacher in India, and I, lead the second retreat with another guest teacher.

Since 1999, Jaya and I, with other invited teachers, have facilitated our 10 day Dharma Gathering in Sarnath, near Varanasi, where the Buddha gave his first teachings after Bodh Gaya. In Sarnath, the Sangha of several teachers and many dedicated practitioners share our experiences, meditate together and stay together in various monasteries and small guest houses. We devote the days to discussing the dharma. The Sarnath programme follows on from Bodh Gaya. We run both programmes totally on a donation basis. There is no daily rate.

Slump in Numbers

In the last couple of years, we have experienced a significant drop in the numbers participating in the Bodh Gaya retreats. There was a big drop after 9/11 for the January 2002 retreats but numbers rapidly picked up.

For our last retreat in Bodh Gaya, Jaya Ashmore, our guest teacher, Radha Nicholson, and I had exactly 70 participants. We usually have a full retreat of around 120.

Why is there a drop for the first time (excluding right after 9/11) in 33 years?

The teachers and managers met. We came to 10 reasons.

1. war on terror
2. availability of retreats in the West,
3. more on offer in India,
4. lack of posters,
5. no advertising or leaflets in the West or India,
6. no special website for our Bodh Gaya retreats
7. Six or seven Satsang teachers from the West in January in Tiruvanamalai,
8. Jaya and Gemma have a full teaching programme through December to May in India,
9. no mention of Bodh Gaya in Gaia House programme, the UK retreat centre.
10. pollution in Bodh Gaya.

We agreed that it would only take a reduction of about four people from each of the above reasons to account for the drop in numbers. So we agreed to set up a website for the Bodh Gaya retreats (www.bodhgayaretreats.org) and Sarnath programme, print 2000 flyers about the programme, speak about Bodh Gaya on our retreats in the West and put up posters in Dharamsala, Sarnath, Tiruvannamalai etc in India.

Three Regions

We soon found out that most of our 10 reasons were simply not valid.

Generally speaking, and this is not a precise social science, that over recent years, the 120 or so retreatants live in three regions of the world.

One group is from Western Europe and Israel where around 300 million people live in total.
One group is from the United States with a similar population.
One smaller group comes from the rest of the world, including India, rest of Asia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
Roughly around 50% or so participants come from Europe and Israel. That roughly accounts for about 60 meditators.
Roughly around 15% come from the rest of the world outside of the United States. That’s around 20 meditators.
Roughly around 35% come from the United States. That’s around 40 Americans.
That makes a rough total of around 120 people.

On the first day of the retreat, Chad, our Bodh Gaya manager, said to me: “Here is an interesting statistic for you. I’ve looked at the registration forms. The statistics show that if all the Americans came as in other years before 2005, we would have a pretty full retreat.”

There were only a total of 12 Americans, six men and six women attending our retreats, including the one with Martin Aylward. Of the 12 Americans, six were not currently living in the USA. They travelled to Bodh Gaya from elsewhere in India or another country. The six were either living in..

1. Varanasi - for 11 years studying at Benares Hindu University,
2. Thailand and Delhi - working for years with people HIV virus.
3. Germany- with his partner.
4. Japan - with his Japanese partner. They are expecting a baby
5. India - having quit job, put everything in storage and bought a one way ticket
6. Asia - explored for years the dharma and yoga, no plans to return to the USA.

One American friend with us in Bodh Gaya stays mostly in India and has managed our retreats in the past. Another American dharma friend with us in Bodh Gaya quit her job in Paris as a journalist for a leading New York fashion magazine to explore the Dharma in India and offer time to a large leprosy ashram. Both came to the evening teachings.

It meant that only six Americans, who actually live currently in the United States, attended our Bodh Gaya retreat in 2007. This is a dramatic slump in the number of Americans who come to Bodh Gaya and India for a few weeks or two or three months. We would usually expect around 40 travelling from the USA. The number of Israelis has dropped by half. There is no change in figures for the rest of the world.

Since 1977, I go annually to United States. Currently I teach in New York at the Open Centre, off Broadway, and at Spirit Rock Meditation Centre in Marin, California. I have never travelled in the United States. I only go to serve the Dharma through evening programmes, one day retreats and a weeklong retreat. I only see the inner life of meditators and not the beautiful country itself.

There is wonderful tradition of hospitality and generosity in the United States. I travel to four continents a year. Forgive the generalisation, but, outside Israel, I find that Americans are the most fearful people I encounter anywhere in the world.

The Impact of Your Absence

Your absence has an impact in Bodh Gaya. Your presence supports the local economy – food, restaurants, hotels, stalls, shops and the poor. The village depends on foreign visitors in December in January.

If Europe and the rest of the world also virtually stopped coming to Bodh Gaya from their home countries, then attendance on our retreats here would drop to around 15 people and we could not continue. Our school, the Pragya Vihar School with 570 of the poorest children in Bodh Gaya, relies upon dharma students in Bodh Gaya and the West for its survival. It would be in danger of having to close and our absence would also affect other initiatives that we support in the village.

We appreciated immensely the quiet determination of the handful of Americans to come to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath despite any feelings of concern or impressions from the media. I asked the handful of American dharma friends here in India why very few Americans now come to Bodh Gaya. I got much the same response from everyone.

In summary, it goes along these lines. “Americans watch television and read the news about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the conflicts between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the Maoists in Nepal and the terrorist bombings in Bombay and Varanasi last year, so they become afraid to travel to India.”

Or, the second response is: “Americans believe it is easy to get sick in India. Americans get told how dirty it is and how much pollution there is in the air. They worry about becoming sick from the water or food. They are afraid of catching a disease like malaria, hepatitis or cholera. Any of these fears stop Americans making the journey to Bodh Gaya.”

Europeans, Israelis and the rest of the world have exposure to the same information.

Teachers and managers have agreed that we will bring most of our flyers about beloved Bodh Gaya to the United States and we will try to give you as much reassurance as possible that you have nothing to feel anxious about in terms of coming to India.

You will be made very welcome. I mean it. Don’t be afraid. We want to see you in Bodh Gaya. We want the presence of Americans in the retreat there to undergo a dramatic increase. Instead of six resident Americans attending our retreat, we want the number to return to 40 Americans or more.
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See www.insightmeditation.org. We are also in the process of making a new website for our programmes in Bodh Gaya and India. www.bodhgayaretreats.org. It is currently under construction.

We love you. Bodh Gaya loves you. India loves you. See the Emptiness of fear. Take Refuge. Have faith. Ehi-passiko (Come and see). Just once in a lifetime. It could be the best decision you ever made

Three Bows
Christopher

PS. This article had no impact. The following year number of US resident citizens dropped to five out of more than 100 retreatants in the Bodh Gay retreat.