Love and monks

I got served Chai at the post office this morning while I was sending a package and it just reminded me how much I love India!

 

Yesterday I went to another English conversation group, a different one than I usually go to, this one was at LIT and I was paired with 2 monks who have been speaking english for only a year or so. This group, unlike the others, gives topics of conversation and the topic of the day was love. What is love, are there different kinds of love? Have you ever been in love romantically and how many times? for how long? etc. Let me tell you, talking with monkis about love was THE BEST THING EVER! Especially when we got to the questions about romantic love. They both obviously answered that they have never been in love romantically, as they are monks and have been since they were 9 and 11 years old, but I asked them if they'd ever had feelings for women before, and they both admitted to having had feelings. I asked if this was difficult thing, and what they did about it. They told me they weren;t allowed to act on their feelings because of their vows, and did admit to me that it can be very difficult. Dawa, who spoke better english, explained to me that according to his Buddhist practice, if you are thinking about a beautiful woman, you are supposed to meditate on ugliness, as beauty is merely just the skin, and is imperminant. They spoke of a deeper kind of love, though, a love for all sentiant beings, a desire to care for and help all things.

 

Mmmmm, what a fascinating few hours.