I still don’t know what to write today. So I picked the first book that caught my eye on my bookshelf, and picked a random page number (108th - an auspicious number!), and selected a sentence from that page as the first sentence for my 200 words of the day. Continue from that sentence in any way you want, any genre you wish, be it fiction or factual. 

I chose Old Path, White Clouds by Thich Nhat Hanh. My all-time favourite book.

So here goes….half memory, half fiction. I forgot I even had memories like that:

                                                         ~~~~~~~~~~

“Day and night he sat beneath the pippala tree, as new levels awareness awoke in him like bright flashes of lightning.”  

“If he can do it, so can I!” he said quietly to himself. 

Holding in his head the image of the Buddha meditating peacefully beneath the bodhi tree where he gained enlightenment, he too tried to imitate that same peace while sitting near the very same tree. But it was so hard. The mosquitos were killing him. It was biting cold at 5am here in Bodhgaya. He was deeply inspired, but had none the steadiness nor the will to be able to sit through such conditions. 

Despite everything, it’s still a beautiful place to wake up to. The air is thick with spiritual awe. The birds flock to the bodhi tree, singing a song of dawn. Other pilgrims begin to stroll in, offering prayers, bows, or just mere presence. In a distance, a deep voice begins chanting through a loudspeaker. The rising light dances in the shadows of the big enlightenment tree, signalling the beginning of a new day of dancing with life, in life.

He gives up trying to meditate. He unfolds his feet from the lotus position. And just sits there taking it all in - the air, the birds, the chant, the light. 

Mornings beneath the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya.

Why try so hard at meditation when just being there like that is enlightenment enough?