9 Mahayanas and a White Boy

I decide to spend some time in Dalat, as it is definitely not the tourist haven (at least not foreign tourists) I thought it would be, and is actually a town with a little character.

I walk around, dodging stupid "easy-riders" offering to drive me on their motorbikes all morning, and instead head off on foot toward Dalat University. This place is an interesting example of how the Vietnamese government works - originally a catholic institution, the government shut it down after 1975, then slapped a big Vietnamese star over the cross above the school and reopened it. Don't tell them that in their quest to erase God, they left a ton of crosses in the design just below the big one.

From here I spot the 24 meter high Buddha across the way, and utter out load to myself "holy crap what the hell is that." So naturally, I head across by the most direct route possible. Down a hill, through a fence, up a hill, down into farmland, through the mud, through some backyards, and up to the temple. I could have just taken the road, I found out later.

Here, I ask a monk if he can show me something about meditation. He says he doesn't know enough, and instead gives me a feast for lunch. Just me. He just sits and watches while drinking tea.

I spend the afternoon here, discussing the different traditions of Buddhism (he wants to follow the Tibetan Tradition, but can't here in Vietnam. Moreover, in order to find empowerment he says he wants to go to Nepal, Tibet, or the United States of America. I fly around the world to see what the East is all about, and he tells me to go back home and find out. THIS is the part of America everyone loves.)

Then I have a conversation with another monk about the non-substantiality of reality and meditation as a means to realize that truth and the Buddha live only within yourself. This is the difference that I'd been looking for to differentiate it from Christianity. Til now, I'd only seen similarities.

Somehow, I've now passed 3 hours here, and join 9 monks at a table for an incredible dinner - apparently monks here don't fast after 12 noon as in Laos.

Then today I drove around a bit on Billy boy, and luckily first gear stopped working, so that should make it really easy to sell in Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow, provided I make it that far.