Asia
India
Rishikesh->Haridwar->Jammu
Our last sunrise on Rishikesh… for now
This view brings us back to my promise from yesterday: to explain some concepts related to different stages of illumination/liberation. Keep in mind this is just my understanding (refreshed and expanded by Wikipedia ;), which is clearly limited and quite likely full of mistakes!
A) Satori is a (Japanese) Zen Buddhist term for awakening, comprehension, understanding. It is a deeper experience achieved after kenshō , "seeing into one's true nature", and both concepts are commonly translated as "enlightenment"
B) Samadhi: In Buddhism, it refers to a state of consciousness in which the mind becomes very still but does not merge with the object of attention, and is thus able to observe and gain insight into the changing flow of experience.
In Hinduism it is described as a high level of concentration during meditation; a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object. The mind becomes still while the person remains conscious. Samādhi can also refer to the complete absorption of the individual consciousness in the self at the time of death - usually referred to as mahasamādhi.
C) Nirvāṇa: It literally means "blown out", as in a candle. In Buddhism it refers to the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion have been finally extinguished. Once achieved, you're released from the cycle of death and rebirth (Samsara)
D) Moksha: In Hinduism means emancipation, liberation or release through self-realization and self-knowledge. According to some authors it is achieved immediately after nirvana; others use both terms interchangeably.
Time for farewells:
Lunch with the bunch and group picture:
Hasta la vista, Ganga
(no pictures; just a sweet, brief swim and sunbathe on the little rocky island's beach.
Adios Rishikesh; Haridwar, we arranged the trip to stay here as little as possible (like… 1 hour ;)
In the end, we stayed 10 minutes… we made it just in time and thanks to our driver (who was a guy that happened to be at the meeting point, not the driver hired). He took us on a very picturesque toll road that was practically empty (toll: U$ 1); longer but faster! (the other road is horrible, and probably so full we wouldn't make it). Here is his info:
Overnight train Haridwar->Jammu. We didn't seem to have assigned seats, but if there were #1 & 2 appeared on the paper… We sat each on our supposed seats/beds. After a few minutes, another guy came. He looked at us "the Indian way" (staring shamelessly but saying nothing; and the ass spoke English), sat by my side, took of his sandals and started talking in the phone.
The ticket controller took out paper, look on his papers for a while, and finally assigned us seats on the other run of the cart. His English as manners were both quite rudimentary, but it was quite obvious he wanted me and Basia to share one… he left and we took one each. Another guy was on the opposite bed and we finally clarified the situation: the train was probably overbooked, and that means we had to share. Nice…
But we didn't share! My sleep was interrupted a few times, but I slept a lot. Poor Basia not only went to the bathroom like 5 times; she was also awakened by the rude ticket controller (she thinks to tell her the seat was confirmed… ja!)
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