Long Walks On Leafy Streets

2/27/2016 Honolulu, HI
Today Nicole and I went to the Siva Vishnu temple in Lanham, MD. It is close to the NASA Goddard space center in Greenbelt. It has been our family’s temple ever since I moved to DC. We enjoyed the Saturday afternoon ride in bright sunshine. Prashant kept “talking” during the ride. He has become more vocal. He is even starting to stand on his own and take a few steps. After praying we sat down to eat the lunch at the temple dining hall. We really love the food there. What makes the food even more delicious these days is the fact that they are using compostable cups and bowls. It always used to bother me to see piles and piles of Styrofoam containers in their trash bins. I felt a constant pang of guilt and shame over not making an effort to change it. I did try to volunteer in the hopes of getting to know the people who run the temple but the problem is I don’t go there often enough and it is too far to go and volunteer on a regular basis. So it is a great relief that I won’t have that as a thorn in my mind anymore.
Last Saturday (2/21) was a heavenly day. The vagaries and daily lurches of the weather here, from hot and sunny one day to cold and windy the next and so on, makes the rare calm and mild day really pleasant. I think deep inside that is one of the things I like about Washington, that it keeps you on the edge and doesn’t let you become too lazy. I would probably become very lazy in a place like Hawaii. Or maybe not. Nevertheless, it is a fact of life here in the middle of the mid-Atlantic, between the tropics and the arctic air masses, that the weather changes almost daily. After seeing some of the coldest days of the year we were treated on Saturday, perhaps as a gift from the Gods as a reward for our resilience, a really beautiful, sunny day in the sixties.

Nicole was itching to go outside. As for Prashant, he lives to go outside. After being cooped up indoors for the most part both of them needed some fresh air. In the morning I went for a run in the trails of the Rock Creek Park. I biked to the trailhead and then ran on the trails. I had to do that to protect my leg that was having a flare-up of a stress fracture that had been dormant for a while. There were a lot of people this Saturday as opposed to the previous one. It was also really nice to run on the trails after a while. It reminded me that I needed to go hiking in the woods soon. After lunch we packed up and left for Georgetown. The waterfront there is very special because that is where we sat down after our first date as well as where we got engaged. There were a lot of people enjoying the afternoon sun by the Potomac. I told Nicole how you see a cross-section of the “global elite” in Georgetown. Wealthy people from the Middle East and Europe as well as many diplomats live there, not to mention some high ranking politicians of the U.S. John F. Kennedy and John Kerry had residences there. It does remind one, though, that the life of the wealthy is a world away from that of the have-nots, such as the people living just a mile or two from there in the inner city or in the slums of the homeless hidden beneath the bridges and highways on the outskirts of Georgetown

After that I dropped Nicole off in Bethesda where she had an engagement and then drove to my sister Hema’s place in Gaithersburg. After dinner and some quality time with family I left with a sleeping Prashant around 10.30pm. It was dark and the roads were quiet. I had jazz playing on WAMU’s public radio station. After the nice meal and the pleasant day I was feeling quite calm and clear minded. I realized how far from calmness my life had drifted. This was how it was supposed to be! Hopefully I can keep my mind in that zone even as life around me is hectic. The drive on Veirs Mill Road was very enjoyable and I was feeling warmth and love towards everyone. I enjoyed looking at the signs of the stores of people from all over the world as I passed through Wheaton. That is what I love about America.

On the radio the singer was talking in a way that reminded me of people from the fifties. There is a certain pleasure in nostalgia, in reliving those memories. Then suddenly it hit me – this is exactly what led to the stagnation of Asian cultures. We decided not only to cherish the memories, which is what tradition really is about, but also made it the bedrock of our lives! It is one thing to keep alive memories of beautiful things from the past, but it is another to make one’s entire life based on them. Sunday was a bit cooler and grayer but pleasant. The rain was more like drizzle, producing a refreshing coat of moisture but not hindering one’s activities. I drove to the Takoma Park co-operative grocery store with Prashant. He is now big enough that we can put him on the shopping cart and enjoys sitting on it and looking at everything. At night I biked to the Srilankan Buddhist vihara on 16th street to meditate with the Washington Mindfulness Community. I hadn’t been there for several weeks. It was a last minute decision and as I rushed to get there I forgot to eat. So I was a bit sleepy and hungry but still it was very energizing to be with the group and meditate and share stories.

While the past year has been difficult in terms of maintaining a calm mind, it has been very good for learning to stay balanced even in the middle of all that activity. I have also been learning to enjoy whatever I am doing at the moment rather than doing what I enjoy. Taking care of a baby gives no room for taking care of one’s own needs sometimes, and you learn to do whatever it takes no matter what mental and physical condition you are in. I was surprised to find that I was able to meditate well. I even had a great revelation. It is not entirely new for me, but something that I hadn’t thought of in a serious way before. That is the fact that even during meditation, although one is focusing on just seeing what is, underneath it is a layer of happiness seeking. As the Buddha says in the middle length passages, spiritual growth is about removing layer after layer of this seeking of rapture.

Directory Previous