Infiltrating the Hermitage

We had to get special permission letters from the Buddhist Publication Society to enter the jungle where the hermits dwell, and then we took a three-wheeler up through the hills, trees, and monsoon downpour. After a long bumpy ride through a labyrinth of gravel roads, we were deposited at the porch of a nice house that looked out of place in the forest. After some awkward window-peeking we were greeted by a friendly Dutch monk, who invited us to sit down in his living room. We introduced ourselves, explained that we are students conducting projects, and then broached our particular topics of research: love and justice.

An interesting conversation ensued. The monk explained to me that romance is entirely based on delusion and thus leads only to suffering. When Gabe asked him about poverty and the sorry state of the world, he talked about how freedom from suffering can ultimately be found by escaping the the illusion, not by changing it. Our worldly concerns didn't seem to phase the hermit at all--when he thought about things such as passion and pain, he leaned back in his chair and looked peaceful, a half-smile on his lips.

After the interview (and, inevitably, tea) Gabe and I prepared to walk back down into Kandy before it got dark. "Be careful of the leeches," warned the monk. He gave us soap to put on our feet to ward of the leeches that apparently are rampant in Sri Lankan jungle, and we walked off through the the darkening green-black jungle toward town (as always, you must add bright rainbow umbrellas to this image to really fathom what it was like).

Here it is significant to note that we got leeches anyway. Black and sluggish, these icky creeping things were only deterred enough by the soap to slime their way up our calves. It sounds gross, and it was gross, but I felt mostly hardcore when I got back to my hostel and bled copiously from my leech wounds since leech wounds don't coagulate.

So that is the story of how I just infiltrated a jungle hermitage, asked a monk about romance, and then was eaten by leeches. One wonders about karma.

In other news, today is my last full day in Kandy. It is Thanksgiving, which means that Gabe and I will eat dinner with Giuliano, the philosophy professor from our program who incidentally doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving because he's Italian. Tomorrow we make our way to Haputale and a national park called "World's End," and then we plan on summitting an immensely sacred mountain and hopefully visiting some tea factories. It should be adventurous. Stay tuned.