See you inside...

As our practioner group meditated in the Mahakala cave, I was struck once more at a theme that runs in echoes throughout the trip: The outer representations of inner places of worship.

It echoed through the teaching at Mahakala cave, the site overlooking the charnel grounds of one of the 8 great cemetaries associated with Heruka practice. It echoed through a teaching Rinpoche gave to visiting Americans in Bodhgaya when their guide - a student of Buddhism asked about Maitreya's arrival and the prediction that all Buddhas would be born in India and attain enlightenment in the same place. - like the Bodhi tree that Siddharta reputedly stared at for two weeks. "He did not stare at the tree!" said Rinpoche. "He probably did not even see the tree. He was looking inside."

Likewise, "Is Bodhgaya, Bodhgaya?" she asked in an uncharacteristically enigmatic voice?

For those of us who still did not follow, Rinpoche made it very clear: "It is not about the tree, it is not about the lotus..."

It is about the actual practice...

As Dolma and I -the last remaining pilgrims at closing time- squeezed through the illuminating gates of the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya, her spoken words echoed in my heart: See you inside...