Finding Zen in Đà Lạt

During travel, what you see and do can leave a lasting impression of your trip, but often not as permanent as who you meet.  During my recent trip to Đà Lạt, I was able to spend some time with some folks you often don't see due to their lifestyle - monks and nuns.  

Đà Lạt is rich in abundance of pagodas and the landscape provides a sort of fairytale land backdrop for their archways, buildings, and statues to be nestled into.  The first one I stumbled upon, I was with Dyanne.  It was high up on a hill off of a main road outside of town.  After a few exchanged "hello"s and "we're from America"s, we started looking around at their own small plot of coffee plants, a building for community activity and one for worship, I heard someone say "Canada! Canada!" and we looked over as a beautiful girl with freckles all over her face and a shaved head approached.  With almost no Vietnamese accent, she greeted us in English and continued to explain that she had studied in Canada for a few years and that this pagoda was strictly for nuns.  We were visiting during a time of confinement - they would not leave the pagoda for three months.  Whew! That's a lot of time together.  



The next day, I was on my own and had the whole day to explore.  Unlike the flat, hot middle of the country which boasts other beauties like beach, jungle and caves, Đà Lạt is dense and hilly with conifer growth in every direction.  If I enjoyed riding a moto on flat terrain, zipping down and around hills brought back the thrill of driving on HWY101 on the coast of central California - but this time on two wheels.   
My previous post dedicated to getting lost in Đà Lạt will explain how I found most of the pagodas that I visited.  Realizing that you're on the wrong street for an intended location is not so bad, especially when you notice that pagodas line the hilly stretch in front of you like pieces in a game, spread out evenly and waiting to be visited.  I learned early on that chùa meant pagoda or temple in English, so every time I saw a sign that read chùa this or chùa that, I just turned to go check it out.  

Bố Đại

The first pagoda that I came across seemed empty, but the monks or nuns must have been tending to their daily activities.  I did, however find a Buddha statue that was very intriguing.

He's called Bố Đại (meaning cloth sack in Vietnamese) - he's the traveling Buddha! He takes care of children and travels from town to town (how is his belly still so big??)  Some sites that I checked for reference said that he collects the sadness of townspeople in his sack and some sites said he simply carries the bare essentials in it.  Either way I was happy to find him and excited to see that he was of the laughing variety.

The second pagoda that I visited was the best of my trip.  There was a sign off of the winding road offering a chùa down a narrow trail to the left.  I followed it and upon entering the front courtyard, I noticed a western guy having tea with two monks and they were waving at me.  Parking my bike and locking my helmet into my seat, I approached them and they invited me to have tea and eat some strange jelly substance.  The western guy was from Czech Republic and opposite us were two monks, one in brown robes and one in gold.  The man in brown robes was very animated and in broken English, wanted me and the other Czech guy to try everything on the table and help us with our Vietnamese pronunciation (who wouldda thunk, I've been pronouncing đẹp (beautiful) incorrectly this whole time).  

 I don't know how it began, but suddenly, the quiet monk in gold robes was lifting his lotus-positioned body up by the arms of his chair, probably to stretch, and the man in brown noticed my awe in this maneuver.  Suddenly, the man in gold was up out of his chair and approaching a long table near the balcony.  Using two fingers on each hand, he was up off the ground in a plank position, showing very little struggle to keep his body lifted.  After a few more astounding positions, we said our thank yous and goodbyes and I explored the rest of the pagoda and grounds.  

On my last day, Dyanne and I visited a tourist attraction - the Cáp Treo cable cars. $3.50 had us floating above beautiful flower gardens and evergreens before finally landing at the grounds of a pagoda on the other side.  Even with tourists snapping pictures left and right in inappropriate attire, a few monks could be spotted walking the grounds doing chore work.  One of them approached us in a less populated area and we chatted for a while in English.  As the previous monk's focus seemed to be in strength exercises, this monk's focus was in languages.  With his native Vietnamese, he was also fluent in Spanish and English, mostly from self-taught practice and speaking with foreigners visiting the pagoda.  After some small talk, he asked us if we had any spare time to help him out.  Since the cable cars wouldn't be in operation again until after lunch and helping a monk seemed pretty righteous, we agreed and were led into a building that was used for visitors and meditation teachings. Tĩnh Đàm (who said his name meant quiet flower) brought out a recorder and we read some of the dialogues in a book he uses for teaching about Buddhism.  The whole experience was just surreal and so fun.  

I asked him what he did all day aside from his grounds chores (which he said he did for pleasure of course) and he responded "24 hour meditation."  I said "but you're sitting here with us now," and he explained that in everything that he does, he is focusing intently on the present and not allowing any stray thoughts to enter his mind.  All actions are given genuine intention, purpose and focus.  

I knew he was speaking the truth because even as he was explaining this practice, a fly landed on his forehead and I observed as he ignored it's pestering dance, looking into our eyes and speaking to us the entire time.  I've heard about the teachings of being in the now but it was so valuable to meet someone who had truly mastered it.  How many times do we find ourselves so distracted with the past and future, that we forget to cherish the now?  How many times have you sat with a loved one, agitated at their obsession with their smart phone during your conversation at dinner?  In our short time with Tĩnh Đàm, I learned so much from his openness and gentle nature.  I do not practice Buddhism, but I know that you can learn a wealth of knowledge from every person you come across.  If you're willing to be open, you can put this knowledge into practice in your life.  At our parting, he thanked us each with some books on meditation and zen.  Win!

I visited some other pagodas worth noting, but none so rich in personal experience as these.  I look forward to the pagodas, temples and ruins that I'll find in the near future.  Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, here I come!