Meditation...

Mark does not believe it. I do. Or I think I do. Only this week I heard about the Nepalese boy, Ram Bahadur Bomjon (pictured above), that was meditating inside the roots of a pipal tree in Bara for 10 months. He disappeared in mid March though, probably seeking for a quieter place for his meditation. The place was getting crowded with tourists and pilgrims, and journalists. His plan was to meditate there for 6 years, but it was not possible in the end.

Some of his followers were claiming that he was a reincarnation of the Buddha himself, but he denied that saying that he was just an austere ascetic. His words were:

"Tell people not to call me the Buddha, I do not have the Buddha's energy, I am only at tapaswi level." Tapaswi being a sage that practices austerities as such.

I also don't believe he is the Buddha's reincarnation either, but somehow I do believe people can achieve these states of mind. It's amazing to see the footages of him meditating. He was filmed for days ininterruptly. You can see him muttering chants (or perhaps talking to himself) and how his hair and skin look intact, not dried up or scarred. By the end his hair was really long and he was getting a bit emaciated. He would also start heating up and sweating all of a sudden, much probably to control his body temperature, since that area tends to get really cold when the night comes.

This technique is called "gtum mo" (or "tummo"), or the "inner heat" yoga technique. I firstly read about it when I was a teen, in the infamous and controversial Lobsang Rampa's book ("The Third Eye"). I got really impressed, in spite of Rampa's credibility of course... Gtum mo is a very intense form of meditation where one is enabled to control his/her body temperature and metabolic rates. Alexandra David-Neel also explains about it in her books, a must-have if you have any interest in Tibetan Buddhism.

Yes, call me a believer, or whatever. The images of that boy will stay with me forever. He looked illuminated. Somehow. And it's just good and comforting to see these things still happening in our crazy days... I wish him to come back.