That's the Lumbini Grove in the photo. Didn't have the name before. Just spent some time with Romo Handy, the Buddhist priest who married us, and he told me.
There are two idealized murals in the
Dharmasala. The one that was straight in front from where I sat was of
Buddha's parinirvana which to a casual observer would be called death.
What got me about it is in this mural he looked like he was about
twenty. Buddha is said to have died at eighty. I don't recall any art
showing Buddha as an old man - or dark skinned or bald as some Buddhist
historians have claimed would have been the case.
Photo to the left is the main altar in the Dhamasala and the two mural I mention are to the right and left but obscured.
***
We ate lunch and sat around. There was
some discussion about how well the retreat's approach worked. Some
accepted the instruction on how to do sitting and walking meditation and
were planning to continue it. Others were eager to get back to different
practices. One man from Java was more interested in concentration type
mediation with the focus being on the heart chakra or third eye or the
early Buddhist meditation technique of concentrating on the breath going
in and out at the upper lip. He did not want to be stuck in the abdomen.
Personally, I was comfortable with the focus on the breath at the belly
going forward and inward labeling the movements with rising-falling,
rising-falling. To me it was quite compatible and maybe
indistinguishable from Zen's emphasis on the hara with the breathing.
