Tree Pose at the Taj Mahal
On Saturday I traveled to Agra with a dear Sangha friend to bask in the glory of the Taj Mahal. It has been 11 years since I’d visited the Taj and it was such a gift to take it all in again :) Rabindranath Tagore likened the Taj Mahal to a teardrop that glistened "spotlessly bright on the cheek of time." The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj to house the tomb of his beloved Mumtaz Mahal, hence the name, "Taj Mahal" which literally means "crown palace." While the Taj was definitely beautiful, traveling in India isn't easy and finding myself at the country's number one tourist site was overwhelming. My teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, stresses that mindfulness involves both "stopping" and "looking deeply." The practice enables us to embrace what is happening just as it is...in its totality. The poverty, heat and dried up Yamuna river amidst the glorious Taj seemed to illustrate the paradox that is India. During my close to five years of living here my mindfulness practice has helped me appreciate this paradox with light heartedness :)
