What 10 Days At A Buddhist Monastery Taught Me… Part 3
Be not attached to the beloved
And never with the unbeloved.
Not to meet the beloved is painful
As also to meet with the unbeloved.
~The Buddha’s Words in The Dhammapada
The peace that settled in me felt very foreign at first. It had been aeons since I had experienced this calm. I recalled the last time I felt anything close to this state of mind. Time stood still and I was transported to my distant past…
I was barely eighteen when I was severely beaten, locked up and told that was my punishment until I agreed to marry. Marry any man who would marry me, any man they would choose for me: a narcissist, a fanatic, a pauper — someone, anyone — because that’s all I deserved. That was my penance. Forcefully separated from my first love I was told I would never again be allowed to have any friends, see anyone, speak to anyone. Books, literature, stationary, all were removed, I was not allowed to read anything, write anything…they knew how much I craved knowledge, how much I loved reading, that books were my oxygen.
They moved me from place to place, across oceans and continents, forcing me to sleep in warehouses and in tiny rooms, locked up for fear I would escape. My only companion a prayer book that they…
