Forty five minutes later, having been driven through an industrial hell hole of “satanic” proportions, streets lined with half dismantled lorries and piles of balded tyres, surrounded by a hornet swarm of honking, belching traffic, we turned off the state highway into the peaceful, green, spacious haven called Nagarjuna Training Institute (NTI).
The architecture was surprising. The accommodation rooms are modern , clean and generous; each room with en-suite, fans, balcony, -a veritable Eden paradise.
Not to say NTI has no quirky flaws; we arrived in the dark; as it was a Wednesday the routine City-wide power cut was in full swing. Fumbling for the candles deeply packed in suitcases, we abandoned the dark corridors and rooms, to walk under the full moon across the tree lined campus paths to the awaiting outdoor eating space, and food, wonderful food! The meal, and all meals since, have been especially prepared for us, the honoured foreign guests, -not too spicy, not much variety, but with a privacy offered by our ever-respectful hosts, we meet and eat as a team of teachers, free to discuss our privileged western plans and life styles with few intrusions.
The following day we arose to even greater opulence-, a hot muesli porridge, fresh banana, papaya and sweet milky coffee has been prepared for us 'Teachers' each morning in our accommodation block -a treat of almost breakfast in bed proportions! For the remainder of the week our duties were light, as we assimilated ourselves into NTI, recovering from the various UK ailments we'd brought with us, -colds, flu, tension and jet lag.
The work comes next; our first meeting with the students in a lesson planned by Jessica's class of thirty. They had formed groups of sixes and seven, and with questions prepared earlier we were quizzed about the very souls of our lives; were we Buddhists? How old? What we thought of India? etc.
The whole group of 60 Dhamma Students were already being taught in two groups by the very expert language teachers, Jessica and Achala. They had arrived a week or two before us and had won the trust and loyalty of the pupils for their exciting lesson skills. We geared up practically, got a load of printing done from the EALIP master-copies, and on the personal level, we carefully steered our way through the inevitable 'group dynamics', as we boldly approached “Launch Day” of the much awaited EALIP Teaching Programme.
The proposal seemed to me to be radical and a great experiment into the unknown. 'Would the students find EALIP to be too basic?' was one question; 'would they let themselves be wooed away from Jessica?' was another. How would we sell up-front what we had to offer? Calling together all sixty students, Shakyajata took to the floor and delivered through Satish (her able translator and our excellent porridge maker!) a very 'Indian' introduction; flowers were offered, mutual admiration and formal applause exchanged, as she delivered what amounted to a “Dhamma Talk” around the theme of Kalyana Mitrata. In essence she was proposing to teach to a wide range of existing abilities, introducing Books 1 to 20 of the EALIP programme. But more than that, she was also hoping to achieve a double whammie - to cascade. This meant inviting the more able pupils to learn how to teach. These 'New Student Teachers' would thus create a new resource: in turn they would be teaching their less able peers. A brave and bold experiment - we always knew that we were coming here to 'pilot' or 'test run' this EALIP system, but now alongside EALIP we would be running a further system, which Shakyajata called the 'Cascade Method'.
Meanwhile, onto other subjects: India, India, India!, blossoming friendships, adventures into Nagpur, the TBMSG, Bante's Ambedkarites, meditations, pujas and the host of really wonderful students, who were now rapidly becoming our friends.
The students here are around 70 in number (young men and women), 12 of which are on 2nd or 3rd year of the GfR Course leading to ordination. The rest are in their 1st year of studies of a Buddhism and Social Action course. All will benefit from formal English teaching and especially from our contact. My speciality is definitely the latter, though the former is being delivered very effectively by the others. My Frisbee has been a great success; having been played till destruction …I now wish I had not bought the Frisbee at Poundland!!
Each morning at 6am I join the 1st year students for two hours of various meditations and talks, as they shuffle into the enormous shrine room in the still, dark-light of dawn. Then at 8pm, the busy day is sandwiched by another meditation, talks and a Puja. We teachers work mostly in the mornings from 10 till 1pm, though Jessica has occasionally offered ‘voluntary’ classes for any one to attend at other times, when, (it seems) the entire body of students all volunteer!!! I’m finding it great fun and not too much pressure.
This last Saturday we added a new dimension to their lives, organising a Fun Activity afternoon, including Musical Chairs, marbles, and long distance relay Tiddly-Winks! Shakyajata taught them London’s Burning in four harmonies! Try imagining the ‘Simon Says’ game and out-witting 60 steady, mindful meditators -but we did it! For all 60 participants there were crisps and Squash in paper cups (and some for the on-looking village children!) As well as prizes for specific winners, finally all sixty received a bar of Cadburys Milk Chocolate –thanks to your generous contributions and to the www.justgiving.com/shakyajata collection site.
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