68 The Hermitage
[University Forest Solitude, Hantane Hills] It is cool being back in the hills after so long on the plains. My hermitage is built on a westerly facing hill and doesn’t get any sunshine until around midday, and even then being situated in the shade of a forest the heat takes time to penetrate the tree cover, so the temperature doesn’t start rising till mid-afternoon, and by evening it’s falling again. At night every piece of clothing that is convenient is laid on the bed to supplement the one meagre blanket that has been given to protect me from the cold of the night.
This hermitage is quite isolated from the others, and only rarely does anyone come this way; it has been built into the side of a hill, with the front supported on rock-built stilts, maybe 12ft high. It is a curious thing but in a jungle like this there is little wildlife to be seen, and even that can be hard to distinguish owing to the density of the vegetation, one is aware though that life surrounds on all sides, and the changing soundscape provides an ever-present backdrop to the day.
I spend most of my time in and around this place doing some sitting or walking meditation, a little reading, or simply sitting quietly with the world around. Even when with the others as there is a rule of silence and everyone is intent on their meditation there isn’t any untoward stimulation, and the mind remains still and observant. This is a time to dwell in the forest, separated from the things of the world, a period of recollection and what seems to me to be splendid seclusion.
under the kutir
in between the stilts
a lowly monarch
surveys his domain
nothing much happens:
the sound of the stream,
the birds in the trees
– it’s so peaceful in my kingdom.
The land on which this forest, and the monastery it contains, is situated used to be a tea estate, and tea trees are still the most numerous of the plants around – though it took me ages to realise it, because when tea is cultivated it is kept pruned a couple of feet from the ground, while here it has been left to grow wild for a number of years, and some of the trees are now 25ft tall or more. There are other trees around that must have been planted on the original estate, including some mahogany. The Sabucku tree is found here as on most of the estates in this area, and it has the rather extraordinary ability to be able to produce two very different types of leaf.
The forest is dominated by giant Albizia, a stately tree that reaches more than a hundred feet into the air before sending out its branches and a canopy of leaves. We have some truly magnificent examples of this quick growing tree, and some of the trunks must exceed 12ft in diameter. As they reach up above the rest of the forest the highest of the branches all uniformly stretch out towards the south, but whether in search of the sun or as an effect of the winds I don’t know.