The bicycling pilgrimage around the world recently took me to India for two months. Anyone visiting this magical land for the first time is in for a mind- and heart-opening experience. As I traveled slowly and without an agenda, I am repeatedly struck by the deep cultural ties between India and my home-country China; I feel deeply hopeful for a renewed friendship between these two ancient civilizations, for the benefit of all.
Moved By Love retreat at the Environmental Sanitation Institute near Ahmedabad
India and China share a rich and ancient heritage of mutual learning and friendship. The karmic affinity between the Elephant and the Dragon -- despite the Himalayas and the deserts that lie between -- is beyond our imagination.
China owes an eternal debt of gratitude to India for the gift of Dharma. Bodhidharma brought the lineage of Chan (Zen) teaching to China around the 5th century, and forever changed Chinese culture, and by extension, other East Asian countries. Generations of Chinese Buddhists have walked the Silk Road in pursuit of true wisdom and the original teachings. The most notable pilgrim is Xuan Zang, the 7th century Chinese monk who walked for 17 years from China to India and back, and brought back and translated a rich collection of Sanskrit sutras. In return, Xuan Zang's detailed account of India was indispensable in the modern reconstruction of Indian history and rediscovery of lost sites, such as the famous Nalanda monastery. (Ancient India did not seem to bother with written historical records, whereas ancient China had an obsession with writing everything down.)
India and China did not develop a nation-state identity until the last century, largely in response to foreign invasions and colonization, and in order to survive in a Westphalian world system they woke up to. Before that, India and China, respectively, has a much more permeable, fluid cultural affinity and a text-based lingua-franca (with many mutually unintelligible regional dialects) that glued the "country" together. So, when the civilization-state "reincarnated" into the modern "nation-state", there were lots of glitches in the DNA-transcription process, leading to all the amnesia -- and skirmishes -- between the two countries.
Considering the depth of historical and cultural ties between the two major civilizations, today's politicians in both countries seem quite petty and short-sighted to fuel the nationalist flames. The media in both countries -- although short of open hostility -- are generally quite negative or ignorant about each other. I have found that most Indians and Chinese know more about the United States than about their populous neighbor.
An apt metaphor at Delhi Airport: to unit in prayer, or to go down in smoke — that is our choice.
But, I find great hope in people-to-people connections between India and China. Many Indian friends remarked to me how similar the cultures of the two countries are -- not in form or rituals, but in spirit and essence. Particularly, I found that the family emphasis and dynamics are often humorously similar.
Thus, I would put my bets -- and efforts -- into heart-to-heart ties between the people, to build on our rich heritage of friendship.
One day, as I was cycling toward Kushinagar, two young local men slowed down their motorcycle and chatted and laughed with me for a good half an hour, as we were riding our respective "bikes". In the end, one of them said eagerly, "I believe India and China should be best friends. Together, we have half of the world's population; there is nothing we can not achieve in the world." I could not agree more :)
At another occasion, I shared with a group of Indian friends that the political fights between the two countries are nothing but a proxy war of our personal egos -- my ego is dependent on China's collective ego, hence I get all worked up in a nationalistic way when China's ego is offended. Afterward, an Indian brother of my age came up, gave me a big hug, and said with a big smile, "You are the first Chinese I've ever hugged. I pray that in our hug, we dissolve a little bit of both of our egos."
May it be, may it be!
A Love of this magnitude :)