Kye, my nine-year-old grandson, accompanied me on a month long trip in November, 2010, to Australia where I offered Dharma teachings and visited family. Kye met his 90-year-old great grandmother. With the approval of his school in south Devon, Kye could leave behind the laminated wooden desk of his classroom for the rain forest of Yarrahapinni running down to the edge of the Pacific Ocean in New South Wales.
In the Dharma hall, he took the microphone and asked the 90 odd participants to let him know if they spotted any wild creatures. Something deep, somewhat beyond words, moved in the boy as he encountered for 18 days the magical world of the rain forest where the Garden of Eden fused with world of hunt for food of creatures, great and small, where life lives on life. Accompanied with different adults, he explored the forest to find goannas, those sharp clawed, long necked creatures, perhaps a living relic of Jurassic period. He saw a brown tree snake, brush turkeys, possums, land mullets, lizards, spiders, black and coloured cockatoos, the call of the laughing kookaburras, heard the dawn chorus of the birds announcing a new day and stood still with breathless interest as hidden creatures moved slowly through the undergrowth during walks in the forest. He heard the evening chorus of the cicadas, the world’s loudest insect with its five eyes and protective sheath.
The rain forest is a far cry from the sedate suburban life of south Devon, where a glimpse of a rabbit running across a field is the confirmation of the wild. My grandson revealed a natural and fearless curiosity with everything that moved. With Cedar, a Greenpeace environmentalist, he went hunting for wild animals at night with a torch. With John Seed, a founder of the world’s first rain forest campaign at Terrania Creek, NSW some 30 years ago, he learnt about the way life has evolved. With Sonya, Kye went to the pool at her home on the edge of the rain forest outside Bellingen with their torches at night where he picked up small and large frogs, and kept a mindful eye for any snakes, especially brown snakes and red belly black snakes. He caught a large Huntsman spider (non-poisonous) in his room at Radha’s home and gently put a stick down a small hole in the sandy ground in the rain forest where the deadly funnel web spider waits for prey. The spider grabbed the stick.
Shortly after dawn, we went wild kangaroo hunting at the edge of another forest an hour away from Yarrahapinni. In the forest, we slept in bunk beds. Though he was fast asleep, I said to Kye: “Radha will take us to go searching for kangaroos. Are you coming? “From deep sleep, and within the space of about five seconds, he was standing on the floor searching for his trousers. Will, one of the Dharma teachers, took us another evening to a location to find more kangaroos. He saw a total of 36 kangaroos. Undaunted by the size of the fully-grown adult male, far taller than himself, he walked up slowly to these remarkable creatures until he was almost eye to eye.
Cedar drove us in his four wheel drive along forest tracks to the remote homestead, built of raw and simple materials, of his partner’s father. Kye swam towards the small platform in the middle of the lake undeterred with the knowledge that a python (carpet snake) sometimes hid there under the platform waiting for birds to land. Although a brief check of the underside was made first. The boy showed a consistent natural empathy without fear with all the creatures that he encountered. It was precious to witness.
In the Dharma hall, he often sat besides the tall and handsome Ben, our Bodh Gaya retreat manager last January, whose company Kye enjoyed. In the hall, he would write his daily diary of his adventures for his class teacher, as well as keep up to date with his homework. From the rain forest, Kye (his name means “Water” or “Ocean” ) and I walked to the far end of the deserted beach where we climbed the steep and high granite wall making sure that our fingers and feet had a firm grip on the dark granite wall that led to a drop into the roaring waves of the ocean on that wind swept day.
With Radha, one of our senior teachers, he gave a short talk that he prepared to a group of 30 meditators on the importance of practising kindness. I told him earlier this year that Dalai Lama had once said his religion was “kindness.” Kye responded: “I am not a Buddhist, nor a Christian. I practise kindness, too.” We have a joke between us that his religion is Kindness not Kyeness. He needs the occasional reminder. Kye laughs when he sees me walking around in the rain forest in my carpet slippers.
Back at my sister’s house in Ashgrove, Brisbane, he listened to Graham (my sister’s partner) explain about the behaviour of birds while they both fed the magpies that came for breakfast. Kye spent hours on the Internet. Was he playing computer games? No. I asked him what interested him on the Internet. Inspired by the rain forest and conversations with John Seed and David, a lecturer on sustainability at a Sydney University, Kye said he was watching You Tube clips on the Theory of Evolution. He has become fascinated with 13.5 billion years of evolution starting with the Big Bang and the incredible way life formed and adapted from one great period to another. I learnt from Kye there is a Devonian Period – around 400 million years ago. After You Tube, he spent hours checking out information on all the creatures he had encountered in the forests and their capacity to protect themselves, adapt and survive.
I spent years in the forest and cave as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. It’s always a thrill to go the Yarrahapinni. With Kye, the delight doubled. Grandfather and grandson share the same passion for the natural world.
Upon returning to school, he gave a photo presentation to the class through the computer with commentary on his experience and research of life in the rain forest.
We are now back in urban south Devon. Has anybody seen a rabbit or a squirrel?
For photos of our Australian adventure, see on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christophertitmuss/sets/72157625424075091/
Click on slideshow on top right hand section.