It's now my last week in Dharamsala, which is hard to believe.
So what have I actually been doing, a number of you have asked? Well, my six weeks here are readily divisible into three equal parts: 1. Meditation retreat 2. Purification ritual (getting sick) 3. Ordinary life. Since I already posted about #1, here are a few comments about the others.
The purification ritual consisted of lots of diarrhea, no appetite, low energy, and occasionally throwing up. It would come and go. I was pretty miserable only for 2-3 days at a time, but it kept coming back. I think I picked up some bug within the first few hours I was in India. I ate almost nothing for about 10 days, so I hope I lost some weight! Eventually though I went to the doctor and he put me on an antibiotic diet for a week. That seemed to pretty much wipe out all the living things in my gut.
I still worked during this. For all of April I've been volunteering at the Environment and Development department of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. They are nearing completion of a big (300 pp) report on Tibet's environment and economic development, the first major assessment since 2000. They needed a native speaker to turn sentences like this one:
"In 2000 China, in a government official report, made an estimate that 1,20,300 migrants moved to Lhasa, attracted by central subsidies, based on the growth-pole theory of economic development with massive urbanisation that will have major impacts on the countryside, and result in more inequality and marginalisation of Tibetans."
into better English. (I made that one up - it's a little extreme but parts of it do read something like that.) Really, their English is very good, considering how different a language Tibetan is. Tibetan doesn't have any punctuation, or even spaces between the words. I'm learning a lot about Tibet doing this report - but it does feel an awful lot like going to work! They work here on Saturdays, and I'm trying to get as much done as possible so I've been working six days a week too. Still, I'm only on page 150.
My other main activity is a couple of Buddhist philosophy classes. One of them is on the Four Noble Truths, with an old Tibetan lama. It is a fun class...mainly because he has a great demeanor, smiling at the most inopportune times (like when discussing being reborn in hell), and he has a fun rapport with the translator who is a wizened and down-to-earth English woman. The other class is about the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, a series of ancient Buddhist texts. This one is the second-slowest class I've ever taken. It's interesting but after one month we've finally gotten through "the preliminaries" (the biographies of the authors, why we are studying these texts and not others, various consequential and inconsequential details about the different schools of Buddhist thought) and just in the last session we started tackling the title, syllable-by-Sanskrit-syllable. We're getting something close to what monks and nuns learn in a monastery. The nun who is teaching it keeps talking about how condensed this course is, being spread over six months every year for a period of five years (!) In the monastery they spend a year on what took us a month.
Anyway..
I've done a little other volunteering, like teaching an English class (with no books, just pure improv) for a week and doing a bit of tutoring. Of course the best parts are the informal interactions with Tibetans and locals. Eating dinner (rice and lentils) and watching TV (Animal Planet) at the boss's house, talking with Tibetan guys about the karma needed to meet women, sitting in on a monks' debate session, talking with refugees who walked over the Himalayas to get here, debating sacred cows. (Literally.) I'm still finding that very open-hearted character in the Tibetans that got me interested in their culture and religion in the first place.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
A few Dharamsala pictures
I haven't transferred any really good shots that show the whole of Dharamsala, but here are a few to give an idea of what it's like.
Dharamsala is perched on a spur of the Dhaula Dhar mountains, at about 5800 feet. It spills down the hillside...
And of course the reason people come here is because the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Gov't-in-Exile is based here. The white building here is the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (yes, it says that on the awning). I am working for the Environment and Development department of the government while I am here.
A street scene up in McLeod Ganj, the main tourist area.
There is no shortage of places to eat. The Hot Spot is right at the hyper-crowded bus stand. Note that the monks are pretty good customers.
Dharamsala is perched on a spur of the Dhaula Dhar mountains, at about 5800 feet. It spills down the hillside...
And of course the reason people come here is because the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Gov't-in-Exile is based here. The white building here is the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (yes, it says that on the awning). I am working for the Environment and Development department of the government while I am here.
A street scene up in McLeod Ganj, the main tourist area.
There is no shortage of places to eat. The Hot Spot is right at the hyper-crowded bus stand. Note that the monks are pretty good customers.
A few Delhi pictures
The "Tibetan Colony" in Delhi. Behind the wall of street-facing buildings there is a warren of alleys and back streets where many Tibetans live.
Some future gymnasts, perhaps, performing a traditional dance at the Delhi Folk Museum.If you think you're pretty good at yoga, come to India and prepare to be humbled.
"Photo! Photo, please Mister!"
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Meditation retreat
Hi again,
So I am finally getting around to posting about my first real activity here, a meditation retreat. (There is a photo from it in my previous post.) Immediately after leaving the retreat, I got really sick - I think it was giardia - so I've been a bit out of it. I took some antibiotics and am much better now, but still far from 100 percent. Whether it's a good thing or not I'm not sure, but now both Tibetan and Indian food turn my stomach, so I am eating very little - boiled egg and toast for breakfast, plain rice for lunch, dal for supper, "like that" (as the Indians would say). Maybe it is a form of purification.
Anyway. This retreat I did at the Tushita Meditation Center was incredible. It was a nine day "Introduction to Buddhism" course. The first six days had two hours of teaching in the morning and afternoon, and three 45-minute mediation sessions in the early morning, late afternoon, and evening. Also there was a discussion period (the rest of the time was silent) and some time to do simple chores. The last few days were mostly meditation. There were about 26 of us, from many different places and backgrounds. My roommate was a gay hairdresser from London who came completely on a whim.
The course presented a very slightly Westernized version of classic Tibetan Buddhism. It was only slightly Westernized because the teachers were Western nuns, Ani Rita (originally from Switzerland) and Venerable Siliana (from Italy). Ani Rita, who did the teaching sessions, is a character - she has quite a colorful, somewhat checkered past and a very direct teaching style. Ven. Siliana, who led most of the meditations, is a more motherly type. But they have been nuns for 16 and 26 years respectively, and live and breathe the doctrine - which was classic Tibetan. We covered a short version of the "Lam Rim," the Tibetan path to enlightenment. Just to give you a flavor of it, here are some samples from my notes:
So I am finally getting around to posting about my first real activity here, a meditation retreat. (There is a photo from it in my previous post.) Immediately after leaving the retreat, I got really sick - I think it was giardia - so I've been a bit out of it. I took some antibiotics and am much better now, but still far from 100 percent. Whether it's a good thing or not I'm not sure, but now both Tibetan and Indian food turn my stomach, so I am eating very little - boiled egg and toast for breakfast, plain rice for lunch, dal for supper, "like that" (as the Indians would say). Maybe it is a form of purification.
Anyway. This retreat I did at the Tushita Meditation Center was incredible. It was a nine day "Introduction to Buddhism" course. The first six days had two hours of teaching in the morning and afternoon, and three 45-minute mediation sessions in the early morning, late afternoon, and evening. Also there was a discussion period (the rest of the time was silent) and some time to do simple chores. The last few days were mostly meditation. There were about 26 of us, from many different places and backgrounds. My roommate was a gay hairdresser from London who came completely on a whim.
The course presented a very slightly Westernized version of classic Tibetan Buddhism. It was only slightly Westernized because the teachers were Western nuns, Ani Rita (originally from Switzerland) and Venerable Siliana (from Italy). Ani Rita, who did the teaching sessions, is a character - she has quite a colorful, somewhat checkered past and a very direct teaching style. Ven. Siliana, who led most of the meditations, is a more motherly type. But they have been nuns for 16 and 26 years respectively, and live and breathe the doctrine - which was classic Tibetan. We covered a short version of the "Lam Rim," the Tibetan path to enlightenment. Just to give you a flavor of it, here are some samples from my notes:
- The point of meditation isn't to be peaceful now. It would be easier to go smoke a joint.
- The first attitude to have is to recognize we have a flabby mind. We have to go to the mental gym.
- Don't try to rush the path to enlightenment. It won't work, and there's no need - we have many lifetimes to do it.
- No anger, no enemy. (If we have no anger, we won't have any enemies. Enemies are a mental creation that result from having anger.)
- Most things that we think we know, we actually believe on faith.
- Everything the mind produces is fake.
- We mistake worldly and sensual pleasures for happiness. If we don't understand their transient and ultimately unsatisfactory nature, pleasures actually bring more suffering.
- There is no separate unchanging self. (That's a big one.) "Marcus" doesn't really exist as an entity.
- Desire is like an itch that we keep scratching and it only gets worse.
- Samsara (normal human existence) is like an Indian restaurant. It tastes good, but look in the kitchen and see the grime on the counter, the spit and cockroaches on the floor, and the cook's sweat dripping into the dal; then you realize it is making you sick.
- Why have expectations? Things happen anyway.
- Everything happens because of causes - usually karma - and conditions. Our good karma in past lives led to our birth as humans. Our really good karma led to us being in this retreat.
And that was all the first day!
It was an amazingly comprehensive and well-ordered spiritual curriculum, covering how the mind works, suffering, death, karma, interdependence, emptiness, attachment, negative and positive emotions, Buddha-nature, and compassion. Then, we'd meditate on each of these topics. Most of us felt completely turned inside out by the end. Even though I have been reading Buddhist books and doing some meditation for several years, this was still kind of like spiritual shock treatment. The potency of the meditation techniques, in particular, is impressive.
So now it is five days later and I'm back in the real world, trying hard to not forget all the teachings. I'll only know later whether I am successful or not... Right now though it's time to go to my first volunteer obligation of the day. I imagine that will be the next topic.
I'm curious whether others have gone through a similar course or retreat or experience? Post a comment, drop me an email - either way would be great to hear from you.
Til then, love, Marcus
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Tushita Retreat picture
This is the group photo from a just-completed ten-day retreat at the Tushita Meditation Center. Will write about this wonderful experience shortly.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Ah ha! Photo uploading works.
Just to prove I am here...There are few nicer little indulgences than a shave at the barber.
I'll post some more photos in the next day or two.
The first Dharam Blog
Greetings Blogamsalers,
I made it to Dharamsala early yesterday morning on a very "semi-deluxe" bus that was full of monks and nuns. It was surprisingly difficult to find a room, as the Dalai Lama just finished his annual ten days of teachings and the town is still full. I thought by arriving a few days later I would be safe, but it took two hours of asking around. Good thing I wasn't lugging my bag.
It is a little strange to be here again. John Diller, John’s brother Dave, and I were here briefly in August 2003. The main things I remember from that time are Dave roomed in a monastery for a few days and went on some kind of thin soup diet, and we all got super sick. We spent at least two days lying in bed, retching and diarhheal. (Is that a word?) I remember having a digestive emergency on the street and diving into somebody’s home to use the toilet. There is a little bit of déjà vu this time: I ended up in a hotel right next door to that one, and I am a little sick again. But nothing like before. A word to the traveling wise is, bring acidophilus tablets. It’s the main thing that I forgot this time. Every trip to a developing country that I’ve had acidophilus, I’ve been fine. Every trip that I haven’t, I’ve been sick. (Business idea: there would be a huge market for acidophilus tabs in developing countries.)
I got a knock on my door at about 6:30 this morning. It was my Aeroflot luggage courier. He must have driven all night. Everything looks intact…hooray! I gave him a walloping 200 rupee tip (about $4.50) for the night drive, which he wasn’t expecting and so he was very happy – but I still felt a little cheap afterward. Thank goodness especially for the toothbrush and some fresh socks and undies. Indian undergarments just aren’t the same.
Knowing that I’m going to be here (probably) for two months, it is a very different feeling than just passing through. Choosing a place to stay for that long almost seems like investing in local real estate. I’m still not sure how I’m going to spend the time, but there is no shortage of options. Two meditation centers do pretty much continuous ten day retreats, there are Tibetan philosophy and language classes at the Tibetan Gov’t-in-Exile’s library, there are week-or-longer full time yoga classes (and more exotic stuff like Reiki), and – an option I hadn’t considered before – a 14-day “adventure course” with the local mountaineering center where you learn to climb the neighborhood 15,000-footers. Plus there is the volunteering that I want to do, although I haven’t looked into that yet. So many choices!
Well, that’s all for now. Time to go shopping for some Buddha statues.
Love to all -
Marcus
I made it to Dharamsala early yesterday morning on a very "semi-deluxe" bus that was full of monks and nuns. It was surprisingly difficult to find a room, as the Dalai Lama just finished his annual ten days of teachings and the town is still full. I thought by arriving a few days later I would be safe, but it took two hours of asking around. Good thing I wasn't lugging my bag.
It is a little strange to be here again. John Diller, John’s brother Dave, and I were here briefly in August 2003. The main things I remember from that time are Dave roomed in a monastery for a few days and went on some kind of thin soup diet, and we all got super sick. We spent at least two days lying in bed, retching and diarhheal. (Is that a word?) I remember having a digestive emergency on the street and diving into somebody’s home to use the toilet. There is a little bit of déjà vu this time: I ended up in a hotel right next door to that one, and I am a little sick again. But nothing like before. A word to the traveling wise is, bring acidophilus tablets. It’s the main thing that I forgot this time. Every trip to a developing country that I’ve had acidophilus, I’ve been fine. Every trip that I haven’t, I’ve been sick. (Business idea: there would be a huge market for acidophilus tabs in developing countries.)
I got a knock on my door at about 6:30 this morning. It was my Aeroflot luggage courier. He must have driven all night. Everything looks intact…hooray! I gave him a walloping 200 rupee tip (about $4.50) for the night drive, which he wasn’t expecting and so he was very happy – but I still felt a little cheap afterward. Thank goodness especially for the toothbrush and some fresh socks and undies. Indian undergarments just aren’t the same.
Knowing that I’m going to be here (probably) for two months, it is a very different feeling than just passing through. Choosing a place to stay for that long almost seems like investing in local real estate. I’m still not sure how I’m going to spend the time, but there is no shortage of options. Two meditation centers do pretty much continuous ten day retreats, there are Tibetan philosophy and language classes at the Tibetan Gov’t-in-Exile’s library, there are week-or-longer full time yoga classes (and more exotic stuff like Reiki), and – an option I hadn’t considered before – a 14-day “adventure course” with the local mountaineering center where you learn to climb the neighborhood 15,000-footers. Plus there is the volunteering that I want to do, although I haven’t looked into that yet. So many choices!
Well, that’s all for now. Time to go shopping for some Buddha statues.
Love to all -
Marcus
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Arrival
Welcome to Blogamsala! (That's Blog + Dharamsala for those scratching their heads.) The first time I heard of blogs a couple of years ago, I thought, "Who would want to read Joe Schmo's thoughts about the world" - but there is me being critical and dismissive again. It is interesting to see what people post, especially the better writers and thinkers out there. They also seem to work well for travelogue sorts of things. So I'll try it out. If I get advanced maybe I'll figure out how to upload photos.
So...here I am in India again! With touchdown today in Delhi, I've now made it here each one of the last four odd-numbered years. The heavy, hot, humid air, the smell of stagnant water and unwashed bodies, the dust and flies, and the sounds of buzzing rickshaws and Tata diesels are all comfortably familiar. They virtually scream out "Welcome to India."
This time I had a little more excitement than usual. I flew lovely Aeroflot from LAX to Moscow to Delhi, and I got here fine (the Russian-built jet for the second leg rattled a lot, but it made it here no questions asked) but my baggage did not. Apparently it is still in Moscow. All four of us who made the LAX-Delhi connection didn't get our bags. This was the third time making this trip for one guy, and his luggage has been late (and pilfered) every time. He took this route again for the same reason I did - it's a cheap last minute fare. Anyway, unflapped, the Aeroflot guy at the airport promised us it would come tomorrow, and he told me they would even send mine in a taxi up to Dharamsala. So I am sticking with my travel plans and going to Dharamsala tonight. It's about a 12 hour overnight bus ride. I'm looking forward to that, actually, mainly because I know the alternative is a super-uncomfortable hard-bunk train ride - the kind of thing that can be fun the first two or three times but gets old.
Well, as it's been 36 hours since leaving the house, it must be time to go buy some fresh underwear and wash up.
Take care all. I'll post again from Dharamsala.
So...here I am in India again! With touchdown today in Delhi, I've now made it here each one of the last four odd-numbered years. The heavy, hot, humid air, the smell of stagnant water and unwashed bodies, the dust and flies, and the sounds of buzzing rickshaws and Tata diesels are all comfortably familiar. They virtually scream out "Welcome to India."
This time I had a little more excitement than usual. I flew lovely Aeroflot from LAX to Moscow to Delhi, and I got here fine (the Russian-built jet for the second leg rattled a lot, but it made it here no questions asked) but my baggage did not. Apparently it is still in Moscow. All four of us who made the LAX-Delhi connection didn't get our bags. This was the third time making this trip for one guy, and his luggage has been late (and pilfered) every time. He took this route again for the same reason I did - it's a cheap last minute fare. Anyway, unflapped, the Aeroflot guy at the airport promised us it would come tomorrow, and he told me they would even send mine in a taxi up to Dharamsala. So I am sticking with my travel plans and going to Dharamsala tonight. It's about a 12 hour overnight bus ride. I'm looking forward to that, actually, mainly because I know the alternative is a super-uncomfortable hard-bunk train ride - the kind of thing that can be fun the first two or three times but gets old.
Well, as it's been 36 hours since leaving the house, it must be time to go buy some fresh underwear and wash up.
Take care all. I'll post again from Dharamsala.
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