Thursday, June 21, 2007
Bir, India - Science for Monks Workshop
Internet here is SO SLOW! This is all I could upload for now..
Monday, June 18, 2007
There's a Hole in My Bucket!
The drive from Dharamsala to Bir was a bumpy three and half hours. I’m seriously cursed for getting carsick so easily, but I managed to keep what was in my stomach in my stomach. I was traveling with three LTWA Science Section staff members, Sangey, Paldon and Karma. Poor Karma got so nauseas from the ride and the crazy humid super hot then super cold weather, we had to stop several times for him to throw up.
Bir is a tiny village town of Tibetans and Indians. The main market is a short cracked road of shops, half of which are always closed when I walk through town. But the people here are nice and the atmosphere is really mellow. Apparently Bir is world famous for paragliding, but it’s off-season and no one gliding now (pre-monsoon season) except for highly skilled experts. The surrounding area is beautiful. We’re at the foot of some lush, green mountains, with rice and wheat paddies dotted by villagers’ houses. All around the fields and on tops of people’s houses are Tibetan prayer flags. These flags are common in Dharamsala, but here they’re especially beautiful flapping in the wind amidst a lush mountainous landscape during a sunset.
The workshop is being held at a place called Deer Park Institute, a center for Buddhist Studies. Deer Park Institute was converted into a center for Buddhist Studies just a few years ago. Prior to that it was Dzongsar Monastery, where 400 monks practiced and lived. Then a Rinpoche (literally means “Precious One”aka a Dharma teacher) had the vision to convert the monastery into a place where one could study about all sects of Buddhism and some aspects of Hinduism. It’s run by a dynamic young guy name Preshant from Mumbai and Xhing Xi, a woman from Taiwan. The first day we arrived we met some of their resident scholars who are doing year-long internships in ecological waste management, Buddhism, Tibetan and Hindi language, and sustainable/organic farming methods. Despite being located in a tiny, remote village, these students are from all over. There’s a student from Canada, Laos, Cambodia, Spain and France.
I would have never thought such a progressive and proactively green center of study like this one would exist in India, let alone in a small village. The area has no civic infrastructure (including no landfills, etc) so the Institute had to find a way to deal with waste and trash. Nearly all of the village people and local community burn their trash, unknowingly releasing toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air. Deer Park set up a trash segregation system where they separate different kinds of paper products, recyclable plastics, and non-recyclable plastics. The pipes also cannot handle too much toilet paper so this has to be thrown away in wastebaskets and dealt with in another way. The biggest problem is tetra-packs like juice boxes and milk boxes, and the stuff that chip bags are made from. There’s no way to recycle those, and they still haven’t found a waste solution for those items. It’s really sad to see so much litter here, even in the mountain streams and fields. Preshant told me some people don’t know what to do with their trash so they throw it in the streams and rivers. But he said in the small Indian village nearby, there’s hardly any litter or garbage because the people there don’t consume packaged goods like chips or milk, but are entirely self-sufficient.
Ten North American professors flew in to teach Physics, Biology and Neurology to 40 monks, most of who traveled all the way from southern India to participate in the workshop. There’s even a female Physics professor who came that’s nearly 7 months pregnant! I’m helping the Library film the workshop sessions to produce DVDs that the monks can use for review of the materials, and for monks that didn’t attend the workshop. Since we’re in session all day, we also take our meals here at Deer Park. The food here is beautiful. Everything is prepared with organic or locally grown ingredients. The meals aren’t extravagant, but just wholesome, delicious and cooked with TLC. I already know that I’m really going to miss this place when I go back to D-Sala.
The other day I went with some friends to visit Dzongsar Monastery (what Deer Park used to be). They moved to a new facility that houses over 3,000 monks. It’s like a small college campus. The main temple there has a lot of beautiful paintings and imagery.
I’ve been so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time in beautiful mountain areas in different parts of the world, but nothing has been like the mountains here. The other day I went up to the roof of Deer Park’s main temple. It was nearing the end of the ‘golden hour’ and the sun was about to dip behind the mountains. I’ve never seen the air so clear, and the sky so blue and the mountains so green. And the breeze was cool against face, and from the roof I could see all the tops of people’s houses and their faded prayer flags blowing in the wind, and I thought to myself that this is like heaven on earth.
ps.. I'll add photos soon!!
Bir is a tiny village town of Tibetans and Indians. The main market is a short cracked road of shops, half of which are always closed when I walk through town. But the people here are nice and the atmosphere is really mellow. Apparently Bir is world famous for paragliding, but it’s off-season and no one gliding now (pre-monsoon season) except for highly skilled experts. The surrounding area is beautiful. We’re at the foot of some lush, green mountains, with rice and wheat paddies dotted by villagers’ houses. All around the fields and on tops of people’s houses are Tibetan prayer flags. These flags are common in Dharamsala, but here they’re especially beautiful flapping in the wind amidst a lush mountainous landscape during a sunset.
The workshop is being held at a place called Deer Park Institute, a center for Buddhist Studies. Deer Park Institute was converted into a center for Buddhist Studies just a few years ago. Prior to that it was Dzongsar Monastery, where 400 monks practiced and lived. Then a Rinpoche (literally means “Precious One”aka a Dharma teacher) had the vision to convert the monastery into a place where one could study about all sects of Buddhism and some aspects of Hinduism. It’s run by a dynamic young guy name Preshant from Mumbai and Xhing Xi, a woman from Taiwan. The first day we arrived we met some of their resident scholars who are doing year-long internships in ecological waste management, Buddhism, Tibetan and Hindi language, and sustainable/organic farming methods. Despite being located in a tiny, remote village, these students are from all over. There’s a student from Canada, Laos, Cambodia, Spain and France.
I would have never thought such a progressive and proactively green center of study like this one would exist in India, let alone in a small village. The area has no civic infrastructure (including no landfills, etc) so the Institute had to find a way to deal with waste and trash. Nearly all of the village people and local community burn their trash, unknowingly releasing toxic chemicals and pollutants into the air. Deer Park set up a trash segregation system where they separate different kinds of paper products, recyclable plastics, and non-recyclable plastics. The pipes also cannot handle too much toilet paper so this has to be thrown away in wastebaskets and dealt with in another way. The biggest problem is tetra-packs like juice boxes and milk boxes, and the stuff that chip bags are made from. There’s no way to recycle those, and they still haven’t found a waste solution for those items. It’s really sad to see so much litter here, even in the mountain streams and fields. Preshant told me some people don’t know what to do with their trash so they throw it in the streams and rivers. But he said in the small Indian village nearby, there’s hardly any litter or garbage because the people there don’t consume packaged goods like chips or milk, but are entirely self-sufficient.
Ten North American professors flew in to teach Physics, Biology and Neurology to 40 monks, most of who traveled all the way from southern India to participate in the workshop. There’s even a female Physics professor who came that’s nearly 7 months pregnant! I’m helping the Library film the workshop sessions to produce DVDs that the monks can use for review of the materials, and for monks that didn’t attend the workshop. Since we’re in session all day, we also take our meals here at Deer Park. The food here is beautiful. Everything is prepared with organic or locally grown ingredients. The meals aren’t extravagant, but just wholesome, delicious and cooked with TLC. I already know that I’m really going to miss this place when I go back to D-Sala.
The other day I went with some friends to visit Dzongsar Monastery (what Deer Park used to be). They moved to a new facility that houses over 3,000 monks. It’s like a small college campus. The main temple there has a lot of beautiful paintings and imagery.
I’ve been so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time in beautiful mountain areas in different parts of the world, but nothing has been like the mountains here. The other day I went up to the roof of Deer Park’s main temple. It was nearing the end of the ‘golden hour’ and the sun was about to dip behind the mountains. I’ve never seen the air so clear, and the sky so blue and the mountains so green. And the breeze was cool against face, and from the roof I could see all the tops of people’s houses and their faded prayer flags blowing in the wind, and I thought to myself that this is like heaven on earth.
ps.. I'll add photos soon!!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Kanayara
My stomach issues have cleared up! Yeah. I finally started to eat normal food, and not watery rice porridge. It so happened that other foreigners around here were sick with what I had too. So I was in good company.
Just as I started to really settle into life here in Dharamsala, I’m leaving for 4 weeks. There’s a big science workshop for monks in Bihr, a small Tibetan settlement about 3 hours away. They asked me to film the sessions and lectures, and photograph the monks working in the labs. The science workshop is part of a huge initiative to bridge Buddhism and Science. There are about 10 scientists flying in from the US to lead the different sessions. From what I heard the monks are going to be learning stuff like quantum physics, and biochemistry. It’s supposed to be hotter there. And it’s been hellishly hot here.
Nechung Monastery, the place Choedar used to work, had their annual camping trip out in a small village called Kanayara. I didn’t realize how many mountain streams are around here until Choedar took me to their picnic today. We rode by motorbike through the back roads of the mountain to Kanayara. When we got there, I was amazed to see it was this green, grassy valley with a perfect stream winding through the field. Just below the field was a beautiful mountain stream/river. All along it were swimming holes where monks from Nechung were playing in the water. The water was perfectly cold, and clear. Rocks in this area are mostly slate, so all the rocks along the bottom of the stream are small pieces of slate. And since today was hot and sunny, the rocks glittered in the water. We had lunch with the monks from Nechung up at the field, and then climbed down to the stream where we spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the water.
Just as I started to really settle into life here in Dharamsala, I’m leaving for 4 weeks. There’s a big science workshop for monks in Bihr, a small Tibetan settlement about 3 hours away. They asked me to film the sessions and lectures, and photograph the monks working in the labs. The science workshop is part of a huge initiative to bridge Buddhism and Science. There are about 10 scientists flying in from the US to lead the different sessions. From what I heard the monks are going to be learning stuff like quantum physics, and biochemistry. It’s supposed to be hotter there. And it’s been hellishly hot here.
Nechung Monastery, the place Choedar used to work, had their annual camping trip out in a small village called Kanayara. I didn’t realize how many mountain streams are around here until Choedar took me to their picnic today. We rode by motorbike through the back roads of the mountain to Kanayara. When we got there, I was amazed to see it was this green, grassy valley with a perfect stream winding through the field. Just below the field was a beautiful mountain stream/river. All along it were swimming holes where monks from Nechung were playing in the water. The water was perfectly cold, and clear. Rocks in this area are mostly slate, so all the rocks along the bottom of the stream are small pieces of slate. And since today was hot and sunny, the rocks glittered in the water. We had lunch with the monks from Nechung up at the field, and then climbed down to the stream where we spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the water.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Hang On Little Tomato
Health is so fragile, so we must take care of our mind and body, and each other’s minds and bodies. It’s not like I forget this when I’m healthy, it’s just that when I get sick I’m especially reminded of it.
I don’t know how I got sick. I think it was inevitable since this is a new environment with new germs and bacteria, new weather, and new living conditions. I’m just so lucky that people here are so caring and I have the means to buy food and medicine. I have some kind of stomach flu virus/parasite. I’ve had this fever, nausea, dizziness and diarrhea since Sunday. I’ve spent more hours sleeping than awake. I’ll spare too many details, but I just have to say that having diarrhea and using a squat toilet isn’t the most fun. I ran into my friend Shahaf, who’s a volunteer from Israel, and he said that when he first came here, he had exactly what I have and that it’ll pass in a few days. Hopefully he’s right. Stomach sicknesses always make me feel so hollow. I barely have enough energy to leave my room. Today the fever has subsided, but the diarrhea and nausea are worse, so I went to see a Tibetan doctor. She gave me some traditional medicine and said that if I don’t get better by tomorrow, I should go to the Western hospital to test my stool. Julie, another volunteer here, went to the hospital to get the stool sample container for me just in case. It’s a tiny vile and I’m not sure how they expect people to get a stool sample to fit inside. It’s like the size of a bottle of nail polish with an opening less than 1cm wide. I included a picture, so I apologize if I gross you out.
Before I got sick I started reading this book called, “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche. There is a part in the book that talks about the aftereffects of near-death experiences:
Perhaps one of its most important revelations is how it transforms the lives of those who have been through it. Researchers have noted a startling range of aftereffects and changes: a reduced fear and deeper acceptance of death; an increased concern for helping others; an enhanced vision of the importance of love; less interest in materialistic pursuits; a growing belief in a spiritual dimension and the spiritual meaning of life…”
This part of the passage has really stuck in my head, particularly the increased concern for others and importance of love part. And since being sick, I especially feel like nothing is more important than taking care of oneself and the people around you.
The full moon in May is Buddha’s birthday. This year it was on May 31st. It’s a very important day in the Buddhist community. Karma is multiplied by a thousand on this day, so all the good or bad deeds one does counts a thousand times over. In Dharamsala, the most devout Buddhists woke up early for the 4am sermon given by HH the DL at his residence, Namgyal Monastery. Then all day people walked along the khora chanting prayers or om mani padme hum, a prayer for compassion. The khora is the path that circumnavigates the edge of the DL’s temple. I headed up there with Choedar early Thursday morning, and already there were thousands of people in and around Namgyal Monastery. Inside the temple devotees were doing full prostrations and circumambulating the inner temple walkway. Other devotees were sitting and meditating or chanting. It was absolutely packed. There was a HUGE basin of rice and another basin full of lentils on the courtyard. Bucket by bucket, the monks filled the basins full of food. The streets and the khora path were full of beggars from all over northern India.
Many of the beggars here are in terrible health with conditions like elephantitus (when parts of the body become so swollen it’s as big as an elephant’s body parts), leprosy, sexually transmitted infections, disfigured or missing body parts, and malnutrition. Sometimes when there are many women in a group, they will take turns holding the babies and go out in shifts to beg. Sometimes they beg for money, and sometimes they beg for milk. When they beg for milk, they return the unopened containers to the shops for a refund.
The other night, I went to Miri’s (an Israeli women who’s studying Buddhism here) house for dinner. It was a small group of us – Miri, Shahaf, Shunni and myself. The three of them are from Israel, and all devout Buddhist students. They met in Israel in a group called Dharma Friends. Shahaf told me that 80% of Jewish Israelis are not practicing Jews or religious. I had no idea! He said that Jews living outside of Israel are more religiously Jewish than those living in Israel. It was my first time meeting Shunni and I was so struck by her energy. She’s been coming to Dharamsala for the past ten years since she was 22 years old. Her face and demeanor is so expressive of her desire to deepen her Buddhist practice, and her compassion for people and animals. When I met her, she had literally just come out of a 10-day meditation retreat where she had barely slept or eaten.
After the dinner Shahaf and I walked her back to her hotel. Everything closes fairly early here and the streets are empty by 9:30p so leaving Miri’s house at 10:30p was really late. Along the way we passed a family of beggars sleeping on the side of the road. An infant lay between its parents crying. And while most people probably would have walked on by, Shunni went up to the family and sang a mantra of compassion for the baby. And she did the same for all of the stray dogs we passed. She said that she does it because it might help them have a better rebirth for the next life. Her compassion is really moving.
This past Sunday before feeling woozy, I woke up early to attend a teaching given by HH the DL at the Tibetan Children’s Village school. It was about an hour and half hike from where I live. HH was inside the auditorium addressing TCV students while the overflow sat outside underneath a large tarp. I sat on a nearby hillside listening to a translation of the teaching on an FM radio I borrowed. Since coming here I’ve seen countless photos and images of HH the DL. So I didn’t expect that I would react the way I did when I saw him in person. At the end of the teaching, everyone outside lined up to see HH exit the building and get into his car. Somehow I snuck up to the front of the line near his car. I honestly didn’t realize how moved I would be by his presence, but he emanates a powerful energy. Before I knew it, my eyes welled up in tears. He bowed humbly to all of us as his car drove away.
a stone shrine near TCV
I don’t know how I got sick. I think it was inevitable since this is a new environment with new germs and bacteria, new weather, and new living conditions. I’m just so lucky that people here are so caring and I have the means to buy food and medicine. I have some kind of stomach flu virus/parasite. I’ve had this fever, nausea, dizziness and diarrhea since Sunday. I’ve spent more hours sleeping than awake. I’ll spare too many details, but I just have to say that having diarrhea and using a squat toilet isn’t the most fun. I ran into my friend Shahaf, who’s a volunteer from Israel, and he said that when he first came here, he had exactly what I have and that it’ll pass in a few days. Hopefully he’s right. Stomach sicknesses always make me feel so hollow. I barely have enough energy to leave my room. Today the fever has subsided, but the diarrhea and nausea are worse, so I went to see a Tibetan doctor. She gave me some traditional medicine and said that if I don’t get better by tomorrow, I should go to the Western hospital to test my stool. Julie, another volunteer here, went to the hospital to get the stool sample container for me just in case. It’s a tiny vile and I’m not sure how they expect people to get a stool sample to fit inside. It’s like the size of a bottle of nail polish with an opening less than 1cm wide. I included a picture, so I apologize if I gross you out.
Before I got sick I started reading this book called, “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche. There is a part in the book that talks about the aftereffects of near-death experiences:
Perhaps one of its most important revelations is how it transforms the lives of those who have been through it. Researchers have noted a startling range of aftereffects and changes: a reduced fear and deeper acceptance of death; an increased concern for helping others; an enhanced vision of the importance of love; less interest in materialistic pursuits; a growing belief in a spiritual dimension and the spiritual meaning of life…”
This part of the passage has really stuck in my head, particularly the increased concern for others and importance of love part. And since being sick, I especially feel like nothing is more important than taking care of oneself and the people around you.
The full moon in May is Buddha’s birthday. This year it was on May 31st. It’s a very important day in the Buddhist community. Karma is multiplied by a thousand on this day, so all the good or bad deeds one does counts a thousand times over. In Dharamsala, the most devout Buddhists woke up early for the 4am sermon given by HH the DL at his residence, Namgyal Monastery. Then all day people walked along the khora chanting prayers or om mani padme hum, a prayer for compassion. The khora is the path that circumnavigates the edge of the DL’s temple. I headed up there with Choedar early Thursday morning, and already there were thousands of people in and around Namgyal Monastery. Inside the temple devotees were doing full prostrations and circumambulating the inner temple walkway. Other devotees were sitting and meditating or chanting. It was absolutely packed. There was a HUGE basin of rice and another basin full of lentils on the courtyard. Bucket by bucket, the monks filled the basins full of food. The streets and the khora path were full of beggars from all over northern India.
Many of the beggars here are in terrible health with conditions like elephantitus (when parts of the body become so swollen it’s as big as an elephant’s body parts), leprosy, sexually transmitted infections, disfigured or missing body parts, and malnutrition. Sometimes when there are many women in a group, they will take turns holding the babies and go out in shifts to beg. Sometimes they beg for money, and sometimes they beg for milk. When they beg for milk, they return the unopened containers to the shops for a refund.
The other night, I went to Miri’s (an Israeli women who’s studying Buddhism here) house for dinner. It was a small group of us – Miri, Shahaf, Shunni and myself. The three of them are from Israel, and all devout Buddhist students. They met in Israel in a group called Dharma Friends. Shahaf told me that 80% of Jewish Israelis are not practicing Jews or religious. I had no idea! He said that Jews living outside of Israel are more religiously Jewish than those living in Israel. It was my first time meeting Shunni and I was so struck by her energy. She’s been coming to Dharamsala for the past ten years since she was 22 years old. Her face and demeanor is so expressive of her desire to deepen her Buddhist practice, and her compassion for people and animals. When I met her, she had literally just come out of a 10-day meditation retreat where she had barely slept or eaten.
After the dinner Shahaf and I walked her back to her hotel. Everything closes fairly early here and the streets are empty by 9:30p so leaving Miri’s house at 10:30p was really late. Along the way we passed a family of beggars sleeping on the side of the road. An infant lay between its parents crying. And while most people probably would have walked on by, Shunni went up to the family and sang a mantra of compassion for the baby. And she did the same for all of the stray dogs we passed. She said that she does it because it might help them have a better rebirth for the next life. Her compassion is really moving.
This past Sunday before feeling woozy, I woke up early to attend a teaching given by HH the DL at the Tibetan Children’s Village school. It was about an hour and half hike from where I live. HH was inside the auditorium addressing TCV students while the overflow sat outside underneath a large tarp. I sat on a nearby hillside listening to a translation of the teaching on an FM radio I borrowed. Since coming here I’ve seen countless photos and images of HH the DL. So I didn’t expect that I would react the way I did when I saw him in person. At the end of the teaching, everyone outside lined up to see HH exit the building and get into his car. Somehow I snuck up to the front of the line near his car. I honestly didn’t realize how moved I would be by his presence, but he emanates a powerful energy. Before I knew it, my eyes welled up in tears. He bowed humbly to all of us as his car drove away.
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