The Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

I’m not sure where I left off since I last posted, so I’m just gonna start with when I got back to Dharamsala. I think it’s only been about 10 or 11 days since I got back but it feels like I’ve done a lot since then. I remember wondering what it’d be like to be in community where spirituality and Buddhism were central values, and now I’m living in it every day, all day. Aside from the typical ups and downs and challenges of traveling, the past week has been great. HH gave teachings all week. They started at 8am and went until lunchtime. Thousands of people came from ALL over the world. I don’t have pictures of anything from this week because we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the temple so I never had one with me. People pack in to the temple grounds. Every spot on the floor, ground or steps is a seat. The teachings were on the Boddhisatva’s Way of Life and the English translation was broadcast on an FM signal. My friends went up at 6:30a to secure good seats and even when I’d wander in late, they’d scoot over to fit me in. At the end of every teaching HH walked right past us bowing and waving ‘hello’. I got to see him several times week, at the end of every teaching, and during the Long Life Ceremony, which concluded the week of teachings. No matter how many times I’ve seen him though, his presence is still so undeniably moving. I can’t describe it in words. You can literally feel a powerful energy around him. During this week I also became connected with a handful of people through other friends who attended the teachings. There’s something about studying the Dharma and traveling that brings people together so fluidly so quickly. Everyone was in their twenties or early thirties and from everywhere – New Zealand, Israel, Boston, Ohio, Australia, Indonesia, England, Spain, and of course Tibet and India too. We ended up spending so much time together at the teachings and then having meals, it was like a little dharma family.

One thing I continually impressed by is how devout this community is. The foreigners who came to the teachings had to travel from afar to get here. And then arriving at 6:30 every morning where we sit on the ground until 11:30 or 12p and judiciously listen on a small FM radio to translations. And since it’s monsoon season, some days out of nowhere it would start raining/flooding from the sky, for hours. And the wind is blowing so hard the rain is shooting sideways. And the temple grounds would become filthy with mud or dirt tracked in, and people would still do their full prostrations on the ground. It was amazing.

Somehow I’ve been karmically swept up in this group of friends who have all been studying Tibetan Buddhism for the last 5-10 years so through them I met very special, realized high lamas and Rinpoches. Today I went with some friends to a private teaching with a special Rinpoche from Tibet. The whole rest of the day turned into a mini pilgrimage when we went to visit a several other Rinpoches and received blessings from them.

Being immersed in this world sometimes I wonder what my previous life was that I’m so blessed to be here and be able to not work for a year and run around India meeting very special individuals while studying Buddhism.

But it’s not all perfect and sweet all time. Traveling can be intense. There are times, despite having made good friends here, I feel really alone. Because when it comes down to it, I am alone. The end of last week and by the end of this week, all of the people I met will be gone. Some people are leaving because monsoon in Dharamsala is a total deluge, and for some it’s time to go home, and for others, they need to leave the country to renew their visas, but whatever the case, they’re leaving. It’s just like a testament to the true impermanence of everything. And then some days the starving children and lepers and other beggars can be intense, or all of the cow dung and human feces or trash and pollution, or incessant horn honking and dangerous drivers, or the variety of foul smells, or contaminated water or the fact that my clothes can’t dry properly because it’s too humid and smelly here or having chronic upset stomach can really get to me. But even that is impermanent, so it’s not soo bad.