Today Was A Good Day (Understatement)

So today I had to wake up and leave early. Normally I would be unhappy about this. However, the reason was a pretty good one: today we went to see His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama give a teaching. Yep. So basically, by default, today was the best day of the trip and is/will be one of the best days in my life. I don't know what else to say.

Well, I guess I do. All you could bring to the teaching was a radio and a cushion, maybe some water/food and a notebook if you wanted. No cell phones, cameras (bah!), voice recorders, anything electronic except a little radio for translation. Heavy security pat-downs at the entrance. We were lucky, though. Two days ago Stephen C. and myself went to the temple to reserve spaces (laying down a blanket and taping papers with our names on it). We originally left our (second) shirts because we didn't have anything else, but came back a little later with a cheap blanket we found. Darby and I got there an hour before the teachings started, but lucky for us the other Stephen had gotten there about 20-30 minutes earlier, thereby making it possible for us to have seats within direct line of sight and within 30 or 40 yards of one of the most revered and influential people on the planet. Most people weren't so lucky (as was almost our case, as the whole reserving thing doesn't work very well).

This teaching was requested by people from Singapore, and was on Je Tsongkhapa's Song of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. We got so, so, so lucky. At the beginning of the teaching, His Holiness asked how many people understood English. Most people in the inner temple, the ones who requested the teaching (people mainly from Singapore, Malaysia, and some from Taiwan) spoke English. Since the teaching was primarily for them, he decided to do most of the teaching in his self-proclaimed "broken English." That meant that we didn't have to listen to the little radio translator for the entire morning session, which was amazing. You get so much more out of it when you don't have to listen to a translation that can come sometimes a minute later. In the afternoon session in which he actually gave commentary on the text, he switched to Tibetan. It's understandable--there were probably hundreds of Tibetans in attendance, both monks/nuns and laypeople, and obviously he could better explain the extremely complex text/commentary in his native language.

All of the (good) things that you hear about him are true. His contagious smile, laugh, charisma, everything. Even if my mind wondered and I thought about other things, if he laughed (which he did often), I started laughing with him--as did everyone. I'm so glad I didn't have to watch him on a TV (as many people did) somewhere else in the temple.

The amount of devotion on the part of the Tibetans towards His Holiness was. . . impressive, to say the least. Most wouldn't even look at him, and if they did it was with heads bowed and hands in prayer position. Most of the people around me began doing prostrations towards him as soon as he was within sight, and countless (COUNTLESS) people who passed in front of him (still 30 yards away) bowed/prostrated them selves to him. I don't care about ANYTHING that the Chinese government says about Tibetans not following him. They do, and in full force. There is a shrine to him with his picture and a kata in pretty much every single house/restaurant I go to (including the internet/coffee café that I'm in now). Most people went to the teachings just to SEE him, especially older Tibetans who want to see them before they die. It was powerful and real.

The teachings were from 9:30 to 11 and then from 1 to 2:30. Randomly during his talk in the morning he said "hahaha, ok, now time for tea." IMMEDIATELY, monks came out with huge pots of tea and buckets of bread for everyone. Everyone whipped out their cups/bowls and began passing them to the front to get tea (Tibetan tea in the morning, Indian tea in the afternoon). It was quite a sight.

At break/lunch time, Stephen and I raced to Khana Nirvana, one of the closest places to the temple, to grab some food. Darby stayed (she's still a little sick) and held our spots. Khana Nirvana has "mexican, tex-mex, and nuevo-mexicano" food, as well as an awesome sandwich called "The Mediterranean" that has sauteed eggplant, cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, and garlic-tofu spread on pita bread. We brought three back. Yum. Most Tibetans stayed for food--either they brought something, or they nabbed some of the HUGE buckets of rice/dal that were brought out again in force by dozens of monks. They were also handing out money to the monastic people--people give lots of donations for these teachings, and since monks have no real source of income, they depend on donations like these for their sustenance. Everyone takes care of everyone here. Even the old women sitting behind us at the teachings were nice enough to offer to set some of our stuff/shoes (which are considered dirty/impolite in this culture) by them since we didn't have much room and tell me when things kept falling out of my pockets. They also offered us their extra bread.

And as usual, His Holiness took questions from the audience and ran over the time planned for it. He was so genuinely interested in people's questions--on a level I'd never encountered before. He didn't even mention the current Tibet-China situation until someone from Taiwan asked about it. He laughed it off, answered it the best he could in the current situation, and moved on. It was, again, impressive.

I still can't believe I spent almost four hours in the direct line of sight and less than 50 yards away from the Dalai Lama. I'm determined to make it happen again. Yep.


Anyway, on to other news. I interviewed the SFT-India president today for a paper we have to write, and he was very interesting and helpful (though my interviewing skills are horrible and I didn't have as many questions as I'd have liked).

Also, tomorrow myself, Darby, four other students and Tsering (one of our language teachers/program assistants) will leave for Tso Pema at 5am. Tso Pema is a pilgrimage place five hours (by car) from here. "Tso" means "lake" in Tibetan, and this site is tied to Padmasambhava (a.k.a. Guru Rinpoche). He was invited to Tibet by the king Trisong Detsen to tame evil deities and is said to be the first person to spread Buddhism in Tibet. His ties with Tso Pema are that "In order to tame the people of Odiyana he returned there disguised as a mendicant but many people recognized him and he was set to be burned alive in a sandalwood fire by a host of evil-minded ministers and people. When the fire was lit, he miraculously transformed the fire into a huge lake filled with lotuses. Sitting himself with consort over a giant lotus in the middle of the lake, the king, ministers, and people were astounded and developed great faith towards him." The myth is that he went from Tso Pema to Tibet to spread Vajrayana Buddhism. I've heard his footprint is there? Crazy. It will be a good, beautiful time whether it's there or not.

So yeah. The students split into five groups to go to to five different places for the next three days, and Tso Pema is where Darby and I are going. We're doing a "mini-ISP" (independent reserach project) to practice for the big one when we're on our own. We have to do field research on the geography, education, health, people, religion, etc., and present it to the group next week. Should be fun, but we'll all be worrying about the impending paper that's due on Wednesday.


Yep. Adventure until Sunday, paper due Wednesday, we leave Dharamsala about a week after that for Nepal. It's going so fast, yet it's so good. I guess I can't complain.
Pictures next time (more from the temple, from Tso Pema, and hopefully more).

Jela jehl yong!