Louise, my new found friend,
and I decided to share a cab to the monastery. When we arrived, they showed us to our rooms. Thank God, or should I say Buddha, for my decision on getting my own room. Louise was originally in a dorm but when she saw her bed was in the middle of the room, sharing with three other girls, she decided to switch. However, she ended up with roommates anyway; mosquitos, geckos and a mouse which of course may be a reincarnation and was not to be killed. Unfortunately, you did occasionally hear a splat and knew someone had just killed their mother from another life.
There was a sadness pervading the monastery and it was soon explained to us that the abbot of forty years, Lama Lhundrup, had died. We were to be witness to the entire process of the cremation and the ceremony to reincarnation. It truly was an honor to participate in such an event.
We were also shown the documentary the "Unmistaken Child" about the journey to find the reincarnation of Lama Konghog. Here is the reincarnated child who now lives at the monastery.
The ten days were quite regimented, up at 5:00 am, tea, meditation, breakfast, teachings, lunch, discussion groups, teachings, meditation, dinner, teachings, meditation and asleep at 10:00 p.m.
Every day the same thing. I started to feel sick as the days progressed just getting in the food line to eat the same food. I waffled (ooh waffles) between gratitude for the food and wishing there was some chicken :).
I mentioned that a discussion group was part of our program. Our teacher, Ani Karen, put together five groups, each with a leader. She chose the leader for each group and in our group, she gave the honors to Mimi who turned around and gave it to me and said, "here, you will do a much better job". What??? You don't even know me! Why is this happening? I didn't want the responsibility and yet the responsibility chose me.
After two days, Louise and I looked at each other and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into (again the familiar theme). We were in silence from 9:00 p.m. until after lunch and we couldn't wait to meet up and dish as soon as lunch was over. It was especially challenging when we were in silence for two full days and meditating 5 hours a day. Of course we had to make up hand signals for hi, are you ok, and just shoot me, which was my favorite.
Well if that wasn't enough excitement with a reincarnated lama, the ceremony of cremation and the collection of the relics from the ashes,
there was an earthquake that shook the monastery. The buildings were rumbling and swaying and it was particularly comforting when your teacher starts to pray and then screams "run" as you watch her slip out the side door while everyone else stampedes to the front door. For a moment it was chaos but we were ok, just shaken up.
So began the countdown. Every day we celebrated making it through another day. There were those in our group that either left early or slipped out to Thamel to party and come back the next day. I had decided that I had made a commitment and wanted to see it through, and even with everything that happened, and because of everything that happened, the lessons learned were invaluable.
Well we finally made it, the ten days were over and it was back to Thamel to make arrangements to leave Nepal. Here are my new found friends who helped me to move on to my next adventure.
So it is off to Bali.
Until tomorrow..............
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment