OK, I have been here for five days and life is already if full swing. I spent almost the entire first day sleeping with the exception of a couple hour jaunt to see the grocery store, and to visit the Tibetan Youth Hostel where a couple of my friends work. I did wake up for lunch and dinner, as many of you know that I often have a healthy appetite. The next morning I was awake at 3:30, still feeling the effects of the time change and jet lag. I studied from then until 5, when Passang, my new roommate, awoke.
He is a Tibetan Refugee, brought across the border as a toddler rolled up in a blanket (The Chinese government strictly prohibits Tibetan children from leaving the country). His parents were poor farmers, and sent him to India so he could be educated and live in relative freedom. He was educated by a NGO school called the Tibetan Children's Village, which is run by the Dalai Lama's sister. He was a successful student, and was hired by the school after graduation, and has worked for them for the past 13 years. He was transfered to Bangalore 4 years ago to facilitate the construction of a new TCV college which had it's first classes begin last year. His assignment was to come here learn Kannada, the local language, and hire workers to begin construction. The he got a part time job as the accountant at the youth hostel, and started doing a correspondance course in business management. Then last spring his superiors told him he was being transferred to Deradun (you may remember the name from the book, "Seven Years in Tibet," which was the hill station that Henry departed from in travelling to Tibet). He asked for a one year leave to complete his graduation before his is transferred. They finally agreed after much trouble, but told him he could not stay at the hostel, so he had to get a new place, which is our home.
Passang and I have been doing more than an hour of yoga each morning from 5:30-7:00. He interestingly has the same kind of small fatty cysts on his body that run in my paternal side of the family, I have several also. An ayurvedic doctor reccommended that he do a half-hour of talapathi each day, which is a form of yogic breathing in which the air is forcefully exhaled by contracting the abdomen in a rather quick rhythm (some people call it fire breathing). So I am experimenting to see if my cysts reduce. I then follow the yoga with an hour of mantra and study, which is taking some work because I have been slacking a little bit over the summer at home.
Working at the office has been like settling back into a familiar routine. I go to the clinic at 9:30 and clean and do the morning rituals before Dr. Jampa arrives. He then comes at 10:15 and we do our teaching in the morning which has a spattering of patients that come in.
I am now in charge of the inventory, medicine dispensing and accounts as well, which is good for the experience. I have so far in my life been kind of avoiding the business part of life, so now I am getting a sort of crash course.
WARNING: The next section might be a bit difficult for people not used to mystical/magical practicesOn Sunday I went with Passang and another friend to a teaching on loving kindness and compassion followed by a ritual healing given by a young Lama by the name of Khangser Rinpoche.
The first half was on the general and meditative methods of generative Skt: bodhicitta, Tib: Jang Chub Sem Drel, Eng: Loving-Kindness. In short, the general way to develop it is a realization of the negative physical and mental consequences of anger, and the other aspect of the general method is to compare one's suffering with that of others, and not to compare one's happiness with others'.
Briefly, the meditative method is to realize the past lives connection to other beings around us, and to know that each being has in one or more lives been our mother. Then we can develop the compassion for all beings that we have for our mother.
After a break for lunch he began an intricate healing process that, as my friend pointed out, seems closely related to voodoo. In the ritual he did a long and intricate ritual to manifest himself into a specific protector deity, Dorje Nam Dro, who can expell negative influences. He then dissolved the deity into some saffron water. Next he did a ritual on a figure made of dough, and passed out small balls of dough which we were told to touch to parts of our bodies where we experienced pain or suffering, mental and physical. We then had to take a string from our clothing and squeeze it into the dough, which we were then told to toss at the figure. Then we were given some of the water to hold in our mouths and visualize that all negative energy and pain to go into the water. We then had to spit the bad water at the figure. Next we were purified by the blessed water, which was poured on the crown of our heads. Then the Rinpoche touched his vajra to the tops of our heads to protect us from future influences.
After the ritual was finished I looked around the room, and was amazed to see that many of the people had smiles on their faces, and even had a certain brightness to them. Quite a beautiful experience.
Today is my day off, and I am at my old school visiting with the staff.
All is well.
