Hello everyone!
Yes, I am still alive! Thank you for your letters of concern, stories, reflections, and questions. If you are worried, be soothed. I am safe, very happy, and healthy (which is a miracle in itself! The food I have accepted should have given me dysentery by now! Really, next time I see you, ask me about what happened at the Golden Temple...) ... quite honestly, the last two months have likely been the happiest continuum in my life (so far).
Of course, India is deeper and richer, more ludicrous and mystifying than what my feeble grasp on language can give justice to . The mind (my mind) is gripping onto this place like a Rubik's cube. I don't get it. I cant describe it. The only way I can explain it to myself is by assuming that 5,000 years of
continuous religious ceremony (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrian, Jain, Judaism, Christianity, etc.) and the heavily spiritual, superstitious population have generated vibrant energetic vigor (frequency, energy, magnetism, whatever you want to label it as) that cannot be thought about or conceptualized. It can only be felt. Call it hippie-gumbo if you must. As many of you know, I don't think of myself as a spiritual person - or even very sensitive - but in the 2 months I have been here, I have experienced and witnessed phenomenon which have left me breathless and bewildered. Ask me later and I will tell. Perhaps I will write more about these experiences at some point and post them on my myspace page and/or online journal (
www.journals.worldnomads.com/interstatek/
At the moment, I am staying in Dharamsala, at 7000 ft, in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is an perplexing combination of tranquil Tibetan refugees (many are Buddhist monks, who walk around with these ecstatic yearbook-quality, full-faced grins that could bloom a rosebud in winter[!!]) and outlandishly loud Indians. This week is another holiday - Dewali, which lasts 4 days. This will be the 4th Indian holiday since arriving! Usually they last 4-11 days and involve either throwing idols into the sea, smashing fruit, offering biscuits and tea to the Gods, or all three). Apparently, it is also an auspicious time for Indian marriages, which involve middle-school-quality marching bands which play uninterrupted and loudly over the course of 2-4 days. Its like a 4-day rave of wind-up monkeys, clashing symbols over amplifiers. From the marriage I saw, the bride and groom looked miserable by the end of their wedding.
My apologize to those who have tried to communicate with me recently. Over the last 10 days I have been staying in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, taking a course on Tibetan Buddhism and meditation. As a precept to the course, I have been in silence and meditating for 3 to 6 hours per day, for the last 10 days. This is probably why my tone might seem flat and awkward, and it has taken me two hours to write this damn email ;). For our stay,we were assigned "karma chores." My karma chore was to teach mass sessions of yoga to 50 international, mixed level students. Ordinarily, I might have been freaking terrified (!) ....but given the circumstances - teaching to to students/ Buddhists who spend their time mediating on loving-kindness and compassion- I felt pretty good about it!! Also, It seemed like the practical step after having spent the previous month, 7 hours/day, studying yoga with 6 different highly technical Viniyoga teachers.
As much as I would like to expand on the monastery, Shamanic Tibetan Buddhism, pink-butt monkeys, the Himalayas, Yogic superpowers, 4 1/2 hour clairvoyant massages, naked holy men, Emptiness, and tantric texts, I am exhausted and next few days are expected to be a circus around here. His holiness, the Dali Lama XIV, arrives tomorrow and will be here for the next week giving various talks relating to Buddhism, Emptiness, and Happiness. Get this: to see the Dali Lama speak through the week, one must bring only 2 passport photos and the equivalent of .25 ! Hot dawg! For the locals, it is not too extraordinary, though. Dharamsala has been his home since fleeing Tibet in 1959.
On the 18th, I fly back to Chennai to begin a 28-day semi-camping trip up the East coast of India and into the rural, tribal communities. It may be difficult for me to access a computer after this time, but I will post and reply as I can. Kindly disregard whatever vast grammatical errors or nonsensical phrases appear throughout this email! haw!
Much love ya'll!
Kelleigh )
