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on our way to enlightenment

Meditating with Monkeys

We're out! We're out! Yes, the rumours are true. We have made it through our 10-day retreat in silence, learning about Tibetan Buddhism. Now, the time has come for me to share nothing other than our encounters with the lovely monkeys of Dharamsala.

The monkeys around Tushita are very clever and rather sneaky little guys. We were warned that if we were eating any of our meals away from the dining hall and some monkeys approached, it was best to just hand your food over to them, since they would take it anyway. Since we had heard similar warnings in the past, I wasn't too concerned about it. I mean... they're just a few monkeys, right?

Well, it turns out we lived very intimately with these creatures and I will share three encounters with you.

The Cookie Thief
From 2-3pm everyday we were allowed to speak in small groups of six to ten people. These were our assigned discussion groups. After a few days, one of the members of my group thought it would be nice to bring a package of cookies for us to enjoy while we discussed different points of Tibetan Buddhism. What a lovely gesture, I thought, and apparently so did the rest of my group, as the next day three people brought packages of cookies!

Three packages!!! A FEAST! Oh boy oh boy, so we quickly devoured the first package and opened the second. Discussions took our attention away from the cookies and towards each others' hearts. It was really the most lovely part of the day.

Anyway, back to the monkeys. So, as were were listening to one of our group members speak, a monkey slowly crept up and crawled silently between two of us. Before we had time to even acknowledge that a monkey was sitting in the middle of our circle, it snatched the package of cookies at incredible speed and ran away to consume them in a nearby tree.

We laughed heartily as did all the neighbouring groups. Oh, you little monkeys.

The Apple Snatch
Often we had the opportunity to eat apples as part of our lunch. We grabbed as many as we liked from a bucket where they had been sliced in half. Being an apple lover, I grabbed a half, put it in my salad bowl, and head outside to eat on the porch of the dining hall.

Practicing mindful eating meditation, I sat very quietly and observed every bite I took, taking special care to put down my fork between bites. While I sat there, surely as serene as Shakyamuni Buddha himself, a monkey saw the perfect opportunity for his lunch. He jumped down from a tree ran across a nearby roof, fell to the railing, scurried across the table, and SNATCH! He reached into my salad bowl and looted my apple!

Everyone laughed and the monkey returned to a tree just above where I was sitting and sat there eating the apple right in front of me. Oh, you sneaky little bugger.

The Revolution
One evening while we all sat in the gompa, we heard incessant monkey cries from outside. This was not altogether unusual, but this time there was quite a bit more than what we typically heard. So, Stephanie and I took a peek out one of the windows where we saw around ten monkeys just hanging around out front of the gompa. They just sat around in what Stephanie saw as a planning moment of the revolution when monkeys will take over. It lasted for 20 minutes and was really quite interesting to watch.

Around fifteen of us were just standing watching the monkeys in confused amazement. Oh, you crafty little buggers.


Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post. I've been at this computer for far too long now, so I'll see you later :-)

Om Mani Padme Hum

Yesterday we emerged from Tushita after ten days of intense learning and contemplation. I feel saturated and tired, inspired and happy. Along with the mystical aspects of Buddhism, there is so much powerful, logical goodness. What I saw as the heart of the Buddha's teachings simply felt like a summary of my upbringing.

Last night everyone who did the course, about 50 of us, met for dinner. It was really neat getting to speak to people for the first time after feeling like I already knew them through the silent experiences we shared.

For the next few days Pete and I are gonna hang around here. The mountains are beautiful and never seem to escape our sight, the place is colourful and compact (I keep running into people I know which is a great feeling being so far from home) and the Tibetan momos (dumplings) are delicious. Dharamshala is a place with a predominantly Tibetan population: this is where the Dalai Lama came for refuge and has called his home for the last 49 years. It is only since I've been here that I've really gained an awareness of the tragedy happening in Tibet. We visited the Tibet Museum this afternoon where there is an exhibition called "A Long Look Homeward". Eleven Tibetan refugees shared their recollections of the Chinese violence and oppression against their people, their fear that Tibet's history and culture will be erased, stories of their escape and their hopes for the future. It's very upsetting. I am very interested in talking to some Chinese people about the issue.

After that we went to the temple out front of His Holiness' abode. We went at a good time; we got to see a whole bunch of Buddhist monks debating. They pace back and forth and are extremely animated, one monk lunging at his opponent and smacking his hands together in front of his face, shouting something so profound, I suppose.

"Om mani padme hum": a Tibetan Buddhist mantra that generates compassion. Of all the mantras I've been introduced to, this is my favourite. (Mantras are a big deal on this side of the planet.) I will sing it for you when I'm home. I hope you're all well. Peace and love!

Peace Out, Manali

Well we're just about ready to leave Manali. Tomorrow will be our final day. I think we will take the bus in the evening, but we've yet to decide. Then we'll be reaching beautiful Dharamsala!

For those of you who didn't know, the Dalai Lama held public teachings in Dharamasla from September 30 to October 4, which we strongly considered attending. We were going to take the train straight from Rishikesh, but all the tickets were sold out. We decided it wouldn't be worth it to sit amongst thousands of other pilgrims, likely a few blocks away and around the corner from the Dalai Lama himself, so we didn't look into any other method of getting to the city. Of course there was also the fear of there not being enough guest houses for everyone!

Anyway, back to beautiful Manali. The most lovely place we've been yet. Everything is just wonderful here. The people are very nice and relaxed, the climate is perfect, the hotels are cheap. We actually changed our hotel from the Sunshine Guest House to the Paradise Guest House in Old Manali. It's a great place to stay. The water is hot, the room is clean, the owners are friendly, and it's only Rs. 200 a night (approximately $5 Canadian).

We were eager to go see the sulphur hot springs across the river at the town of Vashisht just outside of Manali, but upon arriving we were grimly disappointed. We had visions of a beautiful little pool in a cave or something similar, but we were greeted by a grungy little box in the ground in the middle of the town. We let the water pour on to our hands, but we refused to dip our entire bodies in that cess pool.

Besides Vashsisht, we've visited a couple temples, including the place where Manu (aka Noah who owned a really big ark) meditated after saving humanity and all kinds of other creatures. It was all right.

More interesting was the Hadimba temple where vicious animal sacrifices are given for three days every year in May. Tons of skulls of the animals are attached to the outside of the temple. Strangely enough, we didn't get to see the inside of the temple. Why, you ask? WELL!!! They were filming a Bollywood moving out front!! It was pretty funny to watch the actors poke their eyes to facilitate crying.

We stayed around to watch a few downtrodden scenes before heading out to be greeted by furry yaks and rabbits. Steph was actually swarmed by four or five ladies each with rabbits in their hands asking if she would like a photo with them (for money, of course). Little did they know, all Steph wanted was to be surrounded by the incredibly furry creatures and was completely satisfied by the swarm.

Besides all that action, we've just been chilling and eating delicious foods, a topic I prefer to leave to Stephanie.

Oh and before I go, I suppose I should mention that Manali is the Cannabis Capital of India. It's growing everywhere! It has quite a pleasant smell. Many of the locals sell charas (although it is illegal), which is basically hashish. Someone told me they make it by rubbing their hands on the plants the rolling the crystals they get from them into the charas. Cool, eh?

So we're sad to leave Manali, but we're hoping Dharamsala will be just as nice. We'll be doing a 10-day meditation course at the Tushita Meditation Center, in complete silence. To read more about the course we're taking, see Introduction to Buddhism.

See ya