Nepal

Has it been three years already since we've been in Nepal?
I had gone there to visit one the schools that our friend, Lama Pema Wangdak, had established for refugees in the Tibetan diaspora. Lama Pema had devoted 10 years to creating a Tibetan language based Braille system, Buryig. He was also establishing the first mainstream school for visually impaired Tibetan refugees in another one of his schools, in Mundgod, India.

Kate and I were each sponsoring young monks who lived at Pema T'sal, Pokhara. Our friend Marylin and her daughter Manon had already been in the monastery for the summer, teaching, organizing an art show, sharing their widely compassionate hearts and abundant energy and love.
Chrissy was with us, not long returned from Brazil, were she had done volunteer work with orphans, and continued to develop her capoeira skills. At one point, asked to teach a class on "something" to the monks, Chrissy had them tuck up their tunics, do a few exercises, then dive into some basic capoiera moves (capoeira is like a cross between martial arts, dancing, and floating in mid-air).

To our knowledge it was the first (and only) capoeira class taught to refugee Tibetan monks in the Himalayas....

Lama Kunga (pictured here) is a strong, calm, extraordinary Headmaster, as well as being a lama of advanced spiritual skills. Sometimes the two of us would talk about whatever came into our heads. At other times we might just sit on the roof of Pema Tsal, overlooking the vast mountain ranges beyond, and words were entirely unnecessary. Leaving him was very difficult, as was leaving the magic of this extraordinary space.

To sponsor a monk is inexpensive: just $35 a month. It goes a long way in this part of the world, and not a penny of it is wasted. The returns are enormous, cosmic even. And on top of all that, Kate and I get Christmas cards each year from each of our "sons", usually with a drawing of a SantaBuddha, and report on how they are progressing in their studies.

If this appeals to you, please visit the Vikramasila website
http://www.paldensakya.org/index.html
or email Michele Sakow, the secretary,
at sangye@aol.com
Anyone who does so gets a raffle entry for each month of sponsorship...

(PS: In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, everyone you ever met or will meet either has already been your mother in a past life, or will be in the future. How can you be angry at your mother?)

RAFFLE QUESTION: Describe the CURRENT form of government in Nepal

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