Om Mani Padme Hum...

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McLeod Ganj, up in the clouds, cold and wet!....Made us home sick!

Despite the weather it's a nice relaxed place and this is mainly down to the high population of Tibetan refugees living here under the wing of "His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama", who himself has claimed asylum here since leaving Tibet after the Chinese invasion.

The whole town is based on the top of a hill and around the main temple and monastery complex....an interesting place to wander around, especially the small museum that details the Tibetans fight for their country.

Dan - The only other thing we finally got around to doing is learning a spot of meditation, Uncle Richard, Auntie Janet and Ray hopefully you will understand this. We learnt first how to clean our 7 main Chakras and raise our Kundalini. For those of you that don't know what the Kundalini is it is known as a number of things, The power of the Universe (if you have seen Star Wars it's called the force) the energy from within, The Holy Spirit and some may say 'GOD', its the power that makes our hearts beat and our lungs breath air.

Nic - We've been contemplating learning Meditation for quite a while, especially being in India - It seems the right thing to do! - and so when we came across a poster for free admission to "Sahaja Yoga Meditation" we thought it'd be a good idea to give it a go. We were a little nervous at first as our experiences have tought us to be wary of getting something for nothing and during our first session, just as I was beginning to relax and clear my mind a sudden panic ran through my body......What if it's only free admission, what if they charge us a fortune to LEAVE???!!!!!!!!!.

Dan - Yes what if, what if.......What if my Auntie had balls, would she be my Uncle ????? ha ha
The teacher 'Dav-vid' (French) was a nice bloke a bit scatty though, he locked his keys in the room one day and we found him running around the town in panic, but guess what came to his rescue??????.....'The Leather Man' for those of you that are not familiar it's the Rolls Royce of Pen knives......... Thanks Dad. I had to use it to take the window apart.

Nic - Anyway, back to the meditation....We learnt a lot of theory behind the chakras and kundallini and also a mantra or two (they sound good chanting them here, but not sure they'll sound so authentic sung at home!) and generally how to relax our thoughts and direct our attention to areas that need extra work...so we'll see how it goes!

One afternoon when out for a stroll, we were attracted to a large gathering of excited, but very controlled people and so approached to find out what was happening. We were lucky enough to get there just in time to see His Holiness arrive home from Australia!.....shame his cheuffer didnt drive a little slower, but I said "Hello" and waved to him for you Ray!

All this leaning to stay calm and rid ourselves of fear and anger really didnt work straight away. Just when we could've done with a bit of clarity it escaped us completely.......Let me explain:
We'd woken one morning and got ourselves together, ready for breakfast and our meditation class.....I was taking ages as usual (although not in comparrison to how long it used to take me to get ready I the mornings!) and were running short of time. Ready at last to run out of the door and......EEEEeeeekkk, it was locked from the outside. Immediately we paniced and began banging and shouting until a sleepy little Tibetan man heard our cries and rescued us.

Dan - Think some little punk Indian kid from the family next door locked it!!!

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Photos

Up in the clouds
A rare moment of clear skies

Dav-vid
Playing Guitar & Digeridoo

Statue inside main Temple
(Bit scary we think?!)

Comments

[scotty]

meditate
yeah man get in2 the meditating i do tai chi amazing keep it up guys never a dull moment in your world