sangpo

I've been back in New Delhi for the past week after three weeks in Bodhgaya. For non-Buddhist readers, Bodhgaya is in Bihar State, which is in central northeastern India, near Nepal. Bodhgaya is like the Mecca or Jerusalem of Buddhism, as it is the location where Shakyamuni Buddha, the forth Buddha of this world system attained enlightenment 2500 years ago beneath the bodhi tree. We are currently under his teachings, until the manifestation of the next Buddha, his disciple Maitreya, the Buddha of Loving Kindness. I was in Bodhgaya for teachings with His Holiness The Dalai Lama. I arrived Christmas Eve after two days of train travel from Dharamsala in North India. The journey was exhausting. My Tibetan travel agent could only route me to Gaya proper via Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, a city I wanted ... read more

I arrived in McLeod Ganj at twighlight this morning. Made it in under 12 hours (and seemed less). Pulling into Dharamsala at night with the lights and the moon was fantastic. I arrived at the bus terminal up the road in McLeod Ganj, the largely Tibetan settlement of Dharamsala and was just mobbed by would-be "friends" and wanna-be porters. "My friend, my friend." Yeah, I'm your "friend" if I give you my rupees. Not. I'm glad I made it as there was a little bit of a fiasco concerningmy bus ticket yesterday. After checking out of my room, I queried about my ticket. The Tibetan morning hostes showed my I was ticketed for yesterday the 13th. I was in a dilema. I'd already checked out of my room, and the hotel was full (my room spoken ... read more

Friday was a casual day, just hung about at Manju Ka Tila. Felt fatigue from jet lag or time zone disparity (being 12.5 hours ahead of my system), so I took a nap then wondered about. The Tibetan settlement colony is back off the road, and isolated somewhat from the noise. Vehicle honking though is ubiquitous. They love their horns here. The skill of driving here is very impressive. I mean they don't think of terms of lanes, but more three dimensionally. I couldn't drive here with the controlled chaos. Interestingly, there's quite variety of multi-phonic horns that rival mobile phone ring tones. That prompted a business idea, development of a wider range of them. I sleep soundly here, and it may be exhaustion and jet lag. I was surprised by the amount of traffic that ... read more

The overnight flight on Italian Alitalia airlines from New York was fantastic! A welcome antidote to the cramped Delta code-sharing frlight from Denver earlier. I spilt coffee on myself during turbulance, then on the poor guy in front of me when I got up to let the two ladies next to me out for their potty break. He was mad at first, but delt with it gracefully and got over it fast once he saw I was a monk. The Alitalia flight crew were great, especially the stewards. Not having spoken Italian in so long, I was suprised how easily it came back to me. However, I kept slipping into Portuguese but they understood. They were very intrigued I was a Tibetan Buddhist monk. They and the women flight attendants were very accomidating. I mean I ... read more