Conclusion of the 2008 Dzogchen Summer Retreat

The Dzogchen Summer Retreat is almost over. So much has happened. We’ve been preparing for and holding a Drupchen for the past few days. It’s been the most elaborate Drupchen that Khenpo has organized in the United States so far. The dancing and costumes are much more elaborate, and we have a better translation this time around. The entire text is over 300 pages. The teachings that Khen Rinpoche have been giving have been just phenomenal. It’s so amazing to watch him conduct the entire Drupchen. There are so many moving parts. It's like conducting a symphony.

I’ve had the privilege of leading the singing for the English portions of much of the Drupchen, which has been very joyful for me, yet daunting, since there were almost no singing rehearsals (there was one brief rehearsal for one short section). The English translations were written to get the meaning acros rather than to be lyrical. Poetry does not usually translate very gracefully from one language to another. So I’m spontaneously singing melodies that are inspired by the ones that Khenpo sings for the Tibetan source, but the phrases have awkward numbers of syllables and some pretty unusual words in them. It’s all good though and everyone is having a great time with all the dancing and music. Another lama is here helping Khenpo by leading a group of retreatants playing rolmos (Tibetan cymbals), drums and conchs.

There are a lot of people here interested in music so I think it will be a very musical retreat. I brought along quite a few musical instruments and much of my recording studio, so there is bound to be some great Dharma music created during the remainder of the retreat.

I've been helping people order any texts they need via Amazon and many arrived yesterday. I ordered a nice Oxford two volume dictionary as well as an Oxford thesaurus to help with translation questions.

On the summer solstice, just before I drove to Oregon for the retreat, I was able to go Whale Watching on Monterey Bay as part of a cruise organized by Laura Almada of Earthly Treasures. The cruise was on a Sanctuary Whale Watching Cruises boat. I edited most of the photos before the retreat, but just got a chance to upload the photos yesterday. Here's a gallery of 108 of the best shots.

Look in All Directions

I'm here at the retreat center. I arrived on June 28, a week ago. A lot has happened and I'm not able to recount much right now. There have been some great improvements since I was last here a couple months ago. The place feels great and everyone is busy and happy to be back.

I’ll close this post with a brief portion of a teaching given by Dzogchen Khenpo Choga this morning, July 6, 2008. This is a paraphrase, not an exact quote:

Each person has their own universe. The more negative thinking one has, the smaller, darker and narrower their universe becomes. For example, hell beings can barely move. The more positive thinking one has, the more vast and bright one's own universe becomes. If you are always thinking about "me" you will almost strangle yourself with your ego clinging, like locking yourself in a little cage. Therefore one should look to all universes, in all directions with a single omniscient wisdom eye.

Evening Teaching this Friday

I'm holding a public talk and discussion this Friday in San Anselmo at Jack and Judith's home in San Anselmo. The topic is "Preliminary Practice, the Heart of Spiritual Practice." Please arrive by 6:50 PM since I plan to start promptly at 7.

I've also been holding morning Buddha Path practices for the past three weeks and continuing for most of next week. I'd love it if you joined me next Monday through Thursday mornings. Please arrive at Laura's store in Larkspur at 7:20 AM so you have 10 minutes to settle in.

There are details and directions for the teaching event and practices on the Dzogchen Buddha Institute site.

Home Free in Marin

So much has happened since I got back to the States two months ago! I'll try to briefly summarize some highlights.

In April I organized and helped to teach the Dzogchen Spring Retreat at the Dzogchen Retreat Center near Eugene, Oregon. That experience alone could have filled a whole series of posts, but I was too busy during the retreat to write anything.

I returned to California in early May to finish moving out of my home in Marin County as part of my divorce settlement. That whole process has been a huge emotional challenge for my wife and I, but throughout the process we've managed to remain good friends. If not for all the amazing teachings we've had from Rinpoche over the years I think it might have been much harder for us to deal with the divorce process. For all the negative aspects of impermanence in our human relationships, these kind of changes also open doors to new and positive possibilities.

I'm currently still in Marin and am busy doing about a thousand things in preparation for the 6-month Dzogchen Lineage Internship which starts on the 4th of July. I'm sorting through all the possessions I've accumulated from 15 years of living in the same place. I'm purging a lot of unnecessary stuff which feels great. My load is lightening and this should allow me to be more free to travel and teach after the retreat.

I'm also working writing music again and have been learning Logic, Apple's pro-audio software system. I decided to migrate away from Digidesign's ProTools and so far I'm amazed at the power of Logic.

I'm leading a daily Buddha Path Practice at 8AM every weekday in Marin City and also holding some evening Dharma teachings at 7 PM on Friday nights. Khenpo Rinpoche requested that I do some teaching prior to the Internship so I'm fulfilling that aspiration.

I'm currently "home-free" meaning I'm homeless and don't have a fixed home base (other than my tent at the retreat center 550 miles from here in Oregon). Fortunately, friends have stepped in to give me access to floors to sleep on and showers to use, but most nights I've been car-camping, which is quite comfortable in my Honda Element. You just have to find a place that is relatively dark, quiet and private without upsetting someone living nearby or getting chased off by the cops.

My office is my laptop, which is equipped with Sprint Broadband service, so that I can have Internet access from nearly anywhere. I only have to find a coffee shop or fast food restaurant that doesn't mind if I use an electrical outlet for a few hours to work. I have to wear ear plugs to block out the muzak. It's a very nomadic experience and I've gotten to sleep and work in several different cities in Marin. I have also had some first-hand experiences about the stress experienced by those who are living without homes.

I made the "home-free" choice to conserve my funds in preparation for the 6-months of being out of work, but also to get a sense of what it is like for the many Americans who have been displaced from their homes and are couch surfing, living out of their cars, living in tents, or simply staying out on the streets. I think I'm feeling a lot more compassion for people in those circumstances than I was before. I've got a great car to get around with and sleep in. I have a nice storage facility I'm renting to store most of my things. How many homeless people don't even have that? Living with your possessions in a shopping cart has got to be very very stressful.

Roshi Bernard "Bernie" Glassman is a Zen Buddhist master from the NYC region. I met Bernie at a Buddhist Leadership Conference in Vermont last fall. Since 1995 he has been offering retreats where his students could experience homelessness first hand, which he calls "bearing witness." I think he's really quite remarkable, with all the amazing things he's done with his life and all of the people he has helped.

What I'm experiencing is a bit like Bernie's homeless retreats, but I'm not quite living on the streets since I'm protected by my wheels. I'm trying to live a "normal" life with my daily Buddhist practice and still making some kind of a living while not having anywhere to call home other than my various touch points. It's not that easy to deal with, but it is very eye opening.

Well I need to go do a bunch of things to prepare for the teaching tomorrow night so that's all for now.

California Dreamin

I'm finally back in the States after six weeks of traveling in Asia. I have developed a greatly deepened appreciation for many of the best aspects of our American culture, but also a newly expanded appreciation for many aspects of the Indian, Nepali and Tibetan cultures. It was an amazing pilgrimage with countless new experiences packed into six weeks.

I'm staying at Nicole and Lorna's tonight. I tried starting my car earlier this evening, and it started fine. I didn't expect it to start based on what happened on February 18, when it wouldn't start the morning that Nicole took me to the airport and we had to push it out of the driveway to park it on the street. That's a mystery I'll try to solve tomorrow.

Due to the long flight back, I haven't slept quite enough and am still on my Asian sleeping rhythm, so I'd better head to bed.

London Calling

I'm in London in the brand-new Terminal 5 at Heathrow. It's a very modern design and all the surfaces are shiny and clean. British Airways opened this terminal four days ago with much fanfare and many glitches that have resulted in thousands of lost bags and numerous canceled flights, including my flight to LAX. I think BA is doing their best to iron out the problems, but I had one challenging experience with the last security point as one enters the secure part of the terminal.

There is a type of new system for running one's carry-on bags and shoes through x-ray machines. You can tell that whoever designed the system really tried to make it run smoother and require less labor than the systems we're familiar with where the security people manually carry the trays back to the beginning point. I can't imagine that the manufacturer of the new device actually field-tested the system with real airline customers. The conveyer system was totally befuddling every effort by the BA staff to inform the customers how to use it and the customers were even more confused. After I went through, it looked like my bags were going to get sucked into the automated tray return system, and I bumped into a lady who got between two of my trays that were racing by me. I almost spilled all her things on the floor. It was very awkward. I resorted to dumping all my things on the floor so that I could pull them together and get out of the way of everyone and so that I could get my shoes back on. Everyone, including the staff was getting tripped up by the automated tray conveyor. These are the sorts of worldly experiences that really test one's equinimity after being on a retreat and pilgrimage. I can't say I passed the test very well!

Of course the whole pilgrimage was filled with many many experiences like this, and overall I did pretty well and tried to treat everyone I encountered on my journey with as much compassion and kindness as I could generate. Really everyday life is always presenting us with these kinds of tests, opportunities to practice in every moment. It is so benefical to oneself and others to always keep Dharma in mind.

I'll be back in the States at LAX by mid-afternoon on March 31. Eddie said he'd pick me up at the airport and I hope to stay in LA for a couple days to sort things out and maybe get together with some of the LA Sangha to share some of my experiences. Hope to see some of you, perhaps on the evening of Wednesday, April 2. Julian and/or I will send out emails about any plans that arise.

I'm hoping to get back the the SF Bay area by Friday, April 4. I think I'll be able to attend Sunday practice on Sunday, April 6.

Flight Canceled

I flew back from Bangalore to Delhi today. I had one interesting adventure today, when landing at Delhi I saw a building from the air that I'd read about online. It's called the Lotus Temple and is quite dramatically shaped like an opening lotus bud. I was able to get a pre-paid cab for only Rs.350 from the domestic terminal to Manjun Ka Tila, and then once in the cab negotiate a Rs.300 side trip to the Lotus Temple. Amazing place. I'll write more about it once I post the photos I took today.

I'm currently back at the Ga-Khyl House, a Tibetan-run guest house in the Tibetan Colony located in the Majun Ka Tila (pronounced ma-jun-ka te-la) area of north Delhi. It's a very nice place with hot water and private bathrooms. Rates are currently only about Rs.500 per night. I can put you in touch with Nyima the manager if you'd like to stay here. He was kind enough to store two of my bags while I was in Bangalore. I'm scheduled to fly from Delhi to Heathrow in about 5 hours, so I need to head to the airport soon. Nyima suggested I get there 4 hours early.

I briefly got online to discover an email sent to me only 4 hours ago from British Airways informing me that my flight from Heathrow to LAX was just cancelled! I've heard that BA just opened a new terminal at Heathrow and it is a complete disaster with many people having lost baggage and some flights being cancelled, like mine just was. I need to go sort that out. If it is good for me and all sentient beings, may my trip home be smooth!

Bhajans in Sanskrit

This afternoon I was able to attend a music class lead by Gustaf the head of the music program here. His wife, and another German man who are also talented musicians participated along with Gonga and Tara.

A bhajan (also known as a kirtan) is a devotional song (or can refer to a devotional singing session), usually with Sanskrit lyrics and often of ancient origin. The lyrics often respectfully speak of longing for deeper connection with some aspect of the divine often personified by a deity. Sanskrit is truly an ancient holy language, with most words imbued with meanings both vast and profound. I'm familiar with quite a few Sanskrit words because of my Tibetan Buddhist practice, but I learned some new ones today since each bhajan had a translation into English below the lyrics. The melodies are sometimes also ancient, but occasionally may be much more recent in origin.

A few of the bhajans are recent and use English or German lyrics. Swami has a lot of German students and perhaps 80% of the students here at the moment hail from Germany.

The style of singing is call-and-response, with the bhajan leader singing a line of the song, and then the rest of the group responding by repeating the same melodic line. Sometimes a line is repeated two or more times before the leader moves on to the next line or next melody.

The instrumentation at this ashram has included guitar, harmonium, double-headed drum, and finger cymbals.

The combination of the heartfelt instrument playing, the beautiful melodies, which range in tone from wistfully dark to playfully staccato, layered over with the Sanskrit lyrics, which have a lot of vowels and roll easily off the tongue, is really quite amazing and inspiring.

For me, music is a open doorway to transcendent experiences so I wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about the musical traditions practiced at this ashram. I've now attended the evening bhajan for the past three evenings. Every night from 8 to 9 PM everyone in the ashram gets together in their main temple to sing the devotional songs together. I'll be able to attend one more evening bhajan tomorrow before I head back to the States.

Today was the final written exam for the students in the University program here. They are currently on a trimester system and today marked the end of the trimester. For those students, there was announced there may be a field trip to some of the neighboring temples this weekend, and although I'm just a guest, it is looking like I might also be able to attend. I'll know more first thing in the morning.

I got to hear Sri Kaleshwar teach briefly tonight after the bhajan. His teaching related to the final exams. His accent is fairly pronounced, so I didn't get that much from what he said. One thing he did say that I thought could be related to any practice or even life pursuit is that one needs to practice and study for 2 to 3 hours per day to maintain one's knowledge and skills.

Gonga and Tara have been telling me about all of Swami's activities, and he really does so many things to help the people within his sphere of influence. I totally rejoice at his positive aspirations and activities. The ashram he has created here has been called the nicest in India, and that is easy to believe. It is a large desert oasis. It seems like a paradise world. They are in the process of adding more adjacent land and expanding the facilities. One of the buildings that is going up will add 200 more apartments within the ashram.

We had another unseasonable downpour tonight with lots of thunder and lightning. It is over now, and the air is super clean. In general, this location has some of the best air I've experienced in India. There is still a little smoke from local wood fires and the occasional burning of plastic trash in the neighborhood, but Penukonda is fairly far from from any major population centers, and is so arid that there are not very many farms nearby, hence less sources of air pollution.

Penukonda, India

Last night I arrived in Penukonda, India with Gonga and Tara. Their favorite driver Sheru drove us from the Lakshimi Hotel in central Bangalore in about 3 hours. It is north of Bangalore near the central highway of India, which is under major reconstruction from a two-lane country road to a six lane divided highway.

I spent the night here at the Ashram. It is very beautiful and the foliage is very lush. A true oasis in the middle of an arid desert area in south central India. It is nestled at the base of a rocky mountain.

Bangalore (AKA Bengaluru on Indian maps) had many adventures and interesting experiences with Gonga and Tara acting as my tour guides to the city. When I have time, I'll recount some of them.

Yesterday I was able to convey Julian's hard drive to a firm called Stellar Information Systems that will attempt to recover the precious data and have it ready for me by Sunday when I leave India. It turned out that Stellar's main office and clean room is in Delhi, actually Gurgaon near the airport. Unfortunately I didn't know that before I flew to Bangalore. Today I learned from another person at the ashram that there is a firm in Bangalore called Disk Doctor who has a clean room in Bangalore. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If they are successful, I'll have to pay RS.23,000, which is about $575 USD. Hopefully they will be successful since there are the only copies of photos on that hard drive from the first half of the pilgrimage from Khenpo's camera, my camera and at least one other pilgrim's camera. Anyone who is able to contribute to this expense would earn some good merit I'm sure. I could use some sponsorship.

With Gonga and Tara in Bangalore

Wow I made it to Bangalore via JetLite, a carrier which allows only 9" leg room between the seat rows. Somehow I squeezed in my 6' frame and sat with my knees jammed against the seat in front of me for 90 minutes on the tarmac and then a couple more hours in the air. I was very thankful that the nice lady in front of me did not try to lean her seat back, not that she could have if she tried. My seat backed on the exit row, so it was rigged not to tilt back at all. My little mini Thermarest pads made it more bearable, but it was one of the most challenging flights I've ever taken.

Sheru, who is Gonga and Tara's favorite driver in Bangalore was at the airport exit waiting for me. He had to wait two hours due to the technical delays the plane had experienced in Delhi. He happily met me and drove me in his little Tata micro car from the old airport located south of the city to the city center, a distance of about 11km. I say "old" airport, since in a few weeks the brand new airport will open north of the city. This will have tremendous ramifications for the future development of Bangalore. The center of gravity for business will no doubt shift far north. Land prices are reportedly skyrocketing. The new airport is reportedly a state of the art facility, similar to the new airport that just opened this year near Hyderabad, India's other growing tech city.

Once I arrived at the Sri Lakshmi Comforts Hotel & Lodge (Rs.750/night) on M.G. Road (actually Mahatma Ghandi Road, although nobody calls it by the full name) I took a shower and before I had gotten dressed, Gonga and Tara knocked at my door. I quickly finished getting ready and we walked together to a nice Chinese restaurant around the corner named "Mainland China" We met their friend Balaram (aka William), who attended the same high school as Gonga, although 10 years more recently. Chris regaled us with some stories about Swami (his current guru Sri Kaleshwar) and we tag-teamed on some Dharma stories about Khenpo. I told them some stories about the recent pilgrimage. The buffet was amazing and only RS.250 each. I thought the food was as good as the food at the Hyatt in Kathmandu, but of course was a very different food selection, being all Chinese-inspired dishes.

Afterwards William took a cab to an Ayurvedic supply store and the other three of us walked to the i-Store, which is owned by Reliance Digital, an Indian firm with the exclusive franchise for selling Apple products in India. The interior has some of the feel of an Apple Store in the USA. The prices were the same, although in rupees. For example an Apple Air was Rs.96,000, which translates to about $2450 USD at today's exchange rate. It turned out they couldn't really help with the failed hard drive and so referred me to an Apple Authorized Service Center a few blocks away. We followed Gonga to a photo store, then Sheru showed up with William. Since William went his own way, Tara and and I took the cab to the the service center.

The service place was on the 7th floor of a corporate banking building with Citibank as the anchor tenant. Once there the tech guy Somsundar tried booting the system with another PowerBook using "target mode" but no luck on mounting my drive. Then he said that he couldn't fix it there and sent us to Stellar Information Services in Bangalore's Manipal Center, only a block away.

Once at Stellar, it became clear that they are not a high-end data recovery service with a clean room on-site, but they have that kind of service at their main Gurgaon office near the Delhi airport, where I was at 5 AM this morning! That was a bit of a bummer to hear since had I known in advance, I could have just arranged to drop off the drive myself. Then they quoted me a minimum data recovery rate of Rs.15,000 which is about $370 USD. That is a lot to me right now, but is about 1/6 of the rate I might pay in the USA at DriveSavers.

Tara and I got trapped at the Manipal Center by a sudden and unseasonable tropical downpour. The rain was much appreciated by me and really cleaned the air of a lot of smog and dust. We waited in a bookstore until the rain slowed, and then we ran out on the street and hailed an "auto rickshaw" which is basically a 2-cycle moped with a canvas covered area in back that will seat three thin passengers.

Tara called Gonga on her cell and then we met at an upscale shopping area on Brigade Road and ate at a Pizza Hut. It's interesting to see how a big food corporation repackages their menu and brand to appeal to the Indian market. For example, they had an Hindu temple-style bell at the exit, and when a departing customer rang the bell, the entire staff would shout "thank you!" They were doing a brisk business. Gonga and Tara eat so much rice and dhal and other Indian dishes at the ashram that they look forward to eating food from other cultures when they get to town.

Tomorrow I'm going back the the Apple Service Center to have them remove the drive and then I'll drop it off at Stellar or just overnight it to Delhi myself.

This cyber cafe is only Rs.10 per hour, but I only got about 1 hour of sleep last night due to late night repacking and then a 3 AM wake up call to go to the airport, so I'm pretty sleepy now and better wrap up before I fall asleep on the keyboard. The hot shower and soft bed at the Lakshimi Hotel is very welcoming.

Best Mo Mos

My new Tibetan friend Kelsang helped me find an ISD (international phone call) place outside of the Tibetan Colony (since all the Tibetan stores are closed) so that I could call the UK and talk to British Airways about changing my flight. I discovered that the change will be very expensive, about $520 if I make the change by phone and $422 if I book it online. Ouch. The "streets" in this area are amazing when compared to the USA. More alleys than streets. Several narrow places are only wide enough for one person to pass. There are gaping holes leading into sewers everywhere on sidewalks and edge of the streets, with no warning signs or barriers. With lots of ferrel dogs and a few cows and goats wandering around everywhere, there is shit all over the place. Needless to say, one needs to watch one's step.

Kelsang also found be a barber shop where I got a haircut for RS.20 (about 50 cents USD). They give quite a good head massage included in the fee and if you tip 10 more rupees, they'll give you a good back massage too.

Afterward he took me back to his home, the Lungta House, and ordered me some lamb mo mos. They were probably the best mo mos I've had in a long time, maybe ever. While we were waiting for the food, I was leafing through Tarthang Tulku's 2007 Monlam publication. This edition had a detailed explanation of Tarthang's editing, printing and distribution processes outlined and illustrated on several pages near the back. I was really rejoicing at how organized he is and how he does so many good things to preserve and perpetuate important Buddhist texts. Inside were many photos of Bohd Gaya and Vulture's Peak, two places I had just visited for the first time, so I felt more of a connection to the Monlam and made an aspiration to attend in the future.

I was also rejoicing that Kunchok helped arrange for Kelsang to guide us and help out while we are in Delhi. Kelsang's parents are both from Tibet, but I gathered he was born in India. Kunchok will probably be here tomorrow, but we'll miss him since we need to get up at 3 AM to get to the airport by 5 AM. Good night for now.

Stopover in Delhi

We arrived in Delhi about 10:20 AM local time after a short flight from Kathmandu. Susie, Chris, Sveta and I all stayed at the Marco Polo last night and got up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. I'm staying at the Ga-Khyil House in the Tibetan Colony (AKA Mandruk Ten La). All the businesses in the entire colony is shut down except for guest houses and in-house restaurants, in protest of the the stituation in Tibet. I was told there is a hunger strike going on as well. I went to the home where I stored a suitcase while I was in Nepal. Apparantly the man of the house was participating in the hunger strike, so it took them a few hours to track down the key to the room where the bags were locked up.

Tomorrow we will get up early and rendezvous at the airport at 5 AM to catch our flights. Susie, Betsi, Chris and Sveta are all flying back the states, and I'm off to Bangalore, where I have two goals, 1) to recover the thousands of photos on the hard drive that failed early in the pilgrimage, and 2) to meet Gonga and Tara (Chris and Kevan) and spend a couple days at the Penukonda Ashram where they have been studying for the past couple years.

Yesterday everyone from the pilgrimage and Khenpo's family all spent time together in various groups and solo explorations around Boudhanath Stupa. Geydak Rinpoche bought tea for a handful of pilgrims including me at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the stupa at sunset. Spectacular lighting and I got some great shots. I was able to purchase the final two offerings for the spring retreat, a pecha (Tibetan style loose leaf book) and a gold and silver plated mandala offering set.

At about 7 PM we all converged over at the nearby Hyatt Kathmandu, a very upscale new hotel. I imagine it is the nicest hotel in the Kathmandu Valley right now. We hung out in Khenpo's room and Chris helped me burn some DVDs of my photos so I could clear off my memory cards and have backups of my photos from Derhadun onward. Then we went to the Hyatt restaurant, and each had the NRS.1250 ($20 USD) buffet. That was easily the most expensive meal we ate on the trip, but it was very nice. The hotel is built to Western standards, so it was a bit like being briefly back in the States.

After the meal we retired to the huge patio near the pool and enjoyed the cool evening weather. Khenpo lead us through the conclusion of the pilgrimage, recalling some of the highlights and then having each of talk to the group much like the end of our Dzgochen retreats with our tradition of expressing, 1) appologies and saying sorry for any regrets, 2) giving thanks and rejoicing in anything good, 3) dedication of merit, and 4) personal aspirations. That's always inspring to hear such personal statements from friends. It it it a great tradition and allows people to let of of regrets and say good things they might not ordinarilly say.

I'm just borrowing a local Tibetan man's computer at the guest house since the local Tibetan Cyber Cafes are all closed, so I'd better sign off for now. I'll be able to write more in Bangalore.

Please pray for my successful hard drive recovery and may it be inexpensive. Prayers also for everyone's safe return to their homes after the amazing pilgrimage. We had so many remarkable experiences together. I've only just barely touched on some of them in this blog, but hopefully I can write more about what took place here or in another medium.

Fire Puja

Super quick post. Fire puja tonight in a new brick-lined fire pit that was dug and built this week. Khenpo lead the puja assisted by his brothers Rigzin Tarchin Rinpoche and Arik Rinpoche. Also helping were Dzogchen Geydak Rinpoche and Lama Lagya and all the monks from the retreat center. Kunchok Lama was also assisting. His mom is still here. His mom's sister (Geydak's mom) is here too. The monks were playing dunchen, gyaling, drums, cymbals, thighbone trumpets. The sounds were amazing.

Chris, Sveta, Susie and I left before the end since three of us were not feeling well. Susie in particular seemed to have gotten food poisoning and was in bed all afternoon.

Today was a festival where they throw water balloons and smear yellow and red powder. We had a multi-hour water balloon fight at the retreat center that was a lot of fun. Khenpo painted my face entirely red along with a few other pilgrims.

Back in Thamil for the night. Tomorrow we may visit Namo Buddha, where in an earlier lifetime the Buddha fed himself to a tigress in order to save her starving cubs.

Asura Cave

Chris, Sveta, Susie and I took a NRS.1000 cab from Thamil to Pharphing where Choki Nyima Rinpoche has a retreat center built around a famous cave where Guru Rinpoche requested many Dharmapalas to help spread the Dharma in Tibet. We arrived about the same time before 10 AM as Khenpo (who was accompanied by the remaining pilgrimage folks and his family), but a combination of cell-phone issues and miscommunication lead to us not finding them until about 2:30 PM. All was good and we had food, and met with Khenpo in the famous room where he debated with Namkhi Norbu many years ago as Tulku Urgen Rinpoche listened from the next room and Andreas sat next to Khenpo trying to get him to not debate too intensely. Khenpo said that Namkhi Norbu has high realization and he prostrates to him. Namkhi Norbu commented at the end of the debate that he was very surprised and happy that there were still Buddhist scholars being trained in Tibet.

Then Khenpo held a puja in the Asura Cave. More on that later.

Fire puja tomorrow at the retreat center in Godawari. The van will pick us up in the morning.

Apply for the Spring Retreat

While I'm traveling on the pilgrimage, I've been managing the Dzogchen Spring Retreat. I'm the Retreat Director again this year. This will be the 5th year that the San Francisco Bay Area organization, the Dzogchen Buddha Institute will have organized the spring retreat, that's pretty cool.

As long as some of you who will be attending are reading this, I'll request that if you have not registered and plan to attend the Dzogchen Spring Retreat with teachings on te Six Bardo Instructions given by Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, then please apply today. The link to the online form is on this page:
http://www.dzogchenlineage.org/2008_spring_retreat/

If you have been accepted into the retreat and have not yet paid, then please post your check as soon as possible. The mailing instructions are on this page:
http://www.dzogchenlineage.org/2008_spring_retreat/payment_options.html

I spent the day yesterday in Patan, an ancient town with narrow streets and many buildings that are 100 to 400 years old. It is kind of quaint in a Nepal sense, and is strongly identified with Nepali history. Justin and I were dropped off near Patan and took a cab together to get to the shopping area where many of the statues are. We went from shop to shop and studied endless statues. I'm looking for a nice quality, yet affordable statue of Guru Rinpoche to give to Khenpo-la during the opening ceremony of the Dzogchen Spring retreat. I'm also shopping for a nice mandala offering set, pecha, and crystal. These are the four traditional offerings.

After a couple hours of shopping, Justin and I found a place to eat outside. It was called UK Restaurant and had some Chinese dishes we ordered. A old man came by begging and I gave him a small coin and he actually left us alone after that. Justin called him the first professional beggar we have run into. There is no way to give offerings to all the countless beggars one encounters, and nearly always when you give, they ask for more. Sometimes people are grateful, but not always. There are are many people who actually beg professionally, including boys we saw in Bohd Gaya who used yoga to bend their legs into awkward positions and dragged their bodies along the ground using their arms. They were not actually injured. You also see quite a number of beggars with birth defects and it seems they tend to get more income than more-abled people just holding out a hand.

Justin called Khenpo and Khenpo asked him to return to Godawari, so we found him a cab and negotiated an NRS.400 fare to get back. I donated NRS.100 to help defray his expense to make the 25km ride back solo.

After he left, I walked another block forward and came to the Patan Durbar Square, an amazing complex of royal palaces and Hindu and Buddhist stupas and shrines. Patan is the oldest city in the Kathmandu valley and most of the buildings of the Palace Complex date from the 1600s. I discovered the Patan Museum and was convinced to purchase an NRS.250 entry ticket, which included unlimited photography inside. It was well worth it. I took photos of many of the wonderful antique artworks, mainly devotional statuary. I also shot the well written descriptions. I can't wait to spend more time studying my photos of the museum later on. I actually ran out of time, the museum closed before I finished one of the Buddhist galleries.

I took a NRS.120 taxi to Thamal district and located a decent hotel, the Marco Polo for only NRS.500... less than $10USD. The room had a queen bed, bathroom with warm water, and TV. I didn't use the TV, but the warm water felt good after only cold water at the retreat center. This morning the water was nearly hot since the power was back on overnight. The rolling blackouts are seemingly random (if you don't know the published schedule), and at night you need to get candles from the front desk if you don't have a flashlight.

I had purchased a bamboo flute in Thamil from a street vendor a couple days before. In the van that day I asked Chris about the embouchure (lip position) for a flute, since I'd never played a wind instrument without a reed before. He clued me in that my lower lip needed to feel the hole. In my hotel room last night I was able to finally get a tone and now I'm off and running with that instrument. I practiced a bit more today.

This morning I contacted Kunchok who is with Khenpo and was able to connect with Chris and Sveta as well, who are staying at the Hotel Tradition a couple blocks from me. I decided not to join Khenpo today as he toured Patan, Swambu and Boudhanath with his mom, who arrived safely yesterday. I figure this is the last chance for me to get the rest of the offerings for the Spring Retreat. Chris agreed to help look for a pecha of the Bardo Thodol, the source text written by Guru Rinpoche for the Six Bardo Instructions that Khenpo will be teaching on.

I better grab a cab to Patan and see if I can purchase one of the Guru Rinpoche statues I liked. I'm going to come back to Thamil to meet Chris, Sveta and Susie for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we visit one of the holy sites of Guru Rinpoche near Khathmandu with Khenpo.

Swambunath Stupa

Today we all visited Swambunath Stupa. It's on a hill overlooking much of Kathmandu. After a puja lead by Khenpo which included several tibetan lamas, monks and nuns, we all made positive aspirations there at a huge gold-plated copper dorje. It is said that if you do this, there is a good chance they will come true. We were there with Khenpo Konchok Monlam Rinpoche. He is a highly respected meditation master and abbot of Ngodrup Charbeb Ling Retreat Center as well as Nagi Gompa, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's Nunnery, both located in Kathmandu, Nepal. Khenpo Konchok commented during the aspiration ceremony that the more experience of emptiness one has, the more powerful one's aspirations are at this stupa.

Yesterday afternoon, Chris, Susie, Tenzin and I took a taxi from Boudhanath to Patan, an ancient town that is midway between Kathmandu and Godawari. The town is renowed for its Newari style copper statues and metalwork. The streets are so narrow, that two micro cars can barely pass each other. Many buildings look to be over 200 years old. I was shopping for offerings for the opening ceremony of the Dzogchen Spring Retreat. I had some success, but the time was short and I need to go back to negotiate price on a statue I found.

I changed my ticket to go to Bangalore to try to get Julian's hard drive recovered after the pilgrimage. I hope to see Gonga and Tara and spend a couple days at the Ashram they've been helping to manage which is a few hour taxi ride away. Hope to come back to the states around April 1st.

This is a bit of a fragmentary post due to time constraints.

Amazing Boudhanath

I'm writing from a Cosmos Cybernet, an Internet cafe overlooking Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. I'm able to get online for an hour and a half, but it looks like most of the time is going to managing the spring retreat, so this will be another brief entry.

Yesterday we came to Kathmandu to meet Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche with Khenpo. There's a lot I could write, but I need to keep it short for now. He blessed each of us twice and gave us a teaching on impermanence. He talked quite a while with Khenpo-la in Tibetan. He fed all 14+ of us tea and a delicious lunch. All this just minutes before he was to start a 9-day Drupchen practice. I was able to view the opening ceremony of the Drupchen. Really beautiful and amazing. This all took place at the monestary where Khenpo taught from about 1992 to about 1997. Afterwards we walked a couple blocks to Boudhanath and Khenpo immediately ran into the great secret yogi Pema Dorje who often lives in San Jose and his attendant Zongmo (Alexis) who is from Laytonville, California. This was the second time during the pilgrimage that we ran into Pema Dorje and with him was a well known Tibetan doctor Tsering ____ who is Chatral Rinpoche's doctor. We all participated in a ceremony that included kora, smoke offering, meditation and personal aspirations.

Afterwards we celebrated Susie Croxton's birthday at a nice restaurant. Susie, Chris, Sveta, Tenzin and I spent the night near the stupa and everyone else took to van back to the retreat center.

In the morning I got up at 4:30 AM and took a cold bucket bath at the Pema Guest House where Tenzin and I shared a room for NRS.350. I took all my things and came to the stupa to kora and take dawn photos. After that I did smoke offering and preliminary practice on the stupa. I met Susie and Sveta at their hotel restaurant. Chris joined us, then Tenzin. We made plans for the day. Tonight Khenpo will do a fire puja at the retreat center.

Attempting to catch up on some email. I got a note from my sister Bronwyn who said, " I've been following your blog on India with great interest. It's a spiritual journey wrapped in an adventure - fun to read your observations
and experiences. I hadn't appreciated the depth of your involvement in Buddhism, so I feel at least that I've gotten a better window into your world from reading the blog. I couldn't believe the story of you drinking Ganga water - this is the guy who hated to use plastic glasses or tableware because bacteria might be lurking in the microscopic crevices!! On a serious note, I hope you didn't become ill - polluted water can transmit diseases that are virtually unknown in North America - we lead privileged and fortunate lives, as you are seeing on your trip."

I haven't really told my family that much about my spiritual life over the years. I guess we each have our own faiths, and it is not always a comfortable subject for harmonious family gatherings. I have had a few deeper conversations about belief systems mainly with my brother Kim and his wife Mary Ann and of course a little bit of religious discussions with all my family. I really care a lot about every member of my family, but being the baby of the family and separated by 6 to 10 years in age from my siblings, we grew up a little bit apart, especially once I was in junior high and all of them were in college or working. When I moved to California in 1992, the gap kind of widened, but we have gotten together every couple years at least. We seem to get along very well when together, and we do stay in touch pretty well, but probably not as close as many families.

What my sister pointed out in her surprise about me sipping Ganga water indicates quite a shift in my thinking. My germ awareness grew as I got older and when I was studying ceramic engineering as a freshman in college I had a professor (Mr. Funk) who taught his students that only ceramic dish ware could be fully sterilized. I latched onto that idea and have been pretty meticulous about eating off clean dishes since that time.

Drinking Ganga water was really a step closer to what Buddhist philosophy labels pure perception. Perceiving all things purely as Buddha. Perhaps I'm making some progress on my path! So far I have not seemingly gotten sick from sipping some Ganga water. One can not always say exactly what conditions lead to a particular illness other than one's own negative thinking and negative karma as the primary cause, and if I do suffer from some symptoms that's just something to accept as a ripening of my negative karma. The ideal Buddhist response is to not complain, to actually rejoice that I'm burning negative karma, and to use the best skillful means to recover swiftly. Hopefully this trip will be a bit of an inoculation for me, toughening up my immune system for healthy world travel experiences for me in the future.

I guess this blog is not as much of a trip report. There is so much to write about my personal experiences that it is easy to imagine how a book could come about this trip alone.

I also so wish I could share a few of my photos, but there are some technical an time management issues that have been so far preventing me from sharing. If I was traveling alone, and better prepared, then I'd be able to photo blog more effectively. I'm learning a lot about life and travel in this part of the world.

I'm very grateful to Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche bringing me here and for his tireless efforts to have this pilgrimage create as many benefits for me and the others as possible. He's always working tirelessly to help all beings. I've seen him in so many different situations over the years, and in many new situations (new to me) during this trip. He's always teaching everyone around him and that is a great inspiration.

Kathmandu

I just got online at a dial-up cyber cafe in Kathmandu. Got to meet the group in a few minutes to take the van back to the Dzogchen Shri Singha Retreat Center in Godwari, so this will be short. Godwari is a tiny town about a 40 minute drive to downtown Kathmandu, and has no Internet cafe.

After my last post from Varanassi we visited Buddha's holy places in Kushinigar and Lumbini. That was the completion of the second phase of the pilgrimage. It was totally amazing and difficult and fun, but I'll have to write about that later.

Our group of 16 at that time caught a packed 32 seat turbo-prop from Yeti Airlines to fly from Lumbini to Kathmandu. This is like the third phase of the pilgrimage. We arrived safely and Khenpo and Kunchok had arranged an air conditioned bus to take us to the retreat center.

We visited Kathmandu yesterday to see the Boudanath Stupa... amazing. Today we visited the Thamil district and bought air tickets to Delhi for March 23. Also shopped. Gotta run for now.

Leaving Varanasi

Yesterday was another eventful day. I slept soundly for 9.5 hours straight. Had a hot shower. Full complementary "American Style" breakfast in the hotel. I spent about 4 hours online in the morning after breakfast, responding to email, managing the Spring Retreat and writing one of my more detailed blogs.

I signed-off just in time to catch the bus to Sarnath. We arrived there at 3:30. Khenpo was not there yet and a few of the pilgrims were with him at a Buddhist Conference that I told him about after I read about it in the newspaper he gave me to read the day before.

Most people congregated under the shade of a big tree and had a Dharma discussion. I kind of wandered about in my style. Took some photos, explored the ruins, did some kora, and imagined all the centuries of practitioners going back to the Buddha himself who had walked these hallowed grounds. I joined the group finally and rested. I didn't really participate in the discussion, but I heard bits of it and it was very good.

Khenpo arrived about 5 PM and we joined him near the large Dharma Chakra stupa. He gave a wonderful teaching in a beautiful setting. We were able to stay there until about 6:15 PM when we had to go next door to a temple where the teaching continued. Then we walked to a general store to buy supplies and on to a Tibetan Restaurant that was very primative. It was made of split bamboo lashed together and covered in layers of blue plastic tarps. The kitchen was positively scary by western standards, but the food was amazing, very tasty.

The bus brought us back to the hotel by 9:15 PM and then I walked around the block to join Khenpo who was getting an Aurevedic oil, massage, and steam treatment. I had the same, in a different room. Before it started, the owner, Namir gave me a ride in a tiny van to an ATM where I extracted rupees from a very strange (to me) ATM.

Back at the hotel about midnight, Betsi, Justin and Tenzin recruited me to join in a hunt for ice cream. The Baskin Robbins next door was closed, so we briefly crashed an Indian wedding across the street. It is wedding season here. Namir told me it is currently February, March, and April due to the Vedic Astrology. Auspicious times are very important for Indian wedding planning. We saw several weddings going on last night. One blocked our bus for several minutes and we got a close pass where I shot some photos. I bailed on the wedding and headed back to the room. I was about to get into bed when Tenzin said I needed to come to the lobby to eat ice cream. Betsi had struck gold and found that the front desk was willing to open the kitchen to get us some ice cream. It was strange and delicious. It had some kind of crunchy sugary mix-ins.

Got to bed by 1 AM and woke up at 6 AM. Not much sleep, but feeling good after the massage.

The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

On our last night in Bohd Gaya I was one of the last ones out of their rooms at the monestary and rolled by big bag into the darkened entrance courtyard to find nearly everyone in our group sitting around on the concrete with their bags inside the gated compound. Our new bus was not there at midnight as planned. Kunchok went to track down the driver who was not answering his cell. The bus was parked away from the monestary, probably to be closer to a hotel. We were all tired after a long day and none of us particularlly enjoy traveling in the middle of the night. But everyone was chill about the situation. Traveling with Khenpo means to expect the unexpected and to be ready to have your boundaries stretched. The reason for doing driving at night is to avoid traffic, since sometimes the traffic jams in India can last for hours, and as in most places, traffic is much lighter at night.

The bus arrived 25-minutes late, and we quickly boarded. As with all bus trips, Khenpo grabbed the mic on the bus PA system and began singing mantras. Usually "Namo Buddhaya," "Om Ah Hung Badzra Guru Pema Siddhi Hung," "Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Swoha," and others. We all sang along to create positive conditions for the trip. The ride was bumpy and dusty. I wore my dust mask, earplugs and wrapped my head in a cloth to block out any light. The 32-seat bus had 10 empty seats since there were 21 of us that night. The seats were smaller than the last bus though. I had an empty seat next to me, and I tried sleeping in every possible position including upside down with my feet up on the windows. I was able to sleep some between 1 AM and 5 AM until we stopped at a traffic jam and they had to turn the bus around to take a different route. After that I don't think I really could sleep until we arrived in Varanasi at dawn.

The bus ground to a stop in the middle of the city and we groggily slid open the curtains to reveal a smoggy narrow street crowded with people. The extreme chaos of the Indian cities we've visited has been notable compared to the moderate chaos of American cities. There is a very different approach to nearly everything here, so it all seems very foreign and mysterious. Once off the bus, our group strung along in a line in the narrow street. I was near the end this time, although for much of the more recent part of the trip I've stayed at the head with Khenpo in order to capture more photos of him and not be left behind. A stall that had camera gear caught my eye, and I stopped to quickly ask about compact flash media since I'm running out of space to take photos. In the half minute it took me to get a price quote of Rs.1200 (about $10) for a 1 GB Compact Flash card, the entire group had disappeared down a narrow alley and I was separated. I felt a tinge of panic, but kept my calm. The street was filled with cows, dogs, beggars, people going about their business on foot, bicycles, motorcycles, and of course other vehicles of every sort, from bicycle rickshaws to cars and large trucks. Most trucks and buses are made by Tata, the large Indian carmaker. Many are painted custom colors with all kings of designs and messages. Trucks frequently have a sign on the back that says "Please Blow Horn!" since horn honking is considered a courtesy, so that someone knows when you are passing them.

I moved forward down the crowded street, and came to a fork. I looked each way for the end of our group, and rather than go down the dirty narrow alley where the vegetable sellers were lined up, I took the larger alley and found that it was widening and steps down were leading me to a river. We call it the Ganges, but in India they call it Ganga. After a few more steps closer to the river, I spotted our group near the water, standing there taking in the sights of a busy Ganga waterfront at dawn. Sandstone steps ran right down into the water where several men and women were bathing, drinking the river water, praying and making offerings. The sun was near the horizon across the river. Thick smog blanketed the river and the sun was barely visible. You could stare directly at it and make out the outlines of several passenger boats powered by boatmen with long oars. A man offered me a small cup made of palm leaf with flowers and a butter candle inside. I gave him Rs.5 and stepped out onto some flat sandstone slabs in the river and offered it for the true happiness of all beings.

Khenpo arranged for a boat and we all got on board. Sveta asked me about life preservers, what if people can't swim. I agreed there was some risk, but on we went. There were no life preservers on the boat, but fortunately it was a wide dorry about 20' long that could easily seat us all with the two boatmen. The water was mirror flat in the breezeless morning. We floated up river and surveyed the scene along the river front. There were numerous ghats dotting the shore, which are ritual places to burn bodies. Most of the bank was covered by stone steps. platforms and walkways. Khenpo told the story of how offering bodies into the river started many centuries ago, and how so many bodies were accumulating, that then a tradition of cremation along the river started to stem the body problem. More of the floating candle flower offerings were released. Khenpo paid for a fish release from one of the floating vendors who persistently followed us. Another floating vendor sold some of us some little brass containers for Rs.50 each to hold Ganga water. I just used an empty water bottle to collect some water to cary back with me. Khenpo dipped in a cup and offered the water for any of us to drink a sip. He offered it mainly to people who he thought had too much cleanliness clinging. I happy drank a sip. I think Justin did too. I'm not sure if anyone else did besides Khenpo. Right after the sipping, we pulled up to the shore, and someone was manipulating a spillway where suddenly all this sewer water flowed into the river. Yum.

We walked back to find the bus and I found the vendor with the flash card. I negotiated the price down to Rs.900 and made the transaction without losing the group. We strung along back to the place where the bus parked, but it wasn' there any more. Khenpo speculated that it had been hyjacked. Kunchok got on his cell and arranged a meeting place. All the way on foot through the city we were acosted by street vendors and beggars, mostly speaking in English. It can be a little wearing. You don't want to be harsh to them, but they can really get in your face. And of course you want to be compassionate. So in some cases I offer money to beggars if it seems like they may really need it. In tourist areas it is hard to know who is a professional beggar and who is truly in need. Once you give money, it typically makes you a mark in the eyes of other beggars who observe the act of generosity. Then you have to get very good at becoming fast and evasive.

Once back on the bus we drove a few minutes to Sarnath and stopped first at the stupa where Buddha met his five friends after his enlightenment. A brick stupa stands on this site. Khenpo paid the caretaker to allow us to climb the stupa and enter a circular shrine at the top. we ascended the crumbing stupa and entered a metal gate that locked the room. We sat in a circle in the unadorned room. Six broken round stone monuments, each about 6" across were arrayed in a 6' circle in the middle of the room. Khenpo taught about the history of the place and then he taught his style of the four noble truths, and had us recite them together. Here's some paraphrased notes on what Khenpo taught.

After Gottam became Buddha and achieved vast awakening he realized aceticism is the wrong path. Indra and Bramah asked many times to Buddha that he give teachings, and each time he refused saying, that there's no way you can understand. His five childhood friends, who became his first five disciples, and the first five arhats of Buddha's lineage were Kaundinya, Asvajit, Mahanama Vashpa, Bharika. [I think the spellings in the Sutra Lineage prayer of the Buddha Path are a little different.] They had written him off since they knew he had abandoned the aceticism that they had all felt was their path together. Their plan was to not greet him or talk to him, but when he arrived, his body was emiting so much light that they all stood up and greeted him with respect and surprise. They asked him, did you achieve full enlightenment, and Buddha replied, yes I am vast awakening. This stupa was that greeting or reception place, and then Buddha lead them about a half mile away and gave them the first teachings on the four noble truths.

Then Khenpo had us recite the four noble truths in his inimatable language:

"May I realize, my suffering is the result of my negative thinking and negative karma. This is the first enlightented truth regarding my suffering."

"May I realize, my negative thinkging and negative karma are the cause of my suffering and the condition for all sentient beings suffering. Therefore, I will decrease my negative thinking and negative karma. This is the second enlightened truth regarding the cause of my suffering."

"May I realize, my happiness is the result of my positive thinking and positive karma. This is the third enlightented truth regarding my happiness [cessation]"

"May I realize, my positive thinking and positive karma are the cause of my happiness and the condition of all sentient beings' happiness. Therefore, I will increase my positive thinking and positive karma. This is the fourth enlightened truth regarding the cause of my happiness [the path]"

Khenpo then taught that if you don't understand cause and condition, you'll never be free from suffering. Many times we blame others for our suffering, but we need to realize that our negative thinking and negative karma are the main cause of our personal suffering. If you have a lot of money, or high position, or are very famous, it is not necessary that you'll be happy. The realization that your happiness originates from your positive thinking and positive karma is very important.

We then gave thanks to Indra and Bhrama for convincing Buddha to give Dharma teachings. Bhrama gave the gold wheel of Dharma, and Indra gave the wish fulfilling jewel to Buddha as offerings. We also recited our thanks to Arhats Kaundinya, Asvajit, Mahanama Vashpa, and Bharika for being the first human disciples of Buddha. We also sang, "Please Buddha Blessing Us." "May I realize the four noble truths." "May I realize the four enlightented truths."

Next we got back on the bus and drove a very short distance to the other part of the park, which is an archeological site with stupas, monestaries and temples all made of brick and some rock trim. We bought tickets (Rs.5 for the Indians and Tibetans, and Rs.80 for the foreigners). Khenpo took us first to the museum, where we saw many amazing statues that had been recovered from the site by archeological digs performed by the British in the early 20th century. The two main pieces are the crest of the Ashoka pillar, with the four lions facing in four directions. This symbol has been adopted by modern India. Also, the Sarnath buddha statue with the circular wheel of Dharma behind him is the other iconic rock sculpture from the site.

Unlike Western museums, it was quite permissable to touch the stone statues, so some of us touched our malas to the statues to absorb some of the blessings of all of the prayers made at these statues over the centuries.

Then we entered the main complex at Sarnath, and Khenpo gave another reading transmission in Tibetan from the Chöying Dzöd: The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena by Longchen Rabjam. He did this in the area near the Ashoka pillar at three locations facing different directions.

After that we bid farewell to most of the Chinese students, Peter, Iris, Alexandria, Sylvia and Vivian.

Alexandria exhorted us to take better care of Khenpo after they were gone. Khenpo's Asian students, coming from a culture that is steeped in Guru yoga, realize the importance and the methods of respecting and caring for the teacher. Alexandria was gently reminding us of this fact. I think Americans in particular, with our independent and very autonomous ways of regarding the world and others have a great challenge when it comes to practicing Guru yoga. The levels of understanding to reach experience and realization that Guru yoga is not teacher worship, but is actually the path to realizing one's own inner nature, is a bumpy path for many Americans.

After the Chinese left, Khenpo had us go off on our own for an hour. I wandered around taking photos and contmplating the site. Notably there was the huge Dharma Chakra Stupa where I did kora and marveled at the remains of the beautiful rock carvings. This stupa is the visual symbol of Sarnath, and is one of the locations within the park where Buddha taught, perhaps the first place, no one knows for certainly.

The park is called Deer Park in English. Many deer came to listen to the Buddha teach there. Today, you'll see a symbol of two deer and an eight spoked Dharma well adorning the top of many temples. The Dharma wheels at Sarnath have 18 or 32 spokes.

At 6 PM we met and made our way to the bus, which drove us a short distance to one of the best restaurants we'd found so far. The food took a while to be prepared, so while we were waiting, Khenpo used the battery powered PA for Chris to blast some rock songs from his iPod. We all danced wildly, much to the amusement (or not) of the staff. Khenpo also had each of us sing a short song. He said of the singing and dancing, "If we don't help ourselves be happy, then no one will do it for us." The meal was amazing Indian food, very high quality and all made fresh.

We got back to the hotel at a resonable hour. I roomed with Kunchok and Tenzin, sleeping on a roll-away. Tenzin and I had time to have a long talk about the cultural differences between Americans and Tibetans, and some of the ensuing difficulties that arise.

I was showered and asleep by 11 PM and slept until 8:30 AM, having one of the best night's sleep I'd had of the trip. Nice hotel with hot water and AC.

Gotta run. Bus is here to go back to Sarnath.

The Amazing Days in Bohd Gaya

It's 10 to 10 PM here and the Internet Cafe is about to close. Not only that, I need to rush back to the Monestery and pack since our bus is leaving at midnight for the all night drive to Varanassi. Once again the experience here are so rich, vast and profound, that punching a few keys on a keyboard can't possibly convey the depth of what has been happening, even if I had a few hours to compose a detailed stories using my notes and recordings, photos, memories and imagination. I guess that can come later after the pilgrimage.

Briefly we arrived in Bodh Gaya and spent the first day at the Stupa complex with Khenpo. He lead us around and we did kora, we practiced the Buddha Path together under the Bodhi Tree and inside the Stupa in front of the famous statue there, the Shakyamuni statue in the color photo in the Buddha Path. Every time we practice Buddha Path during the pilgrimage, we practice in four languages simultaneously, English, Chinese, Russian, and Tibetan. That is an amazingly powerful experience. Khenpo gave some teachings. It was a full day.

The following day I'll describe later, but I'll mention that there was an amazing spontaneous fire puja next to a sacred cave, and then Khenpo simulated cutting each of us up as if we were corpses. This was at an ancient charnel ground where they cut bodies to give to birds. We also visited the place along the Naranjana river where Buddha meditated and practiced austerities for six years. Khenpo taught us how Buddha learned two major things during his six years along the banks of the Naranjana: 1) If you want a good result be patient, and 2) Aceticism is the wrong path.

Yesterday we went to Vulture Peak where Buddha first taught to laypeople for several years. It was one of his favorite places to teach. It has amazing views of low mountains that formerly acted as a natural defensive boundary around King Bimbisara's capital city. This was once one of the largest cities in India, and now it is nothing but a tiny tourist hamlet. Even great cities are impermanent. This was the first place he taught the philosophy of of the middle way or emptiness. Before that he taught the conduct of the middle way. Khenpo lead a puja at the main promentory and then we found a nearby cave-like spot and he taught us about the three emptinesses: 1) Relatively, there is no ego; 2) There is no external creator; 3) No atom exists. The Prajnaparamita Sutra he taught at this location was also the first time Buddha's teachings were written down.

Then we visited a cave where the 500 arhats met after Buddha's death to compile all his vast teachings from the 44 years he taught.

Finally we drove to the site of Nalanda University and toured the ruins. We practiced Buddha Path there and then found the Tantra Temple of the University and danced wildly.

Today we spent the entire day at the great stupa practicing and making offerings. I had some personal profound things happen for me, but I'll write about that later. I think each of us had experiences here that will prove to be greatly transformative.

Off to quickly pack and catch the midnight express on a bumpy bus. It won't be the best night sleep, but we'll wake up in the morning at another of the Buddha's sacred places, Varanasi.

From the Buddha's Place of Enlightenment

Bodh Gaya is a small city in the Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. This is the first and most important of our stops at Buddha's holy places. It's so exciting to be here, we just had lunch together at an Indian restaurant called OM and I stepped next door to a little Internet cafe.

We took the overnight train from Delhi last night, arriving at the train station about 7:30 AM today. The journey was smooth although we needed to keep one guard awake at all the times to keep tabs on our bags. We took one hour shifts in the group of six people I was with. Ours was a third-class berth with air conditioning, and there were six bunks all chained together, three on each side. Kunchok, Hollee, Wongmo, Betsi, Rinchin and I were together. Each bunk came with two clean flat sheets, a wool blanket, and a pillow. Cockroaches and mice were complementary and abundant. One interesting part of the journey was that Kunchok took Hollee and I on a tour of the non-air conditioned third class, and that was very crowded and more dirty. We went past the kitchen and observed a man washing potatoes in a big tub of water on the floor... using his feet. We'd just eaten the veggie pakora dinner, which had pototoes, so that was perhaps too much information for me to see how the food was prepared.

We lost some people and gained a few on the pilgrimage in the transition to Bodh Gaya. I'll post something about everyone who has been on the tour when I get a chance. Gotta run for now.

Back at the New Tibetan Colony in Delhi

To avoid traffic, we drove all night on the bus, leaving the retreat center in Derhadun about 11:30 PM and arriving here at the New Tibetan Colony in Delhi at about 7:30 AM. There were stops at little way stations where we had snacks, tea, bottled drinks and got a little exercise. The bus is somewhat cramped for a tall person like me, but everyone was certainly feeling the aches and pains from the very bumpy ride. Getting out each time to stretch felt good. Khenpo would lead us around a kora to get the blood flowing. Other than the brief stops, I was able to sleep most of the the trip by using earplugs and wrapping my head in a scarf.

The bathrooms in these kinds of way stations are not nearly as nice as at the hotels. They are unlit, with overpowering odors, and little more than a hole in the middle of the floor. Some have no running water. At one stop, a cell phone being used as a flashlight slipped out of a sleepy pilgrim's hand into a hole-in-the-floor toilet. It was thought to be lost, but Tenzin Dakpa, a Tibetan who has been with us on the whole tour, and who has truly been our Dharma protector, jumped to the rescue and reached into the sump and got the phone. He washed it off and retrieved the battery and SIM card.

Here in Delhi, we arrived at dawn at the New Tibetan Colony, with its tiny alley streets lined with vendors and little store fronts, including the Internet Cafe with broadband service from which I'm writing this post. Kunchok Lama took us to a private residence of his friend Yeshi Gyatso where they allowed us to use their bathrooms to brush teeth and let us use a store room to lock up some unneeded bags during the next leg of the journey. They fed us some Amdo-style flat breads and sweet tea. The thick soft breads were like giant English muffins and very tasty with some butter.

I'm researching where to recover my hard drive while in India. I really don't want to loose all my photos. I also have photos on that drive of some other cameras including Khenpo's camera, so there's a strong need my part to make an effort at data recovery. I'm guessing the price will be considerably lower here than in the states, but finding a specialist in Mac data recovery in India will be a challenge. Anyone who can help me with some leads would be profusely thanked.

Yesterday in Derhadun we visited a local shop that makes nice bells and dorjes. They also had some phurbas that were high quality. Then last night a Tibetan man from the Lingtsang Colony Manduwala nick-named Tse Dor (Tsering Dorje) came to the retreat center with some very nice 9-pointed bells and dorjes as well as the nicest phurbas we had seen. A number of us bought these at prices that were much better than in the States.

Around 5PM yesterday, Khenpo gave a reading transmission in Tibetan from the Chöying Dzöd: The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena by Longchen Rabjam. The Shrine room at the retreat center was packed with the pilgrims and Tibetans including the little tulku and his family, and the Princess Ling Tsong. I don't understand the Tibetan language, so I just sat and drank in the phenomena. The building is very "live" with all of the hard concrete and terazzo surfaces, so Khenpo's voice reverberated through the building, reinforced by the little battery powered PA system Tracey has been carrying around for Khenpo to use. The retreat center is really close to the village, so all kinds of other sounds drifted in, from the Tibetans who remained downstairs to prepare dinner, all the little kids playing in the yard, workmen hammering (on Sunday afternoon!) just outside the compound to break up large river cobblestones to make gravel for a road improvement project, dogs barking, car horns honking, monkeys and birds calling. I especially remember the group of crows cawing on the roof. It was quite a symphony of sounds and Khenpo just read through the whole text unperturbed by all of the noise, reciting some parts, singing others. Amazing. It certainly increased my desire to learn to understand Tibetan.

At the end of the "lung" we had Dharmapala and Concluding practices. Since this was the end of a retreat, we did the Concluding Song of the Buddha Path and instead of throwing rice, we threw a type of flower seed that has a large flat wing attached, allowing it to spin gently to the floor. Everyone offered Katak's to Khenpo at the end, creating a big pile of them on the table in front of him.

After dinner outside under the big tent, all the pilgrims offered kataks to the princess. Khenpo, Chris, and I all gave public thanks to her for everything she did to create the retreat center, and also make Khenpo's first visit there very special. We spent yesterday evening packing and cleaning and loading the bus. There was quite a big clean up job remaining after we left I'm sure, but Justin used some of his time to go around and help clean up the place a bit so that it was not so messy. Justin is always thinking of others welfare. We finally boarded the bus by 11:30 PM, drove out of the yard (though the tent!) and that brings me full circle in my non-linear recounting of the the past day.

Last Day at Retreat Center

I just spent an hour trying to log in to Gmail and Blogger. Now I have to logout to go to a reading transmission Khenpo is about to give.

We met HH Sakya Trizin and his wife and one son yesterday, along with another Rinpoche who is the "right hand man" for the family. Sveta knew him well from several years ago so they were like old friends.

Last night was a celebration with a nice meal of thupa prepared by the local Tibetans. Then Khenpo organized a big fire puja, the first ever on the property. About 80 people altogether. Everyone participated offering the mounds of food to the ceremonial fire. This is a generosity practice and we visualized offering the food to the mouths of all buddhas, the mouths of all sentient beings. We chanted a lot of mantras and did kora around the fire. Khenpo is the master of fire pujas and this one was really amazing. One of the Tibetan men offered some fireworks at key points during the ceremony. That was a new one for me, and given that they were uncomfortably close I was a little concerned.

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche's tulku attended last night and today with his family. I got to chat more with his dad, Choying. He hopes to establish a presence in America for his son.

This morning there was a nice breakfast prepared by the Tibetans. A group of us went to a nearby home where they were manufacturing bells and dorjes and phurbas. The quality was good, and the prices fair, so a number of us bought some.

So far the hard drive in the laptop is still not spinning up, so I'm investigating data recovery services here in India.

I better head back for the lung (reading transmission). Tonight we pack up and get on the bus around 11 PM for an all-night journey to our next stop on the tour.

Another Day in Derhadun

Yesterday we had a great day visiting two shedras in the Derhadun area. Khenpo has been giving away sets of his on Khenpo Zhenga at each of the monestaries or to lamas that he meets. We started the bus trip in Delhi with about 40 sets of the 13 volume book. We are down to just a few sets now.

The highlight yesterday was meeting the tulku of Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, a young boy born in January 2002 in Oakland, California to Tibetan parents. His name is Dorje Tashi. He's very sweet and gave blessings to each of us as we offered him kataks. He was very composed and sat with us while we had adult conversations around the table. His parents fed us all and were very kind to Khenpo, treating him as a revered guest. Khenpo had assisted Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche on the preparation of his book on Nyingma masters, and developed a close relationship with him during those months. At the end of the evening, Khenpo led a practice in the family shrine room.

Last night when we got back after dark, we found that the Princess had erected a 40'x40' sun shade tent. I believe this is a local Indian wedding style tent. It has no sides, and they laid out green exterior carpet inside and set up a PA system and throne inside. Late last night, most of us met in the shrine room at about 11:30 PM and Khenpo lead an hour long recap discussion of everything good and bad that had happened to us so far, to help us not forget. I'd love to recount more about what has happened, but frankly there has not been time to sit at a computer and especially it has been hard to get online.

Today after breakfast on the roof with the pilgrims, Khenpo gave a teaching in the tent to Tibetans while Hollee and I walked to the Internet cafe to try to submit our bag claims to British Airways and check email.

This morning I had a scare with the PowerBook. The internal drive started making a clicking sound right after I first got it hooked up to an external drive I had brought along to use for backups. Now it's not booting, and the internal drive has the only copies of all my photos (and some other people's photos as well). Keeping my fingers crossed I can get it to spin up again and make a copy of all the amazing images I've captured.

I need to stop now to go meet everyone at the bus so that we can go meet His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin, supreme head of the Sakya School.

Great Stupa

Today we slept in until 8 AM and then "team A" prepared breakfast. We ate organic oatmeal, eggs, and nan flat bread in a Tibetan tent that was set up next to the gonpa. Afterwards we did preliminary practice and then got ready to go on a tour of some local monestaries. The drive across Dehradun took about an hour, and the road was very bumpy. We arrived at the Tibetan colony and immediately could see the great stupa in Og Min Ogyen Mindrolling Monastery which is 185 feet tall and 100 square feet in width. It was the world's largest when built, and probably still is. I think it was started in 2000 and completed in 2002. It is called the World Peace Stupa and also The Great Stupa of Descent from Devaloka. At one point during the day a few of us were able to go inside and see the preparations for the drupchen, including a huge sand mandala that will be inside a special mandala shrine.

Thanks to Khenpo's ability to open doors for us we were able to meet several lamas while in the monestary complex including HH Karmapa, Tokup Rinpoche (a main disciple and attendant of Dilgo Kyentse, and Khenpo's first friend after he crossed the mountains from Tibet to Nepal); Kochen Rinpoche (abbot of the monestary); HE Minling Kenchen Rinpoche (current head of Nyingma Lineage); and Khandro Rinpoche (a very good English speaker and daugher of Mindroling Rinpoche, who just passed).

Getting kicked out of Cyber Cafe now!

At Khenpo's Retreat Center in Dehradun

We have arrived safely in Dehradun and are staying at the Dzogchen Shri Singha Thakchen DoNgag Choling Buddhist Retreat Center. This is a new retreat center that was built at Khenpo's direction by a Tibetan princess who lives in Deradun and who managed the entire development a few years ago. The land was given to Khenpo by Dodrupchen Rinpoche, who received it from HH Dalai Lama. I traveled with Khenpo to Los Angeles the first week that I met him in May 2002 and he took me to HH Dodrupchen's residence there. We met His Holiness and the princess and she showed us photos of the retreat center in progress. It was almost completed then. For the past six years a Russian student of Khenpo named Sveta has been the primary retreatant at the center. The land is about 2 acres total, in a long rectangular plot and is surrounded by a 5-foot high brick wall, plastered white. It's a 2-story building with a wide open roof patio. There are 16 bedrooms, about 6 bathrooms, and a separate building for the kitchen. On the second floor at one end is the temple, with enough room to hold about 30 practitioners and a very nice custom shrine cabinet. The floors in the temple and hallways are a beautiful terrazo utilizing multicolor stones. In the typical modern Indian style of construction it is built upon a reinforced concrete frame, with brick in-fill, reinforced concrete floors/ceilings, and cement plaster over the brick walls. Plumbing and electrical are all in the local style. The finishing has a Tibetan flavor. Lumber for framing is rarely used in India, probably because it is scarce and expensive compared to concrete, rebar and bricks. I'm writing from an Internet cafe that is only a few blocks walk from the Retreat Center, so I'll be able to write more while we are staying here about everything that has transpired over the past four days when I couldn't blog. We'll probably be here for at least three days which will be the longest we've stayed in one place since the pilgrimage started. So much has happened and we are trying to take a breather to recuperate and relax. I'm feeling much better now, but am still recuperating. Others have gotten cold symptoms, but everyone seems to be holding up pretty well. I'll write more soon!

Live from Himachal Pradesh

Wow, there are so many things happening, it will be hard to recount much of what transpired since the last posting. Also, I have some really amazing photos, but finding an Internet Cafe that will allow me to connect my laptop to their network is challenging.

I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that Julian Leuthold from LA was very kind to loan me an old 12" PowerBook G4 he had sitting around, so that I could leave my more precious MacBook back in the States. Thank you Julian! So far it is working amazingly well for downloading my photos and preping them for the blog. I was also able to connect to Wi-Fi networks in London and Delhi. Hopefully in our next city I'll be able to connect it to the Internet so that I can upload some photos.

We got on the bus at the Tibetan Refugee District in Delhi just after midnight two nights ago. Our bus is a fairly modern model with reclining seats but no air conditioning. The air quality in Delhi and much of Himachal Pradesh especially on all the highways makes LA smog look like a clear day. My lungs really took a beating, and that in combination with sleep-deprivation pushed my immune system down to the point where I got some pretty nasty symptoms, fever, coughing, headaches, runny nose and sore throat. I slept 18 hours last night, took Cipro for my bronchitis in the morning and later in the day visited a Tibetan Doctor. I'm feeling a bit better now. I guess the lesson is that one needs to do whatever possible to get as much rest as possible when traveling this way. Yesterday we arrived at around 6 PM and I showered, set all my equipment batteries on recharge, and went straight to bed.

Everyone else did a little shopping and exploring the town. This morning I felt really awful with a high fever and nasty cough, deep in my lungs. Kunchok and Justin shared the room with me,. Hopefully I'm not contagious, but I have not been coughing much because it hurts too much.

Justin bought a lot of medicine for people if they got sick, and he was very kind to offer me cough syrup and lozenges and pain killers. Between all the rest and medicine I took, I think it is helping. I intend to get some rest tonight during 4 hour bus ride and then at the next stop. Today we all had breakfast together. We all ate the same thing, cheese omelet, white toast, and some kind of Indian-style potato dish. After that we split up. Some of us walked down the hill to the actual city area, which turned to be quite a trek down rugged rocky foot path that was lined by mani stones and cows and had beautiful views of the mountains and town below. The mountain peaks rise precipitously over the town, and appear to be only about 10 miles away as the crow flies, looking very close. They are still covered in quite a bit of snow, but the weather in the area has been unseasonably warm in February, after a very cold winter, so we lucked out. It felt like it was approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and it stayed in the 50s at night. It is hazy and by mid-afternoon the smoke from all the cooking fires just fills the air with particulate. The walk down the hill was arduous for me in my weakened condition. I lagged behind and probably complained a little... sorry to everyone who was with me (we took a cab back up the hill later on).

We visited a temple office that is in charge of Dharmapala offerings and made an offering. Then we went to the beautiful Dharmapala temple next door and made numerous Dharmapala offerings in a secret room and wrapped up the session with the Dharmapala offering in English from The Buddha Path. That was totally amazing. Then they served us tea out on a patio with majestic views of the temple with the mountains as the backdrop.

My photos from today would thousands of words, and the bus is going to leave in a few minutes, so I should head back up the hill to the hotel. Hopefully I'll be able to update earlier posts with photos as I find the time.

Our Passage to India

The flight to London was long but quite comfortable in a 747-400. I had a window seat where I could capture some shots for my aerial photography hobby. Amy, a young woman from New Zealand sat in the aisle seat. The flight was not very full, and the seat between us was empty. Amy had that characteristic unpretentious friendliness of the Kiwis, with a disarming personality. This was her first major international trip. She was landing in London to meet a friend and possibly get a job and spend a few months there. I told her a little about the pilgrimage and Buddhism and my own experiences in England and she shared some things about her life. Whenever I meet someone young who is that bright, I can’t help but think that here is someone who has the ability and time to really learn Dharma in this lifetime. The Dzogchen Lineage needs a lot more people like that to develop a fascination with learning and teaching Dharma.

At Heathrow, I was able to pay to get briefly online using a paid service. Also at Heathrow, behind the scenes apparently British Airways was having a melt down of their baggage system and our bags didn’t make it into the cargo hold of our jet. Once at Delhi, we spent hours trying to sort it out and report the missing bags as did about 100 other passengers on our flight that also had their bags left in England. We finally were able to exit through customs and Kunchok Lama was patiently waiting for us there. He had arranged a large taxi van to give us a ride to the hotel, located in the thriving Tibetan settlement area of the city. This van ride was for many of us our first introduction to the amazing and unique sights, smells and sounds of India.

In Delhi we all met in Khenpo’s room and began to plan out the trip, starting with resolving some of the financial issues. We added up the donations for the offering fund and greatly rejoiced in just how much was raised! After our morning meetings, we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel. Then we took a foot tour of the Tibetan settlement, visiting shops and temples. We ended up in a Tibetan restaurant where we had a meal that consisted of sweet Tibetan tea, momos, sausages and Tibetan Thukpa noodle soup. Later we met our bus drivers and their mid-sized bus, and they drove us to the Capitol where we took a long walk and plopped down in the shade on a nice lawn to have tea and snacks. We also played games with some of the pre-teen boys who attached themselves to us. One was a whirling dart that you shoot up with a rubber band stick, and it slowly spins to earth where you try catch it, and the other was a kind of improvised volleyball with a light ball. The toys, tea and snacks were purchased from a few of the many street vendors who work that tourist area.

We are currently not certain we’ll be able to get our bags from British Airways, but we are hopeful and praying for a good result. Some of us already started to buy replacements for clothing and toiletries that are in those bags, just so that we could get cleaned up for our trip to Dharamsala. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is teaching there tomorrow, so we are hoping to attend part of those teachings.

I've been taking a lot of photos, and I aspire to edit in a few of the great shots I've gotten into these blogs once I can get more time on my computer.

Late Night Los Angeles

My root Buddhist teacher, Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche made a request to me when he heard I would attend the Buddhist Pilgrimage he had organized for early 2008 to India and Nepal. He asked me to write online about my experiences during the trip and post photos of what we encounter. I believe he was aspiring that his other students around the globe could follow along on the pilgrimage from afar, and that they would then have the opportunity to make aspiration prayers for the perpetuation of the Dzogchen Lineage at the same times as we are visiting each of Buddha’s four sacred places as well as the many other places that are revered by Buddhists that we’ll visit during the pilgrimage.

I created this blog to help fulfill my teacher’s aspirations, and to hopefully inspire some others who would like to be traveling with us, or who plan to make a similar pilgrimage in the future. I called the blog "Path Buddha” since I would like this blog to focus on Dharma. Khenpo Choga teaches that Dharma for me as a student of the enlightenment process is only these following five types of my own positive thinking: renunciation, compassion, faith, loving-kindness and wisdom. In his remarkably effective English shorthand, Khenpo defines Dharma within one's present moment thinking as, “my five positive thinking, only, only, only.” Dharma for me is also synonymous with my personal Path Buddha. I'll certainly do my best to focus on the Dharmic aspects of my experiences, but I'll also write about the people, places, transportation, accommodations, food, shopping, and other experiences that arise during the tour.

If you’d like some background on the pilgrimage, you can read this page that I published on the Dzogchen Lineage website to announce the pilgrimage.
http://www.dzogchenlineage.org/pilgrimage.html
It mentions some of the stops of the tour as well as other details about the offerings being made during the pilgrimage.

It's after 1AM here in Los Angeles, the day of our flight to India. In 12 hours I'll be at LAX. A Sangha member in LA asked that I write a little about the food during the trip, so I'll mention that I'm staying in Altadena tonight with Alexi's sister Nicole and signifigant other Lorna. They made a wonderful dinner that included lentil curry, quinoa, steamed greens, tomato salad with yummy homemade dressing and a chocolate-covered frozen coconut sorbet dessert.

Back to packing and then sleep.