Greetings from Thosamling

Hello dear friends,  

Here is another brief entry from life in the lovely place that it is being lived from currently.  The photos are of sunset a few nights ago taken from the roof of the nun's quarters where there are also some transplanted basil and dragon fruit seedlings growing.  And the condensed bottom thangka is Green Tara, who graces the nun's dining hall.

Life is settling into a quiet yet productive flow of up early and asleep early, morning meditation and prayers daily, Monday-Saturday, beginning at 5:45 - 7:15 AM.  I am learning to chant/pray in Tibetan while simultaneously doing full length prostrations, which is as complicated and challenging to focus on as it sounds.  I read that the taller, longer your body is, the more merit for the ground covered, so that is some consolation.

Also, although we have been saying many prayers at Tashi Gatsel Ling, my home base in Maine for years in Tibetan, they are no where near the speed, tempo, and accuracy that is required here. So I am taking on an intensive update to that capacity, revising the tunes that are set in my memory bank to the new tempos and cadence that is standard here.  Great practice in letting go, humility and perseverance!

Yesterday was the full moon and we offered Medicine Buddha Puja for healing and world peace.  There were two nuns, one from Germany, the other India, and myself.  Just love this practice and am so grateful to the Staffords for introducing it to me way back when in Pownal, Maine. 

We said this in English, so it was a bit easier, but I could hear the lovely British English of the Indian nun as she said, "When we pass away from this life, may we be born in that Buddha field, qualities complete..."  Her pronunciation of "pass"  was so lovely, like just letting go, "pahs a way"  (You have to hear it with a lilting British accent spoken from a bodhicitta heart).  It definitely encourages me to shift the short hard "pass, as in p ass) to this gentler version

of the spoken word with eloquence and grace.  Yes, lots of learning daily.  

Khen Rinpoche's first edict to me to observe a teacher for a long time to see if they have the spiritual qualities is coming in handy, as I am integrating into a community of monastics and others.  It is really good to reserve and withhold all judgment to meet people as good human beings with a genuine open heart. Of course. Yet, we also must use both wings of wisdom and compassion, not just blind faith and initial impressions to deeply discern qualities. This takes time. Glad I have plenty of that currently.  

This is a view of one of our neighbors, a Nyingma Monastery.  I walked around it yesterday briefly and spun the prayer wheel a few times and caught the eye of a hidden yogi, in the guise of an old man turning a hand held prayer wheel, but whose eyes blinded me when he looked up from under his baseball hat to give me a direct shot of bodhicitta!  

No photos of myself to include, basically not much change there, except a few more wrinkles and gray hair.  There was a great sign I noticed today in the nun's bathroom/shower as one of the points of orderly tidiness, "Check the drain after your shower for hair, if you have any."  Ha, ha, ha!

Have not taken the rabjung vows yet, so no change of wardrobe, either.  Slowly, slowly.  Just happy for each day and the time it affords for prayers, practice, meditation, learning and heart opening.  Had a lovely help session on pronouncing the prayers last night with Tsojong, a beautiful Austrian nun, so dedicated, so pure.  Her generosity and kindness were so appreciated.  She has lived here for 8 years, 4 as a lay woman and 4 as ordained nun. She told me I will need to really memorize all of these prayers to be able to say them in Tibetan when I take full ordination vows and to go to sojong, which is confession, each month at the main temple in McLeod Ganj.  There are specific prayers the monastics say at that time.  So, lots of hours devoted to learning these, which I think will get easier when the intensive Tibetan Language Courses that I am taking this year finally begin.  

Have a feeling this is the calm before the storm.  Soaking up the mild weather today, about 54 degrees, which is balmy compared to winters in Maine, but at night when the indoors dips down to 52 without a heater or electric blanket, well, then I am tucked into the sleeping bag, several blankets and hot water bottle by my side.  

Thanks for all the love and friendship.  

May all beings be freed in the strength and power of compassion, and may all hearts/minds awaken to their true nature!

All my love.