one month later, guess where i am?? still in mcleod! but i will be leaving in a couple days.

i got back from my 10 day retreat at Tushita Meditation Center a few days ago and i have been hanging out with people from the retreat. even though we were silent for ten days i feel very close with everyone.

I did a Goenka Vipassana course before coming to India and compared to that Tushita was a walk in the park. I learned a lot about Buddhism and different Tibetan buddhist meditations and rituals, but psychologically it was much less transformative than Vipassana. One thing that is different is Vipassana is in the Theravada tradition of Buddhism while Tushita is in the Mahayana tradition. One main difference is that in Theravada the goal is to achieve liberation, nirvana, while in the Mahayana tradition the goal is to achieve pure complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. At the end of each meditation and ritual we dedicated all of the positive energy accumulted to all sentient beings, wishing them an ocean of happiness and liberation from samsara (cyclic existance, which implies suffering). I really liked this tradition, it always gave me a feeling of great openess in my heart, like there was literally more space inside my chest, a beautiful feeling.

my original wish to learn about organic farming has manifested! a german guy staying at the same monestary as me knows a couple organic farms in the area and a recycling center where locals can sell recyclables and also learn how to make paper. seems like a cool initiative. going to visit these places the next 2 dys and then i am leaving for Tso Pema. Padmasambhava aka Guru Rinpoche, a great Tantric yogi lived in a cave here for many years. His hand and foor prints are found in many rocks and caves in this area. Legend has it that long ago Padmasambhava tried to secretly teach the King's daughter the Dharma but he was caught and burned at the stake. In the place where he was killed a large lake (which is now the center of Tso Pema) formed and some time later he reappered emerging from a lotus as a 16 year old boy. There are many amazing stories about him, and my rendition is doing him no justice.

I only have 2 more week in this beautful mystical land! I thought three months would feel like a really long time, but its nothing. But it will be really nice to be back home for xmas and treat everyone to massage and healings of all sorts. But i know i will be back here; I think I have a strong karmic connection with this place.

Thats all for now peeps!

MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY!