This morning I got up, took a shower (since I now have hot water), chowed down a Luna bar (thanks Mom!), and headed up to the temple for Day 2 of HH's teaching. I actually found today's lesson much more interesting than yesterday's, which was a nice surprise. I did get one small sketch done, which turned out better than I expected given the embarrassing length of time that's passed since I drew anything. That was also a nice surprise.
When HH held teachings last week, he spoke exclusively in Tibetan. This time around, he has been switching back and forth between English and Tibetan periodically. He seems to make more jokes when he speaks in English; I think this is fun. Each morning before he takes his seat in front of the giant Buddha statue, he makes his way around the temple greeting everyone. The crowd is basically silent as he approaches, so when his hearty "Good morning!"s boom out they reach everyone. I also really enjoy the way he doesn't seem to ignore anyone. He occasionally starts a conversation with a random person asking where they are from or some such generality. Each one of those people obviously feels very special afterward, and why not? His presence lights up the room, everyone smiles, and I don't think it's just because he's famous. You can't help but join when he starts laughing, which is fairly often.
Today HH spoke of zombies. Imagine for a moment the Dalai Lama talking about zombies. Go ahead, I'll wait.
The point he was making was that our bodies are the same in life and in death. In death we are just flesh and bone, held together by muscles and such, and so why in life do we get so attached to these things? He spoke of our bodies being filthy. Reading from a Tibetan book, he said "I have no desire for a face smeared with excrement, so why should I desire to touch the body the excrement came from?" Personally, I think that's a little extreme. I was very interested in what he had to say, though, since he seems to be more progressive than most religious leaders on a whole bunch of matters.
He spoke of how having children comes with all kinds of problems. Married people without children have their own problems as well; in fact family life comes with problems no matter what. This is how he finally brought us around to the justification for choosing a celibate, monastic life and why it should be praised.
Fair enough, I suppose. I have no desire to become a nun, but there are a whole lot of them here and I'm sure they all question the decision at one point or another, so I imagine it's nice for them to hear him remind them why they're better off.
Criticism of sex aside, he had some other gems in the teaching: "Peace is not achieved through prayer, it requires action," "we must be 21st century Buddhists," and my personal favorite: "If not truly practiced, religion teaches hypocrisy."
The main theme seems to be that suffering arises from attachment. When and only when we can free ourselves from attachment, we can be truly happy. He said that self-sacrifice is the greatest thing we can aspire to, for if we let ourselves come to harm in the pursuit of saving all sentient beings "until the end of space" from harm, we gain the greatest honor. He urged us to forgive others for their faults but readily admit our own.
At exactly noon he wrapped things up for the day and said he'd see us in the morning. I made my way downstairs to leave and stopped with everyone else, mainly because I wasn't in such a rush that I was about to push my way through a bunch of monks and old Tibetan people. HH came down the steps, waved to everyone, and got into the Suzuki SUV that was waiting for him. And off he went.
After that I went back to my place and met Ricky, and we took a trip up to Dharamkot for pizza. The place was filled with a whole bunch of Indians, at least two dozen, presumably having some sort of party. We did manage to find two seats at a table in the corner, out of the rain, and got a mixed veg pizza.
There is a reason everyone has been telling me that this place is amazing. It was some of the best pizza I've had, and we all know I grew up in the general Chicago area. This particular selection had cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, and probably a few other veggies on it along with spices, and it came with "homemade sauce" that I have no idea what it contained but it was damn tasty. I'm pretty sure I'll be going back there again. It took a solid half hour to get there, but it was well worth the trip. Plus, you know, you can eat more because you burned a bunch of calories getting there anyway. ;)
Oh, and I put some photos from home up around my new room last night. It's finally getting cozy around here!
I also finally got some real food to keep at my place:
When HH held teachings last week, he spoke exclusively in Tibetan. This time around, he has been switching back and forth between English and Tibetan periodically. He seems to make more jokes when he speaks in English; I think this is fun. Each morning before he takes his seat in front of the giant Buddha statue, he makes his way around the temple greeting everyone. The crowd is basically silent as he approaches, so when his hearty "Good morning!"s boom out they reach everyone. I also really enjoy the way he doesn't seem to ignore anyone. He occasionally starts a conversation with a random person asking where they are from or some such generality. Each one of those people obviously feels very special afterward, and why not? His presence lights up the room, everyone smiles, and I don't think it's just because he's famous. You can't help but join when he starts laughing, which is fairly often.
Today HH spoke of zombies. Imagine for a moment the Dalai Lama talking about zombies. Go ahead, I'll wait.
The point he was making was that our bodies are the same in life and in death. In death we are just flesh and bone, held together by muscles and such, and so why in life do we get so attached to these things? He spoke of our bodies being filthy. Reading from a Tibetan book, he said "I have no desire for a face smeared with excrement, so why should I desire to touch the body the excrement came from?" Personally, I think that's a little extreme. I was very interested in what he had to say, though, since he seems to be more progressive than most religious leaders on a whole bunch of matters.
He spoke of how having children comes with all kinds of problems. Married people without children have their own problems as well; in fact family life comes with problems no matter what. This is how he finally brought us around to the justification for choosing a celibate, monastic life and why it should be praised.
Fair enough, I suppose. I have no desire to become a nun, but there are a whole lot of them here and I'm sure they all question the decision at one point or another, so I imagine it's nice for them to hear him remind them why they're better off.
Criticism of sex aside, he had some other gems in the teaching: "Peace is not achieved through prayer, it requires action," "we must be 21st century Buddhists," and my personal favorite: "If not truly practiced, religion teaches hypocrisy."
The main theme seems to be that suffering arises from attachment. When and only when we can free ourselves from attachment, we can be truly happy. He said that self-sacrifice is the greatest thing we can aspire to, for if we let ourselves come to harm in the pursuit of saving all sentient beings "until the end of space" from harm, we gain the greatest honor. He urged us to forgive others for their faults but readily admit our own.
At exactly noon he wrapped things up for the day and said he'd see us in the morning. I made my way downstairs to leave and stopped with everyone else, mainly because I wasn't in such a rush that I was about to push my way through a bunch of monks and old Tibetan people. HH came down the steps, waved to everyone, and got into the Suzuki SUV that was waiting for him. And off he went.
After that I went back to my place and met Ricky, and we took a trip up to Dharamkot for pizza. The place was filled with a whole bunch of Indians, at least two dozen, presumably having some sort of party. We did manage to find two seats at a table in the corner, out of the rain, and got a mixed veg pizza.
There is a reason everyone has been telling me that this place is amazing. It was some of the best pizza I've had, and we all know I grew up in the general Chicago area. This particular selection had cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, and probably a few other veggies on it along with spices, and it came with "homemade sauce" that I have no idea what it contained but it was damn tasty. I'm pretty sure I'll be going back there again. It took a solid half hour to get there, but it was well worth the trip. Plus, you know, you can eat more because you burned a bunch of calories getting there anyway. ;)
Oh, and I put some photos from home up around my new room last night. It's finally getting cozy around here!
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| This is the only photo of the photos I have... Casey, I figured you'd appreciate the humor in this. |
I also finally got some real food to keep at my place:
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| The only block of real (not processed, shelf-stable) cheese in town. |
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| I bought this homemade peanut butter from a stand outside the temple. Ingredients: peanuts, salt, and a little bit of cane sugar. It's not too bad. |
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