The Bell

It was dusk.

(The view out of the front of the monastery, notice the moon.)

I sat on a wood bench part of a circle of forty people in the court yard of a monastery with Woodenfish students and monks. The temple was located on the top of mountain above the noise and chaos of the Chinese cities which we could see below. We sat in a circle drinking green and black tea picked from the very hills around us. A sort of talent show was going on, first the monks would show off a skill, then a Woodenfish member would take a turn and try to match it. If there was any sort of competition, the monks won.

The first presentation by the monks was classical Chinese music on a historic instruments that I cannot identify. As the monk plucked the stringed instrument the notes seemed to wave over us and fit to the natural contours of the bamboo forest around us. Another monk presented a ti chi demonstration, which convinced me a human body can definitely learn to flow enormousness amounts of energy. When he struck the stone ground with his feet we could all feel it, even at a distance.

Our group did a song or two, and some dancing presentations. After there was a short Q&A with the abbot. I winced a little bit at some of the questions, luckily none of them were too bad. Not everyone on this trip has a Buddhist background -academic or practicing. Halfway through the session the monks began to ring the massive temple bell. One girl asked why the bell is rung, the abbot gave an answer related to making the sound of the dharma echoing throughout the universe.

Unsatisfied with the answer, the girl just asked the question again. The abbot sat for a moment puzzled by the question. He told the group to listen to the bell in silence for three minutes. It was probably my most favorite three minutes of the trip. We sat listening to the bell being struck, then hearing the ring slowly be absorbed into the valley bellow, then hearing the bell be struck again as soon as the noise faded beyond our ability to hear. This moment has added to my craving for a Buddhist monastic life, or something along the lines of life centered around practice. It was really great for the group, the rest of the evening flowed quite smoothly and it was entirely due to these three minutes of sitting.

When the Q&A ended it was dark, the bats fluttered overhead and the mosquitoes bit our legs. Rather than going to bed I wandered around the temple into the various shrines to observe the candle lit Buddhas. This was perhaps one of the most enjoyable evenings of my entire trip to China. Since everyone had gone to bed I was alone in all of these shrines, halls, and rooms. I think normally I would have been a little scared, it's kind of like wandering around a church at night. There was something about this experience though that was so warming. Gazing into these Buddhas among the incense and candles I could feel the pulse of samsara, a squeeze of birth and a release of death again, again, and again.

I could hear the bell even though it stopped being rung hours ago. I lied down in front of the main shrine on the cool stone and gazed at the candle lit Buddha. I tried to imagine what he saw, which is life as the way it ultimately is, and probably on a geological time scale. As Buddha stares out those temple doors out into the valley he must see cities go up and down, forest be cut and regrow, people come and go, die and be reborn.

And I, this silly "I," am obviously here for sometime more than any "I" can accomplish. 

Last trip this spring to New York City

I had another successful trip to New York City and unfortunately the last for this spring. I visited Ms. Zoë Woodbury High, Barnard/Columbia, the MET, a Hindu temple, and both China towns. While the entire trip was less than 48 hours it was a highly enjoyable time.

My story begins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was staring at a chinese style teapots behind glass thinking about current hermits in China on their quest for enlightenment and drinking tea. For those who do not know I managed to be lucky enough to get into two programs in China for this summer. First, Woodenfish, a Buddhist monastic program that will last 15 days, and second, a job teaching at an international school running a summer camp for two weeks. As part of getting credit for these opportunities my advisor assigned me readings on Chinese Buddhism. He also suggested a documentary called Amongst White Clouds, which was very good, with excellent hermit buddhists, and a rather annoying melodramatic narrator/main character. 

The movie was actually inspired by a book that I am also reading called Road to Heaven, Encounters with Chinese Hermits. It's a fascinating book following Bill Porter in the 80's through rural China on a quest to find buddhist hermits. Amongst White Clouds occurred in 2005 and was the same exact quest. As I read this book on the bus ride down I looked out the window. The bus was passing through the town of Prattsville, which last August was under five feet of water. The hight of the water was still evident on most of the house as they were missing shingles, siding, and usually much more.  There was no grass at all, only raw earth and large rocks, most of the houses were boarded up, red x's from the military where still painted across the front door of every home. It was the apocalypse -in a way, only a few towns south of Oneonta where I reside.

Halfway to New York City a very strange man sat next to me on the bus. Our conversation happened like this:

Strange man, staring at the floor definitely not talking to me or anybody else:

"I will not hurt others, I will not hurt others, I will not hurt others, I do not want to hurt others, I do not want to hurt myself, others do not want to hurt me."

I am pretending to read my book about chinese monks, and remember I cannot move as he has cornered me next to the window. He looks up at me, then at my book.

"Chinese monks, I like it. By the way, I'm not crazy or anything, I just narrate my life." He then continues to go back to his rants.

"I am going to the beach. I am going to the beach with the rest of the monks. I am going to build sandcastles all day."

He proceeded for about an hour and a half to pick out clouds he liked that were a message from a secret female deity that only he knew of.

"She makes everything, she takes so much time, thousands of hours, to make all these faces. WOW! There's an eye, there's another, the nose.... WHOA, that one looks like a puppy."

"Oh blue pyramids! Perfectly balanced they fly! HAHA! They have cloud machines, to hide them, but only she can see them."

"So many communication towers (I assume he is referring to telephone poles,) she communicates so much but nobody notices, but I do."

"Nobody knows who I am, but that's okay, I don't them to know. They don't know my past. If anybody wants to know how old I am I'll tell them I'm 28." (He looked roughly anywhere between 28-35.) 

When I finally arrived at Port Authority, Zoë was waiting for me, and happened to also have had an "interesting" conversation with another stranger while waiting for me, my impression was there was a smaller risk in her conversation.

We went to Soho and got Vietnamese sandwiches, which were cheap and delicious. We then took the 1 train all the way home to Barnard, watched Amongst White Clouds, read, made tea, and probably kept Flo up longer than she wanted to.

The next morning when we woke, we headed directly to a cafe, then went down town to get some Indian food and go to the MET. Along the way we stopped at a Yarn shop and looked at Zoë's favorite genre of magazines: Japanese Fiber Arts. After a Mysore Masala Dosa at a restaurant close to the yarn shop I went to the MET and Zoë went to an academically related meeting to discuss Tamil.

I spent several hours in the MET and took well over a hundred photos to satisfy requirements for my current ceramics class. Most of the art I wanted to see was being moved around and either not on display or on display without information in newly constructed exhibits. I spent hours just on the second floor between the Middle Eastern art exhibit and the Asian art exhibits. 

The second half of my story begins again with staring at a Chinese teapot in the MET. After thinking about Monk in China drinking tea and surviving off of dandelions, I realized NYC was an especially good spot with great memories to acquire one. My hunt for a teapot began. When I had not seen enough pottery, specifically teapots to get ideas for my own, I asked an employee of the museum where I could find more ceramics. Rather than suggesting another location within the building, she sent me three blocks away to a gallery of Japanese ceramics called Mirviss. I went to the gallery, but it was not quite what I was looking for, it was contemporary non-functional pieces of art with the exception of a few bowls that ran at $800.

That evening we rounded up five other Barnard girls (friends of Zoë,) and went to Chinatown (in Manhattan,) and met up with Isaac High and his friend Jake. The restaurant was incredibly Chinese, with the gigantic lazy susan in the middle of the table to share all the food. We ordered too much.

The next morning when we woke, we headed directly to a cafe, then took an hour long 7 train to Flushing, which I kept calling Flushings because that's what it is in the UK. When Zoë and I got off the train we were no longer in the US, we were in some strange Chinese city. I found Flushing to be incredibly authentic to a China like experience, only the smells are much stronger, the roads are no where close to the condition they were in, and no children pissing/defecating in the middle of the sidewalk. My impression of Flushing was it was mostly Chinese and Korean with a strong Indian, Tibetan, and Hispanic presence. Simply put, culturally vibrant and wonderful. Zoë and I decided we want to live there at some point, with a pug (I added that.)

After stuffing ourselves with an incredible South Indian Thali at the temple, circled Gnesh three times, then painting a (Bindi?) on each others forehead, we wandered China town looking for a teapot. Due to lack of time, we had no luck, but managed to stumble into Hong Kong Grocer which was exactly like a corporate grocery store in China without the Chinglish or live animals.

On the way back we stopped at Muji near Time Square where I found a nice Japanese teapot for $20. I got two accompanying matching cups. I inspire to be able to make teapots of this skill by the end of next semester in ceramics with clay I have made from the lake I live on.

We scurried from Muji back to Barnard to get my bag, I forgot my cellphone charger, and managed to make it to my bus in 14 minutes from Zoë dorm -a new record, without a second to spare either.

And all I can say as I write this on this semi-empty bus ride back is that it is much quieter. 

dharamsala coming to a close

my stay in dharamsala is coming to a close with only 4 days left --since we leave early in the morning of the 12th. i finally got some photos onto my flickr which took a little too long. i was too lazy to blog earlier today but since i had some time open up i thought why not. so i went to the nearest internet place after a massive coffee and sat down next to a monk watching youtube.

we have been hanging out with our monk friend which has been very enjoyable. we discuss the 16-20 types of emptiness, zombies, tibetan culture, pretty much everything.

he has us over for breakfast almost everyday! we are very grateful and it is the best way to start a day! one day we had tsampa, a popular traditional food. it is simply butter tea and roasted barley flower with dried yak cheese. the taste is a cross between play-dough and cheerios. it is served like the image below. first you blow on the tea to push back the layer of oil then you sip the tea.

next you mix it together to get that play-dough look, mine was a bit dry because i drank too much of the tea:

our monk friend said tibetans never feel full after breakfast unless they have tsampa. also from another source i heard that monks often have a ball of tsampa up the sleeve of their robe, no magic here!

my poor crashed mac! it is a big question mark. i hope i can get it fixed. no matter the combination of keys i press when i start it up i always get the image below. it is so silly to bring a mac to india! most of the indians have never seen a mac before and they are hard to fix. i should have some luck at the apple store in hong kong or new delhi, till then i will have fairly staggered post.

so where is ms. zoe high? she is taking a 2 day, 10 recipe, north indian cooking class. i cannot wait till she tries some of the recipes on here own, our monk friend cannot wait either as he lets us borrow his kitchen. we did try a little bit of indian cooking last night, we tried out making kitcheri which turned out well. our monk friend had his cousin over and we all enjoyed the food!

also every night when we walk back we pass this insect (about two or three inches long) with two green glowing eyes.... sometimes i get caught in cobwebs and once i felt a spider run across my head, i swear it is only scary when you can't see anything. also the spiders are big here, tea saucer size, sometimes larger.

we are also trying to take chinese but it is proving to be difficult. we tried to take a class at the lha center but it was in tibetan (of coarse!). we had a friend who taught us for a day, but then he left. we are also waiting to hear back from one person. for now we are on our own. believe it or not chinese, minus the tones, is easier to learn than english. so, it is chapter one, making friends, watch out china!

one day we went with mel and jay to norbalinka, a monestary about 30 minutes from us. what a beautiful place! they had a giant temple and water running through the many gutters and streams. they make beautiful tibetan crafts, such as buddha figures and clothes. one small buddha figure can take a 3 months to make. some buddha figures easily go for $3500 or more. i wanted to get an incense box but they started at $25 so i got a nice one in dharmasala for $3!

about a week or two ago we finally did the path that encircles the dalai lamas temple/house. it is a really great walk with endless prayer wheels, prayer flags, shrines, and meditation areas. in lhasa in tibet there is a simalar path around the potala palace although it is several miles, while this path is less than 1.

and last the amazing zoe.

almost incest, earth sucks but it's a good place to be, and pancakes

i am listening to derezzed while writing about buddhism, it's a little crazy. i am in a cafe that charges 20 rupees an hour. loud trucks rumble up the hill making it difficult to hear. cows pass too.

i got some time because zoe is in hindi class, which today takes place in lower dharamsala as shopping. as much as i love shopping i did not go, also there is nothing else to do in that town.

this morning we went over to our (monk) friend's place and we made him pancakes. they took a while to cook all the way through, but they were completely worth it. he liked the pancakes a lot, especially with some maine maple syrup!

it is so much fun talking to him about tibetan traditions. for example: say there are three brothers in one family. the oldest gets married first, but the wife is shared/sleeps between all three of the brothers. when the eldest brother makes enough money, he moves out and his wife goes with him. from the time he moves out his wife just sleeps with him, there is nothing more with the two younger brothers. then the next oldest brother gets married, and again, until he moves out he shares his wife with his younger brother. then he moves out and so on.... weird right? he also mentioned that cousins never get married which is unlike the chinese.


kind of shocking? it is still practiced today in tibet.

hungry for some tibetan buddhist philosophy?

tibetan buddhism explains the beginning of our existence does not existent. in other words there's no beginning. easy to say but try to completely wrap your mind around that. when western scientist approached the dalai lama with the theory of the big-bang, the dalai lama completely agreed, however, he said it was simple not the first one. buddhism suggest that life has existed forever in many forms

currently, our time is a low point for all life as we have sunk to become humans and experience so much suffering. for a long time such as maybe before the big bang life existed but without the need for a physical existence or body. one explanation for evil people is that since we are at a low point it is easier to get a human body for rebirth even if had terrible karma in the previous life.

there is good news about being at a low point. it is easier to practice. when beings are at a high state tibetan buddhism suggest that these beings become ignorant and too proud of themselves, or too much bliss. so when your stuck in the muck here on earth in a human body that gets sick and old, don't worry! it is much easier to accend to a higher state of being from this middle realm, between animals and "light beings" or gods if you are into that. remember even light beings and gods can fall. buddhas (who are seperate) are the only ones who stay in the same realm or who can choose their realms.

fun? ask me questions about it, it's a lot of info and i only touched the surface.

how to get cold

last night we had our monk friend over for tea. he told us some tibetan buddhist philosophy. he also told us about the course in tibet and nepal where one meditates for 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days. he said you are not allowed to lie down during the entire time, the monks sleep sitting. they are not allowed to leave the building and can only have one robe.

at the end of the course they preform a sort of stunt. all the locals gather to watch the monks come out. it is the middle over winter and the ground is covered in snow and ice. there are 5 buckets of water, one at the gate, and one on each of the four corners of the temple. the monks take off their robe and dunk it into the water and then put it back on. then they walk to the next bucket through the freezing cold. as they walk slowly their robe steams and by the time the reach the corner their robe is dry. then they dunk the robe in again and walk to the next corner and so on until they circle the monastery.

he added that not all the monks stay warm doing this, some get very cold. he said laughing that maybe the meditation retreat did not work for them!

broken stuff

i seriously now have a bag full of electronics unwilling to work. a nokia cell phone that refuses to reconfigure to the indian network, and now a laptop that crashed, and all the bits and pieces that go with a laptop.

it really sucks. having a laptop actually saves me a lot of money because i don't have to pay to use a computer. enough complaining for now.

i am becoming really good friends with a monk. we chat for up to 4 hours everyday. he also has us over for breakfast every morning and we are teaching him how to cook a bit. the whole trade is fun.

also we are beginning to slowly unravel dorjee's story. he has met the dalai lama 3 times. when he crossed from tibet to nepal he said his face turned black from frost bite. the whole trip took 15 days and everybody in his group made it.

zoe is well. next week will be taking a chinese class for 30 rupees an hour, awesome!

anyways, we will continue to try to get my laptop fixed but I probably will not blog as often for a while. if it proves the laptop is hopeless we will get a new on in hong kong. have i mentioned we are going to china yet?

oh yeah, this morning we both played cards with our monk friend before breakfast. i got a picture of it, awesome! may be a while until i get pictures on flickr too, damn. we're making pancakes tomorrow.