Yup.
That's the lesson for today.
I love this lesson.
Hear that kids? When your parents tell you not to talk to strangers tell them they can shove....
Okay. Okay. Nevermind. Nevermind.
Say yes mommy. Yes daddy.
But when you grow up and decide to see the worlds and taste the 160 gagillion flavors of the universe... Make SURE you talk to strangers.
I just finished having dinner with my new friend Pema.
He is 33. He was born in Tibet, took his vows to be a monk at 15, escaped Tibet and came to India at 19 and has been here ever since.
His eyes glitter. He laughs humbly and honestly.
He has written book on what buddhism means to him that has been translated in several languages.
He's giving me an English translation tomorrow when we meet for lunch. He's also taking me to get some special Tibetan incense that I am supposed to soak in water in my new Tibetan singing bowl...
Yes. I bought a singing bowl today after JohnE took off down south to Kerala. (he finally had enough of the cold mountain climate and needed some beach action in a big way.)
Not me... I'm going higher!
The day after tomorrow i check into The Tushita Meditation Center for 10 days- to meditate and learn Buddhism.
Although I have already been exposed to quite a lot and have read a fair share of texts and so forth... I am taking a class called "intro to Buddhism" where I have to be silent- no music. No talking. No Internet. No phones. No leaving the property. But waitwaitwait...No TALKING!? Whewsh. I think that will be my biggest challenge.
I am excited though to start at the beginning. In everything always seem to skip ten steps or at least think i CAN skip ahead... So I really think an intensive introduction to Buddhism is gonna be great for me!
Ironically, I sat on the floor of a shop playing different Tibetan bowls for several HOURS tonight - making a slew of new friends and essentially selling several bowls to stopper bys... (the Kashmiri guy who's store it was loved me and kept getting me chai and telling me to stay)... Finally the bowl that truly picked me was the root chakra vibration/pitch...
It is the sound for beginning.
The red root or base chakra represents grounding/rooting/starting at the very beginning (a very good plaaaace to start.) - if you didn't catch the sound of music reference you're fired.
Anyways- the sound of this bowl, MY bowl's music... I just felt emotional and it called me somehow. It's so beautiful and deep and I think it's going to help heal a lot of people, not just me.
One girl who stopped in the store and I had befriended on that floor talked to me for about an hour-- we both talked about how we hadn't bought hardly anything yet while in India... Not just because I am broke, but because somehow I feel like I need to surrender something I already have just to make room for the new thing (physically and energetically).
Later on, as I was showing Pema the monk my new bowl I noticed that my golden friendship bracelet from Thailand I have with Laura and Cary is gone off my wrist.
It fell off sometime in the last day (which included the Dalai Lama's temple with thousands of people and a huge hike up a waterfall and all over McLeod Ganj)... In otherwords... It's history.
I surrender it eventhough my heart is so so broken that it's gone!
I think that's all part of this first chakra thing- letting go of attachments but becoming grounded- I think about my houses burning down and losing everything I owned twice-- being uprooted and continually in this life having to start over and over...
But I've always looked at it that way until tonight when I realized that seeing loss and having to start over this way - it's assuming that there is an end result- that I must start over on the path towards acquiring things...
Which is not the case.
...an end and a rebirth.
Maybe.
I think everything starts new all the time... Like my new friendships.
I get to make NEW friends I have never met before which is so so killer.
I love it.
But then again... If every person I meet is just a projection of myself... Then it's not so new afterall.
Hmmmm- maybe this ten days of silence will do me well... I have a lot to ponder and figure out.
What better place to search for answers then at the beginning... In the motherland.
Speaking of mothers... And my intro course... And in case you were wondering how I ever became so awesome....
Check out this email I just received from my RADiculously amazing mommy:
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Hi Zan,
Taking an intensive meditation course sounds great! Intro to Buddhism sounds perfect. I love Intro classes in everything. It keeps us humble and simple.
I love, love, love your poems. They are wonderful and reflect your amazing state of mind. Lauren often takes mediation courses and she has an amazingly peaceful center to her that never gets ruffled. I feel it and admire it.
To me, meditation just brings you into the awareness of what IS and stops the chatter and speculation of the mind as to what ' Might be' or " could be". The Now is where it is at and this world is a miracle and we are all made of stardust and that in itself is enough of a miracle to stop us from searching for more. The fact that we have evolved into these amazing conscious creatures is a miracle in itself. Look at your hands, look at the circulatory system of the body, that is the miracle of life! You really don't have to follow any man made religions to know this .Lauren always says Good Buddhism is No Buddhism.
Have a wonderful ten days!!! I am loving you all the time. You are part of my body and my cells and my consciousness.
Love, Mom
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So ya... Word to my mother!
Word to my new friends!
Word to the fact that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet...
Unless he is a drug dealer with a razorblade in his apple--- stay away from him, kids....
Or a terrifyingly creepy sadhu wearing orange, with a painted face, carrying a trident and following you around town wiggling his tongue at you smiling and staring through the window as you try to eat lunch.
Ya. Maybe steer clear of him too.
But other then that. What have the romans... Nevermind.
Strangers rock.
I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and talk to everyone again.
... And then not talk to anyone but my own inner guru for ten days...
...and then charge it down to Varanasi and sing and laugh and share some super special vibes with my soul brother Aaron glass!
I Love love!
I love life!
JAI MA!!!!
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