On Thursday we had led class again, which ended the practice season for year 2010. I was tired on Thursday and I was happy to close the year 2010. After practice I thought that I will build up totally new energy for the year 2011.
On Thursday I had pizza again. I went to Pascuzzi with Mikko, Helena, Tasia and Angeliq. It was a good, long lunch with friends. My dessert was warm brownie with scoop of vanilla icecream. Not bad at all. Angeliq had just arrived from the States and she seemed to be okey after really long fligt. It is insane, how long it takes to come here from the States, so we Europeans really don’t have anything to complain, what comes to fligt durations.
On Friday we headed to Bylakuppe. Anriikka had organised us a nice tour in monastery. Our group included Anriikka, Ian, Helena and Mikko and our guide Tulkku, who is a Tibetan monk, who escaped from Tibet about ten years ago and lives now in Bylakuppe with thousands of other monks. Our impression was that he was quite high in monastery’s hierarchy, because he teaches internationally and had been near Dalai Lama during his visit in Bylakuppe.
Bylakuppe was sort of unreal place for me. It is so weird, how in the middle of India can be so big Tibetan monastery. For me, the place seemed to be mixture of India and Tibet. Monks were running around wearing their red-orange costumes, but it was possible to find Indian food easily. Also some paintings inside the temples were like half Indian and half Tibetan. Tibetan Buddhism seems to be more colourful than Zen Buddhism. In this monastery it was possible to see also paintings about demons and dark side in general.
I wasn’t aware either that female Buddhas exist. I always thougth that Buddha is a male, but in that monastery had one whole temple with female Buddha paintings. In Bylakuppe’s area lives also Buddhist nuns and we heard that there is one Canadien woman, who will be soon promoted as teacher. Monks are very focused on their studies and we had a change to visit the school for little monks. They were so cute and quite shy. The youngest monk in the class room, where we visited, was five years old and he was already studying English.
In the monastery area the energy was so calm. It was very relaxing to walk around without being obliged to watch over your shoulder all the time. Trafic is naturally quite easy-going in that area, but monks are living in modern time too, because they were going around with their mobiles and I also saw a sign of interned café. They have even special home for old monks!
After our long day outside under the sun, we all were totally exhausted. The Tibetan food in the monastery was quite bad (only carbs) and we all ate just to be polite for our guide. When we arrived to Gokulam, Helena, Mikko and I decided to go for a dinner directly, because it was dark already and we were starving. In 6th Main Helena was almoust unable to talk and when Mikko and I stood up from the car, we both had difficulties to walk properly. Hah. One day in sun and yogis are totally smashed!
During the dinner we talked about New Year’s Resolutions. Helena promised to do one act of goodness everyday. My promise was no promises… I thought that we yogis don’t have to do those normal resolutions like eat healty, not to smoke or exercise everyday, because that is actually our lifestyle. The meaning of my resolution is to live as free as possible and live on the moment. It’s good to be without plans and enjoy the moment as much as possible. Life is very full and sweet in Mysore and hopefully my whole travel will be full of this peace and happiness.
After dinner I went home and decided to stay in the New Year’s Eve. I have to say, that Christmas and New Year’s Eve are not so cool parties here. We had fun with yogis during Christmas time, but locals don’t seem to party almoust at all. Once I would like to spend a New Year in New York, but I think that the ideal situation for me would be to live abroad and spend Christmas time and summer in Finland. I can stand cold for a while, but one month is quite maximum. Christmas time in Finland is full of traditions and Christmas spirit is everywhere. Finnish summer is very beautiful and then in Finland you can enjoy light all night long. Christmas in France and Vatican was also full of Christmas spirit, but in Bangkok it was only weird. I am going to spend next Christmas in Australia and I heard that they go to the beach and have a barbeque…
Today was my first practice (N:o 64 n total) of the year 2011. We had a led class and it is obvious that new people have arrived. Normally we all wait outside the gate calmly before practice, but this time people were jumping up and behaving nervously. Energy was almoust aggressive and at least pushy. I was happy to practice next to Michael, because he has a very calm breath. I was stiff today and felt easily those two days off in my body. My body doesn’t like that much days off. I know that those days are very important for recovery, but my body is always very heavy and stiff after day off. I am more stronger, but quite clumsy. I think that during this week I have to eat lightly and sleep as much as I can. My sleep has been so bad lately, that it seems to eat my practice. Time is going so fast, that I have to start to focus on my studies for YT now, too.
Today's conference will be interesting, because we are hosting a guest, who used to be student of Krinamacharya... I am giving my report about that later. And it's time to pay my shala fee for the fouth month. How fast time can go?
Happy New Year 2011!
Your trip to monastery sounded very interesting. I'd also like to see real monastery life.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear that your Christmas and New Year's Eve went fine. We had great party hear in Finland. Hopefully we can spend next Christmas and New Year's Eve together.