The rest day (4/6/2013)

Tashi delek! (That’s the Tibetan way of saying Namaste!)

It has been a crazy couple of days. I know I keep on saying this over and over but I still can’t believe that it has only been such a short time; the days are just so full of new impressions that it feels impossible that only two days have passed at the monastery. Yesterday was my rest day, which I am still so thankful for! Really, if the monks hadn’t been so generous I would’ve probably collapsed by now… So yes, yesterday I got to settle in, it was very interesting. The day started at 4:00 am for me… typical, I get a rest day, probably the only day for the next two months where I can have a lie in, and I am the first to wake up in the whole entire monastery. So I did some unpacking…

Me and two of my favorite monks;
Aryen, Chelsea and I (I'm the one
with skin so white it reflects sunlight)

At 6:00 am the gong was gonged (???) which meant that it was time for breakfast, I made my way to the dining area and was welcomed by everybody. They explained to me what the food was and how to eat it; the is this round bread which is very thin, almost like very very dry naan bread and with it you get a cup of Tibetan tea. Of course I was all excited about the tea (tea > coffee always) so I was expecting the sugary goodness that I had been having for the past few days, instead when I took a sip I realized that Tibetan tea is not the tea I’m used to… it’s more like soup, very, very salty soup. The monks of course laughed at my reaction and told me to dip the bread into the tea/soup and eat it like that – it was good!!! But now the next day I’ve realized something tragic, there is milk in the tea/soup thing… okay, I know that I explained that here I am more lenient with what I eat but I’ve realized that I probably am actually somewhat lactose intolerant. After both breakfasts and both tea times that I have had so far (which both have milk in the dishes) my stomach felt like and explosion, and today I had the worst stomach cramps ever. Okay, I always knew that becoming vegan made my acne go away, but I thought it was because of the hormones that are in the milk, but now I may actually be sensitive to milk itself???? SO, after all those months of telling people that I am lactose intolerant in restaurants (instead of explaining that I am vegan; which many people don’t understand) I may actually be slightly lactose intolerant… is this what they call karma?!? Probably.

Talking about karma, one of the Yogis, Paldin, has taken me under his wing. He wants to help me learn about Buddhism. Yesterday we had a two hour conversation (!!!) about Buddhism; I learnt the story of Siddhartha (who is Buddha, I will probably write a blog post about the story some time), the four noble truths, karma, the concepts of impermanence and emptiness (which is freaking confusing). I realized that a lot of the things which Buddhism teaches are actually a lot like science! The fact that everything is actually a sort of illusion – how nothing actually exists is emphasized in Buddhism. First it reminds me of the fact that all atoms are mostly empty space and secondly it also reminds me of quantum physics. In the world of quantum physics it is the effect of an observer which causes energy to act like matter (google the double slit experiment if you want to know more).

For lunch we had rice and dal (which I love love love so much, lentils are amazing, I want to make a shrine for them, or maybe I should make one for the cook) then at dinner time we had another Tibetan dish (of course I forgot the name of it already). All the monks were surprised that I actually liked the Tibetan dish; it is a weird kind of soup with some vegetables and thick pieces of pasta/dumpling type things. During dinner I was sitting across from another Yogi. A Yogi by the way is a type of Buddhist that is not as strict as Lamas (monks) they can marry for example. This Yogi told me that he’d help me get to talk to the top Lama (who is in his building in the back of the monastery all day; he spends almost all of his time meditating) so that I can ask him whether he will teach me. I swear so many people are offering to help me to learn about Buddhism! It’s crazy! I was told that the monks were reserved and stand off-ish at first, but they were so wrong! Another young monk has offered to help me learn Tibetan, which of course I said yes to. Now you may be thinking, Charlotte you crazy Dutch person, you are there to teach it doesn’t sound like you’re occupied with that at all! And to that I say; I only have to teach three hours a day ~ awhhhh yeahhhhhh

This is how the teaching works, 9:00 am – 10:00 am I teach the youngest monks, the ones with the lowest level of English, 10:00 am – 11:00 am I teach the oldest students, the ones with the best level of English and from 11:00 am to 12:00 am I teach the middle class. Then lunch is at 12, afterwards I plan the lesson for the next day, once I’m done with that I have free time! I know, I really lucked out with this monastery, I just feel so thankful. I am in the middle of the greenery, the food is good, I get all this time to properly prepare the lessons, I have hours of free time, monks all around are offering help me learn things and everyone is so so so kind. Going to bed is the best thing though, my neighbor to the left and the monk above me are both chanting all the way up until 10:00 pm.  You may think I’m crazy but I actually find it so calming, wallah it’s 10 times better than a lullaby, and I sleep like a baby… (one day I’ll ask whether I can record it so maybe I’ll be able to show you)

Take care,
Charlotte x