7/23/07 Lavaur France

Nalanda Monastery

One evening this week, we had a surprise visitor. Tenzin Sherab, the first Westerner acknowledged to be a reincarnation of a high Tibetan Lama, wanted to come by and see the monastery.

"Among the wealth of information that currently fuels the reincarnation debate, there is one story that towers above the rest. For the first time 'reincarnation masters' are appearing in the West - men and women who through profound meditation techniques can steer their consciousness at the time of death to the precise rebirth of their choice. Having reached this ultimate spiritual achievement, they elect to come back to earth for one reason only - to help all humanity attain the same freedom as themselves." by Vicki Mackenzie from her book 'Reborn in the West'

From the book:
Tenzin Sherab was born Elijah Ary in 1972 in Canada to parents who had discovered Tibetan Buddhism and had set up a small center in Vancouver. Tenzin is acknowledged to be the reincarnation of Geshe Jatse, who predicted that he would be reborn in a place where you need a 'sky boat' to get to. Geshe Jatse was the vice-abbot and meditation master of the Sera Monastery in Lhasa but he left prematurely to meditate in a cave and is thought to have died there after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Elijah had a normal childhood until at the age of seven when the Dalai Lama, who was visiting Montreal, recognized him as the reincarnation of Geshe Jatse. Shortly there after Elijah was given the name Tenzin Sherab. In 1986 he attended the new Sera Monastery in Nepal as an ordained monk. Within 3 months he was fluent in Tibetan so he could debate Buddhist philosophy with the other monks. Tenzin stayed there for six years and was a Tibetan Buddhist monk for another six before handing back his robes to re-enter into North American life.

After Tenzin had been shown the new monastery that they are building here at Nalanda, we all sat out on the terrace for tea and some sweets. The monks were curious about his recent activities which included getting a Masters and PhD at Harvard in Religious Studies. What fascinated me was his command of languages. He grew up speaking English and French in Canada and learned Tibetan at Sera, but during his time at Harvard he also learned Sanskrit, Chinese and German. He spent eight years at Harvard. And except for his shaved head, he looked like any other recent graduate doing some inexpensive European traveling with his Paris-born wife/partner (I never did figure out which). He was a nice, peaceful guy that everyone seemed to enjoy having here for a visit.

Last week was kind of hectic because all the monks were preparing to go to Hamburg Germany for teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But concerning me, Jean-Francois was also leaving for an eight week retreat at the Kopan Monastery in Nepal and he was anxious to see how my gold-leafing skills were. I was able to do two pieces before he left and he seemed very satisfied. I even redesigned one of the pieces so that it kept within the style of all the others. He half-jokingly and half-seriously said he would be happy if I decided to stay longer because he knew I was a good-worker. By Saturday, no one was here at the monastery except the volunteers.

Some of the monks outside the new building

On Sunday, Fiona who was almost finished with her retreat here talked Toine into taking a few of us hiking. We drove to Mazamet but couldn't get to the hiking paths that Toine wanted to take us because the roads were blocked for the Tour de France stage that started here this morning. So, we parked the car and had lunch on the edge of town and then started walking. France has this amazing network of trails all over the countryside, complete with markers. I was surprised that most of the trail was clearly maintained. Basically we walked up and down the valley all day. As we were coming back, we stopped at the village of Hautpoul that was built on a mountain peak. Turns out the village was having a festival, Festival de Cornemuses (cornemuse is a type of French bag pipe) so we stopped for an ice cream and listened to the music before heading back towards Mazamet and the car.

Toine and Fiona lead the way along the trail

Lots of waterfalls

The hill-top village of Hautpoul

The Lady at the top of the peak

Cornmuses seem to be bagpipes
where the bag is a whole pig hide.

We all kid Toine because he is the 'acting' director in Tendar's absence. "Hello Mr Director" we say with a smile. But he surprised us by declaring Wednesday a holiday. Jean-Francois had given us some money as a gift of all our hard work. Toine decided that we would load up the cars and do some exploring with a huge picnic somewhere along the way. We drove to two Medieval villages, Cordes sur Ciel and St Antonino Nobleval. It was fun just to walk around and see the sites. We ended up having a grand picnic that Andre prepared for us along the banks of a river. Just a wonderful day.

It was a long climb up
to the medieval city of Cordes sur Ciel



Lots of old buildings



And beautiful homes



Found more references
to St Jaques (St James)



Had a great picnic along the banks



Next we headed to St Antonino Nobleval



Beautiful stained glass in the church



An amazing waterfront for such a small town



Homes along the river

And we finish with flowers

7/15/07 Lavaur France

Nalanda Monastery

Well, after two weeks, I've began to get settled into my life here at Nalanda.

On the weekends I look forward to both going to the open-air market in Lavour and to biking over to Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY) to visit Jean-Yves, who is cooking there for the summer. Tess and I headed to the market again last Saturday. I just love all the sights and sounds. And later that afternoon I rode out to IVY to see Jean-Yves but had to cut my visit short when I had a terrible attack of hay fever due to the combines harvesting wheat in the fields next to Vajra Yogini.

But last Sunday, Tess asked if I would ride with her back to IVY to retrieve her glasses. We decided to take a different route across the Agout River, heading away from Lavour this time. We ended up taking a side trip to Viterbe, a small town of 250 people on the river. It was a wonderful day to be out riding as the sky was overcast making for a much cooler day. What I loved the most was all the fields of sunflowers, sunflowers everywhere. It was a long way back to Vajra Yogini in some pretty hilly countryside but we made it in less than three hours. I was happy to take the shorter 45-minute route back to Nalanda though. [smile]

Everywhere sunflowers in bloom

But wildflowers are nice too

Rolling hills

One advantage to being at Nalanda is that I can go to any teachings at IVY on the weekends. And this weekend, the Ven. Robina Courtin was giving a talk. She has been a nun for more than 25 years and a close disciple of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. She is a feisty, no-nonsense kind of teacher who was the editor of Mandala Magazine and started the Liberation Prison Project, an organization bringing Buddhist teachings that now supports over 500 inmates in 150 different prisons around the world. I was only able to attend the final two days of her six day course but it was a wonderful experience, with lots of down-to-earth, real every-day applications of Buddhism. Maybe I can get her to come to Kansas City to teach some day.

The Institut Vajra Yogini is another beautiful, peaceful place. It's history is that it was one of the summer homes of the Toulouse-Lautrec family. Besides the grand house, the most striking feature is the huge Kadampa Stupa, in memory of Lama Thubten Yeshe, in front of the main entrance. There are quite a few buildings for housing students and those on retreat, along with extensive gardens.

Istitut Vajra Yogini

Two male peacocks roam the grounds

The Kadampa Stupa

7/07/07 Lavaur France

Nalanda Monastery

Yesterday was the Dalai Lama's birthday, he's 72 years old. Here's wishing him a long life so he can keep spreading the word about peace and compassion.

I thought I would tell you what a normal day is like at Nalanda, for me.

As far as I can tell, a lot of the monks are up at 5:30AM for meditation. Me, well that's too early for this old body, but do I try to go for a run before breakfast. At 7:00AM there is Mindfulness Breakfast. Because the monks go back for more prayers afterward, breakfast is in silence. There is fresh baked bread with lots of jams to choose from, and there is always a full basket of fruit on the table.

My room

There are more pujas (prayers) in the shrine room at 7:30AM. I've gone to one but my legs were not used to sitting cross-legged for an hour and half. Most is in English, but usually the chants are in Tibetan. I don't know why, but the rhythm and harmony of chants, be they Tibetan or Gregorian, just reach deep inside you.

And work starts about 8:00AM. There are no time-clocks, you just do what you need to do. Right now there are more lay people here than monks. Some are volunteers like me working on various projects or just the normal maintenance of the monastery. And a few others are on retreat or interesting in becoming monks. There are a few women here during the day, but they stay either in town or at the Vajra Yogini Institute. I'll tell you more about my work next week, but let's just say that all week I've been covered with plaster dust and for the next two weeks my hands will almost surely be covered with red acrylic paint. When I take a break, I usually just wander the grounds. The cats around the monastery know a good thing when they see it, and usually want some attention if you wander by.

Ah, fresh plaster dust in the morning

Volunteers Tess & Lauren in the workshop

I'm usually very ready when lunch is served at 12:30. All the monks take turns cooking and I always seem to be going back for seconds. It's all vegetarian and there is a lot of variety. We open with a short prayer and again, we eat in silence. At the end of the meal, there is a long prayer with more chanting, but after that talking is allowed and everyone seems to catch up on the days happenings. Then I head back to the workshop.

Darwin (Chile) & Beco (Peru) prepare lunch

It seems that time flies because suddenly I'm cleaning up about 5:30 and closing up the workshop. Most of the time, the monks don't eat again after lunch, so anyone else just makes something with the leftovers in the kitchen. While the monks are doing more evening prayers, I just try relax. I might study French for a bit then head to the library to do some reading or catch up on my email. The monastery has a huge library and most of the books are in English. But sometimes there are other things going on, like Friday nights everyone gets together to play soccer and Saturday is movie night where the monks can watch non-religious movies. Last week we watched 'Fly Boys' about American pilots flying for the French in WWI. I wonder what tonights movie will be.

The library

And usually about 10:00PM, I head to my room for some meditation and stretching before bed.

But today is Saturday and I have the whole weekend to relax. Besides updating the website/blog, I want to bike into Lavour for the Saturday market and just wander around town. It would be a shame to miss lunch here at the monastery because Tendar, the director, always makes good pizza. Then this afternoon I want to bike over to the Vajra Yogini Institute to visit with my cousin's husband, Jean-Yves, who is a chef there for the summer.