Karmapa

A few days ago my friend Emma asked if I would like to go see a Lama and I responded, "Why would I want to see a llama?" Once we had cleared up that we would be seeing a Buddhist Lama and not the animal I was on board. The Lama we were to visit, along with a bunch of other Tushita people still hanging around, was His Holiness Karmapa who is the 17th reincarnation of the Karmapa Lama. Before leaving and even now I don't really know anything about him except that he is an extremely big deal in Tibetan Buddhism and that my 5 seconds in front of him were amazing.
We were led on our expedition by Ruth, an New Zealander, who randomly walked into a Tushita meditation a few years ago and stayed on for two and a half years. She had been in our Tushita course and she is just amazing to hang out with and tons of fun. She also has a huge New Zealand accent which I like to listen to. Anyway, we took a public bus way down the mountain. It was great to get out of Mcleod and see the actual Dharamshala and the surrounding countryside. The minute we started to descend the mountain the temperature must have risen 10 degrees. After two entertaining bus rides we arrived at the monastery where Karmapa lives when he is not traveling. It was questionable whether I would get to actually see him as I had not been told that I was supposed to bring my passport. Luckily I am very convincing and I have my passport number memorized so I was let in (it was fate). We sat in the beautiful and huge main hall along with hundreds of other devotees waiting to receive a blessing. Most people seemed far more informed that I am about Karmapa and I saw lots of T-shirts celebrating the 900th year of the Karmapa from 2010. I wasn't really expecting anything as I didn't really know who he was and was mostly just interested in getting to see somewhere new. He came in and the process started immediately. You would walk up to a monk who after receiving your white scarf (they have an official name that I don't know) would drape it over your head, then you would have your few seconds in front of His Holiness during which he gave you a red nylon string with a knot in it and you would accept it and bow. It looked like it would be over in mere seconds. First went monks from all over the world, then the men and then women. I was mostly worried that I would do something wrong and it did happen really fast. I tried to really look into his eyes but before I new it I was shuffling out the door. Despite being so brief I, along with everyone else who exited came out beaming with happiness. I just felt some kind of elation and couldn't stop smiling. The happiness was just all consuming and has remained until right this minute! I didn't really think I felt or saw anything when I looked into his eyes but something happened there that was wonderful.
Afterwards we made our way back up to Mcleod in a bus and a jeep this time and then all sat down for a quick tea which turned into a full meal (though mine was just steamed veggies). It has been so wonderful to spend time with other Tushita people. I'm sure everyone feels this way after their course but its just so nice to be able to connect with people and skip the same conversation about where we are from and where we've been and where we're going and actually talk to people about real things. The day was honestly the best that I have had in India and left me with the most wonderful feeling. It was a perfect end to the cleanse and perfect way to say goodbye to Emma and many of the other Tushita people who were leaving in a few days. My last couple of weeks here have just left me with a wonderful feeling and with such excitement for the rest of my travels on my own.

Cleansing

I am so happy with my decision to give up my plane ticket for Goa and spend two more weeks here doing the panchakarma cleanse. I found a super nice and very cheap guest house where my neighbor was an adorable baby cow and where at night I wasn't kept awake by the honking of horns and people talking. I am staying about 20 minutes straight up the hill from Mcleod in the little village of Dharmkot and there are still a good number of people from my Tushita group to spend time with. Its been a really nice way to ease into traveling on my own and figuring out what I want to do with my remaining months. I am doing all I can to resist my urge to plan everything in advance and haven't let myself make any concrete plans or book any tickets anywhere until I am completely done with my cleanse. So you are all probably dying to know the details of my 14 days of cleansing which will be completed tomorrow and will be celebrated with lots of delicious food.
So generally, Panchakarma is an ancient Ayurvadic treatment that is meant to cleanse the mind as well as the body. It is not a cleanse where you just sit around and drink lemon juice and syrup all day and lose a ton of weight. My routine consists of breakfast with whomever is at the restaurant in town, usually Emma or Shay the two girls from Tushita that were also doing the cleanse. For breakfast we could have porridge with honey which was my favorite meal of the day. Then if I had time before treatment I would go to Tushita for their drop in meditations every morning. Treatment was about 15 minutes down the hill (not fun walking back up) and lasted for three hours everyday. It would always start with an amazing full body ayurvadic oil message which was then followed by about 20 minutes in either the sauna or steam room. Once we were nice and relaxed the less pleasant part began. For five of the days the doctor targeted our marma points to unblock emotional and physical blockage. Most of the points were on our feet or legs and correspond to different organs where different emotions are stored. While he was doing this sometimes excruciating therapy we were told to meditate on release all the negative emotions and breathing in all the positive ones to whichever organ he was targeting. Some of these points would make you cry from a combination of pain and who knows what. Other treatments include vomiting in which I had to chug cups of licorice tea until I threw up and repeat four times. It reminded me of college. We also had purgation days which was a nice way of saying diarrhea days and last but not least no less then four herb enemas. While all of this may be quite unpleasant to read we became so comfortable discussing our progress that a chat over dinner about the diarrhea day and how many times each of us went (we had to keep track) was quite common- and quite strange for those not in the program. I have been super lucky in my treatment as everything seemed to go quite well- I attribute this not to my eating healthy and working out because I don't, but to the fabulous genes that I have inherited.
By far the best part about the cleanse, and the only thing that made the diet of super boring, easy to digest food bearable was this wonderful restaurant/guesthouse where we, and all the other panchakarma people would have dinner. The house was owned by a German woman and her Indian husband and there three beautiful trilingual daughters, two amazing dogs (one of which is pregnant) and cute kitty. Every night everyone would arrive for dinner of panchakarma soup, rice and chapatti which I would smother in ghee (our butter substitute). It was great to meet new, usually very interesting people, and not have to watch our other friends down pizza.
So far the concrete results that I have seen from the cleanse include super soft skin and hair and feeling about a million times healthier than I have since I last lived with the mother. It is so hard to be healthy when you are traveling and even though I am really excited to have more food options starting tomorrow it was amazing to not feel sickeningly full after meals or just plain sick. In terms of other developments I don't really know what to attribute them to- Tushita, panchakarma or just staying in one place for so long and giving myself time to just be. Whatever the cause, I am feeling so much more grounded and I have so much less anxiety about everything from traveling alone to getting home and finding a job. I just feel so much more secure and comfortable letting whatever happens happen and not trying to control everything. Wherever this is coming from it feels wonderful. I feel truly relaxed for the first time traveling and want to continue to spend longer amounts of time in the next places I go.
So since I finish my cleanse tomorrow I am going to move back down to Mcleod because I can't face walking up and down the mountain everyday and I am ready to eat some delicious food and be near a little more action. I will probably spend a few days in town getting myself together and then I am going to set out for Rishikesh for some yoga!

Don't Worry I Haven't Become a Buddhist

So Danielle and I completed a 10 day silent Introduction to Buddhism course in Dharamsala last Thursday. While some of you may be shocked that I was able to stay silent for 10 days it ended up being an incredibly wonderful and significant experience. I learned a huge amount about both Buddhism and mediation. Our meditation leader was particularly wonderful as was able to lead us through some very challenging subjects in such a way that the exercises were extremely beneficial. Ultimately it was a pretty intense experience and we all know that blogs are not the place for those so to hear more details you will just have to talk to me when I come home.
After leaving the course I found out that the friend that I was going to meet in Goa had a family emergency and had to fly back to England. This left me in a bit of a confusing position as I had a flight to Goa but didn't really know if thats where I should be going. I decided to cancel my flight and will be spending some time here. Danielle leaves tonight (very sad) and I will be moving up to the little town of Dharamkot which is much quieter and trying to figure out what my next move will be. While I am contemplating where I will head next I am going to join some of my friends in doing a Ayurvadic cleanse for 14 days. I met with the doctor today and it sounds like it will be quite the experience and will hopefully remove all of my physical and emotional blocks. It feels strange to be traveling alone and its the first time that I have really been challenged to think only about myself and actually figure out what I want from my time traveling, where I want to go, and when I want to come home. At this point I can't answer any of those questions but I am hoping that after some time I will know what the next step should be. Until that time I've started reading James Joyce's Ulysses so that should keep me well occupied (and confused).