"So Far, " by Forrest

Be sure to visit Lynnell's and my photo album on our Facebook page

 https://www.facebook.com/earlhamtibetanstudiesprogram2013/photos_albums

So far, we have spent time in Delhi, walking through a Sikh Gurudwara and a Hanuman "monkey-god" temple, where we got caught in a monsoon downpour and watched naked children spontaneously sliding along the slick marble with utter, gleeful abandon.

So far we have had endless tastes of dosas, talis, momos, lassis, chapatis, dals, thugkpa, bitter gourd (so bad it has to be good), muttons and chickens (but no cows), rice and more rice, and blessed filtered water. For the most part, our group has stayed pretty healthy!

So far we have zoomed along the Indian highways in taxis, watching village after village slide by our windows, marveling at the lives fully lived in the little dhabas and tiny shops that make up a person's entire livelihood. Lives fully lived, going past us in a whirling stream of images.

So far we have engaged with Tibetans on so many levels, from our "cook-la" who greets us every morning with a smiling "shogs-pa deleg," to our Geshe-las who treat us with such respect and friendliness, to the students' roomates who we already are going to miss when we "move up," to all the shopkeepers and everyday people in McCleod Ganj, keeping the dream of Tibetan culture alive.

So far we have gone on pilgrimage to Tso-pema and seen how Tibetan Buddhism continues to grow and thrive in its adopted land.

So far we have studied Tibetan language and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan history, and now some Tibetan music and art, and seen how it all integrates into something we can call a Tibetan experience, a beautiful culture, "a culture of compassion," struggling against odds great and small to maintain its very survival in the face of Chinese domination and agression, and modernity's indifference to the balanced, middle-way approach of the Buddha Dharma.

So far we have gotten up every morning (most of us, most of the time) to meditate together at 7 am in the temple here on the Sarah College campus. If we manage to make it by 6:30, we get to sit while the monks and students chant Tibetan prayers in their low, sing-song style. They especially pray to Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, for success in their studies, and of course they send out prayers of loving kindness and compassion for all sentient beings.

So far we have engaged with our deepest selves, confronting both the delusion of our self-centered approach to life  and the illusion of the outward display of our perceptual reality. Our very foundation as Western, scientifically-trained humans is being shaken by the Buddhist view of no-self and of emptiness (also known as the fully interdependent nature of reality), within which is found the heart of compassion.

So far. We have come so far, and have so far to go, in the program, on our personal paths, and in our understanding of these wonderful people and what they have to offer us, and what they can offer the world.