So it's been to long. But Japan has passed, and now it's India.
India is an assault on the senses. A common phrase, but it really is true. You could write a book on the smells alone. The tastes, the colors, the sounds. One day you love it the next you hate it with a fiery passion. Horns everywhere, cows munching on trash in the middle of the road, poor women with beautiful saris holding babies and begging in hindi, an endless variety of hats with religious significance...it all collides and mixes with dirt and spices. It's hard to explain, but India is a place you can understand in a day, but need a lifetime to really get. India is the land of contrasts, high rises next to vast slums, brown next to bright reds and oranges, monkeys and cows running rampant next to trucks and rickshaws.
It's everything you've heard and nothing you'd expect rolled into one piece of chapati.
After the incredible heat, noise and dirt of Delhi, I bus up to Dharamsala in the Himalayas. Here I am supposed to meet with lamas (robes not fur), and talk about dreams. I quickly find out that my topic, lucid dreaming and/or dream yoga, is one of the advanced yogas of just a few traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. As such, very few lamas will actually even say anything. I feel like a five-year old trying to get Fred Alan Wolf to explain Quantum Physics and string theory to me. Moreover, they won't talk about their own experiences because it seems like bragging. Great. Well, I'm running into brick walls, but at least I feel like Indiana Jones. This is like the grail right now for me.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
It's me smacking my head against my hand because I can't find anyone to talk to.
Chamtrul Rinpoche, Kyabje Trulshig Rinpoche, Kochhen Rinpoche, Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche, and Ven. Khandro Rinpoche are all travelling. These are the people who know what I want to talk about.
These lamas are smart. Its monsoon season, so they get out. But I'm here.
Well, anyway, Khamtrul Rinpoche is here I've just heard. He's in the Nyingma tradition, which means he will know what I'm talking about. This is the first bright light since my interview with Tenzin Palmo, the nun who spent 12 years in a cave. However, she had little to say about dream yoga, whereas Khamtrul, if he will talk to me, will have mounds of information.
Today is the Dalai Lama's birthday. It was pouring rain. Everyone crowded into the monastery to see him and the performance. Umbrellas blocked the view. I saw him sitting there thought. It was anticlimactic.
Anyway, I must get on with the research. Until next time...
