On the weekend of the 11th and 12th of January, Fr Immanuel and 4 of the Brothers and I visited the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery near Kushalnagar. People call it the Golden Temple for reasons that will be obvious when you look at the photos. Their web site is: http://www.namdroling.org if you are interested in learning more.
There are thousands of monks and nuns there. I learned something very important. The only reason we experience disappointment is that events and circumstances do not meet our expectations. There are two ways to think about this. Either we can blame the experiences or we can recognize that our expectations are the problem. This is a very buddhist approach which is lucky because the only other thing I got from our visit today to the Namdroling Temple 80 km west of Mysore are some photos and some unfulfilled expectations. It is a huge place and when we arrived I was so excited and explained what I knew to the Brothers. I asked a few of the monks if we could go in and join the chanting community in puja as they were chanting and banging drums and gongs. The answer was no. We could watch from outside and take photos but not join them.
The place is full of tourists and souvenir shops with crappy stuff. It is the Indian way of coping with the intrusion into their monastic life on the weekends. They carry on as usual and put up signs to protect themselves and shut everyone else out.
We booked into a hostel just outside the monastery and enjoyed a quiet time but once you have taken all the photos you can, all that is left is to go. We went to Kushalnagar that night and then headed home the next day. I shared a twin room with Fr Immanuel so I hope he got some sleep through my snoring.
On my 29th Anniversary I woke up with a priest in a foreign country. When I got to Mysore I Skyped Jen and had a good talk.
To Michelle who was so jealous of me for going to a buddhist monastery, the only way you get to play with them is to join them.
There are thousands of monks and nuns there. I learned something very important. The only reason we experience disappointment is that events and circumstances do not meet our expectations. There are two ways to think about this. Either we can blame the experiences or we can recognize that our expectations are the problem. This is a very buddhist approach which is lucky because the only other thing I got from our visit today to the Namdroling Temple 80 km west of Mysore are some photos and some unfulfilled expectations. It is a huge place and when we arrived I was so excited and explained what I knew to the Brothers. I asked a few of the monks if we could go in and join the chanting community in puja as they were chanting and banging drums and gongs. The answer was no. We could watch from outside and take photos but not join them.
The place is full of tourists and souvenir shops with crappy stuff. It is the Indian way of coping with the intrusion into their monastic life on the weekends. They carry on as usual and put up signs to protect themselves and shut everyone else out.
We booked into a hostel just outside the monastery and enjoyed a quiet time but once you have taken all the photos you can, all that is left is to go. We went to Kushalnagar that night and then headed home the next day. I shared a twin room with Fr Immanuel so I hope he got some sleep through my snoring.
On my 29th Anniversary I woke up with a priest in a foreign country. When I got to Mysore I Skyped Jen and had a good talk.
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