A typical day in Bouda

It is hard to know where to start when you are already a week and a half behind.  From the day after I arrived here in Bouda I have been attending a Buddhist teaching that has been given primarily by the Lama, Chokyi Nyima, who is the abbot of the monastery where the teaching is going on and who has a whole chain of study and learning centers around the world.  My schedule has been pretty much the same every day since I arrived.  Get up, do my meditation and yoga practice, go out for breakfast, along the way walking a few circuits around the huge stupa in the middle of town with what seems like everyone else who lives in the area.  Breakfast has usually, but not always, been at a restaurant called "Toast".  For those of you who know me well, you will know the attraction of the name, I love toast in the morning , and "Toast" has some delicious whole grain bread that they toast.  Usually at breakfast I will run into a few other foreigners attending the teaching giving me some company for breakfast.

  Then its off to the monastery, its real name is Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, but to everybody in town it is known simply as the White Monastery or the White Gompa, gompa being Tibetan for monastery.  Usually I'm a bit early and the teaching almost never start or stop at the advertised time so there is time to sit in the sun and warm up.  The temperature range in the Kathmandu this time of the year is generally mid 70's for a high and mid 40's for a low and there are very few placed that are heated, especially not inexpensive guest houses, so sitting in the sun in the mid morning feels really good.  Once the morning teaching starts it goes on for about an hour an a half at which point we have a break for tea and crackers on the lawn in front of the monastery for about 30 minutes, by this time the sun has warmed up a lot and people start seeking out shady spots to sip tea and talk.  The Kathmandu area sits at about 4000 feet and so it has a semi mountain climate, meaning it warms up  and cools off very quickly.  After the break we have another hour and a half to two hours of teachings and then we are done for the morning sessions, usually around 1 PM, though often a bit later.  We  then have off until 3 PM when the afternoon session starts.  That gives me enough time to grab some  lunch at one of the many restaurants in town and/or go back to ones guest house for a quick nap.

From 3 to 5 PM there is a talk by one of several teaching Lama's from the monastery.  The talks, both in the morning and the afternoon are partly in English and partly in Tibetan with an interpreter for the Tibetan.  Usually the more difficult parts of the talks are given in Tibetan, so the interpreters have their work cut out for them.  They not only have to be fluent in Tibetan and English, they also have to be very well versed in Buddhist philosophy.  Fortunately the monastery has a degree granting college as part of its structure and they grant degrees, bachelors and masters, in Tibetan Language, Interpreting and Buddhist Philosophy.  Thus there is a ready supply of interpreters for courses such as the one I'm attending.  This college is separate from the monastery and is mostly filled with foreigners, that is non Nepalis.  There are quite a few young Americans in attendance as well as a large European presence, some Nepalis, a few students from Bhutan and surprisingly a few students from Tibet.  The Chinese do not let non monk Tibetans study Tibetan Buddhism, so if your not a  monk and want to study Buddhism and live in Tibet you need to schlep on down to a school like this  in Nepal to do your studies.

 By the time the afternoon session is over it is dusk or dark out.  Generally,  after class I head back to my guest house, throw myself on the bed for a few minutes, check my email, if the wifi is working, and then head out to dinner.  As at breakfast, dinner is a time for running into other fellow students and or perfect strangers in the various restaurant in town.  Seldom have I ended up sitting alone and eating at a restaurant, even when I might have like that.  These meals have generated some interesting conversations and fascinating characters.  In my next post I'll  try to describe some of the people I've met and maybe a taste of the teachings we've been listening to.