Tushita Meditation

If you want an experience of a life time. Head to Mcleod Ganj, India Immediately!! Forget all the psychologists and counseling. I promise. Study Buddhist philosophy and it will change your life.

I just spent the most amazing week in Tushita Meditation Centre located in whats referred to as the "Baby Himalayas". Walking distance from Mcleod Ganj city centre. Mountains, clean fresh air, rich with spirituality and culture and "momos" (Tibetan Dumplings)!. A slice of heaven I tell ya's!.. oh yeah...Tushita. So Tushita runs introduction to Buddhism week long courses in (supposed) silence. The Nun (Female Buddhist Monk) who was conducting the course was Venerable Robina.... (You Tube and Google her, so worth it). To my surprise she was Aussie! oi oi oi!...which of course was amazing as not only have I not heard an Austrayan accent for 2 months I have never sat still for so long and not fallen asleep. This to me is a KPI. Key Performance Indicator. She had my undivided attention for 6 days straight.

I would love to reiterate everything I learnt there...but in sum, I will just say this "simple guidelines to live by" and if you want true peace and freedom....start with your own mind.

a different world

I'm sitting at a chai stand waiting for a friend to arrive from Delhi. Just off the main square there is an old man that 'literally' peeps out of a hole in the wall. He makes a delightful chai tea and some simple boiled eggs.

Approximately two minutes ago a little girl I have seen for the past 3 morning arrives with her grandmother and a man who could be her father who carries her box of fresh Tibetan bread. It's 5.43am in the morning and this little girls sits here to sell the fresh Tibetan bread to passers by. Right now there is not so many people walking by so she talks from her little seat to this old man and a customer from the chai stand about, only they know what, but I'm guessing it was to use the old mans broom to clean her little space, he offers her water to wash her hands. She sits patiently with her father and grandmother.

This place really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Did this little girl stay up late last night or wake up early this morning to make the bread to sit here in fairly chilly weather to make a small income for her own pocket money or for her family. Again, only they will know. Only I can draw conclusions.

She natters away in the softest little voice, that eludes to a stranger like me, innocence, youthful wisdom and independence. I would love to talk to her in Tibetan... But I might try with English. :)

Maybe if I had tried Nepalese. She wasn't Tibetan at all. Selling the Tibetan bread threw me. She spoke very little English but understood the basics, how old are you? do you have brothers and sisters? Etc.

So how her story goes. She wakes up at 1am to make 160 pieces of the freshest Tibetan sweet bread ever with her mother and father to sit here for almost 3 hours before she heads to school at 8am. She sells it for 6 Rupees per piece. I pay her 60 rupees every time because she is a sweet kid earning an honest living and she wouldn't be sitting there if she didn't need to. She has 2 sisters 1 is 15 and the other is 5 and two brothers 1 that is 2 and the other I'm not sure I missed his age.

Can you believe it. This little Nepalese angel sits here selling bread for 3 hours before she goes to school.

At 12 years old, I was dragging my self out of bed at 7 in the morning in my perfectly ironed uniform to catch the bus and hang out with friends at the train station before school and maybe grabbing a McDonald's hash brown and an OJ before sitting in an all girls catholic school receiving a high quality education... Again, It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Not with pity, or guilt but with a sudden urge to selflessly serve and perhaps teach English to young children of the world. Educate them in real world survival, something they can use to apply to their own life and perhaps one day run their own business and travel the world and consider themselves lucky and pass on their knowledge and so the process continues.

Soham...i am that i am that i am that i am...

Soham

My own personal and officially initiated mantra by Swami Durgananda on Friday 4th of November 2011.

I chose 'soham' as my mantra, as it is correlates with a word that I stumbled across earlier this year and resonated with instantly. So much so that I had it tattooed on my right forearm in Sanskrit "tatvamasi" so that I never forget...  (see my tatvamasi post)

Soham and tatvamasi mean exactly the same thing, though the biggest difference being, soham has a sound vibration which represents the inhalation and exhalation of breathe to which one can use to meditate and when repeated, soham soham soham... translates to "I am that I am that I am that I am..." Tatvamasi on the other hand is used more in a philosophical context, it is derived from vedic philosophy and translates to "thou are that" or "i am that".

To be completely honest, I had never heard of 'soham' until this month. I was familiar with 'hamsa'  which is same, same but slightly different. It is actually the same sound vibration as 'soham' but in reverse. Let me explain... with 'soham', on the inhalation you say soooooo and on the exhalation you say hummmmm. and with 'hamsa' on the inhalation you say hummmmm and on the exhalation you say saaaa.

Sounds a little complicated but if your like me and fairly new to mantras, its best to keep your mantra the same and keep it simple. Find a mantra that you like the sound of (there are hundreds, if not thousands' and repeat it in your mind while taking your 20 minutes of silent meditation. If your mind wonders, just keep repeating the mantra in your head and focus on the space between your eyes. The Ajna chakra. Though the Bija mantra for this chakra is om (aum) it is a nice simple method for keeping focus and bring your mind to silence.