Our tasks before the conference ranged from interior decorators, lifting things and moving them to other locations and preparing to be a two person audio/visual team with the charge of documenting the conference. It wasn't all work though and we spent some relaxing moments with our dear friend Emily Crow sipping chai and musing over the display of our lives.
We also took some time to trek up to a near by waterfall in the wild of the foothills of the Himalayas. A group of younger travelers and residents of Bir who are all students of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche started to coalesce, and within a week some strong friendships had formed. It was quite a joy for me to get out from under Shambhala brat domination and meet some very beautiful and dedicated contemporaries. It was this group who would take these hikes up to the mountains, cook dinner together and talk into the evenings. On one excursion up the mountain trail we actually found a full grown leopard who seemed to have fallen from the cliffs of the waterfall, and lay dead in the pool of water at the bottom of the fall. She looked so powerful it was hard to imagine that she could have made such a mistake as to slip or fall. We pulled her out of the water (because the stream turned into drinking water down in the village) and said a few prayers. We were all kind of jazzed to be that close to such a powerful animal, whom if not dead would have made the atmosphere of the encounter much more serious.
On the whole Bir is a strange place with a bizarre mixture of Rinpoches (OT, Dzongsar Khyentse, Dzigar Kongtrol, Choling ext.) displaced western dharma students, Tibetan refugees, local Indians and of course rice paddies. We have enjoyed staying put and digging our heals in a little bit with idea of giving back in sweat what we were so fortunate to receive from all of you which is this pilgrimage experience. Deer Park Institute is a compelling place to visit. With the subtitle "A Center for the Study of Classical Indian Wisdom Traditions," it rubs against the tendency to become some kind of Tibetophile and opens up the context of Buddhism in a larger way which I quite enjoy. It is quite a beautiful thought that the teachings of the Buddha are coming back to India, and that some teachers have the vision to include the natives in this movement.
It has also been enriching to have the space to reflect on our journey thus far. My gratitude is so great, as well as my wonderment of all the causes and conditions that have brought me here. We have also been blessed to spend a good deal of time with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche,
who's humor and unpredictability makes for a truly enjoyable experience. Bir reminds me of Crestone or Shambhala mountain center in that most everyone knows each other, and besides the worthwhile endeavor of dhamra practice, not much else is going on. I hope the pictures help to fill the image.
Of course the conference that happened here was quite bustling, so I will give that its own blog entry.
