Sherabling And Beyond

Well so far Sherabling is number one on the hit parade of places to be or go to or spend time in, including the idea of spending a coupla months there some time, maybe when we're living over seas half the year, if that becomes a reality. Visiting Thailand in the next two weeks will start that part of the exploration, and more shall be revealed.

Nancy is very pleased that my response to Sherabling is so positive; even enthusiastic. It is a uniquely distinguished place, of course because of the presence and the influence and the spiritual power of Situ Rimpoche over the last 40 years, and also because of it's location in the Himalayan foothills in a forested rural setting. Keeping in mind that we have lived out in the boonies for the past quarter century, and not by any kind of accident, but by deliberate choice and preference and even need, it's not surprising that we both feel comfortable, and at home at rural Sherabling.

Nancy has shared with me a comment made by a European attendee at one of Situ's teaching weeks a while back when she was asked “What is there to do around here?”. Her response was a bit of confused incredulity, and my response now is one of understanding but also another kind of understanding. Fact is, there are not a lot of urban-like things to do there, but given our lifestyle, and maybe more so especially mine in that over the years, until recently, I've had a lot more time to spend at home than Nancy has, having lots of things to do in some busy-busy sense isn't part of our lives anyway. We're both pretty happy to hang out at “home”, take walks, sleep, eat, get on the interweb, watch a movie, be in nature, enjoy the quiet, move more slowly. Same things at Sherabling.

When I think about spending a couple of months there, I imagine doing these things, and watching the young monks practice their Lama Dancing, and walking through the forest and the fields and the villages to Bir, a little one yak town about an hour's walk away for a change of pace – and as I write, the site and time of the First Ever Annual International Paragliding Contest – and slowing things down even more than usual, and being.

So we did walk over to the village of Suja to see the 17^th Karmapa, who, of course(?) wasn't there. Rumors abounding, and Nancy speculating that security would have simply been too complex a task in the circumstances. In any case I thoroughly enjoyed our walk, and our brief visit to the Tibetan school at Suja, and our arrival and afternoon stay at Bir. Being open to what is presenting itself to us, we were fortunate to happen upon the beginnings of an all day Lama Dancing ritual at a Nyigma Monastery in Bir. We were told that this first phase of the day's dances were intended to clear out any negative energies or entities or obstructions before whatever was to come next would proceed.

 

We ate at the Garden Cafe where we spoke with a French paraglider who is in it for the pure pleasure, and not to compete in the World's First International Paragliding Competition. He travels to various spots around the world to enjoy this activity – do we call it a “sport”? - and happily informed us about some of the details, and risks, of the game. Believe it or not, little isolated nothing much of anything Bir is one of the 2 or 3 best world class destinations for paragliding, and hence its selection as the first site of the contest.

Check out this Vimeo video link

We also stopped by at a local Tibetan restaurant in order to enjoy some veggie momos, little dough pockets filled with your choice of foods, we watched some gliders, and hailed a taxi back to Sherabling, about a 20-30 minute drive through the forest.

On one of our last days at Sherabling we were fortunate to just catch a group of young monks learning and practicing the ritual Lama Dancing that they will become proficient at and likely perform as long as they are able to into their adult monkhood. More egg and chapati breakfasts with Amma and Acca, witnessing a troop of monkey's cavort in and out of two pools of water in the Tibetan Medicine Herb Garden ( Vimeo video link)
and a final departure for the two+ hour ride provided by Ramesh Kumar to bustling McLeod Ganj and the Hotel Mount View.