Untitled

Are you feeling like the world is going a bit crazy these days? Have you had some recent first hand experiences of an upsetting globally renowned event?  This article will hopefully make you feel better as it gives you access to the bravery others have shown in the face of similar or indeed much worse adversity.

Having recently sat through the London riots in the safety of my south London flat I gave thanks for the fact I was not above any commercial shops which seemed to be the main target.  As upsetting as it was I must admit it was a major reality check.  We all at times feel like we are in a bubble of safety here in the West and looking around that bubble is becoming more and more like the impermanent dream that it actually is.  Major shifts are happening as we move forward into 2012, the year predicted by the Mayan people as a powerful yet possibly terrifying time for humanity as we are forced to either take responsibility and step up or cash in our ‘karmic debt’.

So as we move forward into such uncertainty what can we do to make ourselves deal with it better?  One suggestion I would like to make is to look back and learn from our brothers and sisters who have already felt the harsh blow of fate and lived to not only tell the tale, but also have worked hard to share it in their writing.   Palden Gyatso is one such person who wrote the book ‘Fire Under The Snow’. In it he tells us how he was imprisoned for thirty-three years by Chinese forces in Tibet for the supposed ‘crime’ of wanting to be free to live his life as a Tibetan monk.  Upon his long awaited release he courageously fled across the Himalayan range to India smuggling with him the instruments of his repeated torture.  Determined to tell the world of the atrocities he experienced under the hands of the Chinese after their invasion of Tibet in 1950, Palden Gyatso was the first Tibetan to give evidence at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on the realities of Tibetan life under Chinese rule.  The response to which by the Chinese was that his story was “untrue”.

His book is a heart breaking yet at the same time entrancing account of all he endured.  Yes it is difficult to read about the brutality that went on and is still going on in Tibet.  But the reward for facing that reality as a reader is the lesson we learn that ultimately we are blessed and can draw upon the strength of people like Palden.  We may have difficulties ten fold, but if we still have the freedom to walk outside when we choose to, drink water when we are thirsty and speak openly to the people around us then are we truly suffering or blindly blessed?  Once we can see our reality through reading testimonies such as that in ‘Fire Under The Snow’ we can begin to relax.  Once we relax we are more equipped to make better decisions.  Once we start to make better decisions we are one individual creating a better world for all.   And together we can perhaps begin to slowly rebuild the wall of good karma that seems to have been left demolished for far too long here in the spiritual poverty of the West.  As many people travel to the Dalai Lama in India from all corners of the globe on spiritual retreats they don’t realise people like Palden Gyatso are also there in Dharamsala with their door open to visitors from far and wide as they courageously continue to share their incredible story…

Om mani padme hum

Tashi delek

Lisa & Lama Buga

Should we be building a financial portfolio or a detachment portfolio?

Whilst living with tantric Lamas in India I found myself in prime position to experience them walk their talk.  If you have read anything at all on Tibetan Buddhism you will know we are consistently reminded that one of their key principles for finding happiness is through detachment.  So I had the opportunity to be a ‘samasaric fly’ on a monastic wall to observe this incredibly difficult principle being put in action.   Many things happened to this effect in the duration of my stay but one situation in particular stands out the most for me.  On a deliciously lazy Sunday afternoon I was sitting in the midday sun out on the balcony with my dear friend Lama Tashi and a sweet Tibetan school kid called Tenzin.   This balcony was situated at the back of a restaurant and underneath us was the kitchen.  Lama Tashi was the monk in charge of running the restaurant and hotel at this particular time.  As we gazed out over the rolling Himalayan  foothills of Dharamsala, with prayer flags flapping in the wind sending their auspicious intentions skywards, a big black stream of smoke ominously comes out from the kitchen windows below.  My initial reaction was one of panic, as true to form my highly trained Western sympathetic nervous system jumps straight into ‘flight or flight’ mode.  Both my Tibetan counterparts on the other hand had a totally different reaction, a gutful of hearty laughter directly proceeded by ‘Haha kitchen, kitchen!’  Now language barriers did get in the way from time to time during my stay but in that moment I had found a universal language that helped me understand this principle of detachment with no need for translation, it was the universal language of laughter.  Now to continue on with the story, I then waited perched on the edge of my seat, to see what we would do next.  Well we carried on as normal of course and let the lads in the kitchen deal with their own creation.   Neither  Lama Tashi nor Tenzin felt any need to get involved so what gave me the right to even assume I needed to?  This simple act of instant detachment, all done so effortlessly was one of my biggest learning's.   It has left me with such a deep longing for this kind of authentic freedom that it is fuelling my intentions to go back and study with these monks so this ‘samsaric fly’ can master the most detachment she possibly can in this brief lifetime. 

So why am I telling you all of this? This morning I was asked the question “Lisa what are your plans for when you are an older woman?”.  At first I didn’t know what to say for two reasons.  The first was because I honestly don’t plan that far ahead as I like to keep the pages of my story unwritten and secondly because I could sense the question came from a material place with perhaps a flavour of childbearing pressures in there.  It was one of those moments when someone asks you the biggest question they have for themselves.  After a few minutes, once I had made a concerted effort to mentally swim through all the societal expectancies that this question was laden with, I got to a place of  wonderful clarity.   I replied “My plans for when I am an older woman are to be happy”.  And what happened after that was an instantaneous connecting of the dots, for I saw that my intention to go to India and learn precious Tibetan mind tricks would play a big part in me achieving that.   So I no longer saw it as ‘the thing that I will do next’, but instead saw it as an investment in my future well-being and happiness.  We all spend so much of our time running around worrying about things like our careers, our mortgages, our bank accounts, our pensions and at times rightly so.  But the question I want to ask all of you now is what investments are you making today for your happiness pension of tomorrow? What are you doing to ensure that no matter what happens in the future you will find and maintain inner peace, freedom and happiness despite the dramas of everyday samsaric life?  

And I look forward to reading your answers! 

With love 

Lisa 

www.spiritualbackpackersindia.com