Live Lessons from my Spiritual Friend (1)

These series are memoirs of my trip to India from Sept 30 - October 15, 2011. It is written in retrospective manner as personnaly i am a lazy person to write dairies while travelling.  After considering this trip's some interesting experiences for self-reflections and life lessons learned, in certain way, it may shift my perceptions of many conceptual phenomena; and may these live lessons from my Spiritual Friend, Kunde Rinpoche transforms my spiritual quest for human enlightenment!

Motivation of the trip: My Spiritual Friend, Kunde Rinpoche suggested to me to make an effort to meet His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in this lifetime. One day in September he called to inform there would be a 4-day teachings scheduled at Dharamsala.  I thought this would be a golden opportunity to listen to His Holiness, and it was also time to take breaks from work, study ('coldstoraged' for nearly 7-8 months!), and the Buddhist Centre i am committed - to refresh my clouded mind...
[Symbols in text reference: HH -  His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tulku: Kunde Rinpoche - my Spiritual Friend; Ani: a renounced woman; Parenthesis:bracket ( ) - personal comments/reflection; " " -  conversation may not be the exact words rather than the meaning]

Sept. 30 - Oct. 3, 2011 - I arrived at the Indira Ghandi International Airport, Delhi, it was late night.  A budget mortel was booked on my behalf at the Tibetan community as Tulku as usual emphasize the joy of moderation in living, and being thrifty in person (Tulku used the term 'saved money', 'no waste' et.c).
The next day we went for lunch in a small restaurant, I passed the food bill and money for Tulku to help me make payment at the cashier counter as i was a little caution of the unfamiliar environment.  Tulku just received the money changed after payment without scrunity of the correctness (as usual) of the cashier.  I was a little curious why the woman almost like rushing towards the counter as we tried to pay to a male worker who was at the counter rightly. After stepped out from the restaurant, i suggested to count the changed cash -  and we found it had short changed by rs20! I suggested to Tulku we may go back for correction, Tulku said 'never mind' as we had left the counter, and suddenly he recalled:"Oh, last time a lady short change my cash of rs20 after food, now i know it was the same person!". He laughed, and that made me laugh at this experience! That evening we travelled by bus to Dharamsala.  When Tulku picked up the 2 bus tickets from a travel agency's shop which he used to book travelling transportation, it was rs600 per ticket instead of rs400 told to him earlier.  The bus has a small fan near to the seats - but it was malfunctioning! Later Tulku called his friend Ani who is related to one lady in that travel agency for confirmation of the price. After some rings here and there, he said that he was told the price was higher because the bus's condition was good! i tended to be judgemental in lay life, but this time i had no comments (as i have not checked on this before). 

Thus the jouney took about 12 hours from Delhi. When we arrived at Dharamsala, it was about 2 Oct 2011, 0700hrs local time.  I was informed the Teachings sheduled for Oct 1- 4, 2011 based on the request of one thousand Taiwanese. Thus we quickly readied to the Temple. When we reached the vanue, then we knew that we need two pieces of photos for ID card in this event. We were brought to a specific shop, but the man who knew how to use photoshop software had left.  Thus Tulku had to assist the lady boss for his FOC service (and he had to pay for his photos, no complimentary?). As we were waiting for our instant photos to be ready, i chat with 2 ladies from Russia, one of them shortly shared that she was doing a research on Tibet in her university, and after this they would be going to Himalaya (foot), and she said no idea yet of 'how to'. Thus i gave her the name of Nepal Dzogchen Monastery to request help from a Lama we know - who may be able to assist her for a reliable tour guide.  As usual, all instant photos were more expensive! Then we needed to photocopy our travel documents (visa, passport) to the organizer. As we were doing all this chores, there was another Westerner who commented to that Russian student that the teachings were in Tibetan.  She replied we needed to bring our own radio for translation of other languages (English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese). Then the woman shook her head and left!
For lay people, we had to go through some basic security check, and no mobile phone was allowed. At the venue, we found that all the space near to the Buddha Shrine where HH seated were fully occupied. As Tulku tried to look for seats that could view HH, we were 'lucky' as one Lama greeted Tulku and he assisted us to make some space to 'squeeze-in', and i thanked all the Lama(s), Ani(s) and lay people around the area for this convenience made for us (adjusting their seating postures and space etc). After seated, i almost 'struggling' to tune my Sony brand recorder's radio FM (i had not tried to read the manual for this gadget as i didnt need such function before this). An Ani (France) assisted me! i must be very ignorant, my short of tech-savvy - Steeve Jobs (the late) might laugh at my lack of this simple i-sense! what more to be innovator?
- i chose to listen to the English translation in one ear (my other side ear was listening to the translator in Chinese) to find the language understanding capacity for me (i thought i was not familiar much with Buddhist terminology in Chinese).  I almost like fallen asleep as i was listening, may be due to physical and mental tireness from the journey and my 'pressed' of time to complete as much works as possible in the office before leaving. Tulku tried to alert me, but i found my urge for sleeps 'horned' me (as usual). Then it was lunch time, rice and one dish of potatoes in soup were provided - everyone around seems eating happily like a big family in this Buddhist Community - estimated about 7K-10K participants? - i was impressed by this simplicity which was like more than a 'big fest' time!
The Dharma talk ended around 4pm, the audiences incidental wispers almost undisturbing and unheard of throughout the hours! - it was more than awesome?
When we left the Temple, i felt happy though much of the words i didn't seems to register in my mind excepts 'Heart Sutra', 'Emptiness', 'Nagajuna'...
Lesson learned: to meet a Spiritual Master is inconceivable, being physically presence itself was a happy feeling to be with the Buddhist Community. I felt blessed, even though the spectacles i was wearing was meant for computer work in the office that did not give me a perfect vision of His Holiness's physical senses (eyes, ears, nose) - after all i was experiencing his humanity, boundless energy and mental alertness throughout the Teachings... - i deeply felt it is worth a lifetime experience!

Tashi Delek