It's a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon in McLeodganj. I've just come back down from Tushita Meditation Center, where, as of a week ago, I've begun attending daily morning meditation sessions. This decision required me to relinquish my classes in Beginning Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. But the truth is that this was a very easy decision to make (though I do regret stopping my Tibetan study for now). During last Saturday's meditation session, I had an epiphany: This is what I was particularly looking for when I came to India. The teacher, Richard, has a welcoming, kindly manner, yet real mastery of many types of meditation. So since last Saturday, my days (except for Sunday) include a morning meditation session (followed by tea on Tushita's deck, overlooking deodar cedar forests and Mcleodganj far below) and an afternoon of teaching. I'll stop teaching English classes at the end of May, and then am scheduled to take a 10-day residential meditation retreat at Tushita beginning in early June.

This morning, Richard led us in doing a Vajrasattva purification session, in which one visualizes the Buddha of Purification and recites his mantra in order to clear away mental negativities. This sounds more esoteric than the session was in practice. And probably sounds less effective than I experienced it as being--this meditation is one of many things in life that's easier to experience than to describe, I think.

My Intermediate English class has been going very well. Thursday was another high point, when the class interviewed a US friend of mine, Carol Keslar, assistant director of Chaksam-pa Tibetan Dance and Opera Company, based in San Francisco. Carol has been doing wonderful volunteer work publicizing the company's performances and the performances of other Tibetan performing arts groups, obtaining funding, and helping performers to arrange for the visas needed to come to the US. To my delight, the students asked lots of questions. I hadn't been sure that they would feel confident enough, or that everyone would be able to understand enough of the discussion. But I think we were all delighted by the interview, and the students seemed genuinely moved that a non-Tibetan American is working so hard on behalf of Tibetans and Tibetan arts.

Here's a photo that Carol took of the Intermediate English class:



Carol has generously shared some of her other photos with me (credit for all photos: Carol Keslar).

In this photo, she and I are enjoying excellent vegetarian thali at Moonpeak Thali, a local restaurant near His Holiness' residence:



Carol took this photo of Lama Lungrig Nyima, who has been a student in my Intermediate English class, during a farewell get-together yesterday. He now must return to his monastery in Ladakh (where he himself has important teaching responsibilities):



And here I am at Moonpeak: