THE VIEWS

McLeod Ganj

View from my balcony in the morn

BE HAPPY

PICS FOOD

Here you are:

some morning stuff, should ask in the vipassana center

some chai, always there - everywhere

masala tea, eehhhh, I drink milk again they don't have soy milk here...

fried veggies with tofu and miso soup (yesyes, we went to a yammi japanese restaurant!)

Momo, this is smth very typical Tibetan - stuffed dumplings, you can find them everywhere, even on the streets, the best are fried, just missing some creme fraiche and it would be Russian vareniki :)

Gineger-lemon -honey, addiction, sankara, craving :)

We had a small kitchen in our room, so tibetan bread, tea, honey, digestives in the morning...
And I also bought Chyawanprash, here it's only 120 rupees (1,7 euros!!!)

Masala again, mmmm

This is the best - tibetan breakfast - fruits with nuts and honey and curd. One more addiction!

Typical Tibetan bread, looks and tastes like Russian white bread, but more "juicy"

TO BE CONTINUED (i'll take some pics of thali and dhal and banoffee)))

LOVE

More of vipassana

It's been one week I am out of the center, and since then going up to Dharamkot every morning to meditate for one hour (they have open meditations for outside students). Can't concentrate, sitting there and thinking thinking thinking of anything from banoffee to a biggest hug :) How can you do it once out of this environment when they cook for you, when nobody talks when the only thing you have to do is to go from your residence to Dhamma Hall and back and talk to the monkeys on the way.
Would really love to go back for some days, but it's sooo old and humid up there while down here it's +25 on the terrasse and the banoffee has just been eaten :)


Listening to my first audio-book , it's David Deida, Enlightened Sex (read if you can find it if not ask me!), a super-talk about the feminine and masculine aspects of our life, about the onenness and about how to work on your relationships. Really a must! Have more 42 gigas of info to work at until Wednesday!


Sending you Metta

LOVE

16 November

Beautiful beautiful!!!

We've finally been to Triund, in the mountains, and it was...

No meditation today, just 9 hours of walking. So I'd say walking meditation :) Actually I really felt my feet all the way through!

Here are some pics from the walk, later you'll get more on different topics

That's my favorite vipassana students, mmmm

On the way

They followed us all the way to the top, 3 hours

Addiction: lemon-ginger-honey

This man lives there since 24 years, and never goes down, here're his weeks goods

 For tomorrow:

Lots of love to you all!!!!

15 November 2011

What an amazing day it was yesterday! My heart center is open and I feel how the love-feeling flows. Like when I was small, I remember going out of the house in my gramma's place in Southern Russia, it's 7 in the morn, still chilly, but the day is gonna be gorgeous, and I'm sleepy, looking out through the curtain and feeling this ball of sweet love around the chest area.  Happiness, pure and unconditional. That's how I feel now.

Well, what about today? You're still reading me? You're crazy then :)

I'll be brief and just tell you some stories of today.

After the rickshaw trip up the hill to Dharamkot where the Vipassana center is situated one is not afraid of Turkish roads! 20 minutes of bumping and screaming and we we drinking masala tea on the terrace of the tea shop close to the center with... some croissants. Well, food... if you REALLY want you can find some Indian stuff here like thali and dhal and chapati, but you'll need to go around. Otherwise you have the range of cuisines from all over the world, Italian, French, Japanese (so good today!!!), but most of the time Tibetan salads with fresh fruits, nuts, honey and curd, veggies, great soups and momo-dumplings with ketchup haha, mmmm). 

things I liked:

- animals, dogs, everywhere, of all sizes but always the same face, funny puppies following you and sitting at your feet once you stop, cows asking you for food with their kind eyes, monkeys steeling your apples if you're having them in a free access, eagles up in the mountains flying one meter above your head. And they say in Dheli there are tigers in parks :)

-women: Indian ones wearing crazy beautiful sari while doing some construction works in mud and dust, always well brushed and with make-up and bindis. Carrying crazy amount of stuff on their heads. Tibetan ones looking totally different, making scarfs and gloves in front of their small hand-made stuff shops, taking care of children and cleening the streets

- tibetan monks and nuns everywhere in their red-yellow shawls and Dalai-lama was here yesterday, I missed him... 

- yoga, massage and spiritual practices classes are everywhere, in every single house, it's like finding a bakery in France

-we played cricket, yohooooo, it's a superactive game, but those Indians play like gods, i was afraid to try to catch the ball, it would make a hole in my hand :)

- I was cheated for the first time :), bought a bag of dried cranberries in chocolate and found dried figues inside (no trace of chocolate:), actually that's  what they often do - empty the bags and fill them with smth cheaper, like flour instead of washing powder etc. No reason to be unhappy, it was actually so fun!

Ok, now after the morning meditation sitting in the sun in front of the Himalaya picks, drinking ginger-lemon-honey and trying to post some pictures. It's gonna be a greeeaaaaat day!

Be happy

My going out of vipassana

13 November 2011

Ok, here I am for MORE ))) Need to make my own blog I think, it doesn't work so well here in Livejournal, at least it seems as if I am writing from my new life into my past one...

So, let's start

The bases of the vipassana meditation  I've described before. But how does it really go? Well, you start with waking up at 4 AM, going directly to the Dhamma (big meditation) hall, sometimes with no shower, cause the water pump switched off during the night (hehe , India-India :). Then 2 hours sitting meditation, focusing on your sensations and feelings. Then breakfast, then rest, one hour strong determination meditation without moving or opening your eyes, pause, mediation until 11 AM, lunch, meditation from 1 to 5 PM with a small break, then tea (for old students only lemon water - better conditions for concentrating when your digestive system is sleeping), then meditation from 6 to 7 PM, evening discours with Goenka-ji (the best part of the day!), then more meditation and then dodo ))) and moreover - all that in total silence, you have a right to talk to your assistance teacher and manager in case of urgency. 

That's how it usually looks like technically. What you experience is so difficult to describe that... you'll have to go and do it to get an idea. You work a lot with sensations in and at your body, with respiration, you go through your past life/lives, stones that are holding you down or make you unhappy. You totally concentrate on yourself and go in the deepest levels of mind and body. This time it was different, cause I was serving and one can talk (and does talk a lot actually)))! You talk to other servers, to the teacher, to the cours manager etc, talk talk talk. The second day I thought my meditation practice was really not ok, cause I couldn't concentrate and was not meditating much. But actually you make serving which itself is something more than just a meditation and really feel the benefits (access to the teacher for talking, seeing how the students go through their own difficulties from the practical point of view and deeper love and understanding, acceptance and respect from the emotional one). This meditation is very peculiar, it lets you be here and now, be present and go through every of your fears and blocks that manifest themselves on a physical level. 

Then comes the last day, when you're allowed to talk. Everybody gets overexcited, you finally you get to know people that you have been following for 10 days but whom you haven't really MET. It's a crazy day with lots of energy float and mixing mixing mixing. Usually one gets overwhelmed by the amount of new info but this is the soft way to prepare yourself to get out in the real world with monkeys, rickshaws, smells, people-people-people, new life and new you.

As for the benefits of the meditation, I'd say this time I feel calmer and more balanced. Also in a great need to be alone from time to time. But here I found a great friend Christa, one of the servers, a French brilliant most beautiful and intelligent girl  with whom we spent hours and hours sharing. 

Ok now in the guest house up up on the hill, cold and humid. Happy. Tomorrow going to meditation at 8 (usual open hour meditation for outsiders) and then moving to a new place (warmer and closer to MacLeod Ganj, where EVERYTHING is), playing cricket and talking about tantric energies and balancing of Shiva-Shakti and chackras.


Pictures are coming

VIPASSANA

So let me tell you about what I'm doing now, at 6500 km from Marseille, in the middle of a forest at the bottom of Himalaya...

It is my second vipassana cours. What is vipassana (for those who wonder if I'm at any sect or whatsoever:)? 

FROM WIKIPEDIA

Vipassanā (Pāli) or vipaśyanā (विपश्यना, Sanskrit, Tib. ལྷག་མཐོང་, lhaktong; Wyl. lhag mthong) in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi (vipaśyin). Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha. It is a practice of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection to the extent that sitting with a steadfast mind becomes an active experience of change and impermanence. In English, vipassanā meditation is often referred to simply as "insight meditation".

In the Theravadin context, this entails insight into the three marks of existence. In Mahayanacontexts, it entails insight into what is variously described as sunyata, dharmata, the inseparability of appearance and emptiness, clarity and emptiness, or bliss and emptiness.^[1]

In a broader sense, vipassanā has often been used as one of two poles for the categorization of types of Buddhist meditation, the other being samatha (Pāli; Sanskrit: śamatha). Samatha is a focusing, pacifying and calming meditation, common to many traditions in the world, notably yoga. It is used as a preparation for vipassanā, pacifying the mind and strengthening the concentration in order to allow the work of insight. In Buddhist practice it is said that, while samatha can calm the mind, only insight can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, which leads to prajñā (Pāli: paññā, wisdom) and jñāna (Pāli: ñāṇa, knowledge) and thus understanding, preventing it from being disturbed again.

The term is also used to refer to the modern Buddhist vipassana movement (modeled afterTheravāda Buddhism meditation practices), which employs vipassanā and ānāpānameditation as its primary techniques and places emphasis on the teachings of theSatipaṭṭhāna Sutta. The primary initial object of investigation in that style of meditation is sensation and feeling (Skt: Vedanā).

So here it is my second cours. And I am serving, which means I'm taking care of those who are silent, meditators. We are four servers for 40 meditators (female area). Last time I did vipassana it was so absolutely different, I felt like being in a bubble, coping with lots of fears, pain, being frustrated and impatient. I have no idea if it is the fact that I am allowed to talk (Nobel Speech) and meditate less, or if I just became calmer and more balanced after this summer, but it seems to be rather easy to concentrate and I am not tired at all, even if we sleep much less here. Actually, I really think I got into Metta, the meditation of eternal love and acceptance, that we, servers, practice every day. I just feel how my anapata is open and how sometimes there are floats of energy from it. They say that you get a double effect when serving, cause we are taught to meditate with open eyes, to be concentrated both on the inside and outside, we are more alert and vigilant (if you heard Goenka-ji speaking you'd understand me:). And we don't have this impression to be cut off the world, which is also nice. 

Ok, I'll go and do some stretching, it's my turn to rest. 

Oh, by the way, the food is great here, just perfect, Indian, not too spicy, veggie, fresh made. Mmmm chapati, dhaal, halava

Ah, and as it is cold and humid here, everybody is sick  looks like Eskimos, with blankets on their head, wool socks etc, and me I'm going around in a pullover... seems to be Marseille sun that I'm still keeping in my blood.  Just got some herpes, which never happens to me. They promised to get some ayurvedic cream, great! So long putting on some toothpaste :)

Next

Weeeell, the centre of Delhi WAS trash, but it was dark and I couldn't fully appreciate it :)

From the airport where I spent the whole day I went to ISBT station close to Kashmere Gate. By metro. In the rush hour. Reminded me of Saint-Petersburg when going to work. And moreover I had a biiiig backpack. So... 

Things about the day that come to my mind:

everybody stares at you as you are blond and alone

if you want to buy a ticket you really have to want it and insist on the fact that you're someone to respect, otherwise the Indians will just push you out of the window even if you were politely standing there and waiting for your turn. 

Speaking about politeness...  Nobody ever will tell you sorry when passing by and punching you on the way. Nobody will ever say thank you or you are welcome, it's like that and let's accept it and get used to it :)

Segregation of men and women... first thing to mention is the higher percentage of men in public places: in the metro wagon I thought I was the only woman. Scaring first. In the security check in the metro women and men go separately (btw security check in metro was as strict as at the airport, with scanners and guys with Kalashnkiov!). In the local  buses women and men are supposed to sit separately. I have no idea how it works in everyday life, but even at the vipassana center women are not allowed to enter the kitchen, not even with their nose...

Well, dirt and noise... it was much less violent than I expected. Good to be prepared. Delhi bus station is trash, yes, but it reminded me of some places in Petrozavodsk after the snow goes down and you see the mountain of garbage accumulated during the winter. But here it smells much more, because it serves as a public toilet as well. 

Then funny thing was to get to know when and where from my bus (the ticket I bought in advance, hoho) would go. I asked at least five different people and got different answers, but it's like in Africa :) The thing was to go around with my ticket and just askaskask for the right one until I found it and didn't go away from it any longer (you know, those buses move, there are no numbers of station etc, forget).

Ok, the night was long and dusty, and finally at around 8 in the morn I arrived to Dharamsala. Actually, the real Dalai-Lama place is Upper Dharamsala or McLeod Ganj, where I managed to take a local bus. It was around +10 outside, but all the ladies were in saris and men in shirts. Crazy. Or did I get used to warmth to that point?

Haven't seen McLeod Ganj yet, just passed by to go to Vipassana centre, which is about 1 km up the hill, with stares and backpack on my back. Great training. hoho... But McLeod seems to be a perfect place for the first two-three weeks, and everybody says it's beautiful! What impressed me the most on the way is the Tibetan flags everywhere, nice people telling you the way and helping to put on your backpack even if you don't ask, and also the amount of monkeys in "libre service", they are just EVERYWHERE and people say you HAVE to close your door-window-car in order not to meet a cute pick-pocket. 

Right now surving here on vipassana  with four other  girls (non of them Indian, pity) for around 40 meditators. Hard and great at the same time! Gotta go to bed, the morning bell is at 4AM

Start

Yiiiihaaaaaaaaaaa, I'm in Delhi Airport. I'm in Asia for the first time in my life! 

Still on French time, here it's already 11.30, but my body lives its 6 AM...

Sitting on the floor at the airport. Charging all my silly devices. So long have only changed some euros into a huuuuge amount of Rupis, saw a lady close to me getting a special bag to put her mountain of cash in... At the restrooms (and it's only airport, we'll see how it goes further) there's a special lady telling you which toilet to choose and giving you paper towels after (paper towels are hanging in a box on the wall but still she is there for you). Felt I didn't have any privacy, but fun to see. 

Lot of Sikhs with their super-turbans, girls in sari and salvar kameez. Everything starts to be real!

Already tried local water from special drinking taps, no bad signs yet :)

Waiting for time to pass (in Russian we say "killing time", but it's not what I'm doing - I neeeed my rest after those crazy days in Paris on the way from Marseille and almost no sleep for two nights now), so I'm breathing and recharging. 

Have just met two French girls who made a documentary about a school in Leh and a Brazilian guy practicing yoga and tantra. All peace and love... It starts :)

This eve I'll take a bus to Dharamsala from the center of Delhi which is supposed to be trash )). Tomorrow morn I'm somehow in Dharamkot. Then 10 days of vipassana, serving, which means less sleep and more communication. Then... we'll see :)

Namaste, that's what they say! Welcome to India