End in sight
Posted by: lucie | From: December 6, 2005
Phew. Okay, the whole thing is nearly over. I've been escaping to the nearby town a lot, and I can say for sure that the day I wrote my last entry was by far the peak of tension with this whole experience.
It's been interesting. Definitely definitely not what I expected, but such an experience. It's intense for everyone in different ways, which is the biggest trip. I've learned an immense amount about people, and an immense amount - academically, anyway - about Buddhism. I think I've learned, from spending more time in the library than the teachings, that Zen Buddhism is most in line with my beliefs up to this point.
I've learned some interesting things about how I relate to people, and authority figures, and people who try to tell you what to believe, and guys I like, and guys who like me.
You just learn a lot in a strange pressure cooker where there is no alcohol or TV and a lot of Westerners are packed into a small space looking for The Answers.
Still struggling with how much of my journals to post here and whether to do the freelance story about this course that I had planned, but I think I'll go as far as I can in the direction of honesty - with some edits to keep anyone's feelings from getting hurt. I figure everyone who googles intensively enough will ultimately find this blog as there is a real lack of personal accounts of this course, so it's important to keep it relatively kind.
The daily teachings never really did get around to inspiring me, unfortunately, but Lama Zopa Rinpoche is here now and I've found his teachings really valuable. He's gone on for two days about emptiness and despite the fact that he coughs every five seconds and is notoriously difficult to understand, I'm getting it all. It's going right in and leaving me breathless. Very few people are having this experience and I find it not half odd that his teachings are impacting me in this way, having been one of the most uninspired, but there you go.
Emptiness is pretty cool stuff. I probably won't try to explain it, but if you've studied Buddhism or done a lot of psychedelics you probably know what I'm talking about. Merely imputed me, merely imputed you, none of it is really real, all that jazz. Maybe I'll type up some of my lecture notes later.
Anyway... that's the update. I'm down in Boudha again, waiting to pick up an incredible Thangka (painting) of the Wheel of Life, which I'll definitely write more about later. I've been taking so many pictures it's untrue. This experience, this whole experience, has been disturbing and exhilerating and most bizarre but I'm glad I've had it.
Oh, and the people who got brainwashed - they wanted it. And they'll all be okay. So it's all good.
There's so much to say, it may just not all be sayable. I'll do my best later.
Oh, Tom's ex-girlfriend emailed to offer me a room in her flat. I'm not sure how much she knows or what that means, but the Prague situation is feeling a little bit shaky. Luckily it's a merely imputed flat in a merely imputed city, a merely imputed Tom and a merely imputed me, so there's nothing to actually worry about because none of us truly exist.
I'll try to explain some of that stuff later.
Best wishes to all of you out there in the real world!
xoxo
Really looking forward to the steady return of Overarching, and more about what happened...
Posted by: Mikey at December 6, 2005 9:52 AM