Settling down in Dharamsala...

Hello!

Soon it will have been three weeks since Evrim and I arrived into the heaping crowds of Delhi, where rickshaw exhaust, cow dung, foods frying, and a vast list of other events, that put us into a sensory overload, could go on for pages. During this time I haven't felt like there has been any word that could describe what I have been seeing or feeling while being here in India which is why I haven't been able to put together a blog until now, and even now I don't know if I could ever describe fully what India is like.
Since I've been here I've already cried to Evrim telling him that I want to go home and that I don't want to live in India. I actually have even gone to the level of describing the bed in my Mom's cabin and the biscuits she makes and how that's all I want.
But, there is something about this country that makes you want to stay and keep exploring, because like everything in life, whether you are crying late at night on the side of a street lost in Mathura, India with 15 Indian men surrounding you, smells of poop, horns blaring, and finally arriving to a muddy room with beds filled with bugs, or if your sitting on your posh bed in your mom's cabin while she fixes you biscuits, one may always be face by a whirlwind of distractions.

Evrim and I went to a teaching with Geshe Sonam Rinchen, a Buddhist teacher here in Dharamsala, who is teaching on the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, and today he spoke on one of the Six Perfections: wisdom. One quote he used was, "the root of all seen an unseen happiness is Wisdom", so in order to be free from all of our distractions and mental disturbances we must seek knowledge and by seeking knowledge it will become clearer as to what practices we should cultivate more of and what practices we should avoid. After sitting in his teaching it was very evident to both Evrim and I that this was place that we needed to stay, to deepen our practice and studies in India.

With that being said, we love Dharamsala! The Tibetans here are glowing with kindness. We have received the most amount of smiles here than any other place in India. Our home for now is the Ashoka Guest house overlooking a dense forest filled with Tibetan prayer flags, other colorful homes, and the Himalayan Mountains... an amazing site to wake up to. We have already met a very sweet Buddhist couple from Australia who we have had almost every meal with since arriving and who have been very helpful in showing us around.

We already have plans for many events here. Amazingly we have been blessed with arriving at the time of a teaching with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, which will last for 8 days. We will also continue going to Geshe Sonam Rinchen teachings every morning, are looking into taking an intensive Tibetan language course, and will being having conversational classes with Tibetans in the afternoon. There is so much knowledgeable nectar to drink up here in Dharamsala, and sip by sip we will try to write about as fully as possible (Evrim has been doing a better job than I).

We hope you are all healthy and happy yourselves. We enjoy reading your posts so keep them coming!

Obama 2008!!