McLeod Ganj was a breath of fresh Himalayan air after the exhausting yoga course. http://mcllo.com

The past 12 days consisted of  relaxation, some very intense yoga classes, long walks in the mountains a wonderful teaching from the Dalai Lama. Oh yes, also good food and some of the best chocolate cake on the planet from the guys from Bihar at the Trek and Dine in Dharamkot. Yummy
Since it has been years since I lived in McLeod, with only had a quick visit in February for retreat, I was really surprised to find out there are so many yoga places, some of which, like Sampoorna Y
Yoga seems to be out for the $$ while others were really good  Rossi from the yoga course travelled with me to McLeod so I got to play tour guide and introduce her to the Tibetan culture as well as have a new yoga teacher buddie to practice with, plus she is also just a great lassie. In some ways the past few days have been some time out from a very busy schedule since I arrived in India and it was great to meet old friends make new ones and just be for a while in order to prepare for the next step.

Monks doing prayers in Namgyl Monestry

These days McLeod is defiantly on the tourist/ self healing trail. In fact it was a bit funny reading all the posters splattered all over town about all the various course and treatments you can have. Cooking classes, massage classes, reiki classes, chakra balancing, aura reading, reflexology courses, tantra and kundalini classes, astrology, palm reading, past life regression therapy, crystal healing, meditation classes of all guises and probably much more, I just got tired of reading all the posters. It is as if Goa and California of the 60's/70's all moved to the Himalayas.
There are also so many opportunities to volunteer. You can volunteer to pick up trash, teach English, get involved with raising political awareness or donate to the various causes such as, spay the local dogs, the Tibetan Children's Village, the retirement home, the  transit school for newly arrived Tibetans or the numerous religious institutes. I had to agree with Rossi when she said " they really do not need anything, it is so organized here." It is true in so many ways the Tibetan refugees have become most fortunate in receiving aid  and assistance from others.
Anyway here are some recommendations or sites to have a peep at. Although the yoga studio in McLeod  itself sucks, I highly  recommend Universal Yoga  http://www.vijaypoweryoga.com for its good and caring teachers and serious yet playful atmosphere. Aryan gave a good traditional Astanga class, i.e. a bit too serious for me, but he has a good following and works closely with his students http://www.yogattc.com. We never made it to Siddarth's classes but he has been doing yoga in town for ages is a great guy with a large following and is now in quiet Upper Bagsu just round the mountain from McLeod.  http://www.siddharthayogacentre.org. We also looked at Kailash Tribal Yoga  http://yogatribe.org  but could not take classes there as they were starting a teacher training. The studio is beautiful, the Tshirts pretty cute, the teacher seems dedicated but the training course, expensive.

The teachings of the Dali Lama were held  to inaugurate the new monastery of Kamtrul Rinpoche. http://www.cglmonastery.org. Kamtrul Rinpoche is a lama in the Nyingma tradition whom I received teaching from while I lived in McLeod in the late 90's. A wonderful kind man and great teacher with a heart of gold.

As good fortune would have it I was able to meet with Jhado Rinpoche who was in town for a few days in between teaching trips to Taiwan, Europe and USA. His kindness and patience is beyond words, his knowledge of the Dharma immense ans smile, as you can see lights up the world.


I also had the opportunity to stay at the nunnery of  a dear friend Ven. Sangmo, a Dutch nun who founded Thosamling Institute and nunnery for Buddhist women of all traditions. Only 10 years old the Institute is flourishing and has become a hub of learning for women and Sangmo has worked tirelessly to make her dream a reality. http://www.thosamling.com and I wish her every continued success.
Jetsuma Tenzin Palmo also taught this week but I did not make that teaching. She has also founded a nunnery in the Kaygu tradition for Tibetan nuns. http://www.tenzinpalmo.com. Originally from London, Tenzin Palmo was one of the first western nuns and spend years in solitary retreat in cave in the Indian Himalayas. The book "A Cave in the Snow"  by Vicki McKenzie tells of her trials and realization during her long retreat and is a good quick  read.

I was also happy this past week to bump into an old Tibetan friend, Lobsang  a local activist, artist and photographer who works to keep us all up to date on Tibetan issues with his web site http://www.tibetsun.com.  He is also responsible for creating and organizing the Miss Tibet pageant and the Tibetan Olympics in 2008. Lobsang is always creating new projects to get the plight of the Tibetans in the news and everyone who spends time in McLeod gets to know who he is sooner or later and yi can't help but just love the guy.

Anyway whats the next step? well I arrived in Delhi today and met with Marshal, the founder of Ecoles De La Terra, the NGO I worked with in Bodhgaya.The regional meeting for the NGO is this weekend and I will find out more about the work of the other branches in Delhi, Calcutta and Rajistan. Marshal has plans to continue and build on the slum school here in Delhi, of the Pakistani Hindu refugees that were made homeless during partition in 1949. I am not sure where I fit into this but we just had a long talk with lots of ideas and will hopefully I will visit the Delhi programs and find out over this weekend how I can get more involved.