13 March, 2004

Shopping

Today was a shopping experience as I looked for gifts and tried to find things that are "just right" for the few people that I plan to bring things back for.  It's hard, and I don't particularly like it.  Somehow in the back of my mind I know I'm being taken advantage of - I don't particularly like to negotiate, and the prices for things are ridiculously low to begin with - I don't have much heart to try to take that $8.50 item and get it for $6.75.  However it's part of the game so I engage in the mandatory bargaining - usually getting about 20% off the asking price, knowing that I should get 40-50%

There are many wonderful things to buy - statues, religious artifacts, shawls, carvings, banners, pillow covers, rugs, jewelry, but somehow I really don't covet them.  Perhaps it's because I know I'll be traveling so much after I leave McLeod Ganj, perhaps it's because I hate the thought of negotiating, perhaps it's because I really don't want them after all.

Street vendors both sophisticated ("good day sir, would you like to see my shop - I'll make you special deals") and crass - the drum vendor pushing his wares in my face and playing them, the flute vendor doing the same.  Colors flashing from every shop front - reds, bright greens, brass glinting in the sun, silver beckoning from the windows.  Rakesh leaning out into the street - "Sir.. .Sir...."  I walk on by.

There's one shop I've gotten comfortable in, which is a dangerous thing.  Some companions of mine walked in this shop the day after we got here and bought a couple of rugs (hand stitched silken rugs - suitable as wall hangings - Chanda was so entranced with the wonderful colors that she bought them on the spot.)  They had some singing bowls that I fell in love with - cast brass with etched vajra symbols - the eight symbols of power - and the best tone I've heard yet.  I keep walking by this shop and telling them I'll come by later.  Today I dropped in looking for something else - it's actually 3 shops linked together by one Kashmiri family spread out through the town - if one shop doesn't have what I'm looking for the other ones will have it.

I'm very aware of being too comfortable with these guys -  they say you buy from people you like and I like these guys - they've a compelling story (representing their Kashmiri villages in going direct to market - somehow I wonder ...) and a laise-faire demeanor that I like - no hard sell here, just an abiding faith that you'll return.

I introduced Henny to the shop and she immediately bought several items (I'd just bought about 5 or 6 items earlier in the morning and met Henny at the Western Union as I got more Rupees and she was doing the same.)  Unfortunately when I took Henny there I saw something else I think I have to buy - it's expensive but worth it (in the states things would be 5 - 6 times the price at least.)

However, I've spent more today than I meant to, so I forgo the additional purchase (even though it's the only one in the shop, somehow I'm confident that if they were to sell this one, somewhere out of a storage locker they'd manifest another.)

Teachings

Today I arrived just as His Holiness began his discourse.  Cory was seated slightly in the sun in my now usual section so I joined him.  I'd picked up a kilo of tangerines, a mango, a bag of pistachios, and five momos to munch on during the teachings.  I always plan to give away food at the teachings so I always bring more than I can eat.

Today was children day - school must have been out or something because the entire area was overrun with 5 - 8 year old Tibetan children.  So this was a unique experience today, listening to His Holiness on the loudspeakers, the translation on the headsets (very good and consistent broadcast today), and having dozens of kids yelling, running and screaming - having the time of their lives - all around me.

I shared several tangerines and about half my pistachios with some young kids behind me - they shyly looked at me as I passed them the fruit, and then eagerly devoured the pistachios.  A very young boy became entranced with my sun glasses (I think - otherwise it was my stellar looks that captivated him so) and kept returning to stare into my face - glancing over at his mother about 20 feet away.  Finally he worked up his courage and grabbed my metal tea cup and ran away to his mother with it - I guess that's what had kept him coming back after all.  His mother talked to him calmly for about 2-3 minutes and he reluctantly returned with his stolen goods to return them.  I fished out a tangerine, offered the trade, and with a great grin from ear to ear he returned to his mother to have it peeled for him.  These are the kindest people on Earth, despite what the Chinese and Samsara have done to them over the past 40-50 years.

All the while this was happening, His Holiness read from Longchenpa on the values of a spiritual guide - venerate your Lama as the 4th jewel (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and now Lama), and even above the Buddha as your Lama is your spiritual guide and hence accessible, while the Buddha lived so many thousands of years ago and, while aspirational, is not accessible.  He went on to explain that good Lamas exhibit the three disciplines (Morality, Meditation and Wisdom) plus have the ability to explain - they are perfect beings that have animated into imperfect bodies a\that make mistakes and show faults so as to be accessible to us.  Further, accepting a Lama as your spiritual guide, or teacher, is something to be done extremely carefully - you should spy on your lama for some while before accepting them.

A good part of me is skeptical at this point - isn't it convenient that an entire socio-economic system has evolved around these Lamas, and that the Buddha's original 3 jewels are now expanded to include the Lama - to even hold the Lama above the Buddha?  I remind myself to have an open mind (Beginner's Mind as Suzuki puts it), but this is exceptionally hard for me - somehow hearing this instead of reading it serves to harden my growing conviction that Krishnamurti is right, that you shouldn't take a guru and are totally and irrevocably responsible for your own path in Samsara.

So enough theology - I know not what I speak (or type in this case) and should remain silent on these points.  Give me another 20 years and I may have something worth saying - I'm amazed at how humble His Holiness is as he relates his personal experience with the teachings - he constantly notes he has little if any personal experience with particular points, and constantly defers to others in the realm of experience.

I left at tea time again - the tale of Milarepa has gotten past the juicy parts and I thought I'd sit at the Sunrise Cafe and share a Chai with whoever appeared.

Millions of Tales

So people, as expected appeared. I met Maya, from Devonshire, England - an acupuncturist, who for the past 10 years has vacationed in Dharamsala for 1-2 months every year.  She meets up with the same, but growing crowd, of folks from all over the world to hang out and socialize in this spiritual community.  Her friend (missed her name) joins her - she's sick after arriving from Amritsar today.  Two more of her crowd show up - Hilary and Peter who I'd seen in the Kalsang lobby trying to get a room in this overbooked town.  Apparently we're staying in the rooms they've stayed in for the past 8 years.  These two are fascinating as I discovered later this evening over cake with Matt and Irene (Matt's with my group and Irene I met in line the first day here waiting to get our passes to the teachings - she's a nurse from Switzerland - Basel - who's bumming around India for 6-8 months).  They travel to Asia in the winter to escape the Brits - in '91 they spent 3 months self touring China (with no understanding of Chinese).  Finally they flew to Lhasa under pretty close guard - slipped their watchers, and were arrested and interrogated by the PSB for a day before being forcibly evicted to Kathmandu (however it took a week to do this as they'd just missed the once a week flight.)