Renewed Discovery

A few days ago now we both woke up and after a while expressed to each other our hitherto unspoken yet identical questions about why we're here, in India, at Stupa Guest House, at Sherabling. Seems like we're both thinking and wondering the same thing.

 

What is our purpose?

We are displaced, loose threads here

yet our hearts belong

Of course Nancy is here for Situ Rinpoche's formal teachings in late November, and Mingyur Rinpoche's teachings before that, in early November. But beyond that, it seems, we've both been wondering. The journey to get here this year seemed more difficult, to both of us. The adjustment perhaps more challenging as well, although it's not been two weeks yet, and that's always my turn around point for making the shift.

So Nancy declared that we should take the day to have some fun. Uh......what would that mean? So an impromptu plan was formulated to head into Bir. A sort of "get out of Dodge" scenario. Visit the natural chemist shop for some lotion and some shampoo, have a piece of cake somewhere new, roam around a bit and take our time and discover something new. We'd been at Stupa Guest House for about nine days with no real "escape", and I'd begun to feel claustrophobic. 

How do we fit in?

this world of old, slowed down ways,

altered space and time

Anyway, we asked Lama Lee (more about him in a later post) where we might get a good cake in Bir, and he knew exactly the spot: The Bumi Cafe. Good baked goods, breads, cakes, other delectibles, so we hailed a taxi out on the forest road nearby and headed off, this time with Subash at the wheel. He'd drop us off at the cafe and wait for us in Bir (up to him) and bring us back. The taxis are not yet busy at all, and all business is appreciated, even when there's waiting involved. There's nothing else for them to do anyway. We didn't know how long we'd be, but that didn't matter.

On one level just another nice cafe experience at a new place in Bir, but it helped set the stage for the rest of our adventure for the day. They didn't have the carrot cake that Lee had requested we bring him, so we had their ginger cake (quite good) and packed a piece for him. Very good cappuccino also (I'm trying out milked coffee instead of the dark black strong Americano's I had usually been drinking, in order to accommodate the needs of my now more finicky stomach), and we decided to bring back a freshly baked seeded sourdough loaf as well.

Armed with our goods we headed out toward the next stop on our trail of discoveries: the fruit and vegetable seller we like to frequent, located down the narrow lane just near the Gandhi bust, Naboo. He happened to have some beautiful "export quality" pomegranates and......wait for it..........some lovely dragon fruits (I wonder if they're from Thailand?). One of each, some apples and some bananas, a bit of banter, and off again with a new load in hand.

Next stop the chemist, RD (his Indian name is a bit hard on the ears and tongue for us handicapped Westerners). Turns out that the lotion and the shampoo were the least of what we came away with from his shop. A somewhat lengthy conversation about his family, his 5 years in the States studying (at UC San Diego) and working in marine biology (in Florida), his philosophy and appreciation for Indian culture and values as compared with the sadness and pain and loneliness and alienation he witnessed in America, and experienced himself in empathy with his friends there

Yes, of course, he would return to India when his parents were getting old and needed his help, rather than stay in America and make boat loads of money but sacrifice his extended family (276 members strong at the moment in the town of Chauntra, outside of Bir) connections and love and belonging. Not to mention the "secret" old family recipes for delicious Indian dishes that he offered to share with us!, in keeping with the value of eating good, whole, lovingly home prepared foods instead of the fast, empty-of -value-or-nourishment food mania in America. All of this with considerable humility by the way, giving repeated thanks to Shiva for the many blessings of his life, and unbegrudgingly at a 90% reduction in income being back home in India. Clear priorities.

Soul searching journey

edges of my discontent,

bright sun filters through

We hugged and enjoyed each other, bid farewell for now and headed off  to the next, now unknown stop. Turns out it was at the Happy Vibe Cafe, just at the corner of the alley where RD's chemist shop is located, which we had last visited a year ago after they had recently opened their doors. After ordering 2 "classic veggie burgers" Aadil, the young man who, with his now pregnant wife Warinika, own and run the place, came and sat near us offering that he remembered us from a year ago.

More philosophy of life talk, exchanging ideas and views, enthusing about this and that, until Warinika arrived in all her pregnant beauty, although the pregnancy has not been easy for her at all, and she's due right around the first of the new year, give or take. We shared pictures of Terra and Eden, talked grandparent talk, birthing talk, life change talk, and related matters. Sounds like her mother and his mother don't necessarily get along too well, so it remains to be seen how all that will shape up.

We said we'd return the following Wednesday for another visit, and we agreed that Warinika will send us pictures of the baby when it's born. She genuinely wants a daughter, stating that she already lives with three males (husband, and two beautiful blond large male dogs), and couldn't handle another one. Nancy assured her that there are also quieter, gentler boy babies in the world. Well, we'll see. As it turns out, it's apparently illegal in India to determine the sex of the fetus before birth, so Warinika can't know in advance. Ah, the mystery.

All this to say that it turned out to be a lovely day, just what we needed, even spawning a specious comment on my part about moving here (only six months a year allowed), where everyone's a philosopher, and I can spend my days reveling in the connection and communion of examining the deeper meanings of ordinary life with "ordinary" people. While this isn't going to happen, and while my enthusiasm for the day is being idealized here, the bread is delicious, the fruit lovely, the ginger cake was very nice, and it's another magnificent day here in the mountains of rural Himachal Pradesh.

Maybe the moral to the story is simply that: the ordinary is both mysterious and magnificent; both elusive and eminently accessible; as always, good connection with good people is a jewel of great worth, simple, basic, enlivening, worth more than.................

What planet is this,

refuge of sacred knowledge

whispered on the wind