Your Unfolding Path May 2000	Click Here to See Carol's Current Column
	by Carol Adrienne, Ph.D.

"Journey to Dharamsala"

As many of you know who saw my trip flyer on this column, I co-led a trip to Dharamsala, India in late March with my good friend, Dianne Aigaki. Our original motivation for the trip was to have fun doing a project together. This principle of looking for the pleasure and fun in life is something I feel strongly about in terms of following one’s life purpose. If you do something for fun, chances are, you’re probably on the right track toward fulfilling part of your destiny!

Our goal was to meet healers, artisans, refugees, and spiritual figures and other leaders in the exile Tibetan community, and to contribute part of the trip funds to projects that our group would agree upon.

I will summarize the trip in a few highlights:

• We were able to fund a clean water project for the area where many refugees stay at the beginning of their life in exile. The Transit School’s current system was contaminated with pesticides, causing great harm and even death.

• We contributed another large sum to GuChuSum, an ex-political prisoner’s organization which helps former political prisoners and some families still living in Tibet. Part of our funds will be used for a computer, desk, and chairs for newcomers.

• We brought donations of clothing, toys, office supplies for the Reception Center, which receives new arrivals from Tibet. On the day we took our donations to the Center, forty Tibetans, including many small children, had just walked in from the Himalayas (a trip that can take as long as a month and a half, often in freezing conditions that leaves refugees with frostbitten fingers and toes that often must be amputated).

• Many Tibetans living in Dharamsala earn little more than the equivalent of about thirty dollars a month. By buying paintings, carvings, and other hand crafted items, we were able to support Tibetan arts. Eight of us buying a generous number of handmade nomad dolls provided one couple with almost a year’s salary. (This was the couple, by the way, whom I mentioned in an earlier column. They were forced to leave their three children in Tibet when they fled, and who are saving up to bring them to freedom.)

In addition to being able to enjoy being regular tourists and consumers, and the added benefit of being able to give back to the community we were visiting, we met an array of impressive and inspiring people, many of whom have endured incredible challenges, great risks, and loss of loved ones. We learned so much from each person, and came home with an increased desire to share with others. Four such people were:

• Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma . He spoke of his continuing work in forgiveness and conflict resolution.

• The 17^th Karmapa Lama. This is the fourteen-year-old reincarnated lama who escaped from Tibet in January and was written up in Time Magazine. We were very fortunate to receive a private audience with His Holiness and just sit quietly in his presence.

• Ani Tenzin Palmo. Born in England in 1943, Tenzin Palmo intuitively developed at a young age a strong yearning to "seek Perfection." At age twenty-one, she became one of the first Western women to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, and spent twelve years living in a cave in the Himalayas. Her work as already helped upgrade the status of Buddhist nuns, allowing them to receive spiritual teachings. Her full story is told in Cave in the Snow by Vickie Mackenzie.

• Lobsang Tsering and the Monks of Gyudmed Tantric Monastery. A leading monk in the community, Lobsang Tsering runs Shangri-La, a local restaurant whose proceeds supports the main monastery in southern India. He and four other monks will be touring the western states of Oregon, Washington, California and New Mexico between May and October, 2000, fundraising for the monastery, which desperately needs sanitary facilities and other necessary improvements. He and the other monks performed a house blessing ceremony for Dianne’s new house (which sits on a terrace directly facing the awesome panorama of the Himalayas). We were treated to a wonderful session of the famous Tibetan multi-phonic chanting.

Dianne has organized a nine-month tour for the monks of the Gyudmed monastery for California, Oregon, and Washington. Their schedule is posted on www.gyudmed.org.

If any individuals, churches, corporations, or other organizations would like to invite the monks to make sand mandalas, lead discussions or meditations, give cooking classes, or conduct consecration ceremonies (great for homes and businesses), please contact coordinators, Minnie and Stoker at monkstour@yahoo.com. Volunteers are also welcome. This is a very rare opportunity to experience the transmission of this ancient tradition!

Our trip was a gift to us in providing us with such an easy opportunity to express our life’s purpose and give back some of what we have received in life. We are considering doing other trips next year. If you think this sounds like fun, and are interested in a trip for 2001 (probably in March/April), please email me at cadrienne@spiralpath.com. I will start a waiting list of interested people. You may contact Dianne Aigaki directly at dianneaigaki@yahoo.com

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