This'll be short and sweet, like me.
In simplest terms, I am addicted. Not to a substance or activity or a person. What I am addicted to is more ephemeral, but if I had to describe that addiction using nouns, it is an addiction best defined in terms of place and culture. That place is where the Indian subcontinent is violently crashing into the Eurasian landmass, buckling the Earth's crust and sending it, like our dreams, ever skyward. In layman's terms, that place is the Himalayan region and its related environs (the Tibetan plateau, Bhutan, Ladakh, Darjeeling and Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, etc., etc.). That culture is more difficult to define. Eclipsing even the great Himalayas with their deep valleys, towering 8,000 meter peaks, clear glacial lakes, dark swift rivers, vast and empty deserts, cramped hill towns, placid summits, and violent avalanches is the ever more dynamic force of culture. Through the backdrop of this vast cultural milieu, itself arrayed along the mighty vistas of the Himalayas and Karakorams, the Dhauladar, Ladakh, Pir Panjal, and Zanskar ranges, and the Kunlun and Tian Shan mountains, flows a common current. That current is Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism (while convenient, the term Tibetan Buddhism is both misleading and a gross oversimplification of the various kinds of religious practices, Buddhist or otherwise, found amongst adherents of 'Tibetan Buddhism'; given that this is not a scholarly paper, the kind I should be working on right now, I'll just shut up).
So much for this being short or sweet. Disregard all the previous hot air and understand the following, I am addicted to very tall mountains and Tibetan Buddhism. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means that for lack of a better transition, I am going back...a fact you probably deduced from this post's title. I am going back to Ladakh; the most glorious place on this planet Earth, the place where it all got started, where I discovered Buddhism and myself and a greater purpose in this precious human life. I am spending the summer volunteering, teacher English at the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and at a nearby Buddhist monastery. I have never been so excited to work and get paid absolutely nothing (from a very limited monetary standpoint) in all my life. Before I head to Ladakh at the beginning of June, I am stopping off in Kathmandu for a week to see familiar faces, embrace dear friends, and drink chang (pronounced chaw + ng)! Depending on how the universe aligns, and whether or not my dog passes from this life into the next, I may also make it to Tibet, the Land of Snows. This however, is still very much a dream on the horizon, a dream that with time, will either dissolve or materialize. I'll keep you posted.
सब्बे सत्ता सुखि होन्तु (Sabbe Sattā Sukhi Hontu - May All Beings Be Happy)
In simplest terms, I am addicted. Not to a substance or activity or a person. What I am addicted to is more ephemeral, but if I had to describe that addiction using nouns, it is an addiction best defined in terms of place and culture. That place is where the Indian subcontinent is violently crashing into the Eurasian landmass, buckling the Earth's crust and sending it, like our dreams, ever skyward. In layman's terms, that place is the Himalayan region and its related environs (the Tibetan plateau, Bhutan, Ladakh, Darjeeling and Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, etc., etc.). That culture is more difficult to define. Eclipsing even the great Himalayas with their deep valleys, towering 8,000 meter peaks, clear glacial lakes, dark swift rivers, vast and empty deserts, cramped hill towns, placid summits, and violent avalanches is the ever more dynamic force of culture. Through the backdrop of this vast cultural milieu, itself arrayed along the mighty vistas of the Himalayas and Karakorams, the Dhauladar, Ladakh, Pir Panjal, and Zanskar ranges, and the Kunlun and Tian Shan mountains, flows a common current. That current is Buddhism, specifically Tibetan Buddhism (while convenient, the term Tibetan Buddhism is both misleading and a gross oversimplification of the various kinds of religious practices, Buddhist or otherwise, found amongst adherents of 'Tibetan Buddhism'; given that this is not a scholarly paper, the kind I should be working on right now, I'll just shut up).
So much for this being short or sweet. Disregard all the previous hot air and understand the following, I am addicted to very tall mountains and Tibetan Buddhism. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means that for lack of a better transition, I am going back...a fact you probably deduced from this post's title. I am going back to Ladakh; the most glorious place on this planet Earth, the place where it all got started, where I discovered Buddhism and myself and a greater purpose in this precious human life. I am spending the summer volunteering, teacher English at the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and at a nearby Buddhist monastery. I have never been so excited to work and get paid absolutely nothing (from a very limited monetary standpoint) in all my life. Before I head to Ladakh at the beginning of June, I am stopping off in Kathmandu for a week to see familiar faces, embrace dear friends, and drink chang (pronounced chaw + ng)! Depending on how the universe aligns, and whether or not my dog passes from this life into the next, I may also make it to Tibet, the Land of Snows. This however, is still very much a dream on the horizon, a dream that with time, will either dissolve or materialize. I'll keep you posted.
सब्बे सत्ता सुखि होन्तु (Sabbe Sattā Sukhi Hontu - May All Beings Be Happy)
- Doug B.
P.S. My dog is old and has led a full life, so don't be sad about that.
P.S. My dog is old and has led a full life, so don't be sad about that.
But I am sad about wahwie
ReplyDelete