Pilgrimage to Northern India begins

It is the worst of times. It is the best of times.Try as I might I cannot find a more appropriate opening for this volume: it helps tremendously that these words have been spoken before and, thanks to Charles Dickens, written at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities. Perhaps they have been spoken, written, thought, an endless number of times throughout human history. It is the worst of times because it feels as though the very Earth is being stolen from us,by us: the land and air poisoned, the water polluted, the animals disappeared, humans degraded and misguided. War is everywhere. It is the best of times because we have entered a period, if we can bring ourselves to pay attention, of great clarity as to cause and effect. A blessing when we consider how much suffering human beings have endured, in previous millennia, without a clue to its cause. Gods and Goddesses were no doubt created to fill this gap. Because we can now see into every crevice of the globe and because we are free to explore previously unexplored crevices in our own hearts and minds, it is inevitable that everything we have needed to comprehend in order to survive, everything we have needed to understand in the most basic of ways, will be illuminated now. We have only to open our eyes, and awaken to our predicament. We see that we are, alas, a huge part of our problem.However: We live in a time of global enlightenment. This alone should make us shout for joy. It is as if ancient graves, hidden deep in the shadows of the psyche and the earth, are breaking open of their own accord. Unwilling to be silent any longer. Incapable of silence. No leader or people of any country will be safe from these upheavals that lead to exposure, no matter how much the news is managed or how long people's grievances have been kept quiet. Human beings may well be able to break free of the dictatorship of greed that spreads like a miasma over the world, but no longer will we be an inarticulate and ignorant humanity, confused by our enslavement to superior cruelty and weaponry. We will know at least a bit of the truth about what is going on, and that will set us free. Perhaps not free in the old way of thinking about freedom, as literal escape from enslavement in its various forms, but free in our understanding that our domination is not a comment on our worth. It is an awesome era in which to live. Quoted from Alice Walker's book, "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For."

27th annual Kagyu Monlam Trip dates will be December 18-January 5th

Please stay tuned for announcements about our trip to the 27th annual Kagyu Monlam.
Trip dates will be December 18-January 5th

Please email info@monlamjourneys.com with any questions

Programme for the 27th Kagyu Monlam

The 27th Kagyu Monlam will be held in Bodhgaya from 24th to 31st December, 2009.
Gyalwang Karmapa will preside over the Monlam accompanied by many other eminent Rinpoches and Lamas. The Gyalwang Karmapa hopes to conclude the transmission of and commentary on the Life of Milarepa, begun at the 24th Kagyu Monlam. In addition, during each teaching session, Gyalwang Karmapa will give instructions on different meditations. He will also give short commentaries on the prayers in each session.Prior to the Monlam, the Gyalwang Karmapa will give a two-and-a half-day teaching to foreign students on Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend.
http://www.kagyumonlam.org/English/News/Schedule/27th_Monlam_Schedule.html

Comments from the group

Monlam Journeys group trip to the 26th annual Kagyu Monlam in Bodhgaya was unforgettable. We purified some negative Karma through long train delays and accumulated much merit by practicing under the Bodhi tree with His Holiness Karmapa for world peace.
We made many new friends that now feel like family, we practiced patience and generosity and tested our limits. Our senses worked overtime with the new sights, smells, colors and sounds. We stuck together as the intense emotions from being face to face with the suffering around us stirred us up and broke our hearts and we shared stories of all the precious moments we hope never to forget.
It was an honor to lead you all and I look forward to the next time we meet.

Laura Durand, Bodhgaya March 2009

I find it hard to put in words my experience of India, all the people/places, fun/fear and total and complete awe.
The two most memorable are: getting my spot and hearing His Holiness the17th Karmapa for the first time and holding a heavy metal spoon and feeding hundreds of hungry children
Lunch in the Kalachakra field.
India was wild and wonderful and I can't wait to get back there.

Alison Pepper

One of the most amazing things about being in Bodhgaya at the Kagyu Monlam was the great international diversity of the crowd in attendance. At the Karmapa's teachings for westerners afterwards, they announced that 69 countries were represented!
During one of the days of the Monlam, the radio I was using proved unable to receive the English translation station that day, but the Spanish language station came in very clearly. So, I listened to very profound Dharma teaching in Spanish for over an hour, and estimate that I understood about 90 percent of it. And, I'm sure I was listening much more mindfully than I would have to the same teaching in English!

Richard Darsie

Laura was so well organized and I felt completely taken care of. She set up private interviews for the group with Thrangu Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrol Rinpoche,Kalu Rinpoche, Gyaltsap Rinpoche and His Holiness Karmapa. How incredibly amazing!! Plus we were able to volunteer with His Holiness’s sister as she fed hundreds of beggars lunch during the monlam.
We also all volunteered to help with the Western Teachings at Tergar Monastery. We divided into teams and played an integral role each day in helping the event run smoothly. I highly recommend this tour.

Anonymous

I am thinking about our trip, our experience, and the friendships that resulted.
We were so lucky, weren't we?
Most of all, I remember His Holiness talking about peace and being that peace when we returned home.
May all of our aspirations for peace be fulfilled.

Susan Neumeier


Everyone said that going to India would change my perspective on life - I didn't really believe them but, in fact, it is true! Somehow it is harder to be complacent about what we have in the west and the huge disparity of wealth, opportunity and resources.
Here is an interesting ripple effect from this trip. I connected with a man who had built a little school in a village near Tergar Monastery. He was granted land as a prize for excelling in his studies at university in Delhi. He decided to use it to build a school for all the children of the neighboring villages who were too poor to go to school otherwise. He has about 90 children between the ages of 3 and 12, sitting on the dirt floor, with no supplies except slates, chalk, a few exercise books and pencils. He hires 3 teachers at $50 US a month. I wrote to Steve Mustain, the director of the Shambhala school in Halifax about him, and Steve wrote back suggesting that the students send him the money that they raise at the next coffee house which they do one about once a term for a charity of some kind. It could be as much as $1000, enough to cover the salaries of 2 teachers for a year, or maybe to finish the building, buy supplies............lots of potential for that amount of money. I am really excited about that and being able to further the connection.

Jackie Mitchell

Day 8

This has been a full week! Three full sessions a day plus meal breaks...and some of us are still trying to fit in rest and practice. Thursday was the day trip to Rajgir and Nalanda. On Friday we had a tender private interview with HHK at his residence at Tergar Monastery. Just the 25 of us in a small room. We sat around, asked questions and laughed...His Holiness was couldn't help but emanate warmth and love. A few of us received direct practice instructions as well. Our group has also had wonderful  interviews with Thrangu Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche as well as with Gyaltsab Rinpoche. I am finding it hard to find time to update this blog with the hectic schedule and with the spotty Internet connection. Tomorrow begins the Western Teachings and all of us will play integral volunteer roles. More to come, for now a link 

http://monlam.wordpress.com  and some photos....

January 2nd 2009, arrival day...

All but Catherine arrived in Delhi even though the Indian capital was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog. Naomi, Tom and I landed first and spent New Years day in Agra battling the crowds at the Taj Mahal. (As well as the infection that was settling into my lungs).

Catherine was snowed in at the airport in Halifax, and even though she landed in Delhi 24 hours behind schedule, she arrived in Bodhgaya well before the rest of us! It is the fog that would ultimately disrupt our train travel to Gaya and turn our 12 hour ride into 27.

By the morning of Jan 3rd we were all gathered together at Likir house, a small guest house in the southern Delhi neighborhood of Lajpat Nagar....  Alison, Georgia, Amy, Dui, Christine, Leona, Teresa, Ghee, Cliff, Josh, Dixi, Lynne, Norma, Alannah, Jackie, Josephine, Richard and Susan. Still hidden in the fog, we traipsed through the streets taking in urban India waiting for the market to open.

Our real journey began at 2:15pm waiting for our ride to the train station.

The bus, late, takes us as close to the station as he wants to go. Dumped off, bags on the wooden carts pulled by coolies, we venture to find our 1st class waiting area. No seats, full, dirty, cold. Train scheduled to leave at 4:30 or was that 5:00...Delayed until 10:30pm. Ok, after an hour of waiting,negotiating and planning, we decide to transport all the luggage to the opposite side of the station because it has a much nicer waiting area. Mind you, we have over 6 hours to wait at this point. We took turns in our exhaustion, finding food, getting to know one another, taking pictures, looking around...soaking it in. Train is now delayed until 2:30am.

It takes me over an hour of phone calls and waiting to secure us an affordable place to sleep while we wait. It is cold outside and everyone tired. So, we take our bags and 6 taxi's and end up at a slum of a hotel in Pahar Ganj. Forced to share rooms with one big bed, we got horizontal and rested. The train continued to be delayed. First to 3:30 and then to 4:30. Everyone, gathering their strength, headed back to the station, in the cold and fog. At 5:30am the train finally arrived!

Once situated on board, we slept.

Unfortunately a massive train accident and derailment caused our train to alter course and our travel time was doubled.

We left our guest house at 2:15 on January 3rd and arrived in Bodhgaya at 8:00am on January 5th.