Tso Pema by any name would be just as sweet

Tso Pema is so alive. It is alive in a way that is very different than Bodhgaya. I am not sure I can describe it but on first pass it seems that there is a lot less tourist energy here, so the alive feeling of being near the lake permeates the entire town. Most people here are locals or lifelong meditators on retreat. They are quiet energetically and for the most part have blessed peaceful demeanors.

There is a very quite undertone of agenda in the vendors, since it is off season and every rupee will help. But it is always a gentle request, and usually in the form of someone handing one or more of us a card (with both hands, the most respect)with name and business. There is not energetic drag or pull at us to come to their shop. It is so sweet and refreshing.

Living in the monastery is another kind of coming home for all of us, even the lay practitioners. While the accommodations are modest, the energy is amazing. And we happen to have a little balcony overlooking the lake where I meditate.

If you come here, you have to stop under the thousands of prayer flags at the far end of the lake and listen to their gentle whisper as they wave prayers onto the wind in every direction, bright colors glinting in the sun, a rainbow of prayers.

Feel connected to the ground here, there is more energy and purer energy than I have felt elsewhere. Yes, it was in many of the holy places, but here I feel it the strongest. It is like lotus petals falling softly from the sky and rainbows everywhere. It is a million times over the double rainbow light at summer retreat the first year at Metok's farm. It is the lightest bubbles, like when Metok laughs her alive kind of laugh.

And so it seems that Tso Pema has also reminded me of Metok, who is wise enough to know that Tso Pema exists inside us as well as outside, and light enough to have demonstrated its qualities long before we came here. May you be fully free dear, and may you have all the good qualities that are alive in this holy place.