I'm here

Hello Everyone!!! I'm really here in India...right now on the banks of the Ganges in Varnasi 1 hour before the New year starts. Happy New Year!! I'm doing well...actually having a pretty good time. It's amazing here in India, so different and yet I feel very comfortable. Today we visited the ghats...where they cremate the dead and Rinpoche gave us a teaching on impermanence. No more to say right now. Love to all

Preparation

Hello to all and thank you again Pema for setting up this blog.

My thoughts on "Preparing for Pilgrimage" feel very scattered and difficult to put into words but I'm going to try. I can still feel the resonance in Rinpoche's voice the first time I heard her say..."next year(2007) winter retreat will be India". I knew immediately that I was "going to India" even though it did not seem feasible or probable on the outside. So the preparation began over a year ago and here we are 2 weeks away...and the preparation continues. I can't remember at all who I thought I'd be when the time came to actually go, but...ready or not here I come.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to be in a position to hear the dharma coming from the pure place from which Rinpoche teaches and soon we'll be with her in the sacred places of India. I'm hoping to be able to be there in a place of clarity without expectations or projections. And so the preparation and practice continues for now.

See you all soon,
Drichab