Kalachakra Initiation in January

Well, last Sunday I was able to wake up early to hike to Triund. Man, It was a longer hike than I had anticipated. We had a group of four and we left McLeod Ganj around 7am and did not arrive until 12:30pm. One Swedish woman who was with us was lagging behind so that took some of our time. The views as we traversed our way up was amazing. We got see a huge flock of goats chillin' on the side of the mountain as we hiked up. Once we had got to Triund, the mountain range is right in your face and they are massive. For it boggled my mind that these mountains that face Dharamsala are just the beginning and by far are not the tallest. We had about ten minutes of picture taking time before the clouds totally covered the mountains. Every day, around midday the clouds comes to cover the mountains, then around dusk they dissipate. Many people were up there, mostly Inji's and some have spent the weekend up there. It is for sure butt ass cold at night in Triund. The area is a bit grassy with goat and sheep droppings fertilizing it. I walked around abit and found a few dried laid stone huts. Most of them just big enough to sit in cross-legged. Also one could see the "metropolis" of McLeod Ganj, for compared to the rest of surrounding area, McLeod Ganj is densely packed and congested. We stayed there for about three hours. I met a lady from Spain, so I used it as a opportunity to brush up on my Spanish. I have met a few folks from Spanish speaking areas, like Argentina and Spain, but not much. I have met , many Koreans, Israelis (including some Hasiddics), Thai, English, France, Taiwanese, Mongolian, and German folks. On the way down, our Swedish friend had fell and twisted her ankle. So by the time we had gotten to Dharmakot, we needed to catch a motor-rickshaw to Dharamsala. Those rickshaw are quite small, so I decided to walk since it wasn't too far from my apartment on TIPA Rd. So that was my journey to Triund in a nutshell. The rest of my week has become quite standard. I work in MEC's office every morning writing emails to new volunteers or writing letters to donors. At 2pm I met with Pema to get tutored in Tibetan then at three go back to Tibet Charity for conversation class. And I met with two students in the evening. So far pretty laid back. I am happy with studying Tibetan. If I was not doing that I will probably get myself into trouble, of which there is a lot of trouble to get into. I am beginning to plan to go to the Kalachakra initiation ceremonies that HHDL will have in January. It is at the Amaravati Stupa in Andhra Pradesh South India. It is believe by Tibetans at it is at this spot that the Buddha himself first taught the Kalachakra. The Kalachakra, comes from the section of tantric texts known as the Highest Yoga Tantra. With the Kalachakra being the Highest of these Tantras. Within are detailed introductions to achieve the goal of this practice. This also requires that the practitioner has a indept knowledge of the Kalachakra mandala. For most people this is way over their heads. But HHDL believes that the vibrations produced during this initiation can help with world peace. It has been said that this might be the biggest Kalachakra. For in the past, in Tibet it was only given to those highly advanced yogins and tantrics. I am excited to go, and know that it will be a challenge. It will be hot down there, I will be going with another volunteer, so I wouldn't be alone. Also next month HHDL will be giving teachings at the main temple which I will try to attend. Next weekend a group of us will be going down to Kangra Fort. That is all for today.

Pax