Life in a Buddhist Monastery

 After attending a 10 day course on Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism and meditation, here are a few things that I've learned....

Contrary to all popular belief, monasteries are NOT  a quiet place to live.  Living with 350 monks who are chanting and reciting mantras before 5am is not my idea of "quiet."  But waking up to an amazing sunrise every morning scored them some extra points.  :)

I wasn't really sure what to expect prior to going on this retreat, but the schedule definitely took care of that.  The first week we had meditations, teachings, discussion groups, and had to observe silence for half the day.  The last two days were ALL meditation and complete silence for 48 hours...and let me tell you....you sure do find a lot of stuff in that little head of yours when there is absolutely nothing to do but think.  :)  With no computers, phones, and only books on Tibetan Buddhism, you really learn to become ur own best friend. Luckily for me I'm pretty cool.  :)

Our schedule for the final 2 days

The schedule for the first 8 days

I eventually learned to choose the people I sat next to during  meditation sessions wisely.  Maybe it was after one session where the girl next to me seemed to have quite the staring problem, was constantly digging in her plastic bag for who knows what, and definitely made it clear she wasn't interested in meditating.  Lucky for her, we were meditating on compassion and patience, otherwise I'm not sure what the outcome would have been.  I moved cushions the next session.

Our meditation hall :)

I also soon discovered that after sitting cross-legged for hours every day, day after day... after day... after day...it is now my position of choice...not sure how that happened.  And whoever designed the monastery must have known that people would need some sort of leg workout after sitting for so long.  Thank you for the 10 days worth of squat toilets?

A pretty damn nice place to meditate :)

One of our Tibetan Lamas

On one of our last days, we had a light offering ceremony which was held in complete silence.  With over 100 people lighting candles for those they care about, and nobody talking except for the prayer led by the monk, it was a pretty moving ceremony to say the least.

Light offering ceremony held in the garden

There were well over 100 people from countries all over the world, some who came to Nepal specifically for this course.  Everyone had a different story and was there for different reasons.  We all had r own experiences with the meditations and all took away different things from the teachings.  But in the end, we were all there 4 ultimately the same reason.  The course was absolutely amazing and I honestly don't even have the right words to describe it.  If you ever find yourself in Nepal, don't miss it.

With one of my roomies on r last day :)