broadcast canada - usa feb 2006: semi-mythical

"it was semi-mythical. it was the

natural next step. it would never

happen. it was happening now..."

canada

i'm here in north america - small cities circling toronto in ontario, canada - the first definite step towards geshe michael...

and its happening so fast, so beautiful - "first of all let's change the landscape..." and whoosh, its snow everywhere...

the magic of 'empty' cities... my image of north america is so strange: everyone i meet is either a yoga teacher or dharma practitioner or kung fu student or monk or composer... people walk to work along disused railway tracks, some restaurants have meditation halls attached to them, and there are things i can name but not explain: my first ever quantum-mala for example, given to me by a student at the university...

the days usually begin with a visit to some delicious but inexpensive resataurant, and after that anything can happen - a visit to a university to receive a massage in a high tech chair that emits subsonic sound (the first in canada and open to the public for one day only) followed by a visit to an institute for theoretical physics to just hang out there and maybe get into conversation with one of the 'long term guests' as they are sweetly labelled on the residential board... as it happened it was friday and they were already gone, but the building was lovely to look at, exquisitely simple and complex, and touched by playfulness - an arts program that included some cutting edge contemporary musicians (including a superstring quartet!) and brief synopses of future lectures of beautiful complexity and modesty. i think i'll just write a soft logic letter to them when i get the time. there have been lots of yoga sessions with wonderful teachers. i've also given a talk at a high school and a dharma centre, enjoyed a three hour childhood memory marathon watching episodes of david carradine's 'kung fu' on dvd, had long conversations about 'organised sound' with jascha, watched soccer matches in matt's place or sat in on long car journeys with him to pick up world-wandering nuns with the car full of playful magical conversation about dakinis...

and i'm happy to say that the first opportunity to teach buddhist philosophy and worldview with a soft logic feel has been given me at meaghan's yoga centre, where i was able to teach accompanied by silent cds and teddy bears. (people asked "why the cuddly toy?" and i told them of an idea i came across recently that struck me deeply, about not trusting altars which are disturbed by the presence of a cuddly toy...) it went very well, and jascha - the sound man who set up his laptop to play ambient songs at random intervals to open up the teaching spaces and give people time to reflect and dream - managed to make me a cd of silence and songs for use in mandala offerings - which i used for the first time at the national ballet school while waiting for a friend to finish her ballet class; little nine year old ballerinas looking on curiously before going into their classes.

seriously, everyday feels like this. everyone is smiling or laughing or just being totally cool, passing me on to the next person, the next floor, the next opportunity for something sweet to happen, driving me ten hour round trips to get a cheaper flight to new york.

i feel like i've stepped into a wonderful mandala where everyone is quietly pushing me through my usual 'drunken astronaut' vagueness into the heart of geshe michael's community. they even packed me off to new york city (with a yoga mat strapped over my shoulder: i feel just like david carradine!) for seventeen days of teachings instead of the three i was intending to do....

new york city

my goodness! it just gets deeper and deeper... i cant believe this is the new york city i've heard so much about - its much more relaxed than i ever expected. but again, that's the magic of 'empty' cities... i'm surrounded by geshe michael students each morning and each evening, and every time i go into a 'subway' sandwich shop tibetan monks and refugees appear behind the counter and we talk about dharamsala.

every morning its off to the three jewels centre for tibetan heart yoga classes, then my sandwich, then a run around galleries. gazing in awe at the skyscrapers, cruising on the gentle buzz of the streets... it feels like home here, like i've lived here before. and then comes the evening - what i've been dreaming of for years: wonderful teachings by geshe michael and christie-la. the atmosphere is electric, sweet. and new york orchestrates things so fast and close and accurate: you step off the manhattan sidewalk into a little india of chanting at the jivamukti yoga centre where the teachings are being held. everyone is happy and open within the buld up to the teachings. and then finally in they come, geshe-la leading his consort christie-la by the hand (it is a part of their practice to never be more than ten metres apart from each other) and onto the stage for three hours of such heartfelt teachings. there are amazing images etched in my mind, pure blessings of seeing beyond limited conventional reality - its hard to explain. i'm talking about seeing with love and seeing love.

and i finally got the chance to say hello to him and ask for his blessing. he placed his head against mine for a few minutes and held my hands. that was all i needed. my faith is such that i now know i can continue on my way, beyond the limitations of my own rationale, trusting in the radiance of my own path, this soft logic path into a natural, semi-invisible, 21st century buddhism. he's so busy, so in demand, and i dont know when i will get the chance to talk to him again. but i trust more in the emergence of things than in the planning of things now.

everyone who has made this trip possible - and the list of credits flows out into infinity of course - i want to thank right now. i can start at some sweet arbitrary place - lets choose that sweet magical place of tushita in dharamsala, cos it was there, while teaching the various courses there last year, that i ended every course that i helped to teach with my appreciation of geshe michael's teachings and announced my plan to go to america one day and meet him, and so many people made prayers for me to make it happen. and then there are all the people who have helped me on this long crazy journey out of the himalayan foothills to new york city - via japan, thailand, sweden, england and canada! - people who have given me places to stay, paid for tickets, given me teaching opportunities (it felt so much more energised being here in america and teaching at the same time) - i cant name you all and its wrong to try in a way: silence is the only reality. but i just want you all to know what you've done for me, so that hopefully you can smile beyond the limitations of your own rationale and begin to sense that the world is an open, playable place.

i'm running out of time and internet access is hard here, believe it or not (everyone has their own computer i guess, so no cafes like in india) but i will write when i can.

now for some more new york....

shenyen