7--7--7, Dalai's a Treadin'...

Dharamsala (actually Bhagsu, a town 20km away) has been a great deal of relaxing and (to B quite honest) an "out of India" experience while still remaining in the country. This location is so infused with Tibet: Tibetan faces, Tibetan foods, Tibetan culture, Tibetan music...Tibetan Charm-->SO far away from India!

I've found a home away from home in Uma Ashram and can not say enuf about the love that is shared there; not so much in an orgy-like fashion, rather around food, candles, people meditating, a garden full of herb/flowers, and a roof where I do a daily yoga sesh in the morning to kick off. Just 4 comfort--I haven't dreaded my hair, started walking barefoot, or singing joplin and dylan tunes yet. After that, it's peanut butter, books, coffee, walk-abouts, writing, and occasionally meeting up 4 a chat with people I've met around here 2 enhance each other's lives a bit more than self-containment can offer. Most importantly, 23 days have passed at this new sojourn and I've been very happy here.


Home away from...no home...Uma Ashram

It's strange 2 look way down into the valley and see Dharmasala; that far-away place where I arrived from Amritsar (aka. Sikhville) sooo long ago; I don't even remember what the bus looked like...or the 2 guys who wanted to reign in my characteristic vagabond-singularity & new affinity of roaming around the quietest part of a village until I find a place that has a homie atmosphere, then start looking for places to rest and reward; it's been so gr8 2 have my head out of the guide book again. It's made all the difference in my experience here.


McLeod Ganj from Bhagsu Rd.

I must admit that I have been listening to some lectures...that's right; school bound and fool found. B. Lipton who spoke at some Noetic Science conference in California offers some fascinating views on how quantum mechanics plays into our personal and global world. I risk this sounding like a complete math-club blurb, full-on with pocket-protectors and calculator-infused games...but seriously, the ability and ostensibly accurate account of our consciousness, traditional medicine, and state of the world that quantum theory--just a scary word for physics based on energy or waves of possibility instead of existing static particals (read mind over matter, read newtonian or cause-effect relationships are obsolete, read wholism replaces reductionism...read nerd, go on then)--demonstr8s is uncanny and allows unbridled optimism 4 people who give the idea a chance, like me. In the end, it's been the only blinking of any beacon that I've seen in so long that has sparked a possibility of potential passion and in something I can contribute in my future; be it integrating science with consciousness or alternative medicine...seeds have been planted, be ware!

It's painful 4 me 2B near McLeod Ganj where the Tibetan govt. and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama are in exhile and to not have the opportunity to hear HHDL speak. But, I've committed 2 something that will be one of the hardest things I've done in years; without question, and thus, I am forced to move from this area up and over the central Himalayan range and into Laddak before the 6th of July which is HHDL's birthday and a huge celebration here...major sighing from author right now. Laddak will prove nothing short of spectacular though, and I have no regrets about the decision that I made an hour ago.

I reserve any further description as to my undertaking, but maybe I can offer something after I am "released".

4 now...hope U enjoyed independence day (4 those in yankilandia). Soak up the summer sun in the northern hemi, and take to the peaks or beneath the sheets 4 warmth in the southern.

Nothing 2 exciting to note for those few who gander every now and then, but I've been reading quite a bit and doing more reflecting than in any other part of this trip. A few short hikes that were entertaining and warming with new-found friends but mostly enjoying a "home" and being able to write and read to my heart's content.

Films: "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Great film I saw once b4, but was indeed blissed by its revival. I've been listen to lectures of Noetic Science associates, and this film coincided brilliantly idealogically. "Idiocrasy", of Mike Judge ("Office Space", classic) and I think Etan Coen helped in producing/directing (dunno 4 sho) I saw in a random guesthouse in Vishist (Manali) and got a kick out of the very real stupidity breeding.

Photo Pholder: Added a few fotos of Bhagsu/McLeod Ganj/surrounding area, but took many more. Furthermore, the experience of the trip from Manali to Leh waz nothing short of breath-taking...photos gather a bit of that; however, the inet price up here in Ladakh is 5 times that of normal India and 3 times as slow. Do the math and you'll have no problem seeing why this frugal fellow forfeits foto uploads among other things.

Pages: "Hell on Earth" a tale of a Tibetan prisoner during the Chinese "take-over", 17 point treaty, etc; "Web of Life" (Fritjof Capra) a thoroughly exciting book that re-exposed me to chaos theory and some mathematical concepts while integrating them with ideas of consciousness; "Light on Yoga" (Iyengar) which has provided a great base for basic and intermediate asanas while advising on the deeper (and less known in the west) element of Yoga.

One of many books I fumbled thru...this one's popular

Songs 4 Soundtrack: I've been listening 2 so many great bands and have, for your convenience, constructed the CD that was never made...my soundtrack for the last month or so. Not necessarily in this order, but go and "soul-seek" (or whatever the new gig is) these songs/bands...and you'll have a conquering composite. Aphex Twin, "Albert Balsalm", Guns N' Roses, "Breakdown"; Carbon Based Lifeforms (swedish lounge) Photosynthesis; Amy Winehouse Rehab & Back to Black; Bishop Allen, The Same Fire; The National, Secret Meeting & Karen, (though the entire album, "Alligator" is wonderful); Ben Gibbard, You Remind Me of Home & Carolina; Modest Mouse, Dashboard & Fire it Up (poppy which makes me ponder how much this song must've been played on the radio...2 much air time can dilute a gr8 tune...and this def is); Jonathan Rice (this guy rocks!), We're All Stuck Out in the Desert & Middle of the Road; Headlights, Down Your Street & T.V.; The Be Good Tanyas, Lakes of Pontchartrain & a gr8 blues-grassy travellin' song, The Littlest Birds; David Bazan, Selling Advertisements.

Thank me 4 this monster-mix when we sit down together and I'm oogling at your wealth in hopes that you'll afford me a beer/scotch.

So I wish you well this 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of this millenium. Yesterday was Dalai's b-day and there was celebration throughout areas of Tibetan India (that concept is weird). Mama's was 3 days ago along with the nation's. Wish I could jot more, but I'm down to the last seconds.

And actually, it's a week l8r b4 I'm actually posting this...in Ladakh; what a heaven on earth man...I wish I could relate the beauty abound in this valley...another time.