I got back to the States with much more culture shock going from sanyasi to householder than from India to America. Felt like I was going back into a place where cravings, attachments, and ignorance would close in from all sides and it would just be a matter of time until I fell to them somewhat.
I arrived in Salida and went soon after to Boulder, where I moved in to the home of a wonderful American-Nepali couple who are the extended family of some friends. We have got along so well together and I have sampled some wonderful and simple Nepali dal and learned to make a pretty fair Chai tea with ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, pepper, and masala.
I am about a 40 minute walk or 15 minute bike ride to the University and have not taken a car or bus to get to work yet. The first day, actually, I had to walk in such a fierce snowstorm that I literally couldn't see in front of me! I had to take refuge in a Wild Oats supermarket that was at about the halfway point. Maybe the biggest culture shock I had was crossing the street! After learning how to manage the Indian chaos, it seemed unnatural to me to not step in front of an onrushing car-- it works in India, but will cause an accident over here! (That and seeing healthy, fit people with nice clothes begging for money-- now that was weird!)
But I really enjoy getting to work in such a natural way. When I manage time well I always choose to walk rather than bike, because I find it is much easier to be aware of sensations and respiration, and I arrive at work or home much less frenized and with less of that all-pervasive American air of impatience and hurry. Half my walk is residential and the other half is through the campus, and it has been something of a cultural experience (and much nostalgia) to walk through all these college kids again. It is amazing how self-asborbed many seem to be, and I remember how much I used to feel the "bubble" of the college campus. I am working for the University of Colorado and have just one class that meets two hours per day. Below, at an international fair, a shot of me and a Korean student dressed in garb from Qutar.
I teach a Basic Reading and Writing course to a small class composed half of Saudis and half of East Asians. It has made an interesting mix, because the former are easily distracted and want to have an energetic and fast paced class while the latter needs more space and time for reflection. It is the first time I have taught in the US and the first multi cultural class... very interesting.
But my main reason for being in Boulder has been to finish my Portfolio assignment for my graduate school in Vermont. It consists of writing about 26 essays on a number of themes. It was great to be able to devote most mornings as well as 3-day weekends to this project of reflection, and to be able to supplement it with some teaching hours that didn't make me too busy, but just spurred my intellectual activity to the right amount. Still would probably have been better off sitting than anything though :) I use my big Moroccan teapot every morning and filled it with tea from Japan, China, Korea, India, UK, or other places and had an excessive caffiene buzz for several hours (I really don't like caffiene but I love the fullness it gives a tea). The paper is now done and just needs to be organized together and sent off to Vermont to be read (and hopefully approved!) for a degree in the field. It was interesting just how many of the essays kept hitting at the same themes as I traced my development-- how much Japanese culture and Indian meditation influenced my perspective and then how I learned to apply these things within the classroom with the help of work at SIT and on my internship in Morocco or Teacher Training course in Chicago. It turned out to be about 75 pages of original writing and 75 pages of recycled documents, and that with trying to stay shorter and not double space it! Below a shot of my work station in my room with all the papers strewn everywhere...
I have been trying to sort out my following plans, the teaching ends mid May and then I go to serve a ten day Vipassana meditation course outside Denver that my mom and one of her best friends (and the family member of this Nepali-American couple) will attend as students. I really wanted to stay in Boulder, because in many ways it really is a wonderful place to spend some time, and I was too busy to take full advantage before-- plus the living situation could not be more ideal in just about every way. But I can't get a confirmation of my hours until June, and I want to continue towards getting my Teacher Training license. So, the one thing to do is to go to Costa 
Rica, which is what I'm looking at now. I'll be in a very small town near La Fortuna and by the border of Nicaragua for 2-3 months, called EL INVU-- see photos of the school above). It is "in the middle of nowhere" as everyone who has been there has reported (it is connected to SIT) with iguanas and much wildlife, flora, and fauna everywhere (check out the website here). The first month will be fairly relaxed as I adjust to the center, and the second month will be non-stop busy as was the course in Chicago. I am also happy to hear that every meal has veggie and even vegan options in the Costan Rican style. I think it will be a great opportunity of profession development for me. Plus, I'll get to check out the World Cup in one of the 187 countries outside of the US that cares passionately for it! The games will literally start off with Costa Rica taking on the host country, Germany...
It's funny, while my commitment to the meditation allows me to be better as a teacher, work faster with a clearer mind, and be more aware during class and planning lessons, it also prevents me from having as much quantity of experience as if I didn't always have to worry about purifying the yucky stuff in my mind. I always feel like I am playing catch-up, even though having a sharp mind certainly allows me to "catch-up" at warp speed. It was interesting in writing the Portfolio to see how many direct ways Vipassana has made me to be a better teacher, though.
Going back to the yatra (check out a map of the route I found above), I heard a rumor that another one may be getting organized for one month in around December of this year. A few other pilgrims emailed me that they enjoyed the blog reports, so I'm happy to see that I must have been fairly accurate. Gilad also sent me the link to his photos. He used a "real" camera and took some absolutely extraordinary shots. I recommend checking them out at, click here! Here are some of my favorites... (the one below is all of us checking out some digital photos...)
This is of our shoes outside a Lumbini ruin that we entered to meditate...
Varanasi...
Okay, I just wanted to leave some reading suggestions as I wind down this entry... click on the title to read more about it!About Buddha:
BUDDHA by Karen Armstrong. This is amazing!!!!! It is very short and I recommend it to anyone who has none, some, or much information about the Buddha. I feel I have to read it again. It is remarkable that she wrote a book that can appeal to anyone's level of knowledge. It is also quite amazing although she may not have a sustained practice of meditation, there are few places that this really shows through in describing the Buddha's doctrines, and usually in only rather subtle forms. She was a former Christrian nun from the UK and has written much about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and also offers some comparisons to these Western religons in this book. It is written in very simple, clear language.
THE SEARCH FOR THE BUDDHA: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion by Charles Allen. This is an amazing story about how Buddha's teachings disappeared completely from India, and various officers during the British Raj took up the task of discovering who exactly he was. It is stupifying to realize that just a short time ago, nearly no one in the entire world outside of a few South East Asian countries had no clue who Siddharth Gautama was. The book shows how generation after generation of British Orientalist excavated the historical sites, translated documents, and brought his message to a wider audience. Almost all modern Bhuddist studies are as a result of these men in the Raj!
AN END TO SUFFERING: The Buddha in the World. by Pankaj Mishra. This is kind of a lighter, easier read than the previous. I'd recommend it as a very interesting and casual read for people wanting to find out more about the Buddha's place in modern India. The book has the added advantage of being written by a young Indian and talks about how he found Buddha through his love of great Western thinkers. A couple details, though, are appallingly wrong, such as when he said that Pali was not the orginal language of the Buddha but some dialect that tried to describe things many years later! Still worth the short read!
ART OF LIVING by William Hart. Anyone interested in Vipassana meditation, check it out!
About India:
A MILLION MUTINIES NOW by V.S. Naipaul. A great book by one of India's most famous writers of the 20th Century that examines the lives of so many people and families and paints an overall picture of the massive changes the country is facing.
MAXIMUM CITY: BOMBAY LOST AND FOUND by Suketu Metha. A gritty look at one of India's most unique cities, and the most accessible one for Westerners. It just came out in 2005 and shows a city bursting at its seams-- I actually had to stop reading this before leaving for Bombay because it was a little too much, so be careful!
Misc.:
MOTHER TONGUE by Bill Bryson. This is a great and very funny book that basically traces the history of the English language. Great for an English teacher of course, but also very fascinating and easy to read for anyone to try to make sense of this mongrel dialect that is now sweeping across the world in unprecedented ways.
THE COURAGE TO TEACH by Parker Palmer. This a great book for anyone who is a teacher or even not-- so many relationships that one has in life are somehow teacher-student, and this book goes into some wonderful detail about this. Sometimes a bit too dramatic, but nonetheless a beautiful reflection.
THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN by Anne Fadiman. Quite possibly the best book that will ever be written about cross-cultural communication and comprehension problems. A bold statement, but this book will back it up-- about a Hmong (Laotian) family who comes and tries live in America after helping out in the Vietnam war. There are no easy answers but lots of profound questions...
THE UNWANTED: A Memior by Kien Nguyen. A really fascinating story about an American-Vietnamese young boy who just misses the last helicoptor out of Saigon when the Americans leave, and his autobiography about growing up in communist-controlled Vietnam. Hard to put down, if that's a good thing!
