our trip to the USA part 2

as we began to settle into the stupa and find our place to sleep we pumped up the air mattress we bought with Alison in Walmart and got our nest all snugly and ready for 10 nights of sleep (well, not really... there were 20+ people sleeping with us in the stupa and since the practice was going on all through the night, many zippers and doors opening and closing did not give one much sleep).
we decided to take a walk around the entire ground to familiarize our selves with the new surrounding we found our selves in... we walked to the far stupa, walked around it many times spinning our prayer wheels and chanting mantras... walked into the Gompa and be completely blown away...

the view from the dining hall terse


me in the middle of the Gompa

we then walked over to the dinning hall and started to meet with all the rest of the practitioners who started to appear...

i must say that at this point, sitting there in the dinning hall, it felt as if i was meeting a long lost big family that i have never met in this lifetime... it felt as if we all knew each other even though we never met... this was a wonderful feeling, and there were 180 of us! :)

since Ayelet is a real artist, she always has the urge to create something, and since the Lamas were sitting there creating Tormas she asked if she can help. of course they immediately sat her down, showed her the way to do the task she has been given and away she went! i wondered around for a while trying to come to terms with what is about to take place, a Vajrakilaya Drubchen...

we had never attended this type of retreat and were not familiar with the whole ritual so we did not know what to expect...

we walked into the 37 practices of a Bodhisattva garden and meditated there for a while, reading all the stone slabs...

and then came the sunset and we walked over to the far Stupa to circulate for a while... our "over whelmedness" is explained best through this photo of Ayelet...


sunset from the far stupa

what is happening?!

the next day the Drubchen started and we sat there a bit in shock but following the text and chanting... every day it became more and more familiar and we became tuned with the mantra recitation (which was on the speakers 24 hours in the shop, in the dinning hall, in the toilets and shower... everywhere....)
i was handed a conch and was asked to blow it every time i see the monk in front of me blow his, and so i did! i was taking a (loud) part in the Drubchen! i loved it...

the practice went on all night but for the first night we crashed since we were still kind of destroyed from our travels...
in all mornings we got up very early (around 4am) and went back to the Gompa to recite the mantra... but before that we drank coffee in the dinning hall where every morning we met someone new and had the most amazing talks! i think those morning teachings over coffee with strangers was one of the best teachings we got! wow... what karma circles! there is no way to convey all that transpired there... it felt like a karma washing machine... hahahaha!

on the third day, we opened a "popup" shop and displayed all the prayer wheels we brought with us... though we did not have enough time to craft more, we brought with us what we had in the studio... not much, but something...
Rinpoche came over and blessed each and every one of the prayer wheels with his special balm, made sure to touch each one... it was a precious moment!


Garchen Rinpoche blessing the prayer wheels

then on the forth day, something amazing happened and an upside down rainbow manifested in the middle of the sky! it was hard to look at because of the sun's glare but we tried to cover the sun with our hands... Ayelet took photos of us :)

me going: "what is happening?!"

my Karma Yoga practice was gardening so i helped and make the Tashi house which is down the hill nice and beautiful for the coming visit of a big master that was coming just as we were finishing up our 10 days there... so, Ayelet joined me and as she did, she asked for some paint so she can write mantras on stones and spread them around the Tashi house... that was an AWESOME idea!