he was asked by Garchen Rinpoche to come to Israel once a year to give teachings and has been doing so since 2011.
every year, he asks to come and see us and spend time with us and we do this gladly! what an honor!!
this year he came for 5 days out of which we got to spend 2 with him.
he came to our Kibbutz on Wednesday to give an open talk to the public about the 4 mind changing thoughts toward the Dharma and about 50 people attended! it was a full house!
but when he arrived we took him to dinner in our communal dinning room and we ate on the porch. we had a gust of honor, Flerken the cat :)
later after the nice meal with Drupon and friends we went to the teaching hall which is a small sitting theater for classical music which was build many many years ago, but we have transformed it to host the teachings.
the cat came with us to the teachings and attended the whole teaching! although he slept through some of it :)
when the teaching was over, we took Rinpoche to his guest room and he slept the night.
in the morning we took him to eat breakfast in our prayer wheel studio and invited my mom and some friends to eat with us. Drupon insisted.... :)
we sat and talked for a while about Kibbutz life and how we live our lives as a community and he said it is like a Tibetan village... one big family!
after breakfast we took him for a tour around the Kibbutz. my mom took him for a ride in her electric scooter...
the first stop was the small zoo we have for the children where they are taught how to care for animals.
after the zoo visit we took Rinpoche to get a massage. again, my mom took him for a ride :)
he got to meet people and talked to them on the way...
after his massage we took him to a very nice restaurant to have lunch. as we were driving Rinpoche asked: "where are we going?" to a restaurant to have lunch we said... "is the dinning room closed?" no we said, why? "i like eating there... restaurants are very privet. you sit alone at the table... in the dinning room it is like eating with your family, people come and sit with you. plus i like the food, very tasty!"
oh, OK.... we learned something for your next visit! ha!
after lunch we took him back to the studio to rest for a while :)
then when it was time for dinner Rinpoche asked us to call our niece Eden to eat with us and so we did! Rinpoche gave her a nice shirt as a gift and she loved it!
after dinner we took Rinpoche to his next engagement and parted... :(
but, we are very fortunate to have him visit us and stay for a day! thank you Rinpoche for your kindness!
we miss you already :(
