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

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!

one Hebrew stone with the words: "and thy shell love" hidden somewhere...

more to come....

our trip to the USA... post number 1 (more to follow)

hey ye all!

in October we had the most amazing karma to have H.E. Garchen Rinpoche come to Israel for the 5th time to give teachings. we also had the most incredible karma to have been asked to be the drivers of the hole group that came with Rinpoche.

when the seminar ended we also helped and stayed for another 2 days with Rinpoche and his Lamas and translator. as we were taking things apart and storing them for the next event we were asked by our very good friend Smadar Ginzborg if we are coming to Arizona in November for the Vajrakilaya retreat? we said no... (being poor and not having much money we felt that this is a huge expense that we can not handle with our current monetary situation)
Smadar did not accept our answer and told us that we should rethink this because we do not know how much time we will have with Rinpoche since he is not young anymore and every opportunity to spend with him and receive teachings is SO precious! we should really think this through...
well, to tell you the truth, as she asked the first time we had the intuition to go... then came all the "mind games" of yes and no... have money, do not have money, have time, do not have the time... and so forth... you know what i mean :)
so, we went home and talked it through... we counted our money and figured out that this trip will take up about half of our life savings! holy moly!  we took a car and went to Haifa to talk this over with Smadar and another good friend that was staying with her at that time.
after much talking and mind games of Ego and money counting (hahahaha) we decided that it was the right thing to do, go and travel to Arizona to participate in the Vajrakilaya  yearly Drubchen. after all, H.E Garchen Rinpoche has taken the time and effort to come to Israel 5 times to give teachings and even come to our prayer wheel crafting studio! so we should at least once in this lifetime come to him, to his home.
and so we did! we only had 2 weeks to prepare for this adventure and let me tell you, it was super short! so much had to be done prior to our trip.... we did not know if we will make it!

Smadar has told us one thing to keep in mind: "once you decide you wish to come and the mind is tuned to that frequency, all possible obstacles will arise. pay no mind to them and just keep going forward, all will be resolved. trust me"

boy, she was not kidding! wow!
since Vajrakilaya is a remover of obstacles and a wrathful deity, many things will come up and we will need to go through them, no matter what happens!    
what ever could have gone wrong, did. passport not valid, bank will not pay for the tickets, credit card company will not accept our charges for the plain tickets and retreat, teeth starting to hurt, family members giving us a hard time for going... oh, so many things! but through it all, we did not give up!
finally the plain tickets were bought, though it was so late i could not find seats next to each other or at a door (i am 6.4" or 193cm... tall fellow... ) but, still we bought them hoping someone would be kind and switch seats with us (did not happen)...
the passport was a long and costly process but on the day before our flight i had it in my hand!
the obstacles still kept on coming and we almost missed our flight when the ticket lady at the counter told Ayelet that she needed a visa to the US since she is a France citizenship (this is new, up until a few years ago you could just travel to the US and once you entered you got a 3 moths visa) and we have 5 minutes to fill 6 forms over the internet before she closes the flight...
a very nervous 5 minutes pass by as i struggle to fill this ridicules form on Ayelet's phone but it would not accept the Garchen Buddhist Institute's address (later i found out it was not a real address and that is the reason it did not accept it) so i called my good friend Doron in Colorado and got his address... the phone call went something like this:
me: quick! give me your address!
Doron: hey brother! how are you? i am just putting a roast in the oven..
me: (cutting him off) your address now! or we will not get on the plane!
Doron: ha, i was thinking if to pick up the phone or not, and may be calling you later..
me: the address! now!
finally he gave it to me, i hung up and finished filling the form and... hooray!    but we were a minute late and she closed the boarding... Ayelet told her to bring her manger (this is 1:00 am) and she did reluctantly...  the manager came and told us to board.... we made it to the flight!
the flight was a 15 hours non stop to San Francisco, a 5 hour lay over, a 2 hour flight to Phoenix AZ, a 2 hour shuttle to Prescott AZ and then a hour taxi to Chino Valley to the Institute...

us in the San Francisco airport waiting for the flight to Phoenix

we made it to the shuttle from Phoenix to Prescott but we were SO tired that we just kept falling a sleep in the car... Ayelet would start talking to me, fall a sleep in the middle of the sentence and then wake up not understanding what has just happened... oh so very tired!  plus it started to get dark and one of the things we decided on was "no travel in the dark" so we do not miss out on the view!
we decided to stay in Prescott for the night and take the taxi in the morning to the institute...
Ayelet bent over to ask the shuttle driver if he can stop for us in a motel 6 or something and he said he can't. the lady behind her bent over and told Ayelet that he is not allowed to stop anywhere and that she can help us to get to where we are  going if we just let her take us...
this is the point where all obstacles changed to good fortune! this amazing lady, out of nowhere, took us under her wing! her name was Alison and she was the kindest women! she took us to a motel 6 and told us that in the morning she will come and pick us up to go to the Garchen institute... we told her that we have things to buy like sleeping bags and pillows and she told us that this is no problem! she will come in the morning, take us to Walmart where we can buy all this things, but maybe she has in her house and we will not need to buy...

i think that the phrase: "what is happening?!" was the most used phrase during this whole trip....

we had dinner in the resturant  she sent us to and went to sleep... so so tired!

me tripping out in the restaurant next to a wood turners event coming up... hahaha

got up in the morning and called Alison up, not sure if this was all a dream or maybe we need to call a taxi...
Alison came as promised and took us for a trip in Prescott showing us the landmarks of the town before heading to the Garchen institute...
finally! after SO MANY hours of travel, we arrived at the Garchen Buddhist Institute!

next to the sign in the entrance to the institute 

me and Alison looking for heart shaped rocks on the ground

sweet Alison, our guardian angle 

  

we arrived one day before the Drubchen started so we had time to set up our sleeping bags in the Stupa where we stayed for the whole 10 days (although in the last 2 nights our karma cleared up and we got a better sleeping arrangement, but that is another story)