An old Tibetan man walks by and greets me with "
Tashi Delay" as I sit at this table outside of the coffee shop. The Tibetans (especially the old ones) seem to always be smiling, shining their inner light, radiating peace. Is it their Buddhist practices? I see them with their prayer
beads,
whispering "Om
Mani pad me hum" to themselves as their fingers move across the 108
beads. I watch them moving around the monastery in the center of town, spinning the prayer wheels. I wish to be so present, so at peace as they appear to be, as I reflect in my head at the nature of "being present," knowing that the "wishing for presence" is the very obstacle of being "present." Often I am in two places at once, instead of just being.
And then my mind continues, thinking about the keys to presence: acceptance of what is, genuine curiosity/joy with life, knowing that all is one, contemplating the nature of
emptiness and the delusion of my reality. I want to say, "Life is good just the way it is," but I also know that life isn't always good just the way it is. "Good and bad" at times are irrelevant. Life just is.
Photos from the festival today at the Tibetan Children's Village,
commemorating 50 years of refugee status in India (among other things I am sure, but this is all I understood)
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