Unending
Adventure
Hope you all are fine. It took me long to
settle down and write this. I thought I could update my life in monastery
monthly. However, my life back in the
monastery has a different view on that.
Since I left Emory, I am pretty much
determined to spend at least two consecutive years in my monastery, Sera Jey
Monastery, pursuing to set up a stable foundation for Monastic Science Education.
The immediate first month that I spent in the Dharamsala went very fast that I
didn’t get much time to think on my goal.
Offering
China-Tibet Initiative’s Constitution to His Holiness The Dalai Lama. My most
memorable day. Thank you Emory, my Chinese friends and all the members of
CTI.
Sera Jey Science Center
Once
back in monastery, after the Dharamsala’s stay, I was informed about the
Science Center in our monastery and assigned to help set up things there. I was
overjoyed to hear that we have a Science Center, at last. It was a huge room.
And we have a separate room for laboratory, too.
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| Sera Jey Science Center |
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| Sera Jey Science Laboratory |
Opening of Sera Jey Science Center
Beside
that we have two science classrooms. I was one of the monks who help set up
things in these rooms. I shall upload more photos of the Science Center when
the setting is complete.
We
had a good fortune to receive His Holiness The Dalai Lama in our monastery in
July this year. His Holiness celebrated his birthday in our monastery. Right
next day, July 8 His Holiness inaugurated our Science Center and I had good
fortune to receive his blessing. I showed him the newly opened laboratory and
he instructed me to compare my Buddhist understanding with Science. Although
the advice was directed to me at that time, but obliviously the guidance was
meant for all the monastics.
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| Double slits with Thabkhe |
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| His Holiness Opening the Center |
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| Receiving guidance |
World of Sense Exhibition
The second major event that I was
fortunate to get involve was the Science Exhibition by our monastic science
students. Sager Family Foundation and our Sera Jey Monastery sponsored the
exhibition. The theme of the exhibition was World of Our Senses. I was asked to
help the exhibitors by monastic science students. I agreed to take part if they
could come out with a small booklet in Tibetan on Five Senses from Science and
Buddhist Perspective, which they agreed and we were able to distribute the
colorful booklet to the public on the days of the exhibition, August 29 to
September 1. We held the exhibition at three different locations and it was a great
success. The primary goal of the exhibition is to promote the collaboration of
two fields of studies; Science and Buddhism and we also aimed to promote
science education in Tibetan community, too. We were very happy to see the
interest of the general public.
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| Activities on taste |
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| Cover of our first booklet |
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| Presenting on visual |
We are all (Sera Jey Monastery
Science Students) very happy, because of the success of the small booklet. We are
encouraged to come up with more short information booklet on science in the
future. Hopeful, we might be able to publish bi-monthly science booklet in
Tibetan soon. While creating the booklet we found out that there are some monks
who are very good at editing, some at designing, some at translating, and so
on. Hence we learned that we have resource to publish. So the publishing is our
next target.
I also found the experience in Emory
very useful not only in Science but other experiences that I gained while in
Emory. One thing that I found very important for teaching is the need of a good
syllabus of the course. I might work on that aspect for the long run of the
Monastic Science Education. I think that won’t be a difficult task. We already
know what textbooks we are going to use for the first year courses, the newly
developed by first Emory monks! Hence according to that I could layout the
syllabus.
Other Joyful Activities
Oh! I end up talking lots on dull parts;
let me go for more fun aspect of my life now. In fact, I took my last semester
in Emory lightly academically because I knew that I won’t be able break lose
like that once back in the monastery. So I went out biking, visited bar and
karaoke, and held a cigar in my hand, remember held not smoke. I would
love to share some photos of those too.
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| Biking with my best friend |
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| Singing with Tibetan students |
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| Holding a cigar! |
Back in the monastery, I hangout with my
friends, we went out for lunches, visited forest, and a dam. I had such a
wonderful return so far. However, there is still something I am yet to
accomplish on my bucket list. Hopefully I shall be able to tick them out once I
am back on my feet.
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| Vegetable Market |
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| Visit to the dam |
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| Having lunch with friends |
Unexpected Learning Experience
Oh! I am yet to share my new experience. Well, it is over now so nothing to worry. For the past two weeks I was bedridden. I had an auto accident and had minor fracture on my left pubic ramus (A tiny bone, part of pelvis). Doctor advised me to take complete bed rest for two weeks. I did that and now I am on my feet walking and soon will be running again. Those two weeks has been most refreshing weeks for me. I got lots and lots of time to reflect on my past deeds and contemplate on my future plans.
I also found out that how fortunate I am to have so many dear friends when in need. My friends sacrificed their week long summer holiday to accompany me. They took me to the hospital regularly and occasionally took me out to my favorite places, too. Oh, life is now here for me!!! It is the un-expecting attitude that is the most rewarding mental states I want to continuously possess. I gained some weight as I was well fed by my roommate and friends. However, I think I lost some microbes from my gut after taking antibiotics for two weeks. My immediate plan is to reintroduce microbes into my guts.
Now I know what I miss most since I left Emory. Yogli Mogli, the frozen yogurt!!! Anyhow, I am taking Indian yogurt to increase my dear microbes. I am sorry I had to kill several of my tenants due to that accident.
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| Few days after the accident |
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| Outing with friends |
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| Enjoying drinks at home |
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| Back on my feet and determined to run soon!!! |
1 comment:
Oh no! Keep training your leg and you will be running in no time! Don't strain yourself though. =)
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