Just a few lines to let you know how things are going.
Life here continues to feel more and more normal as the weeks go by. I know eveyones name now (even the Tibetan ones) and I'm getting the hang of the Abbey rituals and chants, I'm even enjoying the ritual Oryoki Zen style meals.
A mitra from Leeds (Ian Barker) joined us recently. It's nice to have another Englishman to talk to, and a fellow FWBO'er.
I've now been trained to be the shrine room Gatekeeper (calling people to mediation with a wooden clacker, and taking the attendance register) and meditation Umdze (ringing a large metal bowl at the appropriate moments). I have also been opening and closing the Vajrayan shrineroom (preparing offering teas, fruit, rice etc. and cleaning the shrines).
Tomorrow I train on the flag team. At 6.10am I'll brace myself for the wintry weather and march down to the flagpoles to raise the Abbey flags while singing the Abbey anthem. Should be fun!
The weather here showed signs of spring for a couple of weeks, the snow melted and the bay ice has dissapeared - now we can hear the waves breaking on cliffs below. The lobster season started this week and we have the novelty of seeing the fishing boats going out.
We had quite a lot of sunshine recently and I even managed a little sunbathing,but the last three days have brought some quite heavy snow, although it is not settling.
We've been doing a fair bit of study recently, Abhidharma with Bh. Sangpo, Prajna with Dr. Karl and Ani Pema Chodron gave a house talk on monasticism during her recent week long visit. It was very good to meet Ani Pema, she has a very strong and powerful presence. I have also been enjoying stretching my brain by studying a little Madhyamaka - it might be empty but it's not light!
I've been enjoying my meditation practice and the Bodhicaryavatara puja. I've also been enjoying doing our FWBO prostration practice.
I've seen a few more moose and a marsh harrier. Someone spotted whale last week, but I've not seen one yet. The Robins have arrived (American Robins), they are about the size of a Thrush (why do American's alsways have to make things bigger?).
If you'd like to see my photo's of Gampo Abbey, you can view them on my Flickr page:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32415993@N00/
Thank you for your emails, I've appreciated them all.
With Love,
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