It’s all about the lemonade

Posted by Phobia on May 7th, 2007 filed in Home

About 40 minutes north of where I live there’s a sign board for a Tibetan Buddhist Monastary. So one fine day I wandered up there to have a look. What I found was not what I was expecting. I mean when I think Buddhist monastry I think of chanting monks, sparkling fountains & pebbled paths winding gently around lotus flower-filled pools.

This place is completely different. In fact I don’t think it’s fair to call it a place. That word seems too mundane. It may not have the fountains & the lotus-filled pools. It does have pathways that wander through the bush & the forest. As for the monks, they were away in Tasmania tending to their Lama who was ill.

So I wandered into this place & right into the middle of Tibetan & Chinese New Year celebrations! The people were warm & friendly & invited me to stay for lunch. The food was traditional Tibetan (I think!) with some BBQ sausages thrown in! Glad to hear these Buddhists aren’t vegetarian!

I chatted to some interesting people about their travels to Tibet & then had a walk around. Like I said, this isn’t just a place. It’s a sanctuary. A haven. It’s a sense of peace & calm.

I met a nice man called Max who had the greatest advice!

I hadn’t been back in a couple of months so yesterday I went back. And remembered to take my camera this time!!

So here’s a better description with some pictures to help it along.

It’s called Karma Choeling & is situated on 20 hectares of land. It is a retreat centre & the NZ headquarters of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

The temple & monastary are on one hill (on the right of the picture) overlooking the valley.

Then on the opposite side of the hill is a huge statue of Buddha. It’s about 2 storeys high & looks out over the valley from the other side.

Then down a shadey, winding path …

Are the stupas! Now this takes a little bit of an explanation : Stupas are (very) basically built to honor the Buddha. They are also said to balance cosmic energies & to harmonise & control natural imbalances to maintain an equilibrium. Now I don’t know about that but they are beautiful!

Each of them is also meant to house a relic of a holy person (possibly a pinky toe or something!)

Okay but the most amazing part of my visit yesterday was meeting the Lama of the monks!!  He was back from his hospital stay in Tasmania & I could actually speak to him!  This was totally unexpected for me!

Before I go any further I have to say that I am not religious.  I grew up in a very religious family but a few years ago came to a personal realisation that there is no god.  I have an interest in Buddhism because I have Buddhist ancestary & I’ve heard of the philsophy.  So meeting the Lama was a good chance for me to ask some questions!

Lama Shedrup is a very unassuming man.  He’s calm & well-spoken but still has a great sense of humour!  Here’s the Readers Digest version :

Buddhism is not about believing in a higher power that can magically make everything right for you.  It’s about knowing that your actions have consequences on yourself & those around you & it’s up to you to make those consequences good!  It’s about turning ignorance into knowledge (you know, learning from your mistakes!) so that you don’t make them again & you can recognise when someone else does so you can help them out if you can.  It’s about making lemonade when life gives you lemons!  And that’s it in a very, teeny-weeny, itsy-bitsy, polka dot nutshell!!

This I can live with!