Just got out of a taxi ride with a crazy Rasta-Man-Tibetan taxi driver!  He took four of us from our dinner destination back to our hotel.

Over Credence Clearwater’s “Have you ever seen the rain?”, he  asks Don, riding in the front seat, “What is your name?”

“Don”

“Don?!  In Tibetan language don means “dangerous man”.

Peels of laughter in the back seat from Julie, Chris, and Fran.  Don is the most gentle soul we have ever met.

Don misunderstands him and says, “Oh, “generous man”? That’s nice.”

More peels of laughter from the peanut gallery.

“No, Dangerous Man!”

Music gets louder.  Talk  about dangerous, Rasta-Man’s driving is insanely dangerous.  He takes the mountainous hair pin turns so fast they become hair raising turns.  I am hanging on to Julia.

Julia says, “I have this irrational blind faith in the drivers here.”  She says this as headlights come within inches of us and then swerve to another lane, the cliff looking strangely close.  My Tibetan dinner unsettling in my gut.

“Hey, man.  You want hashish?”  He is addressing us all.

NOOOO, we scream in unison. Bob Marley’s Buffalo Soldier is playing.

I  say, “Oh God, I hope he’s not high.”  Another curve ahead, dodging cars, carts, cycles, people, animals, and side of road.

“No wine That’s fine.  No Pot, Why Not? Everybody’s fine.  That’s my line. ” Please God, don’t let me be killed by this Rasta-Man-Hashish-Smoking-Poet-Taxi-Driver!

Chris asks, “Are we there yet?”  Just in time, Marley’s “Don’t Worry About a Thing Cause Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright” plays and our guy is singing along, bopping his head to the music.

Made it back to the hotel just in time to get a little internet time .  I have 10 more minutes before this place closes down at 10 pm.

Today we learned so much about Buddhism.

Arvind says and believes that the Dalai Lama is more spiritual than perhaps the Buddha himself in that he has no ego.  He is just a person, just a simple monk who has forgiven the Chinese for what they have done to Tibet and the Tibetans.  He is a 100% compassionate being who treats everyone as his equal.  He is not above anyone and believes that we are all bodhisattvas. As he said this, he seems to tremble with emotion.  I felt very emotional hearing Arvind say this.  The world is so lucky to have the Dalai Lama.  He is a gift to us all.

Om Mani Padme Hum, spinning prayer wheels, Buddhism is about overcoming suffering.  Buddha brings wisdom and light to the world and the burning candles we see are symbols of that wisdom.  Wisdom is light.

Monsoon rains hit Dharamsala today.  Wild downpours.  This is the only place getting rain so far this year.  We did get a bit of rain in Delhi, but not much.  It didn’t cool things one bit in Delhi (well, it did for about 10 minutes), but here in Dharamsala, the rain brought freshness and the smell of pine oil.

We had an interesting evening talk and Tibetan dinner at the Cashmere Cottages, about a half an hour walk through busy streets and slick forest trails (slick from the rain).  These cottages belong to the Dalai Lama’s sister-in-law, Rinchen.  We arrived at 5 pm and she spoke to us for 2 hours in her courtyard overlooking forest and mountains.  She is perhaps the most elegant and eloquent woman I have ever met.  She spoke of the 130,000 Tibetans in exile, of the 4th generation of Tibetans now being born in exile.  She told us how hard it was for the first generation of Tibetans in exile to be in India.  They only spoke Tibetan, they came with nothing in their possession, they had trouble coping with the heat of India having come from the Tibetan plateau. She said that thankfully India was very kind and generous towards them.  India allowed the Tibetans to preserve their own culture, language, customs, schools, and religion.

She was so positive in her talk.  She expressed that the better side of exile is that the world got to see and know the Tibetans (because prior to coming to India, Tibet was a very closed county).

Rinchen does very important work raising funds for school, reviving the Tibetan’s Women’s Association.  She is Minister of Education, Home and Health.  She has worked hard to allow for nuns to be on an equal par with monks in terms of status and education.   She has also worked to have equal education for both girls and boys.  This was unheard of before 1959.

One of the more touching things she said was this; “As a culture, Tibetans have an ingrained sense of kindness, gentleness, caring, simplicity, and compassion that we want to share with the world.”  I found that incredibly beautiful and true.

must go as the internet cafe is closing.  until tomorrow.