Om on the Range: The Dharma Dudes and Their Little Lama Mama

After over a week amid the chaos, noise, and flute-hawkers in Kathmandu, we were exceedingly ready for a different scene. The Acclimates, accompanied by almost 40 other spiritually-parched individuals from about 15 countries, found themselves up in the foothills 25 minutes north of the city at Kopan Monastery, surrounded by misty mountain tops and over 300 Buddhist monks.

Kopan is a world-famous monastery that studies and teaches Gelug-pa Tibetan Buddhism and was featured in the film “Little Buddha,” about searching for the reincarnation of a Lama. There was a lot of really interesting, soothing, and mind-blowing experiences (do yourself a favor and google seach Lama Relics: we saw hundreds of these in glass cases, all from one man), too many to explain here, but most importantly, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and learned a great deal.

During our ten-day stay, we enjoyed a rigorous schedule, including half-day silence until after Lunch:

5:45 Wake up

6:00 Morning Tea

6:30 Meditation

7:30 Breakfast

9:15 Morning Lessons

11:30 Lunch

2:00 Discussion Groups

3:30 Afternoon Lessons

5:00 Tea

6:00 Meditation

6:45 Dinner

7:45 Final Q and A, then Meditation

9:15 or so Bed Time

And that was only for the first week, after that we started a 2 day silent retreat that dropped the lessons. Although some of the main tenets of Buddhism do not exactly correlate with the Acclimates’ worldviews, there is so much good in the teachings that the course did mange to restore some faith in organized religion. We won’t bother everyone with the extensive wisdom we received during hours (and hours) of lessons, but if anyone has any questions about the Dharma, Karma, or our homeboy Shakyamuni, feel free to ask.

Our teacher Ani Karin:

http://www.talkingbuddhism.com/info.php?bio=19

Our teacher Losang Sherab (on Facebook!)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Losang-Sherab-Sherpa/707716733

Maybe the best part of the course was the great group of people we met. After spending over a week discussing and debating the technical details and merits of Buddhist theory, everyone let their hair down in Thamel last night when 25 of us met for a raucous, vow-shattering, four hour dinner. It was an evening filled with the quenching of prolonged beer-thirst, hand-rolled cigarettes, and incredible good vibrations among the Dharma Friends.

Now the plan is to meet up with a couple Buddha-Buds and grab a bus tomorrow and head out to Pokhara; the trekking capital of Nepal.