Friday 2nd November – Finishing, Fun and Friendship Family

SNOW!

So I am sitting on the train, just leaving Immenstadt on my way to Munich airport to return to Brighton and I have the best feeling, I am overwhelmed with gratitude, thankfulness and joy from the amazing week I had with family friends at the EC. It was definitely one of the best spontaneous (risky money wise) decisions I have made recently, and it was on so many levels. I couldn’t imagine a better place or way to spend my school holidays.

Logs!

So enough with the emotional (J) let’s talk details about what happened since my last post, lets pick up where we left off which was on Sunday. I am not as sure about some of the details as my one week was long and short at the same time.

So Monday was spent enjoying the snow, it was freezing, windy and the snow kept going all day – the EC really turned into a winter wonderland. I spent a lot of time meditating in the cold, waiting for the fire to crank up! I also enjoyed some hilarious time with Katrin in the snow covering wood and scaffolding in tarps, which was amusing and we laughed a lot especially as we struggled against the cold and the snow.

The snowy EC!

Just a quick interlude to go through the usual EC running day program. It starts with 16^th Karmapa meditation at 9am followed by breakfast all together. Then lunch is at 1, dinner at 7 and 16^th Karmapa again at 8pm. In the breaks between lunch and dinner I spent doing prostrations most of the time and other activities. Other random activities included spontaneous dance breaks with Ivet in our room, which were lots of fun.

Monday was also cleaning day. I enjoyed a lot of vacuuming and everyone joined in the joyful cleaning which was lots of fun. I think we watched a movie on Monday night and Sunday night or maybe just one of those nights, can’t remember 🙂

Pretty snow!

Caty arrived late on Monday night and it was a joy to see her at morning meditation on Tuesday, she is incredible. On Tuesday I also got to go out and enjoy the snow as the weather was lovely and sunny and the snow was so fresh and so clean. I went for a walk on my own, which naturally turned into me tumbling, rolling and “kartwheeling” in the snow. I also built and snow man and soaked up the serenity!

Autumn leaves

On Tuesday night we had a mini concert from a Danish guy that was staying which was interesting. After he finished a few of us also took turns performing. I did my rendition of Baby, which was amusing. Other people played piano and sung and then I did some Damien Rice, which was very funny to perform such ‘sad’ songs in such a happy environment, but the best part was when they finished everyone laughed, which was so precious. I was also really nervous, so it was nice to get out of my comfort zone! Katya (6 years old) and I also performed together, she sung in Russian whilst I played guitar, she is adorable. We then watched a movie.

more leaves!

Wednesday was an amazing day. It started as usual with 16^thKarmapa meditation and breakfast. Lunch was fantastic, Caty brought cakes and we all hung out during and after lunch, eating cake and drinking coffee, it was really special. The food at the EC is incredible, it would be impossible to lose weight living there! Then in the afternoon I break I finished my prostrations. Laci and Ivet joined me in the last session which was very special. It was definitely an amazing place to finish them, definitely the best thing I have completed! Wednesday was also Halloween so we planned a Halloween/finishing prostrations party. Ivet, Olga and I made cut out pumpkins and all. We had such a fun party and danced freely and joyfully for hours.

Halloween!

However the highlight of the day came as a surprise. Laci, Ivet, Ilona, Henkyen and Sievasurprised me with a truly beautiful Manjushi statue. I was so touched and overwhelmed with gratitude that I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t express my thanks, I could have cried, and those that know me, know it is not easy to make me complexly speechless, all the friends at the EC really are family.

Mr. Snowman

Thursday was my last day and what a great day and night it was. Last night was priceless by a mile. After dinner we all watched a movie together – nothing special but entertaining enough and just nice to be all together in the lounge. But after the movie we all ended up hanging out in the basement and everyone was in such a happy, spontaneous and joyful mood, and it was so nice that Caty could join us. We were all laughing for hours that by the end of the night my stomach and cheeks hurt from laughing – Christina and Marcus are two especially hilarious people! It was such a great night, a real gift, the perfect night to be my last (for now), as I said earlier, it was a priceless evening; I am laughing now just remembering….GOLD!

Excitement!

So now that’s that, today I enjoyed my last day with friends. I Played a hilarious few games of Foosball with Ivet, which turned into a spontaneous midday dance party to Greece Lightning, which was followed by chats in the sun with Meike.

So I am still on the train, still feeling grateful and thankful for all the joy, inspiration, friendship and family which we have at the EC and it is all thanks and appreciation to Lama Ole, the most amazing source of it all!!!!

The EC

Meike!

The View

The sunset!

Finished!

Manjushri!

Laci!

SNOW!

WIND!

Pretty!

Snowy view!

Sunday 28th October – A Few Days in Brighton and the First Snow at EC

Last dinner with Josh

It feels like so much has already happened at the EC that I need to write about it now, even though I only arrived on Friday.

But I am jumping ahead of myself, I first of all need to talk about my speedy 4 days in Brighton. After I came back from Copenhagen I was straight back into work, but I had two mornings off which was thoroughly useful for a sleep in and meditation.

Our pet fish!

On Monday nights at the centre we have started doing Ngondro and then cooking and eating together and then meditating together again. This week it was my turn to cook so I made stir fry! It is a lovely thing to meditate and eat together.

On Tuesday after school I made dinner for Luke and Dave and we enjoyed each others company as Dave was going away again for work on Wednesday.

When I arrived

On Wednesday afternoon I made dinner for Claire, Josh and myself as it was the last night that I would spend with Josh before he moves to Australia, so we all sat down and ate dinner together. Josh also bought these amazingly gourmet deserts that came in little glass containers and were a joy in every mouthful.

Thursday came around and it was a full day of work and then a full evening at the centre. After which I walked home with Luke and we sat in the park for an hour chatting and laughing. It was then time for me to pack! I didn’t get to bed until mid-night and had to wake up again at 3am, which wasn’t easy. After about 9 hours of travelling I finally arrived at Immenstadt and I was picked up by Ifka. We went to pick Eric up from Kindergarten then had a lovely lunch of roast salmon and vegetables at her house.

Autumn leaves

We then all drove up to the EC together. It was so nice to be back and greeted by many old friends. I took the afternoon and evening easy as I was exhausted and just meditated, ate, hung out and went to bed at about 10pm.

I woke up full of energy on Saturday morning which was nice, what was even nicer was during the morning the snow started! It was great to watch everything slowly get whiter and whiter. I had a long meditation session before lunch, and then enjoyed lunch whilst watching the snow fall.

Robin!

After lunch we went down to Immenstadt as Sylvia and Tina were having a house warming afternoon tea party. They had the most amazing selection of deserts on offer, all of which I tried, but my favourite would have had to be this Hungarian one which was layered pancakes with cottage cheese (that had lemon and sugar mixed with it) and liquid chocolate (which was cocoa, sugar and sour cream). It is something I will definitely try back home.

I spent a lot of the party playing with Robin, my new 1 and a half year old friend!

Desert selection

Time came to leave to head back to the EC for meditation and a dinner party at EC. Sonya and Latsi prepared an amazingly gourmet dinner to celebrate no special occasion at all, but we did celebrate. The food was excellent and I haven’t had steak cooked that well in as long as I can remember. The celebrations then continued in the kitchen with a kitchen cleaning party, which then just turned into a very happening dance party in the kitchen by candle light. We ended up dancing around the kitchen benches until 2am, it was so joyful.

Beautiful snow

Today I woke up early and the snow had completely covered everything! Outside looks like a winter wonderland! It is freezing cold though, but Ivet and I plan to go and play in the snow soon – probably when I get the courage!

That’s all for now, but more fun is to be had for sure at the EC!

snowy Ivet!

The snow this morning

Kitchen dance train

Kitchen Cleaning Joy

Amazing steak

Dinner party

Tapas

MoreEC

Monday 22nd October – Copenhagen

Lama Ole

What to say about the 40^th year anniversary course in Copenhagen! It was like a lightning bolt, full of energy and over in a flash.

It all started at 4.00am on Thursday with walking to the train station and then getting my flight. I naturally slept the entire way. When I got off the plane in Copenhagen I ran into an acquaintance from the London centre so we travelled to the venue together, which was really nice. Copenhagen is very easy to get around as a tourist and everyone is super helpful. Many people were more than happy to show us where to go directly.

Shark attack with Stephan and Ivet

We arrived just in time for registration and the 11am lecture, which was great. I spent the rest of the day at the venue as I was too tired to go exploring and it was just nice to be surrounded by friends and in that atmosphere. I had enough time to meditated and eat food with old friends between the lectures. Lama Ole gave a lecture in the evening and it was so inspiring to see him again.

Autumn

I was sleeping in one of the smaller sleeping halls which was actually a classroom in a school. So it was entertaining when we arrived there after 1am and we had to move all the tables and chairs to make room – but regardless I fell asleep quickly and slept deeply.

On Saturday morning I woke up nice and early and went with Calliope to the Centre in Copenhagen for a guided tour. We stopped for amazing Danish pastries on the way. The Centre was truly magnificent.

Medieval Copenhagen

We had three lectures on Saturday – each of which as exciting as the other. We learnt all about the history of the centre and the early days of Diamondway Buddhism in the West. It was great to hear all the stories and learn all about the beginnings. I also had time for meditation and speed mister walk around town with Ivet. The Danish are very friendly, warm, fashionable and generally good looking helpful people, so wandering amongst them was a joy. Copenhagen though is very expensive, for example a cup of coffee will cost anywhere between 3 – 4 pounds, which currently is 4 – 6 Australian dollars! As a result I ate sandwiches and yogurt and banana and fruit with the occasional meal, no worries though. I also forgot to mention that as we were wandering around without a map or any idea where we were going (Ivet and I) we stumbled across a cute little medieval market!! We ate Danish pancakes! Yum! We also randomly discovered the cutest traditonal Danish cafe! Everything just seemed to fit together on our adventures even though we had no idea where were were going or (now) where we went – it was fun!

Fountain!

On Friday night we had the course party and it was appropriately a 70’s themed party fit with a dance competition and all. It was so much fun, everyone was full of joy and we danced until 2am.

Sunday was as jam-packed as the previous days. I started early and went to bed late J. We has three amazing lectures one from Sharmapa (he is fantastic and full of wisdom) one from Lama Ole and then in the evening Dorrit and Pedro Gomez gave an incredible talk about the 17^thKarmapa’s escape from Tibet. Everyone was so engaged and they were talking until 1am, even though they were meant to stop at 11pm, but it was too exciting. Pedro is a natural born story teller, his excitement was contagious and as a result when they finally finished everyone stood up and the majority of people couldn’t help holding back a tear as it was a truly touching story and as a result experience listening to it.

Cutest cafe!

This was the end of the course for me as I had to get up early on Sunday to catch a flight home. I had no issues on my journey home and felt so grateful and touched for everything.

I got back to Brighton at about 1pm, had a cup of tea, meditated and then walked to Luke, Dave and Roni’s. Dave made an amazing dinner and then after dinner we played cards. My final score at the end of the game was 108, which I enjoyed.

The place where the 16th Karmapa gave the Black Crown Ceremony.

Today I was back at work (just an afternoon today, so I got a sleep in = loved) and I have work for the rest of the week, until Friday when I will go to the EC for a week as it is school holidays. Yippeee to all of the above.
Also the photos as not as good quality as usual as I only had my phone as I didn’t take my camera due to space limitation in my luggage, but I think you get the idea 🙂

Dorrit, Pedro and Nicholas

The entrance hall at the Centre

Adventures with Ivet

Tomek

Sharmapa and Lama Ole

Amazing metro ride

Pretty Street

Gangstas

Monday 15th October – Gigs, Sickness and Frank Hahn

Frank Teaching

I will start with the gigs! Before I got sick and spent a week in bed I went to see two gigs on the weekend. The first of them was Angles and Sailors – Kendal’s band. They were playing at the Hope and it was a really rocking gig, but a quiet night. On Saturday night I went with Lainy and Roni to see Frances perform at the Green Door store. She has a truly amazing voice, her gig was mesmerising, and she is very talented. After this I went out dancing with Roni, Frances and Elena which was fun.

On Sunday afternoon/evening we planned to have dinch (also known as linner or dunch and it is the combination of lunch and dinner, it is the new brunch). But our dinch actually just turned into dinner. We were having a birthday dinner for Luke’s birthday at Roni and and his house. We had bangers and mash – classic! I spent the night there as I couldn’t be bothered going home. I also had a night there during the week, which was fun. It was the night Luke and Dave returned and we all woke up early to have breakfast together before I rushed off to work.

Francis gigging

And then the sickness started, by 3pm on Monday I was ruined – no energy, runny nose, sneezing, the whole kit and kaboodal! So I spent the rest of the week in bed. On Tuesday I did something new that I have wanted to do for ages…I took myself to the movies, with a blanket and all! I went to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I thoroughly enjoyed – naturally and even in my sick state! I spent the rest of the week basically watching movies – good ones and bad ones. I did watch a number of the Harry Potter films, and even cried in a few which just demonstrated my vulnerability. I also watched Moonrise Kingdom and It’s Kind of A Funny Story – both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Luke and Roni both came over to make me amazingly healthy and tasty soup which fixed my right up.

Another Brighton Sunset

By the time the weekend came around I was feeling much better, which was necessary as Frank Hahn was here over the weekend giving teachings. We had a great 2 days with him, getting teachings, meditating and eating together.

I was back at work today, which felt good and have work on Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday I am off to Copenhagen for the 40^th Year Anniversary course which I am thoroughly looking forward to.