travels

hi and bye for now. i am in london en route to india.

i got here on sunday and enjoyed spending time with dhammadinna.

yesterday and today i've been doing study with the karuna team in north london. i've really enjoyed that, we studied a tsongkapa text.

last night i went with karunagita to see the movie "milk". i thought it was excellent and sean penn's performance was brilliant. it was horrifying to realise that it's only 30 years since harvey milk was assassinated. little more than 30 years since it was illegal to be a homosexual in the usa (i know it still is in some parts of the world). 30 years ago someone could appear on the telly and use the terms bestiality, paedophilia and homosexuality in the same sentence as interchangeable terms! and that wasn't seen as that strange or worthy of censure. definitely worth seeing for anyone interested in gay rights - or indeed human rights.


then on wed i fly out to mumbai. yippee!!! i am really excited about going to india. i loved it so much last year. and also i'm excited and inspired about going to bodh gaya. i arrive in mumbai morning of the 12th feb and the evening of 12th i board the "kolkatta mail train" to gaya. 30 hours on the train. i've splashed out and booked 2AC which is second class air conditioned. train is scheduled to arrive at gaya at 3.30 a.m which i'm told is not a good idea but it will probably be late anyway. i'm being met and taken directly to the root institute at bodh gaya where i'm staying for a few nights. i'm hoping to get a fair bit of time with rocani who is working at root institute.

from the 18th i am at a different hotel for the preceptors college meeting and then straight into the convention. i have been pretty busy with the organising of this and i think we've got a good programme. anyway, just being there at the place of the buddha's enlightenment with almost 500 OMs will be tremendous i'm sure. i'll be busy there i reckon but i'm looking forward to it.

convention finishes on the 1st march and i take a train early morning of the 2nd back to mumbai. on the 4th i fly out to sydney and am in that part of the world until the 1st april when i arrive back at heathrow via singapore.

i'll try to write a bit on here during my travels.