Over four nights, I was absorbed in this little piece of the Buddhist world at the Prague retreat, and at times it was a rollercoaster of emotion. The unbalanced act my mind had been playing in the weeks beforehand came to the front and sometimes I just burst into tears while I was talking to T and M. They being the wonderful people that they are made me feel totally loved and encouraged me to feel emotions that I have spent my life supressing.
I think a lot of it came from missing home - I always do around this time of year - and with that the feeling of belonging, of closeness and of true connection with people. The people I met at the course all had such amazing energy and it was truly inspirational to see such a gathering so devoted to bettering themselves for the world around them. If only we could all live in such harmony.
Of course, Buddhists are never ones to play up to stereotypes so while I was thinking they would spend NYE in lotus position humming mantras to themselves, I was gladly, oh so gladly, proven wrong.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Om Mani Peme Hung
Om mani peme hung. Sounds kinda weird and unintelligable, doesn't it? Imagine hearing it, for the first time, chanted by 2,000 other people in a big sports hall outside Prague city centre while meditating at a Buddhist retreat. Yep, it was full on.
My first experience at the Diamond Way Buddhism retreat was seeing, first hand, Lama Ole (the man who guides this lineage of Buddhism) talk with all these people who had come from all corners of the world to learn and practise with him. I was totally lost. At the best of times, I am distracted during meditation but imagine how hard it was to stop myself opening my eyes to look at the people around me chanting these mantras and counting how many they'd done on their mala (beads)... it was a lot to take in.
Luckily, I had my friends M and T, as well as a lovely travelling teacher, there to help explain me through the more foreign bits (pretty much all of it) and so I spent the next few days absorbing what I could and putting everything else in the "to do" basket for later.
It really is a step by step process trying to understand Buddhism, and I know it's not for everyone. But as T said to me in Munich, I kinda already think along the same lines as much of this philosophy so it wasn't all too hard to comprehend. The parts about treating everyone with kindness and trying to shed your mind of negativity and ignorance seems to make sense. The parts about enlightment and crushing cups with the power of your mind, a little harder to take in.
The first night I stayed there, which was actually the second of the course, everyone was quite energetic and sleeping in the sports hall (where they held the lectures and soon 48 hour meditation) was a little difficult. Apparently when you practise enough, meditation becomes a powerful energy source and so these people must not have needed sleep or something. Either way, my mind was swimming so I probably wouldn't have slept easily in a pitch black queens bedroom with a foot massage either.
My first experience at the Diamond Way Buddhism retreat was seeing, first hand, Lama Ole (the man who guides this lineage of Buddhism) talk with all these people who had come from all corners of the world to learn and practise with him. I was totally lost. At the best of times, I am distracted during meditation but imagine how hard it was to stop myself opening my eyes to look at the people around me chanting these mantras and counting how many they'd done on their mala (beads)... it was a lot to take in.
Luckily, I had my friends M and T, as well as a lovely travelling teacher, there to help explain me through the more foreign bits (pretty much all of it) and so I spent the next few days absorbing what I could and putting everything else in the "to do" basket for later.
It really is a step by step process trying to understand Buddhism, and I know it's not for everyone. But as T said to me in Munich, I kinda already think along the same lines as much of this philosophy so it wasn't all too hard to comprehend. The parts about treating everyone with kindness and trying to shed your mind of negativity and ignorance seems to make sense. The parts about enlightment and crushing cups with the power of your mind, a little harder to take in.
The first night I stayed there, which was actually the second of the course, everyone was quite energetic and sleeping in the sports hall (where they held the lectures and soon 48 hour meditation) was a little difficult. Apparently when you practise enough, meditation becomes a powerful energy source and so these people must not have needed sleep or something. Either way, my mind was swimming so I probably wouldn't have slept easily in a pitch black queens bedroom with a foot massage either.
Monday, 3 January 2011
The knee bone's connected to the...ceiling??!!
For those who have heard of "The Bone Chapel" in the Czech Republic, this was my time to see it. Knowing little more than the fact it was indeed a church covered in human bones, I scurried my butt off to Kutva Hora, a town about an hour from Prague centre and first explored the pretty little town before battling increasingly freezing temperatures to get to this random, tiny church plopped kinda in the middle of nowhere.
Surrounded by a graveyard that for years was believed to be able to decompose bodies in 3 days (hence was quite popular), this chapel was adorned floor to ceiling with decorations from human bones in, I guess, an attempt to celebrate and honour the dead. Not sure how the relatives of the people whose bones were used would feel about that, but since no one seems to know or admit who they are, I guess that's not a problem.
I took plenty of photos, cos you know, honouring the sacred and the dead and all that doesn't really count when you have paying tourists, right?? At least I took my flash off... Will post them up later.
By the time I got outside again it was FREEZING and of course when I got to the tiny station populated mainly by Asian tourists, I discovered the next train to Prague wasn't for over an hour. So after some smart maneuvouring on my behalf (getting pretty handy of these train lines, I must admit), I got myself back to the city a little quicker and grabbed my bags from the hostel luggage room to try and find this sports hall for the Buddhist retreat.
Well, that turned out to be a bit more of a mission than first thought. After some mislaid directions (thanks Google Maps), I got tram after tram and then finally found myself connecting with a bunch of other people with sleeping bags and mats, and walking into a big sports hall full of regular looking, suspiciously not stereotypical Buddhist types. And so this amazing experience began...
Surrounded by a graveyard that for years was believed to be able to decompose bodies in 3 days (hence was quite popular), this chapel was adorned floor to ceiling with decorations from human bones in, I guess, an attempt to celebrate and honour the dead. Not sure how the relatives of the people whose bones were used would feel about that, but since no one seems to know or admit who they are, I guess that's not a problem.
I took plenty of photos, cos you know, honouring the sacred and the dead and all that doesn't really count when you have paying tourists, right?? At least I took my flash off... Will post them up later.
By the time I got outside again it was FREEZING and of course when I got to the tiny station populated mainly by Asian tourists, I discovered the next train to Prague wasn't for over an hour. So after some smart maneuvouring on my behalf (getting pretty handy of these train lines, I must admit), I got myself back to the city a little quicker and grabbed my bags from the hostel luggage room to try and find this sports hall for the Buddhist retreat.
Well, that turned out to be a bit more of a mission than first thought. After some mislaid directions (thanks Google Maps), I got tram after tram and then finally found myself connecting with a bunch of other people with sleeping bags and mats, and walking into a big sports hall full of regular looking, suspiciously not stereotypical Buddhist types. And so this amazing experience began...
Pretty pretty Prague
So I am in Prague. Excited to be alive. After a somewhat uncomfortable sleep in the hostel in a saggy bed on top of a snoring party animal (and I swear some kind of bug was biting me but I think I was just paranoid - it happens when the hostel is only 3.78 euros a night!!), I was ready to see what this fantastic city had to offer.
Got talking to a nice British man staying in my dorm and we ended up sightseeing together. Stomach pains brought me back earlier than planned to wallow a little in my own self pity before the painkillers kicked in, and meanwhile aforementioned party animal awoke from his slumber to tell me my "beautiful smiling face was the nicest wake up he's had in a while". Later, he wrote a song about me called "Sweet Wild Angel Child". Well, I don't know if it was really about me but he insisted I inspired him to finish it. Sweet.
So I got some good pics of Prague in the wintertime. It is really such an amazing place, full of tourists but amazing. Definitely the prettiest part of eastern Europe I have seen so far. In the wintertime the rooftops look dusted with icing sugar and the streets hang heavy with the sweet smell of mulled wine and punch. I wish I had a chance to see more of it but alas...
Somehow I got my new friend T to agree to dying my hair red and after massively underestimating the amount I need for my collosal mop, painted about a dozen of the wretched things in the hostel room and kept a remarkably good handle on turning everything period colour. Ewwwww.
The dye job was average, the colour not as bright as promised (they never are, are they??) but I was glad I did it before the meditation camp as I'd been promising myself for ages.
I had a few beers at the hostel, made some friends and a few of us went bar hopping to the places we found without cover charge. Was not that exciting so we just headed back and I got a better night sleep in a different bunk.
Got talking to a nice British man staying in my dorm and we ended up sightseeing together. Stomach pains brought me back earlier than planned to wallow a little in my own self pity before the painkillers kicked in, and meanwhile aforementioned party animal awoke from his slumber to tell me my "beautiful smiling face was the nicest wake up he's had in a while". Later, he wrote a song about me called "Sweet Wild Angel Child". Well, I don't know if it was really about me but he insisted I inspired him to finish it. Sweet.
So I got some good pics of Prague in the wintertime. It is really such an amazing place, full of tourists but amazing. Definitely the prettiest part of eastern Europe I have seen so far. In the wintertime the rooftops look dusted with icing sugar and the streets hang heavy with the sweet smell of mulled wine and punch. I wish I had a chance to see more of it but alas...
Somehow I got my new friend T to agree to dying my hair red and after massively underestimating the amount I need for my collosal mop, painted about a dozen of the wretched things in the hostel room and kept a remarkably good handle on turning everything period colour. Ewwwww.
The dye job was average, the colour not as bright as promised (they never are, are they??) but I was glad I did it before the meditation camp as I'd been promising myself for ages.
I had a few beers at the hostel, made some friends and a few of us went bar hopping to the places we found without cover charge. Was not that exciting so we just headed back and I got a better night sleep in a different bunk.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Concentration camp styles
So where was I?? OK, we've had Christmas and now I am heading to Prague. Good times ahead. Or so I thought.
The ticket I decided to get was a Bayern ticket, a regional type for trains going from Germany to Plzen in Czech Republic that was still only 28 euros for a single and even less if you went in a group. I couldn't see anyone going my way to jump in on their ticket with, so I just bought my own and hopped on the first train.
What was meant to be about 5 hours to Plzen then another hour or so to Prague turned into an epic 11 hour train adventure because of the snow, that at times felt more like a concentration camp or something - all us people trenching through the snow-drenched train station in the middle of nowhere with our luggage, and people yelling at us to go this way, that way, in German. Pretty funny actually.
Speaking of funny, I had a random man come up to me and ask if I liked this German reggae singer Martin someone, because of my hair, and I said I didn't know him. So we said he'd send me some music on email and I gave him my address. I think he was a little slow, bless him, so I hope he didn't think that was a successful pick-up attempt.
My second train was cancelled so that threw my world into orbit. I then had to figure out the next best way to get to Prague on regional trains (not so simple when you have someone as bad at geography as me!!), then after a couple of trains I found myself waiting with 40 or so other people at a station completely closed up and with no source of information besides one information line a Czech lady rang (and then had to be translated into English, then French, then whatever other language the people around me spoke), and waited 2 hours for the last train of the night to take us to Prague.
Well, that train didn't go to Prague either so we all hopped off and thus concentration camp begun. Finnnnnnnnnally, we got into Prague and I practically skipped to my hostel (I would've actually skipped had the roads not been iced up), I was so excited to be there. One beer later and I hit the hay. Sightseeing to come tomorrow...
The ticket I decided to get was a Bayern ticket, a regional type for trains going from Germany to Plzen in Czech Republic that was still only 28 euros for a single and even less if you went in a group. I couldn't see anyone going my way to jump in on their ticket with, so I just bought my own and hopped on the first train.
What was meant to be about 5 hours to Plzen then another hour or so to Prague turned into an epic 11 hour train adventure because of the snow, that at times felt more like a concentration camp or something - all us people trenching through the snow-drenched train station in the middle of nowhere with our luggage, and people yelling at us to go this way, that way, in German. Pretty funny actually.
Speaking of funny, I had a random man come up to me and ask if I liked this German reggae singer Martin someone, because of my hair, and I said I didn't know him. So we said he'd send me some music on email and I gave him my address. I think he was a little slow, bless him, so I hope he didn't think that was a successful pick-up attempt.
My second train was cancelled so that threw my world into orbit. I then had to figure out the next best way to get to Prague on regional trains (not so simple when you have someone as bad at geography as me!!), then after a couple of trains I found myself waiting with 40 or so other people at a station completely closed up and with no source of information besides one information line a Czech lady rang (and then had to be translated into English, then French, then whatever other language the people around me spoke), and waited 2 hours for the last train of the night to take us to Prague.
Well, that train didn't go to Prague either so we all hopped off and thus concentration camp begun. Finnnnnnnnnally, we got into Prague and I practically skipped to my hostel (I would've actually skipped had the roads not been iced up), I was so excited to be there. One beer later and I hit the hay. Sightseeing to come tomorrow...
The REAL Christmas day
December 25. When us Australians and many other (civilised) parts of the world like to celebrate Christmas. And even though it's not traditionally the German Christmas, I was invited once again to join in the second day of eating too much and meeting up with family, via M's parents in Munich.
While yesterday we feasted on weiner (sausage), potato salad and pretzels, today's menu was just to die for. Starting with chestnut soup (wow), we then had salad, then for mains a roast beef that had marinaded three days in red wine, potato dumplings, vegetarian bread and herb dumplings, and lots of gravy. I just ate a million slices of pizza for dinner but my mouth still waters at this description.
Then came dessert and we were STUFFED! Well, kinda, me and T still had to have more later on that evening because we're fat shits.
Again, the family (this time from the father's side) were all really nice and I had a wonderful time. Nipped off to the computer for a moment to organise my travel to Prague, and then for the first time since coming to Munich, fell asleep not drunk.
While yesterday we feasted on weiner (sausage), potato salad and pretzels, today's menu was just to die for. Starting with chestnut soup (wow), we then had salad, then for mains a roast beef that had marinaded three days in red wine, potato dumplings, vegetarian bread and herb dumplings, and lots of gravy. I just ate a million slices of pizza for dinner but my mouth still waters at this description.
Then came dessert and we were STUFFED! Well, kinda, me and T still had to have more later on that evening because we're fat shits.
Again, the family (this time from the father's side) were all really nice and I had a wonderful time. Nipped off to the computer for a moment to organise my travel to Prague, and then for the first time since coming to Munich, fell asleep not drunk.
My first white Christmas
Wow, what an experience the last few 10 days have been!! Last I posted I hadn't even time to talk about Christmas, then I was whisked off to Prague to see the sights, and attend a Buddhist retreat including a massive NYE party. And now I'm in Austria. So let me start at the beginning...
First... IT WAS SNOWING!!! Finally, my first white Christmas!!!! I could not believe it, I was so happy. Beautiful snowflakes everywhere :)
As I explained earlier, I was invited to join M, T and his family at M's sister's house on this day. Everyone was just so lovely, I even got some small pressies and gave some too, and I got to play with their family Labrador - so sweet!!
The crazy thing about Christmas, though, was what was going on inside my head. On one hand, I was extremely sad to be without my family on this special day but also I was so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the people around me. They really made me feel welcomed and part of the family, I just couldn't believe how bless I was.
Some of the feelings I was having were really deep and I don't know if explaining it in words would really do them justice, but after celebrating for two days with these beautiful people, I felt I was much more ready to experience the Buddhist retreat and soak up what it had to teach me.
But this was just December 24 (when Germans and all of Europe celebrate Christmas). Then we have the REAL Christmas...
First... IT WAS SNOWING!!! Finally, my first white Christmas!!!! I could not believe it, I was so happy. Beautiful snowflakes everywhere :)
As I explained earlier, I was invited to join M, T and his family at M's sister's house on this day. Everyone was just so lovely, I even got some small pressies and gave some too, and I got to play with their family Labrador - so sweet!!
The crazy thing about Christmas, though, was what was going on inside my head. On one hand, I was extremely sad to be without my family on this special day but also I was so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the people around me. They really made me feel welcomed and part of the family, I just couldn't believe how bless I was.
Some of the feelings I was having were really deep and I don't know if explaining it in words would really do them justice, but after celebrating for two days with these beautiful people, I felt I was much more ready to experience the Buddhist retreat and soak up what it had to teach me.
But this was just December 24 (when Germans and all of Europe celebrate Christmas). Then we have the REAL Christmas...
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