Lady Dhamma

When I applied to do “service” at the 3-day Vipassana retreat last weekend I was under the mis-guided assumption that I would blissfully chop veggies between meditation sessions (such is the case in the US). But oh no, I was given this very special room:

Which means that instead of taking a vow of silence, I was the person that fielded the needs of participants (including one remarkably weepy pregnant woman) and got to woke up extra early (4am) to ring bells. But since I went there to remember the lessons of equanimity, I could hardly complain.

Then, as planned, I packed up my dhamma practice and moved it to the Le Meridien in New Delhi. Above all privileges experienced in this life, the one I cherish most is the ability to “pass” among an incredible range of communities. I’ve squatted on mud floor kitchens cooking chapatti over a wood burning stove with ladies in rural Kenya AND I have liberally indulged in the privileges of a guest at a 5 star hotel in Delhi. Let me be clear, I REALLY don’t fit-in either place but I “pass”. The irony of the fact that I was furiously brushing clinger ants off my backpack at the Bangalore airport and walked into the lobby of the Le Meridien with red monsoon mud creeping up the edges of my sandals, did NOT go unappreciated. That’s how I roll, I guess. Sometimes none of it seems real, like I’m only observing this round of life and other times I experience life so intensely my whole body buzzes.

So Lady Dhamma now spends her days laying in a soft white bed of fluff, watching DVD’s, ordering room service and lounging at the pool. Whatever, I’m allowed to take a short holiday from India! Check it out:

It is beyond swanky here. And let me tell you, there is an indescribable feeling looking down from the 16^th floor upon a city of 12 million people . . . from the john.

The whole center of this 20 story building is wide open, with a Charlie-and-the-Glass-Elevator styled machine that swooshes down a futuristic bee hive of rooms to the stylized mosaic floor of lobby. There are also glass walls of fresh lilies . . . and they play Tom and Jerry cartoons in all the elevator lobbies?!

And Mike, what about him? He’s doing this:

. . . attending a conference called Sigcomm. Thank you University of Washington for adding a little swank to our adventures in India. While serving ourselves to snacks at High Tea in the “Royal Club” Mike said to me (with the perfect pinch of sarcasm) “You know, sometimes I think we were meant to live like this”. Ah, how quickly one glares down that oh-so-slippery slope of believing one "deserves" all the amassed wealth. Thankfully India lies just at the edge of the lobby to keep the wide world in perspective.

Tomorrow we retreat to the spiritual mecca of India, Rishikesh. Ah, just saying that name makes my heart skip. Nothing but shanti, shanti on the banks of the great Mother Ganga (only the most holy river in India). Where whispers of past Sages are said to blow through the valley.

- S. Mangosteen