Ellen Besso Coaching

Where to begin? We’ve been here in North India, in H.H. the Dalai Lama’s town, for almost a week now. The time’s gone quickly, the first days being taken up by recovering from very heavy cold viruses, also elevation sickness on my part. The pills & tea our Tibetan doc friend supplied us with helped tremendously.

We were able to take in a morning of teachings  by H.H. the Dalai Lama with our friend & her young son last Thursday. Security was very tight, both the Tibetan & foreigners were body searched & bags checked just inside the main gate of the temple. We were split into Tibetan & visitors lines, then male & female to be checked.

The atmosphere in the courtyard once we arrived was quiet, expectant; we all waited quietly seated on the ground. He taught for 2 hours, with translation from a script for some of the time. We could listen through earphones tuned to an fm radio station. We only had one radio though as our friend forgot to bring hers for us.

Hearing & experiencing the energy of H.H. on his home turf was a very moving experience. His message, as always was to help others, & to search for balance in all things. At the end, we craned our knecks to watch him come down the stairs & into a waiting car, to be driven back to his residence a few yards away.

Being here is to be in the presence of other – it’s an ancient town like no other because of the presence of the Dalai Lama & his government in exhile. It’s called ‘Little Lasa’ after the capital of Tibet. It’s full of Tibetans, Indian shopkeepers & many western tourists.

Each day we hear about people who have ‘come out of Tibet’ recently or in the past couple of years. Some don’t make it. I will write moe about that next time. Now we’re off to our 1st day of English tutoring – small conversational groups in the early evening each week night at The Tibetan Hope Center.