Nuntala

February 5, 2001

Morning. Here is a recap of yesterday. The previous night I succeeded in seeing the Rinpoche Tru Sheik. Very nice old man. He told me answers to my first two questions:

1) Look for a teacher with your heart. Study a prospective teacher closely and make sure that his heart is better than yours.

2) Your past life is not important - knowing about this will only confuse you.

My third question was answered by the other kind Rinpoche Reme Wangchlu who acted as translator for my conversation with Tru Sheik (Reme Wangchlu lives in southern France). He replied to my third question of "who am I" by saying "who one is changes throughout life. Now you are 'Jason', later if you joined the Sangha (the monastic order) you would be given another name, now you are an engineer, or later you may be "consultant" or "manager." Maybe you just change seats."

Before my meeting with Tru Sheik Rinpoche I had several hours of valuable conversation with John Canti, doctor to the Rinpoche's family and students and full-time practicing Bhuddist for 20 years. The highlights of our conversation were:

1) There are moments between moments of conciousness (as for physical matter there is space between atoms where they touch). This means our sensation of continuous time is an illusion.
2) I should delve in and explore different teachers etc. It takes deep insight to see past the shell sometimes. Often there is a lot of hype on the outside but the teaching is really quality inside. Also in many cases the teaching looks good on the outside but once inside you find it is all hype. No way to tell other than direct insight.

The next morning I came to speak with John again before I left Halesi for the trail eastward. Mid morning found him meditating in his room. I did not want to interrupt him so I took a seat outside. The whole hallway outside his room was filled with these waves of even golden energy. My own energy looked like the uneven twisting of snakes or silk scarves in the wind by comparison.
When I left the Gomba after my talk with John I bumped into Fabrice, a nice Frenchman who had stayed at Halesi for three weeks and enjoyed speaking with the French Nun Slyvie. He hailed me from a rock next to where the craftsmen were building the Hindu temple near the cave entrance. "Sylvie got tired of waiting for you and left on the path to Diktel" he said. He walked with me on my way up the mountain for the first hour of the trail. We talked about our lives and he gave me some great wisdom before we parted about the nature of child-parent love. "Let them show you their love the way they want to" he said "but verbally recognize it as an act of love." He said his family culture was such that his mother never told him she loved him etc and, as his awareness grew over the years, he began to fret over this lack of verbal messages. Finally he saw her preoccupation with his having sun-glasses before he left on this trip, he worries about everything he was packing, etc. as love. He said it is not necessary to put your parents on the spot and embarrass them into showing you their love in just the way you want. Town with Solu Khumbu in background

I reached Nuntala town after much walking. Did not see hide nor hair of Sylvie the whole way. No one here in the town saw her. I will wait for her at Diktel district town tomorrow - hopefully she will turn up. With the morning light I again beheld the spectacular Solu Khumbu Himalayan range on the horizon.