I can’t believe I have already been here three weeks. Time is flying by. It has been wonderful so far and I am adjusting to life here. Over the last week I spent most of my time in my room focusing on my spiritual practice and studying Tibetan. This has been a great luxury for me. It has been so difficult back in the workday world of the USA to find the time to contemplate and meditate on the teachings. So I taking advantage of this time.
I did however get outside the monastery a couple of times to get a taste of India. Even though I am deep in a very rural/jungle of South India, I am living in a Tibetan culture at the Tibetan Refugee Settlement. Once you are outside the settlement you see the India culture and I thought I would share a few pictures so you can see a little of what life is like here. For the record the city/village we are next to is called Mundgod. Sometimes very difficult to find on a regular map, but you can find it on Yahoo or Google maps. It is pretty remote, electricity is random, and it is always hot. Right now we are getting into the hottest months. Yes, that’s right no air conditioning. As a matter of fact most of the India homes don’t even have a bathroom. In many ways life has not changed for a thousand years it seems. Then you see the cell phone. By the way they are amazing cheap here. I bought a Nokia for about $40.00. Anyway enough rambling. I will post the pictures below and add some captions for you to read when you open them. Just as a reminder it is best to click on the title of this posting (A Taste of India) so it opens it’s own page and you can view the pictures quicker and even post comments. Hope you enjoy.

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