Sacred Sunday stroll...

Buddhist Monk sitting on a bench 

Skipped out on morning practice because I wasn't feeling well. I walked the Chora this morning...a Chora is a circumambulatory walk done around Tibetan temples. Often there are prayer wheels that you turn as you walk that are built around the outside of the building. The Chora I walked this morning was a trail really. It was the Chora that surrounds the complex around the monastery, temple and home of the Dalai Lama. A walking meditation. It was unbelievably moving; watching as monks passed by in their crimson robes and old Tibetan grandmas and grandpas, one hand gripping onto canes, the other clutching their fingers around each little stone of their malas, breaths heavy, as they mumbled their mantras; families, kids tagging behind parents, dogs tagging behind owners, girls clasping hands or elbows; monkeys crossing the road or swinging from the trees, their families in tow as well; brightly painted rocks and tiles displaying mantras in sanskrit..a few loudly proclaiming "free tibet"; rows and rows of prayer flags waving in the wind..climbing up and up...the mountain landscapes of the Himalayas providing the backdrop for it all. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and overwhelming period.
I felt honored to be allowed to walk this path, to be a part of what was surely a daily ritual for many there that day. I felt the urge to make the sign of the cross.

Prayer wheels 

Growing up Catholic; that is my go-to instinctual religious move even though it has been years since the church was part of my life. I was incredibly religious as a child; talking to god all the time, praying and secretly loving going to church. By the time I finished college, I had learned too much about science and history and philosophy...about "the real world" to believe in a omniscient being who's purpose it was to create and judge.
But seeing another culture, another religion's reverence for the divine, I felt a new respect and connection with the ritual of celebrating the sacred, the unknown, the mystery. There is something about seeing everything in life as an opportunity to praise the fact of life and being alive. From waking up to eating to going to the bathroom...(seriously!) everything can be a practice for noticing and celebrating the divine. Maybe my divine isn't a god with a white beard floating on a cloud but those are merely details, totems, signposts, vehicles that try to explain not only why and how we are here but why as humans we even think about why and how we are here. Right now..for me...it doesn't matter why, I'm just grateful that I am here, right where I am.

A sea of prayer flags...if you look closely you might be able to spot a cow resting underneath them...