Date: Sat Jul 29, 2000 6:05 pm
Subject: Leaving Varanasi tomorrow

Hey folks,

One more message from the humid city of Varanasi before setting off on our Himalayan pilgrimage...

The last week was the week that the famous Benares Ghats were swallowed up by the monsoonal River Ganga - on Sunday it rose by 16 feet as the flood gates upriver
were opened to regulate overall levels. So now the Ganga is the biggest I've ever seen it. Our river-side balcony which is usually a fifth-floor room above at least a few metres of Ghats has become a third-floor room...

Guru-ji came down with some 'seasonal fever' last week - I've never seen him like this. Suddenly he became very weak and very old. In the last few days he's been
getting better but it's still very strange to see him having trouble with all the simple things that us healthy younger folk take for granted... So no lessons this last week but this is not important to me - just that he is healthy and happy.

Alicia started her santoor lessons in the last week and is learning a lovely raga - composition and taans. I can see her improving every day, but it's a bit difficult for her practice-wise as she has to go to her guru's house to practise on his santoor. When she gets home she'll be going for it!

Tenzin, Bronwyn and Martine arrived on Wednesday which was very nice for us two who were sometimes starting to fret at each other... We five went to visit Sarnath which is where Buddha gave his first teachings after attaining enlightenment at Bodhgaya - very nice place. It's funny that I've spent so much time in Varanasi but never seen many of these 'touristy' places as I'm generally preoccupied with morning practice and afternoon lessons.

The five of us will leave Varanasi on Sunday night bound for the mountains via stinky Delhi - three twelve hour journeys (train/bus/bus) should take us to remote Spiti where His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be initiating many folk in a Kalachakra initiation. Tenzin plans to do the full two week course but others of us will probably not stay so long - Alicia flies out at the end of August and we want to visit a few other places. The second week of the Kalachakra is also said to be quite intense and theoretical.

I don't know when I'll next access email - perhaps after three weeks or so, so until then,

Aum Mani Padme Hum
Love Shen