Hong Kong Airport

Here again, relaxing in the Cathay lounge known as the 'Wing' listening to Louis B. Armstrong piped through the wall speakers. Just finished my first Dan Dan Noodle of the season. I don't know if Dan Dan Noodles have a season, but when I am traveling in China then that is the season. The first thing I did when I arrived was have a hot shower to freshen up, then eat, check e-mail and telephone. Yes, it is a routine.

The food on the flight out of NY was good and the staff wonderful as usual. However, one of my fears was realized. I had seen most of the movies that were offered. I found some things to watch and was pleasantly surprised by some and had to turn off others. All in all it worked out. I am still not used to the new business class seats and didn't really sleep much at all. The coffin space is really confining and completely unforgiving if you are not of a certain body size range. Outside of that range and you are screwed.

As of tomorrow I will be using the alternate Travel Blog while in China. You know, because of those Google issues: Jeff on the Road.

P.S. So far I have not had any bites from bed bugs. What a refreshing change in quality of life.

Hong Kong Bound

It is time once again to travel east (actually north over the pole) to Hong Kong. I have upgraded my standard coach seating with Asia Miles and will be flying Business Class. The seat will be larger although my shoulders will touch the walls of the coffin like designed cubicle. The seat fully reclines into a horizontal configuration allowing me to extend my feet into the aisle tripping the flight attendants in the dark - oh yes, it gets very dark on those flights. The monitor will be bigger, the food will be noticeably better than coach, and the attendants are very pleasant and willing to get you what ever is needed. It is very important to bring your own noise reduction headphones. This is even more important than flying business class. Once you have tried flying with them you will wonder why you didn't do it before. The greatest invention since flight itself. I use Bose headphones but there are others.

The only real fear (other than the obvious) is that the movies offered for viewing will be films I have already seen on other recent flights. Cathay does try and show some films only on east bound flights and other films only on west bound flights. I do intend to sleep as much as possible, something I don't do easily on planes except if they are sitting on the tarmac or taxing prior to take-off. I do like to sleep through the take-off. Jolted from a sound sleep I realized I was just paged by the front desk at the lounge and that I had been fast asleep. Actually I had been sleeping for a full hour with the computer in my lap. Last night was a late one with only an hours sleep. This was done on purpose to help get into the Chengdu time change as quickly as possible. It is likely that I will sleep right through breakfast on the plane unless I tell them to wake me - which I will.

Boy Believed to be Next Reincarnation....

I thought this was really fun: Boy Believed to be Next Reincarnation.....

Whenever great cultures of the past, for example, Egyptian, Roman, or European Monarchies, start to look towards 'special' children as the divine answer for leadership and cultural guidance then more often than not that culture is heading towards decline and failure.

The increase and frequency of young children from Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhist backgrounds (not to mention Western countries) - recognized as the supposed incarnation of so and so - is surely becoming alarming.

The Tibetan Buddhist phenomenon of tulku or trulku appears to have really become common place and widespread in the 17th century. The practice of recognizing a lama of the past as reincarnating into numerous individuals (splitting) appears to be a late 19th century phenomena - embraced and welcomed in the 20th century - popular today.

I think it is time for a level headed, measured, sociological study of the Tibetan practice of 'reincarnate teachers' known as tulku - literally 'emanation body' - the same word used for the Sanskrit word nirmanakaya.

1. What are the statistics showing the number of recognized incarnate children growing up to be educated Buddhist teachers?

2. What are the statistics showing the number of children that grow up to be teachers?

3. What are the statistics showing the number of children that remain Buddhist?

4. How many renounce their 'reincarnate status'?

4. How many take up business, or other secular occupations, as their life path?

5. .....convicted of crimes, etc.?

These are just a few of the basic questions which I think are fair game and worth asking.

The most interesting publication I have ever read on the subject of reincarnate Lamas was by Daniel Barlocher. I recommend it highly. The most interesting interviews come from the most unexpected Rinpoches. Testimonies of Tibetan Tulkus; A Research among Reincarnate Buddhist Masters in Exile. Daniel Barlocher, Opuscula Tibetana, Rikon-Zurich, August 1982.

From the dozens of interviews see two excerpts from the above publication: Puntsok Podrang Dagchen Rinpoche and another conversation with Drolma Podrang Sakya Trizin both of the Sakya Tradition. I chose these only because they are currently available on line.

Back to New York!

My work here in Vancouver is done, Thanksgiving, closing up the cabin for the winter and attending my brother's 20 year clean and sober celebration - in the company of a hundred others. There are no upgrades tonight. I am in coach on Cathay Pacific which is equal to Business Class on any USA carrier in the continental US. It's not a criticism, just an observation.

Monday will be a busy day in New York. There are visitors from China that I need to meet and entertain. It is the last day of the Tibetan contemporary exhibition at the RMA, and, I also have a craving for Basta Pasta. The flight gets in early and I generally try and get a little sleep before going into the office. It will definitely be a long day.

Refuge Field Paintings Anybody?

Check out the Himalayan Art Resources News Page. There are plenty of new items - provided you have a slightly unnatural, overly curious, interest in Refuge Field paintings. These paintings are informed by religious texts, liturgies to be specific, but, and it is a big but, how they appear as paintings is entirely the result of the artists interpretation. What we see as the finished composition does not at all necessarily reflect the description in the liturgical text. That is certainly one reason why these paintings are so interesting.

Home for the Holidays, Thanksgiving!

Once again heading West to sunny Vancouver for the holiday. During the 80s and 90s I generally spent Thanksgiving up in the Thompson Plateau enjoying the cabin and getting ready for winter. The best time of the year in the mountains is April thru June and then September and October. The summer months can be very hot and not conducive to meditating or translating. Mid November is the average point for the first real snow and then after that it can accumulate pretty quickly. I remember one night going to sleep with the outside temperature at 25 F and waking up in the morning thinking the door had somehow come open. The outside temperature was -5 F. A nasty cold front had come through and stayed. Although usually the weather turns cooler and the winds start to come from the North in mid October - watch out past mid November. Thanksgiving is guaranteed good weather - global warming considered of course.

I hope to head up to the cabin on Tuesday or Wednesday morning and spend at least one night with a roaring fire, a gently splashing creek and a big wide starry sky. With luck I will be woken in the night by the howling of wolves or coyotes, maybe the nocturnal visit of a bear foraging in the dark. The water will be cold, there are 11 crossings. At this time of the year some of those crossings are shallow and there are enough large dry rocks to jump onto and cross without getting wet. If it is raining on the way up it is better to stay in the water for the crossings and avoid the slippery rocks. The last crossing is the most treacherous because it is the narrowest and therefore potentially the deepest water. The path must be picked carefully. Past that point it doesn't get any easier as there have been serious rock slides in the last ten years. Steep rock faces on the Western side rise over a thousand feet. Twenty minutes past that and the trail becomes easier although seriously over grown, especially in the last 10 years. The cabin is not so far after that, but if you don't know where it is, it will be very difficult to find.

Yes I have used the Mountain Goat image once before. The first post ever for this Travel Blog was decorated with this photo. I like it, but no it was not taken at the cabin. The largest animal I photographed at the cabin was a female moose and boy was it big. Never get in the way of a moose. The Mountain Goat was photographed several hundred feet above the cabin. I was meditating in a cave when I chanced to look across the gorge and saw a Mountain Goat looking directly at me - probably wondering what the hell I was doing. Snap, I took the photo.

Life in a Plastic Bag

It is now seven months living out of plastic bags. With no end of the problem in sight.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

It has been some weeks since I was last bit by a bed bug. That has now ended. I was bit on the leg at approximately 5:30 this morning. It was the normal feeling. Waking up with a slight discomfort from a sound sleep which I had been enjoying for the last week or so since the flood, the discomfort grew. After a few minutes there was the tell tale raised red welt of irregular shape similar to hives. The honeymoon is over. This has been the longest period of time in the apartment this year, since the outbreak, without being attacked in the night. It must be three weeks since a real certifiable bite, but that doesn't mean the paranoia wasn't there, the sleeplessness and the lack of life quality. Bed bugs are a quality of life wrecker.

Do Bed Bugs Drown? Looking for a Silver Lining.

Well no, I haven't had any bed bug bites for almost two weeks which means of course that I am due any day now. The apartment was sprayed on Saturday the 18th and it usually lasts about two weeks before I start seeing the buggers again and feeling the sting of the bites. They have been spraying my apartment since April and others even earlier.

But, back to my question. Do bed bugs drown? The reason I ask is because I am looking for a silver lining in a leaky roof. I have been up since 3:30 mopping up and placing a bucket where it will do the most good. When your leak is bigger than the bucket there is actually no such thing as 'most good.' It is actually all bad. The roof was replaced over the summer because it was old and leaky - now we have a new leaky roof. The leak last night found a new route and did not follow the paths of the four previous leaks experienced over the previous years and coming to a head (fountain head) in the spring with four simultaneous leaks.

The good news is that because of the ongoing war with the bed bugs all of my belongings are still wrapped in plastic bags. Nothing was damaged in the spring either except for a stained mattress from a leak directly over one corner of the bed. Last night was the same, only wet plastic bags, and a wet floor dripping onto the ceiling of the apartment below.

The worst thing of it all is the not getting any sleep because of either the bed bugs or water dripping noticeably into the apartment. With leaks there always needs to be a concern for electrical outlets, appliances, computers, etc. Luckily there hasn't been a fire in the building for about 6 years. At that time the tenant below me left a pot on the stove to cook and then went and had a nap. The pot cooked, melted, and then caught fire. The entire building was filled with smoke, everybody evacuated. The smoke was later cleared out by the firefighters. It smelled of barbecue for several months. It didn't help with trying to sleep. I slept uneasy for many months knowing I had such neighbours right below me.

The time before that, there was a fire on the 2nd floor of the building next door. The fire was deliberately set by a disgruntled super that had been terminated. That same super had illegally rented the apartment down the hall from me. The tenants took occupancy in the middle of the night. The following day they had surveillance cameras installed and mounted in the hall way. It was nearly a year of drug dealers and hookers up and down the staircase all night long before the illegal tenants were legally evicted.

You know what? It sounds like it is time for a nice trip, or a long restful coma. I think I will choose the trip. China and Tibet sounds good to me.