An old friend.

[icarus]

I'm back in touch with an old friend.

Tenzin Norgay was my Tibetan teacher and good friend back at the monastery in 1992. We corresponded for several years after I returned from India and then I fell out of contact. (Sorry the first photo's so large, it's the only one I have.)



He went on to be a Khenpo (that's similar to an abbot) and taught in Tibet for two years.



I was scoping out some information online and stumbled across his name. He'd come to the US in 2004. Drat. I'd missed him. Then, going through more documents, I stumbled across an announcement he'd be teaching in 2008. Oh, right on! He's far away, in New York, but he's going to be teaching in the US for... a while. It's sort of fuzzy how long, could be a couple years.

I asked him what he thought about the United States. Because he never wanted to come here, he just wanted to squirrel away in a small monastery somewhere in India where the monks didn't have a means to support a teacher.

He said (pardon my paraphrasing a bit), "I used to think that America was this perfect place. But really, most people here are middle class and struggling. Then, the people who are wealthy work so many hours that they don't have time for anything.

"Also, the pictures you see of America are all of cities. So I had the idea that it was all urban. I was suprised to find so many trees and forests. It's quite beautiful."

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

"Also, the pictures you see of America are all of cities. So I had the idea that it was all urban. I was suprised to find so many trees and forests. It's quite beautiful."

Hah. He reflects the experience of many Europeans I know (it is, I think, rather universal).

Lovely to hear you're back in touch. I miss my old friends.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'll pass that along. Seems like the US has to do something about its PR. On many levels.

Yes, it's odd being back in contact. He's this important Khenpo-type person now, but I still think of him as a 28-year-old 7th year student. It takes ten minutes of chit-chat before the formality breaks down and he starts to sound like the friend I knew.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

"Also, the pictures you see of America are all of cities. So I had the idea that it was all urban. I was suprised to find so many trees and forests. It's quite beautiful."

Hee! I grew up in Brooklyn, a 5 minute walk from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which is so large, it stretches from Brooklyn to Queens. It's one of the largest bird refuges in the country. I spent my youth messing about on the edge of the water, on sandy beaches and among the reeds, that is when I didn't take the train for a 45 minute trip to Manhattan.

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

:) It's a good feeling to get back in touch with old friends, huh?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've had that first picture next to my clock for 12 years. :)

[enname.livejournal.com]

I am glad you found him again, and well, NY may be far away but India is further. All a matter of scale.

All I've ever really wanted to see of the USA were the non urban parts, but everytime I go there I end up stuck in a city.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You should come to Seattle. The forest seems to grow right into the city. (That's why it's called the Emerald City. It's so green.)