Tenzin Palmo

I have received a precious gift yesterday, the French translation of Cave in the Snow (Un ermitage dans la neige) written by Vicki Mackenzie. It is a book on the life of a still very active Western buddhist woman, Tenzin Palmo, who has spent 12 years in retreat practicing meditation. The books states she is the first european woman to have done it, but as most of you know, the first one was most probably Alexandra David-Néel (and I do encourage everyone to read her books, she was an amazing woman!).
The book is very inspiring in ways which probably differ with each person who reads her story, so I will not dwell on this.

However, one of the things that the book adresses is the condition of buddhist nuns, the difficulties they - and Tenzin Palmo - have to face because of so many preconceived ideas about the inferiority of the body of the woman and other such nonsense.
She states that - aside from here guru - the only ones who didn't make any distinction between them and her were the yogis (togden).
Her master wanted her to create a monastery and reinstate the tradition of female yogis that had pretty much become extinct because of the Chinese invasion. She is working at this project right now, and progress is being made! She asked her yogi friends to teach what they know to the nuns in the nunnery she founded so that they too could become accomplished yoginis and teach other women and eventually help change all these preconceived ideas about the limit of women on the spiritual path.
As you would imagine, most great buddhist masters today, headed by HH the Dalai Lama agree that the situation is not normal and that it should be changed but there is this whole tradition which dates back thousands of years and which is very much anchored in psyché of the lamas. (this goes not only for Tibetan buddhism, but for all types)

There is a very interesting passage in the book which reports Sylvia Wetzel's words -a German buddhist - at the very first conference organized by HH the Dalai Lama on Western buddhism (1993), and which adressed amongst other subjects the question of the role of women in buddhism. I find it very suggestive:
"Imagine that you are a man coming into a buddhist retreat center. You can see the paintings of this beautiful Tara surrounded by 16 female arhats, and you can see HH the Dalai Lama who deliberately incarnated 14 times under female forms. You are surrounded by great female Rimpoché, beautiful, strong, intelligent women. Then the bhikshuni (nunns) come in, confident and straighforward. And then, behind them, the monks enter timidly and and in a hesitant fashion. You start to hear talking about the holders of the ligneage whom are all women, descendants from Tara."

Now you interchange the sexes and you get the real picture.

Levitation

Here!

Mahendra Trivedi

An Indian-born man, now living in the States, with a special ability.
Here.

Birthday Gift

Tomorrow is my birthday, and it just so happens that I received my gift one day early: Tea !!!!!!!:)
My significant other brought me to my absolute favourite Tea Shop in Paris, le Palais des Thés, and basically gave me green card to choose. And choose I did!! Visualize children in candy shops and you'll get the picture. i must have had the broadest smile you've ever seen.
Not to mention that I was served my the most kind and knowledgeable tea person ever who explained thoroughly every single thing I asked (and I asked quite a lot of things)and who might just become a good friend.

So, here they are:

JAPAN
Genmaicha - a classic, one of my lasting favourites even though it's not one of THOSE teas..
Kukicha - I hadn't tries this one before (I may be a tea fanatic, but there's a limit to my budget! unfortunately.. but the good part is I always get to discover new things :) ), it's a green tea made exclusively from tea stems.

THAILAND
Milky Wu Long - an Oolong on which milk is used to treat the leaves!

NEPAL
Jun Chiyabari Himalayan Oolong - an oolong as the name says, but it is not to be treated like a classic oolong (not for gong fu cha)! It's a Nepalese oolong made from tea trees used especially to create black teas.

CHINA
Long Zhu - a round, non-astringent green tea;
Bai Lin Gong Fu - This is a special tea. It resembles the Keemun but it is a lot softer. Actually, the manufacturers used the plants from which they make White Jade tea but they processed it as if it were a blak tea! And apparently they were so happy that they managed to create them thet they called it Gong fu (= to control, master) Bai Lin ( which is the name of that particular tea tree).

TAIWAN
These teas are actually the stars of my purchase. They are high quality Oolong teas cultivated in this side of the world in which there exist tea contests: Who manages to produce the most excuisite Oolong. the one who won, got to sell the tea at a really wild price on the stock market.
Wen Shan Bao Zhong "Premium green" - Amazing Oolong with long leaves, not rolled up like the usual ones. It's got a fruity and vanilla aroma about it.
Li shan Gao Shan Cha - another very special high altitude oolong, with rolled leaves which kept the stem, light green colour and a bit more oxidated than the previous one (30% as opposed to 15%). it's got a vegetal and fruity aroma.

But these teas must be prepared in gong fu cha, otherwise one cannot enjoy the whole poetry they carry. So I also bought a Gong fu cha tea pot!

I can't wait to try them all! I think I'm going to organize some tea parties and invite friends over so that we can share this together. What's the point of a great tea if it is not shared anyway?