Tibetan Medicine and Assorted Frolic

I partook of some quality monk time up in Ithaca New York recently. The monks are at Namgyal Monastery, which is the North American Seat of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I'm a fan of him and his monks. I first encountered these monks at a Sand Mandala Construction they performed at a local college. Sand Mandalas

They radiate serenity even while performing this sacred construction that would quite frankly send me straight over the edge. Dropping grains of sand with this kind of precision, make this remarkable and beautiful mandala and then, the sand gets deposited with great ceremony into a body of water. To remind us of impermanence... I'm reminded of impermanence on those rare occasions I thoroughly clean my house and then mess it back up again.

The monastery was sponsoring Dr. Jampa Yonten who was speaking on Tibetan Medicine. It's described as a unique blend of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic, and shamanism. The components of health and energy they are most concerned with are wind, bile and phlegm. We did meditation, some Tibetan yoga, chanting (I really like chanting), circumnambulation (walking around a sacred structure chanting) and some discussion. It was interesting and I'm glad I did it.