Mandi i'm off: Thimphu

Each time I am presumptuous to think that it doesn't get any better than this,it does.My moment of, if not epiphany then the closest I am likely to get to Saul's magic moment on the road to Damascus,happened early this morning at near 10,000 ft at the Tango Monastery.The steep zigzag trail up is marked at intervals with Buddhist teachings and being a student of Buddhism in my youth,I was pretty well primed by the time I reached the monastery which is also the national university of Buddhist studies.

The students here spend a minimum of 9 and often 15 years of study and then 3 to 5 years of solitary meditation,there are 350 students here plus there teachers in a 16 th century monastery,where all of there supplies and daily needs arrive via a ropeway from the valley.

So I was in the midst of a combination of hundreds of years of introspection,education and dedication and a teacher in answer to my question about the difference in the schools of Buddhism said that he couldn't answer for any religion or methodology but he and his students were concerned for all mankind,I had already been deeply impressed by the sincerity of these monks,they are not going through the motions,they are the real deal,but this guy just exuded compassion and understanding and my atheism took a heavy blow at that moment.I hope that I don't forget this morning,it was special.