I find that writing is so fun to express the emotions, thoughts, and feelings as I have so much in my head. Try writing by yourself.
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Well, I have learned, done, and observed a lot. And maybe this is the time for sharing.
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I feel lucky that I have done travel at young age. Of course, it’s not that’s easy as you think or you see. I just have chances to do it. Please love whatever condition of your life. We just have a different path in life. I just believe that I should do traveling at young age.
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I have a chance to travel India-Nepal for 6 months in 2019 which has made big influence on my life. I went there before pandemic and it would never gonna be the same. I can only say this is my destiny.
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Destiny is real. Where I have tried a lot, worked hard, asked, explained a lot to get what I wanted, but sometimes it didn’t work. On other hand, when I was just silent or didn’t have any plans, then it just happened. Whether it is acceptable or unacceptable. Ready or not ready.
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I never thought to meet Dalai Lama in my life. It was kind of impossible. I also had no plans about it during my travel in India.
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Until one day, when I was in Amritsar, the town where the golden temple is.
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“There will be Dalai Lama teaching for 3 days in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala.”, said another traveler.
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I was thinking for a while as I didn’t really know about Dalai Lama. I only knew the quote from Dalai Lama, “Sleep is the best meditation.” as I really like sleeping.
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It was tempting and also it was on my way to Manali, the Himalayan area. Then I decided to continue my travel to Dharamsala from Amritsar. I should wait for some days and do some registration that I didn’t know what I was doing. There was no specific purpose to attend the teaching. I was curious why so many people came from all over the world, paid a lot of money to see him.
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I got the permission id already. The teaching day had come. And I woke up in the morning for the teaching. I was really excited. I walked from my place to the venue. We should queue for a security check. And badly, I brought my phone.
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I know we couldn’t make documentation. But I thought I could just switch off the phone. But they asked me to keep the phone away.
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“You almost see Dalai Lama. Why do you just give up?”, this was what I thought.
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And I had tried some shops nearby where I could keep my phone, but they had rejected me. Another choice was I should go back to my place where I could miss the session because it was about to start. But then I tried one more shop, lucky the owner happily accepted my phone and refused me to pay. Damn!
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Well yeah, I came back again for a security check. And everybody had taken their place. We were waiting for a while.
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And, time was coming…
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Dalai Lama arrived.
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We got up from our seats to welcome him.
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Everybody was happy to see him, honor him. He started walking from his car to greet people who stopped him. It took a while where I could see Dalai Lama in front of my face.
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Then it came the time when Dalai Lama was walking in front of me.
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I was so stunned.
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“Oh my god, I see Dalai Lama.”,
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Everybody tried to reach him to do shake hands. Some people cried, called him, shouted, etc. But I could only observe him. How he smiled. How he walked. How was his voice.
I didn’t really put attention to his teaching as he taught in Tibetian and we should listen to interpreters on the radio. So, I’d rather listen to his voice rather than the interpreter.
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He is old already, really calm, and peaceful. I just hope that he has a long life.
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McLeod Ganj, September 2019