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This is where I lived for the last week. Under the stars and at a monastery that is one of the oldest and most historically important in India and Monastic/ Tibetan/Buddhist world.

The camp to the side of the monastery accommodations was created especially for us with much love by Harmonica Co. and by the monks at Gaden Shartse Monastery.

Here and walking all around Mundgod, the sweet Tibetan (refugee) settlement where the monastery lives, I made new friends, new connections between old ideas or previous beliefs and realized new understandings (I wasn’t new to these spiritual teachings, to chanting, meditation, prolonged breathwork or talks/studies around using the mind for good, but this experience brought it all home for me in unique ways that I’ll still be downloading or processing for a long time to come).

At the center or heart of it all, through His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings, via the scholars’ talks from around the world, as well as through private time a couple days with Jinpa, scholar and HHDL’s translator for over 30 years (such rich Q&As), was, we could say, simple:

Compassion is the method through which you feel peace and create it in the world…

Compassion is the method through which you feel peace and create it in the world.

More complex, maybe (or in other words, more worth it) the more you sit with all that it means to devote yourself to doing this on repeat (akin to a mantra, a chant) when life isn’t all monastic camping, slow-moving, thoughtful teachings and no traffic.

Just like my vision quest in July, what you (I) quickly realize is that the actual quest isn’t or wasn’t at all up on the mountain, it was returning home to ‘regular’ life ~ would you (I) work to actively engage with all gained and felt? Bringing the proverbial light from the mountain (or in this case ~ the monastery) with you/me and consistently so?

Speaking of light, I’m reuniting with Josh and Nolan soon! Much love from a plane over Southeast Asia!

[You can see what life feels and looks like inside a Tibetan settlement (especially when His Holiness visits) in one video, the sway I was talking about in The Buddhist Sway post from yesterday (bit.ly/2sREICh) in another and kids simply being kids in the last video (watch to the end). And with that last one as the perfect juxtaposition, happy holy days!].

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur 

His Holiness, Indiaaaa and the divine experienced in Mundgod, you’ve reminded me of many things, not the least of which is that young is a frame of mind and  expression of spirit. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Human time ~ not real time. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Until next time, Namaste!⁣⁣
⁣
(Happy almost New Year!!)

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur 

The Buddhist Sway 

Today, I sat in what can only be described as a soup…it was a soup made of chanting for over a couple hours inside the Long Life Ceremony for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Before the ceremony and chanting, His Holiness spoke about the number of stairs he counted recently being 13 and that the number reminded him of being told that he would live to 113 years old. 

He joked that he had already asked to be given that many years, so that, really, we didn’t all need to be there doing a long life ceremony because he had it covered. 

That reminded me of something Thupten Jinpa, Monastic Scholar and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s translator for over 30 years, said about His Holiness in our talk and Q&A with him a few days earlier…

He said one of the things he appreciated most about His Holiness was that he could be listening to a very sad, sad story one minute and be in it with that person, feeling those feelings, then in the next moment be laughing and joking.

Jinpa said this ability to ”switch moods”, as he called it, was impressive. 

Flowing from moment to moment ~ that’s the Buddhist sway.

And similarly, while His Holiness sat meditating, there was a sway, too. 

Closed eyes and chanting or meditating, many monks slightly swaying from side to side. I enjoyed watching His Holiness do it over the last days (I started doing it, too). 

It’s all reminiscent of things learned this week, like ~> meditation teaches us how to pay attention even when there’s no new stimulus in front of us.

Good, right? 

And this one, a direct quote from Jinpa ~> “The ability to be bored and not lose attention…*this* is the benefit of meditation.”

There have been so many gifts given this week, physical and emotional or energetic, and one has most definitely been the slowing down of it all ~ of life, work, of my mind/of thoughts… 

And it seems true, as we’ve also heard many times this week, that, in order to train your mind, you must first slow it down.

Let’s 
slow
her
/him 
down…

#sitondownnn
#thebuddhistsway

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur 

It’s difficult to describe what‘s been experienced the last few days.

Between visiting with and hearing from His Holiness and also privately in class format from his translator the last 30+ years, meeting the four-year-old reincarnation of an important High Lama (visited him at home after his nap  🏼!) and experiencing the important debates happening in this Tibetan settlement in India (among other events), my mind is calm and radically or evermore curious. 

Je Tsongkhapa, whose important 600th anniversary it is and why we’re here (one of the most important events monk’s here/anywhere will experience in their lifetime), is the 2nd “founder” of the teaching of the Buddha. His philosophical writings are revered in the monastic community.

Similar to the other day (post here:  

bit.ly/2PIAQqB), I’ll share a handful of points, trusting some — maybe one — prompts thought or some new creation/action: 

• Buddhism is very much about the intellectual quest ( has always intrigued me). Debating is big as is eventually getting to the core root of the matter (to truth), but being well-versed on your thinking and how to direct it is key. Being able to make sense of your beliefs is paramount.

• Though in Buddhism intellectual curiosity is key, it is also known that mental attributes are not the self…connected to that, when worried, for example, repeat: “these are just my thoughts,  just my thoughts.” 

• “The quickest way to make good karma”, Jinpa, scholar and HHDL’s translator, said to us the other day “is to rejoice on good deeds”.

• When you stay with facts, not getting too lost in the interpretation of them, you keep the peace, not just, with family or inside other relationships, for example, but with yourself (rationality is a key conversation).

• Connected to that, Tsonkhapa’s works, as with main Buddhist teachings, at their core, help modern society with reason, analysis and evidence. 

• Monastic belief is that you have two teachers: your teacher teacher and your peers.

• How adorable-y wise is His Eminence the 10th Lhagyala? This is all before yawning so wide after being with us for 20-30 minutes. 

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

Life is good,

Michelle Ghilotti
Success Designer, Brand Activator & Social Entrepreneur