The next day it was time to continue to Leh.
Since Eve could not be convinced to hop on another truck, crazy Yannick and me would have loved to, we took the bus.
Originally, while meticulously planning my four years of travel in typical German fashion, I had never planned to go to Ladakh, I thought it to be far too touristy for my taste. But, with me changing plans and going to Kashmir and doing the trekking tour there, I ended up in Ladakh anyway. Turned out my prejudices had served me well and there sure were a lot of tourists in Leh, especially after trekking through such a remote area like we had.
One of my original plans, which till today has not materialized yet, was to go to Dharamshala and maybe see the Dalai Lama there. In those days I was very much interested in Buddhism and since I was now in Ladakh, also called Little Tibet, I thought, why not stay in one of those monasteries there. Also, once you were outside of Leh, those tourists were spread a bit thinner, so I was hoping for some genuine monastery experience.
I went to some monastery away from Leh, I forgot which one and asked one of the monks there if I could stay. Apparently they were fed up with tourists there, all he said was
“The guesthouse is down there by the road!“
But I hadn´t come all the way from Leh to sleep in some guesthouse, so I crashed somewhere behind the monastery in some courtyard a bit hidden out of side under a beautiful starry sky.
Next day after waking up I saw that monk, who had not wanted to give me shelter, again. He looked quite surprised to still see me in the monastery grounds, but did not say anything.
Not sure if he knew those Zen stories, where the master tests the determination of an aspirant who wants to join the monastery by making him wait in front of the gate for days.
So I sure showed some determination there by sleeping outside in the courtyard, but I was not interested in them anymore, because patience was never a virtue of mine. Since they did not accept me immediately, I also did not want to stay there anymore and went back to Leh to reunite with Eve and Yannick.
In the meantime Yannick had discovered a Japanese Buddhist temple on top of some hill just outside of the city, so the three of us went there together one day.
I will never forget my first ascent up there, those 500 or how many steps were quite a challenge and, like the other tourists climbing up there, I also had to pause occasionally to catch my breath. Though we had done that trekking tour in Kashmir and conquered some high passes there, now in Leh we were permanently at 3500 m altitude, no chance to get to any lower altitude, a big difference we had to get used to first.
The Shanti Stupa, the main attraction of that Japanese monastery, was at 3609 m.
But we were really well rewarded for our ascent.
As luck would have it, they had a sign up, looking for people to help them with the renovation of their stupa, getting it ready for its first anniversary in August.
We were given boarding and lodging, participated in the spiritual life of the monastery and worked on the renovation of those beautiful paintings on the stupa. Though only inaugurated the year before in August 1991, the harsh Ladakhi climate had taken its toll already on those paintings and our task was to fresh them up a bit, to make them look presentable for their birthday. They were quite delicate, intricate, eloborate, so just working on them became a meditative act.
Never having liked arts in school, courtesy of some teachers who convinced me I couldn´t paint, here I suddenly became a restorer of Tibetan-style Buddhist iconography on a Shanti Stupa, a peace monument, built by Japanese Buddhists in India. Ah, the things you encounter, do and learn while travelling!
Since the anniversary was approaching, there were already quite a few Japanese monks from other temples from India and abroad present. So it was all a very nice and lively, but also very spiritual atmosphere. There was a lot of work to be accomplished under a lot of time pressure, a condition I would meet over and over again years later in the ashram in Germany, but nobody showed any signs of stress, they were all doing their jobs with typical Japanese efficiency, there´s a reason why this guys are called the Prussians of Asia, while keeping the atmosphere light, friendly and permeated by mutual respect. Japanese are in general a very polite bunch, but Japanese monks really excel in those etiquette and politeness games, to the point of ridiculousness for a rude German like me.
But I figured out quickly that in an environment where everybody is almost pathologically inclined to help other people, to do something for other people, to be friendly and give, give, give, the taker, who gives all those givers the opportunity to give, is actually the most holy person. 😇
So I made sure to give them ample opportunity to give.
But I also figured out that they were genuine, that their friendliness was no act, that they were really into this selflessness thing and meant business.
Without me knowing it at the time, I was getting my first lesson in real Karma Yoga, selfless service, there.
The Ladakhi monk had not wanted me in his monastery, but instead I had found my first spiritual home now with Japanese monks. Themselves foreigners in India, they had given shelter to another foreigner.
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