It's all downhill from here

There is some confusion about the meaning of this phrase. I am of the opinion that it means things will only get easier or better.

I went to prayers with Sonam again in the morning. Julia joined us and then the larger group had guided meditation. Ani-Lak (pronounced Ani la. Ani means nun, so it's comparable to calling her sister) led us through meditation on anger, which ended up being really interesting to work through. I could feel my body tensing and my heart speeding up as I sat there.

Then the day really got going. There was a march to support the 17th Karmapa (he is a lama like the Dalai lamas because the indian media has been stating that he is a chinese spy. We called a jeep and moved class to the afternoon, and almost everyone went up to McLeod Ganj to walk down the mountain from the main temple to the Karmapa's monastery. Our jeep driver was awesome and made it up in record time, so we got there around 930. We found a few of our roommates, who translated things for us and got us photos of the Karmapa to carry on the walk.

We left around 11 am in a line: monks and nuns first, then Tibetans, then foreigners. It was never very clear how long the walk was, but we heard estimates of 12 to 20 km. Thank goodness it was all downhill!

We walked on the road, and The line stretched on forever. We could see monks three switchback turns ahead of us. The chant floated back up the mountain from the people below, and it was absolutely beautiful with the mountains in the background. It was also crazy to see green fields from high up and then walk through them later!

Five of us did the whole walk together and made it to the monastery around 3 (after a stop for veg momos. We each got a bag of about 10 dumplings for 20 rupees. That's 50 cents. Win). The building were set facing the mountains, and the karmapa spoke, but of course it was in Tibetan. So all in all the peaceful march was the best part of the day.

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