Packing and heading out

I'm posting this one last entry before catching the plane in a few hours. The weather in Dharamsala shows (check the link on the right if you haven't yet) that the temps so far have been in the low to mid 70's and evening temps in the 50's. On June 2nd (when I get there), the sun comes out, the temps go up 10-15 degrees and the weather is supposed to be clear and HOT...in the upper 90's. So much for cool weather that has been going on up until now.

Plastic bags are a great help in keeping it all organized and I'm trying to fit it all into as little space as possible. Bryce emailed a couple of days ago saying that the Air Deccan flight will charge me for the bags so I have to get some rupees right away.

I succumbed to an ad in one of the travel magazines for a blow up seat supplement. It says "travel like first class while in coach". I tried it yesterday while Bob was rolling his eyes. It seems like one of those gimmicks that will either be great or a total bust. I'll let you know. You inflate it with about 10 breaths and put it behind your back. It looks like it might take up more of the seat than me and I suppose blowing it up might create a bit of an event on the plane but at least it deflates and rolls flat to go back into my backpack if I don't like it. Once I try it out, I'll let you know if it was worth it or not.

I'm waiting curiously to see how the flight passengers will act. A doctor told me that many people are now taking sleeping meds for the flight. And, if any of them gets the Ambien sleep walking urge, I wonder if we'll have a plane that looks like the movie Night of the Living Dead. George Romero would love it! Check out the photo slide show from this 1968 classic.

Next posting will be from India presuming I can get to an internet cafe. Talk to ya soon from across the pond!

Malarone

I got started on my malaria meds today (malarone). The prescription indicator sheet noted "if you vomit this up, take another dose immediately. Can cause dizziness, vomiting, and nausea." So, I did as told and chugged it down but not with milk as suggested since I don't know if I'll be drinking milk in India at the college. I was a bit queasy all day but the projectile vomit was luckily not in the cards for me this time.

We did one last outing to the Atlanta Symphony tonight to hear Patti Austin and the ASO; she was great, sang a lot of Ella's old work and Duke Ellington's stuff. Time to pack is looming!

The Karmapa Lama's visit

The Karmapa Lama is currently visiting the United States and was in Denver yesterday. He is the third highest Lama and is a charasimatic young leader. You can catch his blog about the U.S. trip that runs from May 15 to June 2nd and learn more about Ogyen Trinley Dorge born to Tibetan nomads.

Last minute supplies and arrangements

Time is drawing short and I'm getting my last minute supplies for my trip next week. The big question is being able to fit it all into the suitcases and back pack. I've got towels, clothes, toiletries, some extra stash of peanut butter (just in case), all the extra meds, a bunch of electronic gear (interview stuff, computer, camera, phone), books to read, and just have to cram it all in somehow.

I'll be staying at Singh Sons in Delhi so hope it is a good place. I'm supposed to arrive in Delhi at 10:30 on Sunday night June 1st and will be met by someone from Tibetan tours (holding a sign with my name on it). If I'm lucky, I'll get through customs by sometime after midnight but before 2 a.m. I'll get to the hotel and then the next day will take Air Deccan to Dharamsala in the afternoon arriving on site sometime around 4:00 p.m. local time Monday, June 2nd.

A few more posts before I head out.
t minus 5 days and counting,
ttfn

OK, done with the last shots, finally

I had to get my last boosters before the trip so went back to the Travel Well Clinic to get the next round of Hep A and Hep B.

I'm down for the count at the moment with a case of the flu from last week that turned into a sinus infection and bronchitis. Those three together sent me to the emergency clinic a couple of days ago. After 2 booty shots (one per side) for steriods and antibiotics, I started to feel a bit better but have to get well so I can get on to packing this coming week.

T minus 9 and counting!

Tibetan Prayer Wheel

What's a Tibetan prayer wheel and why are they used?

Tibetan prayer wheels (called Mani wheels by the Tibetans) are devices for spreading spiritual blessings and well being. Rolls of thin paper, imprinted with many, many copies of the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, printed in an ancient Indian script or in Tibetan script, are wound around an axle in a protective container, and spun around and around. Typically, larger decorative versions of the syllables of the mantra are also carved on the outside cover of the wheel.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.

Learn lots more of great details beyond this excerpt from the web at prayer wheel

The Spinnakers send off-or how many kleenex's does it take...

We have a neighborhood dinner club that meets every other month. This year we have 24 members so we break into groups of 8 and each time we meet, we dine with different people. This month, the dinner was yesterday (May 17th) and Bob and I were hosts. All of the 3 dinner groups agreed to meet after dinner at one home and unknown to me was the plan to have a "bon voyage" party that had been secretly arranged.

Neighbors packed special things for me for my trip (and boy were some of them really special!). Actually I really enjoyed it and have enough kleenex to fill 20 teenage bras (just kidding!), plenty of toilet seat covers, some candy to offer to the cranky person sitting next to me on my long flights, some sunglasses, a sewing kit (never know when one will need that far off in the mountains), some flip flops (not borrowed from John Kerry I don't think...they seemed to be too small to be his),and one honkin' flashin' American flag pin (don't think I can get that one thru security but it was fun to wear). It was all packaged up in a cute box that Laura decorated as a survival kit. We did have a cool champagne toast and lots of fun. Thanks to all our great friends of the Spinnakers! You're the best!!

Buddhist way of teaching

According to Georges Dreyfus (see the book Two Hands Clapping I mentioned in an earlier posting), there are 3 types of scholarly practice in Tibetan Buddhism for those becoming Monks and Nuns. They primarily use memorization, commentary and dialectial debate.

He says typical day in a commentarial institution would go like this (page 133):

5:00 Rising time

5:00-7:00 Morning study

7:00-8:30 Breakfast and revision

8:30-11:00 Morning class

11:00-1:00 Lunch and break

1:00-3:00 Afternoon revision class

3:00-3:30 Afternoon tea

3:30-4:30 Evening class

4:30-5:00 Free time

5:00-6:00 Evening debate (See a video of debate)

6:00-7:30 Dinner

7:30-9:30 Evening study

9:30-10:30 Evening tea

11:00 Bedtime

First full team meeting in AZ this week

It was an uneventful flight to Tucson where I finally got to meet the rest of the team. I was picked up by Gail Burd, Distinguished University Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Professor of Cell Biology & Anatomy, and Dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona. We met Chris Impey, a Distinguished Professor in Physics at the university and Ed Prather, an astronomy professor and NASA teacher professional development specialist who was in India with the Monks last year but is not going this year. Bryce joined us, as did Richard Sterling former head of the National Writing Project , and currently on faculty at UC Berkeley. We had a nice dinner, good conversation, and the ideas were flowing.

In the morning, we caught up with Ken Tsunoda (of the Sager Family Foundation) and Mark St. John of Inverness Research for a day long planning session. Bobby Sager got on the conference call to kick things off and then we had a long day of work ahead of us.

As Mark calls it, we were identifying structures.

I view this as a cultural project, hence the name of the blog...where we are connecting the cultures of Tibetan Buddhism, monastic life, western perspectives, science, science education and leadership. And, structures are an integral aspect of culture. There is a lot to think about and plan as we embark on this multi-year initiative!

Still on eastern time, I woke up at 4:00 both days (at least it wasn't 3:00 a.m.) so had no trouble getting to the 6:30 a.m. departure back to Atlanta. I had a crazy flight attendant try to give me a shot of vodka in my juice and although it indeed was 5:00 p.m. somewhere, it wasn't mywhere so I told her no, maybe next time.

Until the next post, see ya.

Pictures of our residence

Last pictures from Tsondue. This first one is the bedroom and although it shows 2 beds, we were told we would be having private rooms so maybe one bed will be a spare

This is a picture of my bathroom in the residence hall

Here's a picture of the upstairs veranda outside of the rooms

Do I look like a pin cushion?

Did you ever really think about the number of medicines you need to take to visit India? I went to the TravelWell Clinic at Emory University's Crawford Long Hospital yesterday. OK, so I had the tetanus booster during my annual physical in February and didn't need that yesterday. But, I did get hepatitis A and hepatitis B shots as the first round....have to go back in about a month. I also got a polio booster, a prescription for malaria medication, a prescription for Cipro (in case of "Delhi Belly"), and a 4 day vaccine for Typhoid Fever that I need to keep refrigerated and take once a day every other day for 8 days.

They told me that I could skip the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine since I won't need to put myself at that risk. Evidently the risk of complications from the shot is high enough that if you are not necessarily going to be exposed to the disease, you should skip the shot....but the papers on this illness say that 30% of those who contract it die, and another 30% suffer permanent brain damage...oh, joy!

I was also told that rabies is rampant (and they don't pre-treat in any way for that, maybe need to see my vet...(just kidding)) and I was told to stay away from birds since Avian flu is traveling thru the country. (They probably mostly don't want anyone bringing it back to the US). Knowing, however, what people might be like on a long flight, you never know who will be next to you, I might rather take my chances sitting next to a bird than some who knows who on those long flights.

Off to take the next typhoid capsule...

Pictures of the residence and classroom

More pictures from Tsondue taken on site

A picture of the classroom. No need for furniture, Monks and Nuns usually sit on mats on the floor.

A picture of the residence hall where we will be staying.

How do you get from here to there?

OK, so it's a far distance to Dharamsala. There's no quick or painless way to get there so I'm making my trip arrangments. Delta Airlines says it's about 9500 miles. I can already feel the pain in my behind!

I can fly on Continental Airlines and they go directly from Newark....who wants to go to Newark??... or I can fly on Delta and do a lay over in Paris....hmmm....Newark or Paris....Newark or Paris....is this such a tough decision?

Well with a bit of searching, I'm set to leave on May 31st (a Saturday) and will arrive in Paris on Sunday morning, June 1st at 6:30 a.m. I have a short 2 hour layover, so too bad I'll miss the cafes and croissants this time.

It's just enough time to stretch my legs and reboard a new plane that will get me into Delhi around 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening. Bryce said someone will meet me after I clear customs and will take me to a hotel for the rest of the evening (what little there will be). I then take an Air Deccan flight the next morning on Monday from Delhi to Dharamsala and then a short trip down the road to the Institute for Buddhist Dialects, Sara College, the place where I will be staying and working. I'm supposed to get in around 4:00 p.m.

Will have to check out the time difference between there and Atlanta!

Pictures of the Himalayan Mountains from the Monastery

Tsondue sent the pictures

What will the Monks and Nuns be learning?

I thought I would explain a bit more today about what the Monks and Nuns would be learning. I mentioned earlier that the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative will be running science workshops. There will be a 2 week workshop on an introduction to Conceptual Mathematics followed by an introduction to the Philosophy of Science (2 days long). After that there are 3 main content areas that professors will be preparing sessions on, each of which is about 6 days long. Cosmology will be held first, followed by life science and then neuroscience. ETSI ends on June 13th. The following Monday, June 16th, monastic leaders (Monks and Nuns) will be engaged in the Teacher Leadership Institute (TLI) sponsored by the Bobby Sager Family Foundation. In that we will work on science education, science pedagogy, leadership and more science content. There will be a meeting in May for the TLI team to determine specific aspects of the 3 weeks of the TLI. The TLI will end with a celebration of the Dalai Lama's birthday on July 6th.

One objective is for dialog about similarities and differences in Buddhist and Western approaches to the universe and the mind. The TLI is working to develop sustainability so that the monastic leaders can teach and lead each other in science and science education.

I still have to determine which days I will be on site at the Monastery...stay tuned for more info!

A little history of our work

Science for Monks has been running annual science workshops for Tibetan monastic leaders since 2001. That project has been a joint effort between the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and the Bobby Sager Family Foundation . Bryce Johnson (see him in the early days photos in the link on the top right of the blog) has been the coordinator extraordinare.

The workshops have taken place in India since many Tibetans are in exile there. There's lots of historical information available about the Tibetan's plight and relocation to India about 50 years ago if you want to check it out on the web or read the Dalai Lama's autobiography for some personal and vivid details about it all. In the move, the Indian government gave land to the Tibetans to locate in Dharamsala which is now is the seat of the exile Tibetan government and home to many monastic leaders (Monks and Nuns).

This past year, the Emory-Tibet Initiative began planning for additional science workshops through the Emory-Tibet-Science-Initiative for monastic leaders. They are coordinating their work with the Bobby Sager Family Foundation which has morphed the Science for Monks to the next level with the development of the Teacher Leadership Institute. The purpose of the TLI is sustaining the science and science education effort, or in other words, developing sustainability within the monastic community.

I will be one of the leaders on the TLI team. The others are Mark St. John of Inverness Research; Richard Sterling of The National Writing Project and UC-Berkley; Gail Burd and Chris Impey, both professors at the University of AZ.

CCTV9's response to last week's video

Check out China's CCTV9's newscast documentary to last week's riots at
YouTube part 1 and YouTube part 2

Chaos in Lhasa!

We're on a ski trip and just getting ready to head home from Lake Tahoe. Bob noticed that there's a crack down in Tibet. The Chinese have stormed the monasteries.
See more at
this tourist video and
The Guardian's website

What am I reading at the moment?

I know a lot about science, science education and leadership but don't know as much about Tibet's history and Buddhism. So, I went off to gather some reading and amd finding it very interesting. You might want to read some of these yourself:

a) Freedom in Exile which is the Dalai Lama's Autobiography. It is really interesting because it provide a personal perspective on growing up as the 14th Dalai Lama and the drama of the Chinese take over and his flight in darkness over the Himalayan Mountains to India

b) Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism a primer on the history of Tibet and a detailed description of Tibetan Buddhism

c) Seven Years in Tibet written by Heinrich Harrer, one of the first Westerners to enter Tibet. He became a confidente to the young Dalai Lama and writes about his travels from a POW camp in India to Lhasa and his relationship with His Holiness

d) The Sound of Two Hands Clapping written by Georges Dreyfus, a Swiss man who entered a Tibetan Monastery and writes about the specific training that Tibetan Monks receive

There are many more books for your reading pleasure from Barnes and Noble or Amazon but I wanted to mention Snow Lion Publications as a treasure trove of all information on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.

At the Ocean's Edge

So, you might be wondering why this blog has the name it does.

We will be working in Dharamsala which is the seat of the Tibetan government in exile and is the home of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

I read about this in the book An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (more on that book later) and found it also in Wikipedia.

Dalai" means "Ocean" in Mongolian, and is a translation of the Tibetan name "Gyatso," while "Lama" is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word "guru," and is commonly translated to mean "spiritual teacher." Putting the terms together, the full title is "Ocean Teacher" meaning a teacher who is spiritually as deep as the ocean."

You see, we will be working At the Ocean's Edge.

For a more detailed history of the Mongol King Altan Khan and his conveyance of the title to the 3rd Dalai Lama Sonam Gyatso in 1578, see this fascinating history on Wikipedia

Let's get started

Hi, I'm Karen Falkenberg and this blog is a record of my work on a new initiative. I was asked by the Bobby Sager Family Foundation to be on a team of educators who will be working with a select group of Tibetan Monks and Nuns to teach them science, science education, and leadership.

I work at Emory University as a faculty member in the Division of Educational Studies and am the Director for Undergraduate Education for a large organization in Atlanta called the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. I also do education consulting and help large and small organizations with their education efforts, primarily in science and engineering education.

So, this is going to be an extension of what I would normally do for other education entities, it's just half way around the world. What a cool project! I'm sure I will learn a lot!