It was a bit of a rest day for Jennifer and me today.

We’ve been going flat out ever since we hit India.

Most of our work here in Dharamsala is done, so after a late breakfast we walked down to the Dalai Lama Temple, to replenish our energies.

The seats were still out for all those who had come for His Holiness’s teachings –

Before you enter the temple you have to take your shoes off, or in my case boots, and near the rack where you place your shoes, or in my case boots, there was a sign which said: Beware of thieves who steal your shoes.

This concerned me for a number of reasons:

1. What sort of person would steal shoes, or boots, outside the Dalai Lama temple?
2. In putting the sign up, doesn’t it create anxiety for those who have left their shoes in the rack and who are about to enter the temple, often for meditation or contemplation?
3. How can you meditate, or contemplate, if you’re worried all the time that someone is outside pinching your shoes – or boots?
4. If someone steals shoes, or boots, outside the Dalai Lama temple, will their bad karma be greater than if that same person stole shoes, or boots, outside an ordinary nondescript, non-Dalai Lama temple?
5. Was the sign a test to make you think about the impermanence of all things?
6. Was the sign a test to make you consider the nature of suffering?
7. If someone was caught stealing shoes, or boots, outside the Dalai Lama temple, would they be flogged?

You see, my problem was I’d worn my Scarpas, which are my serious Indian walking boots. They cost about $350. Now you might say: Bill, you moron, if you knew you were going to the Dalai Lama temple, you must have known you’re going to have to take off your footwear, so why wear your $350 Scarpas?

Well, I’ll answer that by saying that I would never even think that anyone would steal shoes, or boots, outside the Dalai Lama temple.

And yet that sign told me otherwise.

So there I was, inside the temple, with this incredible energy and these magnificent ancient Buddhist mandalas and statues all around me, and all I could think about was my boots outside on the rack, and someone stealing them.

And then of course I thought about impermanence, and suffering, and if someone stole my Scarpas how would I get back to the hotel? Because it’s about a kilometre and the road is rocky and full of sharp pebbles and my feet are soft and tender.

And it would hurt.
And I would probably cry.

So my visit to the temple was fraught with suffering – and so the sign did the job it was intended to do. Which was to make me realise that I didn’t really need my boots, and if anyone stole them they probably needed them more than me – and after all there were much greater things to think about, such as how the Chinese have dispossessed these wonderful Tibetan people, and what damage they’ve done to their ancient religious sites.

Here are my boots in the rack, waiting for me after my temple visit –

Outside the temple, two men sat begging. One of them spoke perfect English. He had a friend in Perth. He wanted me to like his Facebook page.

For taking this photo I gave them both a donation –

Jennifer and I then had a wander around – Jennifer in her crazy $5 hat which she bought from a chemist –

She took a shot of me which is technically putrid –

Wandering back to the hotel, with my boots on thankfully, I saw a stand selling plastic Lotus blossoms. The late afternoon sun was highlighting them. I had to take a shot.

Dharamsala is a Buddhist enclave in the largely Hindu country of India.

Yesterday Jennifer and I walked down from the Dalai Lama Temple to the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.

We were there last year filming for PGS – this time we went up to the museum, which was set up by the Dalai Lama to preserve Tibetan culture, after the Chinese invasion. Tragically, they destroyed so many important cultural and religious sites.

I feel very at peace here in Dharamsala. There is a very relaxed unhurried energy here. And a healing rejuvenating energy. The Tibetans are very laid back and friendly – a product of their Buddhist beliefs.

The food here is also uniquely Tibetan; momos, which are Tibetan dumplings, are yummy! But they have a “butter tea” which is putrid. I tried some yesterday, and could only take a couple of sips. Truly disgusting…

But everywhere you see Buddhist monks walking around – and sometimes they pose for photos!

Last night we had dinner at our favourite restaurant in McLeod Ganj, and two Aussies sat down beside us – Dick and Ken.

They are on a bike trip from Delhi across the Himalayas. They are both from Nelson Bay, north of Newcastle, and are seasoned travelers. They are visiting Kashmir and Ladakh on their three week journey.

These are two blokes getting on in age who are doing their own version of raging against the dying light, like a lot of Camino folk. We wish them safe travels ~

Today was a big travel day, driving from Amritsar to Dharamsala.

It’s only a four and a half hour drive, but it’s as though you move from one country to another. Dharmsala is in a far northern state of India, close to the foothills of the Himalayas, and yet it has a strong Tibetan influence; not surprising given it’s so close to the border.

This is where His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled in exile after Tibet was invaded by China. We are now staying only a few hundred meters from His temple, and in fact He’s in residence at the moment. He’s giving a series of public teachings – and Jennifer and I hope to attend one tomorrow. If we can get in…

We’re here for the next few days to check that this part of the tour will run smoothly. We’ve already checked out the hotel we’ll be staying in – a new hotel open only three months. It’s  beautiful, the best one in the district, and again right near the Dalai Lama temple.

Just a quick update on Steve:

He’s back on his walker today, poor bugger, and in pain again. The medicos think he might have picked up a bone infection, and he’ll have tests next week to determine whether that’s the case or not.

But nearly three months now since his operation, he still can’t walk, he still is in pain, and still the doctors can’t determine what’s the root cause. They’re systematically ruling out what’s NOT causing his problem, and in doing this they’re hoping they can progressively narrow it down to what IS causing his pain.

It’s unbelievable. I’ve never heard of a situation like this before. And Steve has some of the country’s best physicians on this. Let’s hope they determine what’s wrong really fast.

I didn’t take any photos today. Well, I took two, only two but they’re both horrible. I always show you the best possible shots I take each day, so perhaps I should show you one of the two horrible shots I took today. It’s the most horrible of the two…

(note the power pole coming out of his head?)

I’m enjoying swapping emails with Michael Tamura, the psychic healer and teacher based at Mount Shasta, in Northern California.

Each email I get from Michael teaches me something new.

The other day he sent me an email – and in it he responded to something I’d written him, about how I learned to dispel fear while walking the Camino by asking myself: What’s the worst that can happen?

I said to him that when you answer that truthfully, and you examine that answer from all angles, without fear, then the worst is usually not so bad after all.

Here is what Michael wrote in reply:

I like your mantra, too: “What’s the worst that can happen?”  I’ve used that myself many times.  It buys us space in relationship to the fears that may arise in the mind.  And, space is not the final frontier – it needs to be the first!  

When we have space to be that which we are already, we’re not only fine, we’re magnificent.  When we don’t give ourselves that space to be, then, we become ill.  So, simply put, illness is an illusion we live in when we can’t allow ourselves to be as we truly are as spirit.  

When we believe in death, we reincarnate because we have to.  Waking up really boils down to waking up from the illusion of death.

Clairvoyance is not just about seeing auras, chakras, energies and spirit.  It’s about seeing the truth clearly.  The path of a clairvoyant is truly to wake up to the whole truth.  In the process of waking up, we start to see more clearly beyond our “normally” limited perception.  

For the “average” person, he’s looking at so many images in his mind that are what contains thoughts and feelings and everything he seems to experience that he believes that house of cards, so to speak, is reality.  

Amongst all of that, of course, are those that hold fear and judgments and everything else.  These are the “logs” or “planks” that Jesus was talking about when he said we had to remove the log out of our own eye before we can see clearly enough to help remove a splinter from our brother’s eye.  

Why is it that something about someone else bothers us so much at times?  That which is being bothered is really inside of us rather than anything about that other person, of course.  

Spirit is never disturbed or agitated.  Only that which we call the ego.  And, the ego is nothing more than those images that we’ve structured in a certain way to ensure its survival.  That’s why it’s so convincing – if we are living in those pictures. 

Today we finally got to the Golden Temple at Amritsar.

It has a power and a majesty that’s hard to put into words. For Sikhs, it’s their most sacred temple.

I went early in the morning by myself. Jennifer was needing some catch-up sleep.

Later we checked out some of the shops our tour people might like to visit – and we had a thali lunch in a down-and-dirty hideaway joint where the food was sensational –

 The naan-like bread is actually called kulcher – it’s an Amritsar local speciality, and this one was full of grilled cauliflower. It came with a spicy dhal, a yogurt based curry, and a glorious chick-pea curry.

In the evening we headed back to the temple, so that Jennifer could see it. Sunday night and it was packed, but stunningly beautiful.

tomorrow we head north to Dharmsala, on our pre-tour scout. We’re doing this to double check that everything will go without a catch. But this is India, and I have no doubt there will be a catch or two!

How can we spend an entire day in Amritsar and not go to the Golden Temple?

Well we did.

We’re saving our visit for very early morning light. Tomorrow morning. We want to see it in the most magical circumstances possible.

I did go out early with my camera though and got a few pics –

Today we checked out things that our tour guests might want to do; for the women, that might include shopping for traditional Punjabi shoes!

Jennifer had done her research and this morning we went to the best place in Amritsar to buy Juttis – all hand made. Beautiful embroidery and leatherwork.

We had lunch in one of the city’s best Thali joints – it was packed with people coming back from the Golden Temple. We had the traditional Punjabi kulcher with two spicy and very tasty curries.

In the afternoon we took a car out to the Indian / Pakistan border to see the Wagah Border ceremony. There must have been more than fifty thousand people there, with the crowd buzzing like they were about to witness an exciting footy game.

I’ll elaborate on this ceremony during the tour, when we take our guests back, but just to say it’s one of the weirdest, and wildest, ceremonies I’ve ever witnessed. Very colourful, very bizarre.

Tomorrow morning we’ll visit the Golden Temple. Very much looking forward to seeing one of the most important spiritual sites of India…

We’ve spent yesterday and today scouting Delhi in preparation for the tour, and this afternoon we hopped on a train to Amritsar,

Amritsar is in the state of Punjab, in the north of India, and the reason we’re here is to see the Golden Temple – one of the great spiritual sites of India – sacred to the Sikhs.

The train trip took 6 and a half hours. It was comfortable, the food was edible, the toilets were prison yard standard.

Not that I’ve used a toilet in a prison yard….

But I can imagine.

Before leaving for the railway station, we stopped in at Ghandi’s Tomb – where Jennifer became suddenly in demand to be in everyone’s photos…

And at India Gate, she had her hands adorned with henna –

And then the train, and a fascinating journey.

We’ve arrived late, and tomorrow we go to the Golden Temple, and to the Wagah Border ceremony…

Jennifer and I spent the first day in Delhi doing a pre-tour scout.

We met up with Rachit, who will be working with us on the tour.

We walked through Old Delhi.

Here are some shots…
(taken with Sony a7s with Zeiss 16-35mm)

Steve McCurry is one of the best photo-portraiturists working today. Here is a selection of his work…