Tue, 08 Jul 2008
Mean Streets
So Sunday night was Tibetan class and it started late because our teacher was feeling unwell and overslept. Dave and I were standing on Fayette Street watching the street life of Baltimore. A crowd was gathered in front of the convenience store down the street. A police car stopped and the two officers tied to wrestle on one the men into submission. He escaped their hold and ran off. It seems he had been selling drugs and afterwards the crowd dispersed. Someone joked he must not have had a warrant on him, because he didn't run that fast.
It looks like the Tibetan class is down to just Dave and I, and our instructor Jigme Lodro Rinpoche. (That's 'Jigs.med bLos.gros in Wylie transcription, or Fearless Intellect in English.) I learned something about his past. He was recognized as the reincarnation of a Mongolian lama at Wu Tai Shan at the age of a few months. He escaped to India, went back to Tibet to bring his wife out, was caught by the Chinese, and thrown into prison for seven months. After he got out of prison he and his wife escaped to India. He was employed by the Tibetan Government In Exile writing and editing various works. He seems to be very bright, though that is obscured somewhat because his English is only fair. Anyway, Rinpoche, Geshe, and Dave will be attending the Dalai Lama's seminar next week at Lehigh, so no class. They'll all be staying in the same small hotel room, which should make for some interesting stories.
