Karma Guen

Karma Guen is truly a beautiful place. Located on top of a mountain in the Andalusian desert, the air smells of pine tree and eucalyptus, delicious and warm. Life is good and the sun shines brightly. People around me complain of the heat, but I am used to it and feel happy to be here after the cold nights spent in Brussels. 

At the moment Karma Guen is like a Babel tower, I can hear more languages than I can identify and am actually learning a few new words. People look so please when I try to speak their language and I feel like building a hesitant bridge, making new friends. I love this international feeling. For as long as I can remember I have been fond of the foreign, the new, the strangeness of all these new sounds around me delight me. More than anything I am so happy to be in this Bodhisattva Factory, where everyone shares the same values. I see this in the smallest details, like the adorable raccoon sticker in the bathroom mirror that says "You are very pretty, but please take your hair with you", or when friends share their feelings upon receiving a special blessing from our Lama, or how serious everyone around me take his advises, also the friendly smiles, the openness, the attitude in general.... I feel happy. I feel comfortable. I have been welcomed in this community as if people knew me, and of course, they probably do from a past life. My team members are adorable and we work really hard. I love to be a part of this energy that does what needs to be done with a joyful sense of duty. Everyone trusts everyone. And they can. Everyone here is Buddhist, and if anything, a Buddhist is responsible for him or herself :)

I have come here to make friends, to develop and practice and to be useful to others. I feel I made the right decision. At least during the course, afterwards, we'll see if Karma Guen is really for me.

I love the place and the peacefulness, but I wonder if this is the place where I can be more useful to the Dharma and to my family. Bringing the children to me is heavy on my mind and I mustn't lose sight of this objective.

I often think of my beloved, on how much I enjoyed his company. The evening before the last one, we went to dinner to an African restaurant in his neighborhood and talked, talked, and talked for hours, until they closed the place down and we were forced to go back to his place. This is probably my favorite memory from my stay in Brussels. The moment I understood our connection was real, and took place not only between two bodies, two lovers but also between two souls, two friends.

I look out the window and see the horizon, on the top of the mountain the Stupa shines in the sun's last rays. I will go meditate now.

Karmapa Chenno