Padma Ling Day 2

Woke up without a headache today, so that was nice, It was hard to fall asleep last night, not because Ru kept me up watching Zoolander on my computer, but because of the practice. The tunes and rhythms in my head just wouldn't let me sleep. I laid there feeling like my body was electric. I had a restless doze, and woke to a bad dream, then finally had a deep sleep. Ok enough about sleep. 

We had oatmeal with stuff in it for breakfast, then did the morning practice. Ru joined us for the English Tara. After a break and some circumambulations I went back to practice. I came back to find Ruben napping again. 

He woke up in time for lunch. Lama Inge made lentils and rice with spinach, and we joined her. Afterward we went for a walk. Ruben was under the impression that it was a short walk, but turns out we went quite far. On a previous visit I had risen early for a jog, and found this cool park. I thought Ru would like it and I was right. 

Because of the reflection of the sky on the water I didn't get a good picture of the turtles. There were at least three by the bank we sat at for a while. It was peaceful to watch the frogs, ducks, and turtles swim around, with flyovers from the dragonflies. 

Ruben and I had a nice discussion about Buddhism on the walk back. We stopped at Huckleberries for Mochi ice cream and cold drinks. I had never had mochi ice cream. Ru loved it, I was less impressed. Ice cream doesn't need a chewy coating. 

Some pictures of the shrine room. My seat is where the black cup is sitting in front of the big drum. Fortunately nobody is playing the big drum for this practice. 

A paraphrase of a bit of today's teaching: 

There are no limits to the mind. If you imagine an offering, you don't have to imagine it on a plate, you can imagine it as big as a mountain, an ocean, or a planet... You don't have to offer jewels or meat, you can offer iphones, nike shoes, things that people crave now days that will bring them happiness (temporarily anyway)

Oh I forgot to share about the pee suitcase. We used Lama Inge's washer to wash the clothes and hung them out to dry. We washed the suitcase out with dish soap and left it to dry overnight outside.
Hopefully it will be usable, or Ru might have to just use the garbage bag method of clothes storage.