“All people are good people right”, and this new friend I had just met said this with so much ease and belief. I saw the naive, young me in her, and I could only nod and agree. I came here to this place, away from the city, amidst the beautiful mountains, the evergreens all around with a tiny bit of snow, some rains, and the constant soothing sound of a nearby stream flowing around this Buddhist Temple. There were scattered houses, with a set of deer patches and the cold wind, but warm enough for you to walk around. Right from the start, when the hustle of the city stopped, I could breathe. I was around the trees I loved, and the changing landscape with rivers following us and the bright sun added a bit more texture to it all. ( It is raining right now, and I have these two strangers; I just met a few days ago, I feel like some good friends.) This place has good people, like the people when you meet them, you know instantly you can connect with, share your life, share your stories with, listen to their perspectives, and you know individuals with a pure core, and heart at the right place, and most recently people you can bake with :). Or you know people when you surround yourself with, and they just fill your heart with compassion, love, and care! Like people around whom you learn about being a better person, people, places, and conversations, which feel like a long-lost hug from back home. People who are good for your soul! I could see people I had known before in all these strangers, felt like people I had known before, with the usual familiar warmth and all the wholesome love and kindness.

Initially, I thought it was not that good of a plan to go alone to a place I had no idea about and had no public transportation to without a whole lot of network. But there was something positive about the whole thing. And as I am writing this, I feel so glad to be here! It is like grandma’s place when you know people around you are all with good intentions, lots of food, the usual electricity poles, and greens.

There were these four meditation sessions each day at the temple, and the rest of the time was spent eating food or volunteering to help with the chores around the temple. I had a set of transitions, normal problems, and a few bad experiences, which made me question the compassion and goodness which exists in the world. Should I change, have a shell, or be less compassionate, what am I supposed to do? Was I not strong enough to love, care, and be there for the people, and where is the concentration, and oh okay why were there so many random tears spread across days even during the day most bit of happiness?

The teachings were hard, and it is difficult to meditate, but there were some great learnings from each one of them. One of the sessions talked about how we are suffering because we are not following what we are meant to do, and illusion is the origin of all the suffering. This is an illusion to grasp a specific reality, a version of me, a version of me that you do not like, and imagine a feeling of moving away from it. It was a freeing exercise, to look into, live through various life experiences, and we perceive ourselves, at our core, to be one of the individuals who shape our reality. But the truth is we are grasping the identity, and if we choose to we can just be free from that. The whole world is derived from the mind and how it is perceived by it and in reality there is just emptiness. This world is interdependent, on a set of factors, and it is all derived via the interdependence of our minds, and that feeling of being able to get away from a self, a self with your insecurity, was a freeing object of mediation.

I got a chance to interact with the teacher, and his idea of not letting anything negative, any negative energy get to you, to hinder you was amazing. He explained how even people whose values don’t align with you or are doing bad things, filled with wrong intentions are even more of an object of compassion because they will have to suffer for their wrongs. You cannot change your good based on the evil/bad in their actions.

And I loved that reassurance from all around, with all the people I met, to stay kind, loving, and compassionate to the world. Because that is what is closer to your true nature. And try moving towards a state where the negative in others stop affecting you, and instead you try to cheer them up, move them towards a direction more helpful and positive for them! To keep the goodness of our core intact, and trying to find a more affectionate way to love the people around you!

Here is to become calmer, better, and great individuals!