Return to Normal

It has been about a week and half since I returned to Seattle from Bylakuppe.  Finally, my sleep patterns have returned to normal and I can sleep through the night.  For the first few days after my return, I could not keep my eyes open past 8 pm and woke up at about 4 am unable to go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, back in Bylakuppe at the Namdroling Monastery, the Cosmology and Consciousness Conference "Quantum Mechanics and Buddhist Emptiness" started today and will continue until October 9.  [Conference Program]

Bylakuppe Photo Album

Returned to Seattle safe and sound!

Photos from Bylakuppe (click here)

Bangalore to Dubai

No trouble on the road to the Bangalore airport.  On the way to the airport, I did notice cars lining up for gas because the gas stations were all closed from dawn to dusk because of the strike.

Sitting in the Dubai airport right now (12:30 am) waiting for the return flight to Seattle.  The airport here is very nice -- high ceilings, gleaming floors, high end shopping.  There is even a large indoor waterfall.

Goodbyes

Last night I had to pack quickly to get back to Bangalore before a statewide strike began.  This changed the entire schedule for my last day in Bylakuppe.

Like me, the monks found out that I had to leave town at dinner on Friday night.  We all met in front of the guest house at about 8 pm before my 4.5 hour drive back to Bangalore.  The monks said that they had prepared special cakes for me that we were supposed to have the next day.  They were also disappointed that I did not get to deliver my final presentations, but because I left some things undone, it is expected that I will be back to India to finish these final lessons.

The monks also presented me with some scarves and the Science for Monks program gave me some presents to take home.  I told the monks how much I appreciated their attention to my lessons and I also mentioned that I learned many things from them.  I told them that as I walked around Bylakuppe that I met many of the monks who were in my classes from previous years and how we stopped to chat.  I said that I expected them to say "Hello" to me when I see them on the street in the future.  I also encouraged them to stay in contact with me via email.

Below is a photo of a photo that the monks took and printed earlier this week; they gave me the picture as we said our goodbyes last night.  The picture was taken as we posed on top of the building where we had class.  The structure in the background is the Golden Temple.

Early Morning at Namdroling Monastery

In my opinion, the best time to visit the Golden Temple is in the morning.  The gates open at 7 am and the grounds are fairly empty because the tourists have not arrived yet.  In addition to the main structure (Golden Temple), there are living quarters for the monks and several buildings that are used for other activities.

More Two Point Discrimination Testing

Catching up on some video editing; this one from earlier in the week when the monks used two point discrimination testers (also see earlier blog post below on this activity).

Don't Forget

Golden Temple

Before the start of the lesson about learning and memory, I took another walk around the grounds of the Namdroling Monastery.  The monastery is very beautiful with its temple buildings and well kept gardens.

The lesson about learning and memory began with a discussion of the different types of memory (sensory memory, short term memory, long term memory; declarative memory, procedural memory).  I also mentioned the famous case of HM who had portions of his temporal lobe and hippocampus removed.  The monks had heard me talk about Alzheimer’s disease earlier in the week so we compared the behavior of people with different types of memory problems.

We also did experiments to test their memory.  For example, I had the translator read a list of 20 words and asked the monks to remember as many as possible.  We created a word position curve to see what words they remembered.  I expected to see earlier words on the list and later words on the list remembered better than the other words, but there were quite a few words in the middle of the list that they remembered well.  One of these words was butterfly.  I asked them why they remembered butterfly and they said because I had mentioned earlier in the week how butterflies taste with their feet.

Outside Golden Temple

We also compared memory for concrete, abstract and nonsense words.  All of the monks had trouble remembering nonsense words such as “jibma” and “rovtib”.  Most people remember concrete words (e.g., house, pencil, car) between than abstract words (e.g., trust, faith, honesty), but the monks found that the two lists were equal in their difficulty to remember.  They also asked about the language of the nonsense words.  They all laughed when I said it was not Tibetan or English; rather it was “Eric Language.”

After five minutes of journal writing, I told the monks that my own memory was still good --  I had not forgotten about tea time and that they were welcome to take a break.