How did this happen?
I was planning on going to Valencia to visit a good friend of mine for a filming project, and after years of trying to find time we decided on a date. As luck would have it Jigme Rinpoche just happened to be teaching a course that weekend, so I got to do both! So a short Spanish adventure ensued, and it was glorious. Everything with Rinpoche ends up that way, being around him is like having a giant smile plastered on your face 24/7, and your heart just sings. If there was one person to whom I could be around forever, Jigme Rinpoche would be at the top of the list for sure. A more genuine and authentic human being there is not. A more deeply rooted joyful being there is not. He carries everyone in a nearby radius along with him in this joy, and I for one love being along for the ride.
The course itself was cozy and extremely enjoyable, just the right amount of teaching, laughing, eating and friends, and of course some time just to sit and enjoy doing nothing for a moment, Spanish style. For someone who generally has one million things to do every minute, it was an outlandish idea to simply enjoy myself, shoot as I felt like it, engage deeply with everyone there, and spend as much time as I wanted with the cute baby. (anyone who knows me would agree I have a deep effect affection for babies, and they tend to make their way into my photos, a lot.) In another interesting turn, my big camera’s portrait lens decided not to work anymore, and after a few minutes of absolute terror and anxiety I decided to make the best of it and shoot the weekend with my little fixed lens camera instead. The result was a completely different sort of feeling for me, different photos as well perhaps. Instead of planning what lens to use, what angle I thought might work, spending time lugging all this stuff around, instead I just got into it and let my feet do the zooming. It was so much fun!
I could not persevere the weekend’s memory without mentioning the people that made it so. What an incredible sense of belonging, welcome, and genuineness pervades the Valencia Bodhi Path. Everyone is so kind, so inescapably joyful, even my broken Spanish was met with rays of sunshine disguised as smiles. The food, the laughs, the “mañana-ness” of it all is just my cup of tea, and I loved every minute of it. Sometimes the unexpected trips are the most fun, and this was surely one of them. Thank you so much my dear Bodhi Path Valencia, and everyone that makes it so. Until next time!
Jigmé Rinpoché Bodhi Path Valencia
