December 1985 with the Dalai Lama and 500,000 others in Bodhgaya, India

If you have never been there before possibly you don't know that Bodhgaya is where Guatama Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree about 500 years before Jesus was born in Israel.

When I went there it was to meet a Tibetan Lama I had met in Santa Cruz, California which is near San Francisco and San Jose, California. So, first we had gone to Thailand and realized if we wanted to See Geshe Lobsang Gyatso who we met when he was in Santa Cruz to help Lama Yeshe pass over and reincarnate as another Tulku as a Spanish boy they named Lama Oso we had to meet him on a specific date there in Bodhgaya, India so we did.

So, the Geshe we called Geshela which means "Spiritual Friend" which takes at least until a lama is about 40 to 45 years old to attain. Maybe it would be like a Doctor of Divinity where you also become a "Spiritual Friend" to all sentient Beings in the Universe.

So, it is a long road of Study to become a Geshe in the Gelugpa sect which the Dalai Lama is also a member of. But, the Dalai Lama is the head of all the sects of Tibetan Buddhism from Gelukpa to Nyingma to Kagyu to Sakya (and there might also be more).

If you have been initiated into the practices of more than one school or sect like I have you are called a Remay Tibetan Buddhist.

So, when we went to Bodhgaya, India to meet Geshela (Geshe Lobsang Gyatso) we thought we were just going to meet him in Bodhgaya but found out the Dalai Lama and 500,000 other Tibetan Buddhists were there for the Kalachakra Tantra which is an initiation that takes about 4 days time to receive from the Dalai Lama. So, Geshela signed up me and my wife and three older children that were already born then who were 10 years old 12 years old and 14 years old at the time to also receive the Kalachakra Tantra. This changed all of our lives along with the 4 months we spent in Japan, Thailand, India and Nepal including trekking up into the Himalayas with backpacks for 50 miles beyond the last roads across suspension bridges across canyons and over rivers and such up to 10,000 feet in altitude. This was an amazing experience for all of us and made all my children world travelers from then on. For example, the 10 year old is now in his 40s and just returned from living 5 years in South Korea with his wife and son. And the oldest boy got married on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa when he married. So  since 1985 in December, the whole family has traveled a lot around the world which started with this 4 month trip to Japan, Thailand, India and Nepal.