The Beastie Boys‘ Adam “MCA” Yauch e-mailed fans today with an update regarding his recovery from salivary gland cancer, saying he traveled to India to seek advice from Tibetan doctors and attend a “three-day teaching” led by the Dalai Lama. “I’m feeling healthy, strong and hopeful that I’ve beaten this thing, but of course time will tell,” MCA writes.

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“I’m taking Tibetan medicine and at the recommendation of the Tibetan doctors I’ve been eating a vegan/organic diet, which surprisingly enough was harder to do in India than it is now that I’m back home. Here I can just shop for the right food and cook… a lot easier than depending on restaurants,” Yauch adds. “When I was in India I visited an ani gompa (a nunnery) called jamyang choling. They did a puja (religious ceremony) for me to help me get well. One nun said to me ‘we do prayers and then you are better.’ So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.” It’s nice to see cancer hasn’t dulled Yauch’s ability to make kickass Caddyshack references.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Beastie Boys were forced to cancel all their tour dates and push back the release of their new album The Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 1 as Yauch recovered from the cancer treatment. “We have not set a new release date for the record yet, but I’m hoping it’ll be in the first half of next year,” Yauch said, adding in closing, “Thanks again for all of the well wishes and prayers, and the letters were great too, brought a smile to my face reading them.”

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