Since I last posted, there's been a big event in the rag-tag bunch of misfits that are the sangha around Khandro Rinpoche.
Her father, His Holiness Mindroling Trinchen,played with his dog, sat up in meditation posture, smiled, and passed away.
It's one of those "practice like your hair is on fire" reminders, really.
I've been doing Guru Yoga, as Khandro Rinpoche requested.
(For anyone reading this (is there anyone reading this?) who doesn't know what this is, it is visualizing the embodiment of all the Buddhas of the Three times (especially one's root teachers) sitting in front of you in the form of Padmasambhava, the dude who brought the Vajrayana dharma to the Tibetan Plateau (which includes Nepal, Mongolia, and large chunks of Siberia and China) generating devotion to him, and then dissolving him into yourself.
It's a way of using devotion (which is the transformative element in all the REAL religious traditions) to transcend ones' constant 'me-orientedness'. The Sufi's do this, Hindus do it, and Rabboni Yeshua bar Yosheph wasn't just talking to hear Himself talk when He said "Love God with all your heart".
The thing that is different in Buddhist tantra compared to everything else is the part when that which is being supplicated is then dissolved in oneself.
It's a nice skillful means of making it clear that "that Great Wonderful thing that is being supplicated/prayed to/etc. is the same as you." Or, if you are especially thick-headed (like me), then it's "that Great Wonderful thing that is being supplicated/prayed to/etc. is the same as you, Dumb-ass!!!"
So, I've been doing as Rinpoche asked. I've been doing most of my practice in bed the past couple weeks, though, since my usual shrine room is filled with furniture and stuff since our office got flooded by the upstairs neighbor's radiator.
Also, Daisy the Dog and the kitties love the bed.
Peace and stuff.
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