Randrol's Ramblings

Stuff going on...

2011-10-17T13:09:00.000-04:00

Sorry folks, I've been busy. I am going to be slowly transitioning content now. I've got a new Wordpress Randrol's Ramblings that will be more dharma teaching notes intensive. (Wordpress has become one of those things all web professionals need to be fluent in, so I figure the most extensive of my useful content ought to go there.) This current blog will remain for the usual personal blog stuff (whatever that means).
So, that's where things are now. I've got quite a backlog of notes I need to edit into useful form, which I hope to start making available soon.

-LWWD/JTR

Nuba Rinpoche – 2-day special Bodhichitta Generation teaching at TMC-Frederick 6/5/11

2011-07-29T21:37:00.001-04:00

Continuing from this morning – 7 limbs. Related to the accumulate of merit through rejoicing at other’s good deed, as in the story of when a king invited Buddha and his retinue to his palace and made a big offering. At the end, the Buddha asked the king “should I dedicate the merit of this to you – the king – or to the person who has gained more merits than you?” The king thought, “Since I am the benefactor, I may be the one who gained most merit”, so the king said, “yes, dedicate to person with most merits.” At that time, there was a beggar at the door of the palace. He really rejoiced at the merit of the king, and that the king was making such a grand offering to Buddha. When Buddha was about to dedicate, he surprised everyone when he used the name of the beggar at the door. This shows that just by rejoicing at the good deeds of others, we can gain the same amount of merit.
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First reminder-The Precious Life - Khandro Rinpoche

2011-05-14T22:39:00.001-04:00

Notes from the DC "Not-a-Study-Group" discussion,

1^st section of This Precious Life by Khandro Rinpoche - entering the gateway: she lays the groundwork, moving into 4 reminders. The rest of the book is essentially the 4 reminders. “Genuine appreciation of our human mind, body and potential, and with exertion, we can create the cause for genuine happiness. …”

Pg.17 - the Four Thoughts that Transform the Mind

“Contemplating the preciousness of human existence brings a genuine appreciation of our human body, mind, and potential. With exertion we can create the cause for genuine happiness and benefit for others.”

The passing of Lopon Peter Lieberson

2011-04-24T23:59:00.002-04:00

Lopon Peter Lieberson

This past week was marked by the death after a 5-year battle with cancer of modern classical composer Peter Lieberson. He was also was one of my dharma teachers, and a great example as a practitioner and as an artist. You would never know by the un-pretentious way he carried himself how much of a 'big deal' he was in the modern classical world. Officially, as one of Khandro Rinpoche's senior students, he was "Lopon Peter" - but you would would never know that either by the un-pretentious way he carried himself. I only got to 'talk shop' about music and the creative process with him a little bit, which I of course regret now. The best thing I suppose I could do now is let this be a reminder of 'The Second Reminder' that he taught about at the behest of Khandro Rinpoche. Anything else I say wouldn't really be so eloquent, so I'll let the New York Times obituary and the write-up from Waylon Lewis's "Elephant Journal" do the rest of the talking.

Peter Lieberson, Composer Inspired by Buddhism, Dies at 64
That foreign yet visceral language we call music. [Peter Lieberson]

Talk on Guru Yoga - Lopon Andre, Lotus Garden, February 2011

2011-04-24T23:22:00.002-04:00

I am -finally- getting some of my notes together and on-line since I have been asked to by a few people. This one is a talk from the Ngondro ('ordinary' and extraordinary preliminaries) program I attended at Lotus Garden in February. I've discussed the practice of guru yoga in my own modest way before and presented my notes of the great Drikungpa Khenchen Rinpoche talking about guru yoga, but Lopon Andre Papantonio covered this topic in a much more complete (and lineage-approved :)) way.
As usual, any mistakes, errors, or corruptions are all my fault.
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Gas Prices around DC, or Cyclic Existence, or "Turbo is NOT the future"

2011-03-21T23:54:00.002-04:00

Just a little note that gas prices around DC seems to be averaging $3.75/ Gal for regular. And given the continued "unrest", I wouldn't bet on those coming down anytime soon. In 2005, causes and conditions came together to drive prices this high. There was a lot of complaining in this country, and talk of "our oil addiction".

...here we go again...

Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche – Skype address – 2-21-11 9:15 AM

2011-02-27T21:11:00.004-05:00

Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche has been talking to her students when they gather for programs via Skype. This is what she had to say at a program dedicated to Ngondro, aka "the Preliminary practices."

Practitioners must believe in the power of purification of karma. That’s why you are all intellect (?). If you didn’t believe it, there is no way you could having confidence in possibility of enlightenment.

Exertion on path – to be honest, whole-hearted. Very strong confidence in accomplishment stage of realization that becomes cause of liberations of all sentient beings. The full enlightenment, freedom from samsara for self and other.

Of all practices, ngondro emphasizes this most important. What kind of a result we all believe in. must encourage meditator- to have the power to hold the result in your hand – results in purification of karma and attainment of merit.

Buddha-nature in the Pali Canon

2011-01-15T23:26:00.005-05:00

One troubling thing in the Dharma that I've heard about a bit is the whole "Hiniyana vs. Mahayana" difference, which is usually seen as Mahayana literature spelling out why the Hiniyana (literally, "Lesser Vehicle") is so inferior. I personally think the differences and dividing lines are WAY overblown. Drikung Kagyu founder Lord Jitgen Sumgon said that all the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma contain each of the others, so all of them - Hiniyana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana - are mixed together in a way that makes them impossible to extract.

I got these quotes from the Pali Canon - the scriptures used by Theravadans of Southeast Asia - from Douglas Duckworth, an excellent translator that has been up at TMC in Frederick several times in the last few days.

These words of the Buddha do seem to more than imply the presence of Buddha-nature - Thagatagharba - the underlying nature of enlightenment in all living beings. That is generally seen as the core teaching of the "Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma", which is most often associated with Vajrayana (since it is required in order to explain how Vajrayana 'works').

Khandro Rinpoche Closing Comments at the Künzang Gongpa Zangthal

2010-09-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

I am working on doing a write up about the Künzang Gongpa Zangthal event that concluded at Lotus Garden a few weeks ago. In the meantime, here's some footage from the end, when Her Eminence Mindrolling Jestun Khandro Rinpoche gave her closing talk and thank-yous that she has done in the past at the very end of the Annual Retreats. It's good advice for any practitioner of any level, so I think it should be ok to share.

Künzang Gongpa Zangthal!, Part 1

2010-09-26T08:58:00.040-04:00

(or, What We Did on Our Holidays).

I got back from spending a couple weeks down at Lotus Garden for an event known as the Künzang Gongpa Zangthal.

For a description of the 'what', I'm going to defer to the text of

the Lotus Garden site:

"On August 28th, Kyabje Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche (pictured at left) began bestowing the entire Künzang Gongpa Zangthal empowerments and continued until 12th September. Rinpoche is one of the greatest Nyingma teachers alive today and the foremost and principal holder of these highest Dzogchen transmissions which were discovered by the tertön Rigzin Gödem (1337-1408) as part of the Northern Treasures Tradition."

Now, unless you are schooled in Himalayan/Vajrayana buddha-dharma, you likely have no idea what the hell half of this preceeding paragraph was saying.

Another 'coming soon'/update

2010-07-05T13:44:00.003-04:00

Howdy kids. I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy with work - we've been understaffed. Got to catch Khen Rinpoche for a few days in June when he was teaching on his latest work at TMC, which was -no surprise- pretty dynamite.

I had a run in with someone who was aggressively trying to get me to 'accept Christ to go to Heaven' and wouldn't stop. After debating for a little while about the difference between what Jesus/Yeshua taught and what he was talking about (which came from Paul/Saul of Tarsus), I figured it's time I go into my thoughts on this issue.

That's coming soon, if all goes well.

August/September is gonna be FULL of Dharma, too!

For those of you following this blog...

2010-04-03T03:53:00.002-04:00

...Could you please drop me a line and let me know who you are, and how you got to here?

Thanks.

-JTR

Coming Soon...

2010-04-03T03:45:00.002-04:00

I - finally- was able to get back on here after Blogger got assimilated into the Borg collective known as Google. I've got a couple posts that are 1/2 way done, so I will get some actual content here again. When? Real soon.

-JTR

Mamos Season, or 'the Season of the Witch' :)

2010-02-05T23:44:00.009-05:00

Vajrayana practitioners everywhere are kicking in some intensive practice leading up to the Tibetan New Year, or Losar (which usually is also the same day as Chinese New Year, and this year is also Valentines' Day, which lead to some really crude jokes not worth repeating here :)). What is especially stressed is Dharma Protectors practice to deal with some of the karma of the previous year. This time of year is called the 'Mamos Season'. The iconography of the Mamos is of fierce powerful female beings. So, I suppose it could also be called, with apologies to Donovan, 'the Season of the Witch' :). I've talked about the Protectors a bit already, but I couldn't explain them in this seasonal context as well as Ken Rawie, one of Khandro Rinpoche's senior students and one of the 'old dogs' (sorry, Ken :)) that studied with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. So, with his permission, I am reproducing an email he sent to the DC Shambhala Center email list explaining all this. Take it away, Ken...

This year Shambhala Center's "Winter Practice Intensive" is Feb 3-12, but I hurt my back last week, so I'm feeling guilty I'm not helping with the Mamos rota.

Maybe to ride the energy of my guilt, I can give a little scholarship on the subject of Döns, Mamos, and Protectors. I hope everybody will come and practice as much as they can. I'll be practicing at home until I feel strong enough to join the Intensive. Go, team! -- Ken

To start with, the DCSC's web site explains: "The winter practice intensive closes out the Tibetan lunar calendar year. The end of the lunar calendar year, is often referred to as 'the dön season.' " [1]

So, what are döns? The Rigpa Wiki site translates the word as "harmful influences." [2] The Shambhala News Service last year said: "Döns" refer to sudden attacks of depression, resentment, anger, or other negative emotions -- like an unpredictable flu that takes us over. [3] Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche adds that döns can "bring about disease and accidents for those who lack mindfulness." [4]

It seems this negativity and chaos comes to a head at the end of the lunar year. Maybe it's the short days of deep winter; maybe it comes from the changing of annual cycles. More likely, the causes of the dön season are complex. In the Tibetan tradition, we designate the last ten days of the lunar year for working with döns, but personally, I think they struck early this year.

One of the things we do to work with this "seasonal affect" [5] is to invoke dharma protectors like Mahakala and Vetali, but at this time we also work a lot with "Pacifying the Turmoil of the Mamos." As another web page says:

Pacifying the Turmoil of the Mamos is traditionally recited by vajrayana practitioners . . . [but] it is the Sakyong's wish to invite all practitioners to participate in the mamo recitation practice . . . By reciting the chant, we tune into the protector principle of awareness and reconnect with sacred outlook.
This practice is free and open to all; advance registration is not required. [6]
There is one day (Feb 8) where sitting and stroke practice will still be open, but the mamos chants will be "restricted" to sadhakas doing a Vajrayogini feast. But on every other day (up through Feb 12), everybody is invited to help "pacify the mamos!"

If you want to learn more about the protector principle that wards off the döns, the DCSC site has a link to a really good description: Protector Principle: Averting the Negativity of the Old Year, by the Dorje Loppön, Lodrö Dorje

I hope everyone will participate in all ten days of the DC Center's "Winter Practice Intensive," Feb 3-12!

Ken

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References:
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[1] The DC Center's "Winter Practice Intensive" web page

[2] Rigpa Wiki on "harmful influences, (Tib. pronunciation: dön; Transliteration: gdon)"

[3] Shambhala News Service last year describing döns

[4] definition of döns from the glossary at the end of Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche's commentary on Mipham's Sherab Raltri, the commentary entitled The Blazing Lights of the Sun and Moon

[5] Wikipedia, "Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues . . . "

[6] Dons Season Mamo Chants (for the Chicago Shambhala Center. Their dates are a little different from DC.)

[7] Protector Principle: Averting the Negativity of the Old Year, by the Dorje Loppön, Lodrö Dorje

Notes from Garchen Rinpoche's teaching in Mid-January on Creation and Completion

2010-01-24T01:26:00.006-05:00

HE Garchen Rinpoche – creation and completion – 01/16/2010 – Gaitherburg, MD

(These notes are my imperfect attempt at a transcription of the great Drikung Kagyu/Nyingma lama Garchen Rinpoche on a teaching he gave right outside DC on the topic of the creation and completion stages in Vajrayana buddhism. Very deep, but also very, very practical. )

There's not much more I can say about him that's not said better in this promo from the documentary about Rinpoche's life, "For the Benefit of all beings".

_____________________________________

First, begin practice with refuge in the 3 jewels. After refuge, must observe the precepts of refuge, the excellent path of the 3 jewels. In the middle, cultivate bodhichitta, which is the actual protection. First take refuge, but ultimately bodhichitta IS the precious dharma. All samayas are contained in bodhichitta. The ultimate protection. First after refuge, consider all Sentient beings. Samaya is like making a jeweled mala. You take all the beads, poke a hole in the beads and put them on a string, which is the bond that keeps beads together. The bond is the ultimate/ relative samayas. The mind of all the Buddhas and Sentient beings have a single ground. The conventional samayas are loving-kindness-compassion. It is to understand the nature of samsara and nirvana nd cultivate compassion. If you understand Buddha nature/ empty nature of mind/ in union with loving-kindness – we will actually connect to the Buddhas- 2 fold- Buddha nature, _conventional bodhichitta- understand samaya. We will give rise to bodhichitta, even in refuge.

ZAH HUM BAH HO– summon deities, become non-dual. What becomes non-dual? The mind of bodhichitta. Based on that understanding, engage is visualization mantra. If no bodhichitta, no great results. If samaya degenerates, it is like a burnt seed- no fruit will grow.

If you are not keeping samaya, even if we do Vajrayana practices, there is no great power. So must recognize samayas. Buddhas observe the samayas to the guru. This does not mean to have faith in one guru, and point out faults of other gurus. No. 32 in the 37 bodhisattva practices says that, looking down on others, brings our own ruin.

32) If, influenced by disturbing emotions, one points out another bodhisattva’s faults, oneself is diminished. Therefore, not speaking about the faults of those who have entered the Great Vehicle is the bodhisattvas’ practice.

Any master is probably a mixture of faults and qualities. Since we have faults, we can only see faults. It’s like a magnet pulling the negativities, faults. Seeing faults of others is harming ourselves.
If thinking of 1 person as good, and all others as bad, it leads to ill will. This will then lead to wrong views. If someone is doing negative conduct, is his business. He may go to hell realm, but not our business. We must purify our mindstreams by purifying our conduct. We are only harming ourselves if we criticize them.
In the beginning, we must purify wrong views and prejudices. To do this, we must see the entire universe in the form of deities. The Universe of the 5 elements is the 5 consorts which Naturally arise. The 5 afflictive emotions, when seen in pure nature are the 5 wisdoms. If you think like this, mind will be vast, and you will be happy. If you see afflictions, mind will be like ice flow.
Must see in practice difference between grasping and non-grasping.
Samayas of guru and students. A feeling of love- like a mother and child, a great vast love. This is bodhichitta. Buddhas of 3 times have great love for all Sentient beings. Connecting to this is connects to all sentient beings.
Milarepa said “the cause of the hell realms is hatred. So we must avoid it, even at the risk of our own life. Love is precious- the root samaya. “
Observing love is through mindfulness/ heedfulness – bodhisattva practice # 36.

36) In brief, whatever conduct one engages in, one should ask, “What is the state of my mind?” Accomplishing others’ purpose through constantly maintaining mindfulness and awareness is the bodhisattvas’ practice.

Sustaining love through sustaining mindful awareness contains all the samayas of the 3 vehicles - Pratimoksha, bodhisattva, and vajrayana.
Then there are the branch samayas. I don’t remember them all. For example, there is the branch samaya of Vajravarahai not to eat pork. It is good if you can keep these samayas, but not essential. If you give rise to love, you will connect with the yidam to become the yidam deity. If you are not giving rise to love/bodhichitta, however, you may be reborn in form of deity, but as a hungry spirit.
If you want to make light, you need to connect the cables to the plug. Otherwise, there is no light. In the same way is the union of emptiness + compassion. If you connect these two, your mind will be illuminated. It is very important to understand this point.

As mentioned before, Creation stage has three important points.
1) clearly visualize the form clearly,
2) understand pure qualities of deity, and most important
3) to cultivate divine pride, that “I am the deity”. Look inside ones mind till one finds certainty that one is the deity. How does the deity exist on one’s mind?

Guru rinpoche – “The actual deity is bodhichitta. Mind is the life force. The life force of the deity is love.”
In our activities, we are supposed to perceive all males as Chenrezig and females as Tara, and all perceptions as the deity at the inner level.
If you are fixating on the external appearances, that if you must see them, they must (literally} look like Chenrezig, one is mistaken. Chenrezig is the embodiment of bodhichitta. If one has great love, then he or she is Chenrezig or Tara. When one has given rise to such a mind, one will be able to work to help beings extensively. When cultivating this attitude, must be firm. No doubts. You are endowed with Buddha nature. We are like children of the Buddhas. If we give rise to grasping, you won’t recognize it. But If we give rise to altruistic mind, we ARE it.

“If I have given rise to bodhichitta, I am the deity. The deity is established in my mind. “ Can gain confidence, trust in mind. Naturally, all afflictive emotions will disappear.
Look inside your own mind, give rise to unity of emptiness + compassion, will gain confidence in ourselves. In the world, some things appear pure and some impure.
Beings are temporarily stained by adventitious stains. These stains temporarily obscure Buddha nature.
From understanding that all sentient beings are endowed with Buddha nature, will be able to cultivate pure view for all other sentient beings. When afflictive emotions appear, will see them as temporary, lacking true existence. Will see this grasping is.
Like understanding the nature of ice is water. When seeing this, mind will be at ease.

1) The union of appearance and emptiness, one doesn’t grasp at appearing forms. One will also not grasp at difference of self and others.
2) The union of sound + emptiness.
Not grasping at sounds.
3) The union of thoughts and emptiness.
Appearing thoughts as awareness.

These 3 vajras. Milarepa said “When you understand these points, then free from any doubt, having taken refuge, you will give rise to bodhichitta. Can give rise to confidence that one is the deity. Bodhichitta, love and faith will increase, and afflictive emotions will decrease.”
Also, Siddhis will arise. There are two kinds, Common and extraordinary.
Common siddhis bring temporarily benefit, but won’t lead to enlightenment. They may lead to obstacles later.

Creation stage- in 100,000 songs of milarepa. pg. 376 of English version. There is much benefit to reading these.
If you mediate and give rise to creation of yidam deity, if you habituate the deity, then that body will be …just like a rainbow. Nothing to be identified. Speech will be the Union of sound + emptiness.
Mind will be the union of clarity and emptiness. Like luminosity of sun and moon, no prejudice no bias, self grasping will be exhausted.

Ordinary Body, speech and mind are realized as vajra Body, speech and mind.
When 3 doors abide in the original state, the mind abides in ease, in accord with dharma. As dharma becomes path, there is great delight.

These are the powers of proper creation stage practice. This is the great difference of sutra + Tanta. Tantra is the close path. If habituate on bodhichitta over and over, then propensities of the afflictive emotions will decrease.

For example, Sometimes when we practice shamatha, we get a very still mind, and lose awareness of body. But when getting up and doing activities, we get grasping to self. Due to self-grasping, we create karmas. When one habituates creation stage again + again.

Milarepa- “ eating food becomes a tsok. If you have not forgotten deity, if eating food, no mind thinking, “this is my food”. Can partake of anything, if no fixation to good and bad taste. Partaking a food is a tsok. If one doesn’t give rise to deity, will think, “This is my food”. This awareness of self will then fall in the mind like snowflakes accumulating.”

Lord Jitgon Sumgön some say there are 3 kinds of actions -. This is not true. There is only virtue and non-virtue. No neutral. Neutral is ignorance.

In mantrayana- stay inseparable from deity, if inseparable, when eating food.
Like fire and wood in contact. Wood will be burned away by fire in an instant.
When we maintain mindfulness, then our mistaken perceptions will be dispelled.

Visualizing form of deity, which appeared in our mind like a rainbow appearing in the sky. rWe will forget about our ordinary body, and everything that appears will appear illusionary.

When reciting mantra, will be no fixation on speech. If one does this for a long time authentically, these are the powers that will arise.

The 3 vajra- purify fixations on body as existing – if one sustains this mind, then any obscurations that arise will not defile the mind. This is the mind vajra-.
One becomes like vajradhara.
Union of clarity + emptiness- if there no fixation in mind, understand transcending birth and death. Will see birth and death as an illusion. Then will be no fear of death.
See all arisings and cessation are only illusions we haven’t recognized.
If we have engaged in the creation and completion stages correctly, these are the powers that will arise.

“The mind that is union of clarity + emptiness- like luminosity of sun and moon, free from any bias, - when no grasping at sound, mind will abide like the luminosity of sun and moon.
If afflicting thoughts are just like clouds in sky, temporary adventitious, then the luminosity of the sun and moon will arise. “

Regarding free from any bias, the pure view.
Lord Jitgon Sumgön said not to grasp at the 3 great ones – the supreme realization.
Mahydyamika, mahamudra, and dzogchen.
When it comes down to practice, mind must not cling to these three thoughts, otherwise then a bias will arise in the mind.

When all the grasping is released, then the nature of mind will be seen.
Through blessing of guru and devotion of student, sometimes the natural state of mind will be seen. For a beginner, may be a very short time, but when one habituates it. , Will be longer and longer time.

In the practice of a beginning practitioner, may be a bias. Sometimes keep view, and sometime conceptualize – “meditation going well/ not going well” – hopes /expectations will arise.
Milarepa- sometimes good / bad thoughts will appear in mind. don’t be attached to good/ bad thoughts, and don’t have aversion to bad thoughts.

Gampopa- sometimes faults of agitation will appear. Apply antidotes. For example, if one emits a loud PHET syllable, a disturbed mind will become clear. If a mind ia very agitated, look into space.

Milarepa- don’t grasp at faults of lack of clarity + agitation.

Sometimes we think “mediation going well/ not going well”.
If in meditation, no need to conceptualize these. It is not necessary. Just like butter lamp is not needed in the daytime.

Different practitioners have different methods. In brief, must dispel all grasping, biases.

Will be no thinking, “is going well”. Milarepa said they will appear like an apparition in space, like a cloud in the sky that will vanish is if no grasping.

In reference to self-arising 3 vajras of body, speech and mind.
In mind, when there is no grasping, the mind can’t be obscured, naturally, because one is endowed with b-nature, will naturally see all appearances as the nature of the deity.
Will hear all sounds as the union of sound and emptiness.
Ex guru rinpoche, no inner grasping of the mind, the external objects won’t disappear, but the mind will remain clear.
Doesn’t mean the perceptions of forms and sound will disappear. Means there is no grasping. What union of form and emptiness means is the grasping to forms is gone.
Union of sound and emptiness is grasping to sounds is gone.

One is then inseparable from the deity. Whenever temporary grasping to appearances and sounds is released, will naturally attain enlightenment, the dharmakaya. Will understand all beings naturally transcend body, speech and mind.

When we engage in the creation stage practice, one must give rise to such a pure view. Through this view, do not let perfect conduct slip by. Must see everything as purity, but must observe customs of county and show great respect.
In our conduct, must be in accord with traditions of country.

We talk about 5 meats and 5 nectars. If don’t understand everything is pure form beginning, will see pure and impure. May see our body as pure and the best, and everything else is dirty. This is dualistic grasping we naturally have, which keeps us in bondage we need to purify this mind. We must heed our activity.

View must be vast like space, and conduct fine like flour.
See all people as pure, but observe rules of karma. Avoid 10 unvirtuous actions. It is said (probably by Lord jitgon Sumgon) that outer conduct should be in accord with vinaya, inner with bodhichitta, and we ahould secretly hold the view of Vajrayana – we don’t hold any phenomena of samsara + nirvana as having lasting existence.

Before I talked about creation stage, and benefits and powers of creation stage, how we can transform impure into pure perceptions in this lifetime. If we can do this, can’t be harmed by spells, and so forth. One will attain common siddhis and ultimately enlightenment. Also, in bardo, if one doesn’t forget form, then in an instant, one may attain enlightenment in the 2nd stage of the bardo after death.

We nurture our mindstreams + at same time, accumulate mantras ex. 10 syllables, each 100,000 times. – 1 million. We must accumulate the number, but must abide in Samadhi one-pointedly inseparable with deity without distraction. Through the Power on mantra, will be able to engage in 4 enlightened activities.

There are 9 benefits of mantra. Of these, there are 3 it is really useful to know.
– See mantra as deity, see mantra as an offering, and see mantra as a siddhi.

When we recite mantra, we must also focus one-pointedly on visualization. Must also give rise to faith and devotion.
3 types.

Qualities of the deities/ Buddhas posses knowledge, love, great powers.
Knowledge- wisdom to see all fruitions of actions.
Love for all beings like mother for child.
Powers- when we merge our mind with the deity, we will sew seeds of the d-kaya, and be able to accomplish it.

See mantra chain – like pouring milk into tea and must stir it.
First the mantra garland rotates slowly, and then accelerates. If you remain in view it becomes very fast. Then, can recite in non-conceptual state- in mahamudra, this is the actual meditation.

When thoughts appear, can focus on mantra garland. Emanate light as offering to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Infinite mantras like rainbows multiplying.

Qualities in mind of bodhichitta. Light rays can purify sentient beings obscurations. Infinite light from mantra chain.

In this way, have awareness of mantra as the deity.

An offering, a purification of obscurations of sentient beings, and a gathering of the powers of the Buddhas and blessings.

Ultimately, one attains siddhis, then mantras become siddhis, our mind and mind of deity become inseparable and will never be apart again.
Like if one has a friend one loves very much, they are never not with you.
At that time, then the actual powers of the deity will arise. The principle power- the altruistic mind – the actual power.
Love and compassion increase, if they increase, wisdom will increase.
1 must never, never practice mantra through hopes and expectations.
In the future, one may get harm from that.

From mind of compassion free of grasping, one will attain highest accomplishment.

If one has practiced in retreat, then one will become so close to the deity, one is never separate from the deity again.

When we recite mantra and visualize the deity, the mediation is like fire, the mantra is like wind. Fire and wind come together, wind will fan fire.

Must recite mantra clearly. Sometimes, many disciples gather and recite in a melody, some think if one does melody, will be too slowly to accumulate.
But when one sings it clear and pristine, then a single recitation can count for 10 or more.

Reciting 1 mantra clear is better than 100 unclearly. Reciting slowly clearly with melody makes mind very clear. Clarity of the sounds of mantra very important. Mantra chain has benefits like the prayer wheel I hold.
It leaves a virtuous imprint in others’ minds.
Especially me – I’m a sinful person – I haven’t’ had a chance to go into retreat – so, since I am a sinful person, when I spin the prayer wheel, it is of great benefit to me to purify my negativities.
For the body, the physical virtue of each rotation is like a circumambulation –
With each rotation, 100,000 mantas inside radiate out.
The mantras reach all Sentient beings emanated out. In this way, it benefits all beings.

If you lose mindfulness, you will loose the prayer wheel. Is why I brought prayer wheel to the US. Is a very effective method of accumulating benefit with body, speech and mind.
Plus, anyone seeing will not get lower rebirth. The seed of liberation is planted. Great merit. Linked to mantra chain. Effective way to accomplish something great through small activity. When I do it, others like to do what I am doing, so they are doing it to. ☺

We say Emanations of Chenrezig and Tara are coming down when we spin prayer wheel.– internally, what we really mean is the mind of love and compassion has taken place in our mindstream. In brief, The Buddhas teachings are only a method to increase love and compassion.

Many great benefits of recitation. Sometimes, disciples gather to chant or sing mantras, and it is recorded on CD. As long as the sound remains, will benefit beings with and without bodies by planting seeds of liberation. Even after we have died, we will still get merit from it when people listen to recording.

Reciting mantra will temporarily expel obstacles, as well as create connection to love and compassion. It is like calling the deity by phone –a very quick connection. These are the benefits.

And then, the completion stage.

Many explanations, but in brief, the purpose is to purify the propensities of the death stage. We said before, creation stage purifies propensities of birth. Everything will come to dissolution in the end, in one single person, if they understand – nature of entire universe and sentient beings – first it was created, but in the end, it will disintegrate. It lacks inherit nature from it’s own side.

External universe- the 5 elements. They will dissolve, one into another.
Sentient beings- their bodies will dissolve, one into the other, and then to complete destruction.
Resolve into each other.

Padme sangye? - “When a yogi dies, he doesn’t really die. Will embrace death. One has accomplished deathlessness of mind, an elixir that will remain. Mind has become nature of 5 wisdoms., and one will attain form like rainbow body.

In the end, one will attain vajra body- appearance and emptiness union.

If one realizes true nature of mind, there is no arising and cessation. Is like a rainbow that transcends birth and death.

For us ordinary beings, we attach to phenomena, and at base don’t know this, and will have suffering.

Will have 3 appearances.

All those with strong self-grasping – have some merit, so may have some happiness in this life – wife, kids, happiness.

Why did I experience this? Frution of morals ethics, generosity, patience.

If one attaches to this world, one will be attached to this lifetime; will lose ones’ mental independence. One realizes this through bodhichitta. Realize body of flesh blood bones will dissolve.

The propensities of our karma will emerge as suffering – thirst, etc.

Some Sentient beings dissolve into rocks, into earth. Whatever one’s mind is attached to at that moment will dispel into that.

To get free of that, must Realize they are free from existence,

In lama chopa, we create universe and sentient beings, and recognize they are pure in nature, after visualize refuge tree, then bodhichitta that melts self-grasping like ice, then everything dissolves. Retinue into principle deity, the deity into emptiness.

Like elements dissolving into elements one by one at death.
Earth to water, water to fire, fire to wind, wind to consciousness.
Then one will faint and lose mindfulness. Red and white paths will merge.

This is why it is necessary to practice completion stage.

Purifying the death propensities- relates directly to death process too. To prepare, is very beneficial to relate to dream state, Falling asleep relates to death. Recognizing dream state is like state after death.

One may think the dream of last night was a dream, and this morning is real life.
One thinks one lives a life span, entertains thoughts of past, and plans for the future, and thinks the universe and firm and will always remain.
This is a delusion.
The appearances may appear for a few years, but they don’t’ exist on their own from their own side.

Must resolve that this lifetime is like a dream.
Before we got this Precious Human Birth, we were a consciousness with self-grasping mind and 4 aggregates. One has lost body, but still has feeling, formation, perception, and consciousness. No one will be able to see it, but one will feel suffering in this astral body. Due to actions we have committed, we will enter womb in 6 realms.

From birth till death is like a dream of a single night.

The lifetime from birth to childhood, aging, death – this entire lifespan is a dream we have dreamed. After we die, we will wake up. The dream will be over in the bardo state. A consciousness seeking a body.

In beginning, is important to resolve this life is like a dream. If you believe it is real, this establishes samsara. Must contemplate the universe will come to destruction.

The consciousness will still create another universe.
This creation is related to the creation state.

In Reality, the self light of the arising of one's own mind.
This mind is like a dream.
Dream state and completion state relate to each other.
When we practice completion state, must know how to practice it.
Like when you have a mirror, and breathe on a mirror, it becomes foggy, you can’t see anything, then watch it slowly, and it will clear up on it’s own. ☺

One must first understand that this entire creation will not remain. Then, visualize universe and Sentient beings – deities, principle deity – ex. Lama chopa- one thing dissolves into another – universe into sentient beings, sentient beings into retinue, retinue into main deity, main deity into one’s heart.

If yab-yum, the female dissolves into the male, and then the Buddha from top and bottom to the HUM in the heart. Remain in the HUM for a little while, then dissolve from the bottom up to the little ball on the top, then rest in that, and then the little ball dissolves into the nada strain – eventually into space and disappears.

When thoughts are completely severed, remain in that state for however long as you can, - if you can’t, reprise as deity in an instant – before thoughts have intervened. Will gradually purify ordinary propensities.

The daytime experiences relate to birth, nighttime relate to death process.
When you go to sleep at night, slowly fall asleep, as the dream arises.
The white path and red path, and other visions.

If one has light sleep, one may apprehend dream state. In an instant recognize them.
When dream stops, we faint. Like everything dissolving into the HUM syllable. If one has habituated completion stage, the clear knowing awareness must arise, must recognize dream state, and recognize when the dream stops.

A practitioner will not faint into having no sensations. Clear awareness – a mind without bias. Is the clear light. Clear mindfulness. Relates to the death process. At time of death, when thoughts will have ceased. One comes to Buddha nature itself, mahamudra. If one doesn’t recognize, will fall into sleep, won’t see luminosity.

Very helpful to practice OM AH HUM before sleep, and when you wake up, that instant, it is idea to merge awareness with view. Or, if not able to, to merge awareness with deity. If one can do this, is 100% certain will attain samboghakaya in bardo.

Otherwise, when mind ejects, is like clear sky, may see the nature of mind, if one has habituated mahamudra, will attain enlightenment into dharmakaya. After all thoughts have ceased.

These are the powers of completion stage.

Is more difficult to recognize clear light of deep sleep. But ideally, on awakening, can merge mind with view, will attain enlightenment in first bardo.

If thoughts arise, then one must remember, “I must remember the yidam deity”. Will attain enlightenment in bardo state. If you can’t do that, give rise to bodhichitta “may I be of benefit to sentient beings”. Will get

In the 1st bardo, will recognize clear light and attain dharmakaya.
In the 2nd bardo, will recognize deity and attain samboghakaya enlightenment.
In the 3rd, will attain nirmanakaya and come back to become a guru in this world.

One must always practice the OM AH HUM recitation. Physically, prayer wheel is very good. If you habituate OM AH HUM, you will remember it in your dreams. Then you may remember the deity, which is very good.
OM AH HUM contains all the Buddhas speech. Every deity mantra contains OM AH HUM in some way. In a single deity, all other deities are contained. They may appear in different forms, but all are same.

So, tashi dalek, I apologize for mistakes, and apologize to Khenchen rinpoche for mistakes. ☺

A brief guide to liberation theology

2009-12-20T03:52:00.007-05:00

Before I do a post going in-depth into the view of the Vajrayana, I would like to set the view of setting the view. :) My understanding is, in all liberation theologies - which means actual spiritual paths that lead from a point A (confusion, selfishness) to a point B (wisdom, selflessness) - there are three methods available to make that leap. Some variation of these three is present in all the actual paths - religion at it's best, free from the body-count and ego-inducing influence of politics. These methods are true compassion, devotion, and wisdom via analysis.

In most paths, two of the three are present, and that ain't bad. :) For example, in the Gospel of Matthew (22:37-40), there is the explicit passage (quoting almost verbatum Deuteronomy 6:5 ) of there being only two commandments: love your neighbors as yourself and love Yahweh with your whole heart. (FYI, by this point Yahweh has been totally transformed away from the petty local war god (aka drahla, in Tibetan) he was originally conceived as to something much much bigger and more interesting) . Saul of Tarsus wrote that these two things were impossible, but simply believing in 'the Christ' was better. BULLSHIT. These two elements - true compassion and devotion beyond the normal mundane meanings of the phrase - cropped up all over the world as a way to get beyond the small 'self'. People actually accomplished these methods too. Therefore, thinking that no human being could possibly apply these can be proven to be false.

(I'm not exactly a fan of Saul/Paul - can't you tell? :))

It is totally possible. This is the way that various Hindu schools achieve their results too - the Shakti devotional yogas are a good example of the path of devotion. Back to that shortly.

Shakyamuni Buddha added a third method - wisdom via analysis, aka vipasyana. This was the revolutionary idea of taking a stilled mind (which is a by-product of the first two methods, btw) and applying it to an object of contemplation, pulling back the layers of it to find some truth about it. In particular, it is analysis of something (starting of course with that closest to oneself, one's actual "self") to find the true reality behind it.

Most of the Buddhist schools that developed had the true compassion and the vipasyana. As the dharma traveled, the methods for these were adapted as appropriate for the cultural context it entered - the various Chan/Zen schools, for example - but at heart it was still the same things. There was some devotional element to it - especially for the lay community who supported the monastic practitioners - but it wasn't very developed as a method of it's own.

That changed around the 3rd Century C.E/ A.D. Remember the Hindu devotional yogas I referred to before? One of the key methods of this was to take some 'deity' - some avatar (no, not from the #$@$@#$@ James Cameron movie :)), Krishna, Shiva, etc. - and keep in mind an idea that they are hanging out in the space above one's head. This form of practice is known as Guru yoga. This form of practice was originally invented as Karma-yoga - "action yoga" - by Hindus to allow 'spiritual' practice to occur off the meditation mat.

This allowed one to use the natural devotional/longing emotional response built into humans (which is most people is only expressed towards a sexual partner or would-be sexual partner) and redirecting it towards another object of 'faith'. It is basically committing a spiritual judo by taking that longing faith usually expressed towards a lover and aiming it instead at a higher idea present in iconographic form in front of one's self. Keeping this devotion up naturally cuts through ego ideas of 'me me me me' by cutting through one's always thinking about one's self. By doing this, it also means that one can keep up a spiritual practice while going about one's activities, since humans find it naturally easier to wrap their mind around some visual image and keep it there versus an abstract idea, which requires totally undistracted focus to 'get'. In short, this method became the basis for a 'meditation in action', which not only monastics/retreatants could do (such as the stereotypical Indian yogi sitting cross-legged all day somewhere by the Ganges), but also folks who had to work for a living.

Note: I am basing my views of the dawn of tantra on some works of Karen Armstrong, my notes of the late, great goofy Vajra nutball genius Dr. Robin Kornman, and my very imperfect notes of some history of Buddhism from Lochen Dharmashri, one of the greatest editor/collectors of Nyingma tantras in the last 500 or so years.

It came about in about the 3rd Century C.E. in what is now present-day Afghanistan and Northern India. Since Hinduism and Buddha-dharma have crisscrossed numerous times, these new techniques rapidly were adapted. This helped address a complaint within the lay community that they didn't have any practices they could do.

In addition, in monastic settings, there were lots of duties (cooking, building, administration, buying supplies, etc.) that meant there were people who had renounced worldly life that ended up not being able to actually practice towards liberation. Guru yoga, using the path of devotion, provided a potential solution to these problems.

So, to recap, there are three main ways of liberation/moksha/entering the Kingdom of Heaven. These are compassion, devotion, and wisdom via analysis/vipasyana. Most religious systems have two of them, which is enough to get one out of small mind. Mahayana Buddhism also calls true compassion "relative bodhichitta", and wisdom via analysis "absolute bodhichitta". Further, Vajrayana buddha-dharma has all three ways of liberation fully developed.

I don't mean to imply that because it has all three, the stuff I now do is superior to everything else. It just means there are more methods available to cut through emotional defilements. While having more is in some ways better, it also provides more potentials for pitfalls and steering off whatever path one is on and getting stuck in a ditch. :) This is the "Spiritual Materialism" that Trungpa Rinpoche famously spoke about, which will be addressed in more detail in a later post, if all goes well. Until then, Peace and stuff.

-JTR

brief update

2009-12-02T22:47:00.002-05:00

I have a lot I should be putting up here. I will do so soon. Especially about Trungpa Rinpoche's Dharma Art teachings. They are what drew me in to 'all this', and I've been exploring them even more recently.

IAGW, to be continued.....

-JTR

October Already????, Some wisdom on being an 'elder' from Khandro Rinpoche

2009-10-12T03:56:00.007-04:00

Howdy kids.

A quick update. Last month, I was able to make it for 3 1/2 days of the Khandro Rinpoche Annual Retreat, and one additional practice day at Lotus Garden. The teachings were mostly about phowa (ejection of consciousness at the moment of death) and What to Do When You Are Dead - an explanation of the Bardo. While there are said to be six Bardos, or in-between states - the Bardo of Meditation, the Bardo of Dreams, the Bardo of the moment of Death, the Bardo of Dharmata, the Bardo of Becoming, and the Bardo of this Life- when people say "the Bardo", it usually refers to that state after the moment of death until the next rebirth (if one buys into that sort of thing).

I can't repeat exactly what she said in those teachings, since they are restricted. This must be understood correctly. "Restricted" doesn't mean that if you hear these teachings, or if I repeated them here, one's face would melt like that one Nazi at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". :) It means that, if one hasn't had the preceding teachings, which give the background for understanding what is occurring, then one would read them and go, "WTF"??? Without the context, they wouldn't make any sense.

Those of you who would like to know about the Bardo, I can send you to some excellent resources on-line here, here, here and here.

However, I thought it should be ok if I share a little bit she said about what it is to be a dharma elder. For those of us who have been at this dharma thing for over a decade (as I have now, since the first retreat I did with Khandro Rinpoche - which to me is really the beginning of when I got serious about Dharma (and also, since it was the first time I took refuge vows, it technically marks my becoming a follower of Buddha's way too)- it is important to think about the importance of discipline for elders. and her explanation of how compassion comes out of emptiness:

"...as elders who hold titles, dharma is given more in action than spoken works. The elders in this sangha must always make sure their actions are diverging from ordinary way... We need to be a step ahead in better conduct, maturity, generosity, kindness, simplicity, revulsion, unifying meditation and post-meditation. The conduct of discipline and self-awareness enhances one's own understanding and unifies the view and meditation. One becomes a wish-fulfilling jewel for others. Your conduct itself becomes a strengthened voice for dharma."

"Seeing the nature as is should allow you to become more free in embracing everything. Having a glimpse of shunyata (emptiness/fullness) mind and then forcing non-reaction to appearances doesn’t sound correct. (having an understanding of) “All appearances are mind “ should give more freedom to all appearances. This is a freedom to be involved, a flexibility with which you do not grasp to that moments’ expression. Rather than force abiding in shunyata, (one should) always bring about a supple way of freeing everything from your grasping, since you realize there is nothing to discriminate. Non-conceptual compassion is about this. 'You know things are a projection of your mind, but you take a bug outside (that is inside trapped flying against a screen)" is a beautiful expression of samboghakaya non-dual compassion. “

"(One should) Play along with saving lives, cooking food, all the mundane things like being important at a meeting, being a servant, mother, father, etc. And, you do (all these tasks) well, because you have no agendas, no discrimination. If the ending works, fine. If it is most tragic, fine. Kind of blah, fine. You simply play along with it."

"You must learn to flow. The river doesn’t stop at every place it sees a beautiful meadow and says, “I want to stop here”. You most flow, there is no need of grasping. Being willing to flow by itself is compassion. To be non-conceptual, things must not be made more than it is. That would only be solidifying it. "

"Make aspirations each day. Live well. Prepare for death. If that happens, go forward with confidence."

So, that is what I have been thinking about since the Annual Retreat. It's an odd thought, that I am an elder now. Following both from what Rinpoche said above and from the view of my other lineage, the Drikung Kagyu, discipline/ethics is a VERY important part of the whole thing. Not only for one's own good (since w/o discipline, one won't get far - one will get distracted easily, for starters), but also for everyone else.

Khandro Rinpoche has said in the past something along the lines of (paraphrasing broadly here) "you are likely the only Buddhist practitioner that most people you meet will ever meet. So, think - does your way of manifesting speak well of the Dharma? If YOU met yourself, would you think, "Here is someone who seems genuine, who acts according to what he/she talks about, maybe there is something to this path" and be inspired to start sitting, cutting your actions that are really only harming yourself, etc.? Or would you think, "This person is a bit of a mess. I don't think this buddhism stuff must work too well" and then turn away from the potential for using this human life to benefit others, rather than focusing solely or one's own desires (or on "self-aggrandizing", as the Drikung Khenchen Rinpoche likes to say)".

There is a great responsibility here to try to be the teachings. I admit to massive FAIL on that front sometimes, but I am certainly much better than I once was. Now that I have my own students, I hope that I am an inspiration for them to go further in training their own minds.

...And that's it for today. :)

Outside of dharma, work is going well. One of our cats has had her thyroid meds dosage reduced, which should make her less lethargic. And we've been doing some serious cleaning / tossing in our apartment, which does make the place feel better. Not much else to report now.

Except, it is the little things like cleaning one's space that often show the state of one's mind...

Brief update (vkr 2009), Welcome to the bloggosphere, Ani Chime

2009-09-19T21:54:00.002-04:00

Howdy ya'll. A quick update (til I get my notes edited, if all goes well.) Went to the Khandro Rinpoche retreat for 4 days. She taught about what to do when you are dead, in the Bardo (the time in between lives). Those who have read 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' will really be able to appreciate what she was teaching. More on that later.

Melissa and I spent last night learning to salsa dance at the DC Shambhala Center. (Some of you may be a bit "wha" - dancing at a dharma center? It wasn't a hook-up type situation, and there was no alcohol involved. :)) Someone offered to do this as a fundraiser for the Center. It was quite fun.

Lastly for now, Welcome Ani Chime to the bloggosphere - http://anichime.blogspot.com/.

All for now...

Update, say farewell to "Our Town"

2009-08-29T23:57:00.006-04:00

Just a quick note. I should be at Lotus Garden for Khandro Rinpoche right now, but I got sick last week (cold/flu, something like that) and missed work, and decided taking an illness out to the land would not be a good karmic thing. So I am at home. I plan to go out to join the Retreat in progress Thursday morning. Other than that, just life - work has been busy, since we lost 2 people on our 6-person team. Everything else is kind of in statis - which is a rare and beautiful thing, really, and I knopw it will change.

In the meantime, a little musical offering : Iris Dement performing "Our Town" with "The Grey Ghost", Emmylou Harris, on harmony vocals.

I heard a Shambhala sangha member out in Colorado requested his son play this clip right before he left his home to go to hospice care to die. Haunting. And yes, this is the song from the very end of "Northern Exposure". That show is so intertwined with my life in the 90's, I can't watch that clip now w/o crying.

When I die, and/or if I ever end up going into long-term retreat, I'd like to listen to this and Sia's "Breathe Me" right before I go.

Update; One Year since Lucinda's Death

2009-08-03T01:29:00.003-04:00

A brief update. I have been working for the past month as part of the web team on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - formerly the INS- website. It's going pretty good so far. As much as I valued having more practice time, that "getting paid" thing certainly has it's advantages. :)

...especially since our ceiling needed to be replaced in our back bedroom, since the fan shifted in the course of one day to a dangerous "imminent risk of collapse". So, our apt is filled w/ stuff, to allow someone to come in and fix it (and paint the room while they were at it). It is forcing us to go through our @#@$ and get rid of a lot of stuff - minimalizing, I suppose.

This weekend, some of the DC Khandro Rinpoche group got together to do the Mindrolling Lineage Vajrasattva (aka "Dor Sem") full sadhana practice. It felt great to do it again - though it has been several months and it was comically/painfully obvious we were all out of practice with the practice. :)

As we were doing it, someone mentioned that it had been exactly a year since our dear Lucinda Peach's death. I am thinking that got us all thinking a bit more about how we are practicing, and what we are doing with our lives. It certainly did for me.

...and on that note, good night, and good luck. If all goes well, until later.

-JTR

A Guru Yoga that Brings the Dharmakaya onto the Path - by Khenchen Könchog Gyaltshen, composed October 27th, 2008

2009-07-25T21:17:00.009-04:00

A Guru Yoga that Brings the Dharmakaya onto the Path

a practice profound of meaning and rich with blessing for the modern regular practitioner with limited time by Khenchen Könchog Gyaltshen, composed October 27th, 2008

Teaching from Spring 2009 Retreat, TMC, Maryland

" You are so fortunate to be here together and share some dharma knowledge. This is something very precious. I believe this is not easy to get because of the collection of causes that brought us here.

Our dharma sangha, practitioners from different places, Boston, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, MD J, is precious. You came here because of seeing benefit of dharma. You know how it is precious, how it helps to daily life. And of course it is the way to help others, and to enlightenment, the state free of all confusion and suffering.

The path of Shambhala (Dharma) Art

2009-06-20T04:59:00.018-04:00

Back in Mid-April, I did a program at DC Shambhala with Acharya Arawana Hyasahi called "Shambhala Art Level 4+5". This program was a condensed version of two programs I did nearly a decade ago (!) in Baltimore teaching from Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching on what he called "Dharma Art", which were renamed "Shambhala Art" about 2003 or so.

These teachings, which as I've said before, were what drew me in to Shambhala (which lead directly to me meeting the other teachers I follow today), are essentially a direct experential way of demonstrating a lot of the concepts of Vajra yana Buddhism. As Acharya Hyasahi said, "The teaching trungpa did in shambhala art is the highest teaching, and also accessible in different ways." (I am going to be quoting directly from my notes from the weekend a lot, because I couldn't say it better than she did. :))These teachings (and the exercises that go with them) directly point to how some of the things talked about in Buddhism actually relate to one's life. For example, I could talk about "Relative truth" and "Ultimate truth" all day, but it wouldn't get the point accross as well as some of the "sign and symbol" excersizes. sasa

The Dharma Art teachings (now reissued in a new edition called "True Perception" after the original book, which I have called "my bible", went out of print) contain a lot of material on perception, how perception works, and distinguishing the ways of seeing the method of perceiving we all use. As Aryana said, "To be a human being, and live in a dharmic way, is art. Living harmoniously, to live in an artful way is this teaching. We can of course apply it those of us that do something we call art, but the teaching is that it is something that influences our whole life. Also, he offers up numerous times the synchronization of mind and body. When they are synchronized, it is “authentic presence” – he recommends meditation before an artwork. “If we are artists, we need to live like artists, and treat our entire lives as discipline.” “Art and post-art become one, like meditation and post-meditation practice become one.”

The weekend was specifically about working with the teachings of relating with the "Five buddha families" and "the Four Karmas".

All teachings – art in everyday life, etc. are to train us to be able to choose wakefulness. These are relative choices. On her absolute, innate level – is undoctional basic goodness, accommodating both choices. Is always a ground like this. Could make something beautiful, or something to undermine people’s basic goodness. Doesn’t make a difference to the space. On a relative level, it does- choose awakened, or making suffering.

All actions could be pared down to the 4 ways of participating in the world. Art making, making money, raising family, etc. We will look at these first as actions, how they look visually, and then see them sequentially as a process of making art.

Talent- the ability to be in touch with natural timing of the world.
“The basic innate nature of our existence and sense of perception in the circle”

Then sense of “dot in space” (as in SL 5), that momentary flash of awake mind is called a dot. Is a lot of nowness- insight of presence. Once we say or do something from there, is sometimes called the stroke or Ashe. From awake, really human inspiration comes some kind of expression. Likewise once it comes out of conditioned behavior, it just comes out.
So, we are trying o pay attention to what does what.

_________________________________________________________________

Ok, now that I've given that summary, I felt the best way to explain more was to include my complete notes along side some of the exercises demonstrating each of the principles described.

Did you do any reading? Were you told to bring a book? To do a reading? Primarily, there is one chapter in the true perception/ dharma art – “the five styles of creative expression” that would be good to read.
Most of the study however will be from “joining heaven and earth”, which isn’t in “dharma art”- it is in “the art OF Calligraphy”. If you can get it, that is fine.
So, the end of the book- joining heaven and earth” – pg 146-end of book – primary source for weekend.
I’ve said it a couple times. What struck me in studying for this weekend is the enormous profundity of this material. The teaching trungpa did in shambhala art is the highest teaching, and also accessible in different ways.
Very weighty on me – how we share this material in a short amount of time.

Tom will have some follow up sessions. It is a LOT of material for 2 days.
The teachings are from the “visual dharma ‘ seminar that trungpa gave in boulder in the summer of 1979. We have been primarily studying from the summer – this is the background material on perception, how perception work, and distinguishing ways of seeing – self, cocoon – the method of [perceiving – the amount that our perceiving is colored by what the sakyong calls the “me plan”. The shambhala art teachings help us to first notice we do that, we have all sort of frames to choose, 1st to even notice something, 2nd if it is for us or against us, we like it or don’t like it, we are trying to discern our own method of perceiving.
The exercises highlight our neurosis and our natural ability to see things as they truly are.
Anyone want to share, it’s the part 1 and part 2 investigation.
To be a human being, and live in a dharmic way, is art. Trungpa uses the word dharma synonymously with art.
Living harmoniously, to live in an artful way is this teaching.
We can of course apply it those of us that do something we call art, but the teaching is that it is something that influences our whole life.

Then natural hierarchy- heaven, earth, and human.

Arranging in terms of spatial placement and time.
Look at it in terms of first spark – earth – and how to tune in from there –human.
Heaven is “the big thing” – not at all biggest. The biggest perception, that breaks through subconscious gossip. We need to review this, because we will be reviewing these principles through different lenses.

Earth is the confirmation of the big thing – allows the heaven principle to be legitimate. Letting something live in us or move us.

Human principle – as a perceiver – see “how do I perceive the world?”
What is my definition of communication?

“Whew! Wow, I’ve done it.” Some sense of landing, being present.
It’s through perceiving rather than analyzing.

Last chapter- “art and society”.
It reminds us why we gather together to do this…
“It is connecting with defeating setting sun vision”- the small world of passion, aggression an ignorance.
“and transform it into Great Eastern Sun vision. That is our purpose in being here. We would like to establish….enlightened society…”
This is the background of why he taught it, and what we are supposed to do w/ it. When we realize how to be warm, there is not problem w/ introducing dharma into our art.”
So that’s the deal. You step in the door, and you are part of that stream of people trying to bring some peace to the world.

Those of us of privilege have a responsibility…

When we start to get small-minded, it is easy to lose our motivation. Any paragraph of this book is a powerful reminder of how art or artful living can be.
“It’s not self expression, it’s just expression. Things happen, there is no need to claim it as ours.”
I’m just introducing a few topics, and maybe introduce the Buddha families.

There is a 2nd chapter he entitles discipline.
Trungpa rinpoche often says, “it’s like combing hair”, going through a topic again and again.
In this case, he outlines the psychological and physical implications of heaven- could be implementing a meeting, a dinner party, a piece of art, a webpage, whatever.
(Working on social change theater – working w/ an incredibly innovative agency- that sees challenged people as having gifts- they are all so genuine, unimpeded)
We call this the ‘toehold’- but there is seemingly so much oppression in the system- it just squashes- clients, demands, finances, etc. – it sucks the energy down and closes it off. How do we find the help, practices, etc. we need?

3 reflections on heaven principle
1) Offers up numerous times the synchronization of mind and body. When they are synchronized, it is “authentic presence” – he recommends meditation before an artwork. “If we are artists, we need to live like artists, and treat our entire lives as discipline.” “Art and post art become one, like meditation and PMP become one.”
2) Also, the tools- the relationship w/ ones brushes, cloth, eggplants, whatever. The sacredness and potential power of the tools themselves.
3) Free from hope and fear – those of us who when we were children, were able to dance, sing whatever w/o hope and fear. Most of us unlearned that, that’s why shambhala is so into leaning into such experiences. The first thing is hope- to look at hope- wanting things to be better, more supportive, there is a sense of hopelessness- giving up expectation of a better result. Also soften up fear of inadequacy. We live in a time, in terms of job security, what is going on in the world, the fear is everywhere – it’s threatening- if not us, our family or neighbors. It’s the sense of how we work w/ hope and fear -
It is important to build up knowing feeling of wanted and unwanted- that whole arena of what it is to build capacity to live in a more curious, inquisitive way- in terms of inquisitive, it doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative.
If we are after comfortable, we will be disappointed.
It’s not shutting out what we view as unhealthy, or don’t agree with.
Most of us know we can’t control bringing in the good and putting off the bad.
In the end, “when we have that attitude and motivation, we are victorious. There is a general sense of even mindedness that could be called decency.”
The decency is the ability to live w/ our experience in an even minded way.

Earth is about workability and pliability. We have a vision of what an experience could be like. (In some states, working with people is like working w/ hardened clay – in others, it is more workable.

Earth principle is saying there’s always moisture to make it workable. The vision- heaven- rains down, makes our everyday experience workable, pliable.
What does it mean? Apply the principles to art.

Human – ‘simplicity’ – a sense of nowness, not being biased towards one side or another, a sense of freedom. One is able to be living on this earth w/ a vision.
And then the 4th is the 4 Karmas, the 4 actions. Which we will cover this weekend.

Up for a small exercise, rolling around on the floor.

The 5 Buddha families- the Mandela principle. These come out of vajrayana Buddhism, but they apply in many ways – not particularly religious.
Very similar to Native American systems. Not looking at it in terms of psychology, but an aesthetic, feel for, a quality. Will look at this rather than “this is neurotic and sane version of Buddha family, etc…”

We are talking about the process, as well as what we are making w/ the product.
3 points-
1) The product- the what- ex. This shambhala center
2) -The process- the who- if asked, you could tell someone how you did it.
3) The person- the who- the state of mind of the person making it.

In SA we are talking about the state of mind of the artist? We have a lot of instructions so far- what is the mind that makes the arrangement…. spacious- curious- cool and relaxed – emphasized-

"Neurosis is that which creates obstacles to perceiving the phenomena world properly, and fully, as the true artist should. The basic obstacle to clear perception is omnipresent anxiety, which does not allow us to relate to our selves or the world outside ourselves. Out of that anxiety comes a feeling of heat. Out of that is a feeling like heat. That claustrophobia leads us to contract our sense perceptions. Where there is 100 % claustrophobia, we can’t see, hear, smell, taste. Our senses are numbed. This is a great obstacle to creating art. “ – CTR
Being a drola- a person who is always moving – migrator- always moving- could be related to things like now – a cultural shift- where something isn’t working. We had the breakdown of communism, and now we are having the complete breakdown of capitalism – it didn’t work for most of the world anyway- we are seeing it doesn’t work –there is a lot of falling apart right now –let alone global warming, growing poverty, wars. - Omnipresent anxiety.

In the chapter “dharma and art”.
When arawana was starting in the 60’s, there was a feeling that agony fueled to process, that seeing therapy or something would steal ones art.

Fundamentally, art is an unconditional beauty, which transcends ordinary beauty. –CTR

Peace and Space – exercise one – Buddha family
What is a Buddha family person like – enlightened quality – spaciousness, vastness, openness – anything is possible.

w/ three objects, we are going to
It’s heaven earth man, but w/ quality of spaciousness…

One must pay attention to the margins and the marginalized.
Pay attention to the boundaries.
Point of practice is to include ALL S.B. s in the action of wisdom and compassion. Where you put your things in relation to other people’s things can be incredibly profound and can affect others. Life has borders and edges in time and space – this is the room we are working with – we are working with “what is”.

There isn’t any freedom unless one realizes what the forms and limits are – it’s mostly about discipline.

Jim- as soon as an object is down, I am seeing it’s name and function.
Arianna- just let it go. ☺
Continue to practice during lunch- look t the world through colored glasses – red and warm, or cold and criticizing – make note of the view you are having.
And, in your environment – what do you order? What is the restaurant like? What are its qualities?

Write down 5 things during lunch – to sharpen up your perceptions…. what seems watery, fiery, etc. Look at the world as though you are an artist.

If objects are touching- there is something about the spacing that makes objects more visible.

Just looking at objects, without concepts…
-A little green thing, a first shoot – this is not the time for editing, for cutting it down. First thing in the creative process is nurturing – warmth, etc. later on, you can cut it off and be judgmental, but not now…

Buddha- center - head
Vajra- east - eyes
Ratna- south – throat, belly
Padma – west- heart
Karma – north- limbs

Relationship between heaven and earth-

Humans who are connected with both these principles – heaven – being w/o hope and fear- earth- unobstructed

Humans can survive w/ the mercy of heaven and earth- it is almost a traditional scientific c truth that when heaven and earth have a good relationship, humans have a good relationship w/ them. When they are in conflict, men and women have doubts about their ruler, who is supposed to join heaven and earth, like king David. “
The vision and the ability to get the job done – need to be able to hold those two things, otherwise there is war and disasters, etc.

Exercise- 5 Buddha family arrangements.

Q. At lunch, said thing about mimicking- felt like I was padma when I was young, and then ratna for past several years. Yet we are supposed to be born into 1 family. How does this work?
A. I don’t know – her relationship w/ the families is through SA and Buddhism, aesthetic principles, not maitri or psychological states. Don’t work w/ the 5 families that much in my own work.
Q. How important it is to do this- not just creating, but entering into other’s fields of experiencing.
A. Good to have diversity and voice of margin in a team, to see the whole system. What would it be like to see the world like ___? Try to see the world like them.
Aware of many ways of seeing.
Q- feeling the ground of someone else’s feeling when he or she are talking to you.

4 levels of listening
A. 1st- polite- listening from the middle of the cocoon- don’t actual see the other person, see a version of them we project out and we get that feedback- own projected sense of slides- may be more or less correct, but they are still our projections.
B. 2nd – step outside of organization system, to the edge, and look out. Getting disconfirming data. In the 1st instance of doing so, we do it to clarify – “I am my opinion”. Situations where many of us are stuck in our own view, and we think we are right. (ex. Diversity issues), so, when we hear other’s views, instead of being empathetic, we get more clear of their view. Good basis of debate – discussion like percussion.
C. 3rd- empathy- jumping out of our shoes into theirs. Gets into genuine dialogues.
D. 4th- generative listening- could generate a real wisdom in the listener. Spontaneous insight, - listening makes the insight come forth.
It is useful to know all these at different times.

Looking at flexibility is able to move from one to the other with some grace.

Q. That quote –
Chapter – “joining heaven and earth” –
Trungpa said in a dark age, there is more of a need for constant stimulation, creating numbness. We as practitioners can see these as obstacles.
What is the relationship between that contemplation and the exercises we just did?
More ways to see things. Seeing ways to work around the energies, and deal with it, play with it.

Q. a quote about “viewing a stick through the five families.”
A. We will try that tomorrow. Using the same set of objects for all five families.
If we had three sticks, we could make a 3 stick Buddha, ratna, etc. Maybe it’s because I’ve always worked w/ not enough funding or people. ☺ You work with what you got. I once taught this weekend w/ just matchsticks and paper.

How do you regard a stick through the 5 families?
It’s not about only using one sense perception. Contemplate that tonight.
Trungpa’s film choices- dersuzalla, the last wave, a documentary on cowboys, a documentary on sheepherding,
a theme of space and richness.

A plug for Acharya Ferguson’s new book ‘Natural Wakefulness’

Distinctions between innate (natural) and manifested (the training that will bring it about)

The white square- hearkens back to “back to square one”-m this open blank canvas of a mind, sky like mind, where we always return to in terns of making art pr==or working w. people. That is why it is there, as a reminder.

Will begin w/ checking- how is my mind and body….
______________________________________________________________________________________
Part 5- investigation – these parts are just topics CTR taught in relation to visual art- put together by his students- the point is I suppose we can do a everything together- this isn’t the only way of looking at this material – but in terns to participating in your own centers and whatever else your life is about.

The karmas – actions – what is the teaching? On Karma.
Cause and effect. Every action has a kind of reverberation in the world, a result. The fact you all are in this room is due to innumerable causes and effects in our lives.
There is no avoiding causes and effect, but also very difficult to understand. It’s not one thing = one result.

It also makes most sense in a multi-lifetime system, how these occur.

What does karma mean? It also means we have complete freedom in the nowness. In every moment are choices – we can choose Great Eastern Sun, or choose to be comfortable, familiar, closed down, HPs. You could open up, no hope, no fear, or act in this realm of conditioned behavior.

All teachings – art in everyday life, etc. are to train us to be able to choose wakefulness. These are relative choices. On her absolute, innate level – is undoctional basic goodness, accommodating both choices. Is always a ground like this. Could make something beautiful, or something to undermine people’s basic goodness. Doesn’t make a difference to the space. On a relative level, it does- choose awakened, or making suffering.

4 actions
Alll actions could be pared down to the 4 ways of participating in the world. Art making, making money, raising family, etc.
We will look at these first as actions, how they look visually, and then see them sequentially as a process of making art. They describe the 4 dignity, the 4 stages of creative process, how to participate in a skillful way in our lives.
- Pg. 169- p. 36 in “art of calligraphy”

- This discussions in not as abstract as you might think…”
- He taught these in 1979 on transparencies. Was inspired, since tom and Antonio didn’t understand what CTR was talking about ☺

Start w/ first one- discussion – 2 aspects of action
1- Innate
2- Manifested

Back to what we said before. Innate, naturally heaven, earth and man, 4 karmas, 5 families, etc. And 23rd part, how to see the world as a sense of order. Spring before summer, than fall. Morning, then noon, the night.

Trees grow greens up roots down. It’s how things are. Not a religious system.
Heaven earth and humans arrangement…. (para 1 p. 28).
Talent- the ability to be in touch with natural timing of the world.
“The basic innate nature of our existence and sense of perception in the circle”

Then sense of “dot in space” (as in SL 5), that momentary flash of awake mind is called a dot. Is a lot of nowness- insight of presence. Once we say or do something from there, is sometimes called the stroke or Ashe. From awake, really human inspiration comes some kind of expression. Likewise once it comes out of conditioned behavior, it just comes out.
So, we are trying o pay attention to what does what.

The line from the dot (earth) is the stroke (man).

Could also say the 1st dot surrounded by circles heaven.

Outside circle. – Mind.
Inner circle- energy.

Space, and energy.

Mind like open sky – things come and go – like clouds.
The energy is called the Great Eastern Sun. There is a Vibrant brilliant quality, which manifests in 4 different ways of the Karmas.

Pacifying
Round shape – peace, or pacifying.
Goodness- absence of arrogance. Absence of neurosis.

CTR makes an arrangement of h, e, m – the placement of the elements complements the circle. Sense of no neurosis. We feel that quality of pacifying.

(Passes around for people to try for themselves.) To be pacified seems to need balance. I comes out of a tradition that – dances came into Japan in the 7th century, and haven’t changes since then. Was passed down in the family since 8th century. Arawana watched teacher, and tried to do exactly the same way. The purpose of the dances is to attract gods, dralhas. Kind of a geomancy – the movement of the group – trying to do same thing, trying to shift energy of planet. You don’t fool w/ it, you just do it. Innovation is not of value here. Being in synch, inseparable from that – traditional art generally has a different value structure than how cleaver you can be. I don’t see these 2 things are at odds. I never noticed any difference.
-We are so used to thinking of what is innovative, interesting, has a spark, we have difficult with understanding 4 karmas.
How do you just be in a meeting, and mirror or hold opposites, conflicts in a meeting?
Would my role be to be pacifying w/o suppressing. Pacifying is to be able to mirror the whole. In such a way that everything clicks. Then the clarity can come to the surface.
These things get us things- what would placement be to feel pacifying.
(Balance, alignment),
This is visual rather than philosophical. How does it make us feel pacified?

IS A difference btwn – this is one of the most important
Boredom is incredibly important in meditation. It leads to no hope and no fear.

“it’s ok.” 2-thing going to -1
2 things 10 just go forward

If it is boring, do john cage thing, It sounds like cage’s looking into seeing.
Cage worked a lot w/ role of listener, trained to open out. We are working on how to listen.

Next karma

Enriching
Enriching- “manifested mind” – mental state of building, (I have no idea what It means.)
- Manifestation of the moving mind. S =enriching- outside if mind or thought.
- Big difference of feeling of square and feeling of diamond.
- Is the heart monolithic
In this situation we could …pg, 29, 30,
- Intrinsic energy of our state of mind

Need to take into account r
You actually think about the heaven –earth man-3

Magnetizing
Magnetizing - `”on you feel you out earth-“ Let go and go away, be generous.
Neurotic- “we want to jump off a cliff before we have to give someone even half a penny.”
Sense of padma is always some kind of longing. MAGENTIZING –reverses the pattern of thinking “I don’t have enough”.

You think you can get enough art, music, even shopping.
It is like a flower- beautiful flower- complete – one is immediately drawn to it. But it’s not jumping into you face. Magnetizing is often also translated as “empowering”.

Destroying
“The heavy one”. It’d basic nature is fearless. Too little fearlessness- coward
Too much- too intellectual

All the 5 families can use all 4 karmas- but there is also a correspondence.

Destroying- Karma
Magnetizing – Padma
Pacifying - Vajra
Enriching - Ratna

There is a a pacifying magnetizing- pacifying destroying - ‘like in ‘discovery elegance” Not feeling like it is “your baby”.

How we actually work w/ the 4 principles. (top p. 33)

Square represents manifestation. Mandala principle- what is a mandala? Set up – has an inner and outer.
“center and fringe” – ‘kil khor’ in Tibetan
Display of the mind and culture. Each of us lives in a mandala, we live in center.

Tradition Square = courtyard. – Living on this earth.
Circle. Heaven earth and man.
- 3 stroke strategy.
- East is always down, in middle, slightly of center-…
- From east – in the middle, slightly off-center, cool situation, cools off boredom and heat of neurosis.
- Big white in east-courtyard
Pure and cool, gentle, free from neurosis.

Can use red or yellow – same source.

Enriching- absence of arrogance and aggression. Make a connection w/ richness, leads to absence of arrogance. (markers roll to Karen ☺)
Arrogance – false puffing up – makes us feel poor. It’s not trusting our basic richness.

How to tune in to these karmas.

Magnetizing –approach it from the west. Overcomes poverty (straight out of traditional texts.)

Destroying – enter from the north- gives some sense of principle- destruction of laziness – next time you are lazy, draw a triangle, and cut right through that laziness.

Put them all together, and you get the “whole thing”.

The point is- all this works together, and is a description of what it is to live a life. We live in a world of action. The logic of “view = heaven – practice = person practicing .

4 dignities of shambhala work with same things, just in the opposite direction.

p. 36 – students enter from different direction for different reasons. Apart from an artistic, there is a sociological principle also.
When Antonio said “now” – green triangle –karma-
Went to the restaurants yesterday- show-off peppershakers.

Tom Semmes- How to actually use the 4 Karmas to create a work of art

All fine party conversation, but you need to use it to actually create a work of art.

I am going to talk about how I experienced the 4 karmas originally, and then how I actually use them, and we will do exercise to see how they are working.

I realized when I took my first SA class, at the same time, I started taking art classes- I have been studying SA at the same time I had been studying art. I lost something at art school. Part of my interest was how CTR created art w/o ego. He made it look simple. No heavy concepts. At art school, was all aggression, who had connections, studios, etc. I couldn’t see myself being that way. There was an energy that was truncated. Part of my interest was to break through that. When I first studied the 4 karmas, I remember taking back a message for what you actually do in the studio (or anywhere else) to create a work of art.

First, negative aspects. Everyone who’s ever done or taught art, the first thing is a judgment “I’m not good enough”. It amazes me that people come to a class and say, “I can’t draw”. Well, of course not, you are learning. Our culture has a truncated view- some people have talent, some don’t. Those who don’t often go off and make a lot more money. ☺ But seriously, it’s one think to not want to learn to draw but to say you can’t is a negative judgment you made on yourself. in my process of taking these classes, come across these negativities.

Then, later, doing a piece, and then judging it and saying “that’s bad, that’s bad” – using the destruction karma- “oh it’s no good” and destroying it. I would be working on a piece, not wasn’t sure where it was going, and if it didn’t go somewhere in ½ hour, I would just destroy it.” You need to stay w/ it. Take an inspiration and not obstruct it. With destruction, or enrich it too much “I will be really careful, this is how you do it, these is not.” And another- working w/ other people – a sense of competition- “he’s no good, but she’s better than me.” How do you work with other people and criticize art. The first step from creating art to showing it – you can just show it “I am looking at this work, can I step outside the process and see it as others do?”

So, the 4 karmas. The first and last are most important. ☺ Pacifying- we all forget about it. Always start w/ first negative judgment of ourselves. The very reason we have art schools seems to be to create a pacifying place – the teacher says "take our pencil, paper, draw a figure”. You need to create that situation yourself, to learn to be your own teacher. Only so much an external teacher can tell you, you need to learn yourself. But how do you do that without peacefulness? We have talked about vajra family…

Almost all artists create little tricks that work for them, for whatever reason. For me, scrapping my palette does it. There are periods when everything I do looks bad.

The mixing colors amazes me. ☺ I sort of wish we could overlay family colors- charetuse family, pink family, karma and padma = purple.

You always need to find a way to create a pacified place- a container. I know it’s conceptual, arbitrary, but as humans we work w. these things to reach that place. Then what- you enrich it; you add things- pretty easy, put colors on a canvas. And it goes on and on like that. Enriching is the easiest of all the families to me. But at some point, you need to make up your mind- “what is this picture about?”

Here is where padma comes in – magnetizing something in- what the canvas is “about” – abstract or realistic. “How do you keep that magnetizing energy going?

The danger is that you will get to that point, and then all these other ideas will start happening – like you re afraid to go there- you get this neurotic padma aspect- and the structure goes “glu gly glyu glu”.

And then there is a point of completion, and then it sits for 2-3 days. Somehow, the picture starts to change- it starts to look stupid, or too much, wtc. “ Here’s where 4th karma comes in. Is a good destruction, and a bad kind.

Good – “where is the life in this?” – it’s more about life than killing something? And what do you want to keep here? And think maybe to keep this; you need to take this…” some are worth destroying or painting over.

And then the critic- it’s not about cutting you down, but to increase the amount of life – this dance troupe needs maybe a little work, but this one really has it!

‘ or whatever.

Participant comments:
• You reminded me of the story of George and Martha- children’s stories about hippos.
• One teacher I work with- was a bit dharmic- said "do 1000 paintings, and THEN you can criticize your own work, you are still learning.”
• for about 25 years, I was an “Artist” – competing to get into shows- then I had it – it was too soul crushing- I’ve been much happier since I have not defined myself as an artist. I dropped out of that very vicious world. I always had this anxiety underneath- pressure to make it, to sell, to become famous.
• That attitude is very western European. I can identify with it.

Is a good and bad place to paint. Often, now have been taking photos of a landscape, and then paint from hat- it’s much easier- it creates a pacifying ground.

The thought –I want to do a landscape” or “I want to set up here” – that’s a thought, but then after set up, you don’t know what you are doing- first thought as empty.
Where do the universe of the neurotic artist and this other world coexist?

Arawana- every moment of activity, I’ve done before, but I haven’t done it before now. The person I was 30 years ago doesn’t exist now. The only thing I experience is right now. Even if I have done the same 7 dances thousands of times in locations – doing anything for 50 dollars ☺, I’ve done them in many situations that are less than optimal- but that time, is the first time I’ve done this gesture for them. Maybe the more training, the lass you have to worry about the action. But every time there is anxiety, every time there is anxiety to do it right, not fall down. Is always some combination of anxiety. And, in terms of working, I hadn’t worked since 2000, when the republicans cut off all arts funding. Now that It’s back, those experiencing are always back. ☺

Unfortunately, if I am doing a piece, I am trying to do it – I know the way it is supposed to be. And while sometimes I am a raving banshee- but somehow, this –SA- working w/ groups of people – the book true perception- Luther said it’s my bible- I FEL THE same way. I DON’T know what or why it is, but that drive to create something with other people that could shift the social fabric. I am desperate to change something, to make something better. What is that? I don’t know what it is. But it is the inquiry.

Even inside this slightly neurotic, hyper-vigilant states, you both described “the first moment is the here and the now” – even if it is dancing in a basement for 2 people, there is a sense of ‘this is who I am.”

The immediate nowness of improvising – but if I haven’t pacified, I can’t enter into playing music at all. I’ve had this experience where I’d been in an orchestra, asked to do a solo, and then have an idea of it, but then go, and would be awful; you have to surrender to it. If composing, must surrender enough to be silent. Surrendering to be present to all the sense perceptions and direction. Music has taught me that. You surrender in his now, and bring all your passion and skill…but also your neurosis. To surrender more and more, so I can hold the space and accommodate my neurosis and vision simultaneously.
JB- that immediacy is what ctr called back to square one. You need to get there to be pacified. You have a vision, but don’t know how to manifest that. If you get back to square one, that first square arises, and then- plop!- then it can come out. It has helped to be present driving the past couple days.

Exercise-

Looking at the arrangement. Before, people love to jump in and saying something.
But looking at something has it’s own process. Similar to creating, but from outside in, not inside out.
1) Pacify the situation- just looking at all of it. We have agreed there is a container (the golden rectangle). Just looking at the whole thing.
2) Enrich- bring in concepts you already have. Ex. Working w/ ratna, know ratna is yellow, is rich, etc. adding different filters. Not really choosing one, just adding filters. “This is about fullness” or “enriching gold king-like power”. Also certain elements representing space. Where is what feels like earth, heaven, human, etc. Where is the energy in this – space, form and energy is another phrase for heaven, earth and man. Just throwing out ideas.
3) Magnetize- if this was heaven, what is the earth? What is trying to nurture heaven ground it, give it the space it wants. Assigning importance – “this is the next largest element”, “does the earth element ground it?” etc.
4) Destroying- how could it be different? What is and isn’t working? We aren’t going to say, “I like this, I don’t like that, that one sucks, etc.”

So, what did the creator say?

What does assigning importance mean – determining “what is this about?” It about ratna- in enriching- bring in other concept of what it is bout.
What is being expressed by the relationship through the objects? The principles of heaven, earth man really work with seeing art.

Afternoon- will be continuing w/ it- but more 3-d- in four different spots of the room. Self-select group.

View- remember silence, and things arise from silence. More spaciousness and openness = more fun. Also, practically- more screens, ladder, etc.

Debrief of the process- what is it like to do this process- if you have any stories- there is a wide range of what the process could be like.

Destroying - Karma- we had different skills, and we used them indepen

ently,

check

ing in from time to time- we sort of came up with a plan to start, and then ran w/ it, using their own skills. What was the leadership style-?
We set the initial view- like a seed and things unfolded from here- a lot of tolerance and flexibility.

Magnetizing -Padma- had a little conflict- different ideas expressed, people kept working together, people held to basic ideas while holding to other stuff. We did much better than

any one single persons vision. We tried to focus on “or who wouldn’t want whipped cream?” When we got back here, a sense of openness and play after shopping, and went for horizontal, and it got more horizontal and inviting. Horizontal leadership- really listening to one another. Worked very much together. A bit of collision at the start- “it has to be this and this and this”- weren’t allowing ideas to blend but we got back and really listened to each other.
( 1) not allowed to say ”yes, but” – only allowed to say “yes, and” – a big rule of improvisation – and 2) no bad ideas. –Idea- great design company has these wonderful rules.).

Direction leadership vs. process leadership at the beginning then started playing together. Decided “let’s go out and get what we like, and then see what happens” and it worked. Somehow it was all going to work anyway. Very improvisational. Developed organically

Enriching- Ratna-

we worked together- even the guy stocking boxes in the store was working with us. Magnetized another person ☺ concerned about budget ☺ had all these ideas – and kept coming up w/ good ideas- difficult part was paring down ideas, and certain ideas people we attached to. Had a lot of clarity of being clear.
Was a little scared that other groups had a head start. We had no vision at first, just some objects. People just took on roles. Brian almost got killed by Gesar, somehow it came together, we weren’t sure how.
Making the boundary w/ Vajra was the hardest part. We took on roles we did best. Got a little scared by list – had a shopping list of 20 things- asked the restaurant we were in to give us a carry-out order ☺ paring down shopping list.

Pacifying – Buddha -currently spifing up our center in Baltimore for the Sakyong. For those who haven’t seen ‘discovering elegance’ – CTR did the heaven element, earth- furniture, and m

an as the flower arrangement at the end.
Started out w/ a list of food- and stayed pretty close. “Of course ☺” – zinnia felt the other three really were in harmony- I was comfortable, and admire that

simplicity that I don’t have ☺” I could feel how clear the other 3s vision was. ☺
Sometimes people get really strong opinions about something, and it doesn’t flow so well, and they really get upset.

Thanks tom for inviting me- logistics, and Antonio and Judy bond.
Unusual situation- some people are here that haven’t done the SA in a sequential way. But it’s fine, we want to build a community of people with a commitment to art, both in court vision- the uplift of the center and community, and a team of people to take that on, plus in general is a way of building enlightened society and contributing is art practice and sensitivity to the [phenomenal world. I just want to clarify that people do the whole program (1-5). And Mr. Sayzik had these pins made as a reminder. Pins are a big part of shambhala culture- and other Tibetan groups make fun of us. ☺ We say these are how we are going to find each other in the bardo. ☺
A pin joins heaven and earth – the pin at the heart- it reminds us of our heritage and reminds of our commitment to this path- the art path- and we have a responsibility to continue w. practice, both sitting meditation practice and practice in art =- it has resonated with us, what we can cultivate our own compassion, wisdom – you have real resources- tom, Alexander and Elaine in Philly, Judy in Baltimore.

We always offer Part 1-3 at Karma choling for a week, and 4-5 for a week. I think I’ve been in this program dozens of times and have always learned new things, and still feel like I am scratching the surface- don’t feel like this is the end of the road, but a beginning.
Just remind you of the seriousness of the commitment to practice and help out, both in the Shambhala community. And any other community you are part of.

More to follow...Lots of dharma ;)

2009-06-08T12:21:00.004-04:00

A quick note - I've got a bunch to talk about on here. In addition to being re-employed (pending background check), There's been a lot of dharmic stuff happening. In the past 2 months, I've gotten some great teachings on Trungpa Rinpoche's "Dharma Art (aka 'Shambhala Art')" teachings, been to Sakyong Mipham RInpoche's visit to the Baltimore Shambhala Center, and been up to Frederick a few times while one of my two "root gurus", Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche, was teaching for the first time in a couple years.

Each of these will get a separate entry shortly. As it is, I am trying to get a LOT of meditation time in before my new job starts. So, these updates will be following in coming days in between sitting sessions.

Peace.

-JTR

The 4 Immeasurables and the 5 Skhandas

2009-05-19T01:42:00.002-04:00

(originally posted 9/17/08; rewritten and expanded 5/19/09)

Acharya Richard John was teaching on the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma (aka the Hiniyana) last September at the DC Shambhala Center. As part of his overview of the first turning (essentially the Four Noble Truths), he talked a bit about the Five skhandas (or 'heaps'). Some newer students asked me for some more information on how to actually work with this contemplation.

I usually do it combined with, or alternating with, the 4 Immeasurables - Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity.
Religious author/maverick Karen Armstrong, in her biography of Shakimuni Buddha, said that it was alternating the 4 Immeasurables and the contemplation of the 5 skhandas that led to the Big Guy's liberation. I personally think she is barking up the right tree.

While this should really taught by a qualified teacher who has embodied them for years, As there is none available, I can give you the quickie version.

Repeat this:
"May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May they be liberated from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May they never be separated from the happiness that is free from sorrow.
May they rest in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion".

It is imperative that one must have a direct experiential understanding of Equanimity, Loving-Kindness, Compassion, and Joy before going on - especially before going into Vajrayana practice.

.5.Equanimity - "May they rest in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion." Seeing there is no difference between yourself and others, and that all events-good or bad, happy or sad-are not as much as a big deal as we make them out to be.
This step makes it much easier to do everything that comes afterwards. At this point, it will probably be very conceptual, and very difficult. Traditionally, one would build up to this sense of equanimity after first going through the other Immeasurables. So, just do the best you can at this point. We will be coming back to it.

The best way to understand equanimity is to examine yourself and find out exactly where "you" are.
For over 2500 years, people have been exploring themselves through what we call the five skhandas--Form, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness. (It is VERY important to examine the last of these before going for 'higher states of consciousness'). It is pretty much using scientific method - hypothesis (in this case, that "there is a self"), experimentation (analyzing this "self"), observation of results, and conclusions. The only thing a little different is that, at the end of all the analysis once once reaches conclusions, you don't say "ok, that's interesting" and then go off and watch "American Idle" or whatever. You reach that point, and you rest there for a while. This is the big difference that Shakimuni Buddha introduced - letting any insights reached have time and space to really "sink in".

A) Form - We all seem to accept that we all have permanent, lasting selves that continue pretty much the same from birth to death. This is the "I" that we all fight to make things better for.

So, examine your body to find out EXACTLY where "you" are in this thing. Where exactly are "you"? Are you in your big toe? In your foot? What is a foot anyway? Is the skin on the outside "foot"? The muscles? The bone? The bone marrow? Break it down to the cellular level, and beyond. Is one particular atom in your foot "you"? Where does "foot" end and "leg" begin? Go up through your body, examining every part of it, and think, "is this 'me " From the bottom through your internal organs (stopping at the sex organs and examining them closely, because a lot of people think that those body parts Are "I") up to the head. Also, is the "I" now the same as "I" when you were 10? If you reach 70, will you be the same "I" you are now? And if not, then why are you so damn worried about doing stuff to make things ready for that theoretical person who may not even get a chance to exist?

When you get to your brain, is there one part of your brain that is "I"? (Remember, we all think that "I" is a solid, singular entity). Yes, Science can monitor where different brain activities are occuring. But activity is happening in different areas at different times. Some of these chunks can be removed, and there is still a functioning human there. However, is that the same person? Also, if that batch of gray matter is all that "I" is, then why the hell are we all so obsessed with all the other bits?

I'll get back to the brain/mind later.
Also-
a. Remember how many body parts can be either replaced or transplanted now, which makes it unlikely they are "I". Think - we can replace limbs, internal organs (hearts, lungs, intestines, etc.), faces, even sex organs. If "I" is in your leg, if it gets replaces with a synthetic one (or say, you get like the "Six Million Dollar Man" from the 70s and get cool bionic #@$# installed in place of the original parts), are "you" less of "you" because those parts are gone?

b. Also, remember science tells us that every single cell in our bodies is replaced at least once every 7 years. Since that is so, in a very real sense, the "I" that you were has NOTHING physically in common with the "I" now. Keep looking for that moving target...keep looking...

When you get exhausted searching, rest in that. As I said before, this resting is critical, and is the difference in learning that Buddha discovered. If you get to a point of reasoning, and can go no further, if you rest in that 'halted mind' for a few minutes, that insight will REALLY sink in and become a part of you. So, when you get to this point of exhausting all concepts, JUST REST.

Now, apply the same logic to the outside world (here's some of that equanimity). See that absolutely everyone and everything is made up of a bunch of constantly changing parts, like you. (This, btw, is what we mean by “emptiness"-empty of a solid, lasting self-definitely not “nothingness”). Everything and everyone is a moving target, which has quite a few ramifications. So, for example, If you 'get' a relationship with someone, one of the realities that follows is that you should not be surprised when (not if) they change. Since all of the dharma is about removing suffering and worry from one's life (nothing more), it should lead you to worry less, by knowing - REALLY knowing - that change is going to happen.

Now, think that "There is no difference between you and anyone else in this way.
Everyone is exactly like you in this manner."
Repeat this logic over and over, and then rest in it.

On another level, think to yourself "I want happiness and to be free from suffering." "My partner wants happiness and to be free from suffering. My cat/mom/friends/exs/enemies/George W./, indeed, everyone just wants to be happy and free from suffering. There is no difference between myself and them in this way. Everyone wants the same thing. We are all the same in this."
Between the breaking down of the world into infinite pieces and realizing that everyone wants the same thing and wants to avoid the same thing, you should have some sense of equanimity, which will be very useful (indispensable, in fact) for the next parts of the 4 Is.

1) Loving-Kindness - "May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.”
Because you have had some experience of equanimity, this one will be easier than if you hadn’t. Think of the person closest to you. Notice how you feel, how you wish for them to be happy. Extend that feeling out, to your closest family. Now to your closest friends. Now to friends that you aren’t so close to. Now extend the same feeling of wishing they were happy (since that is what they and everyone else wants) to people you see on the street, but don’t know. Extend it to complete strangers. Now, (the tough part) extend it to your enemies. Past romantic rivals. Bosses who screwed you over in the past. Ex-boyfriends who were dickweeds. George W. Bush. Bin Laden. Dick Chenney. Carrot Top. Whoever you hate the most in your day-to-day life, extend that wish that they be happy. Extend it to everyone and every living creature you can think of.

I found it best to centralize those feelings in my heart center and extend outwards, to give it all a more vicseral feeling. You will likely feel a trembling at your heart center, and may want to think that light is extending out from your heart (if you are a more visual person). If you have done the Shambhala 'Windhorse' practice, this is exactly the same feeling.

Rest in that for a little bit, because it will be refined as….

2) Compassion – “May they be liberated from suffering and the causes of suffering”.
This builds on loving kindness. Not only do you wish that people are happy, you wish they don’t suffer by contemplating a bit how they do suffer. From the previous parts, you should automatically have a wish that people don’t suffer, and are happy (keeping in mind that they don’t exist on a permanent, lasting level). Extend out the wish for beings to be happy as before, but now think of how different people suffer. You can fill in your own examples; I’ve provided a few to get you started. A recent teacher gave the instruction to:

A) think of all those living in fear (ex. Iraqi citizens, women in Sudan who are under constant threat of rape, Palestinian and Israeli parents who don’t know if this morning will be the last time they see their kids alive, etc.)

B) All those living in extreme hardship (ex. People in the remote areas of Afghanistan, the survivors of the most recent natural disaster, people trying to survive on minimum wage here, farmers in Africa, etc.)

C) All those undergoing intolerable pain, both:
i. Physical (ex. Soldiers who’ve had a limb blown off in Iraq, Aids victims in Zimbabwe or China wasting away since they can’t get life-saving drugs, cancer patients, others with illnesses that are slowly killing them, etc.) and
ii. Mental (ex. Parents who just had soldiers carrying a folded flag come to their door, people who lost their whole family in the 2004 Tsunami, Old people who have just lost their spouse of 40 + years, etc.)

D) All those who are consumed by hatred (ex. Bin Laden, George W., Don Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) (You can wish for the last category that “they be happy, and free of suffering, and no longer cause suffering to themselves or others”)
You will likely have a similar sensation of emanating out of your heart as before, but it may feel heavy. One teacher described it as “tasting ones’ own heart for the first time”.

You may find yourself crying after doing this, and filled with the burning wish that all these stop suffering. That is what compassion is REALLY all about.

So, once you realize this, then you can move into:
3) Rejoicing (aka Sympathetic Joy)—“ May they never be separated from the happiness that is free from sorrow”. This works on a couple of levels. First, on one level, it is being glad whenever something good happens to them. This is really good for counteracting jealously, which I find to be a real pain-in-the-ass poisonous emotion, since one can really easily justify it to oneself.

For example, If one finds themselves in a love triangle (or love square or some other trapazoid), cultivating this Immeasurable is a very good way to ensure you don't show up on "Cops" or "America's Most Wanted". In that case, one would geniunely be happy for whoever you love that they are with someone that makes them happy, even if that person is not you. (Of course, in this case, it also helps to have accomplished the contemplation that convinces you that neither "you" or either of "them" is so solid anyway, making the whole emotion seem a little silly.)

Beyond this somewhat mundane level, this Rejoicing is another way of saying “may everyone realize that they are not as solid as they think, and no longer suffer ever again. May they be enlightened.” (Enlightenment is considered to be "the happiness free from sorrow." Or, as one teacher said, "It's pretty much the same as life was before, only you don't worry nearly as much." :))

Imagine all those suffering beings happy (the ‘light emanating from the heart’ works well- imagine it envelopes all these suffering beings, and they smile and all their sorrows are lifted never to return). Resolve that whatever ‘spiritual' practice you engage in, may it actually accomplish the removal of their sorrows. (note- personally, I'm not a fan of the phrase 'spiritual' - it's kind of a loaded phrase with all kinds of overtones I think pretty much suck.)

So, we are now back to:

4.Equanimity - "May they rest in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion." Seeing there is no difference between yourself and others, and that all events-good or bad, happy or sad-are not as much as a big deal as we make them out to be.
At this point, it should be MUCH easier than it was when you started this process. For myself, I find it is simply taking the first three and sort of combining them and really sending those thoughts to literally everyone on earth (and to any life elsewhere in the universe). Really, really extending out one's positive thoughts to all beings. Some people like to talk about it being like a positive prayer, which can actually help those beings. I don't talk about that myself. Personally, I think it would be literally impossible to design a legit experiment that controlled for all variables. What I DO know is that it can help and transform the one actually doing the practice.

Rest in that feeling. After doing this cycle a few times and getting the hang of it, it may possibly be the most blissful experience you’ve ever had. (ok, it may be neck-and-neck with that fabulous orgasm you had about 4 years ago, or whenever ;))

Just one little thing to finish up: the search for "you".

There are four more parts of the Five Skhandas after Form.

B) Feelings. Are you your feelings? When you are in love, are you “love”? When you are in pain, are you “pain”? If you accept the definition we all accept that I am a continuous, lasting object, then this cannot be true. If it were, you would have EXACTLY the same feeling ALL the time, instead of alternating between pleasurable and un-pleasurable feelings. Feelings arise, abide, and cease all the time. But "You" don't. So, logically, "feelings" can't equal "you."

Also, where exactly ARE those feelings? For example, if "in love", you may say that 'butterflies in the heart' feeling. BUT, earlier on, when contemplating Form, you already concluded that the heart ISN'T you. Plus, if you had a heart transplant, and had the 'butterflies in the heart', does that mean that someone else's heart is now "you"? How is it logically possible that a part of of someone else now IS the "you" you've suffered so much to make happy since you were a baby? If that's true, then what is going on here?

C) Perceptions. Some say “you are what you perceive”. However, if you apply the same logic from feelings, then this cannot possibly be ‘you’. Perceptions are constantly shifting. If your perceptions were the lasting, continuous ‘you,' you would still be watching last night's "Daily Show” or whatever.

Plus, how often have your perceptions fooled you? We have all had the experience of mistaking someone for somebody else. Also, if someone were in, say, an IMAX theatre getting their brain monitored, and had been in their long enough for the illusion to totally fool them that they were flying, and someone with a twisted sense of humor replaced the film with one of a camera falling off a cliff straight down to the bottom of a canyon, then your perceptions would tell you that "you" were about to die of falling, even though the reality would simply not be true. And if the perceptions were telling 'you' that you were dying, how could that perception also BE that "you" that was being told be your sense data "i'm about to hit the ground really fast?"

The classical Buddhist image is of confusing a coiled rope in the dark for a snake, being terrified, but then when light falls on the floor, you see it's simply a rope and feel a sense of relief or even laughter. The actual reality hasn't changed. Only your perceptions. And, since these changed, perceptions are not you.

D) Formations (also called "volition", or "compositional factors" - I still haven't found a translation of this term I am totally happy with). This is a big category, including 'all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.^{[8]' For myself, I found what works best is to focus on one part – “personality”. Find your personality. What is “personality”? Where in your body is it? Is it the same from day to day? Is it the same personality you 'were' when you were a teen-ager? (By Grabthar's Hammer, I hope not. :)) If you are sad, does that mean you personality has changed? If you can’t find it in your body, and can’t define exactly what it is, It can’t be “you”. Also, if you say "so-and-so is an asshole", what exactly are you refering to? Where does the assholeness reside? Are they an asshole to everyone always? When you refer to someone on the basis of a "personality trait", stop and think exactly what it is you are talking about.}

Which leads to…
5) Consciousness. We all act as if there is some continuous self underlying everything. After eliminating all the categories above as “I”, however, all that might be left is the actual thinking process. Some would call it a ‘soul’ (or 'atman', to use the sanskrit jargon). However, if you just sit and watch your thoughts arise, sit there, and cease, you may well question: where are these thoughts coming from? Where do they go to? What does my thinking this second have to do with my thinking a few seconds ago, let alone last week/month/year? What you will likely find (what I found, at least) is that I couldn't find for myself where this "I" was. And, even if I had a machine telling me which parts of my brain were being triggered at different times, it still wouldn't tell me 'YOU ARE HERE'. As I said, it's all a moving target.

So there you have it. (and all in a non-“religious” context. )
The point of all this is to get rid of an underlying idea that “this is ME."

This isn't just idle thinking that sounds neat when you are stoned. If you REALLY let it sink in, thinking about all this really will make your self-grasping (and therefore your suffering) lessen.

Trust me, I can tell you from experience—After going through the above (I usually alternate the 4 Immeasurables (which is said to build an understanding on a relative level) and the 5 skhandas (which is said to build an understanding on an absolute level). When I do the practices I’ve been given involving visualizations, etc., the result feels much more stable and much more powerful.

To some extent, if you do these properly, it just might be all you need to get to "the happiness free from sorrow."

And that's today's lesson.

-JTR/LWWD

A Short Clip of Khandro Rinpoche and some adorable tail-wagging

2009-05-04T20:07:00.006-04:00

Nothing really ground-breaking - Just one of my teachers meets some really happy dogs. :) I've got some stuff to say about Trungpa Rinpoche's Dharma Art teachings. But I'll have to do that later.

"A River That Cannot Be Frozen" by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche

2009-04-03T17:01:00.002-04:00

I've been a bit remiss in posting on here. Been busy with trying to find a new job, and doing lots of sitting and prostrations. I am really trying to crank on my ngondro.

Since I don't have anything really profound to say, I thought I would post this short teaching by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, one of the lamas I've studied with in the Drikung Kagyu tradition.

So, without further ado...

________________________________________________________________

A River That Cannot Be Frozen

Generally speaking, Buddha and sentient beings are like one river. Buddha, however, realizes the nature of the self and, free of doubt, sees that all the activities of samsara are like a dream or illusion. Buddha's mind abides like the nature of peace -- like a river that cannot be frozen. Sentient beings, on the other hand, have not realized their own nature, and their minds are influenced by conditions which cause afflictive emotions. This is like meeting very cold water and freezing, the ice then becoming like a rock that cannot be broken.

If the heat of devotion and compassion melts the frozen mind, one will realize there is no difference between oneself and Buddha. Therefore, the single most important source of blessing is devotion. It's like a hundred rivers going under one bridge.

When you look at your mind just after strong devotion, that awareness is the cause of attaining enlightenment. Within that, look again at the very face of the awareness. It dissolves into emptiness -- both subject and object. A beginner does not believe it, but this dissolution is Buddhahood. Therefore Tilopa said, "Seeing nothing is the supreme insight."

It will not last long, so meditate for a short time, again and again each session. This will dispel obstacles and enhance your meditation.

Devotion is the single essential point. When you practice devotion, visualize the lama in front of you in space as actually residing there. The lama's mind is Buddha, so when you supplicate, the blessing will be definite, and the lama will keep you in his or her mind.

-His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche

Milarepa Day, or "Why people would read 292 pages out loud in one day"

2009-03-08T19:19:00.005-04:00

On Saturday, we had a Milarepa Day celebration at the DC Shambhala Center. A group of us gathered from 8:30 AM until a little after 7 PM to read through 292 pages of Kagyü 'vajra songs' in "the Rain of Wisdom".

Now, you are likely wondering (since you are reading this) "What is Milarepa Day?" This is an annual commemoration of the life and enlightenment of Milarepa, who is considered one of the greatest examples of a dharma practitioner in all of Himalayan Buddhism. What is most significant about him is the fact that he got enlightened in one lifetime with many years left to teach, even after amassing the immense negative karma of killing several people in his village (including his relatives) at the request of his mother. Basically, if HE could get enlightened, ANYONE can if they practice it diligently enough.

Milarepa is also known for his spontaneous teaching songs, or 'dohas'. In the Kagyü lineage of buddhism, there is a long history of using songs to convey meditation instructions. The late, great eccentric translator Dr. Robin Kornman called us "the Southern Baptists of Buddhism" for this reliance on songs. Since many members of this tradition were illiterate (since that was unfortunately common in olde Tibet), these songs were often the -only- way to teach yogis and yoginis what they should practice and what they should abandon.

These songs and stories of realization are very famous in Tibetan literature. Also, for a songwriter (which I am), I've found it's very good to tap into this tradition. Most of what was read on Milarepa Day in DC were songs from lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition, which is what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of what became the Shambhala centers, was trained in. (In the Kagyu lineage (aka "the practice lineage"), there used to be "four great and eight lesser lineages". )

Here's some photos of us reading through all this. Different people came and went during the course of the day. There were a few stalwarts who stayed the whole time (myself included).

Also, my job's contract ended two weeks ago, so I am back in the 'employment bardo'. It sucks, but, well, this- IS- samsara which, to a certain extent, is supposed to suck. :) TBC...

Vajra yana Buddhism - the Short Explanation

2009-02-16T06:45:00.005-05:00

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF BUDDHIST MANTRA PRACTICE

I'm finally taking a stab at an explanation of what tantra in the Buddha-dharma is and what it isn't.

What it Isn't

First, what it isn't. Those of us who are tantrikas in this tradition aren't all sitting on each other's laps for hours on end in ecstasy. :) Tan tra is NOT about hot fu#king. Since tan tra is about transmuting all everyday circumstances into the path of enlightenment, the sexual act would have to be included, since it is such a powerful motivating force in most peoples lives, and often seen as the very pinnacle of bliss and meaning of life. There is a small (at most 5%) portion of the Buddhist tan tras that mention transmutation of the sexual act, but that’s a tiny, tiny part.

My understanding is that one should almost be embarrassed if one’s teacher has suggested you try it, because it means you were so thick-headed, none the hundreds of methods that would be tried first worked to get one enlightened. The VAST majority of people who got freedom from suffering by this path did not have to work with that particular method. IMHO, it’s because the US still has shades of Puritanism’s’ “sex is evil and horrible” and the Victorians’ “just sit back and think of England” attitudes towards sex that people are fascinated by this idea of religious use of sex. For one pursuing the legitimate path, however, there are a lot of other things one would do first. Pretty much, if you want to do consort practice, you aren’t ready for it. If you are ready, you wouldn’t feel the need to do it. ☺ So that is that.

What it Is

So what IS tan tra really? Tantra in this tradition is about the transformation of how one deals with reality, in order to eventually take EVERYTHING that arises on the path and thus get enlightened faster than other lineages that only really 'meditate' while sitting. It came about in about the 3rd Century C.E. in what is now present-day Afghanistan and Northern India. Tantra, which is Sanskrit for "continuity" - which is a good one-word explanation of the "what" and "why" of tantra, was originally invented as Karma-yoga - "action yoga" - by Hindus (according to Karen Armstrong) to allow 'spiritual' practice to occur off the meditation mat. Since Hinduism and Buddha-dharma have criss-crossed numerous times, these new techniques rapidly were adapted. This helped address a complaint within the lay community and also in the ordained community that had to work with day-to-day monastery administration and the like that they did not get a chance to practice themselves.

These new methods in tantra, also known as "secret mantra Yana" ('sacred speech vehicle') or "vajrayana" (indestructible /diamond-like vehicle'), allowed people to continue meditation -which, in this case, means mentally re-orienting the mind in a more positive direction than it's usual free-form "gimmie gimmie gimmie" manner- while walking around and doing daily activities.

There were many techniques. The ones I will touch on are some visualization, and directly working with emotions.
(This last bit is, to me, the biggest contribution the Vajrayana can make to our world - as least, is has been for me.)

Visualizations

Some of you have likely seen some of the meditation 'deities' images and wondered, "that's neat looking, but what does it mean?" "Why should you think of yourself as a glowing white dude with a crown and 4 arms?" Well, really, the question should be "Why not think of yourself as a glowing white dude with a crown and 4 arms?"

What it involves is taking what arises in your day, and seeing it differently. One literally sees the world as a 'sacred world', and sees other people and themselves as 'deities'. Now, you may well ask, "why do this? Isn't it just putting an artificial layer on life? I thought Buddha was all about taking reality apart, not adding to it!" Well, yes - but this layer is based ON the fact that you have already seen how absurd and transient the objects of our conventional experience are, and to provide a way to get past these mistaken assumptions we ALL make.

It's based on a concept called Buddha-nature, which is implicit from the very beginning, back to the historical Buddha Shakimuni. I am assuming you all know about the 4 Noble Truths already (truth of suffering, truth of the causes of suffering, truth of the cessation of suffering, truth of the path to cessation). The path to cessation at it's basis includes the "5 Skhandas and 4 Immeasurables" I outlined in an earlier post.

In the 5 skhandas ("heaps") practice, one contemplates what is "you" to the point that you realize that what you have held to be a very solid, unchanging you is anything but that. This is revolutionary, and can lead to a fundamental change in how one views your "self". If there IS no lasting "me", then there's no sense in suffering now, is there?

It becomes even more interesting when one applies the same contemplations to the outside world too, and sees there is no lasting, permanent 'thing' that is really equal to it's name there either.

However, what is implied is that there is one thing that is an underlying lasting thing: enlightenment itself. If this were not so, then enlightenment would not be "the answer" to the questions of suffering due to impermanence. This enlightenment is an underlying nature in all of us, waiting to be uncovered, rather than something that comes into existence from causes and conditions due to practice. This Buddha-nature, we all have. (Unlike many central creator deity-based religions, it is not something that "our little group has this thing that no one else does, so we are superior to everyone else (and we are going to heaven while everyone else goes to hell, etc.)" ) EVERYONE has this underlying. This nature is the basis of the vajra yana, or man tra yana, or Buddhist tan tra.

It is based on the idea of symbolically participating in this underlying continuum of Buddha-nature.
The idea is, since it can be shown that this outside apparent world of appearances is mistaken (through the 5 skhandas contemplations mentioned earlier and similar practices), yet there is certainly this underlying 'purity' of non-decay and non-suffering, then why not train is seeing oneself and others as they truly are now, rather than what they appear on the outside?

The point of the meditational deities, or 'yidams', is to see one's self and others AS walking Buddha-nature. The iconography stresses certain aspects of the enlightenment experience, to make it "sink in" quicker.

You've all heard about athletes who 'visualize' a perfect performance of their sport (football, swimming, baseball, etc.) to condition their minds (which controls their bodies) to actually turn in that perfect performance. You all can look up the research that shows this works. Or, consider a method actor visualizing their character, and all the aspects of that character, until they become that character. It's kind of a "fake it til you make it" approach. Well, what we are essentially doing is visualizing a perfect performance of ourselves AS enlightened, to make ourselves realize that we've already got what we need lurking as our core essence. Also, since we see everyone else the same way, this blasts down all differences between "self" and "other".

There are a bunch of yidam 'deities', which each stress a different aspect of enlightenment. This is needed because there are so many different ways of thinking, no "one-size fits all" approach could possibly work. (As an aside, traditionally, it is said there are 84,000 different teachings to counter-act the 84,000 different delusions. I think I have somewhat mastered about 5. :))

What do I mean by visualizing ourselves as an aspect of enlightenment? For example, in Chenrezig/ Avilokitesvara (left), the stressed aspect is boundless compassion/loving-kindness. This IS the "4 Immeasurables" mentioned earlier. In Chenrezig (my main daily practice, btw), each of the 4 arms represents one of the Immeasurables. By seeing oneself in this form, one sees oneself as totally inseparable from the 4 Immeasurables.
Which we all already are. :) All the other aspects of this convey some part of the enlightenment experience.

Working with Emotions

Here's the more interesting part to me. This is taking emotions as they arise, and, instead of either acting them out or repressing them, one 'flips' the emotion so the original object of it is no longer an issue, but that 'power' or 'energy' (I wish someone would come up a better term :)) is still there and available as raw wakefulness....

25 random-ass things

2009-02-06T01:28:00.001-05:00

Ok, we've all seen this thing by now. You know the drill. I thought this Facebook thing was mildly amusing enough to put on here as an entry. enjoy... ?

1. I have a fear of clowns. This stems from when I was five or six (?), and the 'lost children' area at an air show at Andrew's Air Force base was, for some sick reason, tended by clowns, who made sure the kids wouldn't leave. I thought they were going to take me away from my parents.

2. I have a twin brother. We alternate being the 'evil twin' every other week.

3. We used to have a game called "the vacuum game", wherein we each would try to knock the other one's legs out from under him with the vacuum cleaner while vacuuming. Neither of us ever won. But, on the plus side, I still do the vacuuming as an adult...

4. My eyes change color from blue to yellow to green. Of all the dumb mutant powers to have, this and my college ability to know where in Somerset dorm the Procolino's pizza man was going to visit next must surely top the list.

5. When I was in college on summer break, I went with some of my friends and tried to tip a cow. A word of advice: they don't tip. Another word of advice: Have you ever noticed how many Darwin Awards begin with the phrase "Some young men were drinking, and one of them had the 'brilliant' idea to..."?

6. To be bluntly honest, when I was growing up, I alternated 35% Lisa Simpson, 45% Millhouse, and 20% Ralph Wiggum.

7. I apparently stayed up and watched Andy Kaufman's infamous run-in on Letterman with Jerry "the King" Lawler,
and it made a big impression. His rule about "if you play a role, never...break...character...EVER" had a lasting impact.
Though, in retrospect, I did kind of let my alter-egos run a little wild until I got serious about dharma practice.

8. I stopped being a purely reactionary being and became sentient in 1989.

9. I am a multi-instrumentalist, as is my brother. For the past few years, I've mostly been a bass player. Just like this guy in a classic Kids in the Hall sketch (featuring Kevin McDonald in an over-the-top impression of Robert Smith of the Cure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgaBGu7Mlvo

10. Unlike the bassist in the above clip, I've never been attracted to "the good looking girl", but always preferred her slightly bigger, somewhat geeky friend. For the most part, I don't really 'notice' unless she's at least size 10, and glasses are a big plus, not a minus.

11. I've looked for amps that go up to 11, but never could afford them.

12. I used to play a Hammond organ. I've always though organs just sound so awesome.
A Hammond through a rotating Leslie speaker (or a chorus pedal set to impersonate a Leslie:)) hits the same frequencies as a distorted electric guitar, but without the emotional baggage to "RAWWWWWWKKKKKK!!!!!" Plus, as opposed to 'pianist' or 'keyboard player', 'organist' just sounds cooler. The organ intro to The Band's "Chest Fever" is just about the coolest thing ever. I used to know almost every organ part from the Doors and The Band.

13. Unfortunately, if you play Hammond organ in a 2nd or 3rd rate band, you have to carry it around yourself. Even the "Porta-B" portable version (nicknamed "the Black Beast") is 244 pounds (in two parts). Hauling it around left me with two herniated disks, which still bother me to this day. The organ itself is on semi-permanent loan to the owner of the studio where my last band, the Number Nine Line, practiced and recorded a decade ago.

14. I grew up around trains, especially during the twilight of the mainline steam excursions on the east coast in the late 70's, 80's, and a little bit of the 90's. I'm not ashamed of it at all. On vacations, my wife has put up with me going to trolley museums and finding abandoned railroad relics. It's part of who I am. But no, I will never start wearing a #@@#$ engineers hat.

15. I have, for over a decade, been a serious practitioner of what is commonly called 'Tibetan Buddhism'. I avoided it for many years because of the perceived 'trendiness' of it. However, through some auspicious coincidences I describe on my blog in the entry "how the black swan came to the lake", I didn't find it, it found me.

16. Chogyum Trungpa's now out-of-print book "Dharma Art" is my Bible.

17. My favorite Biblical book is the Gospel of Thomas, which didn't make it into the book itself (except as a source for Matthew and Luke).

18. I have watched Twin Peaks all the way through twice. I still don't know what the hell that ending was all about.

19. I used to have the album cover of Issac Hayes' "Black Moses" hanging on my wall at home.

20. To me, the obvious rhyme for "heart" is "lawn dart".

21. In one of my old bands, we started out a Towson TV appearance reciting the "Take care, beware...PULL THE STRINK! PULL THE STRINK." monologue Bela Lugosi did in the movie "Glen or Glenda" (which was redone wonderfully in the move "Ed Wood".)

22. I am finishing this up at 1 AM after getting up for a bathroom break. I think that counts as addiction at this point.

23. Speaking of addiction, my name is Luther, and I am addicted to olive oil. I use it as salad dressing, on pizza, on sandwiches...but it's good for you...right?

24. I've never watched a full episode of "24". I'm sure it's good, but I simply don't watch any network TV anymore. (Only nightly TV is "the Daily Show/ Colbert Report" 8 PM rerun from the night before and a little bit of Rachel Maddow).

25. I heard there was a government-funded study in the early part of this century to try to discover why belly-button lint is blue...I don't know if I want that to be true or not.

26. I once dressed as Brak from 'Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast" for a Halloween party (at 'The Mansion' in Baltimore hosted by Skizz in the mid-late 90's, if anyone remembers those). I walked off the porch and fell about a foot because I made the eyeholes too small on the mask.

27. This has gone on long enough.

My Practice Life

2009-02-03T02:10:00.001-05:00

Ok, I promised to share my practice life, so he's the Cliff Notes version (or, for those who know some of the Zen stories in the past, the Blue Cliff Record's notes version. :))

So, away we go...

Waking Up

In the traditions I am part of, one should try to orient oneself from the first moment one is awake to be thinking far beyond the usual constrictions of "what am I going to do for ME today?" It's very important to do this from the get-go. We all have had days where we fall out of bed or mis-step on a shoe or something, and pretty much our whole day is colored darker because of that. So, instead, I do something to go the other direction.

Traditionally, there are a number of liturgies which one is supposed to recite first thing in the morning. As much as I have tried them, I can't commit any of these to memory. However, Lama Roar at Lotus Garden during one weekend program taught the following version, which I -have- been able to make part of myself.

So, Here is what I do pretty much the very first moment I am awake every morning. (Unless it's being woken by something like a cat pooping on the bed. :))

1) Sit in the 4,5 or 6 points meditation posture. (Depending on how my body feels, and if full Lotus comes easily that particular day).

2) Let my mind settle, usually by following 21 breaths in-and-out as described in the classic Jamgon Kongtrol text on LoJong (Mind Training), The Great Path of Awakening. 1

3) Doing 9 Yogic Breaths- 3 in-an-out holding the left nostril, 3 in-an-out holding the right nostril, and 3 in-an-out letting the nose alone. This is a focusing technique that apparently dates WAY back, to the old Vedic sacrifice religion. It's said to be emptying 'stale' air out and bringing in fresh air.

4) Generate strong compassion and rest in it – something that really opens your heart. This is relative bodhichitta. I have several friends right now who are battling cancer or in remission, so they are a big cause for compassion (in this context, the wish that someone else may be free of suffering) to arise.
I generally do a recitation from the Buddha's Metta Sutra to help it kick in:

May all beings be happy! Weak or strong, without exception, small or great, seen or unseen, nearby or far away, alive or still to be born - May all beings be entirely happy!

May nobody despise anyone anywhere, may no one wish harm to any single creature out of anger or hatred or jealousy!

May we cherish all creatures as a mother would her only child! May our loving thoughts fill the entire world, above, below, and all around, without limit!

May we have a boundless goodwill to the whole world, unrestricted, without hatred or hostility!

5) Visualize lama on top of head, pray that you may give birth to compassion and bodhichitta and take refuge.

6) Guru yoga - Dissolving one's lama or root teacher, who embodies to you enlightened mind itself,into the crown of your head, and then resting afterwards. This is considered 'absolute bodhichitta' practice.

The most important point is to generate a real feeling, a real wish for the lama to be here to help us generate loving-kindness/compassion.

After that, I rest for a bit. Then, get up, feed animals, make tea, etc.

Morning Practice

A little later, there are standard 'prayers' I do. It's a little different to call them prayers, since most of them aren't TO anybody, for the most part. Even those that are to someone (usually the lineages I am part of) are really ultimately a way to connect with that which I already have, but is just obscured.

For those who know this stuff, my morning routine:

Metta Sutra (again)

7-Line Supplication to Padmasambhava

Mindrolling Lineage Supplication

Supplication to the Takpo Kagyu

Ngondro Refuge practice

Another Refuge prayer

ANOTHER Refuge prayer (Refuge is important :))

The Four Immeasurables

Bodhisattva Vow

I also have a few lists of rules and reminders. In this tradition, all rules are reminders themselves, really, of thing to do or not do simply to avoid suffering.
These include:

the Upisaka vow rules - The best version I've ever found comes from Thcht Naht Hahn.
a one-page summary of the 27 Instances in which the Indian sage Shantideva said that, when you find yourself doing any of them, "one should remain like a log with body, speech and mind."
Thoughts to Cultivate Awakened Mind - This was a list adapted from one of the early sutras listing ways to make nearly every normal activity a reminder to view the world through an altruistic dharmic prism.
some of the Lojong slogans from a list of them I received at the 1999 Kha ndro Rinpoche Gateway program.
Also in the morning are contemplations on the Four Reminders and Four Immeasurables, which I have covered earlier.

During the Day

During the day, all the rules and reminders fire off, shaking my mind out of the usual ignorant blah,blah,blah most people are in. Some days I do a better job than others. :)

Evening Practice

In the evening, there are some practices to be done. First of all is some more straight sitting, since if mind isn't present, nothing else I do is gonna make a hell of a lot of sense. Then, there is "Protectors" practice, which is unique to the Vajrayana tradition. It's a little difficult to explain briefly, so it's best of you just read my earlier entry on the Protectors for some context.

For those keeping track at home, I do a couple different choices:

1) If I am really doing well, I do at least 1/2 hour of practice. This includes the "Brief Lightning Flash of Activities", better known as the short practice of Achi Choki Drolma practice, main protector of the Drikung Kagyu; parts of the Dam chen Chi tor, the shortened protectors practice from the Min Droll Ling tradition done every night in it's entirety out at Lotus Garden retreat center; the one-page practices of Four-armed Mahakala and Vetali from Shambhala; and a short practice of contemplation of one's own death from Acharya Judy Leif.

2) If I am pressed for time (or, to be bluntly honest, spent too much time on after work errands, cleaning, and watching Keith Olberman /Rachael Maddow /Jon Stewart/ Stephen Colbert and/or on Facebook, like I did tonight :)) I do a much shortened version of the one-page practices of Four-armed Mahakala and Vetali from Shambhala; a one-page 'prayer' to Achi, and then the brief closing protectors practice from Shambhala. I often do five-minute version in bed (which I will do after I finish this entry tonight).

Sleep

There are a couple different practices I've learned to do to take practice into sleep. The more concise of these is to:

1) do a little shamatha to get the mind to be one-pointed, and not drifting from thing to keep me awake to thing to keep me awake.

2) do some tong len "sending and receiving" practice.

3) Simply let the mind rest as it is, without altering it. This is also known as the 'maha mudra' or 'Shamhala Level 5' shamatha practice.

I then go to sleep with that awareness.

This is said to be among the best preparations for death possible, to go into sleep in this way, treating sleep like death every night. In theory, if one practices like this, then death itself shouldn't be all that hard. :)

Anyway, that's most of my tricks. I hope they are useful for someone else out there.

-JTR

footnotes:

1. FYI, I still think that is the most profound, useful teachings I have ever received. If asked, I think everyone - no matter what their belief (or non-belief)- could benefit from getting a copy of Pema Chodron's book on this topic, "Start Where You Are."

Update

2009-01-11T03:08:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't updated recently. Been busy w/ work. I'm part of the team launching the New Administration's Whitehouse.gov and other sites. These WILL all go live at 12:01 PM Tuesday, when Obama concludes his acceptance speech.
Needless to say, people are working around the clock. I will be in the office Saturday-Sunday from at least 10 am - 3 pm.
This means I may not get to say good bye to a sweet, authentic smiling presence named Garchen Rinpoche. :(
In the meantime, while I am up, I promised someone an entry on my daily dharma practice routine. I'm working on that Sat morn.....
-JTR

The Burning Names, or, One Night in Frederick Makes a Dull Man Humble...Part 1.5

2008-12-30T01:21:00.008-05:00

Ok, after the weekend at TMC, the Drikung Kagyu dharma center in Frederick, there was one thing that was very powerful.
This was a program devoted to doing the Deity yoga of Chenrezig, the personification of the very essence of compassion (which, in a buddha-dharma context, comes directly from the wisdom of seeing that the solidity of people and the difference between people, to say the least, exaggerated.) At some point, I am going to have to give a quick overview of the Vajrayana. This is not that time. :)

While we were there, meditating on the yidam (meditational deity, which is "as real as we are - which is to say, not particularly real" - VKR :)) as a less-conceptual way to 'get' real compassion and emptiness/ fullness, we were doing the mantra part of the practice using a very ancient (at least 6-7 centuries, likely much older) melody used at Drikung-thil, which is the mother monestary founded by Lord Jitgon Sumgon, the founder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana (aka Himilayan aka Tibetan) Buddhism.

I noticed that the way the melody was structured had an interesting effect on breathing, which seemed to effect mental state. I'll have to check with a lineage scholar if this may actually be a yogic 'skillful means' to orient the mind faster than regularly occurs.
Anyway, it was a wonderful practice.

But, the most powerful thing occured after practice concluded the first evening (which was just a prelude to the actual 'formal' practice session itself, which started the following day and, as of this writting is still going on in shifts 24/7 til this weekend.)

Some of us slept in the shrine room. On the porch outside, there was a butterlamp offering, which is traditionally done for the dead, dying, and those suffering. The plan was to have 108 lamps (which were actually Mexican Catholic prayer candles custom ordered w/o pictures of stylized white holy people, since nobody makes butterlamps on this continent :)) burning, each sponsored for 10 dollars. The resulting money (1080 dollars) went to a Frederick area food bank, which has been slammed for need due to the world economy going into the toilet.

There were many more than 108, due to sangha member's friends and family members among the dead, dying, and suffering (including David Flight, a long time sangha member). Once these were set, they were supposed to keep burning til the end of the Drubchen (1 week).

As I sat on a cot in the shrine room, I looked out over the candles on the porch, which was being buffeted by high winds. (TMC -is- on a mountaintop, after all :)) The candles were under a tent, which provided a little cover - but not much.
As I did, I started going over the 4 Reminders, which VKR said to do often as humanly possible.

So I did, starring at the candles flickering, each of them a human being either gone, on the way out, or possibly worse off than on the way out, some things started sinking in...

2) The reality of death and impermance
Each of those candles was a human. Many of them dead humans. Seeing well over 100 bunched together makes quite an impact, like seeing all the names on the Wall at the Vietnam Memorial. It recalls the traditional practice of burning someone's name sometime up to 49 days after someone dies, supposedly to tell a wondering conciousness that hasn't either got enlightened in the in-between state or choosen a rebirth
'this is no longer your life. leave it behind.'
I've heard from someone who knows these things that it's really for those still alive left behind, to let THEM know "your loved one is gone. We must carry on." This is part of the Sukavahti practice we do for the dead in the Shambhala community, using a photo.

Watching the candles precariously staying lit flickering in the wind, I thought more. Everybody is like that. We could blow out at any time. And even if we don't, we will burn through our lifespan. And when the fuel is gone, the flame goes out. Period. Into the darkness.

I kept going over this over and over. The image still sticks with me. I hope it does you too.

(The other 3 Reminders will follow soon, if all goes well. Back up to Frederick tomorrow.)

-JTR

Drubchen!

2008-12-28T21:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry, it's been a while. Xmas? Relatively uneventful. Birthday? I worked until 2 AM.
But, I spent this weekend doing dharma practice in Frederick at the Drikung Kagyu temple up there,
which made things much better.

More later...

In retrospectacle...the ER Experience

2008-12-08T22:49:00.004-05:00

Melissa is doing MUCH better. Thank you everyone.
The infection that caused this seemed to clear itself up when she was knocked out by the anti-convulsant drugs. The whole thing was pretty scary, but I'm pleasantly surprised I help together pretty well. As I was saying to someone earlier, I knew that this was a possiblity, and had thought it out in the past. As one of my teachers had said, thinking about what the worst thing that could happen is gets rid of a lot of the fear around it.

As I was walking around the Holy Cross hospital (pictured- It's where I was born, btw) ER with my red/white prayer shawl over my shoulder (it's a Drikung Kagyu thing - It just looks like a small blanket :)), I was struck by all the suffering around. My meditation instructor Ken has said many, many times that we 'mericans are really really good at hiding suffering or keeping it at arm's length - but we end up forcing it into concentrated areas like ghettos (including the Southeast section of pretty much every big city- think about it) or emergency rooms.

Most people don't want to even think about the possibility of suffering, as if it will somehow cause it to be. Well, it was occuring to me as I was standing there looking out softly singing the Garchen RInpoche Chenrezig mantra melody as Meli slept, not thinking about it didn't help anybody in there - from the guy with pnemonia who was treating himself with some of his mother's antibiotics (which is so VERY bad on so many levels - this is how one accidentally could create a 1918 virus, part 2 :( ) and found they didn't help, the three heart attack victims who were forced to be in beds surrounded by curtains in the ER, since the ENTIRE hospital was full, the babies with awful, awful coughs, the woman who was limping in with a 'working dog' (beautiful animal, btw) that had some kind of law enforcement involvement - I doubt any of them thought for a second "I could end up in the ER today. I could see one of my loved ones in that place. "

Also, the fact that four people died as I was walking around also made me think. All these things we try to hide from, just get concentrated.

I am very, very glad that I HAVE thought about these things in depth. It's what I credit with being able to jump in an react with what was required when the convulsions started rather than "what the hell? this can't be happening! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! NO! NO!"

So, that's my take away lesson. Instead of pushing these things out of your mind, allow them in and look directly. Also, connected with that, realize that every conversation you have with someone may be the last conversation you have with them ever. I've found that taking that approach (Trungpa suggested it in "Training the Mind" - he was right again :)) has led me to cut through a lot of the heming and hawing and "I can't say that" I once had.

Anyway, that's the lessons from this weekend. Now, I am really tired (and sore from being landed on several times), so off to sleep.

Dream well, everybody. And think about all this for a minute.

Friday night in the ER...

2008-12-06T04:35:00.005-05:00

Well, it's amazing what a chance a few hours can make.
My wife Meli had her first seizure in @ 6 years earlier this evening. She then recovered and was talking to the ambulance crew, when another one struck. She went on to have a total of five seizures, but seems to be on the other side.

The cause was apparently an infection, most likely passed around her office stress due to work .
She's an HR assistant at the International Monetary Fund, which was forced (to a great extent by one member country) to cut a lot of staff in the last year, but is now having to re-staff VERY rapidly due to the global economic meltdown (caused to a great extent by the same country that ordered the staffing cuts.).
Trying to get 15 interviews scheduled in one day with people across the world while everyone is in a slight panic over the latest awful numbers with little sleep seemed to be the final tipping point.

Melissa was brought by ambulance, and I followed a little later by car. It was very nice to get several calls from folks due to my Facebook status about the seizure. Even nicer was Jane from the VKR and DCSC sanghas stopping in to visit (since she lives very close to the hospital).

My parents came down to the hospital, as did my sister (by different parents) Kimmie (long story). This was good. My mom's a retired nurse, so she could explain what all the numbers on the monitors really meant.
When Meli was getting a CAT scan (all normal - well, as normal as can be expected for anyone married to me :)), we went up to the Starbucks above the ER. Yes, there is, in fact, a Starbucks in EVERY corner of the civilized world.

The ER docs used a bit of aderol (sp?), which stopped her seizures and knocked her out. She was getting better - I helped her to the bathroom and to drink some water before she conked out again. It was suggested I go home for a little (which the animals enjoyed) to grab some sleep, and then call and come back tomorrow.

When I left, I was more concerned about some of the other people there - the doctor said that Fridays and Mondays in December are always awful. I heard someone "coded" in another room, and someone in another refered to as a John Doe. Lots of awful groaning.

There are literally no open beds at Holy Cross hospital tonight, and people who'd had heart attacks were being kept in beds in hallways. Also, the other nearby hospital, Washington Adventist, was closed to more patients due to lack of nursing staff.

If you forget that life is at base suffering, hang out at an ER sometime. And remember: all of us will most likely end up there at least once sooner or later. It's just a matter of time.

Well, time to go collapse in bed. I'll post more tomorrow (ok, later this morning :)) if all goes well.

Yogis, practice!

-JTR

Happy Winter Solistice...having fun yet?

2008-12-05T19:23:00.003-05:00

Quick note- I've been busy. My work has gotten interesting in a good-ish way. I am being converted to full-time staff after 2 months (it was supposed to take 6 months) and moving to give tech support to the Obama Administration on the new mega-improved Whitehouse.gov. This should be pretty secure. I need to pass a security clearance, which should be easy, as long as Tibetans aren't considered to be under suspicious by DHS. And of course, I haven't done any substances this century.
Hell, I don't remember the last time I even had a complete beer! :)

Only sucky thing about this job is it slashes my chance to do the whole Chenrezig Drubchen at TMC at the end of the month.
A "Drubchen" is a period of at least a week where people in a closed retreat will be doing one vajrayana dharma practice 24 hours a day the whole time. (This is by shifts, btw. No way anyone could stay up that whole time by themselves. :))
It's said that this kind of group practice situation allows VERY rapid maturation of practice - between the interdependence of merit of retreatants (which is a little "X-filesish") and, more logical, the more senior advanced practioners can model for newer ones how to do things properly, which helps everyone.

At this point, I am gonna be lucky to do 3 days consecutively. Poo.

On the Road Again...or, Blogging in the Bathroom, Part Deux

2008-11-24T04:01:00.004-05:00

Hola!
I am now in a hotel north of Philadelphia for the next several days. This is instead of the original plan, which was for us to pick up my mother-in-law and drive out to Iowa for Thanksgiving. (We were driving to a great extent so we could take Daisy the dog with us out there, since we wouldn't trust the airlines these days to deliver anything living in the cargo hold of a commercial aircraft without it being traumatized, accidentally released to run around an airport, or completely lost never to be seen again.)

However, my MIL messed up her back the morning we were going to leave, and went to the ER. She came back diagnosed with no permanent injuries, but not able to sit upright for several hours on-end driving (or even for the couple (?) of hours it would have taken to fly (plus several more for security, flight delays, etc.) So, we decided instead to come up her way and spend some time with her, as well as doing some stuff around the Southeastern Pennsylvania area. Anybody got any ideas of stuff to do? :)

I am thinking I will likely have some time to finish up a few blog entries in progress during this time. IAGW. TBC....

Here's some of what I saw:

What it means to 'take refuge', What's with the Prostrations???

2008-11-08T04:06:00.002-05:00

I've been asked by a few people to explain the whole concept of Refuge practice in the Buddha-dharma. I'll do this as a two-for-one: I'll cover the actual refuge ceremony and how it applied to my life (and changed it), and then the 'turbo-charged' version of refuge: Prostrations, the first part of what are called the "extraordinary preliminaries" or ngondro in Tibetan. This is where things start to get 'interesting' (some would say "Are you insane?") since ngondro includes at least 100,000 prostrations. I say 'at least' because there is one lineage that requires 300,000 prostrations in the course of the ngondro. As you will find out, I ended up IN that lineage.

Part 1: Refuge

This is when one "officially" becomes a "Buddhist." In that way, it is similar to when one gets baptized in any of the Christian traditions (though much more like adult baptism, or when one gets 'confirmed', since there is some learning and understanding that has to come first.) In pretty much all traditions of all the yanas, one takes refuge is the Buddha as a teacher, the Dharma as the teachings, and the Sangha as those who follow the first two.

Before explaining that in more depth, I suppose I should explain what the historical basis of 'taking refuge' is, since a lot of people don't -quite- get it. According to Khandro Rinpoche, back in the time of the historical Buddha Shakimuni, the people in a kingdom would literally 'take refuge' in the local king/chieftain's' palace/compound whenever outlaws or opposing tribes would roll into town. In this case, taking refuge quite literally meant trust one's life to their local ruler. (As an aside, check out Karen Armstrong's excellent biography "Buddha" for some good info on Prince Siddhartha's/Shakimuni's life and times. His path of peace is all the more remarkable if you realize just how violent and turbulent a time he lived in.)

Now, the objects of refuge in Buddha-dharma are usually known collectively as "the Three Jewels" or "the Triple Gem." (A little note: This holy trio is not in any way similar to the Christian 'Holy Trinity' - though there IS a lot of similarity (at least in the monastic/retreatant traditions) between that and what is called the 'three kayas', which I will hopefully get to in the future.)

It should be realized up front there are many different levels of understanding and commitment possible.

In most Asian countries where the dharma has been for centuries, most of the lay people have officially 'taken refuge'. However, they are pretty much equivalent to the "Easter/Christmas Christians" who believe in the tenants (though in both cases I am pretty sure most people don't REALLY understand what they profess to believe in), show up at the temple/church on the big holy days, and pray/make offerings when they want something (to pass their drivers' test, that their uncle survives surgery, etc.)

As an aside, I'm not sure what these folks shout during sex. Most buddhists I know are formerly theistic, and still shout at "oh GOD!" at the moment of orgasm - it's a cultural thing at this point, really. :))

While I suppose there is some positive karma due to sense of direction for these folks, there is no big deal to this - they don't all of a sudden turn in to slow-talking fountains of wisdom like Kain from the 70's "Kung Fu" TV series starring David Carradine. I saw some B-movie once where someone said "all buddhists vibrate at the same frequency", and thought "Huh? Vibrators? What's the frequency, Buddha? Geez, this has NOTHING to do with the 4 Noble Truths. :)"

But, the next step up are the actual lay practitioners. These are people who have a job, wear hats, etc. and also actually get their asses down on the cushion to meditate. Most of the meditators reading this would fall in this category. This is what several people recently did with Acharya Richard John at the DC Shambhala Center. It is usually done (at least in the West) after someone has actually been practicing (usually at least Shamatha ('calm-abiding') to get some control over their mind) for a while.

By taking this step, one is saying to everyone attending (but mostly to one's self) "I am not going to float around investigating bits and pieces of various religions/philosophies, but instead commit myself to this path from this moment on until the day I die." It is about making clear to yourself that this is your path. Period.

I've been asked how this has affected me personally. I took refuge for the first time under Khandro Rinpoche in August of 1999, at the conclusion of the mind-altering 'Gateway' program. For me, after the refuge ceremony, when VKR snapped her fingers and said "ok, you have done it", it was like a demarcation was set. To me, it was like saying " this is what I am now."
But much more than that. Admittedly, right afterwards, for a while, it just meant to me "ok, i am a buddhist now." However, after several months, I found that it had more of an effect. There was a bit of 'I am committed to this path, so my actions should show some respect to the Three Jewels.' Also, I had a thirst for more that would make my understanding increase. At the same time, some notion of ethics snuck itself in. There was a bit of "If I am committing myself to this path, I should try not to be am embarresement to it." When I went back to WAC for my five-year college reunion, I could see some of the effects.

After several periods of being a bit of a drunk (and worse) in college, when I got out for the reunion, I didn't really want to do that role again. I wanted to be able to read this one dharma book, which I wouldn't be able to do un-sober. So, after hanging out and talking to a bunch of folks I used to know, I went back to the dorm room I had for the night. Several people noticed that "why is Duder* the most sober person here?" After taking refuge, a sense of "I am a representative of the dharma" also came to the forefront.

But this is just part of the story. Honestly, the main points of refuge I didn't - quite get until later-especially after I took refuge again several months later with then-Khenpo Rinpoche in Frederick. The sense of a sense of protection from Buddha, Dharma, Sangha increased. 'Protection' in this case is pretty much protection from myself, and my own nerousis and unawareness.

When I started my ngondro in July of 2001, THEN I learned about the other element of surrender....but that will have to be part 2....:)

-JTR

*Yes, this was my nick-name in college. No, this was before "the Big Lebowski". and no, I don't really use it anymore. :)

brief update - hired!

2008-10-19T21:14:00.002-04:00

Anyone out there - I will be doing an entry soon on what the whole buddhist concept of refuge, and trying to explain why anyone in their right mind would take it on themselves to do 100,000 prostrations (or, if you a Drikung Kagyu practitioner, 300,000) as something that is 'just' "the preliminaries"?
I plan to get to it in a few days, if all goes well.

Work has been decent so far - good environment, decent work, VERY short commute (10-15 minute bus ride!).
More on that later.

Now, to figure out my timesheet...

-JTR

Prayers to the Protectors - Part 1

2008-10-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

I've been asked to say a few words about the Dharma protectors, one of the most unique - and most easily misunderstood - aspects of Himalayan Buddhism. These are said to be beings that specifically guard the Vajrayana tantras and tantra practitioners, up to a point. The dharma protectors (who are known in sanskrit as Dharmapalas, dakas, and dakinis) can be understood in many ways. The most common protector is Mahakala.

"Mahakala: Sanskrit name meaning ‘The Great Black One’. Originally a non-Buddhist deity, sometimes seen as a form of the Hindu god Śiva, he is a wrathful tutelary deity (yi-dam) and protector of the faith (dharmapāla). In tantric Buddhism he is considered to be a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and his worship (pūjā) and related practices are described in detail in the Mahākāla Tantra. Various iconographic forms exist of Mahākāla in Indian and Tibetan tantric Buddhism with between four and sixteen arms. A non-wrathful form exists in Japan where he is associated with good fortune and is known as Daikokuten."
source: answers.com

Some people like to focus on the outer protectors, and some the inner protectors. Since the inner protectors are much more sensible to westerners on a psychological level, I will start with them.

The Inner Protectors

Here is a practical explanation of the protectors, as taught by Chogyum Trungpa Rinpoche. The example given is: Imagine you are arguing with someone, and you are totally red-faced angry, and completely unaware of yourself or your surroundings. Basically you have no mindfulness at all. Now, imagine you were to storm out of the room, go to slam the door shut, and catch your finger, instantly bringing you back (albeit in a not-so-pleasant way) to yourself, and allowing you to sort of reinhabit yourself. It brings your mind back to where you are.

That right there is the protector...that's Mahakala...Ekajati, etc. The protectors are the personification of wrathful wakefulness.

Now, Wrathfulness confuses a lot of people. It can be abused to disguise plan old anger, which is NOT enlightened. There is always a danger of people claiming they are manifesting "vajra anger" in an attempt to wake somebody else up. This is a VERY slippery slope. The comedian/performance artist Andy Kaufman tried to work this ground, to varying results. ( At some point, I am going to have cover "Saint Andy" - He's had a pretty big influence on how I have manifested myself at different times.) I would suggest to newer students that they go a LONG time before they attempt to act as protectors - unless they are in the Dorje Kasung ('Vajra protectors') within the Shambhala organization, which I will cover later also, IAGW.

I like to say it's like the difference between His Holiness the Dalai Lama saying very gently to some kids playing in a house that has caught on fire, "ok children, you need to get out of the house..."...and Samuel L. Jackson in full-blown Jules Winnfield from "Pulp Fiction" mode shouting at the kids "GET YOUR ASSES OUT OF THE MOTHER FU@KING HOUSE NOW!!!!!"
Both are done for the same reason, out of love and concern for the kids, but one is much more forceful.

Protectors practices are done at dusk, as a way of rousing one's wakefulness, since after a long day, that is when one would be most likely to indulge in mindless activities in the name of 'relaxing'. Doing these practices at dusk is to a great extent a way of saying to yourself "wake up! Keep up your mindfulness! This precious human birth will be over in a flash, so there really is no time for mindlessness."

Next time, Part 2: the Outer Protectors

Here is where things start to get into "Agent Mulder, is that you?" territory. It's worth it's own post...so it will get that. :)

-JTR

"I am not really a buddhist..." - some disembodied poetics

2008-10-10T12:29:00.004-04:00

Several sangha folks have been making a big deal about this thing I wrote last month.
I figured, it must be notable enough to post on here. So, for your consideration...

"Last Monday at the monthly Shambhala Art Salon, we worked and played
with words. In one exercise, we each wrote down a secret (true or made
up), passed the secrets along, and then wrote down whatever came up with
the only stipulation that it had to incorporate the secret at least once.

Luther came up with this vivid and humorous poem I thought was too good
not to share"

I am not really a buddhist-

I’m a member of DEVO, rolling on stages

in flower pot hats, talking about potato

depraved post-Kent State apocalypse

I am not really a buddhist

I’m a water moccasin, certainly not a shoe

floating in Chesapeake bland backwater

with tongue flicking – no trace of equanimity

I am not really a buddhist

I’m a fundametalist Ishtar nightmare throwing

stones and guitar picks at the next infidel

to walk through that door

I am not really a buddhist

I’m a lost B-movie action star who never learned

how to act

I am not really a buddhist

I am a walking deception, red strings around my

neck, but no strings attached or detached

where it really counts

I am not really a buddhist

I could more likely be a used ukulele leaning

precariously against a tree, one tuning peg

never quite staying in place – the dissonance

makes more sense

I am not really a buddhist

I am a sleepwalker, sleep talker, neuromancer

or maybe just a dream, a dream to be

disregarded – or closely guarded

I am not really a buddhist

I’m a jack-off-in-a-box, the birthmark

on Gorbachev, a faker holding a damaru

I am not really a buddhist

The only thing empty I believe is my

gas tank, bank account, a brick wall

looks solid and real to me.

Hired!

2008-10-10T02:43:00.002-04:00

Well, boys and girls, I am finally leaving the employment 'bardo'.
I start next week as a Contract-to-hire web developer. After a couple months, if everyone is happy, I convert to full staff.
Given how bad the economy is (and it is going to get worse...) I jumped at this opportunity.
Whew! I only had one week of unemployment left to spare.

So, no more late night postings on Randrol's Ramblings...like. for example, this posting...:)

-JTR

I know, I know - I owe, I owe

2008-10-02T13:27:00.002-04:00

I still need to get some entries done before they go up. Been busy with that job hunt thing.

In dharma news, the Milarepa Chorus is back. After a long hiatus, the four core vajra sangha members came back together last night to sing some of the songs of Milarepa and other great Kagyu and Nyingma lamas. These songs were introduced in the West by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche, and then translated and set to music by some of his students.

Last night, we went through a bunch of songs, with me using my bass guitar for accompaniment.

(I didn't want to use an acoustic guitar: It would remind me of the travesty I was subjected to at Mt. St. Joes which is 'folk mass' :))

We were a little rough, but it sounded ok. More on that later, IAGW.

-JTR

A Sample of Khandro Rinpoche - Introduction to Milarepa Movie

2008-09-09T00:41:00.003-04:00

I felt it would be appropriate to post on here this brief talk that Khandro Rinpoche gave - with no preparation whatsoever - when introducing in Berkeley, CA Part 1 of the movie about the most legendary saint in all of Vajrayana Buddhism, Milarepa. Her 4-minute introduction to the movie also serves as an introduction to the Dharma as she has learned it. I think even this short clip gives a taste of the power, humor, and confidence that Rinpoche has, which has led many people (myself included :)) to become her devoted students.

I hope you enjoy it.

-JTR

PS - The movie itself is beautiful and moving, even for non-buddhists. I'd highly recommend adding it to the NetFlix que. :)

Remember Four Things, Oh son or daughter of noble family...

2008-09-05T09:59:00.022-04:00

I've been asked by a few people to talk about 'The Four Reminders", which are in the Tibetan (/Bhutanese/Nepalese/etc.) tradition the very bedrock of the Buddhist path. Everything else is built upon these. as my teacher VKR has said many times, "Any obstacles that can't be overcome, it's simply because one has not contemplated the Four Reminders enough."

For you non-buddhists, this will give you a good overview of the core of what we practice.

So, here they are. At the top of each, I will include the traditional passage from the Karma Kagyu and the Drigung Kagyu describing each of the four. I will also include how -I- contemplate them daily, in hopes that some of you might be able to adapt it to your own practice lives.

(I am right now doing all of these from memory - I'll go back later on to make sure all the quoted parts are correct).

__________________________________________________________

First, setting the motivation by reciting - slowly- the "Metta Sutra":

May all beings be happy! Weak or strong, without exception, small or great, seen or unseen, nearby or far away, alive or still to be born - May all beings be entirely happy!

May nobody despise anyone anywhere, may no one wish harm to any single creature out of anger or hatred!

May we cherish all creatures as a mother would her only child! May our loving thoughts fill the entire world, above, below, and all around, without limit!

May we have a boundless goodwill to the whole world, unrestricted, without hatred or hostility!

---I've heard from many teachers that setting this motivation at the start is very, very important.

Then, I do 21 breaths, evenly in and out, as described in the classic Jamgon Kongtrol text on LoJong (Mind Training), The Great Path of Awakening. My ADD-adled brain needs this in order to be able to focus on the 4 Reminders.

First:

This is a precious human birth, hard to gain and extremely easy to lose.

Now that I have it, I must not waste it, but instead do something meaningful.

Keyma! This kind of leisure and endowment is supremely difficult to obtain!

Having obtained this body, which is very easily lost, do not waste it meaninglessly,

but rather use it to attain the joyous result of ultimate liberation.

---

"a good way to contemplate how fortunate we are is to consider how sentient beings suffer. Traditional Indian Buddhism used six mythical creatures to symbolize this:

The denizens of hell, drowning in pain,
The poor, starving "preta" spirits
The oblivious animals
The clever, desirous humans
The "asura" demigods, always jealous of the gods
The blissful gods, proud before they fall."

(Source: Ken Rawie)

To go through this, think in this way:

"It is indeed a very rare and precious birth that allows me to practice the dharma to attain liberation in this way. There are SO many other possibilities that would not allow this, such as:

(Counting out with my fingers)

-The Hell Realms:

hot - including Avichi, cold, and surrounding.

-The Human Hell Realms:

watching loved ones suffer and die and being totally helpless to stop it, with one's body going - for example, by ALS, or being ravaged by cancer- and being helpless to stop the process, with one's mind going - for example, by Alzheimers' - and being utterly helpless to stop the process,

being raped and/or otherwise violated, being led to your own execution, or being so full of hate and anger that you can't think of the repercussions of your actions and are willing to destroy yourself, for example, a suicide bomber.

-The Preta Realms:

walking around with a tiny mouth and huge belly that can never be close to food.

-The Human Preta Realms:

being without food, water, clean water, medicine surgery or other health care, with drug and alcohol addictions or sexual obsessions, without shelter, employment, companionship or sanity.

-The Animal Realms:

Think about how animals run around, with no real ability to think out their actions. Yes, our dogs and cats seem to have good lives, but what of the TRILLIONS of other animals in the outside world? Do roaches have free will? Does a giant squid EVER have any idea beyond "eat - swim - kill - don't get killed"? Most animals have very, very hard lives. And, the predators create the karma of killing without even realizing it.

-The Human Animal Realms:

Think of all the humans who's entire lives are spent simply foraging for food and surviving from day to day. At LEAST 1/2 of the planet lives like this! They have no opportunity to realize that there may a happiness beyond a crust of bread (that soon disappears, and then hunger returns...etc.)

The Ashura ("jealous god") Realms:

The classical descriptions are that they are beings that live in incredible luxury compared to every realm below, but it is still not enough. They know that the Devas live even better, and are determined to 'get theirs now' through force. But, like the Coyote after the Road-runner, they always get out-smarted, out-gunned, out-everything by the Devas. Their lives are fantastic, but it's not enough.

The Human Ashura Realms:

Think of all the men and women doing everything possible to get up the corporate ladder, or the "Hill Climbers" in the House and Senate buildings. Their minds are so set on getting the next 'piece of cheese', they will do just about Anything to climb higher and get more. At the same time, though, there is no appreciation for what they have now, or that this lifestyle may have flaws. These are the kind of people who think "what's my next partner/hook-up going to be like?" in the middle of sex with their current interest, or think "in THAT boardroom they have even better coffee!" while mindlessly sipping their Starbucks (or Seattle's Best or whatever). It is a realm of suffering.

The Deva ("god") Realms:

These are beings said to live blissfully for 1000's or even millions of our years. This experience seems to line up with the folk-belief-via-Christianity view of Heaven. There are lots of pleasant experiences, wonderful food, great music, never aging, getting whatever they desire just be thinking about it, real streets of gold-type stuff. However, they are said to be blissfully unaware of their real condition. After a million years here in the Elysian Fields, they are said to start wilting, and realize that they will have to leave soon. All the other Devas start avoiding one when they start their quick decline. There is tremendous anguish at the end when they realize they are about to die. BUT, the other Devas quickly forget, and the thought doesn't even occur to them that "this will happen to me too."

The Human Deva Realms:

Think of all the now "whatever happened to?" stars, who used to be on top, but then had to experience the slow horrible slide into anonymity and losing the perks of stardom, such as Joe Piscopo, Chris ODonnell, all the 80's hair metal bands, etc.

Now, compared to all the beings in the six realms, think:

I was born in a central place. A Buddha has come. He has taught. His teaching still exists. People still sponsor and practice these teachings. There is still genuine compassion and wisdom in the hearts of the teachers.

I have the inclination, faculties (functioning sense organs, relatively sane mind), and opportunity to study, contemplate, and practice these teachings.

This is rarer than one star in the infinite sky, or a snow flake in an ice age. This chance will NOT come again. Don't you DARE waste This Precious Life."

Second:

The whole world and it's inhabitants are impermanent.

In particular, the life of beings is like a bubble.

Death is real; it comes without warning. This very body will soon be a corpse.

At that time, my Dharma practice will be my only help; I must practice now with exertion.

The nature of all phenomena is impermanence;

death is a certainty for all who are born.

Death can come any time, like a drop of morning dew on a blade of grass.

Quick! NOW it is time to make effort for the essence of Dharma.

"I will die. I WILL die. There is no reason to believe this could not be the day i die. (Think about all the ways you could die today - accidentally choking, tripping and falling down the stairs, getting in a car accident, getting hit by a freak meteorite, lighting strike, or blue ice, etc.) But, there is no reason to believe this could not be the day I finally understand these teachings. And, it is said that the moment of death is one of the best opportunities to "get it". So, It is a good day to die.

I must always remember the reality that (counting on fingers):

- I will die.

- My wife (or spouse, partner, etc.) will die. Our animals will die. Any children we have will die.

(-if you have children, you would count them off and say "" " will die")

-My mom and dad will die. My spouses parents will die. (or, if they have already passed, count off "my " " has already died")

- My siblings will die. (If you have a sibling that has had a severe illness, count off "" " has already almost died once.")

- My friends will die. (again, if any friends have died, remember that as above)

- My family will die. (ditto)

- My sangha(s) will die. (For VKR folks, remember Lucinda died, and remember what Rinpoche said about that)

- My root guru " " will die.

- My other root teacher " "will die (if you have more than one).

- This very special friend will die/this special friend has died/this teacher has died (all you Trungpa Rinpoche students would fill his name in)/etc.

Everybody who has ever been born has died. (Even if the warmed-up Mithrasism that became the Christian "greatest story ever told" IS a real historical event, Rabboni Yeshua bar Yoseph Nazarene - better known as the badly-translated 'Jesus Christ' - DID die, at least for a while)

Death is real. It comes without warning. Because of this, it makes much more sense to be ready for it than ignore the inevitability."

Third:

When death comes, I will be helpless.

Because I create karma, I must abandon evil deads and always perform virtuous actions.

Everyday, I will examine myself.

The fruit of one's positive karma is happiness; suffering is the fruit of negative karma.

Karmic cause and effect is inevitable for all phenomena.

From now on, practice the Dharma by distinguishing between what should be practiced - and what should be given up.

"There are actions that always lead to suffering, and actions that always lead to a fruition of happiness. Because of this, I must cut the Ten Unvirtuous Actions of:

- Killing - physically or mentally

- Taking what is not offered (more than just stealing)

- Sexual misconduct and obsession

- Lying, especially for one's own selfish benefit

- Speech that causes disharmony and conflict

- Harsh speech (yelling "Motherfu2ker!" when someone cuts you off in traffic counts, even if no one else hears)

- Meaningless talk - gossip, idle talk, 'talking a lot but not saying anything'

- Craving and jealousy for what someone else has

- Wishing to harm another being

- Having wrong views on cause and effect (not believing that every action has a reaction)

I must cultivate the Ten Virtuous Actions of:

- Protecting life wherever possible (saving earthworms, etc.)

- Generosity

- Only performing sexual acts that won't cause suffering * (I know some traditional texts say here "no oral sex", but - if YOU lived in a culture that only bathed 1-2 times a year, would YOU welcome putting your mouth on a body part that hadn't been cleaned in 6 months? I don't think so! :))

- Speaking the truth - it's much easier than having to keep up lies, anyway

- Uniting speech, words the heal divisions

- Gentle speech - it's pretty much what most people expect of Buddhists, anyway! :)

- Speaking only what is necessary, without going into idle useless conversation

- Rejoicing at other's good fortune

- Wishing positive occurrences for others

- Having correct views of cause and effect (through study and contemplation)"

Fourth:

The homes, friends, wealth and comforts of samsara are the torments of the three sufferings, just like a feast before the executioner leads you to your death.

I must cut desire and attachment and attain enlightenment through exertion.

In the three lower realms, and even in the three higher ones,

there is not an Instant of Absolute happiness.

I will avoid the root cause of my samsaric existence

and practice the excellent path of peace to enlightenment.

"All this stuff of samsara is honey on a razor blade. EVERY bit of happiness in samsara also comes with suffering attached. The people that are the greatest joys in our lives are also the source of our greatest sorrows when they leave your life, through emotional/physical distance or ultimately through death.

All the "good things" of samsara end, and then suffering begins.

Relationships end.

Orgasms end. (since that's considered by many to be the peak of existence)

The most intense sexual experiences end.

ALL experiences end.

Meals end. Books end. Vacations end. Movies end. Conversations end.

EVERYTHING ends. Because of this, it makes the most sense to get ready for the inevitability and, as Dr. Suess said, "Don't be sad that it's over. Be glad that is happened.""

...So, by the end of this, what have we learned? That this life you have - even with all the troubles, physical and mental defects, and problems - is about a zillion times better than pretty much EVERY other being in the universe. (The WHOLE universe - as Khenchen Rinpoche said, "even UFO aliens just want happiness and freedom from suffering too" :)) Be glad for that.

However, this amazingly precious life can be gone -like that (snap fingers). There's a grinning reaper in your future - maybe 20 years, maybe 20 seconds, but he's there. Grim Reaper, Yama - the Lord of Death, however you want to anthropomorphize, it's still The End. There really is no time to lose.

In the time you have left, you commit innumerable actions with body, speech and mind. Instead of getting freaked out or getting a Catholic-style "sin! sin! sin!" guilt trip about this, instead, use is as an opportunity to actually SEE what you really do. This very moment, you can change your behaviors and change what happens next. It's just that easy - and that difficult.

Just in case you still figured, "Screw this! I have this wonderful life, but death may come at any time. I wanna get mine NOW!", well, sorry to be the rain parade, dude, but "getting yours" will just lead to more sorrow and unhappiness. "Whatever you wish to keep, you'd better grab it fast" (so sang Mr. Zimmerman in 'it's all over now, baby blue") - but anything you grab will be like sand through your fingers. You can't hold or solidify that experience. Period. Sorry, that's the rules of the universe, your mileage may vary. Everyone, everything you try to hold onto will change and/or go away.

From contemplating all this repeatedly, what should arise is an intense urge to sit down and practice. It will also undo some of the "stickiness" or "big deal" quality of things of this world.

AFTER all this, then we get to fun stuff - the blissfulness of shamatha resting in emptiness, the pleasantness of yidam practice, the "what -have- I been holding onto all these years! It's silly! :)' release quality of vipashina (analytical insight). But, without this basis, most people won't stick it out to get to those points.

So, this is the Four Reminders. After going through these slowly, it is recommended that one do Guru Yoga (as described in a previous post).

IAGW, this will help some of you deepen your practice.

Let me know of you have any questions.

-Jurme Thaye Randrol

You Were Warned...:) - Randrol Gets the Stupids with The Tick

2008-09-02T11:39:00.008-04:00

Ok, ya'll, Remember I mentioned on the right sidebar about the probability of insanity appearing on this blog? Well, here is the first dose. A clip from yet another of the "Shows FOX killed before they could get up to full speed:"The Tick".

Here's the Tick delivering a totally demented-yet-strangely-poignant eulogy for his friend, the Immortal, who died in the middle of sex with female superhero American Maid:

So, here's yet another reminder of the second reminder - just mixed with a healthy dose of

"experiential knowledge of non-traditional definitions of sanity".

-JTR

Nothing Deep

2008-09-01T18:30:00.003-04:00

This is a kind of boring post. Nothing particularly deep here.

We spent the weekend getting rid of our old crappy oversized IKEA couch in trade for a less-crappy smaller IKEA loveseat. Our doorway is 80''. Our old couch was 84''. 84" into 80" = BITCH. :)

We got it out with an able assist from my dad. (When facing a mathematical improbability, call in an engineer.).

Since then, well, I've just responded to Facebook messages, watched a couple episodes of 'The Closer' on TNT, and should be taking nap soon. But instead, we will run out and get some supplies - anti-allergy meds, eggs, etc.

I'll post something explaining for some of our younger readers about the Dharma Protectors later.

-JTR

How the Black Swan Came to the Lake...

2008-08-25T15:06:00.028-04:00

I've been asked by several newer students to explain my lineage. My path is not exactly the usual "person-curious-about-meditation-comes-into-the-shambhala-center-and-follows-the-curiculum". Ok, it's not even CLOSE to 'normal'.

If I had to describe my stream, it would be Drikung Kagyu-Mindrolling/Nyingma-Shambhala-Karma Kagyu.

You were warned it would be a mouthful! :)

To give the short version:

Soto Zen practitioner - 1995-1997 (sporadically)

Shambhala practitioner- 1997-present

Dharma Art practitioner - 1998-present

Mindrolling lineage practitioner - 1999-present

Drikung Kagyu practitioner - 2000-present

...and Karma Kagyu mixed in with all the other lineages.

Ok, the long version:

1989-91

After reading a lot of the Beat's writings (Kerouac, Ginsburg, Burroughs, Watts - the usual suspects :)) in high school, I had an interest in Buddhism. At that point, it was just reading and thinking "that makes sense". No sitting yet.

1993-95

Skip ahead a bit. Re-reading Kerouacs' "the Dharma Bums". Got some interest in Zen. Took class in college last semester on Zen Buddhism. Decent class, VERY good books, but not a part of me yet.

1996

Occasionally sitting, but not in a guided, focused way. Combined methods, which watered down effectiveness. Sat from time to time with a local Zen group at someone's house north of baltimore. OK, but not really incorprating into 'the core of my being' yet.

At the time, was somewhat leading and writting songs for half-assed unfocused rock band. Writing methods included at least a third of a bottle of rum. Pretty much using the Jim Morrison "I'm a songwriter, so I have a right to be a drunken asshole" idea which quite often doesn't lead anywhere good. (Exhibit A: Jim himself. ) Trying to live like 90's-critic's pick Mark Eitzel of American Music Club, but not exactly at his poetic level yet, no matter how blurry things were the next morning after a writing session.

1997

Hit long-overdue point of "This is your world. It isn't working." Had rug pulled out emotionally - My concept of me had been been built on someone else instead, who was no longer available to fill that role. (See my earlier "my beef with Ohio" post). What's that line from the Jayhawk's song "Blue"*? "Always thought I was someone, turned out I was wrong." Realized that not eating for three weeks and not sleeping without the benefit of rum and/or pharmaceuticals in the aftermath was not healthy. Thought advice of 'just never talk with each other again' sucked, and was tired of dodging and chickening out of challenges, as I had always done before. Decided to try opposite approach instead of crawling back under my stone. Knew that dharma was most workable solution, and also realized I couldn't do that on my own, either. Sought out more 'permanent' spiritual home.

Tried to go sit with another Zen group, found they had closed, but was refered to Baltimore Shambhala Meditation Center (BSMC) at 11 Mount Royal Avenue. Went, got meditation instruction, started sitting regularly there. After facing down a whole #@$#-load of longing, regrets, fantasies, and rage and labeled it "thinking", found I was able to function a bit better.

1998

Still sitting regularly at BSMC. By auspicious coincidence, ran into Dave Cip, a master of hindi-style slide guitar and member of BSMC, at a Richard Thompson concert at Artscape. He told me about the Dharma Art program happening the next weekend at BSMC. I was intrigued and said I would be there. I then proceeded to get shit-faced before meeting one of my musical heroes (who, as a serious practicing Sufi, is a teetotaler).

The next weekend, did program. it spoke to me in a way NOTHING had before. Ladies and gents, here's where I bit the hook. :) At one point, did an object arrangement that incorporated a picture of Khandro Rinpoche. THAT stopped my mind. A little taste of what was to come.

1999

Sitting more regularly. Did more Dharma Art programs. Doing one of these that fell on Vesak Day, we did an offering to a Buddha at the Maryland Institute College of Art. At that point, I asked the co-director (who was also my MI) "Ok, I've been shadowboxing with the dharma long enough. What do I need to do to get into the Khandro Rinpoche retreat and take refuge?"

Started studying for the Fall Retreat 'Gateway' program. (About this time, I had busted my right hand, so the band I had been in was allowed to just die off. This was a good thing, since the Khandro RInpoche study group night was the same night as band practice had been.)

Met many people who remain good friends to the present day. Went to the Annual Retreat for five-day program. Felt like the top of my head was lobbed off, and all thought processes temporarily re-wired. This was a good thing. I am still amazed at just how not-quite-sane I was back then, whenever I reread the transcripts of that teaching and come to my bizzare lines of questioning.

Came back, and decided to move out of parent's basement. (Strangely enough, the amount I had been spending on a practice space was enough for a security deposit in the DC area). Answered ad for a group house in Takoma Park. Found a more senior student from Khandro Rinpoche's sangha was already living there! (what are the chances?) Also, Jimmy Pittard, a senior student of another lineage, the Drikung Kagyu, was living there. THAT is what we call "auspicious coincidence."

Sitting regularly, spliting time evenly between Baltimore and DC Shambhala. Spending evenings hitting bars and dance clubs with Baltimore Khandro Rinpoche friends. Those were good times.

Woke up Thanksgiving morning passed out on friends' floor in Baltimore with no idea how I got there. Last blackout of this lifetime.

Spent New Years Eve with Baltimore Shambhala Sangha. Woke up next morning (after an hour's sleep) in BSMC shrine room with several other sangha members strewn around, to be there for first sitting of the year. Found out I snored. :) Jann Jackson announced that the 17th Karmapa had just escaped from Tibet to India.

2000

One evening in February, came back in from running around Georgetown with some B-more VKR folks to find someone sleeping on the couch of the house on Tulip Avenue. I apologized for waking them, and asked for their name. In this great gravelly drawl, "Konchog Dorje." Me:"that sounds like a dharma name." Him: "Well, I-am- a monk."

First meeting with Bikshu Konchog Dorje from Atlanta, a former attorney-turned-monastic in the Drikung Kagyu, and one of the coolest people you will ever meet. Any preconceptions I may have had about monastics being these totally pure Ziggy Stardust-like glitering beings were totally destroyed by Dorje. :) In his earlier life, his week could beat your year. He lived in our house for a while when he was undergoing an experimental treatment for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma at NIH (which was a success). For those who know of that disease, yes, Dorje is HIV positive. Amazingly, he has (as of this writing) been living for over 20 years with full-blown AIDS. Impossible, you say? I've noticed that people who practice dharma correctly can often manifest amazing states of health and grow old very gracefully. (Witness all the hot mamas among the senior students over 50 in the Lotus Garden sangha :)).

A couple months later, I went up to the Tibetan Meditation Center in Frederick, MD, which is the North American seat of the Drikung Kagyu. I was introduced by Jimmy and Dorje to then-Khenpo (now Khenchen) Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche, who taught on the 12 nidanas. I thought he was a very good teacher, quite funny, and very different from Khandro Rinpoche.

In May, I went to my fifth college reunion. Apparently the differences in behavior were setting in already. Someone said "ok, what's happening here, when Duder (my old college nickname - no, I don't use it any more - and neither should you :)) is the most sober person in the room?" :) It was great to see folks again, but I wanted to be able to read this great mind-training text i'd borrowed from one of my housemates called "The Wheel of Sharp Weapons" when I went to bed. To keep my mental faculties sharp enough, I had 1 1/2 beers the whole night, and a bunch of water, so I felt nothing except the wonderful taste of Guiniess and the need to go to the bathroom often. :)

I went up to TMC Frederick again for a weekend in June, which was within a day of my meeting my now-wife, Meli. For some reason, Khen Rinpoche's teaching this time wacked me upside the head as Khandro Rinpoche had done the previous fall. I don't know why, but for the next several weeks I experienced everything in a much more direct way than ever before, like some kind of blinders had fallen off. It wore off eventually, but I had some direct experience of some kind of samadhi.

In Frederick, in addition to the Very Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche, my teachers have since included H.E. Garchen Rinpoche, Drupon Trinlay Norbu Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Tendzin Rinpoche.

Khenpo Tsultrim did my wedding along with my Ani Jamyang/Kimi Monroe and a very, very interesting Lutheran pastor named Chad Kline.

So, this is how I came to the Dharma and stayed. I've noticed that in the first year after taking refuge, about 50% of people think "this is all too hard and too much work" and dissappear from the dharma. Spiritual burnout from taking on too much too soon is a real possibility.

However, in that time period, I had Jimmy and, for several stretches of time, Dorje living in my house, who were right there to answer all those questions and doubts newer students have. So, I've gotten only deeper and deeper in ever since, and I have no intention of leaving.

So, this is where I am now. I'll just play the game existance til the end...of the beginning...of the beginning...of the beginning...

Next time, kids, a history of all the lineages I am part of. How they have all intertwined with each other through the centuries is pretty interesting stuff.

-JTR

* This is the "one damn song that can make me break down and cry", as David Bowie once put it.

Just Another Day On Earth

2008-08-22T14:34:00.004-04:00

Someone did a simple time lapse video for the title cut of musical mastermind Brian Eno's "Another Day on Earth".
Nothing like a little change and impermance in the face with the right music to reach in and remind you the clock's ticking...
Khandro Rinpoche said that a lot of the musical knowledge of ancient India never got to the Himalayas, so it was lost, which is a great shame. Music done right can create a visceral 'felt' understanding like nothing else, IMO.
Eno has been doing it for well over 35 years, and with Roxy Music, Talking Heads, David Bowie, U2 (he's the 5th guy in the studio and that weird english voice on their albums since "Unforgettable Fire"), Robert Fripp and of course by himself.

The post-Retreat write-up is finished.

Back from Retreat - Final version

2008-08-18T21:17:00.052-04:00

As promised, Here's a bit more in-depth about the 2008 Annual Retreat with Her Eminence Mindrolling Jestun Khandro Rinpoche (along with her translator sister Jetsun-la and several nuns from her Retreat center in India, Samten Tse - I like to call the whole group "Team Mindrolling" for short :)).

I got there for the end of the "Entering the Vajrayana" portion (which, to be completely honest, related to my current practice more than the following week). She was continuing her teachings from last year about the nine yanas (10, if you include the "Samsaric yana of Gods and Men", which she did).

At one point, when talking about the Four Reminders, Rinpoche dropped this little gem:

"Many of us, w/o seeing impermanence, waste our lives doing a lot of things.
It’s now 2 weeks and a day since Lucinda died. When that happened, many of you thought briefly about your own mortality. Even if you came and wept in front of wherever, I’m not convinced it will be long lasting. Teachers die, sangha members die, you get a tumor. 70% of our sangha are dealing with some issue at this moment.
Occasionally, that other 30% are reminded that this could happen to you, but there is more thought in defying impermanence than thinking about it."

Of course, she is right about this.
___________________________________________________________

This year, the main teaching for the Dzogchen section of the retreat was a practice of Chod, or "cutting through". This is a practice of literally offering the one thing we are all most attached to - our very body - to various unseen beings. It's unique for several reasons.

Of all the various tantric methods, it is the only one -to my knowledge, anyway - that was invented in the Tibetan highlands, as opposed to being brought over from India (though there were certain aspects of the practice which were transmitted from India by Padampa Senge - who, fyi, is better known to the world as 'Bodhidharma' - yes, the same Bodhidharma who brought the essence of what became Chan/Zen Buddhism to China -no wonder there are many aspects in common between some Zen styles and Mahamudra). It's also unique because it is a clear synthesis between the Shamanism of the Bonpo tradition that was already in Tibet (/Nepal/Mongolia/etc.) with the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. From everything I have read, the actual part of going into a samadhi (meditative absorbtion, which is in this case similar to a trance) to communicate with the Spirit world is pretty common in shamanism. Also, the use of a drum to help invoke this world is also pretty standard the world over, as is the use of a sung melody. (photo-Rinpoche's students learning to use the Chod drum, which is basically a supersized dhamaru.)

However, the genius of Machig Lapdron, the inventor of Chod (more on her shortly), was to combine these old techniques with the profound view of emptiness, as well as the specifically Buddhist aspiration to cut clinging to a "self". Basically, she bridged the two traditions to create a powerful way to cut grasping to the self, which is the biggest hindrance to enlightenment.

One other big thing was that the inventor of Chod was an actual living human female. Sadly, like most of the religious traditions on this planet, Tibetan buddhism also has an anti-female slant to the whole thing that developed over time. Shakyamuni himself said that women were just as likely as vessels for enlightenment as men. (This was after many requests, however - which is understandable, since Shakyamuni Buddha still had to live among 'normal' people, and the idea that women were also capable of being religious practitioners was very radical in it's time. It could have lead some more conservative elements to turn violent on him.)

However, as time went on, things were modified. Someone added a line to the story of the first female ordained saying 'now the span of my teachings is cut in half by you becoming a nun, so it will now disappear from the world after 1500 years'. Well, 2500 years later, Buddha's teaching is booming, so it seems that line is totally moot point. But the bias was in place. Which made it that much more remarkable when female masters did occur.

Anyway, the inventor of Chod was Machig Labdron. She created this unique synthesis, taught it to her kids (yep, she got enlightened and then made a family lineage), and it then became part of the Kagyu lineage's bag of tricks, and from there spread to all the four main lineages. Her method was so powerful and effective, no one could disagree with it's brilliance. Though people tried. Scholars came and to debate against her view, meditation and conduct all the way. She NEVER lost a debate, so she seems to have had a fairly spectacular grip of the basis and fruition of her practice.

A couple year ago, Rinpoche transmitted a short Chod practice, with one melody. It was a very good thing I brought my bass guitar this year, which came in VERY handy to try to remember the SIX different melodies used in the 40+ pages of this Chod. If I can get it under my fingers, I can remember the melody.

No, I will not be doing a CD of the Chod practice, like I did of the prayers and practices of the Drikung Kagyu (which my brother has been sitting on for the past four years! I hope he will let it see the light of day and bring some benefit to the lineage). Khandro Rinpoche is not a fan of doing traditional practices with very different non-traditional instrumentation - she feels making these profound practices into background music is a sign of the degenerate age.

She's got a point: If you want some good background music, go grab yourself some Brian Eno.

She patiently went through the practice several times. This has been one I've wanted to do -- if/when my ngondro gets done -- as my main practice for years.

The only problem is, the drum is played with the right hand. Well, I got a fracture on my right wrist in 1999, a couple months before the first Khandro Rinpoche retreat I attended. That wrist has given me problems off and on for years. Holding the drum can cause some pain, which gets MUCH greater as time goes on. Hum...maybe I will do this practice with a drum machine after all. :) (Just kidding, Rinpoche...kinda :))

Anyway, once we all do this, we should all know how to properly pacify whatever unseen beings lurk in Civil War battlefields, abandoned rail yards, old graveyards, first nation/native american burial mounds, supposedly "haunted" places, and other sites right out of "the Blair Witch Project".

Rinpoche 'asked' (can you really call instructions from one's root guru "asking" ? :)) us all to work on the Chod, as well as do the Pema Garwang (Red Chenrezig - more on that in another entry), and make sure we do a short Guru Rinpoche practice (downpour of blessings) every morning, and Protectors every night.

Other Retreat Events

Also, as previously mentioned, a 17-foot buddha statue from Mindrolling monastery in India arrived in the Port of Baltimore that week. 10 or so guys from the Retreat with no serious injuries (which ruled me and my two herniated disks out) drove down and picked up the 600+ pound (ok, 'Kilogram') statue. Here's some shots of it.

Right - The statue went up (very slowly) by truck to the main shrine room, where it will stay until the new shrine down by the lake is finished. It was balanced on the back of a pickup truck precariously.

VERY precariously.

After a lot of huffing and puffing, it got safely to the main shrine room.

Rinpoche then led us all down to the lake, where the statue will be installed.

We then went walking around the lake, and then around the land, while She explained to us her vision for different parts of the land. It's a REALLY freakin' sweet vision. :)

We ended the week with a 2 day Drupcho (extended practice) of the Vajrasattva sadhana. This was partially to mark 21 days after the death of Lucinda Peach. It was also to bless the future site of the new temple.

This was what the view was from the porch of the main shrine room at EXACTLY the time people started going in to practice. Someone seems to have timed it to start right as the sun first peaked over the mountains, which was a very nice touch.

At the end of the Drupcho, Rinpoche broke us into 4 groups, and each group did the Fire Puja part of the text in the four cardinal directions at the new temple site.

I was lucky enough to be in the group with Loppon Jann Jackson leading (right). To see her in action like that was awesome. I think she totally embodied Vajrasattva. Plus, her advice to those of us there to "not get fascinated by what you see - you've all seen rice before, you've all seen Crisco before - but instead hold the view. Remember to hold the view!" was spot on perfect.

Here's Jann at the conclusion of the puja. Damn, when people talk about "holding your seat", no one locally does it quite as well as Jann, IMHO (though several people come close :)).

While there, I stayed in the new dorm building (right), which was 'finished' the first weekend I was there. (Ok, the plumbing for the toilet and shower were not finished yet, but as Rinpoche says, we should all "be flexible".)
Gordon Ryan did a great job of ensuring this thing was built right. For fellow energy geeks, the insulation between the roof and ceiling is R-60. Even on the hottest day, it stayed comfortably cool inside the building (with no AC!)

I have had this weird feeling that some kind of karmic blowback is long overdue personally, since my practice has been going so well the last several months, which led me to go sit on the porch of the main shrine room (a converted barn) at night a few nights. There was a full moon during the Retreat (which is considered an auspicious occurance), so it was easy to see where I was walking even without my headlamp.

I still have this feeling of some impending heartbreaking event coming soon, which will really, really test what I have worked on in solitary retreat. Some may say I'm pessimistic, I'd say I'm realistic...Shakyamuni didn't say "Life is Suffering" just to hear himself speak...
(ok, so I'm using this as an excuse to show off some of my David Lynch-esque mood photography. So sue me...:))

In between all the teaching and practice, there was a bit of goofiness. (This is par for the course among the Lotus Garden sangha, as i've mentioned in previous posts).

For example, here's one of Rinpoche's best students (Well, it -is- true, Judy-la :)) starring down what appears to be the Largest Chocolate Bar in the World. This was later melted down and served to everybody on french toast...yummmmmmmm.....

Someone donated a yurt to Lotus Garden, which became the site of "Ratna in the Round", the complete one-stop shop for all your dharma supply and gift needs. Julie Heeggard, in addition to her skills in running the Baltimore Shambhala Center, also turns out to be a great slick salesperson - often crossing over (quite willingly, I'd say) into parody (I'll have to dig up a photo of the "Miracle Rocks" she was selling :) in a successful attempt to get fellow students to buy stuff to support Lotus Garden.

And, every night, people were hanging out at the Ratna Kosha, Kosha Cabana...during the day, she was doing brisk business selling ice cream. (Everything is empty, yes, but those pounds I added at Retreat from empty calories sure seem real...:))

I'll leave you with this parting shot of Her Eminence Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche, which looks to me could be an official photo of Rinpoche (it's going on my shrine, at least), but for (or maybe, especially because of) the happy panting presence of Ziji in the background.

That's all for now.
Oh, and in the mundane world, I have a second interview next week. We'll see what happens...

-JTR/LWWD

Brief update from Lotus Garden

2008-08-14T15:37:00.003-04:00

Hey - quick update. I've been at Lotus Garden since last Friday.
Khandro Rinpoche has been amazing as always.
She mostly teaching about Chod, an amazing tantric practice of cutting through ego.

I'll post more on it later, but for now, here's a link to some photos of the giant buddha statue that came a couple days ago and Rinpoche taking us on a walking tour of the land.

Peace.

-JTR/ LWWD

Off to the Land of Lotuses...

2008-08-08T02:43:00.004-04:00

In a few short minutes, I will be in the road to Stanley, VA to study and practice with my main teacher Khandro Rinpoche at Lotus Garden retreat center. I will pop out every couple of days to check emails (since I am still looking for work) and blog about the retreat.

I am bringing my new used bass with me, since there is serious talk of the DC Milarepa Chorus performing if there is a talent(-less? :)) show at the end of the retreat, as there has been to blow off steam on Rinpoche's birthday in the past.

In other news, Senge STILL is living in my parent's basement, emerging only at night to feed and poop. My dad suggested that maybe he's a vampire, sleeping in his little coffin during the day and then moving around at night. It WOULD explain some of his behaviors...

-JTR/LWWD

Photo travelogue

2008-08-06T11:20:00.022-04:00

Ok, I thought it would be good to have something on our recent daring adventures in order in one place. So, without more ado:	I will be adding more photos to this entry in the next day or so. Please revisit it.
	This is the Courier Cafe in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Meli ate there all the time when she was in college here. After stopping there on the way out for quesadias and chocolate malt milkshake for dinner, I can understand why. :) Highly recommended.
	This is the University of Illinois Honors tablet for 1991. The 10 th entry down is Melissa's roommate all through college. We visited Rose and her family in Lincoln, Nebraska later in the week.
	Lightning during severe thunderstorm that hit as we were visiting Urbana, Ill. Daisy was NOT pleased.
	Daisy - still sleeping through Illinois.
	We stopped briefly in Farmer City, IL to get some shots of an abandoned railroad crossing I saw mentioned on www.abandonedrailroads.com. As I said before, I've always had a fascination with this stuff as long as I can remember.
	More of the abandoned rails. Drikung Khenchen Rinpoche said that it is very good to hang around such places - it's a great reminder of impermence and decay.

	This is the massive Black Forest Crepe we got at the Landmark Cafe in Galesburg, IL. If you are in town, I highly recommend getting one.
	257 Miles to Des Moines.
	One afternoon, we went with Jen and her family to the Hot Air Balloon festival in Indianola, Iowa. We didn't go in, because we couldn't walk around with the dog, so we instead drove to another location in the direction the wind was blowing to eat pizza and watch the balloons fly over. It turned out, we parked about 100 yards from where half the balloons landed! Here's a hot air balloon eclipsing the sun. I've got more shots from that afternoon here.
	Meli's Uncle Steve eating tortilla chips.
	Cousin Ben wrestles with Daisy in Jen's living room.
	Jen finally gets onto Facebook!
	Daisy gets mobbed by admirers at the Des Moines Farmers market - she wasn't complaining. :)
	Emu Meat??!
	Here is the welcome sign for Omaha, Nebraska - an Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy", the biggest, most powerful steam locomotive ever built in the world.
	Meli's old roommate Rose with her daughter Katie.

	THIS is the front that we raced ahead of on Monday and Tuesday to get home. We were going to take i-80, but instead took a southern route through Ohio to Parkersburg, West Va. It was a good idea, since this storm system later gave birth to some tornadoes in Indiana and Illinois (including a stadium-clearing tornado warning in Chicago!)
	Here are some steeples and smokestacks outside Cinncinati, Ohio.
	We took Route 32 and then Route 50 through Southern Ohio after Cinnicani to avoid the aforementioned storms. It was actually very nice, especially compared to the flat dull land of Illiandohio. I retract my earlier criticism of the state of Ohio, which really wasn't so much about the state anyway. :)

	There were a LOT of roadside crosses along Route 50 from Parkersburg to Clarksburg, West Va. It was a bit trecherous driving in the rain during the day - I can only imagine how awful it must be at night. :(

	The highway bridge over Cheat Lake in Western maryland.
	Almost home - the sign for different kinds of rest at the Maryland Welcome Center rest stop.

"Is this thing on?"

2008-08-06T07:09:00.003-04:00

Hey- Quick Question - Is anybody reading this thing?
Please feel free to drop me a Comment about what you think, and what you would like to see.

I will drop some photos on to here from our travels later today, along with some dirt on myself from the past.

(Fun, eh? :))

-JTR / LWWD

My Beef with Ohio

2008-08-06T04:00:00.006-04:00

Ok, here's my problem with Ohio, It mostly about one former resident of the state who was SLS's roommate in law school. When she told me she was seeing somebody (after not dating as long as I'd known her, which I realized later was probably one of the dozens of reasons I considered her 'safe' to get close to), I was more than a little worried.

I asked her roommate, who I'd met a few times and somewhat trusted, partially because as SLS had said, we were similar in many ways, who it was and what they were like, to make sure it wasn't some creep who would dick her over.

Her roommate, who turned out to BE her boyfriend for the next 8 years, strung me out for almost a month by saying SLS had become a lesbian. I was already emotionally conflicted enough already about my feelings for her - this little angle caused my even more pain. This was my best friend, AND I'd fallen in love with her, and didn't know THIS? What the #@$@ was wrong with me? What else about my life had I missed? Had I really noticed ANYTHING around me properly til now at all? Was I that totally unaware?

So, Ha, ha. Very #@$@# funny.

Admittedly, as an old Andy Kaufman fan, I have a tendency towards dark "So what if it hurts someone, it's funny!" activities, which I recognize are diametrically opposed to everything I am aimed to do by the Dharma.

(Melissa is always reminding me, when I say "Andy wantttssss to come out and plllllaaaaaayyyyyyy", "how does this line up with what your teachers have said?" Dammit, she's of course right. :))

If I were in his shoes, I can't say that I would not have done the same thing to me. So, I've let quite a bit of my grudge toward him go.

If I'm ever down in Florida (which may happen independent of SLS since there are several thriving Drikung Kagyu sanghas scattered throughout the state), though, it might be wise for him to stay out of my way. I'm not enlightened yet.

Ok, as Colbert would say, "Moving on, nation..."

Home, Home Again, I like to be here when I can...

2008-08-05T20:20:00.002-04:00

Well, we hit the road at 7 am today from Parkersburg, and got home @ 1 PM. Daisy was REALLY excited to be home - and immediately treed a squirrel in the quad in front of my condo building.

Greetings from Parkersburg, West Virginia!

2008-08-04T22:37:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone-

We had a change of plans due to the severe weather that was happening today along our original intended route through Chicago (which is right now having tornadoes as I type this).
We instead headed south from Davenport, Iowa through Southern Ohio to Parkersburg, West Virginia. We drove 600 miles today!

While it was nasty in northern Ohio, In southern Ohio, the sun was shining the whole time. It was actually very nice, especially compared to the flat dull land of Illiandohio. I retract my earlier critiicizm of the state of Ohio. :)

We are trying to decide what to do tomorrow. We may: 1)Wait out the storms here in Parkersburg, since it's a nice area (with a lot of rail-trails); or 2) drive the remaining 300 miles home.

We will look at the Weather Channel tomorrow morning at 5 AM, and then decide.

-JTR/ LWWD

Change of plans

2008-08-04T08:59:00.001-04:00

The weather forecast seems to have become awful overnight. Our plan now is to push on I-74 as far as we can - hopefully before the severe weather hits. Wish us luck.

-JTR/LWWD

Homeward bound...

2008-08-03T23:37:00.002-04:00

Greeting, ya'll. Well, I woke up in Des Moines, IA, and am now in Davenport, IA (aka the Quad Cities). We said our goodbyes, stopped in on Meli's cousin Ben and his wife Kim in Iowa City (where some flood damage is readily apparent), and are now here at the La Qunita Inn.

I ran out to get some supplies (water, Q-tips, bananas - standard travel stuff :)), and the only place open was Sprawl-Mart. That place should have it's theme song "All lost in the supermarket" by the Clash. Too damn big for me. :))

It's time for Protectors practice, and then off to bed. I've got some photos up on my Flickr account, and plan to have some up here tomorrow, IAGW.

Dream Well, everyone.

LWWD/ JTR

A more low-key day

2008-08-02T00:45:00.003-04:00

Howdy folks -
Nothing major to report today. Mostly hanging with Meli's family. My cousin-in-law showed me a few Mac tricks and installed some useful apps, which helped quite a bit. This was after a discussion about bad movies like "Zardoz" and "Armies of Darkness."
(If you can recite large portions of dialogue from that last film, you are probably a geek. :) That's a good thing, in my book.)

We went out for Mexican for lunch, got Melissa's cousin Jen onto Facebook (finally! - SLS, you are next :)), had a cook-out for dinner after naptime, and then watched some old "Even Stephven" bits from the Daily Show on-line.

I did get to do my usual opening practice routine, the Mindrolling Vajrasattva sadhana for Lucinda (since Khandro Rinpoche asked us to do that practice for Luci every 7 days after her death - I still have difficulty believing she's gone), and did my usual CHenrezig, Achi, and Protectors practice. (I plan to explain what "Achi and the Protectors" are in a later post.)

I also did some emailing with one of Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen RInpoche's senior students about taking the next step in my Buddhist path. There are some additional commitments I have been thinking long and hard for a couple years about taking on, and after my 6 week retreat earlier this year, I think the time is drawing near. This is a "stay tuned" issue...

Anyway, it's been a long-ish day, and we've got to drive to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit Melissa's old college roommate Rose and her family.

Should be pretty good.

Fading into yesterday before tomorrow comes,
-JTR / LWWD

Nothing like a good theological debate; Lucinda's Sukavati

2008-08-01T01:39:00.003-04:00

After the hot air balloon thing, I got back to Jen and George's house. We pulled in literally right behind Jen's younger brother (& Meli's cousin) Ben and his wife Kim. I walked off to do something, and came back into the room right as George was talking about reading the Revelation of John in Greek. "Showtime!!!" :)

What followed was a nice long debate on various theological topics. It always feels good to pull on that knowledge base - the original Apocalypse of Peter that was slated to end the Bible until someone realized that it said that "the Jews" would also escape the world of the dead (Hades - NOT the Hell most people think of, which was essentially invented in Dante's Inferno) in the end, Covenant eschatology (the view that the predicted calamity Yeshua Bar Yoseph described was NOT some event far in the future, but instead happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans razed the Temple in Jerusalem (in effect literally the end of the world for the Jewish people),
the fact that the Emperor Nero was called "the Beast" in his own time partially because of his sicko amusement of playing "a kind of game in which, covered with the skin of some wild animal, he was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women, who were bound to stakes {and I would assume leaving them to bleed to death - LWWD}." (The Lives of the Caesars, 6.29), other reasons why it's painfully obvious the Book of Revelations is a tirade against the Roman empire, the whole "666 vs. 616" controversy (it turns out someone did a BIG flub in translation at some point along the way), Bart Ehrman, Karen Armstrong, Mithras, Simon Magus, the questionable nature of Paul/Saul of Tarsus's "conversion", etc.

2 hours of fun to me. Like all good debate (IMHO, and that of my buddhist traditions), it ended with everyone being further educated.

Now, to finally finish up about Lucinda's Sukavati -

Jann Jackson led it masterfully. Her explanation of what the Sukavati is about, and about what tonglen is before leading a session for Lucinda, was about was brilliant. Personally, I idolize Jann, and hope that if I reach 60, I can be even half the pressence that she is.

There were boxes of tissue being passed around, which were needed. I was on Dorje Kasung duty, being one of the people who was supposed to monitor the room to gauage the comfort of the attendees. I admit, I was having a hard time doing my role when in my direct line of sight was a photo of Lucinda (which I had found and shared with the Int'l sangha, btw - glad to be of help) that was symbolically burned at the end. Looking and seeing it there made me well up.

On the somewhat lighter side, the 4 core members of the Milarepa chorus - myself, Larry Fallon, Susan Page, and my MI Ken Rawie- stood up to sing a concluding dedication prayer that we've been ending practices with for quite a while. It's actually quite beautiful, I think:

"All you sentient beings

I've had a good or bad connection with

as soon as you have left

this confused dimension

may you be born in the West is Sukavahti

and once you're born there

complete the bhumis and the paths."

While our performance started out rough (we started a half-octave lower than we'd ever rehearsed), by two lines in, we'd found our stride again.

It felt right to do that.

After the Sukavati itself, there was a reception. It was great to catch up with people, especially the sizable contingent from the Baltimore area (including Jann).

I didn't get to talk to everyone I wanted to, though (sorry Megan, fer instance).

But such is life. Anyway, the whole experience just brought it home a little more how precious and rare this life is, and how it can go away quickly.

I feel a need to both practice more and also spend more time with my friends and tell them I love them while there is still time.

Bodhi Svaha.

I was walking up Illinois Avenue, when balloon man came right over me...

2008-08-01T00:11:00.002-04:00

Here's some shots of the Hot Air Balloon festival. We didn't go in, because we couldn't walk around with the dog, so we instead drove to another location in the direction the wind was blowing to eat pizza and watch the balloons fly over. It turned out, we parked about 100 yards from where half the balloons landed! Here's the photos:

Lucinda's Sukavati, part 1

2008-07-30T21:55:00.005-04:00

Ok, I now feel like saying something about Lucinda's Sukavati.

A Sukavati is a service done by Himalayan Buddhist traditions (including the Shambhala Buddhist tradition) that is based in the older Pure Land tradition. The Pure Land tradition seems to date back to the beginning of what became the Mahayana lineages.

The Pureland is said to be a Buddha realm created by one of the 2 earliest other Buddhas mentioned by Shakimuni (the other being Maitreya, the coming Buddha of the future, who has since had many of the "Messianic/ coming savior" traditions identified with him).

Amitabha is said to be an aspect of the Buddha that, out of his great compassion for all Sentient beings, created a place when one who merely remembered his name or aspired to go there could be reborn.

When I first heard about this, as a early 20-something nihilist, I was disappointed. This sounded to me like the sort of folk belief-via-Christianity "happy hunting ground heaven" bullshit that I had turned against.

However, there is a big difference. In the basic Heaven myth, people who believe in a certain deity would go and dwell there eternally in bliss while everyone else (the infidels/ non-believers) would burn as sinners.

In this case, those who aspire to be reborn there in Amitabha's pureland of Sukavati aka Dewachen are doing so because the conditions are very ripe for easy enlightenment - and then one would come back to whatever realm needed in whatever form was needed to help others get free of samsara. Aspiring to go there does not insinuate that everyone else is inferior to you for not believing in Amitabha, and that they will suffer the wrath of a vengeful angry Buddha.

Far from it. If one has taken the Bodhisattva vow properly, instead of feeling superior to all the sheep, one is dedicated to helping every single last one of them attain the same realization.

Anyway, the Sukavati itself consists of a bit of sitting to focus everyone's minds, an explanation of what is going to happen, a period of tonglen - taking and receiving meditation - for the consciousness of the dead person, and then some remembrances about them by friends and family.

It ends with the burning of a picture of the deceased. It is supposed to help the dead person by getting rid of the image of the body they have left. It is said in the Bardo Thotal (aka Tibetan Book of the Dead) that the dead may not know they are dead, and seek to be around reminders of their just-past life. Burning the photo is supposed to make the deceased realize "oh, I'm dead."

I have heard from at least one lama that the real reason it is done is to make the survivors quit their painful grasping to the deceased by driving it home that "this loved on is dead, time to start moving on with life."

I'll add more details about how Jann Jackson masterfully lead Lucinda's tomorrow morning, IAGW.

-LWWD/JTR.

Des Moines, here we are!

2008-07-30T21:38:00.008-04:00

Ok teen gang.

Melissa and I are now in Des Moines, IA. I'm quickly checking job-hunt related emails and other stuff, before going back upstairs in Meli's cousin Jen's house. We will chill here a few days.

We drove another 400 + miles today, stopping briefly in Farmer City, IL (I know - what a name) to get some shots of an abandoned railroad crossing I saw mentioned on www.abandonedrailroads.com. As I said before, I've always had a fascination with this stuff as long as I can remember.

Here are some shots of that. Later, I will add some of the massive Black Forest Creppe we got at the Landmark Cafe in Galesburg, IL. If you are in town, I highly recommend getting one.

We got to town, and I talked to SLS for a bit. I'm glad to hear her blood pressure thing is not as serious as it first sounded.

-JTR/ LWWD

On the Road Again...to Champaign-Urbana

2008-07-30T00:03:00.002-04:00

Hiddi-ho!

Just a quick note before I do protectors practice. We started out in Columbus, Ohio, and ended up in Illinois at my wife's alma mater, the University of Illinois. 400+ miles again. It was cool to walk around the campus a bit. Daisy REALLY enjoyed chasing squirrels while off her leash.

We ducked into a classroom building right before the storms hit. The lightning was kind of cool.

Well, I thought so anyway. Daisy really dislikes rain.

A little update. off to Des Moines tomorrow.

-LWWD

A little musical interlude - only the stones remain

2008-07-29T22:59:00.007-04:00

OK, ya'll - a little musical interlude.

The core of my old musical project, the Number Nine Line, has reunited to record a track for an upcoming tribute album "Glass Flesh 3" for eccentric british singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock. (If you are old enough, you may remember him for his late 80's college radio hits "Balloon Man", "One long pair of eyes", and "so you think you're in love".) We choose to record the track "Only the Stones Remain." We recorded this track in 1998 for the album "Glass FLesh 2."

Give a listen. I'll just say that we've all grown quite a bit since then.

Only the Stones Remain - 1998

Only the Stones Remain - 2008

Here's the lyrics. A nice little ditty about the end of everything and the ultimate silliness of our activities. Somehow appropriate that I would select this tune to do, back then, and then take refuge and really become a Buddhist practioner the following year.

Like I've said before, it was really coming home to people who thought the same way I already did.

Anyway, cheers, mates!

-LWWD

Only the Stones Remain

Men were executed, women bled
Meat and fish changed hands and children stayed up late
Coloured drums they displaced the night
There's a taxidemist looking for a fight
But now he's gone
Only the stones remain

Girls were decked with flowers and violated while
Boys spat juice from out of their fresh young bulbs
Soldiers crossed their hearts and died

while pretty girls turned cold inside
But now they're gone
Only the stones remain

And the stones have forgotten them
The stones have forgotten them

They break your body and drain the life out of it
It sinks into the soil while the soul flies up into the air above
and when there's no more tears to cry
There's nothing left to do but laugh
State led collabarations collapse and candy floss evaporates, honey
Only the stones remain

Randrol's Ramblings

Stuff going on...

Nuba Rinpoche – 2-day special Bodhichitta Generation teaching at TMC-Frederick 6/5/11

First reminder-The Precious Life - Khandro Rinpoche

The passing of Lopon Peter Lieberson

Talk on Guru Yoga - Lopon Andre, Lotus Garden, February 2011

Gas Prices around DC, or Cyclic Existence, or "Turbo is NOT the future"

Mindrolling Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche – Skype address – 2-21-11 9:15 AM

Buddha-nature in the Pali Canon

Khandro Rinpoche Closing Comments at the Künzang Gongpa Zangthal

Künzang Gongpa Zangthal!, Part 1

Another 'coming soon'/update

For those of you following this blog...

Coming Soon...

Mamos Season, or 'the Season of the Witch' :)

Notes from Garchen Rinpoche's teaching in Mid-January on Creation and Completion

A brief guide to liberation theology

brief update

October Already????, Some wisdom on being an 'elder' from Khandro Rinpoche

Brief update (vkr 2009), Welcome to the bloggosphere, Ani Chime

Update, say farewell to "Our Town"

Update; One Year since Lucinda's Death

A Guru Yoga that Brings the Dharmakaya onto the Path - by Khenchen Könchog Gyaltshen, composed October 27th, 2008

The path of Shambhala (Dharma) Art

More to follow...Lots of dharma ;)

The 4 Immeasurables and the 5 Skhandas

A Short Clip of Khandro Rinpoche and some adorable tail-wagging

"A River That Cannot Be Frozen" by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche

Milarepa Day, or "Why people would read 292 pages out loud in one day"

Vajra yana Buddhism - the Short Explanation

25 random-ass things

My Practice Life

Update

The Burning Names, or, One Night in Frederick Makes a Dull Man Humble...Part 1.5

Drubchen!

In retrospectacle...the ER Experience

Friday night in the ER...

Happy Winter Solistice...having fun yet?

On the Road Again...or, Blogging in the Bathroom, Part Deux

What it means to 'take refuge', What's with the Prostrations???

brief update - hired!

Prayers to the Protectors - Part 1

"I am not really a buddhist..." - some disembodied poetics

Hired!

I know, I know - I owe, I owe

More postings coming soon

A Sample of Khandro Rinpoche - Introduction to Milarepa Movie

Remember Four Things, Oh son or daughter of noble family...

You Were Warned...:) - Randrol Gets the Stupids with The Tick

Nothing Deep

How the Black Swan Came to the Lake...

Just Another Day On Earth

Back from Retreat - Final version

Brief update from Lotus Garden

Off to the Land of Lotuses...

Photo travelogue

"Is this thing on?"

My Beef with Ohio

Home, Home Again, I like to be here when I can...

Greetings from Parkersburg, West Virginia!

Change of plans

Homeward bound...

A more low-key day

Nothing like a good theological debate; Lucinda's Sukavati

I was walking up Illinois Avenue, when balloon man came right over me...

Lucinda's Sukavati, part 1

Des Moines, here we are!

On the Road Again...to Champaign-Urbana

A little musical interlude - only the stones remain