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

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...

Update; One Year since Lucinda's Death

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

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.

Drubchen!

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...

How the Black Swan Came to the Lake...

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.   

A more low-key day

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

"what is the purpose of that retreat? "

One of my oldest friends in the universe (who to a great extent inadvertantly drove me onto this path) just emailed me a little while ago, in part asking, "what is the purpose of that retreat? never having attended a retreat, i am not sure what people do while there."

Well, Stac, to answer your question, I figured it'd be worth posting to this here blog (which is currently read by occasional VKR sangha members and my dog, though I doubt she - quite - gets all the meaning :)).

What is the purpose of retreat?
Well, in a Buddhist context, there are really two kinds of retreat: study and practice. Most retreats in the West are some combination of the two, since most of us are not living in either a monastic or a dharma household situation (which is how many non-monastic lamas in the Nyingma lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism, who have families after years of training,will teach).

Traditionally, one would be getting teachings on an on-going basis where they lived, and "retreat" would mean a time when they would go off by themselves to practice according to the instructions of their teacher until some realization occurred.
However, since the majority of the sangha in the Americas and Europe are lay practitioners, study has to be concentrated into retreat situations also. As Khandro Rinpoche has said many times, it's not an idea situation for transmitting the dharma, but it's what we are stuck with given our lives.

As people who have been reading this know, I did 5 1/2 weeks of personal retreat time a couple months ago, allowing the teachings to sink into the core of my being. As a famous chant of the Kagyu lineage starts, "Grant your blessings so that my mind may be one with the Dharma".

This allowed me to tame my mind enough so it could be focused on the teachings (via shamatha - calm abiding meditation), and then:
1) go over parts of the teachings enough (through vipasyana, which leads to the creation of prajna - transcendental wisdom) so that my worldview and my conduct actually reflect that part of the teachings, versus my usual samsaric habits, which haven't really served me so well up til now, and will most likely not lead to a positive long-term result in the future; and
2) do other practices which will lead to a similar transformative effect.

What I am supposed to be doing starting August 8th is going to a retreat that is mostly teachings-oriented lead by Her Eminence Mindrolling Jestun Khandro Rinpoche (along her younger sister Jetsun-la, a great translator with FAB-ulous clothing tastes, and many nuns from her retreat center/nunnery in India Samtense).
This is the continuation of several streams of teachings that Rinpoche has been teaching on an ongoing basis every year (now going on 11 years). Every year, she teaches a certain set of teachings in several different sections for groups of practitioners with different levels of practice and study.



Being on a land retreat center like Lotus Garden, where a majority of practitioners stay on the land (either in dorm spaces or in tents) instead of leaving at the end of a day of teachings to go back their usual homes (as happened at Khandro Rinpoche annual retreats when they happened in Baltimore up until 2003), allows teaching of another kind to take place.

With everybody living in close quarters, people tend to run up against each other all the time. Especially since many of us have known each other for a long time (in my case, almost a decade), we get to know each others quirks, and see how we relate to them.
People in these situations tend to come up to the point of sometimes getting sick at other's little eccentricities, sometimes falling totally in love with fellow practitioners after they get to know them deeper and deeper, and sometimes come up against their own neurosis along the lines of "I wish I had something different to eat"; "I don't want to do this job during work periods, I want to do his/her job instead", "I MUST ask this question of Rinpoche (which usually turns out to not be nearly so important as it seemed)", "why does it seem everybody in this dorm snores like a chainsaw?", "I wish we had private showers", etc. blah blah blah.

I myself have had all these happen personally. (FYI, Falling for female friends over the years has been my worst personal worst fault as long as I can remember - it has made things extremely awkward at times, but in most cases we've been able to deal with that and get beyond it. The emotions never seem to quite go away, but we have been blessed with many skillful methods to work with them instead of repressing (which leads to all kinds of guilt and neurosis - trust me, I know it:)) or acting out (which usually tends to lead to words and actions people later regret.) Before I met with the Dharma, there is no way that there would be any kind of happy resolution to these situations beyond "and now, here's the part where I disappear and put a lot of substances into my body to try to convince myself I don't care." That last method really doesn't have much to it that I would recommend. I would go so far as to say that it is a really, really crappy way to attempt to carry on.

The "working through it" part is where "the rubber hits the road", so to speak. When these little situations come up, it throws us into situations where we have to work with our minds, as instructed by Rinpoche and other teachers.
The great thing about it happening in a place like Lotus Garden is that in your normal life, you don't have:
1) the inspiration and the strange modification to the atmosphere of a place that having one's Teacher present creates; and
2) one's MI (Meditation Instructor) and/or other senior students one trusts to talk to about when things get weird, to keep people going in the direction of basic sanity, versus the usual samsaric "bbbbbllllaggghhhhh!"


In these somewhat controlled conditions, one can change their habitual patterns of dealing with situations. I've found that if one has done so in a retreat environment, then it becomes much easier to do it again in the "real world".
These little adverse circumstances are, in many ways, just as important as teachers as one's human teachers.

As for the streams of teachings being given, I wil personally attending part of the "entering the Vajrayana" section and most of the "Dzogchen" section of the Retreat this year. Dzogchen - aka Dzogpa Chenpo, which translates as "The Great Perfection" - is the pinnacle of the teachings of the Nyigma lineage, which is the oldest lineage of Himalayan Buddhism, aka Tantric Buddhism, aka Tibetan Buddhism, aka the Vajrayana ("Diamond-like Vehicle").
It encompasses a series of very powerful practices that, if practiced correctly under the guidance of a qualified master, can get pretty much anyone with the mental faculties, opportunity, and inclination enlightened.
If one is just trying to do the methods (for example, the widely talked about "Fire of Tummo/ Kundalini" practice) from a book or without proper guidance, however, one can end up at best wasting their time or at worse drive themselves stark raving mad.

This path has been compared to a supersonic jet - If one gets on with the properly trained pilot and crew, one can fly to the city of enlightenment much faster than anyone else. However, if one does not have a properly trained crew in the cockpit, for example if it is like you trying to fly from a manual, then there is a great risk of a spectacular crash and burn before reaching your destination.

The tantras* that contain the Dzogchen methods are pretty wild. This tradition forces one to see the nature of their own mind in many unique ways.

At the actual Retreat itself, the daily schedule is usually as follows:

6 AM (or so) - personal practice session
7:30 AM- everyone - Opening prayers, aspirations and practices to orient out minds properly for the day
8:30 AM- breakfast
9:30 AM- work period
10:30 AM - first teaching session with Rinpoche
12:30-1 PM- lunch
2 PM - 2nd teaching session with Rinpoche
5 PM- everyone - afternoon "Protectors' practice (which I'll cover later on)
6PM - dinner
7:30 PM -either 3rd teaching session with Rinpoche or a review/ Q&A session with some of the Senior students (people who have been practicing this stuff correctly for 20-30 years)
9:30 PM-personal session
10:30 PM- bed

It is a pretty intense schedule, which is has to be to pack in everything RInpoche is teaching. It must be remembered, she is trying to give us the lifeblood of her lineage's teachings of view, conduct and meditation in their entirety year by year. Transmitting the Dharma in an authentic way to Westerners is quite a challenge. Fortunately, teachers like Khandro Rinpoche (and also Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen Rinpoche, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, to name a few I have been around myself) are up to the challenge.

The real question mark is, Are WE up to it?
Stay tuned.

Also, it must be mentioned that we aren't ALL just study study practice. We study hard, and practice hard, but we also play hard.
Khandro Rinpoche knows how to have fun too, and likes to remind us western students to not take ourselves too seriously.
In years past, ways of blowing off steam have included:
- a talent (-less? :)) show, featuring some of the -ahem- senior students doing a very involved parody of "Iron Chef" based around the mystery ingredient of tsampa (a nearly flavorless roasted barley powder that is the staple of the Tibetan diet), and some young residents of Lotus Garden blasting their ways through a Poison cover (I am not sure how they could sing with their toungues so firmly in their cheeks :));
- setting off nearly commercial grade fireworks;
- an occasional movie night, featuring films that haven't hit America yet, like the original of "the Grudge";
- water balloon fights, with a large portion of the sangha jumping fully clothed in the pool the previous owner of the land had installed;
- handing out ice cream to everyone in the shrine room;
- golf kart racing; and
other silly stuff.

No alcohol is involved, and nothing even remotely sexy occurs (except maybe occasionally someone prancing around in a toga :)). But it's not as solemn an occasion as some might imagine a Buddhist retreat would be.

Well, that's about it for this time. Hopefully, it "helped confusion dawn as wisdom", rather than more confusion. :)
Read up for more details:
http://www.lotusgardens.org/programs/AnnualRetreat08.cfm.

-LWWD

*I'll save my "Tantra is NOT about 'Amazing Fucking" rant for a later posting. :)