Nothing like a good theological debate; Lucinda's Sukavati

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. 

Lucinda's Sukavati, part 1

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.