Ten Thousand Reasons to Rejoice

OK, let’s get right to today’s headline. Axel Braunlich spotted a lovely little Desert Finch earlier this week, the first record of this species in Mongolia. Most of you couldn’t care less, but the birders just squinched up their faces, pumped their fists, and went, “Aw, dude!” Such finds are the raw diamonds of this bizarre pastime.

There. Moving on.

I’ve had such an odd experience the past few days. I’ve been happy. Just content, not rattled by problems, energetic in my work, and the recipient of moments of sheer delight. I know well not to grasp onto such ephemeral phenomena, it never lasts, but that doesn’t lessen the momentary pleasure.

One way to be happy a lot is to learn to rejoice in the good works and fortune of others. About ten days ago, I introduced to the Ulaanbaatar study group that for those who feel a wish to become a student of my teacher, Jetsunma, the first thing she asks them to do is to accumulate 10,000 repetitions of the Vajra Seven Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche (hear Penor Rinpoche's monks chant it here – scroll down). She knows well that if someone does this diligently, he or she will feel a positive difference in their lives. Something in the vibratory nature of the syllables themselves – I experience it so consistently in my own life that I simply have no more doubt about the prayer’s effectiveness.

Many members of the group have felt inspired to begin this accumulation. But then I got a message on my phone earlier this week that one Tsolmongerel actually finished! I was amazed until I realized that I had casually mentioned this tradition from my temple a couple of months ago, and she just quietly went at it.

At our class on Wednesday night (for you UB citizens and visitors: our class time has changed from 11am Sundays to 7pm Wednesdays, still at the Mongolian Buddhist Center, behind Computer Land, next to Centerpoint) I took a moment to praise her accomplishment and presented her with an antique Mongolian framed Padmasambhava that someone had given me a couple of years ago. Then I asked her to share her experience of the prayer. She said, “It seemed that once I began to chant it regularly, everything that I sought to do I achieved easily, with no obstacles.” I mentioned that it’s often said that one of Padmasambhava’s special qualities is the removal of ordinary and spiritual obstacles. She then continued, “And a couple of times I had nice dreams where Darisuren [the group’s leader] and you showed up.” I laughed and replied, “Honestly, I don’t think you can consider a dream about me a good sign,” and everyone joined in the laughter, a bit too heartily, I thought.

Here’s lovely Tsolmongerel, wearing the Padmasambhava in front of the center’s altar:

And here’s a closeup, so you can enjoy her smiling face:

Later in this class, we enthusiastically discussed a group trip down to Khamariin Khiid in the Gobi for the major Buddhist holiday, Saga Dawa, that falls on May 31 this year. Looks like DODR commenter Carol of Seattle might join us. Stay tuned…

Shifting gears, this past Tuesday I launched the MBRP’s new e-newsletter entitled “The Swan & the Scorpion.” Many of you received it, and I’m quite eager to get feedback so we can improve it as we go. It’ll come out every month. If you didn’t receive it, but would like to, just send me an email (upper left of this page) and I’ll put you on our list.

The newsletter is named after two symbols frequently used by Danzan Ravjaa. I’ve talked before about his use of the scorpion as a symbol for the ability of Vajrayana Buddhist methods to transform that which is normally considered negative into the spiritual path itself. I’m so into this I had it permanently inked onto my body. The swan is Danzan Ravjaa’s symbol for lyricism and poetry, one of his favorite methods for expressing the elegance of the Buddha’s teachings.

In the newsletter logo banner above (click to enlarge), I used a short quotation from Simon Wickham-Smith’s recent translations of Danzan Ravjaa’s poetry. My teacher’s attendant, Ani Alana, liked it, so I emailed her the whole poem from which it came. She really liked that and printed it out for Jetsunma. Well, Jetsunma really, really liked it, to the point of keeping it on her prayer bench for daily reading and asking that it be rendered in calligraphy and framed so she could hang it on the wall of her house.

Well, now, how can I not share it with all of you?

Danzan Ravjaa was a master of imbuing what seems to be just a love poem with the deepest tantric view of enlightened awareness, replete with symbolic language the uninitiated might not catch. His lover is none other than a wisdom dakini. He unites with his absolute true nature. Again, transformation of the ordinary into a means to experience enlightenment. The poem is called “In The Eight Directions”:

As lotus leaves
Sway in the eight directions,
Your body swirls
Like the heart of the sun:
My only companion.

Like the pi-wang’s sweet melody,
Your song enchants me
With elegant words.
Though I have little honor,
I am luckier than all the powerless.

As purity and the fragrance of sandalwood
Were born together from the first,
Your love and its fragrance
Emerge from the primeval distance
And rouse the mind.

Like the pure water of heaven,
You bring sweet desires.
And your way is lovely –
You soothe my grasping mind
Like the new moon.

Like the blazing hot sun
You open the lotus to life,
You eliminate the wild darkness.
Close to Padmasambhava,
Let us be joyful and happy.

Isn’t that gorgeous? “You eliminate the wild darkness.” Wow. If you’re interested in the whole collection of this poetry, it’s available online here. Simon tells me he’s dropping into UB on May 7. Can’t wait to meet him!

Comments

[Vedran]

I recived the newsletter and I'm very happy to see that Floki's saga has also elaborated on it!
"Danzan Ravjaa, 5th Dharma Lord of the Gobi"- it would be interesting to know who were the other Dharma Lords of the Gobi. Were they also Nyingmapas? Whole history of Nyingma tradition in Mongolia is still a bit misterious (at least to me) while historys of Sakya and Gelug are more commonly known.

Congratulations on all your wonderful acomplishments in Mongolia. And thanks again for sharing it with all of us!

[Christian]

Lama Konchog, I am curious...

Do your students support your teachings by some donations, even tiny? (By reading your newsletter, it seems not to be the case.) In this post, YOU make a gift to one of your (zealous) students. I am puzzled, because in my country, there are donations (by the way, I think Americans are more generous than Frenchmen in this case) and they go towards the master, not the other way. (Well, not always, as I have been invited to a restaurant by my master once. Nowadays he is unemployed and mostly without personal resources.)

Is this a deliberate strategy (like Western vs. Eastern)?

I think that it is an important point if we want to see more teachers like you reaching the laity on a permanent basis. The perfect goal I imagine would be Mongolian teachers and Mongolian students.

By the way, are you aware of Mongolian monks teaching the way you do, i.e., not in a formal way in a monastery, close to the people?

I believe that this kind of approach is the best way to avoid Buddhism being attacked in Mongolia as "a return to theocracy" (by shamanists and Protestants alike) and being defeated by Christianity in the towns. What is your take?

[Konchog]

Hi Christian --

First of all, we should say I am certainly not "the master" -- I make this point explicitly with the group, and ask them to think of me as their "spiritual friend" sharing what I've heard from actual masters.

But I get your point. Yes, they give me small offerings all the time. I keep them aside in an envelope on my altar and use them for things like printing the Seven Line Prayer cards, etc.

I feel like if I'm going to teach about generosity and non-attachment, I have to take the lead in these things. And here I follow my own teachers. I remember when I first spent time with Penor Rinpoche at his monastery in '91. I'd been there two months (I was a layman then) and met him for the last time before traveling on. At that meeting he shocked me by presenting me with a beautiful Shakyamuni Buddha statue he'd blessed (I take it everywhere -- it's the centerpiece of my altar here), a Tibetan carpet, and an envelope full of cash!

No way should generosity be a one-way street; this is actually one of the major criticisms leveled at Mongolian lamas -- they take but don't give. It's not entirely fair, but not entirely unfair, either.

Unfortunately, my teaching of a lay group -- philosophy as well as practice methods -- is still a little unusual here, but getting less so, slowly. Your last paragraph perfectly sums up the dangers of not doing so.