Shafts Of Light

The past couple of weeks have been light on meaty, project-related blog posts because I’ve been having some truly bizarre and upsetting obstacles that I can’t write about just yet. But, as often happens, we are surprised by shafts of light slicing through the storm clouds.

For example, my mother. As I’ve mentioned, Ma’s become a Buddhist herself and hosts a small group of her like-minded friends for Buddhist study and meditation each Tuesday night. They begin, Ma explained, "with prayers and dessert." My kinda crowd! One woman had been serving as a kind of facilitator but alas, things happened, and they have parted ways. So, through the magic of free PC-to-PC communication via Skype, much to their wonder and delight, I was able to join them direct from Outer Mongolia to Brattleboro, VT. We had a couple of technical glitches which limited what we could accomplish that night, but I was so tickled the next day when Ma sent me an email, which read in part:

“Thanks for last night. The ladies just love you.  Please email 1) the gist of your reply to Joan's query about ultimate reality and 2) an explanation of next week's 10,000,000 day.”

Can you stand it? My mother asking for a recap so she and her lady friends can understand ultimate reality a little more clearly! It’s just the joy of my life. She'll think I'm being sarcastic saying that, but I'm not. Garbled response coming atcha tomorrow, Ma!

Then, today, I visited a small temple, Jangchub Tegchenlin, on the north side of town that has Padmasambhava as the main focus. I like the young lama, Shinen Denzel. I got this great pic by saying to him, “Listen. This is a Mongolian picture so NO SMILING!”

His mother is a lifelong Buddhist practitioner, having maintained secret ceremonies with her lama and a select group throughout the Communist years. It’s hard to convey how risky this was, how your entire social and economic world could have collapsed if you were discovered by the wrong people. She’s returning tomorrow from a long visit to Hungary. I can’t wait to meet her. We’re hoping maybe we can do our own rituals on the 10^th and 25^th lunar days in this temple.

And, finally, another cute shot of Miss Padma. This evening I found her deep in meditation, Princess and the Pea style, on the stack of four cushions underneath my altar:

I think I found the perfect taker for the kitten once it appears. But you know how I am. It’s gonna be a severe test of non-attachment to let it go, I’m sure. As it is, the wait is killing me!

Comments

[Northmoon]

I love that you rescued Miss Padma. She looks right at home on the meditation cushions.

I too rescued a little pregant white cat this spring. Mercedes survived all winter outside in Toronto, but was happy to come inside and have her 4 kittens.

I can relate to the attachment issues also - I found homes for two of the four kittens, but it looks like the other two are staying with me and their Mama.

[Carol of Seattle]

Just don't separate them too early...
We have 'fostered' mommy cats and fresh kittens, to give them time to socialize before the kittens are able to be adopted. It's so fun, but yes, very hard to let go!

[Northmoon]

I agree with Carol of Seattle - kittens need at least 8 weeks with Mum, and 12 weeks is even better.

The two I kept were still "nursing" when they were 5 months old! Even though Mum didn't have milk any more. (and she was getting rather fed up with it!)

[Konchog]

Yes, as you can imagine, catz iz good therapy for the long Mongolian winter (-4F as I type) and I'm in no rush to separate them. Also, a kitten's birth and growth give me ongoing blog material!

[Sarabaite]

Oh, my, it's a shame that your cats live with such hardship.

I've been looking forward to asking one of my students about Mongolia, where he lived for four years. Now that his English is cenversational, he was able to tell me that, on one hand, if you leave a quarter outside overnight, you have a block of ice in the morning: on the bright side, you can take a four-hour horseride through the desert with a guide for about nine bucks.
Funny little kid -- not my most studious, but he has an interesting relationship with drawing and with music. I often catch him creating his own symphony with a tapping pen, a whistling pen cap, a scraping ruler, etc. I can't always understand his written stories except that he illustrates them with quite a bit of humor.

[Christian]

I definitely need a recap on ultimate reality too...

Your mother is right on the target and it makes me rejoice as well.

[sisLaura]

Makes me wonder Where little Paddy is going to give birth, maybe in an auspicious place. Don't worry, they're pretty good at cleaning up after themselves! I'll bet good money she's hiding more than one, though!

[Lama Kunzang]

I would also be interested in your exposition of ultimate reality. Do please blog it and don't keep it exclusively for Ma!

[Northmoon]

Wow -4! no wonder Miss Padma is looking so smug on her cushions. It must be a big relief for her to know she's got a safe warm place to have her kitten.

I enjoy your blog so much, but I'm really looking forward to lots of kitten blogs.

[Sarabaite]

Forgot to add -- whatever those bizarre events are, I wish you the best.

[anonymous]

This just in -- it's off-topic but hardly irrelevant, it seems. According to a prophecy given to Terton Dudjom Lingpa (d. 1902) by Yeshe Tsogyal in a vision (a complete description of which is in the volume of Troma Nagmo texts from Dudjom Lingpa's works), and I paraphrase: "In the future, due to the disinterrment of effigies used by Guru Rinpoche to bind the Nine Brothers (?), those demons will pose as people with high attainments on the Buddhist path; they will distribute weapons technology (mtshon gyi 'phrul 'khor dgyed)".

Now this sounds not unlike a well-known, extremely clever scoundrel of recent infamy, does it not? The one who sold a classified weapons technology in Southeast Asia... the knife collector and knife-fighting afficionado, doesn't it?