Amaa

Today marks the new moon which, along with the full moon day, is traditionally a time for confession among those ordained as Buddhist monks and nuns. In that spirit, I have something I need to tell you all. I didn’t expect this to happen, and generally I guard against such developments quite carefully, but who among us can long resist the inevitable power of destiny? Yes, I confess, I’ve fallen in love.

 

It's bliss. It's emptiness.

 

There. It’s out now. The time of hiding and secrecy is over. So in the interest of full disclosure, I share with you now an image of myself and my beloved. Judge me as you will:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaahahahahaha! Would someone please pick the KPC nuns up off the floor? {snicker}

 

This is not to say I’ve not fallen in love with this woman. Quite the contrary. Please allow me to introduce you to the one known simply as Amaa, 104 years young. I mentioned before that I’d heard of her, through one of her students who attended a few of my classes. But it was only yesterday that I was finally able to sit at her feet, in the back room of a small shop run by her eldest adopted son, and marvel at one who has been a faithful devotee of the Buddha for nigh on 96 years in this life, all the way through the dark decades of Communist rule.

 

Amaa is a daughter of the northeastern Khentii province, birthplace of Chingghis Khan and a great stronghold of the Buddhadharma for centuries. The Mongolian Monastery Documentation Project counts no fewer than 101 Buddhist institutions that flourished in Khentii (sorry, Mongolian only) prior to the Stalinist purges. From what I can gather, it also seems a particularly strong place of women’s spirituality, with many deeply respected female meditation masters and practice communities.

 

Now, let’s filter out all the ugly elements of the above photo and see Amaa close up:

 

 

 

Amaa as a child awakened devotion to Green Tara through her lama father. She practiced with Tara’s mantra and that of Shakyamuni Buddha first, while learning and memorizing other texts. Soon, however, she was introduced to Padmasambhava and the traditions of Danzan Ravjaa. She adopted as her central practice Danzan Ravjaa’s chöd (cutting through ego attachment), known more commonly in Mongolia as luijing (body offering). She developed the practice and then took it into a two-year cave retreat from age 24-26. Even during the Communist years, Amaa maintained regular, secret nighttime practice, and would periodically venture forth to the chödma’s favorite meditation spots, remote cemeteries (in the practice, one deliberately seeks out, even summons, confrontation with one’s deepest fears and conquers them with the Buddha’s oldest tools: wisdom and compassion).

 

Many now seek Amaa’s special blessing, and she has gained renown as the only person in the eastern provinces fully qualified to guide those who have recently died through the intermediate stage between lives. She does this based on the text of Padmasambhava she has memorized known as The Great Liberation Upon Hearing in the Intermediate States or, as it is popularly known in the West, The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

 

I feel reluctant to say too much more just now (I just read a Mongolian saying in my grammar book: “He who talks a lot, fails a lot.”). I had a long lunch today with Amaa’s disciple, heard more stories, and got an insistent itch to travel to Khentii and see what’s what there for myself. It looks like this may be possible, as Amaa and many others will soon hold an annual summer gathering at the site of Gashaar Monastery, near the cave where she spent those two years. They say it’s remote, and gorgeous, and powerful. After three months cooped up in the city, I needn’t hear any more than that.

Comments

[Sangye]

You've found a diamond. This is a great start to my day. I can't wait to hear more about Amaa and how she kept her practice alive all those years. Wouldn't it be amazing for Amaa and Jetsunma to meet?

(On a mundane note : What's with the changing text appearance every day? You demonstrating impermanence?)

[Christian]

So. You have a wife too? Like Never-touched-a-woman Lama?

You'd better start practising chöd right now, because you are going to be torn apart soon.