Dreaming Of Danzan Ravjaa

In Memoriam: His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

There really was no choice.

Confirming that my precious root lama, HH Penor Rinpoche, had entered into the final meditation of this apparent life, I typed a quick email to send my regrets to the Buddhism in Mongolia conference at Smith, tossed a few essentials into the car, and hurtled south to my home temple, Kunzang Palyul Choling. Bending, I confess, a couple of local speed regulations, since the major highways were miraculously clear I managed to get from my mother’s home in Vermont to KPC’s driveway in 7 ½ hours. Seemed like the car went through a worm hole, and I arrived 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time for our first major ceremony, the Guru Yoga of Rigdzin Dupa’i, with tsog offering, from the omniscient Longchenpa’s treasure cycle. I felt a compelling need to be with my brothers and sisters, my sangha, at this potent juncture, and it has helped me immeasurably to stabilize and deepen into my first experience of a close lama’s passage.

I walked into the temple to such warm greetings from everyone. Many had no idea I was in the States (international monk of mystery), and after hugs all around, I went to make prostrations in our two main shrine rooms. All was fine in the first, but as I entered our Prayer Room I dissolved into sudden sobs. Nearly two decades of memories flooded back.

When we want to create an auspicious circumstance by offering the pithiest expression of the entirety of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching, we chant the two lines with which one of the Buddha’s earliest disciples, Ven. Asvajit, summarized the teaching for Shariputra, provoking his instant realization: “ ‘Everything that arises, arises from a cause. To prevent the result, eliminate the cause.’ That was taught by the Tathagatha, who since he teaches that, is called the Great Sage.”

This may seem simplistic, but if the meaning is understood, the entirety of the path to enlightenment, the unborn state beyond suffering, is contained right there.

Looking back, I feel that I must have but few pure causes in my own mindstream from previous lives, and whatever excellent circumstances have arisen for me have been guided on the currents of my own teachers’ oceanic merit and compassion. Here is the smallest drop from my superficial perspective:

HH Penor Rinpoche told us that as a young tulku in Tibet, training to become the 11^th Throneholder of the Palyul lineage, he held and heard the story of the kapala (skullcap) relic of the great 17^th c. yogini Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo (full story towards the bottom of the page here), sister of Palyul’s first throneholder, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab. At that time, he made the aspiration that if there were an incarnation in the world of a practitioner who could leave such an astonishing relic, that he might be the one to find her.

Who could have imagined that there was in fact an incarnation, born in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and that neither time nor space would prove any obstacle to his finding her on his first brief North American visit in 1985, and then fearlessly announcing his recognition of her incarnation status in 1987, and enthroning her as a Palyul lineage holder, Ahkon Norbu Lhamo, in 1988?

This enlightened drama set the stage for one cranky young man from New Jersey, determined to leave what he saw as his degenerate land, to show up at Ahkon Lhamo’s temple in August of 1990 at the suggestion of a friend, to see if he could get a little cultural information about Buddhism before traveling to India and Nepal. It turned out that Jetsunma, as her students were now calling her, was giving a full day of teachings. I decided to stay.

But I didn’t stop being cranky. I was steeped in the punk rock culture, determinedly anti-religion. To be honest, I didn’t care at all for what I saw as the New Age trappings of KPC, and I was perplexed by the ordinary Western appearance of Jetsunma, Americans in robes offering prostrations to her, my inability to manage the Tibetan chanting, etc., etc.

But then she sat down, and she started to teach.

Growing up where I did, I was immediately caught by Jetsunma’s light Brooklyn cadence, a kind of music for me. After ten minutes, however, it was the content that stunned me. This lady knew the truth, and was speaking the truth. It couldn’t have been clearer. In that one day, I went from skeptic to true believer. Six weeks later, I joyfully attended a ceremony in which Jetsunma conferred the Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows, the gateways through which one enters the general Buddhist path, and the profound Mahayana path, respectively.

Yesterday, I heard something I hadn’t heard before. I had the honor of leading the morning Shower of Blessings tsog, and afterward was relating the story of Penor Rinpoche and Jetsunma to the large assembly. I talked about what I heard concerning Holiness’ week-long stay with Jetsunma in 1985. I said that at the end he had surprised her and her group, who were not officially Buddhist, with conferral of the Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows. My dear friend Yeshe, who was actually there, spoke up and said that was not exactly the case. She said that Jetsunma was so deeply impressed with Holiness that she requested of him some means through which she and her students could be spiritually connected with him in this and every future lifetime. That’s when he said he would offer these vows, and did.

So. Let’s follow the bouncing ball here:

Because of all of the preceding, I found the way into the Buddhist way of life. This also focused what would have been an aimless year traveling around the world.

My traveling companion and I adjusted our itinerary to go to Penor Rinpoche’s Namdroling Monastery in south India. We wanted to enter the Vajrayana path and had a meeting with Jetsunma to discuss our plans. Because she had received transmission from Penor Rinpoche, she gave us the reading transmission for the first two sections of ngondro practice, plus a personal letter of introduction requesting Penor Rinpoche on our behalf to give us the full transmission.

I remember from that meeting that Jetsunma cautioned us not to be fooled by Holiness’ humble demeanor and to regard him as a living Buddha. She also advised us to beware of the Buddhist traveler’s temptation to receive transmissions from any teacher they come across, and accumulate commitments they couldn’t possibly honor. She explained that she felt it was a blessing in her life that she first encountered Palyul, saw it provided a pure and complete path to enlightenment, and felt no need to look further. I’ve tried my best to heed that advice.

So because of her kind letter, Penor Rinpoche did in fact offer the transmissions which led us into the Vajrayana, in ceremonies for just the two of us in his living room. This was in 1991 and my two months at Namdroling started ripening the seed for my considering a monastic life of my own. He sent us to Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso for commentary teaching, and then, in 1992, made a huge sacrifice for his own students to send Khenchen to America. Over the next decade, he would be one of my most important teachers, clarifying the entirety of the Dharma and serving as a great example for me with his exquisite personal qualities.

In 1993, Penor Rinpoche sponsored the North American tour of the terton HH Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, who spent a week with us at KPC. This was one of the most utterly pure beings I had ever encountered, and though I had no intention to become a monk during his visit, his inspiration was so irresistible that I requested and received ordination on that last Saturday. Really, it was like that.

Penor Rinpoche himself came to KPC in 1995 at Jetsunma’s request to confer the entirety of Terton Migyur Dorje’s Nam Chö treasure revelations. I sat for everything, all day, every day, for 30 days. And because I learned that Palyul monastery has maintained the strict foundational discipline of full ordination, from the throneholder on down, since its inception in 1665, I brazenly organized all of KPC’s monks, myself included, to take full ordination directly from Penor Rinpoche during that month.

It was at the end of that transmission that Holiness said he had brought a relic of Terton Migyur Dorje, but it was very rare, and he was unsure whether to give it. Jetsunma personally made strenuous requests for this relic. She knew that stupas containing Migyur Dorje’s relics in Tibet and India had acquired the reputation as sites for miraculous healing, and she promised Penor Rinpoche that she would build a perfect stupa if he would consider with compassion those Westerners who had so few places to attend to the spiritual dimension of healing from incurable illness. He agreed, and the result for me was one of the greatest blessings of my life, several months serving on the work crew that brought the magnificent Migyur Dorje Stupa into being.

Oh, there’s so much more - 1996 pilgrimage to India, shedra, Kalachakra, New York retreat - but I see I’m going too long. Suffice to say that this weekend I’ve had the opportunity to consider how the spontaneous interplay of my two root lamas, HH Penor Rinpoche and Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, has time and time again, through myriad skillful means, inhibited my impulses toward defiled states of being and pointless worldly activity and, sometimes gently and sometimes less so, guided me along the path that will surely one day lead to my own awakening to the pure nature of all phenomena, and therefore an authentic state from which to bring true benefit to others.

Others may have their opinions about such matters. Mean-spirited as those might be, my experience is my experience. Upon reflection, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and his devoted disciple Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo have unstintingly provided both the causes and conditions for everything truly meaningful that has arisen in my life (except, perhaps, for my physical body – thanks, Ma!). How can one ever hope to repay such kindness? It is my only wish that I remain inseparable from such holy beings in every lifetime.

In the Mahayana, however, we are taught the reasonableness of considering others’ welfare as far more important than our own. In this spirit, I offer the fervent prayer that Penor Rinpoche never ceases to consider with his flawless compassion those who, in their ignorance, continue to experience the suffering of conditioned rebirth. May his wisdom mind continually refract innumerable illusory forms throughout the six realms of samsara, and through this inconceivable liberating activity, may all six realms be swiftly emptied from their very depths.

Ways to Celebrate the Life of HH Penor Rinpoche

• View video of The Compassionate World of Penor Rinpoche
• See other videos of Penor Rinpoche's activity
• Read Penor Rinpoche's inspiring biography
• See photos here

What is it Like when the Sun Disappears from the Sky? -- Updated

My beloved root lama, Kyabje Drubwang Pema Norbu ("Penor") Rinpoche, has entered his final meditation prior to dissolving his wisdom mind into the vast expanse of the dharmakaya. I'm still in a bit of shock, and really have no words; he's been my spiritual sustenance since I first spent two life-changing months at his Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, India, in early 1991. So I'll reproduce what's been posted at KPC's new website:

"The 11^th throneholder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, entered his final meditation at 8:20 pm on Friday, March 27, 2009, at the Palyul Namdröling Monastery in Bylakuppe, South India.

"Earlier, at noon, he received offerings from many of the highest Nyingma Lamas, Tulkus and dignitaries who had assembled to pay homage to him. At 3:30 he left Columbia Asia Hospital with the Indian government providing a police escort. He reached Palyul Namdröling at 6:40 pm and remained on his bed in his residence. Tulkus, Khenpos and lamas did aspiration prayers together with His Holiness until 8:20 pm. Then he looked around, closed his eyes and went into meditation. Prayers continued for 5 minutes and then everyone remained in silence for the next two hours. His meditation continues today, and is expected to continue for a couple of days. When he releases his body from meditation, there will be an official acknowledgement of his final passing, allowing everyone to pay their respects according to tradition.

"Kyabjé Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche was born in 1932 in the Powo region of Kham, Eastern Tibet. After leaving Tibet, he settled in South India, where he built, from his own hands and with the help of a few monks, the Palyul Namdröling Monastery. It has grown into one of the largest temples in the world, housing over 6000 monks and nuns in the complex, which also includes a hospital, and hospice.

"His Holiness has also built temples around the world – in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Greece and the United States – among others. He has frequently traveled to teach and give empowerment at all of them. Worldwide, His Holiness is revered for his compassion, pure upholding of the Vinaya and ceaseless dedication to the welfare of all beings. He has brought and nourished the Buddha-Dharma everywhere he has been. He will live forever in our hearts."

Update: This is beautiful advice for this time.

 

The Snow Lion's Roar -- Updated

Update: For those of you leaving messages about the various reports of HH Penor Rinpoche's passage from this world, I know. My temple is waiting until we are able to directly contact Holiness' primary attendant in India. We'll have more to say after that.

A quickie this morning, as students of HH Penor Rinpoche around the world have been asked especially to set aside today, Friday the 27^th, to join the gathered lamas and faithful in India to accumulate massive prayers for His Holiness, who is in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Bangalore. I would join the practices scheduled at my temple, but I’m still in Vermont, so I’ll muddle along on my own. For those so inclined, the recommended practices that we’ll be doing are Vajrasattva and Riwo Sang Chod. It would be a kindness if those of you who are Buddhist (or Buddhist sympathizers) would at least chant His Holiness’ long life prayer. And, of course, any kind thoughts from any of you good-hearted souls directed his way are greatly appreciated. For me, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche is like the sky, the sun, and the earth. Everything of value that has grown within me has done so in dependence upon his wisdom and compassion.

Two days ago, my translator and I visited His Holiness’ seat in America, Palyul Retreat Center. We circumambulated the main temple and offered prayers for his long life.

Since DODR commenter Lama Kunzang and his wife Samaya live just up the road from there, we dropped in for a visit and squeezed Lama-la for details of his improbable Dharma life, which began back when he was in the military in Vietnam (and – shh – Laos and Cambodia) before most Americans had ever heard of Vietnam. Mostly I hankered after tales of his root lama, HH Dudjom Rinpoche. If someone offered me the chance to turn back the hands of time and meet anyone within the last 50 years, say, Dudjom Rinpoche would be the one.

It was with him partially in mind that we made a long-awaited pilgrimage yesterday, to the Ithaca, NY, headquarters of Snow Lion Publications. I almost became delirious in their store, hankering after all the new texts now available. But the first one I plucked off the shelves was Light of Fearless Indestructible Wisdom, Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal’s account of “the life and legacy of HH Dudjom Rinpoche.” Being of limited personal means, I carefully chose two offerings from the indefatigable Padmakara Translation Group:  Mipham Rinpoche’s White Lotus, his explanation of the outer, inner and secret meanings of the Seven Line Prayer to Padmsambhava, and The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech, Khenpo Kunpel’s classic Nyingma commentary on Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva. I was then told at the counter that various discounts applied for books published by Snow Lion, and for me as a monastic. It felt a little like being on Wheel of Fortune (there’s a samsara/nirvana joke in there somewhere); I hadn’t quite reached my self-imposed limit of $100, so I chose a gift for my mother, who feels such strong devotion to White Tara: Khenpo Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal’s new book, Tara’s Enlightened Activity.

But wait! That wasn’t all! One reason for the journey was to finally meet one of Snow Lion’s co-founders, Jeff Cox, with whom I’ve had a phone and email relationship for the last 17 years. It was a warm meeting, and he showed me around the shop, discussing Snow Lion’s latest titles. There’s so much to admire and appreciate about Snow Lion’s work, but one of the most meaningful efforts of theirs, for me, is their Tsadra Foundation Series (dig the spiffy new Foundation website) and in particular the 10 volumes they are publishing of The Treasury of Knowledge, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye’s 19^th c. compendium of, well, just about everything Buddhist under the sun. Alas, these are large hardcovers and I had resigned myself to admiring the latest releases from afar. But then, as I was waiting to check out, Jeff came and placed the volumes of Systems of Buddhist Tantra and Esoteric Instructions on my little pile and said they were a gift to me from Snow Lion.

In my world, books are the most profound gift, and I will never forget this wonderful kindness.

The day just got better as we were treated to an Indian buffet lunch with Jeff, his wife Christie who oversees the Snow Lion Newsletter (don’t receive it? you must), and Snow Lion’s Editor-in-chief, Sidney Piburn. Conversation ranged from Mongolian Buddhism past and present, to the Dalai Lama (who was the source for Snow Lion’s original inspiration), to the evolution of English dharma translation, to whether punks from New Jersey could ever be considered for freelance editing work, to false lamas who submit their manuscripts for publication under sneaky pretenses.

The final bit of intel I needed to extract as we bade farewell was where I could get the best coffee in Ithaca. I was unanimously directed to local roasters Gimme! Coffee, and was not deceived. A potent cuppa, along with my translator’s habitual hot chocolate, fueled our happy journey back to the green mountains of Vermont.

OK. That’s it. Off to the cushion. Please pray that this world may have the ongoing merit for HH Penor Rinpoche's enlightened presence.

The Case of the Missing Lama

Access to wheels allowed for a quick visit yesterday to look in on how my nephew George is weathering his junior year at Clark University. Judging from the fact that our arrival phone call woke him at 9:30am (missed his alarm), and a subsequent tour of his and his roommates’ living quarters revealed hygienic conditions that could charitably be described as unspeakable, it would seem that all is normal. At least I noticed they’re making the attempt to recycle their bottles.

One of the most interesting parts of our tour of Clark’s lovely little campus was this statue of Sigmund Freud. Seems Clark was, and continues to be, a hotbed for those snoops who seek to pry into the human mind, and Clark is quite proud of the fact that it hosted Siggy for five early lectures in 1909 (Jung was also on the slate that year). George and I had a peek over his shoulder to see what weighty tome he was into, but it turned out to be just a Land’s End catalog.

After fueling up at Acoustic Java, we dropped in to The Spiritual Haze, a hookah lounge and gallery where George serves as server, food-whipper-upper, and bouncer(!) a couple nights a week (he’s generally an easy-going young feller, but he is 6’7” and has a karate black belt, so...). Here he is lounging, sans hookah:

Then a quick lunch at a Vietnamese joint and off we flew to Hartford to pick up Lama Bayantsagaan and his wife. We were a little early, so we found a comfy spot and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The plane from DC was delayed, the board never announced its actual arrival, and even though they were in fact on the reservation list, the plane came and went and no Mongolian lama in a bright yellow robe appeared. Bradley is not a big airport and I suspect we would have noticed.

It’s the next morning and I still have no idea what happened, or any really good way to find out. I gave them a couple of our local numbers when we were in Mongolia, but haven’t received any calls. For us, this might work out for the best, actually, and today’s plans feel like they’re going to change radically.

Stay tuned...

The Iron Ceiling

Well, against improbable odds, they let me back into America again. Even the ones I had in tow. Now ensconced at a sister’s, getting sleep cycles sorted, bracing for more Mongol invasion once I get to my mama’s. Plans are evolving, self-destructing, re-evolving.

Speaking of evolution, The Buddhist Channel just highlighted Russia Today’s snapshot of the current state of Buddhist resurgence in Buryatia (a Siberian province of Russia near Lake Baikal, just over the northeastern Mongolian border and ethnically Mongol). Based on the following, I might suggest that Russia’s head lama consider joining the 20th century. We’ll work up to the 21st as things develop:

“Buddhism, being so tolerant, is drawing more and more young people to datsans. The first Buddhist monastery for women opened some nine years ago opened here, in Buryatia.

“The women from the monastery conduct almost all traditional Buddhist rituals, but in fact they lead a normal life. All of them are married. They have children, but they say that doesn’t stop them from profoundly believing in Buddha’s teaching.

“ ‘You know it’s very difficult to keep the balance between normal life and faith. I think it’s even a more difficult spiritual task than just segregating oneself,’ says Zorima Budaeva, one of the female Buddhist monks.

“Even though Russian Buddhists’ spiritual leader is glad more people are studying Buddha’s teaching, he doesn’t seem to endorse women’s zest for it.

“ ‘Women can sincerely believe in something, but they can rarely understand it. Buddhism needs understanding much more than blind faith,’ Khambo Lama Azyusheev, the Head of Buddhist Sangkha (sic) of Russia notes.

“And to that Buryatia’s women Lamas gave a simple response: Buddhist philosophy is so deep that these days even men have difficulties perceiving it…”

 

Fear Itself -- Updated x2

Rushing around to tie up everything before boarding a plane for the States in a few hours. Feeling strangely apprehensive, so much unknown about the near and distant future. Internet blackout for the past 48 hours in my building hasn't helped.

(Update: Typing in from Seoul, my monthly horoscope said (perhaps amplifying Ani Kunzang and her dire Pluto warnings in the comments), I swear: "Avoid prolonged trips, especially ones with multiple stops. Stay where you are." I thought this was pretty bold to print in KAL's in-flight magazine!)

Mongolia, on the other hand, is in a celebratory mood. No link yet, the news is just too fresh, but today’s UB Post blared the following headline concerning the action at the East Asian Football Championships Preliminary Competition:

Mongolian Football Team Trounces

Northern Mariana Islands

I assume they mean their football team, and not the whole population in some unfortunate, multi-atoll brawl.

We did, however, lose to Guam...bet we could out-wrassle 'em...

Update II: Total non-sequitor, but LOL!! I would get tix to this in a heartbeat. Thx for the laff, Horse.

The Unsurpassed Lie

I had such a peculiar experience this past 10 Million Day, Chotrul Duchen. I was invited out to the far ger districts to do some prayers and help a family set up a shrine to Amitabha Buddha. What a perfect way to end this auspicious day, thought I. And in a way, it was.

On the way out, however, my hostess (a longtime member of our Dharma group) spun such a tale of woe about her life – for example, having borne ten children, four of whom had died – but with this strange dispassion. It did have the effect of arousing compassion in me and I resolved to do as good as a job as I could. After the obligatory stuffing with mutton dumplings and family chit-chat, I began with a practice to clear obstacles and bring protective energy. I didn’t feel tired, and yet I found myself having great difficulty concentrating, whether on the chanting or visualization. Then, after we did the abbreviated Amitabha practice I’d been teaching our group, I gave a short teaching about the special qualities of Amitbaha and his pure land of Dewachen. It was then I noticed my translator also having trouble concentrating, frequently asking me to repeat myself, unusual for her. Something was off.

On the way home, my hostess began describing a “lama” with whom the family had become entangled. Passing himself off as a Nyingma (‘Red Tradition’) lama, she described his voracious drinking, the women he molested when drunk, and his ever-escalating demands for compensation for alleged supernatural healings and other ‘miracles’ he’d performed, all unverifiable of course. His latest bit of audacity was to ask for her daughter as a wife, having previously been refused one of her sons to adopt.

I was in deep, deep scowl as we rode. This is something I’d heard many times before here – self-declared lamas taking advantage of others, especially poor folk without the education to see through the ruse and desperate for magical solutions to their grinding difficulties. But then I knew by experience that even over-educated galoots like myself could be, and had been, fooled by clever charlatans whose demeanor turned ugly once the mask dropped. It’s a degenerate time.

When I got home I felt unusually exhausted and collapsed into bed. The next day the exhaustion persisted; I could barely muster up any kind of practice, but what I did manage finally seemed to release something from my body, with difficulty, a very odd sensation. I checked in with my translator. She was so sick the next day she simply could not get out of bed, and suggested that perhaps I could leave her off the next field trip. I know there are currents of black energy here, springing both from Mongolia’s shamanic roots as well as Buddhist practitioners gone awry. This was simply the first time I’d felt them so directly.

Because of this experience, I shifted my topic for teaching yesterday and spoke of “the unsurpassed lie.” It’s a basic part of the ethical life of a Buddhist not to lie, but one destroys one’s practice at the root by what’s known as the unsurpassed lie. If I told such a lie, I’d have to leave the monastic life, and it really contravenes every other level of Buddhist practice, top to bottom. In his commentary to Ngari Panchen’s Perfect Conduct, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche explains the subject of such a lie:

“The subject must be one’s own spiritual status or level of development: for example, to claim to possess the five types of clairvoyance or to have transcended the desire realm, to have attained the first level of meditative absorption, to possess the noble qualities of the buddhas, and so forth, when you know this to be untrue.”

Padmasambhava himself called it 1200 years ago. I present this passage from “The Crystal Garland of Faultless Practice” chapter of Dakini Teachings in the hopes that you may avoid these vile spiritual deceivers and pursue a path that brings you great happiness and ultimate liberation:

“Master Padma said: In the future, when the dark age of degeneration arrives, some people who claim to be practitioners will desire to teach others without having received permission. Without having practiced themselves they will instruct others in meditation. Without being liberated themselves they will pretend to give instructions for liberation. Without being devoid of self-interest they will instruct others to cast away their fetters of attachment and be generous. Without the slightest understanding of the good or evil of their own actions they will spout clairvoyant statements about the good or evil fare of others. Having no stability themselves they will claim to be benefiting other beings. I think there will be many who will pretend, be hypocritical, cheat, and deceive in the name of the Dharma.

“All people of future generations who wish to practice the Dharma, read this written testament of the mendicant Padmakara (another name for Padmasambhava) and examine yourself!

“Observe the shortcomings of samsaric misery! Since it is evident that all material things in this life are impermanent, turn your mind toward yourself and think well! Listen to the life stories of how the accomplished masters of the past practiced self-discipline. Find a qualified master and serve him with devoted body, speech, and mind.

“At first do not befriend him like an equal acquaintance but cut your misconceptions through learning and contemplation.

“Next, keep to constant practice and exert yourself with perseverance.

“Finally, assimilate the Dharma in your heart through practice and apply the remedies to disturbing emotions.

“Always keep your samayas and disciplines without transgressions. Do not practice intermittently or postpone your practice, but keep your pledge to apply it immediately.

“Although I, a mendicant, have attained accomplishment, I have never found time for distraction. On seeing all the lost sentient beings who are tormented by samsaric pursuits and delusions, disturbing emotions and evil karma, I feel like weeping. My heart aches with despair and anguish.

“Having obtained a human body and perceived the pleasant or painful results of good or evil actions, people who do not try to attain enlightenment in this lifetime and who do not practice even one session of taking refuge, but instead chase the pursuits, ambitions, distractions, and enjoyments of this life and accumulate evil karmic deeds have no heart. Their hearts have rotted. The demon of Mara has crept into their hearts. They are deceived by demonic friends.

“If you entrust yourself to the Three Jewels from the core of your heart and practice to attain enlightenment in one lifetime, it is impossible that you will be deceived by the Three Jewels.

“It is also impossible that you will suffer from want of food and clothing. The people who claim to lack food or clothes for Dharma practice, who have no time for taking refuge or spiritual practice and say that they have found no leisure, are shamelessly fooling themselves.

“Right now, while your senses are clear and you have free time, if you do not exert yourself in the practices for attaining enlightenment you will very soon be blown away by the wind of karma, approached by the demonic Lord of Death, and be in danger of imminent death. At that time you will frantically try to think of all possible things but it will be far too late, Keep that in mind!

“In general, when practicing Dharma you will have no success unless you keep death in mind.

“Capable people of future generations, there is no deception in these words of the mendicant Padmakara. No matter what you pursue, try hard to be free from regret at the time of death! Take care of yourselves and be diligent with the aspiration to also be able to help others!”

In typing these words, I see how utterly indolent I am, and how very far from perfect practice. Let us be careful in how we choose our spiritual friends, but once we have chosen well, may we strive to emulate these perfect words of Guru Rinpoche.

Crying Wolf

Mongolia can be a country of such shocking contrasts.

The other evening I was invited to dinner by a lama friend of mine. He chose a local pizza joint because it was easy to get a meal there without meat. This lama, from Mongolia’s westernmost province of Khovd, amazed me by saying he had been vegetarian for the past 30 years. Apparently his father had also been a lama and had once shared with his son a Mahayana scripture which detailed the faults of eating meat. It may very well have been this fierce excerpt from the Lankavatara Sutra. Deeply impressed, this lama never touched meat again, no mean feat in Mongolia where one is almost never served a meal without it.

So I tripped out my building’s door, nothing but happy thoughts of a mushroom pizza on my mind, and literally jumped backward when confronted by this sight right in front of me:

I couldn’t quite believe it was real, even as my hands spontaneously clapped into prayer position and I reflexively began chanting Om Mani Padme Hung. But yes, someone had driven their Land Cruiser straight into the heart of Ulaanbaatar with a freshly slaughtered Siberian wolf lashed to the front protection bars.

I took these pictures with the car’s license plate in the hope that such hunting was seasonal and perhaps illegal and some justice might be brought to the hunter. My dinner companions assured me that even if such laws were in place they would not be enforced; such a kill would be regarded by many with admiration.

Mongolia is, of course, a country in which the livestock outnumber people by about 20:1. For a herder whose livelihood depends on the wellbeing of his flock, the killing of wolves is at least understandable, if karmically unfortunate. But the sport hunting of wolves is another matter altogether. To get some background for this post, I clicked around sites offering wolf hunting tours in Mongolia (regrettably, there are many). A few cited some version of the following Mongolian saying: One cannot even see a wolf unless one is the wolf’s equal; one cannot kill a wolf unless one is the wolf’s superior.

For followers of the Buddha's teachings, this is a bitterly ironic statement. According to the Buddha’s enlightened point of view, the wolf was born in such a body and came to a violent end due to correspondingly violent actions in previous lifetimes. Its murder marks the end of that particular karmic episode. For the hunter, on the other hand, whatever short-lived satisfaction might be experienced out of ignorance, such killing plants the seed for acute suffering in future lifetimes. To the Buddhist way of thinking, the sport hunter is no being’s superior.

I was told that in the past, for a certain radius around each of Mongolia’s thousands of monasteries, hunting and other non-virtuous activities were strictly prohibited. Such traditions do not seem to persist.

I had thought to end this post touting the Defenders of Wildlife campaign to abolish the abominable practice in Alaska, promoted by Gov. Sarah Palin, of the aerial slaughter of wolves and bears by helicopter and light plane (fellas – OK and some of you ladies too – go watch the short video: Ashley Judd!). But let’s end with a cheerier story, shall we?

One of my good friends here is a prominent government official, whose devout Buddhism I knew to be of fairly recent vintage. The first time I was invited to his home I scanned the living room walls and was startled to see a photo of him kneeling over a wolf he had just killed, smiling from ear to ear. I didn’t say anything then, but quietly asked his wife about it later. Oh, it’s interesting, she told me. Not only did he love hunting, but he was an avid gun collector. But once Buddhism took hold in his mind, one day he decided to destroy all his guns and never went hunting again. They meant to change that picture, but hadn’t gotten around to it.

It just so happened I had recently been at a gathering with this family and a visiting lama from Tibet. At that time, I had snapped a wonderful portrait of this man in a prayerful pose while the lama was chanting. I printed a large copy, bought a frame for it, and slipped it to his wife a few days later. The next time I visited, lo and behold, the wolf hunting picture was gone, replaced by my photo of the man in devout Buddhist attitude.

I told that story at the pizza dinner to the delight of all, a little ray of hope in these twilit times.

Joyful Chotrul Duchen -- Updated

My mother’s Vermont-based Dharma group, that I help advise via Skype every week, is using the most delightful book as the basis for its study: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness. Yes, the title sounded a little corny to me at first, too. But the content! This young lama presents the Buddhist path in such a warm and cheerful way, and such gentle humor and a keen understanding of modern Western thinking, that you can’t help but fall in love with it.

So, on this Chotrul Duchen, the day of the Buddha’s display of miracles in which the positive or negative actions of the faithful are said to be magnified 10,000,000 times, I offer you this small but profound gift from our reading this morning:

“The opposite of samsara [the neurotic cycles – including those of birth, death and rebirth – to which we are subject until our ignorance is overcome] is nirvana, a term that is almost as completely misunderstood as emptiness. A Sanskrit word roughly translated as “extinguishing” or “blowing out” (as in the blowing out of the flame of a candle), nirvana is often interpreted as a state of total bliss or happiness, arising from the extinguishing or “blowing out” of the ego or the idea of “self.”  This interpretation is accurate to a certain extent, except that it doesn't take into account that most of us live as embodied beings going about our lives in the relatively real world of moral, ethical, legal, and physical distinctions.

“Trying to live in this world without abiding by its relative distinctions would be as foolish and difficult as trying to avoid the consequences of being born right- or left-handed. What would be the point? A more precise interpretation of nirvana is the adoption of a broad perspective that admits all experiences, pleasurable or painful, as aspects of awareness. Naturally, most people would prefer to experience only the ‘high notes’ of happiness. But as a student of mine recently pointed out, eliminating the ‘low notes’ from a Beethoven symphony – or any modern song, for that matter – would result in a pretty cheap and tinny experience.

“Samsara and nirvana are perhaps best understood as points of view. Samsara is the point of view based primarily on defining and identifying with experiences as either painful or unpleasant. Nirvana is a fundamentally objective state of mind: an acceptance of experience without judgments, which opens us to the potential for seeing solutions that may not be directly connected to our survival as individuals, but rather to the survival of all sentient beings.”  – p. 117-8

On days such as these, we try a little extra harder to tailor our thoughts and activity to virtue. And what, exactly, is virtue? Let HH the Dalai Lama explain in the pithiest statement on the subject you’ll ever hear: “If you can help others, do so. If you can’t, at least don’t harm them.”

Update: Bhante Dhammika at dhamma musings shares a story of such pure generosity. A perfect cap to an excellent day.

Ataraxia

One of the blogs I really enjoy is Truth is Within, written by a young guy from the far Canadian boonies who somehow ended up in Thailand ordaining as a Buddhist monk. His latest post is a seemingly innocuous update to his settling in at an L.A. temple where he’s been invited to teach meditation. It ends, however, on this startling note:

“Nasty rumours following me from Thailand; not giving them too much thought. Apparently I’m both uncultured and corrupt, and have embezzled donation money as well as insulted my venerable teacher by saying goodbye over the phone.”

I read this with particular interest and sympathy. I have myself just been the subject of my very first internet smear (perhaps that means I’m about to be famous). Apparently I misappropriate donations to support a lavish lifestyle (snort!) and the real reason I’m taking my translator to America to meet my teacher is to atone for an improper relationship with me. Double snort. Oh, and I’m priggish, sectarian, and territorial to the point of undermining the projects of others. I can’t completely deny all of that except the last bit. I checked with the person whose project I was supposed to have tried to “scuttle” and he replied, “Huh?”

But back to our young Canadian friend. I love his two syllable summary of his feelings on the matter:

“Ho hum.”

I couldn’t agree more, and I think about the Buddha’s pithy advice to Cunda in the Sallekha Sutta on “effacement”:

“Others will be cruel; we shall not be cruel here...

Others will speak falsehood; we shall abstain from false speech here...

Others will speak maliciously; we shall abstain from malicious speech here...”

So. To say it directly: in four years I have not misused as much as a single dime of the donations given to this Mongolia project, and there is nothing improper about my relationship with my translator. As everyone knows, this is my girlfriend:

 

Ah, Amaa. Since she can’t recall her actual birth date, just the astrological year (Water Rabbit or some such), this Tsagaan Sar marks her 105^th birthday. Can you imagine? Her attendant just gave me a jingle to say she has come to UB from the provinces to worship at Gandan Monastery during these auspicious days as she does every new year. We’ll find time to see one another after the holiday on Wednesday and I’ll report, with new pix if possible. There are so many false lamas these days, it’s such a dangerously degenerate time spiritually, but this one is the real article.

I still sometimes test/build my vocabulary on the Free Rice site, since the game donates rice where it’s needed, and I learned a new word today: ataraxia. Do you know it? It’s a Greek term, of course. The wiki entry’s quite interesting and this dictionary site lists one definition as “a state of tranquility free from anxiety and emotional disturbance.” Amaa seems to exemplify this, I experience it once in a while, especially lately for some reason, and feel sure it’s the result of steady adherence to virtue, exactly as the Buddha promised.

Please try to abstain from ill will, spreading rumors, or malicious speech toward others, and may you find thereby your ataraxia in this new year.

Long March

Ah, beloveds. Once again, your kindness and generosity are truly touching. We’ve met our goal to get my translator on the road and back to a normal, relatively untroubled life. I know times are lean and so much greater, therefore, is my gratitude. As is hers – “speechless and rejoicing in their virtue” as she put it to me – and you’ll hear personally from her soon.

For those of you who are crushed that you missed the chance to exercise your plastic, you could do worse right now than to support the International Campaign for Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, or Free Tibet UK.

Our Dharma group met today, and for the short talk at the end, I discussed with them Mongolia and Tibet. I started the way my lamas always start, by reminding them that there really is no spiritual path unless it’s guided by loving-kindness and compassion toward all. Then I brought up the ancient and unique brother/sisterhood between the Mongols and Tibetans, sharing as they do cultures utterly transformed by the Buddha’s most profound teaching, the Vajrayana.

From there, we jumped to contemporary history, with the Mongols choosing in 1990 to shake off Communism and restore basic rights such as religious freedom. This catalyzed many in the group to share stories about their parents and grandparents and the lengths some of them went to – in most cases quite ingenious – in hiding prized Buddhist texts and images from the prying eyes of potential government informants.

And all of this was a preamble to highlighting the current plight of the Tibetans in Tibet itself; Tibetans yearn for the religious freedom that Mongolians now enjoy. It’s been much in the news, of course, that this coming March 10 marks the 50^th anniversary of 1959’s Lhasa Uprising. Then, as now, the Chinese showed no compunction about massacring Tibetans to achieve their Potemkin version of ‘stability.’ Having banned foreign tourists and, more importantly, journalists from entering Tibet, I and many others fear more bloodshed at whatever crossroads relentlessly repressed Tibetans and amped-up Chinese bureaucrats, soldiers and police may meet.

In the Buddhist view of global geography, Tibet is seen as the enlightenment field of Chenrezig (Skt. Avalokiteshvara), the Buddha of Limitless Compassion; His Holiness the Dalai Lama is revered as Chenrezig’s physical incarnation. As such, I urged our group, as I wish to urge you now, to consider accumulating many repetitions of Chenrezig’s well-known mantra – Om Mani Padme Hung – and dedicating the calming virtue to Tibet just now. I pray the anniversary comes and goes without the spasm of violence everyone expects.

My Brazilian friend Haroldo, based temporarily near Paris, has just published a piece about Tibetan activism in Europe around the March 10 date for the journal Epoca – it’s here if you read Portuguese or just want to glimpse the photos. But he also sent me a file of the English translation, which you can download here: A New Fight for Tibet . I see that he also has a really cool new site as an Epoca columnist, which you really should visit for his astounding photography, including these images from Danzan Ravjaa's Khamar Monastery in Mongolia.

Hot Source

Vajrayana Buddhists are in the midst of a pretty potent time just now. The first fifteen days of the new year commemorate fifteen miracles displayed by Shakyamuni Buddha in the Indian hamlet of Sravasti back in the day. Some nifty ones, too. Emanating golden light from his mouth to illuminate the six realms of existence so the assembly could see beings being liberated there; getting the gods from Indra’s realm to come on down and serve him and everyone lunch; whipping up such a storm that it tossed the 80,000 Hindus who had forced him into this annoying miracle competition into the nearby river. Where’d I find out these details? Why, on this Orthodox Jewish guy’s blog, of course.

But today I finally bird-dogged the original source, an ancient collection of “Divine Stories” of the Buddha called the Divyavadana. Not sure what makes your day, but finding this made mine. Seems some smartie done published the first part in English just last year. Man, is my shopping list growing.

Anyway, we feel that due to the great merit accumulated by the Buddha during this time, actions (karma) engaged in on these days increase in strength 100,000 times. And today was the 10^th day of this period, sacred also to Padmsambhava and I finally got some of that sourced in the new Terton Migyur Dorje bio. On pp. 87-9, Karma Chagmed pulls some quotes from Padmasambhava’s treasure teachings, including this one from Ratna Lingpa:

Fortunate beings practicing dharma in the future:

If anyone has resolute faith in me (Padmasambhava)

I will be sitting right beside him or her.

Whenever the tenth day of the month comes

Whoever commemorates me will never be parted from me.

And who were we to argue? Six women from our dharma group came over and we had a really lovely Guru Yoga and tsog ceremony:

Now, one of these women, I’m not saying who, is my translator with whom I’m traveling to America in two weeks. From my last appeal, you all were wonderfully generous and we’ve raised more than half the cost of her ticket. While she’s still struggling to find other sources of revenue to get her to a long-awaited, and deeply necessary, healing session with my teacher, I thought I would give you one more opportunity to make a great difference in the life of another during these especially powerful days. I would love to tell her the ticket’s paid for and put her mind to rest so she can focus on the spiritual aspect of this next stage of her life.

And here’s the thing: we gotta pay for the tickets on Monday (like, Mongolian Monday, half a day ahead of the U.S.), no extensions.

So, beloveds. Would you kick in a little so my translator can finally be rid of the inner suffering that’s plagued her these past 12 years? And I mean a little: the donations so far have ranged from $5 to the ever-auspicious $108. Just click on the friendly neighborhood Garuda below and you’ll be whisked to a secure site to do your thang. Thank you and thank you!

(Miracle at Sravasti relief photo nicked from this site)

Mongolia in the Media: From the Sublime to the Pretty Cool to the Well Beyond Ridiculous

OK, as far as Sublime, this tome has shot to the top of my must-get list. Wisdom Publications just announced the release of The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems: A Tibetan Study of Asian Religious Thought, an 18th c. text that Wisdom’s blog describes as “...arguably the widest-ranging account of religious philosophies ever written in pre-modern Tibet.” I’d be panting for this volume anyway, but what really made it #1 with a bullet was the next bit:

“Like most Tibetan texts on philosophical systems, this work covers the major schools of India, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, but then goes on to discuss in detail the entire range of Tibetan traditions as well, with separate chapters on the Nyingma, Kadam, Kagyu, Shije, Sakya, Jonang, Geluk, and Bon schools. Not resting there, [Thuken Losang Chokyi Nyima] goes on to describe the major traditions of China–Confucian, Daoist, and the multiple varieties of Buddhist–as well as those of Mongolia, Khotan, and even Shambhala.”

I’ve never heard of a Tibetan philosophical survey that isolates the Buddhist traditions unique to Mongolia. And I suspect Brother Don will order one to see what it says about Shambhala.

Speaking of Brother Don, he claims to be a collaborator in the Pretty Cool Dep’t (though his post referencing this has been taken down for reasons known only to him), providing photos for the book accompanying a new exhibit simply entitled “Genghis Khan,” which opened on February 27 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The exhibit features artifacts little seen in the West from Mongolian museums and The Hermitage in Russia. This interesting write-up quotes Morris Rossabi, a Mongol expert at Columbia University, thus:

“ ‘Until about 20 years ago, the Mongols and Genghis Khan were treated as simply plunderers, murderers, rapists, pillagers,’ Rossabi said. ‘Then about 20 years ago, those in the Mongol field began to reevaluate and look at how the Mongols brought the world together, that the Mongols had specific policies that encouraged and fostered trade, encouraged artisanship, became patrons of the arts. We didn’t ignore the massacring and the plundering, but there’s another side to it.

“ ‘The general audience still has this image of the Mongols as savages, and you see that, in fact, there are beautiful objects, that interesting and extraordinary technology was sponsored by the Mongols and in some cases commissioned by the Mongols, so you get quite a different picture.’”

The exhibit site is here, and well worth a look. If you’re near Houston, you have time to get there. It runs through September 7, at which point it moves on to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and future sites TBD.

Now. The Genghis Khan exhibit is a necessary tool to counter the pervasive image of the Mongol such as that perpetrated in our final Well Beyond Ridiculous item. Asian Gypsy’s gonna love this one.

Seems there’s some dimwit TV show in America called “Reaper.” On Friday, according to this showbiz site, ABC will air an episode entitled, I kid you not, “Dirty Sexy Mongol.” Should you tune in, “Sam has been given a new assignment from the Devil to capture a 13th century Mongolian warrior soul who is reaping havoc all across town.” That would be wreaking havoc, geniuses. But wait! The sophistication doesn’t end there! The last sentence of the blurb delivers this crucial plot-driver: “Also, Sock continues to be tortured by his hot stepsister.”

There. That oughta drive up DODR’s hits in the search engines.

Spiritual Tsagaan Sar

The first two days of Mongolian New Year – Tsagaan Sar – visiting are for family, those with whom one is particularly close, and greeting your spiritual teacher if you have one. The third day the visiting widens to friends and acquaintances. I accepted two invites from long-time members of our Dharma group, and weaseled out of a third because, you know? Sometimes enough is too much. But the second visit, to a woman named Mandakh who was at her father’s, was way more than I expected.

My translator and I walked in to what seemed an ordinary apartment from the outside, but was decked out like a temple on the inside – wall-to-wall thangkas, texts, Buddha images – and seated in the middle an elderly Mongolian man in lama’s robes. Well, thought I, what have we here?

Turns out Mandakh’s father is the highly regarded, 93-year old Lama Sodnamtseren. It also turns out Mandakh told me all about this before, but somehow I had completely forgotten. I’m not exactly the poster boy for the benefits of meditation, am I?

In any case, we had a whale of a conversation, just hitting it off right away, telling funny and poignant Dharma stories, learning about and just appreciating one another. Mostly I pumped him for info about his life. Sodnamtseren was born in the sacred province of Zavkhan and entered a local monastery when he was just seven. The Communist oppression reached its unbearable peak when he was about 20, and he was forced to join the army. Can you imagine? From monk to soldier overnight. After his discharge, he had to live an ordinary layperson’s life until 1990. The minute the democratic reforms took place, he put his robes back on and resumed his religious vocation, albeit in the family home. Apparently, he gets up around dawn, and does his practices until lunchtime. He certainly has that vibe.

At one point, I asked him about the traditional Mongolian lama robe, particularly why the sleeves were turned up and blue-colored on the cuffs. He had such an interesting reply. He said that during Manchu rule, the Mongolians were forced to wear long-sleeved garments deliberately cut in such a way as to look like animals’ hooves at the end. When the first Bogd Gegeen (the rough equivalent of Mongolia’s Dalai Lama), Zanabazar, ascended to his position, he said, “You know what? We’re done with that. Everyone turn your sleeve cuffs up and color them blue to honor our ancient reverence for tenger, the great sky from which all things are born.” I don’t know how true this story is, but that’s what he told me.

But then he shocked me. He asked if I had such a robe. I said no, just the plain one I was wearing. He called Mandakh and had her bring in a new one of his own. He said it was his good fortune to be able to offer clothing to a disciple of the Buddha and gave it to me with the prayer that we would reunite again in Buddha Amitabha’s pure land of Dewachen. For once I was speechless, and so deeply touched.

But...you guys know my style is to stay simple and close to the ground. How on earth can I face others sporting a garment like this?!

I honestly don’t think that as a gelong monk I’m permitted to wear such a thing and it kind of runs against my general practice of trying to keep my ego in check. What do you think I should do with it?

Anyway, afterward we moved into his shrine room/bedroom. It seems that every year he offers New Year’s blessings to the extended family. This was done in a remarkably efficient way. He had some huge sutras brought to him...

...then he read the title and first couple of lines aloud...

...and then riffled all the pages so that the breeze touched the blessee’s head, such as that of the latest great-grandbaby:

And just because we really can’t get enough of pictures of elderly lamas and babies, here’s another one:

There was such an endless stream of visitors who came to pay their respects to Sodnamtseren that we agreed we’d get together another time and really talk. I found out that, of course, no one has bothered to systematically record his history, so that’s something to mull over.