Some Thoughts On Virtue

In the Morning Service, a part of my Kagyu pre-ngondro practices, there is a section with the following lines:

"Action done is never without result.
But action not done is never met.
Development is part of all action.
The results of virtue and evil
are happiness and suffering,
inevitably ripening for the doer...
So, if I am not to achieve my own destruction,
I should as a matter of principle believe in
action and result."

I have in the past spent much time developing ways in which I can become more virtuous. During one period of my life, my little scheme was based on being more godly. I had a plan you see. The cult of christianity teaches that you have God in only after you invite him. Buddhism teaches that you are born with Buddha nature. For both of them, the idea is to realize that nature. A lot of where virtue comes from, that character we want, is based on choices.

For the moment I will tell you that some times making a choice is difficult. Habituations that lead to addictions can make choosing difficult. Inevitably we all run up against that choice though. Do I or do I not proceed with this action? This is what is called the development mentioned above, which we can return to later.

Making a choice requires a bit of ability in looking inward. Many choices, lets say those of addictive nature, are based on senses. Making pain go away, or the rush of the hunt, or the actual buzz of the action itself. All followed by the cycle of addiction. The beginning is being aware that you have a choice. Let's use a popular example, and that is sex. Now, in our American standards, and judeo-christian mythology, we have adhered to a centuries old model of marriage that has a failure rate of 50%. One might think it's time to reconsider the model. But that is where we are. So we consider infidelity from that viewpoint of marriage. Do I or do I not choose to flirt, the real beginning, with this person. You're sitting there having coffee, and you know that it's a conversation based on what is going on, nothing on the personal level. To broach the personal level is where flirting begins. "Gee, you look pretty good for your age." That introduces the male/female difference, the gender/attraction dimension into the conversation. You make the choice to make the comment. Why? Ah, the big question.

What do you stand to gain from this course of action. See it? Action. Action brings result. You make the comment, the other party deflects it, you're either embarrassed or hurt, and the potential of friendship or functional community relationship is thwarted because you were trying to fulfill a need for yourself that in reality, that other person can't fill anyway. And a whole new set of perspectives is set in motion, and that's part of the complexity of karma.


On the other hand, you choose to not make the comment. That sets into motion a lot of other karmic results. You've realized that the consequences of making the comment are not favorable, so you keep thoughts and words to yourself, enjoy the coffee break, and go about your life. What you've just done is transformed a little samsara into nirvana. And a lot of little transformations in time add up to big changes. It's the result of constant practice, just like playing an instrument. A lot of mistakes at first, but learning what you are doing wrong, being gentle on yourself, and in time it begins to fall into place. What it boils down to is, is my behavior a response to attention, or reaction?


If it's a reaction, what is being served? Probing that will provide interesting materials, and as the lojong teachings encourage us, "Work with the greatest defilements first." This is a great place to do tonglen for oneself, and Sogyal Rinpoche has a great section about it in his book, The Tibetan Book of Living And Dying. Not only will this help us in outward manifestations, it cuts to even the subtler forms of our habituations, right to where we can catch the thoughts as they occur, and then allow the mind to relax. All said though, the living in reaction mode is living in samsara mode. It's a lack of attention. And the prescription for that is a sitting meditation practice, where we learn the art of paying attention.


Paying attention gives us the choice of honest virtuous action, and the resultant karmic train. The Merit 109, rolling down the Karma Line. Action born of attention is joyous upon meeting, and once we gain stability in that, then just like the samsaric reaction mode was our nature, then the nirvana attention mode will be our nature, and ultimately we will discover, our true nature. One we can rest and relax in. A nature that has a lot of happy meetings of results along the way, one of happiness, and one of virtue. 


Nirvana is just a choice away.

Knower, not Believer.

I am struck by a couple of things this morning. One is an article  by Sheila Samples about the religious right. Nothing really new in it that I didn't already know. In fact, it's a subject I watch closely, because it may well have an impact on whether or not I can practice Buddhism. In an all Christian America, it wouldn't be guaranteed, like the Constitution guarantees I can. And in our last election cycle, one presidential candidate suggested less Constitution, and more Bible. However, I have discovered that in paying attention to this subject, I have changed somewhat negatively. 


Another thing that has struck me is, well, me. I am changing. Partly that is due to having become connected to a teacher that has active involvement in his students, and has definite teaching plans and goals. Friday I got in the mail my copy of the Pema Kilaya Teaching Program. So I jumped into it, and I found several portions of the practice I was missing, and some I was already doing in my rather custom made practice. And like the lit head I am, I gravitated to the back, to see the "suggested reading" list, if there was one. 



He he he, there was.


Books not only suggested, but carefully looked over and recommended by our teacher. And to my surprise, we already own several of them. Further, a couple of them I was interested in are at the library! The upshot of all this is that I am immersing myself in, not what I believe, but what I practice. Let me explain the difference, and in so doing hopefully tie things together.


Lately at work, I have trying not to use the word "believe," especially relative to spiritual matters. I prefer to use the word "know." My reason for that is that I practice, and what does practicing give you? It gives you direct, first hand knowledge. I practice poetry, and in so doing learn what it means to write. I sit down at the drums, and I practice, usually on weekends when no one is home. I learn rhythms, as well as hearing the music of the different drums.  When I sat down at my bosses drum set the other night, I got to learn the music his drums made, because he had different skins, maybe tighter than mine, different cymbals; you get the picture. Because I practice though, I can at least sit down and know how to approach the kit I am sitting at without changing too much of it's set-up. Highly personal stuff you see.


The same goes for Buddhism. We don't call what we do a belief system. We call it a practice. Why? Because that is what we are supposed to do for one, and secondly, the Buddha said to check it out. Don't believe, do it. See if it's real. Prove the words, don't just believe them. But wait you say. How about reincarnation? How can you know that? I can surely believe it because my teacher says it's a reality. I can believe his experience. And one day I will get to know it, as death will happen to us all.  And there are practices such as phowa and shitro for that as well. But any teacher knows that you don't give an aspiring drummer lessons on advanced jazz rhythms when he barely can knock out some of the basic rhythms, or run a set of flams around the set alternating which stick is up. There is a beginning to everything. So I don't necessarily need to practice for reincarnation yet. It may well be that in learning these other practices, I will indeed come to know reincarnation rather intimately.


So I have taken my Teaching Program and started at the beginning. I've already mentioned that Rinpoche has started a meditation class that will run for 11 months. And he started at the very beginning, the Seven Point Posture of Vairochana. The Teaching Program goes into other practices, things to study,  retreat suggestions, and otheractivities that seemed to favor developing compassion. The text suggestion contains at least one on Love and Compassion. Which means that I will be opening my heart, as the lotus opens in the great muddy of the Mekong Delta, or the Ganges. And not just to family, and friends, and snagha members. Practicng compassion and love goes way beyond that. The Bodhisattva vow is relative to all sentient beings. Including those of the religious right who see fit to make sure I can't practice that love and compassion. If I only love those that love me, I am a cracked cymbal, and out of tune drum. One form of the Bodhisattva vow states, "So may I become sustenance in every way for sentient beings to the limit of space until all have attained nirvana." To me that sums up quite well the notion that all are free to discover sustenance from me.


It does sound a bit insane, doesn't it? But it isn't really new. Buddha taught it, allegedly Jesus did. "Love your enemies." It isn't a sentiment we simply nod to though. As Buddhists, we practice the practices we do which will prepare us for those moments in real life when we will have opportunity to allow our heart to be open, potentially wounded and/or a source of sustenance. It will happen. The whole point of practice is to get to know something, and just knowing it on the cushion isn't enough, as any version of the Bodhisattva vow will reveal. That becomes a belief then. Being able to respond to suffering with compassion and wisdom is a goal of our sitting, and those needs are out among those who are suffering, rarely are they there with us on the cushion.


I have to be as open to any "believer" bent by hatred and dogma  as I am to any sangha or family member. It might not be as hard as it seems. I can say that because as I practice, as I study, reflect, and meditate, I begin to see that my heart being open has no limit. It is like when I sit down and play, and pretty soon half the people upstairs drift down to hear who's playing, and they all ask what band I'm in (I'm not)(yet), and where I learned to play. I learned to play because I sat down and grabbed the sticks, and put the stick to the skins. After years of doing that, I decided to get lessons so I could learn what I didn't know, which is a lot. And now I have two teachers, both of whom teach me something, and then leave me alone.


To practice, practice, practice. To go beyond my fear and gain experience. To go beyond believing to knowing. From Grasshopper to Master. To haved an open mind, and an open heart, which is the best medicine for those who aren't.

New Member of Pema Kilaya.

That would be me. As of Nov. 22, Kilung Jigme Rinpoche accepted my formal request to be a part of the sangha. More about it here. Currently the Rinpoche lives here on Whidbey Island, at Yeshe Long House, and is going to spend the next month revisiting the sangha and it's organization and how he can best serve it. He has also begun an 11 month teaching program on the 7 meditations, which I have previously mentioned. The web site will get new attention, as Rinpoche swings into a new chapter of his dharma activities on earth, in which the members of the Ha Ha Ho Ho Sangha very unofiicial but fun name) on Whidbey Island, and of Pema Kilaya will be directly involved.

I believe this is what they call a ground floor opportunity....

Taking Refuge in Samsara

It's what happens with almost every choice.

" Please grant me blessings to realize there is no satisfaction in enjoying samsaric pleasures, and that their shortcoming is, they cannot be trusted; may I strive intently for the bliss of liberation. Bless me to cultivate this wish." - from A Short Meditation on the Graduated Path to Enlightenment, from Katleen McDonald's book, How To Meditate.

This is one of the four thoughts that turn the mind to dharma: samsara. Just what is samsara though? Samsara literally means cycles of existence, and it refers to the imprisonment in the cycle of rebirth because one is imprisoned by the three unwholesome roots of ignorance of one's true nature, desires or passions, and hatred. I have heard them as ignorance, passion and anger. A great way to remember them is by IPA, which is also an acronym for a currently popular beer style, India Pale Ale. Both samsara and nirvana are in the mind. So samsaric pleasures are those that we pursue because we want the feeling it gives us.

But this is far more than hedonism. This is about trusting. We trust in pleasures, be they physical or emotional, because we believe that we will get something out of it. It is our source of security. If we feel safe, we believe we are. If we feel happy, we believe we have joy. Yet in the state of samsara, those pleasure do little more than add negative karma because they don't eliminate the three negative roots, they reinforce them.

And that's what struck me the other day as I was reciting this verse while driving. We trust our samsaric pleasures because we expect something in return. We drink alcohol because we expect the buzz. It happens. Somewhere though we cross the line, and oops! The result turns into a hangover after the buzz. The question is, why did we want the buzz? What was ity signifying to us? A reward? Relaxation from emotional stress? The gloat of ego because it's a $50 bottle and we can afford it or have the discimination to taste it's subtleties? All of those are samsaric choices, and so it goes for all the choices we make.

Until we learn to make better choices that are for our benefit. Let me give you an example. The other day I was talking with a local colleague, and we were discussing the candidates for a local political office. One was a merchant in our town, and as we talked I expressed the opinion that I didn't feel this person would be a viable candidate. Rumors of the negative sort swirl around that person, and I wished their business well, but thought they should make the business a solid go before jumping into the political arena. My colleague on the other hand wished that person's business to fail. My colleague made the choice to state the words based on his feelings about this person. It gave him some sort of glee, or hope that this person they disliked would fail, and that would make them happy. Sometimes we judge ourselves better by the failures of others. But are we? However, the point is that all sorts of little pleasures occur in this line of thinking, and the Buddha's teachings are that we as practitioners wish for every one to achieve happiness.

Not for their demise, and not for us to elevate our ego's because we can now deem the other person a failure. Everyone around us are trying to be happy. They too are stuck in samsara, and are reaping the results of karma, and so may not know what circumstances they are actually in (ignorance). As we practitioners continue to study the dharma, we learn how to become aware of the ignorance and the remedy for it. And that applies to the passions and hatred/anger as well. We learn to deal with the habituations we develop in our minds and our thinking patterns.

What happens along the way is what closes out this little saying. We experience the bliss of liberation from the samsaric cycle. The bliss that cannot be altered, because bliss is part of the natural state we all have that we have buried, that we exchange for the momentary false hopes of samsara and pleasures that can't be trusted. We can enjoy them, as it taught, but we misplace our trust then. A better choice is to place our trust in what is unchangeable, which cannot be taken away.

It is a wish to cultivate. Not just a wish, but something we work on, be aware of. It is not unlike cultivating soil to grow plants. If we start becoming aware of the choices we make and why, we have begun that process. To cultivate means we need to turn the soil, and eliminate weeds, and plant seeds. Then water may need to be addeed, or compost, and weeds removed on a regualr basis. These are the actions of discipline, of studying, reflecting, meditating. Aside from the meditating, windshield time is a great time for practicing. My commute is usually about 10 miles. And I still get a lot of practicing in. All through the day I can cultivate, and lately I have returned to the habit of reading dharma before I go to sleep. Then I get up, and every morning I recite the very verse I opend this post with. And it's having effects of the choices I make.

So what would you like to trust? A temporary buzz, or permanent bliss?

Monday nights for the next 11 months are devoted to teaching students about the 7 Meditations.  Last night we started the first one, fitting the physical and mental levels into each other and the act of sitting. Then there wil be Shamatha, then a refinement of the first one, then Insight Meditation, and onto Open Mind, Pure Mind, and finally beginning Dzogchen.

For the month of December Rinpoche will commit himself to shoring up the new directions and forms the sagha will take.

Houston, we have lift off. I'm going for a ride....

Name Change!

But does the rose still smell as sweet?

Ah, Shakespearean alliterations.  Think I'll stop now. 

But a name change has occurred, as the header reveals. I have a new partner? No, I have a new name. New names are given when one takes refuge with a teacher. It signifies the qualities of the student. This ceremony was different than my first though.

The first time I took refuge was in 2003, and I went through a small ceremony, and repeated a few lines of which I knew nothing. Then I was handed a card with my refuge name: Jangchub Gyaltsen - Victory Banner of Enlightenment. Okay, cool. Enlightenment is what I am after. The whole process was rather low key and almost insignificant, or felt so anyway.

Not so this second time around. Rinpoche taught the three of us essentially what it meant to take refuge, and the relationship of refuge to hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana, culminating in Dzogchen. We repeated the refuge vows after each level. All in all, it summed up taking refuge in the Buddha nature we all have. Then he had us come forward, and he snipped off a bit of hair, and anointed our head with water. I recall the hair represents consciousness, and so he established a link between him and the three of us. Then he had a little bowl, and some folded up pieces of paper, and some that were rolled. The folded pieces had names for the males, and the rolled were for the females. Two of us, one of her. Typically, I fish around for the hidden one, the buried one, the underdog looking one. Not this time. I pick it and give it to Rinpoche, and so we all did.

Turns out I picked the name of Rinpoche: Jigme. Jigme Senga is the name I picked. It means Fearless Lion.

Gulp.

Suppose there might be some challenges around this name now? I'm not certain there is any significance in picking this name. I have formally asked Rinpoche to be my teacher before I took refuge. He is still reviewing my application, and my mind could easily think there is. But this is just a refuge name. I'm not a teacher or anything remotely similar. Just another sentient being on this rock making my way along the path.

Would I mind any significance? I suppose not, because right now it's irrelevant. If a time comes when it is relevant, so be it. I'll attend to my now as fearlessly as  I can, and see what happens. In the mean time you'll know why the name on the header changed. 

Taking Refuge

Tonight I am taking refuge with Kilung Jigme Rinpoche. When I was first asked if I would be interested in doing so, I said I already had taken refuge. Meaning, I thought it was a one time event. Lo and behold, I can take refuge with any teacher I want a connection with. And wanting to become a student of Rinpoche, well, it just makes sense. Yet what does it mean?

Every morning we wake up and take refuge in something. The money we make, the things we have, the food or firewood or vehicle to get us to work, our charming good looks (for those of you that have them), charisma, sense of humor, or any other myriad of things. It also includes spiritual beliefs, be they dogmatic kinds or karmatic kinds. We all take refuge in something.

In taking refuge, we place our trust in the Three Jewels, which in Buddhism are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. What does that mean? Well, taking refuge in the Buddha means that I take refuge in the Buddha as a role model. We all have the potential for enlightenment, and so it means we take refuge in that aspect of ourselves as well, utilizing the Budhha and many other human beings who have become enlightened as role models. Taking refuge in the dharma means taking refuge in the teachings that have explained not only that nature, that vibrant, full emptiness which is reality, it also means the techniques and methods of learning that reality, mostly through meditation. And because there are people who are oriented certain ways, there are many forms of teachings. The end result is the same, the techniques just vary. And third, we take refuge in the sangha, the like-minded community. There is a saying of the monk Thogme, "When friendship with someone causes the three poisons (ignorance, passion, and anger) to increase, and degrades the activities of listening, reflecting, and meditating, and destroys lovingkindness and compassion, to dissociate from bad friends is the practice of a Bodhisattva." The sangha is that group of friends that keep you practicing is the best way to say it.

They also have fun with you. When I asked what was involved, they said I needed to cut my hair. Right now I have a bit of it. Did cut mean "cut," or did "cut" mean shave bald? They had some rather good poker faces. Rinpoche has fairly short hair, and I could go with that. Yea, my wife likes it longer, and I like her to like the way I look. And it keeps my head warmer during these rainy cool months. They actually let me hang on that for a couple days before telling me they were teasing me.  

All told, it sounds like I learn to trust in myself and my fellow humans. I can't think of anything more worthwhile. There are no false hopes to throw myself on, no false messiahs, just myself. My enlightenment doesn't count on anyone other than myself. It's called a practice for a reason. If you do it, you get results. No one can do it for me, no one can discover me for me, they can only offer tools that have helped them and I can see if it works for me. Which again reflects back to the many varied teachings of Buddhism: they are a whole bunch of different tools if you will. Some tools will work for me, and not others.

So when I wake up every morning, and when you wake up, whay will we put our trust in?

The Impetus of Suffering

Today I am beleagured by news of shootings. A guman in Texas kills 12, a gunman in Florida kills a former co-worker. I have known for a while that this sort of news makes a great way to sharpen some Buddhist practices. It opens the heart if we allow it.

For phowa practitioners, it's an opportunity to practice. The same goes for those who practice tonglen, and those doing the Chernrezig ngondro. These circumstances allow us to see that the shooter is a victim of their own choices, and that beyond those they simply kill, there are a host of other victims. There are those that are injured. There are the families of those slain: the parents, the  children, the spouses, grandparents, and siblings. There are uninjured witnesses. And then the community at large that. Will they all react to this sort of irrational violence with compassion? Not likely. Some will move a step closer to the anger and confusion that has driven these two shooters to do what they did: make a poor choice.

It isn't exactly easy to allow oneself to enter into this kind of practicing. It is in my mind though, what learning compassion is all about. In days gone by, we might never have heard about either. But these days, with instant news acceess, we do. Are we as people any different than our predecessors? I sometimes think so. Not necessarily better, but we are different.And the fact that Buddhism as we vajrayana practitioners know it has slipped out of the Tibetan high lands to grace the West leads me to believe that there is definitely something changing. Maybe it is the Age of Aqaurius dawning. I'm not too inclined to think it's the 2012 end of the world. A lot of negativity has been functioning in this world for a long time. It seems the positive energies are beginning to emerge in definite grassroots ways.

And we can help, just by practicing.

A New Direction

I was fortunate enough to be there when Rinpoche arrived at his new home. I'm sure there is some auspiciousness in that, but frankly I was mostly imitating everyone else in waving a tanka. I'm rather ignorant of customs, to be sure!

What really excites me though is that this man no sooner hit the ground then he jumped into the retreat we had, and then boogied off for more teachings across the country.  Now, I jumped over myself there. During the retreat, it was announced that the Rinpoche wanted to develop a new way of fund raising. This guy is responsible for a village in Tibet, where he still holds some kind of council seat, the monastic college and temple there, and most likely several other things. Which has required that he spend some his time raising the money for these responsibilities. 

Well, he wants to change that. He wants to figure out a new way to raise money so he can be more accessible to his students. New direction! What that means is his change can mean a change for all of us who are connected to him. Already, right here in Langley, not a mile from my house, he'll be teaching to the general public about meditation. I've never been taught from a teacher about that. Everything I know came from a book. Yes, watching your breathe as you sit and not think doesn't require rocket science to figure out. But there are other ways to meditate apparently. Then later this month there are three sangha meetings where we will all gather and figure out how to make this new direction flow smoothly and still meet the needs of fund raising and student accessibility. 

Is it any wonder I am feeling this desire to plug in? To have a living teacher, a Rinpoche no less, living 6 miles away? This could definitely mean new directions for my life as well as my practice.

Phowa Retreat

Here's the gang. Lene and Preben, Rinpoche students from Denmark. Micheal is from Maryland. Lucille is a woman from Canada. Diane from Oregon, a couple of Seattlites, Tracy and Gwen, Therese from the peninsula, and Barb from Bainbridge, and the rest from Langley, except for Rinpoche, new to Clinton, and his assistant Rigdzin Chodron.

I was thoroughly blessed having spent 8 days getting to know these people. We spent a lot of time together, and some are neighbors, like Bruce, the man standing on the right. I see him at Island Coffee House almost every weekend. He and I hung prayer flags and erected flag poles on the new property.  I see Mully walking around town, and Shanti, and Lynn on occasion. And I will run into others at various teachings.

So what did I walk away with? Well, a much clearer understanding of what phowa practice is. It's a term one can Google, so I won't define it here. I'll say that it's a great practice for eliminating negativities, and for transferring the consciousness into Dewachen at the time of death. The reason I pursued going was because the amount of deaths around me for the last 2 years. And I crossed paths with the Great Liberation Upon Hearing, otherwise known as the Tibetan Book Of The Dead. So it seemed a fit. Of course, I learned far more than I expected.

Our day began at 8:30, doing a morning fire, as depicted in the photo. The first two days we got 5 inches of rain, so that happened under the gazebo behind the retreat house. The offering ceremony was then followed up by the first group practice session, which sometimes included a couple of questions. The first session was followed by a tea break, then session number two, and then lunch. Lunch was followed by personal interviews with Rinpoche, and extended practice time as individuals. That's where the tents came in. Those are our little temples as it were. I got a chuckle the first time we retreated to our temples. Phowa can be a vocal practice. And not all people vocalize the same...so out in this field were at least 6 different tents, and some folk just parked in the grass. Or their cars. So the sounds of these different vocalizings drifted across the field at various times. After a couple days though, with the realization of the connections to consciousness and Amitabha that were occurring, I was more pleased than humored.

At 4:30 then we would assemble for group session number 2, and a little twist was added. Rinpoche picked a name from the basket, and that person was the chant leader for the session. What?! I get to lead?! Ha! You'll have a hard time finding the microphone I ever shied away from. However, it would have been a whole lot more frightening had we been required to do the melody or Tibetan versions. Rinpoche led the Tibetan version in the melody, and we then led the English version in simple reading. Everyone jumps in then. But I like doing that sort of thing. The verses can be rather lyric, and pregnant with meaning, such as, "In the Pure Land of Dharmadhatu, free from elaboration...." Free from elaboration? I emphasized that. I love it. Or a few lines later, "...compassionate, without partiality, like the sky...." Wow! My mind was exploding with pictures of pristine days and thunderous storms, all of which happen in the sky, the blue sky mind with no end, and holding that without partiality. No judgment on the storms that happen, or the beautifual days. Just the realization that it will all change until we reach the all-knowing place where it doesn't matter anymore. And this line, "May all achieve the throne of the Dharmakaya realm." Is that not a picture worth a thousand words?

Then we had dinner at 6, followed by an evening group session. All told, roughly 8 to 9 hours of practice a day. The first night was the intro and teaching of the practice, and the last day was ended with a transmission, but the 6 in-between were as I described.

So there's the shell of what I existed in during this retreat. So consider learning a practice that is useful for dispelling negativities. Care to guess what might pop up? Mmmm, yea. Which is fine. It's what we do to learn ourselves. It further reinforced the idea that in being compassionate to all sentient beings means I am compassionate to myself as well. So along the way I kept a few notes. I have discarded the notion that I need to capture every word. I look for those moments that resonate, and capture those. Others occur spontaneously anyway. Ideas for poems popped up, and onto the paper they went. Things to research more on, books Rinpoche might have mentioned, or new lingo in the text that I wanted more detail on. And this iwas new lingo. I was in new waters here. Rinpoche is a Nyingma man, I'm a Kagyu man, and so the lineage was new, and some of the terminology, the mandalas, and so forth. So I'd sit and write at times, but mostly it was practicing, and boy howdy, there is a bit to practice.

Most Vajrayana teaching seem to involve visualizations, and this one was no different. It is rather detailed actually, and really the intent was to develop connection to Amitabha. So Rinpoche stated that 8 days wasn't really enough time to learn it all, but a very good starting place. He said we wouldn't be pros at this any time soon. But practice makes for increased skill. This is just the first level so....Just the first level!? Wow. My mind is sometimes in awe of how rich and deep the mind is, and that Buddhism has evolved to reflect that. I se that reflected in the practices, and the shrines, and the multitudes of colors and sounds and scents and movements and texts that all are meant to reach out to people who respond to sounds and smells and sights and touch. So practice, practice, practice!

Rinpoche did say that this practice could be done for others, even in emergency situations. Say like, a car accident. It takes a while to learn to distill all the actions down, and get tit to a point where one can effectively brfing up the visualizations, effectively involve another consciousness, and do it all in a moment. So guess what he suggested? Pracxtice, practice, practice......


Which I discovered is quite well suited to the "news." For example. Sunday night, rolling home after the day. For a reality check I turn on the radio, and I learn a college football player, meaning young, just after a game, was stabbed to death. Apparently stabbed the day before, and had just died. Whoa! Sounds like a candidate for bardo practices to me, so I launched in. His name also went onto our group prayer list which each chant leader read before every group session. There was also an accident on the Olympic peninsula where a grandma and grandson were killed and the couple they hit seriously injured. Oh man. Suffering reverberating all over the place in these stories. And then yesterday I learned that a former co-worker has been in a motorcycle accident and is in critical condition. So the "news" is a great prompter for opening the heart and mind. One of our retreatants is a death mid-wife, and I was very impressed by the work she does, and the opportunities for utilizing this practice.

Otherwise, it can be used to deal with negativities. And they do happen don't they? Judgmental attitudes, well, what are the ten unvirtuous actions? Killing, lying, sexaul misconduct, stealing, divisive speech, gossip, slander, coveting, wrong views, and malice. Consider the political arena for some of these. I'm guilty. And what flows from these non virtues? Attachemnts, ego, and all the rest of the layers in which we bury ourselves. Part of the visualization involves a damaru and a knife. The damaru is a drum which awakens the mind to bodhichitta, and the knife symbolizes cutting off these negative aspects. All with compassion. Hug yourself everyone!

Anyway, I'll wrap this post up here. If any one has questions, shoo them along, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

Om Ah Hung!

Off To See The Wizard!

Well, I committed myself to this post by referring to it over on Word Wright so I guess I should finish this.

I'm going on a phowa retreat. Phowa is a ngondro practice, where one learns to "instantly eject negativity," and according to Wikipedia and The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen, to cast off the consciousness at death into a Buddha-land of one's choosing. So dare I call learning this sort of practice fun? Intense yes, it likely won't be "fun."

Apparently this is the first time in six years that Kilung Jigme Rinpoche has done this retreat. I feel rather honored actually, as people are coming from over seas to learn this practice. My "interest" as it were, is that I have in the last several years been with dying people, and I have been reading The Great Liberation Upon Hearing, commonly referred to as the Tibetan Book Of The Dead. For some reason this teaching resonates with me. And believe me, I want to be ready when death comes to me.

I have been blessed to help prepare the retreat site, since it's right here on Whidbey Island where Rinpoche now lives. I helped move the Rinpoche and his assistant into their new home, and then prepare the place for the retreat to some extent. And it starts later today! It's different than I expected. For one thing, I have to bring a tent. So "in tents" is also an appropriate description...ha ha. Anyway, there are three sessions a day, for a total of 9.5 hours. Gulp.

I'm used to my 1 hour a day practice. So I get the idea that the tent will be my temple of sorts. The Rinpoche will give us some teaching, and then we will practice it. My guess is 3 hours of teaching a day, 6.5 of practicing it. For 8 days. Wow. This will definitely alter my life, and in that perspective, will be quite exciting. Cast off negativity instantly?! Right freakin on! Transfer the consciousness?! Yeah! Help others in their most important time? You bet!

So for the next week I will be incommunicado. I'll come home every night, but the first session is at 8:30 AM and the last ends at 9:30 PM. So home by 10, into bed, up for my morning practice, and then back to the retreat. I have goosey bumps just thinking about it.

The Stream Of Being

"To this meditator who arises in unceasing play,
may I realize the inseparability between samsara and nirvana."

There is movement in a meditative state. The preceding verse of the Supplication To The Takpo Kagyu mentions "resting" without altering what is, and then in this verse speaks of arising. There is a movement, and I like the picture of the stream of being.

Meditation wasn't meant to be a static function. What we accomplish there in our sit is supposed to go with us when we arise. Our thoughts, or no thoughts, should flow like a stream, not becoming fixed on any thing. Part of that stream is realizing that both samsara and nirvana exist in the mind. I have read in one place that some say that nirvana and samsara are the same, one just being the virtuous example. I suppose that's moot. What matters is that we attain a flexibility and that our meditative state not be fixed to the cushion.

The play will be unceasing, it is the nature of the stream. What shape it takes, whether samsara or nirvana, evil or virtue, is entirely up to us.

Everything From "Nothing"

"The essence of thought is dharmakaya, as is taught,
nothing whatever, but everything arises from it."

So states the Supplication to the Takpo Kagyu. A nice concise little statement that to the untrained ear sounds a lot like mumbo-jumbo you don't want to wrap your hear around. But a funny thing happens when you say this Supplication every day. You start to understand it.

My first question always was, what the hell is dharmakaya? As it turns out though, the question is answered by the verse itself, in a poetic form actually where the second statement restates the first. The essence of thought is nothing whatever.

Oh really? "Why, yes," the yogin replies. Really.

The essence of your thoughts, and in fact, their existence is actually nothing. If I asked you to show me the thought you had Thursday last, at 9:00 AM, I am willing to bet you couldn't do it. As a matter of fact, I bet you couldn't tell me where it is right now. Where did that thought go? Where in your body do your thoughts come from? Where do they go? Where does memory reside? All of these questions have answers today that are constantly changing as we continue to learn about the human existence we share. It seems that cells themselves store memories. Which is far different than just thinking it's a region of our brain that does that. And even knowing precisely where it is, still does not allow one to actually show me that thought as anything concrete. It's essential nature is emptiness, but obviously not in the void understanding. Well, maybe not all the time.

The idea for the keyboard I utilize at this moment didn't exist 60 years or so ago. Back during WW2, the Turing Machine was the first computer. Input was done by making binary code marks on tape in one form or another, and the machine read the instructions and complied. Then somebody got the idea, "Hey, let's figure out a way to marry the Machine with a Royal Typewriter, and skip the whole tape thing." I think it was one of the Guiness Brothers. The other shouted out, "Brilliant," and raised his glass.

And so, seventy years later, we can sit at this amalgamation of plastic and steel, maybe some gold and silver, and type out the letters, numbers, punctuations we want, and they instantly appear all housed in a box just bigger than a notebook. All that power in computing and shrinking from a thought that has no solidity to it at all.

Nothing whatever, but from it arises all things.

So what is dharmakaya? Well, that essential nature which is the nature of everything. By extension then, I share in the energy put into making this keyboard. The oil may have come from Venezuela to make the plastic. So imagine all the energies of all those Venezuelans to make the barrel of oil that was shipped somewhere by other people to a place where it was converted by still more people to plastic, then shipped to some other place to be heated and pressed into the shapes we tap on, and then paint, a whole new set of people, added to the tops of metal posts, yet another group of people who mine the ore and smelt, ship, shape, cut, and then the people who make the machines who make the plastic, paint, oil, boats, trucks; those people living and dead, all those energies are following that keyboard.

Amazing isn't it?

And if I took out all the empty space of all the atoms that make up the cells that make up the keyboard, it's total mass might not even be visible. The essential nature of all things is emptiness. The same goes for you and I. Our nature is perhaps best reflected by the essence of our thoughts. What a mirror that is at times, huh?

What do you want to see arise from you?