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!
