Sandy: Fear Not

When the obstacles from earth, water, fire or air
Endanger or destroy our illusory bodies,
Without hesitation or divided mind we pray to you;
Orgyen with the female deities of the four elements,
Without doubt will pacify the elements instantly.
Padmasambhava of Orgyen, to you we pray;
Please bestow the blessing of spontaneous fulfillment of our wishes.

Sky Islands, Time Islands

In autumn, there is always one special morning of singular light and meaningful wind. Many magicians have tried to name it, usually with indirect reference -- calling it "this" wind or "that" light -- but no single name suffices. Even if you were born in another season, you feel it, but if you were born in autumn, you feel it acutely: it is the very core of your physical existence. It is raw life. This morning, after the Orionid meteor shower cleansed the heavens with star rain; this morning, as the Ch'ang Ho bells ring beneath west wind -- the wind of gates shut upon effulgent sunlight -- this morning, my October birthday morning, autumn's special life came to me again. 

What is it like? 

It is like falling in love.

In preparation for today I set off last Thursday, to ride the high ridges before first snow and forest wardens closed the trail gates. I was retracing the annual spirit journey of the Serrano band of Native Americans. The Serrano held polity over the San Bernardino Mountains, in what is now my stomping grounds. I wish you would take a few moments to read about these mountains. If you do, you will come to find they are what is known as "sky islands," defined as "...a high mountain region whose plants and animals vary dramatically from those in the surrounding semi-arid lands."

So, the San Bernardinos -- once the property of Spain -- are unique unto themselves. You will encounter many things here that you will encounter nowhere else. The photo above was taken at about one mile high. That dry lake in the distance is where my journey began.

Moving east, around a mountain lake and up to the 8,000 foot ridges, one finds the self-arisen stupas flourishing amid trees. Up here there are many glens and glades, populated by all manner of spirits. This is a beautiful place to set up camp.

Moving higher still, and looking back west, behind you, is a portion of the lake. I actually made it up there, with pounding chest, shaking leg, and the plaintive wish that I had not forgotten to bring the Nitrostat. The entire following next day was given over to recovery. 

Still, it all worked out for the best, as Friday and Saturday were given over to working my way back down from the ridges to the desert floor -- to a time island reckoned as inhabited 11,000 to 12,000 years ago.

At least once in your life, try to witness a desert sunrise. There is a exquisite tension between strength and gentleness; again, one of those things better experienced than described.

This picture and the picture above were taken just moments apart. This shows you how quickly the morning light arrives.

Looking back from the gate to the edge of a lava flow. I have taken some of you here before. According to the University of California, this is an ancient shaman's den.

You find yourself in a labyrinth that time has carved into the desert floor. A most remarkable and powerful place for ritual, if you like that sort of thing.

The clues are recorded everywhere upon the face of the stones, but it is a lifetime's challenge to read them.

This overhang is above what the university researchers call the "rattlesnake shaman's cave." The photograph below is of the interior of the cave itself.

I have to believe that the plants growing here are particularly meaningful, but I have not investigated the matter in any depth.

In the spirit of mutual cooperation, the shamans left instructions, but we have forgotten how to read. "Mutual cooperation," is, in fact, the theme of this year's birthday post and annual appeal for live release.

Just the other day, someone published a quotation from one of the Dalai Lama's books, and it seems to be the watchword for this particular season -- a sort of textural (not textual) commentary, like the textures in the photograph, above:

"Because it is a reality that we are by nature social animals, bound to depend on each other, we need to cultivate affection and concern for other people if we really desire peace and happiness. Look at wild animals and birds. Even they travel together, flock together, and help each other. Bees do not have a particular legal system, they do not follow any spiritual practice, but for their livelihood and survival they depend on each other—that is their natural way of existence. Even though we intelligent human beings must also depend on each other, we sometimes misuse our intelligence and try to exploit each other. That goes against human nature. For those of us who profess to believe in a particular religious practice, it is extremely important that we try to help each other and cultivate a feeling of affection for each other. That is the source of happiness in our life."

I came home, and I sat on the front porch, really exhausted by my travels. As I sat there, suddenly two ravens came howling over the ridge, screaming bloody murder. One took up a position in a tree nearby Rabbit Central Headquarters, and began alarming the rabbits. The other took repeated, aggressive dives at the stupa! From my limited knowledge of raven, it seemed as if they were warning the rabbits that a bobcat was laying in wait.

Indeed, they were! This bobcat was hiding amid the stupa's walls, looking to pounce upon an unsuspecting rabbit. The ravens would have none of it, and drove the bobcat away with a cacophony of cat castigation that made the rattlesnakes blush.

So, it comes to me, as it no doubt comes to you, that if the ravens can protect the welfare of the rabbits -- an act that does not benefit the ravens in even the slightest degree -- why can't you and me learn to care for each other that very same way? Whether we are stomping around on our sky islands, or nosing around our time islands, we are all part of the same texture.

Feel the October sunlight. 

Embrace the October wind. 

Let love come into your life and stay there, by being born anew every day.

Beautiful Rosary of Jewels

"Supplication to the Lineage, Beautiful Rosary of Jewels

Homage to the single mother T’hroma Nagmo!

The lama, the massive mountain of the white snow, embraced by the sunlight of the fortunate ones’ devotion, ripens the fields of the devotees with the rivers of blessing; the choice sprouts of whatever mind desires flourish and come to fruition year by year

Yogic practitioners, male and female, with fervent minds
And pleasant measured speech
Palms joined and moved to tears
Supplicate in this way free from doubt:

EMAHO

In the palace of the field of reality, free from emanation,
the embodiment of total meaning, Kuntuzangmo
mother of the Prajnaparamitra
A son of the Dharma mother (woman) supplicates from the heart
Grant the blessing of arriving at the place where reality is exhausted

The glory of the self-arising, unobstructed play of the vast dance
The self-liberated five elements, the five great pure consorts
Self and others supplicate with a mind of great faith
Grant the blessing of going to the limit of pure presence.

In the pure realm of the completely pure dakinis’ great bliss
To the lady, the queen of the dakinis
I supplicate with the whole of mind in great faith
Grant the blessing of increased comprehension of the all-ground

In the self-arisen appearance of the field of Yulokod
To Tarema, the royal consort of the unity of appearance and emptiness
The child dependent on appearances and cognition supplicates
Grant the blessing of the manifestation of the appearance of pure suchness

In the mansion of the Lotus Light of great bliss (Dewachen)
To Mandarava, secret consort of Demchok Padmasambhava
I, the child desiring bliss, supplicate from the heart
Grant the blessing of attaining inexhaustible bliss

In the mandala of the supreme secret excellence
The teacher of the supremely excellent vehicle, the Lady Tsogyal
Supplicated by her disciples, possessors of the supreme vessel
Grant your blessings that the supreme union be attained.

In the self-arisen palace of the Lotus Net
To the chief of the Lotus Dakinis, Lapdronma
I supplicate the holder of the Lotus lineage
Grant the blessing of the non-duality with Padmasambhava

In the palace of the vast expanse of the profound secret suchness
The master of profound treasure, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa
I supplicate with the fierce devotion of my deepest heart
Grant your blessing that I attain the profound ground of freedom from conceptualization

In the mansion of the great bliss purity
All the omniscient root and lineage lamas
I supplicate with great devotions to each and every one
Grant the blessing of power that benefits beings purely

The field of great bliss at the crown, best of the noble fields
To the precious root lama, best of the noble ones
I supplicate after the noble ones
Grant the blessing of inseparability from the lama, best of the noble ones

Lord of the great self-arisen cemetery, Urgyen
Lady of Urgyen, the single mother T’hroma Nagmo
I, the representative of the Urgyen’s descendants, supplicate
Grant the blessing of equaling you, Urgyen and Macig

From the sphere of the peaceful field of reality which is unmoving
She who causes peace, Dechen Karmo Yeshe,
I supplicate the peaceful Vajra Dakini
Grant the blessing of the heart of the peaceful vajra

In the mandala of pure natural increase
She who causes increase, the yellow Dondrup Yeshe Ser
I supplicate the Ratna Dakini who causes increase
Grant the blessing of accomplishing the undertaking of increase

In the pure realm of the powerful lotus net
The mighty red Dradok Yeshe Mar
I supplicate the ruling Lotus Dakini
Grant the blessing of possessing the best of great power

The chief of the fierce, awesome, blazing field
The fierce and wrathful green mother Natsok T’harchin Yeshe
I supplicate you who blazes with ferocity and power
Grant the blessing of possessing the wrathful might

Also, in this mandala of the fierce lady of magical display
Transform into the supreme dance-display of benefitting others
I supplicate those whose kindness to others is beyond thought and word
Grant the blessing of skill and method in taming the mind-streams of others

Emanated messenger, guides dwelling in the Buddha-word (samaya)
Sprung from the Buddha-word 1000 wondrous lightning flashes
I supplicate the obedient mamos and dakinis
Grant the blessing of protecting the teachings of the Buddha-word

The fierce, awakened activity of protecting the four doors
Separating perverted understanding from the doors as soon as it arises
I supplicate the four great door-protecting kings
Grant the blessing that the three doors mix with the Dharma

By the blessing of supplicating thus
I supplicate that you grant that, accordingly,
All malign obscurations be pacified
All siddhis be instantly accomplished
And blissful listening  itself be attained,

(By supplicating the vital lineage in this way, the continuity of the gentle rain of blessings will not be cut; at present, obstacles will be pacified, and in the future dakinis will follow.)

SAMAYA GYA GYA GYA

On the tenth day of the new moon, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa brought this down from the casket of intent, innate, expansive and pure. May virtue increase!"

Copyright (c) Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Photo by David Scharff. Used by permission.

His Eminence Tulku Rinpoche

His Eminence's profound, silent commentary on the nature of karma. Ah, there but for fortune, you think? There but for "fortune," or something much, much finer. 

Suffering at Cox's Bazar

This past Saturday, at Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, thousands of suffering beings inflicted further suffering upon thousands of other suffering beings, believing that to do so would bring happiness.

Names have been given to the perpetrators and the victims -- Muslims ran amok, killing and injuring Buddhists, and burning Buddhist temples -- yet, in the reality of things, it is impossible to distinguish between them.

We can sit around and work up a fine head of steam "for" and "against" the components of this affair -- a self-righteous fury that causes our blood pressure to rise, our bodies to perspire, and our eyes to weep. We can even entertain thoughts of doing an equal if not greater wickedness upon those we perceive as foes.

Theirs was a thoroughly wicked deed, was it not? We'll have to deal them out come Shambhala time, won't we?

We can think that way, or we can sit down and calmly consider the matter as Lord Buddha would have wished. 

The images that are being shown around the world do tend to excite the emotions, but our young monk friend in the picture above seems to have them all trumped.

A Hill to Die For

"[H]ow do you put a price on a 5000 year old buried city containing multiple monasteries and settlements possibly going back to the Bronze Age, a site at least as significant as the tragically lost Buddhas of Bamiyan?"

That is the question being asked by an important new effort to save, from certain destruction, the most important Buddhist archaeological site in the world: Mes Aynak, in Afganistan.

The effort is mounted by the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage (ARCH), and I strongly urge everyone to visit their Mes Aynak website, establish links, and widely promulgate notice of their activities.

There is an aspect to this story -- not widely known -- that deserves to be told. Basically, the Chinese paid the Afghan government three billion dollars for rights to mine copper from Mes Aynak. The copper they seek to mine is underneath a 5,000 year old Buddhist monastic complex the size of a city. Evidence suggests that this site may well have some bearing on the story of Padmasambhava's oft-mentioned Copper Colored Mountain.

Meanwhile, as part of its "security program" for Afghanistan, the United States has deployed American soldiers to guard this site on behalf of Chinese interests. The weapons that are killing those American soldiers are being provided to the Taliban by Chinese military intelligence sources. 

As a Buddhist, given the overall importance of this site, Mes Aynak may well be my proverbial "hill to die for." I sincerely doubt it holds the same sanctity for those American soldiers who have died there, in an ugly game of international greed.

Time somebody on the Hill -- in this election year -- starts sweating out the future of Mes Aynak, and saves something that, once lost, can never be replaced.

Please feel free to distribute this post widely.

Catching the Scent

[Field Notes] Maybe it was 1970, or 1971, when I came to visit my Precious Teacher after one or the other eastern misadventure. He took me in the backyard and showed me some things he was doing with stupas and prayer wheels, and we generally passed the time. I told him I was tired. I told him my practice lacked energy. I told him I was stalled.

It was then he told me that he always harbored the wish I would study with Kalu Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche -- individually or both, as the case might be. I was not inspired by running to some other lamas, and I told him so, but he replied that it was "necessary." He also shared the thought that I would probably enjoy easy access to Kalu Rinpoche, but a connection with Urgyen Rinpoche would be more elusive, and problematic.

Indeed, it came to be so. I almost immediately thereafter developed a beneficial relationship with Kalu Rinpoche that lasted up until his death in the spring of 1989. Unfortunately, as of his death in early 1996, I still had not met Urgyen Rinpoche.

My Precious Teacher held Urgyen Rinpoche in the highest possible regard. I know they often corresponded with one another, and when Urgyen Rinpoche passed away, my teacher wrote a moving eulogy. I am deeply sorry I was unable to fullfil my teacher's wish and develop a connection with Urgyen Rinpoche, but sometimes, such barely tangible links disappear like dew after sunrise.

Naturally, as works in English by Urgyan Rinpoche began to appear, I tried whenever possible to make a special read of them. Over time, I came to realize why, in fact, my Precious Teacher thought it "necessary" to study with Urgyan Rinpoche. I found Urgyan Rinpoche's written works a perfectly balanced commentary on my own teacher's oral instruction. When I could sit down and consider them both, at leisure, it became most rewarding in every sense.

Here then, a brief excerpt from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's as it is, Volume 2, which, in many ways, is as rich yet unvarnished a written exposition of the Dzogchen training experience as you are ever likely to find these days.

+ + +

"When we first receive teachings, we usually get an extensive explanation covering all topics of the Dharma, known as the expedient and definitive meaning. As that point we are are introduced to the fact that the definitive meaning is about buddha nature, the essence of mind, which we need to eventually realize. We are given a general layout, an overview, and gradually we hone in on what is of ultimate importance among all the Buddha's teachings. We narrow it down to the 'pointing-out instruction,' through which one is introduced to and is able to recognize this nature of mind, the buddha nature.

"The moment of recognition is like catching the scent.

"A carnivore out hunting needs to first catch the smell of the deer, then he can hunt it down. The pointing-out instruction is for this little carnivore to get the whiff of buddha nature. Once we smell it, we do not have to speculate so much about it anymore. We are finally on track. Most important is to get the whiff of buddha nature. Before that it is all right to spend a lot of time analyzing. Once you get the scent of it, there is no need to fill up your mind with a lot of intellectual speculation.

"What is meant by catching the scent is like this. At some point your guru leans over towards you and says, 'Now we need to speak just between the two of us. When you recognize mind essence, what do you see?' A good disciple would say, 'Honestly, I don't see a thing.' The guru replies, 'Well that is true, that is really how it is. Your nature is empty. But in the moment of recognizing that your mind is empty, are you totally blank and unaware at that point? Are you oblivious?' A good disciple would say, 'No, I am not. I experience what is present..' Then the guru might say, 'Isn't it true that this emptiness and cognizance are a unity; that one always occurs in conjunction with the other?' The disciple would again say, 'That is true.' The guru continues, 'Isn't that moment a vivid state of being awake which is at the same time empty, really without clinging?' In this way, one is gradually introduced to the scent of buddha nature.

"After that, the tracking down of the deer does not need to be imagined anymore, because the scent is already there. You don't have to dream up this empty cognizance any longer. You don't have to make up ideas about how it is. You don't have to indulge in fantasies like those I mentioned earlier, imagining how the buddha nature looks and trying to keep that fantasy constantly in mind. Once we receive the pointing-out instruction and recognize buddha nature, the training is not in meditating in the sense of imagining buddha nature; the training is in not losing track of it, in the sense of not being distracted. We do not have to imagine buddha nature, it is already present. There is no point in trying to make it up. The emptiness that the buddha nature is, is an original emptiness; the cognizance is an original cognizance. The unity of being empty and cognizant is an original unity, isn't it? It is not that we need to create the unity through practice. That fact becomes absolutely clear. Meditation practice is no longer an act of making the mind empty and cognizant, not at all.

"Yet what happens is that we do forget it, we do get distracted. This is when the training comes in. The training is to simply recognize again. We need to acknowledge how it already is. Again we forget and are carried away, because of the coemergent and conceptualizing ignorances. Coemergent ignorance is simply losing track or forgetting, getting distracted. Conceptualizing ignorance occurs when, in the moment you are distracted, you start to make thoughts about what you have wandered off towards. This needs to be eliminated. This twofold ignorance is not someone else's doing; it does not come from outside. The twofold ignorance is your own manifestation, just like your own shadow. It is an expression of the essence itself, but directed outwardly.

"The training is simply in letting habitual fixation gradually fall away, by recognizing again and again. The more we train in this way, the easier it becomes. It is like memorizing, although not exactly the same as this analogy. When I chant the Dusum Sangye supplication a few times, I don't have to think even as much as a hair's tip in order to get from the beginning of it to the end. It comes automatically, because it is already imprinted in the all-ground, the alaya. Similarly, once we become more stable in the recognition, it will last for a while, not deliberately but automatically.

"Because we have never been separate from it for an instant, the nature of mind is not something to meditate on, but to get used to.

"Distraction makes the division between these two states. We need the undistracted nonmeditation. If you chant a prayer by heart, do you have to think about it? That is the idea of automatic. Nondistraction should be automatic, not requiring any deliberate thought. You do not need to congratulate yourself every single time, 'Wow, now I recognize the unity of empty cognizance. Now I recognize it again.' That is a thought, isn't it? If you know this Dusum Sangye chant by heart, once you have said the first line, 'Dusum sangye guru rinpoche,' do you need to think, 'Now, what is that next line? Oh, it is such-and-such.' You don't have to think that at all. When you know a prayer by heart, no thought is necessary to recite it. Rigpa does not require any thought. Once you have grown used to rigpa, it is automatic.

"When a master teaches his students the direct knowing of buddha nature, it is the same as introducing a carnivore to the scent of the deer. Once you get the scent, then you have it. The scent is there. You have gotten the scent of the dharmakaya; there is no thing to see. You have gotten the scent of the sambhogakaya; while there is no thing to see, there is still knowing. Finally, you have gotten the scent of nirmanakaya, that these two are indivisible. Just keep on sniffing it, like tracking down prey in the mountains.

"It's quite wonderful, isn't it? It is through this path that we can attain buddhahood."

Ogyen Tulku Nominated for Award

Our beloved friend, Ninth Ogyen Tulku's seven CD set of recordings has been nominated for Taiwan's Best Religious Music Award for 2012 -- something like a Grammy, if the Grammy had a Buddhist music category.

This is a wonderful set. As we've mentioned before, Rinpoche has a beautiful voice and the mantras are recited with absolute perfection. This set can be used to teach yourself different smoke offerings, and can be used as an all-day sound offering with a variety of full-length mantra recordings such as Seven Line Prayer, Kurukulle Mantra, Mani Mantra, Vajra Guru Mantra, and others. This is not the annoying mantra set to music one usually hears, but, like Lama Gyurme's recordings, this is music set to mantra. There is a difference.

We want to encourage all of our readers to purchase this set, which is being offered at a promotional price for a short time. You can obtain further details from this website.

Ogyen Tulku's center in Taiwan is thriving these days, and we extend very best wishes to him and all members of his center.

"Same As Me:" Recent Developments

As previously reported in the following links, since 2009 we've been working to recreate Samye's famous "Same As Me" statue of Padmasambhava, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, using high technology from the motion picture industry:

References:

http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-face-for-guru-rinpoche.html
http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/06/whats-story-samye.html
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Looks_Like_Me
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gyalyum_Kunzang_Dechen_Tsomo_Namgyal
http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/06/offering-clothes-to-guru-rinpoche.html
http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/06/ngadrama-same-as-me-statue-can-be.html
http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/06/ngadrama-same-as-me-statue-can-be_24.html
http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/07/ngadrama-same-as-me-statue-can-be.html


We, of course, are not the only ones. Several groups are approaching this project, not only in the United States, but Europe, and Asia. This is a worldwide cooperative effort, where we all share our findings. Quite recently, we heard from the Museo di Arte e Cultura Tibetana, in Italy, sharing with us their latest effort to extrapolate the head of Guru Rinpoche from the famous photo, above, using 3D modeling software. Below, you see some of the results.

Here is an excerpt of our reply to Italy, which I include here for the possible interest of all other parties to this effort:

"....the consistent problem we have is in finding another photograph of the original statue. We are quite certain more than the one photograph, i.e. the Queen of Sikkhim's photograph from the 1930s, exists somewhere, but despite an exhaustive worldwide search -- four years now -- we have been unable to locate anything.
"So, from that point, we set out in three directions:
"(1) We began collecting every photograph of every statue of Guru Rinpoche we could find, up to an arbitrary cut-off date of 1950. There are many such photographs in existence. We did this because we believed that the statue may have inspired duplicates, and we believe we found one such duplicate in the Potala, depicted in a photograph dating to the 1920s. We also wanted to established iconographic "baselines" from which we could extrapolate a homogenous iconography, i.e. the chin is commonly this way, the forehead is commonly that way, etc., etc.
"(2) We hit upon the method of placing the Queen of Sikkhim photograph in a stationary position, and then using a boom camera to photograph the photograph from extreme left to right, and extreme right to left, then from top to bottom, and bottom to top, describing a crossed arc in front of the original. This is similar to the modern x-ray machines that dentists use to x-ray the whole of your teeth in one shot.
"This last approach is, I think, promising. In your efforts, as depicted in the photos you sent me, you will for example notice how the nose width seems to be a problem. I believe you could cure that problem by using the technique described above. Basically, you want to find as many legitimate planes of the face as possible to use as your data set, and let the software extrapolate what is missing.
"(3) The third thing we did was to examine as much 8th century regional sculpture as we could possibly find, in order to establish a certain "logic" of the face. Although of divine origin, Guru Rinpoche took what by all historical accounts was a very pleasing human form. We wanted some sense of how pleasing male faces from the region may have appeared in the period, or at least how they were idealized. Some examples from Ghandara proved extremely useful in this regard."

The Lion's Roar

"The usual problem we have when emotions arise is that we feel we are being challenged by them. We think that emotions will take over our self-existence, our credential of existence. We are afraid that, if we become the embodiment of hatred or passion, then we won't have any personal credentials anymore.

"So usually we react against emotion, because we feel we might be taken over by it. We feel there is a strong possibility that we might freak out, lose our heads. We are afraid that aggression or depression will become so overwhelming that we will begin to lose our general functional level, forget how to brush our teeth, how to take a shit in the toilet or whatever. There's some kind of fear that the whole thing might become too much, so that we might get hooked into it. Then we will lose our dignity, our ability to function as ordinary human beings like the others. That seems to be the problem.

"So transmutation in this case means going through such fear or whatever else might be, or occur. Let yourself be nuts. Go through it, give into it, experience it. And when you begin to experience this process of going towards emotions rather than emotions coming towards you, then you begin to make a journey. You are making an effort towards them, therefore some actual relationship is involved, and a sense of dance begins to evolve.

"This means that the highest forces of energy, any kind of extraordinary energies there might be, become absolutely workable rather than taking you over. This is because, if you are not offering any resistance, there's nothing to take over. Whenever there's no resistance, there is a sense of rhythm happening. The music and dance happen at the same time.

"So that is what is called the lion's roar: whatever occurs in the realm of samsaric mind is regarded as the path, and everything is workable. It is a fearless proclamation-lion's roar.

"But as long as we patch over what we feel are unworkable situations, as long as we try to put the patchwork of metaphysical, philosophical or neat religious ideas over the holes, then it ceases to be a lion's roar. It turns instead into a coward's scream-which is very pathetic."

                            --The Lion's Roar, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

White Shell

Over the past three or four days, I've been spending time on the 'Net chatting about this and that with my friend. We began by discussing the "even when you are wrong, you are right" school of learning from mistakes, and this somehow segued -- you know how talk bounces around -- into discussing Yeshe Tsogyal as an historical personage, who loved Guru Rinpoche.

It is certain he loved her right back; at once ordinarily and extraordinarily. Together, they made of their love an enormously liberating experience for all sentient beings.

After these conversations, I chanced to come upon the following by Yeshe Tsogyal, and it seemed appropriate. From the text, it would seem she is quoting Padmasambhava, but who is to say where one of them began and the other ended, so to speak?

"An individual who knows that there is no delusion in the primordial ground of being and then goes astray establishing sentient beings and their worlds: this is like a white shell appearing yellow to a jaundiced eye. Although a variety of seemingly conflicting passions manifests, one knows that there is no delusion in the ground. Fully realizing this, then whatever one does, one knows there is no cause for delusion. Knowing this, primordially there is the freedom of self-generating pristine awareness; at the time of delusion there is the freedom of self-generating pristine awareness; and in the end there is the freedom of self-generating pristine awareness."

So, this seems like a beautiful way to love, doesn't it? A relationship based upon this sort of view is almost certain to be gentle, and beneficial to all parties. Imagine: you love someone, and the nature of your relationship is such that it becomes a source of refuge, a source of instruction, and a source of realization for others. 

Here it is, centuries later, and we continue to receive the benefit of their relationship.

I think from now until my dying day, I will remember this little comment about a white shell appearing yellow, and just leave a white shell as a white shell, without too much tinkering. In this fashion, one can almost certainly benefit from mistakes without actually making them.

Dakini Day, August 2012

First Ever Tibetan Olympic Win

"Choeyang started to smile when she was passing the Tibetan flags 

and somehow, her smile never left her beautiful face... ."

A 22-year-old young woman named Choeyang Kyi made history in London by becoming the first-ever Tibetan to participate in the Olympics... and, she came away with a Bronze medal, finishing 14 seconds behind the new world record in 20km women's race walking.

"I'm extremely honored to take part as the first representative of the Tibetans at the Olympic Games and to win a medal," she said, adding that she was deeply encouraged by Tibetans cheering her on as she ran along the course.

Free Pussy Riot

Three young artists in Russia -- known by the collective name Pussy Riot -- have been tried and are now awaiting sentencing on a charge of hooliganism. The offense arises from their performance of a song -- a song, mind you -- and carries a potential punishment of seven years' imprisonment.

As someone who has been imprisoned for asserting freedom of speech as a vehicle of social transformation, my heart goes out to these three courageous young women. I have been where they are sitting, and I know what is involved.

It is said that their song offended the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. President Putin is held in considerable esteem by the Russian Buddhist community, and indeed, the world Buddhist community at large. It is known that President Putin has considerable reciprocal respect for Buddhism, and that he has been specially honored with recognition by Russia's Vajrayana Buddhist community in particular. As a general proposition, it is fair to say that Buddhists worldwide support feminism, freedom of expression, and constructive social activism. Clearly, there is some breakdown in communication here.

Please, President Putin...with all respect...  use your powers to let these women go free. 

What does a man like you have to fear from a song?

Stupa Project Makes Progress

In addition to our outdoor stupas, we also have an indoor stupa project here, in the manner of a "stupa room." Seen here, in the library, are fifteen of the first twenty-two stupas delivered last week, inclusive of a special set created on Chokhor Duchen, and another special set created for the people who have helped us stay operational during turbulent times. After a bit more preparation, these will be primed, gilded, packed, consecrated, and installed, and then we will be ready for the next batch. 

These stupas also take us a step forward on my "Everybody Should Build One" project. I will be using one of these as a model for a computer-controlled mold apparatus. It is my goal to devise a means by which everyone who wants to make a stupa can do so with relative ease, whether for indoor or outdoor application.

Many thanks to the people who helped realize the creation of these first twenty-two precious stupas. The merit associated with your efforts is quite simply beyond description.

Rabbit Rescue: Update X2

Little Stinker has been moved out of triage to Intensive Care. He has a lavender bed to roll around, a jump step to reach his water and food, and a little cave to play hide and go seek. He has vitamins in his water -- which he thoroughly enjoys -- and plenty of food. This is a rare photograph of him, playing in his cave, with his nose temporarily out of the fool bowl. He said he wants the hat, the t-shirt, the bumpersticker, and the FOOD. Things are looking up for Little Stinker.

The Two Sisters are both eating and watering now. I introduced Timothy hay into their diets for long fiber, and vitamins into their water at therapeutic dosage. They are high traumatized and tightly bonded. I gave Big Sister a candy treat today. She ate half of it, then fed Shy Sister from her mouth. Absolutely beautiful. I am praying for the Two Sisters.

The Big Bum sits around like a defeated king, but he is slowly coming around. He got hay and vitamins today, and he allows me to pet his nose. He watches everything very carefully, and in his sad way, it seems as if he said "Thank you," this afternoon.

I am very happy to report the first binky. When Little Stinker got his lavender bed, he gave three or four binkies. If you don't know what binkies are, ask a rabbit person. Basically, a bink is a sideways leap in the air, signifying great happiness and joy.

UPDATE X2:

I been played.

Did I say "defeated king?" Crafty old king is more like it. Somehow, and nobody knows how, he managed to get himself out of a locked cage last night and proceeded to incite a rabbit riot. The whole room was wrecked. When I woke up and went in there, he charged at me like a dog, and tried to push me out of the room with his nose: "Nothing to see here...all under control... move along nicely, now." Papers were torn up, poop was all over the place, the Two Sisters were cowering in their corner, and he was singing love songs --- if you can call Rabbit Rap "music."

I learned an important lesson: that rabbit does need any more vitamins.

Rabbit Rescue Report

Through the incredible kindness of a Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar reader, who drove eight hours down to the desert to fetch me, I was able to travel yet another two hours further south, to a place called Rowland Heights: to the multimillion dollar home of a Chinese family from Beijing.

Arriving in the backyard of said home, I found four rabbits existing in absolutely terrible, terrible conditions. I removed them immediately, and brought them home, and you see them here in their triage cages, as I start to work with them.

Pictured above is the head troublemaker -- the Daddy -- who has lived on for two years eating nothing but lettuce; spoiled lettuce at that, got from the garbage bins of nearby grocery stores. Now, it was 108.5 F up in the desert, and down at Rowland Heights it was maybe running 95F to 100F, but he was housed in a dark, stinking, noisy, chicken coop with no water. He was prostrate in his cage, panting heavily, rolling over on his side.

Now, here is where it starts to get ugly. I asked the young lady of the house, together with her mother, why none of the rabbits had any water. I was told that they "Get enough water from the lettuce."

Above are the "Two Sisters." The rabbit in the back has been terribly traumatized, and is constantly protected by her sister. I do not know if she will ever be restored. They were in the cage below the male rabbit -- in the same filthy chicken coop, surrounded by aggressive, noisy chickens, who pecked at the rabbits through the cages. The hind legs of the Two Sisters are dyed green from permanently standing in layers of wet lettuce. 

This Little Stinker is six weeks old, the son of the male rabbit pictured above. His mother died in childbirth. He was kept in the same horrible conditions, but in the bottom cage, so the chickens could reach him easier. He was dehydrating, almost at the point of death. When he peed on me, his urine was so hot as to scalding.

None of these rabbits know how to eat rabbit food. None of these rabbits know how to get water from a water bottle. They are so scared and traumatized that they will not even take water from a water bowl.

I am concentrating on the Little Stinker and the Shy Sister first. I think Daddy and Big Sister will pull through O.K., so they come next. Of the four, I think Shy Sister has the worst chance of survival, followed by Little Stinker.

How can people of obvious wealth -- considerable wealth -- and the ability to care lavishly for themselves, stoop so low as to leave these rabbits in squalid conditions? They spoke roughly to the rabbits, saying many callous things that led me to believe they thought of the rabbits as mere playthings, upon which to vent their wicked impulses.

I feel so sorry for those people.

So, I am occupied caring for these poor critters, and I hope I can save them all.

Pleasure Like Heaven

New flags for Padmasambhava's Birthday, for Khandro-la

Those whose pleasure is like heaven
Are destined to be open and lovely.
My own love is just like this,
The dear child of heaven.

Like a blazing light,
With shining face,
My dear one -- a mind
So brilliant and limpid, so fascinating.

Their towering bodies,
Their majesty spent.
Conjoined deities rest,
My dear one, they are elegant and still.

My love is malleable, it is
The ornament of many things.
It is considered special and, in
Being special, it exhibits clarity.

Oh, my sweet one,
It satisfies desires.
The body ceases, but
Its precious form remains.

Into a far land of forever,
I shall trot out to meet you,
My own love,
In a place unattainable by day.

On this side, heaven
Appears calm and wide.
In speaking of it, perhaps,
When free of thought, I shall sing everything.

Through the prayer of good action,
May we experience no obstruction.
Oh, let us make the choice
And remain inseparable.

Fifth Noyon Khutagtu Danzanravjaa (1803-1856)

Guru Rinpoche's Birthday

Today is the tenth day of the sixth Tibetan month: Padmasambhava's Birthday according to the Lama Gongdu terma. I guess it would not be out of place to offer birthday cake for this evening's six o'clock puja. 

BREAKING: Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche Dies in Australia

Shambhala news outlets are reporting the sudden death this morning of Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, 57, of an apparent heart attack, at Melbourne, Australia.

Truths, Noble and Ignoble

So, today we celebrate and attempt to recognize the first turning of the Wheel of the Dharma. What we are trying to recognize is not some historical event, like the Fourth of July, although that sort of historical recognition is, I think, inherently present in the form of a shared idea -- that Buddha was enlightened beneath the Bodhi Tree, that he sat for seven weeks, that there was this dialogue between Buddha and divinities, and so forth. 

Nobody alive today was there when these events supposedly happened. There is no contemporaneous record. There is just a simple, ex-post-facto agreement to agree. This is not peculiar to Buddhism's protohistory. This is how we humans do business on everything. We agree to agree that some proposition happened a certain way, and the agreement makes the proposition so. Our "truths" consist, then, of a series of agreements.

And, then again, some of our truths rise to a level above aggregate assumption; they rise to the level of nobility.

There are many, many versions or descriptions of the Four Noble Truths that we have agreed to agree Buddha delivered on or about the event commemorated by today's holiday. The one I like best is the one His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave in Helsinki, in 1988; later codified in his book Dzogchen: Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, underwritten by Sogyal Rinpoche twelve or thirteen years ago, and first published by the now defunct Snow Lion Publications in 2000. These are comments published under the title "Four Truths, Four Seals and Dzogchen."

"The general structure of Buddhist practice," said His Holiness, "is based on what are called the Four Noble Truths, which the Buddha taught in his very first public teaching. They constitute the foundation for the entire Buddhist path. They are:

1. the truth of suffering
2. the truth of its origin
3. the truth of its cessation
4. the truth of the path which leads to that cessation"

He continues:

"Buddha's teaching on the Four Noble Truths is based on the natural needs and desires of all living beings. All of us have a natural instinct to desire happiness and avoid suffering. Therefore the practice of Dharma should be a technique whereby we can fullfil that need. Since what we desire is happiness and what we do not desire is suffering, Buddha first taught the truth of suffering, so that we would be able to recognize suffering for what it is."

Now, you stop and think --- "Well, suffering should be easy enough to understand: no great insight there" --- but, you are mistaken. In many ways, suffering is the least understood aspect of our human existence. 

There is an entire apparatus, maintained by our false friend the ego, designed to convince us that we are not suffering, or if we are suffering, it is through no fault of our own. 

Suffering stays locked in our subconscious as an ever-present possibility, but one that we strive to avoid by means of suffering's own cause. 

This is quite profound. 

We think we might like to go for a swim. We throw an imaginary life preserver into a mirage, and then drown when the illusion evaporates.

You ask a hundred Buddhists, "Four Noble Truths?" and they will answer right enough: "Great stuff! Our stuff, you know? Buddhist stuff!" But, of those hundred, maybe one will be prepared to truly admit and fully accept the concept that we are suffering. 

Today, there are hundreds of articles on the Four Noble Truths being published all over the known Buddhist universe, and they are all illustrated with shiny pictures of Buddha teaching attentive and gifted students. 

You will note our illustration is of Buddha about to get a rock on his head. Why? Because, this world is suffering. Even Buddha had trouble with his relatives and wound up dying of food poisoning. This is not coming from "outside." This is coming from "inside." This is the mirage, remember?

Dalai Lama continues:

"Then although we may enjoy certain degrees of happiness even while we are subject to suffering, true happiness will always elude us as long as we carry the causes of suffering inside us. This is why in the second noble truth Buddha taught the importance of eliminating the origin of suffering, by first of all identifying it. With the third noble truth, he explained that as a result of recognizing that origin of suffering there is cessation, a state that is free from all suffering. Buddha then taught the fourth noble truth, the path that will ultimately lead us to that cessation."

These words are like a stout bridge to comfort. Please do not dismiss them as "too basic," or "baby stuff." To the contrary, it is through sound understanding of these principles that we can meet, and extract the benefit, of every situation, no matter how that situation is at first perceived.

I will give you just a quick example from recent personal experience. Everyone who knows me, knows that I had a rabbit as a companion, and that I was very attached to this rabbit. Many have heard that this rabbit passed away last month, and that I openly grieved for him. I loved him very much, you see? So, the grief was intense.

Because I have had the grand fortune to listen to many realized teachers, I jumped straight into the middle of this grief, to the point where I was incapacitated and exhausted. But, at the same time, miraculously, something else was taking place. 

I began removing the causes of the suffering, one by one, and as I did so, the treasure of bodhicitta began to glow. 

I immediately recognized that I would extend the love I had for my friend to all rabbits, to all sentient beings, and direct this to the eradication of the illusion of suffering that I was sharing with them -- this basic suffering of separation from ones we love, which arises from mistakenly divided perception of attachment and aversion: attachment to ones we love, and aversion to ones we don't love -- all of this born of the basic failure to recognize emptiness. 

That is where the compassion effortlessly arises, you see? No sloppy stuff needed. When you allow yourself to accept emptiness as it is, compassion needs no other cultivation. 

For example: I thought of all the simple, little children who had lost a pet rabbit, and how they cried, and how this was fundamentally essenceless... unnecessary... opposed to that which was an ever-present reality.... preventable.... curable. You get the idea, I am sure. You don't have to beat around, working gimmicks, and contrivances. Your heart breaks, bodhicitta awakes, that's all it takes. A thing that might otherwise be tightly fabricated, or constricted, becomes utterly spacious, all by itself.

Well, it is easy enough when you have a bodhisattva come as a rabbit to teach you. But, what if some terrible old man dies? What if some awful old customer like me passes away, much to everyone's enjoyment and relief? You might want to go out dining, and drinking. You might want to dance on the grave. If you had enough to drink, you might want to piss on the grave. Sounds like this might take a little bit more work, doesn't it?

What does Dalai Lama say?

"The conclusion, then, which we can derive from the teaching on the Four Noble Truths, is that this suffering that we do not want, and the happiness we long for, are both dependent, in the sense that they only arise in dependence upon their causes and conditions. The teaching on the Four Noble Truths in fact teaches us the principle of interdependent origination. Happiness, it shows us, comes about only as a result of the interaction of causes and conditions. At the same time, suffering can be avoided, but only if we are able to put an end to the causes and conditions that give rise to it. The teaching on the Four Noble Truths points out that this is our responsibility and we should take the initiative, on our own, to pursue a path that will lead to this end."

Regardless of whether we are mourning and grieving a beloved pet or gleefully urinating on some hated enemy's last resting place, we are delicately balanced on the intersection of knots in a net. 

Imagine you are trying to walk across a huge net, a hundred feet above the ground. Just to make it more interesting, imagine that you are trying to do this with your eyes closed. One false step, and you will fall to your doom. Meanwhile, in which direction are you going? You slide along the string until you reach a knot. Now you have four choices: slide back the way you came, or keep sliding in one of the three other directions. More than this, you see, there is an up and a down. 

I don't know about you, but the first thing I would do is stop, and open my eyes. Surely, this is some sort of suffering, but what sort?

Dalai Lama says:

"How to recognize suffering as suffering? There are three levels or types of suffering. The first is suffering which is obvious, technically called 'the suffering of suffering.' The second is 'the suffering of change,' and the third, 'the pervasive suffering of conditioning.'
1) 'The suffering of suffering' refers to all those self-evident experiences of suffering, like pain for example,  which we would normally identify as suffering.
2) 'The suffering of change' refers to experiences that we usually regard with pleasure or happiness but which, when we are engaged in them for too long, end up leading to frustration, dissatisfaction, and suffering... . The experience that we initially thought of as pleasure or happiness is revealed as something which does not last, since it changes into feelings of dissatisfaction. This kind of suffering is 'the suffering of change.'
3) The third type of suffering, 'the pervasive suffering of conditioning,' embodies a recognition which is unique to Buddhism. To explain this third level of suffering in greater detail, the fundamental tenets of Buddhist philosophy known as the four 'seals' or axioms of Buddhism need to be understood."

So, we will stop right here, and reflect that in this, the explanation of the first of the Four Noble Truths, in the very preliminary stages of discussion, we are being introduced to the greatest gift anyone could possibly give, i.e. the Four Seals. 

In the West, you never used to hear very much about the Four Seals. The teachers who came in the last century barely examined the subject. However, this is actually quite important. You might say it is ultimately important. Five years ago, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse wrote an entire book on the subject, What Makes You Not a Buddhist, which turned out to be one of the four or five truly indispensable commentaries on Buddhism in the English language. I like this book so much I always give away copies to people I meet. 

The Four Seals are simple enough to state, and I believe Khyentse Rinpoche states them best as follows:

• All compounded things are impermanent.
• All emotions are pain.
• All things have no inherent existence.
• Nirvana is beyond concepts.

Actually, he does this a little more deeply and uniquely:

• If you cannot accept that all compounded or fabricated things are impermanent, if you believe that there is some essential substance or concept that is permanent, then you are not a Buddhist.
• If you cannot accept that all emotions are pain, if you believe that actually some emotions are purely pleasurable, then you are not a Buddhist.
• If you cannot accept that all phenomena are illusory and empty, if you believe that certain things do exist inherently, then you are not a Buddhist.
• And if you think that enlightenment exists within the spheres of time, space, and power, then you are not a Buddhist.

So, here we have the answer to crossing the net, and what to do about the soggy, soggy grave of that hateful old man. Not so difficult anymore, is it?

So, then, today is Chokhor Duchen for 2012. 

We believe that everything we do today -- positive or negative -- has a result that magnifies ten million times. All the Buddhists will be busy doing meritorious deeds, right up to the last fraction of a second of the full twenty-four hours.

I am in the western United States, in a high desert called the Mojave, and about all I have to offer you is this little appreciation -- as it comes to mind -- of great teachings and great teachers:

Watch out for falling rocks.

If there is any benefit, let it be yours.