Found this quote from Zen teacher John Tarrant in his short article "Not Knowing is the most Intimate," featured in the new Shambala Sun's series of articles on relationship:
Most projects to change other people or ourselves are really projects about interior decoration for the prison. A spiritual practice is really about jail-breaking."
Wow.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Norbu
About 15 or 16 years ago, our medieval music ensemble Altramar decided that we needed to do some intensive group meetings to figure out what it was, exactly, that we wanted to do as a group, and what kind of direction we wanted to take artistically. We decided that we would have a formal meeting day – a retreat – and we would work together to come up with a mission statement.
We wanted to do this in a quiet, peaceful, neutral place – in other words, not at one of our homes, and definitely not crammed into some practice room at IU. However, we were graduate students, and we just didn’t have the money to rent any kind of retreat center (or even a room at a retreat center!)
At that time, in the early 1990s, Chris and I had been going for walks on weekends at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington. We used to circumambulate the stupa that was there, talk to the enormous shaggy dogs that patrolled the place, and once or twice we had stayed for prayers. Altramar had performed at a fundraiser for the Center as well, so they were familiar with us. And they kindly allowed us to use their beautiful main hall for our retreat.
The founder and director of the Tibetan Cultural Center (now the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center) was a distinguished Tibetan lama named Thubten J. Norbu, also known to his students as Takster Rinpoche, elder brother of the Dalai Lama. Norbu was a world-renowned Tibetan scholar who taught for many years as Professor of Tibetan studies. Before the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Norbu had been the Abbot of Kumbum Monastery.
At intervals during Altramar’s retreat, this kind and amiable man came into our room and brought us Tibetan chai and cookies. At the time, I had no idea who he was. Well, I mean, I knew he was the Dalai Lama’s oldest brother, but I had no idea of his status in the Tibetan world, or in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. I had no idea about his history, his political activism, the trials and tribulations he had gone through after the Chinese invasion. I didn’t know that several years later I would sit with Coyotebanjo on the grounds of this Tibetan Cultural Center and take the Refuge Vow from the Dalai Lama with about 500 other people. I didn’t yet know anything about the history of the Tibetan Buddhist community in Bloomington (Americans, Mongolians, and Tibetans); the things they shared with each other; the difficult differences that existed or would exist between some of these groups; none of it. Not yet. All I knew was the experience I was having at that moment. I knew I was in a place that had a strong spiritual energy, and I was grateful for the generosity of this man, to allow us to use their hall and then, on top of it, to come in and chat with us and actually serve us and wait on us; because of course none of us really realized the extent to which it should have been the other way around.
Mr. Norbu died last Friday. He was 87, and had been in failing health for some time since a stroke several years ago. Over the next few days, scores of people from Bloomington came to pay their respects, only to find his body sitting on a bed in lotus position. Some offered him katas (ceremonial scarves) as one does when one takes a teaching from an honored Tibetan lama. On Thursday his sons and some of his students and volunteers carried him out to a brick and clay structure in back of the temple that now sits on the grounds of the Cultural Center, and he was cremated, while many monks from around the country chanted him into the Pure Land.
We wanted to do this in a quiet, peaceful, neutral place – in other words, not at one of our homes, and definitely not crammed into some practice room at IU. However, we were graduate students, and we just didn’t have the money to rent any kind of retreat center (or even a room at a retreat center!)
At that time, in the early 1990s, Chris and I had been going for walks on weekends at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington. We used to circumambulate the stupa that was there, talk to the enormous shaggy dogs that patrolled the place, and once or twice we had stayed for prayers. Altramar had performed at a fundraiser for the Center as well, so they were familiar with us. And they kindly allowed us to use their beautiful main hall for our retreat.
The founder and director of the Tibetan Cultural Center (now the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center) was a distinguished Tibetan lama named Thubten J. Norbu, also known to his students as Takster Rinpoche, elder brother of the Dalai Lama. Norbu was a world-renowned Tibetan scholar who taught for many years as Professor of Tibetan studies. Before the Chinese invasion of Tibet, Norbu had been the Abbot of Kumbum Monastery.At intervals during Altramar’s retreat, this kind and amiable man came into our room and brought us Tibetan chai and cookies. At the time, I had no idea who he was. Well, I mean, I knew he was the Dalai Lama’s oldest brother, but I had no idea of his status in the Tibetan world, or in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. I had no idea about his history, his political activism, the trials and tribulations he had gone through after the Chinese invasion. I didn’t know that several years later I would sit with Coyotebanjo on the grounds of this Tibetan Cultural Center and take the Refuge Vow from the Dalai Lama with about 500 other people. I didn’t yet know anything about the history of the Tibetan Buddhist community in Bloomington (Americans, Mongolians, and Tibetans); the things they shared with each other; the difficult differences that existed or would exist between some of these groups; none of it. Not yet. All I knew was the experience I was having at that moment. I knew I was in a place that had a strong spiritual energy, and I was grateful for the generosity of this man, to allow us to use their hall and then, on top of it, to come in and chat with us and actually serve us and wait on us; because of course none of us really realized the extent to which it should have been the other way around.
Mr. Norbu died last Friday. He was 87, and had been in failing health for some time since a stroke several years ago. Over the next few days, scores of people from Bloomington came to pay their respects, only to find his body sitting on a bed in lotus position. Some offered him katas (ceremonial scarves) as one does when one takes a teaching from an honored Tibetan lama. On Thursday his sons and some of his students and volunteers carried him out to a brick and clay structure in back of the temple that now sits on the grounds of the Cultural Center, and he was cremated, while many monks from around the country chanted him into the Pure Land.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Confronting the Confrontational Culture
One of my colleagues this morning (a rainy Monday here) asked me if I had experienced an unusual amount of confrontational energy lately.
Yes, I have. And why do you suppose this is so? The political atmosphere in this country right now is like a powderkeg waiting to blow. The Left is sickened by Right and vice-versa, and everyone is sickened by the divisiveness of the whole thing. Meanwhile, every citizen who isn’t hiding in a cave is being assaulted with vituperation and hateful rhetoric (especially from the Right – sorry, but it’s true) every time we turn on a radio or TV, open up a newspaper, or have to suffer through a moronic rant happening at a nearby table in a Starbuck’s. Too many politicians are counting on the divisiveness to help them; they are attempting to capitalize on the Three Poisons of hatred, greed and attachment-revulsion as much as they possibly can. And we wonder why there’s a lot of confrontational energy generating?
The side-effect of this confrontational, divisive, thick energy is exhaustion. I have never, in my seven years of university teaching, seen this many students so completely wasted with exhaustion only 3 weeks after the semester has started. My courses are not any more difficult this semester than they have ever been, and I doubt anyone else’s are either. And yet they are pale, tired, and clearly suffering.
In a supreme example of “as above so below” and group Karma, these churning energies are manifesting at all kinds of levels. The Northwest passage has opened, hurricanes are howling in the western hemisphere, the headlines are even more sordid than usual, and the world seems fueled by anger and fear.
But every moment in history is both unique and not unique; we are a constantly changing continuum. Nothing, even the bad stuff, is permanent. Nothing is permanent.Not you, not the Republicans, not the Democrats, not the hurricanes. And although we are all impermanent, we are also all interconnected. So there IS something that we can do as individuals, and that is to change the energy one mind at a time. Whether that is possible or not is irrelevant – it is what must be done.
Put your work away; it will be there tomorrow. Turn the TV off, put the newspaper down, sit comfortably, and do whatever it takes to quiet your mind: repeat a mantra, count your breaths, pray…whatever works for you. We all have the Buddha-nature even when we are yelling at the TV. Let yourself contemplate the Six Perfections: Generosity, patience, ethics, effort, concentration/meditation, wisdom. Visualize how you would feel if tomorrow your thoughts were able to lean toward how you might support the political candidates of your choice instead of leaning towards how much you’d like someone to murder the other ones.
One of my Tibetan teachers told me once that it is not possible to go from an agitated mind to a happy mind without passing through the place where the mind is neither agitated nor happy, but is simply in a state of equanimity or equilibrium. We must all allow ourselves to do what we need to do in order to get there. If this takes time away from work, study, or any other aspect of the rat-race, so be it.
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings know the joy of true freedom.
May all beings have equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
Yes, I have. And why do you suppose this is so? The political atmosphere in this country right now is like a powderkeg waiting to blow. The Left is sickened by Right and vice-versa, and everyone is sickened by the divisiveness of the whole thing. Meanwhile, every citizen who isn’t hiding in a cave is being assaulted with vituperation and hateful rhetoric (especially from the Right – sorry, but it’s true) every time we turn on a radio or TV, open up a newspaper, or have to suffer through a moronic rant happening at a nearby table in a Starbuck’s. Too many politicians are counting on the divisiveness to help them; they are attempting to capitalize on the Three Poisons of hatred, greed and attachment-revulsion as much as they possibly can. And we wonder why there’s a lot of confrontational energy generating?
The side-effect of this confrontational, divisive, thick energy is exhaustion. I have never, in my seven years of university teaching, seen this many students so completely wasted with exhaustion only 3 weeks after the semester has started. My courses are not any more difficult this semester than they have ever been, and I doubt anyone else’s are either. And yet they are pale, tired, and clearly suffering.
In a supreme example of “as above so below” and group Karma, these churning energies are manifesting at all kinds of levels. The Northwest passage has opened, hurricanes are howling in the western hemisphere, the headlines are even more sordid than usual, and the world seems fueled by anger and fear.
But every moment in history is both unique and not unique; we are a constantly changing continuum. Nothing, even the bad stuff, is permanent. Nothing is permanent.Not you, not the Republicans, not the Democrats, not the hurricanes. And although we are all impermanent, we are also all interconnected. So there IS something that we can do as individuals, and that is to change the energy one mind at a time. Whether that is possible or not is irrelevant – it is what must be done.
Put your work away; it will be there tomorrow. Turn the TV off, put the newspaper down, sit comfortably, and do whatever it takes to quiet your mind: repeat a mantra, count your breaths, pray…whatever works for you. We all have the Buddha-nature even when we are yelling at the TV. Let yourself contemplate the Six Perfections: Generosity, patience, ethics, effort, concentration/meditation, wisdom. Visualize how you would feel if tomorrow your thoughts were able to lean toward how you might support the political candidates of your choice instead of leaning towards how much you’d like someone to murder the other ones.
One of my Tibetan teachers told me once that it is not possible to go from an agitated mind to a happy mind without passing through the place where the mind is neither agitated nor happy, but is simply in a state of equanimity or equilibrium. We must all allow ourselves to do what we need to do in order to get there. If this takes time away from work, study, or any other aspect of the rat-race, so be it.
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings know the joy of true freedom.
May all beings have equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
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