Gaden Shartse World Tour - part one

I just spent several hours getting warmed up to blog. I did this by exercising my talent for stringing words together by creating several entertaining articles for a web site that hires ghost writers, talent unseen, untested, and unknown, to write for them. Today I captivated my audience with tales of my adventures surfing the big waves on the North Shore. For those of you who spend way to much time in front of a computer or otherwise encapsulated in a sedentary indoors life style, the North Shore is the north shore, literally, of Oahu, Hawaii.

Yes, this is where the big waves break, and the little surfers get broken. Of course I used my considerable experience with the art of surfing to compile a pile of highly suspect, but passable to the un-initiated, yarns of surf-dome adventure under the moniker Big Bill “Flipflop” Kakaman-o-tikibarkanni.

Now that my blogging butt is well settled into the chair, I’ve had my ration of 14 cups of coffee and my finger muscles are warmed up and ready for some serious typing, I thought I would write a little about my latest adventures in international cooperation and understanding.

As you know, I recently had the pleasure of spending a little time with “my Monks”, the Monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery. These Monks travel the world as ambassadors of the dharma, bringing Buddhist teachings to everyone they come in contact with. Many of the people involved with the success of the Monks tour are dyed in the wool Buddhist practitioners. Others, like myself are on the fringe, still grasping for the light of understanding from any bulb they come in contact with. It is really amazing to see these dharma spreaders in action, and even more amazing to have the opportunity to spend time with them along the path they travel.

I think the thing that stands out most in my mind is how everyone they meet is all over them like ducks on a June bug. I mean, people just want to be near them, to talk with them, to have a photo with them, to exchange smiles with them. Even the most introverted individual seems to bloom in their presence. Every where we went, and I do mean we, as I followed them around pretty much full time for nine days, they had lines of people waiting to speak with them after each event.

Everyone had questions, from “Do you wear sandals even in the winter? And “does your shaved head get cold a lot?” to “Can you, in three minutes or less, explain the nature of existence and the teachings of the Buddha?” No matter what the questions, the Monks always had a thoughtful answer. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that they all are extremely intelligent and have many years of schooling. We actually had the honor of a couple valedictorians and a summa cum laude ( what is that? Latin for “guy who gets all A’s”? ) on the tour. Each Monk was also a master of a particular specialty, like chant master and ritual master. If the Monks were a poker hand we would have been in the big money. The monastery honors us by sending only it’s brightest scholars so that we will get the best answers to our probing questions, like – what can we do to handle our anger or disappointments? - a question that I noticed was asked over and over.

I guess us westerners have more than our fill of anger and disappointment. I have to wonder though, is it because of the way we look at life? I wonder, have we become spoiled by our capitalistic life styles? Have we been nurtured beyond a healthy understanding that sometimes bad things do happen? Are we all Polly Annas? Do we become angry and disappointed because we expect everything to be prefect for us in our own perfect time?

Here’s an example- while I was going through my 327 page check list of things to have for the Monks stay, I noticed I didn’t have enough bottled water. I panicked! Madre de Dios! How could I possibly ask them to drink our dirty American fluorinated, chlorinated tap water? Then it struck me, as if a bolt of lightening in the darkness tapped right on the top of my head- what am I, crazy? My tap water is cleaner than most of the world’s water supply, and, although I pass when ever possible on ingesting chlorine, we probably were not going to die of dysentery or typhoid if I had to make the Starbucks with some tap water.

See what I mean? It’s really our perception of the situation that gives it meaning, not the situation itself. Our reaction to any situation depends entirely on our perception of what is happening. If we could analyze our perception of a situation for possible misunderstanding before we panic and get angry or disappointed, maybe we could save ourselves from a lot of anger and disappointment.

Anyway, that’s what I got from listening to the Monks answer that question over and over and over… now of course, the question is how do we manage to watch our thoughts, and analyze them for misunderstanding, before we react? Well, I guess that is the tricky part.

More on this topic soon…

For more on the Gaden Shartse Tour, check their web site, the link is on the right hand menu.


PS - Summa Cum Laude means- highest with honor or praise.