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.

The Monks Are Coming!

I'm still getting acclimated to my role as professor for a class of 46 university students. The class is going great, I'm still adjusting to the early mornings and to the technology- ie:the software used for all homework and grading. It may take me the rest of the week to get that down, I went to a class today for all us new instructors, and the IT classrooms system was down ( WHAT?!, you gotta be kidding!) so we really could not get into the program to look at it or ask questions. I said heck with that and came home, booted up and got to it. It's a little tricky but I'm getting the hang of it and it's a good thing because there are 46 papers sitting there waiting for me to grade!

Meanwhile, I've done a bunch of meandering but have not captured it on paper as of right now. So I thought you might like to take a look at a few photos from the last "monks tour". The Monks (Gaden Shartse) will be visiting us again this fall and I am just starting to get the tour stop put together. As we go along I will share photos and news with you, meanwhile I hope you enjoy these.

For more information, look to the side bar on the right for a link to the official tour website.

Crispy, Golden, Waffle, Waffle.

I picked up this magazine called Tricycle. It bills itself as an independent voice of Buddhism, and contains articles from many different Buddhist views. Yes, they got all kinda’ different Buddhists out there, Japanese, Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and western, and a few more I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention or am unaware of, they all got a similar but different take on Buddhism. Then, within each of these different cultural ideas of Buddhism, there are different lineages and teachers and sects and whatnot. It’s a mess really, but what philosophy isn’t?

Yes, I did say philosophy. Buddhism, I’m told, is not a religion, it’s a philosophy. Interesting, I think, considering the expert I heard saying that was the Dalai Lama who is the spiritual leader of one lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and in his linage there are many, many gods and goddesses and all kinda’ religious looking ceremonies and rituals.

I think the philosophy is interesting and in a nut shell I think it says this- slow down and pay attention to what the heck you are doing. Don’t hurt others. Respect all life, even a lowly bug. If you have an opportunity to be of service to others, do so. Don’t spend too much time wallowing in past memories or creating future fantasies because when you do, you are missing what is happening right now, and now is really all there is.

I can appreciate all that, so I occasionally pick up some Buddhist philosophy to read.

All that fine bit of meandering takes us right back to Tricycle, the magazine. Which illustrates that life is a circle. Which brings to mind Rob Schneider’s performance as the Asian Minister in the movie “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” Did you see it? He was too funny! Everything is a circle you know…

In Tricycle I was reading this guys account of meal time at the monastery he stays at for retreats. They don’t talk during meals. They are supposed to be contemplating the food. They are supposed to become aware of eating. They are to notice the taste and texture of the food, and to appreciate where it comes from. I guess the idea is if you are talking or reading or watching TV while you eat, you are not going to be as aware of what you are doing. Ultimately, they meditate on where the food comes from and give thanks to the whole process.

I thought that sounded pretty righteous so I tried it. I had a nice big waffle on a plate and it was covered with butter and real maple syrup and as I dug in I started thinking about the origin of this waffle.

I pictured the ground and the seed, the sun and the rain, the clouds and the wind. I pictured the nutrients in the soil and the growth of the plant which became the grain that was harvested. I pictured the harvest, the people working in the field and the people driving the trucks, the people milling the grain and bagging the flour, the people working at the plant where the flour was packaged with other ingredients to be organic waffle mix.

I pictured the people loading the packages onto trucks and shipping it to another place where it was repackaged and shipped again and the people who received it in the warehouse and moved it to pallets to be loaded onto trucks to go to stores. I pictured the people who drove the trucks and the people who unloaded the trucks and the receiving clerk in the store warehouse and the people in the store who placed the bag on the shelf.

Then I saw myself picking up the bag and going through check out and loading the car and unloading the car and mixing up the waffle mix with an egg and oil and oh yes, the egg and the oil came from someplace as well and I had to go back and imagine all that too.

By the time I was done with breakfast I was exhausted! I felt like I had traveled a million miles! How do these people in retreat do this visualization at every meal? Isn’t it kind of like watching a TV program while you eat? You are the director and the star and you give out the Oscar to the food for nourishing your body and give thanks to everyone in the cast and crew and all your family and support systems and all that. It’s like one long Academy Awards thank you speech!

I thought the idea here was to still our minds and be totally aware of where we really are right now, and what we are doing right now. Instead, my mind was off gallivanting across time and space tracking the waffle’s epic journey from grain seed to my mouth!

I decided in the future to just pay attention to the yummy waffle on my plate, and how it tastes. My mantra will be something like this: waffle, waffle I love waffles, crispy, golden, waffle, waffle.

Did You Know...

If I were in Tibet, I would go to jail for a long time just for posting this photo or having this bumper sticker.







God Bless America!

Even One Verse

One night without distraction,
I dreamed a vivid dream;
I saw a large and beautiful drum
Filling the world with golden light
And glowing like the sun.
Beaming brightly to all places,
It was seen from ten directions.

Everywhere Buddhas were seated,
On thrones of precious Lapis.
At the foot of jeweled trees,
Facing assemblies of hundreds of thousands.

I saw a form like that of a Brahmin
Fiercely beat upon the drum;
When he struck it,
These verses issued forth:
By the sound of this majestic drum of golden light,
may the suffering of lower migration,
Yama and the poverty of the three realms
Of the triple thousand worlds cease to be.

By the sound of this majestic drum,
May the ignorance of the world be dispelled.
With fears quelled, just as vanquishing sages are unafraid,
May sentient beings become fearless and brave.

Just as the Omniscient Vanquishing Sage in the world
Is possessed of every excellence of aryas,
May countless beings too possess oceans of qualities,
Concentration and the wings of enlightenment.

No, I didn’t write that, it’s six verses of the Golden Light Sutra.

In the introduction it says that there are many benefits to reading the whole text. In the Tibetan Buddhist system (the Buddhist system I’m most familiar with), books have great power and during the reading of a text you can actually receive life changing energy from the written words. Being as I am a Reiki Master, I can understand how this could possibly be true.

The introduction also says that the deva Hamachiwa Pala told Buddha that she will protect those “who read and try to understand even one verse, and will fulfill their wishes”. Those sentient beings who hear only one verse will never go to the lower realms. The Buddha told the earth goddess that “even if a person hears only one verse, the will be born in the deva realm”. Further the Buddha told the earth goddess “the non- virtuous karma of the person who hears even one verse will be eliminated and they will achieve enlightenment”.

There is no mention of what reading just six verses will do for you, but it’s got to be better than reading just one verse, wouldn’t you think?

So, now ya got that going for you.

The Middle Way

In the Buddhist philosophy, they talk about the Middle Way. My interpretation of this concept is that if you are to lax, or to overzealous in your efforts to reach enlightenment you will never get there. The middle way is the way of balance.

In life I think we are all seeking balance whether we know it or not.

In my life, it's quite apparent on Wednesdays, when I set aside my afternoon to hang out with my sister. She is developmentally disabled, (she wonders who thought of that "PC" label which she and most of her friends can't even say), and bowls on an ARC league. We get together early in the day and go to lunch, hang out, then go to bowling.

By Wednesday,I'm caught up in "Busy". I'm an entrepreneur. This means I'm the boss, office staff, accountant, marketing department, sales force and custodial staff for my own business. I'm a doctor and as much as it may suprise most people, a doctor's office is a business. So on top of the aforementioned, I also have patient management and paperwork. Now add in the stressors that we all have like relationships, finances, home maintenance etc. etc. etc. and I'm certainly in need of some balance.

When Wednesday comes I try to put aside my "stuff", and be in the moment. My goal is to focus on my sister and have a fun, stress free afternoon so she's relaxed and ready to bowl.

Yesterday I found myself challenged to put aside the "stuff". I know you all know what I mean. When you are consciously trying to be in the moment yet your mind meanders all over the place, here and there, pointing out challenges ahead or flaws in your planning or what you forgot to do yesterday.

My sister is very smart and perceptive, and about the third time the car got really quiet and I realized she was looking at me waiting for a response to something I didn't even hear, she asked me what was up.
"Just stuff on my mind"
"that's OK, sometimes I got stuff on my mind too"
"everybody has stuff on their minds sometimes"
"Yep, you are not smiling"
"well, let's do something fun to take my mind off my stuff"
"Like What?"

We went to the arcade and I taught my sister to play air hockey.
Once she got the hang of it we giggled and squealed our way right into the moment. We were present. We were one with the game and the "stuff" was gone.

When my sister started her bowling later that afternoon, she started off strong with a 9, a 9, and a spare. Then she threw a few that were off.
One to the right, one to the left, I said
"hey, you are supposed to throw it down the middle"
She replied with
"I'm having trouble finding the middle"

I know exactly what she means.