Archive for January 2007
I went to my first official Buddhist function this past weekend in Oklahoma City. A local Kagyu meditation group brought Lama Dudjom Dorjee, pictured at right, to speak on the subject of Bardo, the intermediate state.
We are all in Bardo right now. Every moment of every day we are in a state of transition. From waking to sleep, from birth to death, from one mood to another; transition. Lama spoke about the bardo of dreams, of meditation and obviously the state of bardo after death, before rebirth.
For those enlightened or advanced enough on the Dharma path, bardo can be a time of liberation and knowledge; a time to further advance before rebirth. For the rest of us though, we suffer the chance that bardo is filled with hallucinatory images related to our own needs and desires; virtually ensuring that we are born into a lower realm.
I am reading more about the subject in a book, which is just good timing, I didn’t plan this. The book is The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a lama in the Bon tradition. I plan on moving to this one as soon as I feel ready for it, The Bardo Guidebook, by Chokyi N. Rinpoche.
The most famous book on the subject of Bardo is Bardo Thodol, Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State, which in the west we have mistakenly named The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I actually have a really cool version of this on video, Lenoard Cohen narrates the video.
Okay, how was that for rambling?
The talk was held at Windsong Dojo, a wonderful Aikido & Judo dojo here in Oklahoma City.
I met a girl about 5 years ago and we became friends. She is sweet and funny and so smart, we still talk some. She is from India and a practicing Jain. I won’t try to go in to what the Jain religion teaches, but you can learn more here.
She asked me a question one night in the server room that jolted me.
“Do you think I am going to hell?”
She asked me if that is what i believed because that is what Christianity teaches. If you do not accept Jesus as your personal savior, then you are doomed to Hell.
I told her no, that is not what I thought.
She went on to tell me about her family, all Jains for the last 2500 years. All good people, loving and kind and holy and very family oriented. She asked me why my religion would damn them all. Did all of her family wind up in hell? Every one from her city? Everyone not a Christian?
Later that night I started questioning my thoughts. What did I really believe? I knew what my religion taught me, I was a good alter boy. I could not reconcile these teachings with what I knew was right in my heart, so I started looking around and learning more. Asking my own questions.
While i still love Jesus and what he taught, I can not accept that someone is doomed to an eternity in hell just because they accept the religion of their family and culture over Christianity. Especially if that religion is one of compassion, love and kindness.
What do you think?
I have been lazy of late and not writing posts. Mainly because I have been reading more than living, there is an issue in there somewhere. Reading more about Dzogchen and Dream Yoga, about Tsa Lung and Garab Dorje - it is all a lot to consume in written form rather that experience.
I found a Bon center in Houston that I would like to attend for a retreat, to see how it feels, and I am also learning about the Nyingma lineage as well. I have known about the Bon tradition for a while and a good friend and adviser told me to look in to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism when I asked him about Dzogchen recently.
I just finished watching “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring” and I really enjoyed it. The story is of an old monk who lives on a floating temple. The temple floats on an isolated lake in Korea somewhere. Picturesque and breath-taking. Cliché I know, sorry. Anyways, I liked the story.
Back to the Nyingma thing though. This ‘ancient’ lineage was started by Padmasambhava himself when he came to Tibet to teach Buddhism. You think he meant to found a school of Buddhism? I doubt it. I would imagine that he was simply teaching the Buddhism that he had been taught by his masters and hoping that the Dharma would spread and fill the world with understanding, compassion and one day, enlightenment.
Seeking mindfulness, looking for suchness, listening with my heart and seeing with my soul, all of these things I think about. But do I really try to live that life?
Barely.
Watch the movie.