Tag Archive for "dharma"
So much is happening right now that I am writing this one to get it all out so that I can see it.
First: I had a wonderful talk with Loppön Barbara Du Bois yesterday, she is a blessing. We talked about everything and nothing. (Sorry, Buddhist joke.) We talked about the similarities between Roman Catholic Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, we talked about daily practice, compassion and bodhicitta and the idea of a Bodhisattva.
You know that feeling you get when you slide down into a steaming bath? The one where your entire body relaxes. You realize that your forehead, your shoulders, your muscles and even your skin was pulled tight with stress; and then you let go and relax and let the hot water work on you. That was the feeling I experienced when she told me we would be talking again.
I will be speaking to her often I hope. She is affiliated with the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Arizona. I hope to visit it one day. Dana Abbott told me that the area is beautiful. Who knows, maybe I can fly out and bum transportation and quarters from him or my cousins that live in the desert?
Second: I am going to help a good friend of mine, Gardner, plan a weekend of Dharma talks that we hope to have in place for next spring. Either his guru will come to Oklahoma City for those, or someone that is recommended to him. Gardner is in the Karma Kagyu lineage and I am learning about that lineage from him and now from Loppön Du Bois as well. Seems coy but the term ‘karma’ might be apt here.
That reminds me to talk to another good friend, Kris. She is a member of Rissho Kosei Kai here in Oklahoma City. Kris helps run the local Dharma Center. Kris is one of my touchstones here in OKC. She is a counselor and friend, someone I know I can turn to for answers to questions and general support. I need to see what thoughts Kris has about RKK helping Gardner and I bring out a Lama to do a Dharma talk.
And lastly for today: One thing that Loppön Du Bois mentioned is that I read too much with out doing the practice. She is right, so I am going to let the books gather some dust while I begin to practice more openly, more consciously and with more resolve.
I want to take a moment and thank Gardner, Kris, my friend Linda and now Loppön Du Bois for their kind words and counsel, for their love and compassion and for their time. They mean more than they know.
I was in church Sunday morning with my family and something dawned on me: I am Angulimala.
Well, I don’t really think I am a reincarnation of Angulimala, but I have committed gross sins like Angulimala. In the Buddhist universe I have perhaps even committed the same sins as Angulimala. In that respect I have been every walk of life as well.
Monk, saint, yogi, thug, braggart, prince and pirate are all open as to occupations I might have had among the myriad past lives I could have lived. I could have been every religion and lived in every corner of the earth. For me, that is something to take solace in. Because I could have lived any of those lives, and hopefully learned along the way, it has prepared me for this current life and the difficulties that I face.
If I consider Angulimala for a moment, my emotions run the scale. I am shocked and outraged that he could have slain all of those unsuspecting people along the path. I am dismayed that he did so with zeal and a hunger for the final killing. I am horrified that he willingly took man, woman and child to add their fingers to the garland after he had killed them. But then, at the very end of that stage in his life he meets Lord Buddha on the same path, repents and then becomes a monk and starts a new journey.
So, in a very real way; I am Angulimala. I have begun a new journey in my life and I have met the Buddha along my path.
The Dharma is strange and amazing. It is foreign to my Western Judeo-Christian mind, yet it feels so right to me, so familiar. While reading and learning the ideas and theories behind Buddhism, and especially Tibetan Buddhism I have realized that we are the same people, we are all striving for happiness and its causes, we all seek the end to suffering and it cause and we all seek merit.
So I am Angulimala, and so are you.
