Mandala

Mandala‘s Michael Jolliffe is on location in Washington D.C. for the Kalachakra for World Peace event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His daily blog from the event will afford those of us unable to attend the opportunity to experience a bit of the excitement and blessings occurring in the capital of the United States.

Washington D.C., USA– July 10, 2011

From Michael Jolliffe:

When I woke up this morning it felt like my eyeballs had been replaced with raisins. And as I struggled to get out of bed to find some water, I remember thinking two things: 1) that this was the same feeling as the hangovers of my more youthful youth, and 2) that it was similar to the feeling I had after I tried to do a handstand in a swimming pool in Santa Cruz, California and lost my balance, hitting my head on the pool’s concrete bottom. I like to think that the sun and lack of water on the Western Lawn yesterday were a gruesome combination akin to a baseball player and their bat, leaving my body, unfortunately, as the ball. (Non-Americans can replace that with football player and cleat if they want, the end result is still the same.)

Today I took it easy. I had a nice breakfast and took my time. It was, overall, a million percent nicer.

It doesn’t make sense for me to summarize all of what His Holiness taught today. I wouldn’t do it justice. It’d be better for you to try to watch His Holiness’ teaching webcast live and really develop your own understanding. But I will share with you one of His Holiness’ quotes that my roommate, Eamon Walsh, took away with him that he very much appreciated: “The afflictive emotions are the internal enemy and ignorance is their leader.” You can take that quote in a very serious or very funny way as you prefer. I recommend funny: if you reroute yourself to Sinceros’ “Take Me to Your Leader” and wait for the chorus, you’ll understand what I mean and probably live a little bit longer for it.

One of the most remarkable and inspiring things I did today was to attend the premier of Christina Lundberg’s For the Benefit of All Beings: The Extraordinary Life of His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche. Christina Lundberg was responsible for the truly beautiful Mystic Tibet which any and all students and supporters of Lama Zopa Rinpoche must watch. She was also instrumental in the creation of the very popular Discovering Buddhism videos. (You can find many excerpts of these videos in various issues of Mandala eZine and on the FPMT Online Learning Center.)

I had never heard of His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche until today. I think I was very lucky that he attended the premier and was willing to speak even just a little as an introduction. He was obviously humble and kind, sincerely stressing how absolutely important and beneficial it was to be in Washington, D.C. to receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The first thing you notice about His Eminence is that he is inseparable from his prayer wheel. Apparently, making use of the prayer wheel and Gyaltsä Thokme Sangpo’s 37 Practices of the Bodhisattva are his main practices and his main methods for guiding his students. In fact, if you do come across his students, you’ll find that many carry their handheld prayer wheels wherever they go too.

Like many lamas after Tibet’s initial invasion and during the Cultural Revolution, His Eminence was imprisoned and for 20 years watched many people suffer and ultimately die. For the Benefit of All Beings chronicles this time and also his recognition as a young boy as part of the incarnation lineage of Gardampa Chodengpa (which is also considered to stretch back to Aryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna); his time spent as a solider in the resistance movement in Kham when the Chinese first invaded Eastern Tibet; and his current work to spread Buddhadharma around the world and care for the needs of his many students. If you ever get the chance to see this movie (or better yet, meet His Eminence), take it.

One of the most interesting things you learn in the movie is that His Eminence experiences chronic pain. In the footage you often see him wince. But he winces with the largest, most beatific smile you’ve ever seen! It puts my feelings about my raisin eyes to shame.

Mandala‘s Michael Jolliffe is on location in Washington D.C. for the Kalachakra for World Peace event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His daily blog from the event will afford those of us unable to attend the opportunity to experience a bit of the excitement and blessings occurring in the capital of the United States.

Washington D.C., USA– July 9, 2011

From Michael Jolliffe:

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. exactly, threw on some clothes, and dashed out of my dorm room on foot to the nearest subway station in order to make it to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s talk entitled “A Talk for World Peace.” In my excitement to get a good seat, I left without breakfast, water or sunscreen. As I was leaving the building, the TV screen behind the reception desk predicted highs in the 90s. I’ll skip the boring details, but you will not be surprised that even before the event started, I was nauseous, dizzy and burned. Ironically, despite my enthusiasm and, frankly, noble attempts to tough it out, I eventually ended up not with a good seat, but with an un-good one behind a man who seemed to be the event’s lone smoker.

The event started with prayers, musical performances, introductions from our mistress of ceremonies, American comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg, and a video address from Desmond Tutu. By this time the sun was really starting to beat down and I was starting question whether I was really meant to be there or if maybe I was actually meant for an air conditioned café instead.

And then His Holiness’ motorcade arrived. One of His Holiness’ unique qualities is that whatever  absolutely neurotic and delusional gymnastics are happening in your head at the time vanish the moment you see his face. This is my experience, anyway. Now, I won’t say that an hour later I wasn’t embittered when it became clear that I wasn’t going to hear much of the talk because of the event’s weak sound system, but just knowing that His Holiness — a formidable, flesh and blood embodiment of peace — is close by is comforting. It also helped that this was the first time I saw His Holiness the Karmapa in person (he welcomed His Holiness the Dalai Lama onto the stage). I try not to be overtly woo-woo, but it felt auspicious that I should be able to see these inspiring figures on the same stage at the same time.

When public events like this get grueling, the absolutely worse thing to do is walk away with nothing, so I strained to hear just one or two points and be satisfied with that. Luckily for me, the few points I heard on the West Lawn were later repeated during His Holiness’ formal teachings at the Verizon Center not too far away from Capitol Hill. First, His Holiness insisted that today’s Buddhists be “21st-century Buddhists,” meaning that their devotion and faith must necessarily be informed by and based in reason, logic and science when possible. He seemed concerned that contemporary Buddhists realize that understanding the Buddha’s teachings is superior to its rituals and confessed that he enjoys offering Kalachakra initiations — his “little trick” — because they are so popular, sometimes attracting tens of thousands of people, and this affords him the opportunity to explain the foundational teachings that many (including Tibetans) have never studied.

One last point that I remember His Holiness making regarded the importance of promoting the development of the good qualities of the human heart in a secular way, and that secularism does not have to be considered an attack on religious people or even religion itself. He went on to tell a story about how in ancient India even scholars who were radical materialists and did not believe in religion were called rishis — sages — not because others agreed with their philosophies, but because they pursued truth just as did the others. I was struck deeply by this story mostly because it was so clearly His Holiness’ way of saying that there’s room for everyone to live happily in society, whatever they believe. To seek truth in the best way makes someone a sage, not the conclusions they draw. Maybe it was just the sun in my eyes, but I started to tear up a little.

Mandala‘s Michael Jolliffe is on location in Washington D.C. for the Kalachakra for World Peace event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His daily blog from the event will afford those of us unable to attend the opportunity to experience a bit of the excitement and blessings occurring in the capital of the United States.

Washington D.C., USA– July 8, 2011

From Michael Jolliffe:

If you hang around Tibetan Buddhism long enough, you start to find yourself interpreting fairly ordinary things as omens as naturally as if you were just calling up a friend to invite them to coffee. “Oh, a rainbow! My train will definitely reach Seattle without a hitch…. Oh, a heron! My ill-planned road trip to San Francisco to see Lama Zopa Rinpoche teach will be a huge success…. Uh … a squashed raccoon in the road? OK, no problem…. Three fire engines just passed? Sigh.”

The effect is worse if you were, as I was, raised by an English mother who inherited from her English mother certain superstitious quirks. The one I’m most familiar with is not crossing your fork and knife after dinner. My mum makes no claims about what will happen, merely that it isn’t done in our house. She’ll willingly, although secretly, finds ways to uncross silverware on other people’s plates and, admittedly, I’ve done the same.

My favorite memory of learning augurs from my mother was when I was once sitting with her blathering on about my day, including when a black cat had — brace yourself — crossed my path:

“Which way did it cross your path?”

“What do you mean which way? I thought a black cat crossing your path is a black cat crossing your path.”

“Was it to the right or left?”

“Really? There’s a difference?”

“Yes, everyone knows that, Michael.”

I don’t remember her answer, but you can appreciate now what I might have been thinking as several little signs made themselves apparent as I was preparing last night to travel from Portland, Oregon to Washington, D.C. for the Kalachakra for World Peace event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. First, I found a half-eaten loaf of moldy bread in my bag as I was packing; it must have been there for two or three months. Second, as I was shaving the night before to impress any Buddhist luminaries that I might stumble upon on my journey, I cut myself, causing a ridiculous looking pool of blood to coagulate on my upper lip overnight. And to add insult to injury, it is the smallest, most insignificant wound you’ve ever seen, it just happened to be in the right spot to make it seem as though I had done something tough to deserve it. And finally, after going to bed at 12:30 a.m. — way past my bedtime — I woke up at 4:20 a.m. with my cell phone already in my clutched hand.

The flight was uneventful until the last 15 minutes when the plane began to descend in the way a roller-coaster descends from its zenith. I didn’t embarrass myself on the flight by getting sick or anything, but I must have looked a little pale when I stepped off the plane at Dulles International Airport into a thunderstorm. Guess where my raincoat was? Three clues: I wasn’t wearing it, it wasn’t in my carry-on, and I didn’t check any bags.

Maybe I shouldn’t read into all this?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama released a message at the start of the new millennium. The advice remains timeless and pertinent over eleven years later.

From Mandala, March 2000.

What would you do if you were threatened by a gang of macaques? Dana Lissy, author of “Surrendering to Monkeys: Letting Go of the Self,” finds spiritual freedom at the end of this dramatic tale from life in India.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

A fresh sound in pop music is often credited to the fusion of an artist’s unique life experiences with his music. Gomo Tulku, a 22-year-old Tibetan-Canadian-American Buddhist lama and ex-monk, is by no means short of unique experiences and is by all means ushering in his own brand of popular music.

His sound is a mix of hip-hop, R&B, dance and pop. In one song he may rap the verses and sing the hooks to a club-banger beat, in another he may showcase a series of beautiful vocal melodies overlaid on top of an electronic dance beat. Although his music touches on his own personal experiences in the monastery, its content is ultimately secular and speaks to individuals from all walks of life.

Understanding Gomo requires one to really understand his unique past: Gomo Tulku was born in Montreal, Canada on August 8, 1988. At the age of three, Tenzin was recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the reincarnation of his mother’s late father, also a Buddhist lama. By the age of seven, Gomo left his family and moved to South India to a monastery where he would begin rigorous studies for the next 12 years.

Gomo currently lives in Tuscany and in Milan where he has worked with the famous Italian hip-hop producer Deleterio. Gomo also gained sponsorship from Guess clothing line, and has generated an international media buzz. He is currently working on his first single, which is set to release on July 28. Stay tuned on www.gomotulku.com!

In April of 2011, Mandala received the sad news that Liberation Prison Project student, Robert Page, had taken his own life (obituary page 52 of July-Sept 2011). Robert was a talented musician and artist who studied with Liberation Prison Project during a ten year prison sentence and after his release five years ago. While incarcerated, Robert created a beautiful image of a double dorje and offered it to Liberation Prison Project. The image was used, as well as other prisoner art, for a series of journals and notebooks produced by Liberation Prison Project to raise funds for the project.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

Big Love, the long-awaited authorized biography of Lama Yeshe, provides an intimate portrait of not only FPMT’s founder, but of the earliest students that placed their trust in him. This excerpt is taken from the chapter chronicling Lama Yeshe’s activity during 1975 – a year marked by  extensive activity throughout the world, including the first courses offered by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Australia.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

Ian Green, a long-time student of both Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, has served FPMT and the Dharma only in big ways: as a founder and director of Atisha Centre in Bendigo, Australia, as the chairman of various FPMT-related boards, and as the director of two of FPMT’s biggest holy object projects: the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion (the largest stupa in the Western world) and the Jade Buddha for Universal Peace (the largest Buddha carved from gemstone quality jade in the world). Lama Yeshe asked for the Great Stupa and Lama Zopa Rinpoche for the Jade Buddha, making both projects not just impressive in scale, but contemporary examples of indefatigable guru devotion.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

Wendy Cook, a student of FPMT since the late 1980s and former director of Kurukulla Center in Massachusetts, USA (among other positions within FPMT), generously offers “Move, Breathe and Be Kind” to help students connect with their bodies and minds through yoga.

From Mandala July-September 2011.

Jan Willis uses Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara and her experience in the Civil Rights Movement to discuss anger – the negative emotion that “is by far the most dangerous for it not only causes much harm to others; it is perhaps most harmful to us, ourselves.”

From Mandala July-September 2011.

This article is also made available in Hebrew, Russian and Spanish.

On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama informed the United States that Osama bin Laden had been killed. In “Hurray!” Sarah Shifferd reflects on the event, its relationship to the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001, and our human potential for cruelty and mercy.

From Mandala July-September 2011.