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 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.

Molly Fitzgerald, an FPMT student who works extensively in the criminal justice system in Ohio, USA, writes about how she applies Essential Education’s 16 Guideline to her professional life, particularly about how she shares the 16 Guidelines with her clients who “consist of sex offenders, thieves, drug and alcohol addicts, the mentally ill, and violent offenders.”

From Mandala July-September 2011.

Pam Cayton shares two meditation practices that have been practiced at Tara Redwood School, but can be adapted to various settings and for all age groups.

From Mandala July-September 2011.