MINDSPACE

MONASTIC DEBATING COMES TO GIFFELS AUDITORIUM

On Thursday, 26 March at 7:00 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium on the campus of the University of Arkansas, Geshe Dorjee and Geshe Agha will provide the Fayettville community with a rare treat:  a demonstration of authentic Tibetan debating.

Formal debate, while not unique to the Tibetan tradition, is unusual in that it is still a staple of their monastic education, and participation in it begins at a very early age.  Typically, monks begin to debate at age 9-10 (or even younger if they show aptitude) when they initiate their study of the symbolic associations of the five primary colors in Tibetan iconography:  yellow, white, red, green, and blue.

The method is fairly simple.  The classic texts are first privately memorized and recited, and then pubicly debated, following traditional paths of question and answer.  As the student progresses in ability, the texts become more complex, and the debates more rigorous.

It is not unusual to see elderly monks in the monasteries still debating.  Above all, public debate gives the participants a solid command of the required information, information that is designed to have a substantial impact on the restructuring of the personality according to logical principles.  From following a small segments of one of these debates, it is easy to see why logic and reasoning have become such a staple of much Tibetan Buddhist thought.

At the very least, it is an educational principle that Americans stand to learn a great deal from, and one that is immensely entertaining to watch.  Don't miss this wonderful opportunity.

The event is sponsored by Students for a Free Tibet, Arkansas chapter, and admission is free and open to the public.

MANDALA FINISHING CEREMONY & BEYOND

As many of you know, the mandala at Mullins Library was completed on Wednesday, March 11, 2009.  The Finishing Ceremony was a great success and was well attended by a good number of friends and supporters.  Geshe, Mepham, and Agha are off to Utah now for a well-deserved Spring Break.  The mandala will be destroyed on March 29 at 3:00 p.m. in Mullins Library and bags of sand will be handed out to all in attendance.  If you've never seen a destruction ceremony, you'll want to attend this one, if possible.

In the meantime, I have uploaded the final set of photographs covering the mandala through the Finishing Ceremony to the Flickr account for the Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas.

There is also a group Flickr account that has photographs by me, Megan Perez, Mark Gieringer, and Dent Gitchell.  You can see those photographs here.

SAND MANDALA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The University of Arkansas is hosting the construction of a sand mandala in the Helen Robson Walton Reading Room in Mullins Library.  Geshe Dorjee is overseeing the construction, which has been undertaken by Gedun Pekar, Geshe Agha, and Zoepa Gyatso.  Accompanying the mandala is an exhibit of Tibetan thangkas, ritual items, photographs, and other Tibetan artifacts.  One of Geshe Dorjee's classes organized, designed, and set up the exhibit, and is also completing a class mandala.  There is also a public table where everyone can try their hand at "throwing the sand," and do so under the watchful and guiding eye of an acknowledged mandala-master.  This is a rare opportunity to witness and participate in one of the world's oldest and most stunning art forms.

A gallery of photographs, which will grow daily, can be viewed here and here.

PDF schedule of events related to the mandala here.

THE DALAI LAMA INTERVIEWED

Summer 2007, the Dalai Lama visited Madison, Wisconsin and answered questions after his lecture.  A charming, very human side of His Holiness is revealed here.

KHENTRUL RINPOCHE RETURNS TO FAYETTEVILE

WHO:  Khentrul Rinpoche

WHEN:  12 February 2009, 7:00 P.M.

WHERE:   Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 901 W. Cleveland, Fayetteville AR  72701

CONTACT:  Elaine, 479-521-0848


Khentrul Rinpoche returns to Fayetteville to grace us with another of his luminous dharma talks.  The suggested donation is $10, but all are encouraged to attend and benefit from this remarkable teacher.  Below is a brief synopsis of his talk, entitled "The Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma."

Our flaws, ignorance, and negative emotions destroy the very life force of happiness. To find freedom, the Buddha taught the dharma in three stages to fortunate beings who wished to tame their minds. The first turning of the wheel of dharma is the teaching of the four noble truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of its origin, the truth of the path, and the truth of cessation. The second turning of the wheel of dharma is an explanation on the true nature of all phenomena—emptiness and the correct way to meditate upon it. The third turning of the wheel of dharma consists of teachings on how to engage in ultimate practice, a detailed explanation of the true nature of our mind, called buddha essence. These three teachings build a basis for understanding the intended meaning and purpose of a spiritual path.

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JETSUNMA TENZIN PALMO

Many of you have heard of Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo ("Jetsunma" is a title given to women in the Tibetan tradition to honor their spiritual prowess--roughly translated, it means "venerable master.")  And many of you probably know her teachings, gathered in the magnificent volume, Reflections on a Mountain Lake. (2002)  For those of us who are interested in a Tibetan practice, this volume clearly and intelligently takes us directly to the heart of many of the features of Tibetan Buddhism that baffle Westerners.  One chapter, for example, is called "Difficult Points for Westerners," and another, "Women and the Path."  From my point of view, the book has become essential reading.  I refer to it often.

Part of the strength of Jetsunma's teachings, for Westerners, derives from the fact that she is a Westerner, born in England, a working-class Cockney woman, who would become one of the great dharma practitioners in the world.  Her biography is little short of extraordinary.  Growing up in a world of seances and spiritualism, Tenzin always felt close to Asian spirituality, and so when she turned twenty, she moved to India and began her monumental ascent in Tibetan Buddhism.  After five years of attending to Khamtrul Rinpoche (her guru), the only woman among 100 monks, she left to go to a small nunnery high in the Himalayas, having seen first-hand how difficult serious spiritual practice was for women in the Tibetan tradition. 

She was warned about the rigors of solitary retreat; she was told of its unique and demanding difficulties.  Nonetheless, in 1976, she moved into a cave, after a few renovations, that measured 10' x 6', and she didn't emerge until 1988!  She has made a vow to obtain Enightenment in the female form, no matter how many lifetimes it might require.  Apparently, she is well on her way to achieving her goal.  You can read her remarkable story in several places, one of which is Re-enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West by Jeffrey Paine, which devotes a chapter to her life.

She has established a nunnery a couple of hours outside of Dharamsala, the Dongyu Gatsal Ling nunnery, and you can visit the website here.  I'd certainly recommend spending some time here. 

Finally--a day or two after Obama was elected President of the United States, Jetsunma gave a teaching (entitled "The Value of the Contemplative Life") that I find exhilarating.  You can hear it as a podcast here.  Very seldom are we able to hear teachings from Tibetan practitioners who have achieved what she has achieved and can speak to us in English, our native tongue.  The podcast lasts about an hour.  You can listen to it through a Quicktime audio, or on the left hand side of the page you'll see a sidebar labeled "Podcast Feeds," and if you use iTunes, you can download it to your iTunes account and play it on your iPod. 

Over the past several days, I've listened to it incessantly, and I learn something new each time.  If you have a chance, stop by and listen to the teachings of an extraordinary woman.

ROBERT THURMAN ON THE THREE KINDS OF WISDOM

For those of you who aren't familiar with Robert Thurman's work--aside from fathering Uma--he's one of the most distinguished Tibetanists in the world.  He's retired from Columbia, but has remained a major force in the field of Tibetan studies and human spirituality in general.  I've never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but I feel as though I know him in one sense because of the books he's written--some of which are personal in nature, and most all of which are personally compelling.  Most recently, I've discovered his Podcasts, which are now on my iPod and accompany me wherever I go. 

I can't recommend them highly enough.  As our meditation and study groups (the one that meets on Sunday and the one that meets on Wednesday) have been addressing some of the traditional Tibetan philosophical texts, I thought it might be helpful to listen to Thurman on the subject of the three kinds of wisdom.  Click here, and scroll down to podcast # 58.  It's an MP3 file so you can download it and listen to it in several ways.  You can spend the next several weeks going through these podcasts, and you won't be disappointed.

The video podcasts are equally good, but they address a specific text ("The Holy Teachings of Vimalakirti"), which I have recently read and found very helpful, and which I can recommend as well.  The visual dimension of Thurman's teaching I find engaging too--watch one of the video podcasts, and I think you'll agree.

MEDITATION 2009

As the New Year gets under way, I wanted to apologize for my absence from these pages over the past several months.  In late August, I began working on a grant for the TEXT Project (Tibetans in Exile Today), and that required several months of back-breaking and unexpected labor.  I finished the grant by mid-November, at which point I had a month to submit another manuscript, and having gotten that finished, I fairly collapsed over the Christmas break and am just now getting my legs back under me.  So I hope to see more of everyone who attends Geshe's meditation class in 2009.

BTW--The Dalai Lama has a MySpace page now!  The video below appears on it, and I thought you might be interested in viewing it (it's 40 seconds).  Have a look at the monk in the foreground after the camera pans away from His Holiness.  You might recognize the back and side of his head.  The video was shot seven years ago in northern India (not in Dharamsala, however), and preceded the monk's trip to Bodhgaya for the Kalachakra inititation, which would be memorialized in the film The Wheel of Time, where this monk also appears.

RETREAT AT WATTLE HOLLOW IN OCTOBER

Geshe Dorjee and Lama Mepham will lead a retreat at Wattle Hollow, October 24-26, 2008.  The retreat will focus on guided meditation the first day, with small-group and individual instruction, and on the Tara, long-life initiation the second day.  Lama Mepham, of the Kagyu lineage, is new to the Fayetteville area and has completed two 3-year, 3-month retreats while in Tibet.  He is a recognized master of meditation.  Geshe Dorjee holds the highest degree offered by a Buddhist monastic university and is a an authority on all aspects of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice.  Together, they present an authoritative source of knowledge regarding Tibetan Buddhism and meditation, and the weekend at Wattle Hollow offers a wonderful opportunity for beginners and more experienced practitioners alike.

AUGUST 30: DAY OF FASTING & REMEMBRANCE

With the Olympics over, and China's human rights violations escalating in Tibet as the IOC stood placidly by, the Tibetan Solidarity Committee has called for a 12-hour fast to begin on the morning of August 30.  Recently, His Holiness agreed to participate in the fast, as Buddhist centers and other human rights groups around around the world have signed on to this significant action against human rights violations. 

While fasting is an ancient spiritual practice, we often forget the motivation that lies behind it.  Traditionally, fasting has been undertaken to develop mindfulness, a quality central to all religions, but one especially revered by Buddhists.  Regarding fasting, Thich Nhat Hahn has written that

society makes it difficult for us to be awake.  I am sure that you know this, but you keep forgetting:  Forty thousand children in the Third World die every day of hunger, forty thousand of them.  We know, but we keep forgetting because the society in which we live makes us forgetful.  That is why we need some exercise for mindfulness, for awareness.  A number of Buddhists practice this--they refrain from eating a few times a week in order to be in communion with the Third World.

The recommendation for Saturday is to fast according to your own capacities and abilities.  Some will take neither food nor water, some will take only juice, some will only avoid meat, but all who undertake the fast are asked to remember those who have suffered from human rights abuses at the hands of oppressive governments.

Fasting is an important step in our recognition of human deprivation because it extends that recognition beyond the conceptual level--we all "know" there is human suffering--and into the physical level, bringing our bodies into dialogue with the stultifying facts concerning human violence that crowd our minds.  Our response, then, is more roundly human, and our mindfulness sharpened just a bit.

The recommendation for August 30 is to recite as many times as possible the “Prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Guru Prayers, Dhen-pai Nga-dra, Dhen-stik Mon-lam (Prayer of Truth), Prayer of 21 Taras, Six-syllable Mani” mantra and invocation prayers of deities Palden Lhamo and Nechung.

In addition to these recommendations--which come from the Tibetan Solidarity Committee--I would suggest that all of us read the Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism.  Formulated by Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, they remind us of the social implications of non-violence, and how these principles refine the lives of those who adopt them.

August 30, then, is an opportunity for all of us to exercise our practice just a bit, and maybe even expand its boundaries for a few hours, as we make a concerted effort to situate our own lives within the larger community of suffering and oppression.

Accordingly, for those of you in the Fayetteville area, we will meet at Geshe la's house at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning when Geshe la and Mepham will lead us in prayers very briefly, as we make a special commitment to avoid the ten non-virtues for the 12-hour period (or here for another discussion of the 10 non-virtues).  We will then go about our day accordingly, attempting to maintain mindfulness and awareness regarding the suffering of both Tibetans and Chinese.  At 8:00 p.m., we will break our fast with thankfulness and gratitude for the many blessings we have received, dedicating them all to the prosperity and enlightenment of all sentient beings.

If you cannot be at Geshe la's house, you can pledge to avoid these non-virtues by yourself, in front of your altar or any place that is quiet and sacred to you.  Throughout the day, recall your commitment and chant Om Mane Peme Hum as many times as you can, always thinking of the spirit of Chenrezig that lives within all sentient beings.