Please enjoy these reflections on the Seattle visit of His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa XVII. The first is a 2nd-session-day response to an email I'd received from Lost Angeles KTC Director, Terry Sullivan. It's just a few thoughts that I sent out, and intended to write quite a bit more this past week on my ecstatic re-union with the "King of the Infinite" (as my dharma-brother, Michael Cory called H.H. the 16th Karmapa- Michael, who encouraged me to take refuge, or 'go get a Dharma name' as he put it, from Ven. Kalu Rinpoche'... 34 years and two weeks ago today). However I haven't really done that & I want to use the (New Karmapa-condoned) excuse that I've been too busy, which is partly true- but I think I've had a case of 'writer's block' this week. So this is why I was overjoyed to receive my new friend (from thetibetconnection.com) Julie Adler's most Ah-mazing report that follows my mine- there is no way I could have said it better! (And... I thought, "I can just put this out for everyone instead!")
As you may be able to tell by my rambling, she may have re-stimulated my creative-juice-flow, in that I want to add a little something to her story... There were SO many Buddha-Dharma Sanghas represented on the free info table in the lobby of the Paramount Theater, but one flier that immediately caught my eye was that of the Sukhasiddhi Foundation from Marin County CA (www.sukhasiddhi.org). Anything concerning my root teacher Kalu Rinpoche's little-known-and-hanging-by-a-thread (especially with the recent passing of Ven. Bokar Rinpoche) Shangpa Kargyu lineage has me very excited internally, so seeing this was like "frosting on the Karmapa Experience cake!" Fast forward to the part of Julie's story that you will be reading soon, where she is talking about going to dinner Sat. night at the Vietnamese restaurant... As I was part of that dinner party- on our way to it, as we rounded the corner across the western street from the theater I looked up at the sign of the Bambuza Restaurant & announce "We've been Bambuza'd again," to my friends as we started to file in. Instead of a chuckle or laugh I was expecting from my pun, my friend announced, "There goes Lama Palden from the Sukhasiddhi Foundation," as a woman in robes was hurriedly walking by our party. I didn't need to be told that twice as I excused myself & ran after her. "Are you Lama Palden?," I asked, catching up to her and the young woman accompanying her who I believe was her Buddha-ful daughter... In under a hundred and eight seconds or so, because I could tell they were on their way somewhere, I communicated to her my connection to Master Yogi Chen, the Chinese Berkeley-based author who had written booklets on the Shangpa Kargyu Lineage back in the '70's and how I had helped Nicole Riggs with those booklets in her research for her Ah-mazing book, "Like An Illusion- Lives of the Shangpa Kagyu Masters" (Such as Sukhasiddhi... And just now perusing Lama Palden's wonderful Sukhasiddhi Foundation website left me hoping that Nicole's Dharma Cloud Press book-with-a-forward-by-Bokar Rinpoche gets added to their 'Suggested Reading" page). I quickly added that I had recently met a 'Sukhasiddhi'... one of those Buddha-full children growing up at Pema Osel Ling in the Santa Cruz mountains, Lama Tharchin's wonderful retreat center that was miraculously (mostly) spared from that wildfire a couple of weeks ago!* All-in-all a very auspicious condensed meeting with quite an accomplished "inje" or "caucasian" lama, who, it turns out had the honor of introducing HH Karmapa the very next morning for the Chenrezik Initiation. She may be the one that inspired Julie's upcoming allusion to the Thousand-Armed Chenrezik, as she told the about-to-be-wonged audience the story of the Four-Armed Chenrezik. When she got to the part about Chenrezik literally "falling apart" from observing the world's suffering, she made Buddha Amitabha sound just like a compassionate mother in describing him as he put Chenrezik back together again (as the "Thousand-Armed Chenrezik), saying, "There, there..!"
OK, let's get on with the show in the City of (the Jimi Hendrix and now the) Karmapa "Experience"...
Teresa Sullivan wrote: Hi Sunny...So nice to see you on my screen and so happy to hear you're in Seattle. I got really sick at KTD in New York, so I'm not among you in Seattle. His Holiness is beyond all expectation. Enjoy every precious moment!!!! Much love, Terry
Namaste & Happy Karmapa Day!
Thanks for your response, Terry...!
What is almost as joyful as the ecstasy of the re-union of his enlightened energy manifest in the outer world again, is re-uniting with all the old Sangha family & reveling in old and new stories of our lives since our last meeting... So much Sangha, so little time! Interesting too that, because no cameras were allowed in the theater (except for the press) and it was impractical to rush back to the hotel to get one afterwards, all the good Dharma family friends I saw again could only be photographed mentally... (which reminds me, where's that Bambuza Thai dinner photo of us all, Julie?)
His Holiness truly understands us in the West, and unfortunately has enabled us to justify our lack of practice with the excuse of "being too busy" or not visualizing the deity in the puja because it's "too difficult"... So now it is that the attainment of enlightenment is truly "hopeless" as Trungpa Rinpoche used to say..!
However, he did say that Disneyland is proof that we in the West have mastered the art of some form of manifesting visualization, and that is to our credit (and we can apply that ability to our dharma practice...)
One of my favorite parts was when, during his talk on employing compassion, he says he does things like, when a breeze or wind will hit him, he imagines that it is blowing his compassion to all directions, & my synopsis of that is that he is teaching us to become "human prayer flags!"
Or, if he sees clouds up in the sky, he'll send his compassion to them so that they will spread it in its travels.
OK, I gotta go make my "grateful dead tour-style" sign, saying something like "will chant for your extra ticket" for Chenrezik Wong...**
Or, if he sees clouds up in the sky, he'll send his compassion to them so that they will spread it in its travels.
OK, I gotta go make my "grateful dead tour-style" sign, saying something like "will chant for your extra ticket" for Chenrezik Wong...**
I mean, I know it's worth a hundred and eight bucks U.S. to experience it again w/HHKarmapa, but this wandering yogi just don't have it!
Oh yes, one more thing he said, maybe as he did back East, that... "there is no more joy than re-uniting w/someone who has died... so, on behalf of the 16th Karmapa... Hello!" & that, like many other times, aroused long, joyful applause...
OK...
Reporting from the Western Gate of Dewachen...
this is Sunny Sundowner, your Dead-Buddhist reporter, saying:
Karmapa Khyenno!
-=
=- (*Here's a strange footnote: Mike Cory told me back in the '70's that the 16th Karmapa said that if there is a wildfire, that's a sign that the Buddha-dharma is spreading. At one point in the talk, and my memory is fuzzy on it- but His Holiness was talking about his experience right after Disneyland, at Universal Studios' "Revenge of the Mummy" ride, and relating it to all these frightening projections and distractions in life, I think... something like that. And on the day he was telling us this, Universal Studios' back lot was engulfed in a huge fire! OK, here's another weird coincidence: more than once in the teaching there was mention of His Holiness being offered a Starbucks mocha latte (and on my 1st night in Seattle, I had been shown the original Starbucks Coffee at the Pike, a corporation that I have always had an aversion to- But ended up buying my 1st Starbucks beverage at the Seattle Airport on the way home: A chai latte)... When I had a chance Sunday evening to read the Sunday comics, in this one comic- Ziggy... He's climbing this Himalayan peak & the sign that says "The Guru" is pointing to the top of the peak, where there sits- you guessed it, a Starbucks w/the Guru inside behind the counter serving up hot lattes [at 4 thousand ruppees each]!)
** And by the way, while holding my "Om Mani Padme Hum- 'Will Chant For Your Extra Ticket" sign in one hand, and my spinning prayer wheel in the other, I was promptly offered a free ticket to the Chenrezik Empowerment. Then a moment later someone was leading me to a woman about to go in who gave me her extra ticket, so then I had to give that one away! Then I gave the sign to two other people, reminding them "but you have to chant!" & they were promptly given free tickets! and on and on...
=- (*Here's a strange footnote: Mike Cory told me back in the '70's that the 16th Karmapa said that if there is a wildfire, that's a sign that the Buddha-dharma is spreading. At one point in the talk, and my memory is fuzzy on it- but His Holiness was talking about his experience right after Disneyland, at Universal Studios' "Revenge of the Mummy" ride, and relating it to all these frightening projections and distractions in life, I think... something like that. And on the day he was telling us this, Universal Studios' back lot was engulfed in a huge fire! OK, here's another weird coincidence: more than once in the teaching there was mention of His Holiness being offered a Starbucks mocha latte (and on my 1st night in Seattle, I had been shown the original Starbucks Coffee at the Pike, a corporation that I have always had an aversion to- But ended up buying my 1st Starbucks beverage at the Seattle Airport on the way home: A chai latte)... When I had a chance Sunday evening to read the Sunday comics, in this one comic- Ziggy... He's climbing this Himalayan peak & the sign that says "The Guru" is pointing to the top of the peak, where there sits- you guessed it, a Starbucks w/the Guru inside behind the counter serving up hot lattes [at 4 thousand ruppees each]!)** And by the way, while holding my "Om Mani Padme Hum- 'Will Chant For Your Extra Ticket" sign in one hand, and my spinning prayer wheel in the other, I was promptly offered a free ticket to the Chenrezik Empowerment. Then a moment later someone was leading me to a woman about to go in who gave me her extra ticket, so then I had to give that one away! Then I gave the sign to two other people, reminding them "but you have to chant!" & they were promptly given free tickets! and on and on...
--- On Fri, 6/6/08, Julie Adler
From: Julie Adler
Subject: Seattle's Best - tripping in the Emerald City with the man behind the curtain
To:
Date: Friday, June 6, 2008, 7:28 AM
Impressions from my visit to Seattle May 30-June 1, 2008
Off to see the 17th Karmapa…
(Scroll down past this blah blah to NOTES from the specific teachings...)
Last weekend, I took my first trip to Seattle. I have friends there with an open invitation to come but it takes a dharma event to get me anywhere these days. The price on Virgin America couldn’t be beat so there I was waiting at the Flyaway in Union Station. And this was historic – for all my time in LA, either growing up or presently, I had never ever been on a Flyaway bus to the airport. For $ 4, however, I really felt like I was doing for the cause - of our planet - and hope to become a frequent customer of the Flyaway. I was feeling scattered and less emphatic than the many who wanted to go to Seattle and couldn’t. Why me? I’m not necessarily a disciple of the Karmapa and yet, I’m not not. It was the big blue eyes burrowing into me of an old friend that did it over, pommes frites and chocolate cannolis a couple of months back. She gave me no wiggle room to decide otherwise, and yes, the airfare (now obsolete) kicked it into gear.
Just as the plane was arriving to the gate, I checked my voice mail and to my surprise (because I had already been told no), things had changed and I was given the green light to record almost all the teachings with the Karmapa for our radio show, The Tibet Connection (http://www.thetibetconnection.org); I’d be given a press pass and really good seats near the press area and there was the slight chance of a small group press interview on Saturday. My heart beat alittle faster – aha, so that’s why I’m here? And then it felt a bit like going to DC again…where’s the gear? Did I pack everything I need…batteries, microphones, cables, recorder? I checked my bag 3 times and then started to fiddle with the camera and cell phone audio and video capabilities. All working fine.
Upon arrival in the ‘emerald city’, a few clouds and a quite brilliant skyscape peaked in between the concrete parking structure and finally an old friend, Cheryl, picked me up and we headed off to an area west of the city overlooking the ‘sound’ and seeing the ‘needle’ in the distance we both caught up each other’s lives, aspirations and how important it is to keep the dingle dangly arms away in the mid-forties, thereafter. Then we headed to the famous Pike Market where guys in bright orange chaps yelp in unison after a customer chooses a piece of fish and then the fish is thrown from one counter to another, people galking at the performance. Apparently you have to actually audition to get this job. And in the crowd, tourists are being photographed next to a stationary bronze pig. What caught my attention was the greek food stall, the homemade cheese shop and the pepper place where all kinds of colorful peppers are strewn together in this beautiful bouquet and can last for years as they dry out and shrinkle into a new shape.
Then we headed to another old friend, Danielle’s house in Shoreline, a working class suburb about ½ hour north of the city proper. Like old times, we barbequed or rather we watched Danielle barbeque. And just like old times, Danielle had an abundance of spaces with useful and useless stuff piled up, and as usual, a house full of guests – her new girlfriend, an old co-worker visiting for the weekend to sell vintage phones, and me.
On Saturday morning, I drove in to Seattle, borrowing Danielle’s mother’s Hyundai. Being lost afforded me a glimpse of Seattle, definitely much smaller a town than I anticipated and my inner query about living there went kaput. Too small, I thought. Oh well another possible escape hatch from LA closed. Somehow it has to be a bit sprawling and slightly chaotic for me to feel comfortable in, go figure!
The challenge of being a dharma practitioner and a ‘reporter’ that happens to report on Buddhist events is that you end up wearing two hats, neither yellow nor black, I’m afraid. One is of wanting to just sit and soak up the blessings of the transmission of teachings, settling into your theater chair and having the hidden luxury of nodding off and the other of hitting the ground ‘working’, becoming friendly with the sound guys so they can help you plug your gear in, fumbling around in your bag every five seconds to make sure you have everything, sussing out the ‘room’, thinking about how to get audio from the audience goers at break times and writing out questions just in case you get to interview the Karmapa!
At the start of the Saturday morning teaching session, they showed a short 10 min doc on the Karmapa, (his name means - he who performs the activities of the Buddha). The first Karmapa came into the world 998 years ago. The 16th Karmapa died in 1981 (in Zion, near Chicago) and the Dalai Lama had a prophetic dream about the whereabouts of the new incarnation, saying that he was living in a valley with stones and high altitude, facing south, near streams. And, in 1990, in an envelope inside an amulet during ‘iron horse year’, Tai Situ Rinpoche, one of the former Karmapa’s regents found the location written of where the new Karmapa lived, with year of birth, names, in the Latok region of Tibet and that he had been born in 1985. And at the age of 14, he escaped Tibet and took refuge next door to the Dalai Lama at the Gyuto monastery in Sidhpur. Now he’s 22. This is his first visit to America.
One thing that is crossing my mind this entire morning is how we Westerners (at least this small group here of 3,000) have reached a point in our reasoning where we without a doubt accept the notion of reincarnation and welcome it. To me that’s the elephant in the room. It’s turning the age of reasoning and Western skeptical thought on its head, I’m thinking. Here are students who had a teacher who died who is now back for them in a new but very familiar form. No questions asked. And these are all very smart people. The organizer of the entire visit, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who is also based in Seattle, welcomed His Holiness saying, “it may sound like groundhog day but he’s doing it for us,” referring to both his rebirth and return to America.
I also noticed that the audience was mostly middle class middle aged white Americans, and there not too so many Tibetans present. Perhaps because this visit wasn’t advertised? Or is it because there are factions within the Tibetan world and until the Dalai Lama is no longer, there is only one spiritual and cultural leader of Tibet they will go in droves to see? But still, when the Karmapa, sitting on a brocade couch, starts to speak and it’s all in Tibetan with Tyler Dewar, a student of Ponlop Rinpoche’s as translator, many of his mannerisms and inflected vocal tones seem just like the Dalai Lama’s to me. And actually that fills me with a great deal of hope. The only thing the Karmapa hasn’t yet cultivated is the belly laugh or a great big smile. He’s still getting used to just grinning and he is to say later (at the end of the weekend) that he didn’t realize how much he has smiled this trip – he got to see pictures of himself in New York – and that the cause of his smiling is us, everyone he's met along the way.
This particular morning, we went through the ngondro (preliminary practices) text with Kagyu origins but reworked by His Holiness. Later, he brought up the question of how we can give rise to genuine compassion for those who suffer in natural calamities and how can we develop the desire to help? The answer is to free them from suffering and share their suffering. Cherish sentient beings. All of them. Not just by focusing on their suffering. Beings don’t just need to be suffering to cultivate compassion for them.
In the afternoon, I hastily packed up my gear and jumped into a cab to Nalanda West where to my surprise and amazement I was invited to participate in a very intimate press interview with His Holiness which included the likes of the editor of Shambhala Sun, a reporter from the Seattle Times and the producers from the PBS show, Religion & Ethics. I brought along a friend who was almost breathless as we entered the room, so excited to sit within 7 feet of the Karmapa. And speaking of feet, it’s what caught my attention, the way the Karmapa’s feet almost didn’t touch the floor while he sat to answer our questions. They seemed to turn out slightly in his brown loafers and there was a bounce to them when he spoke. Another thing I noticed was my red face that felt like it was melting off the sides. We all got to ask one question each and the way I kept my façade of calm was to stare my notes down and rehearse my pending question, which by the way had to do with his impressions of America after two weeks here. He answered that he experienced so many things, he’d already forgotten some but he was impressed by the technological advances, by being able to actually see and touch the things he had only heard or read about back in Tibet and India. And that life really is illusory. Bada bing. To another journalist, who happened to work at Disney for years before, the Karmapa said that he really enjoyed visiting Mickey Mouse’s hometown – referring to his visit to Disneyland last week. Yes, apparently he touched down quietly in the city of Angels for a couple of days, and even managed a trip to Universal Studios as well!
After the interview wrapped, we were all able to give His Holiness a katah and receive his blessing. A wowee moment for sure where I slipped in the opportunity for a photo, complete with my fingers in a peace sign, that fortunately didn’t make it onto the camera. As we left the building, sponsors and supporters of Nalanda West were lined up outside to also receive a blessing. Jittery and hungry, we waited for a cab to rush us back to the Paramount theatre for a Sangha talk, the notes of which follow below this ‘snapshot’ recap. Sanghas from the West coast region were specially invited to this talk; representatives and practitioners from many different dharma communities were represented up and down the West coast from Karma Kagyu, Shambhala centers and even Siddhartha’s Intent! Suffice it to say that over Vietnamese cuisine after the talk, many of the ‘old school’ dharma practitioners I ate with had experienced the mind-blowing shift of, wow, now I really have to rethink what I’m doing in my practice and life. Pass the rice, please.
Up on adrenaline and not much sleep, I was back at the theater Sunday morning – this day ceasing to be as sunny and more like what I had been told, gloomy Seattle, home to one of the highest suicide rates in the country; one muses that that is why Starbucks exists, to distract one from the downward spiral. (Speaking of coffee, I was hoping to try Seattle’s best but ended up at Starbucks more than twice). I passed a blind man slowly walking up the street and I felt the tears coming, recalling the image of the 4 armed grief stricken Chenrezig who burst into 1000 pieces after being overwhelmed by so much suffering. Perhaps this is what it’s about, walking blind among the blind and wishing the blinders be removed for all of us. Arriving at the theater, I slipped my recorder into my pocket and proceeded to ask some people their impressions of the weekend. One woman showed me a picture of her son being blessed by the 16th Karmapa that she’s carried around in her purse for years. She then burst into tears, so happy he’s come back here again.
For the Chenrezig empowerment, I let go of my reporter ‘hat’ and melted into my seat. Then after lunch, and a sing-along by none other than the translator himself and another friend, (using the Karmapa’s Aspiration prayer and music by the guys), His Holiness was asked to talk on his aspirations for the world. This time he was introduced by Dr. Lee Hartwell, a Nobel laureate in cancer research. What was quite a double take was when I heard him refer to His Holiness as ‘Rampapa’. I looked around at those sitting near me and they were wrinkling their brows as well. But maybe we just heard it wrong. I mean, it's the end of a long intensely trippy weekend so maybe we weren't hearing right at all. But no, nearing the end of his introduction, Dr. Hartwell said he was honored to introduce His Holiness Rampapa and he said it twice. At this point, we were all giggling loudly.
The Karmapa described that the world is like a theatre hall, for him to view. There are the stage, the lights, the scenery and backdrops. We have complete freedom to perform in any way we want. We can create dramas, comedies…
and finally, during the thank yous, for comedic effect no doubt, the sponsors of the events wheeled out a kaleidoscopic light that revolves images of his visit to the US in rainbow colors and a book with audio insert of birds chirping; apparently the former Karmapa loved the sound of birds.
The sound of the bird I heard on the way home was the screeching noise of the jet gear being tested as we backed out onto the runway. Too amped up to read, I channel surfed the ‘RED’ entertainment system and settled on The Family Stone. Of course when we were at 39,000 feet cruising altitude, the Family Stone ceased to be, but we luckily haven’t just yet.
PS: A shameless plug - tune in to The Tibet Connection (http://www.thetibetconnection.org) at the end of this month, Sunday June 29th, 9 AM PST to be exact, to hear the segment I'll be working hours and hours on, on this historic visit of the Karmapa...I'll probably leave out the stuff about Rampapa or maybe not???
NOTES FROM KARMAPA IN SEATTLE 2008
These notes are paraphrases, taken at different times during the teachings, with unintended errors in context and meaning, therefore please read for curiosity only and not as a transcribed “teaching”. Formal recordings are likely to be made available in the near future.
May 31, 2008
Saturday morning
A spiritual teacher must possess the necessary qualities. There is no ID card for spiritual teachers, so the way we find a teacher is to get to know who they are. We should approach a teacher as we would get to know teachers in the formal Western education process.
Faith alone will not mean we will practice correctly. Asking someone to be our teacher should occur after we get to know their motivation and conduct. In this day and age, we should not focus on the shortcomings of the teacher. In this age, all teachers will appear to have defects.
Besides, a perfect person would seem weird to us!
The main duty of the student is to emulate the positive qualities of the teacher, not to critique their every move.
When doing a puja (offering) the real mandala is immense, it is the whole world and all its beings as pure, free of all problems, everything in its purest form.
Saturday afternoon
The ultimate Refuge is a manifestation of Buddhahood.
The suffering of others is difficult to comprehend; we see and hear about it every day, but we don’t feel it in our hearts. We need to have a strong desire to help them, to take their suffering on ourselves.
Take the feelings of fear (that we don’t want to suffer) and make it meaningful by cultivating compassion for them instead of our mundane feelings about life and suffering.
Attachment to outer objects is much weaker than our self clinging. We have such a fear of losing ourselves that it prevents us from allowing the deity to manifest. We should use our strongest creative powers.
Compassion is the willingness to never give up on sentient beings.
Saturday night (Sangha Gathering)
The Karmapa began with, “It’s always good to see a loved one again after they have died so on behalf of the 16th Karmapa, it’s good to see you again.” Then he went on to relate to everyone by saying that as a young person in the 21st century, he also struggles a lot with mental afflictions. And he has the aspiration that we experience joyfulness rather than suffering. He says to himself, ‘I’m not such a bad guy, an okay person.’ If nothing else, he offers that his mere presence in the world is to help us experience love and happiness. Once he gets back to India and reflects on his trip, he’ll probably think, ‘there’s no choice but to go back to America.’!!!
We need to have continual motivation, strong intention to bring the body, speech and mind under the service of good motivation. In this way, we do need to instruct ourselves also.
Here in the West, I see many of my friends, who have very busy lives and seem to take each little detail of their life and their activities so seriously, they get upset if they are 10 minutes late – when I first saw this I thought it was some kind of practice (laughter). We should be more relaxed in our activities and not take every detail so seriously.
Don’t get caught up in self-talk during hardships and obstacles. Fear of loss is ever present is our minds which makes us more tense and paranoid. Allow more space, more openness. We should be more relaxed and not attempt to power our minds all the time.
Highly realized beings also go through hardship, but it is the way they meet the hardship that is different.
Q: For dharma students, what are the most important study topics in this age?
K: We’ve become too late for many of these practices. But if we engage in actions to accumulate merit, this will be of benefit to the world. Due to changes in technology and external advancements, we have obtained power to change the world and create the causes for change but now we have to become mindful of the dangers in the world. The world is in danger of being destroyed. It’s very important for us to engage in actions as a whole, for the world. Rather than individual practice goals, seeking personal liberation is no longer sufficient whatsoever. In years before, yogis attained enlightenment, by going away for years and years, bringing 1 or 2 students to the level of realization but that model is not practical now. We need practitioners who benefit the world as a whole while at the same time practicing. We need to have people who are both practicing and helping. Being out of the world, those who go off separating themselves from others, is now not an effective model for the dharma practitioner. Go beyond limited concepts of what it means to have a Buddhist practice. The goal is to help all sentient beings, not just Buddhists. Step outside the boundaries of being only with Buddhist people, in Buddhist environments. There are many aspects to helping. Education and cultivating positive qualities – take them and readily share your knowledge. Go beyond Buddhist conceptions and the clinging to our Buddhist concepts in a limited way.
Q: What are the serious obstacles we Westerners should be aware of?
K: You should tell me what they are! Distractions are a great obstacle. It’s a question for each of you. Often we get distracted by new objects. Protecting our minds is an individual endeavor. What is important is to meet that with mindfulness to distinguish what to adopt and what to reject. I’ll pray for you – that you don’t experience great obstacles or if you do, I’ll help remove them with you. I’d be happy to fight the obstacles for you and we will see who wins! (big cheer from audience)
Since being in America, I have contracted many of your obstacles. When I get back to India, I’ll have to practice really hard in order to remove them.
Q: Many students emphasize formal sitting but not much study. Can you talk/advise on this?
K: The fundamental difference between practice and study – we study to increase our intelligence, further our knowledge on many topics but study is not genuinely connected to our heart, it’s more connected to the brain. Practice leads to a genuine shift in our hearts and minds. To practice however, without prior study is not good. If we don’t know the reasons why we practice, it’s not good. The real essential point brought forth by practice is to monitor the shift in our heart and mind. Feeling the process of positive qualities coming to light every day, delivering our heart to that state, is what we should aim for. If the mind stays at the level of conceptual dry practice however, then it’s nothing more than study.
Genuinely practicing compassion, the mind and heart are not separated. There should be a recognition of the vivid experience of mind taking on compassion itself. At the level of mere understanding or a little experience but no follow through is not genuine practice.
Q: Most lay practitioners have limited time and resources for formal extensive practice. How can we Western students best establish the lineage in our homelands?
K: You saved the worst question for last. (laughter) There should be a strong continuity of practice, a firm resolve. We should remind ourselves what we want to accomplish and refresh this resolve every day, for momentum on the path. Stick to this daily to witness progress. Body speech and mind have to work as servants of this goal. Perhaps make a goal per month. Rely on mindfulness, set it up like the watchman. Create external supports such as ‘reminder notes’ or use objects. When we work on computers, we take breaks to help our eyes. In the same way, we should take care of our minds, refresh them periodically, every hour or three times a day. Mindfulness is the seed you take with you and see how it grows.
In the West, there are no limits to our busy-ness.
We need to become teachers to ourselves, not just relying upon the instructions that our gurus provide but on our own instructions coming from ourselves. What we are lacking is instructions from ourselves - we already have an abundance of our gurus’ pith instructions. I have started doing this – when I first arrived in India, there were no teachers yet to guide me so I rested my mind, relaxed and waited for that certain answer or instruction to come. We need to seek out instructions from our own minds.
--
To end, the Karmapa said, “I’ll come again, no matter how long it takes” and then he recited an aspiration prayer for the audience.
Sunday morning, June 1st, 2008
The Karmapa said that the 2nd Karmapa (Karma Pakshi) was an emanation of Chenrezig and therefore, there is no need to further research or trace the connection between Karmapa and Chenrezig.
The Karmapa’s inspiration for Chenrezig is his blind grandmother who has already accumulated over 10 million Manis. She is still in Tibet and still remains so cheerful. Her recitation of the Manis is related to the great hope she has had for the future, it fills her with great joy. His mother is also on the way to approaching 10 million Manis. These are influential figures for him. He grew up in a devotional environment to Chenrezig and that is his spiritual inheritance. Via phone, his mother told him that even if she only has the chance to do one mani, she dedicates all the merit to him. And she aspires that it become part of his virtue. The love is passed down in the family, transmitted through the mantra. This is how it feels to him. It is his family heirloom, the most sacred and he is now offering it to all of us. This has been the profound gift of his family.
As for the connection with Chenrezig, it runs through the heart of every Tibetan. And also the Karmapa has a special connection to Chenrezig. May you enjoy the love and light of all the Karmapas.
The way to establish lineage in our homelands is to have strong resolve , a pure motivation and develop momentum in order to make progress.
Americans are very courageous, always speak of ‘possibility’ and have a deep respect for the truth, these are good qualities on the spiritual path.
Miscellaneous notes from Julie Adler & Daniel Kane
May they be of some benefit.
Here are some links from the visit:
Photos and articles
Slide show
Karmapa at Newark airport
Rainbows appearing at KTD when Karmapa was there
