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STORYTELLING

A SOLDIER’S STORY

We began by viewing each other as enemies and ended up holding hands—a young college student and a broken soldier holding hands together in the brightness of early winter. I give his story to you now because it’s all I can do to relieve the heavy tenderness I still feel for him to this day.

HOW THE GREAT STUPA BECAME & REMAINED AS REFUGE

Guru is heart, guru is luminous, substanceless mind-essence. By the virtue of his or her own training and devotion to benefit beings, the guru in human form embodies heartmind, and by embodying it brings it out in those with eyes to see and ears to hear, who also have a body alive enough to feel their own life and what is around. Like the real authentic guru himself or herself, heartmind remains ungraspable and indefinable, even as a person.

REMEMBERING ETERNITY

Selections from Remembering Eternity, by author Rick Maddox:
He felt that he had been dissolved as a discrete entity but had, in an incomparably advantageous exchange, been reconstituted as the vital center of everything. Ego had nothing to do with this conception; on the contrary, the change allowed Skylar to see, in a profound way, that not only were all people and things in the universe interconnected, but that they all depended on one another.

KING GESAR – A WARRIOR OF FEARLESS COMPASSION

Gesar is inspired by fearless compassion. Unafraid of chaos, he is able to uncover a path of wakefulness and harmony even in the most perilous and compromising situations. His unconditional commitment to others gives birth to the confidence that always uncovers spontaneous, precise and vital expressions of enlightened mind.

THE KALAPA COURT OF SHAMBHALA

Here dwell the Earth Protectors and Rigdens, who rule over all Shambhala and radiate the heart of all true human law. Kalapa is a vast square with high bright ruby walls, surmounted by golden balustrades. Its four gates are made from sapphire, yellow diamond, ruby and emerald. Within the walls are the inner gates and courtyards paved with white opal. In the center, on a platform of pearl, is a great palace, the Kalapa Court.

THE JOURNEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT

The journey to enlightenment proceeds along a very slippery path. According to many unimpeachable sources, if you think too much about how to approach the destination then you’re sure to end up wide of the mark. Indirection may be all-important and yet too much stratagem may likewise lead you astray.

SUCHANDRA: THE KING OF SHAMBHALA

As the lord of heart and mind, He wears gold earrings shaped like sea-dragons. His dragon-patterned brocade robe is turquoise. His sash is pale red like an early winter moon. In his right hand he holds a white lotus on which stands a crystal Vajra; In his left a silver bell. He sits on a glowing golden throne. beneath the rainbow-colored parasol of complete fearlessness, which is vast as the sky.

RETREAT AT JADE CAMP

I’d been dreaming. Something about that dream made me feel like I was soaked with joy. Not joy like kicking it at a party. Joy all through me. Every muscle loosened, like during the night I’d set something heavy down I’d been carrying my whole life. It felt important. But Buddha? Really? Who would ever have thought that this black girl from the East Bay would be meditating and dreaming about Buddha?

JOHN BLOFELD & THE WHEEL OF LIFE

Among my favorite writers, especially during my younger years as a freelancer in Asia, was John Blofeld, whose books helped inspire my early interest in Buddhism and Taoism and fired my imagination with colorful visions of life in China before the communist revolution swept away traditional culture there.

THE DUDE AND SPIRITUAL FATIGUE

Imagine my incoherent thoughts when in a small meeting of Buddhist-minded individuals on the second floor of a café in a small upstate NY town we hear a friend coming along, telling us that they in fact are ordained as Dudeist Priests.

GESAR’S SONGS OF ABANDONMENT

The human world is cracking up. A century of warfare, genocide, destruction and want has severed men and women from their roots.
They have no forbears, no folkways or culture, no past. Money has shredded all other values. The young wander in a phantasmagoria of luxurious diversions, violence, intoxication, constant novelty and hopelessness.

THE LIFE OF KUKKURIPA

The pure and free expanse of shunyata is not reached by the contrived path of rejecting the world. The changeless radiance of Great Compassion is not reached by the fabricated path of clinging to good qualities.

THE LIFE OF KING INDRABHUTI

King Indrabhuti sat unmoving as the sun set, the moon rose and set, and the sun rose once again. Wordlessly and silently, an ocean of pure awareness opened to King Indrabhuti and expanded like an all-embracing mirror.

AN INVOCATION TO TILOPA

There are several lineages of transmitting realization alive today. The Indian master Tilopa is the forefather of many of them, especially those that combine inner yoga with a totally naked and open mind. Enjoy a eloquent and poetic story centered around this outstanding master.

BATTLE VISIONS

It is said that Gesar of Ling has a peculiar effect on some people, letting beautiful literature pour out almost effortlessly and spontaneously. Douglas J. Penick is one of the inspired poets in whose creative mind, the episodes from the fabulous life of King Gesar unfold. Here is part one from The Brilliance of Naked Mind: Secret Visions of Gesar, King of Ling.

THE GREAT VEGETARIAN DEBATE

Once a fine sheep, a goat and an ox who were with other animals feeding in the courtyard happened to hear about The Great Vegetarian Debate, and their faith in the Dharma was greatly renewed. “We take refuge in the Triple Gem,” they thought, “in the wise and compassionate Buddha, his meaningful message, and in those living ones who follow his ways.

LIVING WITH MANIA

Living with mania, is bizarre. In a wonderful way it keeps you on your toes aware. You have to ride the waves. Not be vritti’s slave of mental dictatorship, slip and you’re a battered sausage on a Friday night dipped in mushy peas.

YOU ARE DREAMING ME

YOU ARE DREAMING ME is about the inward concerns and conflicts of young contemporary Buddhist lamas as they travel in opposite directions across cultures, and reflecting those of Khyentse Norbu himself. In search of dreams, desires and enlightenment, their contrasting journeys reveal more unanswered questions than solutions.

PEMA OZER GETS EMPOWERED

A historical fiction about the great female meditation master Sera Khandro, from the point of view of Pema Ozer, a sixteen-year-old attendant, involving being empowered and guided in an intimate atmosphere.

A PLAY OF THE SENSES

This play for children is designed to be easily performed with a minimum of rehearsal. There are readers who perform in various configurations, movers who enact the plot and musicians who improvise. It requires no set, just a dark room.