FINDING YOUR OWN SEAT
Remain for a little while in naturalness. According to you, this could a simple form of quietude, a gentle kindness, a relaxed and curious intelligence, or an awake and yet unattached open state of awareness.
Remain for a little while in naturalness. According to you, this could a simple form of quietude, a gentle kindness, a relaxed and curious intelligence, or an awake and yet unattached open state of awareness.
Observe with mindfulness. If we become accustomed to this kind of observation, our vision of the world and of ourselves will change subtly, we will be freeing ourselves from the bounding chains, the clinging and we will be enjoying the events in the present moment, here and now, while they last, letting them go and allowing them to fade away until they become a simple memory.
The Potala Palace in Tibet and Puto Shan near Shanghai in China are powerspots of worldwide renown, but it is less known that they are mirrored from Mount Potalaka in South India, the sacred abode of the noble sage of transcendental compassion, Arya Avalokiteshvara. With the wish to shed more light on Mount Potalaka, Levekunst requested Mattia Salvini, an outstanding poet and Sanskrit expert, to compose a pilgrim’s guide. Enjoy his description, poetic praise of the holy place and his Sanskrit chanting.
Below in the green pastures and valleys,
The shepherds roam, taking all hardships on them,
Singing alone in the mountains,
Songs of sorrow, songs of renunciation.
A poetic diary from a three months retreat, by Pilar González Basteris, the award-winning Mexican poet.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche even describes boredom as a necessary part of our meditation practice: “Boredom is part of the discipline of meditation practice. This type of boredom is cool boredom, refreshing boredom. Boredom is necessary and you have to work with it. It is constantly very sane and solid, and very boring at the same time. But it’s refreshing boredom. The discipline then becomes part of one’s daily expression of life. Such boredom seems to be absolutely necessary. Cool boredom.”
This is the story of a retreat I did at Karme Choling in the winter of 1977. That retreat was a bone rattling experience for me, but I was too young at the time to fully appreciate how it was going to change my life. Well, here I am on the fortieth anniversary of that retreat, and it certainly did change my life, so it might worth sharing a bit of that story before I fade away.
We may not call them addictions or think of them in that light and yet habits, what ever they may be, have a hold upon us. Addictions imply that we are not free, that we are not unfettered. Whether we are addicted to TV, to being in love, to running in the park, to smoking, to our mobile phones, to music, to anything whatsoever. Yes, we can even be addicted to meditation.
In The Heart of Lo Gekar, the ancient story is re-imagined from a woman’s point of view. In the hours after the battle ends, our heroine senses something more than conquest. She senses that the battle is not yet over. We follow her up the mountain trail where we see her find the demon’s heart, cast aside yet still beating, on the mountainside where the gompa will eventually rise.
Padmasambhava however used it as a place of practicing Vajrakilaya, and if you have the right karma, you will see some relevant images in the cave walls. There are also various rock formations which have Buddhist, Hindu and in some cases Kirat, mythology attached to them, such as the two rocks just inside the cave door, which are meant to be the the body and head of a demon decapitated by Padmasambhava.
Most of our life in the world is the mind directed outwards. For most of us, this is how it needs to be, but we know there is this whole inner world of ours that is the foundation for the quality of our entire life, and all our relationships. If that inner life is thriving, healthy, enriched, liberated, illumined, then everything we do gets that benefit.
“I learned that well-being and happiness are things that have to be obtained from within yourself. No one is going to give them to you. You have to learn to be wherever you are and to appreciate that, to be with it and be happy with it, not to hope for anything else at that particular moment. ” In these words, Lama Tashi summed up the experience of his three and a half years of retreat, traveling through the Himalayas of India and Nepal.
Many ancient Asian meditation practices have come to the West since the early 60’s. But are they of benefit in this modern day and age? We have lost our groundedness and centeredness due to being more in our heads, we constantly ask why, how, who, what, when? And therefore we are always analyzing and over thinking things.
In 2016 I was fortunate enough to visit several power places of Padmasambhava, spending some weeks in retreat at one, and doing meditation and puja at others. I will share some of my experiences in the hope of encouraging others to visit these holy sites which confer blessings even though one lacks faith or even interest.
During five weeks in Nepal, mindfulness teacher Rikke Braren Lauritzen tested the waters at a traditional nunnery and discovered that it is possible to fuse a spiritual path which draws on both the old wisdom of the Buddha’s teachings and the modern scientific-based interventions used in the Mindful School program, to support the new generation of young monastics living in the 21st Century.
According to Tibetan Buddhists, when a great master reincarnates, though he still retains the level of realization he attained in his previous life, he needs to go through the process of remembering it through formal instruction in this life so as better at teaching others.
The first day is not as silent as you might think it would be. The invading noises of bats, jungle, and ocean blend in flurried motion to become that deeper internal silence that negates all commotion. Disturbing isolation becomes a comforting meditation.
A poetic description of a pilgrimage through the eight main sacred buddhist places of Northern India by Pema Dragpa.
The births of all who dwell here are free of pain. Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders. They are raised according to the inner path of meditation, and cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline. Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate, and their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty. Both men and women are true warriors, but live the lives of ordinary household.
Neither wild monkeys, nor snakes or other poisonous animal life could dissuade me from staying in retreat, not even these huge reptiles and the fear they triggered in my mind. But now a larger problem occurred.
Crestone has received a fair amount of press in the past few years as news of our tiny Colorado community leaks out into the world. With so many spiritual centers in our midst, 23 at last count, this comes as no surprise. Many of us choose to live here because of access to those most precious of commodities: peace and quiet.