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something is up. this morning and tuesday morning i woke up at 3:45 am, on my own, completely awake. each time after going to sleep just after midnight. do i magically only need three and a half hours of sleep now?
last night i took the first in a series of classes on karma and the 12 nidanas. one of my favorite teachers, jesse miller, took us after preliminaries through the inner three circles of a thulka painting on the subject. these circles represent the way in which we keep spinning our wheels. trungpa rinpoche called the circle “compulsive nowness in which the universe recurs”. i saw it as a sort of psychological map of neurosis.
click this thulka painting to zoom in. click this link to hear about the map in summary. Read more »
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found this story this weekend, alluding to the different approaches to dharma and their coming to america. i found the anecdote in the beginning of joseph goldstein’s latest new book titled One Dharma. I’ll paraphrase it:
Zen Master Seung Sahn had moved from korea to america and was working in a laundry mat in providence, rhode island - teaching to whomever would listen while they cleaned their clothes. one day Kalu Rinpoche came to visit, and in classic dharma combat style Master Sahn held up an orange and asked Rinpoche “What is this?”
Rinpoche just looked at the Zen Master, curiously.
Master Sahn said again, “What is this?”
Kalu Rinpoche then turned to his translator and asked “Don’t they have oranges in Korea?”
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i’ve been doing some research today on different buddhist groups near san jose and on the peninsula south of san francisco. i will probably ask for advice from other local buddhist groups on finding space, sharing space, co-marketing programs, and generally helping each other.
in doing that research, i found the super short story “stepping ahead” written by Les Kaye that i wanted to share, on this page: kannon do talks
i’ve given a lot of thought lately to how one grows a small meditation group like ours from a core group of eight or ten folks to a self-sustaining 30 to 50 required to host weekend long retreats and daily programs.
my current favorite idea is to promote in our area for events at the san francisco and berkeley centers. That way we’ll leverage the work of the larger centers to reach a base of interested folks in our neighborhood. part of that will be to advertise programs for Pema this summer in book shops and community newspapers. also promote for any rinpoche or senior teacher who comes to town, not promoting in an aggressive ‘we have some kind of answer you’d value’ kind of way or door to door, but just letting people know about it so if they resonate with someone they’ll have the opportunity to try it out.
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this is the coolest hotel yet. there’s an ethernet port in my room, and they gave me a freakin cat5 cable to use at the front desk. i’m happy to be in portland; i have a meditation retreat here this weekend entitled awakened heart that i’m excited about. but the fast net connection so easily had was a pleasant surprise. and allows me to share this all with you.
i don’t know that much about this retreat. the premise and title makes sense for me. the more i meditate on a regular basis, the more i feel tender and open hearted. not that it’s a result of sitting quietly a lot - like the effect from some cause and effect relationship - but instead it feels like the way-things-are-naturally which i’m learning not to hide from as much. the sitting makes it easier to relax into the state just because it gives me awareness of the ways i hide from it habitually.
there was a two month old on the plane ride up here, and for a couple minutes he sat in a car seat in the aisle right in front of me. it struck me at how intensely present he was. he just stared at the man sitting in front of me. not because the man was making a funny face or anything, just because he wanted to stare. his body was completely relaxed and natural. he looked like a little buddha in his seat. perfectly natural, but his eyes and attention was unembarrassed as he stared with all of his might at this man. he stared and stared. i noticed my own reaction to this; an adult staring like that would be thought of as a freak or anti-social, but the baby was just being himself. it was wonderful.
sitting monkey is place where
something is up. this morning and tuesday morning i woke up at 3:45 am, on my own, completely awake. each time after going to sleep just after midnight. do i magically only need three and a half hours of sleep now?