Tashi Delek!

The seminal source and driving force that is India

2010-01-23T22:41:00.025-05:00

YALAHA, FL -- There is a consistent thread of conversation, at times fully discussed, at others merely hinted at, among those of us Western dharma students in India, and it concerns "going back home."

It’s odd. India, the way I and so many dharma students experience it, can be unceasingly challenging and difficult. Budget traveling in India means hard and too-short beds, shared toilet-less bathrooms, no heat on cold nights, frustrating language struggles, exhaust fumes, respiratory infections and diarrhea, cold showers, plans and schedules gone awry. It is physically punishing. The smell of shit is everywhere, the poverty is overwhelming, the suffering in the streets immense. Dodging people, buffalo, cows, rickshaws and the nerve-jarring horns of tuk-tuks (motor-rickshaws) and motorbikes gets exhausting. The dust is everywhere, making eyes water and throats burn. Westerners are stand-out targets of touts, merchants and beggars. Being a half-day ahead of everyone back home, on the other side of the planet, there is frequent loneliness.

And yet . . . and yet, the idea of the time there coming to an end . . . climbing on a plane to fly back home, and being back in the familiar . . . is, for many Western dharma students, horrifying. You don’t even have to verbalize it, just mention to whomever you’re speaking with that "next Tuesday I’m going back home" and for a few moments the conversation stops and eyes lock in empathic understanding.

***

I remember a few years ago in Nepal. A five-week retreat at a hilltop monastery overlooking the city of Kathmandu was coming to an end, it had been a month of retreat, never once leaving the monastery, a month of teachings and meditations, a month of refuge, simply wonderful, and I was talking with a couple of Australian women who had been in the retreat. We were gazing down at the city, and one of the women expressed a regretful fear that in a few days it would be time to go back "down into that."

I’ve had this conversation with many people, different angles, different time-frames, but always the same . . . dharma practice takes root in India, but in the West it gets lost in the rush, and the idea of the loss is frightening. Too hard to maintain practice. Mind pollution. Old habits. Cultural crap. No support. The potent and endearing mind treasures of Himalayan Buddhism, so rich in India, vanish . . . like crashing out of a deep, wondrous dream of the high holy Himalayas in downtown Cleveland.

Even with all the difficulties of being/living in India, while there, dharma practice is easier, seems more real. And when one is immersed in it, its preciousness and beauty are part of everything one is, but the idea of leaving this place, and losing touch with this part of the self . . .

The plane ticket home has a date that is fast approaching . . .

***

I've been back back in Yalaha for nine full days now. The "re-entry" has been painless, it appears that I am long past the effects of jet-lag, and truth is, India has become for me another one of my neighborhoods, joining New York City and northern California as places I feel at home in, and have no great sadness at leaving.

Perhaps once a place becomes home, one never really leaves it, there’s always influences and aspects of these places that are indelibly part of the mind, part of who and what and why we are. India and noCal and NYC are with me -- ARE me -- everywhere I go.

An equanimity settles in. Regardless of where we are -- India or Florida or Timbuktu -- there is always work to do, manifestations of our dharma practices constantly being put to use. I remember a quote from Ani Tenzin Palmo, a very articulate and wise nun, who was once asked what her main practice is. Her reply: "whatever and whoever is coming toward me is my practice."

So, one week back in Florida, I try to keep this in mind.

I did not count the days in India dreading the trip home, rather I welcomed it; opportunities to use what I have learned await.

Things have been busy, time with friends and kids, getting back into the swing of work with conference calls, business negotiations, etc. Dharma-wise: two nights of teachings, a lecture combining the nature of mind and an appreciation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama before a large group of para-psychology buffs, and leading the first of seven Saturday morning meditation classes.

It's no secret how much I love being in India, how through the sickness (not this past time!) and hardships I have discovered such exquisite richness and freedom to grow. How I gain clarity and strength of mind through what I am so very fortunate to experience.

But I enjoy, vastly, being home too. The Buddhist teachings tell us that the perfection of generosity is a key component for a mind that is happy, and it is my honor and privilege to bring back what I have learned and share it with so many wonderful people.

The Buddha taught there are three major "types" of generosity. Each of them stems from the mind of interconnected altruism, that understands the more we are able to help others, the more we help ourselves be able to help others . . . this is the seed of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment.

The three types of generosity are (1) the giving of things, (2) the giving of teachings, and (3) the giving of fearlessness. A short description of each:

Giving of Things
The first is the three types of generosity is the giving of wealth, be it material resources or our time and energy.

Giving of Teaching
Second is the giving of teaching. By teaching others, we are helping them to learn how to rely more on themselves. We give material resources to try to solve immediate needs. But, if we want to solve needs that are more far-reaching, we teach. It is not necessary to have exceptional skills. Simply teach whatever we are good at and what others are not.

Giving of Fearlessness
Third is the giving of fearlessness. It is to remove the insecurities, worries, and fears of others, whether the "other" is human or non-human. This giving can be the sharing of a kind word, the giving of our strength and stability, or our understanding. When we relieve the worries and fears of others, and help them to feel more secure, they will be able to find peace and self-respect.

***

I have a long way to go before generosity is "perfected" in my mind, but one of the seminal sources and driving forces of whatever generosity does abide in my mind is India. So beautiful, so difficult, so intense, so enlightening . . . uniquely precious in so many different ways, but at the end of the day, for me, it is primarily a source of experience, a place of learning, the deep well whose precious water I bring back to share with others.

In this way, India -- and the Tibetan people and their practices I was introduced to there, whose philosophies and understandings and methods I’ve welcomed and allowed to resonate in my mind -- has provided me with the greatest gift I believe one can ever receive -- the awakening of generosity.

Like a gramatically complete sentence, generosity needs an object, so, if you’re reading this and are a Chenrezig Projecteer, or a participant in any of the events we sponsor, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share India’s fantastic insights and wisdoms with you. I will do the very best I can to communicate and (karma willing), help touch your mind with this same core component of true confidence and happiness -- generosity.

Next week we'll examine the Buddha's Four Immeasurables, with a focus on equanimity, the fertile ground from which dharma blossoms. We are all so fortunate.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

2010-01-13T05:49:00.004-05:00

The Birla House in Delhi, January 30, 1948. He was a few minutes late for regular evening devotions, a crowd of about 500 had assembled. As he approached the people he touched his palms together in the traditional Hindu greeting.

Just then, a man elbowed his way out of the congregation into the lane in front of him, looking as though he wished to prostrate himself, the customary obeisance of the devout. But planting himself two feet in front of his target, he fired three shots from a small automatic pistol.

As the first bullet struck, Gandhi’s foot, which was in motion, descended to the ground, but he remained standing. The second bullet struck; blood began to stain Gandhi’s white clothes. His face turned ashen pale. His hands, which had been in the touch-palm position, descended slowly.

Gandhi murmured, "Hey Rama (Oh, God)." A third shot rang out. The limp body settled to the ground. His spectacles dropped to the earth. The leather sandals slipped from his feet.

***

On the day he died, Mahatma Gandhi was what he had always been: a private citizen without wealth, property, official title, official post, academic distinction, scientific achievement, or artistic gift. Yet men with powerful governments and armies behind them paid homage to the little brown man of 78 in a loincloth.

General George Marshall, the United States Secretary of State, said, "Mahatma Gandhi was the spokesman for the conscience of all mankind."

Pope Pius, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi of London, the King of England, President Truman, Chiang-Kai-shek, the President of France and many other heads of important countries (but not Soviet Russia) expressed their grief at Gandhi’s passing.

Leon Blum, the French socialist, put on paper what millions felt, “I never saw Gandhi, I do not know his language, I never set foot in his country and yet I feel the same sorrow as if I had lost someone near and dear.”

Professor Albert Einstein said, “In our time of utter moral decadence, he was the only statesman to stand for a higher human relationship in the political sphere.”

Pearl S. Buck described Gandhi’s assassination as “another crucifixion.” Justice Felix Frankfurter called it “a cruel blow against the forces of good in the world.”

General Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied military commander in Japan, said: “In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi’s belief that the mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction.”

***

Few of us in the West know much about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi beyond the icons: the spinning wheel, the walking stick, the spectacles, the fasts, Satyagraha, non-violence, the spindly little brown man leading crowds of Indians toward independence through civil disobediance, the familiar images captured in fuzzy black-and-white photos and news reels.

He belonged to the Vaisya caste. In the old Hindu social scale, the Vaisyas stood third, far below the Brahmins who were the number one caste and the Kshatriyas, or rulers and soldiers who ranked second. The Vaisyas, in fact, were only a notch above the Sudras, the working class (‘Gandhi’ means grocer).

From my travels in India I have come to learn how deeply venerated Gandhi-ji is. His image appears on every piece of Indian paper money, regardless of the amount. Three generations after his death, his photo hangs in stores; statues, busts, likenesses are common. Mention him in conversations with Indians and their eyes light-up.

The Raj Ghat, the site of his cremation, is in a beautiful park in the center of Delhi. An eternal flame burns on the site, where to the cries and moans and wails of more than two million onlookers, Ramdas Gandhi set fire to his father’s funeral pyre. The fire burned for more than 14 hours, all the while prayers were sung; the entire text of the Bhagavad Gita was read. To this day there is always a crowd there, silent, respectful, in love with the memory of this precious man.

I’ve been to the Raj Ghat a couple of times, but never to the National Gandhi Museum which sits across the street. This morning, the last of this time in India, I visited.

As museums go, it is not visually spectacular, it actually has the feel more of a comfortable library, as it has been well-used (how lovely for a museum!) and there is much to read. Admission is free, donations encouraged. Halls and rooms display quotes and photos, amazing ones, following Gandhi from his days as a law student in London to a lawyer and Indian rights organizer in South Africa to his remarkable life as the man who led the fight for Indian independence from British rule.

There are signs throughout the museum requesting silence, they are unnecessary. If ever there were corridors of human brilliance so intense that there could be nothing but silence in response, it is these.

On prominent display is the walking stick with which he led the famous Salt march, where in civil disobedience he broke the British law making it a punishable crime to possess salt not obtained from the British salt monopoly.

His spectacles are there to be seen, his bed, his trusty pocketwatch, his dentures, his bowls, as are many of his diverse notes, letters and diaries of commentary so important to the morals and independence of this magnificent country. Clothes that he wore, books that he owned and wrote notes in, personal items all there to be shared.

At the end of one room, the heart aches, legs grow weak. Many photos of his body lying in state, on the funeral pyre, burning. His children, his friends, his followers, the people of India -- so many terribly sad faces. There is the urn in which his ashes were carried, a bullet that was removed from his body, the blood-stained cloths he was wearing when he was shot.

Museum turns to temple with these holy relics. People approach softly, with eyes frozen in sadness they look, then slowly leave quickly, heads down.

***

He had no personal hatred of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse said at his trial, at which he was sentenced to be hanged: “Before I fired the shots I actually wished him well and bowed to him in reverence.”

In response to Godse’s obeisance and the reverential bows of other members of the congregation, Gandhiji touched his palms together, smiled and blessed them. Then, the shots.

***

He was a great human being, Mohandas K. Gandhi, perhaps the finest of the 20th century. If you have the inclination, you’ll benefit greatly by learning more about him, his life, his ideas, his actions.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

(Some of the above Jan. 30, 1948 description and quotes from Louis Fischer's "The Life of Mahatma Gandhi."

Final day thoughts . . .

2010-01-11T23:36:00.008-05:00

It’s Tuesday morning, January 12, and tonight at 11pm my Delhi-Newark flight is scheduled to depart.

In an e-mail I received yesterday I was asked if I’m going to blog a “wrap-up” piece, and I really don’t think I can . . . so much has occurred in this past month, I believe the paint has to dry a bit before a final picture (if such a thing exists) emerges.

But I do have some thoughts floating around, and will jot them down here, as always, I hope they inspire some thought on your side; thank you for reading.

Outties and Innies

I don’t know if this is still the case, but years ago, some delivering doctors at childbirth would tie off the cord in a fashion that provided an “outtie” belly-button and others an “innie” -– an outtie being one with a little kind-of-knot. I remember as a kid this was at times a topic of conversation, an early version of “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”

Neither (outtie or innie) was better, just different.

Well, I think the “outtie” and “innie” idea, in a subtle yet deep way, applies to much more than belly-buttons. It applies to how we go about living our lives.

Outties is the style in which we primarily take that which is available to us, depend on it, live for it, and bring it inside for our own use. Some common refrains of outties are “I need” and “I’m bored.”

Innies primarily work with what is available to them inside; depending on what comes from the outside for survival and nourishment for that which exists in their minds and hearts.

In life, each person can take one of two attidudes: to build (outties) or to plant (innies). The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day they finish what they’re doing. Then they find that they’re hemmed-in by their own walls. Life loses much of its meaning when the building stops.

Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many hardships of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.

Gardeners always recognize each other, because they know that in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole world.

I have been quite fortunate to have spent the past month in the presence of many gardeners. I hope to be able to bring what I have learned back to my loved ones, friends and acquaintances.

The Two Indias

On the train from Gaya to Delhi I shared a sleeper-compartment with two Indian men, one a chemical engineer for Shell Oil, who was traveling to Delhi to return to his assignment in Stavenger, Norway. The other was an IT professional who was on the way to Bangalore, from where he managed his company’s “cloud computing” facilities in Singapore and Malaysia.

For my benefit, each of them spoke flawless fluent English, were personable, friendly and very well-informed about world affairs; in the four hours or so we spent together talking, our topics ranged from Obama to China to the caste system to international banking to the differences in cultural attitude between the Hong Kong and Singporean workforces.

These men, each in their forties, are citizens of the planet; they are pragmatic, ambitious, scholarly, analytical and seem to be very happy in their lives.

With a population four times that of the U.S., there are many, many more people like these in India, eager and able to take their place in the global community.

They are India in the 21st century.

***

Bodhgaya, were I spent the past few weeks is in the Indian state of Bihar, an Indian basketcase.

Bihar is the poorest of Indian states, and crime is rampant. Each year, the seasons bring floods and droughts, keeping development down and life very difficult.i

Biharians have always been a object of scorn and ridicule in India. Biharians were the indentured laborers who did the heavy and dirty work, that dynamic still exists. Biharians still pedal the rickshaws of Delhi, their daughters continue to be sold into service in the brothels of Mumbai.

Gun-toting men are a common sights on the streets of the cities (Patna and Gaya). Recently, a local corrupt power-broker went live on TV, daring the state chief of police to arrest him. Kidnappings for ransom are commonplace.

When I was at the Gaya train station at midnight, waiting for my train to Delhi, I knew I was in the darkest, dirtiest, most sinister place I had ever been in my life.

55% of the Bihari population is below the national poverty line, the national average is 33%.

Only 20% of the children (those who are known, many are born in the villages, completely off the grid) are fully immunized from disease (all India: 42%). Almost 60% of these children are underweight (38%); 45% of the women are underweight, the highest percentage in the country.

There is a stunningly heart-breaking display of human illness and misery on the streets.

70% percent of the inhabited areas in Bihar are not connected by motorable roads, industry comprises only 2% of its economy.

82 million people live in Bihar, and the population continues to grow at more than 3% each year. More than 90% live in the “rural” areas.
Terrorist attacks in Bihar are a regular occurrence, both on a tribal basis and a socio-political one (there are, as one might expect in such a poverty-stricken area, Maoist influences taking root from Nepal, which borders Bihar to the north. There are murders, massacres and train bombings.

This said, I have seen few things more beautiful than sunrise over the Biharian rice fields, and met several Biharians I am proud to call friends.

Bihar too, is India in the 21st century.

Odds and Ends

Well, today is my final day of my time here, this morning I am going to visit the National Gandhi Museum and learn more about the great Mahatma. I have been reading a biography of him, and have come to learn how much more there was behind the world famous iconic image.

In the afternoon it's a business meeting, and then off to IGI (Indira Gandhi International) for the long trip back.

I look forward to seeing everyone back home, it has been just a month but seems so much longer. Many stories to relate. I seem to have found my elusive “writing voice” -- whether this is an India-only occurrence we’ll see, I enjoy it and hope to continue once back home.

And oh yeah, for those of you who are curious, from my friend Cynthia, an Australian woman in Bodhgaya for HHDL's teachings, Richard Gere has just an “ordinary” butt.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

Tibetan wisdom we all can practice . . .

2010-01-08T06:38:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the seed of an idea makes itself known and then slips away. A little bit later, perhaps a day or two, it pops up again, feeling a little familiar now, a sensibility or a thought, not yet quite strong enough to be a real idea. And then it happens again, and at some point you realize that abiding is an idea that stands on its own, and deserves some attention . . .

***

As many know, the methods of Tibetan Buddhist practice have roots that extend deeply into the astrophysics and medical systems that developed and have emerged from Tibet. These systems are among the greatest legacies of Tibetan Buddhist civilization. Many travelers to the Tibetan settlements of India have, upon falling ill, been treated by Tibetan doctors and treated their illness with Tibetan medicines. This includes me.

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend regular time teaching conversational English to a student/scientist at the Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrophysical College in Dharamsala (the first Men-Tsee-Khang, or Lhasa Tibetan Medical Institute, was established by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1916).

I provide this background not to go into a discussion of Tibetan medicine or science, for which I am sorely under-qualified, but to speak about a quality called “delight.”

I’d like to quote the writing of Thubten Gyatso, a once Australian doctor now Buddhist monk:

“In the mid-1970’s, before I became a Buddhist, my interest in Tibetan medicine took me to Northern India, where I met Dr. Drolma, a Tibetan woman practicing traditional medicine in Dharamsala. . . . Dr. Drolma accepted my request to accompany her as an observer, and as she was seeing patients I could not help but compare her office with the outpatients department at the hospital in Australia where I recently worked.

“There was no comparison. Her diagnostic method of simply reading the pulse and observing the bubbles in urine was one thing, but the great difference was in her relationship with her patients. She loved them, and they loved her.

“The clinic was filled with the warmth of loving-kindness, so different than the impersonal atmosphere in Australia. Whatever the merits of her diagnostic method and her fascinating herbal remedies, I became convinced that the renowned therapeutic efficiency of Dr. Drolma was due to the power of her loving-kindness.”

***

We’ll now hear from Dr. Tsewang Tamding, the pharmaceutical director at the Men-Tse-Khang, from a journal article I was reading while eating breakfast:

“Tibetan doctors are respected because of their unique system of diagnosis and their gentle way of speaking. The way one speaks to a patient is very important. During conversation, your speech should touch a patient’s heart, which will definitely make them feel happy and hearty.”

***

And the last of the “dots” in this picture comes from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in a quote I mentioned a few days ago: “If we wish to help people we should delight them, so they become receptive to what we have to offer.”

This is the one that I’ve been thinking about, that keeps popping to the surface. Please read it again, and allow it to take root: “If we wish to help people we should delight them, so they become receptive to what we have to offer.”

This is exactly what the Tibetan doctors are doing with their patients, creating “delight” in their minds, so they are best able to be helped. This is what the Dalai Lama does, in the ways he talks and interacts with people.

“Delighting others” is such a wonderful way of summarizing what the Buddhist path is all about. It doesn’t imply fooling or tricking or being false, but having present and using those qualities that truly are delightful: joy, honesty, patience, kindness, wisdom, skillful means, etc.

And why should it only be Tibetan doctors who “delight” others in the fulfilling of their duties? Why not all of us?

Why not office workers, and bank tellers, and Western doctors and dentists and nurses, why not real estate people, or teachers, or librarians, or consultants, or accountants, or landscapers?

Why not husbands and wives and neighbors and congregants, bowling buddies and fellow PTA members, acquaintances and lovers and once-lovers? Why not “delight” the man who bags your groceries at Publix or the clerk at the drivers’ license bureau?

The benefits of doing this are enormous. You'll see straight-out that in delighting them, you'll also be delighting yourself, this is guaranteed. And what you do, and how you do it, and with whom you do it, when done with an intention of “delighting other” will, in His Holiness’ words, enable them to be “more receptive to what we have to offer.”

And Mahayana Buddhism teaches and shows us that we have so much to offer.

So think about this, mull it over, and then, if the inclination rises, act. Don’t leave it to others to change the world, do it yourself, as you can. "Delighting others" would be a fantastic way to start.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

A cornucopia of Dharma

2010-01-07T06:35:00.003-05:00

Day three of HHDL teachings, much warmer than the past two, began with prayers and recitations of the Heart Sutra, once in Tibetan (as usual) and then once in Japanese by a small group of monks.

His Holiness then continued his “fireside” talks to the assembled, discussing the Tibetan language, Himalayan environmental issues, brain plasticity, the meditating mind at the time of and after death, the teachings of the Vinaya, the Copenhagen summit, non-Tibetan Himalayans, the remembering (with anecdotes) of past lives, anger, bodhicitta, overcoming fear in the face of certain impending death at the hands of the Chinese, and many other topics.

At one point I wrote in my notebook, “He is on fire!” He was.

Here’s a series of His Holiness’ statements and messages:

“As Tibet declines, the Himalayan people (Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, etc.) need to take responsibility for preserving the teachings – this is my hope.” (He spoke of how the enrollment of Tibetan children in the Tibetan schools of India is declining, and he has spoken to Indian school officials to begin including Himalayan children of immediate non-Tibetan descent to enroll.)

“It is not science and technology that cause problems, but how people use them.”

“The teachings of the Buddha are like a nectar for the ears of sentient beings.”

“The educational system needs to teach about the mind, but not as an aspect of religion.”

“Happiness is not contingent on external circumstances.”

“The Chinese leaders are not able to see the long-term consequences of what they do, only the short-term.”

“We all have the mental thoughts and feelings that make us unhappy: delusions and afflictions. These afflictions are diseases within ourselves which must be dealt with, we can’t just leave them alone . . . ultimately, it is wisdom that is the antidote.”

“I know many rich people who have all the amenities in life but are very unhappy.”

“We are talking about cultivating happiness in human beings, and to do so it is necessary to understand the states of mind.”

“Western science deals primarily with the brain, not so much the mind, which has been our tradition.”

“Afflictions are only temporary . . . we must know this.”

“Why do we neglect sentient beings and revere the Buddhas?”

“Buddhism’s ultimate goals are obstructed by selfishness.”

“Scientists speak in terms of neurons . . . but in the subtler levels of the mind, scientists can not explain how consciousness arises.”

“Consciousness cannot be produced by something other than consciousness.”

“Live a good life here, the next one will be taken care of.”

“Even when we were in the womb, our mother’s peace of mind was essential for our well-being.”

“Bodhicitta is the greatest good heart, put your best efforts toward generating this.”

“Have the courage to steer your mind toward the perfection of bodhicitta.”

“Without an aspiration for bodhicitta, you are outside of the Mahayana path.”

“In order to tame others, you must first tame yourself.”

“Bodhicitta does not mean disregarding or not loving yourself . . . this is wrong. We use the seed of self-love to develop love for others.”

“Intention and motivation are not enough; to overcome ignorance you have to develop the view that cuts at the root.”

“Yesterday I was cold, today I am hot.”

***

OK, kids, that’s your “Ocean of Wisdom” blast for today. Thank you for letting me share it with you. Tomorrow is the final day of teachings, how quickly the time goes.

I've been reading about the sub-freezing temps in central Florida, please keep warm. I look forward to my return next week!

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

"Even your dreams will be happy"

2010-01-06T10:51:00.008-05:00

Perhaps the coldest morning yet turned into a beautiful sunny day as His Holiness continued his teachings. The crowds were larger today than yesterday, perhaps with many late arrivals.

Getting to Bodhgaya is apparently very difficult as the thick overnight fog is causing extensive delays on the train lines into Gaya, the nearest station. There is a small airport in Gaya, really just a strip, that flies one flight a day to Bangkok and one every couple of days to Chenai.

After His Holiness’ teachings, Lama Zopa Rinpoche led a candlelight march around the Mahabodhi Stupa in support of creating a vegetarian-only zone in Bodhgaya, it was attended by what seemed to be a couple of thousand people and co-led by Richard Gere, who created quite a stir in town when he emerged from the car with Lama Zopa at the march’s starting point.

Hollywood star power, even here in Dharma-land.

After tonight I have just two more nights in Bodhgaya before I travel to Delhi on the overnight train, which departs Gaya close to midnight on Jan. 9th after His Holiness concludes his teachings that morning with a Long Life Empowerment for all in attendance. I have accomplished what I came for and will be ready to go.

During today’s teachings, His Holiness again addressed the Tibetans, and especially the monastics. It remains so precious to be able to listen to his words and tone as he speaks not to the citizens of the world, or non-Buddhists, as is so often the case when we hear his soundbites, but to his people.

Today’s teachings covered many different topics, His Holiness was quite expository, and he included an extensive discussion of the Noble Eightfold Path, the “leisures” of precious human rebirth, the minds of the Sept. 11 terrorists, and some Lam-rim teachings.

Some of today’s messages, again, many of them practical and for the benefit of his beloved monastic students:

“In Mongolia, the Dharma is being destroyed by those who do not take it seriously.”

“In the past, many people took Tibetan Buddhism to be our custom, but now there is much necessary study taking place.”

“For us Tibetans, our identity is linked to Buddhism.”

“For someone who is a Buddhist, there is no way you can be unsure about taking refuge in the Three Jewels.”

“On the ultimate level, there is, of course, no such thing as attainment or cessation.”

“It is best to wake up early in the morning, and when reciting prayers, think about the meaning, not just the words.”

“Right speech includes not being a hypocrite, but tough love, speaking harshly, is OK . . . in the long run it will help the person although it may be a little difficult at first.”

“A true Muslim cannot harm sentient beings, cannot cause bloodshed.”

“I’m just a simple monk, following the Buddha. I always check myself, it is important for you to do likewise.”

“We live in exile, we must be very careful, it is as if we are in a blizzard, we must be very careful.”

“If you live honestly, even in your dreams you will be happy.”

“It is much easier to practice religion with eyes and ears, and much harder to practice religion that has to do with the development of the mind.”

“Contemplate this (the beauty of Dharma) again and again with the highest joy.”

“If you disregard Dharma and say that everything is empty, this is a harmful, nihilistic view.”

“Lama Tsong Khapa really took great pains to deal with the difficult points of the classical texts, showing his scholarly knowledge and detailed reasoning.”

“Our life of leisure (to practice Dharma) is more precious than a wish-granting jewel.”

“If we wish to help people we should delight them, so they become receptive to what we have to offer.”

“When it comes to your Dharma practice, do not put your rope in the hands of others.”

During the afternoon teaching His Holiness had the place in a laughing uproar as he called upon the lay people in the crowd to relieve the monks in serving tea. Many did and he poked fun at them as they did so. He just sat and cackled in that familiar way, and the monks followed his lead. It was a riot and really served to make all feel even more together.

Personally, today’s teachings had an ease about them, a relaxation . . . every now and then a slight transformation of consciousness, a certain feel . . . to be sitting in a field in India -- in this place -- taking direct teachings from the Buddha . . . is this all a dream we dreamed so many lifetimes long ago?

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

HHDL: Day 1

2010-01-05T10:01:00.004-05:00

It has been a memorable day, His Holiness was magnificent in his teachings, I really don’t think I can communicate how fortunate I am to be here, in the middle of this.

One of the things that is so special about His Holiness’ teachings in India is that he is not teaching to Americans or Australians or Europeans, he is teaching to Tibetans – his people. The Kalachakra Field was jammed with people, I’d say there are about 25,000 people there, truth is it is impossible to say, and I’d estimate 90% of them are Tibetans, with the remaining being a mix of Westerners and Indians. Of the Tibetans, three quarters are lamas, monks and nuns.

Unlike in the West, where he is publicly speaking primarily to non-Buddhists except for some special teachings, here he is speaking to Buddhists, i.e., Tibetan Tibetan Buddhists. And for these people he is spiritual leader, political leader, God-figure, and Dad. They love him, and he they.

So, after some prayers and recitation of the Heart Sutra, he spent this morning speaking not about the texts he’s going to teach, but about what he’s been up to, a report to his people. He spoke about conferences he’s attended in Spain and Poland, and a recent trip to Mongolia. He told them about advances in science and medicine, and how scientists and researchers are learning more and more about the mind. He mentioned Obama and China, and (with pride) about the pure “Nalanda” tradition the Gelugs follow, and how scholars around the world are in increasing agreement with its philosophies and practices.

He repeatedly “scolded” his people, telling them very early on that these teachings will be a waste of their time and his if they don’t use them to help turn their mind to dharma, and how they must study in order to become “21st Century Buddhists.”

During the morning teaching, monks came through the crowd, serving tea and Tibetan bread to everyone, in the afternoon it was again tea.

His Holiness’ afternoon teaching, on Nagarjuna, was brilliant, covering topics such as the nature of mind, the three major questions regarding self, a comparison of Buddhism and Jainism with the world’s monotheistic religions, a discussion of the Mahayana path, monastics and the monks of Mongolia, Buddha’s turning of the wheel of Dharma, a deep explanation of dependent origination, etc.

Do you see how wide-ranging incredible this is?

His voice is strong, with tone sometimes forceful, others gentle. He sits on a high seat, surrounded by glorious thangkas, monastics gathered on either side. He is animated, and thoughtful.

His two-hour teachings are in Tibetan, there is clear, almost simultaneous translation being FM broadcast, with frequencies for English, French, Russian, Spanish and Chinese students; a true world event. (There are very few Americans here, most of the Westerners here are Australian.)

Here’s some quotes I jotted down, perhaps you’ll find some meaning in them:

“Buddhism provides the most profound and relevant explanations of the workings of mind.”

“You can’t buy love and compassion with money, these must be cultivated within yourself.”

“The mind that asserts that there is a self that is independent of the aggregates . . . Buddha said this is evil, a devilish mind.”

“If you don’t want to be a monk, don’t wear the robes.”

“Altruism is a medicine that can overcome 100 diseases.”

(Speaking to the Tibetan people who came to this teaching from Tibet): So, have you heard something new? There are so many restrictions placed on you by the Chinese. When you get back, tell people about dependent origination. And if they ask you a question you don’t know the answer to, tell them, ‘I don’t know, but there is something . . .’”

“In the Himalayan region people are faithful without much understanding – we must be 21st Century Buddhists; we must cultivate faith based on reason and understanding.”

“Understanding dependent origination is having the path to liberation.”

“There is no self that is separate from the aggregates; there is no self-sufficient autonomous self.”

“All objects of knowledge exist in name only, not from their own side.”

“If words and their meaning were not different, the word ‘fire’ would burn the mouth.”

”Things arise due to causes and conditions and thus are unborn.”

“Be critical and check over and over again.”

“An existent thing does not arise.”

“There is no thing that is not dependent, therefore there is no thing that is not empty.”

“There is no present moment, therefore we cannot posit ‘past’ or ‘future’ in relation to this.”

***

Tomorrow it’s two more teachings. We’ll go deeper into Buddhist scholarship with Atisha’s practice-oriented Lam-rim writings. Very fantastic and, at times, surreally wonderful.

It’s the Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya. He is at the exact center of this huge and exquisite mandala that's been created on the plains of Northern India, a mandala of pure Dharma preciousness that we've been invited to enter, open our minds to, and benefit from.

Stopping my finger now, thanks for reading.

A "Pure Land"

2010-01-04T06:46:00.009-05:00

I saw the Dalai Lama today. Twice.

***

Today has been a pretty good day so far, is about 4:30pm, I had my first hot shower in three weeks (the hot water geyser is finally working) and went to town to meet some friends for lunch at the new little restaurant at the Shechen (Nyingma) Monastery. Quite delicious!

Before meeting I walked over to the Mahabodhi Stupa, ground zero in this incredible place, and as I arrived his Holiness, who arrived here this morning, was coming out. The path leading in to the Stupa and the walkways around it were of course closed for security, and there were thousands of people watching and chanting and prostrating as he climbed the steps, got into his waiting white Ambassador, and was driven off accompanied by what seemed to be 50% of the Indian Army.

A friend mentioned that he seems to be walking a little stooped-over; it seems so.

Later, after lunch, His Holiness was in the Ambassador, going from the Mahabodhi Museum to the Tibetan Gelug Monastery where he is staying. Again, a crowd. Again, that uniquely unmistakable feeling of lifting a few inches off the ground upon seeing him.

So things are coming closer, the teachings begin tomorrow with a transmission of Nagarjuna’s In Praise of the Transcendental. During the days following will be Atisha's Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, Longchen Rinpoche's Mind In Comfort and Ease and Lama Tsong-Kha-Pa’s Short Version of the Stages of the Path To Enlightenment. On the last morning he will confer a long-life empowerment on those in attendance.

Speaking of Lama Atisha, his relics are on display at the Shechen Monastery where I ate lunch (no, not in the restaurant).

Tonight it’s over to the Kagyu Monastery for a traditional Tibetan music and dance exhibition, which will be attended by both the Karmapa and Dalai Lamas. Like everything here, all the teachings, free admission; just bring your passport to register for a pass.

The town is full, people from all around the world have arrived. Snake charmers, sadhus, Asians, Westerners, movie stars (Richard Gere is here, just another student, staying where I am.) The fog has lifted, it has been sunny and quite beautiful, tonight will be cool.

A “pure land” is a place where the conditions are such that the practice of Dharma is completely encouraged, supported and effortless. Bodhgaya, right now, is a pure land.

***

When one sees or hears His Holiness the Dalai Lama in person, one is, I believe, in the presence of a man in possession of the very best qualities humans can aspire to.

“A simple Buddhist monk” just a simple Buddhist monk” – His Holiness often says this phrase and people usually smile and think that he is being too modest, striking a pose of studied humility, trying to contradict his obvious presence of enormous charisma, radiant good humor, flashing intelligence. But read some of the many books he has written, learn more about him, talk to people who know him, and you’ll find out that he lives his life, as best he can, according to the lifestyle of just what he says he is, a simple Buddhist monk.

Of course, he does have multiple identities.

He is a human being, of course, a male, the descendent of farmers, herdsmen and strong working women of the province of Amdo in far northeastern Tibet, close to where Tibet meets Mongolia, China and Turkestan. He is a Tibetan.

After a human being, his next identity is that of a Buddhist monk, a person who has taken and maintains the vows of personal non-violence, poverty, celibacy, and spiritual honesty, and who spends most of his waking energy in the pursuit of a personal enlightenment believed to last for all time, to satisfy the self with unimaginable fullness and to benefit countless other beings.

As a monk he minimizes his distractions and maximizes his simplicity.

As a monk he works on dissolving habitual egotism, including the rigidity of his human, sexual and national identities.

As a monk he lives close to the bone, and also strives to be a universal being.

He also constantly creates – he calls it “shaping his motivation” – his working identity as a Bodhisattva, a driven being who has dedicated all his lives to the attainment of perfect enlightenment, complete wisdom and inexhaustible compassion, in order to be able to help all other beings find freedom from suffering.

He says that his religion is the common human religion of kindness, of love, of compassion, of universal responsibility. And he sees not just the pope, or grand rebbes, or other religious leaders as his spiritual peers, but everyone.

Every day he labors to lead his people and fulfill his responsibility to preserve and rule his nation, the Tibetan nation that has been under genocidal pressure for over half a century, in such mortal danger that Tibetans should be on the endangered humans list.

For his Tibetan people he is a statesman, a politician, a diplomat, a personnel manager, a chief executive officer. He maintains these duties in exile as a refugee.

He is a committed scholar and a prolific writer, researching deeply the philosophical, psychological, and religious literature of his sophisticated civilization as well as exploring the modern sciences and literatures. He studies incessantly with a variety of tutors and teaches extensively, both advanced students in the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community and the entire Tibetan populace, as well as an ever-growing public of spiritual seekers around the world. He speaks to all with clarity and sincerity, with a good sense of humor and an unfailing optimism.

He is also an accomplished meditation master, a teacher of esoteric ritual and contemplative traditions. His precise knowledge of the sacred tantric worlds, of the elaborate arts and procedures, his graceful gestures, magnificent chanting and both eloquent and profound explanations of the advanced contemplative practices leave even his veteran disciples in amazement.

And he is a peacemaker for the world, a Nobel Peace Laureate, an inspirer of world leaders both political and religious who have been fortunate enough to encounter him. His message to them never wavers: do not settle for the harmful by-products of blind institutional momentum, but take responsibility for the poor and the oppressed, use good sense and good will to solve the problems that beset our world, and do not give in to despair and cynicism while hiding behind power and privilege.

He patiently offers the alternative of constructive dialog as balm for violence and prejudice.

He is a magnificent person who can make us feel how utterly worthwhile it is to be a human being.

I saw the Dalai Lama today. Twice. His teachings begin tomorrow.

Stopping my finger now, thanks for reading.

Sniffles and fog

2010-01-02T23:52:00.005-05:00

Sunday morning in Bodhgaya, not much new to report.

It has become foggy and bone-chilling cold, am hoping the sun breaks through and warms things up a bit but it is already 10:30 and all is dark grey. I am wearing every long-sleeved garment I brought, and have a wool scarf snuggly wrapped around my neck.

Yesterday saw my first bout with sickness, stomach stuff and chills and very tired; took a three-hour nap, woke up for some dinner and then went back to sleep for the night nestled under three blankets, feel much better today although the stomach is a little unsettled. As always there is much sickness here, people sneezing and coughing and sniffling, and this cold weather is not helping.

So it's a lazy morning, just hanging around, drinking tea, in conversations, lunch will be at 11:30 and then I’ll go into town, to the Stupa, drink some hot chai, do some practice, etc. Kind of feels like a day off, and am treating it as such.

His Holiness’ teachings begin the day after tomorrow, with them begins the last “stage” of my Bodhgaya stay.

The teachings end on Jan. 9th, on the evening of the 10th I am booked on the Radhjani Express train to Delhi (Radhjani means “capital” and there is a series of express trains, the cream of the Indian Railways system – the largest in the world -- that go into and out of Delhi with this name). My train is scheduled to leave Gaya (a sinister town about 10km north of here) at 11pm, arriving in Delhi at 10:30 on Jan. 11th, the morning following.

But for the past three days there has been thick fog, and apparently January is the month for fog in the Ganges plains. And fog causes great delays in the trains here where there are no electronic systems in place, it’s all red lights and green lights and manual stop-and-go, even on the main lines -- two trains on the main Kolkata-Delhi line apparently collided last night.

So, in the fog, especially for the overnight trains, delays of 24 hours are not uncommon. My flight to the US departs Delhi at 11pm on the evening of the 12th, and there shouldn’t be any real problem with getting to Delhi in time to make my flight, but if there’s one thing I have come to learn about India, and especially travel here, it is that the Gods heap rolls of laughter upon those who expect to keep to their schedules.

And so it goes. I’ve seen that it is quite cold in central Florida – hoping all are keeping warm and happy.

Stopping my finger now, thanks for reading.

Ritual as starting-point

2010-01-02T00:10:00.012-05:00

As I’ve been writing these pieces I realize I am referring quite a bit to rituals: pujas, sadhanas, prayers, mantra recitations, prostrations, offerings, practices to nurture the dharma protectors, etc. There are also many moral rules one follows, especially staying where I am, which strives to maintain a semi-monastic environment.

I know many Westerners, including at one time myself, get the creeps when it comes to what they perceive to be religious rituals, in fact, many people say it is or was the rituals that drove them away from religious practice in the first place.

So like to talk a little bit about these rules and rituals.

In my mind, moral rules and rituals are meaningful when they are practiced in the right spirit, that is to say, after complete understanding and with clear awareness. If we celebrate a ritual merely as a matter of routine, or because it is prescribed by tradition or convention, then it is not only useless, but a hindrance. If a ritual is carried out consciously, conscientiously, and with a complete understanding of its meaning, then it becomes an act of meditation – a meditation that is born within, transferred without and turned into action.

So, when we offer incense or flowers to the Buddha, a normal ritual of offering, we should not imagine that we are doing the Buddha a service, but rather that we are doing something good for ourselves and our fellow sentient beings. It is an expression of striving for enlightenment for ourselves and for the whole world. It expresses our gratitude and readiness to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha to awaken the still sleeping qualities of enlightenment within ourselves.

Buddhas are everywhere, from the ancient temples of India to the garden ornament department in every Walmart in central Florida. Get past the iconic commercialism, let your judgments pass on, and realize the incredible opportunity this presents.

For some, the representations of Buddha may be crass commercialism at work, but those who really understand what they’re seeing look upon a Buddha image as something that reminds them of the Buddha within themselves, as an expression of that great ideal that the historical Buddha realized in his life, and that they, too, can realize in theirs. (In this regard, how wonderful that there representations of Buddhas everywhere!)

So, we’re not doing the Buddha or Bodhisattvas favors by honoring them -- I don't believe they need our favors :-) -- but we are strengthening our own determination to bring the Dharma to realization.

When we look at a statue or thangka of Buddha, even if we know nothing about Buddhism, we see a representation of a perfectly spiritual human being, a human being who never lost the firm ground of reality, because he accepted and ennobled his bodily existence without clinging to it, without depending on it, and thus lived in peace with himself and the world.

What inner bliss and happiness are mirrored in his face, what equanimity and calm appears in every limb of his body, what profound silence and harmony!

Here there are no more wishes, there us no desire, no restlessness, no insecurity, no chasing after material things, no dependence on anything at all. Here is the highest bliss: in a word – completeness, perfection.

***

Prostrations are commonly used to express our veneration to these aspects of ourselves that the Buddha represents. We can raise our joined hands to our foreheads, to honor the highest realization, to call to mind that we too can realize it by stimulating and activating these higher, more subtle centers of consciousness to a higher awakening.

In prostration, we touch our foreheads to the ground, an exercise in humility, something that comes with great difficulty to Westerners. It feels uncomfortable and hurts our pride, our vanity, our ego and our false sense of dignity. But in reality, this touching of the ground with our foreheads is not only an act of (healthy) humility, but also a symbol that the highest consciousness has to descent into the depth of material existence and that the earth is the basis, the womb of all development and spiritual realization.

This representative descending into material existence is meaningful.

As long as we consider matter and spirit as irreconcilable opposites, we split the world into two halves and lose the ground under out feet. If mind cannot find expression in material form, or in some action or achievement in life, it remains a mere thought or a vague emotion that remains hidden, never finding expression in words, deeds or works or art.

If Michelangelo, or Falkner, or Frost, or Mozart had never given expression to their feelings in sculptures, music, paintings, writings or poems, the world would never have received the gift of their creations.

This is true of us “ordinary” humans as well; those who do not give form to their feelings and thoughts by expressing them in some shape or other have lived, I believe, in vain, whereas those who have expressed their feelings and thoughts in works and deeds have both enriched their own experiences and contributed to the well-being and development of all.

So, to bring this back to where it started (thanks for staying with it), ritual is one form -- a starting point, if you will -- in which, regardless of our religious beliefs or practices we can learn and then perfect the expression of our deepest and feelings.

But the rituals and rules we engage in must be the expression of clear thought, or genuine feeling. Otherwise they become just the empty repetition of conventional forms, a significant obstacle on the path.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

On the bus

2010-01-01T03:38:00.012-05:00

Trouble ahead, trouble behind
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

The above words, as applied to the natural laws of cause and effect, portray an understanding of karma that any Buddhist would recognize and accept. But they originate not with a teacher or lama or sutra or scripture, or from the Himalayas or the Ganges plains.

They are from a popular song, lyrics written and performed by the Grateful Dead. I will sprinkle lyrics in bold italic type throughout this piece that I see as being quite interpretive to the Dharma path.

***

There is something about the dharma path, especially as it relates to the India-Nepal circuit, that is similar in some very significant ways to that of the path of those who listened to and belonged to what was referred to the extended Grateful Dead “family” – especially in the America in the late 60’s and 70’s before it became an industry.

These days many people roll their eyes at the mention of the Grateful Dead, that anachronism from days bygone. But for those who were a part of it (Garcia called it the next best thing to running away with the circus), it was so very rich.

The Grateful Dead thing was was called being on "the bus" . . . practicing dharma i s being on the "path to enlightenment/"

(I’m going to poke around and have some fun with this idea for awhile. I believe there are many parallel and complimentary aspects -- and of course, many differences as well -- if you’re reading this I suppose I came up with enough to publish it.)

Inspiration, move me brightly . . .

Initially small but growing is the number of people I’m running into here in Bodhgaya that I know from previous times I’ve been in India/Nepal, familiar people I haven't seen in years.

But this isn’t like a school reunion, where one meets up with people they have had no connection with for years, and are off doing disparate things. There is a warmth and familiarity as old faces see one another and connect, a delight that is akin to running into an old friend that you always knew you’d see again, just not sure when or where.

This is all a dream we dreamed some afternoon, long ago . . .

So, who just got here from Dharamsala, or Kathmandu, or Mongolia, or Kolkata, or who flew in from the USA or London or Australia or Mexico City. Who has just come out of an extended retreat, or is about to go into one. People looking just a little bit older, but with the same clarity and serenity shining through their eyes.

The traditional word for all these folks is “sangha” and it works. And all the travelling back and forth and the freedom that accompanies it makes it seem very “tribal.” There’s shared experiences that need not be communicated, a knowledge of certain “things” that accepts and bonds people regardless of what country they come from, what language they speak, how old they are, etc.

And it so reminds me of the Grateful Dead thing. That was a tribe too. People following the tour, from concert to concert, city to city, all sharing the same “hit.” Great friendships made, obstacles overcome, rides and rooms and sometimes beds shared, rich experiences had, always more on the horizon. Back then it was three nights at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley or the Manhattan Center; now it’s Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings or a Lam-rim retreat at Tushita. The similarity of connected experience is, to me, inescapable.

Never could reach it, just slips away . . . but I try.

There are, of course many differences -- the Dharma path does not include mind-expanding drugs (but certainly does bring along real long-lasting and beneficial mind-expansion), and while the Grateful Dead experience was a shared one, there was no concept of bodhicitta or quieting the mind or any number of the practices that accompany the Mahayana methods of Buddhism. The concerts were loud and sometimes discordant, and come to think of it, not so unlike a Tibetan gompa during certain recitations at puja.

The clothes accompanying Dead tour are similar to Westerners' “gompa” style, especially for the women, where there is really very little difference. Beautiful soft flowing colors, loosely fitting. Sandals and barefoot. Back then, some sported images of Garcia and Grateful Dead iconic graphics, here for some it’s Dalai Lama quotes and Tibetan Om symbols.

Back then, men grew their hair long, here they shave it off; hair or no-hair as personal preference and perhaps statement.

Back then, filling the mind with perceived pleasurable sounds, sensations and thoughts and trying to suck each drop out of them; here it’s about not attaching to anything like that. That was concerned with "gross mind" . . . dharma practice centers around the subtle states of consciousness that exist under the gross.

Back then, it was Garcia’s guitar solos, whether the sweet and soft melodies that slithered like snakes darting in and out of woodpiles, or the ones that made you jump out of your skin. Here it is mantra, soft, beautiful mind-protecting mantra, the vibrations of sacred Sanskrit.

Both paths clearly appeal to a bit of a vagabond nature in its participants.

***

I think you get the point . . . within such different times, remarkable similarities . . . fun to think about, even more fun -- and fortunate -- to have travelled and tasted the unique enrichment of each.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

Blue Moon

2009-12-31T07:01:00.006-05:00

The Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama, a prince of the Sakya tribe of Nepal, in approximately 566 BC. When he was twenty nine years old, he left the comforts of his home to seek the meaning of the suffering he saw around him. After six years of arduous yogic training, he abandoned the way of self-mortification and instead sat in mindful meditation beneath a bodhi tree in Bodhgaya.

On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the enlightened one.

The Buddha wandered the plains of northeastern India for 45 years more, teaching the path or Dharma he had realized in that moment. Around him developed a community or Sangha of monks and, later, nuns, drawn from every tribe and caste, devoted to practicing this path. In approximately 486 BC, at the age of 80, the Buddha died.

His last words are said to be . . .
Impermanent are all created things; strive on with diligence.

***

:: Tonight a luminous full moon will rise in Bodhgaya.
:: It is the final night of the year, and decade.
:: We'll be doing a Medicine Buddha puja and then a robe offering ceremony in the moonlight at the Mahabodhi Stupa (both traditional full moon practices).
:: Above India will be a lunar eclipse beginning shortly after midnight.

Really, there’s nothing I can add to this, except to wish all a joyous New Year, so am stopping my finger now.

Re-entering Bodhgaya

2009-12-30T09:16:00.008-05:00

Sadly and joyfully, the Chittamani Tara retreat ended today at lunch. It is incredible how quickly it went, seven full days, it seems like two.

For those of you who have been reading along over the past week, I think you know that for me this was at times as much of a confrontation as it was a retreat, perhaps it’s best labeled a retreat into confrontation. That said, it was a great experience, grueling and rewarding; Khensur Rinpoche is simply wonderful, he is such a kind and wise teacher, traditionally Tibetan, and oh my gosh, those eyes . . . those of us who participated were aware from the beginning that we were sharing in a most precious aspect of Precious Human Rebirth, and we never lost that awareness.

So I come out of the retreat with a newly planted mind-resident, Tara, who is going to be extraordinary to have along for the ride (I suspect she's going to be driving at times). I like her, and I think she likes me. She'll have to be properly fed and nourished, and I think I understand how, what and when to feed her. I look forward to nurturing her, and introducing her to all the wonderful folks back in Florida.

***

I've been in retreats before, and it is always a little jarring to emerge and re-enter the world. This was certainly true today as I went into town to run some errands. This place is crazy, bursting with energy!!

As you know, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is arriving next week for five days of teachings beginning on Jan. 5. There is a huge tent-like structure that has been built for the teachings, it is in an enormous field known as the Kalachakra Fields, named that after His Holiness gave the Kalachakra initiation there years ago.

This is not New York or Atlanta or Denver, where His Holiness' presence would be noted by many but be just another event in town. This is Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, the most significant Buddhist site on the planet, and it is turning into what is clearly going to be "Dalai Lama-ville." I can't imagine the extraordinary love and respect and admiration that are going to be flowing through the collective mindstream of this town. Talk about psychedelic!!

One needs a pass to attend the teachings, the passes are free, you just need to have a passport and two passport-sized photos. There was a huge line for monks (there are already thousands of monks in town for the Karmapa’s teachings, which end tomorrow) but the line for foreigners was short. After about 20 minutes I had my pass.

From there it was to my favorite eating place in town, a tent restaurant named Mohammed’s, for a plate of potato/cheese momos and a cold Coke. Ran into a Swedish friend there, it was nice catching up.

Then a quick visit to the ATM to get some rupees followed by a cup of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice at a roadside stand – the seeds squeezed while you watch, it's completely delicious and costs 20 rupees, about 40 cents. This is living!

The walk back to where I am staying is about 30 minutes, about a mile either along the main road or a little longer through the neighborhood streets and fields. That was my route, it was my first time along that way since I was here two years ago and it hasn’t changed . . . chickens, buffalo, ducks, cows, pigs, naked kids running all over, people outside, sweeping, chopping vegetables, etc. Amidst all the dharma-energy, on the back roads Bodhgaya is still just a Bihari Indian village, simple and beautiful.

I can’t begin to describe how happy I am to be back here, in this most holy of places. There is such energy, the place is filing up, there are lamas and monks and nuns in their beautifully colored robes; vendors everywhere, the road is jammed with bikes and rickshaws and tuk-tuks and busses, all with monks hanging off, shouting to friends, being joyous. Chai stands, chipatis being cooked over open fire, saffron and gold robes, Tibetans, Asians, Westerners, horns honking, colors, smells, dust, complete joyous chaos. It is impossible to keep your heart from singing (why would you want to?)

Tonight is just kinda hangin’ out, doing some writing until 9:30pm (about 30 minutes from now) when I’m going to meet some fellow retreatants in the gompa to do the Tara Sadhana together.

Tomorrow will be a little bit of a sleep-in (meditation at 6:45 rather than prostrations at 6:00) and then into town for some reflective time at the Mahabodhi Stupa, and who knows what else. There is a full moon tomorrow, New Year’s eve, and we’ll be doing a Medicine Buddha puja followed by some prayers and chants to the Dharma Protectors.

I say with all honesty and humility, right here, right now, to me this is the best place on the planet to be. And as wonderful as the “outer” is, it pales by comparison to what is happening in the “inner.” My mind is soaring, I am so unbelievably fortunate to be experiencing this perfectly lovely existence, lotus flowers in my brain, woken up and alive and excited; if I can bring back just a piece of this joy to share with all back home . . .

***

As one decade turns to the next, a very noteworthy passage of time, the words of the great Kagyu lama Kalu Rinpoche: “In this world, every second, someone dies and someone is born. This world is constantly changing. In this world, human beings experience many kinds of phenomena, however they all have to undergo birth, old age, illness and death. Everything is impermanent. Always keep this in mind. It is essential.”

May everyone reading this have the most wonderful and auspicious of New Years, and please remember to include the cultivation of bodhicitta in your New Year resolutions, especially the ones you’ll keep!

Ok, stopping the finger now. Thanks for reading.

The kindness of our . . . fathers

2009-12-29T06:27:00.028-05:00

Today would have been my father’s 81st birthday had he not passed away during his 79th year. I mention this as a result of the confession prostrations we do early each morning, with our parents and others visualized as being with us in the gompa, along with friends, strangers, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, etc. There he’s been, each day front-and-center in my mind amidst quite a grand crowd.

While this retreat, which concludes tomorrow, is not about resolving deeply planted personal issues but rather cultivating the mind of wisdom in which bodhicitta arise, you've got to deal with what comes. And, no surprise, after being in the works for a few days, a once tightly-sealed lid blew sky-high today.

As many of you know, intense appreciation of the special kindness of our parents, and particularly our mothers, has a very special role in the Tibetan traditions of Buddhist practice. This is difficult for many Westerners, who have had a rocky relationship with one or both parents, so much so that I’ve heard when the Tibetan lamas returned to India after having first visited the West, particularly America, they sadly reported being caught most off-guard by how so many Westerners see their parents as the source of their deepest problems.

***

There have been three “father figures” in my life, one natural, the other two from marriage. All three were significant in vastly different ways, all three are now dead.

My own father and I had a spotty relationship. He was a simple man, a hard-working factory worker, the son of immigrants who grew up in the Bronx with a mind full of issues.

In the American get-what-you-can game, he was eclipsed by his younger brother, who became a successful executive, building and managing strip-malls and apartment complexes throughout the United States. My father smoked incessantly and defiantly, even though he knew it was not healthy, and there was also an alcohol problem, especially when surrounded by family members. I don't know why this was so, what he was running from, I suspect it was partly perpetuated by the fact that he was married to a woman who did not respect him. Perhaps she loved him at one point, but never in my memory.

I remember when I was 18 years old, my father called me into his room, asked me to sit down and told me that his and my mother’s marriage was over. This happened at night, with the lights off, in complete darkness, both of us sitting on a bed. He couldn’t look me in the eye, couldn’t bring himself to connect with me intimately, even in that moment of scorching pain. After 10 minutes, not knowing what to say, I was dismissed.

Through the years we had many fallings-out, some quite serious, many of them caused by my reactions to what and why he was doing what he did, and by the end of his life I had put him into my past. Although just a few hours drive away, I was not there with him when he died. Having already slammed the lid tightly, when his funeral was held in New York, I did not attend.

***

My first father-in-law was an Italian-American, also the son of immigrants. He was a mechanical genius, a gritty, feisty, fiercely opinionated, passionate railroader, the proud engineer of the first high-speed Amtrak (it was Conrail then) Metroliner between New York City and Washington, D.C. He loved the railroad, having served in the rail corps in Europe during World War II, and took great pride talking about his friend and regular train rider Senator Joe, who would take him into the Senate cafeteria where they’d have Yankee Bean Soup together. This was almost 30 years ago, Senator Joe is now the vice president of the United States.

He was a great guy, zany and unpredictable, who would, laughing loudly, break into a silly little Italian jig when he was happy. He was also a loving father-in-law to this long-haired kid who, with his liberal ideas and outlooks was so vastly different from him. I believe when his daughter and I divorced, which was my doing, it broke his heart. In the years after, we never contacted one another and I was not around to witness his health decline, which was quite severe and drawn-out. I consider this a blessing, preserving his healthy image in my mind’s eye. When he passed, his funeral church was packed with people. I had loved him, but knowing I had so painfully disappointed him and preferring to keep the memory of that away from the family, I was not one of the attendees.

***

Father-in-law number two I never met, but he had a significant impact as well.

He was a mid-western ob/gyn who was much loved in his community. Apparently he was not only a fine doctor, but was a bit of a ladies-man; there was much talk and a posthumous lawsuit involving allegations of illegal prescriptions for a patient he was sleeping with (he was found innocent).

What was clear was that my second wife, his youngest of three daughters, was enamored with him. When he committed suicide one night, without leaving even a note to explain why, express love or say goodbye, the abandonment left a hole in her heart that I believe affected her both short- and long-term in several significant and difficult ways. I, almost completely self-absorbed in my own difficulties, a preta in our relationship, was of no help at all. The seeds of divorce had been planted, years later they blossomed.

***

In our Mahayana tradition -- understanding that we have had countless rebirths, through which all beings have (many times) been our mother -- we generate the mind of equanimity toward all, and from that emerges the “special attitude” toward sentient beings by remembering the love of our parents, and in particular our dear precious mothers.

We remember with immeasurable appreciation how in this life our mother suffered the discomfort of pregnancy, carried us and through great pain birthed us and suckled us and nurtured us and protected us and lost endless nights of sleep for us. We do not forget how they put us first and foremost in those days of our infancy, when, if not for their unending love and kindness, we would have perished. And there's so much more.

Wonderful to realize, fantastic to contemplate, heart-opening to meditate upon, and again, mindful that all sentient beings have been our mothers, so precious to infuse with gratitude into the intentions and actions of our everyday lives.

But we can talk more about our precious mothers another day, this one is, I suggest, for our fathers.

I am sure my father never heard of Bodhgaya, and probably thought of Buddhism (if he thought of it at all) as something weird and foreign, probably other-worldly. But here sits his son, a student of Buddhism, using dharma practice -- the best tool I know -- to work through some of the issues I put between us.

I’m sharing this writing because we all have fathers, or have had fathers, or are fathers, or were fathers, or will one day be fathers. And our father’s love and caring has been a fundamental aspect of the mechanics of our lives. Yes, they may have had flaws, there may be some things they did or do we don’t understand, they may not meet or have met our expectations, they may have even caused some damage. We may even feel anger and hatred toward them.

But with understanding, compassion and forgiveness for them will arise. And this is not an understanding primarily through your mental filters, but theirs. Understanding their frailties, their pressures, their kleshas, their karma, their suffering.

This may not be easy, but try your best to empty and then reflect. Do so, and some wonderful benefits may be realized, including forgiveness for yourself. So often we get stubborn because we feel guilt over a situation we feel too uncomfortable to change. Engage in this practice; regrets may remain, but through forgiveness the weight of guilt will begin to disappear.

And then, use the forgiveness to bring you to a mind of acceptance. Try to consider the extraordinary presence the father(s) has played in your life, and remember that all sentient beings were, in previous lifetimes, your fathers too. This is an extraordinarily powerful practice.

If you’re a father, or will be one day, please try to see and be mindful, from your children's side, of that most crucial role you play in their lives.

Really think about this, try to fully understand it without the contaminants of your own self-centered viewpoints and afflictions.

Whether directed at your father(s), your children or both, honor them by honoring the special presence of "father." Then take the essence of that honor, the appreciation and gratitude, and turn it inside-out, doing your best to manifest it in a meaningful way for every being you encounter.

This is the Mahayana Buddhist path. The uniquely precious kindness of our parents is recognized, appreciated, and repaid without discrimination to sentient beings everywhere.

As for my father, maybe now, for the first time, I don’t see him, or us, exclusively from my own deluded self-cherishing side. The lid, I believe, is off for good.

I smile with a small tear in my eye as I realize I needed to travel half-way around the world to get this view, to be able to say, sincerely for the first time in many years, maybe forever, with hands folded and head bowed, Happy birthday, Dad.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

The Paradox

2009-12-28T02:40:00.012-05:00

We live in a world of sound bites . . . . advertising jingles, campaign slogans, song verses, news headlines, logos, late-night joke punch-lines, sayings we repeat to ourselves, tweets, jargon, avatars, etc. Some people resort to tattooing messages on their bodies, others adorn the walls of their homes, computer screens and t-shirts with them. Messages, messages and more messages.

So forgive me for adding one more, this is a well-known one, and is, I believe, a message significantly worth remembering. It comes from the 8th century Indian master Shantideva:

All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.

***

An aspect of our retreat sadhana has been meditating on various concepts and ideas, most of which, when see through an understanding of emptiness of inherent existence, are quite illuminating.

As many of you know, the Buddha offered a very short teaching that has come to be known as the Four Immeasurables. In it, the Buddha suggests four aspirations with which to fill our mind, each is a wish for sentient beings’ love, happiness, joy and equanimity.

We have been paying particular attention to the words expressing our aspiration for immeasurable happiness, they are:
"How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings had happiness and the causes of happiness. May they have happiness and its causes. I myself will cause them to have happiness and their causes."

This is a very profound thought, and serves as the basis for the entire Mahayana Buddhist path.

To have the causes for happiness abiding in our mind implies that the causes for our unhappiness are not present. This unhappiness (often referred to in Buddhist-talk as suffering), as referred to by the Buddha is not of the type of a splinter in the foot or the sadness one feels at the death of a loved one.

Rather, it is the everyday discontent, the every moment discontent we live with as a result of our ignorance, and our resultant desires. (No major discussion of suffering here, many Chenrezig Projecteers cups’ still runeth over from our recent Lam-rim Middle Scope studies of suffering.)

The point is this, and it is such a simple paradox that when one realizes it they cry out (or in) in amazement: as the Buddha said, as Shantideva said, as Tsong-Kha-Pa said, as the Dalai Lama says all the time, if you want to be happy, cherish others. Any and all true happiness comes from wishing (and skillfully acting to help manifest) happiness for others.

The discontent, unhappiness, depression, bad moods, anger, frustration, we feel stems from wanting pleasure (or in other words, "our way") for ourselves. We even try to make others happy "our way" as opposed to what would be most beneficial for them.

Think about this, contemplate, meditate; look at recent events in your life and see where the happiness and/or lack of happiness stemmed from.

This understanding is the most powerful antibiotic for the mind, manifest it and you will weaken and ultimately destroy the ability for your self-centered delusions, the bacteria that infects the clear mind, to harm you. It has changed the life of many, and it may change yours.

***

So, if this sounds like it might have some truth to it, try this . . . later tonight or tomorrow morning, after you’ve thought about this, and I mean "really" thought about it . . . set aside some time to think of making others happy. What might make them happy, what it would feel like to make them happy, how they would react to being happy. (Of course, remembering that happiness comes from thinking of others, so we’re not necessarily talking about a red Porsche or flattering talk.)

Set aside a reasonable amount of time, don’t bite off too much . . . an hour would be fantastic, as would 30 minutes, 2 minutes or even 30 seconds. Just try it.

Don’t listen to your ego, which may tell you quite convincingly this is all a silly game -- the ego does not like others truly being put before it, and its going to try to fill you with doubt. The ego knows you better than anyone, knows which buttons to push. Recognize it when it comes, and just say, "no thanks."

You may already be living a life in which you are extraordinarily generous, if so, that’s fantastic. Keep it up, but try this as well. Just move your own concerns our of the equation and focus on the happiness of others. Just a reasonable amount of time, deliberately focused on the happiness of others.

It won't cost a dime, you can do it anywhere, and is really wonderful (and for beginners a little tough sometimes) to do it when you are with others. See how this makes you feel, this focused thinking of others’ happiness before considering or striving for your own pleasure.

Play with it. Have fun with it.

Take Shantideva's verse, tape it to your bathroom mirror, and read it while you brush your teeth each morning. This is more than a sound bite; you may find a whole new type of happiness emerging, one that is clear and joyful and light and bursting with energy. It's there, in your own mind right now, just waiting to be realized. Dig it out.

Stopping my finger now, thanks for reading.

A new responsibility

2009-12-27T02:37:00.006-05:00

You know how it is when you are having a guest stay at your home for awhile, you make sure they have a clean place to sleep, there’s ample food, you don’t make any plans to be away or that would exclude them during their visit, you drive them where they need to be, etc. In other words, you take on the responsibility of caring for them, and their comfort and happiness become foremost in your mind.

Well, as of this morning’s teachings, at the midpoint of this retreat, I had the stunning realization that I have a full-time visitor, not in my home or neighborhood, but much more intimately . . . in my mind. Actually, visitor is not the right word, I search for a better one . . . how about, for now, “active permanent resident”?

Her name is Tara. She is a meditational deity or yidam. She is many, many things, for purposes of this writing, let’s just say she is the aspect of ultimate wisdom, represented through the intermediary of the form aspect, or Tara.

Access to the actualization of Tara was enabled by Khensur Rinpoche, who as a blessing granted this empowerment. In retreat, I/we have spent the past three days working on the motivations and meditative “techniques” to visualize and realize her unbelievable blessings of purification, leading directly to the ability to more actually realize wisdom and bodhicitta, aided, of course, by a healthy dose of awareness of emptiness; in fact, she arises from the emptiness.

There’s a lot to this, it seems as though a whole new luminous "thing" is emerging. Until this morning it had all been very new and somewhat abstract, but this morning, bam, I got it, loud and clear.

I don’t have my arms around it yet, am not sure I ever can. But there’s something new, it is powerful, it is wonderful, and it has begun to arrive. It has been abiding deep in my mind for a very long time, and here in Bodhgaya it trusted enough to allow itself to be realized. Its caution was warranted, it is enormously precious. I will work to be a nurturing host.

Am not really sure what else to say. For now, let’s just call it a new -- and fantastic -- responsibility.

Stopping the finger, thanks for reading.

The Advanced Course(?)

2009-12-26T01:02:00.008-05:00

Some of you may remember when Geshe-la came to visit us in Yalaha a while back, and offered refuge to those who were ready to take it.

In preparing for this event, I asked his attendant Lois about the vows he expected those taking refuge to accept; it is fairly common practice for one to take all (or some, depending on the lama) of the five lay vows: vows to protect our minds against intentions and actions of killing, stealing, lying, taking intoxicants and engaging in unwise (i.e., harmful to anyone) sexual activity.

Lois indicated that Geshe-la would include these vows as part of each person’s taking of refuge

So, it was surprising when Geshe-la not only didn’t offer the vows, but said quite clearly that he wouldn’t accept the vows from anyone there for a period of years, that it would take that long for the vows to manifest the intended meaning in the mind, and therefore be beneficial.

This came to mind early this morning during Tara sadhana, and I found myself (perhaps) gaining an insight into Geshe-la’s intentions.

*** *** ***

Many of you know of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who is, more than just about anyone, recognized as the individual who shaped the face of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. He was a brilliant and innovative teacher who was unique among his generation of Tibetans in his understanding of Western culture and his ability to adapt traditional teachings to the needs and experiences of his Western students.

Despite his enormous success and unquestionable spiritual abilities, Trungpa Rinpoche, who passed in 1987 the age of forty-nine, remains a controversial figure. A husband and father, Trungpa openly had sex with his students, smoked and drank heavily enough to be classified as an alcoholic by many who knew him.

To most of his students, Trungpa’s unconventional behavior was as much a part of his teachings as his dharma talks. But for others with more conventional Western expectations about the way a spiritual teacher should behave, Trungpa remains a puzzle that will almost certainly never be unravelled.

Trungpa would traditionally start off new American students with a stern warning about the dangers and pitfalls of the spiritual path, and especially about what he called spiritual materialism – a term that soon became part of the vocabulary of Western Buddhists of all traditions:

Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism.

*** *** ***

This is, to my mind, the advanced course. Teachings, visualizations, sadhanas, realizations, meditations, insights, refuge, dharma, sangha, are all so beautiful and wonderful, but it is so very important to at all times watch that they are ultimately tearing down “me” structures rather than building new ones. Not building, in Trungpa's words, "spiritual materialism." The end result is to get TO our Buddha-nature, not build our own individual version of it.

Tricky stuff, and I am working on how to maneuver my way through it.

I remember Ram Dass saying something along the lines that “you have to be something before you can flip it into becoming nothing.”

Well, maybe that’s the path – to learn and grow and build our spiritual self, and then, when it becomes who and what we are, that then becomes the target of transformation. Perhaps that is the intermediate step between being asleep and awake.

This implies a mindful working with the ego, allowing it to grow somewhat, but keeping it under watchful eye . . . kind of how we fill a bicycle tire with air . . . carefully . . . just enough to get it to where it works most efficiently to get us where we are going, but not so much that it over-inflates, bubbles and pops.

And once properly inflated but not overly so, we use it, in fact we ride it hard over a very rough and prickly path, being mindful to make sure, as Trungpa says, to avoid the sidetracks that the arrogance of over-inflation will lead us toward.

And then, when we arrive at our destination, we no longer need the bicycle.

*** *** ***

I believe this is what Geshe-la was aware of when he refused to inflate our ego(s) – people he did not know -- with the high-mindedness of refuge vows. A teaching in its own right, as most everything is if you just see it that way.

So it is on a retreat; time and space to plumb, and (hopefully) see where our work really lies . . . so many fantastic questions . . . am stopping my finger now, thanks for reading.

Test your limits . . .

2009-12-24T22:47:00.007-05:00

"Happiness comes from cherishing others" – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

***

Christmas morning, just finished breakfast, feel as though I’ve already put in a full day with prostrations and a long Tara sadhana . . . visions of Christmas morning, gift giving, love, gratitude, appreciation dancing around in mind . . . a special time.

I'd like to share a brief story with you . . .

As those of you who have been to the Chenrezig Project gompa (aka, my home) know, I am a nest-maker, there’s many “things” scattered about, some of them quite meaningful to me. I like to collect "stuff" . . .

The other day I was sitting at the Mahabodhi Stupa, around the back, under the spreading branches of the Bodhi tree. There are very few leaves falling from the tree this time of year, and when they do they are in much demand, people actually look up waiting for them to fall, and then race to be in best position to gather it up. For a Buddhist, there probably isn’t a more precious keepsake than a leaf from the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya. And in the days I had visited the tree, I had not seen a trace of a fallen leaf.

I was reciting a mala of Shakyamuni Buddha mantra (Tadyatha Om Muni Muni Maha Muniye Svaha), as I completed the mala I opened my eyes, and at that moment a leaf from the tree landed on the ground in front of me. Unbelievable.

I bent over and picked it up and studied it for a moment, it was green-turning-brown, not too large, perfectly formed. What a gift to bring home and place on our altar, heck, an heirloom in the making . . .

I then noticed a Thai nun walking in my direction, absorbed in practice she stopped at the site of the tree’s base, underneath which is the Vajra Seat where the Buddha sat and awoke, and as many people do she stopped, pressed her forehead against the altar spot, and prayed. After a few moments she continued on.

As she approached and we made eye contact, I reached out the leaf in offering. She looked at it, and then at me, and I said, “here, this just fell from the tree, it was meant for you.”

Smiling broadly she took the leaf and thanked me, and continued her slow thoughtful kora around the Stupa. Each time she came back around, holding the leaf delicately in front of her, she shared a smile. And more.

***

I’m not telling this story to pat myself on the back publicly, in fact, I hesitated in mentioning it. But today is Christmas, the day of giving and receiving gifts, and this moment under the tree keeps coming up, in a way that opens my heart each time it arises in my mind.

The Buddha was spot-on when he named the perfection of generosity as the first of the perfections on the Bodhisattva path, it is from generosity that all the wonderful things we are capable of doing and being arise. It is the fertile ground on which happiness blossoms, and for me that moment of giving something so precious in order to make another being happy is like a jewel whose brilliance brightens my mind whenever I gaze upon it.

What a difference from what would have been the case had I taken the leaf and placed it in my book, safely in my possession. That self-cherishing act would have, by comparison, been dark and clinging. I see that so clearly.

So, conditions occur, the aggregates come together in a moment of mind, and a few seconds under the Bodhi tree with a stranger become an unforgettable dharma learning moment.

And what's the lesson? Giving up, giving in, just plain giving -- that’s the truly transformative experience. Generosity opens our heart, frees us from attachment and is the basis of all good qualities. It’s the foundation of the Buddhist path.

The Buddha said that a true spiritual life is not possible without a generous heart. Generosity is the very first paramita or quality of an awakened mind. The path begins there because of the joy that arises from a generous heart. Pure unhindered delight flows freely when we practice generosity. We experience joy in forming the intention to give, in the actual act of giving, and in recollecting the fact that we’ve given.

If we practice joyful giving, we experience confidence. We grow in self-esteem, self-respect and well-being because we continually test our limits. It is indeed a path worth walking.

***

Again, it’s Christmas morning. A great day to "think and be" generosity in each opportunity that arises, whether planned or not, and to be generous not just with things, but of your attention, your listening, your caring, your knowledge, your wisdom, your love, your karmic fruits, yourself. To family, friend, neighbor, pet, stranger, and yes, if the opportunity is there, even enemy. Test your limits.

If you have the karma to understand and learn how that engenders true happiness and joy in your heart, I believe you will have given yourself the most sensible and precious Christmas present you will ever receive.

Be merry . . . be generous.

Stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

Christmas Eve 2009

2009-12-24T11:20:00.007-05:00

It’s about 10pm; Day One -- the first full day of retreat -- has just come to an end.

Not so easy, we started at 6:00am with prostrations to the 35 Confession Buddhas (purification practice); following that was the first of four Chittamani Tara sadhanas (practices). Sandwiched between it all was a two-hour teaching (focusing on refuge and the Four Immeasurables) from Khensur Rinpoche, and breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The sadhanas are fantastic but not so easy to stay focused, there’s much prayer, visualization and meditation and the mind slowly wanders away from the object of attention when it gets tired. And it’s during the wandering that for me, with the mind open, so much comes up. Marriages. Children. People. Places. Events. All kinds of stuff.

With it being Christmas Eve, during tonight’s meditations there was an unplanned romp through Christmases past. I think sweet and heart-warming for many, for me, tonight, not so much.

Yes, there is sweetness, lovely images, so cute and warm and special and loving, but tonight they were heart-string connected to the pain (for all involved, especially the kids) of divorces and broken families and destroyed dreams. Ex-husband and "part-time dad" are forever. My regrets, my guilt. It may have all happened years ago, but here the lid is off and up it all comes, razor-sharp and pungent.

There’s a teacher, I believe it was Rajneesh, who said you’ve haven’t really meditated until you’ve cried . . .

So, in the swirling mist of it all I remember . . . mindfulness . . . go back to the visualization, Tara Tara Tara Mother Tara . . . utpala flowers in her hands . . . . delicate light robes and precious ornaments . . . the letter TAM radiating green light from her heart. So beautiful . . .

Next up from the dark recesses, the realizations of how many Christmases there have been. I am 57 years old, and many of my age are fond of saying that our fifties are the new thirties. But eighty is still eighty, and it isn’t so far away anymore.

Ahh, Tara . . . her liberating radiance flowing into my crown and throat and heart . . . Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha . . . again, so beautiful . . .

***

This is the essence of practice. Faith and mindfulness and confidence and attention are required to do this kind of work: to keep our mind in focus and concentration on aspects and qualities that are resident within and tremendously beneficial. It is, in a way, kind of a paradox of practice, how we sit through the pains and boredom and mental distractions, but we cannot expect anything.

Monkey mind. NYC-kid-from-Queens mind. Old guy’s mind full of memories and experiences. Rarely do we realize how utterly controlled we are by our thoughts.

But here I am in Bodghaya on Christmas eve, sitting with a group of dharma students from all around the world, telling myself: “Just do the practice, plant the seeds, learn how the mind works, recognize and dispel the kleshas, focus, visualize, nourish, enrich.”

So I inwardly smile, straighten my spine, let the thoughts go where they may, and with patience and love go back to nurturing Tara. There is no fixed way to be a human being, but there are consequences. This path resonates with me; I welcome the consequences.

"Changes in attitude never come easily," says the Dalai Lama, "their development is a wide, round curve that can be negotiated only slowly – not a sharp corner that can be turned all at once."

Happy Christmas everyone.

Transmission

2009-12-23T03:01:00.008-05:00

Wednesday afternoon in Bodhgaya, breezy and cool. We’re in the process of retreat commencement, which gets underway for real in about two hours.

The retreat I’ll be participating in is Cittamani Tara, which is the highest yoga tantra aspect of the Tara manifestation. It is “under” Cittamani Tara that the various Taras abide, including the popular Green and White Taras.

This afternoon there will be a formal ceremony in which each of the retreatants will, under Rinpoche’s guidance, be granted the permission (i.e., empowerment) to take this retreat. Rinpoche (Khensur Rinpoche) is in the gompa now, with a small handful of monks, preparing it for the events to follow.

Last night was the first retreat-related event and it was quite wonderful. Rinpoche conferred the oral transmission of Tsong-Kha-Pa’s 14th century text The Principal Aspects of the Path on those in attendance.

An oral transmission is quite interesting, and precious.

As many of you know, the Principal Aspects of the Path is Tsong-Ka-Pa’s pithy description of the importance of renunciation (the mind that seeks liberation), bodhicitta and wisdom, these three teachings provide the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings. It is a short text (we’ve studied it at Chenrezig Project) consisting of 15 verses.

When a lama provides students with an oral transmission of a teaching, he is inviting the students to join the lineage of the teaching, and he both reads and explains the text as he knows it to be best understood -- his intention is to transfer and implant the meaning of the text in the mind of those who are receiving the transmission. He does this by merging his mind with each of the students and “delivering” the meaning of the text directly into their minds.

Students traditionally do not take notes or allow their mind to wander during the transmission, but instead sit still, with meditative open mind, listening to what is being said. It is in a way like listening to music, REALLY listening to music, not through headphones sightseeing from a bus, but in a quiet peaceful place with no intrusive distractions.

So, this is what occurred last night, receiving the oral transmission of The Principal Aspects of the Path from Khensur Rinpoche. A mind-to-mind-to-mind lineage connection all the way directly to Tsong-Kha-Pa. Unbelievable.

Now, the day after, is the meaning of this text in my mind in a way that it never has been before? Perhaps. Time will tell. I have been thinking about it a lot, in particular how the three principal aspects of the path to enlightenment -- renunciation, bodhicitta and wisdom -- are all interrelated. Like so much in the vast mandala that is Tibetan Buddhism, everything leads to something else, and is dependent on that something else, and this goes on and on. Moments of consciousness, skhandas, impermanence, occurrence, dependent arisings . . . the mala of the mind, always moving from bead to bead.

Khen-Rinpoche delivered the transmission in Tibetan, he has a deep strong voice which can be sing-songy in that endearing Tibetan way when appropriate. He smiles a lot, broadly, and can also be quite serious. He is not a large man, but has unmistakable presence. A dharma-bum friend who is here and is quite familiar with the Himalayan/India dharma scene, simply calls him “the jewel.” Rinpoche has brought with him from South India a translator (into English) monk who is a scholar, very clear and easy-to-understand.

So that’s where it’s at for now. I am undecided as to whether I will do any blog writing during the retreat or not. I’m not ruling it out, if I see it as a distraction I won’t write, but if it becomes a vehicle for processing what’s occurring in a different, beneficial way (which writing can frequently do), then I will. Certainly sharing what's happening here feels good in a bodhiciita-ish kind of way, I will apply wisdom to the situation and renounce writing if that arises as the correct path. There you go: bodhicitta, renunciation and wisdom, all working together -- ha!! (But very samsaric, clearly NOT the "applications" Lama Tsong-Kha-Pa had in mind.)

Until the next time, am stopping the finger now. Thank you for reading.

And ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas.

True Mastery (from Lau Tzu's "Hua Hu Ching")

2009-12-22T08:03:00.004-05:00

Do you think you can clear your mind by sitting constantly in silent meditation?
This makes your mind narrow, not clear.

Integral awareness is fluid and adaptable, present in all places and at all times.
This is true meditation.

Who can attain clarity and simplicity by avoiding the world?
The Dharma is clear and simple, and it doesn’t avoid the world.

Why not simply
-- love your children,
-- help your brothers and sisters,
-- be faithful to your friends,
-- care for your mate with devotion,
-- complete your work cooperatively and joyfully,
-- assume responsibility for problems,
-- practice virtue without first demanding it from others,
-- understand the highest truths yet retain an ordinary manner?

That would be true clarity, true simplicity, true mastery.

::::::::::::::::::::::
Adapted from Hua Hu Ching, the Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, edited by Brian Walker, HarperSanFrancisco, 1994

Oh boy.

2009-12-21T11:22:00.003-05:00

Morning with the Karmapa and après (veggie momos) lunch at the Mahabodhi Stupa . . . wow, this is what I call precious human rebirth!!

***

The shortest daylight day of the year broke cold and clear, after a 6:45am meditation (led by an ex-Theravadic monk) and some hot tea with chipatis (Indian flat breads), I joined the crowd of happy monks and lay people walking up the road to the Kagyu monastery for the Karmapa’s teaching.

His pre-teaching chanting was magnificent, and as those in the packed temple joined him it was truly beautiful -- am not sure it makes sense that something can be so heart-warming that it sends chills up and down the spine, but this was.

The morning teaching was quite nice, again following Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend -- a talk on respecting our parents, followed by a very precise discussion of generosity and how it relates to those on the Bodhisattva Path, and then a sincere discussion about Root Gurus and their importance to those on the Tantrayana path. It is so precious to sit in a beautiful Tibetan-style temple with people from so many different countries, all being taught the inner workings of these qualities of human behavior that are the best in the world, by this dignified, wise and young ancient lineage holder. And then, with a chant the morning teaching ends and he departs, and with minds freshly touched, we walk out into the warming Indian morning.

Some things don’t change, and one of those is the Tibetan Om restaurant, the best Tibetan place in town. Always crowded, just large tables and benches, find an empty spot, say hi to your new eating neighbors and choose your meal . . . for me it was momos, Tibetan dumplings filled with shredded cabbage and spinach.

From the Om it’s a ten minute walk to the Mahabodhi Stupa, the large iconic temple that serves as the Eiffel Tower of Bodhgaya, it is the image everyone sees. The stupa itself stands where Siddhartha awakened into Buddhahood, inside is a beautiful golden statue of the Buddha, said to be in the very spot, facing in the same direction, as Siddhartha did 2,500 years ago when he awoke. Right here.

Butting up against the temple is the famous Bodhi tree, the grand-offspring of the tree under which Siddhartha became enlightened. A cutting from that tree was taken to (what is today) Sri Lanka, and then a cutting from that tree was brought back and planted in Bodhgaya. That tree, the most famous on the planet, exists here today, it is a ficus tree, with a magnificient broad trunk and wide-ranging branches.

The stupa and the tree sit in the middle of a kind of beautifully unique multi-level park, which from the air is a mandala, filled with hundreds of stupas, statues, gardens, and historic spots. People from all over the world come here to do kora (cirumambulate) around the stupa, meditate on the grounds or under the tree, pray, chant, do prostrations, read sutra, recite mantra, reflect, contemplate, think, appreciate. Simply an incredible place for anyone to be, and for Buddhists, all the more special, because this is it, the spot, where it all began.

This is where I spent my afternoon. It feels like home.

Under the tree, walking, sitting, talking to various people, taking pictures, etc. Fantastically surreal precious time. On occasions I’d be sitting, then open my eyes and see where I was and feel a deep sense of "wow"! -- it's a sense that's hard to describe; the essence of spirit, the stuff of poetry.

(I smile as I look at some of the adjectives I’ve used in the past few paragraphs – incredible, fantastically surreal, special, beautifully unique, etc – and the thing is, none of them really touch it, that open-hearted, magically precious combination of conditions and aggregates that all come together like some kind of nuclear mind fission of bliss. I know, I know, there he goes again, off on a joy-rant, but in my mind this is how it is, really.)

In the guidebook it says “Mahabodhi Stupa” -- but in each and every mind that experiences what exists there is a name that emerges from the deepest recesses, a name consisting of feeling and wonder and beauty, and it goes vastly beyond any words ever spoken or written.

***

After the last of the Karmapa’s teachings in the morning, I’ll be back at the Stupa in the afternoon, preparing to enter my seven-day Tara retreat, which begins tomorrow evening.

Oh boy.

Words like tea . . . .

2009-12-20T09:16:00.003-05:00

A beautiful winter Sunday here in Bihar, very similar to the December weather in central Florida: cool, sunny and a definite chill as the sun sets. Quite a nice day for the first two of the Karmapa’s five teachings on Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend.

Observations . . .

This may be Bodhgaya, India, but from the inside out, at least to me, these teachings have an L.A. look-and-feel.

The organization around these teachings is decidedly western.

This is so in the methodology of registration and admittance, complete with multi-colored wrist-strings (looking very much like blessed protection strings, but are they?) determining the order in which one is allowed to take a seat in the temple, to the graphic logo (kind of a Tibetan-looking Nike swoosh), which is everywhere, including the fleecy vests the security people are wearing. And virtually everyone in any important-looking position of authority is western (with requisite full-color event laminates around the neck). And not just western, but, uh-oh, American, the ultimate western.

It may sound as though this is criticism, but it’s not (well, maybe a little amusedly emotional). It is seeing something different and not altogether comforting for me, who tends to be a real traditionalist in the things I love (Tibetan Buddhism, baseball, etc). Yes, paranoia is a delusion, but wasn’t it Hunter Thompson who called paranoia a normal reaction to life in today’s world? OK, let's be Buddhist, call it the suffering of change.

I will admit things are running smoothly and on time, something one never says about anything in India and, as an attendee, this is very nice.

Just understand that Orgyen Thinley Dorjee, the 17th Karmapa Lama, head of the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu school, is going to be the face of Tibetan Buddhism in the west one day, and in this public face he’s probably not going to be very organic. It’s not a large leap to see him one day as the center of a type of corporation, with lots of behind-the-scenes planning and pre-production and handlers. He’s already been to the USA, he came earlier this year and made teaching appearances in New York, Colorado and I believe Seattle. Well-marketed, sold-out appearances all.

So, take note. He’s 24 years old, beautifully handsome, has eyes like black diamonds and a strong mellifluous voice. He is the 17th Karmapa, a mind of exquisite wisdom-potential and the Tibetan spiritual heir apparent to the Dalai Lama. He survived and prevailed in a disputed recognition fight to become the spiritual leader of his school, the Kagyu, whose lineage dates back to Marpa and Milarepa and has very strong organizational roots in the USA.

Times are changing and we Americans have a history of taking things that are pure and good, assimilating them into the culture and in the process polluting the natural preciousness that made them so unique in the first place. And it appears that culture has very long arms, to this observer it's greatly influencing the Karmapa teachings here in Bodhgaya. (Are we looking at Kagyu, Inc.?)

OK, the teachings. Very basic and pretty good. The morning teaching, which I thought was very effective, included a brief look at Nagarjuna, and then, following the text, the differences between Buddhists and non-Buddhists (refuge), a discussion of the three scopes (Chenrezig Projecteers, can you believe it?), a very nice teaching on the three objects of refuge (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) and the motivators for going for refuge.

The afternoon teaching focused on the Tenfold Virtuous Path, i.e., the remedies of the three non-virtuous activities of body, the four of speech and the three of mind. I thought this was a more basic teaching than this morning’s and seemed directed to the large amount of westerners in the audience rather than the monks. (In fact, the Karmapa said that this teaching was chosen due its focus on advice for house-holders (as opposed to monastics) practicing the Dharma – so there again, that Western influence?)

The Karmapa's teaching style is good: he knows his material, is articulate, constantly correcting his translator to get the perfect word, and he is funny at times, with quips and facial expressions that are engaging. He is so young, and yet so strong, so calming, so confident. This is a major teaching for him and he’s doing it well; he said to smiles that he hopes his words “satisfy like tea” – and they do.

But make no mistake, western influence aside, for those here, and especially the Tibetans, who oddly are not so much in attendance at the Karmapa teachings, the main event, the Ocean of Wisdom, rolls into town in two weeks.

OK, stopping the finger now, thanks for reading.

In case you're feeling particularly self-important today . . . this from the New York Times Magazine, March 11, 2007

2009-12-19T20:38:00.004-05:00

It’s “Dark” Out There

(snip)
George Smoot’s (2006 Nobel Prize winner in physics) and Saul Perlmutter’s (Berkeley, likely future Nobel Physics prize-winner) work is part of a revolution that has forced their colleagues to confront a universe wholly unlike any they have ever known, one that is made of only 4 percent of the kind of matter we have always assumed it to be — the material that makes up you and me and this magazine and all the planets and stars in our galaxy and in all 125 billion galaxies beyond. The rest — 96 percent of the universe — is . . . who knows?

“Dark,” cosmologists call it, in what could go down in history as the ultimate semantic surrender. This is not “dark” as in distant or invisible. This is “dark” as in unknown for now, and possibly forever.

If so, such a development would presumably not be without philosophical consequences of the civilization-altering variety. Cosmologists often refer to this possibility as “the ultimate Copernican revolution”: not only are we not at the center of anything; we’re not even made of the same stuff as almost all of the rest of everything.

“We’re just a bit of pollution,” Lawrence M. Krauss, a theorist at Case Western Reserve, said not long ago at a public panel on cosmology in Chicago. “If you got rid of us, and all the stars and all the galaxies and all the planets and all the aliens and everybody, the remaining universe would be largely the same. We are completely irrelevant.”
(end snip)

From Heart Sutra to Karmapa

2009-12-19T10:09:00.006-05:00

Have just completed my second day here in the Indian state of Bihar, and it was eventful . . . a two hour drive with some folks to a town called Rajgir and then a hike up the mountain to the Vulture’s Peak, the site of the deliverance of one of Buddhism’s most important teachings, the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, aka the Heart Sutra.

After sitting in meditation in the cave that is known as “Shariputra’s Cave” and many readings aloud of the Sutra’s text, and recitations of the well-known mantra (Tadyatha Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha) it was a hike back down the hill in the cool air and rapidly warming sun of Indian winter, lunch in Rajgir and a visit to Nalanda, the Buddhist center of learning from 427 to 1197 CE.

Nalanda has been called one of the first great universities in recorded history. At its peak, it attracted scholars and students from many parts of the globe e.g., China, Greece etc., and housed thousands of monks and teachers. A favorite site of the Buddha (both pre- and post-enlightenment), it is uniquely beautiful, peaceful and inspirational. And oh, the history . . . for those of you in our recently completed Bodicharyavatara class, Nalanda was where Shantideva’s initial teaching of the text occurred. Today it is ruins, but find a nice shady place in the soft grass, and sit, and . . .

After a jarring, gritty, people/cow/buffalo/truck/dog-dodging jeep ride through the Biharian countryside and villages, it is good to be back in Bodhgaya, while my mind is soaring, my body is tired and sore. And here comes my old Indian friend, the smoke-fog-smog-induced cough and sore throat.

The Karmapa teaches Nagarjuna

So, a large day, and all in all, a fantastic lead-in for tomorrow . . . the beginning of three days of teachings from HH the 17th Karmapa!

It is quite exciting and the town is buzzing. His Holiness’ teachings total 10 hours over the next three days (morning and afternoon sessions) in the huge, beautiful and newly built Kagyu temple, not far from where the Dalai Lama’s teachings will take place after the new year. He will be teaching in Tibetan with simultaneous English translation.

And these teachings should be quite precious, the Karmapa will be transmitting Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend – a work frequently quoted by Tsong-Kha-Pa in our own Lam-rim teachings. The Letter is said to be the earliest overview of the major points of the Mahayana sutras. The great Indian Buddhist master Nagarjuna (1st - 2nd century A.D.) wrote it as a letter of advice to a king with whom he was friendly.

Despite its short length (only 123 verses), Letter to a Friend is condidered to be a monument in the Indian Buddhist tradition. It covers the whole Mahayana path with clarity and memorable imagery, perhaps why it's so widely quoted by Tibet's great masters and scholars in the many commentaries they have written on the Buddhist path. (This text was later reorganized and expanded as a foundational element of the Tibetan lam-rim literature on the graded stages of the path to enlightenment.)

It is incredible to be here; this will be a noteworthy teaching, so beneficial to the minds of those in attendance. If this was America (well, truth is, a teaching of this sort would not take place in the West), it would be hugely expensive and much in demand. Here in India there is no charge (same as HHDL’s teachings), and through the methodology in which the advance registration was handled, everyone will have a chance to sit directly in front of him – and to receive a personal blessing – during one of the five sessions.

So that’s what’s happening here in dusty little Bodhgaya . . . there’s no rest for the weary but/and it is all good, call it intense dharma mind-seeding. It’s why so many travel so hard to get here (sharing my jeep to Rajgir today was a Canadian, a Swede, a German, a Londoner, a Swiss and a Singaporean).

And how precious to have Nagarjuna’s wisdom presented by someone as brilliant and articulate as the Karmapa, undoubtedly Tibetan Buddhism’s brightest rising Bodhisattva star.

All in this far-away place, where enlightenment has been known to happen . . .

More soon, stoppng the finger now.

The aggregates of India

2009-12-17T01:53:00.004-05:00

Sent from Delhi – 12.17.09

India.

Intensity of senses; bright, acrid, crowded, colorful, filthy, glorious, riotous, psychedelic, exotic, difficult, mind-bending, heart-opening, ancient, pungent, poor, historic. A land of unending spirituality and horror and exquisite beauty; not segmented by neighborhood or region or time of day, but everything packed together, existing side-by-side, swirling together, ready at each and every moment to explode in the mind like a thunderbolt of consciousness. The aggregates of India, indeed.

It’s been almost two years since I’ve been there, and I clearly remember what someone told me on my first trip: India is a place where you are so happy to leave when the time comes to go home, and as soon as you get home you begin thinking about and planning your return. Yep, so true.

I am aware of the “back there vs. up ahead” of time one feels with each foot in a substantially different time zone.. It’s now 12:35am back home in Yalaha, and 11:05am of the same day in India – I’m sitting on Continental #82 from Newark to Delhi, somewhere 33,000 feet over Greenland – yes, the world IS a globe and it’s shorter to travel over the narrow curve rather than in a straight line.

It’s a completely free feeling -- time matters not, day of week matters not; now dark outside, soon it will be day, followed by the next night. And then we land. Twenty-seven days later it’s back on a plane for the long flight home. Between now and then . . . a palate of experiences.

From Plane to Train to Tuk-Tuk

After a morning in Delhi the overnight train straight east across the country to the state of Bihar, bordering Nepal to the north,very poor and recently pounded by monsoon flooding, disembarking at 4am in the sinister town of Gaya and then a tuk-tuk (small motorized three-wheeled rickshaw) 15 kilometers to Bodhgaya, as my dharma sister (and India/Nepal-traveling companion of past days) Maya calls it, the Vajra Seat, the place of Siddhartha’s awakening 2,500 years ago.

I spent a month in Bodhgaya two years ago, I don’t imagine it has changed very much since then (if you’re interested you can read some of the reports in the posts on this blogsite). It is a difficult place, immensely air and water polluted and very dusty, crowded, noisy and disease-ridden.

So, why there? Why the long trip to Bodhgaya again? Because shining through the difficulty of getting to and being in Bodhgaya is enormous opportunity for growth, both worldly and spiritual. Call it grist for the mind’s mill.

The Tibetan people are gathering there in mass, in this place of the Buddha’s enlightenment. There will be tens of thousands, in their November-March tent city on the fields near the Tibetan monastery. The annual Monlam gatherings will be taking place, His Holiness the 17th Karmapa will be in attendance leading prayer, practices and teaching, followed by five days of teachings and a long-life empowerment with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Nuclear dharma in this ancient little town on the Ganges plains. As Lama Zopa would say . . . unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.

*** *** ***

At this time of year there are many acorns falling off the trees in my central Florida hometown of Yalaha. If you’re fast enough to beat the squirrels and pick one up and look at it, you may see many things, but what you don’t see is an oak tree . . . and even if you know you’re holding an insipient oak tree, you’ll be disappointed if you try to get any shade out of it.

Well, the Buddha said we are all like acorns, we have the ability and potential to be perfect, our minds have the ability to be completely clear and omniscient. We’re like acorns, needing the proper conditions to reach our potential . . . and that potential is there in every one of our minds . . . all sentient beings. There’s nothing mystical about it, it’s all rather scientific, actually. And it’s been spelled out, on a path that people have been walking for the past 2,500 years, a path that began with an awakening under a Bodhgaya full moon.

So, now I return to Bodhgaya, where for centuries thousands have journeyed through heat and monsoon rains to find enlightenment . . . I am amazed and honored to be a part of the lineage, to immerse myself in this rich and precious environment.

Having been there once, sight-seeing and soaking it up, I now come with work to do -- to refocus and deepen my dharma practice (karma allowing), which has become somewhat undisciplined and scattered of late. I do this for myself in order that I may become a more meaningful father, friend, partner, neighbor, co-worker, teacher -- in summary, a more meaningful and beneficial human being.

We all have minds capable of the truly magnificent. We all have the potential to do so much for those around us -- if this potential arises in my mind just a little bit more often, abiding with just a touch more understanding enabled by these upcoming days in Bodhgaya, the benefits will dwarf by millions any difficulties encountered along the way.

Thanks for reading, in the darkness below we just passed over Iceland. As a Tibetan friend says as he concludes his e-mails, I am stopping my fingers now.

Please

2008-01-25T06:23:00.000-05:00

Mcleodganj, Dharamsala -- The following poem was written by a friend, Lhasang Tsering, who owns a bookshop here. Lhasang is a very unique and compelling man, he's an old timer who escaped from Tibet many years ago after an extended stint as a freedom fighter, part of a guerilla outfit who fought the Chinese occupation violently.

Upon his arrival in Dharamsala, he was a co-founder and president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a largely influential group (and voice) that advocates nothing less than full independence for Tibet, in conflict with HHDL's middle-way "autonomy' campaign.

I've known Lhasang Tsering for almost three years now, and as it was when I first met him, he cannot speak about Tibet without tears welling in his eyes and his fists clenching.

Please

People; O People of the Free World;
Leaders; O Leaders of the Free World;
Please help free Tibet before it is too late;
Please help free Tibet before there is no longer a Tibet.
Please, please help free Tibet!

Tibet is not just about Tibetans --
Tibet is about the weak against the strong;
Tibet is about the few against the many;
Yes, Tibet is another genocide;
So please, please help free Tibet!

Tibet is not just about Tibetans --
Tibet is about an endless arms race between India and China;
Tibet could well be the flashpoint of the next great war;
Yes, Tibet is about the future of world peace;
So please, please help free Tibet.

Tibet is not just about Tibetans --
Tibet is about the permanent snow on the Himalayas;
Tibet is about the timely flow of the monsoon winds;
Yes, Tibet is about the source of Asia's great rivers;
So please, please help free Tibet.

Tibet is not just about Tibetans --
Tibet is where China is dumping chemical and nuclear waste;
Tibet is about the world you want to live for your children
Yes, Tibet is about the future of all our offspring;
So please, please help free Tibet.

People, O People of the free world;
Leaders, O Leaders of the free world;
Please help free Tibet before it is too late;
Please help free Tibet while there still is a Tibet
Please, please help free Tibet.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
And again, Thank You!

Husbands and Trees

2008-01-22T04:10:00.000-05:00

In India, when boys and girls get engaged, their horoscopes are read by the family “priest” to see if they’re compatible. But astrological compatibility extends far beyond whether they’re suited for one another and the astrologers are searching for the wider significance.

“When this girl marries into our family,” the bridegroom’s parents ask the priest, “will she bring us luck? Will she bring us wealth, or cast a shadow over our home, perhaps shortening our lives or bringing us bad health?”

If the girl’s horoscope reveals a hint of such possibilities the priests shake their heads and inform the prospective in-laws of the bad news, telling them that they have chosen a monglick girl to be their son’s wife.

Happily for the monglick girl, there is a solution to this fate, she is not doomed to the fate of a frustrated spinster, a fate over which she has no control. All she has to do is marry someone else, and then her ill-fortune will be transferred to that husband. Then, purified, she can marry her intended bridegroom secure that she is bringing only good luck to her new family.

The trick, of course, is finding a man who is noble enough to marry the unfortunate girl first, absorb all the ill-fated destiny, and then release her, cleansed, into the arms of another man. For a monglick, as you might expect, this often proves difficult.

But not impossible.

Travellers to India, especially those who visit the forest villages, occaisionally see trees with withered flower garlands hanging from their branches.

Not mere decoration, these garlands denote the presence of a husband. Yes, the trees serve as husbands, and in a marriage ceremony as elaborate as between human beings the monglick girl garlands the tree, identifying it as her husband – to transfer her ill-destiny to the tree, thereby cleansing herself of the misfortune of her fate.

To anyone's knowledge, the trees do not object.

* * * * * * * *

The use of trees to receive evil is an idea apparently as old as India itself. The Arthava Veda, written a thousand years before Jesus, contains the prayer . . .

The sin, the pollution
Whatever we have done with evil
With your leaves we wipe it off.

At our Chenrezig Project meetings we use trees as a metaphor for non-judgmental thoughts, or equanimity, it is an example we have fun with and we smile as we use the phrase “See people as trees.”

So, it is not just fun, but deeply touching to be in a culture where trees are historically so revered.

I’ve read that the great Indian philosophical academies were all held in groves of trees --- an acknowledgment that the forest, self-sufficient, endlessly regenerative, combined in itself the diversity and harmony which is the aspiration of Indian spirtual belief. It is not a coincidence that the great body of India’s knowledge – the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, etc. as well as the medical studies of the Ayurveda all came out of the forests.

Indian cities have at their center a grove of trees from which the city streets emnate outward like branches. I have heard of one tree, in the center of a hectic traffic circle in Bombay, that bears a Christian cross, a ledge on which a Koran is placed and read as well as an image of the Indian deity Shiva.

It's also not by chance that the Buddha and Mahavira, the founders of Buddhism and Jainism, two of India’s great religions, should both have attained enlightenment not ina temple or in a city square but while meditating under a tree.

I've heard that throughout the country trees are worshipped as incarnations of the goddess Meenakshi. Stories are told that Shiva once appeared to a sage sitting under a mango tree, mango trees have been considered sacred since.

And just yesterday a group of friends and I hiked up the mountain from where we're staying, our destination is a small colony of stone mediation huts, populated by old Tibetan monks and lamas, cozily nestled in the calm, peaceful tranquility of the deep forest.

Is it any wonder that the tree is sacred to India? Or that forests are considered to be places of pilgrimage as holy as any temple?

* * * * * *

So, with all this adoration, all this history, all this sigificance, it seems beyond belief that Indians could have permitted half the trees of India to be cut down by the administrators of the British Empire to make way for railways and mines, and then themselves cut down half of the remaining trees in the past 50 years.

What has happened, and is happening to the subcontinent’s forest cover is shocking.

Riding the train from Behar to Delhi one travels through miles and miles of what were once forests and are now fields. It is beautiful in it's way, and very "India" with the goats and water buffalos and squatters and mud huts, but it is also very sad.

Of the thousands of miles of dense jungle that covered the great range of the Nepal Himalaya, virtually none of it is left. And logging and stone-quarrying have destroyed the forest cover of the Indian Himalaya with equal devastation.

As a result, the monsoon rains, which are life or death to the subcontinent, have each year resulted in increased incidents of flood and homelessness. And as glaciers retreat and topsoil washes away and waters evaporte because there is nothing to retain them, more devastation occurs.

In India intensity overwhelms, and, simply put, this country like so many others has replaced a deeply-felt veneration of the tree with a feverish consumption of the tree. It's been going on for a years, a short time actually in this ancient country. But now it is out of control, and it is no longer able to connect cause with effect.

There is a movement here called Chipko, which means “to cling” and throughout the Himalayaa villagers and conservationalists, students and ordinary people are attempoting to halt India’s deforestation by clinging to trees marked for felling by commercial contractors. They are also planting trees, fighting to replace the forests of fast growing trees, like the eucalyptus and pine, intended for the wood pulp industry, which provides NOTHING to the soil or the people who live off the soil. They hope to repopulate the forests with the great slow-growing trees on which so much of India’s ecological balance depend.

It’s all ironic. India has traditionally prided herself on being “Karma Bhoomi” – the Land of Experience – dismissing other countries as the lands of the consumer.

But if Indians persist in slaughtering their remaining trees, they will decimate more than just forests, and potential “husbands.”

In many ways, so sadly, they will have crossed the line of which they have no choice but to admit they really are no different than the rest of us.

(with thanks to Gita Mehta for information used above.)

Notes from the Rails . . .

2008-01-17T04:09:00.000-05:00

It’s 8:45pm on January 16^th and I’m riding the Mahabodhi Express heading west from the Biharian town of Gaya to Delhi. We left Gaya, a nasty town, at 2:30 this afternoon and are due to arrive into the New Delhi station at around 5:30 am.

This is a high-speed train, as opposed to the many local and “mail" trains that ply the tracks of the Indian railway system, the world’s largest both in terms of track mileage and daily passengers. Like most things in India, the train system is chaotic, confusing, always delayed, over crowded and patience-trying . . . and it works perfectly.

The train is packed, we just picked up a bunch of passengers at a place called Allamabad Junction. I am riding in 3AC class, in which I have a sleeping pad (number 15 in car 1A-B) and the “AC” part of the ticket classification is a misnomer – there is no air conditioning.

The pads are narrow and short and are stacked three-high, they fold out from the compartment walls, so it’s pretty tight, there’s not a lot of room, perhaps three feet from your pad to the one above. (Claustrophobics stay away!) Everyone gets a bed sheet, pillow and little hand towel.

My friend Maya is asleep on the pad above mine, we are the only westerners riding in car 1A-B tonight.

I am fortunate, I have a “corridor” pad which means I have absolutely no privacy, but I do have a little fold-down table on which I am writing this. Privacy is something one learns not to grasp too tightly in India.

Traveling along with us is a large colony -- family? tribe? army? -- of cockroaches. I’ve never been in an Indian train without them, but this car is completely infested. They are everywhere; almond-shaped, brown and gold, brazen and confident and they give me the creeps, but they’re quiet, don’t bite, and no one else seems to take notice of them, so what the heck. (Nonetheless, it takes courage to close one’s eyes and try to sleep.)

Every 30 minutes or so the chai vendor comes through, it’s hot and passable and costs just five rupees (about 12 cents) for a cup. We also brought fruit (oranges, bananas, pomegranates, apples) and have a friend in the next car who brought biscuits. As the phrase goes, a moveable feast.

All told, for 600 rupees (about $16), a night on the train isn’t so bad: I get to Delhi and don’t have to pay for a hotel room, tonight Pad 15 is home-sweet-home. In fact, it’s better than “not so bad” -- it’s fun, another in a string of experiences in this country of intense conditions in which attitude is the knife-edge on which the mind is thrown into either misery or joy.

So, tomorrow’ll be a day in Delhi, we’re going to throw our bags into a cheap hotel in the Parahganj, the “grand bazaar” area near the train station and then head over to the Tibetan settlement north of town where a travel agent is holding our bus tickets for the 4:00pm “deluxe” bus to Dharamsala, tickets arranged by Fred, Maya’s husband. (I’ve ridden these busses before, I think deluxe means there’s seats.)

Fred is in Dharamsala, he and Maya have been living there for the past year. In February they’ll be leaving India (visa problems) to move to a small town northeast of Amsterdam. (Fred is Dutch, Maya is Israeli.)

So tomorrow night will again be spent traveling, this time in a bus heading north from Delhi, through the Sikh-dominated Punjab (the Golden Temple of Armritsar is a magnificent sight at any time of day or night) and into the Himalayas.

When we arrive in Dharamsala early in the morning it will be cold and wet, likely snowy. The town will be empty; after I leave in ten days it will begin filling to overflow for the Losar (Tibetan New Year) celebration, immediately after which the Dalai Lama will conduct his traditional public teaching.

I expect to be happy to be back in Tibetan-culture-rich Dharamsala after an almost two-year absence. As many know, it was there that sitting at a candlelit table during a week of late nights with a refuge named Singhi (Sing-geee) and a Tibetan-English dictionary that my “dharma” experience sprouted wings and took off. And so much has happened in the time since.

While in Dhasa (as the locals call it) I’ll certainly enjoy time together with dear friends Fred and Maya, and of course I’m excited to see Singhi, who doesn’t know I’m coming.

I’ll visit the school where I taught conversational English to Tibetan refugees, and if Jigme, my friend who is the school’s director wants, I’ll be happy to do a special “What’s Happening Today in America” talk. Tibetans are very curious about how we live in the west.

I’ll visit the Namgyal monastery and the temples that are part of the Dalai Lama’s “complex” – having taken refuge as a Buddhist since I was last there I believe doing practice in that beautiful and auspicious place will be quite meaningful.

I’ll hike up to Bhagsu Falls, a splendid waterfall at the end of a steep canyon that bears very special emotional significance for me.

If it’s open, I hope to visit the Tibetan Archives library, and also spend some time at the terrific library at Tushita, the meditation center in the thick forest above Dharamsala.

I look forward to eating the delicious pizza at my friend Lobsang’s restaurant, perched on a ridge-top overlooking the Dalai Lama’s residence and the valley far below. And speaking of food, bring on the Tibetan momos (vegetable- and potato-filled dumplings)!!!

I think Fred, Maya and I will leave town for a day to visit the nunnery that Ven.Tenzin Palmo, a wonderfully inspiring English-born Tibetan Buddhist nun founded and is resident at. We’ll also likely take teachings from HH the Karmapa, a very special and radiant being, at his monastery.

There’ll be a lot to do, but here’s what’s most exciting to me: this all comes after almost four weeks in Bodhgaya, the last 10 days of which were spent in intense and wonderful Lam-rim meditation retreat.

In retreat we covered a remarkable amount of ground, both in scope and depth. We sat for more than 80 meditations and performed a diverse range of Tibetan Buddhist practices. We learned and reflected and contemplated, did circumambulations, motivations, dedications and purifications. And even though the retreat was conducted in silence, through shared experience many became friends.

Physically, it was demanding. We woke at 5:15 each morning and finished at around 9:30pm. There were prostrations. The food was good at times, usually just OK. Some days we took Mahayana precepts, which includes a fast from noon until the next morning. Hours of sitting in the gompa brought on stiff necks, sore backs and burning knees. Nights and mornings were cold and hot water was scare. The beds were hard and uncomfortable, especially for those of us with older bodies. The wool blankets were scratchy. The mosquitoes unending. Obstacles galore.

It was also emotionally difficult. Lam-rim meditations leave few stones unturned.

I, and I know I’m not alone, had realizations of mind arise that caused deep despair, sadness and regret. We became familiar with suffering, at times feeling trapped in it. But there were also moments of equanimity and compassion, and bliss, and the understanding from which strength and determination emerge.

It wasn’t easy, but it was precious, this path of the Lam-rim, and we knew it.

::::::::::::::

Not easy and precious. That seems to be the theme for this trip, through the arduous traveling and sickness and long hours and dusty air and sore body and beggars and mosquitos and cockroaches and the mind-melting energy of the Mahabodhi Stupa.

Buddha taught the middle path, experiencing such intensities it is hard to keep on it.

Tonight it’s the express to Delhi and then tomorrow into the mountains. And then, less than two weeks from now, home to work, family and friends. All of this with many new and beneficial imprints on/in my mind. I know they’re there, I can sense their presence. A dharma “toolbox” of insights just waiting for proper conditions to manifest.

And here’s what’s so exciting. There will be no end to the opportunities in which to engage mindfulness and proper intention. To be aware. To use wisdom. To generate merit. To develop bodhicitta. And to act accordingly. Starting right now.

All of this played out on the field of “disturbing and obscuring mind” as Rinpoche says.

Like I said, it’s not easy, but it’s so very precious.

I will try to do my best.

Dear Tathagata:

2008-01-13T02:41:00.000-05:00

Note: India in 2007 celebrated the Buddha’s death 2,550 years ago. Tathagata is another word for Buddha.

Dear Tathagata:

Two thousand five hundred and fifty years ago, it is said, you died. As all that are born, do.

And you died not without suffering; you were in pain. You said to your faithful disciple, “Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathagata is kept going only by supports.”

Saying that, Tathagata, you died.

But before that you had seen the spectacle of human pain, of disease, of aging, of death – not by your eyes alone but by the totality of your mind. You had understood their causes, their behavior, their effect – and also the way out of there entrapment of suffering.

You saw in that pain a great truth, the truth of dukkha. (Dukkha is the deep dis-satisfaction, or suffering that is present in the minds of the unenlightened.) But the dukkha you saw was not just your own, but that of others. It was the dukkha of the human family. Indeed, it was the dukkha of all beings, not just humans. And you taught us how to respond to that dukkha.

So, as I said above, Tathagata, you died.

But as you were no ordinary being, we use the phrase “attained Nirvana” to describe your death. As you were phenomenal, many go one step further and even use a more elevated phrase: Parinirvana. And some still go even one step higher in the exercise of word-building and say you attained “Mahaparinirvana.”

Since you lived so long ago, you’ve moved into history, you’re a “topic” in high school world religion classes, an exhibit in many museums.

Your figure has become ubiquitous worldwide, we see your peaceful face on advertisements, your meditative posture on lawn statues and fireplace mantles everywhere.

We’ve become comfortable with your images, but not with your teachings. Why is that?

Because as wise as they are, they are not convenient. They are, in fact, mightily inconvenient.

Great beings in our times here in India, and elsewhere in the world, have read your teachings with absorption and some have trued to do their very best to do what you taught, to walk on the path you trod. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mohandas Gandhi and Mother Teresa are three who come quickly to mind.

And simple humans, pilgrims from far and near, visit the places in India and Nepal associated with your name. For them you are not in the past, you are alive – every moment.

Between your birth at Lumbini and your death at Kusinara, for decades you walked on dusty tracks, on thorny paths, amidst beauty and squalor.

You mortified your flesh, fasted, meditated, and then after you became enlightened, as a wandering teacher you were a guest of the rich and the abject poor, the famous and the ostracized. Those distinctions of high and low, strong and weak, created by human ingenuity for the exercise of power and vanity, made no difference to you.

None at all.

How could they? For you knew that they were all – all those people – afflicted by dukkha and the causes for further dukkha, ignorance of self, ignorance of others, ignorance of reality.

But that was then, many many years ago, and the purpose of this letter is to say something about how I, a visitor, see life as it’s being lived in India by today’s people. And to ask you a favor.

Some of your words show that the beauty of India was not lost on you, and India is still an amazingly colorful country with many riches – material, cultural and spiritual. (And of course you’ve added your own color with your wonderful teachings.)

India today is a country whose material wealth is growing exponentially. But it is not spreading nearly fast enough “horizontally” because of tendencies to want to own, not share; to dominate, not cooperate. Exploitation is everywhere.

In your days there also were the exploiters and the exploited, and you spoke the same simple truth to all of them. You spoke as you felt, Tathagata. And you felt as you saw. And you saw it all.

I read in today’s newspaper a column in which the issue of “access” for the masses was discussed. The access is included in a parliamentary edict that gives the right of information to everyone, regardless of social, financial or cultural background or standing. It is a way those with the power are trying to close the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. Many see it as just a token.

It reminded me of you, and how in simple language that all could understand you intervened to give women and the (so-called) lower castes a sense of their equality. And in so doing you also told them of their equal vulnerability to the fires of dukkha that could consume them.

You gave them both – women and the oppressed classes – access. Access to the causes of dukkha and the way out of it.

You wanted to spread the light of your wisdom and you did. You broke through the walls of the privileged priesthood, which kept wisdom concealed in Sanskrit. Communicating your messages in Pali, the more common people’s language, you did just that.

But here remain some very difficult contradictions here in your country, Tathagata.

Tensions persist between the Hindu and Muslims, there is always fear of a flare-up, triggered by terrorists or fanatics. Much blood has been shed. And whether in Delhi, Varansi, the Punjab or Tamil Nadu, it is always the innocent who suffer.

The Sikhs remain homeland-less and unsatisfied.

A state of “war” all but exists in Sri Lanka.

Firearms have spead across the country -- illegal arms are carried by violent men who motivate even women and children to use them. Here in Bihar there have been bombings of trains and train stations in the past two months.

Women and children, living on the edge of starvation and deprivation remain exploited physically and sexually.

We have the “highs” of power, of wealth, of intellect alongside the “lows” of squalor, deprivation, destitution. It is said that in India only one in ten has use of a toilet.

Tragedy exists in the villages where several hundred farmers have taken their own lives, unable to bear the burden of debt.

Domestic violence continues to increase and child marriage, an old scourge, persists.

Your country has countless abandoned women, left behind not by seekers of truth as you were, but by self-seekers. Women are trafficked, girls abused, and yes, female fetuses aborted.

India’s leaders continue to take the physically, psychologically, socially, economically and politically voiceless for granted.

Leprocy, polio, tuberculosis, AIDS and other deadly diseases continue to run rampant among your people. There is great suffering in the villages, where most of your country’s 1.2 billion people live and time has all but stood still.

Even though you spoke out against animal sacrifice, practitioners of the major religions continue to slaughter animals with their sacrificial knives. A recent newspaper article quoted a statesman who said “Only goats are sacrificed, not lions.” I believe what he was saying is that those who are weak must realize that to survive they must become strong. Obviously he was not speaking of goats.

And all this in your country, the country of the Buddha!

India has nuclear weapons, Tathagata, and there remains great unrest in and with neighbors Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and China. It has been said that just 10% of the world’s nuclear arsenal is enough to create such a holocaust that nuclear “winter” will set in, with the light of the sun going out over the entire planet for an extended period of time. This is what the world has added to it’s arsenal since your time, Tathagata, the power to easily self-destruct.

It was recently written in The Hindu that Planet Earth is no longer “able to afford humans.” We are disemboweling the earth, heating its climate, removing its tree cover, making its creatures lives miserable. The Himalayan glaciers are melting, as a result some of your country’s eastern islands are sinking. Parts of Scandanavia, near the North Pole, had no snow this Christmas.

Steven Hawking has spoken about humans moving to other planets! I can’t help but think, Tathagata, “Poor Mars, what has it done to deserve humans?”

:::::::::::::::::::

So, here’s the favor I am asking you, Tathagata.

Teach us how to conserve what we have inherited, not exhaust what is non-renewable.

Teach us, from wherever you are, to take others’ dukkha seriously, forgetting our own.

Teach us, so that we really understand, that self-grasping and self-cherishing are nothing more than paths to suffering, and that happiness may only be obtained by putting others’ interests in front of ours.

Teach us, from wherever you are, to see ourselves in others, others in ourselves.

Teach us to heal, not to hurt.

May I ask that of you?

You became a Buddha, and have attained enlightenment, but may I ask you to please take human form and return, if not as a Buddha, as a Bodhisattva at least?

While for some you remain alive, the vast majority of your people, and the world’s people, need you again.

But I can’t help but wonder, if you were to come to us, would we listen? Would we heed your words? Follow your example? I don’t know the answer to that, Tathagata, honestly I don’t.

We have all traveled a long way indeed, on a very degraded road from the time you spoke your last words to Ananda.

Being here in India, in Bodhgaya, where you found your enlightenment, I can’t help but feel we need you back again, so very badly.

Tathagata, my gratitude.

Rajgir and Nalanda

2008-01-06T01:58:00.000-05:00

Hi all.

OK, this is a kind of look at my trip at almost the half-way point, a bit of a travelogue.

As I've mentioned in the e-mails I've written, I haven't been feeling so well ever since I got here about two weeks ago.

A pretty stubborn and deep-seated chest infection, seemingly immune to antibiotics, accompanied by periodic moments of fever, fatigue, headaches, etc. Just can't seem to shake it. Have taken to wearing a face mask when I go into town, the thick chocking dust makes my breathing really difficult, deep breaths sometimes painful.
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This trip to India has been of a different ilk; unlike the previous ones when I came over and bee-lined to settlement in the Himalayas, this one has involved traveling through and being in some very difficult places - it is much more an "adventure" and boy do I feel it. India is never easy, and that's especially true the way I travel, close to the bone financially, trying to remain light and nimble, I think I may be beginning to feel my age a bit, so many aches and pains, deep fatigue, etc.

I am learning some wonderful dharma, so far being successful in "deepening my practice" as I said I wanted to do before I left. Beginning tonight (Sunday) I'll begin an intensive ten-day Lam Rim meditation retreat, led by an absolute master, an Australian monastic who is just wonderful - knowledgeable and articulate. It will be physically tough: long hours, a cold gompa, mosquitos, at times very emotionally rough subject matter . . . Am hoping my coughing ends by the time the retreat stops, we'll see.

I think the work we'll do over the next ten days is going to "rock" whatever remains "unrocked" in my little world.

But that's why I and others come to India, such an intense place: to pull the rug out, knock things around, shake us awake. And then, with the shake-up complete, and with the help of beneficial dharma realizations, we try to put it all back together in ways in which it's more intuitively natural to live lives that are less self-cherishing, more compassionate and wise, more joyful. The expression "you've got to break some eggs to make an omelet" comes to mind here.

I've done some writings about Bodhgaya, you can read the pieces on my blogsite at http://mwinwood.blogspot.com if you're so inclined . . . they tend to be a bit long, I could use a good editor. Sorry. There's been some reaction to the latest one I posted, I believe it was on 2 january and was fairly extreme.

The juxtaposition of pilgrims (monks and lay people) from around the world coming to this place where the Buddha achieved his enlightenment, contrasted with the unbelievable Biharian poverty and sentient-being suffering is intense, and it seems whenever I sit down to write it's directly to that local beauty-and-beastlike existence my mind goes. Clearly, things are being processed.

(There is a place I've discovered in town that is, as I perceive it, a direct porthole to a hell-realm. It's a spot unlike any other I've ever been to, or even imagined, I'm not sure I will (or can) write about it, if I don't perhaps one night we'll talk of it.)

On Friday I traveled about 80km north to Rajgir, the site of Mass of Vultures Mountain where the Buddha turned the wheel of dharma as he taught the true nature of reality (i.e., emptiness) and where the dialog between Shariputra, Avalokiteshvara and the Buddha as portrayed in the Heart Sutra took place.

I was with a small group of (eight) friends and we hiked up the mountain along the beggar-lined path until we finally made it to the top, known as the Gridhakuta or Vulture's Peak, the location of many of Buddha's teachings as well as the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, aka the Heart Sutra.

There, under soaring hawks, surrounded by rugged (still they say tiger-infested) ravines filled with ancient caves -- including a small one said to be one of the Buddha's favorite meditation places -- we sat and read the Heart Sutra together.

To sit on that mountain-top in the cool early morning mist, reading the Heart Sutra aloud with a small group of dharma-teers composed of an Italian, an Australian, a Tibetan, a German, a Dutch, a Canadian, an Israeli and an American (me), the eight of us connected together with all the planet's people who have read that seminal Buddhist text during the past 2,000 years - and all those sentient beings whose lives were affected by those who read and acted upon those words -- was deeply moving, a combination of spiritual, joyful, serious, dreamlike, huge, heart-warming and "hard-to-believe it's me". A grand, unforgettable dharma moment.

Afterward we visited some hot spings (too crowded) and then went to the excavated ruins of Nalanda "University" - the first residential international university in the world (sorry, Oxford), that during its flourishing years (between the 5th and 12th centuries) housed more than 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers at any one time. Courses of study included scriptures of Buddhism (both Mahayana and Hinayana schools) Vedas, logic, medicine.

According to the scriptures, the Buddha visited the site of Nalanda many times, it formed an important location for his activities. And for those Chenrezig Projecteers to whom the names of the ancient Buddhist masters are beginning to become familiar, besides Buddha, Shariputra, Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Padmasambhava, Asanga and King Asoka also "slept" here.

To see Nalanda as the springhead from which Buddhism traveled far and wide -- including Tibet, Yalaha and all places between -- is not an overstatement.

Back to Bodhgaya. There's one place in town where the food's said to be safe to eat, it's a dirt-floor tent named Mohamad's and is very crowded with travelers and pretty much the local "meeting spot." The food IS very good, and "India" cheap. Mohamad's chai tea is delicious, but that's not unique, just about any of the vendors along the side of the road make good chai, and at 5 rupees per glass (12 cents) one drinks lots. (The coffee drinkers say it is impossible to find good coffee here.)

The weather has been fantastic, cold nights and mornings, sunny and warm afternoons. I don't believe I've seen a cloud for two weeks (except for those made of dust).

So, that's it for now, my finger stops here. I hope everyone who is reading this is well and happy. Special regards and warmest feelings sent to Karen and Rich, please know you guys are in my heart and mind everywhere I go and in all I do (except for the coughing, of course).

I look forward to returning home to you all and sharing what I've learned. I have some nice photos to share as well. I'm so glad to read how well the CP meetings have been going in my absence. We are all so fortunate.

Strive on with diligence!

Dispatch from Bodhgaya

2008-01-02T02:27:00.000-05:00

Bodhgaya, Bihar, India -- New Year’s Eve, 2007

Just before a full moon day in (about) the year 528 BCE*, a young ascetic monk of noble birth, worn out after years of self-mortification, arrived on the outskirts of the small Indian village of Uruvela, which was nestled on the banks of the sandy Neranjara River.

Many years later he described the scene that unfolded before him, “There I saw a beautiful stretch of the countryside, a beautiful grove, a clear flowing river and a village nearby for support. And I thought to myself; “indeed, this is a good place for a young man set on striving.”

He settled himself under the spreading branches of a nearby tree and prepared to begin his meditation.

Just then a young woman named Sujata happened to be passing and noticing him and how thin he was, ran quickly home and brought him a bowl of milk rice and sweet honey. Strengthened by this nutritious meal the ascetic began his meditation. All night he sat there as the leaves of the tree quivered in the warm breeze and the moon shone bright in the velvety black sky.

Eventually the clouds of ignorance dissolved and he saw Reality in all its glory and splendor. He was no longer Prince Siddhartha or the ascetic Gautama. He had become the Awakened One, the Compassionate One, the Light of the World, the Buddha.

The Buddha spent the next seven weeks in and near Uruvela experiencing the bliss of enlightenment, moving to a different location every seven days. Then he set off for Isipathana (now Sarnath) near Varanasi to proclaim to the world the liberating truths he had realized.

It’s said the Buddha returned just once to Uruvela, now named Bodhgaya, a few months after turning the wheel of dharma for the first time at the Deer Park near Varanasi.

::::::::::::::

Bodhgaya is located in the Indian state of Bihar (Bee-har) in the economically challenged north central “belt” that runs across the width of India from Delhi to Calcutta. Bihar’s northern border runs along the Nepali border, a porous border through which Nepal’s Maoist influences seep south.

Bihar is known to be the poorest state in India, and it carries the reputation of being the most dangerous. Those from Bihari are said to be “crazy” in the ballsy kind of way those from Brooklyn were said to be crazy when I was growing up in Queens, and there are unending tales of Bihari’s highway robbers, thieves and pickpockets. Travelers here are warned to travel in pairs and stay off the roads after dark.

There is violence between neighboring Bihari regions; a passenger train bringing rice-pickers from one part of the state to another was blown-up not too long ago. Only five people died, a Bihar man shrugged the other day. That same day I saw an old dead man lying in the dirt on the side of a road. In Bihar not even life is worth very much.

Agriculture, mostly rice, is the staple product here. There are rice fields everywhere and the countryside is quite serene and beautiful.

Running neck-and-neck with rice in terms of Bihar’s economy are the visitors, primarily the pilgrims who come to Bodhgaya; to be in the place where the Buddha awoke.

This is nothing new. People have been traveling to Bodhgaya for more than 2,000 years.

Ancient Buddhist maps were drawn almost always showing either the mythical Mount Meru or Bodhgaya at their center. There is knowledge of a guidebook to Bodhgaya written by a Tibetan scholar in the 14th century. In the 11th century a Sumatran made a pilgrimage here. The Chinese pilgrim I Tsing, in the 7th century met a monk here who had come all the way from Kazakhstan in the former Soviet Union. Vietnamese have been coming since Buddhism was introduced in their country in the 6th century. The first evidence of a Sri Lankan arriving here is an inscription by a monk in the 1st century BCE. The Tibetan scholar Dharmasvamin arrived here in 1234.

Today, as ever, the main attraction for pilgrims is to worship or practice at the Mahabodhi Stupa and the famous Bodhi tree that sits directly behind it.

The tree, likely the most famous one on the planet, is a descendent of the tree under which the Buddha achieved enlightenment. It is located in the same spot as its famous ancestor. It is beautiful, with thick branches that spread far and wide.

The Stupa (some refer to it as a temple) is believed to have been built during the 5th century, although no one is quite sure of the date or builder. By the middle of the 19th century it was in serious ruin, and was extensively restored in 1880. Today it contains statues of the Buddha that date back to the 7th century.

The stones around the Stupa upon which pilgrims walk were laid in place in the 14th century. There is a large flat stone at the base of the Bodhi tree marking the place where the Buddha sat and became enlightened. It was set in place by King Asoka in 260 BCE. More than 2,260 years old, it is the oldest antiquity in Bodhgaya.

To be in this place is to connect with the vastness of the past and it is enormously powerful. Sitting in meditation with others from around the world in the shade of the Bodhi tree on a warm afternoon is an experience that brings one to the brink of pure spirit, a combination of humanity, love, gratitude and awe that manifests in a serenity and calm that flows outward from the deepest part of the heart. Feelings so light and pure and completely felt . . .
People from around the world, Buddhist and non-Buddhists alike, continue to travel to Bodhgaya. Some come to do practice, some to bathe in the deeply satisfying energy, some to simply see the place for themselves.

And for all who come here a very special industry awaits.

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Mummilal is a 15 year-old boy who lives in Bodhgaya. He doesn’t go to school, never has. His work day begins at around 6am, as people begin to arrive at the Stupa, and he works until it gets dark.

His workplace is right outside the entrance to the Stupa grounds. Even though his job is very people-intensive, he never had to learn English or French or any of the other languages one hears at this world pilgrimage site. Hindi is sufficient for Mummilal as his communication with his clients is mostly visual.

Mummilal’s career training apparently began sometime before his second birthday, when he had his hips dislocated and both legs broken at the knees and ankles. As they began to heal he had them re-broken, over and over again. Once his legs were sufficiently “pliable” they were allowed to set, with one leg bent at a bizarre angle backwards and up behind the back of his head, the other a tangle of impossible angles out, back and up.

None of this was his idea.

It was done to prepare Mummilal for his career as a street beggar, a professional whose job it is to wrench loose rupees from open-hearted travelers in this place of the dharma’s birth, the dharma that teaches, among other things, compassion for all sentient beings.

His career counselors were his parents, who saw financial benefit in having a son who could horrify peoples’ hearts into breaking.

Today, the final day of 2007, Mummilal is working. He is filthy. His hair is matted, there are clumps of dirt and snot all over his face, his beautiful rich brown skin is gray, his legs and arms are as thin as a little league baseball bats, his eyes contain the essence of his trade – pain and suffering.

Mummilal’s world is the 30 inches above the dusty, grimy walkway. His head bends sideways at an odd angle as he is always looking up, trying to make eye contact with people who are rushing by, trying not to look at him. He moves on his hands and one shoulder, dragging his broken body along, his back twisted and distended, his legs flapping and flopping as though made of rubber and balsa wood.

His arms and hands and fingers haven’t been destroyed, they’re needed for shuffling from person to person and gathering the change that sometimes falls, dropped by people who are then gone, rushing off to the Stupa. No one waits to hear him say “thank you”.

Sit and watch him at work, as I did this morning, and you’ll see maybe one in 300 people, always a westerner, give him anything. When something drops for him it’s usually a coin, probably two rupees, worth about five cents. He takes the coin and puts it in a shirt pocket, he wears cloth around his hips and upper legs; there’s not many tailors who could make a pair pants that would fit Mummilal..

The coins come very slowly today, perhaps cash flow is hard because there’s so much competition for the visitor rupee. Like I said, in Bodhgaya this is an industry, cash-only, supported by those who come here.

Walking the streets is not easy for a visitor.

There are mothers who approach, holding one or two usually naked babies, filthy and crying, demanding money for milk.

There are blind people stumbling around mumbling “namaste” to anyone who can hear them.

And there are people of all ages in various stages of leprosy. We don’t see leprosy very much in the west, here it’s commonplace.

Want to know how challenging it can be to act on your compassionate urges?

Try to give some coins to a leper who has no fingers on either hand. It’s awkward and difficult as they press the coins between their palms, or wrists if their palms are too disfigured, and then try to drop them into their begging bowl. If they miss the bowl and one of the coins drops on the ground they can’t pick it up. So you do it for them, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable about handling a coin that has just touched the fingerless hands of an active, raging leper. (Oh God, what if it’s contagious? )

Trying to talk to or make eye contact with these poor people is also difficult, frequently the leprosy has advanced to their faces, robbing them of noses, chins, jaws. It’s hard to look.

Bodhgaya’s streets are also home to polio victims, hopelessly sick and broken. I heard of a woman with polio who used to roll/push a five-rupee coin on its edge across the filthy pavement toward her begging bowl with her nose. One or two of her helpers would stand and watch, and then out of curiosity a crowd would form. Her reward for completing this obscene act would be coins dropped in the bowl by the spectators. She hasn’t been seen in a while. Perhaps death has rescued her.

The buzz around here is that the place is being cleansed of the beggars as the Mahabodhi grounds have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site and there’s some big international money coming to town, resulting in a clean-up. Reports are an area of three kilometers around the Stupa will be cleared of the undesirables.

That may be so for the days ahead, but today there’s hundreds of these sick, mangled, needy people along the road to the Stupa. Most just sit or lie in the filth, sharing the gutter with the dogs and goats. The ones who approach visitors are the children who are very aggressive, and the mothers, who are children themselves. The men just sit and watch, empty bowls on the ground.

No matter how many coins one comes to town with, pockets are soon empty. One never has enough.

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Bodhgaya and Buddhism and beggars.

Can you see the juxtaposition of beauty and horror? Can you imagine how completely and totally alive one feels when here?

Experiencing this place, where such extreme suffering lives in the shadow of the Buddha’s realization of unimaginable bliss is physically exhausting, intellectually fascinating and emotionally un-processable.

The beggars are overwhelming, when in their presence it’s hard to know what to do. This uncertainty provides motivation to develop the wisdom to act skillfully with the confidence of knowing one is doing the absolute best thing for them, while generating proper compassionate intentions.

Equanimity, probably the last state of mind one would normally manifest in this situation, is what is called for. And to be joyful in what we do, actually rejoicing as we do it.

What a lesson in overcoming our own self-cherishing! I have such gratitude to be here in this incredible human atmosphere studying and practicing dharma where it began so many years ago. It is all so intense, and so very precious.

Tonight one year is passing into another. An event calling for revelry and over-indulgence for many, but I can’t help but think of how a new year means absolutely nothing to Mummilal. For him it’s just another night; tomorrow there’ll be a whole new flock of visitors with coins in their pockets. For him there are no year-end resolutions to lose weight or exercise more. I don’t believe there is a happy ending here.

In our Chenrezig Project meetings we talk about the suffering of cyclic existence or samsara. This suffering, or “dukka” as the Buddha called it, remains abstract to some, understood a bit by most, realized in brief flashes by a few.

If you want to experience samsara at its most intense, really want to get smacked in the face with it, come to India. Come to Bodhgaya. There is ecstacy and agony here, day after day. So much to learn. So much to process. So much occurring.

It’s 11:45pm. Tomorrow’s meditation begins at 5:45am. Time to stop the fingers.

Thanks for reading. With love.

(*) BCE – Before Common Era, the non-denominational alternative to BC and AD, commonly used throughout Asia.

Moment-by-Moment on the Dharma Path

2007-12-28T01:53:00.000-05:00

December 28, 2007

Bodhgaya, Bihar, India

Sometimes one can be surrounded by dharma on all sides and have very non-dharmic "urges" bubbling at the center. Rather than simply rejecting these urges we examine them, because within them are the signposts to where our inner work lies.

That’s a reason people come to India, such an intense country, where one’s inspirations and motivations and inner knowledge smack up against the realities of personal fears and aversions and weaknesses and discomfort and inner horrors. (And may the best, purest wisest thoughts win!)

In Tibetan Buddhism, a mind-science of the highest order, our teachers explain it’s the clear, wise, compassionate thoughts that are always resident in our mind, while thoughts of anger, greed, fear, jealousy, etc., resulting from our ignorance of the nature of reality, run rampant in our “here and now.”

So we learn what is so logical: the clear wise thoughts are the ones that lead to actions that produce happiness, the ones that stem from ignorance lead to actions that are harmful and cause suffering.

Learning how to recognize and not “follow” the harmful ones, while generating, discerning and empowering the wise ones is, mechanically speaking, what dharma practice is all about.

Motivation stems from the understanding that the potential for manifesting wise thoughts is always present, an indestructible part of our mind’s clear fabric. The harmful thoughts -- described by Lama Zopa Rinpoche as “disturbing obscuring” -- while numerous and influential (in the same way poison can be influential), are just interlopers that, with practice, may be overcome and ultimately eliminated.

Mindfulness practice teaches us to be aware of what is occurring in our mind, and we soon learn there’s plenty of both “Wise Ones” and “Sufferers” and they come very very quickly, and in those moments when we’re aware that the “Wise Ones” have taken residence we take note and feel pretty good about it.

But look out, trouble ahead. We can’t take too much note or feel too good, because next up on the mindstream is a deep and familiar hole with a very slippery slope containing the ultimate Sufferer disguised as a Wise One. This one’s called “self-cherishing” and before you’re even aware you’re caught in it, you’re usually in pretty deep. In fact, it’s the state of mind in which we spend most of our time.

And the self-cherishing mind is a sneaky, seductive Sufferer indeed:

[Sufferer speaks:] "Ahhh, it feels good here, feels like “Me” tucked into my own Me bed, head on my soft Me pillow underneath my secure Me comforter. The thoughts and feelings that abide here are comfortable and safe and warm. Self-cherishing is where we feel special. Unique. At the center of our universe. And it feels wonderfully real. Out there it’s Me vs. Everyone Else, and when I’m here, in my self-cherishing state of mind, I AM the most important . . . I AM THE WINNER!"

The trouble is that self-cherishing, regardless of how good or comfortable or REAL it feels, is a hole nonetheless, and in its depths breed and grow all the sufferings we experience.

(And hey, psst . . . there’s nothing real about it, you’re smack in the middle of Delusion-land. But don’t sweat it, it happens to most everyone, and besides, none of that feel-good self-cherishing stuff could possibly be real in the way you’d like it to be, anyway.)

::::::::::::::::::::::

Dust and mosquitos. If you’ve ever wanted to know what’s in the Bodhgaya air, that’s it. Thick dust by day, thicker mosquitoes by evening.

The dust alone can make you ill, and can turn toxic if you have the flu-type chest congestion so many Westerners here seem to get. Many walk around with mouth masks, and the amount of dirt one sees in his/her mask after wearing it for just a few minutes in town is frightening.

But the mosquitoes, they’re a different type of problem

First of all, they are numerous and large . . . these are the kind with the thick bodies and long legs that just hang down as they float/fly around. But even though they’re large, you don’t feel them when they land on you . . . until you feel their blood-seeking pinch, even through your clothes.

Secondly, they swarm. Rest assured if you see one on your arm, there’s two on your neck and one on your forehead.

Thirdly, mosquitoes in India are dangerous. Malaria. Dengue fever. Diseases that kill. Enough said.

Here in the Indian state of Bihar the mosquitoes breed in the well-irrigated rice fields that circle the town. Hungry and thirsty, they begin swarming in the late afternoon.

Everyone hates mosquitoes, some people obsessively. The problem is, they’re sentient beings. Mind possessors. Just looking to have happiness and avoid suffering, exactly like all other sentient beings, including us humans.

And at the core of Tibetan Buddhism is the belief and practice is that we don’t kill sentient beings. In fact, we are taught to cherish them even more than ourselves.

So at this point the dharma path gets a little gnarled.

Because when one of these little mind possessors lands on us, we instinctively have that self-cherishing notion of squashing it, but as mindful little dharma students we KNOW that is a harmful thought . . . what do we do?

Is it alright to kill just in this instance? Is extreme self-cherishing really alright in this instance. How about if I do it casually, so no one else sees me do it?

Isn’t my own relief at being momentarily mosquito-free more worth more than the suffering of splattering-to-death for the mosquito and the imprinting of a deservedly negative karmic seed for us?

Or, do we go to the other extreme and graciously offer our flesh as a sign of respect, a recognition of the interconnectedness of all beings, an action of cherishing other more than self? After all, how much blood can a mosquito really take?

But if I do that, what about his buddies -- all the other mosquitoes who are watching this little drama take place, just waiting for the “safe to eat” sign.

A lot to think about and not much time in which to do it. I remember the old pre-dharma days when there would have been no thought, just a sharp slap and the satisfaction of seeing the dark dead blotch.

So, indecisive, I look at the mosquito and see it as scary and ugly – all wings and legs and a head that comes to a long sharp point. It likely came from a puddle of stagnant water that acts as “loo” to water buffalo, cows, goats and pigs. Maybe people too. It probably speaks only Hindi and hasn’t been on a body with blood as nutritious as mine in its entire life. And there’s a chance it’s carrying some miserable-to-humans disease. Maybe even two of them.

It's so easy to see the judgments that arise from the self-cherishing state of mind? Is wanting to squash the mosquito really a product of what Rinpoche calls a disturbing obstructing moment of mind?

And so the dialog goes, all in the space of a second or two . . .

[Sufferer speaks:] Don’t I have a right to squash it? After all, it’s only just a filthy mosquito, an insect, a bug, a sneaky, potentially lethal bug who is about to bite ME?

[Wise speaks:] Ok, but, what about my vow to not kill when I took refuge?

[Wise speaks:] Didn’t Atisha say “In every situation there is always something beneficial I can do”?

[Wise remembers:] And just today Rinpoche spoke about how our attitude must be that we are single-handedly going to lead all beings to bodhicitta.

[Suffer:] But it’s only a mosquito and I hate it, I don’t want it to bite me and I want to kill it before it does.

[Wise:] But isn’t my precious human rebirth, such an incredible opportunity, going to be cheapened if I squash it? And what about the bad karma I’ll create? All that mind-corruption.

[Sufferer:] Yeah, but, malaria . . .

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Self-cherishing . . . Dharma . . . Mind possessors . . . Distrubances and obscurations . . . Wisdom occurring . . . Fear whispering . . . Me, myself and I . . . Equanimity and compassion . . .

It all leads up to this moment. And then the next . . .

Christmas in Bodhgaya

2007-12-26T05:32:00.000-05:00

December 25, 2007

With no visible notice marking the day as being any different from yesterday and the ones before, Christmas morning 2007 broke cool and gray in Bodhgaya, the Indian town known affectionately as “Buddhism’s Belly Button.”

It was here 2,500 years ago that Siddhartha Gautama determined he was going to “enlighten or die trying” while meditating under a tree. So sit he did. And enlighten he did.

Upon his decision to teach to others what he discovered, Buddhism, the great ethical mind science was born. And people have been coming here to touch and be touched by the place ever since. (Hindus come here as well as they worship Gautama the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu.)

This is my first visit, I’ve been here less than a week, and it is intense. Located in the very poor Indian state of Bihar, there are robbers on the roads and many sick and broken people. There are children everywhere. Monks and nuns from all the world’s Buddhist traditions crowd the streets. Chickens and cows and goats and pigs poke through the garbage. Scurryers include chipmunks, squirrels, mice and rats. One sees dogs in disease that defy description, their skin covered with lumps and bleeding sores and growths that look as though they can’t be real. Bright green parrots and amazing blue birds sing and chatter in the canopy above, which they have all to themselves, because unlike other places in India I’ve been, there’s not a monkey to be seen here.

And looking down on the whole thing, visible from all around, looms a colossal (80 foot-high) stone Buddha, an expression of peace and calm on his face, a reminder that regardless of how real or unreal Bodhgaya or anything else seems, none of it is permanent.

Bodhgaya is not particularly large, and many of those who come here are pilgrims, journeying from around the world to enhance their “practice” – be it meditation, prayer, chanting, taking teachings, reflection, etc. Because it’s not an easy place to get to, those who are here are at their destination.

Bodhgaya is one of those places that easily takes-on and reflects the characteristics of its inhabitants. Suffice to say there is “energy” here and lots of it.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I’ve been away from home less than a week, and already I‘ve developed a nasty chest infection (giving the words "breath meditation" a whole new challenging meaning). Have also lost track of the days, but do know today is Christmas Tuesday.

Tuesday. In the business world, said to be the day of the week that is most “productive.”

Here it’s a day just like any other.

I woke at 5:30 and walked about 30 minutes into town, through fields that were just beginning to lighten, down streets of small doorways that would later be filled with kids but were now empty, the only movement coming from early risers sweeping the nighttime dust from the door-fronts. This reminds me of something I once heard, that “every filthy alleyway can be a mandir (hindu temple) if your mind is right.”

During travel, habits develop and fall away quickly. The Indian lady from whom I (each day so far) buy a glass of “while you watch” squeezed pomegranate seed juice (this is a GOOD habit) didn’t have her cart set-up yet, it would’ve been a fantastic morning treat but I was too early. The fresh vitamins would have been good, the town’s dust is not.

I made my way to the park containing the famous stupa marking the spot where Siddhartha’s Buddha-becoming occurred, it was packed with monks and nuns and laypeople, all being led in Medicine Buddha puja by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa lama. (If you don’t know what any of that means, it’s fine – if you have an idea, you know how special a Christmas morning dharma treat this is.)

Hundreds of monks and followers were assembled outside in the rear of the stupa, facing the Karmapa, who was seated beneath the leafy well-spread branches of the world’s most famous tree. As he chanted prayers, his strong voice boomed with youthful self-confidence.

He is a Tibetan, an escapee from the Chinese now living in sanctuary in India, like so many of his countrymen.

He is a Buddha, and is only 22 years-old, just growing into his role. To see the Karmapa up-close, or be in his presence is astounding. He is physically magnificent. To make eye-contact with him can be breath-taking, it’s as if you’re gazing deeply into the strength and wisdom of the Tibetan people. And if your eyes lock with his for more than a split-second you’ll never forget the moment. (I know this sounds over-the-top, but it’s true.)

When the time comes for him to step onto the world’s stage, he will generate lots of interest and do just fine. (Imagine the Dalai Lama as a teen idol.)

After the puja ended I found a sunny spot next to the lake that borders the stupa, and sat on the grass facing the Bodhi tree, knowing I was sitting in perhaps the world’s best meditation spot. It was peaceful and quite nice. And then later it was back to the retreat where we all shared in a fantastic vegetarian “Christmas feast” before listening to Rinpoche’s teachings on bodhicitta.

As I write this it’s now 5:00 in the afternoon, which means back home its 7:00am on Christmas morning. Wow, so many memories; all the past Christmas days seem to blend together, I imagine I’m feeling a bit how old Ebenezer must have felt as the night’s first tour-guide took him on his own same kind of journey.

Christmases Past. The kids so young and wonderful, life laced with love and so pregnant with possibilities of the days ahead.

It raises strong emotions, both happy and sad, and it feels so far away.

But it’s alright, and even nice in a bittersweet sort of way.

What shines through is how it was once so deeply felt, all the planning and preparation and excitement parents feel being able to share Christmas morning with each other and the children. So light. So sweet. So special. So precious.

And now it blends with the really-not-wanted-but-inescapable knowledge that it was by its nature just like everything else in our life. So impermanent.

And once the bitter and sweet are blended, you can no longer stir them apart.

As the Buddha said, “it’s all as a bubble on a stream.”

Historic Tibetan Passport to Be on Display in Delhi

2007-06-22T08:53:00.000-04:00

From the Press Trust of India

New Delhi, June 21: A Tibetan group has claimed to have dug out a passport of 1948 with visas of seven countries to "prove" the plateau region's independence and its recognition by many nations.

The passport of Tsepon Shakabpa Wangchuk Dedhen, the Finance Minister of erstwhile Tibetan government, was recovered by 'Friends of Tibet' from an antique dealer in Nepal three years ago, the organisation said here.

The Tibetan group paid USD $10,000 to the dealer in Kathmandu, which they raised mostly through donations from Tibetans in exile. The document, which the group claims is "historic" and now in the possession of the Dalai Lama, will be on display for two days in the capital this weekend.

The passport has visa stamps of seven countries -- United States, Britain, Switzerland, France, Italy, Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- as he visited these countries in 1948 as part of a Tibetan trade delegation.

"The passport proves that Tibet was an independent country and it was recognised by these countries," Tenzin Tsundue, General Secretary of 'Friends of Tibet', said here.

The document will be on display at the Gandhi Peace Foundation during the two-day 'Conference for an Independent Tibet' beginning June 23.

"MySpace" in China: Report thy Neighbor

2007-04-28T12:43:00.000-04:00

As reported at Slashdot.com

MySpace has launched in China, the world's most populous nation, but this definitely is NOT the MySpace you're used to.

Members are told to click a button to report any 'misconduct' by other users. MySpace's definition of 'misconduct' includes actions such as 'endangering national security, leaking state secrets, subverting the government, undermining national unity, spreading rumors or disturbing the social order' — according to the site's terms and conditions.

In China these are all crimes which carry a hefty prison sentence.

Any attempt to post content containing phrases that the Chinese government doesn't like, such as 'Taiwanese independence', the banned 'FaLun' religious movement or the Dalai Lama, produces the following message: 'Sorry, the article you want to publish may contain inappropriate content. Please delete the unsuitable content, and then try reposting it. Thank you.'"

Four Americans Reported Held by China for Tibet Protest

2007-04-28T12:28:00.001-04:00

Reported by the Associated Press

Beijing, China; April 26, 2007 -- Four American protesters were reported detained on Mount Everest as they called for independence for Tibet and protested against the Beijing Olympics.

The protest was organized by Students for a Free Tibet, which said the four were taken away Wednesday from a base camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain, after they held up and filmed a banner that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008."

"One World, One Dream" is the slogan of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Everest straddles the border between China's Tibet region and Nepal."We've taken note of the relevant reports. China is making a thorough investigation and will properly handle the case," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a news conference.

"Any foreign citizen coming to China has the obligation to abide by Chinese laws," Liu said. "They shall not engage in activities concerning the sovereignty and unity of China."

The group said it planned the protest on Mount Everest because the route for the 2008 Olympic torch relay was set to be announced in Beijing on Thursday. Chinese officials have said they want to take it to the top of the world's tallest mountain.

The group's executive director, Lhadon Tethong, said in an e-mail that she had not heard from the four on Thursday. She identified them as Kirsten Westby of Boulder, Colorado; Shannon Service and Laurel Mac Sutherlin of San Francisco; and Tenzin Dorjee of New York.

Westby, speaking briefly with the Associated Press briefly by cell phone Wednesday, said they had been treated well. Later, the calls would not go through. China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say they were essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

Taking the Olympic torch to the top of the 29,035-foot Mount Everest is seen by some as a way for Beijing to underscore its claims to Tibet.

"China's Olympic Torch Out of Tibet" says Activists

2007-04-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

April 18, 2007; New York -- The organization "Students for a Free Tibet" calls on the International Olympic Committee to reject China's plan to run the Olympic torch over Mount Everest and through Tibet.

The IOC is currently meeting in Beijing and will make a final decision on China's proposed torch route -- including plans to take it through Tibet and Taiwan -- by April 26th.

"Allowing China to run the Olympic torch through Tibet would mean the IOC's mark of approval for China's military occupation of our nation," said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "Nothing in the mission of the Olympic Games includes providing validation for the most abhorrent and shameful policies of the host nation."

"The IOC has nine days to make the right decision and keep the Olympic torch out of what the Associated Press recently called a 'politically charged territory'," Tethong continued. "It has no business helping the Chinese government strengthen its claim over Tibet. The IOC has a moral obligation to stop the Olympic Games from becoming a means for China to legitimize its authoritarian rule over Tibet and other occupied territories."

"This shouldn't be a hard decision for the IOC members to make," said Kate Woznow, Director of Students for a Free Tibet in Canada. "The international community expects the IOC to show they have a backbone and will not allow the Chinese government to use the Olympic Games to whitewash the terrible reality of China's repressive rule in Tibet."

"Olympics organizers are quoted as saying 'the torch symbolizes peace and friendship,'" Woznow added. "Sending the torch through Tibet would undermine this message and shows a complete disregard for the suffering of the Tibetan people."

The thirty-ninth Olympic Games are scheduled to be held in Beijing in August 2008. China has proposed bringing the Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest next year on its way to Beijing.

The Beijing Games have already been the subject of major protests by the Tibetan exile community and have been called "the Genocide Olympics" by Darfur activists.

Tibet has been occupied by China since 1949.

Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) is a network of students and young people campaigning for Tibetan independence. With 650 chapters in more than thirty countries worldwide, SFT is working to shine the Olympic spotlight on China's occupation of Tibet. SFT is based in New York, with offices in Vancouver, London, and Dharamsala, India.

This "Little Lama" Loves Being Nemo

2007-04-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

Many believe he's the tulku of famous Tibetan monk.

In photo, Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche and Geshe Tenzin Zopa, photo by Miles Neale.

By Dawn Chia

Singapore; 06 April 2007, Electric New Paper -- Like many 4-year-olds, he loves cartoons, especially Finding Nemo. But unlike many 4-year-olds, he had more than 500 people turning up at Changi Airport to greet him.

Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche is no ordinary boy - he has been declared by the Dalai Lama in 2005 to be the reincarnation of the Geshe Lama Konchog, a Tibetan monk and accomplished teacher of Vajrayana Buddhism.

(Rinpoche - pronounced reen-poh-shay - means the precious one in Tibetan.)

Ordained a monk at 3, the cherubic Nepali boy is used to the attention. He arrived in Singapore on Tuesday to meet followers.

Geshe Tenzin Zopa, his uncle, told The New Paper: 'He liked the cartoon (Finding Nemo) so much that at one point, he would watch it every day for a month. He called himself Nemo, and would shout 'save Nemo' and cry when the fish was caught.'

Geshe Zopa added: 'He didn't expect so many people at the airport, and that shocked him. He must have felt trapped, like Nemo.

'We had to explain to him that the people were there to receive blessings. He understood and eventually carried out his duties as normal.'

Why, Why Why?

A sharp sense of curiosity and a desire to learn also keep his fellow lamas busy -- Rinpoche can ask more than 10 'why's' in one breath in order to get to the bottom of things.

And like other kids, Rinpoche, throws tantrums.

Geshe Zopa, 32, said: 'We had to coax him to board the plane from Nepal to come here because he had been on a flight before which experienced turbulence and he didn't like it. 'He said he'd only come here by bus or car, and we told him that we'd go by 'air-bus' and everything would be all right.'

His 11-day stay in Singapore is packed with visits to temples and places of interest like the zoo and Sentosa Underwater World.

After he returns to Nepal where he lives, Rinpoche will leave for a monastery in India for his 'geshe' studies (the equivalent of a PhD in Buddhist philosophy), which includes learning English, maths and science. The duration of study will be about 20 years.

Tired after visiting temples yesterday, Rinpoche was sleeping when he was driven back to a volunteer's house. But he didn't fuss when he was woken up by his uncle.

He held on to a lama's hands and walked down the stairs to meet the press and give his blessings to about 20 people present while seated on a chair.

With each person, he'd put on a different facial expression, touch his or her head and then break open chocolate coins for them. He smiled gamely at the cameras at times, and hid behind two big gold chocolate coins at others.

Madam Yap Hock Yann, 76, was there with her husband and family to receive blessings. She said in Hokkien: 'I'm fortunate to be here to be blessed by the little lama. It's a chance of a lifetime.'

Mrs Sharlyn Lim, 42, offered her new two-storey house to Rinpoche and the lamas. She ensured that the house was ready in time. She said: 'I wanted to prepare a comfortable place for them to stay while they were visiting. It's not important how much we spent on it -- it's a blessing to have them in our house.'

Tibet Catholics Defy China Government for Faith

2007-04-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

MEILI MOUNTAIN, China; 2 April (Reuters) - Deep in the southwest mountains of officially atheist China, a small congregation of Tibetan Catholics still pledges its loyalty to the Pope after years of persecution and isolation.

This community in the mountains of Yunnan province that buttress Tibet itself has remained a bastion of the faith since Swiss missionaries converted their ancestors a century ago.

Their small church was levelled in the 1960s during the heyday of the Cultural Revolution and its priests chased away. Members of the congregation also recount how they and their families endured frequent raids by their Buddhist neighbours.

But despite decades of hardship, the Catholic faith still runs strong among the few hundred villagers.

"No matter what happens, I would never abandon my religion," said 72-year-old Catholic Ma Dilin.

"There is no conflict between us and other religions. Our religion was passed on to me by the older generation, and will be passed on to the next generation. It is never going to change. I hope the younger generation can follow Catholicism as I do."

Major religions suffered during the chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution when clergy and believers were persecuted, publicly mocked, jailed and even killed. China has since loosen restrictions on religions, but it remains tightly controlled.

SECRET DONATIONS

The officially atheist Communist Party, which has run China since 1949, say religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution and citizens are free to attend ceremonies in churches, mosques and temples under state control.

Nearly all Tibetans are, unlike the residents of this mountain-bound village, Buddhists who honour the Dalai Lama as the chief protector of their beliefs.

But international rights groups have accused China of jailing Catholic priests and Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns who reject official controls on their faith.

Every Sunday, the small, unassuming wood and brick church fills with the sounds of hymns and prayer. The white-washed interior is decorated with photographs of Pope Benedict, images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary as well as red, Chinese-style paper lanterns and calligraphy.

The biggest obstacle for the small congregation is the lack of funding. Infrequent, and often secret, donations from abroad keep the church's door open and the local parish afloat.

The followers have remained loyal to the Vatican and the Pope, refusing to fall under the fold of the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

"The Roman Catholic Church is home to our souls. It is our saviour and the leader of our souls. From dawn to dark, we, the Catholics must help the Roman Catholic Church, and help our God," said local priest A Nisse.

Diplomatic relations between Beijing and the Vatican were severed in 1951, two years after the Communist Party took control of the country.

Official figures show the number of Christian Chinese has risen to 16 million from 10 million in the past six years but a recent survey by professors at a Shanghai University put the figure at 40 million.

Growing numbers of Chinese join underground churches that do not fall under government supervision, but they sometimes risk detention or arrest.

Here in the mountains, Rome seems far away. But priest A Nisse said he felt a powerful bond.

"I want to thank the Roman Catholic Church. We have maintained our loyalty throughout the years. I thank them for helping us and supporting us," he said.

Look Who's Praising Hu: HHDL Springs a Surprise

2007-03-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

By Suresh Khatta

Indian Express; Sunday, March 11, 2007, McLeodGanj -- The Dalai Lama today sought to bridge a very difficult emotional gap for Tibetans when he praised Chinese President Hu Jintao in his statement on the anniversary of Uprising Day, sending a clear signal that he is willing to look ahead without letting the past come in the way.

“President Hu Jintao’s continued call for a harmonious society is laudable. The basis for the realization of such a society is to foster trust among the people, which can take place when there is freedom of expression, truth, justice and equality. Therefore, it is important that officials at all levels not only take heed, but also implement these principles,” said the Spiritual Leader of the Tibetans in his statement issued on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Tibetan people’s uprising.

The Dalai Lama has been more open to talks on regional autonomy and engaging the Chinese leadership towards a peaceful solution. But in praising Hu, he has sent out a very significant message. Hu is regarded by Tibetans as the most ruthless administrator of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

As Party Secretary in the region between 1988 and 1992, he is said to have come down very hard on Tibetan protests. Tibetans in-exile claim that near 400 peaceful Tibetan protestors were killed by Chinese forces in a span of three days in the early part of his tenure. He quelled the rebellion and that is said to have earned him recognition among the Communist Party ranks.

Deng Xiaoping then identified him to be groomed as Jiang Zemin’s successor. In this backdrop, the Dalai Lama has travelled a fair distance through this statement. It may be recalled that Tibetans came out it large numbers to protest Hu’s visit last year to India.

Expressing concern over the “vilification campaign” launched by the Chinese regime against his people, the Dalai Lama said not all the recent changes in China were negative.

“In 2006 we witnessed both positive and negative changes in the People’s Republic of China. On the one hand, the hardline position was intensified with a campaign of vilification against us, and more disquietingly, there was heightened political restriction and repression in Tibet. But on the other hand, in China itself, we saw some improvement with regard to the freedom of expression,” he said.

He said there was growing belief in religion in general, and Tibetan Buddhism in particular, and that there were many who wanted him to make a pilgrimage to China and preach there.

Maintaining that the Tibet issue could be resolved through dialogue, the Dalai Lama said the Tibetans and their government-in-exile had adopted a “middle path approach” which would address the immediate and long-term interests of both Tibetans and Chinese.

“In the five rounds of talks with the Chinese that have taken place since 2002, both sides were able to express in clear terms the suspicions, doubts and real difficulties,” he said.

“These rounds have helped create a channel of communication between the two sides.”

Religious Repression in Tibet is Worsening

2007-03-10T12:34:00.000-05:00

By Benjamin Kang Lim

Fri Mar 9, 2007; BEIJING (Reuters) -- An India-based human rights watchdog has denounced China for human rights abuses in Tibet last year and predicted that religious repression would get worse in 2007.

New religious affairs regulations which took effect in January were "designed to harness loyalty to the state from the monastic community and to stamp out the Dalai Lama from the hearts and minds of Tibetan people", the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

"In light of the new . . . regulations, religious repression in Tibet seems set to escalate further in 2007," the Dharamsala-based center said in its annual report on human rights in the Himalayan region.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. But an increasingly confident China regularly defends its rule in Tibet, saying Communist rule ended centuries of serfdom and brought prosperity to the underdeveloped region.

Recently, Zhang Qingli, the hardline Communist Party boss in Tibet, labeled the Party a "living Buddha" for Tibetans.

The center said it had documented the arrests of 26 Tibetans last year for alleged political activities and that there were currently 116 known Tibetan political prisoners.

"The year 2006 saw a host of sad events unfold. The Chinese authorities in Tibet did not show any sign of let-up," the center said. "Arbitrary arrest, detention and imprisonment continue to be appalling as ever in Tibet.

"The Dalai Lama has said he wants real autonomy, not independence, for his homeland. But Tibet's regional chairman, Qiangba Puncog, said on Thursday the chances of the Dalai Lama returning were slim unless he gave up his pursuit of independence in word and in deed.

The center cited the Nangpa Pass incident in which Chinese troops shot dead at least two of a group of Tibetans crossing the China- Nepal border last September.

In a video conference, Chinese police vowed to launch a campaign to "strike hard against illegal crossings" in the first half of 2007, calling the campaign part of measures to crack down on "separatists" to ensure stability in the region.

A total of 2,445 Tibetans escaped China and reached Dharamsala last year, most of them teenagers and novice monks and nuns seeking religious education, it said.

The group also faulted the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the world's highest railway line which China opened in July, as "a political tool designed to wipe out the Tibetan identity" and enhance Beijing's grip over the predominantly Buddhist region.

China says the railway is meant to accelerate Tibet's modernization.

Other worrying signs included Chinese official discrimination against Tibetan graduates when filling civil service jobs, the spark for a rare public protest last October, the center said.

Is China's Communist Party the "Real Buddha"?

2007-03-05T22:55:00.000-05:00

Fri Mar 2, 2007; Beijing. (Reuters) -- China's Communist boss in predominantly Buddhist Tibet labelled the Communist party on Friday a "living Buddha" for Tibetans, state media reported, days before the opening of the annual session of parliament.

The annual income of Tibetan peasants and herders increased 17.2 percent last year thanks to the central government, Zhang Qingli, Tibet's party chief, said in an online forum carried on the official Xinhua news agency Web site (www.xinhuanet.com).

"The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need," said Zhang, in Beijing to attend the National People's Congress which opens on Monday. In response to an Internet post praising him as a living Buddha for Tibetans, Zhang said: "The central party committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."

Housing conditions had improved and the Tibetan economy was developing rapidly with the government's go-west strategy and the new Tibet-Qinghai railway, Zhang said. China opened its first railway to Lhasa, capital of remote western Tibet, in July last year.

The People's Liberation Army occupied Tibet in 1950. Nine years later, Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India after a failed uprising. Critics charge that China continues to repress Tibetans' religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, whom China denounces as a "separatist".

Much at Stake for Tibet at Remote Retig Monastery

2007-03-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

By Philippe Massonnet

Agence France-Presse, Feb 28 -- In this isolated Tibetan Buddhist monastery, sitting in a majestic valley and little known to the outside world, much is at stake for Tibet's religious and political future.

The Reting Monastery, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast along a bone-jarring road from the regional capital of Lhasa and 4,100 metres (13,530 feet) above sea level, offers spiritual respite from the rugged terrain.

In the valley below, yaks and pigs live side by side amid numerous Buddhist stupas where the faithful pray, further attesting to the region's unique spiritualism. The monastery, built in 1056 and partially destroyed by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution 40 years ago, sits against the mountain, its white walls contrasting with the magnificent Himalayan junipers that surround it.

The phenomenal beauty is one of the reasons Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he would choose to live at Reting, rather than Lhasa, should he ever return from his exile of nearly 50 years. The monastery plays a further special role in Tibetan Buddhism because it is the residence of a line of rimpoches, or religious dignitaries, who have traditionally overseen the regency between the death of the Dalai Lama and the identification of his reincarnated successor.

However, in China, there is no separation of church and state as the ruling Communist Party, theoretically atheist, administers all religious affairs and appoints all religious officials.

Jinba, the 40-year-old head of the monastery, offered a warm welcome during a rare encounter with the foreign press this week, offering his guests dried yak meat and bowls of Tibet's famous yak butter tea. But with three "local government representatives" in constant attendance to monitor AFP's interview, asking sensitive political and religious matters did not appear appropriate.

Besides, the environment spoke for itself. On the wall was a poster of Communist China's first three leaders -- Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin. A second poster hung nearby of the current Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second highest spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama. He was installed by the Communist Party nearly 10 years ago after the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnated Panchen Lama disappeared into official custody, never to appear in public again.

There are no photos of the Dalai Lama on the monastery walls, as they have been outlawed by the Chinese government which views him as a "separatist" intent on splitting Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel peace prize for his efforts to seek greater autonomy from Chinese rule for Tibet, has been exiled since 1959, nine years after Mao's troops moved in to "liberate" the region.

In 2000, China suddenly announced the enthronement at Reting of the seventh rimpoche, a boy who is today 12 years old. He is widely seen as a tool of Beijing to legitimise the successor to the current Dalai Lama. At the time monks at the monastery protested. But, under the watchful eyes of the government minders, Jinba, who has lived at Reting for 25 years, did not speak of the Dalai Lama and only briefly about the young rinpoche.

In the monks' study hall, he showed pictures of the previous rimpoches, including the one chosen by the Chinese government."Does the seventh rimpoche live at the monastery?" Jinba was asked."No, he lives lower down in the village," he said, without elaborating.

According to some sources, the rinpoche is living under police guard. During a visit to the rest of the monastery, Jinba discussed its history, its legends and its miracles -- as the three "people's representatives" scurried along to keep up.

"Not everything was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution," Jinba said."Reconstruction began in 1982 with the government spending 500,000 yuan (65,000 dollars) for rebuilding," he said.

The next morning at dawn, as the faithful pilgrims turn prayer wheels on the Tibetan plateau, Jinba was still not alone as the journalists departed for Lhasa.

Himalayan Mountain Flight

2006-11-06T06:02:00.000-05:00

(Photo: from the cockpit, off in the distance, Sagarmatha (left) and Lhotse . . . this is last posting until after meditation/teaching retreat ends on december 8 . . . happy days to all, mw)

Boudha, Nepal -- There is more to these mountains than just rock, ice and snow.

The Tibetans talk of places where the physical and spiritual worlds overlap. These places were first revealed through writings by Padmasambhava, the 8th century sage who brought Buddhism to Tibet.

A Tibetan yogi discovered the first of Padmasambhava’s scrolls in 1366, containing cryptic accounts of Himalayan valleys in which plants and animals have miraculous powers, where aging is halted and enlightenment can be quickly attained.

Over the centuries many Tibetans have gone off in search of these fabled places, but only those with faith and merit actually find them and experience their spiritual qualities. That's because these places are not only hidden by their extreme remoteness, but by barriers formed by our habitual ways of perceiving our surroundings.

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The highest peaks of the Himalaya lie in a crescent, forming a natural border between Nepal and the Tibetan plateau to the north. Forty million years ago the Indian subcontinent began to collide with the Asian landmass, forcing the earth upward into colossal mountains. The Tibetans refer to the Himalyan terrain as a “tray of gems,” seeing it as paradise for Buddhist practice, corresponding to increasingly subtle levels of perception.

After years of wondering, I was booked on Buddha Air’s “Mountain Flight” from Kathmandu. I was about to see this “tray of gems” up close.

The morning was ideal – clear, freshly sunny, unlimited visibility with very little hint of haze. The plane was full, mostly Japanese, everyone with a digital something – snapshooters, SLR’s, video cameras. 14 seats, seven rows, everyone on a window. (For those who care abut such things, the plane was a prop Beech 1900C).

It's a tourist thing, a one hour plane ride to see the high Himalaya. If you want to see it up close, there's just two options: you can either arrange a two-week trek, or do this. Without an extra two weeks to spare, I was in seat 3A on Sunday's 6:30am flight.

Above the haze of the Kathmandu Valley, after less than 10 minutes in the air, off to the north the Himalaya comes into focus, and yes, it is huge.

Snowy, proud, shining in the bright early sun, each mountain different in personality, these immense giants stab sharply into the sky.

Of the fourteen mountains on the planet that rise above 26,000 feet in altitude, Nepal has eight, and during the flight seven would be in view. The highlight being, at 29,028 feet, the most famous, highest mountain in the world: Sagarmatha (Nepali), Chomolungma (Tibetan), Everest (English) – writing from Nepal, I’ll use the name Sagarmatha.

The flight heads east toward along the line of peaks, gets past Sagarmatha to Makalu (27,766 ft.) and then turns around for the return to Kathmandu. It is 60 minutes of complete surreal.

Passengers are allowed to visit the small cockpit where the pilot identifies the peaks of interest, answers questions and allows wide-view photographs.

While it is the highest and most photographed, Sagarmatha is not the most visually dramatic peak in the range. But, as the highest point on Earth, it stands proud and draws attention.

Floating past the south face of the summit -- about nine miles away -- the names Mallory and Norgay and Hillary came to mind, and a feeling of solemn reverence arose . . . so much human drama, pain, anguish, triumph, courage and folly. All to stand atop that peaceful and majestic snowy point.

Although not as high, it's the other “stand-alone” peaks that really catch the eye.

Notable is Cho-Oyo (26,906 ft.) for a recent and disturbing mortal reason: it was in one of its high snowy passes that Chinese soldiers fired upon Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet for Nepal on Sept. 30, killing two including a 17-year old Buddhist nun.

Marveling at the sights out the window while trying to connect it all with a "Zen moment" sense of the eternal was hard. It will take some time for the experience to settle in. I look forward to seeing if and how it manifests.

In two days my reason for being here, the month-long teaching/meditation retreat, begins at a hilltop monastery north of town. My days here have been full, and I'm trying to merge what I'm seeing and doing with what I understand of Tibetan Buddhist practice and wisdom.

With some guidance from the Dalai Lama this is how I see it: places like India or Nepal or the Himalaya are not places to go to escape everyday life, but to enter it more deeply.

To paraphrase HHDL, “The qualities inherent in such places deepen awareness of hidden regions of mind and spirit. Being in places like these with good motivation and merit can enable us to see the world differently from the way it commonly appears, and this intuitive knowledge will enhance the Buddhist virtues of wisdom and compassion.”

He continues, “In the Buddhist tradition, the goal of “pilgrimage” is not so much to reach a particular destination, but to awaken in oneself the qualities and energies of the destination, which ultimately lies within our own minds.”

It sounds good, but I can't escape the feeling that if I am ever able to fully awaken in myself the “qualities and energies” of the timeless immensity I saw in the Himalaya yesterday, it will likely cause my head to explode.

Perhaps that's why I'm here.

"Destabilizing" in a Mandala

2006-11-03T00:49:00.000-05:00

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal -- There are some places on this planet one wants to visit merely because of the way they roll off the tongue . . . Timbuktu, Chicoutimi, Mandalay, Kathmandu.

For many, just hearing or saying their names invokes feelings and images of mystery, adventure, romance and discovery.

I’m writing this from the second floor balcony of the Thorong Peak Guest House, in the Thamel neighborhood of one of those distant places . . . Kathmandu.

International in flavor, the Thamel is this city's densely-packed “shopping” area, the crossroads of a city that is itself a crossroads of southern and northern Asia, where the icy high Himalaya dramatically meets the Indian plains.

Most of those who come to Kathmandu as a stop-over or destination for sightseeing, trekking and/or climbing at some point gather in the Thamel.

It is 9:00am, the sun is quickly warming the remains of the cool night. To the north, the outline of high Himalyan peaks are emerging from the morning mist. Surrounded by rhododendron plants and ferns, I'm engulfed by a sweet cacophony of cooing pigeons and chattering parrots and parakeets.

I arrived in Kathmandu yesterday with Maya, with whom I connected in Delhi. She was there with her husband Fred, the three of us became friends in Dharamsala this past May. Maya, who is Israeli, will be attending the same 30-day retreat as I beginning next week.

Fred remained in India. After seeing Maya off he was to ride the overnight bus north from Delhi to Dharamsala where he is the supervisor of the rebuilding of a Tibetan Buddhist meditation center (gompa) in the forest a few kilometers above the town.

I enjoy travel to the Indian subcontinent because it is a destination for so many unique people like Fred and Maya, and friendships made here can become very special, as ours has.

After purchasing our 60-day Nepali visas at the charming little Kathmandu airport, and a short car ride into town, Maya and I walked around the Thamel . . . it had gotten dark and each of us, over and over, found ourselves with our minds blown. This place is like a dream.

The Lonely Planet guidebook just touches upon it:

“For many people, arriving in Kathmandu is a shock – the sights, sounds and smells can lead to a sensory overload: there are narrow streets and lanes with carved wooden balconies perched above tiny hole-in-the-wall shops, town squares packed with extraordinary temples and monuments; and fruit and vegetable markets alive with a constant throng of humanity"

Where Maya and I walked last night -- the "old" part of the city -- seems unchanged from the Middle Ages, architecturally, energy-wise and culturally.

Surreal and almost psychedelic, we felt as though we had wandered onto an Indiana Jones-type movie set. But even the great Spielberg couldn't create this.

Only in Varansi have I seen ancient buildings like these, but never have I seen streets with more enticing nooks and crannies, marketplaces with goods and sights and sensations like these, nor a more eclectic set of people sharing in it.

The energy carries you through the gnarled streets, all seemingly connected by back passages and alleyways until you emerge into one of the countless wide open squares with people and colors swirling about and around some sort of temple, shrine, pagoda, stupa or statue, many of them centuries old. (It is not uncommon to see merchants peddling their incense or fresh vegetables at the feet of a 1,000-year-old statue of Brahma or Saraswati or Buddha.)

It is impossible not to be absorbed, and then, through a crack between the buildings, the whole thing becomes sublime as one sees the magnificent Himalaya sitting off in the distance, a glimpse of white in the blue sky, sacred, glorious and awe-inspiring, and you feel a sensation not unlike what a bird must feel in the moments before it floats into flight.

So the two worlds collide in your head and heart -- the magnificent Himalaya and the timeless 14th century old city -- and with every step the joy of anticiaption oozes. You simply "know" the unforgettable unexpected is right around the bend – and in its delight it will touch deeply.

It is like wandering in a mandala.

I recently read of the Tibetan notion that the key to pilgrimage is danang, the sacred vision that transfigures the environment into a pure realm of enlightened energies. Therefore, in Tibetan tradition the idea of pilgrimage is not simply to visit sacred sites, but to facilitate an inner transformation at places that challenge conventional ways of seeing. (In this sense, the more “destabilizing” the better.)

It has become tired cliche to invoke Dorothy Gale's "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" as the wonders of Oz unfolded. But I understand the feeling.

I’ve never seen a city as inviting to the wanderer as Kathmandu. I was not expecting this.

If this is “destabilizing” I think I'm ready for it.

HHDL Arrives in Japan for 14-Day Visit

2006-10-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

As reported by the International Herald Tribune, France; October 30, 2006

TOKYO -- Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, arrived in Japan on Monday on a 14-day visit to engage in religious activities, an official said.

The Japanese government has allowed him to enter Japan on the condition that he does not engage in any political activities, said a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, under ministry protocol.

The latest visit by the Dalai Lama was his 12th to Japan -- where Buddhism is one of the country's principal religions. The Dalai Lama last visited Japan in April last year.

China routinely opposes such visits and castigates the Dalai Lama as a religious fraud bent on separating Tibet from China.

China claims to have ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say they were essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India following an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.

During his stay in Japan through Nov. 12, the Dalai Lama was scheduled to give a series of Buddhist lectures in Hiroshima, Tokyo and other cities, Kyodo News agency said.

The revered Buddhist leader is visiting Japan at the invitation of a religious group in western Hiroshima prefecture (state), it said.

Officials at the Dalai Lama's liaison office in Tokyo were not available for comment due to the late hour.

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ETTOKYO (AFP) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama began a trip to deliver lectures and attend Buddhist rites in Japan, which allowed him to visit despite expected Chinese opposition.

The 71-year-old monk was due to attend a two-day conference on peace starting Wednesday with fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates in Hiroshima, his office said.

It is the Dalai Lama's 12th visit to Japan -- 17th including airport transits. The Japanese government has permitted him to come on condition that he refrain from political activities.

The Dalai Lama has no plans to meet Japanese politicians or business leaders during the tour, Wang Tse, a spokesman for his liaison office in Tokyo, said ahead of the visit.

China, which has ruled Tibet since it sent in troops to "liberate" the Himalayan region in 1950, opposes any meetings between foreign dignitaries and the Dalai Lama.China accuses the Dalai Lama of being a "splittist," although the Tibetan spiritual leader says he is seeking greater autonomy for Tibet within China.

Japan has been trying to repair relations with China, which have soured in recent years due largely to Beijing's perceptions that Tokyo has not sufficiently atoned for its past aggression.Unlike leaders of other major industrialized democracies, Japanese officials have shied away from meeting the Dalai Lama.

Only one sitting Japanese prime minister has met the Dalai Lama -- Zenko Suzuki in 1980.

The Dalai Lama will stay in Hiroshima, which suffered the world's first nuclear attack in the closing days of World War II, until November 9 to give more lectures and attend a Buddhist ceremony, the office said.

He will then go to Tokyo and deliver a speech, entitled "A good heart -- the key to health and happiness," the office said.

He is due to leave on November 12 to return to India, where he has lived in exile since 1959.The Dalai Lama has kept up a hectic schedule despite health concerns.

He visited Canada, where he was granted honorary citizenship, in September and a month later met at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI.

China lashed out at the US House of Representatives, which voted to award the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian honor.

Shhh . . . Pope Meets with Dalai Lama

2006-10-13T09:07:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Australian Associated Press; Friday Oct 13

Pope Benedict held talks with the Dalai Lama but the Vatican, which has very difficult relations with China, gave the visit by the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism a low profile.

A Vatican spokesman confirmed that the visit had taken place but said it was "strictly private and of a strictly religious nature".

The Dalai Lama's name did not appear on the list of people received by the Pope in the Vatican's daily bulletin, as the names of most visitors, including religious leaders, usually do.

The Dalai Lama, who is on a visit to Italy, received the same low-profile treatment when he met the late Pope John Paul in 2003.

The Dalai Lama has been based in India since 1959, after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

Communist troops entered Tibet in 1950 and overthrew the Buddhist administration. Since then, China has dealt harshly with Tibetans pressing for political and religious autonomy.

Beijing has had no diplomatic relations with the Vatican since 1951, two years after the Communist Party took power.

China allows Catholics to worship only as part of a state-backed patriotic Church that does not recognise the Pope's authority.

The Vatican estimates that about eight million Chinese Catholics worship in the "underground churches" not recognised by the Beijing government, while five million belong to the state-controlled Church.

Beijing wants the Vatican to sever its ties with Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing says is a breakaway province, before talks on re-establishing ties can start.

Chinese Troops Arrest 10 Tibetan Children

2006-10-10T23:36:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Indo-Asian News Service; Oct. 10, 2006

By Sudeshna Sarkar

Kathmandu -- At least 10 Tibetan children have been arrested by Chinese troops near the Tibet-Nepal border following a shooting that killed a Tibetan nun, a report said.

Steve Lawes, a British police officer who was attempting to summit Mount Cho Oyu near Nepal's border with Tibet, was the first eyewitness to confirm that Chinese border patrols opened fire on a group of Tibetans trying to cross into Nepal and took under their control several others.

According to Lawes and other climbers, who reached Nepal after the expedition last month and began telling the world about the shocking assault they witnessed on Sep 30, at least 10 children were caught from a group of about 70 people, their ages ranging between six and 10.

"The children were in single file, about six feet away from me,' Lawes said. 'They didn't see us -- they weren't looking around the way kids normally would, they were too frightened. By that time, advance base camp was crawling with soldiers. They had pretty much taken over, and the atmosphere was very intimidating. We were doing our best not to do anything that might spark off more violence."

The British police officer gave more details about the shooting near the glacial Nangpa Pass, at a height of about 19,000 feet.

"Those of us at the advance base camp heard two shots, which may have been warning shots. The group started to cross the glacier and there were more shots. This time it definitely wasn't warning shots: the soldiers were putting their rifles to their shoulders, taking aim, and firing towards the group.

"One person fell, got up, but then fell again. We had a telescope with us but the soldiers took this. Later they used it to look at the body.

"After the shooting stopped, two soldiers went to check the body. Then it lay on the pass for more than a day after which it was taken away by security personnel."

According to another report by Philippine climber Ted Esguerra, he saw seven people being killed, including at least one child.

Esguerra gave his version of the event to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Even as 43 people from the group successfully crossed into Nepal, the fate of the rest was unknown with both China and Nepal maintaining a stony silence.

The International Campaign for Tibet, an international organization espousing the cause of a free Tibet and respect for the Tibetans' human rights, has clarified that 10 children were taken into custody by the Chinese authorities.

On Wednesday, Tibetan Youth UK said they would organise a vigil before the Chinese embassy in London. They are also petitioning Matti Vanhanen, President of the European Union (EU), calling on the EU to press for the immediate release of Tibetans detained during the incident.

Tibet activists are also petitioning British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to issue a formal protest in this regard.

India's Mosquito-Borne Dengue Outbreak Called "Serious" as Death Toll Rises

2006-10-07T18:26:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Agencie-Presse France

By Pratap Chakravarty

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's health secretary described a continuing outbreak of dengue fever as serious as the death toll rose and thousands of people reported ill at overwhelmed hospitals.

Indian Health Secretary P.K. Hota appealed for calm after 3,331 cases of the mosquito-borne virus were reported across the country and the death toll increased from 40 to 49 in two days.
"The situation is serious," Hota told a news conference.

"Difficult times are upon as in the past seven days the number of dengue cases have gone up," he said, adding that it was likely to rise further until cool weather arrived in early November.
Chaotic scenes were played out at hospitals across the capital, one of the worst hit areas, where 19 people have so far died.

Thousands of people suspected of having the virus were crowding New Delhi's premier hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where 5,670 have been screened since Tuesday, officials said.

Eighty-two new patients were admitted to AIIMS on Saturday taking the number of cases to 825, an official said.

"Only those who need emergency medical attention are being admitted," said another official, Anil Sharma.

"We are facing a severe manpower and resource crunch as suspected dengue patients are pouring in from all over to AIIMS but we don't have infrastructure to deal with this situation," said Sharma, a doctor at AIIMS where one medical student died of the disease earlier this week and more than a dozen of his colleagues remain stricken.

AIIMS spokesman Shakti Gupta said: "The health ministry must ensure that other city hospitals are also pressed into service to handle this dengue deluge."

Scuffles broke out at overcrowded Safdarjung Hospital where people were also queuing for diagnosis and treatment.

"I have been standing in the queue with my handicapped son since 5:00 am and we have been waiting more than seven hours," shouted one man in the line, Umesh Gujjar.

A dengue outbreak in the capital claimed more than 400 lives in 1996 when 10,000 people fell sick. There is no specific treatment or vaccine against the illness but early detection can improve chances of survival.

The illness is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and causes a severe, flu-like illness and internal bleeding.

Similar chaotic scenes were reported in the northern city of Jaipur, the Press Trust of India reported.

Meanwhile, B. K. Chaturvedi, India's cabinet secretary, urged "people to act as health constables" in a bid to stop breeding of the mosquitoes in collected pools of water.

"People are burning whatever they consider is a possible mosquito breeding place or are randomly spraying insecticides into drinking water tanks, houses and offices," said Uday Ekka, a resident of the eastern city of Ranchi.

"Miss Tibet" Participants Arrive in Dharamsala

2006-10-07T11:36:00.000-04:00

As reported by keralanext.com; Oct. 7, 2006

Dharamsala -- Six beautiful women have arrived in this Himachal town to participate in the Miss Tibet 2006 contest to be held Oct 13-15.

The names of the participants, which include aspirants from Delhi, Nepal and Canada, were announced Friday by Lobsang Wangyal, director of the pageant.

"We received applications from 11 eligible candidates. Two dropped out earlier on. After nine got confirmed, one from Singapore couldn't come due to leave problems, one from Sikkim got sick and the one from Bangalore . . . we don't know her reason yet," said Wangyal.

But Wangyal was confident that more participants could be expected in future as Tibetan society was slowly changing. Said Wangyal: "We now have six brave contestants. It must have been a difficult decision for each of them to confront a traditionalist Tibetan society. But since change is a natural phenomenon and since Tibetan people need to move forward, we believe the participants are responsible, forward-looking and modern Tibetan women. We, therefore, have every reason to expect more contestants in the future."

The three-day beauty contest includes a swimwear round, which will be held at Asia Health Resorts here.

On Oct 14, the contestants are to make a presentation on Tibetan history, culture and current affairs at the Tipa auditorium.

The grand finale night Oct 15, which will see the aspirants in their traditional costumes, will be held at Tipa ground in Mcleod Ganj.

Dharamsala is the seat of the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile and is home to thousands of Tibetans.

In London, Hindu Celebrations Make Waves by the Riverside

2006-10-07T11:19:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Wandsworth Guardian; Oct. 6, 2006

A Hindu goddess at Putney Bridge on Monday evening proved that East isn't always East.

It was the first time the Bengali Hindu Durga Puja festival was properly celebrated in London, with a statue of the goddess Durga and other deities being drowned in the river.

A Hindu priest turned the Thames into the Ganges for the occasion by emptying a vial of Ganges water into the river to purify it. About 300 Hindus and non-Hindus turned out to watch.

Spectator Hannah Boulton said: "It was a very joyous and moving occasion. The sun came out as the goddess was submerged and a rainbow stretched over Putney Bridge."

Coming (in 2008) to a Theater Near You: the Buddha

2006-10-06T11:48:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Indo-Asian News Service; October 5, 2006

Bhupendra Kumar Modi organised a special luncheon party in Los Angeles to seek the blessings of the Dalai Lama before launching his $120 million epic feature film "Buddha" to be directed by Shekhar Kapur.

"From the Buddha's life story . . . maybe you will get inspiration. Our intention is not the propagation of Buddhism, but helping the world," said the Dalai Lama, who was the guest of honour at the luncheon.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said cinema was an effective medium for sharing the universal message of inter-dependence and inter-connectedness, according to a press statement.

Hollywood luminaries Sharon Stone, Goldie Hawn, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Downey Jr, Chris McGurk, and Carol Mendelsohn also graced the occasion at the Peninsula Hotel, Beverley Hills.

The English film, which will be made under the banner of Modi's M Films, is a screen adaptation of Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's book "Old Path White Clouds".

It is to focus on the life and teachings of the Buddha.

Hanh, who was present at the luncheon, said his book was a "manual for the practice of peace".

Said Modi: "We intend 'Buddha' to be a major film across the globe. We're confident this will be every bit the exciting epic Hollywood film we envisioned from the start."

"Buddha" will be shot in the US, Japan, China, Thailand and India."It will make history as the most expensive film ever to be shot in India.

Casting for the film will begin immediately and the producers are currently considering A-List stars for the lead roles.

Principal photography is slated to begin in 2007 and the film should be ready for worldwide release in 2008," said Modi.

M Films has also roped in Hollywood Producer Michel Shane, executive producer of Hollywood blockbusters like "I Robot" and "Catch Me If You Can" for the film.

Two Tibetans Allegedly Killed by Chinese Guards

2006-10-04T17:44:00.000-04:00

As reported by Reuters; Oct. 4, 2006

KATHMANDU -- At least two Tibetans were shot dead by Chinese border guards as they tried to cross the Himalayan border into neighbouring Nepal, a Tibetan refugee official said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on Saturday in Tibet close to the Nangpa La mountain pass where Chinese guards fired at a group of around 70 Tibetans.

"Two people died on the spot, 40 have crossed over into Nepal and the fate of the others is unknown," said Lhoudup Dorjee of the Tibetan Reception Centre, a Kathmandu-based refugee group which supports Tibetan refugees.

"Details of the incident will only be known after the people who have crossed over Nepal arrive here," he said.

The group included monks, civilians, women and children, Dorjee said.

Nepalese officials said they were unaware of the incident.

Hundreds of Tibetans cross the 1,000-km (625-mile) Tibet-Nepal border every year using mountain trails or passes to flee Chinese rule.

Most make their way to the north Indian town of Dharmasala, where their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has been in exile since 1959.

Mosquito-Borne Diseases Sweep Through (Northern, Southern) India; 87 Dead

2006-10-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

Dengue Fever and Chikungunya swamp hospitals; Construction boom in Delhi cited

As reported by the Associated Press; October 4, 2006

By Nirmala George

NEW DELHI - Outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases in northern and southern India left ordinarily overburdened hospitals and clinics swamped with patients Wednesday, and officials said at least 87 people had succumbed to the infections.

At New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's premier state-run hospital, a makeshift ward was set up in a hallway to deal with hundreds of dengue fever patients, some of whom were forced to hold intravenous drip bags above their heads because of a lack of equipment.

The dengue outbreak began in late August, and the death toll in New Delhi and surrounding areas of northern India rose to 16 on Wednesday when a patient at the institute died.

The situation was even worse in the southern state of Kerala, where 71 people have died in the past month from another mosquito-borne disease, a rare viral fever known as chikungunya, said the state's health minister P. K. Sreemathi.

In the hardest-hit district of the state, Alappuzha, some 40,000 people were showing symptoms of the disease — such as high fevers and severe joint pain — and thousands had been hospitalized, said the area's chief medical officer, K. Velayudhan.

Across the state, local authorities were overwhelmed by the outbreak, and Sreemathi said a
World Health Organization team made up of experts from India's National Institutes of Communicable Diseases was to arrive Thursday.

"The expert heath team from WHO needs to make an on-the-spot assessment to tackle the situation," she told The Associated Press from Alappuzha.

The outbreaks of dengue in the north and chikungunya in the south come as the annual monsoon tapers off across much of the subcontinent, leaving behind countless small pools and puddles of dirty, stagnant water where infectious mosquitoes breed. Open sewers that are features of many Indian towns and cities provide even more breeding grounds.

While a dengue outbreak is an annual post-monsoon occurrence in parts of northern India, this year's has been particularly widespread, with more than 400 cases compared to last year's 217 infections.

India's health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, blamed the spike in cases this year on a construction boom in New Delhi, where scores of new malls, high-rise apartment towers and office blocks are going up and a new subway system is being built.

The result of the largely unregulated building boom is a city filled with poorly maintained construction sites where water collects in pits, adding to the already ample mosquito breeding grounds, Ramadoss told reporters.

"There is a lot of stagnant water collecting in places due to construction activity. We are aware of the health risks posed by this and have begun a concerted campaign to make people aware of the need for sanitation," Ramadoss said.

Female Aedes mosquitoes transmit the disease, and symptoms include high fever, joint pain, headache and vomiting. It is fatal in rare cases. India's annual outbreak normally dies off with the end of the mosquito breeding period in November.

Authorities in New Delhi were pressing home and business owners to spray their properties with insecticides, and teams of municipal workers sprayed some construction sites, office buildings and residential neighborhoods. Fogging machines were also used to spread clouds of insecticides in densely populated areas of the city.

But such efforts have only begun in recent days and it remained unclear what, if any, impact was being made.

Further complicating matters was a shortage of staff at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where one doctor has died from dengue and 19 other physicians and medical students had fallen ill with the disease.

Authorities in the capital were, however, urging residents to remain clam.

"We don't want to create any panic. The efforts of the past few days should kick in and the number of dengue cases should taper off shortly," Ramadoss said.

Meditation Once Again Linked to Well-Being

2006-10-04T09:39:00.000-04:00

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an article discusses how more and more people are realizing the benefits of meditation, benefits that are being backed-up by scientific studies. Meditation helps to reduce stress, anxiety and discontent. http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=7,3250,0,0,1,0

China's 'cruelty olympics' causes international outrage

2006-10-03T10:05:00.000-04:00

Click on the link below to read the Phayul.com accounts of the "Animal Olympic Games" conducted at China's Shanghai Wild Animal Park

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=14102&t=1&c=1

Back Home in Dharamsala, a Grand Reception

2006-10-03T09:44:00.000-04:00

Chanting and Incense Fill the Air as HHDL Returns After a Month in the West

As reported by Phayul.com; October 3, 2006

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, October 3 -- After a month-long visiting tour abroad, the exile-Tibetan leader today arrived here in Dharamsala, his exile home town and the base for Tibetan Government in Exile led by Him in India.

A grand and special welcome-reception had been arranged for the Dalai Lama’s arrival here by the Tibetans to rejoice over the recent acknowledgements he received during the already-concluded visits to Canada and USA.

Earlier during the visits, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was conferred Honorary Canadian Citizenship and in US, a Bill has been passed by the U.S. Congress to award His Holiness with the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian award.

To Tibetans, who look up to the Dalai Lama as a symbol of hope and their well-being, the latest acknowledgements bestowed upon Him in the respective countries came as a victory for their struggle for freedom and one of the most remarkable achievements of the year to date.

The Chinese leaders have, in recent months, initiated a ‘fight-to-death’ struggle and a new wave of defamation campaign against the Tibetan leader.

However, the recent honour shown to the Dalai Lama in Canada and USA has come as a timely relief to Tibetan people here and has convinced them that the defamatory statements made by Chinese authorities against their leader are not approved elsewhere.

As a mark of celebration; Tibetans, accompanied by local Indian friends and visiting tourists, spent almost half of the day lining up along the road, right from the early morning, waiting to cheer up the arrival of the Tibetan leader, although the entourage team turned up only around late afternoon here.

Welcome gates, decked up in traditional Tibetan fabric hangings and Tibetan National flags, have been set up in all the major entry-points leading up to His Holiness’ residential palace in McLeod town.

On His arrival, amidst religious Buddhist chanting and smoke of burning-incense hanging in the air; traditional Tibetan dances, symbolizing auspiciousness, were performed at the reception gates.

HHDL Ends His Month-Long Teachings and Public Talks Abroad

2006-10-03T09:38:00.000-04:00

As reported by Phayul.com; October 3, 2006

By Tenzin Dickyi

New Delhi -- The spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, began his visit to the United States this September which took him around five cities [San Francisco, Bloomington, Washington D.C., NY City and Boston], finally came to an end.

He also visisted Canada this early September.

It was the Dalai Lama's 15th visit to the United States. His various teachings and public talks during these visit has marked tremendous impact on the audiences as well as has left behind reasons to change their lives in a good way for many.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was bestowed with the title of an ‘Honorary Canadian Citizen’ by the Canadian House of Commons on 7th of September this year. His Holiness was the third non-Canadian to receive this honor, the other two being Raoul Wallenberg in 1985 and Nelson Mandela in 2001.

Considering His Holiness as one of the world's greatest religious leaders who has used human compassion, courage and conviction as his tools in carving a path for peace, the House of Representative of USA passed a Bill to award His Holiness with the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honour this September.

After the three-day teachings in New York city from 23 to 25 September, His Holiness addressed the concluding session of the 20th annual conference on women at the Long Beach Convention Center in Los Angeles.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver hosted the California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women, the largest and the most dynamic one-day gathering of women in US.

Shriver who personally traveled to India in early August to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and extended a formal invitation to speak at the conference and His Holiness the Dalai Lama has accepted the invitation.

His Holiness concluded his month long tour in Helsinki, Finland on 30th September. Speaking on the topic, A Human Approach to World Peace, His Holiness spoke extempore to an audience of people from all walks of life. His Holiness said that as a fellow human being he feels that it is also his duty to promote human values, such as warm-heartedness, and that as a religious person he has the responsibility to promote inter-religious harmony.

The session ended on a warm appreciative and grateful note from the audiences.

His Holiness is expected to reach Dharamsala today. Following this, His Holiness will give a teaching at the Buddha Jayanti Park on the occasion of the 2550th Buddha Jayanti Celebrations being organized by Tibet House New Delhi on 8th October 2006.

HHDL Says His Successor "Could Even Be a Finnish Woman"

2006-10-03T09:27:00.000-04:00

As reported by Helsingin Sanomat (International Edition); October 3, 2006

Helsinki -- In Helsinki on his way back to India from an almost three-week stay in the United Satytes, Tibet's political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says that his successor might come from somewhere other than Tibet.

"If I would die now, it would be logical for my reincarnation to come from outside Tibet", the Dalai Lama said on Saturday in Helsinki.

The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was speaking to journalists at a press conference in Finlandia Hall before addressing a larger public gathering.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, says that it will fall to his successor to continue the struggle for the autonomy of Tibet, which is under Chinese rule. He leaves it up to the Tibetans to decide how the next leader is to be chosen.

"An election is one option", he says.

Under prevailing Tibetan tradition, based on reincarnation, the leader is chosen in a ritual in which the right child is found to fill the place of the previous Dalai Lama. "My successor could even be found in Finland", joked the cheery 71-year-old Dalai Lama as flash cameras went off.

He added that a woman would be quite suitable for the post.

Talk of a successor from outside Tibet could be seen as a political statement.

In 1995 the Dalai Lama chose a six-year-old boy as his second in command, the Panchen Lama, who later disappeared. Chinese officials are refusing to say where he is.

The Dalai Lama briefly criticised Chinese policy in Tibet. He said that a cultural genocide, either deliberate or otherwise, is taking place in Tibet. China has stated that it wants to integrate Tibet more closely with the rest of the country. July saw the completion of the long-awaited direct train link from the Chinese capital Beijing to the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

The Dalai Lama also said that he was concerned for the fate of Tibet's sensitive mountain environment, which he fears could suffer at the hands of China, which is focusing on economic growth. "The world needs to teach the Chinese brothers and sisters. Nature is very important", he said.

The Dalai Lama asked a Chinese journalist attending the press conference some tough questions, but clearly preferred to focus on understanding between religions, rather than politics.

At the public gathering he answered a question about the meaning of life: "Live happy and spread happiness around you", was his instruction.

The Dalai Lama was originally scheduled to visit Finland already in the summer, but his arrival was postponed for health reasons. He was invited to Finland by the Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA), and the Finnish-Tibetan Culture Society.

Tuula Saarikoski, a member of the executive of the culture society, said that Finnish top political leaders had been offered a chance to meet with the Dalai Lama, but no such meetings could be arranged.

On Sunday he was scheduled to meet with the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament, Liisa Jaakonsaari.

Tibetans Shot at Nanga La?

2006-10-02T17:43:00.000-04:00

A report on MountEverest.net tells of Chinese soldiers opening fire on Tibetan refugees.

(MountEverest.net; Oct 02, 2006)

A reliable source close to ExplorersWeb who wishes to be undisclosed until he gets out of China, reported alarming news this morning in the middle of the Cho Oyu massive summit push.

A group of Tibetans were allegedly shot on their way to Langpa La pass, at Nepal's borderline; some climbers chose to evacuate ABC (advanced base camp) when it was swarmed by Chinese army after the shootout.

"There is a story that happened here on the 30th and the 1st that is not being told," writes the climber. "It is tragic, it is haunting, and it is apparently all too real for Tibetans."

Below the full report:

Shooting at Nangpa La "Early morning of September 30th, I walked out of our dining tent to gaze over towards the Nangpa La pass. "I saw a line of Tibetans heading towards the start of the pass - a common sight, as the trade routes are open this time of year."

"Then, without warning, shots rang out. Over, and over and over. Then the line of people started to run uphill - they were at 19,000ft. Apparently the Chinese army was tipped off about their attempted escape, and had showed up with guns."

"2 people were down, and they weren't getting up" "Watching the line snake off through the snow, as the shots rang out, we saw two shapes fall. The binoculars confirmed it: 2 people were down, and they weren't getting up.

Then more Chinese army swarmed through ABC." According to the climber, Tibetans on the mountain later said that up to seven people might have been shot dead, their bodies then shoved into a crevasse not far from Cho Oyu BC (base camp).

A traders, trekkers and refuges route The wide Nangpa La pass, located between Tibet and Nepal, has been a common traders' route for centuries. In fact, many among The Sherpa people reached Nepal 400 years ago across this col.

Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet, a large number of refugees added to the yak caravans. Whilst many Tibetans cross the pass in order to sell their traditional craft and Chinese goods in Namche Bazaar's Saturday market and then come back, some seek refuge in Nepal or India.

The Nangpa La is also open to foreign trekkers.

The fact is, caravans across the Nangpa La are often seen by climbers in Cho Oyu's ABC, located close by. Tibetan traders cross the pass not only in winter (when no one is watching), but also during the climbing season.

Not the first time

These unregistered travelers have rarely raised attention from the Chinese troops in BC, neither from the Liason Officer always present in ABC.

Some climbing teams through the years have however reported on hearing shots. But this is the first time we have first-hand reports of a westerner witnessing people being shot on the way to Nepal's border.

Nevertheless, it is not the first time such a fact hit the news.

Canada's Tibet Committee reported on a similar incident on December 4, 2003.

"Last year, there were separate eyewitness reports by Western mountain climbers of Chinese border police firing upon Tibetan refugees as well as pursuing refugees across Nangpa la into Nepal territory," the NGO's reported.

"In mid October of this year, a group of 34 Tibetan refugees were fired upon by Chinese border security while attempting to cross into Nepal over Nangpa La."

"When the machine gun fire started we ran in all directions According to the report, one of the refugees who finally made it to Nepal spoke with CTC in Kathmandu:

"When the machine gun fire started hitting around us, we ran in all directions," the 25 year old survivor said. "We ran back where we came from just trying to avoid the army. After hiding from the gun blasts for many hours, we climbed over Nangpa La in the middle of the night and walked the entire day on the Nepal side as we were so scared."

Approximately 2,500 Tibetans annually escape from Tibetan enroute to India, according to the Canada Tibet Committee.

Approximately a third of those refugees are children under 18 years who are seeking a Tibetan language education unavailable to them under Chinese rule. Approximately one quarter of the refugees who successfully escape Tibet are monks and nuns who flee due to Chinese repression of religious beliefs and practices.

Nangpa La is situated only a few kilometres west of Cho Oyu (5,716m/18,753ft).

The wide, glaciated pass serves as the main trading route between the Tibetans and the Sherpas of Khumbu.

The Nangpa La has also been used by "illegal" climbers who would start from Nepal and then cross the border in order to summit Cho Chu without obtaining a climbing permit.

Trespassing mostly happened during off season climbs and in past decades, when Chinese patrols were scarce in the area.

In Thailand, Monks Share Temple with Tigers

2006-10-01T08:43:00.000-04:00

Tigers choose path of non-violence, is this the result of loving-kindness?

As reported by ChinaDaily.com

Walking fully grown tigers on a leash is all part of a day's work for a group of Buddhist monks who have taken on the task of protecting the endangered animals by offering them a home within the walls of their temple.

The sanctuary is run by head monk Phusit Khantidharo, who insists all 10 tigers living at the Pha Luang Ba Tua temple in western Kanchanaburi province in Thailand have adopted peaceful Buddhist ways.

"We are a big family here and we live together, not just with the tigers but many animals," said Phusit, sitting cross-legged on a rock surrounded by five large tigers that take turns to affectionately nuzzle up to their saffron-robed master.

The tigers, with names like Storm, Lightning and Great Sky, live among monkeys, horses, deer, peacocks, geese and wild pigs in a scenic gully where they are free to roam and feed during the day.

Visitors to the remote temple, about 200 kilometers west of Bangkok, are invariably stunned by the sight of the monks frolicking with tigers as if they were ordinary domestic cats.

One monk, who weighed less than half his furry companion, was bold enough to crouch down and mock fight with the big tiger, which gently lunged back with its deadly claws retracted.

The monks have documented the personalities of all the big cats in a booklet with profiles varying from "likes to be a star and loves showing off" to "pretends to be tame and gentle but will bite."

The tigers, say the monks, are at their most frisky around dinner time when tourists are allowed to enter the gully to watch them eat.

"We are Buddhist monks so we can't kill to provide them with food and so we give them dog food paid for by donations to the temple — they enjoy the dog food," Phusit said.

The first tiger was brought to the temple in 1998 after being injured by a hunter, but died within days.

Soon after, two very ill cubs arrived with large knife wounds in their stomachs. Inexperienced hunters had tried to cut them open and inject them with the preserving agent formalin in a bungled attempt to stuff them for a collector.

Miraculously, they survived, and the temple quickly earned a reputation as a tiger haven.
"When the villagers saw how we tended to the first tigers they brought others. Some were injured by hunters who had a change of heart, others by people who did not want the tiger near their village but also did not want to see it die," he said.

"The last cub to arrive had no hair as it had only just been born when its mother was killed," he said, adding that the monks had named the tiny cub Sengtawa (Sunshine).

Despite the head monk’s assurances that the tigers have chosen the path of non-violence, some devotees living at the temple bear scars that look suspiciously like the work of the big cats, and locals living near the temple say there have been a handful of maulings.

Sitting with his tigers, and three handlers who keep an eye on the beasts just in case they get excited by the visiting strangers, Abbot Phusit conceded that the temple grounds were a less than ideal home for his striped guests.

“We have started building an area in which they can roam, of about 30 rai (4.8 hectares), and eventually we want to send them back to the forest once they are ready to return,” he said.

So, You Wanna See Tibet?

2006-09-30T19:48:00.000-04:00

Here's what's required for foreigners for Tibet travel

As reported by chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily is an official publication of the Chinese government); 2006-09-26

Four pieces of information are necessary for foreign tourists traveling to Tibet, a valid passport, a valid visa, a Tibet Entry Permit (TTB Permit) and an Alien Travel Permit (PSB Permit).

Those coming from Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR must also carry these four documents.

However, journalists and people that may be involved in political matters are not included in this, for they must travel to Tibet under arrangements made by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tibet government.

Generally speaking visas can be obtained from local China consulates in foreign countries.

However, there are two exceptions: travelers from countries having a visa exemption agreement with Hong Kong do not need a visa and travelers coming to Lhasa from Katmandu have to get a visa from the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu as regulated in an official memo between China and Nepal.

Foreign tourists are not allowed to visit Tibet by themselves and they must register with a licensed Chinese tour operator that will help them obtain a Tibet Entry Permit.

Application for Tibet Entry Permit has to be delivered at least ten days prior to the entry date.

Information submitted should include the traveler's full name, gender, date of birth, passport number, nationality and occupation. All should be listed exactly as on the passport. Passport and visa duplicates are necessary.

A Tibet Entry Permit usually costs around RMB 200. One Tibet Entry Permit is issued for each tourist group and is held by the guide. No individual foreign tourist is allowed to carry it. No legitimate travel agency provides "permit-only" service. A service package normally includes transfers and guide.

An Alien Travel Permit is required for travel into certain restricted areas of Tibet (most of the Tibet Autonomous Region) and the tourist holds the permit. Normally travel agencies can help foreign tourists apply for the permit once they have arrived in Tibet.

Bringing Heart to the Practice of Law

2006-09-30T10:29:00.000-04:00

HH Dalai Lama discusses legal ethics, political role of monks at University of Buffalo Law School

As reported in the University of Buffalo Reporter

By John DellaContrada

(Photo: A rose mandala created by artist Chrysanne Stathacos was at the center of the ring of scholars who conversed with the Dalai Lama.)

What began with meditations on the value of compassion in our daily lives concluded with a practical discussion of how Buddhism can help make better law -- and better lawyers.

The landmark, three-day visit to UB by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama ended on Sept. 20 with his participation in the conference "Law, Buddhism and Social Change," held in an intimate setting within the UB Law School library.

It was the Dalai Lama's first visit to a U.S. law school conference and one of the few times he's been asked publicly about legal matters.

Seated among a circle of 15 international scholars, legal practitioners and UB professors, the Dalai Lama for more than an hour answered questions on topics ranging from the political role of monks to the function of law in a capitalistic society.

But it was his brief responses to questions about ethical dilemmas confronting lawyers that aroused the most interest from some participants, and provided the framework for future discussion within the UB Law School.

"If some person commits a crime but tries to prove that he is innocent, that is 'dirty law,'" said the Dalai Lama. "And religion also . . . if you use religion the wrong way, then religion becomes dirty religion. Every human activity, whether it becomes constructive or not, depends on the motivation."

The guiding motivation for practicing law, the Dalai Lama said, should come from "the basic human quality which we learn from birth: affection, and from that the value of human compassion."

In another exchange, conference participant James Magavern further explored the issue of legal ethics, asking the Dalai Lama whether "we are dirty lawyers" when protecting the confidentiality of a client who has confessed a prior crime.

The Dalai Lama stressed that each case and each person should be viewed individually.

"Sometimes you have a context where the benefits of the individual have to be weighed against wider implications to society," he said. "Or, in some cases, the benefits to the community have to be weighed against the damage it's going to do to the individual. The main point is not to confine your evaluation purely to a single situation, but rather look into its broader implications."

More than 140 people, including several members of the New York State Bar, listened to the discussion in the law library, while another 350 people watched a live broadcast of the conference in two law school classrooms.

Rebecca French, UB professor of law, conference organizer and an authority on Tibetan law, initiated the morning conversation with the Dalai Lama by asking about the political role of Buddhist monks, to which the Dalai Lama responded: "As far as party politics is concerned . . . I will never touch party politics.

"Another kind of politics relates to the national struggle in the case of Tibet," he added.

"National freedom is very much related to the teachings of Buddhism. Therefore, I consider my service in the Tibetan national freedom struggle part of my practice of Buddhism, (which involves) serving others, helping others and also the practice of, or implementation of, compassion."

The Dalai Lama's commentary on philosophical topics like the role of religion in a democratic society was interspersed with examples of his trademark wit and humor, which drew big laughs from an attentive audience. When asked about the best way for professors to teach law, for example, he replied: "Oh, I don't know. In order to give you some kind of advice, I should study law and practice law . . . and make more money."

Law School Dean Nils Olsen said the Dalai Lama's talk was a momentous event in the law school's history and was symbolic of the school's longstanding focus on the interdisciplinary study of law.

"We're very concerned with the social and historical context in which law is made and practiced," Olsen noted.

"To have the opportunity to have that kind of intimate discussion with a person of the Dalai Lama's stature is so rare, and really demonstrates his commitment to education."

After the Dalai Lama's departure, participants continued the two-day conference by discussing and debating the meaning of the Dalai Lama's statements.

"I think we should do a complete rethinking of the way we go about teaching law students entirely," said French. "The Dalai Lama wants heart, he wants compassion and he wants selflessness in attorneys. Our law school can start by taking this to heart. As a group, our law faculty can start thinking about how you go about instilling those ideas in students."

Added Law Professor George Hezel, a conference participant: "The Canon of Ethics -- the code of lawyers—should be infused with compassion and, in the Dalai Lama's words, 'warmheartedness.'

"How you distill a set of rules from those two things is another issue, but if you begin there and you infuse the rules with these two qualities, the hope is you'll end up with a better practice of law."

According to French, the UB Law School, through its Law and Buddhism Project, already has begun to incorporate Buddhist principles of compassion into legal study and practice.

Laura Mangan, associate director of UB's Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, headed with French the conference's planning committee, which produced a commemorative poster of the event. A rose mandala created by artist Chrysanne Stathacos was at the center of the ring of scholars who conversed with the Dalai Lama.

A display of Tibetan legal manuscripts, donated by French and on exhibit in the law library, drew the interest of the Dalai Lama prior to the conference's start and complemented the occasion.

In Teeming India, Water Crisis Means Dry Pipes and Foul Sludge

2006-09-29T09:56:00.000-04:00

As reported in the New York Times; Sept. 29, 2006

By Somini Sengupta

Ask Ritu Prasher.

Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.

It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come. So Mrs. Prasher will have to call a private water tanker, wait for it to show up, call again, wait some more and worry about whether enough buckets are filled in the bathroom in case no water arrives.

“Your whole day goes just planning how you’ll get water,” a weary Mrs. Prasher, 45, recounted one morning this summer, cellphone in hand and ready to press redial for the water tanker. “You become so edgy all the time.”

In the richest city in India, with the nation’s economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.

The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.

The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten India’s ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only India’s economic ambition but its very image as the world’s largest democracy.

“If we become rich or poor as a nation, it’s because of water,” said Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi.

Conflicts over water mirror the most vexing changes facing India: the competing demands of urban and rural areas, the stubborn divide between rich and poor, and the balance between the needs of a thriving economy and a fragile environment.

New Delhi’s water woes are typical of those of many Indian cities. Nationwide, the urban water distribution network is in such disrepair that no city can provide water from the public tap for more than a few hours a day.

An even bigger problem than demand is disposal. New Delhi can neither quench its thirst, nor adequately get rid of the ever bigger heaps of sewage that it produces. Some 45 percent of the population is not connected to the public sewerage system.

Those issues are amplified nationwide. More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United States.

The government says that 9 out of 10 Indians have access to the public water supply, but that may include sources that are going dry or are contaminated.

The World Bank, in rare agreement with Ms. Narain, warned in a report published last October that India stood on the edge of “an era of severe water scarcity.”

“Unless dramatic changes are made -- and made soon -- in the way in which government manages water,” the World Bank report concluded, “India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and for people.”

The window to address the crisis is closing.

Climate change is expected only to exacerbate the problems by causing extreme bouts of weather — heat, deluge or drought.

A River of Waste

The fabled Yamuna River, on whose banks this city was born more than 2,000 years ago, is a case study in the water management crisis confronting India.

In Hindu mythology, the Yamuna is considered to be a river that fell from heaven to earth. Today, it is a foul portrait of crippled infrastructure -- and yet, still worshiped. From the bridges that soar across the river, the faithful toss coins and sweets, lovingly wrapped in plastic. They scatter the ashes of their dead.

In New Delhi the Yamuna itself is clinically dead.

As the Yamuna enters the capital, still relatively clean from its 246-mile descent from atop the Himalayas, the city’s public water agency, the New Delhi Jal Board, extracts 229 million gallons every day from the river, its largest single source of drinking water.

As the Yamuna leaves the city, it becomes the principal drain for New Delhi’s waste. Residents pour 950 million gallons of sewage into the river each day.

Coursing through the capital, the river becomes a noxious black thread. Clumps of raw sewage float on top. Methane gas gurgles on the surface.

It is hardly safe for fish, let alone bathing or drinking. A government audit found last year that the level of fecal coliform, one measure of filth, in the Yamuna was 100,000 times the safe limit for bathing.

In 1992, a retired Indian Navy officer who once sailed regattas on the Yamuna took his government to the Supreme Court. The retired officer, Sureshwar D. Sinha, charged that the state had killed the Yamuna and violated his constitutional right, as a practicing Hindu, to perform ritual baths in the river.

Since then, the Supreme Court ordered the city’s water authority to treat all sewage flowing into the river and improve water quality. In 14 years, that command is still unmet.

New Delhi’s population, now 16 million, has expanded by roughly 41 percent in the last 15 years, officials estimate. As the number of people living -- and defecating -- in the city soars, on average more than half of the sewage they pour into the river goes untreated.

A government audit last year indicted the Jal Board for having spent $200 million and yielding “very little value.” The construction of more sewage treatment plants has done little to stanch the flow, in part because sewage lines are badly clogged and because power failures leave them inoperable for hours at a time.

“It has not improved at all because the quantity of sewage is constantly increasing,” said R. C. Trivedi, a director of the Central Pollution Control Board, which monitors the quality of the Yamuna River. “The gap is continually widening.”

Making matters worse, many New Delhi neighborhoods, like Janata Colony -- Hindi for People’s Colony -- are not even connected to sewage pipes. Open sewers hem the narrow lanes of the slum. Every alley carries their stench.

Some canals are so clogged with trash and sludge that they are no more than green-black ribbons of muck. It is a mosquitoes’ paradise. Malaria and dengue fever are regular visitors.

Not long ago, a 2-year-old boy named Arman Mustakeem fell into one such canal and drowned. His parents said they found him floating in the open sewer in front of their home.

These canals empty into a wide storm drain. It, in turn, runs through the eastern edges of the city, raking in more sewage and cascades of trash, before it merges with effluent from two sewage treatment plants, and finally, enters the Yamuna.

Carrying the capital’s waste on its back, the Yamuna meanders south to cities like Mathura and Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. It is their principal source of drinking water, too. New Delhi’s downstream neighbors are forced to treat the water heavily, hiking up the cost.

With New Delhi slated to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the government proposes to remake this riverfront with a sports and recreation complex. In the meantime, the Yamuna, vital and befouled as it is, bears the weight of New Delhi’s ambitions.

At dawn each morning, men sink into the still, black waters to retrieve whatever can be bartered or sold: rings from a dead man’s finger, coins dropped by the faithful, the remnants of rubber sandals, plastic water bottles.

The dhobis, who launder clothes, line up on one stretch of riverbank, pounding saris and bedsheets on stone tablets. A man shovels sand from the river bottom: every bullock cart he fills for a cement maker will fetch him a coveted $5.50. Men and boys bathe.

“This river is worshiped,” said a bewildered Sunny Verma, 24. “Is this the right way of worshiping it?”

So shaken was Mr. Verma on his first visit to the Yamuna this year that he now works full time to shake up others. He joined an environmental group called We for Yamuna.

“If you want to worship the river, you should give it more respect,” he said. “You should treat it the right way. You should question the government. You should ask the state to actually do something for the river.”

Deluge and Drought

Mrs. Prasher has the misfortune of living in a neighborhood on New Delhi’s poorly served southern fringe.

As the city’s water supply runs through a 5,600-mile network of battered public pipes, 25 to 40 percent leaks out. By the time it reaches her, there is hardly enough.

On average, she gets no more than 13 gallons a month from the tap and a water bill from the water board that fluctuates from $6 to $20, at its whimsy, she complains, since there is never a meter reading anyway.

That means she has to look for other sources, scrimp and scavenge to meet her family’s water needs.

She buys an additional 265 gallons from private tankers, for roughly $20 a month. On top of that she pays $2.50 toward the worker who pipes water from a private tube-well she and other residents of her apartment block have installed in the courtyard.

Nearly a fourth of New Delhi households, according to the government commissioned Delhi Human Development Report, rely at least in some part on such wells. It is one of the principal reasons groundwater in New Delhi is drying up faster than virtually anywhere in the country: 78 percent of it is considered overexploited.

Still, the new posh apartment buildings sprouting across New Delhi and its suburbs sell themselves by ensuring a 24-hour water supply -- usually by drilling wells deep underground. “Imagine never being thirsty for water,” boasts a newspaper advertisement for one new development.

Warning of “an unparalleled water crisis,” the study released in August found that 25 percent of New Delhi households had no access to piped water, and that 27 percent got water for less than three hours a day. Nearly two million households, the report also found, had no toilet.

The daily New Delhi hustle for water only adds to the strains on the public system.

A few years ago, for instance, to compensate for the low water pressure in the public pipeline, Mrs. Prasher and her neighbors began tapping directly into the public water main with so-called booster pumps, each one sucking out as much water as possible.

It was a me-first approach to a limited and unreliable public resource, and it proliferated across this me-first city, each booster pump further draining the water supply.

The situation for New Delhi, and all of India, is only expected to worsen. India now uses an estimated 829 billion cubic yards of water every year -- that is more than guzzling an entire Lake Erie. But its water needs are growing by leaps. By 2050, official projections indicate, demand will more than double, and exceed the 1.4 trillion cubic yards that India has at its disposal.

Yet the most telling paradox of the city’s water crisis is that New Delhi is not entirely lacking in water. The problem is distribution, hampered by a feeble infrastructure and a lack of resources, concedes Arun Mathur, chief executive of the Jal Board.

The Jal Board estimates that consumers pay no more than 40 percent of the actual cost of water. Raising the rates is unrealistic for now, as Mr. Mathur well knows. “It would be easier to ask people to pay up more if we can make water abundantly available,” he said. A proposal to privatize water supply in some neighborhoods met with stiff opposition last year and was dropped.

So the city’s pipe network remains a punctured mess. That means, like most everything else in this country, some people have more than enough, and others too little.

The slums built higgledy-piggledy behind Mrs. Prasher’s neighborhood have no public pipes at all. The Jal Board sends tankers instead. The women here waste their days waiting for water, and its arrival sets off desperate wrestling in the streets.

Kamal Krishnan quit her job for the sake of securing her share. Five days a week, she would clean offices in the next neighborhood. Five nights a week, she would go home to find no water at home. The buckets would stand empty. Finally, her husband ordered her to quit. And wait.
“I want to work, but I can’t,” she said glumly. “I go mad waiting for water.”

Elsewhere, in the central city, where the nation’s top politicians have their official homes, the average daily water supply is three times what finally arrives even in Mrs. Prasher’s neighborhood.

Mrs. Prasher rations her water day to day as if New Delhi were a desert. She uses the leftover water from the dog bowl to water the plants. She recycles soapy water from the laundry to mop the balcony.

And even when she gets it, the quality is another question altogether.

Her well water has turned salty as it has receded over the years. The water from the private tanker is mucky-brown. Still, Mrs. Prasher says, she can hardly afford to reject it. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” she said. “It’s water.”

Just Say "No" to Child Labor, India to Tell People

2006-09-29T02:51:00.000-04:00

As reported by Reuters; Sept. 28, 2006

NEW DELHI -- The government will launch a TV, radio and newspaper campaign next week to tell people they could be jailed if caught employing children under 14, a spokesman said on Thursday.

A central ban on children working in restaurants, hotels and resorts as well as in homes comes into effect on Oct. 10, a move that could impact the lives of millions.

"This national advertisement campaign will create awareness against child labour in these areas and will put the fear of law into the minds of people that violations could invite punishment," said M.L. Dhar, a spokesman for the union labour ministry.

The campaign will start in major cities on Oct. 1 and then fan out across the nation. Its message will be a mix of emotional appeals to peoples' conscience as well as warnings of penal action, Dhar added.

Anyone employing a child under 14 as a maid or a house cleaner or in one of the thousands of open-air eateries that dot India's highways could be jailed up to two years or fined up to 20,000 rupees or both.

Officially, India has about 12 million child workers under 14, more than any other nation, but some voluntary groups put the number at close to 60 million.

Under India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, children under 14 are already banned from working in industries deemed hazardous, such as fireworks and matchstick-making.

Activists say this ban has been poorly implemented.

Dhar said that under the new ban, anyone could file a complaint with the police or labour authorities if they suspect children were employed as servants or in a tea shop.

Rebel Negotiators Pull Out of Peace Talks After Cease-fire Ends in Northeastern India

2006-09-29T02:43:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Associated Press; Sept. 28, 2006

Separatist rebel negotiators pulled out of peace talks with the Indian government after New Delhi scrapped a cease-fire and resumed military operations in the strife-torn northeastern state of Assam, negotiators said.

Members of the Peoples Consultative Group, a team of negotiators appointed by rebels of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom or ULFA, said Wednesday they were withdrawing from the talks because the government had reneged on its commitments.

"We have to pull out of the peace process with New Delhi because the government has put preconditions which were not in the spirit of the discussions of the past year," said one of the negotiators, Dilip Patgiri.

Dozens of insurgencies have festered for years across India's seven northeastern states, including Assam. Nearly all the rebel groups are fighting for autonomy or independent homelands for indigenous peoples.

The militants say the central government in New Delhi -- 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the west -- exploits the northeast's rich natural resources and does little to improve its poor infrastructure and alleviate widespread unemployment.

The ULFA had appointed the nine-member team in September 2005 to prepare the ground for direct peace talks between the rebels and the government. After three rounds of talks over the past year, the government unilaterally declared a temporary truce on Aug. 13.

The ULFA reciprocated five days later, saying it also would halt attacks. Federal authorities extended the temporary truce three times, with the last extension ending Sept. 20.

However, the truce was called off on Sunday after ULFA rebels attacked a police patrol and killed a tea planter following a failed extortion attempt.

"The ULFA was indulging in extortion and were trying to regroup during the halt in military operations," said Assam's police chief, D.N. Dutt.

The government wants the rebels to pledge in writing their willingness to start peace talks, a demand that the rebels say is new and unnecessary.

At least two ULFA militants have been killed since the resumption of military operations on Sunday and several are in custody.

China Steps Up Exposure of "Fake" Panchen Lama

2006-09-26T17:32:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Press Trust of India (PTI) on Sept. 25, 2006

China has stepped up activities in Tibet and elsewhere to popularise the pro-Beijing 11th Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's third top religious leader, among the local populace.

The 17-year-old Panchen Lama was welcomed yesterday by 10,000 followers to Tibet's Baiqoi Monastery where he held a Buddhist ritual, the official Xinhua news agency reported from Xigaze, the second largest Tibetan city.

Gyaincain Norbu, who is studying Buddhist scriptures in Xigaze, was hailed by about 10,000 followers when he arrived at the county yesterday, it said.

During the ritual, the leader of Tibetan Buddhism prayed for the monks at the Baiqoi Monastery and also offered them alms.

"I'm glad to be here, but I'm much more glad to see that you live a peaceful, happy life," he said and gave touch-head blessings to several thousand local Tibetans.

The Panchen Lama also held brief Buddhist services at another monastery in Gyangze and Nai'nying Monastery in Kangma County.

Travelling from place to place in the remote Himalayan region, he stopped his car many times to bless his followers, the report said.

He studies Buddhism in Beijing and frequently visits Tibet and other Tibetan ethnic areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's highest religious leader and Karmapa Lama, the second highest are on exile in India.

With the Dalai and Karmapa in India, Beijing is hoping that the Panchen, considered a patriotic monk, would take charge of Tibetan affairs in the Himalayan region.

Three Faiths, Three Holidays . . . One Day

2006-09-26T10:19:00.000-04:00

Observing Ramadan (Muslim), Navratri (Hindu), Rosh Hashanah (Jewish) in Nashville

As reported in the Jackson (Tennessee) Sun

NASHVILLE - In the span of several hours Saturday, three of the world's major religions began observances of some of their holiest holidays.

In the predawn hours in Green Hills, the Fakhruddin family awoke to eat breakfast before sunrise on the first day of Ramadan, a monthlong holiday in which Muslims contemplate God, family and community ties. The Fakhruddins and other Midstate Muslims observe the holiday by fasting from sun-up to sun-down.

Later that morning in Bellevue, Krishan Paul, 78, joined dozens of area Hindus seated on the carpeted floor of the ornate Sri Ganesha Temple singing an hourlong prayer to God on the first day of Navratri, a nine-day Hindu celebration marking the triumph of good over evil, the goddess Durga and the power of the feminine side of nature.

And a short time later and a few miles east on Old Hickory Boulevard, Jews gathered at Congregation Micah in Brentwood to observe the first full day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Fourteen-year-old Eli Holmes joined a small procession that walked from the synagogue to the small creek behind it, where he threw in pieces of bread to symbolically cast out the sins of the past year.

Three holidays' falling on the same day is a rare convergence of three religious calendars, each based in part on the cycles of the moon. The three holidays won't fall in the same month again until September 2039.

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The alarm rang at 5:10 a.m. in the Fakhruddin family home, signaling the first morning in a monthlong time of early rising for breakfast before the sunup to sundown fast of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the name of the ninth month in the Hijri, or Islamic, lunar calendar. It's a time of reflecting on God, connecting with family and charitable giving.

For centuries, Ramadan has begun only with the confirmed sighting of the new moon by Islamic leaders.

Late Friday evening in Nashville, the city's four imams, or religious leaders, declared it would begin Saturday, posting the news on a Web site and in outgoing voice mail messages left on answering machines at the city's four large mosques to inform the area's 15,000 Muslims.

Rashed Fakhruddin, 37, his wife and daughter began the day with bowls of Cheerios and milk.
Children aren't required to observe the fast, but Maryan, 9, told her parents she wanted to try again this year. Last year, she fasted for five days. But by midafternoon, she was having second thoughts.

"We encouraged her," said her father. "We told her that the majority of kids around the world are starving or don't have enough to eat."

That quieted her for about an hour, he said, before they had to help her through hunger pangs again.

The point of fasting, Fakhruddin said, is to think about "the desires, the passions. It makes me feel more spiritual. It makes me think a lot more about God. It makes you think about the poor, those who go day in and day out without being able to eat a full meal."

At night the family would go to the Islamic Center of Nashville, the area's largest mosque, where they would break the day's fast first with some water and dates, a tradition Fakhruddin said began with the Prophet Muhammed.

The sundown mosque gatherings are each night of Ramadan. After the small snack comes the prayer. And then the mosque serves a full hot meal of rice and chicken or beef.

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With offerings of apples, raisins, sweetened flour and coconuts painted in stripes of red and orange, MidState Hindus made their way Saturday to Sri Ganesha Temple to mark the first day of Navratri.

Navratri is a nine-day festival celebrating the triumph of the good over evil. During Navratri, which means "nine nights" in Sanskrit, Hindus commemorate the stories of the Ramayan, a holy book, in which gods and goddesses slay demons.

At the Bellevue temple, readers took one-hour and half-hour shifts beginning Saturday morning to read the entire 6,000 verse Ramayan before nightfall, while congregants gathered on the floor singing an hour-long continuous prayer.

Krishan Paul, 78, surveyed the dozens of worshippers seated in the temple worship room, where large, colorful statues of gods lined the walls.

Paul was among the earliest Indian immigrants to settle in the area in the 1970s, when celebrations such as Navratri took place in individuals' living rooms.

Today, the Hindu community numbers more than 1,000 families, he said. They now worship at the ornate $3.5 million temple built in 1991, whose exterior architecture is modeled on 10th century South Indian temples and took Indian craftsmen more than two years to build.

"There are a lot more Hindus here now than there once were." Paul said.

Next Saturday, hundreds are expected for the Durga Puja, a Navratri celebration of the goddess Durga. Paul said the Navratri themes are universal: "In every religion, there is a conflict between good and bad. Hinduism is no different."

Saturday's ceremony also coincided with the arrival of an elaborate silver breastplate and crown handcrafted in India to adorn the god Venkateswara, one of the largest statues in the temple.
Priests fitted the black statue with the silver adornments, and members of the congregation lined up to seek his blessing.

Later, the temple served a meal of spiced farina, rice and vegetables.

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Rosh Hashanah began at sundown Friday night, the first day of the New Year 5767 in the Jewish calendar.

At Congregation Micah in Brentwood, Jews gathered to celebrate life as well as repent for the misdeeds of the past year in a ceremony called Tashlich.

After the afternoon service Saturday, Eli Holmes was one of dozens of congregants holding slices of bread who slogged through the rain-soaked field behind the synagogue where a small creek flows.

"For hundreds of years, Jews have gathered by the water's edge on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah to symbolically cast off our sins," Rabbi Laurie Rice told the congregation. "Today, as did generations before us, we too stand by the water's edge, poised between the year now gone and the year that is yet to be."

Holmes stopped, as some did, to throw his slice of bread into a 10-foot wide puddle of muddy water that flooded the route to the creek. Others hiked up their pants and waded through to the river beyond, where they threw in their bread. Some, with a nod to nice shoes, high heels or small children, had tossed their bread into a large garbage bag that Micah's co-Rabbi Phillip "Flip" Rice emptied into the river for them.

"I wasted time, I should have been doing more useful things by playing computer games" such as Strategy, Holmes said of his sins.

It was the Holmes' first Tashlich as an official adult member of the congregation. He had gone through the Jewish bar mitzvah, or coming of age ceremony, the year before. This year, he was fully responsible for his sins.

"I'm an adult, and I take it more seriously now," he said.

Others said they were thinking about the anger they had felt towards someone else, the times they were thoughtless or the days they had taken their family for granted.

Rosh Hashanah is followed in 10 days by Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which this year takes place Oct. 2.

HH Dalai Lama's Universal Message

2006-09-23T11:35:00.000-04:00

As reported in the Orange County (California) Daily Register

By Anh Do (Asian Affairs columnist)

He stepped onstage, and my heart calmed.

I had been waiting, next to the ragamuffins, the designer-shoe set and the multi-earringed.

We are all anxious to hear the 14th Dalai Lama – a man many believe is the greatest in the line of Dalai Lamas through his humanitarian work and his campaign to save the Tibetan civilization.

Inside the cavernous theater at Universal Studios, his voice embraced us. Deep. Plain. Certain.

Public speaking, he told 6,000 of us, is "so useful," allowing "me an opportunity to think."

Some may come here out of curiosity. Some with great expectations, he noted.

"I have nothing to offer." (Laughter.)
"I'm not talking Buddhist philosophy. My experience is limited." (Lots of laughter.)

"Some believe that I have some extraordinary energy, miracles. That's even worse."

What he has, I found, is simplicity. And a wisdom shared between chuckles and the donning of a Calloway golf cap:

1. Attitude is our greatest obstacle. As a society we suffer from extreme self-centeredness, preventing us from reaching our potential.

2. Respect others' rights. As social animals, we need to live as a group together. We have the capacity to unite.

3. All religions, all traditions, promote love. Forgiveness. Contentment. The common message is to elevate human values.

Some of you, His Holiness said, "may respond that we already know these things. But – really – are we following it?"

I've thought about this since listening to him last week.

Who am I – a child schooled in the Catholic faith – immersing myself in Buddhist teachings?

I am neither especially devout nor an atheist. During my early years in Catholic schools in Vietnam, nuns whacked us with rulers when we could not do our math or recite proper French grammar. But my mother and father raised their children to be open to the beauty of all religions, the mystery of all faiths.

My father filled our home with books and music, making sure we had information on the Koran, Hinduism, Confucianism, Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses.

My mother took us to temple, cooked kosher and navigated us through First Communion all the while garbing us in the right clothes to match secular holidays.

Both parents showed us that practicing is believing, yet that there's always more than one belief.
As an adult, I have visited mosques, monasteries and cathedrals all over the world.

So I understand the universal human connection when His Holiness says: "Every human being has some moral obligation, some responsibility to better the world . . . to save the world," and adds that Tibetans and Christians can "learn from each other's texts."

The audience around me gave the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Laureate who fled from his homeland after China's takeover in 1959, a rock-star reception.

I, too, stood up to clap at the gathering, hosted by Thubten Dhargye Ling, a dedicated community of Tibetan Buddhists based in Long Beach. Yet my mind was starting to drift, focused on his words.

"Peace" he said, "is not just a mere absence of violence. Peace is something fuller. Peace and compassion."

He nailed it. At its essence, this is what we seek in being spiritual.

Meanwhile, Back in Dharamsala . . . Celebration for HHDL's Honors in West

2006-09-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

As reported at Phayul.com on Friday, Sept. 22

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala -- A group of more than 17 Tibetan NGOs and welfare groups jointly organised a special celebration event in the morning today, which was participated by overwhelming public gathering to commemorate the conferment of two prestigious honorary presentations to the Tibetan leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet during the ongoing visits to Canada and US.

Earlier on 7th September 2006, Canada honoured His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Honorary Citizenship of Canada and again on 13th of this month, the House of Representative of USA passed a Bill to award His Holiness the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honour.

These are reasons enough for the Tibetans and their friends here to celebrate a day in great joy and jubilation at a time when China is engaged in a new defamation campaign against the Tibetan leader.

The event was purely a celebration of joy and pride for the Tibetans here for the great honour and acknowledgement that has been shown to their most inspiring leader for his tireless effort to create a more peaceful and understanding world.

For Tibetans here, the honour bestowed upon their leader means acknowledgement of the genuine peaceful middle-way approach proposed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to resolve the issue of Tibet through non-violent engagement and in a spirit of dialogue for the mutual benefit of both the people of Tibet and China.

The President of the Indo Tibetan Friendship Society, Mr. A. S. Mangotia and Bharat Tibet Sahyog Manch President, Mr. Sunil Manocha were present during the function to join hands with Tibetan friends in celebrating the event.

The special celebration event started at 7:30 in the morning with the offering of long-life prayer for His Holiness followed by speeches from the dignitaries and, presentation of songs and dances by various groups.

HHDL Makes Surprise Visit to Woodstock

2006-09-22T20:55:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Middletown Times Herald Record

By Deborah Medenbach

Woodstock — The 14th Dalai Lama, exiled head of state of Tibet and spiritual leader to more than 500 million Buddhists worldwide, offered a public address on world peace yesterday afternoon at Andy Lee Field.

The event drew thousands, all by word of mouth.

The last-minute public address was a "gift to the people of Woodstock" Supervisor Jeremy Wilber said, coming between the Dalai Lama's acceptance of an honorary doctorate in Buffalo and a three-day sold-out teaching event in New York City.

The sound check was by a woman giggling into a microphone, preparing for the laughter that would punctuate the spiritual leader's talk. As the crowd swelled across the baseball field, a quieter crowd marked by tombstones overlooked the event from a hillside cemetery."There's the final destination," the Dalai Lama said, gesturing toward the cemetery. "But before reaching there, you should live a meaningful life."

His talk focused on the human values of affection and compassion that create real bonds in families and communities.

"I call these things human values, because they don't come from religion, constitutions or education. It is from birth," the Dalai Lama said.

Though the leader has been in exile from Tibet since 1959 and his country is still in turmoil, the Dalai Lama said the practice of compassion has helped cultivate his inner strength.

He encouraged people of all religions to join together in harmony, citing the value of religion in society worldwide."All traditions teach love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance and discipline, perhaps with a different presentation, but the same inside," the Dalai Lama said, "God teaches us to love God and other people. Those who cause trouble in the world, their love for God is questionable. Different spiritual masters preach wonderful things and reduce human suffering, not create it."

The thousands of people who showed up spontaneously for the event often had little more than a day's notice because of tight security by the U.S. State Department and the Office of Tibet protecting the spiritual leader.

Crowds funneled past a white van, not realizing it was an X-ray machine, checking for weapons without so much as a conveyor belt or magnetic archway to walk through. The mellow attendees clapped for the bomb-sniffing dogs after they successfully scanned the press and stage area.

The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner arrived a day early from his planned itinerary to speak at the invitation of the director of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Tibetan Buddhist monastery on Meads Mountain Road.

It is his first visit to Woodstock and the public address fell on the United Nations International Day of Peace.

He will offer a Chenrezig empowerment and teaching on compassion tomorrow to 500 Buddhists at the KTD Monastery's new shrine courtyard and will tour the recent construction at the site. That event is private.

Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced the Dalai Lama and 80,000 refugees into exile in India. He has lived in Dharamsala, India, since 1960.

Listen to HHDL's Sept. 19 Speech at Univ. of Buffalo

2006-09-22T01:54:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of WBFO, UB radio station

BUFFALO, NY (2006-09-20) The Dalai Lama talked of the importance of a compassionate heart and mind during his address before 30,000 people at UB Stadium Tuesday.

The speech was the most high-profile event of his three-day visit to the University at Buffalo.
Sitting in a chair on a stage inside the wind-blown stadium, the Dalai Lama spoke, without notes, for about an hour.

Click the on the link below to go to the WBFO site from which you may hear HHDL's entire address now or use your podcasting software to download it to your computer or iPod.

http://publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=970194&sectionID=1

Tibet's Economy Depends on Beijing

2006-09-20T10:04:00.000-04:00

As reported on National Public Radio (Morning Edition) , Sept. 20, 2006

By Anthony Kuhn

China is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, but Tibet remains one of its poorest spots. Beijing pumps billions of dollars into Tibet each year, an infusion that's partly intended to stabilize the Himalayan region.

Tibetans and ethnic majority Han Chinese are constructing a dam on the Lhasa River, which has nurtured Tibetan civilization for centuries.

Once its turbines start spinning later this year, the dam will provide electricity to much of central Tibet, including the capital Lhasa. It's part of the roughly $2.5 billion that Beijing pumps into Tibet each year, mostly in the form of infrastructure projects.

The dam is supposed to benefit residents downstream, including 60-year-old farmer Gesang Quzhen.

"When I have some time to myself," she says, "I often reflect on how life has changed. In the past, we worked for others without pay. Now we farm our own land and we pay no taxes on our shop. As a young girl. I could see how hard my parents worked."

Quzhen was still young when the Chinese government took control of Tibet in 1951 and ended its feudal system. Quzhen's parents were "chabas," landless serfs who worked on a feudal lord's manor.

Today, Quzhen makes $2,500 a year from her roadside shop, and another $350 from her one-acre plot of barley and potatoes.

She says despite all the government construction over the past decades, most of what she's achieved in life has been by her own hand.

"The government has helped us build houses, and we can seek them out if we need assistance," Quzhen says. "But as for us, we've worked very hard, so we haven't needed much help from the government."

Tibet as a whole is not so self-sufficient. Herdsmen and farmers like Quzhen account for 80 percent of Tibet's 2.7 million inhabitants. Yet they produce less than 20 percent of the region's economic output. Tibet has the lowest economic output of any region in China. And a million residents in Tibet are still below the poverty line of $150 in annual income.

China's critics and Tibetan exiles blame Tibet's poverty on Beijing for stripping Tibet of its resources and neglecting its people's welfare.

Zhang Younian, the deputy director of Tibet's main economic planning agency, rejects such accusations.

He says Beijing exempts Tibet from all taxation and provides 90 percent of Tibet's government expenditures. "So there's no question of Beijing money out of Tibet," Zhang says. "Given our current economic circumstances, there's not much money to take out."

Zhang adds that China strictly controls the extraction of Tibet's rich mineral resources.

It's no secret that Beijing's spending in Tibet is partly intended to stabilize its border regions. Lhasa-based economist Wang Taifu points out that it's been this way for centuries, and remains the case today.

"If the central government did not make huge investments in its border regions, the income gap between these regions and the coastal areas would become too big, and Beijing would have no way to ensure peace and stability," Wang says.

Sacred Hindu Manuscript Images Preserved

2006-09-20T03:16:00.000-04:00

As reported by UPI, 19th September, 2006

U.S. scientists are using modern technology to digitally restore a 700-year-old Hindu palm-leaf manuscript containing the essence of Hindu philosophy.

The project -- led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at the Rochester Institute of Technology -- is digitally preserving the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317).

The collection of 36 works contains the scholar's philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God.

Heavy wooden covers sandwich the 340 palm leaves that are crumbling to dust.

The book will never be opened again unless there is a compelling reason to do so, said Mukund, because every time they do, they lose some.

Mukund -- along with Easton, who imaged the Dead Sea Scrolls; Keith Knox, an imaging senior scientist at Boeing LTS; and doctoral candidate Ajay Pasupuleti -- traveled to India in June.

Using a scientific digital camera and an infrared filter, they captured images of each palm leaf in eight to 10 sections and digitally stitched them together.

After they are run through processing algorithms, the images will be stored in several formats, including etched silicon wafers for long-term preservation.

Tibet at a Crossroads?

2006-09-19T19:22:00.000-04:00

A Personal View by Tenzing Sonam

The recent Chinese attacks on the Dalai Lama have been of an intensity and viciousness not seen for many years.

Among a host of accusations, he has been called a “false religious leader” and a “double dealer”, and his Middle Way Approach to finding a solution to the Tibetan situation has been roundly rejected and described as nothing more than a “swindle”.

The new Communist Party secretary of Tibet, Zhang Qingli, who has been at the forefront of the new hardline approach, has described the battle against the Dalai Lama as a “fight to the death”.

This latest round of vituperation from China is all the more surprising as it comes at a time when contact between the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Government-in-exile and Beijing is theoretically better than it has been for some time; although the Chinese have never officially acknowledged their existence, five rounds of talks have been undertaken between the two sides since 2002.

Moreover, in an effort to create the best possible atmosphere for these discussions, the Tibetan side has been at its most conciliatory.

For the first time, the Kashag – the executive body of the Tibetan Government-in-exile – has officially issued appeals to Tibetan exiles and their supporters to refrain from public demonstrations to highlight the cause of Tibet.

Why then, when the Tibetans are officially doing everything possible to create what the exile Prime Minister, Samdhong Rinpoche, calls a “conducive atmosphere”, are the Chinese stepping up their campaign to vilify the Dalai Lama and denouncing his overtures to find accommodation?

More importantly, what does this imply for the future of a negotiated settlement on Tibet based on the Middle Way Approach?

Let us go back to a year ago, soon after the fourth round of talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and senior Chinese officials had been concluded in June 2005.

Reporting on the status of these discussions to the Fourth World Parliamentarians' Convention on Tibet in Edinburgh, the Dalai Lama’s envoy, Kelsang Gyaltsen, stated: “What is presently most disturbing and of great concern to us is that there have been no positive changes inside Tibet since the opening of direct contact with the Chinese leadership. On the contrary, repression inside Tibet has increased recently. Nor has Beijing reciprocated the confidence building measures undertaken by the Tibetan leadership in exile after our first visit. We must face the fact that so far there has been no indication of any change in China’s harsh policies in Tibet nor have there been any clear signs that the Chinese leadership is genuinely interested in beginning an honest dialogue.”

Despite this pessimistic overview, the exile government continued its “confidence building measures”.

In the lead-up to the fifth round of talks, the Kashag made its strongest appeal yet to US-based Tibetans and Tibet support groups not to disrupt President Hu Jintao’s visit to America by staging demonstrations.

The fifth round of talks took place in February this year. In keeping with the previous meetings, the substance of these talks was not revealed by either side. Special Envoy Lodi Gyari’s press statement started with a positive spin: “Today there is a better and deeper understanding of each other's position and the fundamental differences that continue to exist in the positions held by the two parties.”

But went on to hint at a more serious impasse: “This round of discussion also made it clear that there is a major difference even in the approach in addressing the issue.”

Although Lodi Gyari did not elaborate, we can deduce that the “major difference even in the approach” in his statement refers to China’s complete rejection of the Middle Way Approach.

This is made amply evident in a recent article in Beijing’s official mouthpiece, People’s Daily, which also explains why China sees this as representing “the Dalai Lama's ulterior motive: eventually seeking Tibetan independence."

This is the clearest indication yet from China about its position with regard to the Middle Way Approach and it comes hard on the heels of its renewed attack on the Dalai Lama.

Despite this, Samdhong Rinpoche stressed in a recent statement that, “In order to resolve the issue of Tibet, which is the main objective of the Tibetan community in exile, we intend to make more efforts towards continuing the current Sino-Tibetan dialogue process, based on the mutually beneficial Middle-Way Approach.”

In a recent Australian documentary, he stated, “Unless that Chinese proves they are not trustworthy (sic), until then we will have to trust them.” Pressed by the reporter whether they had not already proven that they were untrustworthy, he replied, “They have proved in the past. And in this moment, for the last few years we are in dialogue and they have not proved as yet.”

This implies that despite all evidence to the contrary, Dharamsala still believes that the Middle Way Approach is not only a viable basis for dialogue with China but is actually “mutually beneficial”.

But is this really the case?

The main component of the Middle Way Approach as outlined in the official website of the Tibetan Government-in-exile is that “Tibet would not seek separation from, and remain within, the People’s Republic of China”.

By itself, this should be an attractive proposition to China. But this concession is predicated on a number of preconditions which must first be agreed upon by Beijing.

These are:

1. Without seeking independence for Tibet, the Central Tibetan Administration strives for the creation of a political entity comprising the three traditional provinces of Tibet

2. Such an entity should enjoy a status of genuine national regional autonomy

3. This autonomy should be governed by the popularly-elected legislature and executive through a democratic processIt is clear from the recent People’s Daily article that Beijing is deeply resistant to the idea of the creation of a greater Tibet and sees this as a call for what it has, in the past, termed “disguised independence”.

Before the Chinese invasion, the Lhasa Government did not exercise control over the areas beyond what is roughly the Central Tibetan province of U-Tsang, the region today demarcated as Tibet Autonomous Region.

While all Tibetans shared common cultural and religious traits, and Lhasa was unquestionably the spiritual heart of the country, most of the province of Kham and all of Amdo were de facto independent territories with shifting political loyalties, sometimes paying tribute to Lhasa, and sometimes to the Chinese, and more often than not, to neither. China immediately took advantage of these ground realities.

The 17-Point Agreement, which it forced upon the Tibetan government in 1951, applied only to Central Tibet, the area controlled by the Lhasa government. Amdo and most of Kham were appended to the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Szechuan and Yunnan.

It was only after coming into exile in 1959 that the concept of a greater Tibet -– comprising U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo -– evolved to reflect the aspirations of refugees from all three provinces who had fought together against the Chinese, and represented a renewed awareness of Tibet as a nation-state.

In recent years, anti-Chinese activities and expressions of Tibetan nationalism have taken place in both Kham and Amdo, pointing to the fact that the ideal of a united Tibet, which was forged in exile, has taken root inside Tibet. This is a worrying trend for Beijing and any move towards the unification of Tibet’s traditional provinces would, in its estimation, further encourage such nationalist tendencies and necessarily pose an even greater threat to its rule.

I believe this fear alone will keep China from ever acceding to this key pre-condition to the Middle Way Approach.

In a statement issued to commemorate the Lhasa Uprising of 10 March, 1959, earlier this year, the Kashag made the case that the demand to unite the three provinces of Tibet into one autonomous region conforms to the provisions of China’s Regional National Autonomy Law (RNAL), which was set up to safeguard the culture and identity of minorities. Dr Lobsang Sangay, a Tibetan legal expert, has pointed out in a recent paper in the Harvard South Asia Journal that within the provisions of RNAL, the concept of “unity” assumes greater importance than that of autonomy, “thereby creating paradoxical and contradictory approaches to autonomy for minorities”.

“Unity” here includes in its definition, unity of the motherland and unity under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. But even if this ambiguity did not exist, we know that China has a very poor record of abiding by the strictures of its own constitution.

We have seen time and again that Beijing does not tolerate anything that remotely threatens its power base and has no hesitation in trampling upon even the most basic rights of its own citizens.

And we can be sure that in the case of Tibet, what China sees as a threat to her “unity” will always outweigh any concerns about regional autonomy, and indeed, this is the crux of their argument in the recent People’s Daily article.

Therefore, presenting this demand as a legally viable option within Chinese law gives China more credibility than its record would suggest.

The other pre-condition set out in the Middle Way Approach is that even if China were to agree to an enlarged Tibet Autonomous Region within the meaning of the RNAL, this region must be “governed by the popularly-elected legislature and executive through a democratic process”. Given that China is a totalitarian state, there is no way it can accept such a demand without itself first undergoing a major transformation.

It has been argued that this demand has precedence in the One Country, Two Systems approach operating in Hong Kong. But there is a great difference in the situation between these two regions; the Basic Law under which Hong Kong retains its special characteristics was negotiated by the British as an integral component of their agreement to hand over the colony to China.

Additionally, it was advantageous for China to maintain Hong Kong’s uniquely capitalist set-up as part of its own burgeoning economic strategy. No such precedence or compulsion exists with regard to Tibet.Therefore, while the Middle Way Approach makes a huge sacrifice in terms of giving up the claim for Tibet’s independence, it does so by placing pre-conditions that, as far as China is concerned, are no different from actually seeking independence, and far from being “mutually beneficial”.

This impression is not helped by the fact that Dharamsala continues to inadvertently send out mixed signals.

For example, on the Dalai Lama’s 71st birthday on 6 July this year, the Kashag strongly reaffirmed the “determination to engage in dialogue for resolving the issue of Tibet through the present Sino-Tibetan contacts”, but concluded its statement by exhorting: “May the truth of the issue of Tibet prevail soon!” Most Tibetans would understand “the truth of the issue of Tibet” to mean only one thing: Tibet’s independence.

The Chinese must surely recognize that this underlying sentiment exists in the hearts of all Tibetans, no matter what their official stand is, and it is this that leads them to mistrust our intentions. Nowhere is this more starkly evident to them than in the influence that the Dalai Lama continues to wield inside Tibet.

The Chinese know that it takes the Dalai Lama to make just one appeal, e.g., to stop using furs, and before they know it, they are confronted with spontaneous public burnings of fur from Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region all the way to Karze in Szechwan and Rebkong in Qinghai.

They know that the destruction of a statue of Dorje Shugden – a Tibetan Buddhist protector deity – in Ganden Monastery near Lhasa earlier this year by a group of monks was in direct response to the Dalai Lama’s denouncement of the worship of this spirit.

They know that, although they have abducted the Dalai Lama’s selection of the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and replaced him with their own puppet, the Tibetan people are not fooled.

They have seen that even in the furthest reaches of Qinghai, it only takes a rumour of his return before thousands gather in anticipation.

There are so many instances that demonstrate his pervasive influence throughout Tibet and the continuing devotion and loyalty he commands there, that in order to truly consolidate their hold on Tibet, their battle with the Dalai Lama must necessarily be “a fight to the death”.

This explains why Beijing is willing to escalate its anti-Dalai Lama diatribe even at a time when it is supposedly engaged in talks with him, because to China, the talks are not about discussing the Middle Way Approach; they are about how to neutralize the Dalai Lama’s influence, once and for all, both inside and outside Tibet.

Gestures of goodwill on the part of the Kashag, like appealing to Tibetans and their supporters not to demonstrate against visiting Chinese dignitaries, will ultimately mean nothing to China, other than to give its international image a public relations boost.

The only “conducive atmosphere” as far as Beijing is concerned is one where the Dalai Lama ceases to exert influence of any sort in Tibet, and this, so long as he is alive, is impossible.Given that this is the situation, I believe that unless there is a major change within China’s political setup, we can assume that as long as Dharamsala insists on the Middle Way Approach in its present form as the basis for negotiations, Beijing’s intransigence will continue.

And if this remains the state of things until the Dalai Lama passes away – as China surely hopes – what then will be the fate of Tibet’s national struggle?

Will the Middle Way Approach remain a viable option without the Dalai Lama to give it credibility? These are difficult questions but ones we Tibetans in exile must be prepared to ask and discuss while we still have the Dalai Lama to lead us.

In November 1996, when he was the Chairman of the Tibetan People’s Deputies, Samdhong Rinpoche proposed a programme to launch a Tibetan Satyagraha movement, which ended with an emotional appeal: “When Gandhi-ji gave the call to ‘Do or Die’ there was no other choice. As I propose my people to ‘Do or Die’ there is no other choice either. The return journey back to homeland must commence here and now. Only then we can say, ‘Next year in Lhasa’.”

That was ten years ago. Unless we seriously reconsider the direction of our struggle, whether we return to Lhasa will not only remain as elusive as ever, it will become increasingly irrelevant.

Tenzing Sonam is a filmmaker and a writer. Along with his wife, Ritu Sarin, he is the co-director of White Crane Films. Their most recent film is Dreaming Lhasa. For more information, please visit: www.whitecranefilms.com and www.dreaminglhasa.com

China's Propaganda Campaign Continues: "Dalai Lama an Unworthy Religious Leader"

2006-09-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

Zhang is at it again: "A son would never describe his mother as ugly"

A "Der Spiegel" interview as reported by China Dalily via Xinhua News Agency

"The Dalai Lama has engaged in activities unrelated to religion and is an unworthy religious leader, a top official said.

The 14th Dalai Lama was no doubt once the spiritual leader in Tibet before he fled in 1959, but his recent behaviour makes him "unworthy" of the title of "religious leader," Zhang Qingli, top Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel last month.

The Chinese-version of the interview was published in the latest issue of Globe Biweekly, part of Xinhua News Agency, on Saturday.

Zhang cited examples of his behaviour: the Dalai Lama staged a failed armed rebellion against the central government in the late 1950's and stirred social unrest in Lhasa in the late 1980's.

He recalled that the Dalai Lama was elected as a leader in China's National People's Congress after the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, and was appointed as the director of the preparatory committee of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1956.

"Such appointments reflect that the central government fully supports the freedom of religious belief in Tibet," he said. "But the behaviour of the Dalai Lama shows that he does not love his motherland."

Zhang stressed that Tibet is the Dalai Lama's home province, but China is his motherland.

"How can it be that someone doesn't even love his motherland?" he asked, citing an old Chinese saying that 'No dog sees the poverty in his own hut, and a son would never describe his mother as ugly.'"

By the end of the first half of this year, the Dalai Lama had paid 312 "official visits" to other countries and regions, averaging six visits a year, and last year he made 12 overseas journeys, according to Zhang.

"The goal of his 'official visits' are to ally himself with 'anti-China' forces and publicize his separatist beliefs, which deviate from the practice of religion," he said.

Zhang said the central government would follow the traditional Tibetan practice of drawing lots from a gold urn when deciding the next Dalai Lama.

He stressed that Tibetans fully enjoy the freedom of religious belief, and local religious communities are autonomous in religious affairs. But religious activities in China should be conducted in accordance with the law, and no foreign intervention is allowed.

Zhang refuted the rumour that the Chinese Government had deployed nuclear weapons in Tibet. "I can assure you that no nuclear weapons or plants have been set up in the autonomous region," he said.

He also mentioned that the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, widely considered as a miracle on the plateau, shows that the central government is making great efforts to improve Tibetans' living conditions.

On India's Despairing Farms, a Plague of Suicides

2006-09-19T09:35:00.000-04:00

India’s economy may be soaring, but agriculture remains its Achilles’ heel, as food production, once India’s great pride, has failed to keep pace with the nation’s population growth in the last decade; "acute distress" cited by PM Singh.

As reported in the New York Times; Sept. 19, 2006

By Somini Sengupta

BHADUMARI, India -- Here in the center of India, on a gray Wednesday morning, a cotton farmer swallowed a bottle of pesticide and fell dead at the threshold of his small mud house.

The farmer, Anil Kondba Shende, 31, left behind a wife and two small sons, debts that his family knew about only vaguely and a soggy, ruined 3.5-acre patch of cotton plants that had been his only source of income.

Whether it was debt, shame or some other privation that drove Mr. Shende to kill himself rests with him alone. But his death was by no means an isolated one, and in it lay an alarming reminder of the crisis facing the Indian farmer.

Across the country in desperate pockets like this one, 17,107 farmers committed suicide in 2003, the most recent year for which government figures are available. Anecdotal reports suggest that the high rates are continuing.

Though the crisis has been building for years, it presents an increasingly thorny political challenge for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. High suicide rates and rural despair helped topple the previous government two years ago and put Mr. Singh in power.

Changes brought on by 15 years of economic reforms have opened Indian farmers to global competition and given them access to expensive and promising biotechnology, but not necessarily opened the way to higher prices, bank loans, irrigation or insurance against pests and rain.

To read entire article, click: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/asia/19india.html?th&emc=th

U of Buffalo Students Question Value of HHDL as Speaker

2006-09-19T00:07:00.000-04:00

Protest Is Planned, "I don't think we have to believe everything he does" summarizes UB student

As reported by the Spectrum (UB campus newspaper)

Though the message of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is likely to be about finding common ground and peace, some members of the UB community do not see the purpose of such a figure speaking, and a small group of them have planned a demonstration.

Over the past few weeks there has been an onslaught of information and resources made available to students and community members who are interested in the visit and life of the Dalai Lama.

Though a small demonstration is planned for Tuesday at 1 p.m. in front of UB Stadium, the majority of the community is accepting, including several different religious groups on and off campus.

The UB police are taking special concerns with such a large occasion, but have they have not overlooked possible protestors.

"For any major event we would set up an area for people to protest," said UB Chief of Police Gerald Schoenle. "We're not anticipating anything major but we need to be ready if there are people out who want to express their constitutional rights."

With the vast amount of outside participation in the events, the chance for non-UB oriented protest is not out of the question, but the University Police are not overly worried.

"There may be some outside protest, but again we don't anticipate anything major," Schoenle said. "I'm not concerned about that; I don't think it will be a problem."

Most religious groups on campus have said they are very accepting of the Dalai Lama's visit.

Members of the Hillel of Buffalo were extremely excited about the opportunity to hear the religious and philosophical lead speak.

"I think it's amazing, he is one of the biggest international figures in the world," said Billy Baxter, treasurer of the Hillel of Buffalo, which is the on-campus national organization of the Jewish faith.

Some students, like jnior English major Kevin Leatherbarrow, question the purpose for the Dalai Lama's visit.

"I don't think we should have got him in the first place," Leatherbarrow said. "I think it's a waste of money, and what real educational value is in this?"

At the Bridge Campus Ministries (Commons Christian Fellowship) Pastor Alexander Tullis shed some light on possible reasons why some in the UB community didn't see the affects of the visit.

"I have nothing against the Dalai Lama, but it's easy to be that way," Tullis said. "It's very nice, but it's too dreamy. It is about peace, and I think it's wonderful in that sense."

At Monday's interfaith service, there will be members from both on- and off-campus religious organizations in attendance. Father Robert E. Zapfel of St. Leo the Great Catholic Church was positive about the visit.

"He is certainly received as someone who promotes peace. This is an opportunity for us all to recommit ourselves to the kind of justice that gives lasting peace," Zapfel said. "For many Christians his teachings would be something one would find interesting and applicable to our lives. He speaks about peace and justice, and those are the longings of every heart."

The president of the Chinese Student Association was objective about the events surrounding the Dalai Lama's visit.

"We welcome him coming to the school," said Dik Sze (Daisy) Wong. "As students we should listen to the message he is bringing and learn from the good things he is teaching. But I don't think we have to believe everything he does."

China on an English Learning Spree

2006-09-18T01:02:00.000-04:00

As reported by Global Broadcast News, Sept. 18, 2006

Beijing -- The Queen's language has now reached its final frontier more and more Chinese are learning to negotiate the intricacies of A B C D.

China is learning the language of the world - English. And all this is being done in the preparation of the 2008 Olympics."I am crazy about Olympics," says Wang Lee, a shopkeeper.

Lee, who is learning English in her spare time, is echoing the sentiments of her country that's embracing the world like never before.

Hundreds of schools teaching English have mushroomed across China and classes are being held everywhere for everyone.

There are many others like Lee -= cab drivers bus conductors’, waiters, all of who want to welcome you to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics and say their welcomes in English.

"I love Beijing because it's the host city for 2008 Olympics," Lee says.

But as 2008 approaches it's a race against time.

With the Government giving top priority to learning and teaching the language, English teachers and interpreters are in great demand.

"From school to university they teach us English," a young girl says. The issue is not about numbers but the quality of spoken English.

In China one can get his Big Mac burger. But the man selling it is likely to get lost in translation because even with the necessary qualifications on paper many just cannot string a sentence together.

But the country realises this deficit and that's why from transcripts, to books to IPODs it's all about learning English.

So from Mandarin, to Cantonese, to various dialects of Chinese and these days increasingly some badly spoken English, the multi-lingual nation is adding another dimension to itself.

Don't be surprised if you hear your cabbie say Hi instead of Ni Hao, the next time you are in China.

Grisly Find Draws Attention to India (Female) Fetus Killings

2006-09-18T00:48:00.000-04:00

About 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India during the past 20 years

As reported by Reuters, Monday September 18, 2006

By Palash Kumar

PATTRAN, India -- Manual labourer Gulzar Singh is haunted by the day he exhumed baby foetuses from a pit outside an abortion clinic in one of the grisliest chapters in India's fight against female feticide.

"Inside the well I found bones. Small ones. Little, little ones. There were some baby skulls too," recalled Singh with a shudder.

Singh was ordered by police in early August to dig up pits on the grounds of a private hospital in Pattran, a small town in the Punjab state, which was suspected of operating an illegal abortion clinic.

It was a job that would change his life.

Over the next few hours, he removed the remains of scores of unborn babies from two deep pits, an experience he says he will never forget and one which leaves him struggling for breath at night and unable to enjoy the company of friends.

Singh says he removed the flesh and bones of around 300 aborted babies. The authorities say it was somewhere between 20 to 100 foetuses and they assume that all were female although gender tests results will only be ready next month.

The scale of the abortions has shocked even the most hardened of observers, including Virinder Singh Mohi, a senior health official who supervised the exhumation of the foetuses.

"We have been very lucky to bust this racket otherwise this so-called doctor would have continued to kill hundreds of girls," said Mohi.

The clinic was run by an untrained, unqualified retired soldier and his wife.

"He used to induce abortions, put the foetus in acid and also break the bones so as to destroy the evidence," said Mohi.

The incident, which officials say was India's worst case yet uncovered of the abortion of healthy female foetuses, may be only the tip of the iceberg.

According to a study published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, about 10 million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the last 20 years.

Traditionally, India's patriarchal society has preferred boys over girls. Across its rural landscape an often-used blessing for daughter-in-laws is "May you be the mother of 100 sons".

In Punjab and the neighbouring state of Haryana, where many girls are believed to be killed in the womb or soon after birth, sex ratios have been heavily skewed.

According to the 2001 census, the latest official population data, the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1,000 boys whereas in Punjab it was 798 girls to 1,000 boys in 2001, compared to 875 in 1991.

The drop in the number of girls is believed to be due to the availability of ultrasounds, allowing parents to find out their baby's gender before birth and clearing the way for an illegal abortion, rather than infanticide after childbirth.

The skewing of the populations in favour of males has meant that brides are scarce and men have to travel across the country to find a match. School classrooms are filled with boys.

Girls are not popular in Punjab and Haryana -- so much so that in some villages, the various words for "girls" in the local dialect also mean "enough", "deathly", "kill" and "too much".

For generations, men in India have been the breadwinners, considered the pride and joy of their families. Girls were seen as liabilities for whom parents had to dole out huge dowries to get them married.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in one of his first news conferences, termed female foeticide an "unacceptable" crime.

However, little has been done over the years to end the rampant violations of laws that prohibit sex-determination tests and provide tough punishment for violators.

In recent months, police have raided a number of abortion clinics and closed down several of them.

But campaigners say officials have to get much tougher.

When Gulzar Singh reached the hospital last month, hundreds of policemen and officials were swarming the grounds.

Scores of journalists fought for views down a nine metre pit dug in front of the main building.
Tethered to the end of a rope held by three of his friends, Singh was lowered towards the gruesome find but almost immediately shouted to be brought out.

"The smell was very foul," he said. "Exhaust fans were used to blow out the toxic gases before I went in again."

For the next several hours, Singh sent up buckets full of human remains, blood-stained gauzes and bandages, empty bottles of abortion-inducing medicines.

"Going by the amount of material I sent up, at least 60 to 70 babies must have been dumped," Singh said.

Two days later another well was discovered in the hospital's backyard in which Singh said he found "little, little" bones.

"There were some skulls too. This size," he said, creating a two-inch space between his thumb and index finger.

"I was in the well from eight in the morning until six in the evening, and every two or three minutes I was sending up a bucket of filth and bones."

The clinic opened its doors in 2002, ostensibly as a maternity hospital delivering babies.
Many people in the town said they had heard the couple who ran the clinic were carrying out abortions, including Puja Rani, a midwife who was once employed by the couple and is now the prosecution's main witness in their trial.

"I had told them I would only help them in deliveries," she told Reuters in her home, where she lives in fear of reprisals.

"I told them I would not help them in abortions but one night they told me to throw a female baby in the well. I refused and the next day they threw me out," she said.

The illegal hospital has been sealed and its owners arrested. They face up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

Patients seeking abortions were first taken for a sex-determination test -- banned in India -- using ultrasound machines at two facilities in the town.

If the foetus was found to be female, the woman would be taken to the private hospital where the baby was aborted for a fee ranging from 2,000-5,000 rupees ($50-$125 US), she said.

After the abortion, the foetus would be dumped in the pits -- at night.

Nobel Laureates Ask Youth to Push Peace

2006-09-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Associated Press; Sept. 15, 2006

By Chase Squires

Nobel Peace Prize laureates criticized the United States and the Bush administration Friday as they kicked off a conference dedicated to promoting peace and calling the world's youth to action.

"The rest of the world needs America, but it doesn't need the current model it is getting," said Mairead Maguire, a 1976 Peace Prize recipient from Northern Ireland.

The nine laureates criticized the United States for invading Iraq and Afghanistan, failure to engage al-Qaida in dialogue, failure to support conventions recognizing the rights of children, continued military spending and failure to open markets to developing nations.

They also cited racism and hate, extreme poverty and unequal access to water and other resources among problems standing in the way of peace between countries.

Some 3,000 youths from 31 countries are expected to attend PeaceJam at the University of Denver campus, which was billed as the largest gathering of Nobel Peace laureates in North America.

Aaron Vigil, 17, said the spirit of PeaceJam is something he tries to share at his Denver high school. He said he wants to make a difference.

"I actually went to India and saw all the poverty there," he said. "Here in the United States, a lot of kids don't realize all that we have."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a crowd of reporters that wealthier nations cannot ignore the plight of poorer countries."You don't care? Boundaries are now porous," he said. "Things that could be contained 'over there' are now upon us. Ultimately, we can survive only together."

In 1996, Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff, both 49, started PeaceJam -- a network that puts teenagers face-to-face with some of the world's top proponents of peace.

"We face serious problems and if we don't start dealing with them in earnest and quit thinking it's someone else's problem to deal with, then we're doomed," Suvanjieff said.

"I've kind of given up on people my age."

In Colorado, Dalai Lama Tells Youths: War Is Outdated

2006-09-17T09:29:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Associated Press, Sept. 16, 2006

By Chase Squires

His Holiness the Dalai Lama urged thousands of teenagers at a world peace conference Saturday to embrace globalization and accept people from all countries as neighbors and collaborators, not rivals.

"There are no national boundaries. The whole globe is becoming one body," he said at the PeaceJam convention.

"In these circumstances, I think war is outdated . . . Destruction of your neighbor is actually destruction of yourself."

War creates environmental problems, trade gaps and humanitarian suffering that everyone must bear, he said, speaking for more than an hour at the convention, which brought together 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

He won the honor in 1989.PeaceJam participants -- teens assembled from 31 countries -- opened their first day of lectures and interactive sessions with laureates at the University of Denver.

The Dalai Lama urged the teens not to get discouraged or think they have to stop all wars themselves. Instead, their mission is to learn from the previous generation's mistakes and start now by opening dialogue with each other so there are fewer disagreements, misunderstandings and violent clashes in the future.

"If we look carefully, I think we are social animals," he said.

"We need a sense of caring, a sense of concern for others."Talley McLean, 15, from Fort Collins, Colo., said she had already attended sessions dealing with child enslavement in Africa, the Holocaust and genocide.

Rather than being discouraged, she said she was energized."I probably learned more so far here than I've ever learned in school," she said.

Citing "Oneness", Anglican Priest Defends Himself on Conversion to Hinduism

2006-09-16T10:17:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Press Trust of India; Sept. 16, 2006

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India -- Anglican priest David A Hart, whose open espousal of Hinduism has sparked a debate in British religious circles, says he will continue his exploration of the "oneness" of religions and remained unfazed by the consequences it could have on his priesthood.

"Some people say my licence as a priest is under review. I am not doing anything wrong here. I am a convert to the Hinduism here because that is the local religion. And practising Hinduism is in no way incompatible with my faith in Christ," Hart, now staying at Karumam near here, told PTI.

After coming to know about his "conversion", 'Church Times' of the Church of England (C of E) has launched a debate and online poll on the feasiblity of allowing Hart to officiate as a priest.

Attached to the diocese of Ely in England, 52-year-old Hart had taught theology at the University of Derby for several years. Though he had visited India several times since 1987, he came here for an extended stay last year teaching English and theology in a local seminary.

Dressed in a saffron 'dhoti' and pristine white shirt, Hart the other day enthusiastically mingled with local crowd in celebrating Sri Krishna Jayanthi and, a few days back, was seen worshiping Lord Ganesh.

Hart said he had not received any official communication from the Bishop of Ely about his priesthood being reconsidered.

Hart's 'pooja room' at his house here has pictures of Christ and Krishna, Virgin Mary and Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of art and learning. There is even a plastic 'nagar,' the serpant revered and worshipped by the Hindus. Also, on the wall of the drawing room was displayed a poster depicting the holy places of Islam.

Author of several books on religion with the latest being 'Trading Faith', Hart said celebrating God in non-human forms need not be considered as 'un-Christian' as Jesus was represented as a lamb in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

"Afterall, God is not a human being. God is the God of Creation. What is important is that we have to have a symbol. Worshipping God in the form of human being had come to be practised by religions in a later period in history."

Hart, also secretary of World Congress of Faiths, said his understanding of the Hinduism had helped him learn Christianity better. He noted that there was much similarity between Christ and Krishna.

"You saw in my pooja room, pictures of Krishna with his mother and also infant Jesus on the lap of the mother. How could then we say that Hindu beliefs are incompatible with those of the Christians," he asked

Passing on the (Hinduism) Faith in the US

2006-09-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

Teaching Hinduism to a younger generation steeped in Western culture is an ongoing challenge.

As reported in the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle, September 15, 2006

Fourteen-year-old Samanvitha Sridhar has a reason for choosing not to wear the "bindi" --Sanskrit for "drop", suggesting a person's mystic third eye -- on her forehead in public.

It has nothing to do with how she views her Hindu faith and everything to do with how non-Hindus react.

"There's very few Hindus in our community, and it takes forever to explain to everybody why I do some things," said Samanvitha, a freshman at East High School.

"And by not doing that, it just makes it a little bit easier."

For Samanvitha, it's one example of the challenge that some Hindu youths face while trying to maintain the traditions and customs of their faith in America.

With an estimated 870 million followers around the world, and sacred texts dating back thousands of years, Hinduism is one of the world's largest and most well-established religions. But with the vast majority of those followers still in India, there are parts of the world, such as the United States, where Hinduism is relatively unknown.

Estimates from the World Christian Database at Gordon Conwell-Theological Seminary put the number of Hindus in America at just over 1.1 million. That's out of a U.S. population nearing 300 million, making Hindus a tiny minority in a predominantly Judeo-Christian country with a vastly different theological tradition.

That reality creates a challenge for Hindus here, and for their temples and cultural organizations, as they try to pass the faith on to a younger generation.

"To be Hindu in America is much more an intentional choice than it is in India," said Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies and director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

"Even if you're first generation, you have to decide if you perpetuate it or if you just kind of let it go."

For Hindu temples in the U.S. it has meant taking on roles that Christian churches have long held but that temples in India would find unfamiliar -- such as community hub and religious education center.

The Hindu Temple of Greater Wichita is a site for events ranging from worship to social outings to classical Indian dance classes.

And this month, the temple, at 320 N. Zelta, began holding its "Bal Vihar" religion classes for first-through eighth-graders. This is the second year for the bi-weekly classes.

The purpose of the class, according to Suparna Tirukonda, one of the teachers, is to educate youths about the various aspects of Hinduism: mythological stories, festivals and the deities.
The class is one example of how the local Hindu community tries to meet the challenge of passing on the traditions of the faith to young people.

It's a difficult challenge, she said, mainly because there are so few Hindu families -- about 200 -- in the Wichita area.

"Here, we do need to actively seek out our culture because it is not all around us," Tirukonda said.

That can mean that even young children, such as Tirukonda's 11-year-old daughter, Varsha, can be questioned about their faith.

Varsha, who is in sixth grade, said a few classmates will occasionally ask her about her beliefs.
"And then when I don't mention their God, they'll say I'm going to hell," she said.

Although such comments make her angry, she said, "I'll just tell them they can believe what they want to believe, and I can believe what I want to believe."

Growth of Hinduism in America

When Indian immigrants started coming to the United States in larger numbers, after the 1965 revamping of immigration laws, they carried on their religious traditions as best they could.
They'd meet for prayers and worship at one another's homes or rent public spaces, said Anantanand Rambachan, professor of religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

The first temples were built in the late 1970s, and construction continues to this day, as Hindu communities around the country grow. The Hindu Temple of Greater Wichita -- the area's only Hindu temple -- opened in 2002.

While most temples are designed like temples in India, the founders realized over the years that they would have to operate differently than they do in India, Rambachan said. That's because religious culture is different in the United States

The various Christian denominations separate themselves from each other and define themselves by the doctrines they follow, he noted, but Hinduism in India doesn't operate the same way. There, a single religion covers a wide spectrum of gods and beliefs.

In America, Hindus "are increasingly being challenged to articulate the Hindu tradition in a manner that places more emphasis on doctrine," Rambachan said. "People will ask, 'What do you believe?' "

Faced with that, temples and cultural organizations that had been working to make outsiders understand more about the faith realized they needed to help young people within the faith know what they believed, if the religion was going to be passed on.

And that's exactly what Hindu parents in the Wichita area are doing, said Ragu Tirukonda, president of the Hindu Temple of Greater Wichita.

Without those lessons, young people will "just assimilate with the mainstream culture, and I think they would have no roots later on."

Eventually, many would wonder: "'Who am I?' and there would be no answer to that question," he said.

Instead, children and youths need to understand their culture and what Hinduism means.

"I believe that's part of my responsibility to pass on to my kids," he said.

HHDL an "Extraordinary Figure of the 21st Century"

2006-09-16T09:50:00.000-04:00

A Dharamsala-based effort to trace and publicly address the recent increase in Chinese propaganda.

As reported at Phayul.com; Sept. 16, 2006

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala -- Strongly reacting to the vehemence with which China continues to condemn and denigrate the Dalai Lama, accompanied with increasing oppression in Tibet in recent months not seen since the repression of the late 1980s, the Dharamsala-based Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet today released a 12-page report criticising China of its practice of making baseless and absurd accusations against the Tibetan leader.

Sensing China’s increasing hostility of attitude towards the Dalai Lama, Mr. Ngawang Woeba, President of the Gu Chu Sum Movement, said that a Monitoring Committee has been formed at the centre to strictly note Chinese leaders’ blatant and fictitious accusations against the Tibetan leader in order to respond timely and give factual reply based on truth to the Chinese counterparts.

According to Chinese State media reports, Mr. Zhang Qingli, the newly appointed Secretary of Tibet's Communist Party, was reported to have pledged a "fight-to- the-death struggle" with the Dalai Lama, by blaming the Tibetan leader as “the biggest obstacle hindering Tibetan Buddhism from establishing normal order."

Since then, Mr. Zhang has a strong record of making harsh personal criticism against the Dalai Lama and ideological statements against separatism.

The 12-page report, titled “An Extraordinary Figure of the 21st Century: His Holiness the Dalai Lama”, notes in detail the various criticisms made against the Dalai Lama by the current Communist Chinese leaders and calls them as simply baseless accusations filled with misinformation and completely lacking truth.

The report further says that the type of hollow condemnations being made by the Chinese leaders is completely inconsistent with the overwhelming acknowledgement the Dalai Lama receives around the world in recognition of the his advocacy of religious harmony, non-violence, and human rights throughout the world and for his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue through a process of dialogue with the Chinese leadership.

At a time when Tibetan Government in Exile (TGIE) is making sincere effort to keep the direct talk process going with Beijing, such a hostile stance from the senior Chinese leadership makes Tibetans even more suspicious knowing the fact over the years of what Communist Chinese Government promises on one hand and does something else on the other when dealing with Tibetan issue said Mr. Woeba.

Although five round of talks has been held between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and Beijing since the dialogue process was renewed in 2002, which was abruptly cut off way back in 1993; Mr. Woeba said that the time consuming process in which China resumes direct talks with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile with no visible progress so far needs to be tackled in a more radical, determined and staunch approach while limiting ourselves (Tibetans) within the framework of truth and non-violence.

Former Kalon Tripa (Executive Chief of the Exile Tibetan Government, i.e., the elected legislative "head" of the Tibetan exile government), Mr. Sonam Topgyal, who was also present during the press conference, stated with conviction that there can be no harmonious bond between Tibetans and Chinese people without a sincere motivation from the Chinese leadership.

“How can the goal of a harmonious society be achieved when the Communist leaders themselves are engaged in implementing harsh policies aimed at destroying the identity of Tibetan people thereby disturbing the very stability in the Tibetan region?” added the former Kalon Tripa.

To the Tibetan and Tibet support group organisations seeking “Complete Independence” for Tibet, the lack of sincerity consistently displayed from the Chinese side provokes and calls for a more determined approach of further strengthening the complete independence movement for Tibet said Mr. Woeba at the press conference here today.

The Gu-Chu-Sum (which means 9-10-3) Movement of Tibet is an organization, set up on 27 September 1991 in Dharamsala, India, made up entirely of ex-political prisoners of the Tibetan freedom movement and seeks complete independence for Tibet.

The organisation was named according to the months in which major demonstrations occurred in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city. "Gu" is for September 27, 1987, "Chu" is for October 1, 1987 and "Sum" is for March 5, 1988.

On these dates, major demonstrations were carried out in Lhasa in an effort to regain Tibetan freedom. The participants were later brutally suppressed by the Chinese Army.

Leading Indians Urge End of "Monstrous" Gay Sex Law

2006-09-16T09:42:00.000-04:00

As reported by Reuters, September 16, 2006

By Mark Williams

New Delhi -- Leading Indian writers, artists, lawyers and academics led by author Vikram Seth have written an open letter urging the government to overturn a British colonial era law that criminalises homosexuality.

Condemning Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code as an attack on human rights and fundamental freedoms, it calls for an "archaic and brutal law" to be struck down immediately.
The law, formulated in 1861 and currently being challenged in the courts, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail for engaging in gay sex.

"It has been used to systematically persecute, blackmail, arrest and terrorise sexual minorities," said the letter, released in New Delhi on Saturday and addressed to the government, judiciary and Indian citizens.

"It has spawned public intolerance and abuse, forcing tens of millions of gay and bisexual men and women to live in fear and secrecy, at tragic cost to them and their families."
Section 377 is often misused by police looking for a quick bribe from men whom they catch cosying up in parks or lanes.

"It is especially disgraceful that Section 377 has on several recent occasions been used by homophobic officials to suppress the legitimate work of HIV-prevention groups, leaving gay and bisexual men in India even more defenceless against HIV infection," the Seth letter said.

Other signatories include fellow author Arundhati Roy, a former attorney-general, former U.N. Under-Secretary General Nitin Desai, Bollywood actors, human rights lawyers, leading journalists, academics and filmmakers.

Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen, in a separate letter of support, calls the law a "monstrosity."

Activists say there are at least 50 million exclusively gay men in India, and say a message needs to be spread that India cares about the issue of gay rights.

Past Indian governments have opposed getting rid of the law, saying the country was not ready for such a change.

But Desai dismissed such a defence in the light of a renewed legal challenge: "Minority rights are not at the will of the majority," he said. "Minority rights are absolutely guaranteed by the constitution.

"The issue is not whether the majority of the country is for or against this . . . but whether there is any reason in law for discriminating against these people."

In July, the Indian government's HIV/AIDS control body backed demands for homosexuality to be legalised, saying that making it a crime is driving infections underground and hampering efforts to curb the virus.

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) filed a statement in the Delhi High Court supporting a public interest petition by a local AIDS charity, the Naz Foundation, demanding that the 145-year-old law be scrapped.

The next hearing is scheduled for early October.

Many of India's homosexuals hide their sexual orientation because of harassment by authorities, although arrests are rare.

"It (the law) can adversely contribute to pushing the infection underground and make risky sexual practices go unnoticed and unaddressed," NACO said in July.

In May, UNAIDS said there were an estimated 5.7 million Indians living with the disease at the end of 2005, more than any other country and ahead of South Africa's 5.5 million cases.

China Expresses "Strong Dissatisfaction" Over US Congressional Gold Medal for Dalai Lama

2006-09-14T21:20:00.000-04:00

As reported by the Associated Press, published September 14, 2006

BEIJING -- China on Thursday denounced a decision by the U.S. Congress to award the Dalai Lama a Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the bill, which recognizes the exiled spiritual leader for "his many enduring and outstanding contributions to peace, nonviolence, human rights, and religious understanding."

It was also passed by the Senate in May but now requires the signature of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said the decision "seriously interferes with China's internal affairs and damages China-U.S. relations."

"We express our strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition," he said at a regular briefing.

The Dalai Lama, one of the figures most reviled by the Beijing leadership, fled to India following a failed uprising nine years after Communist troops marched in Tibet in 1950.

The Chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama of waging a clandestine campaign for formal independence, though he says he wants only greater autonomy in hopes of preserving Tibet's Buddhist culture.

"The words and actions of the Dalai Lama have shown for several decades that he is a political exile" who has long been engaged in activities disguised as religion, Qin said.

"He has never, ever stopped his Tibetan independence activities."

The Congressional Gold Medal has also been awarded to Sir Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.I

n 1989, the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize -- a move strongly condemned by Beijing.