. . . dark night/clear light
3 am, sitting. Was ever a December so dark? The words of my favourite
childhood hymn sang themselves in my mind:
Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light
Like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world of darkness, so we must shine:
You in your small corner, and I in mine.
‘What’s not to love about that Jesus?’ I thought. May all those who celebrate his birth at this time of year experience the clear light that is the union of all. May the hearts of all beings sound and shine!
. . . doggone!
On October 27, after eight months of slow decline from cancer. On Mila’s last night on earth, he didn’t want to be inside, and it was too cold to sit out with him for long. We looked at one another through the glass door. There’s nothing quite like the love that grows between a pet and hispersons.
Our Mila, it seems, had quite a constituency! Several people wrote about what he taught them when they were here in retreat, others offered to come and sit with him and share their special gifts. To the 90 of you who wrote, your caring words from around the globe moved us. We miss our boy.
. . . transitions, preparations
We’re not missing the tyranny of Mila’s pain pill schedule though! Flights have been booked, lists made. We are getting organized . . . first of all to leave here, next to go there. It turns out to be much more complicated to take off for four months than it was 40 years ago! If the schedule holds, we will have the week between Christmas and New Year’s to pack, and think of everything ELSE! Maybe even time to get excited about the challenges and opportunities of living in Nelson, New Zealand for a brief time.
We’ve had a busy fall, with continuing Chenreizig practice, evening teachings on Happiness, Wholeness and Holiness (about how realization of anatta develops into a glimpse of sunyata) and an inspiring workshop with Venerable Sonam Senge called Exploring Mandala, which effortlessly wove together symbols and methods eastern and western, and summed them up with the empowerment of Vajra Yogini. AH!!
Changes are happening in the local community here as some discover where their deeper allegiances are (and aren’t) and others test this streaming of Dharma, to see if delight in surfing is stronger than desire for the safety of form. The basic working assumptions for this community are a wonderful support for these changes . . . as long as everyone remembers to apply them.
1. All patthujjhana are mad (therefore things will get messed up.)
2. All beings have Buddhanature (and it is our responsibility to look for that,
rather than for what is wrong.)
3. “Success” lies in our ability to be honest with one another and to work
in an open, supportive fashion that is more about the integrity of the process
with which we do things, than with the accomplishment of whatever we
are trying to do.
Patthujjhana: Usually translated as “worldy beings,” this Pali word literally means “sticky lumps of dough.”
In the next few weeks we will anchor our collective selves in the annual seasonal rituals. The kid-friendly Very Short Meditation of Deva Dana (Radiant Generosity) always brings a grin and a tear and ‘dharmanizes’ the jolly, bearded samsaric icon. Then, a week later, on New Year’s Eve day, we will join together at the 11th Beginning Anew Ceremony.. .
and the on-going dance
with reports from Alison Sawyer, Keith Shaw and Josephine Grant in the Creek,
John Wellwood in the City and the Fundraising Group:
Recently local Roberts Creek practitioners have been exploring the question of what do we need to awaken, both as individuals and as a community? Through the process of working with this question, and meeting our aspiration to continue exploring as a group, comes “A Study of the Senses”: a series of experiential student-led workshops and sharings, to take place while Bonni and Matthew are away.
In Vancouver, a small group of Bonni’s students has started to meditate together once a week. “Like a long overdue glass of water for the thirsty,” said one participant.
Fundraising for the Retreat House is going very well. So far, dharma students who have contacted us have pledged two thirds of the goal amount. Some of you have told us that you intend to make a donation for 2012, but haven’t yet specified an amount. If you are planning to donate, would you let Kathleen Thacker (kathleen10000@yahoo.com) know
your intention, as we are hoping to have all of the pledges in place by the end of this year.
On behalf of the fundraising group, thank you for your generosity. May you be well and happy in 2012.
…10 years of Dharma at Cheryl Ann Park Road This house, complete with thigh-high weeds, carpenter ants and baby-poop yellow walls, became the start of something wonderful in June 2002. We were (and are!) amazed at the energy that materialized to make this happen, and grateful that we happened to be in the way when it rolled over us. Anniversaries invite reflection and evaluation, though, as well as celebration, don’t they?
. . . Summer Retreats 2012
A new approach for retreats is the first experiment. Summer Retreats began a few years ago in response to requests from those whose jobs make the Deep Retreat period at the beginning of the year impossible. But summer is a very extroverted time on the Sunshine Coast . . . much noisier, less conducive to certain kinds of practice. In the early years, our summer programs (Bodhisattva Boot Camp with its Apprenticeship Program and its successor, Recreation for the Heart and Mind) as well as occasional non-residential retreats worked successfully with this ebullient energy.
The retreat info and application form are on a separate pdf, included in the e-mail that brought you this newsletter. We always appreciate comments, questions and constructive complaints.
. . . looking ahead to 2013
In the tenth anniversary year of the passing of Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, we are planning to celebrate all the gifts he gave us. Well, as many of them as is possible in a measly year!
While his invigorating approach to traditional Buddhadharma infuses this place,there haven’t been many opportunities to study and practice all the methods and subjects that are part of his unique legacy. Holistic Clearing Meditation, Womb Clearance Practice, Exploration of Prior Forms and Transcendentalling will form the basis of retreat work. These practices were offered in sequence at The Dharma Centre of Canada in 1986 (or thereabouts) and to our knowledge, have never been presented in sequence since.
Tarot, Jungian archetype, esoteric Christianity and Sufism will form the introduction to Western Mysteries exploration. Scientific study as a basis for contemplative work is a big part of the plan . . . although we will venture into areas of science that are fresh and new. And if good fortune smiles on us, we’ll find some warm water gleaming with bright fishies (and lurking reef sharks) to snorkel with.
. . . and after that, what? the cave?
Or three years of training for the dedicated ones? No question about being tired (old age sucks!) but re-tired? What do you think we should do next?
Teachers appear only in response to beings’ drive to awaken. In Buddhadharma, students have the power; they create the relationship through their willingness to keep showing up, to have the conversation, accept instruction, do the work, serve and support. Through these actions, students learn to be open and honest and vulnerable and to accept the openness and authenticity and vulnerability of their most precious spiritual friend.
None of this is easy. No one “decides” this one or that one is (or is not) my Teacher; for such a unique relationship to be possible implies prior karmic interaction. Teachers can chill us out, fill us up, excite our aspiration, and yes, catalyze our worst fears and most petty and persistently hidden negative mind states. For those with eyes to see (cleared of mad projection) Teachers are space windows, demonstrating the vastness of awakened possibility.
For some, the awareness of that relationship is blindingly obvious at first meeting; for others, awareness grows through time and test after test. It takes so much love to have no agenda; to rest with the challenge of things as they are.
Idealization is an agenda. So is critique. Looking at your Teacher as a mirror can show you who you really are: not ego-enhancing, but fundamentally, potently present/absent.
Students experience their Teacher through the screens, filters and blinds of conditioned notions of how this person should be, and what such a relationship should be like. Fergeddaboudit! When the expectations fall away, there is onlylove, only union. There is no greater intimacy possible.
Since pure awareness of nowness is the real buddha,
In openness and contentment I found the Lama in my heart.
When we realize this unending natural mind is the very nature of the Lama,
There is no need for attached, grasping or weeping prayers or artificial
complaints.
By simply relaxing in this uncontrived, open and natural state,
We obtain the blessing of aimless self-liberation of whatever arises.
— His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche
the world is my cloister!