 |
E-MAHO Dzogchen
Center Newsletter Updated 09 Apr 2002 |
|
CONTENTS
Welcome to Emaho
Dedication
Dzogchen Center
Would you like to help? Please
do!
Letter from Lama Surya
Lama John's Investiture
Cambridge Sangha Fall Program
Retreat Beat
Hey! It's Happening!
What in Creation
A Word on Submissions
WELCOME TO E-MAHO
Buddhism for the West
E-maho is Dzogchen Center’s online newsletter. And in traditional Dzogchen teachings, emaho! is the shortest teaching. It's an expression of astonished delight, an affirmation of the Great Perfection, a heart-felt prayer. The spontaneous vajra songs of the Tibetan masters of our lineage are punctuated with it. People whisper it or shout it sometimes during meditation, just from the sheer exhilaration of suddenly catching the view. Emaho means "wondrous" or "amazing". It's an effortless, surprising-even-to-ourselves response to the ease, clarity, and bliss of this type of meditation.
Tibetan Buddhism is a happy place to be, and Dzogchen is its core practice. Dzogchen is the very heart of it, fresh, immediate, and totally accessible. And though it is relatively new to us here in Europe and America, teachers such as Lama Surya Das are working to further establish it in this hemisphere, in this culture, now.
We invite you to be part of that, in whatever way you wish. This newsletter is really a dynamic process, so the features and information presented will continually change as you follow it. We can e-mail you updates as they come on-line, for as long as you want us to*. Or you can access it through the Dzogchen Center website, at www.dzogchen.org/emaho. Information about submitting material for E-maho is at the end of the newsletter.
*(To unsubscribe, send an empty message to
dzogchencenter-unsubscribe@mlm.aval.net)
DZOGCHEN CENTER DEDICATION
by Lama Surya Das
Dzogchen Center is dedicated to the memory of our beloved lineage master, the late Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, who passed away at Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's Shechen Monastery and three-year retreat center in Dordogne, France.
His body remains interred in Bhutan awaiting cremation, while a Vajrasattva temple is being erected according to his wishes.
It was among Nyoshul Khenpo's last wishes to me to build a retreat center, temple, and stupa, and to train lineage successors, in this country.
DZOGCHEN CENTER
Lama Surya Das founded the Dzogchen Foundation ten years ago, and with the generous help of many devoted and dedicated volunteers, it has served to realize its original mission statement—to bring Dzogchen teachings to the West. With the recent passing of Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, and his dying wishes as expressed in the above dedication, Surya Das has encompassed a vision of a Center whose mission remains the same, but whose activities have expanded in scope. Of singular importance is the training of lineage successors and teachers in this country.
The development of an actual physical retreat and teaching Center will happen when the time is right and resources are available to do so. For now, the Center is working through retreats, workshops, the web site, and other efforts, to continue the mission of making the traditional Dzogchen teachings open and accessible to anyone who is interested.
Dzogchen Center is happy to announce that Lama Surya Das and Lama John
Makransky regularly guide practice and give Dharma talks for the public on
Monday evenings in Cambridge, MA. In addition, Lama-led Vajrayana
practices (including foundational practices, ngrondro) and
Lama-led Bodhisattva practices (including mind-heart training, lojong/tong-len)
are offered regularly in weekend practice sessions, day-long and weekend
retreats. Please see the Teaching Schedule, Retreats
Page and the website cambridgedzogchen.org
for location, times, and
contact information.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP?
As many of our activities as possible have been and will continue to be provided free of charge, or on a dana (voluntary donation) basis only. But we need everyone who can, to whatever degree he or she can, to help us further this important and beneficial work. Primarily, the wider sangha needs the strength and consistency of our practice. But in the economically-based society we live in, we at the Dzogchen Center need funding to continue to do what we do, and to make the dharma available and accessible to all. Even the smallest contribution, offered with genuine caring, counts immeasurably. In the certain knowledge that all beings, even the smallest insects, wish greatly to be happy and long to be free of misery, we invite you to share in the delight of making the Dharma flourish in and for the whole universe.
Here are some ways you can.
1. Join our on-going effort by becoming a full-fledged member of Dzogchen Center. Your donation per year will be one of the best gifts you've ever received:
$1200 - Patron $600 - Sustaining $300 - Regular
$75 - Student and un-waged
Please make your membership subscription payable to the Dzogchen Foundation and mail to us at P.O. Box 400734, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA. Your donation is fully deductible for US taxpayers; please indicate whether you wish to receive a tax receipt.
2. Plan to make an end-of-year or annual donation to Dzogchen Center. For tax-deductible purposes, this too should be made payable to the Dzogchen Foundation.
3. Once you are thoroughly familiar with the Dzogchen Center, its retreats and other types of outreach, and have gained confidence in them, consider bequeathing property or assets to the Center in your will, for future generations.
4. Step up your social and spiritual activism, whenever and however possible, as part of your practice of generosity and compassion. This could mean anything from helping out at an animal shelter to supplying books to a prison sangha. Opportunities are as numerous and varied as beings in need.
A LETTER FROM SURYA
BUDDHIST TEACHERS GET TOGETHER
I was glad to find myself among the 220 Buddhist teachers from East and West gathered at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, from June 19-24. For me, the best part of the conference was spending those five days as if in monastic retreat, with old friends, colleagues, and teachers—and making new friends at the same time—along with the tremendous inspirational and educational aspects of it.
The conference, called “Sustaining the Dharma: Preservation and Skillful Means for a New Culture”, was hosted by Spirit Rock, San Francisco Zen Center, and the Network of Western Buddhist Teachers. It was highlighted by a two-day visit from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Teachers of all the Dharma traditions and lineages, including men and women, lay and monastic, Asian and Western, came together for this historic occasion, one in a series of a half-dozen such meetings that have been occurring in Dharamsala, India, and in California, since 1993. The June conference began with separate daylong meetings for teachers from each of the three major traditions—Theravada, Zen and Vajrayana—with no other agenda than that of getting together and getting to know each other. Inevitably, conversations deepened into discussions about our main focus—what we are doing as teachers, and how, and why; what works and what doesn’t work; and so on.
At the main conference—the next four and a half days—we zeroed in on the study, practice, and transmission of Buddhism in the West today, the main theme being the preservation and adaptation of Buddha-dharma in this culture. We had presentations on non-sectarianism and inter-Buddhist dialogue, monastic and lay practice, sangha in the West, devotion and wisdom practices, teacher training, aging and the maturation of Dharma communities, engaged Buddhism, translation, interfaith dialogue, money and right livelihood, meditation methods and rituals, essential teachings for today, the place of the feminine, psychology and meditation, diversity, teaching children and teenagers, CyberDharma and Buddhism online, developing a Dharma center, and handling spiritual emergencies, among other topics.
I myself gave a presentation, along with Sylvia Boorstein and Jon Kabat-Zinn, on “The Popularization and Mainstreaming of Dharma: Obstacles, Challenges, and Opportunities (Dharma-Lite or The Light of Dharma?)”, to which the Dalai Lama gave a lengthy response, in which he emphasized proper motivation, bodhicitta, and skillful means.
Three months later, at Estes Park, in the snow-capped mountains of Colorado, from September 29 through October 2, Lama John Makransky, Sarah Bauer, Paul Crafts and I participated in the Third Annual Buddhism in America Conference, sponsored by Naropa University. The theme was “Awake Here Now: Engaging Art, Nature, and Society.”
This public weekend conference included workshops on all kinds of subjects, including some of the above-mentioned, as well as others specifically addressing the broadening of Dharma practice in its applications to daily life in our society. I presented workshops on “Six Building Blocks for a Spiritual Life” and “Bringing Buddhism Out of the Ghetto and Into Mainstream Society,” and also participated in a panel discussion with artists and teachers Ngawang Kechog, Meredith Monk, John Daido Loori, and Barbara Dilley, called “Exploring the Creative Arts as Spiritual Practice.”
Herds of wild elk grazing and calmly wandering about near us free-ranging Buddhists lent a palpable air of sacred beauty to this gathering, reminiscent of the blessed Deer Park where Lord Buddha gave his first teaching at Sarnath.
The next Buddhism in America Conference, sponsored by Tricycle magazine, will take place in New York City June 29 through July 1. The public is invited to join in. I will be giving a daylong workshop with Steven Batchelor about “Buddhist Traditions Old and New”, as well as shorter presentations on “CyberDharma” and “Awakening the Buddhist Heart.” I will also be speaking at Change Your Mind Day in Central Park on June 2, 2001.
It feels good to get together with the extended sangha in this way, and to see how far we have come in the past several decades—as well as to reflect together on how far there is still to go. One very strong impression I have from helping to organize, and participating in, these meetings and events over the years is the necessity of maintaining friendly, collegial relations and communication among ourselves in the Bodhisattvic spirit of openness, tolerance, pure perception, and non-sectarianism, to help ensure that the sublime Dharma may survive and flourish in modern times for the benefit of one and all. Through these get-togethers, I feel an increasing faith in and appreciation for the beauty and purity of the teachings and what they have to offer the world today, and gratitude to the lineage teachers who have passed it on down to us.
Lama Surya Das, October 2000
TASHIDELEK! AND WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS...
Congratulations to John Makransky, upon his investiture as lama, in the glorious Dzogchen lineage of Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche!
Lama Surya Das, Khenpo
Rinpoche's foremost American lineage-holder, confirmed and authorized
John as Lama Jamyang Dorje, in a simple, beautiful ceremony held after our
summer retreat. John Makransky, professor of
Buddhism and comparative religion at Boston College, now carries the name of
the teacher most of us knew simply as Nyoshul Khenpo. John was a longtime
student of his, as well as being also a student of Lama Surya Das.
Through practice, we draw
ever closer and closer to the towering figures whose names we chant daily, the
men and women whose practice made our practice possible. "And I pray a lot," Lama John
comments, "to our lineages — especially the lineage of Nyoshul Khenpo and
Lama Surya — to be made by it into what it would want."
As all stood waiting in
anticipation, John and Lama Surya entered the shrine hall in a dignified manner. Candles flickered in pools of
light, while outside, crickets sang to the cloudless, deep blue twilight
sky. Don't imagine, however, that only
solemnity prevailed! For, in typical
Tibetan fashion, the lighthearted and the awesome emerged together as one,
inseparable.
Actually, there had been a
small conspiracy. In John's words, "I was a bit in shock, because the
whole ceremony was a complete surprise!"
He had not actually been told that all this was going to happen right
here right now. Paul Crafts, acting as
master of ceremonies, and Lama
Surya had secretly arranged for John's wife and children to be
present at the event. Other guests happily clustered around them, to hide them
from view. So when John walked into the
shrine room with Lama Surya, his two sons, eight-year-old Jonathan and five-year-old
David, who had been concealed behind fellow conspirators, suddenly popped out
and shouted: "Daddy! Surprise, surprise!"
When order was
restored—but with joy undiminished—the ceremony proceeded.
After preliminary remarks
about John's relation to him, and his close connection to Nyoshul Khenpo
Rinpoche and to
the lineage, Surya then formally installed John as a lama in the Dzogchen lineage. Seating John on the
platform next to him, Lama Surya offered him several ritual implements of his
own: bell and dorje, damaru (ritual drum), and mala. Paul Crafts read a
traditional document Lama Surya had prepared, similar to one which Nyoshul Khenpo had
composed for Lama Surya years ago. The document is a Certificate of Dharma Transmission and
Authorization. It is long, for a newsletter, but because it is so
important, we include it for those who would like to read the entire text:
"To all wise students
wishing to enter the door of Dharma: the American lama and yogi Jamyang Dorje
(John Makransky) is well known to me.
For over 23 years, he has been studying the treatises of Tibetan
Buddhism according to both Sutra and Tantra.
He especially has trained in the special instructions of the Gelugpa and
Nyingma traditions. He has studied with
His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet as well as with many other excellent and
revered Lamas. These include Geshe
Lhundrup Sopa, Geshe Losang Namgyal, Lama Thubten Yeshe, and Thubten Zopa
Rinpoche of the Gelugpa order. Others
include Khenpo Sonam Topgyal Rinpoche and Tulku Thondup of the Nyingma, and
many other important Lamas. From myself and Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche he has
received continuing extensive instruction and has practiced diligently the path
of Dzogchen, from the preliminaries up through the ultimate practices, mainly
according to the Terma treasures of Terton Dudjom Lingpa and Kyabjay Dudjom
Rinpoche, and also of the Longchen Nyingthig.
Jamyang Dorje has received many sublime Vajrayana empowerments and
transmissions; from myself, Lama Surya Das (Kunzang Tenzin), he has on several
occasions received one-to-one the renowned Great Oral Pith-Instruction Lineage
of Dzogchen.
In addition to receiving all
the empowerments, instructions and lineage transmissions necessary for Dzogchen
Practice, Lama Jamyang Dorje has attained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(equivalent of Geshe in the West). He
serves as a professor of Buddhism at a respected American institution of higher
learning and has gained substantial recognition for his scholarly
activities. He has undertaken
pilgrimage to important holy sites and centers of learning in Tibet and other
places and has gained excellent knowledge of both the language of Tibet and the
iconography of Tibetan Buddhism. In summary, Jamyang Dorje is a thoroughly
qualified Lama. Those students relying
upon him and those interested in Dharma may have complete confidence in him.
This is written as a letter of
authorization by Lama Surya Das (Kunzang Tenzin) of the lineage of Shechen
Monastery, and declared publicly to the many practitioners gathered here."
Lama Surya Das (Kunzang Tenzin)
After the reading of the
"Transmission and Authorization", on behalf of the sangha and on
behalf of the Dzogchen Center respectively, Julie Forsythe and Christopher
Coriat came forward to present to Lama Jamyang Dorje the beautiful white silk
scarfs, katas, as the traditional offering to a revered teacher.
Refuge and bodhisattva
vows were offered, and then with everyone chanting the Benzar (Vajra) Guru
mantra, sangha members came forward to be blessed—first by Lama Surya, with the
precious relics of Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche, and then by Lama Jamyang, with the
bell and dorje Lama Surya had just entrusted into his keeping.
And then everybody was
smiling and shedding a tear here and there, and it was time to celebrate! There was a great party, with two huge
cakes; on the top of one was written: "Congratulations,
John Makransky" and on the other: "Tashidelek, Lama Jamyang Dorje." Of course, Jonathan and David were thrilled
to see two large cakes (one of them chocolate!) just waiting for them!
E-maho asked Lama John if he would share his own feelings with us all, and tell us how it was to be there doing that. This is what he said:
"When Lama Surya
spoke of our relationship, and our connection to Nyoshul Khenpo, the devotion
we all had for the lineage, and that he was installing me now formally as a
lama of that lineage, I was a bit weepy.
"Mainly I felt
intense gratitude to all my own lamas, especially to Lama Surya and Nyoshul
Khenpo, for reconnecting me, in this life, to our lineage, from which the very
purpose of this human life could unfold.
It also felt like a moment beyond space and time... something familiar
from the past, and an auspicious seal upon the future, in this life and
beyond. It also felt like a huge
responsibility—to uphold the lineage properly, to not dishonor it with my own
agendas.
"And then I felt
further gratitude to Lama Surya, for having patiently prepared me, so that in a
sense, this moment felt not all that different from other moments. Not such a
big deal. More like a natural outflow from all our practice together.
"Meanwhile, the power
of the good will and deep well-wishes of the community of practitioners in that
hall was so strong, it just about blew me off my seat! It felt almost like a physical force—or like
the sun! So again, much further
gratitude, to so many there, and to others not present, as a great force behind
all that was happening. Enabling it all to happen. In some sense, making it all
happen.
"Finally, when
everyone gathered afterward for coffee, cake, and juice, my children had a
wonderful time visiting and playing, and my wife Barbara loved connecting with
both old and many new dharma friends. And that made me very happy."
Lama John will be conducting a daylong
program, Awakening to the Ground of Compassion, at Cambridge Dzogchen
Center on Saturday 2 December. See further details on the Teachings
page at dzogchen.org.
ALSO IN THE NEWS
CAMBRIDGE FALL PROGRAM
Annie Baehr gives us some delightful details on how the Cambridge Fall Program - five weeks of Monday evening teachings by Lama Surya and Lama John on uprooting anger and on nature of mind - all started. Four of us local Dzogchen practitioners, she says, got together in March and decided to upgrade from a quiet sitting group, with occasional visits from Surya or John, into a more vital presence in Cambridge. We are now able to offer a complete course of Lama-guided practice for all, from beginner-level on up, who are interested in Dzogchen!
To celebrate the start of this endeavor, we draped the room with prayer flags. Joel constructed a special teacher's platform. We all brought flowers from our gardens, most 'regulars' dressed up a bit, and I think we pleasantly surprised Lama Surya, who appeared in a delightful Hawaiian shirt. The dharma talk was all new material and I found it exciting to watch it all unfold. There were about 100 people there, and we're doing a publicity blitz—flyers, newspaper and radio press releases—to keep the momentum going.
And that's the latest news from Cambridge!
RETREAT BEAT
Dinner Time Dharma
"So Mom, what did you do at your retreat?" asks one of my children as we share our first dinner together after a week apart.
"Well, most of the time we chanted and meditated," I answer.
My 12 year old daughter, Ali, says "I bet you meditate like this: you close your eyes... breath deeply... imagine wide open spaces... get in touch with your inner child..."
"Not exactly," I answer. "Lama Surya Das said 'Meditate as if your hair were on fire'".
They put down their pizza and stare at me. Actually, they're looking at my hair.
"Then what?" asks my teenaged son, Ben.
"Then you just stop... and drop..."
"And roll?" adds Tom hopefully, remembering the chant he learned during fire prevention week.
I continue, "And the Buddha said you shouldn't believe everything your teachers say, just because they say it".
"Far out!" says my teenager.
"And we don't close our eyes to meditate. The teacher said 'Meditate with open eyes, open nose, open mouth, open throat, open chest, open belly, open anus...'"
Milk comes squirting out of their noses.
"Your teacher said 'anus,' 'open anus'?" my daughter asks incredulously.
"Mom, what's an anus?" asks my youngest.
"Asshole," says Ben.
"Mom, Ben called me an asshole," says Tom.
"No honey," I explain, "that's what anus means."
And kids being kids, they giggle hysterically and chant "Open anus open anus open anus!" They're laughing with delight, waiting for more. On their faces I see expectation, some confusion, a little understanding. I think: this must be what Surya sees looking out at his students? Eager, skeptical, expectant faces, waiting for his words of wisdom. This is my moment, my time to spread the Dharma to my children. So I teach them the sacred camel fart. Afterwards, I look into the beautiful faces of my three jewels as together they laugh the twelve vajra laughs. Our pet bird rings the bell in his cage. My heart transforms into a ball of light. And we dissolve, one into the other.
Pamela Driscoll
Winter Dzogchen Center Retreat
Dover, Massachusetts January 5-12, 2000
************************************************************
The Dzogchen Center Autumn Intensive is scheduled for November 10 through November 19, 2000. Further details are available here. If you would like to join us this year, please contact the Dzogchen Center at (617) 628-1702 to register, or e-mail us at retreat@dzogchen.org.
HEY! IT'S HAPPENING!
Wild Love
I have come to love the
large flocks of wild geese that arrive at our pond on their way South each
year. They stay awhile, and I live
those days by their unabashed honking.
Their morning flight pattern brings them right over my house.
One morning I was out for
a walk. Suddenly, in the near distance,
first softly and then becoming louder and louder, I heard the familiar honking
of the flocks making their approach.
In V-formations, they flew
over my head, and then changed to landing gear—wings taking the shapes of
elegant feathered parachutes, and they began to glide, riding the air, towards
the clear, cold water.
As the first wave hit the
water with a soft "plash", I felt something akin to ecstasy. A natural Great Perfection. Everything settling into its true nature. Buddha Nature.
Finally, all the geese
arrived, silently gliding upon the pond, wings now smoothly folded close
against their bodies.
I loved them so much in
that moment that my heart nearly burst forth.
I wished that I could hold one close to my chest, feeling its velvety feathers
against my cheek.
But I simply stood
there—alive, wild, perfect.
—Jaymati
WHAT IN CREATION
WHAT TARA TOLD ME
"Psst!
Come on! Wake up!" Rubbing
sleep from my eyes, I looked
up. It was
Tara, in all
her shimmery, blue-green
radiant beauty. "Come
on! Wake up!" Her eyes
twinkled mischievously from the
millions of galaxies whirling
within them as she
looked through me. "I've
had my eye on you and the
time is ripe! Unlock
the Dharma Gate," she said. Before my
ego could round up all the
usual thoughts of self
pity and unworthiness, she
whipped out the stem
of her blue lotus and
sucked them clean away, like a
cosmic Hoover vacuum cleaner. The lotus
got bluer. "Unlock
the Dharma Gate," she said. "Look
deep within your heart. The secret
code is resting there. Unlock
the Dharma Gate," she said. "Enter
effortlessly, arising
as Me in the fourth time, and
realize in this past / present / future transcendent
moment of Now, how every
experience in this
and all other lifetimes - even all
those missteps, wrong turns and tears - how
everything is the perfect step on the
path that leads you to this
very moment." "Unlock
the Dharma Gate," she said. And I... well... I
followed her instructions. My body,
speech and mind became
suddenly still, stiller
than the inside of a
granite mountain. I saw
that secret code and my
heart blazed with devotion, exploding
the code into a
million pieces that fell
together into the
completed pattern. Spontaneously, the
mandala of awakening springs forth, shattering
the illusory Dharma Gate between
the two realities. Figure
becomes ground, ground
becomes figure. Time
dilates, contracts and pops! I am
Tara, arising
effortlessly, as all
the unseen beings, buddhas
and boddhisattvas of the
three times shower blessings
and sacred mantras. Me and
Tara, we dance
across the night sky, two as
one, dissolving
completely into
peals of laughter, the
mantra of mountain wind howling
through the peaks. There is
a reason I am
whispering this into your
ear as you lay dreaming. I've had
my eye on you and the
time is ripe. Come
on! Wake Up! Unlock
the Dharma Gate! —Synthia Smith |
|
A WORD ON SUBMISSIONS
All you vajra-song makers out there, whether prose or poetry or cartoon is your thing, if you create in the spirit of E-maho, we'd like to see your work. Keep it like the dharma is—upbeat, radiant with warmth and laughter, as if you were doing it for Maitreya, which indeed you are. Maitreya is the buddha of the future, expected to appear in around 30,000 years. He is the embodiment of all-encompassing love. His realm is called "the joyful." His name literally means "the loving one." We can't promise to use all the submissions we get—you might be too prolific for us. And we can't promise never to change anything. Normal editorial guidelines will apply. We ask you to keep a copy of your work, so that material does not have to be returned to you.
Please send submissions to: emaho@aval.net
Specifically, we're looking for contributions for HEY! IT'S HAPPENING and WHAT IN CREATION. In HEY! IT'S HAPPENING, you'd share with other sangha members an actual experience that came out of your practice, or perhaps led into it. HEY! lets us see your practice manifesting uniquely in your daily life. WHAT IN CREATION might be a poem or a cartoon, but could also be a short prose piece, showing your understanding of or your delight in the dharma. RETREAT BEAT is the other feature open to contributors, and is reserved for people's experiences at Dzogchen Center retreats. Finally, Dzogchen Center asks you, whether you do it by meditation or creation, to empower E-maho and the wider sangha through your practice, in a very clear and unfailingly compassionate way.
