Oakland Dharma Bum Routine

Friday walk with Ellen in the Oakland Hills

Tonight at the Lake (and some iphoto fiddling)

I've developed a daily rhythm of breakfast ngondro and housekeeping until noon, then lunch and whatever project I have, then my time on the Shitro mantra garland from three to four. Next I walk, hike or climb for an hour(with or without company), then snack. Sometimes socialize, sometimes projects in the evening, then a tiny bit of practice again, then sleep. That's quite a life! Soon I will start getting up earlier so I am a bit more productive.

So, you can see why I haven't been posting. Not much excitement until the Dudjom Lingpa Empowerments March 16 - 27 at Orgyen Dorje Den. No, it's not on their website, but you can sign up for their email list there, and they send out frequent updates. Scott from ODD allowed me to develop some materials for him about Dudjom Lingpa, the great terton of the 19th century--so that he could condense it for a paragraph description on their forthcoming publicity.

A Room of My Yome

Going to evening practice in my Yome

My meditation room is a kind of cross between a yurt, a dome, and a tent, called a Yome, in my backyard.  It has been a huge success, I am really glad I chose this structure.  It is hexagonal, with a high peaked rook inside, and the coolest thing about it is its translucency.  There is something about being able to see the fine detailed shadows of moving trees, squirrels and cats outside that is just so sweet and lovely.  Sometime I'll show you a daytime view, but I'm redoing the shrine, so I'm not quite ready for an internet open house.

I have been spending a lot of time out there lately, catching up on my projects (this week the Shitro text work, mainly) and my practices.  I'm finishing up the very end of one ngondro, and because I really need some exercise, starting a new ngondro before I am done.  The ngondro practice sequence typically has prostrations that are done in the beginning and not at the end.  I have injured my back doing prostrations in the past, so I am starting very slow with small numbers--trying ten a day and seeing how it goes, then 20 and so on.  Practitioners in the Nyingma tradition pretty much practice ngondro daily until we die.

Also, everyone in our sangha is now doing Shitro practice daily, so that's no secret.   I have been very surprised how different the practice is now that I am doing it daily instead of at tsok once a month.  Anyone else been kind of blown away by the power of it?  My, my, what they say about the Dakini's breath still being warm.  Now I don't remember why I was so resistant to getting started.  Just an American who doesn't like being told what to do, I guess.  Now, I'd be happy to do two sessions a day and "finish" in a year.  But, I had other plans, so we will see how it all pans out.

I just feel so happy to be alive, and to be able to pursue my own quirky purpose in life full time for the time being.

Srid

Tonight I had dinner with my friend Laurie, the chodpen (ritual master) for Osel Thegchog Ling.  Then we went to a Tea Bar to work on Dharma text production.  We have been wrestling with the Shitro terma that our lama discovered in 2002 ever since that time, trying to develop a usable version that suits the purposes of our sangha.  Now we are poised on the brink, soon we will have a new text.  

Since Laurie and I are basically Dharma nerds, we get all worked up over things that would seem to be minor points to anyone else.  We both particularly despise Tibetan phonetics that are not, well, phonetic.  I think this is because neither of us are translators, we represent the end user of a text.  We each have our particular heated opinions about certain words.  For example, don't even show me a text that has words like "srid" or "med" throughout as supposed phonetics.  That's how we end up with 30 year American practitioners who say they are practicing chod (rhymes with odd) with their bell, drum and kangling.  I'm convinced it is a plot by people fluent in Tibetan to make the rest of us sound like total idiots!  (Those d's are rarely pronounced, and neither is that r in "srid").  At least get us in the ballpark, folks!

Anyway, I wanted to come back to the Shitro mantra chain discussion that I started some posts back.  Remember, the Rinpoche for this sangha--we'll call him A. Rinpoche--started a mantra chain of the main mantra of the Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deity practice.  The idea of this chain, which I prefer to call a garland, is to have at least one person in our world wide sangha saying this mantra twenty four hours a day seven days a week, by tag teams.  We have a sister sangha in Italy who is doing nights and mornings, and we are doing afternoons and evenings, having each person take a half hour or more.  I'm doing one to two pm, if you would like to chant along.

Looking at my Shitro text, I have discovered that one's personal mantra accumulation minimum is supposed to be only a million of this main mantra, as opposed to the huge number I wrote below.  Also, my speed has picked up, so somehow I find it encouraging to be working towards my personal goal rather than simply continuing "until samsara is emptied" which was Rinpoche's vajra command.  Clearly, I am far from the first Bodhisattva bhumi. 

Cage Rattling

Remember that Zhitro accumulation I mentioned post before last?  Well, Rinpoche has really rattled everyone’s cage by sending word to us that we should continue a twenty-four hour mantra accumulation  “until samsara is emptied.”  But, no, not just that, he set up two other simultaneous continuous accumulations—a special Vajrasattva mantra, and a prayer he wrote for these difficult times.  Starting immediately, and continuing forever.

Personally, I had just sunk my talons into a new sadhana, tucked in my napkin and was starting to gobble when this happened.  What do I do now?  Drop it and take up that Zhitro accumulation, which I had already decided to do sometime in my 70’s, if I live that long?  I love the Zhitro practice, and the accumulation is huge and the mantra long.  Right now it takes me an hour to say 800, without the sadhana.  If I recall correctly, think the expected accumulation for one person was 2,400,000.  If one adds the sadhana, that would be about an hour and a half a day for three years.  Or 45 minutes a day for six years—actually sounds more doable.  Then, if I spend half the year doing other practices, that would be twelve years. Of course, it gets faster as you do it.  On the other hand, now we are supposed to just keep going, so perhaps the numbers are moot.

The Zhitro is a practice related to the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities of the Bardo.  It is really supposed to help bardo beings.  I am especially drawn to helping bardo beings.  My goal is to become a special Buddha who can swoop down and grab beings who have died and are heading to hell, and put them in my new Buddhafield, The Pureland of Remorseful Reprobates.

My friend Dennis emailed me very early this morning, “I had a dream where we formed a company and we were selling aspirin that was useful in the bardo. Our slogan was ‘don't get a headache over your bad karma.’”