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.’”

Buddhist Chaplaincy

The above photos were taken and posted recently by Joan Halifax Roshi of Upaya Institute in Santa Fe.  The top photo is the gate of Upaya, the bottem photo is a backyard a few blocks from there.  How do I know?  Because I posted a picture of the same windmill here, that I took on December 24.  What are the chances of that?

I am part of the first class in their Buddhist Chaplaincy training program that starts this year.  It will be team taught by the leading lights of the engaged Buddhism movement, Glassman, Maull, Halifax herself, etc.  I, on the other hand, am a dim bulb of the disengaged Buddhism movement.  However, I am also an old nurse, and old nurses are like old firehouse dogs--we always return to help people directly who are at critical junctures in their lives.  Since is the only ingrained habit I have that is positive, I guess I will figure out how to channel it.