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.

Guru Rinpoche's Mountain Home

I went back down to Pema Osel Ling, because Lama Tharchin Rinpoche was teaching the Foundational Practices of Tibetan Buddhism. I was just going to stay a couple of days, but I got enthralled and stayed for five days. I've never heard Rinpoche teach this set of practices, known as the ngondro in Tibetan, in depth before. Now I understand that this is his forum for sutrayana teachings. He taught twice a day for ten days--that's four hours of teachings--just touching on some of the points in a detailed text by HH Dudjom Rinpoche. It seems strange that this has never been translated, because it could be really helpful. Perhaps it is in process. Have you been to Pema Osel Ling? It is up a narrow winding road in the redwood covered Santa Cruz Mountains. The goal here is quality, not to be a tourist destination. It is one of the few places in the U.S. that offers the whole path of practice of the Nyingma lineage, with all the supports one needs to really go into depth with it.

The stupas at Stupa Peace Park are coming along nicely. There are still chances to make a connection by offering some money towards their completion. All eight kinds of classical stupas are here (you can't see the bell-shaped on in back), plus a little averting stupa in front. Eventually there will be a mandala shaped wall surrounding them, with 108 (if I recall correctly) little stupas on the top of the wall, then landscaping. We started right after 9/11 on the recommendation of namkhai Drimed Rinpoche, who felt this would help avert future distasters, and completed the main stupa in a year. It is a really good sangha building exercise to make tsa tsas and roll mantras together--these are labor intensive works that go inside the stupas, along with hundreds of other things, such as texts, statues, Buddha relics, and so on.

Our representation of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), the first to firmly establish Buddhism in Tibet, it this impressive statue. It is the focal point of our large shrine room at Pema Osel Ling. Rinpoche always takes some time to look at the statue when he comes in the shrine room, the prostrates three times before taking his teaching seat.

I hope your practice goes well this week. I'm going to focus on having a little bit of discipline this week.