My Favorite City

A San Francisco Child Development Center, Cook Street

At one time I worked for a couple of years doing hands-on nursing care for special needs kids in the San Francisco public schools.  One of the best parts of the job was that at times--especially summers--I would be assigned to go from one school to another during the day. Being out and about one weekdays all over that city, when most other people were trapped inside building was a kind of sensual experience.  San Francisco it famous for its vistas, but it also smells good, and its builders (and post-fire rebuilders) appreciated texture, pattern and color.

Above is a public building for little kids--probably the kind of center that would be in a temporary building in another town.  But, by god, the above is only part of it's magnificent facade.

I took these today after a Feldenkrais lesson at a friend's house. 

My Friends from Argentina

One other thing that I also noticed on arriving in California was the ants.  They were nothing like the ants I was used to.  No, these little ants are mighty!  Now I know they are Argentine Ants; indomitable.

So, what doeth the mild buddha-people, who hath vowed not to kill any sentient being?  This is an evolving science.  The goals are to cut off their point of ingress, remove the food or water they want, then move the remaining ants outside before they starve or die of thirst.  

What I do with a major incursion is to clean the area as best I can, which is usually centered around a kitchen or bathrooms sink, then draw a line around the area to protect it.  As paint, one uses cinnamon oil--a little cinnamon in some oil.  Then take a little brush--like the kind you have around to make tormas-- and paint a continuous circle around the sink or whatever.As you can see in the above photo, they are completely stymied by this line.  And also, find the opening they came into the room from, blow on it so that they move for a moment, then paint the opening so they clear out of this area.  Then, I move the ants.  Smaller quantities of ants can be moved by scooting them onto a piece of paper, or gently dragging a tissue over them (they grab on), or sucking them up with an official bug mover or--as a last resort--a little hand vac.  After the general situation is controlled like that, it is time to seal up the point of ingress with sealant.

What I am calling "the official bug mover" is a vacuum device carried by Tibetan Treasures (inquire) that harmlessly sucks them up so they can be taken outside.  The hand vacs kill a few, most will live and be fine.

I Like Lichen

Today in Redwood Park

I had a nice relaxing day today, practicing, moving ants out of the bathroom, and corresponding with the new friends I have made on this blog.  In the afternoon I slipped out and went for a walk in Redwood Park, in the hills above Oakland.  The spotlight was on moss and lichen that beamed forth green light from trunks, branches and stones.

My ex, D, emailed me on New Years, reminding me that it has been 13 years since we pulled our Uhaul and my Ford Festiva off at the High Street exit, then sideswiped a parked car on our way up the hill to our new rented home.  Although it didn't turn out as we'd planned, I am so happy we landed here.  And I'm so glad you are still my friend.

The first year here, a few things I remember: a) being broke b) volunteering binding books at the Nyingma Institute's TAP bookmaking project (the Kangyur or the Tengyur at that time) c) answering phones at the Berkeley Shambhala Center, d) how beautiful everything looked/smelled/felt, and e) these fabulous East Bay Parks that we discovered soon after we arrived.

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.

Favorite Blogs

These Girls of Golok are some of the great people you can meet in the Blogosphere

I got turned on to blogs at first by reading travel blogs to Eastern Tibet; Kham, Golok and Amdo. Actually, my favorite ones are by the westerners who live there.  then you get a realistic idea of the experience in these areas that spawned most of the 19th and 20th century meditation adepts who grace our lineage trees.  A mostly pastoral area of nomads and monasteries, it is an area of intense contradictions.  Impoverished materially, abundant spiritually; it is an area of little literacy, and yet also the matrix of the brilliant scholars of the 19th century nonsectarian movement, and the 18th century self-educated genius and meditation master Jigme Lingpa. Great female yoginis, such as Sera Khandro and Ayu Khandro (in the 20th century) emerged there in what remains a strongly patriarchal setting even today.

I like to read about Rekong--where Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's father came from.  I've never heard Rinpoche express an interest in the place, but I have always been fascinated by this area, traditionally inhabited by families of Yogis, who integrate practice and retreat with worldly life, like we do.   This school teacher doesn't know anything about that, but I find Toffa a good read.

When she is on the road, Wangmo keeps one heck of a great blog.  I'll tell you right from the get go that her lama--Jean Kirkpatrick's son Stuart--is a controversial figure, and the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama warns people away from his group.  But he doesn't figure much in her sincere accounts of life in Golok.  Particularly, a man she knows has started a program for young girls--who are just abandoned by the side of the road with some regularity. 

  

If you want to go to Kham check this out, and for permit info check this out.

Now the best overall blog I know, actually comes out of Mongolia most of the time.  It is by my favorite Western monk--who I have never me--Konchok Norbu. He actually inspired me to start my blog, and I'll tell you how.  He proved that being unrelentingly positive and uplifting, and motivated solely by the impulse to help others, can be really interesting.  He can even make birdwatching interesting!  So, hence cometh this blog, which I will try to keep free of my mounting anxiety over chemtrails and the island of discarded plastic the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean. 

In India we find Joy documenting the lives of herself, Lama Lena, and Nyondo, an intrepid lesbian trio who serve Lama Wangdor and the people in his community near Tso Pema.  I will warn you ahead of time, you will end up making a donation by paypal to help them out, once you read it there is no choice, Paypal calls.  Here is Nyondo's blog--she is a computer industry person.  These three are from the Bay Area originally.  Unfortunately my only real personal contact with them caused Lena to have an allergic reaction.  Lama Wangdor Rinpoche gave an empowerment at my old shrine room, and Lena was allergic to my rug.

I removed my final blog recommendation on 1/10. 

Lama Tharchin Rinpoche's Magic

I don't know how many of you know my main root lama, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche.  He was ill for many years, and not really teaching much publicly.  Above is a 2006 photo I found online.

The aspect of Rinpoche's life story that has been on my mind lately is from his youth.  He had completed many years of retreat under Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche in Tibet, culminating with him serving as a teaching assistant in the final group three year retreat.  He realized when he was about to come home that, as the son  of a respected lama, and someone who had completed extensive retreat, he would be treated with great esteem by people in his home area.  He knew he had not yet defeated his ego clinging, so after reuniting with his beloved mother, he told her he needed to go wander and practice in areas where he would be a complete nobody.  She said she understood, and told his father.  His father said "Good boy." His father --a fierce mahasiddha who was the ancestral spiritual leader of a community of non-monastic yogis (ngakpas) in Rekong (now Tongren, Qinghai)--had left his home for similar reasons.

Anyway, soon afterwards word came that things had gotten too bad politically to remain in Tibet to stay.  He escaped over the mountains to India.  He always jokes that the Chinese set up exactly the kind of situation he had been seeking.  He became one among many refugees, eventually settling in Orissa in Dudjom Rinpoche's refugee camp there.  There he became successful--as a very effective beggar.

Rinpoche remains the most stubbornly humble high lama I have ever encountered.  Without his guidance, I am sure that myself and countless others among his students would be real egomaniacs by now.  It is apparently easy to fall into this trap as practitioners of teachings that are said to be exalted.  Then one can undermine the whole process by wantonly engaging in the most seductive afflicted emotion there is--pride.  So hard to see in oneself, so poisonous

So the best news is that Rinpoche is healthy now, and teaching a lot this year.  Please see his teaching schedule at the Vajrayana Foundation website and the Jnanasukha website.  He has said quite often that he doesn't need new students, doesn't have any personal need to give empowerments and so forth.  All the more reason to become his student and receive as many teachings and transmissions as you can from him.

The pool of great lamas training in old Tibet is shrinking annually.  If you are alive today you are among the last people alive who will have access to such masters.  Please don't squander it by thinking they will always be there and you will meet them after you make some money and retire.  I regret so much how I squandered my first 30 years on silly dualistic political obsessions, and could have easily met Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse, 16th Karmapa, and Trungpa Rinpoche instead.  

At Pema Osel Ling

Happy new year everyone.

I'm blogging from the bench next to the pond at Pema Osel Ling (Lotus land of Clear Light), it is very cold and dark.  I couldn't find my camera at home on the way out the door.  I can see now that the mandala does not want me to do a blow-by-blow blog of this retreat.  For non-Buddhists:  that's kind of like saying the "universe" doesn't want me to.  If nothing else a big storm is coming in tomorrow night that will make my outdoor internet perch untenable.

I'll catch up with ya'll next week.  It's really wonderful that folks are reading it.  I'm having lots of fun with it.