Happy Nepali New Year! Nepalko Nayabarsha Subhakamana!

I've been in Chapagaon at the monastery there for most of the last two weeks. My schedule has been pretty ideal, except that I sleep a little too much I guess. I've been teaching English every morning to the 3rd grade monks, and attending the 2nd grade Tibetan class with them as a student. I'm thinking I can skip up to the 3rd grade class after a few weeks. Back into Kathmandu for the day, for the internet, some lemonade and a few international phone calls, all luxuries unavailable in the village.

Last week brought us the Nepali New Year, welcome to year 2064 of the Bikram Samvat Calandar! I saw it in with some Patan friends with a short pilgrimage:

Actual New Year was spent in Patan, hanging out with some monks friends:

An old temple, in the Shikara style (I think) on a busy street corner. Children play all over it, the motorcycles zip by, and every morning early, before we're out for school or work, neighborhood devotees will come by for some quiet puja to greet the day.

Even in the middle of a city, busy and crowded, dusty and noisy, sometimes if you remember you can look up and catch an awesome display of cloud psychedelia over the skyline.

From the City to the Cheap Showiness of Nature:

After getting up at 5:30am at the Gompa in Patan (south of Kathmandu) to make ritual offerings (ganacakra) to the liberator-ess Arya Tara Bodhisattva, we caught a bus to the base of Shivapuri, the forested mountain north of Kathmandu and hiked up to Nagi Gompa, a nunnery I have blogged about before. The next morning we rose at 4am (not my idea) to head up the mountain to try to again make ritual offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisatvas in the holy site Baghdwar.

At the peak of the Shivapuri mountain, one of the 4 holy mountains that surround the Nepal Mandala (the Kathmandu Valley perceived as a abode of the Bodhisatva...), with a monk from Nangchen, who now lives at the White Monastery in Boudha. For an amazing glimpse into the land of Nangchen in Kham, Tibet, one of the strongholds of the BuddhaDharma in Tibet for hundreds of years, the birthplace of Tulku Orgyen Rinpoche, one of many realized masters of the last century from Nangchen, check out the book Blazing Splendor. This is the best book about Buddhism I've read this year.

BAGDWAR, THE SOURCE OF THE HOLY BAGMATI:

The source of the Bagmati river, after the New Year festival which saw thousands of pilgrims and holiday pleasure seekers (what's the difference, sometimes?).

Offering light to the water spout at Bagdwar.

A local Buddhist tantric practitioner (ngagpa) cleaning out the accumulated offerings of flowers, rice, incense and candles from the Bagdwar spout, the source of the holy Bagmati river in Kathmandu. In South Asia, rivers are very holy for their function of purification, so their sources are even holier, often conceived of as the actual abodes of gods, goddesses and Bodhisatvas.

Second ritual feast offering in two days performed with the Newar friends from Patan, Jyatha Bahal, the sangha at the Padmavarna Mahayana Mahabihar. This group is one of the focuses of my research, because they have completely integrated Tibetan teachings into their traditional style of Newari Buddhism, and they are dedicated practitioners, especially of the SIX PERFECTIONS in daily life.

The main image of the historical Buddha of our age, the Buddha Sakyamuni, in the old hermitage at Bagdwar, near the Shivapuri peak.

Typical offerings to the above statue of Buddha Sakyamuni. Obviously devotees don't actually believe that the statue is going to spend the money or eat the food in a physical sense, but some things are considered auspicious to offer (because they are useful to us, they please the five senses, they are valuable), so by giving them up to the representation of enlightenment it both creates an enormous amount of merit and plants the future seed of enlightenment in our mindstream. The money will be used for the benefit of the hermitage.

THE SELF ARISEN TARA:

We took a side hike from the Bagdwar hermitage near the peak of Shivapuri mountain to have darshan (holy viewing) of Tara. The Newar Dharma brothers and sisters are here straining to see the image of Tara that is naturally emergent from the rock. This site, the confluence of two streams, is the site where Tara first revealed herself and her practice in Kathmandu. See Todd Lewis' Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal for the story.

A photo from below of the "rangjung drolma" or "swayambhu tara," which means "self-arisen Tara." According to tradition, there is an image of Tara on this face of this rock overhang which emerged naturally.

Can you see her now that I've circled the head? Tara is the female Buddha, whose compassionate action is liberation from negative circumstances. For this reason her practice is associated with removing obstacles, specifically those to long-life.

A more traditional portrait of the Bodhisatva the Noble Tara.

A more modern, sexy version of Tara... yeah...

MONKS:

My close monk friend Sakya trying one of the many suitable meditation caves on the Shivapuri mountainside out for a minute.

And finally, your cute monk picture of the week! Oh, the age old game of grab-ass is certainly universal.

Dentistry Revisted in Bungmati

Welcome to the old Nepal, open the door to Bungmati dental fun, below!

THE VILLAGE BUNGMATI:

The famous (in the Kathmandu Valley) village of Bungmati, home of the compassionate Karunamaya (Rato Matsyendranath, a form of Lokeshwar or Avalokitesvara) who brought rain to Kathmandu back in the day. Still honored with the largest and most important festival here, which marks the beginning of the monsoon every year. This festival is in Patan next week, where I hope to hang out with some local friends to check it out.

A typical Newar style chaitya (more generally known as stupa, a reliquary mound) in Bungamati village.

Above chaitya from a different view, funny how much different everything is from a new perspective. I wonder if our consciousness stream works that way too? Whaddya say, Dignaga?

THE LOCALS:

A local Newar i Bungmati getting his teeth looked at by Alice from Singapore.

I gave my camera to some cute local kids to play with, like I do sometimes with the monks in Chapagaon. My Olympus is made extra durable, so I'm not afraid of it getting broken. I myself have dropped it on rocks in Tibet from about 4 feet up and not a (big) scratch. I've learned that although a lot of the shots are worthless that they take (fingers over the lens, etc), many of them are great and uninhibited, and reflect a great amount of fun.





This local peasant farmer has the most badass Mardi Gras party skirt ever.

One of the very few non-Newari locals that came to the dental camp.

The annual Ngagso Drupchen at the White Gompa

The great boudhanath stupa on the fullmoon night last week.


On the run as usual, not much time for a post, but here's some shots from the annual Ngagso (Mending of Broken Tantric Committments) Drupchen at the White Gompa (Monastery) in Boudhanath. A Drupchen is a nine day 24-hour puja (prayer ritual), and carries great blessings.


THE LAMAS:

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, the abbot of the White Gompa, giving out ngondrup (blessed substances) to the crowd at the end of the drupchen.

Phagchog Rinpoche and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche amidst the crowd.

Phagchog Rinpoche giving blessings and looking cool.

His Eminence the Tsikye Chokling Rinpoche.

The Vajra Master Chokling Rinpoche giving out blessings to the assembled crowd at the last day of the nine day ceremonies.

A monk from the white monastery in ritual costume, performing a small puja on the last day of the drupchen.


THE CROWD OF LAYFOLK:

The crowd of thousands at the White Monastery receiving blessings at the end of the Drupchen.

Another shot of the crowd with the White Gompa in the background. Those in attendance consisted of many Tibetans, Nepalis (Newars, Tamangs, Manangis, Nupripas, Yolmopas, Mugumpas, and many more people of the Himalayan border region with Tibet), and Westerners of all flavours.

Apologies for the delay in updating. I have been busy with a group of 11 Singaporean dentists who flew into Kathmandu a week ago. I've been volunteering with them, and I feel like I haven't had a break since I met them at the airport. Besides showing them around Kathmandu, I've been helping organize the 6 days of free dental clinics we are conducting around the villages of the Kathmandu valley. My job during the clinic has been to organize our volunteers, register our patients and do crowd control, which has been exhausting, but very rewarding. We have seen about 800 patients in four days.

The entire group of dentists (11 Singaporean, 2 Nepali) and volunteers at the Shenpen Dental Clinic 2007.

I also escorted the dentists to the Shivapuri National Forest north of Kathmandu on a holiday between our clinics in Boudha and Chapgaon. It was nice to get into nature in a vast forest filled with the blessings of previous Buddhas and years of meditating yogis.

The view from a meditation cave in the Shivapuri forest. Oh, the virtue of the happy life of the hermit!

Rhododendrons in full bloom in Shivapuri forest.

A tree-dwelling near the peak of Shivapuri, used by those looking for solitude in the forest.


SHOTS OF THE 2007 SHENPEN DENTAL CLINIC, CHAPAGAON:

A Nepali (Newari) villager in traditional dress getting his teeth cleaned.

A Nepali woman having minor dental surgery done behind our monastery in the village.

Another Nepali villager having her teeth worked on.

Dan Bahadur, the gate keeper at our Chapagaon monastery, smiling after getting a teeth cleaning.

Dan Bahadur's beautiful wife.

A beautiful village girl who came from her home nearby the monastery in Chapagaon for a teeth cleaning.

The beautiful village girl with her beautiful friend.

A local schoolgirl crying as she gets two of her heavily decayed lower molars extracted. Dentistry is pain!

Our smallest monk at the Chapagaon monastery getting his teeth checked by one of the Singaporean dentists, Cheung.

Elderly village men, in traditional attire, waiting for a checkup.


HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA, MARCH 2007:

A few images from my trip to India in the first two weeks of March, where I attended teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and visited the reincarnation of Tulku Orgyen Rinpoche in Bir.

An abandoned bike rickshaw at the bus station in Paharganj, Punjab, India.

OM AH HUNG VAJRAGURU PADME SIDDHI HUNG! A mantra written on a stone at the Chokling Monastery in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India. Homage to Guru Rinpoche!

His Eminence the Neten Chokling Rinpoche conducting the Tsegar Drupchen, associated with Amitayus, the Buddha of Long Life, in his monastery in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India. He is the lama that made the milarepa movie.


SHOTS OF CHAPAGAON MONKS:

My monk friend Tsultrim, who at the age of 17 pretty much runs the daily operations of the monastery in Chapagaon where I live.

Some Chapagaon monks smiling.

Some of the younger monks in Chapagaon in assembly for afternoon prayers.

Some advice from the Dalai Lama on death and enemies.

A new very amazing movie that i suggest everyone see when they get the opportunity is called Milarepa, and opens this summer. You can check out a preview on the MilarepaMovie website. You'll probably have to order a DVD though, because I think it will be playing at pretty limited locations. Check their blog, it's beautiful!

Today was the final day of the 10 day teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama has offered to the public here. He taught from the 2nd Dalai Lama's short LamRim (stages on the path) text, the Essence of Refine Gold; and the Bodhisatvacaryavatara (Entering into the Conduct of an Awakening Being). He also offered everyone an empowerment into the self visualization practice of Avalokitesvara, a long-life empowerment of the White Tara, and the opportunity to take lay Buddhist vows and Bodhisatva vows with him. Quite a large spread of teaching and empowerment; he taught 6 hours every day, and remained energetic and lively through the entirety.

Today when he gave the Bodhisatva vow to a few thousand people bearing the cold rain and hail, he actually started crying a bit, it touched his heart so deeply. The Bodhisatva vow is basically a pledge to work for all beings to be happy and have the causes of happiness, to be divorced from suffering and the causes of suffering, and to be completely enlightened in the state beyond happiness and suffering; until you yourself are completely enlightened. It is the highest aspiration a human can make.

The Dalai Lama: currently the most amazing being on Planet Earth.

The day after I made a prayer request to the Dalai Lama on behalf of Tommy Robinson, His Holiness said this (so this applies directly for us):
"I have been receiving requests for prayers for dead persons the last few days. When hearing of the deaths of people we know, we should take it as an opportunity to reflect on our own death and impermanence. When hearing of the deaths of so many people, if we do not think of our own death, then we are weaker and dumber than sheep."
That is pretty straightforward. Gaining a real sense of our own mortality is an essential step on the bodhisatva path (the wide trail to enlightenment, where you are helping everyone else along the way). It basically helps us to get off our asses and stop thinking so much about just ourselves.

Regarding our true enemies, some of HHDL's commentary on the Bodhisatvacaryavatara:
"Attachment appears to you like your best friend, bringing you desirable and conducive things and situations. Anger appears to you as your bodyguard, keeping unpleasant experiences away. THEY ARE TRULY YOUR ENEMY!" (4.28) They are what brings us suffering in the end.

"Even though you actually get hit by a stick, you get angry at the wielder of that stick, because you perceive the stick as a secondary cause and the wielder as the primary cause of you getting hit. In the same way, we should be angry with anger itself, because the wielder is the secondary cause and the motivating cause of anger is the primary cause of you getting hit. Therefore BE ANGRY WITH HATRED." (6.41)

"We should be happy and thrilled to have enemies in our daily lives. Without enemies, we have no chance to practice patience. In fact, our perceived enemies are the very cause of patience, which is also essential to the path of awakening." (6.107-08). It is just like Jetsun Milarepa's Aunt and Uncle. They truly showed him the kindest gift of being so extremely terrible to him that he was compelled to follow a course of events that lead him to practicing meditation so diligently that he attained perfect enlightenment in that very life.

The great Tibetan yogi poet Milarepa

Remembering Tommy Robinson

Last week, a friend I had known since childhood, with whom I had shared many formative experiences in the Boy Scouts, passed away. His death is not only sad because he was so young, well loved, and yet had much to give to us all. It is also tragic because he decided to take his own life, wrapped up in the torment of his own experience.

I had the special opportunity through a friend here in Mcleod Ganj, India, where I am attending 10 day teachings on the attitude of awakening beings, being given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I was able to make a donation and prayer request directly to the Dalai Lama, who personally made prayers on Wednesday for Tommy.

When I return to Kathmandu I will sponsor a death ritual for Tommy at a local monastery. It will be designed to help recognize the natural state of his mind (his Buddha nature) while he is between rebirths, and to influence his next rebirth in a positive way.

My next post will include some teachings His Holiness has given this week...

Lamrim and the motivation for spiritual practice.

The Dalai Lama's annual spring teachings are based on two texts: The classic Bodhisatvacaryavatara (Entering the Conduct of an Awakening Being) and the 3rd Dalai Lama's short Lamrim text, "The Essence of Superfine Gold." Tomorrow is day 3 of 10; it has been great so far.

Lamrim means "the graded path," which implies "the stages of the path to enlightenment." It is a classic way of presenting the Mahayana Buddhist teachings in a progressive way, as a preliminary for the practice of Tantric Buddhism. It is organized into three successive explanations, the first for the student of "lesser" capacity, the second for the "middling" capacity, and the final for the "greater" capacity. Capacity is both refers to intellectual power and depth of the motivation.

It is explained that there are a variety of motivations for spiritual practice, ordered into lesser, middling, and greater as well, with two levels each:

1)The Lesser:
A)The lesser of the lesser is the motivation to practice religion or virtue in order to gain something later in this life (ie. "Cadillac Christians," getting connections, gaining freedom from fear of death, gaining wealth or prestige for self, family or friends). This is the motivation for many.

B)The greater of the lesser is the motivation to practice religion in order to escape negative rebirths in the future, either in a hellrealm, as a wandering spirit, or as an animal. Note that this is the motivation for the vast majority of Christians and Muslims (and maybe Jews).

2)The Middling:
A)The lesser of the middling motivation for spiritual practice is to be reborn in a higher realm, either as a human, a demigod or a god in heaven. This is generally the highest motivation for religion in Christianity, believing in God and praciticing good deeds according to His plan in order to be with Him in Heaven in eternity.

B)The higher of the middling motivation is practicing religion with the genuine intention of escaping suffering forever, which is the attainment of nirvana. Note that attaining nirvana for oneself is not the highest goal.

3)The Greater: Generally speaking, the Greater motivation for practicing virtue is to help all other beings attain Buddhahood as well as yourself. This is where the juice of Lamrim and the Mahayana Buddhist path is: Developing the correct motivation for practicing Dharma (for the sake of everyone) and then training in that path. That is why Santideva's classic text, the Bodhisatvacaryavatara, is so important and prolific.

I'll update sometime this week on something interesting from the Bodhisatvacaryavatara...

Homage to Rechungpa!

Yesterday grabbed a bus out of Dharamsala with my two other Nepal Fulbrighter friends, and made our way over to TashiJong, a Tibetan settlement of about 100 families up the side of a mountain. We visited the mummified body of a deceased old yogi, who had apparently lived the majority of his life in the hollowed out part of a tree practicing the "Six Yogas of Naropa" (Naro Chodrug). On the way down the hill we were randomly granted an audience with the Khamtrul reincarnate lama of the local monastery, a shy softspoken 26 year old intellect.

My intention on going to Tashijong was to find a difficult to locate manuscript, the biography of the great Kargyudpa master Rechung Dorje Drag (Rechungpa'i rNamthar). The librarian said they were all out (there was a printing done in town in 1972), but gave me his number...

We spent the night in Bir, and were excited to learn that at the Chokling Gompa they were performing the Tsegar Drupchen, a 9-day ritual devoted to the mandala of the Buddha of Long Life (Tsepagme, Amitayus). The Chogling Rinpoche (who I have met a few times before), recognized me, and invited my friends and I to his house for dinner. We had an amazing feast of rice, redbeans, okra, etc., and I felt like they knew we were coming, having cooked so much Louisiana food. Dinner conversation was lively and I am once again beyond impressed by the Neten Chokling Rinpoche and his wife Tenzin's hospitality and good humor.

Today I went back to TashiJong and the librarian found an old copy of the Biography, so I bought it for 500 Indian rupees ($11). It is 696 folios short and includes his songs of spiritual realization. Years of fruitful translation awaits!

Back in Dharamsala and looking forward to the beginning of His Holiness' teachings tomorrow.

Back in India!

I have arrived with ease back in McLeod Ganj (Upper Dharamsala), Himachal Pradesh state, India, where His Holiness the Dalai Lama has made his home in exile. I will attend his March 4 to 14 public teachings on the classic 8th Century Mahayana Buddhist text by Santideva: Bodhisatvacaryavatara (Entering into the Conduct of an Awakening Being). I will return to Kathmandu on March 15 by air from Delhi.

I have travelled here with two other Nepal Fulbright scholars, we had to walk to the Kathmandu airport because of a general strike in the capital on Wednesday, but had no trouble upon arrival in Delhi, where we hitched a cab to the amazingly clean new light rail metro, which we rode to the budget tourist hippy district for shopping and food. After a great cheap Indian meal, we took the metro to the Old Delhi Train Station, and caught the 9:15pm overnight sleeper train to Paratganj. We arrived refreshed from a gentle train ride sleep at 7.30am in Paratjanj and took a bus to Dharamsala, and I am very excited that I have met up with my two old roomates from Kathmandu, Dan and Amber, who are both working as TA's for Emory University's Semester Tibetan Studies program in Dharamsala.

My birthday was on Feb. 24, and I celebrated it in a new way. Instead of having a party with booze and cake for me and my friends, I wanted to do something for the monks at the Chapagaon monastery. Therefore, I sponsored a Tara (female buddha) offering ritual in the morning. For the ritual, I had to distribute blesed food and money to all the monks (tradition of generosity). We then had a vegetarian feast, about ten friends came to dine with me and the 45 monks at Vajravarahi. I then went on a long walk around the countryside and played futbol with the monks in the evening. There were enough leftovers from the feast to feed all 50 of us again at night! It was one of the greatest birthdays I've had, inspired by Newari tradition of giving.