DTKP progress report

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re-engagement with the Sadhana of Mahamudra

http://www.chronicleproject.com/stories_110.html

Re-engagement with the Sadhana of Mahamudra

22 September 2008

In the early hours of the equinox, I felt compelled to give my shrine room a thorough cleaning. There is sometimes an underlying uneasiness when a shadow of dust can be seen around the edges of things, and only by completely removing all objects and offerings... one at a time, and carefully... can a top to bottom sense of re-engagement be found. And that is what it is. Because my practice, living alone and not deeply entwined with other lineage members at the moment, can get spotty. The shrine gets spotty. The floor needs to be vacuumed.

I acquired a slow sense of ascending joy - didn't know quite why so deep - but as I had just been thoroughly (the prior evening) surprised to find new photographs of the next Trungpa tulku, I was full of optimism for him. This is great! Trungpa is alive and well! When I met with Tai Situ Rinpoche about him in 1996 everything was about caution, not wanting to attract too much attention, only Lee Weingrad would be going back and forth. Now - wow - an eighteen-year-old with an inquiring open face, a dancer in dharma costume; an inheritor at Dutsi Til. So I moved the photos of Chogyam Trungpa carefully, lovingly - dusted. Also current teachers in the Drikung Kagyu lineage - Khenchen Gyaltshen Rinpoche and Garchen Rinpoche. 

Each object on the shrine felt totally real, its symbolism driven home through decades of careful pouring and placing and asking and offering. The female and male sides of the altar, of the whole room - the resonances of buddha families and directions - the quiet soft energies of the gifted teachers who had so generously given their time and talent and learning to myself and others, peering down from the corners of the room. Jetsunma Kushok and her brother H.H. the Sakya Trizin, H.H. the Dalai Lama, H.H. the Gyalwa Karmapa, H.H. Chetsang Rinpoche and each of their dedicated abbots and teachers and tutors and physicians. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche and Khandro Rinpoche, Sonam Rinpoche and Khyentse Dzongshar Rinpoche... so many hard-working, dedicated, loving teachers crossing my life one way or another.

And then, in a vertical shelf of a small side table next to a three-ring binder with Khenchen Rinpoche's final draft of The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, I found again The Sadhana of Mahamudra. A huge rush of excitement and relief... boy, did I need that now. I had misplaced it some time back (seven years back) and missed it so terribly. So continuing the end of my cleaning - which took me into nightfall, I decided to wait until morning. So... in the morning light of the equinox 2008, lighting fresh candles and putting out fresh flowers and new scented water... I opened the sadhana.

"This is the darkest hour of the darkest ages."

And it all came back. The many of us, sometimes with the howling wind buffeting the outside of the Tail of the Tiger shrineroom, deep January or February. How in the very beginning I struggled with so many of those images - the dark iron, the flaming halos, the dripping blood and shining phurbas. The mire and desolation. It was in some ways not unlike that dark and sad-yet-resolute poem "Wild Duck" that Rinpoche wrote (I believe) when struggling to hold his own in the wildly distant land called Oxford. I just... a week or two before... had listened to Karl (Springer) reading aloud that poem, in 1973, in the ToTT shrineroom (while Rinpoche listened). Amazing.

I had forgotten how much strength it required for him to be there - a small Tibetan man among a materialistic and probably racist academic society in the Britain, in the late sixties.

So we all read it together in Vermont - this sadhana - as Rinpoche intended we should. Sometimes he read with us. The clang and roar of the internal spiritual battle, the outer visible and invisible forces of deception everywhere, the unreliability of everyday phenomena and even close associations, the rising desperation, the enormous charge laid upon our shoulders... those words pouring through us - we who were just trying to take in what it might mean to absorb this horrendously dark yet totally alive view of a world eating itself apart from the inside, turning into a possible compassionate stirring up of some kind of a tiny inkling of an antidote for our own delusions. Whew. Let's hope.

And this time around - 2008 - in a shrineroom not too much smaller, it didn't feel much different - except that the visualisations seemed all the more clear; the ferocity of the dharma protectors is now utterly without question an aspect of their kindness. I felt and deeply sobbed with the absolutely indisputable knowledge of our lama's kindness and guidance; and also felt my own deep transference of this attachment from Karma Pakshi to Trungpa Rinpoche. My god, I have loved and respected this man. This sadhana is all so true, so true, so true.

He finishes up saying - "through all my births... " and I do finally also understand that there, in Bhutan, he knew. And with Kunga at his side, he then headed back to do his very big work which I, among others, had the good fortune, the very good fortune to be part of. Including, now and again, riding with him and Kunga off on some long errand in New England or New York, where some of the underlying nuances of the story emerged... and sank into my thickish, reluctant brain... a little bit a time. Oh, so that's what you meant by bardo. Thank goodness for long car rides and Trungpa Rinpoche.

The Sadhana of Mahamudra. It's just so... so... hell on earth. Thanks Rinpoche.

Michael Cerulli Billingsley

Ngakpa K. Jigme Tonpa

Salmon Falls Dharma Group

440 Canal Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301

http://www.calm-abiding.com

Daring Steps

On Sunday morning, Sept. 7th, I awoke from a
dream of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche. He was 'my
other guru.' I had deep, heartfelt devotion
towards him and an intimate, warm relationship
with him - not unlike my love for and
relationship with Trungpa Rinpoche. JKR was a
very close ally of Trungpa Rinpoche. In the
dream, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa was in the
background - JKR and HHK were inseparable when
they were both alive. The dream ended when the
two of them seemed to merge and become the 17th
Karmapa! (Aren't dreams wonderful?)

When I awoke from this dream I remembered the
Sadhana of Mahamudra anniversary celebration on
this site and went to read the page on the SOM.
That got me thinking about "Daring Steps" that
the Vidyadhara took in order to exorcise
spiritual materialism in the modern world, and
also the daring steps that the 17th Karmapa is
taking.

As it says on this page, the Vidyadhara wrote:
"The message that I had received from my
supplication was that one must try to expose
spiritual materialism and all its trappings,
otherwise true spirituality could not develop. I
began to realize that I would have to take daring
steps in my life."

So this is my memory/understanding of the daring
steps that the Vidyadhara took:
Back in Scotland, after receiving the SOM terma,
he disrobed, wore western clothes, and married.
This was very daring and controversial, frowned
upon by lamas and laymen alike. But he did it to
remove the hierarchical cultural barriers and the
theistic, spiritually materialistic expectations
and projections that separated students from him.
He abandoned many traditional forms that
maintained hierarchical separation and 'got down'
on our level in order to work intimately with us.
You can read about this period in Dragon Thunder.
This transition was not easy for him! You have
to understand that we were truly barbarians. It
was the 1960s! He risked his reputation in order
to plant true spirituality in the West.

Later in North America he talked to us about
giving up territory and privacy while not giving
up our critical thinking and cynicism. This is
what he did. He gave up personal territory and
privacy and had students hanging out and sleeping
in his house. He exercised his own critical
thinking and cynicism about his own culture and
its spiritually materialistic traditions. He
only returned to the brocades and thrones and
other 'trappings' when we were somewhat (not
altogether) tamed, and when he felt it was time
to introduce us to his lineage, the Kagyus,
during HH Karmapa's first visit.

In other words, Trungpa Rinpoche took the daring
step of removing any barriers between himself and
his students in order to work intimately with our
minds, our habits, our neuroses, our hearts, and
our potential for wisdom. We went to him for
advice on the most intimate details of our
personal lives. When we trusted him enough to
drop our masks and let him see through us, he was
personally involved in cultivating and guiding
each one of us who did so. The only advantage he
ever took of our trust was to put us into
situations where we would learn crucial lessons
and grow as a result.

In having unshakable faith in our potential for
enlightenment and giving us the profound secrets
of the Rimé tradition of nonsectarianism, he
earned the mistrust of traditional Tibetan lamas,
who I've heard look down on him to this day. But
he also earned the trust and respect of the
highest lamas of the Kagyu and Nyingma
traditions: HH Karmapa and HH Dilgo Kyentse
Rinpoche, with whom he had a warm and intimate
relationship. They empowered him further.

Trungpa Rinpoche exemplified for his students
what it meant to be genuine, authentic, honest,
trustworthy - to be 'solid gold,' a completely
human being in the best, most dignified sense -
and assured us that it was possible for us to
develop the kind of fearless integrity that he
had. He was the essence of openness and
integrity - true, no-holds-barred spirituality.
He had to be daringly unconventional to be so.

This, apparently, is not 'traditional' among the
lamas of spiritual materialism, who set
themselves apart and use the dharma for personal
gain. He broke with tradition in so many ways,
but his motivation was pure: to plant the
victorious banner of dharma in the west and to
establish an enlightened society that would
perpetuate the dharma through the dark age. He
did not use the precious teachings for personal
gain and did not enrich himself. His concern was
always for his students, for the welfare of the
sangha, and for the future of the dharma and
humanity. For that reason, he took many personal
risks.

Now we have the young 17th Karmapa, and I see in
him the same fire that I experienced in the
Vidyadhara, the same compassion and fierce
determination to protect the dharma and the whole
of life. Karmapa is breaking age-old traditions
by removing meat from the diets of Kagyu
monasteries out of concern for animals and the
health of the Earth! This is very daring. I
have faith that he will continue to take more
daring steps as we collectively descend further
into the dark age. He is a true Earth protector.

I'm sure that other students of the Vidyadhara
have other stories of his daring steps. I hope
they will contribute them.

With devotion,

Suzanne

PS: Joanne and Walter, I hope this isn't too
long! Sorry to go on so long, but I feel the
younger members of the Shambhala world need to
hear these views.

Homage

Homage to the Only Father Guru     Hum Hum Hum   In the sacred place of the glorious Copper Colored Mountain, Ablaze with the source of dharmas, flower petals rain from the sky, Shimmering with the lights of the five families, Whose trees and greenery adorn the awesome charnal ground, Is the dwelling place of the only father guru, Chogyam Trungpa Dorje Trollo Karma Pakshi.   Grant your blessings to remain in the center of my heart, So that negativity arouses unfabricated wakefulness, So that the age of the 3 poisons and the 3 Lords quickly abates, So that father and child constantly meet by the light of the fire that consumes hope and fear, eradicating the border between meditation and post-meditation. So that all that arises dawns as your dwelling place, and that the golden age of Shambhala may likewise quickly manifest!   Jinpa Samten, resting under the shade of the compassion of Chogyam Trungpa.

Dorje Trollo Karma Pakshi

Dorje Trollo Karma Pakshi

Here is a statue I commissioned in Kham three years ago. I'm painting
it according to the sadhana's description of Dorje Trollo/Karma
Pakshi. I've been working on it for about a year and as you can see
the tigress is not yet painted. You can see in her right rear paw the
heart she has torn out of the body of Kalaratri. The tail was removed
during restoration.

Lee

what are the modern day equivalents of yogis who .... etc

In my mind, there is a very clear modern equivalent to yogis in Tibet in the 1950s who went from place to place, on foot or horseback, selling little pujas and other ceremonies for material gain. One equivalent is Namkha Drimed, the Sakyong's father-in-law. Please read an article on the Radio Free Shambhala website:

http://radiofreeshambhala.org/2008/07/namkha-drimed/

His Eminence Namkha Drimed, whose principal home is in Orissa, India, and who has three monasteries (in Orissa, Nepal, and Tibet) makes fell use of the internet to offer wealth pujas and mohs (divinations) ... always for a price. This article explains his methods in detail. People can participate in a wealth puja or moh without even meeting the guru. In the case of wealth pujas, online participation is offered. Thus, the possibilities of making money from such traditional Tibetan practices is available worldwide. A far cry from going around from village to village in Tibet. The spiritual materialism of Tibet in the mid-twentieth century is alive and well today.

Barbara Blouin

Sadhana of Mahamudra

Many thanks to Joanne and Walter for hosting the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Sadhana of Mahamudra. It is SO heartwarming to read (and hear) that talk by the Vidyadhara on the Sadhana again, Carolyn Gimians's commentary on it, and Richard Arthure's memoir of the experience of the Taktsang retreat.

This Sadhana has been a profound influence on my path and outlook since I first read it. This occurred upon my first visit to a Dharmadhatu (Palo Alto) in 1974. I just 'happened' to arrive on the evening that that little sangha was practicing the Sadhana of Mahamudra. I had met Rinpoche in 1972 and had read Meditation in Action, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, and other things by him. So I already felt he was the teacher for me. But reading the SOM blew my mind and lit a fire of deep conviction and devotion in my heart.

I was so inspired by Rinpoche's description of the dark age and the path of sanity through it, because I already knew that this world was entering a dark age (though most people still don't recognize it) and my fervent longing was to find a teacher who could help me to find sanity AND help the world. The Sadhana confirmed for me that Trungpa Rinpoche was the one who could both help me and help this world.

As for the question, "Is spiritual materialism an artifact of the 60s?" - That seems like a silly question if one realizes that the SOM was prophetic, and not just talking about Tibet. Spiritual
materialism has become more pervasive and entrenched in North American and Europe than it was in the 1960s. I was right in the middle of the California-dreamin' 'spiritual supermarket' in the 1960s, and now I am in Europe. The river of spiritual materialism has definitely burst its banks and people are drowning in its confusion.

I've come to regard the propagation of fairy-tale fantasies and the avoidance of the sharp points and rough edges of reality to be two of the main characteristics of spiritual materialism at this time: the 'love-and-light-only' approach. Spirituality that is ungrounded and avoids facing the very real and dark realities of our time is not preparing people to 'hold their seats' as things get worse. It is making them more vulnerable to trauma. Trungpa Rinpoche didn't avoid the sharp edges and the dark realities, and he tried his best to prepare us for what's coming. I will be forever grateful and devoted to him.

May the great mind mandala of Mahamudra be present,

Suzanne Duarte

Sadhana of Mahamudra

Of all the practice I've done, the Sadhana pf Mahamudra has had the
most profound effect. I feel it is a special practice for the world at
this time, and especially for those that knew the Vidyadhara and were
his students,

John Tischer

materialism

What are the modern day equivalents of yogis who "spend their whole time going through villages and performing little ceremonies for material gain?"

we're not allowed to talk about that

SOM Anniversary!

Thank you for creating this great page celebrating the anniversary of the Sadhana of Mahamudra.  I only started practicing the sadhana last December, but I believe I haven't missed it once since.  Recently, on August 1st and 16th I was fortunate enough to be able to practice the sadhana inside the Great Stupa at SMC while particpating in the summer dathun.  That was a very wonderful and electric experience, especially on the new moon.  In contrast to those experiences, at this past Saturday night's practice, no one else showed up and I found myself doing the sadhana by myself!

I really enjoyed reading Carolyn Gimian's piece about the sadhana and the personal accounts of Richard Arthure.  I have also read the Sahdana of Mahamudra source book previously, but it was great to get to actually listen to this talk by Rinpoche.  Thank you so much for making this invaluable info available to us all!

May all beings benefit,

Travis May

Ten years ago today

FYI: Ten years ago today I was on retreat up on the Mendocino coast. I had just completed a Vajrakilaya fire puja and was practicing the mahamudra investigations and guru yoga. When I noticed the Sept. 6, 1968 date on the Sadhana of Mahamudra I went down to town to buy feast offering substances which I performed that night under a full moon. 

-Christine Keyser

Also in 1968

-the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the My Lai massacre, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the arrest of the Chicago Seven, and the Tet offensive.