Dharma Summer - 2006

Well this certainly has been an interesting summer. Now it's come to a close. I started in June with a falling out at my zen center. See the post "Zen, Tibetans or Tolle". This left me in more than the usual disarray. So I happened to get an email from FPMT about the Discovering Buddhism at Home course. I'd been on the mailing list since I'd seen Ven. Robina in May, 05. So I made an appointment with them to discuss it and picked up the first module and a bunch of books from Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa and some Mandala magazines.

I embarked upon that journey with a solo retreat down at Still Meadows. The topic was The Spiritual Teacher, which was appropriate and timely. During the retreat, one of the exercises was to imagine your spiritual teacher before you in a visualization. I had thought of Ven. Robina and Joko Beck, primarily. Then a few days later I came upon the ad in Mandala for Ven. Robina at Vajrapani for a 10 day lam rim course, which was in fact part of the requirements for the DB@Home completion.

The next event was the Relic Tour, where I received blessings from Yangse Rinpoche with the Shakyamuni Buddha Relics. See the July 8th post for that story. That was a pivotal moment of the Dharma summer for me.

Then I went on the Kopan West retreat at Vajrapani with Ven. Robina. See the blog entry on that one. HUGE. A big deal. Lots of stuff happened.

Taking refuge with Robina was a big step for me, and I still didn't have a local teacher to count on. So I stuck with her via email with various little projects, and became involved with more projects at FPMT and Vajrapani. This led me back to Vajrapani for a week with Lama Zopa and Ven. Rene. This 2nd lam rim retreat actually picked up where the first one left off, which was amazing.

When I got back I built the Sutra of Golden Light website and Global Recitation Server, which was fulfilling a request from Lama Zopa. I also built myself a Dharma Desk for all my new books and study materials, as well as a lot of work on the altar, printing various images to hang on the wall and so on. Creating the space to create the cause.

I  then took the Medicine Buddha initiation with Genshur Rinpoche from Tibet. He is the root guru of Yangse Rinpoche (our resident lama here in Portland at Maitripa), so I thought it was a good idea to do this. It didn't require any high tantric initiation or more vows, and I wanted to get myself more oriented towards healing - both for myself and others. The picture above is from that day. We had to sip blessed water, which I'd just had poured into my hands after receiving the blessing.

Following this, I went to Vancouver, B.C. to hear His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. See last blog entry for that story. It was great, and educational. Then I returned, and had my first meeting with Yangse Rinpoche, which also went very well. I resumed work with FPMT on their media tasks, which include making the FPMT Podcast.

This is the week where I also started taking teachings from Rinpoche and attending the center more frequently. Since this is my center in the town where I live, it's important to go often and stay connected. They're having a big fundraser for the University they're trying to establish. I wound up being able to play jazz for the fundraiser, which will easily be the coolest gig ever. Then the opportunity came up to do a Cable Access TV show for Maitripa, which we'll go into the studio for this weekend.

I also established a daily practice. I do Preliminary Practise of Prostrations to the 35 Confession Buddhas first, followed by a reading of the King of Prayers, some mantras, 25 minutes of mindfulness meditation and dedications. In the evening I do Vajrasattva recitation and visualization with 25 more minutes of silent zazen style meditation, more prayers, and some reading. I doubled or quadrupled the number of AA meetings that I was attending as well.

I'll keep the blog up, as well as my journal, as the Fall unfolds. It looks like there are lots more teachings in the future, at this and other centers. I have MANY books on my shelf to read, but have promised myself to tackle them one at a time. I have a Thicht Nhat Hahn retreat, with his Director from Plum Village, at the end of October. Ahh...a silent, still retreat. Beautiful. I have more modules for DB@home to work on, and twice weekly teachings with Yangse Rinpoche, as well as all of my new tasks for FPMT Media. Oh, and the Portland Jazz Jams keeps going on as well.

So it truely has been a Dharma Summer for me. Thank you for tuning in.

..more at 11,

-d

ps, as always, comments are welcome.