Dang Zang

If you go to the site for the centre that is organising this you could be forgiven for thinking that this event would only be suitable for German speakers. Not so. Plenty of English-speakers will be there, and the teachings are generally translated into English and German, or given first in English then translated into German.

Google translate does a reasonable job on this page. Booking forms etc. are available in English too, and if you can’t see them there I have been sent copies, and can forward them, or you can also contact the secretary at Marpa House near Saffron Walden.

It’s a very friendly, easy-going environment, popular with families where only one partner is Buddhist, as you have plenty of options for joining in or not joining in, as you wish.

Further update – the New Zealand leg is back on

Disappointing update: due to “unforseen circumstances” (which I have heard is something to do with the administrative difficulties of getting the right visas), the Australia and New Zealand leg of Rinpoche’s tour has had to be cancelled. Pity! 

Dharmadownunderers may want to put this in their diary for 15-18 October 2011. It’s billed as “The 1st Australian Kagyu Monlam for World Peace”.

I have been lucky enough to receive some very precious teachings from Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, so my best wishes will be with everyone there, even though I’m now back in the zones of the clockwise sun.

You can get all the details from: http://www.kscoz.com/monlam-2011.html

You can also visit Sangye Nyenpa’s site, from which I’ve made so bold as to copy this picture:

I was sent this information together with the request that it be passed on, so I am doing that by reproducing it here. It would be a wonderful opportunity:

The Complete Stages of Mahamudra

a retreat/seminar led by Venerable Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche

at Bokar Monastery in Mirik, India

October 31st – November 9th, 2011

For nearly two decades, Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche and Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche
conducted a retreat/seminar covering the complete stages of the path of
Mahamudra according to the Karma Kagyu Lineage. Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, the
Dharma heir of Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche and a holder of the Shangpa Kagyu Lineage,
formulated this retreat/seminar and an accompanying year-long, graduated
program of meditation practice to meet the needs of lay practitioners of
Buddhism.

In response to numerous heartfelt requests from the international students of
Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, and with the blessing and strong encouragement of His
Holiness Karmapa, Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche first led the Mahamudra retreat
for western students in 2007. Thus, the Dharma activity and legacy of
Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche continued, following his passing in 2004. This year
we are grateful and happy that Khenpo Lodro Donyo Rinpoche will again offer
this extraordinary practice opportunity.

The retreat will be at Bokar Monastery in Mirik, India. The retreat will
begin at 6 AM on the morning of October 31st and finish on the morning of
November 9th, 2011. Participants should arrive no later than October
30th.

The cost for the seminar is US $150. While there is no fee for the actual
teachings, the participant fee will cover various seminar-related expenses,
including items for the shrine, tsok (ritual feast) offerings and tokens of
appreciation to the monks who help set up the shrine hall and dismantle
everything afterwards, as well as tokens of appreciation to other monastery
cooks and staff and some travel expenses. The cost does NOT include food,
travel, hotel, or offerings for translations, which each participant will cover
separately. Some of your registration feel will cover offerings to the main
teachers, though of course, you may offer more, as many people do.

The cost of the meal plan for the entire retreat will be an additional Rs 3000
payable to the monastery at the time of checking in. (Though the
transaction must be in Rupees, the amount will is roughly US $65). For those
who would like assistance, Ngodup Burkhar will help with the booking of
lodging. Payment for lodging will go to the establishment providing the
lodging. Upon registration, you will receive more information about lodging
options, the retreat format and helpful items to bring. (If participants have
not previously traveled in India or similar countries, we recommend that they
network with people who have, if at all possible. We will post information at
the Kagyu Changchub Chuling web page at www.kcc.org and on KCC’s Facebook site.

Who Should Come

While all levels of practitioners are welcome to join in the seminar, Khenpo
Lodro Donyo Rinpoche would like to encourage especially those people who wish
to make a direct connection with the lineage. As the focus of the seminar is on
the actual assimilation of the teachings through consistent practice,
participants are required to attend the whole seminar and to fulfill the
accompanying practice commitments. Practitioners ranging from beginners in the
Dharma to those who have completed extended retreats have found the Mahamudra
seminar very valuable. It has been asked that those participating must be
practicing Buddhists or ready to commit to the Buddhist path and be willing to
carry out the program of meditation practice for one year. The seminar content
is most accessible to the individuals who have at least some familiarity or
affinity with the Vajrayana path. While a complete overview of the essential
elements of the path is included in the seminar, those without any background
may find the seminar content challenging to integrate in a short period of
time.

How to Register

To register, send a US $150 non-refundable check made out to KCC, to the
address below. The cost of the retreat will be the same for everyone. It is no
longer possible to give discounts for ordained sangha or people who have
completed the traditional 3-year retreat. Please include your address, name,
daytime and evening phone and e-mail address if you have one. You must register
to ensure your place in this retreat. This will allow organizers to prepare for
the retreat as well as insure that you will have lodging. For information on
travel issues such as visas, please refer to a travel guide book, or log on to www.kcc.org and look for the
information for first-time travelers to the retreat.

The Mahamudra Seminar Program

Having carefully considered the needs of the modern lay practitioner, Kyabje
Bokar Rinpoche initiated the program for this seminar, drawing from a lifetime
of study and the experience gained through 17 years of intensive meditation
retreat. The retreat will include daily meditations and teachings with Khenpo
Lodro Donyo Rinpoche, and possibly other teachers.

The Meditation Commitment

The practice commitments emphasize the progression of Calm Abiding (Zhinay),
Insight (Lhaktong), and Mahamudra meditations and the cultivation of
bodhicitta. The commitment also includes focus on one element of the foundation
practices of the Vajrayana (Ngondro) each quarter of the year, and recitation
of the Chenrezig mantra. For more information about the practice commitments,
please contact Bill or Dora at 503-282-2809 or by email at dorabill@comcast.net

Send checks and requests for more information to:

ATTN: Susan Gladstone, Registrar

c/o Kagyu Changchub Chuling (KCC)

73 NE Monroe Street

Portland, OR 97212

or to Susan Gladstone, via email at: susan.gladstone@comcast.net

KCC’s URL: www.kcc.org

Posted by Julia King Tamang, on behalf of Lama Michael Conklin and the Program
Council

If you have worked in industry, particularly if you’ve worked in the IT industry, you will probably have seen versions of this cartoon many times. It has been circulating for year after year, at least in part because it hits the nail so very well on the head. The original has captions such as:
How the customer explained it
How the project manager understood it
How the analyst designed it
How the programmer wrote it
What the beta testers were sent
How the business consultant described it
How the project was documented
How the customer was billed
How it was supported
What the customer really needed

I have just been translating a German text about management techniques that used this cartoon. Part of the subject matter deals with the fact that when people explain things they often miss crucial aspects out. Why? Because they are just too obvious to the “explainer”. It never occurs at all to the ”explainer” that the listener would not know these things without thinking.
It seems to me obvious that very similar things occur when experienced teachers with a background of Tibetan culture in which they were brought up try to teach people with a different background like ourselves. Anyway, for what it’s worth, here is the cartoon with modified captions (it’s a bit too big to show in this column, so click the thumbnail):

It has seemed obvious to many of us that, ever since the Karmapa escaped from Tibet and arrived in India at the beginning of this Christian millennium, somebody in “high places” in India has been working against him. Being very much an outside observer myself, I have never been able to make more than the wildest guess at who or why. (Of course I have made such guesses, but it would be pointless to put them here.) The latest incident in which bizarre claims have been made about illegal land deals and fortunes in cash kept in boxes in his (temporary) monastery in India has only served to highlight this.

The situation is made all the more difficult to read by the behaviour of some parts of the Indian press, who appear to have a childish paranoia first of all about to China and then, paradoxically, about the Karmapa. Impenetrable and illogical as the thinking may be, they cling to the suggestion that the Karmapa is some kind of Chinese agent. This, in turn, lends support to the wild and quite clearly false stories about large quantities of Chinese cash and Chinese SIM cards in the monastery, jumping to the conclusion that since parts of a hard drive taken from the monastery could not be read, they “must” contain secret Chinese code…
There is a website that I have not included in my links, partly because it is very wide ranging, and partly because there was some controversy about who is responsible for it. I must stress that I do not know whether that controversy was well-founded or not, but controversy it was. Anyway, it is often a thoughtful and informative site, and although I certainly don’t read all of it, I do look at it from time to time. The author has written a number of posts about the current twists in the Karmapa case, and I would suggest that it is well worth reading for anybody who, like myself, finds it hard to untangle some of the threads. In particular I would suggest Do the Math and the Two Corners posts, but be prepared to have a look around!

I was just having a look at the latest on-line version of the Snow Lion Magazine, and there on page 2 is an article headed “A Western Khenpo”. I met Karl Brunnhölzl a few times in Germany (and, for that matter, in Kathmandu) in the early nineties. Not that I knew him particularly well – I’d be surprised if he remembered me at all. At the time I didn’t realise quite how clever he would turn out to be; the most memorable thing about him was was a nice guy he was. I do now have a few things in my library for which he is responsible. So now he has been recognized as a khenpo, which is a rather high level Tibetan academic qualification. Well done!

I once heard that a respected teacher (I think it was the incomparable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso) said that the practice of chöd would only be helpful to people who believe in ghosts, like most Tibetans but not necessarily like people from “western” cultures. Otherwise the practitioner does not have enough fear.

But it strikes me that whether you believe in ghosts at 10.00 o’clock in the morning as you read the morning paper over coffee and biscuits, and whether you believe in ghosts in the middle of the night at a lonely spot with a bad reputation and unpleasant feeling as you beat the drum and blow the kangling, are two very different questions indeed.

(PS: I got the above picture of the net, but I’m fairly sure that it was published in one of Alexandra David-Neel’s books, and I do believe I have a copy.)