Okay, “Enlightenment or bust” might be a bit dramatic, but… "Dang Zang" is an empty name. The blog has to do with the dharma; material related to Buddhist teachings (Tibetan style in particular, Kagyu in even more particular), meditation, gurus and lamas be they genuine or flaky, books and events.
I do have a more personal blog, Pica Pica, and a site for my work. Oh yes, it's by Alex Wilding
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Thursday February 24th, 2011. Posted by Alex W:
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!
Tuesday February 1st, 2011. Posted by Alex W:
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!
Friday January 7th, 2011. Posted by Alex W:
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.)
Sunday December 5th, 2010. Posted by Alex W:
What does Tibetan Buddhism have to say about how we can move forward when we feel guilty about what we have done?
Very occasionally I wear, actually rather reluctantly, what might be described as a “pastoral” sort of hat. Recently I was asked if I could make any suggestions for somebody who had got in a mess, and I did my best to repeat my understanding of traditional teachings on this kind of thing. The questioner sent me a very grateful message, saying “Thanks for making me give myself another chance,” so I thought perhaps I might repeat it here. The questioner wanted to keep this private, and I have removed one slightly specific detail from her question. The thing is, this kind of situation is common enough, we could probably find her anywhere.
Question:
I’m a student and last year, I had depression. I ended up cheating on my boyfriend of 5 years. He was my first boyfriend and he was a kind soul and forgave me and I repeated it again. Finally, when I was out from the depression, I realised everything was a mistake. We have broken up but managed to keep in touch as good friends. Since then, I’ve regretted my actions and I’ve been trying to do good deeds to repent.
Finally, I found another boyfriend who’s very good to me. This year was blissful until recently I found out that I was pregnant and I had to do an abortion. I had no choice but to do it even I know it was very wrong as I couldn’t keep the baby due to my studies and the time isn’t right. I know my karma is very negative as I broke almost all of the 5 precepts. I’ve recited some loving kindness mantra for the unborn baby and dedicated my merits to him/her. But I felt it isn’t enough. What else can I do?
Answer:
Hi XXXX,
Well, you have made a few mistakes, haven’t you! But the thing is, everybody does, and this feeling of having built up bad karma and wanting to do something about it is well known. Traditionally, there are said to be four things to do, and they are called the “four powers”.
Firstly, you are supposed to feel regret, and to acknowledge to yourself (and to the Buddha) that you have done bad things. It sounds as if that is already happened.
Secondly, you have to be quite sure that the regret is serious, and be strongly resolved not to make the same mistake again. Obviously I can’t look into your own mind, but perhaps again you have got that far.
Thirdly, you are supposed to make amends. In some cases that is literally possible – if you have stolen something, perhaps you can give it back. But in most cases there is nothing directly you can do, so you have to make amends indirectly. For instance, if you have been stealing, but you cannot give it back, can make amends by giving to the needy. Now in your case, there is obviously no way that you can undo what has been done. That doesn’t mean you are stuck, but it means you will have to think about what positive, good things you can do that are as near as possible to being the opposite of the bad things that you have done. Sometime you will have a chance to show loyalty where other people might not. And you can certainly do things to save lives. You can save human lives by giving to, for instance, charities that help starving children. Or perhaps you can save animal lives by getting involved in work to save abandoned cats, dogs, and so on. Exactly what you do will depend on your circumstances.
Fourthly, there is what is called the “power of reliance”, which is where you do religious things to create “merit” in that spiritual sense. So you can carry on reciting your loving kindness mantra, and traditionally you can do this a lot. In Tibetan Buddhism there is a popular practice of Vajrasattva (also known as Dorje Sempa), so if you are drawn to that kind of thing you could seek out teachings on that practice as well as the loving kindness mantra. In fact, reciting these mantras is the main method used for “purifying” ourselves, but it is taught that it is only with the support of the first three points that the fourth point is really effective. If you do the first three, then the fourth one can get into the corners of your mind and clean out the residues – if you don’t do the first three, the dirt will keep reappearing!
Wednesday November 3rd, 2010. Posted by Alex W:
This blog has been quiet. In part that is due to the fact that I am now living in a rural area, relatively far away from dharma contacts. I also know from the logs that hardly anybody reads it! So perhaps I might relate my Halloween-chöd coincidence this year.
The upheaval of moving more than 10,000 miles had a number of effects, and one was that the chöd practice I was fortunate enough to receive from one of my Nyingma teachers had been neglected. Now it’s not that I saw Halloween necessarily as an auspicious date, but the associations did get me thinking, and I began to do the basic practice again on the morning of 31 October.
I had just run through the preliminaries. With the continuous ting-ting of the bell and bop-bop of the drum I was approaching the main section, and picked up the kangling. (Believe it or not, I bought this on e-bay in Australia. Customs did not complain – I simply described it as a ritual trumpet.) Right at the moment as I started the first three blasts, two other things happened.
Firstly the church bells began their cheery tune to announce that mass would be in 1/4 hour. The church is small, but probably one thousand or more years old, and is only about 30 metres away from here. Of course, Sunday morning mass is regular, so the only coincidence here is the accuracy of the timing.
Secondly a large dog started howling just outside the room. This is rather more of a coincidence. For a start, there are no large dogs that wander round this village. I can only assume, since I couldn’t see the dog, that it is one of the hunting dogs who have kennels on the hill not far away. It is true that once in a while one or two of them escape, and every few weeks I see one of them sniffing round, sending the more domesticated animals scuttling into defensive positions. Frankly, I think they are bored a lot of the time, and it is not uncommon for them to indulge in a round of howling when anything happens such as a pedestrian going by or, perhaps, the church bells starting to ring. So a reasonable explanation is that a hunting dog just happened to have escaped and to be here at that moment. Hearing the rest of the pack start howling in response to the church bells it may have decided to join in.
So there is nothing more here than an unusual coincidence, but I’m taking it as an auspicious one and will focus on this practice a bit more. There is what strikes me as a promising spot at the back of the village, where there is a small, triangular field:
Next to it is a highly unsafe-looking suspension bridge from which somebody is said to have thrown themselves a few years ago:
I hope to practice there before too long.
Sunday June 6th, 2010. Posted by Alex W:
Coincidentally this article is from the ABC and refers to people in Sydney!
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2010/s2915471.htm
Not astounding, but interesting all the same.
Wednesday May 5th, 2010. Posted by Alex W:
Yes, things have been very slow here. I’ve been preparing to move across the world again, and the move is now due to happen in the next few days. I should resurface in the “land of the moon”, Lunigiana, the northern tip of Tuscany, in one or two weeks time, and I hope that things will liven up then.
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