“Karmajohn” has given his permission for me to show you this picture, showing himself flanked by his good wife and my good self. I hope it acts as an antidote to the previous entry!
Or not?
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Thursday March 5th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
This March 10 is the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule – the Chinese had invaded in the early 1950s, of course. Repression has been particularly savage all year, hence the general cancellation of the more joyful celebrations usually associated with the new year; that in turn, has brought more repression, with one monk setting fire to himself just last week in protest. He was shot before the flames were put out, and is presumed dead, but as far as I know nobody knows what happened to the body – “taken to an undisclosed location”, as they say. So this year I plan to join the coach going to Canberra for the speeches-and-prayers do, provided I can manage to get up at shortly after 4:00 a.m.! I will report back!
Wednesday March 4th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
After some more “deep cleaning” I found my attempts yesterday evening to blow the bone trumpet (mouthpiece below) were seriously fuzzified by the anaesthetic. Bell, book, candle and drum were ok, so training continues.
Monday February 23rd, 2009. Posted by Alex:
Went yesterday to see Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche at the new Kagyu Centre in Harris Park (see this earlier post.). I will confess that in the days of the tiny centre mentioned in the previous blog post, I got off to a bad start with Traleg Rinpoche’s talks. I had seen him teach once many years ago in Hamburg, but that was short and long ago, and I couldn’t remember very much about it. The format in the days of the tiny centre in Rozelle was to have a half-hour or so of shiné (silent meditation), a touch of “chanting” in English, and then about half an hour listening to an unedited recording of Traleg Rinpoche taken from some previous course. Now the thing is that TR has a somewhat hesitant – if that’s the word – way of talking, where he will often start a sentence two or three times before it is complete. At the time, 2006, I suspected that in the flesh this would not be a problem, and I can now confirm that from experience. I think it is because he thinks, and formulates his sentences, with a great deal of care; in the flesh feels as if it is within the bounds of the hesitations, ums, ers and corrections that we all make when we are speaking rather than reading off a page. However, at the time that the tapes were made he was also suffering from some kind of chest infection which multiplied the effect, and the final result was a recording that should never, without a great deal of editing, have been inflicted on the innocent public. The waiting for one false start or another to finally move through the sentence and make a statement became excruciating! It was therefore very pleasing to confirm that the tape was a very unfair representation of the reality. So after a vacuum that persisted for some four or more years, there are now not none, not one, but two Karma Kagyu centres in Sydney. It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship develops between them. Anyway, here are some devotees relaxing after listening to the talk on mindfulness:
Monday February 2nd, 2009. Posted by Alex:
The famous Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is in Australia, and started his tour with a week-end “transmission” in Sydney – I won’t go into details here, but if you are interested they have an effective web presence. I’ve had a few of his books for many years, but this was the first time I saw him or took teachings. I’m impressed, both by himself and by the organization.
But one thing was quite bizarre, though entirely personal. If you had known him, you might see a certain resemblance, surprisingly enough, to my father. In the flesh, in the right light and at the right distance – I was sitting a little off-centre at a distance of perhaps twelve paces – the resemblance is uncanny. For about half the time it seemed like my father was up there, having somehow grown a grey pigtail, acquired the accent of a Mafioso and gained a profound knowledge of dzogchen which he was now imparting. I don’t want to suggest anything mystical by this – but it did feel weird! Tuesday May 13th, 2008. Posted by Alex:
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