Dharamsala here we are

After a 14 hour bus trip I have finally arrived in Dharamsala. It has taken 3 days and I have had only a smidgen of sleep. It really is a task getting here, but that I am settled in it is starting to feel like my new home.

The room is good. I have my own bathroom, although there is no water today. I have a kettle for coffee, so the important stuff is done. India has very cheap cell phone rates, so I bought a sim card for calling home.

Just behind us is a large snow mountain. They are quite majestic and beautiful to look at, particularly for people for countries that are basically flat, like Australia. I hope to have photos once it clears up.

Poll Result: What kind of blog post do you prefer?

I know this is not really a new post, and yes I know I keep making excuses for not blogging. Believe me, if I could blog everyday I would. Anyways here are the result for the latest poll

What kind of blog posts do you prefer?

Homelessness Memorial Event And A Chance To Talk About Loneliness

I’ve been invited to speak at the annual Homelessness Memorial event held in Melbourne, Australia on June 18th of this year. So I will get a chance to talk a little on loneliness, an emotion that for some is very real and very painful. I might use this opportunity to write on loneliness also.

So here is a little now…

Loneliness, unlike fear, is one of those emotions that serves no real purpose. However, many can get stuck in loneliness even while living in a busy city with people all-round. Loneliness at its core, is a feeling of needing support from others but not getting that support. It can effect people from all walks of life. it will generally manifest as a ‘poor me’ and while these thoughts are in our mind there is no room for loving-kindness or compassion, or for that matter wisdom to be active. It will reify the ego and put a halt to your practice of transformation.

My teacher often says, “if you fix your mind, you could be happy while living in the desert. But if your mind is crazy, even living in Buckingham Palace you will not find peace.”

Is he correct? Well, there is plenty of evidence to support his claim. Monks happily living in retreat on the one hand; Stories of Prince Charles and Lady Dianna’s marriage on the other. Conclusion; fix your mind and you fix your problems.

More on loneliness later… for now back to the story at hand. Below are details of the history of the event. With a couple of links thrown in for good measure.

The Homeless Memorial began in 2001 when a small group of community members recognised the need to create a safe space for people within the community to come together to honour and remember people who have died as a result of homelessness. The Homeless Memorial is now an annual community remembrance night.

Some of the other participant will be the Choir of Hard Knocks. Australians may know these guys from the ABC documentary series of the same name. I saw parts of that series and found it quite compelling.

Inspired by the Montreal Homeless Men’s Choir and his previous experience with the Sydney Street Choir, former Opera Australia Tenor Jonathon Welch formed a partnership with ABC TV, Fremantle Media and RecLink Australia to document the creation of the Choir of Hard Knocks. Formed in September 2006, the Choir of Hard Knocks is made up of a group of 50 diverse and eclectic individuals who responded to a call to form a community street choir. Their incredible journey was recorded and broadcast by the ABC and touched the lives of millions of viewers across Australia.

Since that time the Choir have recorded 2 CDs. Their first release, Songs from the Series, has won an ARIA Award and sold in excess of 110,000 copies while their second album Songs of Hope and Inspiration was released at Christmas. In Canberra for Australia Day 2008, Jonathon Welch was recently acclaimed the Australian of the Year: Local Hero while the Choir were hosted by none less than the Prime Minister himself.

What style of post do you want to read?

Just some random thoughts arising in meditation

Like a nurturing mother bird,
The lama took me under his wing.
Feeding me the knowledge of Dharma.
Can I ever repay his kindness?

Geshe Thubten Loden’s biography

Reader question Bouncing email

To the reader that emailed me recently regarding Buddhist epistemology and Buddhist metaphysics.
Your email address is bouncing back. So I can’t reply to your email.
You will need to try sending through your email again.

The Proust Questionnaire

I’ve being tagged by Danny Fisher and so he are my answers to the following questionnaire.

I will tag…
Vincent Horn
C4Chaos
Hokai
Danzan
William Harryman

I haven’t answered all the questions as some of them are silly.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Well being a Buddhist monk my understanding of happiness is not based on experiences of bliss generated from physical stimuli. Besides the bliss that is a by product of meditation is far far far greater than most people can even imagine.

However to answer the question…the happiness from being generous.

What is your greatest fear?
I’m not afraid of anything. But, if I had to pick something it would be dying before I have finished my life’s work. I know that sounds corny but its true. 

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Identity…hmmm…that is a tricky word…if it means relate to or feel close to, then that would be Lama Tsong Khapa the head of my school of Buddhism, the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism.
He was a great meditation yogi that strove to articulate what he saw in meditation.

Which living person do you most admire?
No brainer here! His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my root Lama Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Deplore is a strong word, lets just say I’d rather not be so ‘A’ type.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
From within the context of love and compassion with a genuine wish to help all living beings.
This would be anger, attachment, pride (in the sense of arrogance), doubt, wrong-view and ignorance.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Too many books. I seem to collect them. Even though I keep telling myself I have enough!

What is your favorite journey?
The path to being a prefect being of course…what other journey is there!

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
While I don’t want to take away the fun of this post. I have to say that if it is a virtue
it is pervaded by being a functional mind and by definition not overratedable.

On what occasion do you lie?
If it is beneficial to others. That is, if through lying I can help protect other living beings, then it is my obligation to lie. Although I was once debating (in the Tibetan monastic sense) with my teacher about this, and it turns out that from a debating pointing of view. This would not constitute lying as lying is necessarily negative and protecting others is positive.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I’m quite happy being a middle aged, balding, with a bit of a tummy Buddhist monk. I’m quite happy with the skin I’m in. I find it funny that these question comes from a magazine called VanityFair.

Which living person do you most despise?
All being want happiness and do not want suffering just like me. If you really understand these words fully it is impossible to hate or despise anyone….yes I mean anyone! This doesn’t mean Buddhists are a passive lot!
It is permissible to defend and even in some cases prevent problems from others by using force. But NEVER with hatred. 

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
My father would say I use the ‘umm’ word too much.

What is your greatest regret?
Not seeing Geshe Jampa Gyatso again before he passed away.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The Buddhist path and helping others.

Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to articulate dharma well.

What is your current state of mind?
very happy, thanks for asking

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I’d like to see all mother sentient beings find real happiness.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I haven’t achieved anything…yet!

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
This is clearly a non-Buddhist question but, anyway to play along. I’d say I don’t care as long as it is a human person in a country where I can practice without fear of being persecuted for doing so.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
as above…this is getting silly!

What is your most treasured possession?
My vows

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Pride is the worse. Because someone with pride suffers from not being liked by others. They cant see their own mistakes and therefore have problem changing. All other forms of mental suffering can be removed more easily over time. Pride on the other hand is difficult to remove. A person with pride won’t listen to advise. They think they are correct even in  the face of many people saying they are not. It is the illusion of knowledge. I find that I can help most people with mental suffering but, people with pride are the most difficult.

Where would you like to live?
I like living where I am, if I didn’t I’d move

What is your favorite occupation?
Anything that can make a contribution.

What is your most marked characteristic?
This is not something I don’t think about much. Not because I don’t like to. Just because it relative.
What I might see as a quality, if compared to other is not. It doesn’t really help me develop my mind and so I don’t.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
I will answer the next 3 question here by saying the quality that I admire in all beings, regardless of their gender is compassion, loving-kindness, spirit of enlightenment, the spirit of enquiry, open-mindedness (in the sense of not being judgmental)

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

What do you most value in your friends?

Who are your favorite writers?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden.

Who is your favorite hero/heroine of fiction?
don’t read fiction…sorry

Who are your heroines/heroes in real life?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden and all those beings who have realized the path regardless of age, race or gender!

What are your favorite names?
???

What is it that you most dislike?
Silly question!

How would you like to die?
With a clear mind, slowly and without pain.

What is your motto?
There is a verse from Shantideva that HHDL likes that would be nice here.

For as long as space endures,
For as long as sentient beings remain.
May I too remain to remove the suffering of the world.

98th Ganden Tripa

I received an email from a reader asking a biography on the 98th Ganden Tripa HE Jampel Shenpen the head of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Does anyone have any information or links? I have Googled but didn’t find make. In fact I was surprised to see that there is no wikipedia entry for him. If we find anything perhaps we should create a wikipedia page for it?

Hoping someone can help

Tribute to Geshe Jampa Gyatso

The next Mandala magazine features a tribute one of my teachers, the late Geshe Achraya Jampa Gyatso.

Here are some short quotes form Ven Joan’s well written tribute.

Geshe-la taught us not to misuse our own or others’ belongings, to not waste or throw out what could still be used, to not go running after the latest gadget, whether a cell phone or a car. He showed us how to laugh at ourselves, our silly habits, our shortcomings, our weaknesses. He taught us to accept ourselves for what we are, while striving to become the buddha that is everyone’s potential. He taught us with endless patience, repeating time and again how to develop equanimity, love, compassion, patience, concentration, and wisdom. He told us his favorite stories over and over again, checking our memory by always adding a slight variation from the time before. He delighted us with his acting out of the sufferings of aging (often pointing out the fact that we would have a heart attack if we were suddenly to wake up old with a wrinkled face, gray hair, no teeth, loose skin), as well as the torment of attachment and the way we say “I love you,” while meaning “I am attached to you.” He shocked us with his outspoken opinions about politics and politicians (both Western and Tibetan). He surprised us with his lack of etiquette, tranquilly cleaning the wax out of his ears, taking out his false teeth to clean them, or scratching his legs or back while we talked to him. He charmed us with his imitations of people, his knowledge of our world, his insight into our lives and problems. He forced us to work on ourselves, on our minds, on our mistaken way of viewing ourselves and our world. He made us be truthful and honest with him and with ourselves. In short, he never put up with any of our usual garbage.

I remember during a teaching one time looking up at Geshe-la and he had placed his mala on his head wearing it like a head-band…inside I was rolling on the floor laughing…he just sat there with a slight smile on his face. Please come back soon Geshe-la
You can read more here about Geshe-la here

Five Favourite Dharma Books

I’ve been tagged by hokai to make a list of five favourite dharma books.

1: The Graduated Path to Enlightenment – Geshe Thubten Loden

2: Ocean of Indivisible Method and Wisdom – Geshe Thubten Loden

3: Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy – Thubten Jinpa

4: Middle Way Master Program – Geshe Jampa Gyatso

5: Meditations on Emptiness – Prof Jeffrey Hopkins

Actually, I could list a lot more than this

Tag goes out to-
Danny Fisher
Bill
Tricycle
Stephen Parks Bell

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