Tashi Choling DharmaFoundation Inc.

Newsletter Winter 2010

ZASEP TULKU RINPOCHE

Tashi Choling Dharma Foundation has a long-standing relationship with the Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche, a meditation master of the Gelugpa Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche received his training under some of the most competent Buddhist masters in Tibet prior to the Chinese invasion of that country. Later on in India he graduated from Varanasi Sanskrit University with an Acharya degree and spent 18 months in Thailand at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He fi rst came to Australia in 1977 and taught for three years before leaving for Canada. He has established Buddhist centres and taught throughout North America. Rinpoche has also been the Spiritual Director of Dorje Ling Retreat Centre (formerly Illusion Farm) in Tasmania for many years. He is recognised as the 13th incarnation of the great Kagyu teacher Lama Chabdak who lived in the Kham region of Eastern Tibet and founded Zuru Gompa 600 years ago. Rinpoche is known for his gentle compassion and good humoured wisdom.

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TASHI CHOLING DHARMA FOUNDATIONPO Box 593, North Hobart, TAS 7002.Contacts: Maria Grist – (03) 62 349404 or Kate MacNicol – 0432 630796Web site < www.tashicholing.net > Email: <info@tashicholing.net>Our regular meditation meetings are held at 7.30 – 9.00 pm every Tuesday above Gould’s Naturopathica.Floor 2, 71 Liverpool St, Hobart. All welcome. See Page 3 for further details.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Rinpoche’s schedule

Treasurer’s report

The Villa

Monthly Program

Pilgrimage to India

Book review

Leander Kane

Bonni Ross

Tools

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COMING TO TASMANIA SOON!

Zasep Tulku Rinpoche Dec 2010-Jan 2011

Bonni Ross Nov 2010

Leander Kane Aug 2010

See inside for more!

RINPOCHE’S SCHEDULE FOR TASMANIA

Arrives Hobart 9th December 2010

Public Talk in Hobart 10th Dec

Weekend of Teaching in Hobart 11th 12th Dec

Travel to Dorje Ling Mon 13th Dec

Preparation for Vajrayogini Tues-Thurs 14th-16th Dec

Start Vajrayogini Friday 17th. Dec. – fi nishes Mon 3rd Jan; Lam Rim Retreat to start also Friday 17th. Dec– fi nish on Friday 24th. Dec. Rinpoche to off er White Mahakala Initiation, possibly some time during Lam Rim retreat

All participants to start together, but Lam Rim participants fi nish after a week. There is an option for people to do a shorter 10-day Vajrayogini (17th-26th. Dec)

Approximate costs - $1100 members, $1200 non-members for full retreat or approximately $450 for a week. Dana and childcare not included. These costs are subject to change

Bookings: guy@tashicholing.net

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TREASURER’S REPORTLet it be said... Just because the bank balance is low doesn’t mean one ceases dreaming the big dream...

The result of putting in some very substantial thinking, visioning time at our recent planning session, saw us as a committee collectively try to imagine and plan for the future of Dorje Ling as a lasting and viable Retreat Centre. Fundamentally it goes like this; we need funds… $100,000 would do it nicely for maintenance and upgrades. Presently we have very little funds to do anything. Of our existing funds, $5000 is earmarked to upgrade the Caretaker’s house and the little left over, to amend and upgrade the water supply to Dorje Ling from our good neighbour Damien’s property. This is the time of year when income is often slow, not so many visiting teachers, and so we turn our energy towards fundraising.

Chani has instigated a bold and daring idea of raffl ing off two air tickets to Antarctica. This requires a real commitment to sell tickets given the costs of those fl ights. Thus we must cover that initial cost of $5,000 before we begin to see a profi t. At the moment we are working on a postcard of

Dorje Ling to be given away with each ticket, giving people a visual image of the place and our aspiration for it. We have sent out an appeal to all on our database to please consider donating something towards the other prizes. This is a major fundraising drive and we will be needing the support of many to help sell tickets. It is anticipated all will be ready to roll off the presses by July. We are very excited and hope the ultimate prize at a mere $20 per ticket will excite You and All of your friends and family! Meanwhile I can hear the hammers ringing a productive song at Dorje Ling.

As always, we as an organization are so very appreciative of all monetary contributions you make, be it for the mortgage repayments or donations in general. As with all small organizations, every cent does indeed count. Presently our Bank Statements are thus: Building Acc $8,691.99, Working Acc $3817.45. If you wish to make a contribution you can do so: Dharma Foundation of Tasmania Commonwealth Bank BSB 067002 Acc Number 10162638. Any off ers of raffl e prizes or brilliant ideas, please contact me Kate MacNicol 0432630796 katemacnicol@gmail.com

TASHI CHOLING MONTHLY PROGRAM1st Tuesday of every month – Light on Tantra (led by Tony Dix)Meditation encourages us to come into reality! Tantra is a method of enabling us to loosen the bonds of the conditioned “ordinary” self and realise the true nature of our being. This Tuesday evening will explore the meaning of Tantra in its Tibetan Buddhist context with some readings from introductory texts on Tantra, some discussion and gentle, light practice, with an emphasis on Vajrasattva.

2nd Tuesday of every month – Lojong, Mind Training (led by Charles Chadwick)Lojong means “to tame.” It is also known as Thought Transformation. With Lojong training we can achieve Bodhisattva mind.

3rd Tuesday of every month – Mahamudra (led by Roger McLennan)Mahamudra – “great gesture.” Mahamudra meditation unifi es calm abiding and insight to bring us to an experience of “ordinary mind,” that state of natural awakeness and luminosity which lies at the heart of all experience, beyond suff ering and duality.

4th Tuesday of every month – Lam Rim (led by Sue Willey)Lam Rim – the words actually mean “stages of the path.” The Lam Rim condenses all of the teachings of Buddhadharma into a series of graded and logical steps which, if followed, lead one directly to the experience of awakening or Buddhahood. Beginning with a consideration of what it means to be human with the particular gifts and opportunities that this aff ords us, through issues such as death and impermanence, the nature and cause of suff ering, through to a thorough investigation of the interdependence of all phenomena and the resulting awakening of compassion, a good heart, the Lam Rim is a ready guide on the enlightenment path.

Chöd Practice Group – Chöd means “cutting through.” This group meets monthly, for initiates who wish to practice together. Contact us for more information.

Buddhism for Mothers – An opportunity to take some respite from the challenging path of motherhood. The session will include Buddhist meditation practices and teachings to enable us to remain peaceful and kind to ourselves and others. Allowing us to cope with the day to day challenges of motherhood with a good heart.

Last Saturday of each month 3pm-5pmNo childcare is availableGold Coin DonationFlyer available at http://tashicholing.net/pdf/Buddhism_for_mothers.pdfSessions allow time for meditation, teachings, discussion and a cup of tea.For more details contact Madhu on 0407369012 or madhulilley@gmail.com

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RESTORATION OF THE VILLA: CAN YOU HELP?Many of you who have visited Dorje Ling retreat center will have made the lovely walk through the forest to the south of the Gompa and ended up at the little hut called ‘The Villa’ over looking Lake Cethana. This charming, yet run down hut was originally built to do a 6 month retreat, and has served the need as a solo retreat hut since it was built in the early eighties. Sadly this gem has become run down. Although structurally fi ne the

roof needs to be repaired, the deck replaced and the lining removed so it can be rat proofed and insulated. To be a solo retreat hut the villa also needs a new water tank and small wood heater. There are plans to run a pipe from the main water supply to enable a shower to be built. The future labour to rebuild this gem has already been donated and our fi rst fi nancial contribution of $500 has been received. We are hoping to raise $5000 to enable the full renovation of ‘The Villa.’

There are many of us in our community who are wishing to do more and longer solo retreats, and ‘The Villa’ is the perfect place to do this in Tasmania.

Can you help by making a fi nancial donation towards the restoration of ‘The Villa’? email Chani on chani@tashicholing.net

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PILGRIMAGE TO INDIA DEC. 2009When in early 2009 Zasep Rinpoche asked me if I would organise another pilgrimage to the Buddhist Holy places in India, I replied immediately that I would love to do it – on one condition – that Rinpoche sing some karaoke for us on the bus to the Rajgir national park (one of the many highlights of the previous trip). Not only did Rinpoche promise to do that, he suggested that he would sing some karaoke dharma poetry and proceeded to include an example:

My Dharma Karaoke

Oh good sons and daughters of Buddha familyThere is no long lasting Sukha in Samasara Dukha is right on your face and life is like dream We will experience Shunyata, if we meditate There is no self other then the concepts of selfDon’t think of eternal bliss of Nibana for your self alone Don’t give up Bodhisattva vows when touts are trying to cheat you India is best place for meditation on compassion

So in early December 2009, everybody assembled at the YMCA in central Delhi and after various adventures in Old Delhi, the group of 16 people headed out on the overnight train to Bodhgaya. This group was smaller than the last, and contained about equal numbers of American, Canadian and Australian students, some of whom had not been to India before, so for them it was an ideal way to visit India – in a supportive and organised group. Some of Rinpoche’s oldest students were there also, so the group was a good mix.

As soon as we arrived in Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment, most of the group got a cough due to the dry and dusty conditions – a common occurrence in NE India during winter. However we quickly got into a routine of early morning meditation near to the stupa and holy bodhi tree, teachings from Rinpoche with question time (always instructive) in the early afternoon and meditation again in the evening. So there existed plenty of time for extra practice within the stupa grounds. Rinpoche has been coming to Bodhgaya since 1963, so he knows it well and was an excellent guide for our group, adding so much to our experience. Sometimes we went for walks around Bodhgaya, visiting and meditating in some of the many beautiful temples. On the early morning walk to the stupa from our hotel I would often stop and talk to an Indian family of a divorced woman and her three children who were living in a lean-to from a wall. Later in our stay, I saw that the lean-to had been converted into a simple chai-shop with the gift of 500 Rp (around $12 AUS) by a Japanese visitor. It had transformed their lives – they were so happy!

Being in the stupa grounds was always a wonderfully uplifting experience, and at night it often felt totally enchanting. So many people come from all over the world to practice in their own way – so happy to be there – old Tibetan couples sitting, completely absorbed in their practice, so many people doing the 100,000 prostration or mandala off ering preliminary practice, including one of Rinpoche’s Canadian students, who joined our group while we were there, as well as big organised groups from all over the Buddhist world doing group practice including mon-lam festivals with lots of brightly painted butter sculptures. There are off erings of all kinds and magnitudes, so beautiful and colourful as well as many diff erent kinds of chanting. It’s fantastic just being carried along in the joyous throng of circumambulating pilgrims – lots of joyous spiritual energy!

During our stay in Bodhgaya, we went for walks to Sujata’s grove, a beautiful island in the nearby river bed, a wonderful day trip to Rajgir national park which

contains Vulture’s peak, where we meditated on the Heart Sutra in the spot where it was taught. We visited Nalanda University, where the Great Mahayana philosophers including Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Atisha, Aryadeva, Chadrakirti and many others lived and studied, and whose teachings formed the origin of the Tibetan Mahayana teachings we have inherited today. We also visited the Mahakala cave near Bodhgaya and did some practice there in a small Tibetan monastery which looks after the cave. A long walk back through small Indian villages and farming areas was a delight. Whilst in Bodhgaya, we mostly ate at the funky Tibetan Om restaurant, which provided fresh healthy salads & vegetarian momos, then thuk, thukpa etc. – a great foil for the spicy Indian food available elsewhere.

We meditated in lots of diff erent places around the stupa – sometimes near a small altar where an old Ladhaki man in his 80’s was doing 100,000 water bowl off erings. He was such a strong and vibrant man – a lump on his forehead caused by many hundreds of thousands of prostrations. In the afternoons, we often gathered in the Mahabodhi society park, which was attached to the stupa grounds – green, shady and quiet for the teachings and discussions. Listening to Rinpoche teaching under the shade of a tree seemed very fi tting for the pilgrimage.

Next door to the stupa is a mosque which serves the substantial muslim population of the town. Everybody co-exists happily in Bodhgaya and I recently discovered that the Dalai Lama visits and teaches in the mosque every time he comes to Bodhgaya! One muslim business owner said that he is happy to live there as the Buddhist pilgrims have provided an income for Continued next page

him and his family, suffi cient for him to do his own pilgrimage to Mecca, something he never thought would be possible.

From Bodhgaya we travelled by train and bus to Sarnath (including an extraordinary bus trip into Varanasi, where the bus veered into the oncoming double lane highway and proceeded to drive for many kilometres into the oncoming traffi c! Totally disconcerting for us, it seems like it’s common practice in India, if your part of the double lane highway is blocked or slow – all the traffi c coming the other way looks out for you!).

Sarnath is my favourite pilgrimage place, as it is the place where the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths. For me this is even more signifi cant than his enlightenment. It now has extra signifi cance for me as Rinpoche married Madhu & I there on the previous trip 2 years ago. When we arrived, I did a little practice there to feel and express my appreciation. The fi rst meditation we did there as a group was in the exact spot that the Buddha gave the 4 noble truths teachings. It was a very powerful experience for all the group – one of those special experiences.

We spent Christmas day in Sarnath staying at the excellent Sarnath motel resort. Rinpoche and I, with the lovely owner of the hotel, who is in his 80s, organised a group of 6 classical musicians to visit from Varanasi to play for our group and the staff and their friends on Christmas afternoon. The group performed for 3 hours, with a mix of classical music, ghazals (both Rinpoche’s and my favourite Indian music – devotional spiritual and love songs) and even a couple of Bollywood songs at the end. The music was superb with 2 tabla players, sarangi, sarrod, sitar & 2 classical singers.

We spent some time in Varanasi, took a dawn boat ride along the Ganges and observed the burning ghats. Three of the more adventurous pilgrims stayed on with me and spent the afternoon getting lost in the back alleyways of old Varanasi. The Muslim area was particularly interesting and diff erent. I hadn’t done that since the fi rst time I was in Varanasi as a young man.

We travelled by bus from Varanasi to Sravasti, where the Buddha did 25 rainy season retreats in Jetavana grove, bought for him by a wealthy devotee. On the journey, we travelled past Ayhodya, which is said to be India’a oldest and holiest city, home of Shri Ram (& also the scene of hindu extremist violence in 1992) and it looks like it is out of the pages of the Ramayana. Arriving in Sravasti, near the Nepalese border, we settled in to the Hotel Lotus Nikko (the older students, who had not been on pilgrimage with Rinpoche for a while, were amazed by the raised standards of our accommodation! This hotel served exquisite Indian food and had baths in the rooms.)

The Jetavana grove was so quiet and peaceful – there were just a few other pilgrims there and wandering around the beautifully kept grove, it was easy to feel what it would have been like when the Buddha lived there. The grove was on slightly elevated ground in a large and peaceful valley. Nearby were ruins of the towns, which supported the sangha at that time, the remains of a substantial stupa erected to commemorate Angulimala, along with the remains of monasteries existing there after the Buddha’s time. This area is important because the Buddha spent a large part of his life there. He did most of his teaching at Sravasti & a large body of sutras were taught there. This is also the place where the Buddha’s Sangha community grew extensively.None of our party had been there before, so it was a highlight of the trip for us. Being so quiet and peaceful, off the beaten track, it was a lovely place to meditate – the group really enjoyed these four days at the end of the trip.

From Sravasti, we travelled by bus to Lucknow, then from Lucknow, we caught a sit-up train back to Delhi and arrived just after the start of New Year’s day.

Rinpoche, I and a few others stayed on in Delhi for a few days, where we visited & received an initiation from Rinpoche’s teacher, Kyabje Rongtha Rinpoche, who lives at the Ladakh Boudh Vihar, (where the Buddha statues on the altar at Tashi Choling came from) on the outskirts of Old Delhi. Now 96, Geshe-la pointed to framed photos of his teachers on the wall of his small room and explained that he had been ordained as a novice monk by the 13th Dalai Lama! Another photo was of the great Pabonka Rinpoche (Liberation in the palm of your hand) who had been his teacher, so it was amazing to connect with that sense of lineage from Tibet.

Another successful pilgrimage! It had been such a great time for us all - full of wonderful & unique experiences.Two of those experiences, which underline the extremes of life in India and had a strong emotional eff ect on me, were when we took a young employee from our hotel in Bodhgaya with us on our bus back to his home village. A beautiful young man, when he was greeted from the bus by his father, he immediately bent down and touched his father’s feet in a gesture of love and respect.The second experience was meeting a beautiful natured young boy, who was paralysed from the waist down and was begging on the train platform

at Lucknow. Seeing him urinating uncontrollably and dragging his body across the platform in a soggy trail, reduced me to tears.

Making a pilgrimage to India leaves so many lasting impressions – from the joyful ease of doing practice in a place of high spiritual energy like Bodhgaya, to connecting with the ordinary-ness of the Buddha’s life in Sravasti. All against the backdrop of India – a vibrant assault on the senses and emotions, such an alive place, where the unusual is commonplace. To do so with my teacher Zasep Rinpoche as our spiritual guide, dharma tour guide, translator and protector felt very fortunate.

Roger McLennan

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Book Review –

CONFESSION OF A BUDDHIST ATHEIST

by Stephen Batchelor

After reviewing Stephen Batchelor’s Buddhism without beliefs for this newsletter 12 years ago, I thought it might be interesting to read and review his latest book Confession of a Buddhist Atheist – to see in which direction this provocative western Buddhist author has gone in his thinking.

In Buddhism without Beliefs, Batchelor challenged us to integrate the Buddha’s teaching in our lives by relating to the dharma as an invitation to act, rather than as a set of beliefs – e.g. the Four “Ennobling” truths rather than the Four Noble Truths. In suggesting also that one could take an agnostic position towards Buddhist “givens” such as karma and rebirth, he challenged the religiosity of dharma practice.

In Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, as the title suggests, there is an autobiographical thread running through the book, alongside a search for a clearer vision of the man he calls Gotama, particularly after he became the Buddha. These 2 threads come together in enunciating Batchelor’s own spiritual path – a search through the Pali Canon for the essence of the Buddha’s teaching, after what appears to be a personal rejection, or at least a moving on from, of his former life as a monk in both the Tibetan and Korean Mahayana traditions. He pares down what has been added to the Buddha’s teachings and what was already in existence, coming up with four distinctly Buddhist ideas: The principle of this-conditionality, conditioned arising; The process of the Four Noble Truths; The practice of mindful awareness; The power of self-reliance.

Throughout this well-structured book, Stephen Batchelor is wonderfully articulate; the sheer quality of his writing enough to make me savour every page, the evolution of his ideas and path simply absorbing, his struggle striking chords with the often challenging shift of Buddhism from East to West and the discomfort of the dynamic tensions of that process. All the while he acknowledges & celebrates the wisdom of where we are on our individual spiritual journey, rather than succumbing to being not yet enlightened. In empowering an acknowledgement of “I don’t know” as being an honest statement rather than an admission of weakness or ignorance, he celebrates “this deep agnosticism” as being “more than the refusal of conventional agnosticism to take a stand on whether God exists or whether the mind survives bodily death. It is the willingness to embrace the fundamental bewilderment of a fi nite, fallible creature as the basis for leading a life that no longer clings to the superfi cial consolations of certainty”.

In his journey through the Pali Canon, Stephen fi nds that The Buddha’s original approach to teaching was therapeutic and pragmatic, rather than speculative and metaphysical. His search leads him to presume that since the Buddha did not confi rm an immaterial mind and a post-mortem existence, that these things have become intertwined with Buddhism:“Rebirth, the law of karma, gods, other realms of existence, freedom from the cycle of birth and death, unconditioned consciousness were all ideas that predated the Buddha”.

Whilst Stephen freely admits that he has cherry-picked his research of the Pali Canon to support his ideas, nonetheless he makes a convincing case for a contemporary western Buddhist approach.

“This Dhamma I have reached,” says the Buddha, “is deep, diffi cult to awaken to, quiet and excellent, not confi ned by thought, subtle, sensed by the wise. But people love their place: they delight and revel in their place. It is hard for people who love, delight and revel in their place to see this ground: this conditionality, conditioned arising”.

The Buddha here, says Stephen, is pointing to what he had woken up to, “this conditionality” – living with poise and happiness on the shifting ground of conditioned arising, being completely open to the fundamental contingency of existence in all its transient, unpredictable, both fascinating and at times terrifying glory. To navigate this ground of contingent arising, to be conscious of what is happening in the present requires training in mindfulness. Mindful awareness is the practice of being grounded in whatever occurs in one’s feelings, body and mind and in one’s environment, so that in time one acts in full awareness no matter what one is doing or what is happening.

Stephen posits this practice, which he calls “mindful awareness,” as a complete practice to enable us to navigate between semi or un-consciousness and what he delightfully describes as “febrile reactivity” where one reacts before one has even had time to think about what has happened.

“Mindfulness accepts as its focus of inquiry whatever arises in its fi eld of awareness, no matter how disturbing or painful it might be. One neither seeks nor expects to fi nd some greater truth lurking behind the veil of appearances. What appears and how you respond to it: that alone is what matters.”

And again: “The aim of mindfulness is to know suff ering fully. It entails paying calm, unfl inching attention to whatever impacts the organism, be it the song of a lark, or the scream of a child, the bubbling of a playful idea or a twinge in the lower back. You attend not just to the outward stimuli themselves, but also to your inward reactions to them. You do not condemn what you see as your failings or applaud what you regard as success. You notice things come, you notice them go. Over time the practice becomes less a self-conscious exercise in meditation done at fi xed periods each day & more a sensibility that infuses one’s awareness at all times.”

Stephen Batchelor is describing a practice with which most buddhist practitioners are familiar. Mahamudra, Vipassana, Zazen, Dzog Chen are all practices of mindful awareness which illuminate our conditioned and

contingent existence. He talks about Enlightenment as living with craving, from a deep understanding of the nature of suff ering, rather than transcending or defeating craving – embracing this suff ering world without being overwhelmed by it.

In paring down his own approach to the Dharma, Stephen makes a case for investigating, testing and integrating, to create a personal path of meditation, ethics and philosophical style, adapting the Buddha’s parable of a raft constructed from these binded-together ideals. So long as it works, it doesn’t matter what it looks like and once it has served its purpose, leave it for someone else to use, rather than continue to carry it with you (here referring to the belief system as an object of reverence).

His non-religious and pared-down approach is in accord with our western sensibilities in many ways, but if there is a question about whether what has been included in Buddhism as either existing at the time of the Buddha or incorporated since, is essentially Buddhist, my feeling is that the richness of thought, philosophy and transformative practice of these “additions” (the practice of Bodhicitta, the early Mahayana philosophers and the rich history of enlightened commentary here loom large) can only enhance our practice, give us more tools and ingredients from which to choose to construct our rafts and thus bring a sustainable experience of happiness more swiftly.

Roger McLennan

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LEANDER KANE

The Wonderful Mystery Called Body – Healing and Transforming through Mindfulness

“Our bodies hold the key to deep healing.

All of our past experiences, our traumas, our emotional ups and downs are stored in the body and become our habitual way of being in the world. These patterns can limit our possibilities. By freeing ourselves of these held physical, mental or emotional patterns we touch our true self, our naturalness. The work unfolds as we explore the body using particular, precise, gentle movement sequences largely carried out while lying on the fl oor. While resting in this new experience we learn how to recognise, and expand on new vibrant qualities as the clear, bright, alive mind appears .

During this retreat we will explore body as a path of Self Healing – a journey of discovery providing the possibility of a many faceted healing of mind/body – e.g. we may wish to be more decisive. With this innovative way of exploring we can directly experience decisiveness, and likewise confi dence, or relief from pain, or relief from stress, or peacefulness, or joy etc.”

Leander Kane

Leander is an innovative and inspiring teacher of ‘Healing of the Whole Self ’. She has developed this unique and direct way of Body/Mind healing over a period of 20 years, weaving seamlessly her deepening wisdom through meditation (yearly 3 month retreats) with her considerable skills as a Feldenkrais Practitioner. She teaches throughout New Zealand and overseas.

Leander works with all age groups and all states of health. Elite sports people, infants, the elderly, people with mobility issues, people with injuries, and people with emotional issues have all benefi tted from this work.

Leander’s Schedule :

Arrive Hobart Tuesday 10th August

Weekend residential retreat Thursday 12th (eve), Friday 13th (eve), Saturday 14th (morn), Sunday 15th (afternoon).

Weekend residential retreat Thursday 19th (eve), Friday 20th (eve), Saturday 21st (morn), Sunday 22nd (afternoon). Venue in central Hobart, times, and costs to be announced.

Leander will also be available for individual or small group sessions during this time.

For more information please contact Kate MacNicol 0432 630 796 or Chani Grieve 0439 453 538

A buddhist goes up to a hamburger stand and says, “Make me one with everything”. After he receives his hamburger, he pays, and waits patiently for his change. Finally the cook shakes his head and says, “why are you waiting? change comes from within....”

REFUGE PART ONE

From a talk given in Vancouver by Bonni Ross February 18, 1997. Part 2 will be printed in our next issue.

We hear a lot today about the need for relief from physical illness or stress, and very often that is what causes an investigation of meditation to begin. Another cause is emotional turmoil of some kind, which eases into a temporary calm or peace during meditation. Both of these categories of motivation result in using meditation to change conditions which are seen to be negative to other conditions which are deemed ‘positive’ or ‘better’.

Another type of meditator is an adventurer — she or he wants to explore the nature of the mind itself, to experience the various phenomena which arise in consciousness. They seek to know, and sometimes to love, more deeply and fully.

Whatever your analysis is of the factors which brought you to meditation, it is important to establish before you begin each formal practice session what drives or motivates you. We act, speak, think and feel in response to conditions — some of them external, some internal. Some are conscious and some — the tricky, blind-spot ones — are not. Very often when meditation is taught only as a technique — a remedy for unpleasant experiences, or a doorway to pleasant ones — the instruction overlooks how deeply our conscious and unconscious motivation infl uences the quality of the practice itself.

As I teach in various parts of the world and observe what is going on with people, it seems that the ones who are making the sort of steady eff ort that produces an on-going sense of clarity and groundedness and centredness have a very clear sense of how they relate to these questions of motivation, or aspiration. They also seem to understand how unconscious motivation can sabotage what they are consciously on about and are actively, continuously probing to re-program consciousness to a continuum recollection of where we actually fi nd refuge, and what motivations actually fuel spiritual progress.

The fi rst contemplation that should be done before meditation begins is “Why am I doing this? What do I want?” It is helpful to know — even if sometimes the answers may appear less than noble! At least then we have an opportunity to redefi ne our aspiration, to align it with universal principles which provide the maximum support to the eff ort we are making.

What are these universal principles? First and foremost, there is the concept that consciousness is the very fabric of all manifestation, pervading all of the universe, including yourself. The characteristics of that universal consciousness (before conditioning obscures and distorts them) are spaciousness, luminosity and awareness. People call this consciousness God or Buddha-nature. I like to use the word Universe.

The second principle is that this universal consciousness is reliable, that what arises from it obeys certain laws which are consistent whether one is observing the smallest particles or the vastness of space. These laws, or universal truths, can be experienced as direct insights by human beings who have prepared themselves by a disciplined and sustained approach to purifi cation of the obscurations and distortions. Over the course of human history methodic systems have been taught by those who have had such direct experiences. Some of these teachings, and the realizations which arise from them, have been passed down, conceptually and experientially, from teacher to student without interruption from the person who had the original experience of transcendence. We have access today to these same lines of direct transmission.

The third principle is that our struggle to learn and to grow is supported by Universe. However isolated we may feel, we are part of a vast, interconnected web of consciousness — some of which manifests in form, and is therefore perceivable to our physical senses; some of which exists as vibrations or force fi elds of energy which we are capable of experiencing directly if we train our latent capacities of consciousness. If we are fortunate, and our motivation over lifetimes has been wholesome and sincere, we may meet “real-time” teachers and teachings which will provide us with the tools we need to explore the various laws of universe and come to our own direct experience of the spacious, luminous, aware consciousness which sustains our existence. We may experience the synergy of communities of like-minded people who share these higher aspirations.

Bonni will be visiting Tasmania in November 2010. She will give teachings at Tashi Choling and in Hobart from 9th-17th November, and leading a retreat at Dorje Ling from 19th-28th November.

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TOOLS FOR THE TOOL SHEDAt recent retreats at Dorje Ling we have been having ‘Dana to the Land,’ or a time to give something back to the center in a physical way, practice mindfulness and move those sore meditator knees!

This can involve gardening, building, painting and any other job that one fi nds one’s self drawn to at the time.

People have been very willing and a lot of work has been done.

We have found that we don’t have enough tools to keep everyone going!

Do you have old spades, forks, wheel barrows, shovels, hoes, mattocks, or other tools that you are not using and would like to donate?

email chani@tashicholing.net