Rejoice for Mama Jenny!

Mama Jenny Inspires!

I met Mama Jenny during a visit to Kechara House this summer.  I had read about her aspiration for ordination from one of the postings on the Kechara House website earlier in the year.  When I got to Kechara House this summer, I was hoping she’d be one of the persons I’d meet.

Or as Mama Jenny puts it: “If you have the KARMA to…” 

. . .

Just a couple of days ago actually, the thought of Mama Jenny arose in my mind out of the blue.  And I thought, oh, yeah, I must still be reminiscing about my summer.  Later on that night, I visit the KH website and lo and behold — this update about Kechara House creatin’ history.  I click on it and it’s about the ceremony conferring upasaka vows to Mama Jenny!

. . .

I was so happy to see this!  And it makes the memory of even just the bit of conversation and interaction I had with Mama Jenny (feeding the turtles at the local park, chatting over some noodles and Indian food at a cafe down the street from KH) that much fonder knowing she is walking the path to her Great Happiness.

REJOICE

REJOICE FOR

MAMA JENNY!

REJOICE
REJOICE
ANILA!

May you safe, healthy, happy and at ease.

May all favorable, supportive conditions surround your life in ordination!

May your actions inspire others to live in service of the Dharma!

I am so happy to have met you, Anila.

Thank you, for saying hello.

The Fruit of One’s Refuge

I celebrate the ripening of your praktis friend

the inner flowers blossoming

the fragrance of freedom and clarity

the flame of inner awareness

and outer action

loving kindness and skillfulness

circulating deep within

your diamantine, indestructible, eternal self

in breath and out breath…

soul self determination realizations and activations

in…

out…

refuge and praktis

love and fearlessness

transformation and offering

three jewels

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Showing the way fearlessly and compassionately, the stream of all our Ancestral Teachers, to whom we bow in gratitude.

Santi,

Jnaseh

On Mind + Karma

Mind, Karma, Action, Result ("Prayer" by Alex Grey)

From a conversation with a friend

Karma is infallible.

From theartofsutra.blogspot.com

A pure consciousness is not in the child, the child is fragile or even dangerous in actions, a pure consciousness is in the individual who thinks and weighs the consequences of the action so the child may follow.

From “The Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind to Dharma”

Karma cannot be fooled. Everyday, we involve ourselves with karma by expressing ourselves through body, speech, and mind. The root of all actions is the mind. The mind is like the king and the body and speech are the servants.

From Thich Nhat Hahn (dharma talks on www.dpcast.org)

We have to allow the truth to penetrate…because if we have ideas, that maybe an obstacle. And the secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts in order for the Truth to have a chance to penetrate to reveal Itself.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Growing in understanding about Karma beyond simply some gesture of an idea to toss around and seem spiritual-cool, “It’s his karma…”, “Do you believe in karma?”, or “That’s karma…”

In mindfulness or forgetfulness, what manifests inside and outside of me? What is my moment to moment experience? What is my state of mind? Of body? Of feelings? Where is my awareness? What am I doing at this moment and the next? The thought of doing or not doing? Of sitting or breathing? Or eating? Or going online? For what?

What wholesome or not-so-wholesome thoughts do I cultivate within? What seeds manifest? What is arising?

Growing in understanding about Karma, not simply as a thought, but at that place where it affects me and who I am and how I experience my being-ness.

The causes, conditions and results that are within my field of believing and doing.

I remember once visiting Deer Park and hearing a talk about how suffering arises from wrong thinking. It caught my attention enough to remember it. there’s so much that is heard everyday, yes, and so little sometimes that is absorbed and integrated. This one brief line, “All suffering arises from wrong thinking…” made me lean in enough to continue to listen with open ears and something of an “open” heart (hmmmm, for another posting!) to the Dharma.

This moment makes me think about Tsem Tulku Rinpoche’s quote:

Dharma has to be in you. You can be in Dharma, but is Dharma inside of you?

__/|\__

With Gratitude

The dharma is deep and lovely…

We now have a chance to see, study and to praktis it…

We vow to realize its true meaning.

Santi,

Jnaseh

What is a Shaman ~ Babaylan?

Image: tantrika.multiply.com (by Jonathan Cena)
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

WHAT IS A SHAMAN?

by Mary Schmidt

A shaman/babaylan is:

– spiritual and cognitive epistemological mediator. shamans-to-be encounter raw glimpses of something numinous and demanding, some threat or promise in their own landscape of dreams. shamans not only read but write society. they collapse categories and rebuild aiming for controlled rebirth to effect social cures. in order to bring this power home to her people, she must become part of their mythology, also known as crazy wisdom. the shaman cures his people by taking them out of themselves making her ecstasy contagious, initiating her people into a changed state. gives people a handle for the numinous. shamans are people with the strength to become vulnerable, the will to impose form, the wit to translate their treasure into an understable dream.

Mary Schmid

posted on kathang-pinay.blogspot.com

Update: South+East Asia Planning

Praises to Ganesh! (Image from openbuddha.com)

Gentle Birth Journey

South+East

Suroeste Asia

Calm Ocean of the Heart

32nd Sun Dharma Gateway

Summer Solstice 2009 – August 2009

Arriving, arriving…homecoming…

Thank you Dear Friends

…for watering the wholesome seeds within me

that are allowing for this gateway journey to open.

Entering My Inner & Outer Gateways

Picture above: Manjushri’s Cave in Kathmandu, Nepal

Santi,

I realized, again, this weekend that my upcoming travels plans for a self-created South+East Asia dharma homecoming retreat are just around the corner. The last time I checked, I had eight weeks or so. Then, I saw a dear Friend yesterday who will be leaving in a couple of weeks and this made me WAKE UP and SIT UP to know that time’s working with me to get me to work it out! My Kuya has his wedding celebration at the end of the week, then my expository writing training next week, and then at the end of May 2009, we have the Deer Park + World Beat Sangha Strengthenin’ Weekend Retreat collaboration!

All this stuff goin’ on, and all this stuff to do! All this good stuff goin’ on and all this good stuff to do!

Just checked my passport renewal status and I find out, it is on its way! YAHHHOOOOOO! I’ve been checkin’ and nothing’s been coming up. And it had been several weeks already. I worried a bit, but now, all all all good! REJOICE!

Does that mean, I should finally step into the gateway of ticketing my trip…finally!? Why haven’t I gotten my ticket yet a friend asked? I made up a reason or two, which are real. Yet, I know the conditions are here. Tonight, I hope to write back here and say otherwise.

Arrived

Arrived

Home

Home

Here

Here

Touching

Happiness

- – - – - – - – - – – - -

U.S. Passport Application Status

Thank you for submitting your application for a U.S. passport book!

Your passport application locator number is XXXXXXXXX.

We have finished processing your passport, and it has been mailed to you.

You requested delivery by regular mail. Passport Agencies use Priority Mail

This means you should receive your passport on or about XXXXXXXXX.

- – - – - – - – - -

I don’t always check my mail right when I get home, so this morning when I was about to leave for work, I check the mailbox and yes yes yes!  My renewal passport is there!  Happiness!

Ticket plus passport!

Motherland Suroeste Asia, here we go!

ON THE ROAD TO 2012 POEM

the victory has been promised
the prophecy oracle has been cast
do not be afraid to give your life
for the final cause
on the road to 2012

– - – - – - – - – -

Posted with 1320 days until Winter Solstice 2012!

- – - – - – - – - -

Santi Friend,

I got my ticket tonight! Wow, wow, wow!

WOWWW! I’ve been eyeing this ticket for a bit

and tonight, I sat a bit and then sat down to

explore the ticketing details and options and patiently

entering, clicking, reading and re-entering information…

CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR TICKET HAS BEEN PURCHASED!

Om Shree Maha Ganesha Namaha!

Touching happiness for all the conditions that support me

to take this trip for myself, my past, my present and my future.

For all the Ones who have continually supported me…

For all that is being revealed, and all that will continue to be revealed…

For the communications occurring and the ones that are arising…

For the path is rising up to meet us all on this Gateway Year 2009

May you be safe

May you be healthy

May you be happy

May you be at ease…

Smiling to life…

Oh life, is to wonderful

in the present moment.

- – - – - – - – -

Walking On My Path…

DHARMA MASTER’S WORDS ON WALKING YOUR PATH

Hikers know that there are no passable roads in a virgin forest. However, a road will open up when you pull away the grass, thorns and wisteria. Swimmers know that there are no paths in the water, but as you swim you will create a pathway.

Cultivation is similar. You only need to get on the path and walk and you will create your own path. The roads walked by the Ch’an patriarchs are theirs, not yours. You must depend on yourself to open up your own road.

-Ch’an Master Sheng-yen

. . . . . . . .

Master Sheng Yen passed away on 3 Feb at the age of 80 at the Dharma Drum Buddhist Complex in Taipei, China.

(from blissnbaguio.multiply.com)

Affinities & Blessings

What is a Blessing?

When an event, a situation, a friend, a “cause” reconnects you to something you use to do in a prior lifetime, something that was good that you can begin again, in this lifetime, to continue and cultivate that part of yourself that you opened up in a former life…

The manner of action and cultivation may change, because times and conditions will create the conditions for how we manifest. But, it will still open up…

(Some notes from a talk by H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche regarding what is a blessing…)

- – - – - – - -

Is this experience I am having a blessing? Encountering the dharma path in this lifetime…yes, it is a blessing indeed. There are moments when I look back and think about how I ever got involved or felt this affinity for the Buddhadharma in the first place. Was it old college buddy Daniel doing to the retreat at UCSD with THAY? And then, Kalyanamitra Auspicious Path the following summer? This Filipino kid, immigrant to San Diego, California, St. Michael’s Church parishi0ner comin’ full circle and turning towards other “teachings” and “affinities” to walk another kind of path. OR MAYBE IT ISN’T ALL THAT DIFFERENT? Was it seeing a little “Zen” comic book thing on Edwina’s desk during our ultra-activist identified college days — and wondering, hmmmm?!?!? And back to the summer when I finally attended the meditation retreat, seeing the Sangha open up the retreat with a song that generated a feeling inside of me that I can still remember to this day, that feeling inside of me that said, “WHAT?!  WOWWWW!”…in a good way.

Yes, it is

it is a blessing

this encounter with the Dharma

in this lifetime…

Dove shared that an old, ancient part of me is arising. It is like an old lost brother. And this part of me rising offers a certainty of Being for me, a feeling of what is real and what is true, returning.

Blood Ancestors

& Spiritual Ancestors

Affinities and Blessings…

REJOICE

REJOICE

REJOICE

The dharma talk that is going on 24 hours a day, infinite in its care and communication, guidance and teaching. Am I listening? Am I contemplating its truth? What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing…in this lifetime?  How am I living, breathing, walking, thinking, acting in this lifetime?

. . . . . . .

The dharma is deep and lovely…

We now have a chance to see, study and to praktis it…

We vow to realize its true meaning…

(from the Plum Village Chant Book)

More Dharmacasts from the Ten Directions!

This time, from H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, from Kechara House in Malaysia. I encountered Rinpoche’s teachings a couple winters ago from Youtube and www.kecharahouse.com website.

It’s a funny, fierce and lineage-based Loco Lama style kinda teaching, in the illustrious tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa, HH the Dalai Lama and Gaden Shartse Monastery.

Check it out for yourself and see if it resonates:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tsemtulku&view=videos

I didn’t know dharma could “bite” like this and still make us laugh and praktis.  REJOICE!

Santi,

Jnaseh

P.S. May all favorable conditions align for a safe, joyful trip to Motherland Suroeste Asia this summer and a visit to Kechara House in Kuala Lumpur, amongst other dharma adventures!

Praktis ~ Gate of Freedom Through Renunciation

In the act of ordination, one blesses seven generations of descendants.  HE Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, a dharma teacher based out of Malaysia’s Kechara House, offers his thoughts on the ordination process of one of his long time dharma friend/student.  REJOICE!  May all favorable conditions arise for Mama Jenny’s ordination.  Gateway to Freedom Through Renunciation!

A Message from H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

Mama Jenny and the protocols of ordination

A Message from Rinpoche:

Dear everyone, Mama Jenny has lived a very ordinary life and I have known her for over 20 years. I have helped her and given her advice from family, husband, children, finances, moving, travelling, anger, Dharma, disappointments and in-laws. I have even helped her to save for her old age and explained why decades ago. She has travelled to India with me several times. I have been with her for every turn of her life’s ups and downs for two decades now. She is older and I am concerned. When I examine if what she has done would be enough for her future life, I gather it is not enough and I am very concerned. So I must find a solution. There is nothing left for her as there was nothing from the beginning anyway for her or any of us. We are under the illusion we want to ‘enjoy’ or experience life, when there is nothing new we have not experienced for so many lifetimes already and it has brought us nowhere. Do not waste another life on just making money and pretending you’ll be secure. It never happens. Stop believing in illusions. Do not encourage young people and your children to just go make money, money, money, and more money and all the efforts that go into it.. No matter how much you make or try to make, you will never never never never have security. Money is necessary, but should not be used as an excuse to postpone Dharma work, practice and endeavours. No matter how much you have in the bank, when the karma comes you can lose it and all your decades of hard work can disappear overnight making you angry, depressed, resentful, and asking why. Even pushing you to question your Dharma faith and the Three Jewels for money!!! All your life’s precious time spent to make money goes down the drain with a flick of karmic change. Since you have happened onto the Dharma, don’t waste this precious opportunity to make yourself useful and take life’s precious remaining time and do Dharma full time…And all the way. Inspire your partners, husbands, wives, inspire other people, inspire young people and inspire yourself. All that you have gone through is called life’s experiences to help you learn. That is great, but learn what? Have you actually learned?? By the time you ‘learn’, how much time do you have left? You have learned life’s lessons in so many lives already and you are still learning. This type of learning is not very helpful or useful in the bigger picture. Samsara learning gets you not far. To be skilled in samsara learning is to learn how to suffer more and create causes to take rebirth and suffer more. Don’t send that wrong message to others. Be compassionate and do Dharma all the way and set a compassionate example to others. There are more people in our group who should be ordained. But I will wait for the ‘right’ time to give them the holy and exellent news. It will be very beneficial for them to listen and follow. But even better is if they approach me sincerely to do so. I told Mama Jenny that I wanted her to be a nun when I first met her, and was waiting for the time. The time is here. So I sms-ed her and she has agreed. Good. When Mama Jenny becomes a nun: 1. She will use the remainder of her life in collecting merit. By holding her vows, even eating and sleeping she will collect merit. How else can she speed up merit collecting?? 2. I care about her and want her to have a good rebirth. This would be the best way for her. I rejoice for her. I have had no regrets re my own ordination. As I get older, I realize I am not missing anything. And there is nothing else to look forward to within these redundantly disappointing samsaric illusions we wrongly labelled fun. 3. She will bless seven generations of her descendents by taking ordination. How fortunate for her children that their mother has such love for them. To express her love in such an ultimate method. 4. She will be protected from taking rebirth in three lower realms although she has spent a lifetime of not collecting much merit as an ordinary householder. 5. She can focus more on retreats instead of ordinary activities that she has done so many times and brought not much benefits as life ebbs to a close. If we care about her and others, we should encourage them to refuge, practice and for some, to become sangha. This was holy advice from our Lord Sage Shakyamuni. So never make jokes regarding ordination. Never discourage others from ordination otherwise you disparage the Buddha’s direct advice. 6. She will inspire other normal householders. 7. Her mind will be more settled and start to let go more than before hence enhancing her practice and preparation for the ‘big day’. 8. Her attachments to others and some others attachments to her will be severed early on so her mind can focus on Dharma preparing for the big day that we all should prepare for. During our death, attachments that we haven’t severed are the biggest obstacle and number one enemy against a positive rebirth. Attachments cause tremendous fear, and anxiety triggering dormant negative karma to open bringing unhappy results. Some people arrogantly and ignorantly say they will practice more intently in their next life. How could they guarantee where they will take rebirth if they don’t even have control of their current birth and attachments??? Why boast of your next life, when your next opportune rebirth to do practice can be hundreds of lifetimes away while you take multitudes of negative suffering states of existence in between. To not take rebirth seriously is to undermine the very basis of all Buddha’s teachings which is cause and effect (karma). If you don’t take karma seriously, why make offerings, do sadhanas and propitiate deities? If you don’t have full conviction in karma, then even the deities, yidams, Dharma protectors and even Tsongkhapa cannot exist. Why? They exist on the basis of karma or the cessation of all negative karmas hence being enlightened. Look at what you have done in your life and where you are going to check your conviction in the pith of the Buddhist teachings, karma. If your life has been spent conquering attachment then you are in the right direction. If you are still making grandiose excuses to cover your attachments, all hope of good rebirth and practice are like seeing stars in the day sky. How can a lifetime of negative karma from attachments equal to positive results or good rebirth?? 9. To live and die with our robes is the most blessed thing we can do and inspire others to do. Our Lord Shakyamuni and Lord Tsongkhapa did that as an example for us. 10. Mama Jenny will start a trend in KH, in our area and in our region for others to also take robes. That would be a wonderful practice she leaves in people’s minds without even having to directly say anything to them. Just by being, we can inspire in this way without a lot of Dharma knowledge. 11. She will receive the vows from elder sangha members and be VERY BLESSED TO RECEIVE THE ORDINATION VOWS FROM THEM DIRECTLY. Which they received from their gurus, and their gurus, going all the way back unbroken to Lord Buddha from whence all the vows originally stem from!! She will have a direct connection to Shakyamuni planting innumerable blessed imprints in her mindstream for this life and future lives. 12. When we take ordination and hold our vows well, we have very little worries at the time of death. Death gets closer each day, what better preparation?? What better gift to ourselves? Above are some of the benefits for Mama Jenny and any person who takes on holy ordination. TKL should have many ordained people in future. How beautiful. Procedures: 1. I will let Mama Jenny know the timing of the actual ordination and she will go to India for this. I will arrange. More than four elder sangha members are necessary for this. 2. Before she takes ordination, I will give her pre-ordination instructions of which afterwards, she will wear pure white clothes and cut her hair very short. And remain in that type of preparatory dress and hair mode until taking of the vows after which she will wear the actual maroon robes and have her hair fully shaved. The style of white clothes I will show Su Ming to produce. 3. After ordination, staying place I will consider and let her know. 4. As Mama Jenny, due to my instructions, has a small savings, she will use those savings to support herself. Any extra donations to Mama Jenny may be directed to Ladrang and I appoint Liaison Su Ming (see contact info below) to oversee this Sangha fund. It will set a precedence for future Sangha offerings in this manner. I wish Mama Jenny to use her savings in this case fully for the Dharma by sponsoring herself. Each case in the future will be unique and different. 5. Already people wish to donate robes to Mama Jenny, that is wonderful. They may direct this donation to Liaison Su Ming of Tsem Ladrang. Mama Jenny will also need airfare to India (cost will be let known at a later date). Other expenditures I will inform at a later date and other people may contribute to the ladrang sangha fund. DO NOT CONTRIBUTE OR GIVE TO THE INDIVIDUAL DIRECTLY PLEASE. DIRECT IT TO KH SANGHA FUND through Su Ming. I will set up a system of Sangha support from Ladrang for those in genuine need. I thank you ahead of time to help the Sangha. Sangha in this region are like drops of rain on a arid desert. Let’s make more rain. Contact info of Chuah Su Ming: 012-2911178 03-77285188 suming@tsemladrang.com 6. After ordination we will address her by her ordination name only. 7. She should not go to any hawkers, eateries, or places of entertainment for one year. But after 6 months she may go to vegetarian restaurants with other females (vegetarian restaurants are acceptable for Sangha in this region). She may not go with another male alone irregardless of their relations to her as it will cause wrong image to the public and Sangha. If there is a male with her, she must have another male or female to accompany them. That goes same for monks except reversed of course. 8. Anytime a person becomes a Sangha, the remaining family members must be taken care of by other family members left behind. Sangha SHOULD NOT TAKE CARE OF LAY PEOPLE as it is negative karma for lay people to expect financial help from Sangha. It will also distract the Sangha members’ practice. Family members should give full emotional and financial support to their family member who has taken ordination. Family members should not expect financial support from the centres, temples or other members. That would be using the Sangha directly and indirectly. 9. Remaining family members should not call the ordained by their previous names or titles, but only respectfully by their ordained names, as it is a blessing for the new Sangha and all who hear it. 10. The above write up should serve as a procedure and protocols as it is our first in KH. Future Sangha may follow the same procedures. In time I/we may add or amend. Liaisons should know the procedures well to explain or talk when asked. I care about Mama Jenny and her future. As I have no power to save her, but by her personal practice she can find repose and release from samsara. I would be very happy for her and also have fulfilled my avowed duties. Mama Jenny is a close friend and student. Since she also considers me her close friend and teacher, she fully trusts me and hence is now ready to take on more meaning her life by pure and sacred ordination. I wish this for Mama Jenny as a culmination of our two decades Dharma friendship and it is the best gift I can give her. And her to herself. How beautiful. I wish this for others also the same as I wish for Mama Jenny. My sincere good wishes, and happiness for this sacred event in our kechara. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche Spiritual Director Kechara House & TKL Retreat Centre www.tsemtulku.com www.kecharahouse.com ‘Never say you can’t do, because that is not the real you speaking’.

Breathing in, I distract myself…

Rainy day here…

Getting some work done…

Also, distractin’ myself, too.

Some thoughts that are zooming by and catching me:

1) Initiate process for Metta inking with Dream Jungle Studio and Aleks.

2) Scheduled my taxes and a trip up north plus, a visit to Kali Mandir temple!

3) Santi ~ Shanti…

4) Going to visit ISKCON at Pacific Beach today to see their catering menu. Maybe a good choice for Kalyanamitra Gathering this Saturday!

5) Where am I at with fire ritual for Full Moon in Leo (4th house, family, origins, ancestry)?

6) Big event at school on Wednesday — may all good conditions support us for this event to take place smoothly…

7) Realization: World Beat Center & Makeda and that space being a Mothership of Energy and Activity for 2012’s arrival! I had a quick chat with her and some other friends after the sangha gathering and there’s been a lot of good things happening in that space…there’s always been a lot of good things happening there. Only now, I’m beginning to see how her commitment to hold the vision allows for us to receive the energy as well…Makeda ~ roots culture bodhisattva! I was laughing because she was talking to a new resident of the Red Lotus Society (praktis center in downtown SD) and she said, “let’s get some people of color up in there!” LOVIN’ IT! She was trippin’ on being the only black person, or person of color at the sustainability forum with Balboa Park.

Hope to be able to support the wonderful, powerful, musical, energetic, drum one beat one heart praktis center that the World Beat Community has sustained throughout all times. YES! KAYA NATIN!

Maybe this Full Moon in Leo (4th House) is inviting me to look into the World Beat Sangha + Family + Center…this space of “intersectionality” is my family of origin…this place of cultural, spiritual, political solidarity is my family of origin. With all the creative energy that Leo embodies, and the rootedness that the WBC (like the UCSD Cross Cultural Center praktis center too!) . . .perhaps this is the key spiritual communication for the day.

We Have Arrived

We are Home!

2012 is here and now at the World Beat Center!

REJOICE! REJOICE! REJOICE!

Beginning water offerings, preliminary praktis? Where can I get water bowls? Or prostrations praktis? Something, before heading to Motherland Suroeste Asia!

9) Ongoing obsession with mental trip planning for travels to Suroeste Mexico / San Cristobal and Suroeste Asia / Thailand, etc.

10) More immediately — what do I gotta do?!

May the winds be favorable…

(END OF DISTRACTION, HOPEFULLY)

Breathing out, I release all these thoughts and surrender them to the Universe, confident they will be taken care of for the highest good of all concerned…

May all beings find happiness and the causes of happiness…

May all beings be free!