Free College Night: Himalayan Buddhism

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Buddhist prayer flags flutter in the Himalayas (Bhakti Omwoods/facebook.com)

College Night is an evening at the Museum just for college students. 

Meet the curators, attend tours, and listen to gallery talks with exclusive behind-the-scenes information about favorite paintings and sculptures. 

Learn about the 20-foot-tall Tibetan Buddhist silk thangka in the special exhibition In the Land of Snow: Buddhist Art of the Himalayas.

Lamayuru gompa, Ladakh (DT)

et inspired by the photography exhibition Face It: The Photographic Portrait, and then channel that inspiration as by drawing in the galleries and enjoying music, food, and drinks with fellow art lovers in the Museum’s sculpture garden.

Students receive 25% off all food for sale in the Garden Café. Visit the Norton Simon College Night page for more information.

• Friday, April 25, 2014, 7-9:00 pm
• Open House, FREE with valid college I.D.
• Registration recommended but not required

Buddhist cave temples found in Grand Canyon

Dhr. Seven and Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Jack Andrews, "Was the carved 'installation' in the Grand Canyon an ancient Buddhist temple?" (Lost Civilizations / in Spanish)

The Gazette headlines of April 5, 1909 document the reality of these unbelievably astounding finds, some of the greatest US archeological discoveries ever. Why were they covered up?

 

Better than feathers (Jamyang190/blog)

In the vast Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA, there is an Egyptian-style tomb full of Buddhist art showing that Asians migrated to America and brought the Dharma and advanced technology to Native Americans in the distant past. It is similar to the Valley of Kings in Luxor, Egypt. While this will be too fantastic for most readers to believe, the trail of evidence begins with an article published on the front page of the Arizona Gazette on April 5, 1909. It claims that just such a rock-cut cavern temple full of Buddhist, Vedic, and Egyptian art and architecture, hieroglyphs, and mummies -- an almost incomprehensible wealth of archaeological treasures -- was discovered.

Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon Nat'l Park

"According to the story related to the Gazette by Mr. Kinkaid, the archaeologists of the Smithsonian Institute, which is financing the expeditions, have made discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern, hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental origin..." - Arizona Gazette, April 5, 1909

"First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall" -  G.E. Kincaid, 1909 

Was the carved "installation" in the Grand Canyon an ancient Buddhist temple?

 

Mt. Hengshan, China, near Datong, Shanxi Province

Photos show how ancient Chinese Buddhist monks went out of there way to carve their temples in cliff faces in remote and inaccessible cliff-lined river canyons.

Other clues to the speculation that the installation may have been used for such a purpose are broken swords and cups and other items, often used ceremonially in ancient Chinese Buddhist temples, were found in the cave in 1909. The cave lies in Marble Canyon (above photo), which is a steep limestone wall-lined canyon. It it is similar to the Hanging or Mid-Air temples on Mount Hengshan, China, southeast of Datong, Shanxi Province.

They cling precariously to the cliff face and illustrate determined isolation of the early Buddhist communities in China. 

Founded in pre-Tang Northern Wei Dynasty, the temples continued to function during the Tang period and were subsequently restored in the Ming and Qing dynasties (Tang China: Vision and Splendour of a Golden Age by Edmund Capon with photography by Werner Forman, Macdonald Orbis, 1989). 

 

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves (left) high on the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains, 27 miles (45 km) east of Turpan near Shanshan in Western China's Uygur Autonomous Region, northeast of Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang. The caves feature  ancient Buddhist monasteries carved into cliffs dating from ~400 AD to 1,300  AD. More

  

"Approximately 70 km. (45 miles) east of Turfan lie the Buddhist cave-cliff temples of Bezeklik, most of which were originally built in the open and joined by wooden porches.

 

Grand Canyon Egyptian finds (lightworkers.org)

"Others were carved into the living rock in the manner of cave temples. The height of activity at Bezeklik, on the evidence of surviving wall paintings, was the Tang Dynasty, when Silk Road trade brought travelers, merchants, and missionaries to the temples in search of sanctuary and spiritual comfort.

Today they are still difficult to reach, for the monks endeavored, even here in the desert wastelands of Chinese Central Asia, to build their temples as far away as possible from the real and profane world" (Ibid.)

 

Mai-Chi caves, Chinling range, China (Magnificant China, Hong Kong, Hua Hsia Publ., 1972)

 
Indian Legend

Burmese cave temple (Nadia Isakova/flickr)

It is notable that among the Hopis, the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon. This went on until dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart, the people of two hearts.
 
(Manchoto), who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out.

They tarried by Palsiaval (Red River), which is the Colorado river, and grew grain and corn. They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking for blessings of peace, goodwill, and rain for the people of one heart.

That messenger never returned, but today at the Hopi village at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe out on the housetops gazing towards the Sun, looking for the messenger. When he returns, their land and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them. That is the tradition. More

• Arizona Gazette, Monday Evening, April 5, 1909
• Is There a Vast Cavern System of Tunnels and Chambers at the Grand Canyon?
• Lost City of the Dead in the Grand Canyon
• The Grand Discovery (story quoted in full)
• The Importance of the Find in 1909
• The Search for Kinnaman's Entrance
• The [astonishing] Arizona Gazette story of 1909

• Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of the Southwest
• Lost Cities of China, Central Asia, and India

The Kogi, Sierra Nevada (RinzaisMarket.com, Sedona, AZ, world-healing.com)

Did the Buddha dance? (video)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Ou Lu Yang, Xochitl (ed.)

Don't lecture us, venerable sir, just show us that dance again (Dietmar Temps/flickr.com).

Tibetan Vajrayana lamas engaged in meditative Tai Chi-style movements.

Native American Apache spirit dancers, 1887, traditional ceremony (Native Skeptic)

  

Dancing Tara (liveauctioneers)

Why do human beings dance? Synchronized movements, particularly to rhythmic music or a unifying beat as our cue, are a natural ritual for nonverbal expression and communication.

 

We are making use of these incredible bodies, which may seem feeble now in the Kali Yuga but were certainly much more incredible in earlier and future Golden Ages. (It's cyclical, so all ages repeat).

Shakyamuni Buddha was not Shiva Nataraja ("Dancing Shiva," lit. "Shiva Lord of the Dance [of Life]"). According to Hinduism the Buddha was the ninth avatar of Lord Vishnu, the great sustaining god. 

 

The Buddha, however, made it very clear that he is NOT a god/deva, not a messenger angel, not a mythical being, no longer an ordinary human being, and not an anything other than "AWAKENED" (Dona Sutra, AN 4.36). Because of this, he came to be called the Buddha, a title which means the "Awakened One."

 

Shiva's cosmic dance, not the Buddha's

But if GOD (Brahman, godhead) is an acronym, G.O.D. -- the Generator (Brahma), Operator (Vishnu), and Destroyer (Shiva) of the universe -- then by this logic the historical Buddha was a force for the steady maintenance of this world-system, our universe or, at least, our solar system.

• Buddhism and the God-idea

(According to whistleblower and former CIA pilot John Lear, our solar system actually has more than 30 planets, which if true might correspond to Buddhist cosmology's 31 Planes of Existence, assuming a "world-system" is only the size of a solar system rather than a galaxy, constellation/celestial sphere like Orion, or a universe).

 

So did the Buddha dance? 

Dancing 1,000-armed Kwan Yin Pusa (CTG)

No, the Buddha did not dance. There is no need to for one who has transcended materiality and mentality and reached the stillness of absorption and become the quintessence of enlightenment, no longer a slave to intellect and emotion, to clinging and suffering, to identity and to social constraints. 

 

Dancing is also outside of the Discipline (Patimokkha and  Vinaya and even excluded in the Training Rules of intensive lay practitioners during the lunar observances).

 

Dancing Tara Bodhisattva, Nepal (ebay.com)

But that is not to say Buddhists do not. Buddhists do dance! Buddhists (even bodhisattvas) do all sorts of things. Look at Kwan Yin, look at Tara, look at high lamas and other vow takers. 

 

A better question one might ask is, Did Siddhartha (the Buddha-to-be) dance? There were more than enough musicians and dancing girls in the palaces and at the parties, so he must have.

 

Should we as American Buddhists be stoic and guilt-ridden like our Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish cultural forbears (as typified in James Joyce's The Dead)? No, let's not do that.

 

Prince Siddhartha and the palace dancing girls

Let's be alive. Let's have bodies rather than separating from them the way early childhood trauma encourages us to do. Being "present" means being here, in the body. That is what Ram Dass meant when he distilled the message of Zen and Buddhism in general with the simple expression BE HERE NOW.

 

Flexible yogini in sitting pose (Caroline Klebl)

Let's loosen our hips. Raja (Ashtanga, Integral) Yoga and even gentle Hatha Yoga helps with that. Unclenching sphincters also helps. We are so uptight, pushing ourselves to seem ever-busy, seeming to get so much done to fulfill ourselves by waving bucket lists with lots of check marks.

 

"Breathe," Pink Floyd advises, "breathe in the air. Don't be afraid to care. Leave. But don't leave me. Look around. Choose your own ground. How you live and how you fly, the smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry, all you touch and you see is all your life will ever be...."

 

Dancing, remembering, and letting go

Then there's the advice of Deadmau5 featuring Kaskade: "Feeling the past moving in/ Letting a new day begin/ Hold to the time that you know./ You don't have to move on, but let go./ Remember turning on the night/ And moving through the morning light./ Remember how it was with you./ Remember how you pulled me through./ I remember, I remember, I remember.../ Hold to the love that you know./ You don't have to give up to let go." (Extended dance mix)

 

Dancing shakes off excess cosmic energy (shakti, feminine power, yin) from the body's spinning chakras. Then Shiva resorts to the bliss (piti and sukha) of samadhi.

  

Tibetan Monks' Trance Dance 

OuLuYang edited by Wisdom Quarterly

You should do like this, not do like that. And don't laugh, I'm serious. You're recluses now, and right and wrong must be very clear to you! Do you hear me? (overgrownpath.com)

  

The video above is a dance performed by young monastics at Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, a Buddhist monastery located north of the city of Zhongdian (Shangri-La) in Yunnan province on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

 

The dance begins with one lama emerging from the main temple. His routine initially faces the temple then faces all of the directions of the wind then spirals around a central point where there is a dark quilt and wooden square (symbolizing a demon).

 

The beat of the shaman's drum (Budddhism and Bön), Lamayuru, Ladakh (Dietmar Temps)

  

The shaman's ancient drum far from Tibet

The dance accelerates and incorporates jumping. In its finale, dozens of monks join in to perform the circular dance around the quilt until, in the end, they all crowd around its center. 

 

The dance concludes with pairs of monks taking leaps at the temple, praying toward its entrance, praying away from its entrance, then jumping inside. Altogether it takes about three hours. The dance is performed annually, during a ritual in which monks dress in elaborate costumes and masks and dance around a large effigy of the demon rather than a quilt. It is very reminiscent of Native American (Hopi, Anasazi, Apache, Puebloan peoples) ceremonial dances.

 

The purpose of the dance is to contain the angry spirit of the demon, possibly to recreate the Tibetan myth of the subjugation of an angry Himalayan goddess by an Indian monk, which popularized the monk and allowed for the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. This video is an amalgamation of clips recorded during the initial monk's rehearsal for the ritual.

New Year's Eve meditation, Los Angeles

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; LA.Shambhala.org

Meditation for serenity, bliss, and insight

The open meditation programs are ongoing, free, and open to the public. No reservations nor prior experience are necessary to attend. Meditation cultivates serenity and compassion. The Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles in Eagle Rock (on Colorado Blvd. at Figueroa, next to Pasadena) is holding a marathon public meditation and dinner for New Year's Eve 2014, from 4:00 pm to midnight. (Nominal charge for dinner, but sitting and party are FREE). Meditation instruction will also be available free. More

A Guide to Void-Gazing Meditation

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Wayne Pitches (voices.yahoo.com)

The boundless sky or akasha includes space (bbc.co.uk)

 

Deep in meditation (wiki)

This is a variation on a Tibetan meditation known as "Sky-Gazing." It is named this because the practice involves gazing in a relaxed way at the sky as one meditates. This meditation is essentially the same and can be used indoors or wherever even if the sky is not immediately visible.

Begin by taking a seat with back erect, hands resting on lap. Alternatively, lie down comfortably, but not so comfortably that sleep comes on. Close the eyes, and take a few calming breaths as eyes settle gently behind the eyelids, gazing gently ahead. To relax even further, repeat silently the seed mantra, Emaho (ay-mah-ho). It is Tibetan for "wondrous!" and is the core-teaching of Tibetan meditation. Experience the wonder of being alive, sitting there in immersed in our original Buddha nature.

 

Gazing at Occupy LA (WQ)

Imagine staring out into a vast emptiness, a deep dark void where nothing exists. When this can be imagined easily, begin to breathe in and out as deeply as possible while remaining relaxed. The focus should be on the out-breath, imagining that with each exhalation one is breathing essence out into that void, becoming one with its spacious luminosity. No ego exists here. Feel yourself expanding beyond any corporeal confines, filling that void. More

• Easy ways to learn to meditate
• DIY: How to get the most out of meditation
• Book review: Buddha Standard Time
• Meditation for Beginners
• The benefits of meditation in psychotherapy
• Meditation soothes the mind, helps us understand ourselves and creates whole being...
• After the MLK holiday, what's next for change?
• NSA accessed private info of U.K. citizens
• Opposing oil drilling, "Arctic 30" stand up for 7 billion 
• "We have to consume less": Scientists call for radical economic overhaul to avert climate crisis
• Indonesia suspends military cooperation with Australia over NSA spying troubles
• Shareholders press AT&T and Verizon on NSA spying

Tsoknyi Rinpoche on benefits of meditation

CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly, Chan Tse Chueen (South China Morning Post, scmp.com, 11-22-13) 

Tsoknyi Rinpoche III says meditation techniques he teaches fit easily into rhythm of city life.

 

City life is fast (Edward Wong/SCMP.com)

Visiting Tibetan Buddhist master explains the benefits of meditation. "If we are living in a nightmare, at least we try and turn it into a healthy dream," he says.

 

As the practice of meditation gains mainstream acceptance, a visiting Tibetan Buddhist master tells Chan Tse Chueen how it has helped him.

Enough of stardom!

For someone regarded by the Tibetan Buddhist [Vajrayana] faithful as a reincarnated master teacher of the Dharma, Tsoknyi Rinpoche III is remarkably frank about his own human frailties.

 

It took him seven years to stop drinking a certain popular brand of [sugar-laden] soda, which he knew was bad for his health.

 

Better health key to good hair!

This story, which he shared last month with a Hong Kong audience at a series of talks on death and meditation, is typical of his teaching style -- honest, amusing, and direct. It makes accessible the lofty topics of his concerns: the limitless potential of our mind, the nature of reality, and happiness.

 

N.K. executes 80 for watching TV

His soda anecdote speaks to those of us who find it difficult to bridge the gap between knowledge and action, which happens, he explains, when the head fails to communicate with the heart.

This disconnect, and how meditation can help us to bridge that gap, is a message Tsoknyi Rinpoche carries with him to lectures and retreats in Europe, America, and Asia. More

• Babies do not come from trash dumps, Chinese sex ed...
• Bitcoin miners find it increasingly hard to make money
• Macau's casinos are expanding, but visa law problems
• Hi-tech advances in smartphones opening up possibilities
• Breweries in Beijing bring Euro craft beers to masses
• "Smart glasses" aid [NSA spying,] visually impaired
• Filipino workers "treated like animals," kicked out of S.A.

British gynecologists shocked by fivefold increase in female genital mutilation surgeries

Buddhist nomads of India (photos)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; photographer Dietmar Temps (flickr.com)

Nomadic Buddhist children in Himalayan Ladakh, India (DietmarTemps/flickr.com)

Lamayuru monastery under a full moon, Ladakh, Himalayas (dietmartemps.com)

  

Changtang in Ladakh (Buddhist India in the Himalayas) is the home of the Changpa nomads, a semi-nomadic Tibetan ethnic group.

When the nomadic children grow older, they are lucky to get the chance to attend school, usually a year-around boarding school. Their parents would welcome the opportunity of a better life afforded by the education.

Although their elders are proud of their traditions, they realize that the new generation will probably not follow the difficult nomadic life once they have an easier option. Childhood education opens up the possibility of a job in the capital of Leh or other cities in Ladakh, the "rooftop of the world."

• PHOTO GALLERY

On the one hand from the viewpoint of a tourist it is, of course, a bit sad that the traditions of the nomadic people might disappear entirely in the future. But it is completely understandable that nomads might also like to participate in the educational system to get a fair share of a growing economy.

On the other hand, there is almost no industry in Ladakh, other than the tourist industry. Many of the youth work in the sprawling tourism business in their early 20s. But the season in Ladakh, perched high in the Himalayas, is very short. The tourism industry cannot offer all of the people good jobs to earn enough money to raise a family.

When I asked young people about their dreams, I often got the answer of dreams of office jobs in public administration. Only a desperate few would consider going into the military, which has a presence in Ladakh as India attempts to fend off China to the north and Pakistan to the west.

Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, northern India

The days when a family's youngest son inevitably started life as a Buddhist novice (samanera) in a local monastery (gompa) are over. These are interesting developments in Ladakh, in general, not only for the nomadic children of Changtang. More

"Heavenly Bodies" - Catholic relics

Pat Macpherson, Xochitl, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

(Thamesandhudson.com) Q&A with LA-based art historian Dr. Koudounaris, expert and author on European ossuaries and charnel houses for both academic and popular journals. Now he is bringing these saints out of the darkness for the first time.

 

Dr. Paul Koudounaris* signed Heavenly Bodies earlier this month at La Luz de Jesus art gallery. Koudounaris gained unprecedented access to the relics of Catholic "catacomb saints," a rare set of historical artifacts. They were hidden for over a century because Western attitudes toward the worship of holy relics and death itself changed. Some of the ornamented skeletons appear in publication in his book for the first time (105 illustrations, 90 in color). Where did they come from? 

 

Pope and boy (TIME)

The 17th- and 18th-century jeweled skeletons photographed for Heavenly Bodies are the finest works of art in bone ever created -- with the exception of Tibetan bone works in Nepalese lamaseries. Unlike the anonymous bone piles photographed for The Empire of Death, these holy skeletons are meant to have distinct identities -- as magnificently glorified holy people. In each case, constructing them from skulls, femurs, ribs, jewels, gold, and silver creating a kind of personality. Sometimes these skeletons are touching and poignant, sometimes bizarre and surreal, even grotesque.

• Science discovers new body part
• The Body in the Eyes of Science
• Science adores relics in "BodyWorld 2" 
• Exposing Anti-Pope (Most Holy Family)
• Ariana Grande is in touch with demons 
• Bodies? 46% more rapes in US military this year
  (Pauline Jelinek, Huff Post) Reports of sexual assaults in the military increased by an unprecedented 46 percent during the last fiscal year, the Pentagon said Thursday. It wasn’t possible to know whether the spike represented an increase in assaults, an increase in the percentage of people reporting them, or both. More

*Dr. Koudounaris explains: “The closest I can come to bringing the actual Heavenly Bodies to my viewers and readers is this photo show, which presents them in up to live-sized reproductions. This show also provides me with another opportunity: a chance to cull my own personal favorites from among the thousands of photos I took. These are not always the same images shown in the book; rather, it is my own personal selection of what I consider the finest and most expressive decorated skeletons.”