America's Buddhist burial mound at Sedona

Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; photographers Pete/Karevil, Glen Carlin

Vajrayana Buddhist prayer flags flying over Boudhanath, Nepal (Pete/Karnevil/flickr)

 

Wisdom and Compassion

The dome at the base of Boudhanath Stupa ("Enlightenment Reliquary," a UNESCO World Heritage Site) outside Kathmandu, Nepal represents the entire world. When a person awakens (represented by the opening of the eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the illusory bonds of the world, that person has reached the state of enlightenment. Complete liberation (nirvana) awaits and is already visible when this is accomplished.

America needs a great Buddhist stupa!
Xochitl, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Sedona's Buddhist Stupa, Sedona, Arizona (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com/collage)

 

Flags over Sedona Stupa (Glen Carlin)

We have one! We have other smaller ones, too. Every Buddhist temple in America wants its own old-world reliquary, a white mound to entomb spiritual treasures.

Pagodas, dagabas, chortans, mandala-mounds, and so on all house priceless reliquary objects -- either minute amounts of the historical Buddha's funerary ashes or relics (strange physical byproducts of enlightenment manifesting as beautiful glass-like beads and other formations that survive or are produced during cremation) or the remains of arhats, honored teachers, and world rulers (chakravartins).

Then there's the great Tibetan stupa at SMC in Colorado, too (shambhalamountain.org)

• 

  Small side-chortan in Sedona

  Wait a minute. How in the world could there be so many of the Buddha's cremation ashes to supply all the world's stupas? It's ludicrous; it's like all that wood the Medieval Christians sold as authentic bits of Christ's own Roman cross. The answer is very simple. If we begin with one cup of actual cremation remains, then we can divide that, but as with any precious powder, it is watered down with a neutral substance: one part relic ashes with one million parts neutral ashes = 1,000,001 parts authentic Buddha ashes. Stranger still, "relics" multiply, so they are not limited to what was available the first day. Moreover, not only the Buddha's remains are used but those of many arhats. There are still arhats, still funeral pyres, cremation remains, and so long as the Dharma is practiced even by one person, there is a chance for more.

Amazing Anasazi (Hopi) ruins at Tuzigoot, Clarkdale, Arizona (americansouthwest.net)

 

Wooden Buddha (Glen Carlin)

City councils are very reluctant to approve of such building requests. There is a campaign to bring one to Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara.
 
But one already exists, built by Tibetan Buddhists in northern California. Across the USA there are small ones and plans, or at least dreams, for more.

Buddha profile (Glen Carlin)

However, there is at least one great one already: It is in our spiritual center where Native Americans recognized vortices of power and energy, Sedona, Arizona.

Wisdom Quarterly visited with Xochitl and Dr. Rei Rei to visit the Anasazi sites and this amazing hidden gem hidden on the west side of the American Southwest's most beautiful town.

To visit, choose the cooler months. Sedona is amazing year round, with winter snows the blanket the red rocks. It is one of the most picturesque landscapes in the world, a lower extension of the once Buddhist Grand Canyon. (How could the Grand Canyon ever have been Buddhist? It was).

• VIDEO: Native Buddhist artifacts, Grand Canyon
• Were the Anasazi [Native Americans] Buddhists?
• Buddhist cave temples found in Grand Canyon
• AUDIO: Ancient Egyptians in the Grand Canyon 
• Grand Canyon's secret underground Buddhist temple?  
• Native American Buddhism and Tibet 

Hovering above the massive stupa is a gorgeous wooden Buddha carving surrounded by many American offerings: trinkets, flowers, incense, glass beads, Native American jewelry, coins, notes, flags...adding to the splendor of the U.S. Southwest (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com).

Sedona, Arizona is "the most beautiful place on earth" (visitsedona.com)

The Center of the Buddhist World: Bodh Gaya

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Asian Art Museum, Pasadena (asianart.org); kathmanduandbeyond.com (photo); iloveindia.com

Great Enlightenment Temple (Maha Bodhi Cetiya), Bodhgaya, India (kathmandubeyond.com)

 

BODH GAYA, India - The wandering ascetic Siddhartha searched for a suitable tree to strive under. He chose one but was so weak from self-starvation and severe austerities that were it not for a maiden who mistook him for a dryad, a tree spirit manifesting in human form, he would have failed.

The maid ran to tell the mistress who daily made offerings at the tree. They prepared a rich meal of rice, milk, creme de la creme, and sweet treacle (coconut tree syrup).

Go back, be rich, prince! - Mara, I see you.

They approached the emaciated ascetic offered it. He was so weak they had to revive him, which disgusted the Five Ascetics, Siddhartha's fellow mendicants who abandoned him for accepting anything from a woman's hand. After all their help restoring him to health, Siddhartha realized the body was necessary for the quest. It was not the obstacle to be overcome, but rather it was the heart/mind. He left in search of a suitable place to strive, bathing in the river Neranjara, convinced that success was near.

Under Bodhi tree ("Enlightenment Tree") at the platform seat (Glenn Losack M.D./flickr)

 

Mara makes obstacles, kills, distracts.

He came to an awe inspiring grove and chose a tree that legend says was born the same day he was, which would have made it 34-years-old. Under its delightful shade he made a seat and determined not to give up until he realized the answer to, Why do we suffer?

But rather than striving with vigor, he realized that that had been fruitless and brought him to the verge of death.

Instead, he wondered why he had been avoiding the happy meditative absorptions (that go from supersensual bliss, joy, rapture all the way to very subtle unbiased equanimity) available to him. He realized, he would later say, that immersed in and obsessed by his austerities, he feared pleasure -- but why fear pleasure not tangled up with sensuality?

How to gain enlightenment


Siddhartha the ascetic wondered if this might be the way to enlightenment -- these pleasant absorptions -- and a certainty came upon him.
 
(In many past lives as a wandering ascetic he had developed, enjoyed, and benefited from the absorptions, which lead to spiritual bliss, supernormal powers, and enhanced consciousness, so at some level of subtle awareness he felt certain that they could help him now).
 

Relax, you've got plenty of time.

But many ascetics develop the meditative absorptions -- the zens, dhyanas, jhanas, chans -- and find that they are not enough. They can serve as an excellent basis for practicing successful insight meditation, contemplative practices in the temporary purity of mind/heart provided by immersing oneself in the absorptions, emerging, and immediately practicing for insight (vipassana).
 
Entering the first four jhanas successively and emerging, Siddhartha then asked himself the all-important question: What is this suffering due to? He realized that this was conditioned by that, but that was conditioned by something else. And he went back and back through 12 causal links (called Dependent Origination) to realize how things arise, how this present suffering arises, how it is he had come to be through an unfathomable past.

Moreover, he realized that there was a weak link in this chain, a point in the cyclical process which he could do something about: craving. Part of the chain depended on desiring, craving, and clinging to sensuality, to views, to continued becoming in superior states of existence.

Inside the main shrine of the Maha Bodhi ("Great Enlightenment") Temple in Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), Bihar (vihara) state, India (bharat), there is a golden statue under glass (Simon Maddison/maddison_simon/flickr)

.

Sensual craving, clinging to views
While he could not will himself not to desire, not to crave, there was a way to bring about the cessation of craving: One could look at things just as they really are. For example, whatever one lusts, why does one lust after it?

WARNING: Don't look!

Partly, it is because it is pleasing, appealing, beautiful, and alluring -- until we keep looking and start to notice that it is flawed, falling away, aging, based on things completely unlike it. Say we find a body appealing, its beautiful skin and proportionality, its alluring fragrance and softness. If we look and keep looking, it will not be but a few hours before we notice impurities, offensive odors, "soil" coming out of all its openings -- mucus, ear wax, spittle, feces, urine, sweat, fat, gas.
 

Walking corpses (femen.org)

The realization is so shocking, so real, that the mind/heart shrinks back. One becomes dispassionate, disillusioned, and there is a moment of freedom, seeing things as they really are.
 
We are quickly re-illusioned; we run to it as our only safety and comfort in a harsh world, and we die still firmly in the grip of delusion, craving, and aversion (to all that is repugnant).
 
The heart/mind will not stand for the painful and disappointing truth. But, Siddhartha wondered, we were to stay with it? It allows an opening for systematic insight exercises, and one can break through to a realization that this has gone on not only in this life, this existence, but in countless past lives, past existences, past states of consciousness, past homes, past births, past states of becoming. And something more shocking is true: It is not only the gross impurities that are repulsive, there is a very subtle illusion going on:

That thing, that thing

Sid broke through (Songkhram_Ahuwari)

That thing, that composite-heap, is not one thing but countless parts, each of which is constantly falling away and being replaced. That thing -- all things -- that seems so stable, so likely to provide pleasure and satisfaction, actually provides a constant illusion and inevitable disappointment.

We never realize this; we cling to it instead as if maybe next time it will satisfy us, fulfill us, grant us lasting happiness and contentment. It fails, and fails, and fails, and yet we keep doing it seeing no other choice than to chase after illusory things. And it is not only sensual pleasures, but intellectual views (speculations, theories, philosophies, opinions, sides, real delusions about ourselves, about the world we think we see, feel, and taste out there).

Stop seeking. Live and die again.

Siddhartha's mind/heart let go, shrank back, pulled away, turned from, abandoned its clinging, its craving for this deception, and he saw things as they really are, profoundly realizing that "all things that come to be are subject to falling away; how could it be otherwise."

In other words, once one sees that things are not what they seem but are instead a painful trap, an mesmerizing illusion, a wheel we have been treading, a process the ancient mystics long ago named samsara -- this endless "continued wandering on." See, death would not be the end, death had never been the end, but just then Death got angry.

.

Samsara, the Wheel of Existence, the process of rebirth and redeath, the "continued wandering on" is like my hamster's wheel, a source of endless distraction with no origination point and no end. It does not unravel by itself but will keep going and going endlessly. However, there is a way to get off this useless and painful pursuit. More fun

Mara (Cupid) is beautiful

Mara, the personification of death, would not stand idly by as someone came so close to the answer awakening from this fitful dream, where Death imagines itself the supreme ruler. Mara Namuci the "demon" with an army of ogres (male and female yakkhas) came to unseat the Bodhisat (bodhisattva, bodhisatta, the "buddha-to-be," the being-intent-on-enlightenment).
 
Siddhartha persevered and remembering countless past lives, past conditions, past times when these same things had been true, these lines pursued, never seeing this Dependent Origination of things.

Attack before he realizes the Truth!

He broke through and became the Buddha ("supremely awakened teacher"), a title signifying his perfectly awakened state. One should not cling to this title because the Sage of the Shakyas (his family clan name) has gone by many titles, Mahavira ("Great Hero"), Tathagata (the "Wayfarer or Welcome One and Well Gone One"), Bhagava ("Blessed One"), and so on.

We say the historical Buddha because the former Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Gotama) realized that there had been other Awakened Ones in the distant past and in the future, a precious few who taught, many more who could not, and those striving to accomplish this level of realization and teaching ability.
 

Tibetan monks use wooden planks to do 100,000 prostrations to the Bodhi tree (not shown)

Who are the "Noble Ones"?

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; G.P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Terms)

Three noble ones pay homage to an image of the Noble One (Sasin Tipchai/Bugphai/flickr)

 

The noble ones or "noble persons" (ariya-puggala) does not refer to teaching and nonteaching buddhas but to anyone who attains the various stages of enlightenment and liberation. The Buddha may be called the Noble One, but his function was the production of noble ones, of establishing the Teaching, establishing the Monastic Order for intensive practice and the preservation of the Teaching long after his mission.  The grades or stages of enlightenment are not absolutes; there are different ways to distinguish attainments. But for simplicity four are repeatedly mentioned. (According to the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga there are more only because the first few are categorized together simply as stream-enterers). For example, one of the extraordinary characteristics of a stream-winner or stream-enterer (sotapanna) is that s/he faces at most seven rebirths and has therefore in this unimaginably long course of "continued wandering on" (= samsara), the Wheel of Rebirth, put a limit on suffering. The next stage, that of the once-returner, faces only one rebirth. Between these two stages, there are actually other stages, but they are all lumped together for simplicity. In fact, there were always at least eight noble ones, but only four are generally spoken of because the Commentary maintains that the difference between each pair is simply a thought-moment. This almost certainly cannot be the case, as indicated by the sutras and spelled out by Bhikkhu Bodhi in the explanatory notes to his famous sutta-pitaka (discourse-collection) translations.

Arch with an ancient Buddha image in Theravada Buddhist Phowintaung, Burma

 

The eight and nine NOBLE ONES are:

(A) The eight noble ones are those who have realized one of the eight stages of enlightenment, that is, the four supermundane paths (maggas) and the four supermundane fruitions (phalas) of these paths.

There are four pairs:

1. One realizing the path of stream-winning (sotāpatti-magga).

2. One realizing the fruition of stream-winning (sotāpatti-phala).

3. One realizing the path of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-magga).

4. One realizing the fruition of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-phala).

5. One realizing the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga).

6. One realizing the fruition of non-returning (anāgāmi-phala).

7. One realizing the path of full enlightenment (arahatta-magga).

8. One realizing the fruition of full enlightenment (arahatta-phala).

In sum, there are by this scheme four noble individuals (ariya-puggala): the stream-winner (sotāpanna), the once-returner (sakadāgāmi), the non-returner (anāgāmī), the fully-enlightened (arhat or arahat, arahant).

Here is where the sutras and the Path of Freedom, which is a commentarial work analogous to the more famous Path of Purification (one possibly being an earlier version of the other, both works of the most famous Buddhist commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa, but the earlier version credited to Ven. Upatissa (the original Upatissa being Ven. Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom," analogous to his chief female monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom" Ven. Khema).

Change of Lineage

Sariputra, foremost in wisdom (SashWeer/flickr)

All of unenlightened beings are "ordinary worldings." Most of us are uninstructed ordinary worldlings. But in A.VIII.10 and A.IX.16 the gotrabhū is listed as the ninth noble individual. When one goes from "ordinary worldling" to "noble one," it is extraordinary. The Buddha referred to this liberation process as a "change of lineage." One is completely different now even while seeming to others (or even oneself) exactly the same. It is nearly impossible to tell who is a stream-enterer or fully-enlightened. There are ways for one to tell of oneself, but it is very easy to overestimate one's attainment. It is amazing talking to stream-enterers or reading their descriptions in the sutras and them not being sure. See, for example, the story of Queen Mallika's maid. They are only sure something happened, and they can hardly explain what or how. Logic dictates that ordinarily worldings would be able to tell, but experience proves otherwise. They can recognize each other but by prodding and testing a little, not by some magic intuition. Ajahn Jumnien tells the story of how he met California Vipassana (insight meditation) teacher Ruth Denison (DhammaDena.com) and knew but also how he did not know how far along she was until he tested her. One reason for this is that one retains many of the same characteristics as before the Truth liberated one. The most important thing one can bear in mind in this regard is that ENLIGHTENMENT PERFECTS PERSPECTIVE NOT PERSONALITY.

One will come out the other end with right view (samma ditthi) but will keep many of the same quirks, predilections, and predispositions after undergoing an utterly radical change in view about the things that matter (bodhipakkayadhamma). Wisdom itself does the uprooting of ignorance, not an act of will or self or thinking. And this is because full enlightenment does not mean omniscience. It means FULL penetration of only four things -- the Four Noble Truths. Perhaps it also means utter certainty about the Three Marks of Existence and the fact of Dependent Origination, the certainty that nothing comes into being without a cause or with only a single cause. When we ask, in accordance with the first noble truth, "How has this present suffering come into being?" we are investigating causes and conditions. There are at least 12, and of these the weakest -- the one we can do something about -- is craving. There are other deeper reasons, like ignorance (avijja, avidya), but these cannot be remedied directly. Craving can. Craving is not the root of all suffering, as many people say. Ignorance is. But the Buddha singled out craving (tanha, desire) because his insight into the causal links of Dependent Origination led him to realize that it was possible to break the chain at this link. Right view, knowing-and-seeing,

 

Path and Fruition

A permanent and radical change of heart

By "PATH" (magga) or "supermundane path," according to the "Higher Teaching" (Abhidhamma), is simply meant a designation of the moment of entering into one of the four stages of enlightenment -- [glimpsing] nirvana (Pali nibbāna) being the object -- produced by intuitive insight (vipassanā) into the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonality of all existence, flashing forth and forever transforming one's life and nature.

By "FRUITION" (phala) is meant those moments of consciousness that follow immediately thereafter as the result of the path, which in certain circumstances may repeat innumerable times during the lifetime.

(I) Through the path of stream-winning one "becomes" free (whereas in realizing the fruition, one "is" free) from the first three fetters (samyojana) that bind ordinary beings to existence in the Sensual Sphere (the lowest of three "spheres" or lokas in a threefold classification of the 31 Planes of Existence in Buddhist cosmology encompassing to the lowest hells, the worlds of humans, animals, ghosts, titans, and lower devas, up to the highest of the six sensual "heavens"; the other two spheres are the Fine-Material or Subtle Sphere and the Immaterial Sphere):

• (1) personality-belief (sakkāya-ditthi),
• (2) skeptical doubt about the path (vicikicchā),
• (3) belief that mere rules or rituals could ever lead one to enlightenment (sīlabbata-parāmāsa; see upādāna).

(II) Through the path of once-returning one becomes nearly free of the fourth and fifth fetters:

• (4) sensuous craving (kāma-cchanda = kāma-rāga),
• (5) ill-will (vyāpāda = dosa, see "roots," mūla).

(III) Through the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga) one becomes fully free of the first five or "lower" fetters.

(IV) Through the path of full-enlightenment one further becomes free of the five "higher" fetters as well:

• (6) craving for fine-material existence (rūpa-rāga),
• (7) craving for immaterial existence (arūpa-rāga),
• (8) conceit (māna),
• (9) restlessness (uddhacca),
• (10) ignorance (avijjā).

Tibetan Vajrayana stained glass rainbow emanation (Samye Ling Centre and Monastery)

 

The stereotype sutra text runs as follows:

(I) "After the disappearance of the three fetters, the meditator has won the stream (that leads inevitably to nirvana) and is no longer subject to rebirth in lower worlds (subhuman planes of existence), is firmly established, destined for full enlightenment.

(II) "After the disappearance of the first three fetters and [a marked] reduction of greed, hatred, and delusion, one will return [at most] only once more [to this world]. And having once more returned to this world, one will put an end to suffering.

(III) "After the disappearance of the first five fetters one appears in a higher world [in superhuman planes of existence, i.e., the Pure Abodes], and there one reaches nirvana without ever returning from that world (to the Sensual Sphere).

(IV) "Through the extinction of all taints or cankers (āsava-kkhaya) one reaches in this very life that deliverance of mind, that deliverance through wisdom, which is freed of the cankers, and which one has directly understood and realized."

• For the various classes of stream-winners and non-returners, see sotāpanna and anāgāmī.

(B) The sevenfold grouping of the noble disciples runs as follows:
(1) the confidence (conviction, faith)-devotee (saddhānusārī),
(2) the confidence-liberated one (saddhāvimutta),
(3) the body-witness (kāya-sakkhī),
(4) the both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta),
(5) the Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī),
(6) the vision-attainer (ditthippatta),
(7) the wisdom-liberated one (paññā-vimutta).

This group of seven noble disciples is explained in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXI, 73):

(1) "One who is filled with resolution (adhimokkha) and, by [systematically] considering the formations as impermanent (anicca), gains the faculty of confidence, who at the moment of the path to stream-winning (A.1) is called a confidence-devotee (saddhānusārī);

(2) One is called a confidence-liberated one (saddhā-vimutta) at the seven higher stages (A. 2-8).

(3) One who is filled with tranquility and, by considering the formations as disappointing (dukkha), gains the faculty of concentration, who in every respect is considered a body-witness (kāya-sakkhī).

(4) One, however, who after reaching the absorptions of the immaterial sphere (Jhanas 5-8) has attained the highest fruition (of full enlightenment), who is a both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta).

(5) One who is filled with wisdom and, by considering the formations as not-self (anattā), gains the faculty of wisdom, who is at the moment of stream-winning a Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī).

(6) One who at the later stages (A. 2-7) is a vision-attainer (ditthippatta).

(7) One who is  a wisdom-liberated one (paññāvimutta) at the highest stage (A. 8)."

Love, Sexuality, and Awakening: Retreat

Ven. Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni (awakeningtruth.org) and Dr. Sharon Beckman-Brindley (metta.org); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Fragrant blossoming lotus flower, the symbol of opening (tvladusi/flickr.com)

 

Dr. Beckman-Brindley, Ven. Thanasanti

The theme of this retreat is our relationship with various facets of love as part of a path of Buddhist awakening. "Love" includes a broad range of experience -- from a sense of friendliness and compassion, to appreciation toward ourselves, to the desire to release our masks and defenses and rest in a shared intimacy with others [a loss of self and merging with someone or something larger].

Sometimes in our daily life, this shared intimacy is expressed through romantic sexual involvement. [Other times it is sought diving within through asceticism and spirituality.] Ultimately, resting in love, we can embody an unconditional love that has no expectations, where love is an essential quality of "being" rather than a state or circumstance we long for [a trait rather than a temporary state].

 

Time for reflection (true-enlightenment.com)

This will be an eight precept retreat in which we refrain from killing and harming, and from stealing, any sexual activity, incorrect speech, and/or substances which cloud the mind. There will be two meals and an evening snack. We will begin the week using the Foundations of Mindfulness in silent practice. After a few days of silence, we will introduce sessions of Insight Dialogue to explore the theme.

It runs from Saturday May 23-30 in Loveland, Colorado, at Sunrise Ranch within easy access of Denver Int'l airport, yet secluded from the bustle of city life, in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Program contact: Katherine Wolfe (wolfalohalani@gmail.com). More 
 
ELIGIBILITY: This retreat is suitable for anyone self-identified as a woman who has a regular meditation practice and has done a seven-day mindfulness retreat.

DONATION: The teachings are offered on a dana basis (the Pali word for "generosity," the Buddhist practice of giving to one’s capacity).

SCHOLARSHIP: Dana has played an essential role in the Buddhist tradition. In the spirit of this tradition, Awakening Truth does not want cost to be an obstacle to participation and so, are committed to offering financial assistance to those who need it. If you cannot attend the retreat due to cost, please contact the retreat committee: 720-295-1321 or awakeningtruth.retreats@gmail.com.

SPONSORED BY: Awakening Truth, a 501(c)3 organization based in Colorado with the intention of supporting Buddhist nuns, bringing the teachings into the modern world and building a training monastery for [blended-Theravada] Forest Tradition bhikkhunis.

TEACHERS

Sharon Beckman-Brindley, Ph.D., is a Senior Insight Dialogue Teacher who teaches Insight Dialogue retreats worldwide. A clinical psychologist, she has served as team leader for Metta’s Relational Insight Meditation Program; she also serves on the Metta Programs Teachers Council. She has practiced vipassana (insight) meditation for over 30 years. Since 2001 she has studied and practiced the Dhamma and Insight Dialogue intensively with Gregory Kramer. She is also a co-founder and a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville, Virginia and is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She also has over 30 years of practice as a psychotherapist, who has led workshops and retreats on meditation and its integration with psychotherapy for over 15 years. She is a stepmother and a grandmother and lives with her husband and their two cats in Charlottesville.
 
Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni is a guest in Metta’s Teacher Training program. She has been meditating for over 30 years, a [Theravada or more eccentric American monastic] Buddhist nun for over 20 years, and has been teaching internationally for over 15 years. He work spans rigorous understanding of Buddhist teachings, non-dual meditation, depth psychology, subtle body energies, and the Divine Feminine. She teaches meditation as an art and skill, integrating body, heart, and mind with finesse and compassion. She founded Awakening Truth [whose rainbow motif suggests a particularly welcome climate for lesbians and gays], whose mission is to create a nun (bhikkhuni)'s training monastery and seeks ways for monastics and lay practitioners to work together to support whole-life practice. She is currently based at the Shakti Vihara Hermitage in Colorado Springs.

"Awaken to the Truth" with John Lear (audio)

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; John Lear (thelivingmoon.com)

The truth is too hard to awaken to, so when someone blows the whistle, we tend to duck and shield our eyes from the shattering revelations ("Immaculate Deception" movie).

Edward Snowden (The Guardian) The NSA will not shut up about whistleblower Snowden, but what about the spy who stole more? ...Snowden speaks out against the NSA via Google Hangouts at SxSW... technologists can really fix the deficiencies in the Internet to protect standards.

• 

  Use encryption, use it in layers (sxsw.com).

  WhistleBlogger (Gov't Accountability Project) Protecting corporate, government, and int'l whistleblowers since 1977. Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW: Daily Whistleblower News. GAP client and NSA whistleblower Snowden will speak live via videoconference...



Bradley Chelsea Manning is a hero.

• Who better to advise on business security than Snowden? He defends NSA surveillance whistleblowing at SXSW... secret government spy programs have rocked the world, [he] spoke live from Russia ....urging members of the tech-savvy audience to [use multiple layers of encryption]
• NSA...TV Archive Democracy Now! [on] the latest revelations from Snowden that the NSA...seek[ing] the records of millions of individuals goes against the very fabric of... 
• Free Julian Assange (Facebook) Assange rails against NSA surveillance. He and his team are preparing NEW WikiLeaks releases.

"Dalai Lama Awakening" (sneak preview)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; DalaiLamaFilm.com; KPFK; K. Darvich

(KD) Narrated by Harrison Ford, featuring Indian and Tibetan music for a "trippy" feel in honor of the Vajrayana leader's home-in-exile, Dharamsala, India

Our transformation is NOW, says the sequel's producer-director Khashyar Darvich. Come to a sneak preview, a special screening (prior to the official March 2, 2014 premiere of "Dalai Lama Awakening"). Fans of transformation will gather at Yoga Soup on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014 at 6:30-9:30 pm ($15) for an in person Q&A with Darvich following the screening.

Dalai Lama at Univ. of Hawaii

This self-reputed "transformational" documentary has the 14th Dalai Lama sounding more like the character George Lucas ("Star Wars") created in his honor, Yoda, than he has ever sounded. (Or was it actually Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche? That unmistakable voice, wisdom, syntax... no, Yoda's modelled on this Dalai Lama for sure).

In the guise of wise

Yoga Soup will be screening Awakening, Volume 2 of the award-winning "Dalai Lama Renaissance" (available on DVD). 

 

Harrison Ford narrates, and the film also features quantum physicists Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami, radio host Thom Hartmann, revolutionary social scientist Jean Houston, Rev. Michael Beckwith ("The Secret"), and others.

Dalai Lama - Compassion: the Source of Happiness (Part 1)

Nirvana in a Himalayan meditation hut

Kelly, Wisdom Quarterly

On top of the world at peace in the Himalayas (Biswarup sarkar72/flickr.com)

 

Blue-eyed Buddha, Thikse Gompa

Suddenly by the fireplace, the light dawned. And I understood: Everything that is of a nature to arise is of a nature to pass away!

Regarding ALL phenomena it may be said, "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease."

 

In the ceasing, because they cease, how could these things be considered a permanent self? How could these things produce permanent satisfaction?

 

So fully letting go, things were known just as they are -- reality was seen just as it is -- and nirvana was glimpsed. Such a thing is good to see! Then there was no doubt whatsoever.