Milarepa’s idea of “Enlightenment in one lifetime,”or bust…

Vajradhara’s cockpit like Shakespeare’s,

All the world’s our stage,

Our shrine room,

Every time we perform our version of the “Chariot that Carries Us Along,” as Tibetans have for generations since Marpa’s gangster dharma that made Milarepa wish he was dead,

Those masters that preceded us in the the art of Mahamudra, so freely transmitted to our privileged generation of Western college aged Punks that came of age during Ronald Reagan’s “Wonder Years” and have lived long enough to grow old in the “Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue” that is retirement in Donald Trump’s” America here in Beach Park,

Illinois, here on the western shoreline of Lake Michigan,

We offer the universe in this mandala to Alan Ginsburg’s precious Guru,

Three miles from the exact spot that the 16th Karmapa passed into Parinirvana 39 years ago.

Not bad for a new hire at Prudential Insurance Company, a degree in Sociology, and hardcore desire to never again have to be born, ready to put ngondro into practice, Milarepa’s “Enlightenment in one lifetime,”or bust.

Karpo, Marpo, Ngonpo, (secret); White, Red, Blue, (secret); Body, Speech, Mind, (secret)….

This is where Rinpoche started with me as a disciple 39 years ago. It was our first sit down together. We met the night before in Bob and Colleen’s kitchen. Rinpoche was in his room. Colleen had made tea and asked Khenpo Karthar if he wanted some. And there he was as if summoned from my imagination, a middle aged Tibetan in the robes of a Karma Kagyu monk.

Up until that moment I had thought I wanted to be a Zen Buddhist. I had been sitting, following Shunryu Suzuki’s instructions (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind), since the summer of 1979. It changed my life, as much as it took to change my life as an 18 year old.

Since Spring I had been sitting with Bob and Colleen twice a week in their living room. Bob had placed an ad in the Chicago Reader classified section. “Free meditation instruction in the Tibetan Tradition.” I called. It turned out we were neighbors. It wasn’t what I was looking for as a Buddhist but I was new to Chicago and it was nice to know somebody. They had a small child which made for a challenging dynamic to work with as meditators. The discussions afterwards were as rewarding as the time spent trying to meditate.

Rinpoche’s instructions that Bob and Colleen had received, much through the grape vine, mostly Ngodrup, Rinpoche’s translator, and Kathy in Columbus, Ohio, guided us in these early months together. To my mind Tibetan Buddhism was for Tibetans, as the name implied. The Vajrayana was nothing but magical thinking. Yet here we were under the guidance of Khenpo Karthar putting his instructions into practice together as we moved forward into our respective lives and the people we were to become as adults.

When Rinpoche entered the small kitchen I stood up and prostrated before him. I don’t know where that came from. We did prostrations when we entered Bob and Colleen’s living room shrine as we decided at the time to be the routine we would follow. I had no issue with following their example. I had never prostrated before another person though so finding myself prostrating before Khenpo Karthar took me by surprise.

For Rinpoche we were his first disciples. Among Tibetans he was just a monk. But for Bob and Colleen he wasn’t a nobody that nobody sent for. “We-don’t-want- nobody-nobody-sent-for” as they would say in Chicago back then. Rinpoche was sent to us by the Karmapa himself.

The next day I had Rinpoche and Ngodrup to myself for the afternoon. We sat in the sun room off of the living room in the front of Bob and Colleen’s third floor Rogers Park apartment on Bosworth Avenue. The western exposure bathed us in a September light that afternoon. And the three of us talked and listened to each other.

It was as if we would never again have the opportunity to speak together like this. It was a now or never kind of situation. No stone was left unturned as such. In the end Rinpoche grasped both my hands and placed his forehead to mine and told me we would never again be apart, in the words of the final lines of the Mahamudra Ngondro I have practiced daily ever since.

How the Guru takes the best of people to bring out their worst to accomplish the otherwise impossible in one lifetime

My late mother liked to tell people how normal a kid I was when I left Quebec in 1976. I don’t know how normal a kid I was. Quebec in June of that year was on the brink of voting René Lévesque into power. For those unfamiliar with the Canadian history, long story short, if you weren’t French this was the end of the line for Anglophones treating Francophones like second class citizens in what once was their country when France was a colonial power in North America prior to its defeat at Quebec City in September 13, 1759. I was a good kid though. I didn’t do drugs, drink, and so on as so many of my peers did at Richelieu Valley Regional High School did in the 1970’s.

To be continued….

Comment le Guru prend le meilleur des gens pour faire ressortir leur pire pour accomplir l’impossible en une vie

Ma défunte mère aimait dire aux gens à quel point j’étais un enfant normal lorsque j’ai quitté le Québec en 1976. Je ne sais pas à quel point j’étais un enfant normal. Le Québec, en juin de cette année-là, était sur le point de voter René Lévesque au pouvoir. Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas l’histoire canadienne, en bref, si vous n’étiez pas français, c’était la fin de la ligne pour les anglophones traitant les francophones comme des citoyens de seconde zone dans ce qui était autrefois leur pays lorsque la France était une puissance coloniale en Amérique du Nord avant sa défaite à Québec le 13 septembre 1759. J’étais pourtant un bon gamin. Je ne me droguais pas, je ne buvais pas, etc. comme beaucoup de mes camarades de l’école secondaire régionale de Richelieu Valley le faisaient dans les années 1970.

À suivre…

Vajrayogini swallows, pass it on

The boy becomes a man, so he thinks,

Vajrayogini swallows, pass it on

Just when we think we’re accomplished

Vajrayogini swallows, pass it on

When entering the field of merit

Vajrayogini swallows, pass it on

What The World Needs Now is More Buddhists?

What would a Buddhist themed remake of “Titanic” look like? It is Saturday for Japhy. He had a good week humping his way through the refuge foundation. It was a four day week of practice for him. No matter how much he practices he always ends up wishing he had done more. In this regard Japhy is quite typical of Tibetan Buddhists of his age and experiences.

I tweeted a favorite Dzongsar Khyentse quote of mine, “A world of people calling themselves Buddhist would not necessarily be a better world.” It’s always interesting how people respond to Rinpoche’s suggestion that the Buddhist project, what Buddhists do, somehow benefits humanity, i.e., the world would be a better place if there were more Buddhists, is not necessarily so.

Speaking of Buddhist projects, Japhy is doing a project typical of Tibetan Buddhists, ngondro. It’s a perfect example of something that Tibetan Buddhists actually do. Once it occurred to Japhy that nobody had taken up the cause of HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” online, it has become a cause of his. That for many people it is news to them that Tibetan Buddhists have a project common to all Tibetan Buddhists doesn’t come as a surprise to Japhy. Ngondro isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Tibetan Buddhism.

It strikes many as odd this ngondro business. It doesn’t sound all that Buddhist of us. not very Buddhist of me to count how many recitations of the refuge vow. Apparently it isn’t the Buddhist thing to do according to some. How one actually does 100, 000 recitations of the refuge vow, as a practical matter, isn’t much discussed online It isn’t a subject a lot of people want to talk about. Not a lot of Tibetan Buddhists talk about ngondro. not because it is secret, but the because of the big secret of Tibetan Buddhism in America today. We do ngondro in a manner that it is indistinguishable from not doing ngondro.

Japhy had mentioned previously how he has internalized Khenpo Karthar into his mind steam to the point where he intuitively knows what Rinpoche would have him do in a particular situation. With ngondro, the project is never in question. What is at issue is your motivation. Japhy need only revisit the recitation for the refuge foundation, he does HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” in its entirety daily on HH’s recommendation, if he has any question as to what he is doing. The challenge for Japhy is his motivation. Is it enough to see him through a 100,000 recitations of the refuge vow? So far so good.

Ang Lee, director of “Life of Pi” would be my choice of director for a Buddhist themed “Titanic” remake. As far as Buddhist themes go, the “Titanic” in itself is a perfect metaphor for samsara. What would the Buddhist project, a Buddhist response to the sinking of the Titanic look like? My aspiration is to die aware, eyes wide open. The prospect of putting yourself on the Titanic, in samsara, is very much a part of how I see the Tibetan Buddhist project. How about you?

Today is Japhy’s “Day of Beauty,” which puts him, Gigi, and Harry, in their friend Marie’s Cary, IL, salon this Saturday. It is an all day affair for them. Japhy gets his beard trimmed. Anyway, he has enjoyed having the time to write for you. He was so used to writing daily posts here that this writing only during the weekend has been hard for him. He liked his flow. Those days are gone for the foreseeable future since as it he took up completing HHK17’s ngondro as a cause. He will be done in a year. His intention when he started this blog last November was to concentrate on maintaining a daily blog. As Japhy sees it though, a year of my life dedicated to His Holiness is an opportunity of a life time that he can’t pass up at this point in his life. Anyway, he has to stop here for now. Karmapa Chenno!

Jesus Goes Large & Lamas In Tree Limbs

Japhy was woken this morning by Gigi on the phone with her sister Michelle. Japhy can tell who Gigi is on the phone with by which of her voices she is going with. Michelle is the youngest sister. Gigi likes to go with her older sister persona with younger sister Michelle. On a practice day Japhy gets up at 6AM. Today he enjoyed sleeping in.

It’s the weekend. We had Harry over to watch College Basketball on our television. He lives like a monk, his apartment is a studio he lives in. It’s a minimalist affair. The only stick of furniture is his bed. When he wants to kick back and relax he knows he is always welcome in our home. We always have a bag of Doritos with Harry’s name on it. When in Rome, as they say. If I was in retreat my life would be much different. I’m not in retreat though, so I have to make the best of it.

Japhy is never at a loss for something in his life to apply a mind training antidote to. It is a mystery to Japhy how there are people that can’t see the fall out from KTD’s Tenzin Chonyi problem for what it is, a failed attempt to foist a 20th century paradigm upon an American horizon. Does HHK17’s monastic seat need to have a noble born landlord, a Tenzin Chonyi? Japhy is of the opinion that the book needs to be closed on the Tenzin Chonyi paradigm. It simply wasn’t enough that he was HHK16’s nephew. As far as Japhy is concerned His Holiness need to put a Chief Operations Officer in charge of KTD and the first thing they need to do is put Bardor Tulku’s picture back on the shrine and put Rinpoche back on the list of teachers allowed to teach at Japhy’s Chicago KTC.

Gary Snyder hit the nail on the head when he said that there are limits to politeness when it comes to the customs of our teacher’s homelands. Just as the HHK17 has a ngondro for me, Americans, non-Tibetans, a ngondro that speaks to our causes and conditions, His Holiness needs to allow us to have a KTD without a Tenzin Chonyi. I objected to having a Tenzin Chonyi in the first place. It was a done deal though. It’s time to think about a Chief Operations Officer who can actually develop KTD instead of running it into the ground with benign neglect. That would be a step in the right direction.

Japhy has emerged from watching “To Kill a Mocking Bird” in their darkened living room to lie down in the bedroom, the brightest room in the house. What Japhy likes most about their current apartment is the bedroom. It was a large dining room in 1906. Then, probably during the Great Depression, it turned into a second bedroom. Japhy loved it the moment he saw it.

I could really see myself dying in this room. I hated the bedroom I was in before, which was cramped and dark. I don’t want to die in a room like that. I am as surprised as anyone that I’m still alive and kicking. I am so glad I didn’t give my son Jeff my father’s pocket watch. It appears I’n not done yet. I did give him my much used oversized messenger bag and Seaman Slicker. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time. I was totally freaked out until I hit 7 million mani recitations. There is something about finding out that you are dying. It is so different. People say “oh, nobody gets out alive,” but it is so different when it is you that is dying. I got as far as, “I may not be this way again” in my death narrative.

When Japhy’s prospects were their worst it was Khenpo Karthar who saw him not dying anytime soon. It meant a lot to Japhy coming from Rinpoche. Khenpo Karthar knows death up close and personal. In Buxador every day began with someone dying from tuberculosis or some other disease. Bring out the dead. Khenpo Karthar is highly regarded for his ability to see what is not readily apparent. Japhy really took heart in Khenpo Karthar’s words. It was in 2009 that Japhy pledged to do 10 million mani recitations. After seven million Japhy was out of the woods, much to the surprise of his cardiologist.

After my second angioplasty all indications were that my left ventricle was toast, the muscle was dead. My cardiac output was 30 percent, I was screwed. There is no fix, short of a heart transplant, and good luck with that happening. I really threw myself as best I could into my mani recitations. No matter how sick you are it is never too late to accumulate some merit. I’m currently at 16 million recitations. I had pledged myself to complete 10 million mani recitations before I died. It seemed like a lot in the beginning. I had heard from Khenpo Karthar how praiseworthy completing 10 million mani recitations is, so it was natural for me to go there myself with my practice. Khenpo Karthar agrees. Rinpoche added Amitabha, what I call Karma Chakme’s ngondro. Anyway, it is a time honored Tibetan tradition to retire to recite Chenrezig’s mantra. It is also favorite pastime of those who call themselves Mahamudra. You can never have enough merit.

Tomorrow is Easter. As a Tibetan Buddhist Japhy appreciates the Christian take on the “I’ll Be Back” theme. Resurrection is an interesting way to go. Rebirth is a much less ambitious claim than the Second Coming. Lama X has some serious issues when it comes to Christianity. His parents were Evangelical, very end of the world oriented, which is a hard sell if the child is Lama X, MENSA member. Japhy has no such childhood baggage. He feels comfortable being the lone Buddhist in a room full of Irish/Polish Catholics. Japhy grew up Irish American Catholic. His Mother’s Father came to America from Ireland.

Where has the day gone? It is hard to believe that the very same mind that spends the day watching college basketball is the same mind that would otherwise be visualizing the field of merit. The road to the final four, lama’s in tree limbs. At a certain point, it’s all good. I wish I could say that this is where I am coming from. I have my moments. To be continued. Karmapa Chenno!

The Karma Kagyu Refuge Tree as Tibetan Buddhist Bible

It’s Sunday for Japhy and Gigi, which means “Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer” followed by brunch with Harry at Nookie’s on Bryn Mawr. Japhy is using his down time to bone up on Dusum Khyenpa’s story to fill in his visualization of the first Karmapa. He likes that HHK1 was thirty before he hooked up with Gampopa. Given that DK was considered accomplish in his twenties, when he started with Gampopa the first Karmapa already had a solid practice. He wasn’t Gampopa’s creature, but instead a practitioner wanting to take his practice up a notch.

When I took refuge with Khenpo Karthar I was twenty two. I lamented that I had not met Rinpoche when I was younger. At twenty two I thought myself old, of course. I was off to college at 17, so I had done my fair share of living. I actually thought myself disadvantaged by my age, in terms of my practice. I had only started to meditate as a teenager in college. At fifty four, I consider myself a young man, and quite excited about where I am at in my practice.

Japhy and Gigi are stressed out by their 17 year old cat Demi who is suddenly favoring her left leg. She isn’t in any pain. All this is new, so they are keeping a close eye on her. She isn’t getting any younger. Over the ten years Japhy and Gigi have been together Japhy and Demi have become quite close thanks to the fact that over six of those years Japhy has been home with her, putting his precious human birth to good use practicing the dharma.

I was forty seven when I decided that I had to take my practice up a notch. When I stopped working to concentrate on my practice it was only supposed to be a hiatus from work. Since my heart attack in 2009, if I had a job at the time I wouldn’t have been able to return to it. I was in Congestive Heart Failure. At 54 I can’t imagine never working again. I am thankful to be able to practice as much as I’ve been able to over the past six years, especially those years since my heart attack. There’s nothing like the widow maker, my left coronary artery was 100% blocked, to take your practice to the next level.

Perry has joined Japhy, Gigi, and Harry for bunch at Nookie’s, which is packed as usual. Perry and Harry are searching the neighborhood for a parking space while Japhy and Gigi score a table for four. Japhy is hard at work developing his picture of Dusum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa. From Vajradhara, to Gampopa, it is what it is for Japhy, in terms of his visualization of the field of merit. It gets real for Japhy though when it comes to the first Karmapa.

Japhy and Gigi are Nookie’s regulars and treated accordingly. The staff loves Gigi, which happens a lot. They just love her. At Nookie’s Japhy is just the guy with Gigi. Perry is Greek, he grew up working with his parents in restaurants, so it’s always a trip dining out with him. Japhy would rather be doing ngondro, but he is at a place with it where a weekend break is appreciated.

The first Karmapa did leave instructions for identifying his reincarnation with Drogon Rechenpa, yet it was Drogon Rechenpa’s student Pomdrakpa that recognized the second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. Japhy finds it interesting that Drogon Rechenpa didn’t connect with the first Karmapa until the end of HHK1’a life, yet it was the Johnny come lately Drogon Rechenpa that the first Karmapa entrusted with his legacy. Japhy wants to know how it was that Pomdrakpa ended up recognizing the second Karmapa instead of Drogon Rechenpa.

This is how I am approach visualizing the field of merit. It works for me. First I stage it, study who is who in the visualization, and then I fill it in with the story of the particular figure. Once I have the particular figure’s story down I connect it to the next figure in the succession of Karmapas. At that point I just have to take a step back and let the visualization come to me.

Gigi and Japhy are watching March Madness,Temple and Indiana. Japhy is tired from brunch. He has had to retire to the bedroom for some bed rest. This is life with Congestive Heart Failure. The upside is that it provides him the opportunity to relax and visualize the field of merit. His mind just naturally goes there at this point. A week ago, this wasn’t so. He wasn’t there yet.

I can hardly wait for Monday and the opportunity to get back to my refuge vow recitations in earnest again. I have been doing HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” as a daily ngondro recitation since 2008, which I’m so glad I took the initiative to do. Ngondro isn’t something you want to wait for someone to tell you to do. The last thing you want is to be told you have to do ngondro. That is the worst.

Temple and Indiana is going down to the wire. Gigi wants Indiana to win. Japhy is pulling for the underdog, Temple. Hold that thought. Indiana just pulled out a victory. Pomdrakpa made a clutch recognition of the second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. There is a thirteen year gap between the death of the first Karmapa and the birth of the second Karmapa. Japhy being Japhy, this kind of detail fuels his imagination, which is the key to how is visualizing the field of merit, like a Christian reads the Bible, as a narrative.

I’m having an interesting discussion of ngondro with a friend in Australia. I’m of the opinion that HHK17’s ngondro is something you don’t want to wait for your guru to tell you to do it. We are talking about HHK17’s ngondro after all. Find someone to give you the lung and tri, and do it. If you have any questions, ask someone that has completed it. I totally agree with Dzongsar Khyentse that having questions, when it comes to your practice, is a subtle form of laziness if you let having questions prevent you from doing what you need to do.

Japhy needs to stop here. He doesn’t expect to have a chance to write until next weekend.

What’s New With HHK17’s Ngondro

This Saturday finds Japhy riding shotgun on a road trip to ex-urbia on family business, to be specific, Belvidere, IL, one of those places where not all that long ago cows outnumbered people before the real estate boom. You get the idea. Gigi is behind the wheel. Japhy has his trail mix, his $9.69 copy of Karma Trinley’s “The History of the Sixteen Karmapas,” Prajna Press, Boulder, 1980, and Khenpo Karthar’s “Commentary on the Ngöndro Practice,” KTD Publications, 1990, and he is good to go.

Woo Hoo! I’ve completed my prostrations in two weeks, thanks to the wisdom of HHK17, who decided that it was time to change up how those of us who aren’t Tibetan do the Refuge Foundation.This is a game changer. Instead of counting prostrations, I am counting repetitions of the Refuge Vow. It is a whole new dynamic. I’m up to 2k recitations a day at present. I take the weekends off. I had originally figured it would take me at least 100 practice days. If I was in retreat doing four sessions a day I would be racking up 4K prostrations a day. If you are Tibetan, retreat remains your only option.. Tibetan society supports those who wish to do a retreat. His Holiness specifically prohibits you, if you are Tibetan, from counting recitations of the Refuge Vow instead of prostrations. This is HHK17’s response to the causes and conditions that those of us who aren’t Tibetan have to work with. This is a bold stroke on the part of His Holiness. Personally, I’m of the opinion that it is about time. I know that among my cohort of early adopters in particular, those of us wedded to counting prostrations, even if it takes us years to complete 100k, aren’t going to cotton to the idea of counting recitations instead. Tough cookies. This is the new ngondro. Deal with it.

Japhy is liking HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” 4x100k ngondro big time, and not just because His Holiness tweaked the Refuge Foundation, or permits him to do the liturgy in English. What Japhy appreciates most, as a Karma Kagyu who lived through the so-called “Karmapa Controversy,” is that HHK17 based his ngondro on the Fifth Sharmapa’s ngondro, which predates the so called “traditional” ngondro that has been the standard ngondro since Wangchuck Dorje, the ninth Karmapa

Well played, your Holiness, a nice hat tip to the Sharmapa, and for those of us partial to our history, you can’t go wrong with basing your ngondro on the ngondro of Wangchuck Dorje’s teacher. Well played indeed. HHK17 has gone old school, out maneuvering both those that are still fighting over the interregnum and those of us whom consider ngondro sacrosanc.

Japhy and Gigi got stuck on I-90 out by Huntley due to lane closures for construction. They tried an impromptu detour at Japhy’s behest which didn’t work out as he hoped it would, and they are now back on I-90. Fortunately, the traffic is back up to speed. Gigi doesn’t share Japhy’s enthusiasm for alternative routes, especially when they give their GPS seizures. They would have been better off sitting in the traffic, but then again, they never would have had the opportunity to see the Gilberts, IL, water tower.

it’s not like we are in a rush. All we have to do is sign some paperwork for our taxes, and then turn around and head back to the city. I’m glad for the chance to write this post. I’ve completed the staging of the visualization of the field of merit. This is no small accomplishment, not to toot my own horn, figuring out the order of succession of Karmapas from the first to the sixteenth. There are a number of twist and turns along the way to account for over the centuries. The whole improbable enterprise of succession by rebirth could have failed at any number of points along the way, yet it didn’t. After the second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, nobody was looking for the third Karmapa. The same with the fourth Karmapa. The first Karmapa that was looked for was the fifth Karmapa, and the died at thirty, which didn’t bode well for institutionalizing the idea of succession by rebirth.

Japhy and Gigi have concluded their business in Belvidere, and are heading back to Chicago. Japhy checked Yelp on his phone for a restaurant, and the highest rated option was Auntie Anne’s Pretzels at the Belvidere Oasis, so they have decided to just head back home instead. The second best option was Applebee’s. Japhy asked their accountant for a local dining recommendation and he laughed at such big city nonsense as dining out for pleasure. Anyway, it’s back to the city for Japhy and Gigi.

I hope to write more frequently now that I’ve staged the visualization, who is where in the field of merit, but we shall see. I can pretty much picture the complete visualization at this point now that I have the succession narrative down. All that remains is to fill in the details associated with each of the figures pictured. Hopefly, by the time I finish my recitations the visualization and recitation will be seamless.

Lama Sean believes that ngondro is best done, bang, bang, bang. Japhy agrees. With HHK17’s 4x100k it is doable, even if you can only do an hour a day. His Holiness hasn’t entirely taken prostrations out of his ngondro. HHK17 requires a minimum of a thousand prostrations. The good news is that they can be half prostrations, and if you have a medical condition that prevents you from hitting the deck, you are free to modify your half prostration to accommodate your particular ailment. Japhy has Congestive Heart Failure, for instance, so he bows, which is all that he can manage in his condition.

I know this a lot to swallow for some of you that have resigned yourself to muddling along year after year with your ngondro, or even worse, believe that you don’t need to do ngondro. I know the feeling. We no longer have any excuses as Karma Kagyu for not completing ngondro in a timely fashion. The ball is in our court.This is the upside of succession by rebirth. HHK17 is a young man with the kind of authority rarely held by men of his age in your typical religious hierarchy which are so often dominated by much older men.

Japhy and Gigi are back in the city, stuck in traffic on the Kennedy expressway. At least it is moving. They will be home in twenty minutes. This is as good a place as any to stop. Karmapa Chenno!

Shop Talk For Mishaps-The Vajrapani Connection

When Japhy committed to take on HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” as a 4x100k ngondro he was concerned about how it would impact his Karma Chakme Ngondro which he has been doing since his heart attack in 2009. Japhy credits Karma Chakme’s ngondro with his unexpected survival to date. Now, the visualization for Karma Chakme’s ngondro is Amitabha, the recitation, is Chenrezig’s mantra. The visualization for HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” ngondro is Vajradhara, the recitation is the four foundations, Refuge, Purification, Mandala, and Guru Yoga. The visualization for the Purification foundation is Vajrasattva, the recitation is Vajrasattva’s mantra. That’s a hell of a lot of moving parts for Japhy to habituate himself to.

As is my habit, my approach to practice is to give whatever practice I commit to my best shot, and then bring what I’m doing to Khenpo Karthar to tweak what I’m doing as needed, so I doing just that. I’ve never been someone to let not knowing what I’m doing to prevent me from doing what my gut is telling me to do. Frankly, the idea of asking for permission at this point in my relationship with Rinpoche, that just isn’t us. After thirty years I know that Khenpo Karthar trusts my judgement when it comes to my practice. There are always adjustments to be made. Not taking the initiative simply isn’t an option for me. Whatever the reason for this, I suppose part of it probably has something to do with my being an American, I wasn’t raised to wait to be told to do something that needs to be done. What my relationship with Khenpo Karthar should be is not something I’ve ever had to worry about as a Tibetan Buddhist. It is what it is. We have never not been on the same page. Whatever I do, I know Khenpo Karthar has my back.

It turns out that both Vajradhara and Vajrasattva are connected to Amitabha through the Bodhisattva, there are two Bodhisattvas associated with Amitabha, Chenrezig and Vajrapani, and Vajradhara and Vajrasattva both are forms of the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, so despite their apparent differences, the two ngondros, Karma Chakme’s and HHK17’s, actually complement each other quite nicely in practice. Japhy’s concern, having to switch between ngondros, in terms of what he visualizes, isn’t going to be the problem he thought it would be. Japhy needed to research the matter, educate himself, but ultimately, the practice itself sorted itself out as needed. Japhy started out doing what appeared to be two very different ngondros, in terms of their visualizations. A week in, not surprisingly, it turns out that they are in practice the same ngondro, the visualizations complement each other.

I’ve completed the minimum number of prostrations HHK17 set for his 4x100K, not that I’m about to stop at a thousand prostrations. How my Congestive Heart Failure effects my prostrations is that my muscles cramp, painfully so, which sucks, but such suckage is part of doing any 4x100K ngondro. It not being easy is part of the process. The 100K reps of the Refuge Vow are no walk in the park either. It’s not like I can sit on my cushion for the hours it takes to repeat the Refuge Vow a thousand times a day. I simply lack the stamina. Even on a good day I’m on my back most of it, exhausted. I make it work for me though. I was able to practice in the hospital, didn’t miss a beat, pardon the pun, so this is nothing for me. I only mention these apparent obstacles to my doing a 4x100K ngondro for the benefit of those of you that have decided it is too late to do ngondro yourself, you are’t the physical specimen you were in your younger days when a 4x100K ngondro was something you could have done if you had the time. I have to stop here, to be continued. Karmapa Chenno!

Classic Trungpa on How Practice is Like Stepping in a Pile of Shit

Japhy read this quote from a Trungpa transcript he found online while searching for information on Palpung Jamgon Kongtrul, the second, HHK15’s son, yes, there was a married Karmapa. The quote has nothing to do with Jamgon Kongtrul. Japhy found it interesting nonetheless, “Bringing learning and practice together is not difficult; it is like stepping on dog shit – you know what you’ve done, you smell it, experience it, so there is a complete experience of intellect and intuition at the same time.” Nice. It wasn’t what Japhy was looking for. He’s been on the Refuge foundation like white on rice all week and found himself preoccupied with the connection between HHK15 and PalpungJK2, they are next to each other in Japhy’s visualization of the gurus he visualizes surrounding Vajradhara.

I can relate to HHK15, the Karmapa who much to the dismay of his monastics, traded in his robes for a wife and kids. That samsara is suffering, this is Buddhism. That the Karmapa is a monk, this is a Buddhist tradition of the Karma Kagyu lineage. That being a monk is praiseworthy doesn’t make not being a monk a bad choice in itself if you believe that all appearances are empty of self existence. Based on my experience as a husband and father, I know well the coming together of intellect and intuition that Trungpa likened to stepping in a pile of shit. Family is a practice in itself, at least in my experience, a perfect object lesson in the Buddhism of samsara is suffering, which is where I have to stop. Karmapa Chenno!