best

rita

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Rita Ashworth

Yes, we will be at the S of M and gathering afterwards. Hope to see you there.
I think this is a very interesting time again regarding the dharma in the West. I think there is a major shift happening where pop culture “dharma” that appeals to a wider mass audience, (which I don’t think applies to the 84,000 dharmas but is something else, i.e. I think the 84,000 dharmas refer to actual paths that will liberate people) and Tibetan cultural trappings mistaken for the dharma are going to implode and authentic teachers, will be the one’s surviving. So we live in very interesting times. If we had been brave enough to be more critical “instead of wringing our hands” and spoken out 15 years ago, things might have gone in a very different direction, so I don’t agree that one should never criticize things openly, or speak out, that is an inherited eastern cultural trapping superimposed on the dharma, in my opinion. This worked very well in monastic, medieval cultures, where you needed a very compliant serf and slave population to believe there fate was thier “karma” and that to speak out then, as a peasant or serf, was grounds for serious consequences. We were not taught that by the Vidyadhara. The Buddha was very outspoken about what was going on around him and was considered a revolutionary. So if one were to follow in the Buddha’s footsteps etc, etc….

I think that we have not been respected as Westerners, and have been seen as a source of fund-raising where millions are sent back to Asia to support monasteries and the spiritual paths of Western students have not been the primary interest of most of these lamas and people are sick of it and are speaking out. I think this is a good thing because when East meets West in the dharma there should be a reciprocity of feedback and communication. Not communication going one way all the time so that western Buddhists live in a fantasy projection about Tibet . I believe this has been an obstacle to our spiritual path for decades where “enlightenment” is always far away, esoteric and projected onto these teachers, who may or may not have realization. I also think that we have been very confused about “compassion” and have had a very “constructed” and artificial view of what that means.. Even from a Mahayana view one should first understand voidness before one talks about compassion. We should understand that we “don’t exist” and phenomena “don’t exist” before real compassion arises. To do that we have to strip away all our notions of ourselves, all our hidden corners, and that is what practice is all about, stripping away. I am reading now the two volume work recommended by a Rinpoche , “A History of Modern Tibet 1913- 1951: Demise of the Lamaist State” and a History of Modern Tibet, 1951-1955 Vol 2 The Calm before the Storm” for a very good history of Tibet. I think it behooves us to at least investigate the culture we have wholesale taken on these past 30 years . That I am only reading this now, after almost 30 years is quite amazing, and I am sure I am not alone.

Thanks for your response.

I skimmed Ingram’s book last night (very quick scrolling) and while I like his attitude in many ways, his narrowness of view (which he denies while ‘…protesting too much..’ ), as evidenced in his gloss on the kayas, etc. , traps him in an almost ‘classic hinayana’ stance at points…..

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche has not sought out students who do not (at least make the aspiration to) practice this life (and the next). The Mangala Shri Bhuti sangha has a very different flavor (of kindness and consideration) compared to either the Vajradhatu world we grew up within or SI now.

Despite the differences in flavor of the sanghas, Kongtrul Rinpoche’s core teachings bear more resemblance to the teachings we received the Vidyadhara (whom he holds in the very very highest repute as a fully realized mahasiddha as communicated/transmitted to him by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and from his study of the Vidyadhara’s teachings and mandala) which is not surprising given the lineage streams each holds/embodies.

We are so fortunate to inhabit a world filled with (accessible) Trungpas/Khyentses/Kongtruls/Choklings/Karmapas…

Kongtrul Rinpoche is the only person I have had the opportunity to know personally other than the Vidyadhara who I can, without any level of doubt see/proclaim as a ‘man of Ati’.

We (my wife Kelly & I) live at Samten Ling Retreat Center above Crestone.
I will be returning to Crestone later this week…..will you be attending the New Year’s Eve (afternoon) Sadhana of Mahamudra practice in town?

Enjoy!

Mark

PS–please send me your email/phone number.

PPS–No single version of the path is appropriate (in any given lifetime) for all practitioners which is ‘why’ there are 9 yanas and 84,000 (million?) collections of Dharmas….It is so necessary , at least for me, to work to overcome my overly critical view of others (and their paths) and view each and every being(from vajra broythers and sisters to the limitless expanse of beingswho have been my mother..) with kindness….

Ingram is definitely coming from a “insight meditation”, “by the book/map approach”, of stages of insight according to a Theravadin path. (Insight meditation students are considered by one Dzogchen master to be very well-prepared for Dzogchen practices, interestingly) and therefore different from the way we have been taught but there are some very interesting areas in the book, however, which could be very helpful, i.e. seeing the nyams and stages of meditation we pass through and “just keep practicing” approach instead of getting derailed into taking these experiences as anything more than that, just experiences and stages of realization.

Yes, maybe our paths will cross. The Kontrul Rinpoche students here seem to be the best practitioners, and thank goodness there are some pristine lamas still, like Kontrul Rinpoche and Trangu Rinpoche and a few others, that can navigate through all this new age, psychologized, western, feel good “dharma” and not get trapped into accommodating to it, to keep the western students happy . Kontrul Rinpoche, I hear, actually makes sure that he takes on only students that really, really want to seriously practice the dharma. Rare now, in this atmosphere of keeping a constant fund-raising “stream”going as the main practice, and which is how the “merit” thing is being abused and leads to a corruption of the dharma, . I think his students, and others, practicing up in the mountains here are, actually protecting the genuine dharma and keeping this a retreat environment. I wonder if this is because Dzigar Kontrul R. actually knows the west, because he has plunged into it, and knows its trappings. Most Tibetan lamas don’t really know the West, in my opinion, and are fooled into giving western students what they “want”, i.e. feel-good dharma, instead of what they need, as long as the money keeps flowing into the coffers. If you give students the genuine dharma, it isn’t going to make them happier and content in samsara, quite the contrary, and teaching the genuine dharma, people will start falling away. I remember my Shambhala levels as an example of this, when it was a real commitment, and Level III was the litmus test, because you had to give up two whole weekends, (full weekends!) in a row to do it. Level I had usually about 100 people on Friday night ( by Sunday this had dropped down to 30). Level III had about 12 people left .

Thanks for the link.

He seems more than a bit ‘harsh/judgmental’…I will read some more of his book over the next week or so….

As you are clearly aware, many, if not almost all, of the greatest/most realized Tibetan masters have simultaneously stressed the path of meditation in its fullest/deepest aspects with the goal of enlightenment (for the benefit of ‘others’ and ‘oneself’) in one/few lifetimes (‘accummulation of wisdom’) AND the need for continual accumulation of merit and an orientation toward the next life as an antidote for attachment to this life.

Having been raised by the Vidyadhara (and the Regent) and ‘innoculated’ against many of these tendencies, it has been very interesting to become ‘multi-cultural’ as a student of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche in whose Sangha the accumulation of merit and the focus on the next life (and thereafter) is much more prominent.

The two aspects can certainly be practiced simultaneously (and maybe must be)……

Enjoy—-mark

PS–maybe we will overlap sometime in Crestone area…

I am reading the book as an e-book now, free from his site. You can also order it from Amazon in traditional book form. Here is the link to read as ebook. He comes from a Theravadin Tradition, but CTR is heavily listed in his bibliography, as is Korean Dogen. He debunks most of what is now “posing” as feel-good dharma “mush” and talks about the Mushroom Effect of most dharma scenes, i.e. growing mushroom students, left in the dark about what the Buddha really taught, and being fed a lot of bullshit. He has a direct voice, which is refreshing.

http://web.mac.com/danielmingram/iWeb/Daniel%20Ingram's%20Dharma%20Blog/The%20Blook/The%20Blook.html