Of Note
April 15, 2010 by RFS Editors Print This Post
Ginny Lipson (here) and Lee Weingrad have reported on the effects of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Surmang and on Thrangu Rinpoche’s monastery in Kham (cf the Kunchok Foundation web site and also Surmang Foundation and the Chronicles).
We also note that Karmapa XVII had to cancel his trip to Europe, due to the Government of India not providing the appropriate permissions. Europe meanwhile is in the aftershock of the Polish airplane tragedy, with its echoes of the 1940 Katyn massacre of the leadership of a nation. And now that great zipper of volcanic mountains running up the spine of the Atlantic opens a bit in Iceland, shutting down air travel.
Milarepa and the Origins of the Kagyu Lineage is an incredible, brilliant talk by Trungpa Rinpoche, from the Message of Milarepa seminar, July, 1973 at Karme-Chöling. The Q&A draws out a concise exposition of crazy wisdom. Audio available thanks to the Chronicles, Shambhala Archives, and the Chögyam Trungpa Legacy Project. Everything in just 34 minutes.
Loyalty is an essential topic these days, worthy of probably more than one article. One correspondent sends this link to Loyalty is Paramount in Woods’s Inner Circle.
Another key topic is Drala, and Bill Scheffel’s westernmountain.org is a living resource. He has also started a blog, The Drala Principle. He writes:
I will introduce a new subject each week, often with accompanying video. Subjects will include:
- The Drala Principle.
- The legacy of Chögyam Trungpa.
- Cambodia and a sustainable future.
This site will be adding a discussion forum, so that off-article-topic discussion can find a home and take place without overwhelming article comments.
If you have ideas for articles and related forms and contributions, contact editors@radiofreeshambhala.org.
Hooray! a good idea.
I mean, really..so much is going on out there, that it is good to “come up for air” and take a look around at the rest of the world. See a bigger picture.
Thank you, Editors, for this new approach! (I’m also speaking for myself, having become sort of maniacally narrowly focused on only one or two things. these days.)
Pull us out of our narrow minded doldrums with new ideas and perspectives!
I just skimmed the NY Times article referenced above, “Loyalty Is Paramount in Woods’s Inner Circle.”
The article begins: “Tiger Woods, a self-acknowledged control freak, insists on loyalty as a fundamental quality in employees, associates and friends.”
What an unbelievable hypocrite! The man should practice what he preaches! Where is his loyalty to his wife, his child, and his legions of fans who have supported and bankrolled him for years? Really, Tiger Woods has no shame. He’s unworthy of the name “Tiger.”
(Even if he is a sex addict that’s no excuse for being a narcissistic, power-crazed egomaniac.)
I wonder what the correspondent who sent the link to “Loyalty is Paramount in Woods’s Inner Circle” was implying or had in mind. Perhaps he (?) was implying that if Tiger Woods demands loyalty, SMR is justified in requiring loyalty. I don’t know whether SMR is demanding loyalty or not, but if that’s what the person who sent the link was thinking, he missed the irony. Of course, I am aware that the Vidyadhara also valued loyalty, but now, considering the difference between his teaching stream and that of Sakyong Mipham – as Andrew Safer discusses in Continuity of Practice & Teaching Stream, the question has become loyalty to whom or what? So, yes, perhaps it is time to open up this loyalty question on RFS, and it may be worthy of more than one article.
I’m glad to hear this: “This site will be adding a discussion forum, so that off-article-topic discussion can find a home and take place without overwhelming article comments.” I wonder what mechanism you can use to encourage people to move their “off-article-topic discussions” to a general discussion forum. It would be nice if you could set up some clear guidelines and protocols AND if everybody observed them. I hope this kind initiative doesn’t end up consuming even more of your time.
Thank you for these ‘notes.’