Mary Panttaja

I’ve been thinking about what’s interesting and compelling about spending 4 days of our vacation here at this event.

• First, the teaching from His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  • This is interesting because of the subject matter which comes in two components:
    • A philosophical study of the nature of reality; Buddhist philosophy is at core a way of understanding the nature of the evolving universe and how we participate in that evolution.
    • The method of training the mind in order that you may most effectively participate in the nature of the evolving universe. No where else have I seen a disciplined approach to training the mind in concentration and contemplation; much less one centered in a complete philosophy of the nature of reality. (I remember asking my philosophy reviewers of the arising world model (phd’s and masters in philosophy) how they were trained to do mental and analytical contemplation, and to a man/woman, they said that there was no such training in their universities.

The cultural nature of the trip is also fascinating:

• The religious tapestry is quite exotic to a westerner. A whole system of color and ceremony (which HHDL makes fun of regularly) surrounds the event: chanting, prayers, prostrations, bowing, gilded chairs, an enormous thangka (painting of Chenrezig) behind His Holiness, which you are constantly gazing at. This ceremonial content is an important component for the Tibetans who are in attendance; this is a key part of their investment to keep their culture alive.
• The audience is significantly filled with Tibetan exiles who have traveled from all over the world to be here with their families. Assortments of Tibetan costumes and a marketplace with Tibetan food and wares. There is the entire range of emigrants from western-raised teenagers in jeans and tshirts; middle aged couples who have made their way in the west and adopted a new way of life (the women wearing their fanciest Tibetan dresses–which are quite elegant); the seniors, smiling and nodding, who seem as if they are just off the plane, speaking no English, and feeling very vulnerable.
• Madison is also a revelation–a mix of Cambridge/Berkeley in the midwest. The city is very comfortable, well laid out, beautiful trails throughout on lakes and creeks, parks everywhere, the university is beautiful. It is, of course very quiet; school is out and the state government doesn’t seem busy. Lot’s of good restaurants and very easy to get around.

Most of all, it is amazing to be in a room with a couple of thousand people, young and old, listening carefully to a teaching on how to take responsibility for training their minds to enable them to live their lives more effectively. In our western culture, this kind of event is very rare.

Just some things of note on this quick trip to the midwest.

• Flew into Chicago on Saturday, and, after a short “lost” adventure, wended our way to Madison, Wisconsin.
• “Why Wisconsin?” everyone asks. It is a long, weird story, but the short version states that the name Madison is significant to us, and when it turned out that His Holiness the Dalai Lama would be here for a teaching, we assumed that we should come. We missed going together to the last one in NYC.
• Beautifully green and wet here. Lush prairie flowers along the paths just waiting to be mowed down. The only way to contain the verdancy of this prairie and forest is to mow it regularly.  Wild sunflowers over my head on the trails.
• Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, is perched between a bevy of lakes. Very cozy and comfortable.
• Of course, HHDL is here and it is wonderful to get to see him and the Tibetan community which has come to be with him. He sent a Buddhist monk here decades ago to start the first Tibetan monastery in America. He has been here 5 times.
• And, of course, Thubten Jinpa is here; one of my favorite people and unknowing mentor. HHDL’s English translator and the embodiment of the practice of surrender enacted by one with an extreme intelligence and capacity. I have spent so many hours (on video tapes and live) listening to his voice that it is, for me, the voice of the dharma (the teaching of Buddhism). I have never once heard him speak for himself; though I saw him speaking casually with a friend–so I know it happens.
• Jim called me over to an artist’s booth to see some thankas (paintings) and, low and behold, I found myself standing next to Jinpa buying a small painting. The artist lives and works in Oakland; we will go see him to have him help us frame the print we purchased from him. It is of Chenrezig  with both Blue Tara and White Tara.
• Sunday—breakfast, to the hall, lecture, try to find some lunch (chaos, lines, and amateur vendors), Starbucks Frapaccino,  a last minute momo becomes available, protestors (not Chinese, but Shugden followers), more lectures, back to hotel, quick nap, cycling for 2 hours, dinner outside an Irish pub, to the university for a Tibetan concert, ice cream at the student union with hundreds of people visiting and milling at the lake at sunset; back to watch the finish of the first Alp mountain stage on the tv. Couldn’t sleep.
• University wraps around one of the lakes; could be Boston/Somerville/Cambridge.
• Fabulous town for biking; rented bikes within an hour of landing and have been out several hours each day. Broad trails everywhere.
• Meadowlarks and blackbirds in the prairie fields—none of those in San Francisco these days. I miss them.
• Found a wonderful coffee shop that makes great waffles—went twice today—waffles only once.
• Sitting next to a family from Switzerland. The elegant  gentleman (with a beautiful young wife) escaped from Tibet at age of eleven in 1959, the year that His Holiness escaped. 6 years in India, 10 years in Belgium, now in Switzerland. Use to work in factories, then did training in cooking and worked in restaurants; now owns his own restaurant in a village outside of Zurich. Wanted to understand why we were there.
• Twice have eaten dinner at the capital square; beautiful clean capital building on a ridgeline between two of the lakes. Quite in the summer.

Maybe more later. Apologies for the terseness. LM