Virtuous Lotus

"Jetsun Pema’s autobiography opens with her carefree and happy life in Lhasa, where she was “born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” Even though her family started as an ordinary peasant family, they became the most important family in Tibet as there were three reincarnations in her family, her eldest brother was reincarnated as the head of the monastery of Kumbum, her older was reincarnated as The Dalai Lama and her younger brother, was the reincarnation of Ngari Rinpoche, a close friend of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. As the sister of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Jetsun Pema knew little discord. True to the Karmic virtue of reward, she had a loving and attentive Amala (mother) and Pala (father), she lived in a 60 room home, full of her extended family, servants and, at times, hermits, and she delighted in playing games in her magnificent gardens and going to school with her cousins. The influence of Buddhism in her life, like that of most Tibetan, was present from early childhood on and completely permeated her life with its notion of tolerance, respect, generosity, and kindness. Even those people who did not understand the fundamentals of the religion, had an inner awareness of Buddhism. Her Amalya was her first lama/guru of compassion, generosity and kindness, and she along with her brothers taught Jetsun the importance of respect. Tolerance on the other hand, was instilled in her, yet the impact of this virtue was soon to be tested.

In 1949, at the age of 10, Jetsun Pema’s life was about to change dramatically. Her family decided that she was to accompany her sister to India so that her sister could receive medical treatment. They also decided that she would be schooled at the Loreto covent, where she would learn, among other things, the old and new testament, how to read and write English, and analytical problem solving. Even if Jetsun Pema was reciting a “hail mary” in a catholic chapel, she did not have any inward conflict because “I knew where I came from and who I was.”  The influence of Buddhism had permeated her being was present in all of her action. Even at an early age Jetsun Pema understood herself and knew how to live at peace with herself, without fear of the future.

While Jetsun Pema was in school at the Loreto covent, things started to deteriorate in Tibet. By the Winter of 1950/1951, the Chinese invaded part of country and were occupying Amdo, resulting in the Dalai Lama assuming state responsibility as the spiritual and temporal leader for the Tibetan state at the premature age of 16. It was clear by 1956 that the Chinese Communist goal was to control Tibet and its culture. Despite the brutal violence, the attacks on monks and monasteries, and the all-out gorilla warfare, Jetsun Pema knew that salvation could only come through faith and maintained her belief in Buddhism. After the 1959 uprising in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama escaped Tibet and sought refuge in India. His thoughts did not dwell on the past, and he believed, as he still does today “that a solution exists for all difficulties.”  Part of that solution was the education of the Tibetan refugee children, as eduction was the hope for Tibet’s future. Jetsun Pema would ultimately take the lead for that future. She embraced what the Dalai lama said that the crisis was part of the collective karma of the Tibetan people and the resolution had to come from the Tibetans.

After finishing her schooling in Switzerland and England, Jetsun Pema worked relentlessly to assure the success of the Tibetan Children’s Village. In order to establish a base in exile, Jetsun Pema knew that she had to educate the children in a way that preserved the Tibetan language, culture, religion and identity because this was the only way to prepare for their eventual return to Tibet. Despite the constant influx of sick, malnourished children who crossed the Himalayan mountain range, Jetsun Pema found a way to wake them from their walking nightmares. Her thoughts did not dwell on the past, only the future. She found a way to foster the development of the thousands of refugee children by creating a modern educational system grounded in Tibetan culture and religion, and making them proud of their roots and religion.

In 1980, Jetsun Pema returned to Tibet as part of a delegation tasked with evaluating the educational system in Tibet. Once there she learned of the totality of the atrocities that have been perpetrated on the Tibetan people. Even though “the Tibetans live in Tibet like animal” and have “lost their families, identities, religion, houses, and monasteries,” Jetsun Pema remained optimistic about the future of Tibet. In spite of all the suffering that she witnessed, she did not lose confidence that one day Tibet would be free and that she and the Tibetans in exile would return. She embraced the Dalai Lama's sentiment that it is merely a question of time as to when Tibet will be free, and said “however long it takes the day will come when we will return with dignity to a country that will once again be free.”  She knew that the illumination of the path towards a free and reunited Tibet depended on the education of the refugee children, and she had to continue preparing the children to take on their responsibilities in this movement.

Once Jetsun Pema returned to India she reaffirmed her belief that “both individuals and Tibetans must recognize their responsibilities to Tibet, to the 1,200,000 Tibetans who died and those who still suffer,” and such responsibility entails preparing for the future of Tibet. She considered herself fortunate to live in India because in this host country, Tibetans were free people, they could prepare for our country’s future. When she heard her native language spoken in India, a foreign country, she new a “very distinctive atmosphere of our nation survived.” While waiting for the ultimate return to Tibet, Jetsun Pema does not rest. She has not yielded to the force of the conqueror or resigned. Instead, she is dealing with the situation in a nonviolent way. She is preparing the children in exile for the return, instilling peace in the minds of the young and garnering support from the international community,

Jetsun Pema certainly earned the name Virtuous Lotus that her brother, the Dalai Lama, bestowed upon her. Like the Lotus, Jetsun Pema continues to rise and bloom above the murky waters towards enlightenment. She gave all of herself in her work for the children of Tibet. In recounting her people’s story, Jetsun Pema generates a sense of hope that someday Tibet will be at peace and have its autonomy from China, and that the hundreds of thousands of Tibetans cast into the diaspora can return from exile into their native land."

-- "Tibet My Story An Autobiography, was written by Jetsun Pema with the aid of Giles Van Grasdorf and was published in 1996 by Editions Ramsay. Jetsun Pema is the sister of the current Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and is one of the most important women in modern Tibetan history. This book demonstrates Jetsun Pema’s unwavering faith to serve all of the Tibetan people, both those in exile and those held captive in their native land. Tibet My Story chronicles Pema’s early life in Lhasa prior to Chinese occupation, her exile from Tibet, and her subsequent work as a member of the Tibetan government in exile establishing the Tibetan Children's Village in Dharamsala, India. Pema wants her story to transcend just the narrative of her life and serve as the voice of the Tibetan people recounting the story of the suffering endured by an entire generation. Pema’s story is still incredibly relevant today; it has been over twenty years since the publication of Tibet My Story An Autobiography, yet the state of the Tibetan people has barely improved. In reading this book about her life and the struggle of the Tibetan people, Pema wants us to focus on the message of hope, and ultimately this narrative sows the seeds of an optimistic future."

-- Corin Bronsther, Columbia University

Realistic and Laid-back

"In traditional Buddhist countries, people are quite realistic and laid back concerning dharma practice. Although they have deep faith and devotion, they understand that we are all flawed human beings. So they tend to be less critical both of themselves and others.

Western students, on the other hand, often try to become the perfect practitioner, to transform themselves into a Japanese or Tibetan, assuming not only the outer etiquette, but the inner attitudes of one’s adopted dharma country. Usually, however, this approach merely accentuates one’s low self-esteem and lack of confidence. To walk the path with confidence, we need to accept and befriend ourselves, to feel at ease in our own skin.

Most Buddhist teachers have encountered the tendency of Western practitioners to take themselves and the dharma very seriously. Perhaps it is a leftover from the students’ traditional religious backgrounds, but there is sometimes a humorless quality to the intensity and focus on achievement. Solemnity and earnestness often prevail in Western dharma circles.

One of the noticeable qualities of most Asian dharma teachers—and some Western teachers—is their readiness to laugh and joke. The Dalai Lama is a prime example of someone who spontaneously laughs when anything strikes him as funny—even in the midst of a solemn ceremony. This doesn’t mean that he isn’t deeply sincere; he’s just not too serious.

Usually it is our old companion the ego that likes to take itself seriously in order to feel important. So when we become interested in the dharma, the ego happily cloaks itself with an aura of spirituality and readily agrees to undertake retreats and disciplines to become a better and more realized “me.” Rather than quietly working to change our minds, it is easy to fall into the trap of taking on the most advanced practices and empowerments long before we are ready. This creates discouragement and a sense of failure.

Students sometimes ask: “What will I gain from meditation practice?” or “When will I know that I have realizations or accomplishment?” or even “What is the fastest and easiest way to enlightenment?” One of the problems seems to be making dharma practice into yet another goal to be accomplished.

The texts assure us that we need energy and dedication to advance along the path, just as we would to become proficient in any skill or sport. Yet it is easy to fall into the pattern or trap of making one’s practice rigid and ambitious. We grow depressed when we don’t appear to be making any progress: when we meditate and nothing seems to happen, or when we cannot regain our initial experiences. Our very expectations create a barrier to the natural unfolding of the mind’s potential.

The dharma is supposed to make our lives happier and less encumbered. “Feeders on joy shall we be,” as the Buddha said. The dharma should be like yeast in the heavy dough of our everyday existence, making our days lighter and more digestible. So when our practice becomes yet another rock in the rucksack of life, making everything seem heavier and more stressful, something isn’t working properly.

In the famous simile of a lute, the Buddha explained that just as the strings of a musical instrument should be neither too tight nor too loose, likewise our practice should be well tuned—not too intense and not too lax. Like a marathon runner, we need to pace ourselves.

We need to encourage ourselves and our fellow practitioners to lighten up and stop taking ourselves so seriously. Sometimes I think the seventh paramita should be a sense of humor! It is very unlikely that we will really accomplish full enlightenment in this lifetime. So what? We have countless future lives to continue the work. In this life, we can allow ourselves to relax a bit and enjoy the flowers, even as we keep walking onward."

~ Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, originally from London, was one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. She is the subject of the biography Cave in the Snow, which describes her twelve-year retreat in the Himalayas, and is the founder of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Tashi Jong, India, where she currently resides.

Soul Mate?

Valentines is near... Keep your humor.

"It was a phone interview which was really nice because I get to sit around in my socks and stuff. [Laughs.] ‘What do you think,’ said this wonderful person interviewing me, ‘what do you think about soul mates?’ Then I tend to surprise people because I said, ‘you know, I don’t.’ ‘What’s that,’ I asked, eager to find out. ‘What is it, I don’t know, I thought you might know.’ ‘I have no idea what a soul mate is, such an idea never occurred to me.’ I mean I hear the phrase all over the place, but – Seems like another drug to me. It’s like the last bastion, right? ‘No other relationship has worked, but I’ll hold out for the final fantasy. It will be called the soul mate. It’s where I’ll stuff all my fantasies and wait for it to come.’

It’s like enlightenment, you know. ‘I’ll put all my fantasies of a better life into my concept of enlightenment, then I’ll wait for it to happen. And when it doesn’t, I’ll be really disappointed.’  [Laughs.]"

– Adyashanti, Leaping Beyond All Fear, October 21, 2006, Oakland, CA.

Meme ~ "Monica Drake (born 1967 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American fiction writer known for her novels, Clown Girl and The Stud Book. Clown Girl was a finalist for the 2007 Ken Kesey Award for the Novel through the Oregon Book Awards. It was named Best Book of 2007 by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk in the December 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine. Drake lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, novelist Kassten Alonso, and their daughter." ~ Wikipedia

Next Life as a Poodle

If all we want is to be happy, then we may wish to be born in our next lives as a poodle! ~Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

An article by John Malkin, originally published in the final issue of Ascent Magazine. It’s a Saturday night in Santa Cruz, a small city in central California nestled between the mountains and ocean. Seventyfive people have gathered to listen to Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo speak about the possibilities of transforming the mind through suffering. It is to be her final public talk in the United States, completing ten years of worldwide touring to raise funds for the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery, which she established in 2000. As Tenzin Palmo enters the room, a respectful quiet arises and we bow to this Buddhist nun who so earnestly strives for perfection and offers the world such rich examples of dedication, compassion and social action. Tenzin Palmo begins her evening lecture by speaking about the Buddha’s first teachings. “When the Buddha gave his fir sermon, he didn’t talk about bliss, light or enlightenment. He talked about suffering and the end of suffering!― Aware of how heavy the word suffering can sound in English, she further explains the subtle levels of dukkha, or dis-ease, as described in Buddhist psychology. “We are all endlessly maneuvering to create a sense of satisfaction in our lives. We do everything to avoid discomfort and to find comfort. We think that pleasure makes a good life and difficulties make a bad life. But if all we want is to be happy, then we may wish to be born in our next lives as a poodle!― In this way, she turns our common, habitual thinking upside down and mixes in directness, honesty and a tinge of humour that help me realize the truth of these timeless dharma teachings. I’m grateful to be reminded that every pleasurable or difficult experience that I encounter can be used on the spiritual path. Even more so, it is precisely when we encounter difficult people or uncomfortable situations that deep spiritual growth can occur. Rather than being frustrated, we can be grateful for the opportunity to cultivate patience and compassion. Tenzin Palmo explains, “We can see a difficult person as our teacher, saying to ourselves, This person is so utterly obnoxious. Thank you! Now I can practise patience!― When we have uncomfortable experiences, it’s possible to practise relaxing into what is happening, rather than wishing it were different. As Tenzin Palmo puts it, “We can develop the outlook that it is okay to be not okay.― Just as individuals often miss opportunities to transform suffering into compassion and patience, so it is with groups of people, including whole nations. Tenzin Palmo cites the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as a missed opportunity. “America as a whole missed the lesson from the attacks. The lesson was, You’re not invulnerable. You’r invulnerable from living in terror and fear. This may be the first time it’s happened to you, but it is a daily occurrence for many on the planet. The Buddha said, Hatred does not cease by hatred; hatred ceases by non-hatred or love. I felt it was a time for extremely skillful action, not to create a polarization in the world of ‘us’ against ‘them’.― There are looks of agreement and understanding about the opportunity missed by the United States after 9/11 and the unskillful choices that led to U.S. wars that continue today in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also sense in the room a sigh of relief at the idea that there is something useful to be done with suffering. Most of us have tried a variety of tactics to be free from suffering, but the notion of not resisting can often get lost in the shuffle. I see expressions of interest and hope. Tenzin Palmo goes on to explain, “As human beings we have a unique opportunity to transform suffering. In the heavenly realms there is no motivation for spiritual practice. And in the hell realms there is no opportunity to cultivate compassion because those beings are caught in anger and paranoia.― She explains that it is the human experience of both sadness and happiness and the blessing of intelligence that makes the human realm a precious one. “We need challenges to grow spiritually. How will we become patient if everyone around us is kind and lovable?― It occurs to me so clearly that Tenzin Palmo is speaking from her own experience when she describes the conditions that are perfect for developing compassion. No longer just a theory, her experiments with compassion-based social action to transform gender bias in Tibetan Buddhism have had formidable results. It was her root guru who originally suggested to Tenzin Palmo that she dedicate herself to establishing a nunnery. “Khamtrul Rinpoche had on several occasions asked me if I would start a nunnery. And I said, ‘Yes, Rinpoche.’ And of course I didn’t do anything because I didn’t have two rupees to rub together at that time! But in the future when I was again asked by the lamas to do something, I felt this is the time because if I don’t do it, who will?― In January 2000, Tenzin Palmo established the Dongyu Gatsal Ling (“Garden of the Authentic Lineage―) Nunnery in northern India. Fifty nuns currently live there, with room to expand to eighty. The DGL Nunnery includes a retreat and study centre, and construction of a temple is currently underway. Nuns learn grammar, philosophy, languages (Tibetan and English) and Buddhist practices. The buildings were designed by Tenzin Palmo with architectural details that http://tenzinpalmo.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 23 October, 2016, 01:09 Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery - The Official Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Website emphasize the feminine: “I was tired of straight lines and decided to make the buildings circular, with an open courtyard in the middle.― She elaborates, “The nuns’ residences are in a circular form, with an open space in the middle. I did feel that it was a mo sheltering kind of an environment, sort of nurturing. And having the inner courtyard would give them the opportunity to be out in the air, on the grass with the trees without being seen by the public, should anyone turn up.― The nunnery design is strikingly modern, fixed in the shape of a wheel with stone walkways as spokes interconnecting the facilities. “The buildings certainly were not traditional, which is why we’re creating a very traditional-looking temple. Although now we are getting the idea that in the temple maybe we could have some stained-glass windows. I think that the lamas will just die of envy when they see our beautiful Buddhist stained glass! They never had that in Tibet. So that will be a bit of an innovation. I think it’s a beautiful idea: the sun streaming through Green Tara or a mandala. If they only had that in Tibet, imagine!― The Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery is one manifestation of Tenzin Palmo’s dedication to inner and outer liberation and one that will surely make things easier for coming generations of women in the East and West. “Things are much better than they were,― says Tenzin Palmo. “Everything is revolutionized in the last twenty years. Women were this hidden potential within Buddhism that had been overlooked.― The morning after Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s public talk, I had the great joy of speaking with her one on one, with a forest of tall California redwoods providing a serene and powerful backdrop to our conversation. The winter sun gently illuminates her face, lighting her expressions and warming her gestures. As I finish asking her my first question, she removes the teabag from my cup, gently stirs the fragrant tea and hands me the cup to enjoy. She leans forward and tells me, “I had no idea that I would spend so much of my life wandering around the world giving talks and trying to raise funds. And had I known, I think I would’ve stayed in the cave! But fortunately one doesn’t know what the future has in store and if one takes it a step at a time, it’s fine.― In a cave measuring only ten feet wide by six feet deep, she experienced a deep silence and a freedom from worldly matters that was ideal for Buddhist practice. The stories of Tenzin Palmo’s solo retreat in a Himalayan cave at 13,200 feet were made famous by Vicki Mackenzie’s biography Cave in the Snow and have inspired meditation practitioners around the world. Tenzin Palmo spent twelve years—the last three in strict seclusion—in a small, damp cave practising meditation and studying the dharma day and night. “The whole thing appeared very dream-like. It seemed almost impossible that I actually spent all that time in seclusion. It seemed more like three months. Of course, when one has been in solitude for such a long time, one’s mind becomes extremely clear. And that clarity reflects in the ability to be able to see the underlying confusion of the people around one. Then, of course, great compassion arises toward others as well as toward one’s own confusion.― Although famous for the long retreat, she has with equal dedication agitated for equal rights for nuns. Like Thich Nhat Hanh, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and so many others, Tenzin Palmo teaches that the cultivation of liberation within one’s self is deeply interconnected with the liberation of others by cherishing their well-being and striving for peace and justice. She explains, “It’s not enough just to sit on your cushion and think may all beings be well and happy and send them lovingkindness. This good feeling has to be taken into actual actions.― Compassionate action is perhaps the best way to describe the effort and energy that Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo has extended to address suffering caused by prejudices against women in the world of Tibetan Buddhism. When she first arrived in Tibet in 1964, she encountered the dominant belief that although women were able to get close to experiencing nirvana, they would have to be reincarnated in a male body to be fully liberated. This attitude supported the further idea that the main role for nuns should be to serve monks on their own spiritual paths, meaning cooking and cleaning. “Tibetan Buddhism, as with all Buddhism, was basically hierarchical and patriarchal. That’s just the way it was,― she explains. “Traditionally, women were not educated and nuns also were educated and therefore they played a much lower role in society, and as far as Buddhism was concerned, women had no voice.― She immediately challenged ideas that limited the role of women in monastic and lay society, asking Buddhist lamas such simple and courageous questions as, What is it about the male body that allows for liberation? While some teachers examined and changed their attitudes regarding women, some Buddhist lamas still argue against the right of women to equally participate in spiritual practice. Some cite Buddhist texts that support limitations based on gender. “Certain texts state that in order to attain full buddhahood, one needs a male body,― Palmo tells me. But she emphasizes that in the earliest sutras, Buddha himself confirmed that enlightenment is not gender-biased. “When the Buddha’s attendant Ananda asked him if women were capable of liberation, he said, Yes, of course women are capable of liberation. Naturally, my feeling was that seeing Buddha nature—our inherent perfect, primal awareness, which is the http://tenzinpalmo.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 23 October, 2016, 01:09 Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery - The Official Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Website fullness of our wisdom/compassion mind—is beyond gender. “What is it about the male body that is so special and has to do with attaining the goal of the spiritual path?― she asks rhetorically. “We went to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama and he said that as far as he was concerned—male or female body—it made no difference.― Although the Dalai Lama agreed that gender doesn’t play a role in realizing enlightenment, Tenzin Palmo wanted His Holiness to understand that other lamas still refuse to treat nuns and monks equally. “I told him that other lamas had different views. He wanted to know which lamas had different views. There are at least two lineages that are very opposed to women receiving full ordination. They say, ‘Women didn’t have it in Tibet. Nuns are perfectly happy just being novices. What’s the problem?’ And that wanting them to get the full ordination is just the work of a bunch of Western feminists trying to create problems, and that since the nuns are perfectly happy as they are, they should be left alone. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is very keen for nuns to receive the full ordination but he says that the people behind him are not. And he’s not the Pope, so he can’t just make declarations. He can only go forward if he knows he has the support o the monks behind him. And he doesn’t have the support. The whole subject has been under ‘research’ for the last thir years and they haven’t come to a conclusion yet.― Tenzin Palmo concludes, “It’s very hard for people who are trying to maintain their traditions and are always looking backward to really happily countenance any kind of fundamental change, especially when it doesn’t affect them in any way positively. Therefore, the monks have no incentive to give full ordination to the nuns. So they don’t.― Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo has defied the odds and achieved extraordinary results by gently yet firmly confronting aspects of Tibetan Buddhism that do not serve men or women. In February 2008, His Holiness the Twelfth Gyalwang Drukpa, head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, gave Tenzin Palmo the rare title of Jetsunma, which means “venerable master.― The title was awarded in recognition of her spiritual achievements as a nun and her efforts to promote the status of female practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. Tenzin Palmo was never a person easily dissuaded by others’ views. How can I become perfect? was the penetrating question that fascinated and inspired Tenzin Palmo as a little girl growing up in London, when her family and friends knew her as Diane Perry. Although it would be years before she would become one of the first Westerners to travel to the East and ordain as a Buddhist nun, her love for the spiritual life had already been sparked. Born in 1943, Tenzin Palmo exhibited a self-motivation and confidence that was surprising to adults, expressing no doubts that her life would be dedicated to spiritual practice. In 1964, when she was twenty-one, she journeyed to Tibet and met her root guru, His Eminence the Eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche from the Drukpa Kagyu lineage, then ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. As a child, she had been reluctant to choose between thinking of herself as a boy or a girl, and her curiosity about distinctions between male and female now appear as something of a precursor to the great efforts she’s made to confront gender bias in Tibetan Buddhism and to support nuns. Tenzin Palmo has led nothing short of a spiritual revolution to change patriarchal attitudes in Buddhism by revitalizing the ancient feminine teachings of the Togdenma, a mystical Buddhist tradition that was virtually wiped out during the Chinese Communist takeover of Tibet in 1959. Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s compassionate commitment to end sexism is evident in her own vow to become enlightened as a woman. “As long as there is discrimination against females,― she says, “then one should strive to be born again and a in a female body to help that situation. Should the time come when males are in a weaker position, then one would vow to be reborn in a male body.― Sitting with Tenzin Palmo, I’m grateful to be reminded of the freedom and lovingkindness that we’re all born with. As she says, “We always have a choice how we respond.― When I remind her of all she has done to support nuns and diminish suffering she humbly says, “Slowly, slowly… It just takes a bit of time and patience.― As our time together draws to a close, I ask a final question about the possibility of developing empathy and peace in a world so caught in fear, distrust and violence—and how the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery might support such a transformation. “Obviously, as far as the nunnery is concerned, we are hoping that some of the nuns will really continue with their philosophical studies and later become teachers themselves. I think it is very important. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama also feels it’s very important that the nuns rely much less on the monks and that they themselves become teachers of each other. So, this is what we are aspiring to.― With these words, I catch a glimpse of Tenzin Palmo’s nunnery as a model of compassionate community for the planet, with responsibility for change residing in each one of us. “Up until now, human beings have not had a good track record. If you look at history, it is full of violence and deprecations and we don’t seem to learn much. “For all of our intelligence, we don’t seem too bright. I’d like to be positive, and certainly at this time, after going so fa the wrong track, now finally America has a hope. But one man cannot do it on his own. He needs the population and his http://tenzinpalmo.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 23 October, 2016, 01:09 Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery - The Official Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Website own government to really change their attitudes and lessen their aggression and greed and to try to find a better way to live a life which brings benefit to beings instead of so much harm. We pray that some sanity will arise in this world and replace this tremendous paranoia which has gripped the country.― Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo breathes in deeply and exhales with a gentle and optimistic smile. “What can I say? Never give up hope. Nil desperandum. This is a new start. Let’s hope that America and the world uses that instead of going through the same old tired, habitual responses which in the past didn’t work, and in the future will not work either. Let us hope this is the dawn of a new day.― John Malkin is a writer and musician in Santa Cruz, California, where he hosts a weekly radio program, The Great Leap Forward, on Free Radio Santa Cruz. His two books are Sounds of Freedom (Parallax Press, 2005), interviews with musicians on social change and spirituality, and The Only Alternative: Christian Nonviolent Peacemakers in America (Wipf & Stock, 2008). http://tenzinpalmo.com

Breathe Push

"Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. (The beloved community belongs to divine Oneness, and so does all that it achieves.)

On Christmas Eve 103 years ago, my grandfather waited in a dark and dank cell. He sailed by steamship across the Pacific Ocean from India to America leaving behind colonial rule, but when he landed on American shores immigration officials saw his dark skinned, his tall turban worn as a part of his Sikh faith, and saw him not as a brother but as foreign, as suspect, threw him behind bars where he languished for months until a single man, a white man, a lawyer named Henry Marshall filed a writ of habeas corpus that released him on Christmas Eve 1913.

My grandfather Kehar Singh became a farmer, free to practice the heart of his Sikh faith — love and oneness. So when his Japanese American neighbors were rounded up and taken to their own detention camps to the deserts of America he went out to see them when no one else would. He looked after their farms until they returned home. He refused to stand down.

In the aftermath of September 11th when hate violence exploded in these United States, a man that I called uncle was murdered. I tried to stand up. I became a lawyer like the man who freed my grandfather and I joined a generation of activists fighting detentions and deportation, surveillance and special registration, hate crimes and racial profiling. And after 15 years with every film, with every lawsuit, with every campaign, I thought we were making a nation safer for the next generation.

And then my son was born. On Christmas Eve, I watched him ceremoniously put the milk and cookies by the fire for Santa Claus. And after he went to sleep, I then drink the milk and ate the cookies. I wanted him to wake up and see them gone in the morning. I wanted him to believe in a world that was magical. But I am leaving my son a world that is more dangerous than the one I was given. I am raising — we are raising — a brown boy in America, a brown boy who may someday wear a turban as part of his faith.

And in America today, as we enter an era of enormous rage, as white nationalists hail this moment as their great awakening, as hate acts against Sikhs and our Muslim brothers and sisters are at an all-time high, I know that there will be moments whether on the streets or in the school yards where my son will be seen as foreign, as suspect, as a terrorist. Just as black bodies are still seen as criminal, brown bodies are still seen as illegal, trans bodies are still seen as immoral, indigenous bodies are still seen as savage, the bodies of women and girls seen as someone else's property. And when we see these bodies not as brothers and sisters then it becomes easier to bully them, to rape them, to allow policies that neglect them, that incarcerate them, that kill them.

Yes, rabbi, the future is dark. On this New Year's Eve, this watch night, I close my eyes and I see the darkness of my grandfather's cell. And I can feel the spirit of ever rising optimism in the Sikh tradition Chardi Kala (ever-rising high spirits) within him.

So the mother and me asks what if? What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead but a country that is waiting to be born? What if the story of America is one long labor? What if all of our grandfathers and grandmothers are standing behind now, those who survived occupation and genocide, slavery and Jim Crow, detentions and political assault? What if they are whispering in our ears "You are brave"? What if this is our nation's greatest transition?

What does the midwife tell us to do? Breathe. And then? Push. Because if we don't push we will die. If we don't push our nation will die. Tonight we will breathe. Tomorrow we will labor in love through love and your revolutionary love is the magic we will show our children.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh. (The beloved community belongs to divine Oneness, and so does all that it achieves.)"

-- Sikh activist and lawyer Valarie Kaur gave this six-minute address during a watch night service (a late-night service) at the Metropolitan AME Church on Dec. 31, 2016, in Washington. She joined several leaders, including the Rev. James Forbes of Riverside Church in New York City, Imam Talib Al Rashid of Harlem and the Rev. William Barber, a pastor in North Carolina, who stood beside her. 

Gritty Purification

"As we go through our trials and tribulations, outer circumstances seem to be exquisitely put together specifically to test each part of our realization. These trials and tribulations will also occur from the inside. Your unconscious at some point will start to reveal itself. In the unawakened person, the unconscious never fully comes into conscious awareness, but with awakening our means of suppression and denial are either torn apart completely or wounded so severely that we can’t repress as much.

The unconscious elements of our mind come into conscious awareness, and that is another kind of trial. What’s being asked of you is to meet all of that inner material from the standpoint of divine being, from the standpoint of eternity – to meet it, to understand it, to resolve it. That may sound quite easy, but when it’s actually happening it’s a little more gritty and real than the description suggests.

You could think of these inward and outward trials as a form of purification. You’re purifying the vehicle: body and mind, the same body and mind that you woke up out of when you awakened. Now this vehicle has to undergo its own purification so spirit can fully embody your humanity. And this is where the story of Jesus again provides a powerful mirror, because Jesus is someone who embodied in his humanity the divine impulse, divine being."

– Adyashanti, Resurrecting Jesus

Image ~ "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling."~ Ephesians 1:18

Grievous Wisdom

“It used to be that age was held in some esteem, considerable esteem even, as the concentration of life experience. Life experience and its many lessons were once the fundament of personal and cultural wisdom. It stands to reason, then, that with this many old people around we should be awash in the authentic, time-tested, grey wisdom that should emanate from them. And there should be cultural initiatives that expose the general population to this wisdom. And this should deepen this culture’s sanity and capacity for sustainable decision making. And that should make us all ancestors worth claiming by a future time, now that we’ve come to our elder-prompted senses and begun to proceed as if unborn future generations deserve to drink the distillate of our wisdom and our sustainable example. At the very least, the distillate of aged wisdom should balance the burden and the books, and old people should have worth as they once might have done, and the culture should break even on the deal. You’d think that this is an inevitable result of an aging population in a civilized place. We should be smarter, deeper, wiser. Especially wiser.

Well, here’s what is becoming glaringly obvious: there is nothing inherently ennobling about aging. Nothing. There’s no sign that anything lends old people steadiness or wisdom or magic from on high or from down below, just because they get old. If we don’t train young people and middle aged people in elder hood we will have no elderhood. There is no such training.

It isn’t any longer a matter of inviting elders, those of them left, back into the fold. They aren’t out there , waiting on our invitation. They aren’t out there. Elders are a sentinel species for humanness, and like other forms of life in our corner of the world they’ve mysteriously gone missing. Young people are, often involuntarily, looking for them, and they can’t find them. How about this: old people are looking for them too. The retreat centres attest to it. If you’re looking for signs of the end times, that alone might do.

I am making the case for elderhood, not for easy agedness. I’m doing so mostly by wondering what happened. Because something happened. Something happened to ancestors and elders and honour. There’s work to be done, and there’s an old wisdom to be learned where there used to be the wisdom of old, and you can’t fix what you don’t understand. That’s where we’re headed: to grievous wisdom. Let us see if we can bear the sound, the particular sound, of no hand clapping.

This is a plea and a plot for elders in training.”

~ Stephen Jenkinson, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (avail. June 2018)
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is an activist, teacher, farmer, and author of Money and the Soul's Desires. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.