Mandala‘s Michael Jolliffe is on location in Washington D.C. for the Kalachakra for World Peace event with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His daily blog from the event will afford those of us unable to attend the opportunity to experience a bit of the excitement and blessings occurring in the capital of the United States.
Washington D.C., USA– July 10, 2011
From Michael Jolliffe:
When I woke up this morning it felt like my eyeballs had been replaced with raisins. And as I struggled to get out of bed to find some water, I remember thinking two things: 1) that this was the same feeling as the hangovers of my more youthful youth, and 2) that it was similar to the feeling I had after I tried to do a handstand in a swimming pool in Santa Cruz, California and lost my balance, hitting my head on the pool’s concrete bottom. I like to think that the sun and lack of water on the Western Lawn yesterday were a gruesome combination akin to a baseball player and their bat, leaving my body, unfortunately, as the ball. (Non-Americans can replace that with football player and cleat if they want, the end result is still the same.)
Today I took it easy. I had a nice breakfast and took my time. It was, overall, a million percent nicer.
It doesn’t make sense for me to summarize all of what His Holiness taught today. I wouldn’t do it justice. It’d be better for you to try to watch His Holiness’ teaching webcast live and really develop your own understanding. But I will share with you one of His Holiness’ quotes that my roommate, Eamon Walsh, took away with him that he very much appreciated: “The afflictive emotions are the internal enemy and ignorance is their leader.” You can take that quote in a very serious or very funny way as you prefer. I recommend funny: if you reroute yourself to Sinceros’ “Take Me to Your Leader” and wait for the chorus, you’ll understand what I mean and probably live a little bit longer for it.
One of the most remarkable and inspiring things I did today was to attend the premier of Christina Lundberg’s For the Benefit of All Beings: The Extraordinary Life of His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche. Christina Lundberg was responsible for the truly beautiful Mystic Tibet which any and all students and supporters of Lama Zopa Rinpoche must watch. She was also instrumental in the creation of the very popular Discovering Buddhism videos. (You can find many excerpts of these videos in various issues of Mandala eZine and on the FPMT Online Learning Center.)
I had never heard of His Eminence Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche until today. I think I was very lucky that he attended the premier and was willing to speak even just a little as an introduction. He was obviously humble and kind, sincerely stressing how absolutely important and beneficial it was to be in Washington, D.C. to receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The first thing you notice about His Eminence is that he is inseparable from his prayer wheel. Apparently, making use of the prayer wheel and Gyaltsä Thokme Sangpo’s 37 Practices of the Bodhisattva are his main practices and his main methods for guiding his students. In fact, if you do come across his students, you’ll find that many carry their handheld prayer wheels wherever they go too.
Like many lamas after Tibet’s initial invasion and during the Cultural Revolution, His Eminence was imprisoned and for 20 years watched many people suffer and ultimately die. For the Benefit of All Beings chronicles this time and also his recognition as a young boy as part of the incarnation lineage of Gardampa Chodengpa (which is also considered to stretch back to Aryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna); his time spent as a solider in the resistance movement in Kham when the Chinese first invaded Eastern Tibet; and his current work to spread Buddhadharma around the world and care for the needs of his many students. If you ever get the chance to see this movie (or better yet, meet His Eminence), take it.
One of the most interesting things you learn in the movie is that His Eminence experiences chronic pain. In the footage you often see him wince. But he winces with the largest, most beatific smile you’ve ever seen! It puts my feelings about my raisin eyes to shame.
