I have just completed a full week retreat up here in the mountains of the Alpujarras. The retreat was very interesting. We started at 7.30 with meditation and then 8.30 breakfast. A typical Spanish timetable I suppose. At 10.00 the teachings and then 12.00 more teachings and throughout the afternoon until 10.00 at night. So perhaps six hours a day plus an hour of questions and answers and chai tea and biscuits prepared by your chef. Besides that I spent about five hours a day in the kitchen. So you could say I only had time to sleep and do a bit of reading. I have been taking advantage of this time to the best of my ability. I am currently reading a book about the Yoga of dreams, the Tibeten way. In this type of practice you can live and do whatever you want in your sleep just as you do in your daily life, the difference starts to blur and really you can do more things in your dreams than you thought were possible in your life. You can learn things, conquer demons, travel to exotic places or whatever. Well I dont know if I will get to that level but we will see. Most of my dreams are intense and always have been, many fearful and I am often caught by someone chasing me. So I suppose these are karmically created, but last night I decided I was sick of hiding from whatever deranged squadron was searching for me and I changed myself and my friend into dragonflies and flew out the door right after they broke it down. Now these types of dreams are easier to be aware in and know that you are dreaming, what is really difficult is to lucidly dream and be fully aware in calm relaxing dreams that have more to do with reality but where we can really play with all the events and switch things around. What is real anyway? The first thing to do is to sleep on your side like the Buddha, with your hand under your head and relax!
O Tara Tutare Ture Soha!
April 12, 2009 at 3:13 pm (Spirituality)
Tags: buddhism, cooking, dreams, OSeling, retreat, spain
money woes, a lesson learned
October 3, 2008 at 9:53 am (Thoughts)
Tags: buddhism, financial problems, generosity, money, robbery
It has been a very hard last couple of days for me. I returned back from my peaceful countryside retreat to the city and my apartment. Immediately the hazy thick air and panick-stricken hustle struck me harder than ever before. Could it be that I am a country girl? I think I just prefer small towns -small towns with just the right vibe - maybe it’s the hippy in me.
Anyway, all my money is gone!! I looked in the place I always kept it and someone took off with my wad of cash and my bank card. And I know I should just accept it and just have peace about it like a proper meditator. But, I just burst into tears and spent the rest of the day and night in frequent bursts of anger and frustration. I had saved up my money meticulously during my entire trip so that my last few days could be spent doing the luxury things I’d denied myself this entire time. The busride back I’d been dreaming about riding on an elephant through the jungle and bamboo rafting in one of those package tourist deals I’d never tried. I was going to finally take a cooking course so I could dazzle with my Thai culinary expertise. I was also going to take a short course in foot massage. But, alas it wasn’t meant to be.
But, I can’t say these last two days of extreme poverty have been all that bad either. I’ve met a lot of people for one. I’ve lost all inhibition in going up to strangers and doing a little peddling. I’ve also stopped being so stingy. Everyone knows what a spend-thrift I am but now that I actually have so little money, what’s the use of holding on so tightly to it? It’s not going to come with me to the afterlife. Money is money and it’s worst than worthless if you’re constantly worrying about it. Today I donated the rest of the food in my house to a monastary. I said a little prayer for happiness and set it at the golden foot of the giant Buddha statue. Within a few minutes I had befriended a repairman there who gave me a juice and some snacks. So it came back to me!
I bought smoothies for the people I met knowing I had way less than them, but within a few hours I managed to sell my bicycle and some lamps and pillows. This experience has taught me to be in the moment and not to worry because you will have everything you need if you do good. I know next time instead of holding onto cash with an iron fist I’ll loosen up a little and instead of considering only my own personal enjoyment, I’ll use it in a way that will benefit others too. If you’re always expecting to get something in return how can you say you’re doing something good? For the entire three weeks I stayed with the herbal doctor and his friends who cooked for me and provided me with my own room they refused any money. I tried, but they wouldn’t accept it. I wish there were more people who did things for others just out of the pure goodness of their heart and I think that there are more of them out there then we know. ~V
Women in Buddhism
August 2, 2008 at 8:38 am (Spirituality)
Tags: buddhism, dharma, Spirituality, women
Dharma means the absolute truth. There’s a discussion every other week called just that. Last time we discussed women in Buddhism. They are not allowed to be monks. The leader of the group who was a man said it really turned him off Buddhism. They discussed this religion that seemed so exotic and appealing to westerners. But really, if you had a foreigner come to you telling you the wise philosophical teachings of Jesus for the first time without knowing the background of the religion and served it to us in in its purest form we would be like wow, this is amazing. It’s the same for Buddhism. I realized there’s really a vast difference between the religion and the essence of it.
In the true core of any religion there lies the means to reach enlightenment and salvation. Ramakrishna, the great pure-hearted Indian saint/mystic, tried Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and with each was able to reach nirvana. He reported that they were all equally useful for man’s spiritual progress. But, there is a truth further up the path..
For the Thai the country’s religion is something the young perceive as backward and sexist, whereas westerners come and are blown away by the simple beauty of meditation, the teachings of the Buddha. The temple is full of old women with hymnal serving subordinate roles, mainly cooking food for the monks who have all the access to the teachings, which they are denied. I saw it myself here.
Similarly, our views of ourselves are grossly distorted. We have all the acquired impurities and life experiences that have served to shield our eyes from the reality of our own individual essence.We are in fact completely pure and all-powerful, but it’s one of the best-kept secrets.
Vivekananda:
“Believe in the possibility of everybody, even in the lowest man, having in himself the same possibility as in the Buddha.”
Why is it always he? I’ve heard it said that actually the female, not the male has the greater potential, at least in the spiritual sense. What do you think?
