August 28, 2003

life at a retreat center

Life at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center is becoming more and more usual (for me, probably not usual in the outside world sense of the term) everyday. Some things, however, still catch me off guard. Things like standing in an office by myself and then having two nuns and a monk walk in. Suddenly I was surrounded by Sangha and the notion that this was not a usual situation to be in hit me. Two weeks ago I would have had to travel at least 400 miles to be surrounded by that many Sangha. The other night at Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche’s teachings I was in a room with probably 25 (maybe more) Sangha members and four rinpoches. [The term rinpoche is Tibetan and literally means “precious one”, but has come to mean “one who is reincarnated” — or “one who has control over where they will be reborn”. The opportunity to be around just one is rare, four is nearly unheard of, especially in the West.]

[written on 8/28 as the post date reflects, posted on 9/18]

posted @ 7:54 AM

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