September 28, 2003

looking back

Yesterday was the last day of the retreat. It ended very sweetly with a Long Life Puja for Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. All of the people left — most of their mess, however, stayed. We aren’t going to worry about that for a few days though. It’s rest time. Mentally and physically.

I thought when we moved here that we would never meet a person who was demanding or abrasive. I thought that ordained people [Sangha] would be a delight to be around all the time. I thought, basically, that people wouldn’t be people here. They’d be these great bodhisattvas — the embodiment of all of Buddha’s wisdom. As it turns out most of them are just plain old people like myself. Struggling with their mind and getting irritated with the world just like me. About two days ago I came to this conclusion and it was very helpful. Because prior to this I’d think these really horrible thoughts about some of the retreaters or even worse, some of the Sangha. I’d think, “how can they be so selfish? why do they have to treat me like this? why can’t they put their own damn cup away?!?

This retreat was, as a former Director of Vajrapani put it, “trial by fire”. It won’t be this busy for about another year. This retreat was like no other retreat and the retreaters where often referred to as “Thanksgiving Day family” — the kind you love to have there, can’t wait to have leave, and miss intensely when they are gone. Some great lessons were learned and I can’t wait to go to the spa and relax.

posted @ 8:38 AM

September 10, 2003

hhdl in sf

We sat down to lunch like any other day (well, except that we were going to have a staff meeting while we ate). Everyone was excited about plans to have Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche arrive and we knew most of the discussion would be about that. Then one of the agenda items was His Holiness’ (the Dalai Lama) tickets. Vajrapani paid for 8 tickets for all of the staff members. Christina and I weren’t staff at the time so we weren’t going. We were very excited for everyone because we knew that they were going to draw who got the $100 tickets and who got the $50 tickets. Then something quite amazing happened — they offered two tickets to us! We drew them out of the envelope and got the $50 (2nd tier) tickets, which was plenty alright with us.

The event took place last Friday (9/5) at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Since we were so far away from the stage it was a little hard to see His Holiness real well, but fortunately one of the people in the group brought binoculars and we were able to get a close view every so often. He was everything I expected him to be and it was a great time. We even were able to drive right to a good parking spot and leave very quickly. (Christina and I don’t do well in “The City” and we always joke about how we almost got divorced because of trying to drive in San Francisco.)

[written on 9/10, posted on 9/20]

posted @ 8:57 PM

September 3, 2003

rinpoche’s luggage

I took the large black suitcase. It had rollers on it, but they did little good here with our uneven, rock covered pathways. It was very heavy and full of stuff — which made me think of the emptiness of the bag and the action of carrying it. This was probably a wonderful thing to think about considering the luggage belongs to Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche. It was brought over to us by the director of Land of Medicine Buddha and she helped us carry it to the Geshe House where Rinpoche will be staying. As we reached the deck she said, “we always joke that you can tell how high a lama is by the weight of their luggage.”

[written 9/3, posted 9/19]

posted @ 9:18 AM