Lamas from Drepung Loseling Monastery

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H

Harpoon

So ummm.... I think I mentioned this a while ago but I'm not really sure...

Anyways, I've been mucking around trying to read up on various books and such regarding Tibetan Buddhism. I'm by no means Buddhist, nor do I claim to be at this point, however the whole thing just FASCINATES me to no end and it's kinda SUCKING me in.... :eek:


Not that I'm complaining mind you... :p


Anyways, lamas (or monks) from Drepung Loseling Monastery are hanging out in my part of the universe right now, working on a sand mandala and I'm covering it for the newspaper. Today they had their opening ceremony which basically consecrated the site where the mandala is to be constructed over the next few days.

I took some photos of course...
 
Hey Harpoon,
I think one of the members here is buddhist but I can't remember who. You might ask Ross.
Take Care
 
I gotta get the photo of the elder lama with my son up somewhere where I can post it... More on that when the photo's ready.


A few shots for the sake of wasting bandwidth:
 
Harp ... re Tibetan Buddhism:

I am not a Buddhist either but I used to go pretty regularly to a Tibetan Buddhist center near where I live to do "Kum Nye" which is a form of "meditation with movement." The idea is to do the movements very S-L-O-W-L-Y. Kind of like tai chi, I guess. It is hard for Westerners because we are so competitive. The first time I went to Kum Nye it was a special class for attorneys, an even more competitive group than Westerners in general. It was funny to see them looking around, eyeing the other participants, to see if they were doing it "correctly." But it is not competitive and the idea is not to do it "correctly," or to measure yourself against others, but to get centered in yourself. It is very de-stressing. I've been thinking of starting to go back and do Kum Nye again. Should be better for the old BP than a raft of beta blockers! If you re interested in following up, this is the book we used for home exercises: Kum Nye Relaxation, by Tulku Tarthang,
 
heehee...


I've been doing Qi-gong. Again, it's like tai-chi and probably your Kum Nye which I've heard of before.

Qi-gong is also intended to be done VERY slowly. I've learned the basic movements for the "style" I've been taught (don't ask me what that style is called, there's a billion of them, including Tibetan forms) and now I'm working on trying to slow it down. My instructor can do the sequence in about 8 minutes. You're supposed to do it repeatedly, for about that time or longer, maybe 8-10 repititions for maximum effect...

It means literally, "energy breathing" and does a lot to expand your lung capacity and that "centering" thing.



My trouble though is trying to find time to do it when my son won't be around to try and topple me over like some giant stack of blocks.... :D


When I was in the hospital I had a few books on Tibetan Buddhism, including an essay written by the Dalai Lama, and did a little reading when I could. I never expected to have the chance to actually see Tibetan monks in person or get that kind of exposure. Then, the summer after surgery, the group from Drepung Loseling Monastery came to do a mandala...

Wow.

Then, this winter, I found out they were coming back and managed to get the opportunity to do a story on them for the newspaper.

Wow.

THEN! I found myself talking to monks in their hotel room before they started work on the mandala. I spent a fair amount of time with them which was more than I had ever thought I'd do two years ago...


Now I wish I had had a chance to sit down and really talk to them about buddhism and such. Maybe it will come some time, maybe not.


The opportunities I had were well and above what most people get so I'm thankful for that. I joke a bit about getting a chance to go to india to shoot them or maybe even Tibet.


A pipe dream probably, but then again, two years ago I was just reading books....
 
My son recieving blessings from the elder monk before they destroyed the mandala....
 
Harpoon said:
I joke a bit about getting a chance to go to india to shoot them....
Click to expand...
Hmmmmm, shooting monks.......not too sure that's very good Karma!! ;) :D :D

A : )
 
Can't be any worse for me than shooting police officers...


:eek:


I do that more often than I shoot monks. :p


Have also shot bears, geese, the elderly, children, the Governor of New York State....

Today my wife and I took our son up to the zoo. I was showing him how to shoot the animals there...



Ok, I guess the joke is getting old now. =Þ


(that's my version of "sticking one's tongue out" and I'm not telling anyone how I did it! =Þ )
 
Harp ... what a great picture, what a cute kid. You must be one proud papa.

Speaking of mandalas ... a few years ago, we had a major show at the Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco of Tibetan art. Some monks came to create a mandala in the museum lobby. They worked for days on it -- it was very intricate, and just as they were finishing it a mentally disturbed man came in and trashed the whole thing! He was grabbed and hauled away by the security people and everybody was very indignant, but not the monks, who went and quietly talked to the guy (I think they eventually got him released) and then quietly got to work on recreating the mandala.

Have you ever seen Martin Scorsese's movie about the Dalai Lama, "Kundun"? It's a really extraordinary film, beautiful and tragic.
 
Yeah, saw Kundun a long time ago actually.... Pretty good.


I just watched Seven Years in Tibet which is based on the real life experiences of a guy who befriended the young Dalai Lama before he was forced to leave Tibet. The film is based on a book of the same name and there's a second book, something like Return to Tibet...


In the film, there's a scene depicting the first contact between Chinese officials and His Holiness. In the scene, a Chinese general walks right through a rather large mandala that was being created as part of the pomp and circumstance the Tibetan's were holding for their visitors...

A great sign of disrespect.



The story of the deranged man seems fitting though, the monks knew he wasn't acting rationally and needed help more than incarceration...

Infinite compassion for all living things, all the time.


Pretty tough to do, but that's what it takes to become a Buddha.


Well, some of it anyways. =)
 
Marge said:
Harp ... re Tibetan Buddhism:

I am not a Buddhist either but I used to go pretty regularly to a Tibetan Buddhist center near where I live to do "Kum Nye" which is a form of "meditation with movement." The idea is to do the movements very S-L-O-W-L-Y. Kind of like tai chi, I guess. It is hard for Westerners because we are so competitive. The first time I went to Kum Nye it was a special class for attorneys, an even more competitive group than Westerners in general. It was funny to see them looking around, eyeing the other participants, to see if they were doing it "correctly." But it is not competitive and the idea is not to do it "correctly," or to measure yourself against others, but to get centered in yourself. It is very de-stressing. I've been thinking of starting to go back and do Kum Nye again. Should be better for the old BP than a raft of beta blockers! If you re interested in following up, this is the book we used for home exercises: Kum Nye Relaxation, by Tulku Tarthang,
Click to expand...
I've been living in Thailand for 7 years which is a Buddhist country I would never go back to the West. I've done a lot of meditation retreats. I've been studying Buddhism and meditating since 1996
 
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