my translation of ‘For the Benefit of Beings Pervading Space: A Meditation-Recitation on the Vastly Compassionate One’

For the Benefit of Beings Pervading Space: A Meditation-Recitation on the Vastly Compassionate One

by Thangthong Gyalpo

Being with going for Refuge:

I and all beings equal to the limits of the sky itself, all sentient beings, at this time, from this moment forward, until the heart of awakening is reached:

Go for refuge in the sacred and resplendent Gurus.

We go for refuge in the hosts of Yidams and Mandala Deities.

We go for refuge in the Buddhas, the Transcendent and Accomplished Conquerors.

We go for refuge in the sacred Dharma.

We go for refuge in all of the noble Sangha.

We go for refuge in the Dakas, Dakinis, Dharma Guardians, and Protectors who Possess the Eye of Primordial Wisdom.

Having gone for Refuge, engage in the meditation on Chenrezig.

In the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assemblies of Sangha,

I go for Refuge until complete awakening.

Through the merit of my practice of generosity and the other far-reaching perfections,

May I accomplish buddhahood in order to benefit beings.

Generating the Deity:

On the crown of my head and those of all other sentient beings pervading space

there rests a white lotus and moon seat.

From the HRIH on the lotus and moon seat appears the Supremely Noble Chenrezig:

white, clear and luminous, and radiating five-colored light rays.

Smiling charmingly, he gazes with eyes of great compassion.

He has four arms: the first pair are joined together,

the second, lower pair hold a crystal rosary and a white lotus.

He is adorned with ornaments of silk and precious jewels.

He wears the skin of a wild deer, which covers his upper part.

Amitabha adorns his head.

His two noble legs and feet rest in the vajra-asana posture.

His back is supported by a stainless moon.

He is the essence in which all sources of Refuge converge.

Thinking that oneself and all sentient beings are supplicating in a single voice, recite as follows:

Noble Master, Protector whose exalted body is not clothed by fault,

Whose head is adorned with a perfect buddha

Who gazes on beings with eyes of great compassion

I prostrate and pay homage to Chenrezig!

Accumulate as many repetitions of this homage as you are able.

The Seven-Branch Prayer:

To the Noble Chenrezig, the Powerful One;

to all the Victorious Ones and their bodhisattva heirs

abiding throughout the ten directions and three times:

To all of you, I prostrate with faith.

Flowers, incense, butter lamps, scents,

Food, music, and many other offerings:

I entreat the hosts of Noble Ones to accept them.

I confess all negativity accumulated from beginninglessness until the present moment:

the ten non-virtuous actions, the five grave misdeeds of limitless consequence,

and all actions committed under the power of the disturbing emotions in my mind –

I confess all of my destructive actions.

I rejoice in all of the virtue accumulated throughout the three times

by shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas,

each and every ordinary being, and all beings:

In all of their merit, I rejoice!

In accordance with the wishes,

intellects and individualities of sentient beings,

Please turn the Dharma Wheel

of the Great, Lesser, and common vehicles.

For as long as samsara is not emptied,

out of your great compassion, do not pass into nirvana,

but rather please look after sentient beings

drowning in the ocean of suffering.

May whatever merit I have accumulated

become the cause for the complete awakening of all;

For the the endless succession of beings

May I become a splendid leader!

If you are inclined, do the Supplication to Chenrezig, which was Bhikshu Padma Karpo’s daily practice commitment.

I supplicate you, Guru Chenrezig.

I supplicate you, Yidam Chenrezig.

I supplicate you, Supremely Noble Chenrezig.

I supplicate you, Lord Protector Chenrezig.

I supplicate you, Lord of Love Chenrezig.

Hold us with your great compassion, Victorious One of Vast Compassion.

In limitless samsara, uncountable ones are wandering:

Without respite, these beings are experiencing suffering.

Protector, other than you they have no other refuge.

Please bestow your blessings that we may attain omniscient buddhahood!

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born as hell beings through the power of anger,

And thus experience the suffering of intense heat and cold.

May they all be born in your presence, Supreme Deity.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born as in the realm of the hungry ghosts through the power of greed,

And thus experience the suffering of intense hunger and thirst.

May they all be born in your supreme pure realm, the Potala.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born as animals through the power of confusion,

And thus experience the suffering of foolishness and mental dullness.

May they all be born in your presence, Protector.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born in the realm of the humans through the power of attachment,

And thus experience the suffering of separation and discontentment.

May they all be born in your supreme pureland of Sukhavati.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born in the realm of the demi-gods through the power of jealousy,

And thus experience the suffering of fighting and arguing.

May the all be born in your pureland, the Potala.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

By the force of accumulating negative karma since beginningless time,

Sentient beings are born in the realm of the gods through the power of pride,

And thus experience the suffering of changing and falling.

May the all be born in the Potala, your pureland.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

Wherever I am born, in all my lifetimes

Through my deeds being like unto Chenrezig’s

May I completely free the beings of impure realms,

and spread the supreme and noble sound of the Six Syllables in the ten directions.

Supremely Noble One, through the power of praying to you,

May the beings who I am to tame

pay the closest attention to cause and effect, and diligently practice virtuous actions,

and for the sake of all beings, may they become fully suffused with the Dharma!

These words were spoken by the Mahasiddha Thangthong Gyalpo, on the occasion that he recollected his earlier lifetime as Bhikshu Padma Karpo. From his twentieth to his eightieth year, he observed the fasting ritual called Ngunnay, and recited this supplication to the Noble Chenrezig one-pointedly.

It is endowed with supreme blessings. So it is!

And then:

Thus, through this one-pointed prayer,

from the noble and exalted form of the deity radiate rays of light

which purifies impure karma, impure appearances, and the confused mind.

The external world is the pureland of Sukhavati

and the body, speech, and mind of the living beings therein

are the awakened form, speech and mind of the mighty Chenrezig.

Appearance, sound, and awareness are inseparable from emptiness.

OM MANI PADME HUNG

Accomplish as many recitations of this mantra as you are able.

Finally, let the mind rest equanimously in its own essential nature, without giving rise to conceptual reference towards the three spheres of agent, object, and interaction.

My body, the bodies of others, and all appearances are the noble and exalted form of Chenrezig;

All sounds and noises are the melody of the Six Syllables;

All thoughts and concepts are the expanse of vast pristine wakefulness.

By this virtue, may I quickly

attain the state of mighty Chenrezig

and place every single being, without exception

on that very same level.

This text, known as a ‘A Meditation-Recitation on the Vastly Compassionate One: For the Benefit of Beings Pervading Space’, is imbued with the speech-blessing of Mahasiddha Thangthong Gyalpo.

Thus, through the merit of meditating, reciting, and my other practices,

May I and every being with whom I am connected,

As soon as we are born, may we fully traverse the ten grounds, and from that,

May we send forth emanations in the ten directions for the benefit of others.

By this virtue, may all beings

Complete the collections of merit and pristine wisdom,

And may they obtain the two sacred kayas

Which arise from merit and pristine wisdom.

Bodhichitta is precious:

Where it has not arisen, may it be born!

Where it has already arisen, may it not decline,

but increase forever more!

Translated by Erick Sherab Zangpo.

sunny imprint

Sunlight streaming through

               an Indian

               partially underground

               restaurant

Illuminating like a host of Hindu deities

              light rays of effulgence

Insects you usually don’t see

              and the usual dust particles

Fading and then gaining

             more solidity

Pretending like it has some kind

            of primordial nature

But casting a constant sunny

            imprint on the jail-like

            walls

Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India

3.17.08

Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India

Sitting in the green grass and dead brown leaves behind the infamous Bir Snooker Hall, where most of the less than totally wholesome, though still generally kind-hearted, members of Bir’s Tibetan rogue’s gallery spend a large portion of their time.

Despite its somewhat shady locale, this place is a wonderful one to sit, write, and contemplate. Gently sloping downwards and stretching out to what looks like infinitely cascading dark green hilly mountains, and peppered with delightful medium-sized light green trees — many of them fruit — it provides an arena where one can rest the mind in a sphere of naturalness.

Little Indian and Tibetan boys, the oldest not much more than four or five, run by playfully, shouting “hello!” and “goodbye!”. Two girls perhaps a little bit older follow suit, with “hello!” and “namaste!“. The sun sets in the east behind thousands of prayer flags spreading the blessings of the lung-ta, the Wind Horse, amongst other auspicious symbols. The sun, with its peachy rays magnetizing the world of appearances and possibilities; the flags blowing indestructible kisses to the limitless directions. Somewhere, clouds of fragrant incense must be wafting.

I had to move just before choosing this particular sitting-place on account of wandering, peaceful cows, with not-so-peaceful-looking broad pointy horns of intimidating breadth.

Another peaceful protest is happening at this very moment: truckloads of Tibetans racing their way to Baijnath packed like Himalayan sardines to proclaim the truth with the rosy cheeks, so much more rosy when they lived at 12,000 feet+ elevation. The truth that Beijing does not deserve to hold the Olympics; the truth that Tibetans have every right to protest the Chinese occupation, and that none of them deserve to be jailed or killed for doing so; and pre-eminently that Tibet must be free and always should have been.

Some energy is rising with all these events. It can be felt in this world-system’s veins. A prelude to change, a pressure that’s been worked up in the subtle channels that connect the Tibetans and Chinese — and if you reach down and touch the earth goddess, as Lord Buddha did to call witness to his complete awakening to the actualization of his mind’s utter freedom, you can feel it too: pumping, pressurizing.

And like Prince Siddhartha’s rising energy in the 49 days before his awakening, it is an energy building towards freedom, but in a different respect. To the 6 million Tibetans, and all who support their good cause, it is a freedom that is almost, and to some just as, important.

The solidarity that the Tibetans have in exile is inspiring and significant, and could serve as a noble and impressive example to all those working for justice, human rights, and equality, on all the world’s fronts.

Nearly everyone takes part.

3.15.08

The end of a most interesting day. The Tibetan shops in town were closed due to the protests in Tibet and the Chinese military crackdown. Xinhua, the official government-controlled media unit, reported 10 people dead, but the Tibetans around town rumor numbers between 100 and 300. A day of mourning. Sometimes it seemed like only monks and the usual vigilant Indian taxicab drivers inhabited the central Bir market. Closed garage-like door and after closed garage-like door Indian shop door stood solemnly along the streets as reminders of over 50 years of Chinese brutality, cultural genocide, propoganda, and illegal occupation; the recent events being, in a sense, just upsurges, tidal waves, of a long-standing ocean of conflict.The Olympics being held in Beijing are the central sad figure in the mandala in which the protests and unrest are being arrayed — manifesting not only in Lhasa, but elsewhere in Tibet. In response to the typical iron-grip control tactics, and especially the deaths and arrests of protesters, most of them monks, protests are erupting around the larger mandala of the world — and especially in India and Nepal, the central hotspots of the Tibetan refugee community.

The hope is that the protests will bring the Tibet Issue to the entire world’s attention to a much greater degree, and that the Olympic games will be an arena in which a powerful catalyst can unfold; a catalyst that will eventually lead to greater autonomy for the Tibetans, and ultimately freedom from illegal Chinese rule.

It seems that it is already starting to work. The White House, according to CNN, has issued a statement that “Beijing must have a dialogue with the Dalai Lama”. Strong words coming from amounts to, arguably, World Super Power No. 1 to World Super Power No. 2. Europe and America say “Restrain yourself, China.” Chill out. At least they are saying that much, though it would be better if they said more.

If this does lead to greater freedom for Tibet, let’s hope that as few people as possible have to die in the process. The Indian police were on high alert today, with Majnu-ka-Tilla, the Tibet Town of Delhi, literally being sealed off. There were reports of Indian police beating Tibetans who tried to enter or leave the colony. In the words of many of Bir’s Tibetan locals, it is “a big issue”. India’s central police headquarters informed the police in all of India’s areas containing large Tibetan populations to be on high-alert, including, as local Mingyur Dorje put it, “all the way up north here in Himachal [Pradesh]“.

A candle-lit rally began in central Bir around 6 o’clock today, where participants walked to Chauntra, a village on the outskirts of Bir, an hour’s walk. They ended at Dzongsar Gompa, the very large monastery and shedra (Buddhist philosophical institute) of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Walking in the direction of Chauntra, I had the good fortune to see Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche drive by in his car. He smiled and waved at the three of us: myself, Mingyur, and Tharchin. A wonderful experience. I had seen DKR for the first time the previous day, at the end of the transmissions that HH Sakya Trizin Rinpoche was giving. Two beautiful spiritual masters, two beautiful men, two very high and influential lamas seen for the first time, at the same time. They walked by me as they exited the massive Dzongsar lha-khang (shineroom). A feeling of great blessing.

Blares of shrill, dramatic Tibetan horns followed Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, the supreme head of the Sakya sect, out of the marble halls; those horns being so much like Scottish bagpipes to me in their droning, harmonics, urgency, and ability to inspire emotion and a kind of nonconceptual contemplation.

3.11.08

Bir, Himachal Pradesh

My second day in Bir. I’m staying at Chokling Gonpa, currently in the guest house but soon the monastery, once they have my room painted. Today has been good. Last night I had a had a hard time sleeping due to what I thought was a lack of blankets — what do you know but at around 4 am or probably later I opened up the cabinet next to the bathroom and lo! a cabinet full of blankets — I should have known better than to think that they wouldn’t provide blankets! I woke up late, around 10:30 or later as I remember; went to the internet at Ramu’s — came back to the guest house a little late for check out time, packed my stuff to check out thinking that I’d be moving into a room in the monastery today, and went downstairs to the ground floor, only to be met with “Where are you going?!” by the young monk guest house manager — the monastery room won’t be ready for another day or so, he said, and I should just stay in the guest house until then — so Ok, took my stuff back to my room — I began to meet the monks around this time — one of them, Namgyal, asked me to teach him in the evenings and I agreed to do so — I first saw him with Lama Pema, the older lama who’s coordinating my lodging situation — I was offered lunch by Namgyal, and very shortly after I got back to my room a small Indian, probably Bihari, boy knocked on my door while I was reading ‘Ask and It is Given’, presenting yummy steamed masala-ish vegetables and plain rice — simple but excellent — after lunch I was craving caffeine — so I decided to go get a coffee at the nearby shop Buckstars which I’d never sampled my first time in Bir — on the way, I ran into Pema Jinpa on his motorcyle, presumably looking for me and Namgyal had told me before lunch that he’d come looking for me earlier — I got on his motorcycle for the short short ride to the coffee shop — and I had perhaps my first good coffee in India while talking with PJ about his recent marriage. Our talk was fairly short, he may have been on break from work. Not much seems to have changed for the people I know here; it makes me reflect on how most people’s lives are relatively uneventful compared to mine, and how I often seem to be on a very different rhythm, a different wave-structure life pattern, than most — I’m wondering whether dinner is ready or not — and I think I’ll go check –

3.07.2008

3.07.2008

Tashi Jong, Himachal Pradesh, India, SAMSARA

The lights are currently out and a magnificent storm rages outside. Tashi Jong is a Drukpa Kagyu community, and the symbol of the Drukpa Kagyu sect is the dragon — the druk in Drukpa — and it sounds like there’s some drunken druks waging war in the lofty skies above this usually tranquil valley. Tashi Jong means “Auspicious Valley”.

I thrive off storms like this — they make me feel energized, as if every thunderclap that resounds replenishes some vital energy within, one that can only be vitalized by thunder. Or perhaps it’s a special formula, an elemental elixir that feeds my hungry dynamic energies with one part thunder, one part lightning, one part rain… maybe one part general stormy ambience.

In the dark I’m left with almost no visual faculties to speak of. I now have the luxurious confinement of being forced to ruminate on dragons, ancient yogis, the effects of thunderstorms on mindstreams, and what’s happening in them there hills.

The Fifteen Yogis are out there in them there hills. Maybe they’re thinking of similar things. No doubt their thoughts, whether similar to mine or not, are imbued with more luminous transparency than mine.

The Fifteen Yogis. Usually, it’s the Thirteen Yogis, but for some reason two more are joining the fray right now, probably more for the sake of attaining enlightenment than for adding an unconventional twist to the numbers. Long ago, in a previous incarnation, Khamtrul Rinpoche was wondering how many yogis would be a suitable number to have as retreatants around his monastery. I’m not sure how he arrived at his numerical conclusion, but he ended up with 13. Ever since then, in each of Khamtrul Rinpoche’s lives, and presumably even between lives, it has been tradition to have 13 full-time, lifetime retreatants around Khamtrul Rinpoche’s monastery. I know not whether this is the first time that tradition has been slightly broken. I have a hunch that 13 is a minimum rather than a maximum.

According to Phopa Rinpoche, the Thirteen Yogis are generally retreatants for life, but one their main spiritual goals is to accomplish a 12 year retreat, focusing much of their time on attaining accomplishment in the Six Yogas of Naropa. The Six Yogas of Naropa includes such delightfully esoteric and impressive practices such as Dream Yoga, the Yoga of the Illusory Body, the Yoga of Transference of Consciousness, the Yoga of Inner Heat, the Yoga of Clear Light, and the Yoga of the Intermediate State. After completing the 12 year retreat, some of the yogis will come out from time to time to give teachings, conducts prayer services and ceremonies, and the like.

I wonder whether there is ever a shortage of aspirants for the job, thus forcing the monastery to start drafting people to reach the quota of 13.

“Khamtrul Rinpoche wants YOU to attain unexcelled, complete and perfect enlightenment! Join the 13 Yogis today! Special sign up bonus of 13 yaks for your family if you enlist before Losar!”

I’m even more curious about the possibility of meeting with one of the Thirteen Yogis.

The lights are still out. I contemplate what it would be like if the electricity never came back. There’s no doubt I’d spend less money, and also probably read, write, and study more. And wake up earlier.

…

I want to merge with the storm.

I want to be a giddy daka, jumping from raindrop to raindrop, being pushed this way and that by the fierce winds, but always in control, the skies above Tashi Jong my playground, the rain and wind my seesaw and swings, the lightning-trails a harmless obstacle course, the thunder a joyful punctuating din, adding a dramatic tone to my rythmic raindrop hopscotch.

I miss a step, miscalculate the direction a wind current will take me, and I slide into a grumpy cloud who’s still willing to break my fall: two backwards somersaults and I’m back in the game.

I’m a male sky dancer

I ride the waves of empty space

I’m a pawo: a hero, and all the gandharvas are there to test my resolve to have undistilled fun; all the dakinis are there to cheer me on, but I choose not to see them. I want this to be a lonely game tonight: I’m flying solo, just me and the storm.

The storm at once has no stake in the game, and yet displays giving rise to helpful and harmful intentions, all quite naturally. But all is calm in the storm’s heart. It knows what it is doing. And so do I.

Like the impossibility of the ultimate physical union which the sexual act unspokenly strives for, I attempt to blend seemlessly with the storm, even though I cannot — at least not fully. I take a little bit of it in, and it takes a little bit of me in. Some sort of child is produced by the twain, if nothing else but the exhilaration of contact, the exultation there in the trying.

I’m a sky dancer, baby.

And I’m ready to re-cognize my mind as endless space…

I look out the window. The sky pulses with a red-purple pigment, a kind of radiant opacity. I can’t tell if it’s my eyes playing tricks on me, but it’s thick, weird, surging, and sexy.

The Prayers Wheels at Tashi Jong

what i’ve been doing, roughly

I’ve been in Tashi Jong for the last week, mainly for purposes of exploring my part in the distribution and dissemination of Lama Chodpa incense, a very special blessed incense made by the monks, lamas, and laypeople of Tashi Jong, under the direction of Ven. Phopa Rabjam Tulku Rinpoche, who functionally acts as the mayor/president of Tashi Jong. 

 The stuff is really chock full of precious and blessed substances, and in talking with Phopa Rinpoche, I am discovering more and more blessed substances that are put into the incense. It’s fascinating. The relics of past masters are put into the Lama Chodpa stone soup, and there’s one particular precious pill which claims a powerful effect: The Rainbow Pill, or Jatsunma Pill (Ja means “rainbow”, tsun means “to appear”). Why rainbow? If the Rainbow Pill is given before death, then a rainbow will appear around the time of death. It also protects from rebirth in the lower realms when taken before death. Big claims! Incredible. But this stuff is in the incense. Thus while perhaps not having the exact same effect as if one were to take the pill directly, it can still contribute to a similar benefit.

Also included in the incense are tormas. Tormas are ritual symbolic statue-like offerings which are generally composed of barley, molded into proscribed traditional avant-garde designs which often look like they’re from outer space, and painted with bright colors. These particular tormas are consecrated during the annual long Mahakala puja at Tashi Jong’s monastery, takes place in the fall. After the puja’s conclusion, the tormas are then taken to a special Dharma Protector shrine room, where a designated Dharma Protector practitioner engages in day and night practice of those guardians of the Buddha’s teachings. He does this for one year, until the beginning of the next year’s Mahakala puja. The year-old tormas, now suffused with the blessings of one year of Dharma Protector practice, are then put into the incense.

There’s also something about the flesh of masters being in the incense, and the blessings from this flesh naturally increasing with time. I didn’t quite catch that in its entirety, so I’ll have to re-interrogate Phopa Rinpoche on that one! It certainly sounded interesting.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to, and why I’ve been in Tashi Jong: Lama Chodpa Incense. Other things have been at the forefront of my experience, and have taken up quite a bit of time: Ajay’s 3 day wedding, which was one of the most intensive cultural experiences I’d ever had, as well as the best time I’ve ever had dancing (these people love dancing so much and it is so beautiful), as well as being very sick for about 3 days (all of them during the wedding — I finally feel better as of today).

Tashi Jong was recognized by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and other lamas as being the Pure Land of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. This alone makes me want to stay there.

It is really a magical place. So much more quiet and laid back than any other Tibetan community I’ve been to. The population is very small, only around 1000, perhaps half of them being Tibetan. The landscape is mind-blowingly heavenly. There have been so many times when I thought, ‘I must have died and gone to heaven”. It’s like a perfect blend of traditional Tibetan and Indian culture, in a cloistered, quiet, gorgeous, very spiritual valley, where the people tend to radiate warmth and good feeling. 

So I’m falling in love with it. What can I say.

And proceeds from Lama Chodpa incense go directly to support the people of Tashi Jong. I want to help this village. It deserves it.

I can and will be an instrumental force in revitalizing the local community, bringing  prosperity and well being to its members. And all the while, making money to support my own Tibetan language studies here in India… as well as the benefit, blessing, and merit that everyone who buys and smells the incense receives.

 Currently, I’m looking into teaching English at Tashi Jong’s monastery/philosophical institute Khamapagar in exchange for room and board. I don’t have much money, and I came here with the intention of teaching English at Chokling Gompa in Bir, but at this point I want to stay in Tashi Jong, given the most auspicious connection I’ve made with that most lovely of villages.

May all beings have all temporal and ultimate joy and happiness, from the tiniest of pleasures up to and including complete enlightenment!

SARVA MANGALAM. May excellent virtue increase!

3.02.2008

3.02.2008

Paprola, Himachal Pradesh,

The Noble Land of India (Tibetan: Gya-gar Phag-pa’i Yul)

  Sitting here in Paprola again, at what I think is the only internet “café” in town, with two computers in its cyber-arsenal. Tashi Jong just got 1 computer, my friend Rana’s father’s international phone place. When I walked down from the colorful festivities of Ajay’s wedding, down past the breakbeat Indian village dancing, over through the verdant wheat fields - the greenest green this man has ever seen - Rana Sr.’s shop was a closed blue metal garage door. At that very moment a taxi was taking off, and I ran to catch it. A Tibetan family was on their way somewhere, and I got in next to the father. He didn’t seem to happy about not having his daughter next to him, as she was displaced to the front seat due to my ghetto taxi hitch tactics. Spontaneity doesn’t always leave everyone pleased.

In India, international phones are referred to as STDs. Communicable diseases. Communication is diseased, in most cases. Diseases propagate themselves. Health and well being is innate, but it’s the diseases which get the headline news.

Buddhism says that both well being and sickness are innate. Well being is nirvana, one’s buddhanature, which is timelessly the case, always there from the very beginningless beginning. It’s what’s really there. We just don’t usually experience it due to our emotional and cognitive obscurations. Sickness is samsara, the self-perpetuating round of bewilderment, confusion, negative emotions, and misunderstanding. It’s superficial. It characterizes most of our experience. It’s not really there, ultimately. Sickness is what we go through due to our emotional and cognitive obscurations.

There is something about India. As if whatever you want automatically appears. Just a few moments ago was a case in point. I wanted a cup of chai. Even in India, which is inherently stimulating, I need my caffeine. I was intending to ask the shop owner if he could tell me how to order a cup. Suddenly a boy appears with a freshly steaming cup of that sweet sugar-milk goodness. “For me?” His response was some kind of affirmation. But really, it’s been like that. People are tuned in. Like how the taxi suddenly appeared - and like how so many other things have happened in the 5 ½ days I’ve been here, seemingly perfectly aligned, perfectly arranged, exactly in accordance with need, desire, and inclination. Exactly in accordance with something that I can’t even conceptually fathom, perhaps. 

I was beginning to write a piece about this in my moleskin journal, which I unfortunately lost on the bus to Baijnath. This felt-sense of psychic communication which seems to operate in this country. It was prompted by the fact that shortly before I boarded the bus, a man appeared and sold me a combination pen/flashlight. “Only ten rupees sir.” It was truly what I needed, a pen and a flashlight.

So what could this psychic phenomena be chalked up to? I wondered.

Well, first of all, I need to say that, the fact that India as a country works at all must be the workings of some kind of supernormal apparatuses at work. A land of contradictions, indeed, even in the most broadly generalized conceptual terms: a seemless mix of chaos and harmony, of suffering and happiness, of the ancient and modern.

Well, first, there’s the religions. India has a yogic tradition going back at least 5000 years, which claims to be able produce psychic, extrasensory, powers. Even omniscience, in the case of Buddhism. Omniscience aside, it is not thought strange in the context of the yogic traditions of India to be able to read thoughts. This is actually considered a pretty mundane accomplishment. These people were doing meditation, yoga  and contemplating the ultimate nature of reality, on a large scale when most of my ancestors were trying to figure out how to build houses.

Of course, most Indians aren’t yogis or sadhus. But there’s little doubt in my mind that India has produced the most sophisticated forms of spiritual practice. There’s lots of evidence that Hinduism and Buddhism even influenced Christianity and Islam, even at the early start of their careers- it’s actually pretty undeniable. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism had highly developed forms of prayer, contemplation, devotional practices, yoga, meditation hundreds of years before Christianity and Islam.

Over the course of so many thousands of years, it’s not too much to conjecture that India’s religious traditions, which were always so central to it’s culture, would pervade the human evolution of its people - including the psychic phenomena which its traditions can produce - reading others’ thoughts and emotions, intuiting the future, etc.

India’s religions put such a strong emphasis on the third eye, the chakric energy center of intuition, vision, insight, wisdom, and knowledge. I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that Indians have such large, beautiful, penetrating, knowing eyes. Which in my experience, seem to go straight to your heart.

Lama Chodpa Incense Promotional Letter

Dear Friends,

 

I am writing to you on behalf of Lama Chodpa Incense and the Friends of Nub Gon Monastery. Lama Chodpa Incense is completely natural and organic, and is hand prepared by the monks and local villagers of Tashi Jong, a small Tibetan community in Himachal Pradesh, India. Lama Chodpa is hand-prepared according to the instructions of ancient Tibetan manuscripts. It is made from 31 native medicinal herbs, including cardamom maton, nutmeg, juniper, clove, and saffron), as well as special blessed substances.

These substances are incredibly blessed. They are consecrated during a long Mahakala puja which takes place every year at Khampagar Monastery. Afterwards they are taken to a special shrine room, where a designated monk practices full-time, blessing the substances for a full year. The substances are blessed by numerous lamas and rinpoches, including tulku of Khamtrul Rinpoche, who was the teacher of Ani Tenzin Palmo.

In gathering the substances, the environment was not harmed.

Proceeds from the sale of Lama Chodpa incense will be channeled towards supporting Nub Gon Monastery in Tibet, as well as a variety of projects which directly support the local people of Tashi Jong, who are struggling economically.

Lama Chodpa Incense is super-charged with blessings. Not only that, but those who buy gain the merit of helping countless sentient beings.

The reports from this incense have been incredible – the incense is well known to have a healing effect, and there have been stories of people finding relief from sickness, depression, and other ailments after burning it.

Lama Chodpa comes in four varieities – Purification, Meditation, Relaxation, and Flower.

· Purification: Helps to remove external impurities, thus refreshing the mind. It prevents the spread of certain viral diseases, and is used to remove inauspiciousness.

· Meditation: Helps cleanse the inner channels, as well as soothe and refresh body and mind.

· Relaxation: Helps to relieve tension and frees the mind from depression; at the same time, it is refreshing to the local environment where it is used.

· Flower: Helps increase the power of prayers, and will bring peace and happiness into one’s life, in the way that a flower does at its best.

 

Lama Chodpa comes in four different sizes: Big (60 sticks), Medium (28 sticks), Quarter (15 sticks), and Small (15 half-size sticks).

Wholesale prices are as follows:

Big: $6/tube

Medium: $4/tube

Quarter: $3/tube

Small: $2/tube

If you are interested in purchasing Lama Chodpa incense at wholesale price for your store, please contact me at emptyelephant@yahoo.com for shipping and billing information.

Thank you for your time and interest. I am certain that Lama Chodpa will be a hot seller at your store!!

Sincerely,

Erick Neiss