Tushita Meditation Centre

Tushita Meditation Centre

The centre is part of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) http://www.fpmt.org/ which is a part of a worldwide network of centres. I attended a 10 day retreat “Introduction to Buddhism” which included such topics as the mind and emotions, karma, rebirth, love and compassion, and the nature of reality. There were only 24 of us instead of their usual groups of about 70. The teachers thought because we were such a small group that we bonded with each other too much. Our silent retreat included lots of laughs, pantomime, and a few whispers here and there – guess we were acting out a bit. We had choices about staying in a dorm or for an extra fee a single, double, or triple room.I got the last single – a very small cell with a low, hard single bed, built in shelves, a small desk, plastic stacking chair and a picture of the Dalai Lama. The bathroom was quite far away and I always took my walking stick to scare off the monkeys. Our first afternoon orientation warned us to beware of the monkeys and shake out our sleeping bags for scorpions – yikes! Guess what I did faithfully every night. There must have been at least 50+ resident monkeys of all ages including some very, very young nursing babies. They seemed to know the human schedule and enjoyed jumping onto the Gompa (Buddhist temple) roof, made of tin, and sliding down it during our class time. It was impossible to hear during those times as there might be 20 of them jumping up and down. Then they would walk by the windows and peer in. They certainly hadn’t picked up any Buddhist practices as they would steal anything not nailed down. You’d see them in the trees playing with dish cloths, someone’s towel, a dog bowl still full of food, someone’s lunch and parts of prayer flags to mention a few.

My fellow retreatees’ (yes, I know it’s not a word – should be though) were from Poland, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Italy, Canada, England, Indonesia, Israel, United States, and Spain. Most were in their twenties and early thirties but a few, like me, were a wee bit older. Many of the younger ones had been living in Asia for years and teaching English to support themselves. Others were on six months to a year of travel with very open agendas. Our two teachers were a nun from Italy and a nun originally from Switzerland. They were both excellent teachers and were very adept at translating the complicated concepts of Buddhist practice and how to apply them into everyday Western lifestyle. They recorded all our sessions on an MP3 recorder and made CD’s available at the end of the retreat. How techie is that!

After lunch each day we had an hour and a half break so I often went to the library and checked out a book - mostly large art books. At the end of the course, when I got my camera back, I took pictures of the library and discussed all the various library procedures with the librarian. I will make a separate blog for that specifically for my ILS 225 & 325 students taking online library courses from the University of Maine at Augusta.

Unusual Stuff:

• Seeing two Snow Monkeys – large, white fur with black faces and very shy
• Seeing a huge rainbow framing the snow capped mountains
• Sitting through a hail blizzard in the tin roofed Gompa
• Seeing lightening run along the ridge of a mountain

While we were there crews began to tear down the original Gompa which will be replaced by a larger one. Under the roofing and above the ceiling in a tiny crevice about 15 1950’s style eyeglasses were found. Where they were located was quite sealed off – not accessible for a person to stash them and seemingly not the type of situational behavior associated with monkeys. The Gompa was over 100 years old. So we had fun trying to conjecture how they got there. Have any ideas?

The interior and exterior walls were braced with wood and filled with stone - then some kind of wall board with plaster over it. I'm sure it was cool in the summer and cold & damp in the winter. It was fascinating to watch the men tearing down the structure – everything was done by hand with crow bars and ropes. They climbed like monkeys all over the structure prying and pounding the various sections apart. While that was going on the Indian women would take the debris away in baskets on their head. These are very heavy loads of large stone blocks, cement, bricks and huge bundles of wood. They brought their young children to the site while they worked all day and cooked lunch at mid-day. There were all ages involved from teenage girls to old women carrying well over a hundred pounds down steep hills in flip flops. The younger girls wanted me to take their pictures so I did that and have made prints to take back up to them. They were very sweet. Because of the cast system in India they will probably continue to carry heavy loads at construction sites the remainder of their lives. Dispite the hard work they all seemed content and compassionate with each other.

So what did I learn at Tushita? I’m still assimilating it all but several people have come up to me and said I am glowing…….could that be nuclear waste! I learned quite a lot about myself and my “afflictive emotions” (attachment, anger, pride, ignorance, deluded doubt, wrong views and secondary causes such as jealousy, envy, craving, gossip, greed, laziness, etc.) In Buddhism these emotions are one of the causes of unhappiness. Training the mind through meditation can help to become aware of our behavior and begin to eliminate them. There is a painting and story about training the mind that involves a wild, uncontrolled elephant (the mind) and the stages and training he must go through until he is completely in control – it’s such a fabulous visual. Of course this is a simplification of Buddhist practice. There are three traditions of Buddhism - the Mahayana tradition, often called the Middle Way, goes beyond just striving for personal enlightenment and answers the question: Why do I go for enlightenment? The answer being “for the benefit of all sentient beings”. Built around all three traditions are precepts of no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no bad speech (gossip, slander), and right views. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Galug sect of the Mahayana tradition.

Karma in a nutshell – you can’t get away with anything. We are entirely responsible for our own actions. If you do negative things eventually you will suffer from your wrong doing.

Dukkha – fake, no real essence. I love this word, Mr. Klofas (Klofish) and I often discuss reality and emptiness. Close your eyes and think about what is real. We can all witness the same event and have totally different descriptions about what happened. You know there are lots of snakes in the area and far off in the distance you see a long curvy object and know it is a snake. When you get closer you find that it is actually a fallen tree branch. Think on it. Television is Dukka.

Here is an Indian poem I would like to share – after my close encounter with cancer this became very clear.

This day is a special day,
It is yours,
Yesterday slipped away
It cannot be filled with more meaning,
About tomorrow nothing is known,
But this day, today, is yours,
Make use of it.
Today you can make someone happy.
Today you can help another.
This day is a special day,
It is yours.

I’m reading a hilarious book called Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald – it’s an Australian woman’s depiction of India and her experiences while living in India. It’s irreverent, funny and surprisingly right on. I think many of you high school students and adults who are interested in traveling, adventure, and Bill Bryson style humor will not be able to put this down. You can actually smell the spices, excrement, burning cow dung and incense that so defines India as you read the book.

I’m back to Tushita in two weeks for a three day workshop on Living & Dying which should be very intense. Hopefully while I’m there I will get pictures of the monkeys to post. I can have my camera during the workshop.

Namaste my friends