9th Mock Up

I know there's been a long silence on the book that we are working on, well there wasnt much time for writing, other than on the book itself.
Just a short note to say that we are currently on the 9th mock up of the book and Khun Pui is here in Thimphu to work on it.
And a small picture which she took from Tsali Gompa, opposite Changjiji, of a Rakshasa with a skull cap leading the divine horse Balaha waiting to escort Guru Rinpoche to Zangdok Palri.
Cant hardly wait for the book to be out and to get to actually feel it...lol yes I LOVE books rather than a Kindle or IPad.

You

Crowded bustling street,

weaving through, they push

All these emotions,

Jar against my nerves

Yet a face stands out

Alone amidst the ocean

You, it is always you

And yet you remain only an apparition

a creation of my mind

The reality of you

is far from the memories

left behind.

A spiritual teacher

He is the great vessel that carries beings across the ocean of life;
He is the unerring captain who guides them to the land of liberation;
He is the rain that extinguishes the fire of passion.
Like the brilliance of the sun and the moon,
He rips away the darkness of ignorance;
The weight of good and evil at the same time.
Like a father and a mother, he loves all beings with the same love.
A great river of compassion,
A mountain soaring above all earthly concerns,
Unshaken by the winds of emotion,
To make any connection with him,
Whether by seeing him,
Hearing his voice,
Remembering him or being touched by his hand will lead us towards liberation.
To have full confidence in him is the best way to progress towards enlightenment.
The warmth of his wisdom and compassion will melt the ore of our being
And release the gold of Buddha-nature within.

Private Moments

Motherhood and Practicing Buddhism

Forget ever blossoming from the depths of samsaric muddied waters; by Buddhist standards I am neck deep in samsara and sinking fast. Why? Well I am well chained down with many hopes, desires and attachments that run pretty deep-I am a mother of three adorable and sometimes very naughty little munchkins whom I like to call my 3 Musketeers.

Yes I live in the only Vajrayana practicing Kingdom in the Himalayas. Yes I have a spiritual teacher. Yes I have all the perfect conditions to practice Dharma. But I just don’t seem to have the time to practice or meditate or even sit for a few minutes a day. When all my friends who are either single or just starting a (small) family of their own hardly seem to have time, where in the world can I even imagine finding time with THREE?

Frankly my Ngondro(Preliminary Practice) stopped at 30,000ish every time, thrice and so far, my spiritual teacher has been kind enough to tell me that even a minimum of 3 times a day is enough, after all if you add it up to a whole lifetime, I would have completed my set number of Ngondro. He was also kind enough to tell me that it was more important that I was aware of the present moment, each moment, and that I thought, spoke and acted with pure intention daily. That seemed easy enough and I was sighing with great relief that my teacher let me off so easily. So pushing aside that guilt rising in the pits of my stomach, I convinced myself that He was right-I COULD do this, it would be a breeze.

It was anything but!! My eldest 7 year old Musketeer asks me (as I’m negotiating heavy traffic on an early school morning)for the 16^th time, ‘Moooom….who invented wind shield wipers? Why did they invent windshield wipers? Why did they call it that? How come its one wiper in some cars and two in most?’ and it goes on and on and on. Then there’s my 3 year old Megamind(you’ll understand when you see him) Musketeer in the backseat grumbling and whining to the best of HIS ability that he doesn’t want to go to school. All the while I’m trying my hardest NOT to bump or scratch the car in front of me, smiling sweetly as possible at the driver coming at me, hoping he’d let me go first, checking my rearview mirror(being blocked my inquisitive Musketeer)if the rear car’s getting too close for comfort….well you get the idea.

THIS is the very exact moment where I wonder what I am supposed to be visualizing and how that rising feeling of stomach burn(this means my anger’s reaching boiling point)should be controlled. Somehow I manage every morning for the past few years, but what about all those unwanted wrinkles and frown lines added up over the years? I don’t know about you, but haven’t you noticed how real practitioners never seem to age? Apart from enlightenment, I really really want THAT!!

There are many moments where I also wish that there was a manual called Dummy’s Guide for Moms (who wish to rise to the status of Super Moms) Practicing Buddhism, telling you exactly how to handle a 3 year old’s tantrum at a public venue and all those little valuable lessons of making Mommyhood look as easy as eating a plateful of delicious momos.

Honestly though, I don’t know about other parents, but with my 3-they’ve taught me all the lessons in Buddhist practice and spirituality that I need to know and more. By watching them and teaching them, I had many an A HA moment of my own and learnt to practice what I had taught them about dealing with anger, frustration, language(especially refraining from swearing), manners, relationships and the importance of a good heart and honorable character. It is of course a work in progress, both for my children and myself, but it’s an enjoyable journey and rest assured that there is never a dull moment where I am not pulled back into reality by my Inquisitive Musketeer’s witty comments; and Megamind Musketeer’s scathing honesty of why rules apply only to him and not for Mummy or Daddy and of course Happy Musketeer is the master of calm, teaching me a few things about how to manage my life more coolly regardless of external disturbances.

 And the best moments are when I am ready to spit out a tirade of ranting and ravings over a mundane matter; I find one of my intended victims looking back at me very impishly-this suddenly breaks open the narrowness of my mind overwhelmed momentarily by anger, only to find us both laughing very hard at the silliness of it all.

I may not ever find enlightenment in this lifetime, but I think being a mother has planted a few seeds of wisdom, patience and a good dose of sense of humour to face life with a smile on my face and spring in my step for many lifetimes to come.

The future is completely open & we are writing it moment to moment

Now that almost half of our 'ZP Gang' are here in Bhutan, we are well under way with the progress of our work on volume 1 of the book, of which the deadline is January 12 at the publishers in Bangkok. Volume 2 will come out a little before May 2012.
Well changes so far are:
Vol 1 will include: Tulku Thondup's description and details of ZP, 15 murals of ZP in Bhutan and Guru Rinpoche's biography of his stay in Bhutan.
Since this book is going to be larger(in many ways), Dzongkha or the Choekyi version will only come out much later and in a different format(as per the guidelines of our two scholars Tengkhey and Sangye Dorji) that will be somewhat of a spiritual guide book and informative guide for those seeking Guru Rinpoche and his Paradise and ofcourse historical information related to Bhutan, Guru Rinpoche and Buddhism. The boys are so excited that a whole SEPARATE version in Dzongkha is coming out, they very nearly fell out of thier chairs yesterday!!
Vol 2 will involve only of the ZP structure in Kurjey built by Her Majesty as it is going to be quite detailed and informative.
Tomorrow Khun Pui and I are on the way to Tshelungney and dayafter to Chimphu!! Extremely excited to be going somewhere and that also to Guru Rinpoche's sacred sites. The boys are off to Taktsang to look at the 2 murals there. P'Pook and co will be joining us this Dec 7th!! We are all having a nice little group photo for the book.
Truely hope its going to be as useful and as wonderful as it looks.

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
Charles R. Swindoll




“The moment one gives close attention to anything, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
Henry Miller

Tashi Gomang-All Auspicious Many Doors

Worship and spirituality are an age old tradition and are done in many common places of worship such as a church, a monastery and other ‘houses’ of worship. There are also natural structures or ‘power places’ of worship. These are for mass worship amongst groups of peoples and yet there are also kinds of worship of the individual that may vary from memorabilia items such as lucky charms to amulets. But the most interesting type of individual worship, are the portable shrines or altars, which I think are found all over the world, in all spiritual beliefs. In Bhutan, we have the Tashi Gomang, portable altars in the shapes of miniature stupas and Zangtogpalris. The information needs to be verified, but apparently these Tashi Gomangs are unique to Bhutan as they are an invention or creation of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who commissioned a few to be made by a Parop Zow(Carpenter) and then copies were made in most monasteries, to the point of which almost each monastery had one.

http://www.englander-workshops.com/gallery.php?gid=3&eid=2902

They serve a two-fold purpose. The foremost and most important being that they are spiritual reliquaries that are supposed to bless those upon sighting them. They are usually replicas of Guru Rinpoche’s Zangtogpalri, Kuntuzangpo’s Zangtogpalri, Chenrigzee’s Zangtogpalri and so on. They are usually depicted with great details in miniature workmanship and the ways they are opened are also a sight to behold, I daren’t touch it for worry that I might break it. They are also considered beneficial for the one who carries these portable stupas, as the physical struggle and fortitude to carry such a heavy thing around the country and to sing the lyrical spiritual songs accompanying the stupa, is considered a spiritual journey and meritious development for the custodian.

They also, looked in another way; create a kind of revenue for those remote monasteries that send these stupas around the Kingdom. From what I am told, in Zhabdrung’s time, they used to collect in kind (butter, cheese, rice), around 4-5 times a year, which would be sent to the respective custodian monastery.

Around 3^rd King’s time, when barter trade was converted to currency, it was valued at Nu.500. Currently in 2011, most reliquaries collect Nu.2000-3000 per year from ngendhar(donations) and the rest can be kept by the custodian carrying it, for food and other necessities.

Sadly, many of these Tashi Gomas, have been sold at cheap prices to foreigners who are aware of the value of these portable houses of worship, and today, with modernism, roads and rural-urban migration; we only see a few of these custodians, now old men, still struggling to carry these ancient tradition on their backs, while negotiating traffic, rising food prices and general lack of interest shown by the public.

http://www.agefotostock.com/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/V58-707313

I hope, in the future, though it is impossible to hope for their revival, that atleast a book can be published to create awareness, of this one piece of unique heritage that is special to the Kingdom of Bhutan.