Chökhor Düchen, Teachings, Upcoming Visits and Hermitage News
So we're back at the full moon again, and a lot has happened in the last month. Of course there was my conversation, Practical Implications of Shentong Interpretations of Tathagatagarbha, with Lopen Karma Phuntsho of the Tsadra Foundation. It was wonderful to have a one on one conversation with him in advance of the live conversation and make a very strong personal connection with him. I could ask him a lot of questions that he’s asked others about their view and I found we had a lot in common in the way we looked at the Tathagatagarbha, and the Rangtong Shentong issue. He said several times that he's hoping that when he gets his visa for the UK back or a renewal of his status as resident, he will try and meet up in person. So I'm very much looking forward to that!
Jayasiddhi and K-Tso have been away in Canada, K-Tso's home country, visiting K-Tso's family and Gampo Abbey. It was a very special visit for them and we are happy to have them back at the Hermitage. While they were away, we had a series of volunteers including Tsering, Sudhana, Kathy Cosgrove, Damzig and Delam most recently. We enjoyed having them all here joining in at the pujas and doing a lot of work on the grounds, clearing out the shed and painting the cabins. Namgyal is here regularly and Tsering, Kathy, Kamala and Damzig come to help out quite often, it's lovely to have a volunteer team taking care of things around the Hermitage.
This month included Chökhor Düchen, the festival for the first turning of the Dharma Wheel. We read the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the pavillion and recited the Samantrabhadracharya Pranidana and made lots of light offerings. Here is short talk I gave on Chökhor Düchen. I also made offerings to the nunnery in Nepal, Tek Chok Ling where Rinpoche is and sent an offering of 500 pounds for the nunnery and their celebration. I got a reply back from Ani Dechen Palmo immediately saying she really rejoices in the way the Awakened Heart Sangha is practising all the time and that it makes her very happy and she tells Rinpoche about it and he's happy too. It's good to feel that connection going on and to know that they're celebrating at the same time as us.
Suddenly, towards the end of the month I received a phone call from Rigdzin Shikpo, which I don't often get, saying that he could come and see me, which was nice. He came with Sally and we spent a couple of hours talking about what was going on and all sorts of things that I wanted to share with him, which he and Sally seem to appreciate very much. And then he invited me to an ceremony he was giving the next day at Tyn y Gors, which was really nice. There were about 15 of us and it was a wonderful atmosphere. I felt very welcomed, it felt like good tendrel for the two Sanghas to come together in the future.
And there is a lot to look forward to coming up. We've just started the DHB retreat on Confidence led by Lama Tara assisted by Namka and Younten. I will be answering questions on the last day and I will be at the feast, which I'm really looking forward to. There are about 20 people here for the week, which is the biggest retreat we've had since COVID restrictions were lifted. It's really nice to now be able to welcome people to the Hermitage.
Quickly following on from the Confidence retreat we have the Expression from the Heart weekend with Katie and I which I'm really looking forward to. We will be looking into the role of art in Dharma, in our pursuit of Dharma and what it can contribute to our path. I was recently sent the life story of Sangharakshita written by Nagabhodhi, which is about to be published. They have requested I write a recommendation for it and I'm enjoying reading it tremendously. A number of the events coincide with my own experience and memory and the whole experience of building a Western Sangha. I've always had my eye on his work and admired his foresight in working out how we are going to build sanghas in the West that are not monastic communities. So I think there's a lot in his book that's worth discussing, even though I wouldn't go along with everything that he says or how he says or how he expresses many of his ideas but on the other hand I probably don't agree with anybody 100%. I'm very struck with how much emphasis he puts on developing our aesthetic sense of arts and literature and Western culture, generally, as our own heritage. I'm intrigued to learn more as he was extremely well read, he was an avid reader from very young and kept that up all his life. So I'm very interested to talk more with Katie and explore more how art or an aesthetic sense or something around the way Sangharakshita talks about maintaining this sense of inspiration that comes from the arts, and what that might mean in the context of the path to liberation.
We also have a visit coming up from Tulku Sherdor who visited us once before, he's a student of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche in Nepal. I'm very much looking forward to his visit and teaching. He's going to give us a talk on Mipham’s very clear exposition of Mandala Principle from various levels of understanding, so that's quite exciting. We'll also have a conversation about Guru Principle. You can register for the weekend here. And then shortly after that, we will have a visit by Karl Brunnholzl and his wife Stephanie. And again, we'll have a conversation online available for everyone to attend. More details to come for that talk soon. So it's going to be a very eventful month coming up. I'm very much looking forward to it.
Another nice development is that a local farmer has allowed us, the residents here, to use his river to swim in, within limits and is keen to come and visit us here. We're also going to have an open house and invite all the local people from the area for tea in late September and I'm really looking forward to that. I think that it will feel good and will integrate us more into the local community.
We're now starting to plan for next year, the Vaster Vision. This year is a year of exploring the vastness of practice in everyday life and we have only really been scraping the surface, but I hope we are inspiring everybody to really explore that in their daily life. The work we’ve been doing around safeguarding highlights the importance of the keeping of precepts and I think we could do a lot more work on the precepts. Jayasiddhi has often shown a great interest in taking that forward and I hope that he does. Next year we will be discussing the vast area of the vaster vision and similarly to this year we can only really scrape the surface of it during the year but I hope everything that we touch on will be carried forward as time goes on. I continue to see Dashu each month and he's also exploring the areas that he wants to take forward when he comes out of retreat.
Another thing that's moving ahead is the mandala principle book that I'm working on with Gendun, that's taking up a bit of my time every day. In general, my energy is not too bad. But it's at a new low level compared with how I used to be, which I very much regret because I can't manage to talk to people personally as much as I would like. And nonetheless, I'm able to now and then go down for a swim in Criccieth with Tara which is tremendously refreshing and relaxing. And in general, I'm taking things more slowly which in a way is more meditative.
That's probably enough for this month. And I look forward to seeing you all online or here at the Hermitage as time goes on. There's a lot going on and a lot to look forward to, in these rather dark and depressing times in many ways. But I think what we're doing is meaningful and it's bringing very positive Dharma energy and adhisthana into the world in this dark time and we can all rejoice in that. So, with those uplifting words, I will close and we'll be in touch again next month.
Love Shenpen