Cairns and the Nature of Impermanence, Interconnection, and Emptiness.
Much has happened in our village lately. The building of the library is now complete, and the artists and nuns are decorating the inside of it with paintings, murals, and statues. I am very pleased with the outcome of the library. It is the largest structure I have built out of rammed earth, and it is beautiful. Many people donated resources and skills to get us to completion. We put a prayer wheel outside the library so people can complete circumambulations around the perimeter of the library and spin the wheel as they pass. Walking clockwise around a stupa, mountain, or stucture like our library and focusing on the Buddha is a meditative practice that also fosters good karma and merit. Each time around the library the prayer wheel is spun and this also generates merit and good karma. I have walked around the library to pray every morning since it was built. It has been deeply spiritually satisfying for me, not only to see something beautiful and useful that I helped build, but knowing it will be a centre for sacred insights, learning, and teaching has filled me with positivity, merit, and good karma.
The expedition to the revealed cave has returned to the village and the uncovered several ancient texts that has been hidden in the cave for years. The texts were on many things, but most people are intrigued by texts on pilgrimage and on the local history of our village. Several people from our village have been inspired and are going on pilgrimages of their own. The ones staying in the village are dedicating ourselves to a meritorious project at home.
The text that was found on the history of our village describes a cairn shrine on the outskirts of our village, dedicated to a local protector deity. A group of Villagers went out to find the cairn and found that it had been knocked over and lay in ruins. We have decided to rebuild the cairn and then purify it and rededicate it to the protector deity. It is very important to propitiate the Dharmapalas, or Drag-ched in Tibetan (meaning “guardians of the teaching”) to keep them happy and defending us against obstacles that can negatively affect our lives. Dharmapalas are protector deities and bodhisattvas. There is a legend that Padmasambava battled against hostile gods who opposed Buddhism, and upon defeating them the gods agreed to become advocates and protectors of Buddhist practitioners and the Dharma. They are wrathful and scary looking, not exactly how I’d imagine a bodhisattva! They have this terrible looking appearance to destroy the obstacles that threaten Buddhist practitioners, and the skulls and flames they are decorated with depict the negative characteristics of greed, delusion, and hatred that they have conquered. I guess this is an example of the bodhisattva principle of skillful means; forgoing the benevolence of a Buddha to use a fearful visage and countenance to act as a protector of the faithful. Once a person has devoted themselves to yidam practice worshipping a deity or Drag-ched they can make regular offerings to foster a relationship founded on devotion and propitation whereby anger, doubt, greed, lust, and all the characteristics we want to shed can be offered to he protector deity and in return the Drag-ched will protect us and guide us toward our Buddha-nature. I am very far from being practiced enough to meditate directly on the Drag-ched, but building the cairn is a good start.
I’ve been wondering if the destroyed cairn was the cause of the catastrophic hail storm that ravaged the village a few months ago. Maybe if the cairn was standing the protector deity would have spared us or lessened the damage. Apparently they can be pretty nasty if they are not appeased through offerings and devotions. For this reason I have decided to be involved with the rebuilding of the cairn.
I am very interested in the rudimentary building techniques of cairns that involve balancing and wedging rocks against each other to form a mound. Since there is no mortar to hold the rocks together you have to rely on gravity and the balanced dynamic between the stones to hold it together. Another villager involved in the building process suggested we use emulsifier from boiled rice to act as a bonding agent for the stones. Though it is a natural material, I do not feel this is necessary for our cairn. Cairns have been built for thousands of years by just stacking stones on top of each other, and through my trading travels in the past I have heard that other cultures build the same kind of structures in the same way. Though who knows, maybe showing the Drag-ched that we are willing to fortify the cairn will work in our favour.
As I learn about and practice these techniques I feel connected to the earth, and to the universal dharmas that underlie all things, their forms and the ultimate emptiness therein. Colours, shapes, textures, hardness can tell so much about an object, but just when I feel I am connecting with the rock in my hands I remember that all forms are empty of inherent essence. When I struggle to understand this concept, I think of the cairn as a structure. It is a cairn because we identify it as such, it does not have some internal cairn-ness to it. And when it fell apart and lay as a rubble of rocks, it was no longer a cairn, even though we still saw it that way. Recognizing that we saw the cairn there when it was clearly just rocks spread around and toppled made it clear to me that we project substance onto forms, considering them as having sustained essence. Being involved in this cairn project has really put me in touch with what I feel is a deep universal truth — the emptiness of all things. I feel I have reached a new understanding of this concept and its implications. It is an exciting time.
The cairn also has me reflecting the truths of impermanence and interconnectedness. When we found the cairn it had fallen apart. We could see that it had once be a cairn, but it had collapsed so long ago that the overgrowth made it look like it had been assumed back into nature. As we rebuild the cairn, I don’t think any of us are under the illusion that the cairn will last forever. Since it is not held together with any bonding like concrete or rammed earth, a strong storm or flood could topple it. Perhaps in hundreds of years a future generation will come upon the cairn in the same way we have, learning about it through lore or in a lost map or text. Maybe they will find the cairn in ruins and rebuild it like we are, and so the cycle of creation and destruction continues, reminding us all throughout time of the impermanence and cyclical nature of all things.
When stacking the stones of the cairn we've noticed it is best to have several points of contact between each stone to increase stability. Each rock has to be balanced and situated in a certain way, and once a level of construction is done, any gaps or holes are filled with smaller stones that are wedged in. The integrity of the structure depends on how the rocks balance and fit together. A perfect example of the interconnectedness of all things!
Reflecting on this makes me think that cairns were not only chosen because they are simplistic to build and take no resources other than rocks and people, but also because they are an example of interconnectedness, emptiness, and impermanence. I would even argue that through the building of the cairn and praying to it one can ease their suffering by connecting to these universal truths.
There were also texts found in the cave on purification and dedication rituals. Though I have deep religious belief, I am unfamiliar with the finer points of ritual. From what I understand, one of the uncovered documents is about an offering of smoke for purification. As the smoke rises we are to imagine several points of pure light radiating out of each spec of dust and each particle of smoke. Other rituals for the cairn involve fire, mandalas, and wind horses. These all sound very potent, and I am excited to participate in these rites in any way.
