Disposition 4
As I was doing my finishing touches on my Mandalas, the other villagers were placing the throne on which the lama would sit in place. I was excited at the prospect that the lama was coming. It is such a great honour and privilege for a lama to visit our village. The lama would provide us protection from future disasters and bring us peace and prosperity. It would also help lift the spirits of all the villagers when they are going through a tough time.
For the villagers who lost their lives in the hail storm, the others called me over to do a death ritual for them. I started chanting Buddha’s dhamma as the others were preparing some of the bodies for cremations. As fire wood in scarce in the village, many of the bodies could not be cremated. We cremated as much bodies as we could. The other villagers that had lost their lives to the hail storm were sky buried. Sky burial is a process in which the body is cut up and fed to other animals. As in death there is no significance to the body and it is helpful to the animals that feed on the body. It is seen as a way in which the deceased has given up its body and its earthly possessions. We also prayed that they would have easier transitions to their next life and that their karma would allow them to get a higher birth. As I looked around and the other villagers, I could see everyone in deep sorrow as they watched their loved ones going through the rituals.
In my villages there are several nuns living in a nunnery. Nunneries comprised of several houses called an “Ani houses” which are dwellings where up to 15 nuns live together, they perform their spiritual practices in a group, teaching and helping each other all their lives. Many nuns do three-year, nine-year or even lifetime retreat. On retreat, each nun sits all day in meditation posture doing her yogic practices and meditation. A typical day starts around 3:30 a.m., as they wake up and immediately start their first three-hour practice session. After a short break for breakfast, they resume their second session, ending at lunch. The third session occupies the afternoon, and after a light evening meal, they complete their fourth practice session. They then continue sitting throughout the night, practicing dream yoga. Dream yoga is a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen. Dream Yoga are tantric processes and techniques within the trance Bardos of Dream and Sleep In the tradition of the tantra, Dream Yoga method is usually passed on by a qualified teacher to his/her students after necessary initiation. Various Tibetan lamas are unanimous that it is more of a passing of an enlightened experience rather than any textual information
Nuns live according to the eight precepts.
1) A nun who has been ordained even for a hundred years must greet respectfully, rise up from her seat, salute with joined palms, do proper homage to a monk ordained but that day.
2) A nun must not spend the rains in a residence where there are no monks.
3) Every half month a nun should desire two things from the Order of Monks: the asking as to the date of the Observance [uposatha] day, and the coming for the exhortation [bhikkhunovada].
4) After the rains a nun must ‘invite’ [pavarana] before both orders in respect of three matters, namely what was seen, what was heard, what was suspected.
5) A nun, offending against an important rule, must undergo manatta discipline for half a month before both orders.
6) When, as a probationer, she has trained in the six rules [cha dhamma] for two years, she should seek higher ordination from both orders.
7) A monk must not be abused or reviled in any way by a nun.
8) Admonition of monks by nuns is forbidden.
After a hard day work, I decided to take a break and have a walk around the village to see how everyone is doing and to check on progress. Most of the villagers were quite lively and happy as they doing their own private preparations for the lama’s visit. I started talking to a few of the other villagers and I could sense the excitement in them. As I looked into the distant, I could see a huge crowd of people walking towards the village. There was also smoke and someone was holding a huge yellow umbrella. I knew that the lama was arriving soon.
