The Lama Spoke of Cosmology
The lama arrived in the village Wednesday and I was somewhat nervous as to what was expected so I stayed at the back. There was not as much fanfare as I thought but the respect and interest was great. The monks who traveled with Lama Khenpo Sodargye were all young and in grey cassock type robes. There were no nuns. At first I thought the monk I saw sitting on a stoop outside was the lama but was told no, he was one of those who studies and serves with this teacher. There were five men I think and a woman who acted as a translator. He has already graced us with a printing press so that the village is able to create their own material. This in itself would be enough but he is staying the day to speak first with our villagers and then onto a talk with other scholars. He flew in I think from Australia.
Khenpo studied with under Jigme Phunsok Rinpoche who is referenced to within the Ian Baker book, “The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet’s Lost Paradise” along with some of the optional readings. I am only now beginning to recognize why we are so fortunate that he has come. This teacher traveled on pilgrimage to Mount Wutai in 1985, two years after his graduation from Larung WuMing Buddhist Institute. Mount Wutai is one of the sacred mountains in Northern China and I was excited to read this as my eldest child studied and researched this mountain for many years. I had to work at not thinking of my daughter while this teacher took such care to talk to us. The institute where he studied had a great fire this last year and much was burned as all the buildings are wooden and close together. I remember reading of the fire before I traveled here and wondering how far the Sichuan area actually is from Tibet.
The teacher began, with the translator, to explain the history of cosmology studies within Buddhism reminding us as to how accurate, even today, the calculations and theories recorded within the “Kālacakra” are. This source which include the philosophies and meditation practices of the tradition is one of the more difficult practices as it is addressing how to teach or learn the dharma without renouncing the world we are in. After returning home, I searched some of the easier online sources I could find to discover the cosmology he was referring and decided it was truly a reflection of the “Kālacakra” phrase: “as it is outside, so it is within the body”. The teaching of the cosmology is also reflected in the teaching of the inner world; we should be looking into ourselves in the same manner. We must be mindful that the external world, colourful and huge, helps to understand our inner world and it is in understanding our inner world, our mind, that we reach illumination.
We laughed as a class and we listened carefully and respectfully. The monks filmed and took notes. I tried to keep my mind in tow and away from my daughter and her studies as it reeled with tangents and thoughts. Being such a teacher as he was, we were invited to ask questions. Allison asked about Mount Meru and where it fit. Khenpo talked of how the Dharma grows from one initial view onwards. Another asked about small or big universe and to this we had a teaching of how there is an infinite universe in one atom, that there is no intrinsic existence. It was Rory’s question on dreams and whether they are inner or outer manifestations of our own karma, and if dreams are by their nature a sort of inner universe. This question activated all manner of thought tangents in my brain. I was brought to attention again when the great lama mentioned Zhungzi dreaming of being a butterfly. Daoism stories with the Dao de Jing were items I would read with my children when camping twenty five years ago and here was a great teacher mentioning the dream of being a butterfly and the difficulty of not knowing who was the dreamer, the butterfly or the man? I thought these were forgotten memories. How does one deal with the attachments in this world of ours? This visitor suggested simply after saying that we have attachments: “Simple, don’t cling excessively, more desire and hatred results in more suffering.”
