Hello everyone!  Here’s an update from our class before we move on to the real blog topic…

Last night, a large group of us gathered together to hear Anyen Rinpoche’s new series of talks on the Four Mind Turnings.  To our surprise, the first talk did not have to do with contemplating any of the Four Mind Turnings specifically (see our January 21 post).  Rather, Anyen Rinpoche took the opportunity to spend an hour and a half teaching on how to “press the three piths of the body, speech and mind” as a meditation practitioner.   By knowing how to press the three piths, Rinpoche explained, we would really be able to make use of the skills of listening, contemplation and meditation that we will be developing over the next five weeks.  This profound talk gave us insight into properly purifying the wind energy as a support for all other kinds of practice.

One amazing thing about meditation is that even though we may try to classify a certain kind of talk as being for a beginner or advanced practitioner, really all of the instructions are perfect and useful for everyone–at all stages of the path–all the time.   This was the main theme of Anyen Rinpoche’s first book, the Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta.  This book focused on how one level of teachings is always implicity connected to other, deeper levels of meditation.  Thus, one never stops practicing so-called beginner teachings, rather just takes them up with new insight into the method they provide to realize the nature of mind.  This is a unique, defining quality of the Secret Mantrayana teachings.  And that is what the teaching on pressing the three piths was all about!

Here’s a link to the Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta:

http://www.amazon.com/Union-Dzogchen-Bodhichitta-Anyen-Rinpoche/dp/1559392487/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265313213&sr=8-2

The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta

And now for Funeral Buddhism…Check out this story from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/world/asia/14japan.html?_r=1

This story is about something that we all know well: the decline of tradition and religion in the modern world.  It talks about the phenomena of “Funeral Buddhism,” or taking religion seriously only when an occurrence of death comes up (although the article mentions that even Funeral Buddhism is on the decline).  Specifically, this story takes place in Japan–where Anyen Rinpoche and I both lived for four years.    In Japan, we had the pleasure of having some very wonderful friends, and among them was a Shingon Shu Buddhist Priest named Ichiniro Renyouko.  Renyouko-san was the son of a master Buddhist statute maker from Tokyo.  He had grown up under the American occupation after World War II during a time of great hardship and famine.    He had studied English with the American soliders in Tokyo at a young age, and liked not only foreigners but especially Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism.  Renyouko-san had the belief that Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism were interconnected somehow, and he felt a special closeness to the Tibetan people and to Rinpoche.  He was an open-hearted and excellent person.

We visited Renyuoko-san many times during our years in Japan.  He had a temple overlooking the sea on one of the rural, rocky shores of Nagasaki Prefecture.  And I can attest to the truth of what this article describes: his community of practitioners was elderly.  There were no young people or children at temple.  He often said that many Japanese people had lost their faith–but what he said was that they had “lost their hearts.”  At Renyuoko-san’s temple, sometimes he  performed a fire-offering ceremony somewhat similar to Tibetan fire-offering or jin tsak.  His (very elderly) students, full of devotion, would walk on the hot coals afterwards without burning their feet.

There are probably many things that have led to the phenomenon of “Funeral Buddhism.”  Perhaps this is the similar to the American phenomena of attending church on Christmas Sunday while sleeping in late Sunday mornings during in the rest of the year.  The point is, this is not a Japanese-phenomena.  This is a world-wide trend.  Globally speaking, we are becoming less religious.  Some might say we are becoming more aware or more spiritual (though less religious) but I’m not really sure about that…we’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

We look forward to seeing you all next week for our second class on the Four Turnings!

Allison

www.anyenrinpoche.com

Tags: 4 Mind Turnings, Anyen Rinpoche, Bodhichitta, Nature of samsara, The Union of Dzogchen and Bodhichitta, Western culture