This morning a friend called and said she was on her way to visit the Buddha relics in Philadelphia. First I had heard of this. Somehow I got it together and Heather and I drove down to Philly.

Seeing the relics was quite an experience. It was so wonderful to be present with these sacred artifacts of Buddhist lineage masters. The relics on this leg of the tour were housed at a Cambodian Buddhist temple in Philadelphia.

Ultimately the relics will be housed in a 50-story tall statue of Maitreya under construction in Northern India.




About the relics from the Maitreya Project press release:

The collection includes relics of the historical Buddha and the Buddha’s closest
disciples as well as other well-known Buddhist masters from Chinese, Indian and
Tibetan traditions.

This is a rare opportunity to view Buddhist relics as they are usually enshrined and
rarely even visible to the public.

The relics were found among the cremation ashes of Buddhist masters. They
resemble beautiful pearl-like crystals. Buddhists believe the relics embody the
master’s spiritual qualities of compassion and wisdom and have been deliberately
produced by the master so that all may share in their blessing.

Maitreya Project website: http://www.maitreyaproject.org/en/index.html

Real cool.

In honor of Allen Ginsberg, who died 10 years ago today,  a filmmaker named Jonas Mekas has put up a video of Allen Ginsberg's death on the internet.

Gehlek Rimpoche, the great living Tibetan Buddhist teacher conducted Allen's funeral with traditional Buddhist ritual.  Some of the video takes place in Allen's apartment and some at a Dharma hall. One can identify a few beat characters and friends.

The video is over an hour long. The quality of the
video is not so great, kind of like a home video. It has not been edited. However it's really
great seeing this video.

You can watch the video as a stream or download it here:
http://www.ubu.com/film/mekas.html

Gehlek Rimpoche's sangha, Jewel Heart:
http://www.jewelheart.org/

In Spring of 1969, I journeyed to Cambridge Mass. I stayed in house with several residents. One was a student of Ram Dass his who had dropped out of Harvard to get into the spirituality that Ram Dass was teaching at the time. While others of us were carrying on with late sixties psychedelia, this person, Scott I think his name was, would sit and watch, meditate perhaps and draw caracatures.

That fall I went off the deep-end. I experienced a near-death and powerful visionary experiences for which I was hospitalized in a state institution. Following discharge, I felt really drained and enervated on many levels. Didn’t quite know how to process what I had gone through. About a year later, in spring of 1971, *Be Here Now* came out. I devoured the book, really took many of the teachings to heart. Immediately I gave up drinking, smoking and eating meet and waited for my guru.

For the next few months I checked around the spiritual scenes a bit. I saw Swami Satchitananda, remembering him from Woodstock where he blessed the crowd. I read a few spirituality books, but generally speaking bided my time. In the fall of 1971 I heard of a young 13 year old guru, Maharaji, on a late night radio show in New York. I connected with this “guru” and found myself in India in November.

A large group of us “westerners” were camped on a dusty site with big tents between Old and New Delhi called Ram Lila ground. One of the group was this American guy who went by the name Sita Ram. He now goes by Rampuri and has an interesting story. I recently read his recent book called Baba. Here’s his website:
http://www.rampuri.com/

I think it was Sita Ram who said that Ram Dass was in town at a local hotel in New Delhi right on Connaught Circus located in the center of town. I was excited and managed to get the address of where Ram Dass was staying.

I went to town and knocked on the door of the hotel. Ram Dass invited me up and I sat on a small third floor balcony overlooking the town circle. With Ram Dass I related my story as best I could. I told him of some of my experiences, including spiritual experiences and the abuse of the mental hospital. Ram Dass shared with me some regarding the experiences of his brother who had 'lost it'.

Basically Ram Dass suggested that my experiences were authentically spiritual, not just crazy hallucinations. This was a great gift for me as I really didn’t have many reference points for what I had experienced. The perspective that Ram Dass' offered remains with me today. I believe there are many who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or bi-polar disease or other “mental illness” syndromes that can greatly benefit by holding some or all experience as spiritual in nature and not just psychotic hallucination.

In "going off the deep end" I had been in effect blasted by spirit. I had experienced the full force of spirit all at once and, being quite unprepared, was literally ungrounded. It has been my work of  more than 35  years to integrate and come to terms with the spiritual energies that opened up in me.

an example of taking refuge in the Dharma as stated by HH Dalai Lama

as appears in the Snow Lion Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

It wouldn't be bad if you didn't have statues, but it has become indispensable to have Buddhist texts which deal with the structured path to train our mind. If you have Buddhist texts, read them for yourselves and to friends who visit. That way you can help others to understand Buddhist ideas. For instance, it is interesting to read Milarepa's life story and songs. We find in them many enlightening lessons. Buddha's image alone will not purify us of karmic obscuration.... It is very important to study the scriptures. They are not to be just stacked up on the altar. They must be cultivated in our mind. ...[we] take great interest in having the symbolic representations of Buddha's body, speech and mind. I feel it is more important to acquire and read scriptures, the symbolic representations of his speech. You can pay homage to them, you can make offerings to them; above all, you should study them.

--from Generous Wisdom: Commentaries by H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala translated by Tenzin Dorjee edited by Dexter Roberts

I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha

What does it mean to take refuge?
I have heard that to a Buddhist is one who takes refuge in the three jewels
    Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

Refuge is not about submission
Refuge is about reliance on the three jewels

Refuge has several levels of meaning
    One can picture (visualize) a representation of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha out there
    One can take refuge in one's own future Budda, one's own future enlightenment
       one's own pure Dharma, the essential pure wisdom of enlightened realization
       one's own pure Sanha, the community of enlightened beings
            one would like to take birth in
    There's more......