FRIDAY ENDS

Tuesday
March 6th 2019

1 a.m
Heats Off
I'm not yet well and just couldn't face rousing our battered Super again so, dosed with 'Theraflu', added another layer of clothes + hat and slept on the timed heating pad under a comforter till 4:30 a.m. when I woke shivering, got up, plugged my expensive-to-run electric radiator in set on high, still averse to being the one to call. Why? Don't quite know.

Suddenly, this 5 times repeat malfunctioning seems suspicious since the owners occupy three space here too.
 Why don't they wake the super?
Do they have their own good heaters keeping them perfectly warm? Their basement apartments are closer to the source so may stay warmer longer.
Are they even actually here? I haven't laid eyes on them for several weeks and know they have other options.
Meanwhile,
my thoughts are turning toward true friends suffering elsewhere.
Let the wicked reap their just rewards. Let younger warriors prevail. I'm too busy growing old, keeping a fragile peace and making do.

Post script

6 a.m.

HEAT RETURNS
~*~

 Wednesday

3.6.2019

8 a.m

Outside

 Exhausted,

I Slept again till 1 p.m.

Afternoon

 

 Watched

"Maybe I'll Be Home in the Spring"

TV Film on Video

(gift from Nancy Erisman)

1971

"After finding out that the hippie lifestyle isn't as glamorous as the media makes it look, Dennie comes home to find disapproval and judgement at every turn. Starring Sally Field."
A strange and interesting throwback.

3 p.m.

Depression Hovers
"Soften. Let thoughts and memories wash through unimpeded and let them go." Then, I took a hot bath and prepared to go out. 

7 P.M.
At Tibet House

Krishna das opened with the familiar invocation call and response, Then he and Robert Thurman told potent and amusing stories, including one about the Dalai Lama farting and another about mowing Einsteins lawn.

Last, we all joined in chanting to Tara.
 The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike: oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. It is pronounced by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow the Tibetan traditions as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. The literal translation would be:
“Om O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One, So Be It”

Tara commentary from Gayatri Clabonova
https://gayatriclab.com/2011/10/the-power-of-tara-mantra-%E2%80%9Com-tare-tuttare-ture-swaha%E2%80%9D-for-daily-protection/ 

Lovely Incense

(available at Tibet House)

Miracle?
It was a huge effort for me to drag myself out into the cold to attend last night, but felt strongly I needed to be there. After, I walked home in the 20 degree night, my fingers and toes freezing, mumbling the mantra under my breath and thinking all the time how fortunate I am to have a home to go to. I drank a warm bowl of Ginger-Miso soup, mixed up another glass of Theraflu, slid into bed and had the first good 8 hour sleep of the past many being-ill months.
~*~

Thursday
3.7.2019
I woke feeling fit, energized and clear, was active all day and got many things done with pleasant ease.

Late in the afternoon, I walked through 'little India" on my way to Trader Joe and stopped in to talk to a friend at a local shop about Tara. She is a long time KD fan who relates to that mantra and more.
~*~

TGIF
3.8.2019
View outside my front window three flights up, looking East at 11 O'clock.This sun means business, but cloud cover dominates it's intention. Shall I say that my eight hours of sleep last night was interrupted three times, so not nearly as satisfying or energizing as the previous nights blissfully undisturbed straight eight? Yes.

Inside
A 'wandering Jew' wishes for roots.
Patience is the genius of plants.


Accomplishment
 
After many months of utter neglect, I've sorted out some of the piles, changed my (sick) sheets and comforter and delivered all to the Laundry Service at Street level. These are simply items i can not use my bathtub and buckets method on.
 
Once every couple of months is par for this old gals course. Dust, a far more serious condition not yet attended to, but as someone remarked somewhere:
'I tried dusting, but it didn't work'
(Ha!)

5 p,m.
Although I would rather sleep again, or distract myself with trivia, media and music, tonight I will go to our Monthly "Wisdom" session at the Zendo with 10--20 'over sixty year olds' where we look at all the aspects of aging; the dark and light of it, life and death issues. Personal sharing occupies some time and is accompanied by a Buddhist perspective and a meditation.
 
The Heart Sutra
(Thich Nhat Hanh)

Avalokiteshvara, while practicing deeply with the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore, suddenly discovered that all of the five Skandhas are equally empty, and with this realisation
he overcame all Ill-being.

Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness.

Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing.

That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.

Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.

Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.

All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment

Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

The End

CLOSURE AGAIN

MONDAY MORNING

9.11.2017

Bagpipes from the thirteenth precinct...

  I photographed from my fire escape on the third floor after the proceedings.

There was silence at 8:45 a.m and  then speeches of course.

  The street was closed.

In 2001 the precinct became Police Central Headquarters since the one downtown had been damaged, and you couldn't get on or off the block without ID for at least a month, maybe more. My memory fails me about time-time stood still.

 It was intense being here then. I had seen people covered in dust staggering, streaming up the Avenues. Everything had shut down. People walked from the towers to wherever they had to go. It was a fearful time. No one knew what would happen next. We were all in deep shock. All street lights were out by sundown adding darkness to the mix. Bus and Train service stopped. We were isolated, shut off from the world. My portable radio kept me informed and I've had a drawer full of candles, a five gallon honey jar of matches, several flashlights, extra batteries, gallons of water and a 'Go' bag ready ever since.

  There were funeral services every other day with ceremonial bagpipers playing for weeks at the local church where I did the garden with Emily Leonard who spent  a good deal of her retirement on the project of establishing a perennial plot.

Looking toward the west I noticed this lovely garden

 I'd not seen it until I stepped out onto the fire escape.

I went down to the street

 This precinct lost many friends...

 and three of it's own

 Neighbors left flowers.

 Detective Brian McLeod

 We sat on the stoop and he told me he lost family and many friends.

It was a somber start to the day.

~*~

 Lunch time Meditation

Tibet House
(see link)

Contemplative Practice as Social Practice

with Susanna Nicholson

~*~
  
Seeing, like a Tourist Sees

Walking East across 14th Street
I looked up. I'd never seen this hand.

 The trappings of devotion for sale at this store

 Friend Wendy introduced me to Helen Chen at "International Haircutters"
and I had a really great wash and cut for Sixteen dollars.

Further East, more tributes

Fire company Five
Among the many heroes of that day.
Of the 2,977 victims killed in the September 11 attacks, 412 were emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center included:343 firefighters (including a chaplain and two paramedics) of the New York City Fire Department--37 police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department--23 police officers of the New York City Police Department8 emergency medical technicians and paramedics from private emergency medical service and
1 Patrolman from the New York Fire Patrol.

 Article lists those emergency workers who died while fulfilling their duties at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
(see link)
Heading uptown along First Avenue...

further on...

~*~

 

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

(Thanks by W.S. Merwin)

The singular Image I shall never forget

(only a blurry screen shot)  ~*~

Night
"Tribute in Light" as seen from my neighborhood.
An art installation of 88 searchlights placed six blocks south of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light to represent the Twin Towers in remembrance of the September 11 attacks.It is produced annually by the Municipal Art Society of New York.

LINK

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_workers_killed_in_the_September_11_attacks

https://tibethouse.us/event/lunchtime-meditation-contemplative-practice-social-practice-2/2017-09-18/ https://tibethouse.us/event/lunchtime-meditation-contemplative-practice-social-practice-2/2017-09-18/

SAKA DOWA

7PM JUNE 9

On the Way to...

 ...Tibet House

Saka Dawa Festival is one of the most important annual festival in Tibet.  It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 4^th month in the Tibetan calendar on the day that Buddha Sakyamuni was born and also the day he attained Nirvana. During this period, the giant flagpole at Tarpoche is ritually taken down and its prayer flags are replaced. As the pole’s tip is raised and pointed east toward Gyangdrak monastery, monks of that monastery perform a special ritual. Music from long trumpets, conch shells, and other instruments welcome the rising flagpole.
see link
 
The Lecture

Unveiling the Tibetan Buddhist Canon: An Intact Legacy from the Land of Snows

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition prides itself on scholarship and preserving the literary legacy of first-millennium Buddhist India in two main collections: the Kangyur (collected teachings of the Buddha) and the Tengyur (commentaries from highly-realized masters). The Tibetan Buddhist canon, consisting of roughly 335 volumes containing close to 5,000 individual works, forms the basis of nearly all practice traditions and philosophical schools.

In this talk, Dr. Paul Hackett will provide an overview and discussion of the texts that comprise the Tibetan Buddhist canon and how they relate to the overall study and practice of the Buddhist tradition. He will open a gateway for those beginning to learn about Buddhism while guiding more experienced students towards further avenues of study and practice.

This public talk will be offered as part of our celebration of Saka Dawa, the joyous holiday celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana. Please join us on this special day!

~*~

Link

https://tibethouse.us/sagadawa-summer-solstice-festival/?mc_cid=2ed11c077f&mc_eid=1b423acd34

Dr. Hackett is associated with the Shantideva Meditation Center, dedicated to cultivating wisdom and compassion through the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism within the New York City area community. We are affiliated The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, which is based on the Gelugpa tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught by Founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

For more information, please email

Shantideva Meditation

or visit our

website 

~*~

TIBETAN TANGKAS TODAY

March 10th 2017

Tibet House USA
22 West 15th Street
NY NY

Entrance Mural

The Gallery
This exhibition features sacred tangka artworks created by internationally acclaimed master artist and tangka painter Karsang Lama from the Dharmapala Thangka Center of Kathmandu in Nepal.

Tibetan sacred paintings are unframed and can be rolled up, often depict Buddhist deities.
(detail)

 In this show, both peaceful and wrathful deities from the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions will be on display.

 The role of wrathful iconography is to provide protection for religious practitioners as well as sacred Tibetan Buddhist sites.
 
 Guests discussing the Tangka
"The Wheel of Life"

 Dolls and Animals
On permanent display

The Shop
Stocks Books, CDs, Videos, cards, Incense, Jewelry and other items

Sonam is always helpful and knowledgeable

 Beautiful Guest

Orchid in the Shrine Room

 Avalokiteshvara
(Shrine Room)

 Executive Director, Ganden Thurman talking to guests

 Beautiful Guest

 Beautiful Persons 3 and 4

~*~

Magazine

~*~
March 10th 1959
Several thousand Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace to prevent him from leaving or being removed. The huge crowd had gathered in response to a rumor that the Chinese communists were planning to arrest the Dalai Lama when he went to a cultural performance at the People's Liberation Army's headquarters. This marked the beginning of the uprising in Lhasa

~*~

LINKS

Current Exhibition
https://tibethouse.us/exhibition-tibetan-thangkas-today/

Price List and Thumbnails
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zk4p0msbcucfsy9/tangkas_price_sheet.pdf?dl=0

Avalokiteshvara
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/guanyin.htm

Tibetan Uprising

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising