What a Bodhissatva we have!
Reflecting back during the busride from Amaravathi to Bangalore, I can see more clearly just how extraordinary an event this Kalachakra was. I nearly burst into tears during the long life ceremony for His Holiness, as so many people were lining up to make offerings to his divinity, asking him to please let us keep him in the world longer for our benefit.
My spiritual teacher pointed that out to me a while back, that we pray for the long life of a saint not for His/Her benefit, but for ours. I had never thought about it that way, but it completely makes sense. And what benefit it has been, to have The Dalai Lama in this world. Now, there are a lot of saints around that we just don't recognize. Luckily there are so many here in India that are accessible. And they affect and make miraculous things happen on so many levels, from the personal to greater phenomena. High profile saints such as HHDL are interesting though, as they can do a lot on the political level. It's so amazing for me to see just what kind of influence HHDL has. We in the west know that influence on some level because we read his books and quote him. But to actually see the manifestations of his work, like those that popped up here at the Kalachakra is something else altogether. You will noe believe the political movement that has happened in Andhra Pradesh, the amazing opportunities on a social & cultural levels for the locals Andhra people and the Tibetans (from India, from Tibet, from the west) to learn from each other, mercenary opportunities, all in addition to the huge spiritual opportunities afforded by the grace of His Holiness.
Surrounding this Kalachakra event, for instance, there's been more and more interest in the Buddhism that has been latent in Amaravathi and surrounding areas like Guntur and Nagarjunakonda. Artifacts have been discovered and museums put up. There's been more recognition of the Buddhist heritage that's been here, and people have been embracing it with enthusiams. There's a huge Buddha statue that's being constructed in Amaravathi now. The government of AP hopes that there will continue to be pilgrimages and Buddhist activities there.
This event was quite extraordinary. So despite my bitching and crying about my relatively small problems, I do want to acknowledge just how special an event this is.
I learned from my sources that His Holiness got up at 2 am every morning during the kalachakra empowerment to prepare himself (there are rites that the lama has to do, which he does beforehand so as to spare us sitting there, and he then runs through the rites of the disciples at the teaching). Actually, it was dawning on me more and more that the kalachakra empowerment is some HIGH HIGH mystical stuff that we common folks (i.e., who have not been studying buddhism &/or mysticism) are terrible unqualified for). We're barely prepared for it, and a teacher could very well save the huge effort of making this empowerment possible only for the learned disciples who could get more than a little from it, but because His Holiness is a bodhissatva, he does everything he can to plant in us even the smallest seeds of this blessing. Even when we all (all the 80,000) come with such a variety of mixed motivations. I was so touched by such love and patience. I felt so honored and blessed to be there.
As the relief was starting to come from having a ticket out, I was also starting to see the smallness of my sufferings and the amazing strength of others. 5 people died during the event. And still hundreds more, who I could see were in worse shape and under worse circumstances than myself, were toughing it out: Old folks, little kids, handicapped people, people who had come much further, all the way from Tibet -- and had to go all the way back. Even up to the last moment, things were neurotic, but my eyes were seeing more and more clearly what a blessing it was to be there, and how the divinity in that holy places was showing through all of us.
My spiritual teacher pointed that out to me a while back, that we pray for the long life of a saint not for His/Her benefit, but for ours. I had never thought about it that way, but it completely makes sense. And what benefit it has been, to have The Dalai Lama in this world. Now, there are a lot of saints around that we just don't recognize. Luckily there are so many here in India that are accessible. And they affect and make miraculous things happen on so many levels, from the personal to greater phenomena. High profile saints such as HHDL are interesting though, as they can do a lot on the political level. It's so amazing for me to see just what kind of influence HHDL has. We in the west know that influence on some level because we read his books and quote him. But to actually see the manifestations of his work, like those that popped up here at the Kalachakra is something else altogether. You will noe believe the political movement that has happened in Andhra Pradesh, the amazing opportunities on a social & cultural levels for the locals Andhra people and the Tibetans (from India, from Tibet, from the west) to learn from each other, mercenary opportunities, all in addition to the huge spiritual opportunities afforded by the grace of His Holiness.
Surrounding this Kalachakra event, for instance, there's been more and more interest in the Buddhism that has been latent in Amaravathi and surrounding areas like Guntur and Nagarjunakonda. Artifacts have been discovered and museums put up. There's been more recognition of the Buddhist heritage that's been here, and people have been embracing it with enthusiams. There's a huge Buddha statue that's being constructed in Amaravathi now. The government of AP hopes that there will continue to be pilgrimages and Buddhist activities there.
This event was quite extraordinary. So despite my bitching and crying about my relatively small problems, I do want to acknowledge just how special an event this is.
I learned from my sources that His Holiness got up at 2 am every morning during the kalachakra empowerment to prepare himself (there are rites that the lama has to do, which he does beforehand so as to spare us sitting there, and he then runs through the rites of the disciples at the teaching). Actually, it was dawning on me more and more that the kalachakra empowerment is some HIGH HIGH mystical stuff that we common folks (i.e., who have not been studying buddhism &/or mysticism) are terrible unqualified for). We're barely prepared for it, and a teacher could very well save the huge effort of making this empowerment possible only for the learned disciples who could get more than a little from it, but because His Holiness is a bodhissatva, he does everything he can to plant in us even the smallest seeds of this blessing. Even when we all (all the 80,000) come with such a variety of mixed motivations. I was so touched by such love and patience. I felt so honored and blessed to be there.
As the relief was starting to come from having a ticket out, I was also starting to see the smallness of my sufferings and the amazing strength of others. 5 people died during the event. And still hundreds more, who I could see were in worse shape and under worse circumstances than myself, were toughing it out: Old folks, little kids, handicapped people, people who had come much further, all the way from Tibet -- and had to go all the way back. Even up to the last moment, things were neurotic, but my eyes were seeing more and more clearly what a blessing it was to be there, and how the divinity in that holy places was showing through all of us.
posted by sylviashines at 5:33 AM
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