Personal Reform & Faith

The start of this blog has led to my return of reading Buddhist discussions, teachings and various aspects of Tibetan Buddhist history. It is clear to me now that this will be a lifelong track of interest that lends to increasingly new forms of engagement in my personal life as well as in society.

It is partly, but not entirely, a pursuit of the mind. I am a student at heart. I love learning. But the heart of course is human. A basic reality of many religious teachings is the focus on the human condition. Buddhism, in particular, has been widely noted in popular conception as well as serious religious discourse, as a being a faith, a philosophy, that deals quite literally in the realm of human psychology.

My use of the word 'reform' in this post's heading brings to mind criticisms I have read in some places of the use of religion as a 'fad' of self improvement. Certainly, in our religiously pluralistic society, individuals don't always commit to a specific path of practice but take an exploratory route. I certainly wouldn't want to be judged if I decided to visit a church or temple a few times for inspiration or simply out of curiosity.

The idea of reform, is for me, integral to the adherence of faith and religious philosophies. Individuals come to various faiths with all sorts of histories. Personal reform, for me, indicates not only a deep and continuous self examination, an increasing understanding of how one needlessly perpetuates suffering in their own life, but also continuing to constructively engage with the world through one's daily acts and profession.

When I make these virtual visits to various dharma centers, I see the list of teachings offered at many sites, including:

• teachings on anger and other emotional states
  
• teachings on death and impermanence
• teachings on attachment
• teachings on compassion
  

This, of course, in addition to scores of other teachings about the various paths within the Vajrayana, histories of teachers and lineages and more advanced teachings for those who have committed to a path or taken vows.

I find myself increasingly interested in how the dharma enters and is integrated in people's lives. Being in a military community, I am now propelled to find out about service members who adhere to Tibetan Buddhist teachings, or simply who have an interest in it that they intend to cultivate, and how their adherence or interest informs even their profession.

These particular questions have been bubbling up increasingly in the past few days. This morning I turned to read an article that quickly delved right to the heart of some of my 'questions.'

Thich Nhat Hanh's The Bodhisattva at Work: Skillful Means in Any Path is an article I will certainly be referencing at a later date. But to introduce some of the thoughts here, Hanh immediately delves into the skillful means of a bodhisattva which he then leads into an incredibly grounded and relevant discussion of the possibility of the bodhisattva to manifest in many forms, regardless of one's path in life. He references the reality of prisoners, police officers, even gang members being capable of incorporating the role of the bodhisattva into their life, effectively transforming communication with others around them and perhaps even conditions.

I am so moved by this article and the ideas proposed in it because I have, for the past several days, been turning over in my mind a way in which to approach and write about concepts of non-violence in Tibetan Buddhist teachings, the implications and meaning of wrathful symbolism in Tibetan Buddhist art and how teachings of the Vajrayana can help to inform how we engage and respond to shifting acts and nodes of violence in the world.

For now, I am going to sign off....but more of this to come.

A Personal Interlude

I do not meditate. I do not practice. I am not part of a sangha nor do I call myself a Buddhist.

I don't believe any of the above excludes me from having a deep and sustained interest in Buddhist issues. But inevitably, with my interest in Tibetan Buddhism, the questions arise. Do you meditate? Do you practice? And so forth. Some day I might. I believe I should, simply for the regularity of it and for the mental and physical benefits that I know practice and meditation create.

From my first introduction to a Tibetan Buddhist temple, I have been fond of the spaces created in honor of the dharma. I simply loved the colors and energy of the space. I grew to learn more about very specific elements that are integral to Tibetan Buddhist architecture and acknowledge that in that sense I still have much to learn about it's design. About the philosophy and practice, clearly I could not be so interested in the space without being interested in the intent behind it.

I may speak with a blatant humility when I post about Buddhist issues and concepts simply because it is clearly obvious that I am not an expert. But I find that with a sustained exploration of Buddhist issues in my daily life, the world is different. Even more interesting. My angle on human behavior transformed.

I have come to this path and experienced this same feeling before. It has been a few years since I have delved into the Buddhist realm, which is manifest on so many levels and approachable in so many ways today. My very movement in life has been studded with impermanence and now, now I am married to a Captain in the US Army. In a strange twist of interest, my return to Buddhist studies brings to light a path that can serve as not only a coping mechanism, but something much more in my psyche. In the past, Buddhist texts have helped me cope with thoughts on the experience of death, this being critical in that I have experienced little death in my life, but this is an inevitable event for all.

Non-violence is equally a core of many Buddhist teachings. I find this useful but also turn to the fact that Buddhist history is replete with wars and military support of religious sects. No religion that I know of has been without war, waged both on it's own terms as well as being subject to another's force. Studying the history of violence of human beings is essential to understand how violence itself arouses.

While I often post in reverence to Tibetan Buddhist concepts, practices and masters, my thought is that yes, even religion can be dangerous. Religion and war have been intertwined throughout human history. Part of my own personal quest, in the teachings of the Vajrayana, are to understand how this can be overcome.

How this began....

In 2006 I was applying the finishing touches to a project that was dear to me. What it was originally intended to be and what it became are two different animals, but all part of the same story.

The original vision for the project, which stood as a beacon in my mind in those early days of research, was a map of the U.S.A. which illustrated the growing network of Tibetan Buddhist dharma centers, temples and monasteries spread through the country. Perhaps over time I would be able to visit many of these, I thought, time and finances providing.

I quickly realized the massive scope of such an endeavor. My thoughts then shifted to focusing on centers that had, on their grounds, a structure evocative of Tibetan Buddhist architecture, if not completely inspired in layout, by a building constructed in Tibet.

At the end of the decision day with the aforementioned project, I thought it frugal and wise to limit my scope of research greatly. In addition to tracing the route of Tibetan Buddhism's arrival and growth in the United States, I decided to use as case studies the plans and history of three centers in the state I was living in at the time. New York.

I did not know much about Tibet at the time, nor much about Tibetan Buddhism. I began digging through the library and online articles. I was completely immersed, tracing Tibetan Buddhism's essential links with the various Khans of Mongolia, the development and geographic route of Vajrayana and, of course, the storied background of Tibetan Buddhism's growth in the United States.

My final product was something I was glad for, in large part because pressures beyond wanting this project to be what I had envisioned started to weigh in. I wanted to graduate. I was ready to leave. I was done with references and guidelines. I was done with academia. Unfortunately, these pressures did lead to a point where I finished for the sake of finishing....

And as it is with many projects that have a sense of passion, curiosity and heart at the root, after several years of not actively working with any of this, I now return. The issues of Tibetan Buddhism- the practice, the history, the philosophy, the presence- intrigue me endlessly and hone my awareness to issues not even apparently relevant to Tibet nor to Buddhism.

Vajrayana Forms in Upstate New York was published through the Cornell digital library in 2008 and was the culmination of my time spent in the Historic Preservation Planning program at Cornell University. Tidbits of what I learned, and will continue to learn, will surface in this blog. In the meantime, I plan to travel the country (and possibly beyond) through these pages, visiting the numerous centers dedicated to the practicing and teachings of the Vajrayana.