LOTUS ARROW
Newsletter of the Kurukulla Center
for Tibetan Buddhist Studies
Number 8, August 1996
Geshe Tsulga To Make Boston His Residence
Kurukulla center recently made a formal request to Geshe Tsulga asking him to make Boston
his permanent residence, and we are very happy to announce that Geshe-la has accepted our
request and will live in Boston year-round. Previously Geshe-la divided his time between three
FPMT centers on the east coast by staying at each center for four consecutive months each
year. This change represents an incredible opportunity for all of us here in Boston to receive
the benefits of Geshe-la's teachings on a more consistent basis.
Geshe Tsulga will maintain a particularly close connection with our sister center in Vermont,
Milarepa Center, and will also travel to other centers on the East Coast and in Canada, giving
teachings to benefit those who live in these areas.
New Location for Fall Teachings
Beginning with the first teaching of the fall season on September 8th, we will be gathering
at a new location. Following a tip from center member Emilio Briceno, we have made an agreement
with the Friends Society of Cambridge (Quakers) to hold our twice-weekly events at their meetinghouse.
The location is very convenient to Harvard Square and is located in a pleasant and quiet enclave
of religious organizations in Longfellow Park.
Opportunities to Volunteer at Kurukulla Center
As an all-volunteer organization, Kurukulla Center relies entirely on the donated time of
our members to keep the center alive and flourishing. Please look over the list of committees
and see if you would like to help out. This is a great way to help the center as well as meeting
other members and becoming involved in our community. We are not asking for a large commitment
either in terms of time per week or length of involvement, but we do ask that committee members
help out for the rest of 1996 at least.
Here is the list of existing committees and members. Thanks so much to all of you who have
already volunteered to help out.
- Teacher Hospitality Committee: Angela Hoffman (coordinator)
- Puja/Initiation Committee: Wendy Cook (coordinator), Paola Savarino,
Matt Weiss
- Publicity: Suzanne Persyn (coordinator), Steve Rosenberg (newsletter),
David Strom (flyers/layout)
- Fund raising: Cheryl Bentsen, Suzanne Persyn (coordinators)
- Advertising: Jim Grant , David Strom.
- Throne Building Committee: Dan Howlett, Eric Hoffman.
- Space Search Committee: Cheryl Bentsen (coordinator), Kerry O'Brien,
Matt Weiss, Wendy Cook, Emilio Briceno
Fund-Raising Successes
First, we would like to thank Tony LaGreca for donating the $500 necessary for the building
of a proper teaching throne. Dan Howlett and Eric Hoffman are generously donating their time
and knowledge for its construction. Thanks to Cheryl Bentsen for her donation of a color monitor
for the center's computer..
We have also successfully raised about $250 for new cushions for the center, through the
sale of khatags and malas. Some of the malas were donated by John Fahlstrom. As many of you
can attest to, we still have a shortage of cushion/mat sets. We would like to raise another
$250 or so, so that we can purchase a total of 8 or 9 sets.
Finally, we would like to thank all our members, old and new, for their donations of time
and money. Our center exists only for the purpose of benefiting as many sentient beings as
possible by bringing the precious Dharma teachings to our area. As much as you have benefited
from the teachings, please thank Geshe-la and our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
And please remember to thank our Center Director, Suzanne Persyn, for all her hours of work
for the center. May all our activities be dedicated to extending these benefits to all beings
until complete enlightenment is attained.
Fall Teachings with Geshe Tsulga
We are looking forward greatly to our fourth year of teachings with Geshe Tsulga this fall.
Geshe-la's depth of knowledge of Buddhist scripture and philosophy, combined with his warm
style, is always a welcome event in our lives. Each year the number of students at Geshe-la's
teachings has increased, and we hope even more Bostonians/New Englanders will benefit from
Geshe-la's presence this year.
As described in detail on the enclosed flyer, Geshe-la will keep himself and all of us very
busy this year with teachings on the Six Mahayana Perfections, with an emphasis on teachings
on emptiness, as well as classes on the Four Noble Truths, Developing Bodhicitta, a Commentary
on Ganden Lhagyama, and the Two Truths. In addition, Geshe-la has kindly agreed to give a
Vajrasattva and a White Manjushri initiation, so we are indeed very fortunate to have so many
precious teachings and initiations available. Geshe-la works very hard to prepare these teachings,
so please reward him (and yourself of course) with your presence this fall. And please take
a minute to thank our excellent translators, John Dunne, Sarah McClintock and Pasang Tenzin,
for making Geshe-la's explanations clearly available to us.
Vajrasattva and White Manjushri Initiations
Our greatest and heartfelt thanks is due to Geshe-la for agreeing to give two further initiations
this fall. These initiations authorize us to practice the sadhana, or specific practice, related
to the initiation deity. These tantric practices are considered the quickest method for overcoming
obstacles to enlightenment, as they allow us to relate directly to the enlightened energy
embodied by these enlightened beings. In particular, the practice of Vajrasattva is usually
connected with purification practices, antidotes for our disabling feelings of inadequacy/failure/
contamination-whatever you call it. The practice of Manjushri emphasizes the development of
the wisdom understanding emptiness, and the use of this wisdom to overcome our deluded views
of the world and of ourselves.
The Vajrasattva initiation will be followed by a retreat at Milarepa Center, over the Thanksgiving
day weekend. For more information on this retreat, please contact Milarepa Center at (802)
633-4136. While the initiations are given without a retreat commitment, the retreat gives
us all a wonderful opportunity to learn the practice under Geshe-la's guidance.
Advice From Geshe Tsulga
Bodhicitta Motivation
Whenever I teach the Dharma, I always say that we must check our motivation. We must have
a good motivation for listening to the Dharma. The Dharma that I am teaching to you is the
Dharma of the Mahayana vehicle, the great vehicle, the universal vehicle. Those of you who
are here listening to the Dharma should be those who are approaching the Mahayana path. Now,
when one is practicing the Dharma, what determines whether one is actually engaged in Mahayana
practice? The thing that determines whether one is engaged in Mahayana practice is whether
the intention to benefit others exists in one's mind while engaged in the practice. For this
reason, the person who is practicing Dharma needs to integrate the mind of Bodhicitta, the
mind of enlightment, with their own individual mind. Now we hear this term bodhicitta, the
mind of enlightenment, all the time, but we need to find out in our own minds what it is.
It is not enough just to hear about it. You need to think, "In order to help sentient
beings, I will become a buddha." Now once that thought has arisen, the mind that holds
that thought, from the time it has arisen to the time you attain buddhahood, is the mind of
awakening, bodhicitta mind. That very mind that wishes to attain enlightenment for the sake
of sentient beings is precisely the motivation that is required here to make this and any
other pracice into a Mahayana practice. That is the motivation you should have while listening
to these teachings.
Advice to Kurukulla Center Members
We are here at these teachings on the basis of the kindness of Kurukulla Center. I'm giving
teachings and you are receiving teachings out of that kindness. But we shouldn't think that
this Dharma center we have here is just something just for ourselves, just for each of us.
Rather, we should make it something that our children can enjoy, and our children's children
can enjoy. We should make it something that endures. And therefore, all of us need to come
together, we all need to coordinate and make it so that this center can be a very benificial
and a very lively center. Now I myself am not doing anything great here, but I am very pleased
with the people in this center and I have great respect for all of you.
Art & the Spiritual Path
Kurukulla Center members are fortunate to have several talented artists amongst us. Recently,
two of them spoke with David Strom on how Buddhism has influenced their lives and their work.
Rachel Paxton
I've been making art for about 15 years and painting (I started off as a weaver). Within
the last 2 or 3 years I've been earning my living through my art.
I've always thought of my art as a spiritual path and I think that concept is thrown around
all the time in art school and with artists and its almost a given that art-making is a spiritual
path, but nobody really explains to you what that means or how to go about that path, where
you are on that path, any of it. It's all very very vague...
Because I've had success it made me look at that path even more closely and say, "Well
what the heck, I'm successful, does that mean I'm spiritual now? Have I reached the goal?
And what was the goal anyway?" ...When I heard the paramitas spelled out it was perfect,
it's exactly what happens in the process [of making art] and that's what totally turned me
on to Buddhism-the way they spell it out clearly with all those little steps. There's nothing
vague about what you're supposed to be doing.
I think I always went back and forth between "this is a spiritual pursuit" and
"I am just a tradesman making a craft." Mostly I would think it was a spiritual
pursuit, but sometimes I would flip back to thinking it was a craft: I'm just learning to
make a good painting and there's nothing transcendent about this. Now, I think I know what
is transcendent about it and what is not transcendent about it. I was going much more into
"this is just a craft" as I started earning my living through it, and had to find
those smaller and smaller little changes to keep myself going...I was losing interest. What
was driving me was the fact that it sold, not to find out more about life. It was not an act
of discovery any more, it was an act of endurance. Through understanding meditation and mindfulness
I think I've understood how that can be applied to the process of painting and how you can
watch your mind and how the process of letting go of external thoughts and coming back to
your focus is what we do while we're painting. It's totally what we do, but we're not aware
of it unless we're actually watching our mind.
Lotus Arrow: Does your art have more value if you are mindful when you
are painting?
Rachel: No. I don't feel like it affects the art at all. It just helps me
know myself more...
The other thing that's really interesting is the idea of being a direct perceiver. The way
we're taught to draw art is to draw the negative spaces around the object as shapes. It's
a way to get your mind not to think "table," because your mind automatically turns
into "my image of a table looks like this." Buddhism is about the way we perceive
and not having projections and not classifying as good, bad, or indifferent when we encounter
something...At a certain point you want to put your emotions in, and you want to say, "table
is good...table is ugly"...but if you really want to portray it realistically, at some
point you have to be a direct perceiver...
Paola Savarino
Lotus Arrow: What is the greatest benefit your Buddhist practice has brought
you?
Paola: I have a great joy in painting, you can kind of tell that. I love
painting. I could care less about some aspects of painting, but it's pleasurable to do it.
I'm feeling like that about the rest of my life too, which is mainly why I need to paint less...I
don't need to escape. (I used to think it was pure: it's one of the closest things to spirituality
in work if you're an artist, and you know when someone's a little further up there than someone
else.) Instead of trying to get a kick or an escape, I'm searching for something specific,
I'm directing that now, because, as a Buddhist, I say if it isn't Dharma it's a waste of time.
But, you know, I've had a lot of life, I've experienced a lot. As an old woman I think I have
a right to say that. But the Dharma is really expanding and growing for me. It's layer after
layer. And, at times, it's really subtle. At times it's superficially so simple: sitting in
a room and just taking teachings, and that's easy-that's the easy part. My whole life seems
to be full, more so all the time. Painting is just a part of that. I can give up painting.
I've spent my whole life doing nothing but painting. But I could go into a religious community,
I believe, and never paint a thing again. Or I could take a job putting gold leaf on statues
the rest of my life and be very content. You know, if I could do something and function for
a community that would be great. Because I like giving back.
Lotus Arrow: How long have you been a Buddhist now?
Paola: I've been a Buddhist for two years. I think I was always drawn to
Buddhist philosophy, even from a young age...didn't really relate to Zen, couldn't grasp it,
probably because I'm too visual. There's a real connection for me within tantra...Just hanging
around statues of Buddha in the MFA from any culture, you leave a better person. I was walking
around looking at all the different smiles. I spend a lot of time looking at buddhas' mouths,
the varieties. I think we've oversimplified the buddha image so far in some of the western
art and the graphic art, that we haven't seen all the subtle things yet, the things that one
can do. There isn't just one buddha, and to put the same mouth on all the buddhas wouldn't
make sense...so I'm trying to perfect a smile... Actually, I'm really fond of buddhas' ears.
I just love looking at buddhas' ears...
Membership Fee to Increase this Fall
Our expenses naturally increase during Geshe-la's time in Boston. As detailed below, our
expenses this fall will run about $1400 per month, which must be covered entirely by membership
donations and income from teachings. Since 1988 we have had a membership scale of $25/month.
Beginning this fall the management committee has decided to increase membership to $40/month,
with all teachings except initiations free. (The donation is $25/month for students and low-income
folks.) This works out to an offering of about $5 a teaching and will increase the center's
capacity to support Geshe-la's presence on a more full-time basis here in Boston.
How to Stay on Kurukulla center's Mailing List
As you can see below, we spend about $1500/year on publicity, with much of the expense going
into printing and postage costs. As a result, beginning at the end of this year, we will begin
eliminating names of those we haven't heard from recently. If you appreciate our newsletters
and flyers and would like to continue receiving them, please send $5 to cover mailing costs
for one year. (Active members and participants need not send anything.) Thank-you very much.
Financial Report 1995
Geshe-la and translator:
Rent $ 3,440
Stipends 1,200
Food 1,000
Utilities/phone 400
Incidentals 400
Travel from India 1,000
Domestic travel 200
Health insurance 600
Offerings 700
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Annual Teacher Expenses: $ 8,940
Publicity:
Post office box 44
Postage 400
Printing 1,000
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Annual Publicity Expenses: $1,444
Other Expenses:
FPMT dues 300
Regional meeting expenses 100
Space fees 100
Annual Miscellaneous Expenses: $ 500
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Total 1995 Expenses: $ 10,884
Fall 1996 Estimated Expenses
Monthly Expenses:
Teaching Space $ 325
Geshe-la's Food & Utilities 150
Offerings 150
Health Insurance 135
Translators 320
Publicity 120
Materials for Init./Pujas 20
Storage space rental 65
FPMT dues 25
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Total Monthly Expenses $ 1,350
Other:
Transportation (air tickets-India etc.) estimated: $ 1200/yr
Visa/Green Card expenses: $ ???
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