LOTUS ARROW
Newsletter of the Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies
Number 9, January 1997
Full Schedule Of Spring Teachings At Kurukulla Center
Geshe Tsulga will start Spring teachings at Kurukulla Center with two 6-week courses. On
Sundays beginning February 9, Geshe-la will teach on the Wheel of Life. This course emphasizes
the need to understand the reasons why we all experience suffering, dissatisfaction, aging,
sickness and death. Beginning February 5, Geshe-la will teach a second 6- week course every
Wednesday on The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva. This profound and inspiring text serves as
a manual for those embarking on the Bodhisattva path of service to others. We are fortunate
that Geshe-la has agreed to teach us these 2 profound subjects.
On April 5, 1997, Geshe-la will grant the initiation of Medicine Buddha. With several of
our center members and friends having health problems, he felt each of us should be offered
the opportunity to obtain this initiation in order to do this healing practice for the prevention
and cure of illness. During the three Sundays following the initiation, Geshe-la will offer
commentary on the Medicine Buddha practice. Further information about the location and time
of these events can be found in the February - April teaching schedule.
Geshe Tsulga's Recent Fall Teachings:
Loosening The Hold Of Our Self-Grasping
Geshe-la began his fourth year at Kurukulla Center after Labor Day with a series of teachings
designed to help us shake the hold of our self-grasping and "essentialism." Beginning
with the Six Mahayana Perfections, Geshe-la's topics ranged through the Heart Sutra, the Four
Noble Truths, the development of bodhicitta, Guru devotion, and the Two Truths.
Each of these teachings demonstrated how our suffering arises from our attachment to the
self and to external phenomena. Geshe-la's teachings offered practical instruction on the
path of liberating the mind from grasping at the belief in the "essential" selfhood
of persons and things.
Geshe-la encouraged us to work daily toward sustaining the wisdom of emptiness with the
perfect altruism of bodhicitta. We were reminded that the difference between a spiritual and
non-spiritual practice lies in competing ideas of selfhood: interdependence vs. independence.
As Geshe-la defined it, a spiritual practice is one that seeks to use a perfect human rebirth
to eliminate all un-wanted suffering in this lifetime and all future lifetimes. A non-spiritual
practice, Geshe-la noted in contrast, is any practice geared just toward sustaining the self
in this life striving only for food, shelter, and the like. "Animals can do this,"
he reminded us.
From his side, Geshe-la's teachings seem to be more in tune with the Western mindset each
time he returns here. It is not just that his examples come from our daily experiences now
no examples involving yak butter these days but his entire approach shows that he has a very
good understanding of the problems we face as Westerners, and which parts of Buddha's teachings
are particularly relevant for us.
We have rented the meeting hall at the Friends Meeting House in Cambridge. Although we have
to move benches around before and after the teachings, the hall is much quieter than the old
apartment or Wisdom Publications. (Probably few of us miss the music from the dance studio
at Wisdom!)
Ven. Robina Courtin: Attending to Mind in Spiritual Practice
During a weekend of teachings on January 3-4, Ven. Robina Courtin, an Australian native
who has been a Tibetan Buddhist nun for almost 20 years, explained how self-understanding
can lead us to fuller, more productive lives. Her Friday evening talk, titled Investigating
the Mind, explored the fundamental role that knowing your own mind plays in successful
spiritual practice. On the following day, her Mindfulness and Emotional Transformation
workshop focused on converting destructive feelings like attachment and pettiness into their
fruitful counterparts of love and compassion.
Ven. Robina Courtin Describes
Answering the "Big Lie" with "Ruthless Clarity"
The following excerpt is from Investigating the Mind, Robina Courtin's talk at
the Kurukulla Center January 4. With her keen logic and profound sensitivity to the individual
concerns of the attendees, Robina offered us living proof that learning to balance our hearts
and minds can help us reach our true potential.
"If attachment is the cause of suffering, what is it? And how isn't it love,
joy, generosity, kindness, compassion and all that? This is the kind of precision that Buddhism
demands we have within our own mind. Otherwise we're just being kind of superstitious, kind
of closing our eyes and playing "I'm a good Buddhist," and being mindful and hoping
for the best. I mean, this is ignorant you would never dare to say this if you were trying
to be a gardener. You know, it's a long hard process. So, okay, what is it about attachment
that causes suffering?
"One of the key qualities of attachment, and all the delusions, is that it exaggerates
the good qualities of the object. When you are in love, that person is truly divine, aren't
they? From the tip of the head to the tip of their toenail. Everything about them is divine.
Now it sounds depressing to be told "I'm sorry guys that's the result of attachment."
"What Buddhism is saying is, if we can get rid of attachment, if we can remove attachment
from that relationship, you will have the love, the bliss. Take an extreme example. You know,
when you crave that chocolate cake, you miss the pleasure completely. You manipulate to try
to get it. When it comes, you are so anxious to get it in your mouth, and you're shoving the
first piece in while you're thinking about the second piece. We are so overwhelmed with that
extreme energy of attachment, it's like we're insane. But the trouble is, we think that the
pleasure we get is because of that [insanity].
"There is a big lie in there that we have to unravel. And that is such a subtle job to
do. I tell you. And that the subtle job is to begin to distinguish between attachment and
love....Love and attachment so totally go together that it is even inconceivable to love a
person that you are not attached to. But, if we begin to believe that it is not the same,
it is a kind of liberating, outrageous idea. Start developing your love and decreasing your
attachment, thereby getting far more pleasure.
"You have got to know very precisely the recipe for that incredibly delicious cake. You're
never fooling yourself that three of that, and two of that, and four and a half of this, is
the delicious experience of the cake. But you know you need to be very correct in that recipe.
Do you understand my point here? You have got to be very clear about your theory. You know
it is not the real cake. You know that it will lead you to that cake. Well, that is the same
approach in this tradition. Absolutely develop the kind of clarity, the ruthless kind of clarity,
to cut through all the deluded ego garbage concepts, all the emotional baggage we carry around,
to cut through that to get to the heart of what is love. Once you know the words like you
know that recipe my goodness, you are going to get a very nice cake. But if you fool yourself
that those words are the cake, well, you are in trouble."
Geshe Michael Roach Returning To Kurukulla Center
Geshe Michael Roach will be teaching on Buddhist logic at the Kurukulla Center, July 11-13.
Geshe-la's weekend course last March on the 12 links of interdependent origination was dynamic
and inspiring. As Geshe-la taught us last year of desire and aversion: "It's not like,
if you're a Buddhist, you have to feel bad about wanting something. You better want something,
or you can't get out of samsara!"
Become A Member
Kurukulla Center members automatically become members of the Foundation for the Preservation
of the Mahayana Tradition, and receive the bi-monthly FPMT magazine Mandala, with news from
Buddhist centers around the world. Center members also attend many classes for free or reduced
fees. Membership dues for Kurukulla Center are $40/month for individuals ($25/month for students
and low-income folks) and $70/month for couples, and are tax- deductable. Help yourself and
others by becoming a Kurukulla Center member.
Looking Into Space
While the Friends Meeting House in Cambridge has been a peaceful spot for Geshe-la's teachings
this fall, this space only works as a temporary location. I think we all feel, as does Geshe-la,
that Kurukulla Center definitely needs a permanent home. It would be wonderful to have a large
space with a permanent altar, where students could drop in for meditation and practice, and
where Dharma teachings could flourish. We have begun to explore buying a commericial space.
However, because of real estate prices in Boston, we also are looking into long-term leases.
If you would like to help with this long-term project, please contact Suzanne. Even a few
hours making calls can bring us closer to finding a home for the Center.
Volunteer Needed
If you are interested in helping the Kurukulla Center by coordinating bulk mailings, please
contact David Strom. Training will be provided.
Thanks For Your Help
As we start the New Year, we would like to thank everyone who contributed time and resources
to Kurukulla Center this fall. Of course, our first thanks goes to Geshe-la for providing
us with such pure teachings and for all of the preparation on his part that makes his explanations
so clear. Geshe-la's thoughts would never reach us without the help of our excellent translators,
Pasang Tenzin, Sara McClintock and John Dunne. Our thanks to Kerry O'Brien (and others!) for
arriving early to set up the teaching space before each class. Thank you, Eric Hoffman and
Angela Suescún-Hoffman, for hosting Geshe-la this Fall in your home.
On the material side, special thanks for the generous donation of $900 by Leo Liu and Penny
Noyce, and thanks also to the following members of the center who gave donations over $100:
Gail Keeley, Sara McClintock and John Dunne, and Linda Harris.
On the virtual side, our thanks to Cheryl Bentsen, Tony Trigilio and Shelly Hubman for donation
of computer equipment. The Kurukulla Center cyber-home is in excellent shape thanks to Eric
Hoffman's maintenance of our web page. Please remember to rejoice in others' merit-building
efforts and in your own beneficial acts.
We also want to acknowledge the effort and enthusiasm that Vicki Fremont, Lindsay Robertson,
Dan Howlett, Tony Trigilio and Shelly Hubman have put into giving private English lessons
to our dear Geshe-la. He has enjoyed them very much. We also want to thank Kristen Maarten
(and her daughters Sarah and Nastassja), Nick Ribush, Dolkar Yarchim, Yishi-la, Tashi Kamson,
Cheryl Bentsen and Gary Curtis for taking Geshe-la to and from various appointments. He highly
appreciates your kindness!
Monk's Fund a Success!
While Geshe-la is dedicated to teaching the Dharma to his Western students, he still has
the responsibility of providing his young Tibetan monks with things such as food, clothing,
housing, books, paper and medical care. The Monks' Fund was created to help sponsor Geshe-la's
students at Sera Monastery in India.
We are very happy to report that in 1996 we sent a total of $ 2,084.40 (U.S. dollars) to
Geshe-la's students. With this, we were able to sponsor 22 monks, some of them for six months
and others for one or two years. This contribution is going to make a great difference in
the quality of their day-to-day lives. Through this effort, each sponsor helps these young
monks in the process of studying and preserving the precious Dharma, as well as their Tibetan
culture.
There are still seven monks that need our generosity and are waiting to be sponsored. You
can gain great merit and help out a monk with as little as $7 or $10 a month, or you can fully
sponsor a monk (covering all his expenses) with $16.60 a month ($200 a year). Please contact
Angela Suescún-Hoffman at (617) 254-8727 to sponsor a monk.
Kurukulla Center Finances
FINANCIAL SUMMARY, SEPT.-DEC. 1996
SEPT.-DEC. 1996 EXPENSES: GESHE-LA AND TRANSLATORS
Medical $ 805
Living Expenses 475
Offerings 600
Facility Rental 1475
Translators 960
Publicity 625
Outstanding/Unpaid Expenses 575
Misc. 200
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Sept.-Dec. Expenses $ 5715
Average MONTHLY expense: $1428.75
SEPT.-DEC. 1996 DONATIONS
Membership donations $ 2250
Non-member donations $ 3750
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Sept.-Dec. Donations $ 6000
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ESTIMATED MONTHLY EXPENSES, SPRING 1997
GESHE-LA AND TRANSLATORS
Medical $ 175
Living Expenses 375
Offering 150
Facility Rental 360
Translators 240
Publicity 150
Travel Expenses 50
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Monthly Expenses $ 1500
Expense of $1500/month is an increase of $71 from Fall 1996 monthly expenses.
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