| Some Characteristics
of Mind by Lama Yeshe |
 Each human being has a mind and that
mind has three divisions: gross, subtle and most subtle. Similarly, we
have a body and that too has three divisions: gross, subtle and most
subtle.
The gross consciousness comprises the five sensory
consciousnesses that we use every day. The subtle consciousness can be
things like intuitive ego and intuitive superstition. They're subtle in
the sense that we can't see or understand them clearly. The gross mind
is so busy that it obscures the subtle. When the gross mind is no longer
flashing, or functioning, the subtle mind has a chance to arise. And
that's one of the functions of Tibetan Buddhist tantra: to eliminate the
gross concepts and make space to allow the subtle mind to function.
That's the business of tantra.
Also, the gross mind has no
strength, no power. Even though it understands something, it's
relatively weak. The subtle mind has much more power to penetrate and
comprehend.
What meditation does is cut the gross, busy mind and
allow the subtle consciousness to function. In that way meditation
performs a similar function to that of death. To do the kind of
meditation that leads us through the death process we need strong
single-pointed concentration.
As you know, Buddhism
explains emptiness [Skt: shunyata], the nature of universal reality. We
experience emptiness when elimination of the gross, superficial,
conventional mind allows it to manifest. Even people who have never
heard of emptiness, and have no idea of what it is, experience a great
emptiness in their mind during the death process when all their busy
minds dissolve. The moment your gross, crowded concepts stop you feel
some space, an emptiness. There's nothing you actually empty, but
because your concepts are so crowded, because your mind is so full, when
all that content disappears you have an experience of emptiness.
Sometimes
when Buddhist philosophers describe shunyata, "blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah," it sounds so complicated. And it's true; Buddhist philosophy is
very sophisticated. Ordinary people don't understand. "How can I
possibly understand shunyata? Nagarjuna says, 'blah, blah, blah';
Chandrakirti says, 'blah, blah, blah.'" But when we really bring it back
down to earth, all we're saying is, when you cut your crowded
superstitions, the experience comes; when you eliminate all your busy
concepts, the experience of shunyata arises, as it does in the death
process.
At the moment we're normally far from reality - from
the reality of ourselves, from the reality of all that exists - because
we're enveloped by a heavy blanket of superstition. One blanket of
superstition; two blankets of superstition; three blankets of
superstition ... this blanket, that blanket, another blanket .... All
these gross blankets, gross minds, completely built up, like Mt. Meru,
like Mt. Everest - so heavy that you can't shake them off.
Now, I
don't know what methods you normally use, but our business this weekend
is to look at the Buddhist method of slowly, slowly removing these
blankets one by one: meditation. And in order to do that, we have to
understand the characteristic nature of our own mind.
Lama Yeshe gave
this teaching in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 1983, his last
teaching in the West. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by
Nicholas Ribush. To read the full article please visit
the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive here. If
you would like to subscribe to receive the Archive's monthly newsletter,
please click here.
Jamyang is
starting a one year meditation course on Mondays, for more information
please click here. |
| Autumn Programme begins
this week! |
After a very busy September,
October is even busier with classes Monday to Thursday, Geshe Tashi
teaching 3 days a week, and events every weekend. We want to point out
that the Dying Well group meeting is coming
up next Saturday 10th, and that we will be hosting Robert Beer on Saturday the 17th of
October.
Something new is our
Fundraising Movie Night (with Dinner) on Saturday the 31stOctober, more
information will be sent through the e-group, but please do keep that
date free in your calendar. It will also be Anil Sharma's leaving party.
|
|
THIS MONTH AT JAMYANG |
|
THIS MONTH AT JAMYANG |
REGULAR CLASSES
Mondays @ 7.30pm
|
|
WEEKENDS
Saturday 10
Sunday 11
Sunday 18
24-25
Saturday 31
Fundraising Movie Night
Sunday 1st of November
VISITING TEACHERS
| |
| Invitation
to the Jamyang Community Day, 19th of December- |
|
Join us to enjoy being together to celebrate the Centre's
successes since Community Day 2008 and to plan for the
future. This year with added Christmas fun!
 Provisional Programme (subject
to change and development):
- 12 noon- Messages of Welcome
- Communal Christmas Curry (and more), community lunch provided
by the Centre.
- Report with questions and answers from Sally Barraud - Jamyang
Director - and a chance to greet and hear the new Spiritual Programme
Coordinator'splans for Jamyang's education programme during 2010.
- The Jamyang Five Year Plan - progress, work in hand, and needs
for the future.
- Update and Small Group Sessions - coordinated by Ros
Boughtflower
- Tea, Christmas Carols - solos and singalong
- 5.30pm - End of Day Dedications
Throughout the day - Write and post your hopes for
the future on the Wish Fulfilling Christmas Tree Silent Auction,
and various other fund-raising opportunities. Many ways to relax with
friends.
See you there!
Roy Gillet
(Chair of the Jamyang Board of Trustees) |
| Director's column- |
Hello again everyone,
Firstly, as we bathe in the
afterglow of Khensur Rinpoche's immensely beneficial visit to Jamyang,
I'd like to say sincere thanks to everyone who made Rinpoche's visit
possible - particularly to Geshe Tashi for taking good care of Rinpoche
while at Jamyang, Mike Murray for endless trips to India sorting out
visas, tickets etc, to students who were heart warmingly generous in
their sponsorship of the visit, to Jamyang's staff and volunteers who
kept the Centre ticking over behind the scenes, and to all of you from
Jamyang's extended family, who attended these teachings, thereby making
all the effort of bringing Khensur Rinpoche so beneficial and
valid.
My greeting of "dear
friends" is said with more than usual sincerity this month.
September seems to have been a time of sharp reminders of death:
several friends have died recently, Jamyang's plumber's mother passed
away suddenly, and then the earthquakes in Indonesia, tsunami in
Samoa, floods in India, and Typhoon Parma affecting the Philippines and
Taiwan - each of these leaving so much death and destruction.
These two accounts stuck me with particular sharpness....
Following a 7.6-magnitude
earthquake, "....Some 400 people attended the nuptials of a couple in
Pulau Aiya, a village outside Padang, Indonesia, last
Wednesday. Then the ground shook and swallowed everyone
up. "They were sucked 30m deep into the earth," Rustam Pakaya, head
of the Indonesian Health Ministry's crisis centre, said
yesterday. "Even the mosque's minaret, more than 20m tall,
disappeared."
And in Samoa, "...Salamasina Taufua was
basking in the sun yesterday and happily watching her three young
children playing on the sand when a tsunami appeared and swept all three
youngsters away." Just like that. Within seconds a mother
had lost her three children..."
We don't know when death
will come, or how it will come. The most unimaginable things
happen to cause death. So many people in Samoa were there
holidaying by the sea - the sea, that was their source of pleasure,
turned into the Lord of Death. All this reminds me that every
single moment we have with a perfect human rebirth, is precious beyond
imagining. Please remember in your prayers, all those beings
suffering in the wake of those events, plus people caught in wars,
hunger, thirst... there's no end to those who need our prayers.
Still dealing with
impermanence, but on a much more manageable level, Jamyang said a sad
goodbye to our resident "dharma dakini", Esther Del Rio. For seven years
Esther has lived at Jamyang, taking care of all our gompa and ritual
needs - she is sorely missed, not only for that work, but for her
cheerful, laughing presence at the Centre. She is now dividing her
time between life in China and Barcelona. Our hospitality
volunteers will take over the task of daily water bowl offerings, but we
will be relying on your help, as our wider dharma family, for big gompa
spring cleanings before major events, from now on.
Our Centre Manager, "people
person" Anil, is leaving Jamyang at the end of this month. Anil is
loved by all for his people skills, humour and juggling all Jamyang's
domestic balls in the air at one time! It's hard to imagine the
Centre without his presence too. His role is being shared out
among existing staff, plus Alex taking on the maintenance work.
Please join us on Saturday 31st Oct, for a combined farewell for Anil,
and a dinner/movie night.
And yet more changes.
Our dynamo SPC, Esther Garibay, is moving on in mid December.
Esther has done an incredible job during her time at Jamyang, also
excelling at juggling Jamyang's many spiritual balls in the air
constantly. She too, will be sorely missed. The only spark
of light in Esther's leaving, is that the quality of applicants for the
SPC role, has been very high, so we are hopeful...
And finally, my apologies
if Jamyang is feeling a little cold temperature-wise now. The
heating upgrade work has been temporarily on hold, both because of
Khensur Rinpoche's visit making full use of all our rooms, and because
we are waiting for the final signed grant documents which will free up
grant funds.
I'd like to gratefully
acknowledge SITA Trust here, who have granted us 10,000 towards this
work. "SITA Trust is an ethical funding organisation
dedicated to making lasting improvements to the natural environment and
community life. The Trust is a not-for-profit company, a registered and
accredited environmental body that operates under the Landfill
Communities Fund distributing funds donated by the recycling and
resource management company SITA UK. Since 1997 when SITA
Trust began its funding programmes the Trust has supported more than
2000 projects to a combined value of more than £70m." See http://www.sitatrust.org.uk/
Please help us match this
grant by raising our own 10,000 so we can complete the heating work.
A pleasurable way to do that, is to buy tickets to our fundraising
event on Saturday, 31st Oct, (combined with Anil's farewell). See
separate info in this Gentle Voice.
Enjoy October and join
me to hold the thought, that each moment is precious!
Love,
Sally |
| Fundraising Night
Saturday 31st of October- |
|
Please help Upgrade Jamyang's Old Heating
System
We
need ...
£20,000 to completely renovate the ancient
heating system
Currently we are dependent on an old Victorian solid
fuel system, complete with the "boiler from hell" in our basement.
We want to make the building
comfortable, warm and healthy and to ensure energy and cost efficiency.
We
need a new boiler, piping, plumbing parts, under floor heating piping,
and labour to install the new system.
And it's getting colder
by the day!
Our old "boiler from
hell" (hehe)BUT, the good news...
We received a £10,000
grant for our heating upgrade from SITA Trust
Please help us
match that grant?
Help raise £10,000 by 1st November!
Work taking place in the main gompa
How can you give?
Call: 020 7820
8787 and say you want to donate to the "Jamyang Heating Upgrade"
Email:
admin@ jamyang.co.uk and mark "Donation to Jamyang Heating Upgrade"
Post:
Cheques payable to Jamyang Buddhist Centre and send to: Jamyang Heating
Upgrade, The Old Courthouse 43 Renfrew Road London SE11 4NA
Who will benefit from your
help?
-
People: Students, teachers, meditators, carers,
schools, colleges, local charities, local authority groups and
businesses who meet here, therapists, children, adults and older people -
will all experience far greater comfort
-
The Environment: More efficient, less expensive
heating, making fewer energy demands on the environment and helping to
preserve our listed Victorian courthouse.
-
Jamyang is a vibrant centre with Buddhist Teachings,
Meditations, Remarkable Teachers, Retreats
-
Community non-religious activities like:
Repaying
the Kindness (for Carers)
In-house
Café,
Yoga and Tai Chi,
Community Walks,
Peace in the City
Days,
Guest Accommodation,
Excellent Library,
School Visits,
Guided Tours of our Historic Victorian Building
(Any
surplus donations will be used on further work renovating the building) |
| Our dear Esther Del Rio
left Jamyang last Wednesday- |
After more than 9 years living at Jamyang, Esther has moved on to
very exciting projects abroad. Here is a photo of her farewell by
Jamyang staff and Geshe Tashi.
This month Anil Sharma, the Manager, will also be leaving
Jamyang. His farewell party will happen in conjunction with the Movie
Night on Saturday the 31st of October. You can read more about the
changes at Jamyang in Sally's column. Here is a photo of Anil working
hard to keep us warm:
|
| More Good Works at
Jamyang- |
|
Here are just a few samples of the behind the scenes renovation of
Jamyang's building that has taken place in the past few months thanks to
the work of Miguel and Alex. All of these are possible thanks to your
generous support.
New Zen-Style Garden in the Courtyard
Small Gompa's floor polished
New back entrance door for the upstairs
flat
|
| Join us for the
Jamyang Autumn Walk! |
|
Date: Sunday 11 October 2009
Time:
10.45 a.m., High Barnet Tube Station
Distance:
about six miles
Lunch break: at Trent Park Café
(with loos!) - Bring your own lunch or purchase food and drinks at the
café.
 From the Underground we will (gently)
climb up St George's Fields, with (sunshine permitting) stunning views
across London. From there, through Hadley village and briefly on to
Hadley Common, then through woods to the entrance of Trent Park (café
and toilets). We shall do a circular walk in Trent Park (which
King George III gave to his doctor as a thank you for saving his
brother's life). There should be some beautiful autumn colours, woods,
open land and loads of obelisks. Returning to the park entrance,
it's a short walk to Cockfosters Underground (Piccadilly Line). Both
stations are in Zone 5 if you are purchasing a Travel Card. Hope
to see you there.
If you are planning to join us, phone Robin Bath: 0207 736
2771.
|
| New
Jamyang Group starts in Bath by Lynne Knight- |
Jamyang Bath was a study
group made up of people who fairly recently moved west from London,
plus others who were already living in the area. The group has
been running for around two years, meeting every fortnight to discuss
the Lamrim Chenmo. The meetings rotate between members' houses,
alternating between Bath and Bristol as members live fairly evenly in
both cities. This fortnightly discussion group has not publicized
itself but has grown through personal invitation. There are typically
about eight people at a meeting.
Geshe Tashi's wish was for
the group to start to offer classes to the wider public andso now we
have begun to present Discovering Buddhism in a public venue on
alternate weeks, which started on 25th September, with 'The Mind and
it's Potential'. The courses are taught by different teams of three
taking responsibility for each module. There is considerable
experience of presenting Dharma within the group, so there is no
shortage of potential facilitators for this new programme. In
each team, one person will present the topic, a second will lead the
meditations and the third will meet, greet and look after the
refreshments. We hope that the programme will be a success.
|
| FPMT UK Retreat
Centre Update- |
Here is an update on
the FPMT retreat Centre in UK, you can read more at
Things seem to be on the
move, so I thought I should send you an update. This email is
addressed to the team and the steering group, and it is copied to the
following advisors: Lucy Wilkinson and Dorothy Mallon - accessibility
advisors; Neil Atkinson - chartered surveyor; Ven Nyingje (Paula
Chichester) - general advice on e.g. building retreat huts and much
more. It is a report on the work of the project team, and on some
conversations that have taken place recently.
We have been promised a
donation of £10,000 to arrive with us at the end of October. This
is from an old student of Lama Yeshe with retreat experience, who
initially offered £1,000 but, after looking at the website and strategy
and being impressed by the professionalism of the project, decided to
increase this to £10,000. She has made it clear that we are
welcome to use this money for the surveys, legal fees etc that will be
necessary in the early stages of property acquisition and development.
Anna Colao has been
working on the charity application and this is close to
completion. Ideally we will be able to arrange for the above
donation to be gift-aided. Meanwhile Dom Briggs and I are working
at placing a facility for direct donation by credit card on the
website.
The attempt to find and
recruit fund-raisers hasn't been successful yet. I had a
discussion with Ros Boughtflower (a professional management consultant
who is on the Jamyang London Board) who told me that a charity she is
involved with has had great success with professional fund-raisers (who
take a percentage of what they raise). She says that her
experience is that they are sensitive to the culture of the organisation
for which they are fund-raising. It may be that we should
consider this option.
Michael Smith and I have
been discussing regions of the UK for property searching. I
haven't spoken to anyone recently who is in favour of somewhere just
outside London or Leeds. A consensus seems to be emerging that the
location must be inspiring, and that even a day's journey from London
or Leeds will be undertaken by those who are inspired by the
place. The example of Samye Ling has been cited to show that
people will travel a long way to go to a centre where they feel
inspired. In the light of this, Michael and I have agreed that he
will begin a systematic internet search focusing on regions of the UK
mainland that have mountains or big hills, not including Northern
Scotland (because it is probably just too far) or the Lake District
(because it is felt that some people would be put off by the proximity
to the NKT's Manjushri Institute). We also feel that Cornwall is a
long way from the north of England, and that other potential parts of
south west England are probably too expensive. So Michael's focus
is likely to be on Central and Southern Scotland; Wales, including the
Brecon Beacons; the Pennines, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, and the
Derbyshire Peak District. However this does not preclude searches
by others anywhere in mainland UK. In fact, once Dom has finalised
the data capture process (almost completed) an email will go out to all
our contacts, including you, inviting them to look for potential
properties, using the form.
Michael and I have also
discussed the budget and are hopeful that we will be able to buy a
suitable property for around £600,000. With a further £200,000 or
so for development and then another £200,000 for first few years
subsidy, the funds to be raised are around £1M.
Meanwhile I have also
been in dialogue with Ven Nyingje who may be known to some of you as
Paula Chichester, who has undertaken many long retreats. She and
Ven Sumden (Roger Munro) are very interested in our project, and are
themselves looking for a retreat centre, with the UK a strong candidate,
for settling down to do further retreat. Nyingje is interested in
perhaps being involved in our Retreat Centre as an adviser to
retreatants, and as a resident teacher and retreat
leader. Moreover, Ven Rene Feusi (another very experienced
retreater) has asked to be kept updated about our project as he is also
looking for a retreat centre to settle at. The desirability of
having experienced practitioners resident on-site is one of the points
in our strategy. Therefore I am pursuing the conversation with Ven
Nyingje with the hope that all our needs can be met jointly.
Moreover, Ven Nyingje is in touch with several people who are interested
in the residence for older practitioners that we discussed earlier, and
has suggested that she might be able to find someone willing to take
responsibility for this element of the project, in which case, I have
said that it would become part of the project, and we would work
together. As you realise, this would have an effect on the type of
property needed and also on the funding base available. I will
keep you informed as this process unfolds.
Ven Nyingje and Ven
Sumden recently gave a talk about their retreat experience at Jamyang
London and the recording of this is being transcribed by Jean Wilkins
for the Retreat Support section we are planning for the website.
This will be a facility for those considering undertaking retreat, where
they can get advice, ideas and inspiration.
Ven Nyingje has
also put me in touch with Andrea Bridger (to whom this email is also
copied). Andrea has been living and working at a small retreat
place on the shores of Loch Ness. She and the other two people at
that centre, inspired by meeting Ven Nyingje and Ven Sumden, have been
working on plans for a retreat centre for something like the same
duration that our project has been in operation. It is possible
that we can join forces. This is something I hope to explore when I
meet Andrea next week. It depends on whether we have a common
vision. This is looking promising so far, but it is still too
early to be certain.
So this is an
update on discussions that have taken place and one or two achievements
and actions taken. Please get back to me for more info on anything
here, and please do make comments, suggestions or criticisms of what we
are doing. As steering group members and advisers we (the team)
are reliant on your engagement and feedback to keep us going in the
right direction.
Best wishes,
Andy
|
| FPMT- |
 Jamyang is affiliated with FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation
of the Mahayana Tradition) and is one of more than 150 centers and
projects worldwide.
FPMT is based on the Gelugpa tradition of Lama
Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and
spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. If you would like to receive
FPMT's monthly newsletters please subscribe here.
|
| Your thoughts |
| What do you want to see in Gentle
Voice? We would love to hear your ideas and comments
about Gentle Voice, please contact Esther at: spc@jamyang.co.uk | |
It is such
a privilege to work in a Dharma environment, when one week you have to
be preparing for a teaching with a high Lama like Khensur Rinpoche, and
the next week you are welcoming an experienced practitioner like Ven.
Sangye Khadro, while at the same time making sure that the invaluable
teachings of our precious resident teacher Geshe Tashi can be delivered
on-site and on-line. That has been Jamyang during September!
