The Weekend
This weekend I attended the Green Tara empowerment that I mentioned recently with given by Her Eminence Dagmo Kusho Jamyang Sakya. This was a very interesting experience for me and I went into it without a lot of expectations. I know that Green Tara is one of the most common empowerments given to people and that her practices are fairly simple for the most part. I was quite impressed by Her Eminence. She’s a lay practitioner, the wife of the the head of the Sakya Monastery in Seattle, and she is quite humble about her background and experience, downplaying it extensively. It’s clear that she has a real and strong connection to Tara and her teachings and practices. She’s been encouraged and empowered to teach by those who would normally be considered “higher” than her. She teaches at the Tara-Ling Center in Los Angeles and apparantly goes down there quite often to do so. You can read about Her Eminence here. She’s quite the real deal and it was apparant from what I received this Saturday.
Next weekend is the Shitro teaching and empowerment that I’ve written about. I’ve been debating about whether to attend the Hevajra initiation and teachings at the end of May or not. The money isn’t an issue (even though it is $150 or $200) really given the nature of it and its importance. It is whether I can commit to the daily practice that they will want and whether I’m ready to really receive it. I’m not certain. While I am getting more involved in Tibetan Buddhism and want to learn and practice more, my commitment to Buddhism as a life-path isn’t necessarily fully there and I want to respect the tradition and its teachings properly. This isn’t something to do on a lark. To receive the Green Tara empowerment is in an entirely different class of things than to receive the Hevajra Initiation.
Later on Saturday, I attended ’s lecture on the history of the Ordo Templi Orientis here at Horizon Oasis in Seattle. The lecture was very good and I didn’t heckle, even when he called me out and tried to get me to do so at one point. So there.
The end of the evening and into Sunday morning was spent with R. We rented and watched “Zoolander” of all things and were pleasently surpised by how funny it actually was! ;-)
I spent Sunday goofing around for the most part. I tried to arrange to see my daughter but my ex didn’t answer calls to her cell and messages I left there and at her home. I have no idea what the hell was going on there but I’m trying not to be annoyed. My ex-wife always gives me shit about spending more time with my daughter though so it is kind of hard not to feel annoyed about it. I wound up hanging out in the sun reading since it was a rather nice day for Spring in Seattle. R had gone into work because they are near shipping so we met up later on to get some food and go to the new Sunday poi class for advanced students. Turnout was a bit low there but we had a good time even though I got hit in the head by someone else’s flailing poi during partner practice repeatedly. I don’t mind as long as we don’t repeat it when the poi are on fire…
As you can see, it is quite late so I think I’ll be going to bed soon…
Update: I found this article on the Tara-Ling site from the LA Times about Her Eminence.
