Refuge
by Al
Well, I took Refuge this morning at the Sakya Monastery in Seattle from His Holiness Jigdal Dagchen Sakya. was in attendance hiding in the back of the room. My Tibetan name is “Gunga Dendar.”
Getting the name was amusing because they are written on little cards that the monastery uses for refuge. His Holiness was about to hand me the card when I came up when he suddenly peers at it intently a couple of times, then reaches up and opens the drawer of the table he’s seated behind. He digs out a pen, scratches and writes on the card and then hands it to me. It turns out that whoever wrote the name on the card mispelled the second name and he noticed it when he looked at it. Didn’t want to give me a misspelled name for all time… ;-)
I got a good vibe from His Holiness and I like the monastery. I also really thought the old dharma tattoos on his hands were cool.
I met a man in passing who goes to the Red Tara practice that the Chagdud Gonpa Amrita group does hee in Seattle. He’s a lontime practitioner who took the empowerment from the same woman offering it in August and he spoke quite highly of her and the group. I’ll be finding out about them soon enough.