Past Issues: July 03

The Internet Newsletter of Jewel Heart
September, 2003

In this issue:

· Beautiful Being
· Teaching Time Change Reminder
· Out of One Prison and Into Another
· Report on Summer Retreat, Albion College
· Fall Retreat to be Held At Garrison, NY
· Winter Retreat to take place in Ann Arbor, February 8–15
· MeditateNYC September 22–28
· Tara Dance Workshop and Ritual Offering, Cleveland, October 3-4
· Annual Jewel Heart Ann Arbor Garage Sale
· Ann Arbor Local Market offers way to donate to Jewel Heart
· Upcoming Tsoh Days

Beautiful Being
By Gelek Rimpoche

As a human being we have a beautiful nature, a kind nature. All of us have that. No matter who it may be, even a terrible person who is doing terrible things, has this beautiful nature deep within. It may be covered very badly but you will find this soft and kind nature within each and every human being, including killers and tyrants. If that beautiful nature could actually function within society, could interact with others, it would be wonderful. Imagine how wonderful society would be, if people could act from their caring nature!

Unfortunately if we look at society at this moment, it doesn’t function that way. Everyone wants to win something. I want to win and you want to win. I want to be better than you and you want to be better than me. We see this in each and every life. Why is this happening? If we have a beautiful nature there should be no room for this. But we all have it. Why is this happening?

The problem is this: the beauty-nature cannot shine out. It cannot function. It’s blocked and squeezed and covered up with delusions. Instead of shining with love and compassion, we get anger, hatred, jealousy and everything that causes more pain, more suffering. The problem is not our human nature; it is the temporary obstacles that come up and block the pure nature of the human being. We need to remember that we have this beauty nature and that temporary obstacles are creating a problem. These problems are impermanent, so therefore we can remove them. If they were permanent we would be stuck with them, but fortunately they are impermanent so we can remove them.

The question is how can we remove them? In order to overcome the delusions we have to see how we create the delusions. Most of the delusions we have we didn’t plan to create. We didn’t make deliberate preparations to build our delusions. These delusions come and pop up automatically. We don't have to learn how to become angry. We don't have to study and get a university degree on how to get angry. One little signal and immediately it pops up. This shows us how our habitual patterns are engraved. If we want to stop getting angry, it won’t happen automatically. We have to put in continual effort.

So if we want to improve we have to make the effort to help ourselves. Nobody else can help. That is for sure. Normally we go outside seeking help. We are not willing to help ourselves. We always want to go outside and seek help from somebody. Seeking help from somebody is all right, you can get help from somebody outside, but the true help comes from yourself. Only you can help yourself. I can help myself; no one else can. I am responsible for myself and you are responsible for yourself.

The true way of helping ourselves is to be aware of our functioning. Awareness. Awareness of our thoughts, awareness of our body, awareness of our speech. If we maintain awareness of our body, mind, and speech it is a great help to ourselves. Particularly we have to be aware of our mind. If we pay no attention our mind can act so funny. When you have awareness, you try and reverse those habitual patterns. This is not easy! It is easy for me to say it standing here and talking. Putting it into practice is very difficult. Changing habitual patterns is difficult, but if you do it it’s not that bad. The first fight we have is our resistance to change. We have to break through the resistance. That is our first target. Once you are able to do that, things get a little easier. Then, gradually instead of getting angry, you develop love; instead of getting jealous you develop appreciation. If these things begin to change you will begin to feel like a different person.

It is time for us to watch and heal the mind. The way to do it is through awareness. Learn a little bit, then think and meditate and give acknowledgment. Through that you can heal yourself. Once you are able to remove those obstacles, then your beauty nature can definitely shine. When that begins to shine, you not only help yourself, you begin to help others.

-Edited by Aura Glaser

Teaching Time Change Reminder

A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Ann Arbor) and Odyssey to Freedom (NY) teachings will now be starting at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.

Out of One Prison and into Another
By Timothy Haremza

Tim was released from prison in March of this year after being incarcerated for 20 years. He is presently living at Karma Thegsum Choling, and is also a member of our Jewel Heart sangha. The article, reprinted from Liberation magazine, was composed three weeks after he left prison.

When I was locked up it was easy to believe that practicing Dharma would be easier when I got out. I would get out, meet lamas, and be involved in this ideal Dharma community. I would have a shrine with nice incense and real water bowls instead of plastic cups. Now, after a couple of decades in prison I am out and that belief is not holding up very well.

In the town where I live there is a Gelug and a Karma Kagyu center. I go to both of them. There are also Zen and Theravada centers here. On the Internet there are more Dharma teachings available than I could read in this lifetime, and I can obtain practically any book without much hassle. I can email Dharma friends and hear back from them in minutes or seconds instead of days and weeks, and there are quiet places and quiet times during which I can study or meditate.

Glass water bowls and incense, candles and flowers, conch shells and bells: there is all of this stuff! But it hasn’t taken long for me to recognize that it’s not about having or not having certain conditions. I am finding that practicing Dharma is much more difficult for me out here than it was in prison. Prison was predictable and the severity of the place discouraged expectations. Even the distractions were predictable ones. The noise. The transfers.

Out here I have found different distractions. Sometimes it is embarrassing stuff, like attending a teaching and not remembering what the lama said because my mind was turned toward the beautiful woman sitting on the cushion next to mine. But mostly it is the nasty stuff, like being feared by employers and being confronted with a constant coldness and distance from the people around me.

The teachings in the books made so much sense when I didn’t really have to deal with much besides physically surviving the day. Now I am living as a stranger in a town where I once lived, and having a difficult time finding a job or even obtaining proper identification. Practicing Dharma is not only difficult, but feels risky.

As Lama Zopa Rinpoche told a prisoner, people out here are in much heavier prisons. Now I see what he meant by that, and even though I never wish to return to the physical prison, I am scared of the ones I could easily construct for myself out here. Scared of frustration, anger, and my own wanting.

"I left the place where I grew up over 20 years ago, and lived a life unlike the ones my childhood friends went on to live. Now I am a stranger when I go into town. I listen and watch and sometimes feel as if I am from another planet. I can relate more easily to those who have lived as I have lived and gone through what I have gone through." These words express my feelings so well, but they aren't my words. Today I sat and had tea with a woman who became a nun 20 years ago, and these were her words.

So, just like that, a lot of my feelings of uniqueness and specialness were flattened and I began to feel better. She also said that it helps to have a bit of humor when things seem to be at their most ridiculous and hopeless. That is a hard teaching and one I will need to work on.

Summer Retreat at Albion College

This year the Jewel Heart Joyful Summer Retreat was held in a new location: Albion College, a small, privately run college in Albion, a sleepy country town in Western Michigan, an hour west of Ann Arbor. Established in 1840, the college sits today on 225 acres along the Kalamazoo River. The buildings have all been beautifully updated with great care to keep the original architectural feel. Since it was the summer break there were no students and we had the whole campus for ourselves.

In between sessions there were nature trails waiting to be explored, and the gym and swimming pool were at our disposal, not to mention pool and ping pong tables.

Discussion groups met in classrooms, or more often than not, on the well-manicured campus lawns under the shade of trees. The Albion staff were all very kind and helpful and food was plentiful, on time, and had enough variety to accommodate (almost) everyone’s tastes and needs. The dorm rooms in Albion College are large and clean. Most had a room for themselves, or else shared with just one other person.

Group 6

But the best feature of the new look summer retreat surely was the meditation hall. It is spacious, with high ceilings, huge windows, and is fully air-conditioned. Everyone had plenty of room around themselves and a full view of Rimpoche.

Meditation Hall

Rimpoche taught in quite some detail on the clear and lucid nature of the mind and it's functioning. He elucidated the difference between primordial mind and enlightened mind, between the conventional and ultimate nature of the mind, and the interplay of body and mind. He outlined the progress on the spiritual path by following the model of the Four Noble Truths, and simultaneously built a bridge to the Vajrayana teachings by focusing on the mind’s relation to the senses, and to gross and subtle physical energies. He touched on the mind-body interplay in terms of method and wisdom, all the way up to clear light and illusory body.

As icing on the cake in this retreat there was also a display of rare relics from Shakyamuni Buddha, some of his direct disciples and various Tibetan masters from Milarepa up to contemporary masters.

Relic Shrine

Everyone was very pleased with the set up at this summer retreat, so much so that arrangements are being made to secure a time slot for next summer. The mists of Albion are parting again…. -Hartmut Sagolla Please click here for a collage of random photos from the retreat. UPDATED ON 9-29-03 Additional photos are welcome/requested from anyone else who took pictures at the retreat.

Smoke Puja at Albion

Fall Retreat to Be Held At Garrison Institute, NY

Rimpoche will present an extended weekend retreat based on Tsong Khapa’s Lines of Experience, the shortest version of the Lam Rim.

The retreat will begin on Thursday, October 9th. Registration begins at 5 pm, and dinner will be served from 6:30-7:30 PM. The program begins at 8 pm and ends on Monday, October 13 after lunch.

Retreat registration includes tuition, room and board at Garrison. Please send in your registration ($100 non-refundable deposit) by October 1.

Shared room (3-4) people is $355
Shard room (2 people) $415
Private room $475

Send registration directly to:

Jewel Heart
c/o Garrison Institute
P.O. Box 532
Garrison, NY 10524

For more information call Garrison Institute at:

(845) 424-4800

Garrison's Website

If you are in Ann Arbor, and want to car pool, call Hartmut at the Ann Arbor office, (734) 994-3387

Winter Retreat to take place Ann Arbor, February 8–15

The Winter Retreat, previously scheduled during the Christmas Holidays,has been changed to Sunday February 8th -Sunday February 15th 2004. The retreat will be held at the Jewel Heart Center in Ann Arbor, MI. Registration will begin early on the 8th, as Rimpoche would like to have both an afternoon and evening teaching session on the first day. The retreat will close mid day on the 15th. Since February 16 is President's Day, we hope that people can use the extra day for travel and re-entry. The subject of the retreat will be Chittamani Tara, and as usual, a previous Mahanutarayoga tantra initiation is required for attendance. Sorry if this change has caused anyone undue hardship. Pre-work Requested: A transcript is currently being editing from an earlier teaching Rimpoche has given on the subject. This edited transcript will be available by end of October. Rimpoche wants everyone who is coming to the winter retreat to purchase and read the transcript before attending the retreat. We have not determined a price yet, but you can reserve a copy of it with your registration and it will be sent to you.

Ann Arbor Local Market offers innovative way for all JH members to donate to Jewel Heart

The Ann Arbor Local Market, an online community commerce site, provides a funding vehicle for local non-profit organizations. Jewel Heart members in Ann Arbor (or anywhere else in the country) can offer items for sale on this site, The “Share the Wealth” program enables you to donate a portion of or all your sales proceeds to Jewel Heart.

Ann Arbor Local Market Website

MeditateNYC – September 22 to 28

New York city is planning a citywide Buddhist project, entitled MeditateNYC for the week of September 22 to 28, 2003.

As you may know, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be visiting New York this fall. After teaching at the Beacon Theater from the 17 to the 20, His Holiness will be giving a public talk in Central Park on Sunday September 21. The organizers of the event expect between one hundred and two hundred thousand people to attend.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to introduce people who may be newly interested in Buddhism to the many Buddhist resources available in New York City. Accordingly, a group of prominent Buddhist teachers, including Gelek Rimpoche , have come together to plan a week-long series of evening lectures and meditation instruction at public venues throughout the city. For more information click here.

Jewel Heart Ann Arbor Garage Sale This Annual event in Ann Arbor raises around $500-$600 for Jewel Heart. This one was held on June 28th in John Madison’s driveway. John Madison and Gloria Boyajin coordinated the event.

Tara Dance Workshop and Ritual Offering, Cleveland, October 3-4

Prema Dasara and Anahata Iradah will lead a Sacred Dance workshop and Ritual Offering on the 21 Praises of Tara at Jewel Heart Cleveland during the weekend of October 3–5.

An introductory evening will be held Friday, October 3 at 7:30 PM at Jewel Heart Cleveland, 2670 W. 14th St. The Workshop will be held Saturday, October 4 and Sunday October 5 from 10 AM–6PM. There will be a Ritual Performance Sunday October 5 at 4 PM at Pilgrim Church, 2592 W. 14th St.

Introductory Evening: Donation $10
Workshop: Donation $130

In this workshop participants, women and men, are led into a mandala dance, instructed in the subtlety of sacred movement and mudra. They learn experientially the philosophy, meditations and visualizations of the traditional Tantric Buddhist practice. At the end of the workshop the dancers are adorned with silk and jewel costumes and dance for the community in an offering ritual. In the spirit of community, men and women are also welcome to enroll in the workshop as a musician. Anahata Iradah will direct the Sacred Sound Ensemble.

Pema Dasara is an international teacher and performer of sacred dance having trained in Asia for many years with masters of the sacred dance of India, Nepal, Tibet and Bali. She has led ritual dance offerings before H.H. Dalai Lama and other great Tibetan lineage masters receiving their enthusiastic support.

Anahata Iradah is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, meditator, and documentary video producer. She is an accomplished leader of the Dances of Universal Peace and brings years of dedication to sacred and ceremonial music and dance.

Upcoming Tsoh Days

Sept 21 (25th)
Oct 5 (10th)
Oct 20 (25th)