Thu, 11 Jun 2009
Lama's Biography
The Gampoa Center's web site is slowly getting more information about Lama Phurbu Tasi and now has two photographs and a biography by his Swiss patron, who supported Lama while he was studying and practicing in India. The biograaphy is a little flowery, but I can attest to what it says in the last paragraph:
When he begins to teach or speak about the Dharma, this robust-looking native of Kham suddenly changes in appearance, becoming luminous and pure like a diamond.
When Lama teaches he's lit by an inner radiance and his joy in and devotion to the dharma are evident. I'm very impressed by him and have asked him to be my teacher.
Tuesday night he did a question and answer for a small audience. He was asked what the definition of lama was and he answered that the term had different meanings in the different Tibetan traditions. In the Gelug and Sakya schools the term is reserved for incarnate lamas, but in the Kagyu tradition it's used for someone who has completed the three year, three month retreat. After the question and answer he showed sections of a DVD that a French student had made while she was visiting Nepal with Lama in 2005.
On Wednesday I was the only attendee, so Lama gave a simple teaching on mahamudra. One thing Lama said is that the sign of progress in mahamudra is not the development of siddhis, but the decrease in negative emotions and increase in compassion. Since I was the only one there, I had to drive Lama home after the teaching and he told me the unusual circumstances of how his mother died. She was circumambukating a stupa and sat down to rest on a bench. While sitting there, she suddenly died, presumably of a heart attack. There is no good death, but this sounds like it was an auspicious one.
There's an interesting new blog on the life of Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, called Remembering the Masters, which commemorates the upcoming fiftieth aniversary of his death.
