News from the Goa Dharma Home

Happy Saga Dawa everyone, everywhere!

This auspicious day is such a joyous and befitting occasion to share some of what is happening (and has been happening since January) at our home, which still is just a dharma home and probably will never be turned into a dharma center. 

The fact that ours is not a dharma center (and the lack of ambition, prevalent from the very beginning, to create such a one) somehow goes back to the way Lama Dawa taught me and others here in India around me:  He taught us from his home in Kathmandu, the house that now his wife Kalsang and his daughter Rigzin own.  Or he taught us from our own home, in Goa, whenever he was staying with us, which was often. 

When in Nepal and India Lama Dawa did not take on the role of a ‘Center Lama’.  He much preferred to remain a home-based yogi, and the most powerful transmissions I ever received from him happened at his or at my home, not in the context of some officially announced event.  To meet him, you went to his room to see him and talk to him in private, with respect but without artificial boundaries.  No outside interference or made-up protocol created hurdles.  This way the teachings always just flowed as if of its own accord.  Naturally, the age-old, time-tested way of promulgating, hearing and receiving the teachings in a more intimate setting deeply impacted me and formed my own attitude toward teaching.  Officially announced events, of course have a role to play, but they can never replace the teaching at and from home—like restaurant food cannot really replace home cooking. 

Of course, when restricted to the home level everything stays small, but as E.F. Schumacher coined the phrase: Small is beautiful!  Besides, as far as we know the founding yogis of our tradition here in pre-1199 CE India, clearly preferred privacy and small size over big size and the institutionalized approach as well.  Only monasteries were big.  And monasteries are a different story altogether.  They are irreplaceable for other reasons.

Therefore, what we have here in Goa is a nameless dharma home not a big-name dharma center.  Between 2012 and 2016 Lama Dawa came to visit every year and blessed this home with his presence and by giving many teachings.  He never suggested that we should change the status from ‘home’ to ‘center’.  Now, after his passing we continue along the same lines.

I venture to say, because everything is kept within a relatively small family, beautiful developments are encouraged to unfold.  People come and do retreats not as if going to a place outside but as if coming home.  Like, in December and January Naira from Australia was here to do her first Guru retreat (after completing dakini recitations in 2015). The retreat turned out not to be so easy for her at all, and we had to work hard, to keep everything on the right track, by addressing and removing obstacles.  Yet, in the end her efforts and steadfastness showed clear and good results.  After two months she left inspired, highly motivated for more practice and for a more harmonious way of everyday living, and of course, empowered.

Toward the end of January, I flew to Kathmandu to visit Kalsang for one week, and to Chandigarh to give some more instructions, upon Bodhivajra’s and Subhadra’s request.  They were in need for more support for their preliminary practices, and generally just wished to reconnect.  I really enjoyed seeing them.  When in Kathmandu I was able to give some and to arrange for further funds for one of the eight stupas hand-carved from rock, to be erected at Lama Dawa’s birthplace.  Of course, it was good to connect with Kalsang and to meet for the first time Lama Chhodak, who has done divinations for us personally, and for our little dharma family since the time when Lama Dawa had stopped doing mirror readings.

In February Vajratara arrived.  She was to do her first dakini retreat, and she was also the first student who had not yet received the Yeshe Tsogyal empowerment from Lama Dawa, but was to receive this empowerment here in the way that Lama had taught me just before his passing.  When the day came, neither she nor I doubted that the necessary transmission would take place.  Eventually, the dreams and signs during and after the retreat, as well as the continuing shift in attitude toward self and others until now and into the future prove that our trust in the lineage and Lama’s transmission was well founded.  Of course, Vajratara also had received other empowerments from Lama Dawa, but had been guided beginning with refuge through many vicissitudes of everyday life and the preliminary practices mostly by me, starting in 2009.  She was very happy, of course that ten years of efforts finally could culminate in her first solitary retreat, with strict retreat boundaries.  And indeed all turned out beautiful, with some difficulties.  In the end she left with tears of happiness streaming from her eyes.

During Vajratara’s retreat,  Maitrivirya (who in ordinary life is her husband) went to Bodhgaya for one week to do some more prostrations (although he had completed his first 100.000 over two years ago), and to also to read out loud as many times as he could manage the Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra.  Especially, the reading of the aspiration prayer was the correct medicine for the moment as, by repeatedly reciting it, it cleared away many misunderstandings.

In May and part of June, Rinchen and I set up a boundary for own retreat.  This was the

first time that she and I went into retreat together, which was made possible through Tony Rodriguez’ total support.  He cared for everything, not just at home but also at Rinchen’s clinic.  What a gift to enjoy love and backing such as given to us, by Tony!  But the retreat, although flowing nicely, was not without challenges (mostly coming from the outside), for example as the roof of our house was redone during that time, for one week with ample noise in daytime.  Then one day, Varjasaraswati showed up in tears in front of our door.  I had sent her to do Vajrasattva preliminary practices retreat in a different place, but for many reasons, the location proved unsuitable.  She could not stay there.  We had to open the boundary to let her settle in our bedroom to continue with her own practice, while we stayed in the retreat room to continue with ours.  But again, everything immediately settled in its own natural flow.  The blessings of the Dudjom lineage are indeed immense!

As we were in retreat in Goa, Karunavajra stayed for one whole month in Bodhgaya, enjoying the sweltering heat of 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Farenheit), but still doing prostrations under the Bodhi Tree from 5:00 to 7:00 AM and in the course of the day, many Vajrasattva 100-syllables in his air-conditioned hotel room.  He says his stay taught him a lot, energized him a lot and deepened his connection to dharma.  Actually it may have been a blessing in disguise that he went at the wrong time of the year: at least there were much fewer visitors, as in pilgrimage season (October through March) the place becomes hopelessly crowded.

So, these were most of the activities by and through the people connected to our little dharma home, which happened during the first half of 2019.  Sharing them (even if only very few readers will be interested in such trifles) warms my heart.  By writing about them in the way I do, I don’t want to prove other approaches wrong.  Every genuine approach to dharma is helpful.  And sometimes when I do puja at home in the morning or evening, I feel the presence of all the people around the world who recite the Seven Line Prayer or play the bell and damaru like I do, dedicated to the welfare of all, no matter how imperfect my practice actually is.  It is so wonderful to know and even feel that we are all connected through the bond of our motivation and practice, no matter how much our views might differ in other regards.