Subj: Take four Kinnaras Date: 97-11-26 14: 43: 21 est from: Emmasirani We are so often depending on this religion or that, this 'ism' or that. Don't even think about Buddhism
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| He unfolded a piece of paper. A golden key fell out of it. It was an old-fashioned key, the kind that might open a hundred year-old door. He picked up the key, looked at it carefully, and put it in his pocket. 'I seem to have left my reading glasses in the ship. Could you read this for me?' The old man handed Mandy the paper. She read aloud: In the name of Lord Merog Would you mind staying awhile in New York? I have some work for you. I would like you to round up a few people and teach them basic Buddhism. Nothing too esoteric, just the beginner stuff. Favor can help you find young people, but try to get a few of all ages. Use your Tibetan name. Tell them you are a beginner on the Path yourself, so they won't think you are some sort of sage. Just get them started, and, if you can, find someone responsible to leave in charge of the group. I'll have the ship repaired. Give Favor my love, and tell her not to worry. You can return to Iceland an hour after you left, even if you spend a month or two away. With love Mandy stopped. 'That's it. There's a peculiar mark below the word love. Looks sort of like a paw-print.' The old man closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Subject: A car and phone name Date: Thu 1 Jan 1998 4.18 PM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980101201800.PAA11105@ladder02.news.aol.com> Favor sipped from her chocolate almond latte and read and reread the letter. 'This is incredible. I am SO excited. We are going to have SO much fun.' The old man sighed. 'It's really quite difficult to teach.' 'Why?' asked Favor. 'First you have to get to know people, find out how their minds work, what they believe in, how they act, their prejudices, and so on. You study them. You learn to speak their language.' 'Doesn't sound so bad.' Once they accept you, they try and lift you up to the skies, so they can feel they are learning from someone VERY important. And once they have jacked you up to some impossible height, they try and knock you back down again.' 'Don't worry,' said Favor, 'I'll help you. The Bunnysattva SAID I should. She KNOWS ME. This is SO GREAT.' Mandy shook back her hair. 'You know, you could hold the classes in my loft. There aren't a lot of chairs, but there's a big rug. We could have great refreshments.' 'It wouldn't disturb you?' 'I don't think so. I think I'd enjoy it, rather. I like Buddhism. I met the Dalai Lama a couple of years ago. Richard Gere introduced me. I gave him a scarf, and he gave me one. The Dalai Lama, I mean, not Richard. Course, I've never studied it...' 'You know,' said the old man, thoughtfully, 'we might have the first class outdoors -- in a park or a public place.' 'In the cold?' asked Mandy 'Cold is conducive to spiritual teachings.' 'How do we find people?' asked Favor. 'I could put up posters at school,' said Mandy. And we could put a few in Weiser's, East-West Books, the Sufi Bookstore -- and at the Open Center. Maybe the health food stores too. There's a board at Whole Foods on Prince Street. And I'll tell my friends. We could even start out with a big party.' 'You realise,' said the old man, 'we don't have any money.' 'What's money again?' asked Favor. 'I have lots of money,' said Mandy. 'It's not a problem. Really.' 'How did you get it?' asked the old man. 'My mother. Her family owned one of the telephone companies, and they made cars, too. I have a car and phone name, actually.' 'A car and phone name?' 'Mandy Bell Buick. Is that a mouthful, or what?' 'Reminds me of Werner Luft-hansa,' said the old man. 'Who?' 'Favor, money is what people used to use -- I mean what they use now, here -- to exchange things. If you work a certain number of hours, you get a certain number of dollars -- that's a kind of money -- and then you can trade the dollars for a place to live and food to eat.' 'Why bother? Sounds really complicated.' 'You people really are from the future,' said Mandy. 'Is this money? asked Favor. She held up a roll of thousand dollar bills. 'Where did you get that?' asked the old man. 'It was in the envelope with the letter.' 'Everyone okay?' asked the waitress. ------------------- 'Appearances are delusion -- don't follow blind convention. Eating is for sustaining your life-force -- don't grovel for food. Wealth is illusory -- don't give in to craving. Clothes are to protect you from the cold -- don't wear fancy dress. Be detached and free from clinging -- don't indulge in attachments. Be a Self-realized yogi -- not a charlatan.' Padmasambhava Instructions to Yogis The Sanglingma (Copper Palace) Biography Chapter 30 from The Bunnysattva Sutra Subject: New in town Date: Thu 8 Jan 1998 9.21 PM EDT From: Mandharava Message-id: <19980109012100.UAA07988@ladder02.news.aol.com> Is this a real scripture or is it some kind of joke? Just wondering. Subject: It's a real scripture Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.34 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109083401.DAA02123@ladder02.news.aol.com> ... Even now, under our very eyes, the new Race and races are preparing to be formed, and... it is in America that the transformation will take place... Thus it is the mankind of the New World, whose mission and karma it is to sow the seeds for a forthcoming grander and far more glorious Race than any of those we know at present. The Cycles of Matter will be succeeded by the Cycles of Spirituality and a fully developed mind. ____________ (The New Race) will silently come into existence... the peculiar children who will grow into peculiar men and women -- will be regarded as abnormal oddities, physically and mentally. Then, as they increase, and their numbers become, with every age, greater, one day they will awake to find themselves in a majority. Then present men will begin to be regarded as exceptional mongrels, until they die out, in their turn, in civilised lands Helena Blavatsky, 1888 'The Secret Doctrine' v. 3 Mandy raised the curtains, and looked out over Soho and Tribeca. It was a lovely day, the sun slanting in from Queens, the clouds floating away over New Jersey. Mandy's loft had views in all four directions, and being on the top floor, there was a ladder to the roof. She brushed out her hair and picked a cream-colored knit dress from the walk-in closet. 'Favor, would you like to try this?' 'Would I?' asked Favor. She pulled the dress over her head and looked in the full length mirror. 'I feel like a princess, waiting to receive her courtiers.' Mandy laughed. 'What do you want for breakfast?' The old man appeared, his long hair wet and shining. 'I don't think I've had a real shower in forty years.' 'Don't you have showers in... Iceland?' asked Mandy. 'Water isn't piped in, as it is here. We have to fetch it from the well. And we have to heat it. We take baths in an old wood tub.' 'Do you live in a city?' 'There aren't any cities.' 'All the cities are gone?' 'There won't be cities for another hundred years, I don't think. Not enough people.' 'What happened to everyone?' 'They died.' 'What would you like for breakfast?' asked Mandy cheerily. 'Your name -- Mandy -- reminds me of Mandharava' 'Who?' 'Mandharava. Guru Rinpoche's spiritual consort. Guru Rinpoche -- Padmasambhava -- was a great Master of India and Tibet. We were on our way to see him, when we came down here.' 'You know, I don't think you told me your name.' 'Patra Chosnyid Skybamedpa.' 'That's a mouthful. Is it your real name?' 'It's my Tibetan name, the one the Master gave me.' 'What does it mean?' Patra is a fancy brick. Skyba-medpa means 'that which can never be born.' The unborn or uncreated. Those who realise the highest state say that we are all Skyba-medpa. Chos-nyid means our real nature. So the whole thing means something like, The Brick Who Can Never Be Born, Our Real Nature.' 'I guess I'll call you Brick.' The old man laughed. 'What was your original name?' 'I'VE GOT IT' cried Favor, running up to them. She held a fat paperback book in her hands. 'Got what?' asked the old man. 'A name for the classes.' She held up the book. The cover read, in blue letters on an orange background, 'Internet for Idiots.' 'Yes?' 'That's it -- BUDDHISM FOR IDIOTS. What do you think?' Subject: The Eastern School Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.39 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109084000.DAA02431@ladder02.news.aol.com> 'We are not merely interconnected, we are that which is interconnnected. Inseparable from luminosity, we are luminous... 'I sit on my zafu to remember. I sit, not to understand anything I don't already know, not to get something I don't already have, not to be someone other than who I already am, but in devotion to what has been so exquitely made apparent to me... the truth of who we all are... already radiant, already immortal, already free. Nina Wise Tricycle Magazine, Fall 1996, p. 93 __________ (Five weeks earlier) [When the celestial car landed at the Copper Palace of the Bunnysattva, Maria and Tarabatha were shown to their quarters. Maria's sons, Wim and Yeheshua, were given rooms adjoining hers. The boys were hungry, and Tarabatha arranged for dinner to be brought to their rooms. -- The Editor] Tarabatha and Maria sat on a long sofa facing, through a panoramic window, a very high crater beneath glistening stars. Yeheshua and Wim played with toy space ships at the other side of the room. Maria: I am so sorry about what happened. I know my father does some sort of secret work for the government, but I had no idea... Tarabatha: It's not your fault, and you didn't know. Just leave it. Maria: But if you hadn't taken me home... Tarabatha: I'm afraid it was a trap they set for me in advance. They had people who were following me. They saw us talking in the restaurant, and, I suppose, arranged to surround me wherever they could. Maria: Well, it's awful, and I feel... ashamed. Tarabatha: It's over now. And see, no harm came from it. Maria: Except the boys and I had to leave. Tarabatha: I think you may find that traveling to the Moon is an opportunity you'd regret having missed. Maria: The flight was so beautiful. I've never seen anything like the view of Earth from space. It's enough to make one believe in God. Tarabatha: It is. Maria: Do you? I mean, believe in God? Tarabatha: Well, I guess it depends what you mean by God. Maria: What I mean? Tarabatha: When you use the word 'God,' what do you mean, exactly? Maria: Well, I guess, just God. A supreme being, the creator of the universe... I don't know. Tarabatha: I don't think it matters much what you believe. I guess we can't help having beliefs as long as we have individual minds. My own beliefs are more along the lines of Buddhism. Maria: What are they? Tarabatha: Do you know anything about Buddhism? Maria: Not much. I have learned mostly by osmosis. You know, talking to people, and stuff. Tarabatha: Buddhism is very ancient, and there are many, many different groups and different teachings. My own group, the one I grew up in, is called the Eastern School. It is followed by many who live within the Earth. It's not very common on the surface of Earth. Maria: It must be so strange to live inside the Earth. Tarabatha: Not at all. It's quite nice, really. Much better than you would expect. The sky below is every bit as beautiful as the sky above. Subject: Is there a baptism? Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.41 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109084201.DAA03366@ladder01.news.aol.com> Maria: How do you become a Buddhist? I mean, do you have to convert? Do you have to have an experience? Can you still be a Christian? Is there a baptism or a vow? Tarabatha: That's a lot of questions at once. Almost anyone you asked would give you a different answer. It's not like there's a party line... I think for a lot of people, you hear about the Buddha and Buddhism, you find a few books, you read them. Then you talk to people who believe in him and his teachings. And if it makes sense to you, you learn how to meditate. Just a very simple, basic meditation. Maybe just sitting alone, in a quiet place, with your back straight, and thinking about Lord Buddha. Or just watching your breath as it comes and goes, in and out of your lungs, all by itself. You read more, talk to people more, meditate more. You think about the basic teachings: how life is full of suffering, how desires are the root cause of all suffering, how to get free from desires, how to get free from the pettiness of the ego, how to live a life of real love and compassion. And then one day you realise that this is all real for you, not just intellectual. It becomes the core of a new identity. Your life purpose, which earlier was mostly selfish, becomes spiritual. Maria: What about all the different kinds of Buddhism? Do they have baptism, or do you get ordained or confirmed or something? Tarabatha: Different sects have different ways to declare you are a member, but I don't personally like them. For me the only qualification is to be really, seriously, sincerely searching for the truth. After maybe a year or two on your own, or meditating with a few friends, then you begin looking for a teacher. You need to have found your own center (that place of poise within you) before you go teacher-hunting, otherwise you haven't much basis for choosing one. Very few Buddhist teachers -- or spiritual teachers of any sort -- are genuine. The rare real teacher is one who has realised for himself or herself -- permanently -- the highest state of consciousness. A real teacher is not in it for money or power or praise, and radiates inner peace and selflessness. His or her only interest is to help us find the truth within ourselves -- for us to become real human beings. Maria: Do you have to have a teacher? Tarabatha: You don't HAVE to do anything. But for just about everyone, you can't really advance without guidance from someone who has already made the journey. So, having read and meditated on your own, and then having found a true teacher, and having followed him or her, you may then find that people call you a Buddhist. You may or may not identify with the name. But inwardly, you are that if your whole purpose is to realise the spiritual truth that is hidden in everyone and everything. The goal of a Buddhist is to become a Buddha: a fully enlightened being. There are lots of 'quotation-mark' Buddhists -- people who take the name 'Buddhist' but are really not interested in becoming spiritually perfect. They adopt Buddhism the way many people adopt Christianity: as a way of perpetuating and strengthening their feelings of separateness and superiority. They are interested in 'converting' others, instead of being inwardly transformed themselves. If you decide to become a Buddhist, be a real one, not a pretender. Buddhism does not have a monopoly on truth; there's truth in every religion and path. Learn as much as you can about Gautama Buddha and the spiritual teachers who followed him, and learn from life. Every day and every activity is a chance to broaden ourselves. Every desire that comes up in us is a chance to learn to discriminate between what is really important for our spiritual development, and what will further enslave us to the temporary and the passing. Dedicate yourself to the spiritual benefit of all beings, and learn to really care for others. Subject: Less and less Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.43 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109084401.DAA02598@ladder02.news.aol.com> 'I had a dream.' 'What was it?' ''We had a young tiger. I was petting him. He had really soft fur, but he was strong. You could feel his muscles. We fed him soy and oats. His coat was really sleek. I think he must be four feet long, silver, black and white. We had to be really careful with the other animals, but he seemed to be friendly to them, like he knew they were his family.' 'That must be some tiger.' 'Yeah... Mom, how come we're on the Moon?' 'Cause there was some trouble with your grandfather, and we all came here to fix it up.' 'Are we going to see him.' 'I think so.' 'He gave me the trains, you know.' 'Yes, I know.' 'Will we be back in time for school?' 'I don't know. Do you want to?' 'NO.' He laughed and rolled on the bed. 'I don't want to EVER go back to school.' 'Well, school is a long way off. Do you know how far?' 'No.' Maria pointed out the window at the blue-black sky. 'I think it's more than two hundred thousand miles.' 'That's a lot of miles,' said Wim. 'It is.' 'But it didn't take long to come here, did it?' 'No. Just a little while.' 'We must have flown really fast.' 'We must have.' 'I'm going to write a story. You know what I'm gonna call it?' 'No, what.' 'The Adventures of Wim and Jim.' 'Who's Jim?' 'The tiger, silly.' 'But what about Yeheshua and me? Will we be in it?' 'If you're good... Mom, Can we stay with the bunny people?' 'I don't know,' said Maria. 'You don't know much, do you, Mom.' She laughed. 'Less and less.' Subject: Prospector Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.46 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109084601.DAA03561@ladder01.news.aol.com> (Five weeks later) Fox Mulder bowed before the Rabbit, and placed a piece of paper at her feet. 'Associated Press,' he said. 'That's a news service.' The rabbit nodded to Lobhsang Sopa, who picked up the paper and read aloud: CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida. (AP) A little drumlike spacecraft called Prospector hurtled toward the moon today, its task to search for water, minerals and gases during NASA's first lunar mission in 25 years. "It certainly feels good to be going back,'' program scientist Joseph Boyce said after Tuesday night's flawless launch. "I couldn't be more excited, more happy, more pleased.'' The unmanned Prospector, due to arrive at the moon on Sunday, carries five science instruments that will search from lunar orbit for evidence of frozen water at the shadowy poles as well as for minerals and gases. Such resources, especially water, could be used by human settlers. The 4-foot, 650-pound spacecraft also contains an ounce of the ashes of Eugene Shoemaker, a planetary scientist who trained the Apollo astronauts in lunar geology in the 1960s and early 1970s and always yearned to fly to the moon. He died in a car accident last summer. "He's going to be the man in the moon to us,'' his widow, Carolyn Shoemaker, said with a smile after witnessing the launch with her children and grandchildren. A half moon gleamed in the sky as the Athena rocket blasted off at 9:28 p.m., one day late. Monday's launch attempt was foiled by the failure of Air Force radar needed to track the rocket; the problem was fixed in time for Tuesday's effort. Launch controllers cheered and applauded at liftoff and again at each milestone. An hour into the flight, an attached motor promptly fired, propelling Prospector out of low-Earth orbit and toward the moon 240,000 miles away. Aside from initial communication snags, everything went well. "We feel like we have taken a giant step forward toward returning to the moon,'' mission manager Scott Hubbard said. "A great ride. A healthy spacecraft. And very shortly we will start to do a whole series of other things that will continue to demonstrate that we're going back to the moon and taking some important measurements.'' NASA, which last explored the moon in December 1972 with Apollo 17, expects to begin collecting scientific data as soon as Prospector settles into a 60-mile-high polar orbit next Tuesday. Scientists should know within a month or two whether the poles hold frozen water. Some scientists believe the poles hold as much as 1 billion tons of water ice, a theory bolstered by information from the military's Clementine spacecraft, launched to the moon in 1994 to test missile-detecting sensors. The presence of ice would make it easier for NASA to establish a lunar base. Astronauts, for instance, could separate the water into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel and even turn the moon into a gas station for ships bound elsewhere. Prospector, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., which also made the Athena rocket, will survey the entire moon for at least a year before crashing onto its surface, where it will join the trash and equipment left behind by the 12 astronauts who walked on the moon. The $63 million mission is part of NASA's low-cost, fast-paced Discovery program to explore the solar system. Boyce said missions like this one and Mars Pathfinder, another Discovery project that culminated in a spectacular landing last July 4 on the red planet, constitute "the start of the next golden age of planetary exploration.'' "This particular golden age,'' said Boyce, who worked on the Apollo moon shots, "will tell us much about the moons and the planets and even our home, the Earth.'' Subject: The Parable of the Benefactor Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.50 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109085000.DAA03746@ladder01.news.aol.com> Lobhsang put down the paper. 'It's not about water on the Moon, is it?' asked Fox Mulder. 'No,' said the Bunnysattva. 'Are we in danger of being seen?' 'No.' 'Could you disable the satellite?' 'We did have to do that once, with a ship they sent to Mars. But not in this case.' 'Can you make the palace invisible?' asked Toof Otatop. He was sitting in the corner playing with a Game Boy. 'Yes, but better -- we'll go back in time. The Copper Palace turns on its axis. We just spin into the past.' Fox Mulder thought for a moment. 'It must be strange,' he said, 'knowing so much, and being able to explain so little.' The rabbit smiled. 'Can I ask you something?' Toof Otatop stood up and walked over. The rabbit nodded 'What's it like being a rabbit?' Fox Mulder looked at Lobhsang Sopa. They both looked at Toof. 'I've been a rabbit a long time. Longer than you'd think.' 'I mean,' said Toof, 'is it real different from being... human?' 'No,' said the rabbit. 'The wiring is different, and things look a little different. But, you know, I am without desires and without fears. That's pretty unusual for a rabbit.' 'Or for a person,' said Lobhsang Sopa. 'I think the biggest single difference between me and you -- well not the biggest, but one of the biggest -- is that I can't really give any of you what I want to give you.' 'I don't understand,' said Toof. 'Let me tell you a story,' she said. 'Once there was a very wealthy man. He had spent much of his youth traveling around the East, making money wherever he could. He was careful to make his money honestly, never by exploiting anyone or causing anyone suffering. Of course, this was quite difficult to do. 'But he knew that wealth is generally a cause of great suffering, so he did his best to get money in a very moral way -- for two reasons. The first was because he wanted only to help others. And the second was because he knew that money earned in cruel ways would not be of any help to anyone later.The only purpose of his acquiring wealth was to be able to help others. 'When he had earned enough, he had all his earnings converted into gold, which at that time was the way to move money around. He went back to his home country, to his home town, and set up shop in a back alley. He saw that many people did not have enough to eat, or adequate clothing or shelter, and they could not afford to educate their children. 'But there was a problem. All his wealth was in the form of gold, and in this town, people were deathly afraid of gold. They believed that gold was radioactive, and that anyone who possessed it would get sick and die. This was not true, but it was what they believed. 'So the man, in order to get people to benefit from his earnings, secretly had all the gold silver-plated. Silver was worth much less than gold, but this was the only way he was able to give his wealth away. 'When the people saw that the man was giving away silver, they lined up outside his shop. The man made sure to give each person just the amount he or she needed, no more and no less. He was careful not to make anyone wealthy.' Subject: They run as far... Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.54 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109085401.DAA03010@ladder02.news.aol.com> The rabbit looked at Toof. 'Do you understand the meaning of the story?' Toof closed his eyes, and then opened them. 'No.' The rabbit continued: 'I am like that man. I have come into this world to uplift people spiritually, and to protect the seekers after Truth. I worked hard over many lifetimes to attain the state I now enjoy. But when I try to share it with others, they run as far away from me as possible. To worldly people, spirituality is poison. They are deathly afraid of Truth. So rather than share my knowledge and experience, I have to cover it with something less worthwhile. ' 'Oh, I get it,' said Toof. He handed the Game Boy to Fox Mulder, and, bowing to the Bunnysattva, left the room. McGillicudy followed closely behind him, wagging his tail. from The Bunnysattva Sutra Subject: Editor's Note: Padmasambhava Date: Fri 9 Jan 1998 4.57 AM EDT From: Emmasirani Message-id: <19980109085801.DAA03139@ladder02.news.aol.com> Download 182.86 Kb. Share with your friends:
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