Kulaprabha

2009 is nearly here. Amongst other things 2009 is International Year of Astronomy. Here’s a four minute video of the sky above our planet. it was on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website this morning …
túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

Just been listening to Al Gore’s latest speech about dealing with climate change. He issues a challenge to US to convert to 100% clean energy within 10 years, likening this challenge to JFK’s challenge to get a man on the moon and back within 10 years - this challenge requiring another giant leap for humankind. Here are five minutes worth of highlights….

You can find the complete speech at We Can Solve It.

1. Scattered showers with outbreaks of sunshine and a cold northerly wind, is your idea of good weather.
2. The only sausage you like is square.
3. You were forced to do Scottish country dancing every year at high school.
4. You have a wide knowledge of local words, and know: Numpty is an idiot, Aye is yes, Aye right is No, Auldjin is someone over 40, and Baltic is cold.
5. You have an irrational need to eat anything from the chippy, as long as its deep fried - Haggis, pizza, white pudding, sausage, fish, chicken and battered Mars Bars.
6. You used to love destroying your teeth with -Penny Dainties, Wham Bars, Cola Cubes, and Soor Plooms.
7. You always greet people by talking about the weather.
8. Even if you normally hate the Proclaimers, Runrig, Caledonia, Deacon Blue, Big Country, etc, you still love it when they are played in a club abroad. (in fact you’ll probably ask the DJ to play it)
9. You have an enormous feeling of dread, even when Scotland play a diddy team.
10. You are proud that Scotland has the highest number of alcohol and smoking deaths in Europe.
11. You used to watch Glen Michael’s Cartoon Cavalcade on a Sunday Afternoon with his lamp Paladdin.
12. You got Oor Wullie and The Broons books Every Christmas.
13. You only enjoy Weir’s Way on the telly when you are pissed.
14. You are able to recognise the regional dilect, (Glasgow) ‘Awright pal, gonie gies a wee swatcha yir paper nat, Cheers, magic pal. (Aberdeen) Fitlike Loon? Furryboots ya bin up tae? fair few quines in the night, min. (Inverness) Ah-eee right enuffff! How’s you keeeepeeeen?
15. You know the police are about to arrive when you hear someone shout-Errapolis.
16. You have witnessed a ‘Square Go’
17. You know that when you are asked which School you attended they really mean,’Are you Catholic or Proddy?’
18. You have eaten the following: Mince and Tatties, Cullen Skink, Tunnock’s Teacakes, Snowballs and Caramel Wafers, Porage, Macaroon Bar, Baxters Soup, Scotch Pie, Oatcakes.
19. A Jakey has asked you for 10p for a cuppa tea.
20. You wait at the shop counter for 1p change.
21. You know that the right response to ‘you dancing?’ is ‘you askin?’ followed by ‘am askin’ and finally ‘then am dancin’.
22. You associated sawdust with vomit, coz the ‘jannie’ always, used to pour it over sick in school.
23. You lose all respect for a groom who doesn’t wear a kilt.
24. You don’t do shopping, you ‘go for the messages.’
25. You’re on a bus and the drunk picks you to sit next to.
26. You are able to conduct a 20 minute phone call using three words only,– Awright, aye, and naw.
27. When you refuse the offer of a drink, you hear, ‘ You no weel?’
28. You have heard the following: You canny fling pieces oot a 20 storey flat, 700 hungry weans’ll testify to that, If its butter, cheese or jelly, If the breed is plain or pan, The chances o’ it reachin earth, Are ninety nine tae wan.
29. You know that going to a party means bringin a Kerry oot.
30. Your holiday in Benidorm is ruined when you hear there is a heatwave back home.
31. Scotland go 2-0 up against the French, and you immediately think, getting beat 3-2 was ‘no a bad result’.
32. You can pronounce: McConnochie, Ecclefechan,Milngavie, and Kirkcaldy.
33. You love deep fried Pizza.
34. You can’t pass a Kebab shop after being at the pub.
35. You are used to four seasons in one day. (winter, winter, autumn, winter)
36. You can fall when drunk and not spill your drink.
37. You see people wearing shellsuits with Burberry accessories, and think ‘thats class’.
38. You measure distance in minutes.
39. You understand Rab C. Nesbitt.
40. You go to Saltcoats because you think its abroad.
41. You can make a whole sentence using only swear words.
42. You know what haggis is made with, but you still enjoy it.
43. You know someone who planned their wedding around the football fixtures.
44. You have been to a wedding and the football results have been announced in church.
45. You are not surprised to find one shop selling ALL of the following: Pizzas, Nappies, Fags, Curries, Milk, Paint, Shoes etc.
46. Your seaside home has Calor gas under it.
47. You know that Irn-Bru is a good hang over cure.
48. You could swear before you could count.
49. You would ‘nut’ a terrorist if they tried to bomb your Airport.
50. You are not only Scottish but Glasgwian when you understand the following- How’s it hingin’, clatty, boggin’, cludgie, Ba’heid, bawbag, and double nougat.

What’s my score? …. 37 out of 50. I must be Scottish then!

I think it could have included that

• You know the difference between a pan loaf and a plain loaf.
• You support whichever teams are playing against England.
• When you visit Australia and New Zealand, strangers hear your accent and come and tell you that their granny came from Dumfermline or Hamilton or some other Scottish town.
• When you refer to ‘the Capital’, you don’t mean London.
• When you refer to ‘the Parliament’, you don’t mean Westminster.

photo credit: Davy D; photo credit: yukatafishibuch; photo credit: Fin Wright photo credit: rogiro;

photo credit: ClatieK

People send me links to  YouTube videos regularly. Mostly I delete them. Some of them are … yuck!! Occasionally I get hooked ….. like the Irn Bru one (click here for that). This is another that I love watching. Don’t know who you are, Matt, but thanks for this !! and for more shots of Matt dancing here’s his own website.

Sangharakshita visited Taraloka at the end of May to give a talk at the FWBO International Retreat. His talk is called “Growing the Sangha” and it’s available on Free Buddhist Audio. Clicking here will get you to it. And there’s a slide show of photos that I took on the retreat elsewhere in this blog…. click here for those.

Sangharakshita had lunch with some of the Taraloka community and guests while he was here. He doesn’t like talking and eating at the same time.  So it was a case of the rest of us chatting a bit, waiting, and as soon as he’s put down his knife and fork at let three of us asked him the same question … What had happened at the Lambeth Palace meeting of UK religious leaders with the Dalai Lama? and had Gordon (Brown, that is) been in the meeting too? I was reminded ofthat conversation when writing the previous blog post.

The Dalai Lama met with privately with the UK Prime Minister first and then they emerged into the greater gathering which included the Archbishop of Canterbury and  Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Conner and representatives of the other major spiritual traditions present in the UK.  Bhante said he thought Brown looked like a man under pressure. Of course, he is under a lot of  political pressure just now, some of it from the Chinese Government about him attending this very meeting.

It’s over 40 years since they met but the Dalai Lama remembered Bhante. He knows and appreciates the work of WBO / TBMSG with the ex-Untouchable community in many parts of India. Last year he had invited TBMSG representatives to hold a workshop in Dharamsala for Tibetan Buddhists introducing the TBMSG work with new Buddhists. The Western Buddhist Order (WBO) is known as Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) in India.

Dharmamati, Bhante’s secretary, was at Lambeth with him, and told us of one moment after the discussions were over and they were going outside for a photo shoot. It involved going up a flight of stairs with not much in the way of support. The Dalai Lama noticed Bhante’s difficulty and was over beside him immediately to take his hand and help him up the stairs. Bhante chuckled and said, “Yes he was quicker off the mark to help than anyone else there!”

There is an account of the meeting on the FWBO News site (here) but here are a couple of photos. One from a couple of months ago in

Lambeth Palace and the same two men in India over forty years ago.

Friday 4th July, 2008.
Got here yesterday afternoon. Drove via Lake Vronwy (prob got more letters in it than that) and up over the mountains between there and the south end of Lake Bala. Along a one-track road that Sudaya once told me was used by racing car people to test their new models on high gradients, tight bends and bumps. I took it quite slowly and didn’t meet any cars except at the very top where two people were parked admiring as much as of the view as was occasionally visible through the mist.

The cottage - Garth Ucha - is much as it was two years ago when I came here for a month’s solitary retreat. It’s a bit dilapidated but comfortable and very quiet. I like the feel of the place. When I’m indoors I’m mostly up in my upstairs bedroom. It looks out up the valley and at the moment the landscape is in its full greenery. This year’s lambs are rapidly resembling sheep so are not quite as attractive as they would have been a month ago. Their mums have just been shorn and are looking rather embarrassed. That’s very anthropomorphic, I know, but I would be if I looked like that! I like the excitement of the daily jet plane that comes shrieking up or down the valley. And the huge army helicopters that practice avoiding mountains. And even the big transport plane - with propellers - that lumbers along at very low level and slowly manages to weave a route following the bends of the valley. It probably sounds a noisy place but, whether by request or by some innate sensitivity, the RAF only come through once a day and then only if the weather is decent. Anyway, I rather like the sudden burst of technological speed and daring do!

I went down to the village to see if i could find a wi-fi spot this afternoon. Even in a wee place like LLanuwchllyn. I found one and got some urgent emails sent off. Unfortunately I received some too. Well it was really only one that was unfortunate in terms of what it did to my mental state. I was so annoyed by it, I deleted it in a spasm of frustration and then had to reply without the original in front of me. Am not sure whether to go back down tomorrow and send the reply or cool off and wait till I get back next week.

Is this is a solitary retreat i am having? or am I just working from a different place? I’m on my own and I’m hoping to complete three large things that need doing, inlcluding a study meditation module about the Brahma Viharas for the new FWBO Dharma course. I doubt if I’ll complete all three. I’ve also brought along various books about basic back care which I’ve had for a while but not really distilled a set of daily back care exercises from them. And I’ve got some talks about Mahamudra to listen to. And some about Tsongkhapa’s poem “In Praise of the Buddha.” The only thing I’ve picked up to read so far is Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation and Earth”, the fifth and last of his great sc-fi Foundation series.

There is a lovely line up of the moon, venus and this evening at sunset. But this sunny day has turned into a cloudy rainy evening so I won’t be seeing it.

Saturday, 5th

The cloudy rainy evening lasted overnight and all day - it’s very regular : clouds roll in from the south east, heavy rain

sunshine and leaves

follows, it takes about 30 mins to pass over; and thirty minutes later it does it all over again. All day. It was doing it at 6am and it’s still at it now at 11pm. And it’s cold too. I haven’t been out all day. But I’ve got started with one of the main things I came here to do. I finished the Asimov and started a book that Suddhasara recommended to me called “The Body has its Reasons” by Therese Bertherat and Carol Bernstein. I made a curry for supper, and I listened to the women’s Wimbledon Final on Radio 5 Live. Oh and I saw a gold-crest just outside the house. Just going to watch an episode of “Commander-in-Chief” to round off the evening. It’s not a patch on West Wing but it’s OK. Donald Sutherland plays the Speaker of the House, Templeton who is trying his best to bring down President Allen but she (yes it’s a she!!) is getting the better of him. I’m hoping that Templeton’s karma catches up with him before the end of the series!!

Sunday, 6th
Walked round the hill at the back of the house this afternoon. It’s only a bump really on the ridge leading up to two main Aran peaks. But it’s a nice walk of about an hour. The rain came on halfway round so came back pretty wet. It’s coming in from the SE still so probably the same rain that was holding up the start if the men’s final at Wimbledon. I listened off and on to the radio commentary, never thinking it would go on till 9 o’clock! I’d have like Federer to win but there you go - a double for Spain between Euro2008 football and Nadal.

Monday, 7th
I’m not one to enjoy being woken up at 5am even if it is by bird-song, well in this case bird-chirps! They are sweet though… this family of swallows who have ventured out from their nest in the old pig sty to sit every morning on my bedroom windowsill. Where they line up, breaking out into frantic chirping when their parents fly by or sit expectantly with gaping mouth waiting for mum or dad to pay a flying visit to drop something tasty into it. The parents do it all on the wing! I got up this morning with my camera and took these snaps through the glass.

Tuesday, 8th

Nicer weather and me feeling more energetic, been out for a couple of walks yesterday and today. Occasional other walkers up on the hill. I got to thinking that really I should take my mobile with me if I’m out - in case of accident. I suppose I should since no-one would know where I was. Mobiles on solitary retreats. On the one hand it is a sensible precaution to have one especially out for walks. But they are also comforters, aren’t they? Keep us in connection, feeling safe, not alone…. there was a series of mobile adverts a year or two back that played on that very thing. Being solitary is about being alone and maybe feeling unsafe… it’s not likely that we are actually in a risky situation, so it’s a chance to work with fear. People’s fear seems to fall into two categories - either it’s the ‘axe man cometh’ or it’s ghosts and the paranormal. I’m in the second category. But it hasn’t arisen this week, at least not so far. I haven’t had anything like that on the last few solitaries I’ve done. This house feels very friendly and it reminds me of where my granny lived which has a great many happy associations.

Started watching a DVD of the Dalai Lama giving a commentary on Tsongkhapa’s poem “In Praise of Dependent Origination”. I watched the BBC Parliamentary channel recently when he - the Dalai Lama not Tsongkhapa - was giving evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He had the same translator with him on both occasions which was why the Select Committee programme came to mind. It was very impressive listening to him - not minimising but but not over-stating the way Tibetans are treated by the Chinese; acknowledging that some younger Tibetans are resorting to violence and regretting that, denying the current Chinese propaganda designed to make the Han Chinese believe that the Tibetans hate them, telling the committee of one monastery, its monks previously repressed and imprisoned by the Chinese, now  collecting aid to send to the victims of the recent earthquake. When was asked if the UK government and the EU are doing enough he said a very emphatic ‘no!’ and asked them particularly to use the current period around the Olympic Games to talk to the Chinese about affairs in Tibet. A conservative MP asked him if he was upset that Gordon Brown hadn’t received him in Downing St but instead was going to meet him at Lambeth Palace. He just laughed and said it didn’t matter to him where he met someone. He also said basically he tries to meet people as one human being to another and that way there can be dialogue. Of course our Gordon is a particularly influential human being at the moment!
Thursday, 10th

Packed up this morning and drove down to Bala for morning coffee and to send some post-cards. Then thought I’d drive back via Llangollen. I managed to drive without stopping past a sign which said “collie puppies for sale”. It’s Eisteddfodd week in Llangollen there so the place was busy…. there was a display of Indian dancing going on in one street!! There is very extensive second-handbookshop in Llangollen but that’s the third time in a row that I’ve visited it and come out without seeing anything I was tempted to buy. Got back to Taraloka about 4-ish.

I’m driving over to Lake Bala tomorrow, to a cottage in a valley that leads off the southern of the lake. It’s the cottage that gets a mention in a recent talk of mine called “Spiritual Death, Fear and Fearlessness”. Fear that arises when you’re on your own and it’s getting dark and you hear a noise … I’d be in bed and hear a strange eldrich moaning sound. Usually sounded as if “it” - whatever “it” was - was just outside the bedroom window.

Now I’m a well-trained Dharma practitioner and I know very well the when fear arises, I should just keep on doing what it is I’m doing until the fear subsides. That’s what the Buddha did after all and who am I to ignore his example? so I did just that -I was in bed, so I stayed in bed. I even stayed more thoroughly in bed by pulling the bed-clothes over my head…

After a few days I discovered that barn owls are also called screech owls because of the strange, low moaning sort of sound they make.  I knew barn owls had been spotted in the barn next to the house so that solved that mystery. Click here for the page with the audio talk on it.

I’ll be back in a week or so. Here is where I’m going …..

A friend of mine sent me a link to this talk By Dr Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuro-anatomist, talking about her experience of having a stroke ‘from the inside’. It’s fascinating….

She refers to her experience as nirvana. Well maybe it’s not nirvana she’s describing but it’s something that has inspired and moved her deeply… and she can see how our world could be so much different if we knew how to tap into a different way of being that we already carry within us.

Have a look at the Dharma Audio section. I’ve just added some more talks to it. You’ll find one called “Buddha Nature - it’s Good but Is It Enough?” that I gave on Wesak at the Sheffield Buddhst Centre. I’ve also added a series of led reflections on varoius approaches to Emptiness - reflecting on the blue sky, on the elements, on the flowing self, on the five skandhas.  And a set of talks about the Four Reminders.. and more to add to that soon.There’s one called “Spiritual Death, Fear and Fearlessness”.

Most of these talks emerged on a series of retreats on the system of meditation of the Western Buddhist Order.

Find all these on the Dharma Audio main page

I’m back up in Glasgow for a week. I haven’t been up in Scotland for 18 months so this is an overdue visit. I’m missing the landscape. So far am having a lazy couple of days, reading, watching tennis and football, ordering a Chinese takeaway and looking out of the window. A movement in the garden caught my eye about an hour ago and when I looked there was a fox. Not an uncommon site in cities but still not that often you get the chance to take a few photos of a fox lying comfortably on your back green.