Nun of Your Business

I've started another blog (in February 2023) about caregiving tips, based on my recent years of taking care of my mother. Some of the topics I have covered or plan to cover include: latches on various things adapting the activities to suit the abilities (e.g., jigsaw puzzles) suitable shoes ADA compliant house for "aging in place" medications and supplements jobbing out some of the tasks information resources drivers license and state ID card weaning them off their credit cards, then cash getting all the legal documents done ASAP: PoA, etc.  bedtime stories warmed-up pajamas fidget blankets light therapy motion sensors Note: I had imported some of these posts here to this site to see if that would solve the problem of Facebook not wanting to share my blog, but it didn't help. So, please go back to the other site to see caregiving tips: Caregiving Rodeo https://caregiving-rodeo.blogspot.com/

Hypothesis: Sentient life is nature's recording machine. This morning, we are watch Mo Rocca's Innovation Nation , on which one of Mo's quiz answers was the invention of the video recording machine--what enabled television shows to be replayed later instead of live.  Add to this the fact that I'm currently reading a work of post-apocalyptic fiction-- The Second Sleep --in which all the information we've been storing online is lost, and only fragments of written works remain. And, include my previous interest in the durability of oral records--Buddhist works being passed down through the ages by memory and recitation, the works of Homer possibly being memorized recitations before they were written down, etc. Magnetic Core Memory These things stirred my mind to think that sentient lifeforms, and particularly human beings with our facility for language, might be nature's recording machine. We witness the world, we remember it, and we speak it. Generations pass on ...

... a work in progress It doesn't have to be perfect.

My friends who are trying to decide how to spell mantras that are coming to us from Sanskrit through Tibetan script are frustrated about when to use the letters B, V, and W. Here are the troublesome letters: Chart by Drimay. Part of the issue is Tibetan and Indian pronunciation , but another related issue is the evolution of our alphabets .

In a recent class, we were learning the Vajrasattva mantra. During the break, somebody asked how the Sanskrit word vajra  becomes benza  in Tibetan pronunciation. I typed these notes on the screen. Notes about Vajra > Benza Vajra in Tibetan script, i.e., Badzra. Va jra – V is not really V. It’s usually a W or a B. Nepalese and Tibetan people understand it to be a B in this context. Ba jra – J is not really J. In the Tibetan alphabet there is a Ch row and a Ts row of consonants. This Sanskrit J is spelled with the Tibetan letter that we write (in Roman letters) as DZ (which is in the TS row – TS TSH DZ NY). Ba dzra – so, badzra is a completely legitimate spelling

Some of us have a hard time remembering how old we are once we get up there in years. Recently my friend and I were trying to calculate her age and we found an age calculator online .

To get the screen notes that were typed at the Mexico retreat with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, go to this folder: LZR Mexico 2015 The notes from all sessions, all teachers, have been combined, totalling 157 pages. You can save either the PDF or the Word DOCX file. Other resources, such as the Bodhicitta Mindfulness list will be there, too. Update: I added a file with the notes typed into the Daily Meditation , including Blessing the Speech, from when Rinpoche gave the lung  (oral transmission). Click on the same link above and you'll see all the files. Caution: The screen notes are not a transcript. Sometimes things were missed because of not understanding, Rinpoche speaking very quickly, other things interrupting the typing, or the typist's fatigue. Also, we were just typing notes for the audience; we weren't trying to get every word. In addition to Lama Zopa Rinpoche's talks, there were also sessions by Venerable Steve Carlier (the retreat leader), and Venerable...

At the conference I attended recently, a meeting of Catholic and Buddhist monks and nuns [1] , held at the Abbey of Gethsemani, I learned about the Benedictine practice of lectio divina, in a presentation given by Sister Anne McCarthy, OSB. First, ‘lectio’ is pronounced lexio. Believe me. I checked. All the Benedictine monks and nuns pronounce it like that, regardless of what you might find in an online dictionary. Lectio divina is translated as divine reading. It reminded me right away of a practice in Buddhism called tö-sam-gom (in Tibetan), or listening-thinking-meditating. It doesn’t line up exactly, but it definitely has some overlap. I see an explanation on Wikipedia that says, “Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate.”  Some of the participants listening to a presentation. Sister Anne is in the middle, in the red blazer. After Sr. Anne’s presentation, with input from a couple of other participants, we di...

I spent November of 2014 at a retreat center in Arkansas, a part of the country I had never been before. Here is a photo album showing scenes of the retreat center, Katog Rit'hröd , and the nearby area. If the slideshow doesn't play for you, try this link .

Years ago, in 2001/2004, I wrote an arrangement of the Guru Puja so that I could chant it in English to the Tibetan tunes. Even though I have settled on my favorite tunes, you could use any of the many alternative Tibetan tunes you like. You see, I just set the verses to the traditional Tibetan meter, usually nine syllables per line. I did this for my own practice, but some other people have shown an interest in performing the puja in this way. For this purpose, I recently recorded a group performance of this puja and have begun to upload some tracks to Internet Archive. I am editing the recording, cutting the puja into meaningful sections of several verses each. As I get the sections edited, I will continue to upload them. In the future, I might also record alternate tunes. Here is the link for the page where these recordings will continue to be uploaded. https://archive.org/details/GuruPujaEnglishChant Here is a sample: Enjoy.

What happens in your kitchen when you come down for breakfast? I live at a Dharma center which gets a lot of traffic through its dining room, the place where I get my meals. I currently live about 30 feet away from the back door of the dining room. On a quiet morning like today, I can feel comfortable rolling over there at any time for breakfast, but when there is a big group I usually wait until the guests have mostly cleared out before trying to get my tea and cereal. Still, there is usually something interesting happening when I get to the dining room. I'm starting this post, which I will add to over the next month. Wednesday, June 6 Table over by the back door: A group of three works on a musical about Amelia Earhart and George Putnam called Final Approach . They discuss lines and scenes from the script and hum tunes. They discuss famous actors who have ruined their careers by undiplomatic things they have said or done. Table by the front door: I sit down here where...

This morning I did something that is very scary for me. I apologized. It was about some difficult communication that happened yesterday. For me, apologizing seems like a superpower, a siddhi , a high attainment to be able to do it. When I hear other people apologizing instantly--without having to think about it, without even needing to be in the wrong--I think, "Wow, they are like superheroes." Anyway, sometimes I am forced to apologize for my own peace of mind. I knew that in this case, I wouldn't be able to rest easy until I did it. Oh, and, also, there was the other person's feelings. I needed to face my fear. I needed to find my courage and just go through with it, no matter how scary it might be. So I prepared my words, wrote them out. Then I did the mantras to bless one's speech. And I made an extra effort to generate divine pride--identifying with one's enlightened self-image. And then I went through the door and did it. Fortunately for me, the othe...

H.H. the Dalai Lama wearing a long zen . Do you have a very long robe, such as a full length zen (Tibetan monastic shawl, about 5 yards long), that gets all twisted up when you put it in a washing machine? And then it strangles other things and stuff doesn't get dry when you put it in the dryer? And even if it's a little bit dry it's all creased? Today I finally figured out how to prevent that. I folded the robe over once, and then again, and then pinned the corners with safety pins. It worked. When I pulled things out of the dryer, the robe wasn't all twisted into a knot. Now, the next problem: How to get oil out of cloth? It's almost as hard as getting attachment out of the mind.

Today, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2012, I listened to a recording of the original "I Have a Dream" speech on the radio . I suddenly got the impression of a sadhana--that the speech is a sort of sadhana. Take the King of Prayers --not actually a sadhana but a much recited sutra. It takes you on a journey into other dimensions, possibilities, possibilities where people achieve their highest potential, achieve liberation, come to live in harmony with everything around them.

Why do we recite mantras in a foreign language--Sanskrit--a language that we don't understand? And why don't the lamas usually tell us the meaning of the words in the mantra? I came across this interesting passage in a mystery novel:

- a follow-up to something I first posted in 2008 and have been adding to over time. See: Omniscience .

Here is a new recording of a tune for the Yonten Zhigyurma prayer, chanted in Tibetan by Venerable Steve Carlier; it's just a few verses to give you the idea. This is the original for the prayer that I have arranged in English as  The Basis of All Good Qualities . Link to this MP3 file on Archive.org Notice that the last line of each verse is recited twice, except for verse 3 which is carried over into verse 4.

The Dharma tends to follow me around even when I'm goofing off, like this afternoon in the middle of a mystery book. Read this:

What if someone from Santa Cruz had written that letter to King George in 1776? Declaration of Interdependence Dear King George, There are some things we need to discuss. But before we get into that, we just want you to know that we love you and we will continue to love you even if our relationship changes.

I went to see Cave of Forgotten Dreams with a friend last night. The movie was boring (another friend says it's better in 3-D), however I like thinking about people throughout time.