Photography, Travel, Buddha Dharma, Samsara

Last weekend I flew to San Francisco to attend some teachings by one of my teachers Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche. I met Rinpoche in Kathmandhu in 1998 thanks to my friend Matthieu Ricard who let me know that Rinpoche was, at the time, staying at Shechen monastery.

JKR, Ricard and me, Kathmandhu 1998

Although Rinpoche has told me a number of times that he is not a teacher and has no students I still consider him one of my closest teachers.

The first teaching last weekend took place in a private house in Oakland and the second teaching, on Sunday, was held in the elaborately decorated shrine room of Orgyen Dorje Den with huge golden statues of Buddha Shakyamuni and Padmasambhava. I found both teachings to be very pragmatic, investigating impermanence and what is real in our lives and our Buddhist path.  I will share a few notes I took during a particularly poignant time during the Sunday talk. (These notes are not word for word and have most likely been filtered through my own understanding).

Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche, Orgyen Dorje Den 2010

At one point Rinpoche asked, “What percentage of our spiritual path is a pacifier?” A provoking question that I have not looked at very often. He went on to say, “If our spiritual path is a pacifier, it is good to investigate further…The Buddha taught the truth of suffering to wake us up from the culture of pacifiers. So many pacifiers keep us asleep” Rinpoche went on to call our iPhones and Blackberries sophisticated pacifiers. He referred to our careers, our studies and the degrees we develop as pacifiers. “When we meditate” he said, “it is important to see if we are building on something that is really going to wake us up. If all the accoutrements of our practice (pointing to the bell, dorje and kapala in front of him) our teachers, Buddha Dharma are often treated as a pacifier they will function as a pacifier. It is important to see this, so that in the end we don’t blame the Buddha and Dharma, telling ourselves it doesn’t work…

How is the Buddha going to help me? How is the Dharma going to help me? Why is the Buddha talking about suffering – the very thing we are trying to cover up. The first truth of suffering is that all component things are impermanent. Yet is so hard to accept this truth. Is eternal permanent happiness possible? How do we relate to our own experience wanting happiness, not wanting suffering?”

We are looking to solidify everything and make it permanent… our relationships with loved ones, our jobs, even our practice. Permanence and clinging seem to be synonymous. There is a line from Flight of the Garuda “If you don’t fixate on whatever arises how can there be an cause of going astray. Fixating on whatever arises in our thoughts or in our lives seems to be another way of trying to make things solid and permanent. How do we investigate impermanence as Rinpoche encouraged? For me that is as difficult as realizing emptiness. It is so hard to shake this belief in being real.

In What makes you not a Buddhist Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche offers a few clues, “At the very least, Buddha advised, we must try to keep the concept of impermanence in mind and not knowingly conceal it. By maintaining our awareness of assembled phenomena, we become aware of interdependence. Recognizing interdependence we recognize impermanence. And when we remember that things are impermanent, we are less likely to be enslaved by assumptions, or blind faith. Such awareness prevents us from getting caught up in all kinds of personal, political, and relationship dramas. We begin to know that things are not entirely under our control and never will be, so there is no expectation for things to go according to our hopes and fears. There is no one to blame when things go wrong because there are countless causes and conditions to blame. We can direct this awareness from the farthest regions of our imaginations to subatomic levels. Even atoms cannot be trusted.”

On Saturday night a number of students went with Rinpoche to San Francisco’s giant West Field mall. As a group we circumambulated this modern temple of materialism. It was like a dream and I thought back to years ago when I was circumambulating the Great Stupa in Bodh Gaya with Rinpoche and he told me to make impermanence my post meditation practice. At one point we found ourselves in the Sharper Image store playing with the plethora of high-tech pacifiers.  Life is such a dream. One day we are prostrating where the Buddha attained enlightenment and on another we are receiving teachings in a shopping mall.

I left Rinpoche and the group to return to where I was staying in Berkeley. Only a few blocks from where the well-off roam those glistening shops the homeless of San Francisco have staked out their cold corners of a harsher reality. This man had turned the world upside down to earn his spare change.

Homeless man, San Francisco

While I didn’t have much time to tour around San Francisco I did get the chance to visit City Lights books store and walk down through China town to the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Here’s a short slideshow of that excursion.

For those interested there is a new website for Karmapa’s European tour www.karmapa-in-europe.net

I received this email from Vivian Kurz on the tour of Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche.

Nepal: February and March
Feb 20 – 22                          Opening celebration in Kathmandu
Feb 23 – Mar 4                    Vajrasattva Drupchen
Mar 5 – 17                             Tsokchen Dupa Drupchen
Mar 23   - 26                        Tsechu Sacred Dances

Bhutan: May and June
May 1 – 10                          Nyakphur Drupchen at Satsam Chorten
May 11 – 13                        Main Celebration at Satsam Chorten
May 23 – Jun 02              Pema Tsenyi Drupchen at Sissinang Nunnery

Europe: July
July 13 – 14                         Dordogne, France
July 19 – 20                        Lerab Ling, France
July 23  - 24                       Nyima Dzong, France
July 27 – 28                        Lisbon, Portugal
July 31 – Aug 1                   Zagreb, Croatia

North America: August
Aug   5                                 New York City
Aug            6 – 8                  Vermont
Aug 13  - 15                        Phüntsok Chöling, Colorado
Aug 21 – 23                        Vancouver, Canada
Aug 27  - 29                       Mexico City, Mexico

Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia: October
Oct 10                                     Hong Kong
Oct 16 -17                               Taipei, Taiwan
Oct 23 – 24                             Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
Oct 27 – 28                             Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

India: November-December
Nov 26 – Dec 5              Rangjung Pema Nyingthik Drupchen at Shechen Monastery in Bodhgaya, India
Nov 26 – Dec 25            Consecration of the Eight Stupas for Peace at Lumbini, Kushinagar, Sravasti, Sarnath, Sankisa, Vaishali, Rajgir and Bodhgaya.
Dec 28 – 30                     Closing celebration in Bodhgaya.

and these links: For NYC, Vermont, and Colorado:

http://khyentsevisit2010.org/

For Canada:

http://www.dilgokhyentsevancouver.ca/

For Mexico:

http://www.shechen.org.mx

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Back in October I covered the Mind & Life Conference with His Holiness in Washington, DC. Adam Engle and the people of Mind and Life Institute pulled together an interesting group of educators, scientists and Buddhist teachers to discuss meeting the challenges of our educational system for the 21st Century. They included scientists like Richard Davidson, Buddhist teachers like His Holiness, Joan Halifax and Matthieu Ricard and writers like Daniel Goleman. You can see the whole line-up here. http://www.educatingworldcitizens.org/

My job was to capture interesting encounters from the social gatherings, VIP lunches and dinners to the actual panel discussions. While it was interesting eavesdropping on the conversations of so many brilliant minds, and having a few paparazzi moments with the likes of Richard Gere, Goldie Hawn and Gabriel Byrne, for a simple Buddhist the highlight of my time in Washington was being able to get close to His Holiness. After 37 years on the Buddhist path this was the first time I had ever come close to His Holiness and had a small personal encounter. Watching His Holiness over the course of several days and seeing how he moved with such humble confidence and treated everyone with the same warm open heart and attention, whether they were important or not, helped me realize one of the goals of the Buddhist path, this ineffable marriage of compassion and emptiness. OK, so he is the incarnation of Avalokitesvara, but hearing that and seeing that are two different things.

The other day a client asked me how it was to see His Holiness in Washington. I told her the story of my encounter at the end of the conference. I was asked by Diego Hangartner, the new directory of Programs and Research at Mind and Life to go on stage and photograph His Holiness’s exit as he offered katas to the staff and then take a group shot back stage before he left. I had rarely used a flash during the course of my coverage but I used it on this occasion. It went pretty well on stage considering how fast everything was moving. When I got back stage His Holiness was already arranged in a semi-circle with the group. I tried to take the shot but my flash wouldn’t fire. I then had to excuse myself to the next room to get a second flash while they all waited. Again the flash wouldn’t fire. I realized later that I must have drained the batteries while shooting on stage. Finally sweating and completely anxious in the presence of The Dalai Lama I got the shot.

Dalai Lama with Mind & Life participants

During this whole time I was acutely aware of my own self-consciousness and at the same time aware that His Holiness was also seeing my discomfort. I had a kata in my pocket that I wished to present to His Holiness and started to pull it out awkwardly with my cameras dangling and a reflector held between my legs. In a room that was now bustling with the activity of everyone saying their goodbyes, His Holiness noticed my small gesture across the room and starting making his way directly to me. Many people tried to intercept him to say farewell but he never fully stopped and came directly up to me taking the kata dangling awkwardly in my hand he placed it over me. He then put his arm around me and asked the videographer, who had my same camera, to take our picture. I’m still waiting for that picture – probably my own karma coming back to haunt me for all the times in my travels I failed to send someone a picture they had requested. Ah, Joey Cairo the Videographer just graciously sent me that photo – WOW I’m never in the picture.

His Holiness with James Gritz - photo by Joey Cairo

Mind & Life Slideshow – Images by James Gritz
For the conference I had borrowed a back up camera, the Canon 5D Mark II with HD video, from Canon Pro Services. Although my job was essentially to take stills, as they had hired a pro video crew for the actual event, I couldn’t resist playing with the video functions during the conference. I started out shooting in full HD 1920 x 1080 but found it was eating up all the space on my 8 Gig cards in no time so I switched it down to 640 x 480, thinking this would be good enough for youtube. I did record Matthieu Ricard’s interview with Spanish TV in full HD and will send out links to that later or add them back into this blog. Below is a sampling of the video footage I took during the actually panel discussions with His Holiness. It was edited by my friend and assistant at the event Amanda Lewis. Its a bit fuzzy compared to HD uploads I have made with the same camera (here’s a link to an HD short I made in NY at the Roebling Tea Room, a restaurant my son Daniel was working at if your interested in the what the camera is capable of producing hand held) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iup4951cZLU

Amanda Lewis also helped the video crew during His Holiness the 17th Karmapa’s 2008 U. S. tour. She is one of those dedicated Dharma volunteers now living a semi-monastic life in Ithaca, NY. Here’s what she had to say about the Conference.

It is incredibly exciting to witness the continued dialogue between expert meditators, scholars, and scientists, as they come together with a shared interest in finding practical ways to build a more compassionate society.

For me, one of the most poignant topics of discussion was the importance of creating classrooms that support a healthy family-like atmosphere, allowing for the natural development of a sense of deep care and affection between teachers and students. Within such an environment, it is instinctive to engage with others in a more concerned and responsible way.

The typical model of education clearly over-emphasizes the division of students through test scores, which engenders competition and challenges self-esteem.  This standard is in urgent need of a new approach–one that unites the motivation of intellectual precision with the recognition of our precious connection to one another as human beings.

-Amanda Lewis, videographer/editor

If you want to see a bit of Matthieu Ricards interview before I get around to uploading the HD in parts here’s a link to a low rez first edit I did for youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3PhWnl_QMI

If you are really interested in the full conference you can buy the professionally made video at Mind & Life website. http://www.educatingworldcitizens.org/

Or if you are only interested in His Holiness you could buy this picture from me and always have those eyes of compassion around.

H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama_8895

For the sake of SEO and good connections if anyone is interested in exchanging relevenant links please email mail at jamesgritz@earthlink.net

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