#19 Maine!

 Jeanne and I both tuned it to the Sunday teaching at the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Falmouth, Maine.    They are an offshoot of the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.  They are also a sister site of Samtenling Nunnery in India.   

Our teacher was Vajra Dakini's abbess, Khenmo Konchog Nyima Drolma.  Her story is that of a breast cancer survivor, sculptor, and hospice worker, who became more and more immersed in her study of Buddhism after a pilgrimage to India.   She spent time at Gampo Abbey with Pema Chodron as well. Now she does a lot of work supporting the way-too-small worldwide contingent of recognized female ordained. 

After the usual prayers for the benefit of all beings, and the positivity of our own practice, Khenmo discussed Shantideva's Six Perfections, in particular, generosity. 

We loved her explanation of how to refine our generosity using the example of a cabbage.  Let's say I give a cabbage to someone expecting a big reward.  Not so good.  But if I give that cabbage to someone in great need, without expecting a reward, then that is very good.  Even better, how can I understand emptiness, when I do it;  the concept that we are not really separate or permanent in this life?

Khenmo told us the story of a blind nun she met in Dharamsala, India.  Every day, the nun would fill her prayer bowls with water, and make tsampa (wheat) pills as divine offerings to others.  Can we do the same when we fill our cat's water dish?   We broke into groups and came up with some of our own offerings of touch, attention, and care for others.  

If transcendent giving is

To dissipate the poverty of beings, 

In what way, sine the poor are always with us, 

Have former buddhas practiced generosity?

The true intention to bestow on every being

All possessions - and the fruits of such a gift: 

By such, the teachings say, is generosity perfected. 

And this, as we may see, is but the mind itself. 

- Shantideva