#36 OKLAHOMA!

 ALL THE SAND GOES UP YOUR NOSE

Yes, Pema Chodron was talking with Chogyam Trungpa about her having hit 'rock bottom' in her practice, and Trungpa said, “So the waves keep coming,” he said. “And you keep cultivating your courage and bravery and sense of humor to relate to this situation of the waves, and you keep getting up and going forward.”  I enjoyed the story and discussion at Oklahoma City's Rissho Kosei-Kai center.  Although the story is from the Tibetan tradition, and Rissho is Japanese in origin, it goes to show the ecumenical nature of the center I visited for their Saturday morning practice.   

Rissho Kosei Kai is a world-wide organization which is a Lotus Sutra -centered "Ekayana" sect of Buddhism from Japan. RKK is obviously Nichiren influenced but does not consider itself to be a Nichiren school.   The main practice for Saturday was about 40 minutes of chanting portions of the Lotus Sutra (100CE, mythological encounters with the Buddha and Bodhisattvas) which reminded me of the Heart Sutra, full of both superlatives and actual practice methods.   I loved the phrase 'desires roam about the body of the Tathagata like dust.'

Following chanting was 'Hoza', which RKK describes as a form of group counselling which uses the foundational teachings of Buddhism (the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path but also the Six Paramitas) as a framework to examine our everyday life problems and issues through the lens of Buddhadharma.  It was a group discussion on the Pema Chodron reading. 

I was moved by the group members' welcome of me and by their relating the topic to daily life.   Broken marriages, illness, and vocational stress all came up.  It occurred to me that drowning in the waves was so internal, so much my own, full of the sand I have been made of and have made myself of, and not just an external issue.  Our spiritual community has great power, because together, we gently touch our own pain without holding on as tightly.  

If you drift upon the great ocean and meet danger

From dragons, fish, and demons,

If you contemplate the power of Avalokiteśvara,

You will not be swallowed by the waves.