Buddha-Land is inthe Colestin Valley near the Oregon-California border. I hadn't beenout there for years, and forgot how brilliant the colors are...especially my favorite: red. We had called previously for permission tovisit, but a couple of nuns in bright robes wanted to run us off. Just in time a nice man who didn't wear robes, only jeans, a t-shirt andhis mala, showed up with a key to the temple and gave us a lovelytour. We discussed how the temple was built without permits in theseventies by a bunch of hippies with hammers (love it!), and how thebooks of mantras have phonetic English written alongside Tibetan, andinstead of recording them by hand they now photocopy. I especiallyloved the photos in frames at various places of the resident Lama andfounder, Gyatrul Rinpoche.
"Whenthe mind begins to become still, we then begin to truly see it. Whenyou first try to stabilize and pacify the mind, initially it willbecome very busy because it’s not accustomed to being still. In fact,it doesn’t even necessarily want to become still, but it is essentialto get a hold of the mind to recognize its nature. This practice isextremely important. ... Eventually you will find yourself in a statewhere your mind is clear and open all the time. It is just like whenthe clouds are removed from the sky and the sun can clearly be seen,shining all the time. This is coming close to the state of liberation,liberation from all traces of suffering. ... The truth of this practiceis universal. It isn’t necessary to call it a religion to practice it.Whether one is a Hindu or a Moslem or a Christian or a Buddhist simplydoesn’t matter. Anyone can practice this because this is the nature ofthe mind, the nature of everyone’s mind. If you can get a handle onyour mind, and pacify it in this way, you will definitely experiencethese results, and you will see them in your daily life situation.There is no need to put this into any kind of category, any kind of"ism."
~Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche
"Whenthe mind begins to become still, we then begin to truly see it. Whenyou first try to stabilize and pacify the mind, initially it willbecome very busy because it’s not accustomed to being still. In fact,it doesn’t even necessarily want to become still, but it is essentialto get a hold of the mind to recognize its nature. This practice isextremely important. ... Eventually you will find yourself in a statewhere your mind is clear and open all the time. It is just like whenthe clouds are removed from the sky and the sun can clearly be seen,shining all the time. This is coming close to the state of liberation,liberation from all traces of suffering. ... The truth of this practiceis universal. It isn’t necessary to call it a religion to practice it.Whether one is a Hindu or a Moslem or a Christian or a Buddhist simplydoesn’t matter. Anyone can practice this because this is the nature ofthe mind, the nature of everyone’s mind. If you can get a handle onyour mind, and pacify it in this way, you will definitely experiencethese results, and you will see them in your daily life situation.There is no need to put this into any kind of category, any kind of"ism."
~Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche
