(no subject)

[mamculuna]

A night in prison always makes me feel better. Tonight, a very lively argument/discussion on how to understand karma in the light of shunyata--and (from me) tales of Guatemala, where life is so much better and so much worse than theirs. And I smuggled in two scarves for the altar, which is getting quite colorful, mostly red and gold, but some various prayer flags, too. We talked about returning to the basics in meditation and then practiced a little longer than usual. Everyone seemed to feel good about it. I never cease to be amazed at how people can learn to admit the terrible things they have done, face life in prison with no chance of parole, and still stay alive and moving forward,

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

You are the most intriguing person on my list, I do believe.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

You're probably beginning to notice that retirement opens up your life!

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Well it will never be as open as yours! :^)

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear how the discussion on karma and shunyata (that's the concept of emptiness?) went. What interesting perspectives you must hear in your travels.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Well, the karma-shunyata question is whether there really is any kind of "soul" or something that goes from one incarnation to the next. In our particular brand of Buddhism (Tibetan Gelugpa), the idea is that there's a thing called "subtle consciousness" that does carry karmic imprints, but that those imprints are constantly changing and that even the subtle consciousness has no intrinsic, permanent existence--it's all empty (and talked about how "empty" is not the same as "does not exist"--always a hard thing to conceive of). We talked about the ways various religions see the soul and how the Buddhist concept is different. Wound up comparing it to machine language vs. something like LJ, if that makes any sense at all. Not sure what my teacher would say to that, either!

If my Spanish gets better, maybe I'll have even more interesting perspectives from the Maya view! Did get to visit a Maya ceremony and some prayer sites in Guatemala--I'll post on that, soon.

[ngakmafaery.livejournal.com]

...I think this sounds tremendously beneficial: I am glad you are able to do it, and that the people are happy to do it too...

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

It's good for all of us. Fortunately, most of them also have real teachers that they correspond with, so they're not so easily misled by my ignorance!

[anomster.livejournal.com]

That 1st sentence is just so unexpected, & then by the end it's all explained. I'm glad you're feeling better, & that you're doing some good stuff in the world.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I am--feeling better, at least.