On July 25th at 10:00 in the morning, an auspicious day and time chosen by Rinpoche, a small group gathered at the top of the retreat center land to bless the soon-to-be start of construction for the four new buildings of the Milarepa Center. Two stones—one marked 2014 for the Gregorian year, one marked 2557 for the Buddha era—were propped before an altar. These were the cornerstones of the new building, which the members of Dharmakaya and Cragsmoor neighbors had come to participate in blessing. John Henderson, Vice President of Dharmakaya, made a few opening remarks. Then Khenchen Rinpoche recited prayers in Tibetan, blessing the stones, the site, the project.
After the ceremony, the group looked at construction progress on the roads leading up to the Milarepa Center, and then adjourned to a nearby neighbor’s house for fellowship and refreshment, celebrating another milestone as the Center moves towards completion.
My first exposure to the Dharma in this life, was when I moved to Boulder. I ralley did not make any efforts to seek out the Buddhadharma at that time. I was young and full of parties. However, when I was living at my boyfriends house, his best friend was very connected to the Chogyam Trungpa people. His parents were Chogyam Rinpoche’s gardner. He had many books in the apartment on Dharma. I was having difficulties finding a job and just hanging about waiting for phone calls. So I began looking at the Dharma books and I came across Crazy Wisdom, which I did not read at the time, I was drawn to the line drawings, particularly of Guru Rinpoche and I began to color him in. It took me another 8-10 years for that action to ripen. When I moved up to Spokane, Washington, I was living on some property that was near a stupa up there. I was practicing Native American style practices but I was very drawn to the stupa and it had a sign on it that gave the address to the Dharma center in the city of Spokane. So when I moved down to the city, I looked them up. I knew I needed something to help me overcome my anger issues, and as lovely as the Native American path is, I could not find anything that directly dealt with transformation of afflictive emotions. I needed something more methodical and I found Padma Ling, a Chagdud Gonpa in the middle of little ole’ Spokane. Needless to say, there were Guru Rinpoche’s all over the place. Ah, home at last. Has my anger been decreased any? Somewhat. If and when I do something out of anger, I cannot justify it like I use to do and try to pull the wool over my own eyes, I know when I’ve defiled my mind alot more acutely these days and I am quick to employ the 4 remedial qualities a whole heck of alot sooner. Got a long ways to go but one day, by-gum, by-golly, I will be a Buddha of Mirror Like Wisdom.