When I love my temple....

Walked into the Mani Jewel (the temple gift shop) to find the three managers, Chris, John, and Atira, all sitting on the carpet, calmly writing on small cards.

"Oh. Looks like I've walked in on a meeting," I said.

No, no, Chris explained, they were just fixing their business cards.

Somehow the hours of the gift store were wrong on their business cards (they changed? a mistake? I didn't ask). Since the temple can't afford to reprint three $9.95 boxes of business cards, they were fixing them by hand. One card at a time.

LOL!

I watched for a long moment. "Much as I'm entertained by this -- and believe it or not I really am--" They laughed. "--I gotta run."

I think it was their air of oh-man-here-we-go-again tired acceptance. And the fact they had five hundred cards each.

Repairing Jetsunma's long life stupa.

This is actually quite cool.

Nectar is pouring out of Jetsunma's Long Life Stupa.

By rights, any stuff coming out of a stupa should smell terrible. It should come from air getting the offerings (rice and whatnot) inside the stupa.

For approximately the last 5 years, a precious substance has been “leaking” from the face of the throne portion or section of Jetsunma’s long life stupa in the KPC stupa park located in Poolesville, MD. As mentioned in previous blog posts, many Buddhist Teachers and Lamas, including His Holiness Penor Rinpoche commented on this miraculous event, indicating that the liquid emanating is nectar, and is an auspicious sign. His instructions at that time were to not be concerned with repairing the stupa. Since his passing in 2009, the cracks forming on the throne section of the stupa have increased, and elongated, causing concern regarding the ordinary structure of the stupa.

Virtue creates a sweet scent. ( No, really. I've encountered this. )

Perhaps then I shouldn't be surprised that what should be putrid pours out as a golden colored sweet nectar. And smells like cookies fresh from the oven, or berry pie.

But we've had to finally do some repairs.

And I thought I'd finished this practice....

Well, drat.

Back in 1986, the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche gave instructions on how to do the mandala practice. The thing is, my boyfriend at the time and I were late getting back from lunch. We missed the beginning part of the instruction. Not the part about the meaning of the practice. But we slunk in as the mandala offering was being demonstrated by Sangye Khandro, the translator. Whoops.

Reading books about mandala, they focused on the meaning of the practice and not the practical how to do it. But a friend gave me a diagram and I thought I had it right.

Erm. Not entirely?

This doesn't mean I need to start over, does it? I mean, the meaning's the important part, right?

Anyway, much appreciate Tsem Tulku's concise, practical and rather tongue-in-cheek explanation. "If you don't have time and you're lazy, do the long version. If you're busy and not lazy, do the short version. If you have time and you're lazy, do the long version."