TaraNet
January 19, 2009

Lama Tsultrim Allione Receives the Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award for 2009

Lama Tsultrim Allione has been selected by the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Committee’s panel of distinguished Buddhist scholars and practitioners as an Outstanding Woman in Buddhism 2009.  She will be honored at The Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards Ceremony held in honor of the United Nations’ International Women’s Day. The Ceremony will be held at the Association for the Promotion for the Status of Women in Don Muang, Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, March 6th, 2009.

The Ceremony and Award now enters its 8th year and has honored more than 100 Buddhist women masters to date for their contributions to society.  The history of the award includes two Buddhist nuns, Thai Bhikkhuni Rattanavali and American Bhikkhuni Dr. Lee, who wanted to develop an award in honor of Buddhist women’s accomplishments on the United Nations’ International Women’s Day.  The nuns noticed the positive influence on the role and status of women encouraged by The Outstanding Women’s Awards in Thailand and the recognition of the importance of women in Buddhism by the United Nations in 2001.  Thus they began to brainstorm and plant the seeds of development.  Through working with a variety of international Buddhist organizations, eventually a lotus blossomed.

The Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards Ceremony occurred in 2002 and 2003 at the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women in Don Muang, Thailand.  In 2004, the event subsequently occurred directly at the United Nations in Bangkok, and likewise in 2005, 2006 and 2007.   In 2008 the ceremony was held at the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women, and will be held there in 2009 and 2010 in order to promote the role of Buddhist women in social service.  The Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards are part of an international women’s movement calling for change and celebrating the acts of courage and determination by women in the history of Buddhism.

The First Practice in the Temple on Winter Solstice

In below zero temperatures and under the cover of darkness, we made our way to the Tara Temple on December 21st, Winter Solstice, for the first practice at the temple. Arriving, we were welcomed by a bonfire and a thick snow covering as we sat in front of the temple facing East. Last year at this time we sat in the same place, with the flat foundation of the temple under the snow. This year was a dramatic homage to manifestation with the nearly completed three dimensional colorful temple at our backs. As the sky lightened, the billowing fragrant juniper smoke rolled upward in the hazy dawn light. As we began the Riwo Sang Chöd offering, the sky turned fuchsia pink forming a magnificent fish scale pattern. This Sang is a beautiful practice in which the smoke from the sang offerings becomes an offering to all beings.

The Seven Branch Offering from the Sang:

To the primordial, unaltered nature of Rigpa, I pay homage!
The luminosity, transcending limits and dimensions, I offer!
In the expanse of the sameness of samsara and nirvana, I confess!
In the great exhaustion of all dharmas, beyond the ordinary mind, I rejoice!
Turn the wheel of the teachings of the spontaneously perfect Dzogpa Chenpo!
Stir the depths of samsara, I pray!
In the absolute state, free of subject, object or activity, I dedicate!

As the practice concluded, a rainbow sphere formed around the sun, the most auspicious symbol of Dzog Chen. From certain angles we saw the temple encircled by this rainbow tigle.

After the Sang, we gathered inside to warm up and prepare for the feast. We climbed up to the third floor, the only part of the temple which is finished, where a shrine had been created in the center of the octagonal room. Food and drink offerings surrounded this beautiful shrine. Many old friends joined us for the feast including people who have been with Tara Mandala from the beginning, fifteen years ago, as well as the children—now young adults—who have spent every summer at Tara Mandala and have grown up with the land as their refuge. Our beloved former directors Pieter and Charlotte came down with others from Boulder and many came from Durango and further west. About seventy of us sat together in the Dharmakaya to practice the Green Tara Feast Offering as a sangha.

The walls are a beautiful sky blue representing the Dharmakaya ornamented with the Tigle Gyachan mandala.

During the Tara feast, song, poetry, and other spontaneous outpourings were offered including dances by the Bhutanese carvers, bringing us all great joy. At the end Lama Tsultrim spoke about the dream of the temple she had on June 5, 2001, in which the design was given to her by Vimalamitra. In this dream, the blue of the Dharmakaya was the first thing she saw, so it is appropriate this is the first part of the temple to be finished.

In the afternoon, during the Prajña Paramita teachings, light poured into the temple as Lama Tsultrim transmitted the practice. This remarkable space for teachings is surrounded on all sides by windows with vast views of the mountains and hills. Lama Tsultrim talked about how wonderful it was to teach and practice in this space that emerged in that dream seven years ago.

We are all grateful for how far we have come in this process, thanks to all our generous donors! However, we aren't finished yet, so please continue your support and we will have a most incredible temple that will benefit many generations to come. The consecration of the temple is still some time away, as the statues need to arrive from Nepal and be filled with mantras; this is another layer of the process that we will begin soon. Please consider volunteering at Tara Mandala to roll the mantras that will fill these beautiful statues.

By this summer the temple will be usable and over the next few years the rest of the statues will arrive to encircle the perifery of the temple. We look forward to this gathering of sangha to practice and celebrate in the full manifestation of the Temple. We hope you will join us this summer.

Lama Tsultrim becomes a Grandmother: Welcome to Luna Violet Sands!

Lama Tsultrim and David Petit welcome their first grandchild, Luna Violet Sands, Aloka and Trevor's daughter. She was born on New Year's Day, January 1st, 2009 in the morning after an all night labor in which Aloka practiced hypno-birthing and managed a completely natural birth. Aloka and her husband Trevor Sands live in Los Angeles (he's a screenwriter/director and she works at Disney Films as a manager in the Organizational Development Department) where the baby was born at UCLA hospital. She did much of the labor at home and in the hospital she was assisted by a great team of midwives. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz. and measured twenty-one inches. Lama Tsultrim attended the birth with her other daughter Sherab and Trevor. About the birth Lama Tsultrim said:

"It was an awesome thing to go through this together as a family, the web of life is woven in these transitional moments and I was so happy to be there to welcome Luna Violet. The first thing I did was sing her the Tara mantra and now it calms her down  when she hears it. We had already prepared to celebrate New Year's eve with Champagne and a Panetone cake, so Dave joined us in the birth room and these turned into birthday party materials instead. On Monday  my beloved ninety-three year old mother will fly out from New Hampshire with my son Osel Dorje (Costanzo)  and so there will be four generations in the same room. After my mother comes I'll go back to Tara Mandala. I think. So far I've had a hard time leaving! Luna Violet is doing well nursing blissfully and gaining weight well. What a new year's present!"

Gate Combination Change

In case any of you are coming to the land this winter the gate combination is 1008. During the Spring, Summer and Fall the gate is open.

Winter Teaching Tour

Evening Talk and Booksigning: February 10th, 6:30 pm
Maria's Bookshop, Durango, CO: 960 Main Ave.

Sacred Circles Conference: February 13th - 14th
Washington D.C.
Begun in 1996 at Washington National Cathedral, Sacred Circles is the largest interfaith women’s spirituality gathering in the U.S. and perhaps the world.  The 2009 theme is putting love’s transforming power into action.  This Valentine’s Day come honor the potent energy of love, and activate love in your inner life and your life in community.

Lama Tsultrim will present twice at the gathering:
Friday, February 13 Daylong Intensive
10 am to 4 pm

Saturday, February 14 Morning Workshop
10 am to 11:30 am

Do you struggle with difficult emotions, illness, or turbulent relationships? Tibetan Buddhism teaches a method for facing and dissolving fears, illnesses, and emotional stumbling blocks—our “demons.”  Come learn this approach, first developed by a 12th century Tibetan yogini, that can help us meet and release ‘demons’ we battle every day. To transform inner and outer difficulties into allies is to practice compassion and love instead of fear and animosity.  Co-sponsored by Insight Meditation Community of Washington.

For More Information: www.nationalcathedral.org/learn/sacredCircles.shtml or sacredcircles@cathedral.org

Chöd Retreat: February 18th - 22nd
Key West, FL
Chöd is a wonderful practice for these times. It helps us to understand the root of our pain and gives us a way to resolve our deepest shadows and hardest addictions. Chöd reflects a unique blend of the Tibetan Shamanic traditions and the Buddhist understanding of compassion and emptiness. Chöd is a method using a drum and bell which has been practiced for centuries both for healing and to cut through fear, fixation, and self-clinging. In this practice the self-clinging obstacle makers are called forth and fed to complete satisfaction. The practice thereby awakens one’s awareness of the pure nature of emotions and the emptiness of mental obscurations. Participants will learn the Chöd practice that was popularized by the 11th century yogini Machig Labdrön.

Detailed information and registration