May 2020 last special Covid blog
Practicing together online, RAM meditation, surprise teaching of Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche from India, this confinement will have socialized communication by technology in our lineage, to our greatest satisfaction … And if, through our practices, might we finally communicate at a distance without technology?
Get out of confinement with the Buddhas who open the way to the light
Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche speaks to us from India (*)
Thursday, May 7th, Rinpoche addresses us. And even if the transmission is sometimes difficult to hear, we are there, glued to our screens from all time zones. While he is speaking to us, happy and warm little messages parade from all over the world: Europe with Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, France (including Alsace !). The Russian Federation is manifested from everywhere, even from Siberia, Buryatia. America too, and finally Asia with Nepal, India and Bhutan, and even Australia. This unexpected meeting with Rinpoche is a real pleasure, the current passes (the barking of the dogs too!); we are all reboosted. The intensity of the meeting, brings a shock to the heart, this is really what emerges from all our telephone conversations from the end of the session. What does Rinpoche tell us? He reminds us of the inevitability of interdependence and impermanence: “The source, the root, the origin of this pandemic which is shaking us all at the moment, is the law of causation … Understanding this law, understanding the interdependence helps us to find a better, healthier, more balanced lifestyle, with a healthier body and a happy mind… Although this pandemic is a misfortune, it also gives us the great opportunity to understand in depth how much we are all interconnected and interdependent. ” Rinpoche also recalls the importance of developing kindness and compassion in ourselves: “We cannot prevent impermanence from bringing change, while if we develop a sense of understanding of kindness and compassion, we can go with the flow “…” Nothing more than kindness and compassion can heal us. We need it, at home, in the community, in society. And we also all need to have it in ourselves, deep down. ” What about the meaning of life? : “Ultimately, I think this impermanence is a wonderful teaching because it is a teaching that cannot be avoided. We have no choice, not facing impermanence is impossible. So how do you make sense of life in this impermanence? Not out of anger, not out of frustration, not by being overly stressed, but by understanding loving kindness, benevolent kindness, and compassion. ”
(*) read all of Rinpoche’s teaching by clicking on the following link (3 pp): GJR-May-2020.doc
Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche’s teaching on YouTube (~ 1 hr) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ69_yQnSH8
RAM meditation special weekly meetings
Quickly set up after the start of confinement and guided by Geneviève, the meditation meetings of our lineage (Ripa Awerness Meditation) met with great success. They are followed by all countries, by Ripa students as well as by people from outside. And the echoes we hear from one another reflect well the atmosphere of these meetings: “it’s great to feel this very warm atmosphere” … “We are in a space where we feel so good” … “We truly feel how much we can confide in one another, that we can really naturally ask our questions without any reluctance ”…“ It’s as if we were together as a family, we feel really close to each other. ” There is a general feeling that the atmosphere is very cheerful, lively, while offering a commitment to a real work of in depth meditation with good concentration. And everyone confirms their happiness to find themselves, to take advantage of this confinement to maintain this need for contact and connection with one another.
In the Center: streaming, practice texts, gardening and maintenance
As you all know, the coronavirus crisis and the confinement it has imposed have been accompanied from the start by streaming practices that everyone can join in. We can therefore meet daily in the morning and in the evening, we can also practice together Sangye Menla – Medicine Buddha – every Saturday at 5 p.m. and Guru Rinpoche every Sunday at 5 p.m. The goal is first to practice together without any physical encounter between us, and to invite the possible arrival of our teachers on the spot. It is also about keeping alive the bond of the RIPA community between all those who wish it. The team of the Center is also considering the possibility of maintaining a regular practice by streaming the tsok days of Sangye Menla, Yeshe Tsogyal, Guru Rinpoche and Gesar of Ling. If this project comes to fruition, you will be informed when the time comes. Our permanent employees work in the garden, permaculture is being put in place seriously and a gardening weekend has recently been organized. They continue to keep the Center in very good condition: cleaning, protecting unoccupied beds against dust, and a thorough Spring cleaning and maintenance … Everything imaginable. When we are back, we will find a clean Center like a new penny. Very important, finally: the texts usually loaned during group practices have been sorted, reordered, improved … In all languages!
Your flowers from everywhere, and a surprise gift
The traditional exchange of lily of the valley flowers on May 1st, even if it dates back some time, has been the occasion for many exchanges of bouquets, here are some of them. And also these superb photos of our center in bloom, plus a surprise photo that arrives just from Malaga.
See you soon “at home.”