Lookng At Letting Go - Caught On Video

Lookng At Letting Go - Caught On Video

Lookng At Letting Go - Caught On Video

Posted: 24 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST

Years ago somebody said, quoting Dogen, that Attachments and detachments flow together throughout ones entire life. Something like that anyway. What I derived from this kind friend and the quote was that as long as we are human we will get attached and we will invariably detach from what ever it was in a natural enough way since nothing stays the same anyway. I think the issue we all face is the clinging to what we have, what we know, what we love, what we want, what we don't want but have! In the end, given time, holding fast to is just too painful. And what we hold on to might not even be there any more too! Just a thought.

And now I can pass on this link to a video which just can't help but raise a smile. It could, at a stretch, be linked to the subject at hand. The koan arising naturally, clinging, letting go and craving. Enjoy, especially if you enjoy creatures doing charming things.

Happy Holidays readers. Thank you for the link to my friend in the Bay Area, SFO. And thank you to the unknown donor who send me a replacement mug! It is an EXACT MATCH. Well done and thank you.

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The Everest-Buddhism connection

Posted: 23 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST

In a new interview with Jeff Glor of CBS's Author Talk, Wade Davis discusses his new book, "Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest," which focuses on the attempts of British climbers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine to climb Mount Everest in the early 1920s.

As Davis tells Glor, his research for the book involved some exploration of Buddhism. Early British climbers of Mount Everest encountered Rongbuk Monastery in Dingri County, a place climbers must pass through to reach Everest's highest peak on the North Face.

Until now, researchers and Everest enthusiasts had only the accounts of encounters had there from a British perspective, with the exception of brief excerpts from the namthor (spiritual autobiography) of the monastery's late Abbot, Ngawang Tenzin Norbu (Dzatrul Rinpoche). Davis, with the help of an anthropologist friend, was able to secure a copy of this namthar and had it translated in full by the Tibetan Buddhist monk Lama Urgyen.

Davis also discusses the history of Rongbuk Monastery and how, in order to better understand what life may have been like at Rongbuk in 1924, he travelled to Solu Khumbu and Thubten Choling, home to some 800 Buddhist monks and nuns. Davis explains how "to be in the presence of Trulshig Rinpoche was from the Tibetan perspective to return spiritually to Rongbuk and the radiance of Dzatrul Rinpoche." In part of his Author Talk interview, the author explains:

"Thubten Choling opened my mind to the power and wonder of the Buddhist path, a new awareness that unfolded with even greater insight during the month I later spent walking close to Everest with Matthieu Ricard, renowned scholar and monk, as we studied the Buddhist science of the mind."

Read the entire CBS Author Talk interview with Wade Davis by clicking here. It includes more details on the research he conducted for the book.

Official Wade Davis website: wadedavis.org

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