This article was submitted by Russell Rodgers, director of this summer’s Kootenay Public Weekthün 2009: Touching the Earth program, in response to a request for more information about the program’s theme.

Russell Rodgers writes:

One of the key commitments in vajrayana Buddhism is to experience the world as sacred. Sacred in this context doesn’t mean that some deity proclaimed it so; it just is, primordially, in the present moment of fresh pristine awareness. In our busy existence, however, we tend to see our thoughts and concepts about the world rather than the world itself. Therefore we lose touch with its sacredness and basic goodness. Our concepts can be so subtle and pervasive that we don’t even realize that they are there. We just feel deadened and disconnected from the magical, living quality in our surroundings. As a corrective, and because we have buddha nature wakefulness buried somewhere within us, we feel haunted by the feeling that something is missing.

This summer I thought we could dig deeper into our connections during our summer retreat. We’ll use meditation and contemplation to dissolve barriers to direct, non-conceptual experience. We’ll do a lot of awakened heart practice to connect to our fellow sentient beings on the retreat land and in the world at large. We’ll use the Mahayana teachings on empty/fullness to explore our perceptions and establish an authentic relationship to our surroundings. Based on our meditation practice, we’ll look into drala, the naturally existing power of places that wakes us up into sacredness.

At this time in our history, we humans have extraordinary power over nature, and at the same time, we seem to have become more disconnected from it. Over the past many years of doing outdoor meditation retreats at Senge Ling, I have been impressed with the power of meditation to restore my connections. The meditation pavilion, screened but open on all sides to the forest, enhances this. This summer, I think the time is ripe to use the wisdom of our tradition to explore our relationship with the world more fully. Based on this, we will be in a better position to offer perspective and insight to others.

Here is a message from Gesar to his subjects in the land of Ling many centuries ago in Tibet. I think it applies today:

The world is healed or harmed each instant
In the stillness of our hearts.
Whether we struggle or rejoice, this is so.
People of Ling, this is our power and the power of all.
We must open the true kingdom in our hearts.

For a full program description go to our Kootenay Public Weekthün 2009: Touching the Earth page.

Tags: drala, Gesar, protecting the earth, Public Weekthün, Russell Rodgers, sacred world, Senge Ling, Touching the Earth

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