Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Dalai Lama teaching compassion in Atlanta this week

This coming week is a special one – the Dalai Lama will be in Atlanta at Emory for a few days, and many monks, lamas, and other Buddhist scholars will be here for a conference. I am looking forward to participating and volunteering with Drepung Loseling Monastery, Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies, Practice and Culture, where I study Buddhism.

On Sunday, the Dalai Lama will lead “Teaching to the Buddhist Community: The Nature and Practice of Compassion.” His Holiness will explain the nature of compassion and the practices for cultivating it as understood in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition—something to which His Holiness has dedicated his entire life.

The conference descriptions says: Having established itself and laid down roots outside of traditionally Tibetan Buddhist areas through the efforts of many teachers, and particularly His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the time has come for teachers and students of Tibetan Buddhism to consider its future direction, with an eye to ensuring that the tradition continues to grow as a beneficial force for the peace, well-being and happiness of humanity.

Coinciding with the three-day visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Emory University, this conference will bring together the preeminent leaders, teachers, scholars, translators, supporters, and students of Tibetan Buddhism from both traditionally Tibetan Buddhist areas and western countries to engage in substantive discussion about the current state of Tibetan Buddhism in the modern world and how best to move forward collectively

Friday, October 01, 2010

Collecting poetry into one place

Now the Sky Badge Project, a blog of ideas and art and poetry, will collect the writing from many years of a free spirit in celebration of fine moments of simple observations. The art recorded here is in writing form, for now.

Here is a sample from early days - why an artist cannot always conform:

Dancing Words

Writing miles
into years
blue notes
into songs
murmurous memories
into obscurity
passions
into purities
flutters
into fantasies
dreaming unrealities
into visions
mediocrity
into intrigue
spilling sanity
into intoxication
stars
into mirrors
tranquility
into thunderstorms
chaos
into solitude
transforming revolution
into lifetime anarchy
harmony
into questions
riddles
into puzzles
resigning the heart
into meloncholia
unrestrained anger
into power
conformity
into lawlessness
compliance
into dissent
mingling momentos
into melodies
mellowing morning
into lunacy
well-being
into the perverse
observing perpendicular
into distortion
omens
into oysters
rehersals into self-restraint
clarity
into the unknown
tranparency
into a lusterless blur
writing a metamorphosis
into shifting days
tempering perceptions
into refinement.