Welcome to the Drong Ngur Jangchubling Summer 2021 Newsletter!
Twice a year Drong Ngur Jangchubling will release a newsletter with information about our center, activities, and community members. Additionally, each newsletter will include a teaching by Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche. Enjoy!
Grand Reopening July 18th, 2021!
Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art
Drong Ngur Jangchubling is thrilled to announce that our center in Wesley Chapel, Florida will reopen to the public beginning on July 18th! It has been nearly 15 months since Drong Ngur suspended public events due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we are excited to return to normal activities. We will commemorate this occasion with a special Amitabha Empowerment and Phowa Teachings at our center in Wesley Chapel, Florida on July 18th from 10 am - 5 pm. In the morning, Drupon Rinpoche will give an Amitabha Empowerment, and during the afternoon, Drupon Rinpoche will lead the sangha through Phowa teachings and practice. The afternoon session will be simultaneously live-streamed through Zoom and Facebook Live. The event is also a celebration of HH Dalai Lama's 84th Birthday, HH Chetsang Rinpoche's 76th Birthday, and the auspicious day of Chokhor Duchen, the first turning of the Dharma wheel.
Following this special event, Drong Ngur will resume a regular practice schedule in-person at the center and also continue to live stream on Facebook and Zoom.
The practice schedule is:
Monday 7pm - 8pm: Shamatha Practice, with Virginia Blum and Konchok Ngedon, beginning August
Tuesday 7pm-8pm: Introduction to Buddhism and Parnashavari Sadhana Practice
Thursday 7pm-8pm: Achi Chokyi Drolma Dharma Protector Practice
Sunday 11am-1pm: Sunday Teaching Series on The Dhammapada
Every evening 830pm-9pm: Recitation of The King of Aspiration Prayers
Drong Ngur Jangchubling Sustainability Project
The beauty, diversity, and necessity of local and global ecosystems are a treasure. This is why a central goal of Drong Ngur Jangchubling’s planning and development is to incorporate sustainable practices related to cultivating healthy land, soil, and ecosystems. To care for the earth is an essential Dharma practice because to protect the fragile ecosystems of our planet is also to preserve and protect life. Since 2018, Drong Ngur has reformed center land with landscaping projects, which include planting 20 large trees and dozens of smaller trees, 200 shrubs, pollinator plants, and a vegetable garden. Additionally, sangha members in adjacent properties have been committed to revitalizing the land through extensive mulching, in-ground composting, and permaculture projects.
Drong Ngur’s sustainability efforts are inspired by His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche, who has encouraged Dharma centers all over North America to participate in ecological practices. His Holiness is devoted to ecological sustainability and emphasizes the importance of environmental awareness and action. In 2013, His Holiness founded the ecological sustainability project, Go Green, Go Organic, whose mission is to preserve Himalayan ecosystems and traditional peoples’ cultures and livelihoods (https://www.gogreengoorganic.net/index.html).
Here at Drong Ngur, one example of our efforts in sustainability includes a 1.7-acre property being transformed into “a food forest” through permaculture practices. This property has seen the planting of edible trees, bushes, and plants, totaling over 300, including mango, avocado, pigeon peas, moringa, papaya, fig, peach, guava, cherry, mulberry trees, and many other varieties. Sangha members have also been tending various pollinator plants, bushes, and trees, such as citrus trees, fire bushes, milkweed, and bottle brushes, to attract honey bees and monarch butterflies, creating a sanctuary for these threatened species and other local wildlife, such as Alice the deer who is a regular visitor of center properties!
The Wisdom Corner
The Present Moment is Always Profound From Drong Ngur Jangchubling's Calling the Guru From Afar Teaching Series, with Commentary by Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche and translated by Virginia Blum, December 27th, 2020
In general, as we engage in the practice of sublime dharma, the first step is to listen to or hear the dharma. All the sublime dharma practices are subsumed within the three categories of hearing. So first, it’s really important that we listen to the dharma teachings, we hear the dharma. But then if we leave it only at hearing, that also isn’t of tremendous benefit. Then we have to turn what we have learned over in our mind; we have to inwardly think about and contemplate the meaning until a sense of real certainty arises. It isn’t of much benefit merely to hear the dharma, but we have to get to a point where we deeply know the truth of the dharma. We think, “It really truly is like that.” That kind of certainty arises through the process of contemplation.
When engaging in the three levels of practice, whether hearing, contemplation, or meditation, then we need to stay focused on the present experience of whatever that is. For instance, when we’re hearing or practicing, then we’re practicing what we’re practicing and the same with hearing. Whatever it is that we’re hearing, we carefully listen and we carefully take that in without jumping ahead and thinking, “Oh, there must be something else. There’s something more or something better than this that isn’t being explained.” In the case of practice, sometimes in practicing one may think, “Oh, there’s something beyond this, there’s something better than this.” There’s an expectation that this isn’t the real deal, that there’s something else. Same with receiving teachings. It’s really important that one doesn’t fall into that trap. Whatever one is practicing, whatever it is that one is hearing, then fully absorb precisely in that without having some concept about something bigger and better other than exactly what one is doing or receiving.
What is really the profound or most important or highest teaching is whatever it is that one is fully focused on or fully absorbed in in the moment. For example, if one is practicing or contemplating the four thoughts that turn the mind, at that moment, that is the highest, the most profound practice there is. If we are contemplating or practicing the four thoughts that turn the mind and there’s some sort of distance that we’ve put between ourselves and the practice because we’re thinking, “Oh, the real practice or that which is really profound is Dzogchen or Mahamudra,” then we aren’t getting all we can from the experience of the present moment or the practice of the present moment.
So really, the highest teaching is whatever it is that is there in the present moment. There is nothing higher than that. But if there is some expectation for something greater or better, then we’re really losing the opportunity to connect with the highest teaching because we’re not fully embracing what is given to us in the present and we’re expecting to get something better or something more. Because what is really the highest dharma practice is what occurs when we’re able to be single-pointed, to engage with single-pointed awareness, single-pointed concentration and if there’s the expectation for something better or something different or something more, then the mind can’t abide with single-pointed focus. Mind is not able to have concentration and awareness if there is distraction and that’s essentially what that is, distraction. And then no experience actually arises.
It is said by resting in meditative equipoise all the enlightened qualities arise.[1] That means that whatever the object of the practice if we can really abide in meditative equipoise with single-pointed awareness, all of the extraordinary qualities can arise.
For example, when the Lama teaches Dzogchen or Mahamudra or points out the true nature of mind, there’s no transference of some solid thing, and he’s not giving some material thing or entity to the student. There’s nothing there for the student to grab onto as a solid thing. But through meditation, then the student comes to realize the true meaning through that single-pointed awareness. Therefore, whatever it is should become the object of our single-pointed awareness, whether it’s the contemplation on the four thoughts that turn the mind, whatever the topic or the object of the practice is, as long as we can fully embrace and be fully accepting of that alone, then all of the qualities can arise from that. All of the extraordinary qualities can arise from meditating on the four thoughts that turn the mind alone. There is nothing more important than whatever the topic or the object of our practice is in that moment.
Another example is when we recite the opening prayers. We have recited all of those opening prayers so many times that in some ways it just becomes something very regular to us. We may not even really pay attention very much to what we’re doing, but if we become complacent when reciting the opening prayers and aren’t really making that the object of our practice in the moment, then that isn’t really okay and we won’t be able to experience the profundity that is there in the act of reciting those profound prayers in the moment. All of these prayers are so precious and so endowed with really extraordinary meaning.
When we practice, if we’re expecting something, if we’re not really merging with what is our present experience, the present object of practice, and we’re expecting something else, expecting something far away, or somehow not fully satisfied with what we are presented in the present moment, then we are losing a real opportunity. Whatever we’re doing, reciting the opening prayers, reciting the dedication prayers, by recognizing how profound and special they really are, then each time we do so with single-pointed awareness, we’re creating a very strong positive karmic imprint in the mind for dharma.
In any case, for all of us, when we are engaging in any type of dharma practice, even things that have become very routine, such as reciting opening prayers, dedication, it’s important not to become complacent or disregard these things as unimportant. If we are able to unite our mind with the object or practice at hand, then it becomes a source for causing the qualities to continually increase. Every time we recite the prayers or practice, the qualities are growing, we’re accumulating virtue. Likewise, the more we accumulate virtue, the more our obscurations diminish and the more we give rise to experience and realization.
As much dharma as we accumulate or practice, all of that is so precious and profound, it all becomes the antidote to the afflictive emotions and negative imprints in the mindstream. The more dharma we engage in, the more the negative qualities and kleshas diminish. We can’t expect that by just meditating once or making an offering once that our afflictions will be pacified. But every time that we meditate, every time we make offerings, recite, etc., we’re chipping away at the obscurations, we are purifying the obscurations little by little and gathering the accumulations. Every time we give rise to a mind of faith and so forth. When these practices are sustained over a long period of time, this is precisely how experience arises in the mindstream. This is exactly the means through which realization is born, little by little. We find that afflictions become less and less, they diminish, we have less desire, anger, hatred, jealousy, etc. If we continuously engage and we recognize the importance of each and every virtuous action, fully engaging and giving our full attention to that virtuous practice in the moment, this is really how the qualities of dharma grow and how the non-virtuous qualities diminish little by little.
[1] Jigten Sumgon’s Gonchig Vajra statement 6.15: People claim that the qualities do not arise during meditative equipoise (samāhita) but afterward. All qualities arise from meditative equipoise.
Who's Who in Drong Ngur
Drong Ngur Jangchubling is composed of committed sangha members who help Drupon Rinpoche manifest his vision of creating a thriving Tibetan Buddhist Center in central Florida.
Each edition of the newsletter will introduce a member of our community. Today meet John Blum!
John Blum is a long-time Buddhist practitioner and a student of Garchen Rinpoche. He is an adjunct professor of science (physics?) at Pasco Hernando State College and a devoted practitioner of permaculture. John is an active part of the sustainability effort at Drong Ngur Jangchubling and has been responsible for initiating the center's food forest and permaculture projects.
How did you come to the Dharma??
Early on in high school, I was introduced to Zen Buddhism and really enjoyed the poetry. I liked poets like Dogen, and some of the early Zen Chan masters. As my daughter Virginia was growing up, I shared a lot of spiritual songs and writings with her. This also included the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and various Hindu scriptures as well. We then developed this neat exchange, a sharing of instructional writing, spiritual experience, and meditation practice. As a young adult, Virginia traveled to Peru. When she returned after two years in Peru, she said, “Dad. Let’s go to the Garchen Institute to attend the summer teachings. It would be a great way for us to connect.”
So, we went to GBI and we were both really blown away by Garchen Rinpoche. We ended up taking refuge. I had some good experiences at the Institute while I was there. I began reading a lot, mostly Mahamudra, Tilopa’s song to Naropa, and some Dzogchen scriptures, like the Three Statements of Garab Dorje. These scriptures resonated with the earlier readings, and what little I had experienced and practiced so far. Of course, the strong emphasis in Mahayana Buddhism on bodhicitta, kindness, compassion, and relinquishing self-cherishing seemed so essential—truthful. All these things made a lot of sense to me as a late-blooming adult in my mid-forties. I was intrigued with the idea of becoming free from the habitual stuff that bogs us down, like career concerns, relationship dramas, and a wealth of various mental fixations. Buddhism was the right thing to practice. I found Buddhism very helpful and Garchen Rinpoche extraordinarily inspiring. I tried to read everything I could about it.
Was this when you began to practice more wholeheartedly?
Yes, this is when I began to practice more seriously. It is one thing to read dharma, identify with the philosophical concepts, and aspire to it mentally. But it is another thing altogether to hit the cushion, to sit and practice regularly, including some of the things referred to as preliminaries, like the 4 thoughts that turn the mind, taking refuge, Vajrasattva, deity yoga, and guru yoga practice.
All along, my genuine intrigue was in the less elaborate practices of attending intrinsic awareness, being mindful, and staying with some semblance of self-liberation in daily practice. In other words, in daily life you have stuff to do – that’s just part of life. But in the midst of this, can you still maintain some dharma practice? Even if it is only to recognize that “Oh, I am straying into obsession or I am straying into negative thinking.” And then, not so much applying an antidote, but settling into the ease of your root awareness that’s ever-present and primordially pure and just letting that be the strong background hum of your being as much as possible. Ridiculously simple, yet apparently not so easy.
Would you mind discussing your thoughts on the relationship between Dharma practice and environmental sustainability?
First, what are we trying to sustain? The environment we say. Well, it took some time to generate the environment (six hundred million years). The environment is a state of inconceivable complexity. Science is still just beginning to map it.
The living world is rooted in this complexity—the checks and balances inherent in biological diversity. This vast interdependent complexity gives the living skin of this planet some semblance of stability, though as we know it is impermanent. Environmental sustainability aspires to honor and maintain diversity—the tightly woven tapestry of life. The assumption here is that our three-pound monkey brain (impressive as it is) cannot micromanage what E.O. Wilson calls a prosthetic world that is beneficial only to some tiny subset of life (us). Such an agenda will quickly fail.
Our best hope for the continuity of humanity is to reconnect as much as possible with the biological world and to honor its ways as best as we can in deep humility. A humility that recognizes the depth of our current ignorance.
To honor the living, we need dharma practice—mindfulness training. We need to tame the ego-mind and commit to learning right action, which includes skillfully encouraging regeneration, as well as leaving areas that are well-enough alone. We need to attend, to pay attention.
A real dialogue with nature happens when you are an observer, as much as, when you’re trying to apply some order or purpose to your garden. Gardening is very much a dharmic activity because you must roll with Nature. The garden has a life of its own and will assert and teach you about how a thing grows, the timing of plants, what plants go together well, and the different microenvironments where specific plants thrive.
For example, my lovely partner, Johanna (a real gardener and healer), had a little banana pup. The pup had only three leaves on it. She had that pup for 7 years. It was moved to a couple of areas of the yard and stayed the same, never growing past three feet. Finally, she placed it in a banana circle, with compost in the center, and with other banana trees. The thing spontaneously took off and became this flourishing giant in her backyard. Maybe, it was a little extra morning Sun. Maybe it was the competition or cooperation among the sibling trees. The dharma lesson here perhaps is pliancy, or the ability to adapt to new information and to relinquish ambition. You think, “I want that tree here!” But then you let go of that. Another example is when Johanna got this Papaya tree that appeared out of nowhere and rather than transplanting it into a papaya circle, she left it there where it was growing. “Oh, it is in the middle of a path? But transplanting a papaya tree always shocks it.” Now, that tree is doing so well just by letting nature do its thing and letting it be.
Another notion: what we call “weeds” are often beneficial plants for the pollinators and the soils. There is a revelation in relinquishing a negative bias towards weeds. Let some of them grow, particularly the nitrogen fixers. Crop them when they are large for green mulch. The roots will die back giving carbon, nutrients, and microbes to the deep soil.
Useful wild plants abound.
How would you describe the essential lesson between ecological balance and the practice of Dharma?
It is wonderful that HH Dalai Lama, HH Chetsang Rinpoche, and the 17th Karmapa have all come forward with a strong emphasis regarding the relationship between the dharma and stewardship of the natural world. The future of the dharma relies on it, because without stewardship, we may not have any future.
At this point in history, people are so divorced from the workings of the natural world. What is essential is for people to thrive symbiotically with the rest of life, to foster great natural abundance and biological wealth. People are so removed from that. We are deep within a sixth mass extinction, mostly because humans have become so removed from core principles that sustain the collective well-being of all life.
Everything is so much healthier when we honor the coordination of biology. It requires quieting the mind. We have a very aggressive and myopic mindset towards the natural world. I believe we need to ease this grip of mind. We can become good listeners and observers, thus regaining some of the ancient wisdom that was lost in the elimination of indigenous cultures.
Connecting stewardship with dharma gives answer to the question: How does one live a meaningful life now, at this overwhelming critical time? Well, you can study the spiritual essence, the dharma. You can develop compassion and wisdom. And in addition, you do something that aligns with right livelihood, like establishing a healthy thriving community that is self-reliant. You can embrace the living. You can grow healthy organic foods that benefit sentient beings, that extend their lives, and reduce fear and anxiety.
There is nothing like fresh greens, or fresh fruits and vegetables. There is nothing quite like these edible nutrient-rich plants to increase the prana coursing through your body. One can quickly experience how healthy foods support good meditation practice, and it is so much fun to learn these things! Medicinal herbs, Microgreens, Superfoods, Fungi, Nutrition. What makes a complete diet? Which of the foods grow best in our local environment?
We can learn these things for our children and grandchildren. Given our current trajectory, the need for this knowledge will be so much more urgent during their lives.
What keeps you inspired to practice and maintain your permaculture work? There is an inner pressure that is felt when you tap into meaningful activity. When you engage in something that seems purposeful in a deep sense, there is support. There is a strong affirmation that this path is good, that it is important to keep going.
There are plenty of things to be discouraged about. The human species will probably have to learn some hard lessons. Yeah, it’s easy for me to lament: “Ok, you’ve spent a year and you have planted a few trees on a piece property, when in fact all around here, they are widening roads, building strip malls, and putting in more pavement!”
But if you are engaged in an activity that attracts a young deer well that’s OK. You can experience some wonder, bliss, clarity in a present moment of delight. You are simply a witness. Nothing is accomplished. It is natural.
Do you have any final thoughts or anything you’d like to say to the community?
There is real value in what HH Chetsang Rinpoche has done, which is link dharma with earth stewardship. The wonderful thing is that there are many, many ways of expressing right action. There’s not just one way to grow food. There are many ways of getting involved, of being engaged in cultivating a healthy, thriving, sustainable, resilient community. There are already so many great people at Drong Ngur with the exemplary guidance of Rinpoche, who are doing just that.
With regards to sustainable agricultural practices, there are many topics that one can study: nutrition, soil biology, local perennials, tolerances, pollination, plant guilds, plant timing, water retention, or drainage. How does one take advantage of what already exists on a property? What about the building structures? What is the best way to insulate this quirky house, right here in this climate and orientation? How could one shift in a practical way to solar energy? What is an effective way to collect rainwater? Can one effectively and safely repurpose the grey water? How does one compassionately deal with pests?
There is a universe of beneficial activities that can find diverse expressions for different people in different situations if approached with care and attention. Permaculture relates to dharma through right action and right livelihood. Cultivating a food forest can be part of one’s spiritual journey. Not just something to read in a manual, it can become a living, graceful activity, evolving towards greater knowledge, wisdom, and love.
Upcoming Events
Daily Recitation of the King of Aspiration Prayers, Every day, Monday - Sunday, 830pm - 9 pm
Amitabha Empowerment and Phowa Teachings, Sunday, July 18th from 10am - 5pm Eastern Standard Time
2021 Summer Teaching Series on The Dhammapada, beginning Sunday, August 1st from 11am - 1pm Eastern Standard Time
1000-Arm Chenrezig Empowerment and 2021 Mani Drupchen Friday, September 17th - Thursday, September 23rd
Ongoing Weekly Shamatha Practice, with Virginia Blum and Konchok Ngedon, Monday from 7pm - 8pm Eastern Standard Time, beginning in August
Ongoing Weekly Parnashavari Sadhana Practice, Tuesday from 7pm - 8pm Eastern Standard Time
Ongoing Weekly Achi Chokyi Drolma Sadhana Practice, Thursday from 7pm - 8pm Eastern Standard Time
Please visit our webpage for Zoom and Live Stream links, practice materials, and more detailed information on events and upcoming teachings:
SUPPORT DRONG NGUR
Drong Ngur Jangchubling depends entirely on the generosity of friends and students of Drupon Thinley Ningpo Rinpoche. You can financially support the center by visiting the donation page of our website with monthly or one-time donations. You can earmark the donation for day-to-day expenses of running the center or for the New Shrine Hall project.
Thank you very much for sharing this rare and precious opportunity to study and practice the Buddhadharma. May all beings benefit!
