Clear lights of being, such as Zen teacher Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and my grandfather PaPete, have graced me with their presence as my spiritual practice has matured. Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche (KTGR for short) was a nomadic spiritual teacher who mastered a life of conscious non-attachment to an image of self. I recall casually glancing into his eyes years ago during a walking-and- chanting meditation retreat in Nepal. I experienced a profound reality of “emptiness as form and form as emptiness.” He was crystal clear that we show up in form, here in “ordinary reality,” to inspire and encourage each other to wake up to lives governed by our Shared Divinity. Looking into those eyes was like looking into a clear mirror and knowing that we are already Home.
The experience of being in his presence was both impersonal and remarkably intimate. The essence of this incredible being is the direct experience of our shared and innate stillness. I carry a picture of this divine being with me and affectionately refer to it as the face of “God”.
I had a pacemaker installed several years ago and the surgeon reported seeing a “being of light in the room chanting “Om Mani Padme Hum” during the procedure. I showed him a picture of KTGR while in the recovery room and he said, “That’s the guy, the one with the face of God”. I still get misty-eyed every time I see that photo – it shows me his Divine commitment to serve as a teacher and a student! He is the Divine within all of us! Namaste.
Full of devotion to the welfare of others, KTGR sang inspirational songs of faith with simple joy. I cry whenever I chant “Om Mani Padme Hum’. Please find time and space to sit in a “Sacred Circle” and chant “Om Mani Padme Hum”. When we are clear about our dual roles of holding the circle together we are both inspiring and open to being inspired by others.
My paternal grandfather, Pa-Pete Howe, was born on Maine’s Penobscot Indian Reservation. He was an incredible groundskeeper that directly communicated with healing plants. Hanging out with him when he gardened was my first direct and visual view of PaPete’s gift of merging with the plants he tended. I saw his eyes light up as allowed the plants to reveal their intimate medicine. He was a remarkable gardener and he loved to inspire local folks by selling beautiful and unusual plants to the neighbors. Like KTGR, PaPete was a special being that was very much aware that he, too, was here to consciously embrace a fuller dream of being a servant to a deep truth – beyond Ordinary Reality.
I am continuously developing an intimate working relationship with both these beings who have passed on from their physical forms. Having a working relationship with them in Non-Ordinary Reality allows me to collaborate with my Zen and Shamanic students where we can explore the Five Skandhas (components) of human existence and the illusion of a permanent self. These skandhas are – form (physical body/matter), feeling (sensations), perception (recognition), mental formations (reactions/habits) and consciousness (awareness).
These components exist only in relation to other causes and conditions that are constantly changing. This understanding is key to overcoming suffering by seeing that the “self” we cling to is not a permanent entity but a composite of these impermanent skandhas. Freedom awaits! The most popular concentration meditation is a simple mindless flow of the breath. By lovingly relaxing attention on the simple action of breathing in and out through the nose and out through the lungs and breath is to mindfully and simply keeping focus on the act of breathing. If you find your focus drifting away fro the breath to the music, simply allow that to happen mindfully, as just another form of “meditation.” In addition to simple breathing, I encourage you to meditate to the sound and feel of relaxing and/or inspiring background music.
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