In 2009: Burma Relief Pilgrimage With Jack Kornfield; The Great Tibetan Plateau With John Bellezza

A few days ago, I was asked to add a link to JackKornfield.org to our Philadelphia Meditation Center web site. I logged onto Jack's new site and discovered a pilgrimage of note, the first one Jack has ever led, and a very special one in several ways. A two week visit to Burma in late January, 2009, the pilgrimage includes meditation, visits to temples, etc., but, more importantly, it is designed to help the Burmese people by funding the Burma Foundation. The package is reasonably priced, but not everyone will be able to afford the $20K minimum donation necessary for participation. I know I won't. But I find it amazing that this man chooses to use the fact that his persona is widely known and respected in the Buddhist world to raise money for such a great cause. A link to the pilgrimage site can be found on TibetPilgrimage.com and I'm sure any donation to the Burma Fund would be appreciated.

Links to two other important pilgrimages in 2009 with explorer, Tibetologist, archaeologist, discoverer of Zhang Zhung (really), writer and adventurer extraordinaire, "Jungly" John Bellezza. One is a Tibet adventure that will be unparalleled and it includes a week of camping at what is probably the most beautiful and mystical place I have ever encountered: Lake Namtso. Here, one can sit in the caves used for centuries by Tibetan adepts, examine ancient Bon petroglyphs and settlements with the person who discovered and documented them, and enjoy quiet time on the shore of a cobalt blue, 15K ft. high lake that looks more like an ocean, waves included. Across the lake the view is of the breathtaking snowcapped 21 foot high Nyanchen Thangla mountain range. Tibetan horsemen ride along the wide beach and the mystical Tashi Dor monastery is huddled in the cliffs.

I'll leave the story of the mountain god and lake goddess for a later post (it's all in Divine Dyads and the just released Zhang Zhung (check Amazon.com), two books in which John Bellezza recounts his explorations of those old Bon-po stomping grounds.

The other adventure is a spiritual trek to Mustang, the Forbidden kingdom that lies north of Annapurna in Nepal on the Tibetan Border. Both fabulous events and contact information can be found at AdventuresWithinReach.com/johnbellezza.

Fifties Hollywood Does Chinggis

If you liked Mongol, you may not want to miss The Conquerer - John Wayne (as Ghenghis Khan) and Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, Produced by Howard Hughes, Directed by Dick Powell, 1955. (try Amazon.com) . The high budget movie was produced in a former atomic testing area. Many actors later contracted cancer. The story can be found on Wikipedia.

The Human Mind: Two Views of Chinggis

The Blue Rectangle-Deity temple painting still consumed my thoughts weeks after that last Mongolia visit. Atop the Formless Realm/Natural Mind/Sky Cube sits the world, a little town, a tree, etc. It's as if the Blue Buddha Square is supporting all of reality. Or maybe it underlies all of reality. Nothing surprises me when I encounter Tibetan art. It's all there, And where did it come from? The human mind, of course. All kinds of things come from the human mind.

I had assumed since Karakorum was Chinggis's capital, that he built Erdene Zuu. This is not so. Since Mongolians regard him as a Buddha, I imagined that he was, in fact, a Buddhist. Not so, either. The capital city of Karakorum built by Chinggis Khaan was destroyed not long after it was built in the Thirteenth Century. The monastery was built later in the Sixteenth Century by Altai Khaan - with artist Zanabazar - during what was a great renaissance time for Mongolian Buddhism and Buddhist Art.

Chinggis, having died in 1227, would have been more of a Tengrii, a worshiper mainly of the Eternal Blue Sky Deity. Thus, had he lived to see the painting of the Blue Sky sitting on the throne in Erdene Zuu, he surely would have approved.

All ideas originate in the Human Mind. Not all precede beautiful spiritual sky art, though. Last week I made a new website entitled Two Views of Chinggis-Khaan. Mongolians love Chinggis, and consider him the father hero of the Country. The photo above shows a giant Chinggis image (there's really only one) on the mountainside that overlooks the city of Ulan Bator. The new movie Mongol is a sympathetic view of a great warrior and uniter of tribes. But, I suspected there was more to the Mongol Empire story so I did a little research. Especially interesting was The Twenty or So Worst Things People Have Done to Each Other, an exhaustive study by Matthew White of some of the darkest events in human history. I recommend this site highly to anyone interested in human nature. Check out my new creation too: Chinggis-Khaan.com

Anyone interested in war and conquest story lines should see the 2007 movie Nanking. Maybe everyone should see it. Myself, I couldn't make it half way through. The human mind contains everything.

Mongolia

I returned a couple weeks ago from Mongolia. I was fortunate to be able to 'hang out' there a bit with a wonderful and varied group of people who were there for one of Glenn Mullin's annual pilgrimages.

Mongolia has been influenced by Tibetan Buddhism for some centuries now, and the Zanabazar Museum in Ulan Bator, houses some spectacular and intricate applique thangkas. But the most intriguing artwork, at least to me, was the chod iconographic wall painting of the the rear-most Erdene Zuu Temple at Kharkhorin (pronounced "Harhorin," the capitol of the Mongol world from 1220 until 1260,and the Xanadu in Coleridge's famous poem.) The Monastery is at least seven hours west of UB over a very rough road.

And my favorite of favorites at Erdene Zuu? This painting, looking remarkably like an ice cube, I believe a depiction of the Formless Realm. Enough written.

The Tibetan Tooth Extractor

This device was purchased by me for US $250 in 2000. I was in Tibet that summer when a friend / Tibet art, archeology and thogchag expert told me he had seen this amazing dental instrument for sale in the Barkor Market. Of course, I responded immediately by dragging him to the seller's stall. My friend translated as the seller explained that the object was a forceps used for extracting teeth. Being a dentist by profession, I was compelled to purchase the thing, and after a long bargaining session that lasted many days, it was mine!

Having extracted many teeth in my tenure as a general dentist, I wondered: How in God's name did they get a tooth out with this thing? It was about 12 inches long and made of heavy base metal with a bit of gold decoration. Two parts to the jaw (shaped as a Lion when held in approximation) must grip the tooth and a sleeve tightens the jaws together. I guess having somehow grasped the tooth, the "extractor" torques it.

Of course, the only way a tooth could be removed by this thing in toto is if that tooth had severe periodontal disease complete with a lot of bone loss around the tooth. This could not work.

Now, if a tooth were filled with soft decay and abscessed, this thing would just crush the whole crown of the tooth, allowing trapped pus to escape. This would be a life-saving drainage technique. Before penicillin was discovered in the 40's, dying from a tooth infection was not rare. Today it still happens, more so in medically under served parts of the world. Penicillin (we use amoxicillin now) and well-designed extraction forceps (hopefully along with local anesthetic) have saved many lives. Perhaps this thing was a life-saver too. I suspect I will donate it to a dental museum.

In any case, the thing is unusual. Now, when extracting a molar, I delight in the beautifully designed contra-angled stainless steel instruments in my drawer. (In fact I have at least 25 of them, one shaped for every tooth in the mouth, plus elevators to dig and pry and Ronguer forceps to nibble away bone.)

(I have a web site about abscessed teeth and one about toothache in case anyone landed on this page hoping to get that kind of information.)