April 1999

Dear Sangha Family

Spring is here and with it come the seeds of change and fresh beginnings. The Guya Gharba retreat was a wonderfully successful experience for everyone involved and helped to further plant the teachings deep into the foundation of Tashi Chöling and the entire mandala. We think of Gyatrul Rinpoche with deepest gratitude for bringing us so many opportunities and blessings. This is our time to serve the Dharma and to repay his kindness by supporting the many upcoming activities and projects ongoing at the center. This kind of offering is very appreciated by Rinpoche and all those involved at Tashi Chöling, and is the cause of great merit, and helps to create conducive circumstances, a healthy Sangha community, and a basis for the fruitful future of the center in order to benefit all beings and the generations of practitioners to come. With that said, hang on to your hats, it's gonna be a busy spring!
The annual Dor Sem Lama Chod Pa/Vajrasattva retreat is happening soon. Please see the enclosed flyer and stay tuned for more info. on this in May's newsletter.
A Troma Nagmo intensive practice gathering will be held at Tashi Choling on Fri., Sat., and Sun. (Dakini Day), April 9th, 10th and 11h at Tashi Choling temple. It will be lead by students and the concise and intermediate sadhanas and the Four Feasts will be practiced. Sessions are from 7 - 9:30 pm Fri., and from 9 - 12 and 2:30 - 5:30 pm on the weekend. Tsogs will be offered daily and donations will be accepted to support the retreat. We will also be learning to make the tormas. One must have received the empowerment to attend. For further info. call Mat Small at 482-3441.
Please mark your calendars - Sunday, April 18 is our quarterly Sangha meeting, to be held at the temple from 12 - 2 p.m. Bring your lunch and help us to revitalize the Buddha Families, plan the Vajrasattva retreat and our many projects. Our last meeting was quite fruitful and your involvement is appreciated. We need you! See you there.
Lama Bruce Newman will begin two new classes, the 5th and 5th of April. Please see the enclosed flyers, and take note that the Monday night class listed on the April calendar takes place at the LaCoste's residence, 5301 Hwy. 66, Ashland, not at Minjur Ling.
For info on Ngöndro classes call Mat Small at 482-3441. There are two new ones.
If you would like an appointment with Dr. Dickey Nyerongsha, who will be in Ashland on Sat., Sun. & Mon., April 10, 11 & 12, please call (541) 488-3009 ASAP. If I'm not there, please leave a message with Songay (name, mailing address, phone #) or call back - evenings, Sun., Mon., and Tues. are best. My machine broke, so sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks. If you need info to prepare for your appointment, call me.
Green Tara practice to benefit those suffering from illness and obstacles continues on Sundays from 2 - 4 but will be canceled on the 11th due to the Troma Intensive.
The Lawn and Garden Committee is starting up again with a Sangha-wide "garden-party" on Sunday, April 25th from 10 - 2. Bring your lunch, work gloves, spades, weeders, shovels, and other implements for bed prep so we can plant soon. If you have questions, suggestions, or offers of help call Trish DeMers at 530-842-4138.
Help is needed to complete the "remodel" of the outdoor bathrooms adjacent to the temple. If you can donate ANY time, please call Mat 482-3441 or Chris 488-3672.
The Pecha Project, an important aspect of Yeshe Melong Archives, needs volunteers to make photocopies of Tibetan scriptures. Rinpoche has asked that 58 texts be copied in the next month. This can be done in your own town on your own time with expenses paid. Ani Baba is helping Scott Globus (of Orgyen Dorje Den Sangha) to organize the No. Calif. & Oregon group, so you can leave a message for her at (541) 488-3009 with your name, #, and good times to call you back and she will, with all the info and support you will need to make this wonderful offering of your time. Many thanks!
IN OUR PRAYERS... I feel a permanent section in this letter for mention of our Dharma family folks who could use some extra blessings is in order. Please remember Ron and Michelle Fidler in your practice. A letter from Ron is included in this mailing. What a hero. Also, Sarah Rose has had a recurrence of Hodgkin's Disease, a form of cancer, and will soon enter treatment for a tumor that is wrapped around her heart. You can call her home phone and leave a message (916) 446-9285, or write to her at 1009 V St. apt. 2, Sacramento, CA, 95818. Her E-Mail address is srose99@hotmail.com and she would love to stay connected to us in this way at this time of her life. She will soon leave for Stanford U. and will have mail and messages forwarded. And our monk Nick O'Connor is laid up with some serious back problems. (If you would like to have someone mentioned here, call me at 488-3009.)
Anyone interested in group medical insurance? If so, call Bea Arestad who is looking into a suitable, economical group plan for the Sangha. Call her at (541) 482-4551.
Web users and enthusiasts, remember to use Neil King's E-Mail String! Write to:
nealjking@hotmail.com and keep in touch with many Sangha members & activities.
Sangha member Jill Murphy invites you all to an Open House for the Sangha and community at her new cafe, Tashi Tea, on Sat. April 3rd from 2 - 7 pm at 66 Pioneer St., across from Wells Fargo Bank in Ashland. Free tea & goodies. Sounds good to me!
Those who participated in the Guyagharba retreat that would like to form a study group, please call Julie at 488-3009, leave a message, and we'll try to organize something.
Ani Inge is looking to acquire another trailer. If you have any leads for her, please leave a message at (541) 482-0675 (the Mouse House.) She thanks you kindly.
THE BEGGING BOWL! Donations of items needed by the temple & Sangha...I didn't realize that Linda Jo in Portland donated the new microwave in the torma room. Way to go, and thanks! Also, Aloha to Sevyn in Hawaii and gratitude for the new Phantom vacuum you donated for the temple residence (it has headlights!) Also, Ellen from Seattle raised $500.00 for the Tashi Chöling road during the Guyagharba retreat. A road maintained is a road well traveled. Thank you!!! Donations from the Guyagharba retreat bought Tashi Chöling a new VCR, so if you'd like to study videos of the various practices, you can. See Ani Baba. Now, we still need one or more Dictaphones for transcribing. To make a donation, new or used, please contact Nick at 482-3909. Thanks a bunch for your generosity.

I considered starting a section of this letter called CONFESSIONS, where I could apologize for the various mistakes I make on the calendar & letter, etc. My sorry excuses for confusing the Moon pujas on last month's calendar. And to let you know, we will be using the Rigpa calendar for puja dates this year. It's the most practical for now. Well, take care and enjoy spring!








Julie Rogers, Vice Secretary


 

Dear Sangha, March 26, 1999


I'd like to thank everyone for their help and kindness towards Michelle and myself, especially during the Guya Gharba.
To begin with, I'm sure that most of you have heard some version or another about what Michelle and I are going through.
I have numerous tumors in my lungs and a tumor the size of an orange on my heart. The tumor on my heart is inoperable and the doctors have no idea how long I have but when I pressed them, they gave me somewhere between one month and one year.
I told the head of cardiology at UC Davis that if I'm alive in two years I'd look him up. He said, "If you're alive in two years, we're going to want some of your blood to see what's going on with your immune system."
Basically, unless the doctors come up with some cutting edge ideas, western medicine has done as much as they can for me.
After discussing the situation with Rinpoche and Sangye, I have decided to go into retreat with Michelle.
My intention is to heal myself and to be my own physician and if I don't have the juice to pull this off, then it's my intention to die well with Michelle and to a certain extent, my immediate family.
Melanie tried to facilitate my going to the Bay Area to see a very well respected Chinese doctor but because time does not allow me the flexibility of doing so at present, Melanie has graciously and generously offered to bring a doctor to me. Thank you Melanie, and my apologies if this acknowledgment embarrasses you.
Michelle and I are very fortunate to have very supportive family and close friends.
There are a few things that I would like to ask of you. Please, no letters or phone calls. We know that we are in your hearts, minds and prayers.
Probably the one thing that some, if not all of you can do that would bring about some merit for us is if you would look closely at our situation, youth, time,



money and now, impermanence. Use this to help motivate yourself to practice with more diligence.
Also, remember there are members of our Sangha that need your help and support far more than Michelle and I. Two come to mind - Sarah Rose and another Vajra sister who wishes to remain anonymous.
Try to be kind to one another. I realize we're a bunch of crusty characters but we're also serious practitioners who down inside have good hearts. Why else would we be here?
The way I see it, if we take care of the temple and grounds and care for and help one another, the Lamas will come. There aren't many places on earth that are like Tashi Chöling. Please take care of the place and one another. I plan on coming back and would like to practice here again.
Two more requests. Keep your fingers crossed that we will pull off a minor miracle. And one last request - if you smoke, please stop. If you could only experience the discomfort that I've experienced, I swear to you, you'd quit, and my suffering isn't even due to smoking, but the experiences are very similar.
I'd like to leave you with a few personal thoughts before I end this letter.
When the doctors told us the situation, one suggested that if there were some part of the world that I wanted to see, that we should max out the credit cards and go. I pointed to Michelle and told the doctor that what I wanted was to go home with her and hang out with our dogs and cat because I don't need to go anywhere, I already have my own little slice of Heaven.
Since that doctor's visit, on a number of occasions when I think about leaving Michelle and those who are close to me, I can't help but think of Dorothy leaving OZ to go back to Kansas.
As a final thought, I'd to leave you with the first Dharma teaching that I recall hearing...


 

Row, row, row your boat

gently down the stream,

merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

life is but a dream.




Ron