Outside the auditorium building at Hopkinsville Community College on Tuesday afternoon, many students saw fire and they also saw rain.
Tsering Phuntsok, a Buddhist monk who hails from India, performed a smoke ceremony meant to beautify and purify the students and the campus. Rain was falling prior to the 30-minute ceremony.
Phuntsok, dressed in maroon garments, invited the crowd of about 25 people to contribute any items they wanted to put into the fire as small offerings to the spirits.
“No gum,” Phuntsok said. He also told the crowd no garlic, plastic, onion or anything with meat, including fish, would be allowed in the fire.
In the pile to be burned were cookies, rice, beans, incense, branches and flowers, both real and artificial.
The pile was added during the ceremony to the fire, which was contained in a three-legged pot on the patio near the Purple Cat Café.
Once the items were added to the fire, the monk said people should meditate.
“Those little things become big,” Phuntsok said.
He chanted in the Tibetan language, played hand drums, rang a bell and blew a horn at different times during the ceremony.
Those watching tapped their feet with the beat, peered through the windows to see or closed their eyes in meditation.
At the end of the ceremony, Phuntsok said, “Thank you.”
“Amen,” said a voice from the crowd. Laughter ensued.
The ceremony is a “practice of generosity,” Phuntsok said, so that others might practice that themselves.
Ceremonies like the one Tuesday at HCC occur a few times a year, usually when families seek to purify their homes and themselves.
Phuntsok is friends with HCC religion and philosophy professor Ken Casey. The two met when Casey went on sabbatical in February 2009 to India.
Casey said he wanted to teach religion by experience, not just to teach it out of textbooks. Casey lived with the monk and then the monk’s nieces for a month and learned religious practices from his hosts.
Casey learned about kora — when Buddhists pray while walking up the mountain where the Dalai Lama lives. The prayer continues with three laps around the temple.
Casey said he’s tried to get Phuntsok to visit before, but there were difficulties getting a visa.
The two friends kept in contact through the Internet, using Skype, a video chat, and Facebook, a social networking site.
This is the first time Phuntsok has been in the United States. He said it’s “very clean,” and the people are “very nice.”
Phuntsok spoke at a lecture series on campus last week and will be meeting with classes today, Casey said.
“I’m not teaching,” Phuntsok said. “I’m learning.”
Phuntsok said the students he’s spoken to have been knowledgeable about Buddhism.
“Maybe they know more than me,” he joked.
He compared Buddhism to some other religions in that many of them try to teach followers to be good people.
Phuntsok has been a monk for 24 years and, in the Tibetan calendar, which counts the time in the womb as a year of life, is 40 years of age. In the western calendar, he’s 39.
After his stint in Kentucky, Phuntsok will travel to New Orleans. Phuntsok is also partnering with Tulane University and other universities in the country for a cultural exchange program where students have the opportunity to study the social work system in India.
Phuntsok will return to India on May 9.
The smoke ceremony came together at the last minute, Casey said.
“It’s gone well so far,” Casey said.
“It’s what the spirit moves,” he said, adding that the ceremony happened because of “happy accidents.”
This is the first year for this type of ceremony, but Casey said he hopes this ceremony will be able to happen next year too.
Source : http://www.kentuckynewera.com
