People bring their anger, jealousy and ignorance to the Venerable Lama Karma Nangyel and in return he teaches them compassion.
“It’s good for the healing, good for peace (of) mind. And once you practise compassion, it automatically comes,” said the visiting robed Buddhist monk from Bhutan Friday in an interview, having looked around the site of Saturday’s Buddhist ceremonies at Grey Roots Museum.
“They want to be compassionate with other people; compassion can bring peace and loving kindness and joy.”
On a seven-day visit to Owen Sound, the monk from southeast Asia guides people on retreats at his suburban Longmont, Colorado home, in which he also runs Drukpa Mila Buddhist Centre, one of some 35 to 40 Buddhism centres in Colorado, he said. Colorado became the centre of Tibetan Buddhism among hippies in the 1960s.
He has a second Buddhist centre in Salem, Oregon and from both he also offers blessing services for everything from pets to business offices, which he’ll be performing for people here as well. Visitors come to stay with him to learn and meditate. One woman has stayed with him almost three years, he noted.
About 50 people participated in a Buddhist ceremonial fire of compassion Saturday morning and early afternoon. The fire was fed by 65 bowls of medicinal grains, oil and with papers with the names of people f
Further, Nangyel said he believes diseases and misfortune can also be averted as the result of his helpful interventions with blessings and through collective will. “Compassion can even change the weather,” he said.
But cold weather moved the event inside the museum this day, in a room with a view of an outdoor patio, where the fire bowl was lit. The museum was booked privately for the gathering.
Nangyel sat at one end of the room, facing the direction of the fire bowl. People were seated in chairs facing inward, half on one side and half the other, with an aisle leading to the spiritual leader in between. He spoke softly at length and in simple terms about compassion, he chanted and sang.
When the group, which included native elders from Cape Croker and Saugeen First Nation, sang with him, he kept time by sounding a small hand bell. Unfamiliar words were repeated over and over and the willing singers created a tranquil mood.
Nangyel said people come to him to learn how to meditate about compassion.
“When they meditate, it changes people,” he said in an interview. “Anger, jealousy, ignorance, all these things what they have, but the compassion is like the big healing medicine.”
Buddhism teaches people to control their mind, he said. “Human nature, they have a lot of crazy things happen. And people couldn’t control their own mind. So that’s what Buddhism teaches, to calm their own mind.”
– By: Scott Dunn
– Source: Sun Times
