Teaching the Heart of Wisdom and the Commentary on the Awakening Mind

Tokyo, Japan, 12 April 2015 - The weather was bright once more today and, being a Sunday morning, the streets were relatively empty as His Holiness the Dalai Lama drove across Tokyo to the Showa Joshi Women’s University. People waiting outside to enter the Memorial Hall that was the venue for the teachings were taken by surprise to see him arrive in a car. Many bowed and then waved.

His Holiness took his seat punctually at 9.30 before a capacity audience of 2100. They included 370 Koreans, 120 Mongolians and about 1000 Chinese, mostly from Taiwan with some from the mainland.

“Since most of us customarily recite the Heart of Wisdom Sutra, we’ll have recitations in your various languages,” he announced at the beginning. “Today, let’s have the Korean monks and tomorrow the Japanese.”
Starting with his customary introduction to Buddhism His Holiness said:

“In this 21st century all of us 7 billion human beings are the same in wanting happiness and not wanting to be miserable. This is true of us all, whether we are religious or not. Many of the problems we face we make for ourselves, because we are self-centred and tend to see things from a narrow, short-sighted point of view, which only increases our frustration.”

His Holiness the Dala Lama speaking during his teaching at Showa Joshi Women’s University's Memorial Hall in Tokyo, Japan on April 12, 2015. Photo/Tenzin Jigmey
He said that although there is a stress on education in today’s world, it tends to focus on materialistic goals, preparing students for a materialistic way of life in a materialistic culture. Society all but ignores the mind’s contribution to being happy. We are inclined to anger and frustration because we are not at peace within. What we need is a grounding in inner values. All religious traditions emphasize love and compassion the idea of brotherhood and sisterhood and they take different philosophical approaches to that goal.

Religious traditions are either theistic, stressing a belief in a creator god, or non-theistic, and believing in causality instead. Among the non-theistic traditions, only Buddhism advocates the absence of an independent, intrinsically existent self, asserting that there is no self separate from the body and mind. He said that within Buddhism there is the Pali tradition and the Sanskrit tradition. Both teach about the three trainings in ethics, concentration and wisdom, but differ on how wisdom is defined.

The ‘Unravelling of Thought Sutra’ explains the three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. The first refers to the teachings recorded in the Pali tradition, while the second and third belong to the Sanskrit tradition. His Holiness clarified that during the first Turning of the Wheel, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths to do with suffering, its origin, its cessation and the path that are the foundation of his teaching. He went into some detail to explain their 16 characteristics, four characteristics of each truth. He focused particularly on understanding selflessness, the possibility of undermining ignorance and attaining a cessation of suffering. When an understanding of the 16 characteristics of the Four Noble Truths is applied in practice it gives rise to the 37 factors of enlightenment.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with a towel to protect him from the hot lights, reading from the text during his teaching in Tokyo, Japan on April 12, 2015. Photo/Tenzin Jigmey
Coming back from lunch His Holiness explained that the Heart of Wisdom Sutra belongs to a collection of texts known as the Perfection of Wisdom teachings that in their most extensive form comprise the sutra of 100,000 lines in 12 volumes. In their briefest form they consist of one syllable, ‘ah’. The Heart of Wisdom is generally regarded as consisting of 25 lines. Their explicit meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom is emptiness of intrinsic existence and its implications for the truth of cessation.

“Nagarjuna describes the meaning of cessation as occurring when emptiness overcomes the destructive emotions.Khunu Lama Rinpoche on the other hand explained, and I prefer this, that the destructive emotions dissolve into emptiness. Whereas the Buddha expounded the meaning of emptiness during the second Turning of the Wheel, during the third, he introduced the clear light nature of the mind.”

His Holiness made clear that during his explanation of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha referred to cessation and liberation in relation to an understanding of the selflessness of persons. One of the key points in the Heart of Wisdom is where it says:

‘Avalokiteshvara ... beheld those five aggregates also as empty of inherent nature.’

The key word also, which is absent from the Chinese translation, but is found in the Sanskrit original and its Tibetan translation, indicates the selflessness of phenomena in addition to the selflessness of persons. To say that persons and phenomena are empty of inherent existence is not to say they do not exist at all. The words in the sutra, ‘Form is empty’ refer to the ultimate reality of the object, while the words ‘emptiness is form’ refer to its conventional existence. This is reiterated by the statement: ‘Emptiness is not other than forms and forms are not other than emptiness.’

The reason for seeking an understanding of emptiness is, as Chandrakirti states in his ‘Entering into the Middle Way’, ‘All faults, shortcomings and disturbing emotions arise from the misconception of [an intrinsically existent] self.’ On the basis of such a misconception we grasp at the intrinsic existent of things and generate disturbing emotions towards them, which His Holiness quotes his friend, American psychiatrist, Aaron Beck as saying is 90% our own mental projection.

Some of the over 2100 people attending His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teaching at Showa Joshi Women’s University's Memorial Hall in Tokyo, Japan on April 12, 2015. Photo/Tenzin Jigmey
His Holiness quoted Nagarjuna saying that without understanding the selflessness of phenomena you can’t really understand the selflessness of persons. In conclusion he cited the Heart of Wisdom itself:

“All the Buddhas of the past, present and future have depended, do and will depend upon the perfection of wisdom. Thereby they became, are becoming and will become unsurpassably, perfectly and completely awakened Buddhas.’

Turning to Nagarjuna’s ‘Commentary on the Awakening Mind’, His Holiness gave a concise outline. In verses 4-9 the text refutes non-Buddhist points of view. Verses 10-24 repudiates the views of Buddhist lower schools of thought and verses 25-44 address the views of the Mind Only school. In verse 48 Nagarjuna shows that emptiness is the view that cuts off misconceptions at the root.

[48]
Therefore constantly meditate on emptiness:
The basis of all phenomena,
Tranquil and illusion-like,
Groundless and destroyer of cyclic existence.

From verse 63 there is an explanation of the Madhyamaka view, exemplified by verse 68:

[68]
The conventional is taught to be emptiness;
The emptiness itself is the conventional;
One does not occur without the other,
Just as [being] produced and impermanent.

From verse 72 the practice of generosity and the cultivation of the awakening mind of bodhichitta are described, showing how understanding of emptiness becomes a motive factor for developing bodhichitta. Then, from verses 76 - 85 is an account of how to develop the practice of exchanging self and others. At which point, His Holiness announced:

“That’s all for today. Good night. We’ll meet again tomorrow.

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Taking it to the streets: Urban Dharma brings Buddhist teachings to the heart of Asheville

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Asheville, North Carolina (USA) -- Take one look at the “spirituality” section of our calendar, and it’s easy to see that the Asheville area aims for wellness of mind and heart in a variety of ways — meditation, mindfulness, earth medicine, prayer, peacefulness, the metaphysical and Zen listings abound. One of those gems is Urban Dharma, where Hun Lye welcomes those seeking to practice and learn more about Buddhism. (Pictured: Hun Lye; photo by Taylor Johnson)

Lye practices the Drikung Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, but says of his downtown-Asheville center, “When people come in and say ‘I’m looking for a Buddhist group,’ we don’t want to assume that this is where they belong; I want them to see all of the groups, what they are doing, where they are meeting — and find what works for them.”

He adds that Asheville is “much more yoga” in many ways, while Buddhism is “a different mode of spirituality that is kind of quiet rather than ecstatic.” So he aimed to “start a place that would be a resource for anyone who is interested.”

Last month, Lye received a new title — Dorjé Lopon — which made him the first non-monastic teacher in the West to receive the honor. Born in 1970, he grew up in Penang, Malaysia; studied under Buddhist teachers of many traditions; and earned his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. He also taught Buddhist studies at both Warren Wilson College and Davidson.

Soon after being named Dorjé Lopon, he spoke with Xpress.

Mountain Xpress: When did you first conceive of the idea for Urban Dharma? And how did you choose Asheville for the location?

Hun Lye: Somewhere around 2010, conversations started among a group of people that I had known for a while, many from … Warren Wilson. Ironically, from 2003 to 2008, I was not convinced that a Buddhist center would work in Asheville. I knew there were many groups around, and I did not think we needed another [one]. It was when we began to talk more seriously that I said, “There might be a need that is not being met yet, and that need is for a clear Buddhist presence in downtown, serving as a clearly dedicated Buddhist place.” …

I joke about how you can’t really go into any retail downtown, without seeing some sort of of Buddhist “thing” in there, even if the shop has nothing to do with anything Buddhist. So there is that pervasive sense and feeling of being open and interested in Buddhism or at least [its] material culture. [But] there is not a lot of excitement in Buddhist programs. It was one of the reasons that I had to think really hard about, Is there a need here?

[But] since we’ve opened, I’ve seen that there are a good number of people from all age groups coming to our events, from the very young to the very old, and that is encouraging.

What does being appointed Dorje Lopon mean within the Drikung Kagyu tradition?
The most common use of this title is actually in a ritual context in Tibetan Buddhism. [The Dorjé Lopon] is not the person that is doing the most things during the ritual; it is another person, who is just quietly sitting there, but at the same time is the center of attention, because it is believed that this person is doing the inner work necessary to ground everything.

So when the head of the Drikung Kagyu decided to use this title and to give it to specific individuals, it was a way of acknowledging that [this other spiritual leader] can play that role. Because I’m not part of the monastic system, and more conventional titles that are necessarily monastic cannot be given, he … applied it as a daily-use title. So it’s an innovation of sorts, [and] in this case, the title signifies that the person who holds it can pass on the transmissions and the traditions of the lineage.

How do you think Urban Dharma and what you stand for compares to other Buddhist centers in the area?

We are trying to appeal to a broader context. I joke about this, but every time people say, “I’m Buddhist,” the follow-up question from others would be, “Do you meditate?” and I’m like, “You know what? The majority of Buddhists don’t meditate. American Buddhists, maybe, but there’s more than one way to be Buddhist, and Urban Dharma is trying to communicate that.

We’re trying to create a community part that’s accessible to people, so that people don’t feel like in order to be a “real Buddhist,” “I need to spend x number of hours a day meditating; I need to spend x number of months a year attending retreats; I need to go into the mountains — all of that. There is a place for that and there [are] definitely traditions like that … but again, it’s about what is needed here. And I feel that what’s needed here is a way of being Buddhist … downtown.

You don’t have to go into the mountains to be sane. The name [Urban Dharma] is communicating, I think, an attitude, a state of mind, a way of understanding that spiritual practice is not only available and possible in the mountains. It’s in the midst of all of this.

Here, we encourage young families to bring their kids, and from my experience at other places in the past, we would have people who attend the program get very annoyed and say, “I came here to get some peace of mind, and these kids!” — which is an understandable reaction if they conceive of a Buddhist center as a form of spa. And that’s a particular conception of what the Buddhist community is, and I find it troublesome. Here, we have to remind everyone that you have to mind your own mind. You can’t say, “These are distractions.” We have to integrate this.

Urban Dharma’s motto is “Changing Minds, Transforming Cities,” and in one of your talks, you mentioned that practices such as prayer, meditation or special diets don’t cause transformation. How does transformation play into Urban Dharma’s mission and what place should practices such as prayer or meditation have in people’s lives?
[Those] are devices and methods that help us to change our minds. The real work and the real measure of how well we are doing as Buddhists should not be measured by how many hours in a day I’m spending on a cushion being quiet, but rather how much has the mind/heart changed? Is it still very quickly falling into habits of misery? Or is it becoming easier to notice when you are going down that particular circuit, and when you notice, to break it and move in the other direction?

When minds start to change, then we can begin to think about transforming our families and our communities. Any real change will have to come from changing the mind first. Otherwise, other activities become another way for us to act out our insanity. Even a meditation program can become a way to act out the insanity.

What does your new title and position mean to you and for Urban Dharma?

The recognition of a title is just the beginning of the hard work — if you do it right. I am taking very seriously the head of the lineage giving me this title, but at the same time, I am trying my best not to take myself seriously!

What does it mean for Urban Dharma? I hope, now that this is my main focus, it would say to someone who is interested that I’m not just doing this on my own, but that I am connected to a lineage and that the lineage has very publicly acknowledged that I can transmit and teach this lineage. What I say either makes sense or not. If it makes sense and helps you see and understand [Buddhist teachings] better, then come. It doesn’t matter what title I have. I happen to by playing the role of the leader in this community, but the sooner I make myself obsolete, then the sooner we have reached our goal.

Urban Dharma is located at 29 Page Ave. in Asheville. All programs and events are offered on a donation basis. The nonprofit is also supported by 100 percent of the profits from sister company Tibetan Spirit, an online Tibetan Buddhist store. 225-6422, www.urbandharmanc.com.

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Buddhist temple thrives in the heart of Montrose

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Houston, TX (USA) -- You'd be forgiven if, driving past Dawn Mountain, you thought it was a creatively named architecture firm. Though it's housed in a neat brick building on busy Richmond Avenue near South Shepherd, it's a Tibetan Buddhist temple and community center.

<< Dawn Mountain founders Harvey Aronson and Anne Klein say a sense of joy and hope are central to Buddhism.

Founded in 1996, Dawn Mountain is the creation of Anne Klein, a professor of religious studies at Rice University, and her husband, Harvey Aronson, a therapist, and it is the outcome of an unlikely life journey for a girl from Albany, N.Y., and a boy from Brooklyn.

If you are sitting and sipping tea with the pair, surrounded by brightly colored paintings and statues and wall hangings, it's impossible not to think: These are two of the most serene people you'll ever meet.

For Klein, the story began in college on a semester abroad in France, when she had a sudden, inexplicable desire to travel to India. "I knew nothing about Buddhism or graduate school," she says, but decided a Ph.D. program in Buddhism at the University of Wisconsin was her best ticket to India.

There she met Aronson, who was also in the doctoral program. And she discovered the intricacies of Buddhism. "I was astounded at how sophisticated it was," she says.

The pair traveled to India, "and I just fell in love with the whole thing - the great open-hearted and mystery-oriented nature of it," Klein says.

One of Aronson's earliest influences was Richard Alpert, later known as Baba Ram Dass. "Going all the way back, Richard Alpert said we are all mired in repetitive behavior that obstructs our spiritual nature," he says. Becoming aware of those patterns, through practice and guidance, begins the process of becoming free of them and allows love, peace, joy and kindness to emerge. "There really is a kind of deeper possibility for human nature," he says.

Americans are plagued with self-hatred, but one of the teachings of Buddhism is that a person should have "a good dollop of compassion for myself and others," Aronson says.

Central to their teachings is the concept of mindfulness, or being absolutely in touch with the present moment. If you are mindful, you can recognize negative thoughts as just what they are: thoughts.

The process isn't easy, and it requires a commitment to a lifetime of learning. (Both Klein and Aronson still have teachers they rely on. So does the Dalai Lama.) Klein likens it to digging for gold in the ground. The gold is there, even if you can't see it, even if you have to get dirty and do a lot of digging to find it. Everyone has a perfect space within.

Houston is a tough place to be a Buddhist. "It's a very success-oriented city, where more money means more satisfaction," Aronson says. Except that, in the end, it doesn't.

He acknowledges that some of this introspection can sound a bit like therapy. "Buddhism is very, very early cognitive therapy," he says, but with a vision that is vast and deep, and with a spiritual dimension therapy can't touch.

The pair are open about their belief in reincarnation, which Buddhism shares with Hinduism. But they are perhaps a bit more reticent about discussing what they may know about their own past lives. It's a personal question, after all. These are not flighty movie stars who think they were once Nefertiti.

Also central to their practice is meditation. (Guided meditation is offered 11 a.m. to noon Sundays, and "Teaching Tuesdays" are 7 to 9 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of the month. There's a welcome event at 10 a.m. Oct. 7.)

Meditation may seem like a difficult skill to develop, but the key is to start to try, even if you're very bad at it at first and your thoughts fly all over the place. "You don't sit down at a piano and play Mozart right off," Klein says.

The name of the temple, Dawn Mountain, was chosen with great care. First, they decided they wanted an American name. "Dawn" is a key word in Buddhism, and "mountain" seemed to balance it out nicely. It was also the name of the daughter of their friend Dr. Gail Gross, who had died the first year the couple was in Houston. "We wanted a sense of balance, groundedness, spaciousness," Klein says. "And light," says Aronson, finishing her sentence in the great tradition of married couples everywhere.

But most of all, they want to convey the overriding sense of joy and hope that are central to Buddhism. "The Buddhist nature has an intrinsic quality of joy," Klein says. "The pain you have is not all you are."

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Why Some Love Stories Break Your Heart

A love story is heartbreaking
when the heartbreak need not occur,
while the heartbreak is clung to,
though the heartbreak can be healed.

- Stonepeace

Many heartwrenching love stories share the common trait of heartbreak – due to miscommunication, which happens in two ways – not communicating one’s true thoughts and feelings in time, and wrongly assuming what the other’s true thoughts and feelings are. The only way to heal such heartaches is… yes, you guessed it – communication. With the world being tightly interconnected by the net today, it is much easier to trace the hearts you have broken, and the ones whom your heart had broken over… to re-communicate, to set the record right, even if it is just for the record, so as to have a sense of closure. Closure, however, does not mean all is over for good, for true closure opens new doors of karmic affinity too, offering new possibilities. Even if romantic love is now out of the question, isn’t genuine friendship possible? Why let a relationship become estranged and wasted over misunderstandings when you can clear the air? It would be truly heartbreaking if they are not resolved in time – when one party departs before the other. Do communicate while there is still time! It doesn’t matter if what you wish to communicate is well received or not, as long as you convey it sincerely, freeing yourself from regret.

As the Buddha taught in the Dhammapada, ‘There are those who do not realise that one day we all must die. But those who do realise this settle their quarrels.’ In the movie, ‘You Are The Apple Of My Eye’, there is an earthquake scene, which shook many wide awake in the still of the night. Everyone suddenly whips out their mobile phones to call their loved ones living elsewhere, to check if they are alright. The protagonist guy holds up his phone to check for reception, as he runs away from the crowd hogging the airwaves. Finally, he manages to connect, or rather, reconnect, with the girl he had a serious crush upon, and was assured that she was okay. Despite a two-year lapse in communication due to a conflict, the earthquake was a wake-up call, on the urgency to reconcile, to express his deep care and concern despite a petty grudge. Furthering what the Buddha said, not only will we die one day, this one day can arrive abruptly indeed, via sudden disasters. Life is too short to make one another suffer by nursing regrets and resentment, especially when they are resolvable. Even if they are no longer resolvable in person, it is also senseless to continue nursing regrets and resentment.

One might as well focus on resolving other conflicts and maintain other surviving relationships well, lest new regrets and resentment form. For making peace with the deceased, one can also share merits for their well-being. In the same movie, there was much ambivalence over the guy and girl in affirming their love for each other. The guy struggles to be accepted, while the girl hesitates accepting him. True Love just loves though. It is not conditioned by acceptance or rejection, never mistaking physical intimacy as crucial, since it can be loveless and lustful instead. Why not just love on in acceptable ways without yearning for more, if the love is true? While one might be ambivalent in committing, there is no need to be ambivalent in being caring. Why let pride be in the way of love, unless your ego is your one True Love? The Bodhisattvas openly declare their True Love for all beings, and love on even when unappreciated! If the ego obstructs even the loving of one person, is one ready to embrace many? Possible – only if one’s love is already more spiritual than worldly in nature. May all beings be slow to hate and swift to love one another, with as few conditions as possible!    

As True Love is truly unconditional,
never expecting reciprocation,
one who loves truly can never have one’s heart broken.

- Stonepeace

Related Articles:

How Can You Quarrel?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheDailyEnlightenment/message/583
Some Regrets about Some Relationships
http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2010/04/some-regrets-about-some-relationships

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Northeast Portland church finds new life as Heart of Wisdom, a Buddhist temple

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Portland, Oregon (USA) -- On a Wednesday morning, the newly painted red door gleams against the small white church. Just inside, wooden stairs, covered in feathery tufts of old carpet padding, climb to the second-floor sanctuary.

<< A former church that's housed three congregations in Northeast Portland has become Heart of Wisdom, a Zen Buddhist temple. Benjamin Brink, The Oregonian

Scents of fresh paint and fine sawdust mingle in the air. The Douglas fir floor that has supported three congregations in the past 100 years is being refinished for its fourth -- the Zen Community of Oregon.

Buddhists believe in impermanence, the notion that nothing lasts forever, that a person must try to welcome change. On the surface, such thinking may seem at odds with the Christian understanding of the eternal God, but both concepts coexist on a corner not far from the Woodlawn Triangle in Northeast Portland.

A church that has been in continuous use for more than a century is being lovingly restored as a Zen refuge by a group who believe they probably won't be the last to hallow this space.

This story begins in about 1891, when the modest wooden church was built to house a Methodist Episcopal congregation. By 1959, the Methodists had moved on. Ukrainian Orthodox Christians had taken their place, installing a three-bar cross on the church steeple. By 1968, the building was home to the Church of the Living God, a historically African American congregation that thrived for a time.

But in recent years, membership dwindled. Last fall, unpaid debts meant the church property faced foreclosure and the prospect of being sold at auction in front of the Multnomah County Courthouse at 11 a.m. on Dec. 15.

Enter the Zen Community of Oregon. Founded in 1976, the small sangha, or spiritual community, began meditating in private homes and yoga studios. Later they rented space at Dharma Rain Zen Center and at St. David of Wales Episcopal Church, both in Southeast Portland. Along the way, the community bought a former elementary school in Clatskanie and transformed it into Great Vow Monastery. But a two-year search for their own space in Portland had stalled.

heart-of-wisdom-zendo.JPGView full sizeBenjamin Brink, The OregonianTony Mandella works restoring the old sanctuary floor in the zendo space, the Heart of Wisdom meditation hall.
"We were a little like a potted plant," says Patrick Green, president of the community's board. "We could only get so big. But as the community matured and more people were ready to teach, we didn't have the space to do it."

Then one evening in October, at the end of a meditation session, someone handed Hogen Bays, one of the spiritual leaders of the Zen Community of Oregon, a crumpled newspaper clipping. It was a public notice about the Church of the Living God property and the auction. Bays and members of the board met with the pastor of the congregation, the Rev. Roy Maxie, and visited the church.

"When we first came into the place, all those years of singing and praying had saturated the building," Bays remembers. "Everybody who walked into the chapel said, 'Ooh, this feels really good.' There were 120 years of spiritual practice soaking the walls."

Bays says he made Maxie an offer. The Buddhist community was willing to pay a fair price for the property, $205,000, so the pastor could pay off the church debts and have a little left over for his next ministry. It was an offer in keeping with the concept of karma -- that actions have consequences and good actions have good consequences. The Zen community could have waited for the auction and probably spent less to acquire the property, but Bays didn't want to benefit from another group's difficult circumstances.

"There's something to be said, especially with religion, about going in with a clean and healthy beginning," Bays says. "If we had taken advantage of somebody's bad luck, that would have set a certain tone."

The sale was final in December, just weeks before the auction date. The Zen community had already decided on what to call their new temple.

"We thought long and hard about names," Bays says. "Great Vow has 'Monastery' in its name so that we won't deviate and become a retreat center. 'Monastery' has a clear purpose." Ultimately, the community chose to combine two central Buddhist principles.

"Our tradition emphasizes wisdom as worthy of being cultivated," Bays says. "But wisdom can appear to be cool, removed. So we wanted to include the idea of warmth, compassion and outreach, the essence of real spiritual life. So, Heart of Wisdom."

The Zen Community of Oregon held a blessing of their new space on Jan. 1 and soon began work on the building. The roof was replaced with one meant to last 50 years. A new furnace was installed, walls were patched and painted. The wood floor of the sanctuary -- now a zendo, or meditation hall -- was taken up, the nails removed, the individual planks sanded and replaced so they could be refinished.

On a recent Wednesday morning, Evan Corcoran was among the volunteers working on the floor, checking each board for stubborn flakes of paint and pushing putty into the occasional crack. Corcoran has practiced Zen since 2000, consistently since 2005. He lived at the monastery in Clatskanie for more than three years before moving to Portland in February 2011.

"I owe a massive debt," he says quietly. "When I arrived at the monastery, I was borderline suicidal." The kindness and quiet that he experienced at Great Vow and the structure of monastic life soothed him, he says. "I needed time to not think."

Corcoran helped install the heated bamboo floor in the monastery dojo. Now he walks several blocks from his home to Heart of Wisdom to make what is, for him, a very personal contribution. "I work out of gratitude," he says. "I'll be tied to this place forever."

Nancy Kodo Conover, a member of the Zen community, coordinates the work on the temple. She says about 100 people have spent time on the project -- individually, in small groups and as larger work parties. Buddhist practice influences the way she and the others see their labor.

"Work is one of our practices," she says. "When we are mindfully doing the work, doing our best, taking care of our equipment and tools, we reflect on how the results of our work will be there for a long time, affecting the next people to come along. If we do a lousy job, someone will have to repair our mistakes.

"Someone built it for us. We are building it for the next generation to come."

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