The last day of summer

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why must we wear masks at the beach where the air is fresh and disease free? (youtube.com)

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The last day of summer is sometimes known as the first day of fall. It was for us at Dharma Buddhist Meditation as we headed over to the Harvest of Peace equinox festival at Pasadena's Neighborhood Church.

We were there to participate in Tibetan-style meditation in the cultish Shambhala lineage of the predatory pair of gurus, "The Sakyong" (not to be confused with the Sakya, as in Shakyamuni the Buddha) and his dad, the creator of the lineage, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, infamously revealed in the Crazy Wisdom doc:

crazy wisdom: life and times (trailer)

But before sitting and walking meditation, we were brought outside to the labyrinth as the officiant burned joss and we all chanted an invocation for raising wind horse for Lahsang.

She sprinkled powder on the charcoal and added juniper so that smoke continued throughout our English/Sanskrit chanting:

"The assembly of the three jewels, the three roots, gods and sages,

The three protector-mahasattvas, Jayadevi,

Padma Thotring and the vidyadharas of India and Tibet,

The glorious protector Ganapati with the divine armies of dralas,

The five patron gods, the great being Gesar, and so on,

All those gods of the cosmic lineage who command coincidence --

To all of those I offer clouds of real and imagined good offerings,

I offer you this cleansing offering: With kindness please grant your blessing.

Curses, spells, burial sorcery, dons, obstructing spirits, obstacles, and so on -- May all

these signs of the weakening and corruption of wind horse be pacified. Strife, enmity,

scandal, warfare, lawsuits, recurrent calamity, and so on -- Pacify all such obstructing discord.

Multiply the power and strength of the virtuous wind horse,

The four-legged miracle.

Please accomplish the spiritual and temporal, supreme and ordinary siddhis

And without exception whatever mind desires.

OM VAGISVARA MUM

OM MANI PADME HUM

OM VAJRAPANI HUM

OM HA-KSA-MA-LA-VA-RA-YAM

OM AH HUM VAJRA-GURU-PADMA-SIDDHI HUM

HA HA HE HE HO HO SARVAVIJAYA-SIDDHIHOH

TAK SENG KHYUNG DRUK DIYAR KYE

Gather all, SARVA, gather gather HOH

Rouse all our life, virtue and glorious wind horse higher and higher

OM YE DHARMA HETU-PRABHA VA HETUM TESHAM TATHAGATO HY A VADAT

TESHAM CA YO NIRODHA EVAM VADIMAHASRAMANAH SVAHA

(Then we chanted this warrior's cry over and again:)

KIKI SO SO ASHE LA GYALLO

TAK SENG KHYUNG DRUK DI YAR KYE!

It was very witchy with the most deceptively polite suburban crones this side of Downtown L.A. It left us wanting for the innocent South and Southeast Asian Buddhist ceremonies, full of devotion and wisdom, faith and insight. "Esoteric Buddhism" can have a vibe that gets a wee bit woo-woo and weird. But fall is here. Bye-bye, summer.