Religious Service Report; Tibetan Buddhist Green Tara Practice. Gar Drolma Choling is a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Center located in Kettering,

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1 Brad Sprauer Eastern Religions (REL 111) Religious Service Report; Tibetan Buddhist Green Tara Practice Gar Drolma Choling is a Tibetan Buddhist Dharma Center located in Kettering, OH. It was founded in 2002 by high lama (spiritual leader) Garchen Rinpoche. They hold a Sunday discussion of Buddhist philosophy and practice followed by a Green Tara practice which focuses specifically on compassion. They also have a Calm Abiding meditation practice on Thursday evenings. This is a silent meditation that is the basis for all Buddhist practice. The service I attended was Sunday s Green Tara Practice. I arrived a few minutes late due to the fact that I was looking for a single standing structure of some sort, a house, a building anything but what I found, which was a storefront in a small strip of retail stores on a busy suburban street. The only way I spotted it was by the prayer flags that fluttered in the breeze above the sidewalk. The Dharma Center seemed out of place in the contrast of the western consumerism that surrounded it. I walked in the front door as quietly as I could, as the discussion had already started. Once inside, the contrast I noted as I stood outside in the parking lot melted away. I had stepped into another world, a very peaceful, welcoming world. The fact that I was in the space that may have previously been occupied by a comic book shop, a tile store, or maybe a Honeybaked ham store meant nothing, I was in a place that transcended the mere

2 building that surrounded it. This location seemed the perfect metaphor for Buddhism. Being a bit self conscience for arriving late, I quickly removed my shoes and placed them neatly in a line next to the others under a coat rack. A lady in the back row turned to me, smiled widely and said, Welcome, have a seat anywhere. I found a place in the back row of about 5 rows which were split down the middle by a small aisle. The rows were made up of long decorated rugs and the seats were made up of an assortment of small pillows of various sizes, shapes and colors which sat neatly behind simple red handmade tables on which rested 2 small booklets. Knowing a little bit about meditation practice, I sat cross legged on a cushion and quietly pulled my right foot onto my left leg; the half lotus position. I took this opportunity to take in my surroundings. I didn t get far in my scanning of the room when my eyes fell upon a man sitting peacefully in the front of the room to the left of the woman who was leading the discussion. He was dressed in yellow and crimson robes, his head was showing a few days stubble from being shaved and he occasionally glanced up and briefly scanned the room. He blended so well into the room s décor that I was a bit taken aback by the discovery of his presence. The center of focus in this room was 3 tapestries hanging on the front wall. The center tapestry was an ornate image of what appeared to be at first glance, some type of Hindu deity. Apparently the image of a woman, she sat in the half lotus position upon a lotus flower throne. She had green skin, several prayer beads around her neck, dressed in ornate red and golden robes and was holding a large blue flower. I later learned this was

3 the image of the Green Tara. Green Tara was a princess in life who took the vow to return as a woman in order to help other sentient beings achieve enlightenment. She spoke the following vow; "There are many who desire Enlightenment in a man's body, but none who work for the benefit of sentient beings in the body of a woman. Therefore, until Samsara is empty, I shall work for the benefit of sentient beings in a woman's body." My observation was that the tapestries on either side of her seemed to not be deities at all, but simply Tibetan art. Directly below the tapestries was a three tiered altar decorated with incense burners of various types, flowers, small statues of Buddha and most noticeably 3 or 4 pictures of what seemed to be Tibetan spiritual leaders, monks, or maybe friends of the dharma center. They obviously were of great importance to be placed upon the altar. The surrounding walls were decorated with photos, tapestries, and long pieces of colored silk draped over some of the pictures. Although overall very colorfully decorated, the colors that were most prominent were yellow, gold and crimson. These colors seemed to shine through every aspect of the décor. Now that I had taken in the beautiful surroundings I focused my attention on the discussion at hand. It was an open discussion regarding compassion. They spoke of deity, Green Tara, Buddha and ending the suffering of sentient beings. The one thing that struck me was the mention over and over about deity. This was confusing for me as I know Buddhism to not subscribe to the idea of deity. This being an open discussion, I wasted no time in asking about it. Before I even finished my sentence, the speaker smiled widely and everyone in the room

4 seemed to take a deep breath, turn and nod in agreement. Apparently I touched on a subject they all struggled with. At this point conversation ensued, with everyone giving me their ideas on what deity means in Tibetan culture and what it means in the West. They explained with fervor what it meant to them as Buddhists. The energy in the room was becoming very high and I happily breathed it in. During the discussion several more people had arrived. Nearly an hour had passed and the time for discussion needed to come to a close and the actual service begin. We took a short break and I was invited to share in tea and social time. I was greeted warmly and felt very welcome. I discussed Buddhism, the fact that I was there to do my report as well as the fact that I d always wanted to come to a dharma center. After about 10 minutes, the service was about to begin and we were asked to take our seats. The service began by a group reading of an opening prayer that was found in the booklets from the small red table in front of each participant. It was read in English, then in the Tibetan language. The words were written phonetically in English under the Tibetan words so everyone could follow along. Next was the silent meditation. The room became perfectly still, the only thing I could hear was the sound of my own breath. I began meditating. As a beginner, I was waiting for the distractions to begin entering my mind as they always did. But for some reason they came in fewer numbers this time and with much less ferocity as in my typical attempts at meditation. It wasn t long before I was in a deeper state of relaxation and peace that I d ever been before. Group meditation is definitely

5 something I will pursue in the future. The meditation lasted only about 10 minutes but it seemed a lot longer to me as I was enjoying this rare state of stillness and silence. The next portion of the service was the chanting. Everyone in the room chanted to the mantra of Tara: OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA. I started to follow along, but decided to simply continue my meditation as the group chanting was incredibly soothing. I opened my eyes to the sound of fingers snapping at the end of each mantra spoken. I noticed that several members of the group were making hand gestures, or mudras that went along with the mantra. It was fascinating. The chanting went on for quite some time. The next portion of the service was the reading of more prayers by the group as the monk played a small drum at various points of each prayer. The prayers were all in Tibetan and once again instead of trying to follow along, I simply took in the whole experience. As the prayers were being said, I glanced around the room to get an idea of the kind of people that were in attendance. There were people of all races and ethnicities, men and women alike. Some had an elaborate spread before them of malas (prayer beads), prayer wheels (a device that is spun with one hand while praying), books, bells and other tools while others had nothing, they simply sat in silence. I did notice however, that almost everyone had prayer beads either around their necks or around their wrists. I also noticed that during the chanting, they were using them to count out the number of chants. After a few short prayers spoken in English, the service came to a very quiet end with a simple, thank you spoken quietly from the front of the room. Everyone

6 slowly stood up and stretched from sitting for so long. I noticed that I felt none of the aches in my knees or back that I typically feel after meditating at home. Most people quietly moved to the back of the room, put their shoes on and left while some stayed and chatted. Part of me wanted to stay and ask more questions, but part of me wanted to leave with the happy, content and peaceful feeling I had. I opted to leave and bask in this feeling before my return to the world dissipated it. This experience was very enlightening for me. I spent the rest of the day in a very peaceful state. I had experienced a part of Buddhism you can t get from simply reading the words of the Buddha, meditating alone or learning about in the classroom. I had experienced the power and energy of peace, compassion and love practiced with a group of people who not only practice it, but live it.