Reflections on Summer 2009 from Vajra Dakini Nunnery

As the Peace Village begins to settle for the fall and winter, we look back on the Vajra Dakini Nunnery’s activities there.

We opened the Peace Village for the summer by hanging the long prayer flag in the center of the peace village, that Ani Tsultrim makes every year. One of her special Dharma commitments is to make these large hanging prayer flags for the Peace Village and Ven. Dhyani’s home.

A joyous animal blessing at the Sunray Peace Stupa followed. The whole community attended with their dogs, cats, chickens and horses! We all circumambulated the stupa and liberated worms into the Peace Village gardens (saving their lives from being sold as bait).

This has been a year of planning and preparation. One important legal aspect for our future Vajra Dakini Temple and Library at the Peace Village is our zoning status. The Vermont Act 250 and Lincoln zoning permits that we received at 2007 are time limited. We needed to begin construction this year or loose our zoning entirely! At the same time an exquisite statue of White Tara was donated to the nunnery. We proposed to the state that we build a Tara Temple on the Nunnery Peace Village site as a start on our future Temple/Library project. They approved our zoning for another five years. (Zoning can be one of the most difficult aspects of building a public building in Vermont).

Auspiciously we found a glass tea house suitable for a temple the White Tara. With great gratitude we are finished in our fundraising efforts to install the statue at the Peace Village. Currently we are rolling the thousands of mantras to fill the statue for it’s consecration next year. Please joins us for “Mantra Rolling Parties” during the winter.

This museum quality statue, Tara and her beautiful temple will enhance the Peace Village as a significant pilgrimage site. After consecration the statue is considered to be inseparable from White Tara herself, the Buddha of Long Life and Healing. She is especially appropriate, as we are a community of many healers, and our annual Healing Ceremony at Elders is the culmination of our ceremonial year.

As the summer ended, Lama Gape conducted a Mountain Purification Ceremony by Water for the entire Valley. He blessed water by capturing the reflections of all the nunnery’s statues and thangkas in a mirror and then pouring water on the mirror, thus blessing the water. This water was then carried to the Peace Village where Lama Gape recited a text as he reflected the mountains in all the directions. He then purified them by washing the reflection with the blessed water.

We closed our summer season by adding landscaping to the stupa. An entry hedge has been created with cypress, juniper and holly. The planting design reflects the “One Taste” of our practice. Juniper and cypress are used in smoke offerings of both lineages, while the holly is considered a Vajrayogini plant. The shrubs are gathered in groups of three reflecting the Three Flames and the Three Jewels; the four punctuating plants remind us of the Four Posts of the Medicine Cabin and the Four Immeasurables.

It is lovely to witness the growing beauty of our community practice as Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo’s vision manifests.

 

Khenmo Drolma

Abbess

Vajra Dakini Nunnery

 

********* Please visit the Vajra Dakini Nunnery website to learn how you can support the nuns and participate in their activities. 

Sunray Meditation Society is connected with 3 wisdom streams

Sunray Meditation Society: Our mission is to preserve and share teachings of the Peacemaker from the Cherokee tradition and methods of peacemaking of the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual tradition.


Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, also recognized as Pema Sangzin Khandro, is founder and Spiritual Director of Sunray Meditation Society and Principle Chief of the Green Mountain Ani Yun Wiwa Band of the Tsalagi or Cherokee People. Sunray is recognized as the home fire of the Green Mountain Ani Yun Wiwa Cherokee.

Sunray offers three wisdom streams.

• Ywahoo Lineage of the Cherokee People
• Nyingma Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism
• Drikung Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism

Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo was trained by her grandparents. She is the 27th generation to carry the ancestral wisdom of the Ywahoo lineage, committed to rekindle the fire of clear mind and right relationship in these changing times.

In 1983, Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo was recognized by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche of the Nyingma lineage as Pema Sangzin Khandro. In 1986, Sunray was recognized by His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche as a Drikung Kagyu Dharma Center.

For more information, visit the Sunray Meditation Society website. 

New Moon and Autumnal Equinox Sacred Fire -- September 20th at the Peace Village

Ceremony will begin at 7:30 am in the Sacred Arbor to celebrate the September New Moon (September 18) and the Autumnal Equinox (September 22) at the Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont.


Stick dancers, drummers, singers to meet at 7:30, followed by lighting of the sacred Fire.

PLEASE COME JOIN US!  All are welcome. 

"It is very beneficial to all of us that these ceremonial Fires are being kindled as it is the Fire is the spark of our pure nature, recalling us to enlightened action. This fire of clear mind is in everyone, and to remove any obscuration of its clarity is the duty of all people in this time, that each one may remember and find our way again to the source of our being." Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo in Voices of Our Ancestors.

Dreaming the Heart of the Peace Village

This year our family is celebrating 21 consecutive years of engaging with activities at the Sunray Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont. There is nowhere else, up to this point in our lives, with which to compare the impact of our experiences from this sacred ground which have inspired such a unique and beneficial evolution of consciousness in community. First to express gratitude to the ancestors of Ywahoo lineage, whose foresight to create such a sanctuary was remarkable and to the living lineage holder, Chief, and Spiritual Director, Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, who has persevered tirelessly, with the help of many hands, to manifest and develop this prophetic vision. In the following words are shared a few anecdotes from the countless collection of memories from our direct experience. Simply, there is such good fortune for all who are able to find their way here.

To finish reading this personal account, please click here to visit the Sunray Peace Village blog.

Sunray United Nations Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Update

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was celebrated Monday, August 10, 2009 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. There were messages from the Secretary General, President of the General Assembly, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. There was a cultural presentation by the Crimean Tatar Dance Ensemble then a panel discussion on Indigenous Peoples and HIV/AIDS.

CRIMEAN TATAR DANCE ENSEMBLE

KENT LEBSOCK, Owe-Aku-Bring Back the Way – a traditional Lakota (Sioux) Cultural Preservation organization.

OLIVIA SLOAN, (Navajo/Tohono O’Odham) Special Liasion, Partnerships, Programs and Policy, Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

TONYA GONELLA FRISCHER (Onondaga Nation, Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy Haudenosaunee - United States) Member the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Chris Archibald, Director, Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada.








For more information: www.un.org/esa/ocdev/unpfii . Look for International Day, you can also view a video of the event.

Sandy Sheridan, Sunray UN/NGO Representative
9/1/09

Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo tele-teaching this Thursday, August 27th, and September 17th

Just as the wise gardener plants seeds in accordance with lunar cycles, we too may energize seed thoughts of accomplishment through understanding lunar cycles as a support for energizing the accomplishment of life and spiritual goals.

Consider that you are inseparable from the creative potential of the universe and that the thoughts you contemplate manifest within your life and circle of relationships. When you envision a goal that will benefit you and your relationships during the new moon it will develop and reveal results during the full moon. This process is supported through careful tending of your mind and receptive vision.

We shall discuss methods of utilizing lunar cycles in cultivating wisdom and skill during our next two monthly telephone seminars.  August 27th and September 17th. 

We will also consider the aspects of physical, emotional and intellectual cycles based on the number of days since your birth through the system of biorhythms as a support in manifesting joyful wisdom and skill.

6pm - Pacific Standard Time
7pm - Mountain Time
8pm - Central Standard Time
9pm - Eastern Standard Time

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Ripe Corn Ceremony at the Sunray Peace Village -- August 22nd

ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 22 AT 7:30 AM,

THE RIPE CORN CEREMONY WILL BE IN THE SACRED ARBOR AT THE SUNRAY PEACE VILLAGE IN LINCOLN, VT.

The Ceremonial Cycle of the Green Mountain Ani Yunwiwa is under the guidance of the Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo. We gather together at ceremonial time to ever more skillfully generate love and manifest wisdom mind. We return kindness to the land, our ancestors, and all our relations with prayers of appreciation for seven generations unto now. May our hearts and minds ever reflect the mystery as it is.

The Ripe Corn Ceremony is part of the Planting Cycle ceremonies and celebrates the kindness and the opportunities to show appreciation for the life force as it manifests in all of the edible kingdom. This is a time of gathering corn from all the fields and bringing a portion to be blessedat the community "fireplace" and also to prepare by saving seeds for next year's harvest. Everyone is Welcome! Please come.

Stick Dancers, singers and drummers to gather at 7:30 AM, followed by the lighting of the Sacred Fire. Please note that this is a Saturday Ceremony.

White Tara, to be placed at the Sunray Peace Village, is being prepared at the Vajra Dakini Nunnery

THE WHITE TARA ARRIVES IN VERMONT

The Vajra Dakini Nunnery's White Tara, created and donated by Maury Lowe, Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts and an internationally known sculptor, has completed her journey from New Mexico to Vermont. White Tara is known for her blessings for long life and healing!

We will then fill the cavity in this bronze sculpture with mantras and prayers. We have found a beautiful glass temple to house her at the Peace Village. This will be a most auspicious pilgrimage site.

Please visit our Sunray Peace Village blog to read more about this precious statue and how you can help Vajra Dakini Nunnery complete this project.

Achi Festival at Vajra Dakini Nunnery. August 20-23rd. Empowerment Aug. 20 at 7 pm

Achi is Tara as Grandmother, ever watchful and protective of her children. In this special event we will visualize her as both peacefully radiating loving kindness and wrathful; commanding with compassion that all harmful activity cease.

An empowerment of the Pure Vision Achi practice of Gyabra Rinpoche will be offered Thursday evening at 7pm at Vajra Dakini Nunnery. Teaching and practice sessions will be offered over the weekend.

This is a special opportunity to focus on dispelling obstacels - personal, national and global. The force of a community praying together is extraodinary. You are welcome to come for any part of the event.

Thurs 7pm, Fri -Sat 9-12, 2-5, 7-9
Sun 9-12, 2-5

August 2-6 Ngondro Retreat at Vajra Dakini Nunnery with Khenmo Drolma

Ngondro means "preliminary practice". It begins with contemplating our precious human life. It includes Refuge, Vajrasattva, Mandala and Guru Yoga practices, the foundation for accomplishing any other practice. It is the basis for all vajrayana Buddhist practice. All Ngondro students are welcome. For students who wish to begin Ngondro, Khenmo will give the Drikung transmission of Ngondro.

This is being offered at the Vajra Dakini Nunnery, near the Peace Village in Lincoln Vermont.

There is room for "day students" in the Ngondro Retreat. We will begin with a talk at 2PM and continue into evening practice on Sunday Aug 2. You may attend morning and/or evening practice sessions if you come for an orientation and the Sunday talk. Please register if you wish to attend. You can email me for the application form. The orientation will follow Sunday public meditation 9:30-11:00. The retreat concludes following the morning meditation Aug 6.

Khenmo Drolma

Abbess

Vajra Dakini Nunnery