Lion’s Roar office welcomes Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche to Halifax, as he continues his Rebel Buddha book tour.
Buddhist teacher Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was confronted with protesting members of a little-known Rebel Buddha group in Halifax yesterday as he attempted to visit the offices of the Shambhala Sun Foundation. Luckily, Rinpoche’s compassion and charm won over the members of the rebel group, ending the intense standoff with a friendly photo op before continuing on with his visit to our offices.
When the ruckus subsided, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche joined our staff for tea and an extended discussion of our mutual mission to help genuine dharma become firmly established in the West, in both new and traditional ways.
Though born and raised in the traditional monastic setting, Rinpoche is always able to present fresh and surprisingly nontraditional suggestions for how the dharma might flourish in our times.
After the visit to our offices, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche’s Rebel Buddha book tour hit Halifax last night with a sparky conversation about 21st century Buddhism in the West in front of a large crowd on the Dalhousie University campus. Rinpoche’s talk and the follow-up panel discussion explored the ways the heart of teachings can go forward in the West free of the cultural trappings of the home countries in Asian.
Last night’s Rebel Buddha tour event followed a similarly provocative exploration in NYC, and tomorrow the tour goes on to Toronto before hitting Boulder and Seattle later in the month.
It's great to see a Buddhist teacher (and/or his supporters) kid around, legitimize humor, have fun. But I wonder about frivolity, and whether it works in the public theatre.
According to the article above, it would seem that the teacher was not the person who initiated this display.. but rather the SSF staff themselves.
Everything works in the public theatre, the only question is: to what end? In regards to promoting buddhism and spreading the dharma, a frivolous approach will certainly not accomplish much due to the nature of frivolity. But dancing around in a clown suit and telling dirty jokes doesn't speak anything about the nature of that persons dedication to the dharma. It speaks about their social expression and regard of public perception. Whether or not it is successful at promoting interest in the dharma at any given time with any given person is another issue which is taken care of by the dharma. If the goal is to interest them in the dharma so they will buy your cushions or attend your workshop or look up to you as a teacher (even partially), then it is something that YOU will have to take care of due to YOUR investment, and will never be resolved because that lack is always unfulfilled by its very nature.
There are a great many academically educated buddhists, who are quite straight-laced and entirely serious about buddhism and have clearly defined meditation schedules and even awards and titles and so on… and yet they are actually quite frivolous in terms of the dharma. Instead, they are much more concerned with their own appearance and the conceptualization of themselves in the social sphere. They may wish to portray a certain image of being a "buddhist", but do very little actual inner work. Meditation can very easily be used as self-medication and a buffer to the process, like any other drug. And its not just academics who fall into this problem.. any type of person you can think of encounters this.
The importance of the self-image and its portrayal to the public is a distinct issue in regards to any sadhana. It is all too easy to claim all manner of spirituality, philosophy, metaphysics, etc. etc. in the name of the self-image alone, and yet portray it by the name of any given tradition instead. The fundamental ignorance in regards to the construction of "I" or "me" is a root issue. It isn't enough to just understand it conceptually, or to experience its lack temporarily. It is a constant matter that requires the constancy which is the purpose of sadhana in the first place. That is why the work of sadhana is done.