On this Saka Dawa Day I am awe struck and humbled by the Buddha’s determination to relinquish neurosis and wake up. It makes me think of how deeply I am attached to my world, and although I pay lip service to the Buddha Dharma I have to wonder if I really do want to attain enlightenment or would rather have a glass of wine and watch the movie I just rented, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Golden Buddha, Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India

Today to celebrate the Buddha’s enlightenment and Parinirvana I decided to read through my old notes of some of the teachings I have received over the years. I have actually had the good fortune of having received guidance in Bodh Gaya, the very place of Buddha’s awakening and Kushinigar the place of his Parinirvana from some of my teachers. Some of the pith instructions included here were from talks given in Bodh Gaya and elsewhere.

After accepting the offering of rice milk from the Brahmin girl Sujata the Buddha bathed in the Narajara River. He then took his seat under the Bodhi tree saying: “Here on this seat my body may shrivel up, my skin, my bones, my flesh may dissolve, but my body will not move from this seat until I have attained enlightenment, so difficult to obtain in the course of many kalpas.”

Wow, now that is taking one’s seat. So today I have devoted a little bit of time thinking about what is enlightenment and how I might move or continue in that direction. Looking through my old notes I thought I would share some of those teachings. These are from handwritten notes, now hard to read so if I have made some mistakes please forgive me.

On Impermanence

Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche

“Conflicting emotions come from within this mind, this inner security we have set up for ourselves, where we think of our emotions as legitimate. For the world to function it is not necessary to have a belief that it is real or permanent. If I am convinced that all phenomena are impermanent I am convinced that my distractions will be reduced. We have to give up wrong views, an improper attitude towards others, that everyone is ever lasting …There is a discrepancy between how things are and how we see them. We know everything is impermanent but we would rather see it as permanent.”

Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche, December 10, 2000, Bodh Gaya, India

While circumambulating the Maha Bodhi Temple I asked Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche how one should practice when not sitting on the cushion and he left me with this pithy one liner.

“You should make impermanence your post-meditation practice.”

During this same series of teachings given at Sechen Monastery, in Bodh Gaya, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche had these words of wisdom to share, which might be of some relief to practitioners in these tough economic times.

Enough is enough

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Kushingar, India

“Buddha has said that his genuine disciples will never be without food, clothing or shelter. Anything beyond that is to maintain your spider web. We need to have faith that by taking refuge and pursuing the path of the Bodhisattva that somehow we will be taken care of. If you don’t have faith, you are never going to feel secure, you are never going to feel you have enough. To do genuine practice one needs to reduce one’s activities and become outrageously unconventional”

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, December 9, 2000,Bodh Gaya, India

I am not sure my wife will buy this logic as I continue to struggle to make a living as a photographer and stubbornly refuse to look for another day job.

On making offerings

Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Nangchen, Tibet 20

“People may object to the idea of making offerings to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, saying that you should instead give alms to the poor and needy – that is more useful. If we are only taking the materialistic point of view then that would be true. However, the three jewels, the precious Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are endowed with blessings, but in order to receive the blessings that are naturally present one needs to open up and totally let go of all levels of attachment in body, speech and mind. The way to do this is to relinquish clinging. By the act of offering everything on an outer, inner and innermost level we insure that everything we could possibly cling to is relinquished. By opening up totally and letting go of all objects of clinging we become open to the blessings that naturally enter due to the power of former aspirations and vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

It is not that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have any need for our offerings. In Tibet, somesay they waste so much butter making butter lamps. How could the Buddhas and Bodhisatvas have any need for that? The fact is they don’t. What happens while making an offering, for example lighting a butter lamp, is that one calls to mind the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with a lot of appreciation. With great respect we call to mind the superior qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind, his virtues, activities and so forth and each time we bring these qualities to mind it changes us in some way. There is an instant of admiration that immediately takes place and it opens our minds. When we light a butter lamp we imagine not just this one lamp but innumerable lamps we are offering and we make the wish that these lamps will help dispel the darkness and ignorance of all sentient beings. All of these together – the devotion, keeping the qualities of enlightenment in mind, letting go of attachment, making offerings and the strong aspiration to benefit beings, coincide to perfect the accumulation of merit. So it is much more than simply lighting a butter lamp.“

Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Leggett, California 1999

On Buddha

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

“Nothing is more important than looking at your mind in the present moment. Recognition of this is termed Buddha, non-recognition is termed sentient being. The most important thing is to look again and again at the true nature of your mind. No matter what we experience we should look directly at the nature of our minds…Buddhahood is achieved in an instant. The instant we recognize the nature of our mind we are a Buddha.”

The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Seattle, Washington

“Shakyamuni Buddha was a human prince. He was an Indian guy, which we often forget. We think of him as a glowing golden statue, a beautifully carved wooden statue, or a stone statue, but that’s not true. That’s not who he was.

It’s very important for us to see clearly that our teachers are human beings. They’re all on the path to enlightenment. The historic Buddha is different, he’s already enlightened, but the rest are all in the same boat. The only difference is that there may be different levels of realization; some are on the tenth bodhisattva bhumi, some are on another of the bodhisattva bhumis. Some may be on an ordinary bhumi.”

The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche - Penetrating Wisdom

Seeing our teacher as the Buddha. That’s another one to ponder. But I guess if we see the Buddha as a human being we could see our teacher as the Buddha.

What is enlightenment?

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Vancouver

“Pointing out in Ati yoga, this is it. If you have merit and devotion after that moment, from then on your outlook is totally different. Having no paranoia, not bothered by fears and expectations – that is enlightenment. In Ati yoga, if you have intense devotion towards the guru all the Buddhas qualities can be transferred to you. Actually, you already have it but you still need some downloading action. The Buddha said, “I show you the path of liberation, but understand liberation depends on you.”

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

From Guru Yoga teaching on Longchen Nyingtik Ngöndro

OK, sounds so simple. So close you can’t see it. If only I had true devotion and I could get out of my own way.

Wow, big white guy, Old Delhi, India

I spent last summer working on a project for Drukpa Publications photographing their Tibetan monastic tradition in India, Ladakh, Bhutan and Nepal.  I found myself  in Delhi more often than I liked. It’s the Delhi curse, second only to Delhi belly, and it always pulls you back whenever you want to fly somewhere else in India or Asia. After recovering from jet-lag, with time on my hands, tired of Indian TV and having no need to go shopping, a trip to Old Delhi can make things real again and definitely put your feet back on the ground. Old Delhi is built upon old cities and many traditions and is the only area of Delhi that really feels like ancient India. It was once the capital of Muslim India. Old Delhi is also a great place to find cheap food and guesthouses if you are on a tight budget.

I have gone to Old Delhi by rickshaw, taxi and metro. The metro is by far the fastest way to get anywhere in Delhi if you and your destination are near a stop. If you end up taking the metro get off at Chandni Chowk Metro Station (Old Delhi Station entrance). Chandni Chowk is the busiest market area in Delhi. It dates back to 1638. Walking through the narrow alleys you find silversmiths, repair shops, tailors, spicy street food vendors, sweetmeat shops, part shops, and just about anything else you need to put your world together. Outside the alleyways you will also find India’s largest Mosque, Jama Masjid. The crowded streets can be overwhelming if you are not feeling open and confident when you go, but if you are, Old Delhi is an oasis of exotic images, sounds and smells.

Cow in courtyard, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Nepal

I discovered the Holga while working in Kham, a province in eastern Tibet. In 2005 traveled to Nangchen in Kham along with a film crew working on a project on a unique group of Tibetan monastics known as the Nangchen Nuns. It was an arduous trip to get there, in my case requiring travel from the US to India to Kathmandhu to Xining to Jekundo, to Sechu and then through the countryside of the Tibetan Plateau by jeep and by horseback to the nunnery called Dechen Ling. There was no electricity at this first nunnery we came to and one of the monks traveling with us rigged up a multiple outlet I had to a generator. We all plugged in our battery chargers; mine was for a Canon DS1 Mark II, the largest mega-pixel 35mm digital camera at the time that cost $8000. You might wonder what fool would pay that much for a digital camera. All I can say is that at the time Getty Images, my main source of income, was requiring 50 meg files for images they accepted and this was the only 35mm camera at the time that could provide that large a file. Anyway, that was pre-depression. Now you can buy the equivalent or better for a third of the price.

Back at the nunnery we returned to pick up our chargers and found the generator wasn’t running. All the battery chargers were fried. After a flash of panic I thought about the Holga I had brought along. I had planned to try it out just for kicks. I had briefly tested it with a couple of rolls in Katmandhu so I knew, even though it looked and felt like a toy, it worked. I began to use it for the portrait and landscape work. I have since fallen in love with this cheap plastic toy camera; of course it is made in China. I have since discovered that Holgas have become a cult in the toy camera world used by a growing number of fine art, street photographers and even photojournalists. There are a number of on-line groups and websites where you can find eccentric people dedicated to a variety of toy cameras and the cool images they produce.

View from Dzong-go-ling Nangchen, Tibet

The Holga creates an ethereal poetic image with its soft focus, misty highlights and shallow depth of field. You will find your image surrounded by a vignette caused by light leaking around its poorly anchored back. In my view this actually adds to the image bringing the viewer’s attention directly to your subject. Having learned the hard way after the back fell my off my Holga a couple of times exposing parts of my first few rolls I secured it with some old twine I found laying around the nunnery. This camera was a perfect fit for the rugged outback of Tibet, which has no tolerance at all for anything hi-tech.

I think the Holga can help you break out of whatever box you find yourself stuck in. In my case that box was framing the world in the same way I always did with perfect focus and my habitual way of composing. I don’t consciously think about it but my mind tends to divide the world into thirds and place the subject along some of those major intersections. I’m not sure how I became so indoctrinated to composing this way, something western people have inherited from painters of the Renaissance. Using this crude plastic camera not only causes one to ignore the rule of thirds, but its clunky shutter causes a unique and uncontrollable radial blur. Each click creates its own unexpected mystery. Because the Holga actually looks like a cheap toy camera it is less intimidating for you subjects than the presence of a huge digital camera or two hanging from your neck.

The Holga helps bring a fresh, open and more contemplative view that the world, free from checking your digital image after each shot for exposure, focus and composition, I found myself more open to the direct experience unfolding. You are there, your subject is there, you are both in the perceptual landscape together and there is nothing digital in between.

Here are 10 tips for getting the best results if you decide to venture into this esoteric world of Holga.

1. Make sure you secure the back because it will fall off if you rely on the tin clips that come with the camera. I have found two tabs of male Velcro on the removable back and front and two longer strips of Velcro that wrap around the sides and anchor to this work the best. But you can use two rubber bands, two pieces or twine or just about anything. The only problem with these other approaches is that they tend to partially block the viewfinder.
2. Use 400 ASA 120mm print film for black and white or color as this gives you the most exposure latitude. I have tried slide film but your percentage of usable exposure will be greatly reduced.
3. The Holga pretends to have two exposures (sunny and shady) but I learned from Randy at Holga Mods that these are not real. Randy says the swing arm activated by the sunny/cloudy switch has a larger, rectangular aperture, which is useless because the smaller one is fixed. He will modify your Holga with two real apertures of your choice f8 and f11 so you will have that extra latitude when you need it. On request he modified one Holga for me with f4 and f 11, but f4 makes it very difficult to get anything in focus.
4. Be careful loading the film to make sure it is winding smoothly because it tends to come loose or stop winding before you 12 frames are used. There are a number of modification for this that can be found on the web and a couple of ways to add foam, plastic or cardboard that will act as a pressure plate to keep the film plane flatter or as a film tensioner but I have found these methods more trouble than the are worth. If you are looking for sharpness across the entire film plane you probably should be using a different camera.
5. Learn to judge distance because the Holga has only 4 icons to focus with: one man, a couple and a baby, a group of seven and a mountain. For my taste it is more intriguing to have a central focus sharp and the background soft. Breaking the conventional rule of placing your subject off to the side and placing it dead center seems to work best. You do have two options that come with the Holga for frame proportion, one for 6 x 6 and the other 6 x 4.5. I prefer the 6 x 6. You can always crop later.
6. If you like to shoot in low light you can have your Holga modified with a tripod socket and an exposure bulb. But be forewarned that if you add the exposure bulb modification it is very easy to forget that you have pushed it in and then all your exposures will be subject to how long the shutter releases as you push it. For the most part this creates blurry pictures but you will get a few cool motion blurs if you are lucky. You can also add a cable release, but I found I rarely used this as it tended to get in the way of the shutter button and then you have this dangling release cable to deal with.
7. You can add filters and even and filter adapter for wide angle attachments to your Holga. The kinko wide angle adapter lens works well and creates some cool spherical wide angle images. Techniques for this can be found on holgamods site.
   

   Holga flash fill - Twilight nun, Getchak nunnery, Tibet

8. If you don’t like the light leaks that are a natural part of the Holga you can spray paint the inside of your Holga flat black.
   There’s a whole article on fixing light leaks with other techniques at holgamods.
9. Carry a flash and try it out on your Holga for flash fill. I have had some good results covering the flash with Kleenex or a translucent plastic diffuser
10. Stay loose, be open to anything and have fun. You are bound to be at least surprised,if not pleased your images.

[View with PicLens]

modify your holga and other great tips:

http://www.holgamods.com/

links: http://www.lomography.com/holga/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1O1QcowaRw

http://www.argonauta.com/html/holga_cameras.htm

http://www.queenoftoycameras.com/

http://www.litfoto.com/holgalinks.html

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/holga

http://www.toycamera.com/

Here is a link to a small gallery of images: Holga Tibet password: Holga

http://archive.jamesgritz.com/c/jg/gallery-show/G0000R54nYNlU2do

Holga NY password: Holga http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/jg/gallery-show/G0000GR7xgxSBVes password: Holga

You can also see more or my Holga work by visiting jamesgritz.com

If you need a good laugh watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jedd2FiZTqM&feature=channel_page

We crowded into the small dark room and sat shoulder to shoulder. The ceiling was covered with years of soot so thick that black stalactites had formed. My eyes teared from the fumes of incense and the yak dung smoke leaking from a crude wood stove. In the dark corner, light spilled from the doorway illuminating an ancient face, deeply etched from the harsh Tibetan life at 14,000 feet. There, leaning back in her meditation box was Sherab Zangmo spinning her prayer wheel.

When Sherab Zangmo was a young nun, during a dark retreat (a Dzogchen practice of staying in total darkness for 49 days and nights), she had a vision of Yeshe Sogyal, Padmasambhava’s principle consort.

“Three times she offered me mudras (hand gestures) and then she became Tsang Yang Gyamtso (the student of the first Tsoknyi Rinpoche who started Getchak Nunnery). He came to rest on top of my head and then he dissolved into my body, speech and mind. We became one. I cried and cried. That moment I had a direct experience of the nature of my mind. I have had many experiences, good and bad, but my mind has remained stable, neither good nor bad.”

Enthralled with the concept of seeing the world through enlightened eyes I asked Sherab Zangmo, “Can you describe your perception of the world?”

She replied, “What arises in my mind now is the thought to benefit others.  On the other hand, I don’t cling to appearances as real, in the way that others do.”

Wangdrag Rinpoche, the head of Getchak nunnery, asked her, “Do they appear like a dream?”

“Yes, they appear illusory, like a dream,” she said.

When Sherab Zangmo died a few months ago the nuns reported that her heart stayed warm several days after her death. The Tibetans call this tugdam that they say sometimes occurs after the death of highly realized beings.

In 2005 I traveled with Tsoknyi Rinpoce III along with a small group students and a film crew to Nangchen, Tibet. Nangchen is located in the most southern part of the Qinghai Province of China. The first Tsoknyi Rinpoche was the root lama or principle teacher to the Nangchen Nuns. He was a forward thinker for his time and had the desire to create the same opportunity for women to practice and attain realization as the monks had. He had instructed his closest disciple, Tsang Yang Gyamtso to build a series of nunneries to fulfill this vision.

We had traveled over a thousand kilometers from Xining by jeep south along the “National highway”. This was a ride from hell that we though we would never survive.  It took over 18 hours to get to Jekyundo. After a couple of days in Jekyundo, we made our way to Sechu. From there we traveled through the countryside crossing rivers over fragile worn out wooden bridges, slipping and sliding along the grassy slopes to a tent camp where several nuns and a small Khampa group outfitted us with horses. They led us for another 8 hours across the high mountains of the Tibetan Plateau. We arrived at Getchak greeted by the sound of Tibetan horns and cymbals. The nuns were dressed in their finest dakini robes.

Getchak consists of a large central Abbey and a number of small earthen huts where up to a dozen nuns will live and practice together. The Nangchen nuns follow the practices based on the teaching of the first Tsoknyi Rinpoche who was considered an emanation of Ratna Lingpa. Tsoknyi Rinpoche III has characterized the heart of their practice as devotion and “pure perception.” Many nuns do three-year retreats, nine-year retreats and even life long retreats. A nun on retreat will practice day and night sitting in a wooden box that is only large enough to sit cross-legged. There is not enough room to lie down to sleep. A typical day begins at 3:30 in the morning and will include 4 three-hour meditation sessions. They will continue practicing dream yoga throughout the night.

In Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s memoirs, Blazing Splendor, he recalls the inner heat (tummo) practice of the Getchak nuns renowned throughout Tibet. In the middle of the Tibetan winter hundreds of nuns show their mastery of the practice called “the wet sheet”. Beginning at midnight they dip sheets in buckets of snow melted water and wrap their naked bodies in the wet sheets. Tulku Urgyen describes seeing the misty vapors evaporating as the sheets dry from their body heat from a long line of nuns while they walk in eight directions around the monastery.

Because Sherab Zangmo was a woman there won’t be anyone looking for her reincarnation. Because she was an old nun living in a remote region of eastern Tibet and because she never traveled to the west or went on teaching tours there will probably be little, if any mention of her.

When we left Sherab Zangmo her prayer wheel was spinning. She was reciting the Vajrasattva hundred-syllable mantra, emanating prayers of peace and power that came from a lifetime of practice.

Sherab Zangmo in Getchak, Tibet

http://archive.jamesgritz.com/c/jg/gallery-show/G0000NWTZNfg6YLI

Use above link to more photos: (password: Buddha)

The movie Blessings on the journey to visit the Nangchen nuns with Tsoknyi Rinpoche, produced by Victress Hitcock of Chariot Productions is due out the end of this month. To learn more and to order this inspiring movie visit www.chariotvideos.com