today's topic - Trust Karma

At 05:33 AM the air raid sirens started to scream and we woke up like a blot of lightning and headed out running to the bomb shelter behind our house to take cover.

The interceptor missiles hit the enemy missile over our heads and fragments of them both landed not so far away from us and hit a children's house in the next Kibbutz over the hill.

Honestly? Did not think we will have that again. Did not think we were going to return to that reality. But this morning was a reminder of where we are living and what this country "looks" like to the world outside of our reality.

Now, I have not clue who is right and who is wrong. All I can say is that when people come to me and tell me: "this is MY land" I ask them if it will still be here when they are dead? They say yes.

"If you die and the land stays, YOU were the land's and not the other way around"

But no one is listening.

One mind is experiencing itself from every possible angle of experience. All is acceptable even at the lowest of the lowest of reality. If it were not allowed, it would not have manifested.

Life here is tough for us "non-Buddha" creatures, if the view is little, life is suffering.

Just wanted to let you know what is going on here this morning, I am sure that over there, where you are when you read this, no air raid siren has gone off in many years, if ever at all and hence, you have no idea how it feels when that siren starts to scream.

This land, the future of it, all hangs in the delicate balance of the craziness of man.

We are the ones making all the suffering occur out of our own ignorance of the nature of reality and hence, our true nature.

Now, here is the post I was about to send out to y'all, just did not think I will be up adding this (above) section to it:

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche's visit back in 2019 with the World Peace tabletop prayer wheel we offered him

In the year 2019, me and Ayelet took a flight to the USA to visit H.E. Garchen Rinpoche in Arizona at the Garchen Buddhist Institute.

We were there for the first time one year before on November of 2018 for the Vajrakilaya Drubchen.

On November of 2019 there was another Vajrakilaya Drubchen and we wanted to attend as well because the visit the year before was SO powerful for us we wanted to clear more obstacles on our path so we can craft more prayer wheels for the world.

That year, Rinpoche said on every opportunity he had in between the Vajrakilaya practice and recitation, when there was an hour of just "teachings":

"Trust Karma. You may not know why things in your life are going in this way or direction, but fully trust Karma, it will never fail"

Now, this sentence by Rinpoche, repeated time after time in the teachings he gave struck a chord in my being.

How are we supposed to trust Karma when it hits us in the face in such a way that we do not know how to even bounce back, and things look like they have taken a turn for the worst? When all breaks down, when all falls to pieces and there is no way to put it all back together again? When ALL the "conceptual markers" that – make up our reality have been pulled out and are now gone?… how are we supposed to just Trust Karma?  

This is where our practice of non-duality, of emptiness, of the nature of reality comes in with full force.  These are the times where we just need to use all we have learned and practiced.

This is where we just need to allow Karma to unfold, and take in these words, spoken by the living Buddha that he is, H.E. Garchen Rinpoche: "Trust Karma. Always trust Karma, it never ever fails"

Now, this is all fair and good in my mind when all is well and no problem arises in life.

But we were all in for a big surprise weren’t we?

Remember what happened 3 minutes later all over the world?

Covid-19 happened.

But that is just a small part of this story.

We (me and Ayelet) landed in Phoenix AZ and started our way to GBI.on the shuttle to Prescott I was spinning my spherical prayer wheel when a woman sitting next to Ayelet in the row in front of me asked her: "wow, that is a prayer wheel like I have never seen before! What kind of prayer wheel is that?!"

It ended up to be a very kind young woman that as it turns out, was in charge of Rinpoche's activities in Tibet at his monastery. We had a really interesting talk with her for the entire ride. As we approached our destination she said very casually: "you guys should go to Tibet and show them how to make prayer wheels! Let me ask Rinpoche what he thinks."

We both looked at each other and thought to ourselves: "yeah right, going to Tibet… what are the chances of that?!"

We arrived at Garchen Buddhist Institute two days before the Vajrakilaya Drubchen to help out with arranging and the likes so we all met at the dinning hall at some point and started our tasks.

At lunch time this amazing woman came up to us and said: "Rinpoche thinks this is an excellent idea and that you should both go, if you agree, I will arrange everything for you, plane tickets, visas, and please make a list of ALL the equipment you need to set the workshop up there."

Silence.

Me and Ayelet looked at each other stunned, looked at her and said: "OK we guess? We do not really know how to respond to this most generous kind offer"

Of course, we were so in shock by the proposition just handed to us… we? Go to Tibet? Teach them how to craft prayer wheels? This sounds like something they know how to do! After all, WE copied them! Hahahaha! This is crazy!

But if this is what Rinpoche is offering, we need to say yes.

One day before the Drubchen started we were told we had a privet session with Rinpoche. We were told we had to ask Rinpoche a question, and this is the only opportunity we will have because of the timeline of the coming Drubchen.

But we had no question to ask, we were just told to go to Tibet to Rinpoche's Gar monastery to help out in rebuilding it and teach them our skills.

What question could we possibly have to ask Rinpoche?

So, we came up with this question that seemed fair: "what is the best advice you have for us both?"

When it was time for the session with Rinpoche, we were called up to come. We were a group of 6 or 7 Israelis and we got a privet session all together.

We all sat on the floor as Rinpoche was asked one question after the other by his translator who sat next to him.

Every card that had a question on it was read to us in English, to Rinpoche in Tibetan and after Rinpoche answered in Tibetan we got the English translation.

One question after the other Rinpoche listened and answered.

Our question was the last one.

The translator asked him in Tibetan and Rinpoche started to laugh with such joy, pointing at us sitting on the floor and laughing, saying something in Tibetan as he was laughing so hard, the translator managed to translate:

"You STILL think you are TWO? hahahahahahaha!"

This was Rinpoche's answer to our question and we all laughed.

We asked the translator to ask Rinpoche if it is a good idea for us to go to Tibet at this time as he suggested we do? Is this the right time?

Rinpoche looked at us, still laughing and said: "sure! It is a great idea!"

Of course, none of us know what is about to hit the world… and change ALL of our plans completely…

The Drubchen started and it was 10 full days of 24 hours around the clock.

In between me and Ayelet were trying our best to not freak out completely…

And remember, Rinpoche said over and over again, trust karma.

Of course, we ended up going home and started our preparation to go. We made the list of the machines needed to be bought, we had plane tickets paid for, we had our visas arranged, but on the same day we went to Tel Aviv to pick up our visas from the Chinese embassy we got to the door and it was closed.

On that very day, China shut down and closed up do to the COVID 19 outbreak. What timing!

Things started to fall apart; we had no clue of what is about to hit us all…

and, to Tibet, we never did go…

As things started to collapse all around us, we remembered Rinpoche's laugh when we asked him months ago, should we go? And he just laughed… he must have seen what was coming and for that he kept on saying: "no matter what, trust Karma. It will never fail"

Wow.

6 years have passed and I am still doing my very best to trust Karma.

When all is fantastic, no problem! I like Karma!

When things fall apart completely? I do not like Karma… ☹ 

But that is not what Rinpoche said!

Rinpoche said: "trust Karma"

And so, that is what we must do. Even if it seems like the world is ending (trust me, we Israelis know something about that feeling) and we are all going to die horribly, trust Karma.when nothing seems right, trust Karma. When ALL is going down the drain, trust Karma. When ALL hope is lost and nothings seems to be helpful anymore, trust Karma.

Always trust Karma, it never EVER fails.

May we all succeed in trusting Karma!

And may all be free!

Till next time

Micha (and Ayelet of course)