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Tsomo, Karma Lekshe H-Buddhism Tsomo, Karma Lekshe Page published by A. Charles Muller on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Gaps in Buddhist Studies: Integrating Scholarship and Social Activism Karma Lekshe Tsomo University of San Diego Reaching through time, how we wish we could know more about earlier generations of Buddhist women scholars and practitioners. Sadly, their stories are hidden in the shadows of histories dominated by men. Only in recent decades, in the transmission of Dharma to new lands and its revitalization in Asia, are some of these stories coming to light. Studies on the lives of Buddhist women and the issues that concern them are now gaining wider currency and being deemed worthy of publication. Here I share my own experience, in case it may benefit even one sentient being. Since childhood, certain philosophical questions have fascinated me. Growing up in Malibu, California, in the 1950s – surfing, exploring, and getting into mischief – questions about life, injustice, and the weirdness of human beings continued to perplex me. I also asked inconvenient questions: “If a God exists, why can’t I see it?” “If Jesus told his followers to give up everything and follow him, why are people wearing mink coats to church?” “Why are people so unkind to each other?” When I asked, “What happens to us after we die?” I was told, “If you’re good, you go to heaven. If you’re bad, you go to hell.” Since I was quite mischievous, always challenging the boundaries, this answer was problematic for me. Are heaven and hell the only options? Matters of life and death, good and bad, had to be more complex than that! I remember my brother and I arguing endlessly about the question, “How do we know that what you see and call ‘red’ is the same as what I see and call ‘red?’” Only years later did we learn that he was color blind. Challenging preconceptions became a lifelong endeavor. Buddhist Beginnings I began learning about Buddhism when I was quite young. The opportunity opened up quite naturally because my German family name was Citation: A. Charles Muller. Tsomo, Karma Lekshe. H-Buddhism. 01-16-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/pages/3571750/tsomo-karma-lekshe Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Buddhism Zenn, pronounced as in Zen Buddhism. Even though I was born and raised in the United States, this auspicious name led me directly to the teachings of the Buddha. The children at school used to tease me about being Buddhist, so I had to find out what it was. It was really difficult to get information about Buddhism in English in the 1950s, but I finally found two books: The Way of Zen by Alan Watts and Zen Buddhism by D. T. Suzuki. As I read these books, light bulbs began to go off in my head. Phrases like “life is defined by death” and “motion is defined by stillness” leapt from the pages. Every page was full of wisdom and presented credible responses to many questions. I found Buddhism compelling because it encourages critical thinking and requires no adherence to dogma. Hence, at the age of twelve, to the horror of my Southern Baptist mother, I declared that I was a Buddhist. Buddhist teachers were few in the West in the early 1960s, so at the age of 19, disappointed by American culture, I took my surfboard and boarded a ship for Yokohama. In Japan, I met up with some Japanese American friends and we began surfing the sweet waves of Chiba peninsula. When winter came and it started snowing, I found my way to a small temple in Tokyo and began meditating. The fragrant incense, deep quietude, and peace of meditation felt like coming home. Without a teacher or spiritual friends, it was a lonely path, so a year later, I set out for India. One night aboard ship, somewhere between Saigon and Singapore, I had a vivid dream of myself in robes, surrounded by a vibrant, joyous spiritual community. Inspired by the dream, I resolved to become a monk, and then grudgingly realized that was impossible for a woman. It was years before I became committed to being “just” a nun. I continue to this day to be intrigued by the question: why is the popular image of a monk so much more appealing than the image of a nun? For another year, I traveled through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, and Sri Lanka. In Nepal, I met Tibetans, arriving in caravans from beyond the Himalayas and learned to chantOm Mani Padme Hum, expressing a wish for the well-being and awakening of all living beings. In each country, I searched for a monastery that welcomed women, but never found one. After two years of wandering, I returned to the United States and began studying Japanese at the University of California, Berkeley, where I took classes on Buddhism with Lewis Lancaster. I still remember the stick drawing that he used to explain the five aggregates and I use it in my classes today. Citation: A. Charles Muller. Tsomo, Karma Lekshe. H-Buddhism. 01-16-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/pages/3571750/tsomo-karma-lekshe Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Buddhism During the 1960s, I marched to protest the injustices of racism and war, and became idealistically committed to relieving the sufferings of the world. I continued to seek answers to the mystery surrounding life and death, and started to become aware of the intensely painful nature of the human condition. This sorrowful realization taught me that genuine compassion is the only worthy response to the sufferings of the world. Watching the Vietnam War played out on TV, I became disillusioned with political solutions, which seemed heavily weighted toward the wealthy and powerful. Spiritual transformation seemed a more feasible option. One day during my studies at Berkeley, I somehow found my way to the home of a Tibetan lama who had just arrived from India. From him, and along with a group of other Americans, I studied Buddhism, learned Tibetan, and did hundreds of full-length prostrations to purify my mind and create good karma. On a lark, I applied for an East-West Center grant to study at the University of Hawai`i and was soon surprised to find tickets to Honolulu in the mailbox. The grant allowed me to study more about Buddhist philosophy and, just around the corner, Roshi Aitken’s Diamond Sangha was perfect for meditation. After finishing an MA in Asian Studies, I set off for field research in Japan and India, which eventually led me to Dharamsala, nestled in the snow-capped Himalayas. Asian Adventures When I first arrived in Dharamsala in 1972, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and about 100,000 Tibetans were living in India and Nepal, having fled the communist Chinese invasion of their country. As refugees, the Tibetans were struggling to survive and to preserve their ancient cultural traditions. H.H. Dalai Lama established many cultural institutions in exile, including the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives for preserving Tibetan literature and culture. I learned that the Library offered courses on Buddhism and Tibetan language for Western students and, as part of an East-West Center field study grant, was anxious to begin classes. The very first day I entered the Library, breathless from running down the mountain, I encountered a small lama wearing a pointed hat, sitting on a cushion at one end of the room. He was describing the stages of the process of dying in elaborate detail, explaining, “At the second stage of the dying process, you will see a faint smoke....” After years of extensive searching, here was the perfect teacher. Hardly believing my good fortune, I sat at his feet for six Citation: A. Charles Muller. Tsomo, Karma Lekshe. H-Buddhism. 01-16-2019. https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/pages/3571750/tsomo-karma-lekshe Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3 H-Buddhism years, studying the classic texts of Indian Buddhism. The people who studied at the Library in those early days were a motley crew of aspiring scholars and spiritual seekers from many lands and backgrounds. The Tibetans living nearby were surprised and somewhat amused that Western people would sacrifice economic advancement to live in such meager circumstances, but His Holiness arranged for us to study with outstanding Buddhist scholars. Many students and researchers from those early years have since become well-known translators and interpreters of Buddhism for the West. During winter breaks, we went on pilgrimages or did meditation retreats. Over the years, I made many journeys back and forth between India and Honolulu. I studied in India as long as I could, then returned to Honolulu to work and save money to return to India and continue my studies. These years were filled with countless blessings and difficulties. We received teachings from many remarkable teachers, met frequently with His Holiness, and were surrounded by devoted and encouraging Buddhist practitioners. The sounds of ritual horns, drums, and chanting filled the crisp mountain air and we had plenty of time to study and practice. We struggled to get visas, to learn Tibetan, to cook over kerosene stoves, in mud huts, in impossible weather, and to survive many debilitating illnesses. Whenever our visas, health, or money were exhausted, we had no choice but to return home to work and figure out some way to continue studying in India.
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