Preamble: attracting beneficial energies, not for oneself, but for the good of others
It is customary to say that dreams create reality. In the West, this notion is known as the law of attraction. Energy goes where it is projected. This is a fact well known to all spiritual practitioners.
The only risk would be of course, as we explain in Buddhism, that these dreams and projections of energy are directed to satisfy our poisons. It is indeed very easy to take the step and want to direct our energies from meditation practices in order to satisfy personal needs.
A mother who is very attached to her child might set up, unconsciously or consciously, all sorts of stratagems to get her child to meet the person she thinks will satisfy her daughter or son in their relationship.
A person who is not well in his or her relationship could put in place, unconsciously or consciously, all kinds of thoughts to attract the one he or she believes to be the one who could meet his or her expectations. A friend could advise a couple of friends going through some jolts by advising one of them to move away, to take some space, to take a break, instead of inviting to discussion, to put on the table the pros and cons so that constructive actions can be engaged and allow to make a constructive try which can then be directed towards a continuation or a separation.
In short, we see that energy can be directed towards worldly ends, and this is very dangerous. As soon as it is directed to worldly purposes, we are here in the framework of black magic.
Let's remember Milarepa who used the extraordinary powers of his practice to destroy the village and the people who had caused his mother so much suffering and destroyed her life.
Fortunately, Milarepa later realized his mistake, found a new master, and showed exceptional resilience, eventually demonstrating an enlightened practice that serves as an example to so many practitioners today.
Realizing that we are all the same suffering beings in search of happiness, without exception
It is therefore essential that our dreams, our energies, be deployed in the direction of acts that will generate happiness for others.
We are aware of our interdependence and we must always be aware that suffering is inherent to everyone. Whether we are rich, poor, healthy, unhealthy, etc., we all suffer at one time or another, in one way or another.
We must be aware that we do not want to suffer, that we want happiness, but that all beings have the same wish. Absolutely all beings. Even, and often especially, the one who will hurt others. The malice that can emanate from a person has no source other than his own suffering, too strong, unbearable, unmanageable. The person who has not been instructed in the path of resilience then turns to anger, and from there it is only one step to meanness. But let us never forget that this person is suffering.
So each of us, at our own level, will work to be generous. There are different types of generosity, we will come back to this in another article.
Today the purpose of this article is to expose our dream. Today is February 21, 2023, the day of the Tibetan New Year, Losar, and the first day of the 15 days of the Miracles demonstrated by the Buddha to silence those who had doubts about the path he presented. It is said that during this period, acts, good or bad, are multiplied hundreds of thousands of millions of times.
So let's take advantage of this period during which good deeds are auspicious, to present you our dream.
A look to the roots of the dream
I, Valerie, who is writing these lines, came to India for the first time when I was only 10 and a half years old. It was several decades ago. India was very different from today. So much misery, so much suffering, so much distress, so much poverty. The modernity of today had not yet touched the country. Confronted with this vision, I became aware that day that there were several worlds on this earth. Many lives. Many inequalities. Many are the ghosts of those sick, deformed bodies that have followed me all my life. Many are the ghosts of fed children begging for a piece of bread constantly in my thoughts. Immense was the absurdity of seeing abundance in our lands and the despair of nothing in theirs.
Urgyen lived a not always easy childhood with ups and downs. Periods of dry bread, periods of hardship in a country where people do not have the right to an identity. The non-recognition of identity is the step towards the non-recognition of belonging to a family, a group, a community, a people. He was confronted with the vision of a tomorrow without insurance, the elderly being so deprived if their descendants are no more. He was confronted with the vision of a childhood without a tomorrow when education does not reach the village. Staying or running away are the only ways out. To stay and accept to extinguish his dreams. To flee to make a dream a reality.
For my part, I have always had in my professional endeavors for action to transfer a percentage from the activities generated in the direction of peoples in need.
When Urgyen integrated my activity of travels abroad, we developed this approach in order to integrate its wishes. Until now, I was giving a percentage to monasteries or children, but with her coming, we decided to give a percentage to children and to elders as you can read here.
But behind all this, we have built a bigger project.
To each his own... unified in a common mandala
For my part, I had a big dream for about ten years.
That of creating a multitude of "family homes" for orphans.
Each house includes teachers who are both educators and parents, as is done in the Tibetan schools in exile created by the sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
But these places are on the scale of a family. A dozen children, adults supervising, a teaching turned towards science, but also offering the benefits of Buddhist meditation, Buddhist practices of Tibetan yogas, and an opening towards ecology.
Urgyen had been dreaming for many years of creating places for the elderly. To finally allow these people to live decently, to eat decently, not to be left to loneliness, to be supported medically.
It is then that over the years, we have seen the whole of join, take shape.
A mandala of the heart.
The mandala of the heart
The children's homes become neighbors of the seniors' homes.
Thus the link is created.
The children receive the advice of the elders, their tales, their life stories, their wisdom. The elders receive the liveliness, the vigor, the joy, the gaiety of the children.
They feed each other.
And for this, of course, an economic model is needed. This is where a tourist accommodation activity is grafted on to these two sets. A place where the spiritual traveler can come to practice, to recharge his batteries.
Meditation practices, teachings, medical Tibetan yoga sessions can thus benefit children, elders and visitors.
The interaction between these 3 poles becomes total.
The tourist pole feeds the children's and elders' pole financially while feeding itself spiritually and holistically.
The children's pole feeds the seniors' pole while being nourished by the seniors' pole.
The pole of the elders feeds the pole of the children while being nourished by the pole of the children.
The dimension of spiritual teachings (meditation, Buddhism, Tibetan yogas) feeds the 3 poles.
The tourist pole can also propose to its visitors to scientifically nourish the children's pole through voluntary teachings (sciences, languages, etc...).
This is our dream, our mandala of the heart.
May one day this mandala of the heart be born.
May one day many mandalas of the heart spread throughout our planet.
A heart mandala to manifest Buddhism in action.
