Calm settles in Carbondale as monks prepare for Aspen

It’s amazing how an hour or two in the presence of Buddhist monks will affect your clarity of mind.

Thirty-year-old Kunchok Tenzin simply smiled and nodded when I told him I felt very calm after spending two hours at Third Street Center in Carbondale with five Tibetan Buddhist monks from Gaden Shartse Monastery.

I briefly mentioned how grocery shopping during a break before Sunday night’s blessing felt disruptive to my nervous system and asked him if it’s difficult for him to travel throughout the United States for two full years, being away from his remote monastery in southern India.

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He said, “Yes, difficult,” in the most nonjudgmental way, without any sense of distress, as if he were saying, “Yes, it’s raining, but we all have shelter.”

Though the five monks traveling on the Gaden Shartse Monastery Sacred Arts of Tibet Tour constantly move from one host home to another without the support and comfort of their larger monastic community, it’s clear that their practice lives within them. It allows them to remain grounded and to literally transmit their sense of peace to busy Western minds.

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Since Friday, they’ve been creating a sand mandala and holding events in Carbondale. Tuesday night’s Chenrezig Empowerment ritual revolves around compassion. Wednesday, they’ll culminate their visit with a sand mandala dissolution ceremony (look for Lynda Edwards’ story on the mandala later this week).

In addition to the intricate art that sand mandala master Venerable Legden Gompo works on throughout the day, one of the most powerful rituals took place Sunday night. Venerable Geshe Lharampa Jampa Chodak, the ritual master of the tour, led the Vajravidarinm Healing Ritual, which will be the primary focus of private and group healings when the monks come to Aspen in July.

The ritual of purification includes three stages, which translator and monk Lobsang Wangchuk explained to about 30 participants Sunday. The first stage purified and removed negativity. The second cleansed subtle negative imprints, and the third protected from this negativity returning. Tibetan Buddhists believe karmic imprints impact physical and mental health, so the ritual offers an opportunity to improve health by purifying negative karma.

Of course, it’s not all incense, magical thinking and peacock feathers. As Wangchuk pointed out: It’s our responsibility not to fall back into habitual negative thought patterns.

During the ritual, Wangchuk guided attendees to actively participate. He instructed us to let go of negativity, pain and other afflictions by imagining black smoke passing into rolls of oat-based dough we each held in our hands. Then we visualized multicolored rays of sparkling light coming in through the top of the head as the vajra master chanted and summoned negative forces to flock to a dough sculpture the monks had created. Finally, the vajra master dispersed the negative forces, instructing them never to return, and constructed a diamond-like, impenetrable layer of light within and around everyone. Then they gifted people with a golden cord, blessed by 1,700 monks, as well as the Dalai Lama.

Though it all sounds very formal and serious — and it is — the monks have an ease to them. They understand that we like to document every step we take, and they happily sit with participants for photos after the ceremony.

I’m not deeply seeped in Tibetan Buddhism. My only taste of formal training came during the two and a half years I spent in graduate school at Naropa University. And admittedly, I always have a sneak of suspicion when it comes to paying for blessings, no matter what religion they stem from. Here, the donation was $25.

But as I contemplated, I realized money is an energy exchange, just as the blessing is — and let’s face it: Therapists and doctors charge way more. As I listened and learned, I understood that this two-year tour sustains Tibetan monks who have had to flee their homeland.

In Tibet, the community supported monks. While the Indian government gave land to Tibetan monks to build their Gaden Shartse Monastic College, it does not financially support the school, where more than 1,600 dedicated students, teachers, scholars and spiritual practitioners — 80% of whom were born in Tibet — keep the tradition of Tibetan monastic education alive.

In my experience, the ritual was extremely powerful. My body signaled that to me through fairly intense pressure in my head and unusual rushes of heat. I walked away feeling truly blessed for the opportunity to spend time with monks who make it their lives’ work to cultivate a more compassionate world.