by NotImportant

"NotImportant" was a lay Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner in Singapore, a student of Lati Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Vajrayogini tradition. In the summer of 2008, he published on alt.religion.buddhism his dharma correspondence with a prisoner on death row — a correspondence he had been asked to continue when the prisoner's original monastic teacher became unavailable. The first letter, a sustained reply to the prisoner's questions about logic, reality, and karma, is preserved in this archive as a companion piece.

This second letter, written one month later, takes a different approach. Rather than answering the prisoner's questions directly, NotImportant begins by disclosing his own situation: years of persecution in Singapore, coordinated rumour campaigns, social ostracism, and deliberate isolation. He does this, he explains, not to complain but to establish his credentials as someone who has tested the dharma under genuine duress — and found it sufficient. What he gained from five hours of daily meditation during the worst of it, he says, is too precious to describe.

The teaching portion of the letter addresses the prisoner's question about bliss. NotImportant explains the tantric understanding of chakra penetration as a path to bodily bliss, and how that bliss deepens as the mind quietens. He then sets the prisoner an unconventional assignment: contemplate a haiku for one month and report what arises. The letter closes with a promise to answer all outstanding questions in the next exchange.

Dear Prisoner,

It's good to hear from you again. Hope this letter find you well.

First let me thank you for your high praise. Let me assure you I'm not an enlightened being or a guru or some mystical teacher with a large following. If I had conveyed such an impression let me apologise. I'm just a simple person and contrary to what you believe I'm very much maligned. Almost everyone think I'm a scoundrel, some think I'm just ordinary and mundane and hardly anyone think I'm spiritual. It started when I worked in Singapore. Someone with a lot of power and resources decided that my reputation had to be destroyed and the weapon of choice was rumour. Everything I said — and I mean everything, including phone conversation, email, private discussion — were all twisted and then reinterpreted to give it some sinister bend and then let out into the community. Fear were spread everywhere I went and I really meant everywhere.

If you think I was perhaps hallucinating I wasn't. There were some kind souls who came and told me who and why these people were doing it. At one point even the owner of a shop where I had patronised for years told the employee that he will sell his drinks to anyone except me. The poor chap came and told me that he can't sell the drink to me. Fortunately it is only one shop but every other shop I went to I faced a lot of abuses including the food that they prepared. One put so much chilli into it that every bite burned. And I can take very hot chilli. The things I had to put up with was worse than any prison a person could find himself in. My reputation — or perhaps more accurately disreputation — continues even today. Even on the internet I was relentlessly pursued and persecuted.

So I'm not any guru with miraculous power or with a large following but there is a group of people out to obstruct and subvert everything I wanted to do. Even trying to see my teacher was a challenge. However when I was in India I get to meet up with one of my teachers, Lati Rinpoche. I sought his advice and I was limited to one question by his attendant. He wasn't having any long queue of visitors and yet his attendant kept physically blocking my access to him. The monk who went with me to see my teacher also found it rather strange and he said I should have put my foot down and insisted on seeing him. I'm not the aggressive type and I tended to go with the flow and accept what flowed my way except those things that will harm others. So I asked one question and I asked him why all these things are happening to me. He agreed that there's something strange going on and that my karma was ripening at an accelerated pace. He gave me some advice and that was the end of our session.

While the world around me at that time seem to whirl out of control I actually took the opportunity to meditate. Daily I meditated, in spite of having to go to work and take care of my son, up to five hours a day. Looking back I was glad I had all those problems that had alienated me from any other involvement. What I had gained is so precious that I can't begin to even describe it. We often curse when we broke our leg but when the war came and every able-bodied person have to be drafted we thank God or our lucky star for the broken leg. In Buddhism our problems could be an obstacle or it could be a stepping stone to something higher and better. The difference lies in our mind.

I begin this letter with a bit of my own problems partly to let you see me as just a simple person with a lot of problems as well — much of which is out of my control. It's people's mouths, people's ears and people's minds and they can do whatever they want with it. And also partly for you to understand where I'm coming from. A lot of the things I said came from my own experiences and insights and they are part and parcel of who I am. So a lot of what I have said isn't something that I said out of school and I hope that by sharing this with you and with others you will also get to benefit from my experiences in dealing with problems of life.

You asked what I practice. My practice now is principally Vajrayana in the Vajrayogini tradition without consort, like a monk. My second teacher is Lama Zopa Rinpoche whom I have never spoken to yet. He had given me initiation on Medicine Buddha and Vajrayogini.

You have written a lot in your letter and for this time round instead of answering your questions let us try something else. You asked about bliss and whether this is real. I can assure you it is very real and it is something that you yourself can verify. Tantra has a saying that bliss can be attained by either penetrating a woman or a chakra. In Buddhist tantra there are ten chakras along the central channel from the base to the crown that one can use to penetrate to gain bodily bliss. The ability to penetrate a chakra requires tremendous concentration. When a chakra is broken through you will experience a shift in consciousness that is out of this world. But before you reach that stage we first have to learn how to quieten the mind. Bodily bliss will only arise as the mind becomes very quiet.

So for this month — maybe for about four weeks — you should contemplate on this simple phrase and write me what insights you gain from it. I don't follow the haiku rule because English do not have the richness of Chinese or Japanese. So here's a form of haiku twisted out of any recognition:

Sugar is sweet,
Leaves are green,
Dogs bark,
Cats meow.

Frogs jump into water —
Blomp.
Dogs bark,
Cats meow.

I could introduce you to emptiness meditation but that's a different kettle of fish that really needs guidance. One lady wrote me and said that after meditating on emptiness for a month or so she understood the nihilistic aspect of emptiness. Emptiness does not have any aspect — but what her mind conjured up was very dangerous, especially if she had very strong concentration. She was a French lady I met in Dharamsala.

Let's just try this for now. At the end of this one month you can share your insights with me. I'll answer all your questions in the letter you have just sent me and I'll send it to you in a month's time as well.

Until then be well.

Metta

Colophon

Posted to talk.religion.buddhism and alt.religion.buddhism by "NotImportant," June 30, 2008. Message-ID: <5e97ea18-0765-4cb4-ba55-a5cd699347ba@d19g2000prm.googlegroups.com>. This is the second letter in the dharma correspondence with a prisoner on death row; the first letter is preserved in this archive as Conversation with a Prisoner on Death Row — On Buddhism (June 2008). "NotImportant" was a Singaporean lay practitioner in the Vajrayogini tradition, a student of Lati Rinpoche and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2024.

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