Diamond Dancing

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For five weeks as I studied Buddhist method and wisdom at Diamond Mountain, I’d been wondering about the 16” mirror ball hanging from the temple ceiling. On Sunday night, my questions were answered with party lights, a smoke machine and a DJ. These folks know how to party.

Right there under the images of Buddha and other heroes like Je Tsongkapa, nearly a hundred people shook bootie as the chants of more modern heroes like Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson blasted the temple’s adobe walls.

Everyone was dancing. Allegra, who must be close to 80, wore a gold lamé gown and matching jewel-encrusted pope-like mitre blended with a half dozen sweaty shirtless guys. Monks in crimson robes spun while Geshele and Christie took turns swinging with nearly everyone else. Celebrants had worked hard this term and weren’t shy about celebrating with joyous (an arguably sacred) dancing.

Maybe it was the Tantra class just before, I can’t say. Tantra classes (the Buddha’s secret teachings) are only open to initiates and someone pasted paper over the windows so us curious folks couldn’t even peek. I do know they blessed all manner of food as part of their ceremony, thus transforming junk food like donuts and cupcakes into sacred nutrition. Even the javelinas who frequent the campground for handouts had a feast of bowls of cookies and lord knows what else.

It was a good way to end the five weeks of study. By Sunday afternoon, I’d finished the two final exams and even had time to walk up to Fort Bowie, a National park, just up the road. This is where the Apache leader Geronimo, after waging an 18-year battle for his people’s land, finally surrendered to the US cavalry. His act essentially ended the Indian wars of the west and made the Fort and its defense of Apache Pass obsolete. Although it was barely 120 years ago, the only remains on the land are some stone foundations.

It was after closing time and I was the only visitor. Looking at the ruins amid a steady wind, I had a solemn feeling that a lot of blood was shed on the very land Diamond Mountain University now inhabits. The park service signage tells a few facts, mostly from the soldier’s side. There’s no mention that Geronimo’s mother, wife and children were killed by Mexican troops, further fueling his rebellion. In the interest of ‘neutrality’ it misses the larger story of betrayal and the 5000 US troops (a quarter of the Army) who were sent to southern Arizona to bring Geronimo to ‘justice.’

But the land tells its own story. This region is windy; we had at least three days out of a month where the winds gusted into the 30s. Just before I arrived, 10 inches of snow fell. I don’t even want to consider the heat of a summer.

It’s touching though that the very land that Geronimo and the Chirricahua Apache called home is now home to a group of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhists, also trying to preserve a way of life that has been disrupted by a powerful government. The thought left me wondering, as the bass notes echoed though the valley during Sunday night’s dance, what Geronimo might have made of this land’s latest use.

I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say. - Geronimo

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Comments

[Phillip]

Missing a teacher and friend
When are you going to be back this way?