Buddhist Katsel Dharma Center - Tibetan Buddhism

You can download the Podcast episode and interview with Ngakpa Nels Gullerud here.

Buddhist Katsel Dharma Center
4822 Limerick Drive
Tampa, FL 33610

Contact: Alejandro

Book Recommendation: Transformation of Suffering by Khenchen Konchog Gyalgshen Rinpoche ISBN: 0965598837

Religion: Buddhist

Denomination: Tibetan

Web Page: http://meditationtampa.com/

I've heard many times before that churches are "houses of God." Wednesday night I drove out to the Buddhist Katsel Dharma Center in Tampa, and expected perhaps a small temple.

So imagine my surprise to find, instead, a house. And why not? If a church can be a house of God, why can't a church be a house? In this case, the Tampa center for Tibetan Buddhism is inside a simple house at a simple suburb. It seemed somehow fitting, actually, for a religion that emphasizes working on rejecting attachment to excessive things. Why have a house of gold and marble, when a house would work just as well?

When I arrived, the door was wide open, but I knocked anyway. A young man named Alejandro was there, and teased me a bit about knocking when the door was open.

Inside, the house had been turned into a cozy place for meditation. Prayer wheels had been set up about the house, wheels where inside were strips of papers with thousands and millions of prayers had been written. A meditation room was set into one side, full of pictures of various aspects of Buddha. Even a small shop set into one side so people could pick up books or yoga clothing or other items of worship.

As people came in, each was greeted with acceptance, a cup of tea, and an offer to share whatever that person needed. There was a real spirit of acceptance, of affection for the stranger. As people arrived, each was offered tea, incense was lit, and people settled in to chat and share with each other. I actually thought the incense smelled nice - though when I got home, my lovely wife noticed the odor had saturated my shirt, and had me leave it in the downstairs laundry room to air.

I was sitting and reading when Ngakpa Nels Gullerud arrived. A "ngakpa" is something like a "lay monk" - someone who has been working on understanding the precepts of Tibetan Buddhism, but hasn't become a full monk yet.

Without even knowing who I was, Nels went through the room, greeted people, and when he reached me called out "Hugs!" and gave me one. I'll admit - I'm not the most huggy person in the world, but it was actually nice to be greeted with affection without knowing a person was very cool.

I won't go into the details of Tibetan Buddhism - that'll come out in the interview. I do want to talk about some of the things I found interesting.

It seems the central core of Tibetan Buddhism is the concept that that suffering comes from bad actions. There isn't sin per se - but consequences of ones actions. Whether those actions are caused by attachment (desire for something), anger (pushing away of something), or ignorance (not understanding the true nature of something). So rather than the idea of an independent Divine Being deciding "this is right and wrong", it seems that instead "right" and "wrong" is decided upon ones actions. Now, you can do something in ignorance, and still have negative consequences.

Therefore, the purpose of a good Tibetan Buddhist life is to reduce those three things - to learn more to reduce ignorance, to reduce attachment to things, to control one's passions to remove anger.

How? By study, by meditation to understand one own's mind. I was reading a bit through "Transformation of Suffering", a book I need to get my own copy of after next payday, there was a line I thought was very cool. That with all of our focus of science and knowledge, it seems so few of us attempt to understand our own mind. If we're going to do better, we need to understand the motivations and the things going on inside our own heads.

The meditation session took place in the, well, meditation room. Most people sat on the floor before small tables. Like other religions, people read from prayer books - prayers and oaths to dedicate one's life to helping others, to purifying one's mind. One aspect to the prayers I found interesting was the dedication to "all sentient beings" - it wasn't just humans, or people - but every thinking thing. I don't understand why that distinction, but I like the idea. If you can think, if you have the power of reason, then meditation can be applied to you, no matter how high or low a station you live in society.

Around the room were pictures of various incarnations of Buddha. For example a Buddha of Compassion, one of Wisdom, and so on. Nels explained that people could use these to meditate upon, to invite their example and persona into one's heart. So if you wanted to be more compassionate, you might meditate upon the Buddha of Compassion, to try and make that incarnation of Buddha's aspects ones own.

Before the actual meditation, Ngakpa Nels took the room through a relaxation exercise. Helping people to calm their bodies, so they could focus on their minds. I can see why this is a useful tool - calm down the body, and you can focus on the mind.

The meditation for this day focused on vibration, chanting the word "OM", first as a group, then as individuals to try and keep the sound going through the room. Voices of different pitch, tone, and sound filled the room as people used the sound to focus on their mind.

We'll have the interview up in a few weeks, but I found the whole experience fascinating, and I believe I learned some interesting things about the Tibetan Buddhist faith. My thanks to the Buddhist Katsel Dharma Center for their time and to Ngakpa Nels for his time and patience with my questions.