A PoMA Rumination
I fell in love with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche when a friend showed twenty minutes of a DVD at the Tucson Shambhala Center in the spring of 2007. Up until then, I didn’t feel like I really had a Buddhist teacher. But after that brief exposure to DPR, I immediately sought a way to see him in person, and was thrilled to learn that he would be in Texas that summer. Many positive causes and conditions came together, and I was able to attend that year’s Treasury of Knowledge retreat.
The retreat was both wonderful and overwhelming, and I had no personal interactions at all with Rinpoche. But when I arrived at the tiny San Antonio airport, there he was, with Acharya Tashi, waiting at the gate for my flight to Dallas. As we lined up to board, Rinpoche asked me some questions, and when he heard I was a professional editor, he was quite interested. I still have the tiny slip of paper he gave me during the flight—his small precise writing, in pencil, with contact info for him and for Cindy Shelton, Nalandabodhi’s main editor for so many years.
Since that first encounter, I have edited numerous articles, booklets, blog posts, promotional emails, and other written materials for our sangha. I have been grateful to edit publications by Rinpoche, by Acharya Lama Tenpa, by Nalandabodhi leaders, and by many sangha members. I am a middling student and a lazy meditator, but I am eager and diligent in my path of activity.
As I worked on the three previous articles in this PoMA series, I was struck again by the power of my Buddhist editing as a practice. It is an expression of my deep devotion to DPR. Although on the surface the tasks may look the same as the editing work I do for paying clients, my approach is completely different. Editing for the sangha is part of my Buddhist path, an opportunity to mix my mind with the mind of the guru and with the dharma, an opportunity for selflessness and generosity, a chance to be fully present.
Each time before I begin, I remember my intention: to assist Rinpoche, Nalandabodhi’s other teachers, and sangha members to offer the dharma more widely. I believe that Buddhism is an answer to so many of our questions, and I seek to help bring that knowledge to the world by clarifying each writer’s work and helping them to communicate as clearly and accessibly as possible.
Each writer is different, each intended audience is different, but my intention remains the same: to be of service to sentient beings through disseminating the dharma. The Path of Mindful Activity is my main practice. And I dedicate whatever small merit I accumulate along the path to all of you.
