Tintin in Shambhala

Dear Nick

2010-01-29T05:42:00.000-08:00

I was very glad to see your letter. It's caused me to have to think. Your four numbered paragraphs make it easier to answer.

(1) Agreed, except for your assumptive "It is still one person's take on things..." Although I'm just an amateur and faraway sleuth, this message has all the earmarks of a collaboration of some pretty savvy people asking some questions, or a question, which is very poignant. Barbara Blouin's study of court finances and procedures would suggest her as a source, but she denies involvement. Who then? Perhaps others sharing her concerns who have commissioned a cartoon artist (likely from Europe judging by the quality) to visually frame their own allegory? As to the anonymity of the whole thing, how else could the issue be put without feeding the dichotomy, the us versus the them? Are we not all practitioners of the same dharma as best we can?

(2) But of course the cartoon was ambiguous. My own passion is for good detective stories. Hence our exchange. If I interpret correctly, your question the validity of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's teachings as interpreted by "those who sat at his feet" but still can't agree about what he was saying. I'm not getting your meaning in the rest of this paragraph. Is your implication that there is a new order that whisks away ambiguities?

(3) I totally agree, each of us being responsible for our own knockings down, and no, you're not boring.

(4) I agree that the second panel of the cartoon, with it's *pop* is pivotal. The dedicated practitioners'meditations are exploded by a passing parade, leaving connective tissue and one of the meditators tearing his hair. The other poses an unstated question. Can your labeling of the *POP* as emergence from "conceptual dwelling" be backward? A 190 degree obverse view? Do you think there's no chance that the patrons of a parade with balloons and elephants might be the conceptual dwellers?

Just comments and questions. I'm very glad of our exchange and hope you'll stay in touch with any further developments/comments re. TinTin in Shambhala.

Dear Dan,

2010-01-29T05:40:00.001-08:00

I confess, a few things led me to drop the thread:

1.       It’s a cartoon; and although it is very well drawn and realized, it is still one person’s take on things. But what is that take?
2.       It seems to be deliberately ambiguous, as exemplified by the range of interpretations. I think this may be a metaphor for how we treat the Vidyadhara’s teachings, in that those who sat at his feet seem to have so many different interpretations of what he actually said and meant, never mind about what he intended for the future of the Shambhala and Buddhist teachings in our community and the world after his departure from this realm. Personally, I am constantly amazed by how categorical people can be about both, but especially the latter.
3.       Given the ambiguity, I don’t see much point in arguing about what each of us sees in the cartoon. As I mentioned earlier, it is in some sense a canvas for our projections; I think the point there is to examine our own projections rather than daring others to knock them down (sorry to be so boring…).
4.       I think the “Pop”ping of conceptual dwelling (on emptiness) in the second panel was the essential message of the whole cartoon.

Best wishes,

Nick

Hey Nick and Gabrielle,

2010-01-26T10:23:00.001-08:00

This is my attempt at goosing a response from you to my letters from late December posing my questions to your own letters re. the TinTin cartoon. Has anything been solved that I don't know about. I'm in Oregon.

I used to have pretty good sources in the Halifax sangha, but don't now, when somebody there (or where) produces this altogether engaging allegory saying what? Or asking what? Surely the author or authors of the thing have been sleuthed out by now and the riddle busted. What have I missed?

Meanwhile, my letters to you still await an answer, unless somehow you never got them. If so, I hope this corrects whatever glitch happened, and I'll hope for your responses.

Your sangha brother, Dan Taylor.

Guilty as charged

2010-01-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Gabrielle E.

You say: "my take on your interpretation of the frames of that comic is that you (I) offer a highly personal response to and interpretation of the cartoon". Indeed. Dead right. Guilty as charged. But what have we got to work with other than that? When I first saw it, the whole analogy slammed home with me with great clarity, or so it seemed (and still does)to me. Personally. That said, I loved your letter, and have no quibble with anything in it, with the possible exception of your "better" judgment between practitioners and the parade. I really liked your note:"Things are as they are. The rest is interpretation. The trick is seeing the difference...if there is one." I bet you like detective fiction as much as I do.

Appreciatively, Dan

TinTin Cartoon

2009-12-30T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hello

Interesting to note what comments you chose to not include.

Kristine McCutcheon

TinTin Cartoon

2009-12-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

Hello Dan,

I'm not on Sangha Talk, but since you inadvertently posted your ongoing interpretation of the TinTin-like Shambhala cartoon to Announce,

thought I'd throw in a comment, surely worth no more than a few cents (no one seems to want to deal with pennies anymore, anyway ....).

My take on your interpretation of the frames of that comic is that you offer a highly personal response to and interpretation of the cartoon.

What are as much -- if not more -- interesting to me than the cartoon itself are the various interpretations that have been posted.

That's all they are ... clearly the cartoon leaves room for a wide range of interpretations, and most of these seem to reflect the viewers

mind more than any actual "reality". Since there are virtually no words in the strip, clearly, any thoughts put into the "minds" of the characters is our projection. Don't you think?

So, it seems some are taking the opportunity of the arising of this appearance, the cartoon, to voice their various opinions of Shambhala world,

the old school and the new school. And, if we return to the Prajñaparamita mantra, "Om gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha," then

everything that appears within the cartoon, and in response to it, is in the same boat, is subject to the same truth: "gone, gone, completely gone,

gone beyond." None of it is real, has origins, or will cease to be. It's all appearance-emptiness, isn't it? The begging practitioners actually are no

better than the colorful display of the parade. The onlookers of the parade don't look at all bewildered to me ... just coming out to see what is going on.

Things are as they are. The rest is interpretation. The trick is seeing the difference ... if there is one.

So, thanks for the colorful display of your mind as you have shared your analyses of a few images!

Best regards,

Gabrielle E

Tintin in Shambhala

2009-12-29T16:39:00.001-08:00

Clever, and nice vision.

Cheers.
dejvid mejl

Tintin in Shambhala

2009-12-29T16:37:00.001-08:00

Tintin in Shambhala

Here's my shot: It's a satire on the difference between mahayana and mahamudra.

Two European meditators are chanting the heart sutra mantra of emptiness, feeling simple and serene. The procession of Shambhala pops their mantra bubble, which dissipates into letters, and shows them a grand display of luminosity-emptiness. The old man has a heart attack, like the arhats when Avalokiteshvara preached emptiness for the first time. The young man, his mind completely stopped, glimpses ground mahamudra.

It's quite a witty cartoon-- thanks for sharing it!

Jeff Grygny

Dear Nick

2009-12-29T16:36:00.001-08:00

Many thanks for your thoughtful response to my pre-holiday take on the panels of the TinTin cartoon, challenging in several ways my interpretation. I'm now back home, and have a comment or two and a couple of questions for you.

I note there are only about ten locals who have turned out to gawk at the parade, all of which seems totally caught up in its own imaginative importance. Is there really any reason for this display? Is it called for at the moment? These people almost seem to be in a dreamlike trance, self absorbed, putting nothing in the begging bowl of the two committed practitioners, or even noticing them.

Isn't Haddock (by inference long-time meditator) dismayed because of the missing connection between the outer display and the inner understanding of those involved in the big parade? They look happy but kind of vacuous, an empty display without much inner meaning. TinTin seems to be exhorting him towards compassion. "How can we help?"

Branded by some as aging hippies, are the meditators the ones who are living in the past here? Are the people who want to keep parading around in the same way they did thirty years ago not ignoring the current realities of stretched economies of the world, climate change, poverty, destitution, lethal pollution? Refer to the chant "Fulfilling the Aspirations of the Vidyadhara."

In the story of Rudra, a tantric teacher tells his students to eat meat, sleep with women, and enjoy sensual pleasures. One uncomprehending student thinks this means to indulge literally. The other realizes he needs inner experience to bring these things to the path. The one who follows the external pleasures ends up murdering his teacher. So who is who in this cartoon?

Yours, Dan Taylor

no connection

2009-12-21T03:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Szpaskowski;

I'm very much aware about Herge, who died many years ago, and that he was a Remi, although with no connection to the famous artist. According to my aunt, our genologist, there are Remis in six or maybe seven countries, and many more in America, and neither of us have to do with this cartoon except finding out about it. That is our interest, and no more involvement because there is no thing more we can say. Good luck.

Gordi (christened Gordon) Remi

More than we knew

2009-12-21T03:26:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends,

We have very much thanks to all in the Nova Scotia sangha who have been writing letters to us. We now see that our simple question was not more simple to you than to us, and goes into things that we do not know about. It will be very informative to follow this site, but we beg that you all should not any more send your letters to us personally because we do not understand these issues, except we will from our interest follow Sangha Talk. All of this cartoon is very interesting. More than we knew. We wish we could be of more help. With wishes of good luck - Gordi and Lyske Remi

Dear Bill,

2009-12-21T03:22:00.002-08:00

Dear Bill,

I am dismayed to learn that I was not the first to ascribe such insightful, artistically accomplished and delightfully provocative work to you; on the other hand, you have to admit the resemblances and clues are there (maybe a skilful mimic set you up as the “perp”?. . . perhaps one man’s perp can be another’s heroic warrior artist?)

Nevertheless, I am genuinely disappointed—for a number of reasons—to acknowledge your denial as “categorical,” but I hope you didn’t say so for reasons of shallow politics (as the Vidyadhara used to say, “CCL”).

But who else would have included the Spanish Morion helmet and the detailed period military costumes . . .?

And I think you protest too much about panel cartoons; you could do something truly wonderful in such a medium. It would speak to young children as well as those “over 10 years old” . . .

For instance, your book “Pirate’s Passage” (Trumpeter Press, 2006) with its wonderful allegory of the Vidyadhara, would come even more to life in an illustrated version (don’t knock “comics”; I discovered H.G. Wells through the Classics Illustrated version of “War of the Worlds”, a truly inspired envisioning of the story).

With best wishes for a long and even more fruitful life,

Nick

Dear Nick:

2009-12-21T03:22:00.000-08:00

You are not the first person attributing to me the Tin Tin panel-cartoon rip-off with whatever its provocative, underlying message. To you and the others who have come up with the same thought, my categorical response is that I have never in my 50-plus professional career as a working artist done any kind of panel cartoon, including this one. Period. Nor have I ever been afflicted with any interest at all in sangha politics, as anyone who is (or who knows me) will readily attest. Look elsewhere for your perp, Bill.

Rob,

2009-12-21T03:04:00.003-08:00

Rob,

I found it a bit disturbing too.

I wonder if it was for the same reasons as you did..

-Judy Schenk

The teachings are there for everyone

2009-12-21T03:04:00.001-08:00

The teachings are there for everyone, but for many of us (below a garbage man in pay) it is almost impossible to find the money to attend all the required programs in Shambhala (Dathun, 12 weekends ( I think that is what it is upto now) of Shambhala Training, Both Seminaries, Warrior Assembly, Rigden Abisheka, Scorpian Seal Assembly ) And more if you want to continue in the Kagyu tradition (Kagyu Ngondro, etc. )

somewhat disturbing

2009-12-21T03:03:00.001-08:00

Karl
Don't worry about the non resiting part. I have definitely heard funny stories about his His Holiness the 16th from monk attendants. There was no harm intended. It does make us re evaluate our controversial Karma Kaygu history. The Kaygu lineage had many hardships, plus it's history of having everybody from buggers on the street to Kings and Queens.

As Chogyam Trunggpa Rinpoche said, even garbage men to top level people can be Shambalians. I did find that cartoon somewhat disturbing though. There was some truth in it.
Rob.

Actually, it is neither.

2009-12-21T03:02:00.003-08:00

Actually, it is neither.

This story should be in one of the Kalapa assemblies transcripts.

The Vidyadara himself told the story. It was commentary on the Golden text.

It goes something like this. The Vidyadara saw that the Karmapa had a gold rolex with a gold face and the Vidyadara kidded the Karmapa that only Mexicans would go for something like that.

The Karmapa replied well I am going to get some gold shoes too. What do you think about that?

Then the Vidyadara commented that the Karmapa had actually jumped in the gold lake
(I assume he meant this metaphorically).

Now this is all from memory - I am too lazy to look it up - but I am pretty sure its in one of the transcripts.

Well Gary,

2009-12-21T03:02:00.001-08:00

Well Gary,

If we were in a court of law, I was the judge, and you objected on the grounds of hearsay, I would defenitely rule in your favor; that said, there were always kasung and other people up in A suite, and the Dorje Dradul probably told the people what was being said himself, in English. I heard the tale on the parade ground from a kasung friend of mine. He probably heard it from someone who was up in the suite. Take the death penalty off the table, and I'll consider turning state's evidence against the poor bastard. I'm gone tomorrow so this is my tomorrow's post.-Karl

Gary Kellam

2009-12-21T03:01:00.001-08:00

No . . . that's not anecdotal, that's hearsay. Now, who spoke the Tibetan dialect that Rinpoche and HH communicated in and would have "told us" what the Karmapa "purportedly replied"? As a life-long teller of tall tales, sounds/smells fishy to me.

sky writing

2009-12-21T03:00:00.003-08:00

Nick
I very much remember that sky writing on mid Summers day. The Sky diver said to Rinpoche "The sky gives you greetings". It was something like that. Rinpoche replied he gives greetings to the sky.
I do have a photo Nick somewhere of Rinpoche and the 16th Karmapa together at mid summers day in my computer on that day.. It was on an old web sight I had. .
If you egg me enough, I will try to dig it up and send it to you.
Greetings to Nova Scotia. Phey!
Rob Graffis

Hello,

2009-12-21T03:00:00.001-08:00

Hello,

This is in part anecdotal but I can't resist,

I was in charge of the parade that year, and someone told us that the Dorje Dradul had informed the Karmapa, who was wearing a gold watch with a gold-colored watchface, that in the US, poor Mexicans and poor unsophisticated folks in general wore that kind of combination, and that His Holiness should get a watch with a dark-colored watch face, to which His Holiness purportedly replied that he didn't give a damn what other people wore, he liked his watch just fine. Now you know Nick, that Rinpoche had a thing about gold watches and the face color of said watches. I thought it was funny as hell at the time, and I still do; they were often testy with one another, no disrespect to either man intended,

Karl

Dear Dan,

2009-12-21T02:57:00.003-08:00

Dear Dan,

You’re welcome. I note your disapproval of the pageantry displayed as “frivolous” and expensive. It reminded me of the Dorje Dradul’s love of display as an expression of inherent richness. He was frequently criticised for it, but he always pushed us further—and, by all conventional measures, beyond our means. Money was even tighter in Shambhala in his era, and the appeals for cash were endless and urgent. Of course he knew—as we know today—that compared with many other spiritual communities around the world, Shambhalians generally give proportionally less of their personal wealth to the organization (thank goodness for the exceptions).

As to display, in the late 70s and early 80s we held an annual Midsummer’s Festival on a mesa just south of Boulder. They were our big chance as a society to put on a show, and we did. The Dorje Dradul and his family would enter on horseback in their finery and sit on a high platform, with satin backdrop, and banners and flags all around. The entire community would parade before them, in their deleks and various organizations, with their banners. A huge lhasang brought down the dralas; there were cultural arts performances; and the delegs barbecued and generally feasted all afternoon under colourful canopies.

In 1981, with the Sixteenth Karmapa and entourage also on the platform, we pulled out all the stops (Minister of Internal Affairs Ken Green was Festival Director). At one point, five skydivers plunged from a barely visible aircraft above us, with The Ride of the Valkyries blasting from large speakers. One skydiver landed right in front of the platform and rushed forward with a scroll honouring Karmapa; the others landed all around us. It was a thrilling display, and the Dorje Dradul and the Karmapa clearly revelled in it. I think the Dorje Dradul could easily have designed the parade in the Tintin comic—only it would have been even more resplendent.

Best wishes,

Nick Wright

PS. I notice that you sent your “projection” to sangha-announce instead of sangha-talk; unfortunately, sangha-announce subscribers wouldn’t have known what you were referring to in response to my previous post.

From Barbara

2009-12-21T02:57:00.001-08:00

Barbara Blouin is not on sangha-talk, so she asked me to forward this:

> Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Mark. Here is my response. Basically, I find the whole thing very funny. I am indeed becoming notorious.
>
> "I do not receive sangha-talk (too much talking for me), but someone forwarded Dan Taylor's guess that I am behind the Tintin cartoon that is causing such a stir.
>
> I feel honoured for being thought such a creative troublemaker, but alas, 'tis not I. Guess again, Dan.
>
> Barbara

Standing ovation!

2009-12-21T02:55:00.000-08:00

Extremely astute observation, Julie!! Standing ovation! -Judith Smth

I would only add that

2009-12-21T02:53:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed this discussion, and the cartoon itself.

I would only add that after the parade has passed by, Tin-Tin and the Captain's begging bowl is still empty. This might be the source of the Captain's frustration.

Ah, samsara...

Julie Benson