I’ve believe — and have experienced — that once karma has been created, you cannot undo it. It has to come to fruition.

My New Year’s Day aspiration is to relate in a deeper way to my own karma so as to

1.  mitigate the painful affects of the karma that has come to fruition in this lifetime; and
2. create as little karma as possible for the future.

In this post, I will deal with number one.

I was making  my bed this past Thursday, getting ready to go to the shambhala buddhist centre for morning meditation practice.

(Pull the bedspread off the bed.)

I was thinking about how my eighty-eight year-old mother has never been able to dispense with her habitual patterns of thought towards me — no matter what I do for her, she’ll always see me as horrible.

(Pull back the covers.)

I then realized that I too had habitual patterns of thought, namely, that I’ll always see her as horrible.

(Pull the top sheet off the bed.)

Well, I thought, if my mother can’t get outside her cocoon of habitual patterns and reactions, then it’s up to me to get out of mine, not only for my own sake — but maybe this would also help her.

(Remove the pillows.)

“Our past lifes <sic> karma might be determined but in this life we should always try to remedy it, make efforts to make it workable.” (source: H. E. Terton Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche – e-mail Jan 2011;  http://www.ripaladrang.org/teachers.htm)

 But how?

(Smooth out the bottom sheet.)

We do this via the most basic meditation practicetechnique known as “labelling and following.” We begin to see how caught up we are in our discursive thought and the  habitual patterns created by them.

And then, when we’re somewhat familiar with this practice, we can move to Level 2 technique and begin to explore the cocoon we live in and see how this coccon was formed and how it is maintained. We start to gain some insight.

But I’ve never heard anyone explain what is it about this meditation technique that helps us to explore our cocoon. In other words, what are the logistics? Why is it that following the technique helps us to see how habitual patterns are formed?

(Pull up the top sheet.)

From my own experience over more than 30 years, I think it’s this:

• Habitual patterns are comprised of both thoughts and emotions, which in turn create a set of habitual responses to our world. It is these responses\volitional actions that create our karma.

(Pull up the covers.)

• By following the meditation technique of being mindful of when a thought or emotion is arising in our mind, we start to see how these  thoughts and emotions  form a pattern. The pattern becomes “habitual” when we grasp and fixate on it.
  

• It’s ego’s identification with and belief in these patterns that deepens the “rut” we are in. Another way to say this is that continually thinking the same thoughts, and feeling the same emotions associated with those thoughts, deepens the “rut.”  It’s  like  our car being stuck in deep, wet mud, and we move the car back and forth continually in an attempt to free the car. But often, we just succeed in deepening the rut.
  

• We have to somehow unwind the cluster. Meditation “unweaves” or pulls apart the strands that make up the clusters, which in effect breaks down  the pattern itself. When the pattern comes apart, the habitual response loses its power.

In short, when practicing meditation, we practice being immediate; being in the NOW, not in the future or the past. Meditation practice can cut through anger, fear. How? Being in the NOW cuts through fixation on\grasping at\attachment to these thoughts.

(I do not finish making my bed. I rush to my computer to write this…… before I get immersed in my cocoon and forget what I have just worked out.)

Happy Western New Year!

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This post follows the one of December 11, 2011 immediately below.

In the Shambhala teachings, what are called the Four Dignities describe four stages in a process of realizing our basic goodness.

We want to live good lives. That involves making the right decisions. We ask ourselves:

“What is it that I want to do? What would be the right decision? I have the opportunity right now, what am I going to do? If I make certain decisions, I will get certain outcomes. That is the law of karma.”

Karma is the basic flow of nature, so — not to be too heavy — I think we need to really consider our actions, because we get into a lot of entanglement when we do not have this ability to be discerning, knowing what to do. We bumble into things and hope they work out. Dharma and the Shambhala teachings are saying that the first quality is Tiger — that quality of mindfulness, is meekness, not being overly arrogant.  (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: The Four Sessions of Basic Goodness)

So we practice discernment.

Then what?

What unfolds from here naturally is the next session of basic goodness, which is the Lion. This has the quality of finally coming to a decision. We know what we want to do. We want to do the virtuous thing. We realize that the way to make a decision is to consider, “How is it beneficial for others? If I am going to say something, is it going to help them? Or am I just going to say something snide, or something aggressive? And what kind of good is that going to do?” If we decide that we are going to say something aggressive or that we are going to gossip, the reality is that the gossip and aggression is just going to come back at us; people are going to be talking about us in that particular way. It is just a cycle; this is the moment where we decide what to do.  (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: The Four Sessions of Basic Goodness)

It’s good to remember that, in coming to a decision,  we are actually choosing our future karma.

When I was writing speeches for senior political figures, I would talk about the ripple effect in the tourism industry. If tourists come to your city, they need accomodation. Then they might go to the restaurants. Or the theatre. Or rent a car. In other words, that one act of a tourist who visits your city creates a ripple effect which boosts the income of the surrounding establishments.

In the same way, when I make a decision, it affects not only myself. It affects others! In other words, there’s a ripple effect, as Pema Chodron put it.

So it is very important that we make decisions based on seeing situations clearly, on seeing the truth of the situation, not based on what’s just best for our own comfort, or wanting to stay curled up in what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche described as our own cocoons. This is the opposite of bravery. It is cowardly.

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Every day I get an e-mail called Rigpa Glimpse of the Day. Up until now it has  been a kind of sleepy Sunday. But today’s message woke me up because of my lifelong interest in the outer, inner and secret aspects of karma.

We must never forget that it is through our actions, words, and thoughts that we have a choice. And if we choose to do so, we can put an end to suffering and the causes of suffering, and help our true potential, our buddha nature, to awaken in us. Until this buddha nature is completely awakened and we are freed from our ignorance and merge with the deathless, enlightened mind, there can be no end to the round of life and death. So, the teachings tell us, if we do not assume the fullest possible responsibility for ourselves now in this life, our suffering will go on not only for a few lives but for thousands of lives.

It is this sobering knowledge that makes Buddhists consider that future lives are more important even than this one, because there are many more that await us in the future. This long-term vision governs how they live. They know if we were to sacrifice the whole of eternity for this life, it would be like spending our entire life savings on one drink, madly ignoring the consequences.

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Part of a world-wide “going green” effort is the recycling programmes that many cities have put in place.

This webpost is how we can go further by “greening” our thoughts by recycling them, so to speak.

Following on the last post (dated September 11, 2011 immediately below this one), we learned that genuine spiritual guides and teachers avoid following a thought “down the road” so to speak. They let it go as it arises.

Why do they do this?

Because thoughts lead to volitional action. Which leads to the creation of karma.

How do they do this? By many years of participating in a fitness regime for taming and training the mind — meditation practice.

Meditation practice  provides instructions — labelling and letting go — whereby I can relate to thoughts and the emotions they evoke in a way that does not lead to action. (That’s why it’s said that meditation is one of the few times that we are not accumulating karma.)

But how about in everyday life? How can we recycle thoughts back into primordial energy? I’ve developed an exercise that helps me deal with the thought as soon as it arises in my everyday life. In my city our recycling programme involves three bins — green, blue and grey —  for a variety of items, e.g. garbage, paper, glass, and food etc. etc. etc.

There’s now a fourth “bin.” The city didn’t provide it. I created it. It’s virtual. It’s for thoughts. As soon as I can see the thought — either as it arises, or, more likely (at my early stage of development), when it is full blown — I “put” the thought in the thought recycling bin where it is transformed back into pure energy from which it arose. You can create your own virtual thought recycling bin. Mine is just vast space, like the sky.

The idea of “recycling” thoughts follows the second law of thermodynamics. Put very simply, it says that energy (in whatever form it has taken) returns to its original state as soon as the form decays. In terms of thoughts, the energy of a thought is released when we let go of that thought. If we grasp, attach and fixate on the thought, the opposite happens. We get caught up in a karmic chain reaction. It is described here.

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I love Vermont.

To me, it’s always been a magical place since I first went there in January 1974 to hear Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche speak on Zen and Tantra at what was then known as Tail of the Tiger land centre (now part of beautiful Karme Choling).

I travelled there again on September 02, 2011 for six days to participate in a retreat around Tibetan King Gesar of Ling lead by His Eminence Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche. On Tuesday, September 06, His Eminence gave about eight of us an interview — arranged for us by his student Gary Mass — that lasted for one hour!

We were invited to ask one question each. In this situation most of us ask questions around the dharma teachings.

This webpost is around the simple yet profound personal question asked by Shambhala Buddhist student Leslie Witt from Vermont: how do you see the world? This is what I remembered the next day of His Eminence’s answer — PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID.

Highly realized persons have thoughts and emotions like everyone else. The difference is that they do not follow those thoughts. And because they don’t follow the thoughts, they do not engage in liking or aversion. So they they do not perpetuate negative karma of the three poisons.

As my weblog is around an in-depth exploration of karma, I appreciated this simple yet very profound description.

As I sat writing this post at the computer in the dining room at Karme-Choling, one of the programme participants suggested I speak to the translator, Vanessa Turner from Los Angeles, to get her recall. (Vanessa tells me that she has been speaking and translating for a number of years for her Tibetan teachers, one of whom is His Eminence, since she was 16.)

I hit the jackpot! This wonderful translator remembered what His Eminence said almost verbatim. [Please note that words in {   } are mine.] Here it is, unedited so that the reader can get the full flavour of His Eminence’s answer:

I’m really just the same as you.  I too have thoughts and emotions just like you do. But the difference between you guys and myself is that I have thoughts but I recognize the thoughts {as thoughts} and I don’t follow after the thoughts. Actually this is the fundamental difference bewteen ordinary people and lamas. Both of them have thoughts and emotions. The process of thoughts and emotions arising is the same for ordinary people as it is for lamas. The difference is that ordinary people follow after the thoughts and get caught up in them whereas lamas recognize the arising of the thoughts and do not follow after them. (He thinks for a moment.)

When I was young, I remember finding this uncontrived, spontaneous deep level of compassion that was like this feeling of compassion for all sentient beings that was not constructed or forced. It was like something that is always innately there.

I know all sentient beings. I know the way in which they are confused and lost in samsara {the world of confusion created by ego, our manufactured self} and when I see sentient beings lost in their confusion and out of that confusion engaging in creating more negative karma because of their attachment and aversion and ignorance, I genuinely feel just a sense of loving care for all of them. I really feel for them. It’s like they can’t help it. They’re confused. I see it. I see how they create suffering for themselves. I feel so much love and caring for them. So there is this feeling, this compassion, where it’s like I can see that the sentient beings and the nature of their confusion but I myself do not follow after that confusion. But I can see it!

And also some lamas who have really high level of realization they actually don’t see impurity anywhere at all. They don’t see impure sentient beings. They see only deities {wisdom beings}. They see only the display of the deity mandala. Everything that appears to them appears as the expression of wisdom as a display of the deity. Everything they hear (all sounds) arise to them as the sound of mantra. But to have that kind of view one would have to be really high level of realization.

However, I will say that when we are all gathered together in puja and sometime I just look out at all of you and I only see your goodness. It’s like I look at you all and I don’t see any faults in anyone. When we are in the puja together, all of you are wholly good. So maybe that is some reflection of a pure view because really don’t actually see any flaws in you when we are together in the puja. For lamas of really high realization everyone appears as the deity {wisdom being} and anyway I too have thoughts but I recognize the thought.  Recognizing the thought I do not follow after it. Or become entrenched in it.

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Event:       State funeral for the Honourable Jack Layton,
             leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition

Date:        Saturday, August 27, 2011

Jack  was always an innovator, a creator, often ahead of his time, as the expression goes. Click here for summary of career.

But he outdoes himself on August 27, 2011 when he uses his own funeral as the setting for his last political campaign!

Let’s go back a bit.

May 02, 2011 Canadian Federal Election: Jack, 61 year-old leader of the federal New Democratic Party, had just brought his party to its highest political status in its history on the federal level: he won enough seats to become Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

August 22, 2011 – 04h45: Jack dies from cancer. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, understanding the great affection Canadians have for Jack,  regardless of their political affiliations, announces that Jack will be given a state funeral — most unusual because state funerals are given if a former prime minister or cabinet minister dies. Jack has been neither.

August 22 – 26, 2011: Tributes to Jack come from some of the many people he worked with and knew over his lifetime. The one I like is given by Robin Sears who makes a point that no one else I am hearing has made:  how Jack evolved as a politician. The concepts of evolution and transformation appeal to me. And that was my experience of Jack. When I first met him in the 1980s he seemed defensive and somewhat aggressive. Now he has the stature of a bodhisattva, those who serve others out of compassion without thought of what one can get for oneself.

August 27, 2011: The day of the funeral. Only 600 members of the public were allowed into Roy Thomson Hall for this event. There are 1,700 invited guests including the Prime Minister, other elected officials including mayors and cabinet ministers etc. etc. etc. I managed to be one of the 600.

Here are a few of my off-the-cuff notes from this past week of mourning and grief:

• The media reports describe Jack as “lying in repose” in his casket — I think to myself that it probably is the only time that Jack lay in repose in this lifetime!  He was constantly working on behalf of others.

• Jack was a wonderful example of a great Shambhala (Tibetan) Buddhist warrior — warrior in the sense of courage, not aggression and hatred. His compassion fueled his courage. The Tibetan name for Great Warrior is Pamo Chenmo.
• We cannot become a genuine warrior until out heart is broken. Jack’s heart was broken by the suffering in the world.  He truly manifested the genuine heart of sadness of the warrior. Juxtaposed with this sadness was his boundless uplifted spirit of optimism and hope.
  

• Jack for me embodied some of the qualities of the Great Eastern Sun — the sun shines on everyone. It does not distinguish between old, young, fat, thin, rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, etc. etc. etc. Jack helped everyone who came to him.

• Jack often spoken of as “passionate” about his beliefs, described as social democratic. Yes, he was passionate, but not fanatically fixated or obsessed.

• Jack as a loving warrior – I like this phrase because of the juxtaposition of two apparently opposite ideas: “loving” and “warrior.”

• Jack-in-the-box  —his body is in his coffin now, but Jack was someone who could think outside the box.

• I hear people says it’s “unfair” that he died at this time. I don’t think Jack lived his life in terms of these kinds of dichotomies, e.g. fair\unfair.  To me, Jack lived in the gap between all the dualistic, polar opposites by which we conventionally live and judge others. Again, some examples are stupid\intelligent; nobody\somebody; and the biggest one being the us-and-them dichotomy; etc. etc.

• Jack’s “political” message transcended politics and spoke to basic goodness  (Quebecers call Jack “Le Bon Jacques”)

• Great teachers — whether they manifest as politicians, doctors, whatever — sometimes leave this life relatively early….we now have to stand on our own.

• I hear people say “I never met Jack but….”  I think to myself “Yes you did. You meet Jack anytime you see someone taking time to help someone in a practical way. He did not tell people that it wasn’t “convenient” for him and maybe if he had time he’d get back to them. No. He just helped them. On the spot.

• Jack, despite his personal and political stature, provided the courtesies of everyday life to everyone he met. To me, these simple courtesies create peace.

• There’s a phrase in one of our Shambhala Buddhist chants that talks about becoming “gentle and tough” (page 3 of 4). To me, that was Jack.

Dear Jack,

Just a few last thoughts…….

I’ll bet you are making your journey through the after-death  bardo on your bicycle! That is fitting,  as you promoted the option of riding our bikes rather than riding the transit rails or driving our cars in the city of Toronto long before anyone else.

You’ll always be on my ballot whenever there’s an election.

Well done, our good and faithful servant.

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Around 1969 Dad sold the family business that his grandfather had started several decades earlier. And at the age of 50 Dad began to sell commercial real estate.

He won numerous awards year after year as top salesman in his company. How? He told me his “secret” — he sold without selling.

The young salespeople in the company always tried to make a quick sale. I didn’t. I spent a lot of time with the clients to assess what their needs were.

It sounded very Shambhalian to me.

Mum and my sister and I clincked glasses in a toast of gratitude to Dad.

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This weblog is dedicated to the subject of karma and its many facets and factors. Today is “Milarepa Day” in the Buddhist calendar. Milarepa, a murderer and saint is, for me, the best object lesson for karma!

When we hear the name Tibet, many people think of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Gentle. Compassionate. Humourous. Loving. Wise.

Milarepa, one of the greatest figures of Tibetan Buddhism, couldn’t present a better contrast to the perception we have of the Dalai Lama.

Mila was one bad dude. Got into black magic in a big way. Murdered his enemies to avenge some wrong-doing done to his family after his father had died.

But he is favourite of mine. Why? It’s really quite simple. He was a very naughty boy who went from sinner to saint. From a murderer to a magician and mystic. And did it all in one lifetime.

Milarepa’s message to me is: “I transformed a great deal of negative karma into enlightenment. So can you.” Well, it’s taking me many many lifetimes. But Mila is my inspiration.

Let’s start at the beginning of his story.

Once upon a time a baby son destined to be the most famous Tibetan poet was born in 1040 to wealthy parents who called him “Good News.” But in this story, there’s a lot of bad news too.

As the expression goes, what do you want to hear first: the good news or the bad news about Milarepa? In this case, we’ll have to start with the bad news because out of the bad news came the good news.

When Mila was still young, his father died. Unfortunately, his father did not draw up a very wise will, and his wealth, in the form of a beautiful house and much land, were put in the care of Mila’s aunt and uncle to be held until Mila got married.

The aunt and uncle were unkind people. They were greedy and thought only of themselves. Mila and his mother and sister were treated like slaves in their own home! They wore rags for clothes and did not eat well, while the aunt and uncle took everything good for themselves.

Aunt, you are a demoness.
You are a deadly demoness who almost killed me.
(source: The Rain of Wisdom – “The Songs of Jetsun Milarepa”)

Soon, Mila, his mother and sister — deprived of their land and house and all their goods, and given poor food to eat and rags to wear —became unhealthy. Everybody in their village felt sorry for them but there was nothing anyone felt they could do.

We usually think of turning 16 as a big deal.His mother couldn’t wait until he turned 16 to put her hidden agenda into action. So when he turned 15, she held a party for him. Her brother helped by giving Mila’s mother some food so that she would have something to serve to her guests. The aunt and uncle were invited.

After everyone had eaten, Mila’s mother made her grand announcement: “It is time now to have our possesions returned to us.” The aunt and uncle refused, saying that the will Mila’s father had left gave the family possessions to the aunt and uncle outright.

There weren’t any lawyers to go to in 11th century Tibet.

So Mila’s mother urged her adolescent son to seek out a Sorcerer-lama to learn black magic so he could destroy the family’s enemies.

He did. In fact, Mila was a such a good pupil that he got an A+ on his report card. When he returned to his village, he didn’t actually show his report card to his mother. He went one better. He demonstrated his A+ skills:

• First, he killed 35 people at a wedding party by causing the horses to become extremely agitated; in their agitation, the horses kicked the main column that supported the house, and it fell on 35 of the 37 wedding guests; and then
• He caused three powerful hail storms to appear; they destroyed the entire barley crop of that year.

After wreaking this havoc, he returned to his Sorcerer-lama for what we today would call graduate classes.

Now for the good news. At some point, Mila realized that his actions had accumulated a great deal of negative karma and wished now to get spiritual instruction. He met his teacher, Marpa the Translator, and asked Marpa to give him spiritual instructions.

Through a break in my evil karma, I discovered good karma
I met the father jetsun [revered teacher], the excellent true buddha [awakened one]
………..
The skin of ignorant ego-fixation fell away from me,
And the great knot tied by passion and aggression [the poisons] was loosened.
(source: The Rain of Wisdom; “The Songs of Khakhyap Dorje”)

The great spiritual teacher Marpa realized that Mila had a great deal of evil karma to be worked through . So he “sentenced” Mila to a long period of hard labour: Marpa set him the task of building a stone structure… only to have Mila destroy it as soon as he built it. This occured eight times.

Only then was Mila purified enough to hear the spiritual instructions.

Alot of us feel we’ve been living a life of (psychological) hard labour in some ways.

What a great basis for waking up from the illusions that ego creates.

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Every year the students of the Sakyong [Earth Protector] Mipham Rinpoche gather in their respective shrinerooms to hear his address through an onlinehook-up, which includes centres and groups from six continents and over thirty countries around the world .

But this year is even more special because Rinpoche [the Precious One] has just completed a year-long retreat.

As the Sakyong enters the shrineroom in Boulder, Colorado, 8,000 students stand up in their respective shrinerooms from Argentina to the United Kingdom. The bagpipes are played. Rose petals are tossed into the air.

The Sakyong takes his seat.

He looks well. As sangha member Madeline Conacher said in an e-mail message to me “Did the Sakyong not look radiant and peaceful!”

He begins his address:

“I’m back. I’m rested. I love you all. …..That’s it!”

(I’m reminded of Julius Ceasar’s Veni. Vidi. Vici. I came. I saw. I conquered. I note that both Julius Ceasar and The Sakyong are warriors. But that’s where the similarity ends: The Sakyong is a warrior without aggression.)

Laughter, some of it nervous.

That’s it? That’s all he’s got to say? After one year’s absence?

As it turns out, not quite.

Here follows a few points from my notes of his address to his students.The theme, in my view, can best be described in the following words:

The time has come. The time is now. Just go. Go. GO! <source: Dr. Seuss: Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now, 1972>

• We now have a real community.
• We all have the ability to be awake and to live up to our potential.
• Unless we acknowledge our own basic goodness, we have no future.
• If humanity does not look inward and find basic goodness, the future is bleak indeed.
• Our lives are an unfolding of how we feel about ourselves.
• We didn’t “sign up” for a global initiative. We think it’s about “me.” But we discover that it’s about the entire planet. It’s a choiceless situation in a good way.
• Creating enlightened society is based on the notion that humanity is good.
• Part of the notion of enlightened society is being with other people, in communities. Look people in the eye.
  
• We must examine what our intentions are around how each of us can contribute to the creation of enlightened society.
• Somebody is going to make decisions that create our future.  If we allow negativity to continue to grow, there’s a whole generation who will feel cheated.
• We must recognize the basic nature of mind (basic goodnesss). this will lead to generosity. Otherwise, we are just materialists.
• There should not be any split between the spiritual aspects of our lives and how we live our everyday lives.
• Creating enlightened society sounds like an impossible mission. We are doing something that hasn’t been done before. We’re in the profession of making what is impossible, possible.
• At the heart level it all comes down to one person being brave. This then spreads to others.
• It takes one person deciding that a moment of love and compassion is better than a moment of anger.
• When will we jump in and go deep?

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We are encouraged not to resist change by living in our cocoons and clinging to our own little lives caught in the vice of self-cherishing.

Join with others! Form communities so that we can be alone together and work for healthy changes. Just as we cannot find happiness in some external circumstance outside of ourselves, we cannot depend on others to “lead” us. We are our own leader!

Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
…….
…….

At this time in history,
we are to take nothing personally,
least of all ourselves,
for the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

<source: paragraph of a speech given by a Hopi elder in Oraibi, Arizona to the Hopi Nation circa October 28, 2001>

Here are two more calls to action from The Sakyong (Earth Protector) Mipham Rinpoche:

Especially recently, we have seen a series of natural and manmade disasters. It is as if the earth is asking us to be kind to each other and to itself. Now, more than any other time in history, the fate of our own planet is in our hands. (Sakyong Mipham, Rinpoche, letter to sangha, June 28, 2010)

……….

“If we expect somebody else to create peace in the world, we’re going to be waiting for a long time. We’ll become even more angry or anxious, because our unmet expectations will bring frustration, disappointment, and inevitably, more instability. But if we can stabilize our motivation and learn to cultivate peace and compassion, our willingness to take responsibility for changing the environment will inspire many others.”

© 2005 by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, from his address to the Sit for Change Meditation Marathon 2005. This excerpt first appeared in The Shambhala Sun.

We are the one’s we’ve been waiting for. We can change the karmic stream of our planet. Indeed, we will have to. Why? Because we are beyond the proverbial Eleventh Hour.

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour. <source: section of a speech given by a Hopi elder in Oraibi, Arizona to the Hopi Nation circa October 28, 2001>

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