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Years ago I dreamt that I was riding bare-back on a palamino horse on a large plain in Mongolia. Many of our dreams do not “come true.” But this is one dream I want to fulfil.

However, I went vicariously through my friend “Red” (Carell Doerrbecker) who, with her husband Konrad, flew to Asia (including Hong Kong, China and Mongolia) this July and returned with some fabulous stories that she shared with me, Ted and Merrily Spearin, Paul Persofsky and Jen Janes over breakfast in Toronto, Canada in early August.

Turns out she almost didn’t make it to Mongolia because she flirted with the wrong guy in Hong Kong.

Here’s “Red” recounting what happened.

Konrad’s team has just won gold, silver and bronze at the World Championship of Dragon Boaters in Hong Kong, (July 04-05, 2012). Before flying to Beijing, we go to see the 112-foot majestic, slate-grey statue of the Buddha which is surrounded by statues of bodhisattvas. In the distance stands the Po Lin Monastery. Joining the tourists are cows and bulls! I pat the cows. No problem. They are docile.

Now, back home in Toronto, whenever a dog comes to me to get groomed, I start the ceremony with “Who’s the handsome boy?” accompanied by a wink.

So I saunter up to a Brahmin bull and extend my hand to pat him, saying “Who’s the handsome boy?” I don’t remember if I winked or not. But what I can tell you for certain is that that’s the last time I’ll flirt with a bull. His head goes down. His horns hit my legs. I fly threw the air. I land in a square where people wait for buses……My initial evaluation of this guy so far? He plays rough.

Konrad, startled but not surprised — my red hair, like Anne of Green Gable’s, gets me into these kinds of situations every once in a while — runs over to help me. “What was the very last thing you said to that bull?” he demands?…Oh don’t tell me, I know…Who’s the handsome boy?” I nod numbly. My face is now as red as my hair. “You’re lucky he didn’t kill you,” says Konrad. “He could have. He chose not to.”

Maybe with my red hair the bull mistakes me for a Spanish matador with his red flag. Or perhaps my flirtatiousness — “Who’s the handsome boy?” — encourages him to get overly-familiar with me, even though it was our first date. Or maybe that is just his way of showing friendliness! At any rate, Konrad laughed for the rest of the two-week trip.

Here are five pics to accompany the story above. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

© The New Yorker Collection 2000 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

Meditation is no longer a strange word. Scientists have done many studies to show the benefits of meditation on our health, both physical and mental.

This post is, however, not directly about the health benefits. It is about the misconceptions around meditation. It is necessary to deal with this because meditation is one of the tools that can help us to change the course of our lives, our karma. And if we are operating on misconceptions, then we cannot make proper use of this valuable tool.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche provides the context for this post

“If we follow thoughts back, we can see that they stem from an embedded karmic situation that has gone on for a very long time.”

“The point of buddhism is that we are creating future actions. We can change the course. We are not stuck in our karma.” (Classes 4 and 5)

By meditating, we see how the mind that created our karma is the same mind that can cut the creation and maintenance of that karma.

Before we get into details about how meditation can cut karma and allow us to control our lives, I want to first dispel some common misconceptions: Read the rest of this entry »