I had the good fortune to spend a day with my heart teacher, Drupon Thinley Nyingpo. I had planned to take him out to lunch, considering I live in Virginia and he lives in Florida (when he is not traveling for his various teaching commitments). Therefore I might only get to see him once or twice per year, so I wanted to take advantage of my quick trip down to Florida. And fortunately he was in town the whole time I was down there.
We went out and I had the blessing of driving him, meaning my car was blessed, even if temporarily. As we were heading out, we stopped at a long traffic light and a crow flew right over the hood and then landed on the median next to my door. I looked over and Drupon la had a mischievous gleam in his eye. I watched and the crow fearlessly walked right up to my door, as if he wanted me to open it and then he would have had a conversation with my teacher. It definitely seemed more fearless than normal.
I asked Drupon la as I had heard that crows are associated with Mahakala, which is a Dharma protector in Buddhism. And Drupon confirmed my assumption.
That was the only curious happening on the way to the restaurant. Then we ate at a delicious Asian Buffet, so there was lots to choose from. Then we came back and worked on the car a little. It needed to be jumped as it had been sitting for a while, then we washed it. I got to rescue some frogs – they had taken shelter in the space between the doors and the trunk area. They were slimy and I’m pretty sure they pissed on my hand. But it was about to freeze that night so they needed to be moved!
We went to Home Depot for some trim as Drupon wanted to finish the retreat hut. I was amazed at how much had been done on it since I was there last. And actually, Drupon had only been back about 3 weeks including the holidays, so that means he had done a lot on it very recently. When I left, it reminded me of a large storage shed – cedar plywood was the floors and the walls, and the “ceiling” was just rafters with the plywood on top. You could see the shingle nails poking through.
Then when I checked it out, it had been completely transformed – it had faux wood flooring, bead board wall paneling, a drop drop ceiling and there was trim everywhere, except between the floor and the walls. So that is what Drupon and I completed. I should say he completed. I merely held the light and fetched tools and put down caulk. It was pretty cool. I have some building experience but it has been years, so it was fun to be a part of that process!
One of the things I miss about Florida is the variety of birds. A large red tailed hawk flew right by me as I pulled into the center and then later as I was leaving. The trees are pretty thick, so it has to fly at a lower level to get into and out of its nesting tree. That was pretty cool. Then there were the local cranes – (I think they are cranes, have not looked it up yet) tall grey water birds – passed through the Dharma Center’s yard.