Making Tsa Tsas at Karmê Chöling

A burial structure similar to a stupa at Karmê Chöling.

Painted with saffron water and clothed in satin, we prepared printed mantras. After tightly rolling them around a stem of incense, they were wrapped in electrical tape to protect the text from water. We tested the snugness of the sandalwood after it had time to relax. The result bound up paper, fabric, and plastic with the good intentions, a little bead of meditation. At her house, Julia, the coordinator, opened a cardboard file box brimming to the top with these little black rolls. Forty thousand of them filled four boxes.

After spending a year in the city, the landscape of Karmê Chöling, cradled in the mountains of Barnet, VT, felt like a different world.  Crossing a bridge over a shallow stream brought back memories from my time in Burlington. My chest opened, free from the constraint of manicured shrubbery and angry traffic.  The expansiveness of the stupa concept is immersive and intense.

The stupa will house 108,000 Tsa Tsas, little stupas, cast in plaster. While in the mold, a practitioner seeds each Tsa Tsa with a scroll. Red and gold paint emblazons the dry models. We were instructed to chant to ourselves, “Ki Ki So So!” , during the process. The energy of the words accompanies the meaning of a fearless joy.  In the end, this effort will be sealed inside the completed structure.

Throughout the weekend, I simultaneously wanted to move in and leave immediately. Being up close with myself and other’s spiritual views takes a lot of processing. I will return again in the future.

Roger Williams Natural History Museum

The jaws right whale greet visitors to the Roger Williams Natural History Museum. The realization that a creature that large swims off our shores startles the imagination. The curious collection of taxidermy and anthropological specimens was inspiring while slightly creepy. Speckels, dots and stripes, stuffed birds and mammals, inspired me to snap some iPad photos.

A fierce grizzly bear and mounted deer head.

Time for a cigar in the study..

Found only in Cumberland, Cumberlandite is Rhode Island’s state rock.