I want an Oompaloompa NOW!!!

As if to punish me for calling in sick two weeks ago when really I just wanted to spend time with my brother while he was in town, today I woke up actually sick and didn't have much choice. I'd signed up to do the refreshments at the Kadampa Buddhist center, and we had an empowerment which we only do once a year or so, so I really had to go.

The empowerment was for mother Prajnaparamita (whose name I can finally pronounce!), a wisdom Buddha whose "specialty" is bliss and emptiness. Since the emptiness of phenomena is something I don't even have an intellectual understanding about, let alone a realization of, I found the meditation difficult. Also I find it hard to meditate at the best of times; when I have a headache and a sore throat I can't hold concentration for more than a few moments. So self-generating as the deity? Yeah, I think I held that for about three seconds.

A member from the Baltimore Center was telling me about what happens to the tormas after the empowerment. Apparently they are dissolved in a body of water so that the teachings can go downstream and spread Dharma to the world. I thought that was kind of cool. Heidi said Gen Varahi takes them to Rock Creek Park. It's kind of nice to think of spreading peace through the waterways of Washington DC....