Ajari Tanaka's 2018 Visit Retrospective...

On what seems like yesterday, a small group of Mandala Vermont students gathered to welcome Ajari Tanaka at the Burlington Airport.

And right on schedule, he arrived and his annual visit started.

And very soon thereafter, he was safe and comfortable in his host's home.

On the mornings of Monday and Tuesday Ajari Tanaka oversaw the review of our Gumonji-ho text that we had been working on translating into English for the past three years.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings he turned his attention to the Dhama Name Ceremony scheduled for Friday evening.

And in the evenings of Monday through Thursday, Ajari Tanaka led meditations at our Burlington Dojo for small but very grateful group of local students and one intrepid visitor.

And on Friday night five students who have made a strong connection to Ajari Tanaka and the Mandala Vermont sangha received their dharma names. 

And now the fruition of this year's visit began... 

Over the next two days, with Ajari Tanaka presiding we transmitted the Gumonji-ho to the authorized students in the sangha. At the risk of being melodramatic, it was historic for our sangha and also Buddhism in the West.

And before long, our practice and study time of the Gumonji-ho was complete. Seventeen Mandala Vermont students were authorized and trained to practice the same practice that Shingon's founder, Kobo Daishi Kukai used to discover his own enlightenment.

The only thing left was some celebration.

And then a day of relaxation, souvenir shopping and fun in Burlington.

But then the time abruptly came.

And we had to say good-bye for another year...

The last dinner together...Tonight is

Tonight is Ajari Tanaka's last night in Vermont. So, to mark the occasion, a group of us went with him out to a Burlington favorite. It's been a great visit, can't believe its already coming to a close.

The Class of 2018...

Participants in Mandala Vermont's first transmission of the Gumonji-ho.

We did it...

Today we completed our first transmission of the Gumonji-ho in our sangha.

Wow...

Ajari Tanaka 2018

Dharma Names, 2018...

Tonight Ajari Tanaka gave Dharma Names to five sangha members. The names came from the "Kujo Shakujo", a short sutra used during fire ceremonies (goma) at Tanakahata Fudo, Ajari Tanaka's first training temple in Hino City.

These dharma name recipients received a gift from our sangha of a Shingon rosary that Ajari brought with him from Japan.

It was a pretty happy night.

Ajari Tanaka surrounded by the names he selected for our Dharma Name Event.

Preparations...

Ajari Tanaka practicing Oshakyo after completing the artwork for our Dharma Name Ceremony.

Day #3

Finished the edits to the Gumonji-ho this morning and later on in the evening Ajari Tanaka lead a group of eight of us in recitation practice of the Kannon-gyo. After he spoke at length on a number of subjects.

Ajari Tanaka's 2018 Vermont Visit, Day #2 - evening edition

This evening nine sangha members gathered for our first practice session with Ajari Tanaka. These intimate gatherings are so wonderful as we all get to have a very personal experience of our teacher.

And the good news is we have them scheduled every evening this week through this Thursday...

Ajari Tanaka's 2018 Vermont Visit, Day #2

Spent the morning with Ajari Tanaka reviewing our draft of the Gumonji-ho. Plowed through way more that I thought we would and it verified that all the earlier work was fruitful.

Tomorrow we will continue and, if luck stays with us, we will complete the review and be ready to print the text.

It will be a real milestone for Mandala Vermont. This is our first true translation project. We started with the original Japanese text and now, after three years of work we have what appears to be a quality English language version of the Gumonji-ho.

My gratitude to Ajari Tanaka for his patient help with this project and for the multi-lingual sangha member who did the fundamental, instrumental translation work cannot be captured in words...

I'm so happy our sangha will now be able to practice this same sadhana that Master Kukai used to discover his own enlightenment.

The traveler has returned...

A small group of sangha folks stayed up way past their bedtimes to meet Ajari at the airport. Strangely enough another sangha member happened to be on the same flight from Chicago that brought Ajari Tanaka to Burlington.  Hilarious.

So he's here again. He's really here...

We all couldn't be happier that he arrived safely.  And better yet he looks great and seemed very energetic after his long flight. Now the best part starts, all the things we have scheduled for his visit.

Simply fantastic...

So it begins again...

"Yume", Dream by Ajari Jomyo Tanaka

Ajari Tanaka arrives here in Vermont tonight at just a few minutes after 9:00 PM. He will be with us for ten days and this year is devoted to finalizing a project we have been working on for three years.

Ajari Tanaka's original, Japanese language version of the Gumonji-ho

Three years ago a student of Ajari's with considerable skill in Chinese asked Ajari if she may try to translate his version of the Gumonji-ho.  Ajari agreed and the process began. After a year we had the first rough draft. We reviewed this with Ajari Tanaka and he helped us make many improvements. We spent the next year improving many of the texts elements and crafting it into a form suitable for practice. Last year we did another round of reviews with Ajari. This really helped us refine the text and produce what we believe is very close to the final version.

Mandala Vermont's English Language Version of the Gumonji-ho

Next week we will again spend a significant amount of time with Ajari Tanaka finalizing this text.  And our project will come to fruition next weekend, September 15 & 16, during which time this practice will be introduced to our sangha for the first time.  This has long been an aspiration of many of Ajari's students and we are very happy to soon be able to practice the same sadhana that Master Kukai used to gain his enlightenment.

We are very lucky indeed...

"TRAH", the seed syllable of Kokuzo Bodhisattva