Tribute to Jack van der Meulen

A Tribute to Jack van der Meulen

On February 12, 2020, at the end of the annual Longchenpa chant, long-time Kum Nye teacher and beloved Nyingma community member Jack van der Meulen died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after a debilitating disease. Jack taught at the Nyingma Institute for over 25 years.

“Jack’s kind and gentle spirit shone through everything he did,” wrote former Nyingma Institute Dean Sylvia Gretchen, “Deeply devoted to Nyingma, he offered students at the Institute a reliable path to self-awareness and relaxation through Kum Nye. His legacy endures in their lives and in the lives of all of us who knew him.”

“Jack was a loving, kind, open-hearted being who introduced countless people to the treasures of Kum Nye and the spiritual life,” wrote Kum Nye teacher Peggy Kincaid. Peggy recalled that she first got to know Jack when she began teaching at the Institute, more than two decades before:

As a beginning Kum Nye teacher I attended Jack’s classes wanting to learn and understand how he taught Kum Nye.  When Jack walked into the meditation room he was a striking figure, tall, lanky and back then, with a long ponytail.

Jack had a way of contacting space. That was an important aspect of his teaching and what I most remember learning from him. For new students of Kum Nye who were anxious or unfamiliar with meditation and sitting in stillness, Jack was patient and attentive guiding his students inward.

Barry Schieber, another former Dean of the Nyingma Institute, pointed out that Jack “was dedicated and reliable. Small virtues that often go unnoticed.”

Kum Nye teacher Santosh Philip  began taking Kum Nye classes when Jack started teaching at the Nyingma Institute and had Jack as one of his first teachers:

Clearly Jack was doing something right, since I have practiced Kum Nye ever since then and teach Kum Nye. On the first day I remember asking him: “How did people figure out these exercises and how can you come up with a new one?” At that time he told me that he didn’t know. Many years later, as he was teaching I got an insight about how to make new exercises. It came completely from the way Jack was teaching. I told him that he had shown me. I still go up to the Nyingma Institute thinking he will be there and that I can go to his class. When I teach a workshop, I think he will be teaching with me. Maybe he is.

Jack’s impact on his students emerges clearly in this memory by his student Diana Shapiro:

Jack was and is an irreplaceable teacher and an irreplaceable influence in my life for many years.  I started practicing Sunday Kum Nye back in 2000 so I was fortunate enough to have taken countless classes from him.

Jack was a really important teacher to me.  He taught me how to enjoy my human embodiment.  I can never repay that!  I learned from him that the energetic and sensory experiences of my body are a source of great relaxation, joy and even delight.  He taught me about being gentle with myself.  He taught me how to feel like a water plant, both literally and figuratively, deeply grounded and firm but at the same time flexible and open.

Peggy Kincaid also mentioned that she was able “to spend time with Jack and his wife Candace outside the Nyingma Institute and he was as much a devoted husband as he was Kum Nye teacher.”

Nyingma Institute Kum Nye teacher Abbe Blum recalled Jack’s and Candace’s generosity, their combined care and devotion for the Institute itself—from the meditation room, and the upkeep of the building, to concern for the well-being and progress of students. “Chanting during the 2020 Longchenpa Ceremony with Jack in my heart, I would look at the glass table top that he and Candace had had specially cut for the altar with the great wish that he be blessed and protected by the Nyingma lineage, the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas.”

We along with Peggy Kincaid want to “offer gratitude for his dedication to the Dharma. His was a life well-lived.”

Jack at work in the Nyingma Institute kitchen

Jack “flying” in front of the altar at the Nyingma Institute

Jack with Candace

Ways to Help: Seeking a Used Car

April 25, 2020

Hi everyone, 

After 8 years of service our reliable donated car, a grey 2005 Volvo S40, has started having transmission problems and is no longer safe to drive. Unfortunately, the value of the car is less than that of the replacement part needed, so it is time to bid farewell to this trusty steed. 

We rely on this vehicle for all procurement and transportation needs, for everything from picking up weekly groceries and supplies, to retrieving medication for those in our community without transportation, to picking up retreatants and stranded volunteers in emergencies.

As a residential community, one person handles procurement for the entire group. This includes the organization of, ordering, and pickup of items as necessary. We’d like to thank this person (Caz!) for her ongoing support, and also to replace this very necessary tool — a vehicle — as soon as we can. (As context, our culture is one of full-time volunteers who live and work on site as staff. We like to think that living and working together is both a good way to practice and to have a lighter impact on the environment.) 

At the moment, we are sheltering in place and relying heavily on deliveries, however we still need a working vehicle to rely on for emergencies.

We are seeking recommendations for a safe, lightly-used car to purchase, one without major repairs needed, for transporting supplies and people. If you have a friend or trustworthy acquaintance who is selling a car of this description, please put us in touch. 

Thank you for your help and support!

In gratitude, 

NI Residential Staff 

May 29, 2020 

Update:  We have been gifted a well-maintained, lightly-used car! Thank you so much to our dear friend for the donation. 

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Caring: Finding Beauty and Radiance in Difficult Times

Caring: Finding Beauty and Radiance in Difficult Times

The Nyingma Institute often offers Nyingma Psychology classes based on Tarthang Tulku’s newest publications, including Caring. This online class, taught by Pema Gellek and Hugh Joswick, helps students cultivate inner resources to care more fully for themselves and to open to the possibilities of beauty, friendship, and meaningful action even in the most challenging of times. 

April 25, 2020 — 

 

How would you describe this class?  

Pema:  It’s a practice oriented course with contemplations, practices and discussion on the theme of finding beauty in the midst of a dark, tough time.  The beauty is of any kind – the natural world, human qualities and actions that connect and uplift us, aesthetic, cultural and intellectual inspiration that speak directly to this moment. 

Hugh:  Bringing care to our experience is to make space for beauty. In this class we cultivate opening the heart so as to open our capacity to care. Care operates in both an immediate way, responding to the needs of what is cared for, and a more expansive way connected to the nature of awareness. 

What do you hope that students learn or are able to take into their lives?

Pema:  We want to encourage stillness, resilience, attunement to beauty, and the possibility of caring at all times, especially when we feel the most challenged.  We will be shifting from regime of mind to direct experience of the senses and a knowing that powerfully integrates the head and the heart.  Each moment we can undo the knots of the mind and heart by pressing in deeper on the presentations of mind and taking a stance of questioning, curiosity and gratitude for the miracle of our embodiment. 

Hugh:  By learning to care more directly for our embodiment we begin to explore the shimmering, receptive quality that is present before perceptions crystalize. Through discussion, practice, and development of attention, we encourage the perception of beauty as an element available in every moment. Beauty becomes a guide to the cultivation of care. How often do you notice beauty during a day? What do you notice when you notice something beautiful? 

What types of practices or content will be shared?  

Pema:  We will do breath practices, different practices working with the senses, and weekly “beauty challenges.” We will discover the radical possibility, the daringness of finding beauty that heals and liberates in the thorniest of moments.  We come to realize this is not just relevant to this moment but a life-long practice of how we can accept our pain and our worst fears as teachers that reveal the very nature of our existence, always full of polarities, but offering the possibility of integration through beauty and caring. 

Hugh: It is not exactly a meditation class, but a serious reflection on the nature of caring and the awareness of caring in the act of perception. It will encourage students to practice caring in all aspects of their experience:  Beauty is another way in to the power of caring. 

Letter from Rinpoche

Nyingma Net

Practicing Together with NyingmaNet

April 8, 2020

Dear Friends of Nyingma,

In these uncertain times, it seems especially important to practice together, find new ways to keep in touch with each other near and far, and deepen our understanding.

The undersigned, all long-time students of Tarthang Tulku, invite you to join NyingmaNet, a free new program to be offered online starting Friday, April 17.

NyingmaNet meetings will take place online every Friday from 8:00-8:45 AM California (PST) time on Zoom. Teachers and members throughout the international Nyingma community will contribute to NyingmaNet. There will always be some form of meditation or Kum Nye or other practice to support our inner balance. There will also be interviews, project updates and special practices drawn from other aspects of Rinpoche’s teachings.

To join NyingmaNet please send an email to . We will do our best to send you program information ahead of time. New friends are welcome, so feel free to invite others who may be interested.

The first session of NyingmaNet will take place on Friday, April 17, from 8:00-8:45 am, California time (12:00-12:45 in Brazil and Argentina and 5:00-5:45 pm in Europe. There will be 6 sessions through Friday, May 29. In mid-May we will decide if we continue the series.

At the first meeting of NyingmaNet, in addition to a practice for calm and stability, we will have some updates on how the community is responding to the pandemic and Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek from the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley will lead us through some powerful mantras and prayers.

As this is an experiment for all of us, we hope you will share your feedback, suggestions for program items, and tips by sending them to .

We look forward to meeting with you Fridays, starting April 17.

Elske van de Hulst
Abbe Blum
Jack Petranker

Garden of the Sacred: The Padmakara Meditation Garden

Garden of the Sacred: The Padmakara Meditation Garden

By C.M. Kushins — journalist and author

March 1, 2020

 

“Without any commentary or explanation, we can walk through a garden and feel the fullness of the experience … Sustained, nourished, and supported by beauty, the heart begins to open, like the petals of a flower unfolding.  The flower of the heart is the center of the mandala.  When the heart opens, we begin to realize the unity of existence and our communion with nature.”

—Rinpoche Tarthang Tulku

 

Nowhere are the words of Rinpoche Tarthang best echoed than within one of the Nyingma Institute’s most important and ambitious projects, the Padmakara Meditation Garden. 

Since 1973, the meditation garden has been a beautiful, intimate place for students, retreatants, and visitors to practice and reflect in a space of tranquility and refuge. Now, almost 45 years later, the garden is in need of renovation in order to continue serving our community, friends, and visitors.

Thanks to the efforts of a world-class landscape designer, the mindful labor of the Nyingma Institute’s dedicated volunteers and staff, and the generosity of our donors, the garden’s progress is now on an incredible track into restoring the beauty and luster it has long represented within Tarthang Rinpoche’s vision for a sacred space for Nyingma residents and visitors alike.

“This is definitely the largest-scale project that I’ve worked on for the Institute,” says Yuji, a volunteer and resident who has been a core crew member of the Nyingma Institute’s many sacred art and sacred space projects.  “I’ve worked on maybe a dozen projects here, but this is the biggest in scope and one of the largest for the whole Bay Area community.”

The garden itself has long been considered the crown jewel of the Nyingma Institute, and its initial construction dates to the spiritual facility’s 1973 founding.  Envisioned as an intimate place for students—both devout Buddhists and secular alike—retreatants, and visitors alike to practice and reflect in an area of tranquility and refuge, the intricate design of the garden not only contains material embodiments of all eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism, but was uniquely framed to exemplify the Tibetan concept of “the value of sacred space.”

Demolition began in the fall of 2018, with the needed machinery and crew line-up ready to begin the true groundbreaking by May of the following year.  Working alongside officials from the Bay Area—along with inclement weather and the always-needed fundraising for such spiritual endeavors—all added to the ongoing process to get to the garden’s current progress.  Just last month, the concrete was finally poured for what will shape the garden’s gorgeous overall layout, framing the interiors of the intricate design features with a large pond—which, in and of itself—proved mandatory to the beautiful water addition: the reservoir’s concrete also acts as a form of foundation for the garden’s many beautiful elements, including a hillside path for walking meditation, waterfalls, bamboo groves, and a stone courtyard with a lotus medallion design in the center.

“I think that the scale of the project is what drew us in as volunteers,” said Kris, another resident and team member. “We’ve been part of the bigger projects that are part of the community’s mandala, and this seemed like a great crew to work with as one of the largest community efforts in the Institute’s history.” He and Katie have both been involved in numerous large-scale projects at Odiyan Retreat Center, where they gained construction experience and honed their skills.

Of the Padmakara Garden’s successful progress, Katie added, “It’s always funny when you work on an ongoing project like this … There are so many intricate elements that have to go in place, that you don’t always realize how much progress you’re actually making!  Since the weather has warmed up over the last few weeks, we’ve made so much headway, the real beauty of the garden is started to take shape.” 

All are invited to be part of the creation of Padmakara Garden — a precious jewel of a cultural heritage garden, with Tibetan sacred art and architecture set in a lush Himalayan themed garden, balanced by modern architectural accents. As the final element of the Tibetan sacred symbolism, the completed garden will act as the crown “jewel” of the Institute, serving as a living representation of Tibetan cultural heritage for visitors and residents of the Bay Area to enjoy and find inner peace. 

Learn More: nyingmainstitute.com/garden