Computer tech
I just installed Skype under Linux. My Skype ID is "yonagadadoli"
I also can be reached on:
MSN Messenger: spiritual.student@verizon.net
Wengo nickname is "sacred.circle"
Ekiga Net ID is "yona01@ekiga.net"
Music
The Duhks, THE DUHKS, the DUHKS!!!
.... .... .... ....
Movies
Blue Man Group on Global Warming
Your attention please. Thank you for choosing earth as your planetary vehicle. We hope you enjoy the many wonderful features of this planet, as you hurtle through the cosmos. Please note, that in the event of continued inaction in the face of global warming - your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device. Please take a moment to locate this planet's emergency exits. As you can see, there aren't any!
A GATHERING OF MEN, WITH ROBERT BLY
Excellent video of poet Robert Bly being interviewed by Bill Moyers in 1990. They discuss what it means to be a man in today's society - the pains of being a man and the things that can be done to heal them.
UCLA Student Brutalized and Tortured by Police with Tazer Caught on Video
This is a video that shows the UCLA police tazing a student for forgetting his ID card. This is sick and shows clear abuse of police power. How many of these is it going to take before we revolt? Are you waiting for your child to be tortured by police in the name of power.
Notice at the end when a student asks for the police badge number he tells the student to go away or he will also get the tazer.
America wake up...WAKE THE HELL UP PEOPLE!!!
Everyday is the 5th of November!
V for Vendetta
Good Night and Good Luck
Bulletproof Monk
On Deadly Ground
The Hunt for Red October
Television
I really don't watch much television.
Books
A Beginner's Guide to Tibetan Buddhism by Bruce Newman;
Introduction to Tantra by Lama Yeshe;
Transformation of Suffering by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche
Heroes
The artist doing these:
.. --> --> --> --> START: Street Installations -->
About me: I am like no one else you have ever met.
My Buddhist name is Konchok Jangchup Dorje, my Christian church name was Bishop John Columba, my Cherokee name is Yona Gadadoli which means "Praying Bear" and I am a native Floridian. Although I grew up Southern Baptist, or rather, because I did, I found my way many years ago to the Orthodox Church, where I eventually began my monastic life and was tonsured a Stavrophore monk. Several years later, I was ordained to the priesthood in the American Catholic Church, Diocese of Central Florida, which was subsequently reorganized as the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. I was consecrated a bishop in the American Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, Holy Synod of the Americas which was to be reorganized because the corporation has been dissolved. I have been Grand High Priest of the Sacred Circle of Florida and was recently ordained a Ngakpa in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
Since my Christian ordination, I have served the oft neglected elements of society: the aged and AIDS patients in nursing homes, alcoholics and addicts, and the imprisoned. Until the decline in my health resulted in my being found disabled, I was attending the local community college, studying to be an RN in order to open a Christian residential hospice in this area. I believe that, while it is commendable to feed, clothe, or house a multitude of people through the work of a "Christian" agency or religious institution, it is of infinitely more importance from the spiritual perspective to bring about a spark of Christ-like love and compassion between two individuals. There will be more hungry, more naked, more homeless, but that spark love and compassion is an Event in Eternity.
My faith has been shaped by my Baptist upbringing which included the strong historical teaching of my mother and the simple faith and Christian "caritas" of my beloved maternal grandmother, which made me firmly committed to Christ, as well as traditional Eastern Orthodox theology, which taught me to see "salvation" as "theosis." However, Bishop Marinus Peters, who ordained me, broke me out of my earlier narrowness both liturgically and pastorally. Furthermore, I have been shaped by Gnosticism, Holy Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov, Archbishop Anthony Khrapovitsky, Holy Archbishop John Maximovitch, the Dalai Lama, other Tibetan Buddhist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, Black Elk, others on the "Red Road, " Theosophy, and Creation Spirituality. Two touchstones have guided me through many changes and decisions: "Where is the love of Christ here?" and "What would the Master do?"
During the years that I was caring for Mom full-time, I had little opportunity to be active in ministry without someone to help. In 2004 my health deteriorated seriously and Mom had to be placed in a nursing home. Subsequently, I have been battling reoccurring cellulitis, reaching a low point last summer. The severity of the infection and the strength of the antibiotics left me with little stamina and frequent exhaustion. However, I have made steady progress since then. More recently, a change of medication for my arthritis and psoriasis has begun to enable me to do more than I had been able to do for some time.
Several years ago, through my desire to learn Reiki, I found a place near here called All World Acres where, in addition to hosting pagan festivals, they had a sweat lodge set up and frequently held sweat lodge rituals. I had long wanted to participate in a sweat lodge although I'm not that fond of heat. I went to my first of many lodges there. Unknown to me prior to the first lodge, the particular leader there followed the practice that lodges were nude. As an Orthodox monk at the time, I had the instant decision to make, "Was I going to get naked like everyone else or was I going to pass up the first and possibly only opportunity to participate in a Native American ritual that I had wanted to find for so long?" I ditched the clothes and have never regretted it since. I have also participated in lodges where a minimum of loose comfortable clothing was worn. That first lodge was a powerfully spiritual experience in which I felt the energies moving through and around the lodge. I also overcame my self-consciousness about my nudity when I realized that only someone whose night vision was better than a cat could see anything when the lodge door was closed.
In subsequent lodges I have been granted visions which have profoundly changed me. While I had known that Brother Raven was my totem animal even before I really understood what a totem animal was, it was in such a vision that he introduced me to my other totem animal, Sister Bear.
Although I have been studying about Native American spirituality for years, I had thought until a few years ago that I was just a white guy who felt drawn to Native American things. Following in Mom's footsteps, I am one of the family historians. A few years ago, while trying to add more information to the family tree, I found that my great-great-grandmother Rachael was half-breed Cherokee. Having a German father and a German husband, she managed to avoid "the Trail of Tears." Therefore the silence that saved her from that fate, continued in the family for generations. As I tried to learn more of my Cherokee heritage, I became active in a Cherokee organization that seeks to preserve our culture and train mixed bloods like myself to live it.
When I was a Southern Baptist and even after I had been received into the Greek Orthodox Church, I used to argue with my sister about reincarnation, maintaining very strongly that there was no such thing. Nevertheless, my first past life memory came way back then, but I refused to acknowledge what it was. While I was active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, I loved to research ancient liturgies and then do them which my bishop allowed in that venue. Having researched the early Irish Liturgy according to the Lorrha Missal, at one SCA event I was celebrating it on a Sunday morning. At one point in the liturgy which was very different than any other Christian liturgy, I was overwhelmed with the memory of having done that liturgy before including seeing my parishioners from about 1000 years earlier. After that event, I apologized to my sister for arguing with her about reincarnation.
With regard to my past life memories in general, I have never gone through anything like hypnotic regression, but rather my memories have come to me either spontaneously, in a dream or in connection with a period of meditation. Although I am now certain that I have lived many lifetimes, I only have fragments of memories from a few. I was a priest in early Christian Ireland, a married householder in preChristian Ireland or Scotland, an indigenous Anglican priest somewhere in the British Empire in the late 19th Century, a young Native American apprentice (who didn't live to finish his apprenticeship) to the Medicine Man around the time of the coming of Russians to the Pacific Northwest, an Indian Buddhist monk in a Tibetan monastery, and a murder victim in New York City shortly after World War I.
I've been evolving spiritually to the point that I don't know what I would be called, but it does fit within the framework of being a Buddhist. However, I still follow Jesus as I always shall, but I don't fit any church that I know of. Furthermore, I have taken Wicca 101 a couple of times and often participate in pagan events and festivals. On the other hand, I had begun reading on Yahoo group the postings of Bhikku Samahita and even went so far as to formally join his cyber sangha. At that point I added to my daily spiritual practices certain Buddhist practices. This lead to my discovering a special event in my local area. I had a most wondrous weekend attending a Medicine Buddha Retreat. During practice at one point my overly busy mind was quiet for a moment, such a blessed moment. However, more importantly it was clear to me that this needs to be part of my practice for the benefit of others. I am often asked to pray for those who are sick. With regard to my own health issues which include arthritis, I can say that after hours of sitting, I was able to rise although stiffly, yet without pain. However, there were elements of the weekend which have to do with my own past life memories.
An incident that Sunday relates to a spontaneous memory that I had around a year earler. That day a friend at a pagan gathering was giving a workshop on dance. While she danced I watched her hand movements, and remembered being told by my teacher in another lifetime to "study the mudras." I saw my own hands in that past time, that they were dark. I also knew that although I understood my teacher's words, he spoke them in a language that was not my mother tongue. This Medicine Buddha Retreat was given by Tibetan Buddhists. That Sunday, I had the occasion to recall that memory fragment because this involved learning to do mudras. Noticing one gentleman at the retreat who is from India, I realized that my skin color in my memory was identical to his. However, that was not the most striking thing that day. I'm sure that you have had the experience of forgetting a name or a fact when you had the distinct feeling that you knew it, but just couldn't recall it at that moment. "The name is on the tip of my tongue." In Sunday's practice we chanted in Tibetan and read in English. During our chanting of Tibetan, I had the powerful feeling that I was supposed to be understanding it, but that the meaning was just beyond my reach, rather like the "name ... on the tip of my tongue." Furthermore, the practice requires me to learn to do certain mudras which are part of this practice and common to other practices.
I seek to learn from all who will teach me and am available to teach whoever would learn from me.
Most recently, after exploring many Buddhist groups, I have become active with a local Dharma Center which is part of the Drikung Kagyu lineage. Earlier this year I had received White Tara empowerment, but last week I "took refuge," received Medicine Buddha empowerment, took Ngakpa Ordination, and received Amitayus Long Life empowerment. From the moment I took refuge, I felt a profound sense that I had come home after so many centuries. I fully intend to take full monastic ordination eventually, although, according to some sources, I am doing things backwards in that more traditionally the commitments of the Ngakpa come only after many years of practice as a monastic.
Who I'd like to meet: Interesting people who can discuss varied subjects intelligently.
If your profile requires the "Adult Viewer," I can't even look at it because they don't have a Linux version. Besides I probably wouldn't add you as a friend anyway, because I'm not here for sex or porn.
Ngakchang Konchok Jangchup Dorje's Friend Space (Top 31)
The idea was initiated by a friend whom I visited in the hospital. She had asked me to play only the cymbal for her.
To give her the possibility to listen to the sound also when she is by herself, I recorded a sequence in our studio and experienced quite a pleasant and soothing effect.
The following morning I woke up with the vision that people all over the world use the sound as a positive anchor - irrespective of their taste in music, spiritual orientation and worldview.
It may be healing, peace, love, fulfillment, freedom a project, an aim or just breathing consciously, being present in the here and now... it may be simply a pure sound to have in the background...
Every 20 to 45 seconds (for about 30 minutes) you will hear the single sound of the cymbal as a gentle reminder to your real focus - the quality you would like to confirm, your contribution to the big pool, from the field of intention into reality.
What is your heart’s desire? - for yourself, for others
Get the free download on „here & now“ and spread the sound to the world!
THANK YOU FOR THE ADD! and bringing your heart’s intention into here and now!
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
Three passions have governed my life: The longings for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable compassion.
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. In the union of love I have seen In a mistic miniature the prefiguring vision Of the heavens thet saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts. I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, But always compassion brought me back to the earth; cries of pain reverberated in my heart Of children in femine, of victims tortured And of old people left heloless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer...
well, i missed seeing you at fpg. perhaps i'll be able to run into you at a nearby festival. i'll be sure to read your blogs, i have no doubt that each word will be as inspiring as you are. blessings.
You are formerly invited to join me for a hookah party at my camp, Thursday the 30th of April. The party will start about 8pm and will go till we are all pleasantly drunk or have smoked our fill. lol I plan to have a bottle of rum to share. But please feel free to bring any drink you would like to share with everyone. I have several different types of tobacco and plenty of mouthpieces for everyone to use. For those who don’t wish to smoke, you are still welcome to come join the fun and drink with the rest of us. My camp will be located between Oak Hall and Vendor’s row. Please make sure you bring a chair or a blanket if you just want to lounge on the ground. I can’t wait to see you there.
<br />The root of the matter…
<br />the thing I mean… i
<br />s love, People's love, or COMPASSION.
<br />If you feel this, you have a motive for existence,
<br />a guide for action, a reason for courage,
<br />an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.
