a blessing in second life from the real world

The voice is gentle and filled with mirth.  Her name is Tenzin Yeshe, and she is a monk who has studied with His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet, who is presently in Dharamsala, India.  Yeshe took her monastic vows with him there in 1990.  Later,in 1994, she took so-called “higher” monastic vows, not available to women right now, in the Tibetan tradition.  The well-known Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh (once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King), gave Yeshe those vows (the bhikshuni vows) in the Zen tradition (Dharmagupta lineage).  So she is both a member of the Tibetan Buddhist and the Zen ordained Sanga (community).

 

The voice told me she is was probably born in the United States, but that did not really matter.  The banter was bright and social as she spoke with Fox, myself, Phox McCaw and RodneyLee Jessop, who was the conduit through which this monk found her way into the land of Mystical Mastery in the virtual world of Second Life.

 

She was there to tour some of the spiritual places, such as the new Pagoda Forest, and others, in general, on the islands of Mystical Mastery and Mystica.  There is a strong spiritual community growing there and we spoke with Yeshe about the possibilities of bringing her teaching resources into The Shaolin Temple.  As we get more information, I will post about it, here, in the blog for any and all who are interested.  

 

In a wonderful bridging of real and second life, Yeshe joined a group of us at The Shaolin Temple where we had gathered for our daily meditation.  Yeshe offered to do a blessing and we all felt very honored.  There in a world of bits and bytes, a group of people from many parts of the world, sat in a variety of avatars ranging from human to elven to anthropomorphic, listening to a monk, sitting in a room watching us, speaking to us with a headset and blessing us with a beautiful mudra.

 

This made me want to learn more about women and monastic orders.  I was able to find this informative page.  Thank you to Vanilla and RodneyLee Jessop for bringing Tenzin Yeshe into Second Life where we could meet her.

 

(photos taken by Vanilla Jessop)

 

~elfa and namaste

 

 

 UPDATE This article has been updated after corresponding with Tenzin Yeshe where she pointed out a few things that needed correction and further information.  Thank you, Yeshe.