Buddhist monks coming to Roaring Fork to teach, share, and bless homes and businesses
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The Tibetan Buddhist monks who are visiting Aspen, Basalt, and Carbondale over the next month have taught health-care professionals treating drug and alcohol addictions and those suffering from PTSD and depression. Their approach aims to ease the malaise that plagues Americans who feel technically connected but often lonely.
These Gaden Shartse monks have toured America since the 1980s. The non-profit Aspen Tibet’s Serene Washburn, who’s organizing their Aspen events, said John Denver introduced the monks to Aspen, hosting them in his mountain mansion. Washburn said she believes the monks’ spiritual sweetness and purity are so intense that they attract miracles.
She was an Aspen Club sports medicine specialist when she encountered a mountaintop ceremony performed by the monks. She had been struggling to get pregnant. The ritual made her feel peaceful. Then lightning struck so close it knocked her down.
“A few months later, I conceived my daughter,” she said, cheerfully connecting the two events.
John Bruna, director of Carbondale’s Way of Compassion Dharma Center, traveled to India to study with the monks when he was battling a health crisis.
“Their teachings saved my life,” he said.
The Gaden Shartse monks’ survival is a documented miracle. When China invaded Tibet, many monks were taken to China’s prisons, where they died. Others fled their snow-swept mountain monasteries for a refugee settlement in hot, steamy India. The monks rebuilt their temples and schools and forged a community in a new world.
They tour America to raise funds for their community in India and to share their teachings and culture through classes on meditation, traditional arts, and beautiful ancient rituals. The monks also perform healing ceremonies and protective rituals for homes and businesses. Washburn said in the latter, business owners put their car keys, phones, and business cards before the monks, who bless the items and the office.
An Aspen home or business blessing is $75 to $100. (In Carbondale, the cost is $350, according to the Way of Compassion’s website).
“National corporations don’t want it to be known, but they will bring the monks in to bless their headquarters,” Washburn remarked.
There will be chances for everyone of all income levels to meet and learn from the monks.
This Friday, there’s the free opening purification ceremony at Carbondale’s Third Street Center. On Saturday, the monks begin creating a huge, intricate mandala out of multi-colored sand in the Center’s Round Room from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. The ancient art form will be completed on Wednesday.
Tibetan goods and jewelry will be on sale to aid the monastery.
On Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon, Bruna will teach a meditation workshop. Suggested donation is $15.
One of the most popular events is sure to be the noon July 6 blessing of children and their pets, followed by celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday.
To reach Lynda Edwards, email her at ledwards@aspentimes.com.
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