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holy cowboy hats!
“trading cowboy/girl attire for “playing dress-up” in orange clothes with their weird hats at least takes the sanctity out of it!!” – I think you’re on to something there, Sabio!
It has seemed to me to be one of the only present-day groups to follow on the brilliant example of Chogyam Trungpa, with his Bonnie Prince Charlie, or Generalissimo of a visionary country, or British nobility– ‘startling presentations’, I guess you could call them. At the very least, it snaps you out of a habitual lowgrade fog of insentience, to see something so unusual. There’s a puckish humor involved, it seems to me, that is the antithesis of the sanctimony of some who wear unusual clothing [robes] to set themselves apart from the ‘laity.’
But as things go, maybe the
But as things go, maybe the first orange robed, weird hat throne on by a Tibetan Buddhist was done using 3rd Century punkish humor but then his/her flare became institutionalize. So my point: Why not everyone just get into a different hat or clown uniforms or some other signal to clear the “fog”. Instead of helping a new faddish fog from forming. [intentional alliteration, btw]. :-) Kate, do you have a site?
'punk' vs 'Puck'; genius vs groupies
As far as I understand it, robes of all sorts originate as symbolic statements of alignment, intention, affiliation– they are meant to communicate. There is the vision in which the particular expression originates– and then there are the succeeding generations of copies. Some of the copies may be quite faithful; some may be quite distorted. At some point, it seems more likely than not that the communication gets lost in the robes becoming little more than team uniforms, aggressively attached to or rejected. It seems clear that what Trungpa was doing, playing with sartorial displays, was ‘blowing the minds’ of his original band of hippie students, with their convention of ‘rejecting convention’ and ‘expressing their unique individuality’– in strangely similar ways.
[Nah, I am too technophobic/lazy to do more than haunt the blogs of those whose work I admire.]
What's with the hats??
Ooooo. This is complicated and interesting…
There’s layers and layers of jokes, serious allusions, and “high” Vajrayana teachings woven into the Aro cowboy thing. It would take a ten-thousand word essay to cover the basics. It would be fun to write that at some point… but obliqueness might be part of the teaching method, and perhaps explanation would ruin it. Gradually unpacking the levels of meaning over a few years of Aro apprenticeship is an interesting experience in itself.
To address your immediate concern: Undoubtedly, some new Aro apprentices adopt Western attire simply because it’s “what one does.” This is part of the dynamics of any group; in a corporate department, people dress like the boss. It can be exaggerated in a cult. Anyway, dressing that way because “it’s what Aro people do” is completely missing the (many) points.
Sutrayana is about emptiness, and withdrawing from form. So symbolically, in Sutrayana, one does not care about appearance; that is vanity, distraction, attachment. Monastics (in theory at least) wear a plain, poor uniform (originally made from rags).
Vajrayana is about returning to form from emptiness. So in Vajrayana, splendor/elegance/glory is the realized manifestation of the earth element (Ratna family). In Vajrayana, ideally, one should wear clothes that are a magnificent and totally individual expression of realization. The Aro Lamas encourage students to do that.
Mostly, we don’t really get this, don’t know how, can’t be bothered. Americans, especially, are conditioned to dress in a “casual” way that embodies many layers of unconsciousness. It’s difficult and uncomfortable to break out of. Cowboy garb is useful as an intermediate stage before developing a more personal style. It looks good on most people; it’s nothing like contemporary “casual wear”; and it requires considerable effort. You can’t just go to a store and buy an outfit. You need to do quite a lot of research, pay attention, figure out what the components are and what makes them historically authentic or lame.
Here are some other factors, very briefly:
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The Aro Lamas encourage students to ride horses. There’s multiple reasons for that; one is that horse riding often produces the “flow” experience of awareness-in-action-without-thought. That is closely related to lhathong, one of the stages of the Dzogchen semde ngondro.
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When you have been riding for several hours through the wilderness in the rain, you realize that cowboy clothing is highly practical. Features that seem odd or ornamental are usually there to shed water, protect against chaffing, or store horse-related gear.
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The Aro lineage has ties with Kham. In Kham, most everyone rides, and wears cowboy hats, including the lamas. It’s just the standard everyday thing.
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We are “Western Buddhists”. Obviously, “Western” Buddhists should wear “Western” clothes. Ha ha!
Persuading my wife with Horses
I am proud of myself – I anticipated some of those.
I had earlier read of the horse riding thing. I had to laugh. My wife has ridden for years and I gave it a try but male side did not enjoy my the riding much and saw why 99% of the riders at my wife’s stables were women.
My wife tried the local Zen Temple with me and liked parts of it. I “turned her on to meditation” 11 years ago so she could deliver our kids without using meds – I will have to write that up some day. And she still likes meditation but stopped after the Zen experience though I think she misses it. So though cowboy hats, Tibetan names and other lineage colorfulness would definitely repel here, the horse riding spiel could almost sell her !! :-)
Interesting tale. Thank you. It fills things out. If you get in trouble for spilling too much to non-initiates, then we have confirmation of this being a cult. Of course we will never know. Smiling.
I hope my blunt questions about the elephant in the room helps other readers. Your answers are delightful.
Cowboy Cult
OK, I have always been dying to ask. What is with all the cowboy hats. My initial suspicion: “One of their gurus idiosyncrasies is his love of cowboy stuff. Every dish (student) now imitates it to show their free minds.” This reminds me of how the “lisp” of a Spanish King spread through the land to now be part of the Spanish spoken in Spain.
But I thought I’d ask instead of going expecting this to be yet another sign of cultishness [eat my peculiarities – imitate me and you too will be a charismatic enlightened soul].
Even the photos of teachers in NY have them wearing Western attire.
But I must say, trading cowboy/girl attire for “playing dress-up” in orange clothes with their weird hats at least takes the sanctity out of it!!