Mormonism - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Okay, as I've said I was raised a Mormon. Now who in their right mind would go to a church that was founded by a guy (Joe Smith) who said he saw God when he was fourteen years old !!! Anyway when you're living with parents, you really don't have much choice. But the best advice my father ever gave me was "don't believe anything til you find out for yourself if it's true." Well being LDS didn't make sense to me. Mormons go all over the world building temples and the purpose is to do work for dead people, people who have already died !! Now how whacked is that. They won't leave you alone even after you're dead. Now that's some crazy shit. But if you buy into their trip they take pretty good care of you. They've got a great welfare system. But to each their own. They claim to be the True Church, but hey, anybody can claim anything that's what we love about America, and if you give them 10% of your income, even you can become a God with your own planet. Pretty Cool, Huh !!!
Buddhism - The Tibetan Vajrayana Tradition
While I was at Mills College studying Indian Raga Singing with Terry Riley, I began to sit and became interested in Meditation and started reading books by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Then in 1977 I took Refuge with one of Kalu Rinpoche's Lamas, Lama Lodru from San Francisco and was given the refuge name Karma Chokinima, which means "Sun of the Dharma" hence, Sun Man Music.
As I read about Buddhism and the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), it finally dawned on me how life, suffering, liberation, spirituality and all the rest of this stuff could begin to make some sense. So if everything comes from the mind and if you meditate and look at the mind and see how the mind works then this path (life) can become joyful and things don't have to become such a Big Deal !!
So I've been practicing meditation now for over 35 years and can pretty much say that I'm a Happy Camper. Shit Happens but that's Okay.
Everything changes and what's not cool today will be cool tomorrow, so relax, Turn It Up and stop and smell the roses.
As I read about Buddhism and the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), it finally dawned on me how life, suffering, liberation, spirituality and all the rest of this stuff could begin to make some sense. So if everything comes from the mind and if you meditate and look at the mind and see how the mind works then this path (life) can become joyful and things don't have to become such a Big Deal !!
So I've been practicing meditation now for over 35 years and can pretty much say that I'm a Happy Camper. Shit Happens but that's Okay.
Everything changes and what's not cool today will be cool tomorrow, so relax, Turn It Up and stop and smell the roses.