Vanessa went to school training as a private school student in Anglicanism, in Melbourne, Australia. Vanessa studied the Bible when she was just young, memorizing verses to read at recital. We received religious instruction and in many ways, Her Royal Highness, Queen Elisabeth is a very good teacher and guide.

Vanessa used to win gold in the recital and when Vanessa was about eight years of age, and the junior private school she attended asked her to read at Saint Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne for the end of year Christmas prayer and blessing. The Head Mistress praised me and said Vanessa did very well.

Vanessa felt very privileged to attend a private Anglican School. Vanessa used to sit quietly at lunch however, aghast at the bitchiness of other students. Vanessa’s father, Graeme, worked in the poorer suburbs of Melbourne to the north, delivering medicine to the newly settled Australian immigrant community. In Toorak, no-one really appreciated how a Brighton boy, who topped his years in medicine at Melbourne University, could suffer or maybe even bear doing that job. What snobs and narrow minded atheists humans can be.

Sadly, as my father worked a seven day week, over the years the stress became too much. In Vanessa’s later years she realised it was because her family, so keen on the worldly viewpoint, and even atheism, never dedicated time for rest and relaxation in a meditative understanding of the Lord or his word.

As a senior school student, Vanessa was to prepare for a career as either a doctor or lawyer. It was just expected of us to achieve those sort of results, having realised our parents worked hard to give us a good start in life. Appearances, however, are deceptive, and many wealthy families that Vanessa knew in the 1980’s, were in the throws of experiencing the demolition of getting blown apart by acrimonious argument and bitter divorce. Vanessa used to wonder what role did God play in all of this? What was the cause of so much unhappiness, suffering, uncertainty and upheaval?

Vanessa thought to herself, pondering and contemplating, should Vanessa commit to the vows of an Anglican, whilst many wealthly families were experiencing so much hatred, anger, unhappiness and failure? Vanessa looked at Lord Jesus, up there on the cross, being crucified, taking on the suffering of others, and subduing the poor and the wretched, and asked, what is wrong with life, with my life, so fragile and uncertain?

Vanessa was taken on a pilgrimage through Sri Lanka when she was thirteen years of age, visiting several big Buddhas and a cutting grown large into a tree, from the original Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, India. Maybe this left some sort of blessing or impression, because Vanessa thought, God isn’t really answering her questions concerning suffering and it’s cause. Vanessa determined to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings, to solve life’s biggest questions and work out the path to cessate  the ignorance of a self, which is most surely the cause to all sin, negativity, delusion and non-virtue. Vanessa thought, only by achieving enlightenment, can one really solve, and cessate suffering and its cause. Vanessa thought, I need to tread and traverse the path to the cessation of suffering and purify my delusions and negative karma and to accomplish the perfection of virtue in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. That, to transcend suffering, the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all pervasive suffering; that, is a meaningful goal and the meaning of life, and that is how I want to work to overcome the misery of the human condition and all six suffering realms.

Contemplative

The saddest reality in my life is I did not know at the age of sixteen how to find a teacher in Buddhism, that is safe, reliable, valid and wise Guru. As I was living in Melbourne, Australia, Queen Elisabeth taught the Melbourne Girls Grammar School students British history, not the history of Asia, and in my early years, I was not fortunate enough to hear of Buddhim or the culture of Tibet. I basically knew nothing of Tibet, or the horrid invasion by the Chinese communists of this peaceful land, that occurred due to corruption in the Buddhist culture.  As horrid as the Chinese communists are and of course how shocking the genocide, we didn’t hear of His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, until I endured a long seven and suffering years from the age of 17 to 23 years of age. Such was the non-virtue in the culture and of course due to my poor karma.

Twenty seven years on and many stories later, I have no regrets having made my decision to accomplish Buddhahood and find a safe, reliable and valid qualified and authentic spiritual guide. This guiding and teaching by the power of good example, His Holiness and his retinue do very well. I love Queen Elisabeth also. We are all spiritual practitioners with some good to offer. I oppose sectarianism and wrong view. It would be nice to accomplish a better understanding of what proper religious practice can achieve for oneself and one’s life.

That is what I am here to promote and teach.

Copyright © Vanessa Anne Walsh 2019