2 dollars of dribble

Speaking out for Indigenous Peoples everywhere

tashidorje — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:21:11 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDY5mhKduNM

This is funkin cool

tashidorje — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:00:21 GMT

in the current climate crisis it is essential to look at new way to be sustainable. Australia being the most arid continent on the planet really should pick up on this model. Lobby councils to change building codes, we need a climate [r]evolution. www.earthship.net/modules.php video...because a picture is worth a thousand words www.earthship.net

Inspirational essays and manuscripts

tashidorje — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:16:20 GMT

www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...18.html --Getting Started www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...59.html --Lam-rim (Graded Stage) Material www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...27.html --Lojong (Mind Training) Material www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...17.html --Deepening the Understanding of the Path www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...38.html --Analysis of the Mind and Reality www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/...41.html --Major Indian Mahayana Texts

Choden Rinpoche

tashidorje — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:27:18 GMT

Ven. Choden Rinpoche of Sera Je Monastery, one of the highest of the Gelug lamas, was virtually unknown outside Tibet until 1985. He neither escaped his country after 1959 nor was imprisoned; instead, he lived in a house in Lhasa, never leaving his small, dark, empty room for nineteen years, even to go to the toilet, and never cutting his hair and beard. “He spent all his time on that bed, meditating,” says Rinpoche’s attendant, Sera Je monk Ven. Tseten Gelek. “They had to change the bedding once a month because it got smelly from sweat. He used a bedpan for a toilet, as he was pretending to be an invalid. Until 1980 he didn’t talk to anybody, only the person who brought food into his room.” “The main thing I wanted to do was to practice Dharma sincerely, no matter what external factors were arising,” Rinpoche told Mandala in June during a two-month visit to Vajrapani Institute in California. “This was my motivation, to be completely against the eight worldly concerns.” Here, Rinpoche tells us about his life. (The words in italic type are from Ven. Tseten.) Choden Rinpoche was born in 1933 near Rabten Monastery at Rongbo in eastern Tibet. At the age of 3 he was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Rinpoche, who himself had been one of the candidates for the Twelfth Dalai Lama, Thinley Gyatso. There were significant signs about the previous Choden Rinpoche’s birth. After the reincarnation was chosen, they didn’t want to leave him just like that, so they placed him as the lama of Rabten Monastery. From the age of 3 to 8 I was tutored by an uncle who lived in a hermitage, and at the age of 8 I entered the local Rabten Monastery, where I learned all the prayers and rituals. I was 6 years old when I first met the previous Pabongka Rinpoche, and I took many teachings from him at Rabten Monastery. I also took novice ordination from him then. At that time I did not know much about practice. When I was 10 one ex-abbot of Drepung Loseling taught on the lam-rim and I attended the teachings, and it was around that time that my interest in practice began. I don’t remember too clearly my first meeting with Pabongka Rinpoche, but what I do remember is that Rinpoche was very happy with me and I really admired everything that Rinpoche did: the way he walked, the way he dressed, everything. I felt, “If only I could be like him,” because I had such admiration from him. Pabongka Rinpoche advised me not to stay in the local monastery but to go to the main monastic centers for learning near Lhasa, such as Sera, Ganden or Drepung. I entered Sera Je monastery when I was 15. All of the local Gelug monasteries spread out over Tibet have allegiance to one of the three major monastic centers, so accordingly you follow that. The previous Choden Rinpoche studied at Sera Je and did the geshe studies there. The journey to Lhasa took a month and a half. Because there were no proper roads at that time, you’d just travel slowly with a herd of yaks and many other people, like a caravan. It was during the winter and was very, very cold at that time. You have to wear animal skin chubas, so you cannot travel in monks’ robes. I remember sleeping on the roadside and waking up sometimes completely covered in snow; because it’s so cold it doesn’t melt, and you shake it off when you wake up. There was nothing like a tent. You also had to carry everything you needed with you on the animals. There was no sign of the Chinese army yet (it was 1948), although there were cases of small groups coming into Tibet. People were afraid of Communism, of having that kind of element in society. In the beginning our group had horses for riding, and they also had a lot of yaks for carrying the supplies, but later we started to ride they yaks instead of the horses. I traveled with my father and mother and a brother. The family went to Lhasa to do a pilgrimage, to make offerings and do circumambulations at the temples in Lhasa; they went back home after five or six months. The power of debate as a basis for realizations: I followed the regular curriculum of Sera Monastery, studying each of the main five texts. For the first part of the studies you do the same studies as the rest of the monks, but when the geshe studies begin they give a jump-start to the tulkus. I was in the same class as Geshe Sopa Rinpoche, Geshe Ugyen Tseten and Geshe Legden for two or three years. At Sera monastery the main program is philosophy, the geshe program. But there are different hermitages of different lamas, and they would give teachings. I attended many of them. The main teachers at that time were Bari Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche and Ling Rinpoche. I enjoyed these teachings very much, although sometimes during the main curriculum of studies at Sera, when you get to a very important part of the text being studied, you didn’t get permission to go to these other teachings. I enjoyed debating and wasn’t too bad at it. I studied with some of the best debaters at the monastery, like Geshe Loga and Geshe Losang Wangchuk. Having been guided by them I was able to debate very well. What you would consider a good debater is a person who, when debating on a given subject, can point out to the other person their mistaken view; you can debate it by being able to explain why theirs is not the correct view, using logic, reasoning, and by quoting scriptural authority. By the way you debate you show them their wrong view and they can completely give it up. That’s the sign of a good debater: being able to enlighten the opponent to their fault and create the basis of the correct understanding through logic and scriptural understanding. With debate, you develop a very stable conviction yourself of what you understand because you use the logic, reasoning and scriptural authority. When you’re able to do that, then whatever understanding you have is very firm in your mind [and therefore is a basis for realizations]. Generally it is said in the debating courtyards of the monasteries [the ritual gesture of] simply clapping your hands in debate just once has more benefit than meditating for many years – such is the power of debate. Usually in Sera, Ganden and Drepung you study the meaning of all the sutras; then you join one of the tantric colleges and study the meaning of all of the tantras. All of this is what has to be meditated upon. You have people who, after their studies, take to a life of being a total hermit, they dedicate their whole lives to meditation. Other people live in the monastery and do all the meditations within the conditions of the monastery. Others choose to go back to their local monasteries in whatever village or town they came from, either to teach or do meditation. My teacher, Geshe Losang Wangchuk, used to say it’s more beneficial to stay in a monastery and teach than to go off to meditate, because when he expressed the wish to go off into retreat, Trijang Rinpoche advised him against it, pointing out the benefits of teaching others rather than going off by yourself to meditate. When you teach you’re benefiting so many people, but when you meditate you’re benefiting mainly yourself. Philosophy is not formatted for meditation, so what you meditate on are things like various stages of the path to enlightenment, which is totally formatted for meditation. You can then take all the subject material, all the information of all the philosophical studies and you can apply it to enrich, to adorn your meditations. A typical day at Sera: In the morning, just before the dawn breaks, the morning prayers begin at the monastery, which takes two hours. Then the debate sessions begin. At around 11 you come together in for prayers, and tea is offered. That’s your lunch time. The monastery only gave tea, so the monks would come with a handful of tsampa, and that would be their lunch. After that you do debate, then prayers, then again you debate. After the last debate session you can go spend an hour and a half in your room. There are no standardized classes – whenever there is free time there are classes. There are periods of time in the monastery where there are no debate sessions, and it’s during this time that these philosophy classes are very vibrant. After the hour-and-a-half break you reconvene for a very long debate session, and that’s followed by a session of prayers where you recite The Twenty-one Praises to Tara and prayers to the White Umbrella Deity – things like that. Then you go for another period of debate, and when the sun is about to set you have another break. From sunset onwards, everything you’ve memorized you have to recite so you don’t forget it. If you are in the higher classes you are allowed to stay in your room to do the recitations, but if you are younger you have to stay in the open grounds where all the recitations take place. By yourself, you chant out loud. During that time there may be people who chant their prayers all the way through the next day’s sunrise. The Madhyamika class and those who study the Perfections take turns to spend the entire night up. When one class is about to go to bed, the other class will begin their debate session, and they stay all the way through to the morning prayers. So in that way there is the sound of Dharma twenty-four hours a day. In the monastery there is never the occasion where you do not hear the sound of Dharma. Rinpoche completed all the necessary studies by the age of 28, reaching the highest Lharam class. Trijang Rinpoche and many high lamas asked him to get his geshe degree quickly, but his main guru at the time, who was abbot of Sera Je, did not allow him to become a geshe. He wanted Rinpoche to keep studying. He went over the studies again, mainly the texts about the monastic vows, the Vinaya. He studied them many times. Then the Chinese came. He never wore the special clothes for the tulku, and even though he was from the family of an official, he never had his own labrang, his own household, at Sera. He mixed with the ordinary monks, and everyone liked him. Rinpoche’s main gurus are Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His main purpose in studying since the time he was young was to be able to practice what he learned, so he focused on the meaning of the scriptures. When he was around 10, he had a great intention to practice what he learned. I stayed in the Lharam class for many years. One of my teachers who was an abbot told me, “You’re still young. What is the point of hurrying to get your geshe degree? Keep on studying.” I was around 28 when I could have taken my geshe degree. I was 29 when the Chinese came, so I never had the chance after that. I completed my studies in about fourteen years, but if you go according to the system of the monastery, it takes about thirty years. It therefore takes the monks a long time to get their geshe degrees. This is because the meaning of the scriptures is very, very profound. The more you’re able to analyze it, the clearer becomes the depth of your understanding. This system produces some of the best scholars. The Tibetan uprising in Lhasa in 1959: By the time of the uprising against the Chinese Communists, most of the monks had already escaped. So many soldiers had arrived and the monks were afraid the monasteries would be destroyed. There were thousands of monks before the occupation, but only two or three hundred remained at Sera. I remained at Sera. One morning, at daybreak, the Chinese soldiers surrounded the monastery and rounded up all the monks and put us in a courtyard. After this they ransacked the whole monastery. All the monks were circled by the soldiers with their weapons. We’d heard that in eastern Tibet the soldiers had rounded up all the monks and shot them dead, so everyone was frightened that would happen. From dawn to sunset the monks were all standing in the courtyard. Then they put the monks in a line and took them away – everyone said, “We’re being taken to be killed,” but it didn’t turn out like that; they just imprisoned everyone. I was in prison for about a month. Since they didn’t have a prison set aside, they used one of the Sera Je main temples, and they wouldn’t let anyone out, even to pee! We had to use a huge container that was usually used to hold the water for making water bowl offerings – you couldn’t just go all over the floor. Sometime in the middle of the day they would give us lukewarm water to drink, and if people had tsampa of their own they would eat that with the water. We lived like this close to a month, two or three hundred monks. They started to separate all the lamas, all the geshes, all those who had management positions of any kind. They categorized people, and the general monks were kept as one group. They used to say, “Ones without any titles are our friends, while ones who have titles are our enemies.” They would use the groups of ordinary monks to investigate the groups of people who had titles. If any of the general monks could guarantee that any of the titled people hadn’t participated in the uprising and didn’t say anything about the Chinese, they would also be released. When I was at the monastery I usually mixed with the general monks, so some of the monks guaranteed for me, saying that although a Rinpoche, I don’t have anything that fits that title, so I was released. They would hold political lessons in the monastery, teaching the monks to talk against religion, to talk against the monastery and any of the practices. One by one they would release the people with titles for a little while, and everyone – all the general monks – would have to beat up on this person. If they didn’t, they would be considered supporters of the titled person. Some were beaten so badly they couldn’t get up afterwards. I had some sort of heart condition, so when I saw all of this happening I became terribly ill, so I got a pass to go to a hospital for a checkup. I went to Lhasa and spent five or six months there. In the second month of 1960 they rounded up all the monks living in Lhasa and told us we couldn’t stay but had to go back to whatever monastery we came from. I went back to Sera. I was still living as a monk and wearing robes. Back at the monastery, there was all the criticizing and disparaging of His Holiness. When you’re forced to attend these meetings and participate in these meetings, you have no choice, you have to participate in some verbal abuse. I wasn’t well from before, so I managed to get by sleeping, and I didn’t have to participate. The Chinese would bring doctors to come check my pulse, and since my heart condition caused my pulse to throb quite strongly, I was excused from these meetings. Meanwhile, the living conditions at the monastery were getting tighter and tighter all the time. The people in Lhasa at that time were a little more free than the ones in the monastery, so when the lay people heard about the monks having such a hard time, they would say things like, “I hope I’m never reborn as a monk!” It reached a point where people were even saying things like that! After that I left the monastery and came to Lhasa, where I lived with a relative. It never occurred to me to try to escape. The Chinese used to say over and over again, “There’s absolutely no way you can escape,” and people also had so little information about how to do it, that in your mind it was not even an option to consider. Retreat for nineteen years: I did Chulen retreat for a while (see companion article), but the Chinese stopped me. They said you could practice Dharma, but when it came down to it there were many restrictions, and they felt Dharma was bad and the practices are essenceless. So until about 1964 I lived in Lhasa, doing the main practices of Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka and Heruka, and giving some teachings where I could. At the time of the Cultural Revolution in 1965, things became tighter than ever before. It was in August or September of 1966 that they started destroying the Jokhang temple, all the holy objects in the temples, and all the holy objects people kept in their private homes as well; it was massive destruction. Except for where the Buddha Shakyamuni statue was and one room of the religious kings, they completely emptied the entire temple. The Potala wasn’t destroyed as much as the other places. At Sera, Drepung and Ganden, some of the main temples were left in somewhat okay condition, but the others were destroyed. In 1969, that was the year they completely razed Ganden to the ground. With the Cultural Revolution I stopped all outer practices completely. I lived with relatives in Lhasa. I stayed inside without ever going out. During this time I was sleeping (see companion article). I stayed in a room in the house of my cousin’s wife, who was half Tibetan, half Nepali. The Chinese would come any time of the day or night – sometimes very early, sometimes late – to check what I was doing, whether I was sleeping, to see if I was really sick or not. When they were gone I would get up and do practices. At that time you could have absolutely no holy objects, no statues or scriptures. If they saw any scriptural texts you would be in big trouble. Even if you moved your lips without making a sound you would get into trouble, because they would think you were saying prayers. I had some prayer beads but they had to be kept hidden. I had a small one and when people came to investigate me I would hide it in one of two hidden pockets in my clothes, just over my knees. Because I stayed inside like this without ever going out, people said I was doing retreat. But it wasn’t proper retreat, with the offerings, ritual things, and so forth. During this time I would think about the various stages of the path to enlightenment, as well as Guhyasamaja, Heruka, Yamantaka, all the generation stage yogas. And when I had time, I would complete the mantra quotas of each deity. In any case, you don’t need external things to do Dharma practice. It’s all in your heart, your mind. As for realizations: you do not experience the realizations of the three principal aspects of the path, but you do have a little renunciation, and because of that you are able to stay like that. The advantages of living in isolation: One reason it was good to stay inside in Lhasa was because if you went out, you had to do what the Chinese said, and then you’d accumulate so much negative karma. I didn’t want to do anything at all that was contradictory to Dharma; I wanted to practice Dharma, so for that reason I didn’t leave my house. The Chinese used many tactics to get me to work for them. First they tried to frighten me, and when it didn’t work they invited me and many high geshes and lamas to live under their care; they said they would provide a house, car, food, money. But I didn’t want to do this because then I would have to do whatever they said, which was all contradictory to the Dharma. The main thing I wanted to do was to practice Dharma sincerely, no matter what external factors were arising. This was my motivation, to be completely against the eight worldly concerns. The future life is more important than this life – this life is just like a dream. So if you went and did as the Chinese said, you would get a good house and car, you could enjoy so many things, but this would have caused you to fall to the lower realms, where you would experience sufferings for so many eons. Future lives are much more important than this life. In order to work for the future lives, I stayed inside to practice. When we die we don’t just vanish. We have to take rebirth, and we don’t have any choice in that birth, only what our karma determines – whether we’re reborn in the lower realms or upper realms. If you’ve done positive things in this life you can take rebirth in the human realm, and you can enjoy the result of these actions. If you do negative actions, the karma does not vanish; even the smallest karma accumulated you have to experience in the future. The future is very long, many eons. This life is so short, it’s just fiction, just a dream. Your mind continues infinitely, and when you die in the next life, again it doesn’t vanish, and again you continue to the next life, and the next – many lives you have to go through. So all of these are determined by the present actions. You have no choice. So the present action is very important. This life is so short, perhaps only one hundred years – very small compared to the future lives. This is why the future lives are more important than this life. From the point of view of religion, of Dharma, there was great accomplishment in living this way. And from the point of view of this life, there was also great benefit. In this life, if I hadn’t done what I did, I would have had to gone with the Chinese and gotten a house, car and high rank, but then I would have had to torture people and cause so much suffering for the ordinary beings. And if I had gone as an ordinary being, with no high rank, etc., I would have had to undergo so much suffering, just like all the Tibetans did. But I didn’t have to experience any of this in this life. These are advantages to my living like I did. Another advantage is that I got the reputation of doing retreat for twenty years: this is also a benefit concerning this life! It will cause others to think, “That’s interesting. Maybe Dharma is really helpful, maybe it’s true.” It may benefit others for the Dharma in this way. I experienced very few problems during those years. I had only a little problems with my stomach; and when I started walking there wasn’t any pain, but I felt my legs were collapsing all the time! Other people noticed that I couldn’t walk properly. Also, because it was dark in my room, I wasn’t comfortable with light when I came out – it was too bright. Sometimes there was a little candle, but I didn’t really use it. Even now in Sera I prefer to sit in the dark. After 1979, a little more freedom: After Mao Tse Tung died in 1979 there was a little more freedom. Many lamas and geshes came to Rinpoche’s house to receive teachings. He gave a few teachings, but not in public – only in his small room to one, two or three people. People knew about him. He cut off his beard and his long hair in 1979. Then he received letters from the reincarnation of Shantideva at Sera in India and from the monastery itself to please come and give teachings, to pass on what he had learned. He tried to get a passport but at first it didn’t work. From 1965 to early 1980, when I was living in total seclusion, my cousin would not allow anyone to visit me. Ribur Rinpoche came to visit and my cousin argued with him and wouldn’t allow Ribur Rinpoche to visit. The main reason Ribur Rinpoche came is because the government was forming a committee of tulkus to look into the heritage of Tibet, like the statues and scriptures. Although the government formed it, the high lamas were doing the work because they were the most well-educated. Around this time everyone the Chinese had put down were being reinstated because they had the capacity and the knowledge. They were called the Norbulingka committee. The Chinese wanted me to join so many of the committees they were forming, but since I didn’t join any they didn’t like me very much. From ‘81 onwards they were issuing visas for people to be able to travel to India and Nepal, but although I applied I was never accepted. Rinpoche tried for three years to get a passport to go to India, and finally a close friend of his, Pagpala Gelek Namgyal, the highest lama of Kham in Tibet and third highest in Tibet, was holding a high rank in the Tibet autonomous region (he now holds the post of the Panchen Lama), and he helped Rinpoche get a passport. In 1985 Rinpoche finally got a passport and was able to leave for India legally. India: When I got to Dharamsala I arrived just in time for the initiation of Guhyasamaja, Heruka and Yamantaka from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I was very happy to see His Holiness, and His Holiness was also happy. His Holiness said, “Your arriving in such good time to receive these initiations means we have very pure samaya.” I received the Kalachakra initiation from His Holiness in 1985. I asked what I should do: return to Tibet or stay. His Holiness told me to stay and teach what I had learned and to spread the Dharma. Later he told me that in Nepal there aren’t many high Gelugpa lamas, so it would be good for me to go there. I stayed there for eight or nine months but became sick and had to undergo an operation, so I wasn’t able to be of much benefit. I excused himself from staying in Nepal because the monks from Sera Je in south India also asked me to come there to teach. His Holiness told me not to ever break my present commitments and to teach whatever I had learned, so since then I have been living in Sera Monastery and coming to Dharamsala whenever His Holiness teaches. For fifteen years Rinpoche has mainly been teaching the geshe degree program at Sera Je monastery in South India. Usually he stays at Sera, and he gives teachings on the five main subjects of study. He does three classes in the morning and four in the afternoon; he has many students, from young boys all the way up to geshes. On Tuesdays, the day off at Sera, Rinpoche teaches grammar, poetry (see companion article) and tantra to some geshes. Sometimes Rinpoche will give initiations or lam-rim teachings at Sera, and so many monks come they have to use the main chanting hall. His health is quite good. In 1996 we went back to Tibet, and we made a pilgrimage all through China and almost all the way through Tibet. Rinpoche first came to the West in 1998. Ven. Massimo Stordi invited him to Italy, and a Rinpoche in Italy, as well as Geshe Soepa in Germany. Before that Rinpoche didn’t go anywhere because Sera needed him; now Sera has many geshes, so Rinpoche is able to travel. Lama Zopa Rinpoche requested a lung of a whole text of Je Tsong Khapa and his main disciples, thirty-six of them, but there was no chance to do this. Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked Choden Rinpoche to come give a Secret Vajrapani initiation at Vajrapani Institute in California and to teach during the retreat. Rinpoche has studied the Vinaya extensively. At Sera he is called the Vinaya Holder because he knows every step of the Vinaya. He lives purely in morality and has ordained more than 600 Tibetans – and now in the West he has ordained people. He has an extremely good reputation in the monastery, and so many students come to receive his teachings, especially about the Vinaya, because his morality is so pure. Rinpoche’s great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all great practitioners. His great-grandfather and grandfather were Kagyupas and his father was Gelug, but they are all lam-rim holders. They spent most of their lives in retreat, although not like Rinpoche, who didn’t come out at all. They are all lineage holders. Rinpoche was surrounded by all of these practitioners. His mother gave them eight brothers and five sisters, and five of the sons became monks. One of them, the third brother, attained high realizations. His name is Geshe Thubten Yampil. He mastered all the Buddhist teachings, attained realizations and he composed fifty volumes of books and gave the Kalachakra initiation in Tibet. The second one is also a renowned meditator. Rinpoche’s father and mother have passed away, and all the sisters but one have passed away. Now there is the reincarnation of this second brother in Kham, Tibet, right in his family’s house. There is also the third brother’s reincarnation in Tibet, as well as the first brother’s reincarnation. The second brother’s reincarnation was able to recite the Buddhist scriptures without even seeing them, they came straight from his heart. When Choden Rinpoche told His Holiness the Dalai Lama this, His Holiness asked if he was a tulku, but Choden Rinpoche said no, it was his second brother from before. This article first appeared in Mandala Magazine, July/August 2000.

Moments

tashidorje — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:55:09 GMT

Moments like dew amongst the rays of the dawn sun, swiftly pass on the wings of time, here there are no troubles, no drama and no woes, only the pervasive poise of the serene. However, the moments drop away into the bright luminious of all that is, has or will be, (C), 2007, Tashi Pema Dorje

Check out this link

tashidorje — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:50:31 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9w4KWEgJE

Short Prayer Summoning Prosperity (Luck)

tashidorje — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 22:46:18 GMT

KHYEN! KHYEN! E Ma Ho! At this excellent place whirled with auspiciousness, Which attracts continuously the collection of fortune and the blessing of the prosperity, Which grants what is desired with delightful dance, In which prosperity appears just as magnet attracts metals. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Of the Assembly of Brahma, Mahadev, Indra, The famous god (Mukyu) and the Universal Monarch, Who are the highest of the samsara. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Of the Seven Perfect Emblems of Royalty, the prerequisite of the King, The wish-fulfilling gem of the Naga King’s crown, The immortal drink of the gods. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Of the Eight Auspicious Symbols: - The precious umbrella, golden fish, treasure vase, Excellent lotus, white conch-shell with whorls turning right, The endless knot, the victory banner and the wheel. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Of the auspicious leader, Son of King Shudodana, The source for blessing to the materials and the excellent actions, And of the Eight Auspicious Objects That spontaneously accomplish the auspiciousness. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Such as long life, good health and fulfillment of all the wishes; Strength, power, the wealth of prosperity, And likewise, the whole feast of joy and happiness. Please bestow all fame, wealth, fortune and blessing (luck) Of the Vesharvana, the King who rules the northern direction, Of Arya Dzambala, the Lord of Wealth And of Basundra, the Goddess who relieves poverty. Please grant the fortune and blessing for accomplishment According to the Dharma that fulfills the wishes of the sentient beings, Just as the wish-fulfilling gem and the tree Fulfills effortlessly and without any hardship. HRI! Please grant all the attainments, goodness, auspiciousness and happiness Of the assembly of Gurus, Yidams, and protectors, And let all the prosperity and blessings of the ten directions be realized here and now.

Embrace

tashidorje — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:33:30 GMT

I am speechless in the light of Buddhas embrace Hold me now in the dark night of samsara, that I may cherish others for all of my days Which like dew on the morning grass, show's it''s conditioned nature to be fading, fading, As a rainbow in the gentle breeze. Tashi Pema Dorje

On Anxiety

tashidorje — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:48:01 GMT

If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry. –His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Three Forms of Compassion

tashidorje — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:18:13 GMT

Chandrakirti explained three types of compassion: compassion aimed at suffering, aimed at phenomena, and unaimed. With the first, we look at animate beings in light of their suffering and develop the wish for them to be free from both that suffering and its causes. One source of their suffering is their unawareness that they even have any problems, let alone their not knowing the causes of their problems. For example, our friend becomes upset at the slightest thing that goes wrong and sees this as normal. He or she does not understand that hypersensitivity is to blame and that something can be done to remedy this. When we see this sad situation, our compassion for our friend becomes even stronger. Compassion aimed at phenomena looks at beings in light of their moment-to-moment changes. With it, we wish others to be free of suffering and its causes based on the understanding that these both are impermanent. We also see that others are unaware of this fact and so, when depressed, for example, they make their sufferings worse by imagining that they will last forever. Realizing this further enhances compassion for them. Unaimed compassion looks at beings in terms of their voidness. It has the same wish as the other two forms, but is based on not identifying others concretely with their suffering. Seeing that others do not have this insight and that consequently they identify themselves with their problems intensifies our compassion for them even more. --from Developing Balanced Sensitivity: Practical Buddhist Exercises for Daily Life, by Alexander Berzin, published by Snow Lion Publications

Geshe Lama Konchog : Previous incarnation of Tulku Tendzin Phuntsok Rinpoche

tashidorje — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:04:24 GMT

September 8th, 2006 Geshe Lama Konchog studied in Sera Monastery in Tibet from the age of 7 to 32 (1934-1959). Geshe-la had attended initiations and teachings by Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche and Pari Rinpoche. He also completed many retreats like RINCHUG GYATSA and other short retreats of the deities he had initiation, staying in the labrangs of these Great Lamas. He completed his Geshe studies and was about to take his final exams in 1959, but had to escape Tibet. He left with only the robes he was wearing, a sheepskin and some texts from all four traditions. On the kind advice of Trijang Rinpoche, Geshe-la went to the mountains in Tsum to meditate. He went up into the mountains without telling anyone where he was going. He had only his texts, his one set of robes, the small piece of sheepskin and a leaky pot. He found a cave high above the village, which happened to be a cave where Milarepa had meditated, and where Milarepa’s sister offered him cloth for robes. Geshe-la stayed there for 10 years without leaving or seeing anyone. He was very strong and didn’t sleep at night but did prostrations all night. He lived on nettles that grew around the cave. After staying there for 10 years, some villagers who went up into the mountains with their sheep happened to see him. He must have looked rather frightening at that time! They told him that they would give him human food if he would come down to the village and recite texts for them, but he refused, saying that he had the best food. But the villagers continued to disturb him so he decided to leave the cave and live someone where else. He found another cave, but it wasn’t as good as the first one — it was only a half-cave, so he had to build it up with stones. The people in the village below this cave had lots of problems with spirits and with rain not falling at the right time and so forth, and Geshe-la helped them. His mantras were incredibly effective to eliminate these problems, so the villagers came to depend on him, and Geshe-la was very compassionate, always helping whoever asked for help. He continued to do retreats and would help the people in between retreats. The villages called him “Grandfather Lama” and regarded him as very precious. So altogether Geshe-la was in the mountains in strict retreat for 26 years. He had come to Kathmandu a few times and met Lama Yeshe, his old friend from Sera, and although Lama Yeshe requested him several times to stay at Kopan, Geshe-la did not accept but always returned to Tsum. Geshe-la have ordained many Sanghas and he has liberated many beings. While he was Kopan he conducted many philosophy teaching, tantric and sutra teachings, commentaries, initiations to the Sanghas and overseas students. He have traveled to many countries to offer all these in all four Tibetian Buddhist traditions. Read more about Geshe Lama Kongchog: Accomplishment on practices 600,000 Water bowl offerings. 800,000 Refuge Prayers. 1,500,000 long prostrations through Vajrasattva practice, 21 Tara praises anf 35 Buddha confession. 100,000 Varja Daka fire puja. 1,200,000 Mandala offerings. 1,200,000 Vajrasattva hundred syllable mantra recitation. 2,000 Nyung Nye practice retreats. 800,000 Lama Tsongkapa Guru Yoga 9 rounds recitation. 100,000 times reading the Diamond Cutter Sutra. 700,000 tsa-tsa. 100,000 35 Buddha Prayer practices as preliminary. Lam Rim meditation and Jorcho practice. Vajrayongini self-initiation. 700,000 Samaya Varja meditation. 1,200,000 torma offering. Clear Light Meditation Geshe was in Clear Light Meditation for 7 days after he passed away. Over 200 foreign students and over 700 Sanghas saw many amazing signs of the great realization. Cremation When Geshe holy body was offered to the fire during cremation, rainbows appeared and surrounded the sun, there was a drizzle of rain. The rainbows appeared towards six different directions. Relics The 5 colour relics is the purity state of 5 aggregates, state of 5 Dhayani Buddha, state of full enlightenment, there is no doubts that the Great Mahasiddha attained full enlightenment within one lifetime. This is the result of living life with the Three Principal Aspect of the Path, practicing Boddhicitta and abandoning all defilement by applying antidote which is emptiness. www.phuntsokrinpoche.com http://www.buddhasrelics.org/LamaKonchog.shtml http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/konchog/konchog.asp

Advice from a precious teacher

tashidorje — Sat, 19 May 2007 03:48:35 GMT

Rinpoche said please practice as much as you can, life is not long, the nature of this life is impermanent and death can happen at anytime. This is the foundation of Buddha’s teachings, and this was the last advice Buddha gave, before showing the aspect of passing away. Please make your life most meaningful with the thought of bodhicitta. Rinpoche sends you his love and prayers. Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice for daily practice The purpose of life is to benefit other sentient beings and the greatest benefit you can offer them is to liberate them from their suffering and its causes. In order to do that you need to attain enlightenment and to do that you need to achieve the lam-rim, the gradual path to enlightenment. To make that possible, you have to purify all the negative karma and defilements you have collected over your beginningless rebirths and accumulate extensive merit. These are the conditions necessary for you to actualize the path. Life is like last night’s dream. Don’t hold on to it as too solid or inherently existent. The following advice on practice is given with the intention of making your life—this most precious human life that you have received just this once—as meaningful as possible. In the past, you have sacrificed your life and died numberless times creating the cause of suffering in samsara but have almost never sacrificed your life for the sake of Dharma, especially trying to bring other sentient beings to enlightenment. So, do as much of what follows as you can, and don’t worry—be happy. Preliminary practices The purpose doing preliminary practices is for you to purify obstacles to achieving realizations of the path to enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings—defilements, negative karmas and downfalls—and collect extensive merit. Furthermore, to cause such realizations to ripen within your mind, you need to receive your guru’s blessings through the practice of guru yoga. Therefore, you should base each preliminary practice on the particular guru yoga that you do, such as the Six-Session Guru Yoga, the Guru Puja [Tib: Lama Chöpa], the Lama Tsong Khapa Guru Yoga [Tib: Ganden Lha Gyäma] and the guru yogas of various deities, such as the Tara Guru Yoga. When practicing guru yoga, focus on the guru yoga meditation at different points of the practice—for example, after visualizing the merit field or during direct meditation on the lam-rim at the stanza on guru devotion—in order to develop guru devotion and realize that the guru is buddha. Meditate on the guru as buddha with the help of scriptural citations and logic as well as your own personal experience that supports the mind that sees your guru as all the buddhas and all the buddhas as your guru. When doing preliminary practices in retreat, always spend the first session concentrating on guru yoga emphasizing guru devotion meditation. Then do about a half hour of lam-rim meditation. For the rest of the session—an hour, an hour-and-a-half or two hours: you can decide the length—do your preliminaries. If you retreat like this, your preliminaries retreat also becomes a lam-rim retreat: your lam-rim meditations make your preliminary practices much more powerful for purification and the accumulation of merit, and your preliminary practices make your lam-rim meditation extremely effective in quickly transforming your mind into the path to enlightenment. In addition to the specific practices given here you should also meditate on and recite the short1 or long2 Avalokiteshvara mantra, or both, and the Medicine Buddha mantra3 as many times as possible every day. Lam-rim meditation Base all your lam-rim meditations on guru devotion and meditate every day for whatever length of time you can—15, 20, 30 minutes or an hour—until you receive stable realizations. To gain a background understanding of and detailed information on the lam-rim and how to meditate on it, read Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, by Pabongka Rinpoche. For everyday use, I recommend Essential Nectar, by Geshe Rabten, which provides instruction on guided daily lam-rim meditation. The other way is to follow the outline of the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment [Lam-rim Chen-mo] or Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. You should memorize the lam-rim outline that you do, which is what most serious Tibetan lam-rim meditators do. The outline is the basis of your meditations. You can meditate daily for fifteen minutes, half an hour or an hour or two according to your situation in one, two, three or four sessions a day—decide the duration of each session yourself. The most important thing is continuity; this really helps. If you meditate a lot one day then take a few days off, your mind won’t develop continuously. No matter how much time you spend meditating on the lam-rim every day, it’s all good. Just don’t stop—meditate every day. You can rotate the focus of your meditation (as indicated above) as follows. Spend three months on guru devotion, three months on the lower scope, three months on the intermediate scope and three months on the highest scope up to emptiness. Then start over again with guru devotion. Continue cycling through the lam-rim in this way until you achieve the realization of each stage. With guru devotion, continue doing the meditations daily until you have gained the stable realization of seeing all the buddhas spontaneously. Then meditate on the lower graduated path, from the precious human rebirth up to karma, focusing mainly on impermanence and death, which is the most important meditation because it helps you gain realization of all the others. After you have realized renunciation, where you don’t have even the slightest interest in happiness of this life, no clinging at all, and seek only the happiness of future lives, liberation or the happiness of others—which could take weeks, months or years—meditate on the intermediate path. Once you have gained spontaneous renunciation of all of samsara, dedicate your life to realizing bodhicitta, where you don’t have even the slightest thought seeking your own happiness but want only the happiness of others. In order to attain enlightenment you should feel like this day and night. You should also do a little meditation on emptiness every day, using any unmistaken text, such as the Heart Sutra or any authentic mahamudra teaching. In the meantime, continue training your mind in the other steps of the path to enlightenment. After some time you can try to achieve tranquil abiding by focusing on the meditation object suggested above. Reciting a lam-rim prayer every day is the fundamental daily practice that renders each day of your life most meaningful. When you recite a lam-rim prayer mindfully from beginning to end your recitation becomes a direct meditation on the entire path to enlightenment. This practice leaves imprints, or seeds, of the realizations of the whole path on your mental continuum. This means that with each recitation you become closer to enlightenment and, therefore, closer to enlightening all sentient beings, which is the main goal of your life, the purpose of being alive. This is unbelievable benefit of doing direct meditation on the lam-rim every day of your life. There are various different lam-rim prayers that you can recite in this way; for example, Lama Tsong Khapa’s Three Principal Aspects of the Path, Foundation of All Good Qualities and Lines of Experience, and Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo’s long version of Calling the Guru from Afar. You can also meditate on any other prayer that contains the essence of the entire path. If it mentions the practice of tantra at the end, that is particularly good. The more direct meditations on the whole lam-rim you do each day the more advantages you receive. If you have received highest yoga tantra initiation, it’s also good to recite a prayer of the graduated path of tantra, such as that found at the end of the long Yamantaka and Vajrayana sadhanas. Again, if you recite it mindfully, it plants the seed of the entire path on your mind. Thus there are two different direct, or glance, meditations: the one on the lam-rim, which is the foundation of the common path, and the one on the tantric path, which is the extraordinary path. Practicing these helps prepare your mind for all the realizations of the path, perhaps in this life but definitely in a future one. When you meditate on the lam-rim, bring into your meditation whatever teachings and other information you have learned from reading other authentic Buddhist texts. This makes your meditation much more effective. When meditating on guru devotion, for example, you can augment the outline with whatever you have learned from studying various teachings on guru devotion. Similarly, you can enrich your meditation on the nature of samsara, bodhicitta, emptiness and so forth by studying different teachings on these topics. This makes your meditation more effective. However, following your guru’s instructions is what makes your meditation practice most productive in bringing quick realizations. During the break times—which means your life between sessions of sitting meditation, not breaks from Dharma practice—whether you’re standing, walking, sleeping or doing anything else, try to live with the experience generated by your morning lam-rim meditation. Live with a mind transformed by your daily meditation on guru devotion, impermanence and death, the meaningfulness of this life’s body, the suffering nature of samsara, bodhicitta or emptiness—whatever was the main focus of that session. By doing so, not only do you make your life highly meaningful during your sessions but also during the rest of the time. This is mainly because your lam-rim experience gives you a positive attitude and, as a result, you avoid creating negative actions; you are always careful to practice Dharma and avoid creating negative karma. Thus all your actions become causes of liberation and enlightenment and, therefore, the remedy to samsara. This instruction also to practice in between formal meditation sessions is extremely important—if you follow it, your sessions will help make your life during the breaks highly meaningful and fruitful. This is specifically what Lama Tsong Khapa meant when, in the Foundation of All Good Qualities, he talked about taking the essence of the precious human body day and night. His Holiness the Dalai Lama also explained that this verse means that we should live in the experience generated by our morning meditation and strongly recommended that we do so. If you can do this, even your working life will become meditation. It will be unified with the Dharma and, especially, your lam-rim meditation. Your mind will always be peaceful and stable, not up and down; you will have peace, satisfaction and fulfillment in your life and will be able to benefit others better and more with your positive Dharma mind. When your mind is ready, take the initiation(s) when available and train your mind in the practice of the generation stage. You can do a little completion stage practice just to plant the seed of it, but initially your main emphasis should be on the generation stage. You might like to meditate on the completion stage just for fun but you cannot accomplish it without accomplishing the generation stage. Do that first and then practice the completion stage. You should understand that you and I don’t often have the chance to meet to discuss your practice. So, whether we meet again in this lifetime or not, you must make your life meaningful with many years of practice. Thus your request for practice is done. I have put off other things—prayers and so forth—to spend time checking all this for you. Therefore you must consider doing these practices in your life. Take this advice seriously; otherwise it would have been better that you hadn’t asked me. 5 Additional daily practices that is important for everyone to do 1) Prostration to the Thirty-five Buddhas in the morning If possible, recite and prostrate to the Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession three times every morning or whenever you can. That’s 105 prostrations all together. If you think about it you’ll see how urgently we need to practice the Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession. Reciting these buddhas’ names while bringing to mind our past negative karma purifies that karma. If we don’t purify our negative karma we will not achieve a perfect human rebirth with eight freedoms and ten richnesses like the one we have now and will experience the opposite instead: rebirth in the suffering lower realms. Furthermore, if left unpurified, the negative karma we have created will increase exponentially within our mind (see below). Therefore it is extremely important that we purify it. The express purpose for these Thirty-five Buddhas’ existence is for sentient beings to purify the various different negative karmas they have created. Even reciting these buddhas’ names just once purifies many eons of negative karma; it’s like an atomic bomb in how extremely quickly and powerfully it destroys negative karma. Lama Tsong Khapa did many hundreds of thousands of prostrations with this confession practice to the Thirty-five Buddhas in his cave at Olka, Tibet. Lama Atisha also did many prostrations every day, even when he was very old. So did many of the other lam-rim lineage lamas, as a result of which they achieved many realizations. Therefore the Thirty-five Buddhas practice should be an essential ingredient of our daily routine. It’s the best thing we can do in order to be healthy and not have regrets in future. Geshe Jampa Gyatso’s Everlasting Rain of Nectar is a commentary on this practice. 2) Vajrasattva recitation at night Before you go to bed each night, recite the Vajrasattva mantra to prevent whatever negative karma you have created that day from multiplying. If you don’t purify it in this way your negative karma will keep doubling and re-doubling day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year up to the end of your life and even one day’s negative karma will become as huge and heavy as a mountain—in time, even one atom of unpurified negative karma can swell to the size of the Earth. Even though you may not necessarily create particularly heavy negative karmas, since unpurified negative karma increases exponentially in this way, even one small negative action can cause you to be reborn in the lower realms and experience great suffering for many eons. And because in the lower realms you continually create more and more negative karma, it is extremely difficult to be reborn back into the upper realms, which makes it almost impossible for you to practice Dharma. Therefore you must purify your negative karma every day. Since practicing the Vajrasattva recitation-meditation at the end of the day prevents negative karma from multiplying it is an unbelievably powerful method. It makes your life very light and easy and keeps you happy and peaceful inside—in your heart and in your inner life. Furthermore, it purifies not only that day’s negative karma but also that created in this life from the time you were born and in all your previous lives as well. Purifying negative karma makes it much easier to attain liberation and actualize the path to enlightenment. It also decreases your suffering and any obstacles that might arise. Purifying negative karma means that you won’t have to experience the many eons of suffering in the lower realms that result from not purifying even one negative karma, and you won’t have to experience again and again without end the four suffering results that arise from each unpurified negative karma. The conclusion is that even if you have completed the preliminary of reciting 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras you can’t just stop, relax and say, “I’ve finished my Vajrasattva preliminary practice. Now I don’t have to recite that mantra any more.” You need to keep doing the long Vajrasattva mantra at least twenty-one times or the short one at least twenty-eight times a day in order to keep purifying your negative karma and prevent it from multiplying. 3) Medicine Buddha mantra The Medicine Buddha mantra is recited for success. Since we have many problems and want to succeed we need to recite the Medicine Buddha mantra every day. It can help us eliminate the problems, unhappiness and suffering we don’t want and gain the success, happiness, inner growth and realizations of the path that we do. Lord Buddha told his attendant Ananda that even animals who hear the Medicine Buddha mantra will never be reborn in the lower realms. The highly attained Kyabje Chöden Rinpoche, who has completed the entire path to enlightenment, said recently that if you recite the Medicine Buddha mantra at the time of death you will be reborn in the pure land. Therefore, it is to be recited not only for healing but also to benefit people and animals all the time, whether they’re living or dying. If you recite the Medicine Buddha mantra every day you will purify your negative karma and this will help you never to be reborn in the lower realms. If you don’t purify your negative karma, then when you die you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal and will have to suffer again and again without end. Therefore you need to purify your negative karma right now. If you cannot bear even the present suffering of the human realm—which is blissful joy compared to that of the lower realms—how will you be able to bear the intense suffering of the lower realms, which is unimaginably unbearable, lasts for an incredible length of time and a billion times worse than all the human sufferings put together. Since reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra saves you from all these sufferings it is much more precious than skies of gold, diamonds, wish-fulfilling jewels and zillions and zillions of dollars. Material wealth counts for nothing because it can’t purify negative karma. Even if you possessed that much wealth, simply reciting or even hearing the Medicine Buddha mantra just once would be far more precious because it would leave an imprint of the entire path to enlightenment on your mind, help you gain realizations of the path, eradicate all your gross and subtle defilements and cause you to achieve enlightenment. The Medicine Buddha mantra can help you liberate numberless sentient beings from the vast oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment, so you should recite it with absolute trust in the Medicine Buddha, knowing that he will completely take care of your life and heal you in every way and that he is always with you—in your heart, on your crown and right there in front of you. There is not one second that the Medicine Buddha does not see or have compassion for you. 4) Chenrezig practice All students, old and new, should practice Chenrezig, the Compassionate-Eye Looking One. Doing his recitation-meditation brings all happiness, temporary—the happiness of this and all future lives—and ultimate—the happiness of liberation and enlightenment—to the numberless sentient beings, yourself included. Reciting the Chenrezig mantra brings skies of benefit, especially if you do it with bodhicitta. The practice and realization of bodhicitta is the most important thing in life because it fulfils not only your own wishes for happiness but also those of all other sentient beings—each and every one. With bodhicitta you can completely dry up the ocean of samsaric suffering and its cause and achieve liberation and enlightenment because it helps you gain the wisdom directly realizing emptiness, which eradicates both gross and subtle defilements. Bodhicitta is what allows arya bodhisattva to abandon the sufferings of samsara, including rebirth, old age, sickness and death, just by achieving the right-seeing path. Even though arhats of the lesser vehicle path have the wisdom directly realizing emptiness and many other inconceivable qualities, they still have the remainder of the suffering aggregates. Bodhicitta is the door to the Mahayana path to enlightenment and the root of the limitless qualities of the Buddha’s holy body, speech and mind. The courageous bodhisattvas are able to bear all the hardships of working for sentient beings, no matter how great they are, even if it costs them their life. Since bodhisattvas see how beneficial it is to bear hardship in order to work for others in this way they are not only able to bear it but experience limitless joy as well. For bodhisattvas, even dying as a result of working for others is like drinking nectar; doing so, they experience the delight of a swan plunging into a cool pond on a hot day. Bodhisattvas abandon the thought of achieving their own liberation from the ocean of samsaric suffering and its cause—delusion and karma—as one discards used toilet paper, having not an atom of interest in it. They have only aversion to gaining the ultimate happiness of nirvana for themselves alone. Bodhicitta allows bodhisattvas to complete the accumulation of the two types of merit—transcendent wisdom and virtue—and is the cause of their achieving the two holy bodies: rupakaya—the holy body of form—and dharmakaya—the holy body of mind—which is the ultimate goal. The sole purpose of achieving these two holy bodies is to be able to do perfect work for all sentient beings. Even though there are numberless sentient beings and it can take three countless great eons to complete the accumulations to bring every single one to enlightenment, what gives bodhisattvas the determination to do so is bodhicitta. No matter how many eons it takes to have one sentient being generate a single virtuous thought, the bodhisattva will try to make it happen without being discouraged. In the Ornament for the Mahayana Sutras, Maitreya said, “In order to ripen even one virtuous thought, the bodhisattva, the child of the Victorious Ones whose mind is stabilized in supreme perseverance for highly ripening the sentient beings, does not get discouraged, even if it takes thousands of ten million eons.” So you can see that the determination that drives bodhisattvas to bear hardship and work continuously for sentient beings comes from bodhicitta, which itself comes from the root of great compassion. This root, compassion, fuels the skies of benefit that derive from bodhicitta, like rocket fuel powers a spaceship or electricity generated by a power station lights up an entire city. It is also great compassion that has already brought numberless sentient beings to enlightenment in the past, brings numberless sentient beings to enlightenment at present and will bring numberless sentient beings to enlightenment in future; great compassion that makes numberless buddhas do perfect, unmistaken work for numberless sentient beings until they achieve enlightenment; and great compassion that causes all buddhas to have the omniscient mind and perfect power they need to benefit all sentient beings. Similarly, your own great compassion will become the source of peace and happiness of numberless sentient beings—the source of all their temporary and ultimate happiness—including the beings in this world and the country where you live, and your own family: parents, companion, children and, lastly, yourself. Without compassion in your heart all you have is ego, which both directly and indirectly harms all sentient beings, including those in this world and your country, and your own family: parents, companion, children and yourself. The more you can practice compassion, the greater will be the peace and happiness in your heart and in your life. Your compassion is the source of happiness of even the people and animals you encounter in everyday life. Without compassion there are personality ego-clashes and many other problems—anger, jealousy and the like. Without compassion your life is overwhelmed by problems, like a mouse trapped in a cage and killed, an elephant stuck in the mud and suffocated, a fly caught in a spider’s web and eaten, or a moth attracted by a flame and drowned in hot candle wax. Your life is enmeshed in problems and continues in that way until you die like a moth in a flame. That’s why you need to practice compassion; compassion is the most important Dharma practice you can do, the most important meditation for you to practice. Living and working with compassion is the best thing you can do. Then, when you experience problems, you can experience them for others, use them to develop compassion for others. Thus you use your problems to achieve enlightenment—your problems become the path to enlightenment. Similarly, when you are sick from cancer or AIDS, for example, you can experience your illness with compassion, for the sake of other sentient beings—to bring them all happiness up to and including enlightenment. Thus your sickness becomes the path to enlightenment. Therefore, all problems—failed relationships, illness, business failure, unemployment—become very important and useful, a special, heroic practice. Before, such experiences were something that you disliked and were to be abandoned but now, with your practice of compassion, they become something highly desirable and of the utmost need for the development of your mind in the path—very powerful and special. Also, when your life ends, the best way to die is with compassion. His Holiness the Dalai Lama often says that dying with bodhicitta is “self-supporting.” You don’t need anybody else around to help you because you can guide yourself. You’re the leader; you can lead yourself to the happiness of future lives. In order to develop great compassion you need to understand the Buddha’s teachings on how to develop it. But even if you can recite the teachings on compassion by heart and know how to meditate on them, that alone is not enough for you to realize them. To do you need the support of the blessings of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion. In order to receive these blessings you need to practice his meditation-recitation. For more on the benefits of this practice, please see Teachings from the Mani Retreat. 5) Golden Light Sutra recitation for World Peace Anybody who wants peace in the world should read The Golden Light Sutra (Ser.ö dam.päi do wang.gyi gyälpo). This is a very important practice to stop violence and wars in the world. The Golden Light Sutra is one of the most beneficial ways to bring peace. This is something that everyone can do, no matter how busy you are, even if you can read one page a day, or few lines and in this way continually reading The Golden Light Sutra. The holy Golden Light Sutra is the king of the sutras. It is extremely powerful and fulfills all ones wishes, as well as brings peace and happiness for all sentient beings, up to enlightenment. It is also extremely powerful for world peace, for your own protection and for the protection of the country and the world. Also, it has great healing power for people in the country. Anyone who desires peace for themselves and for others then this is the spiritual, or dharma, way to bring peace that doesn't require you to harm others, doesn't require you to criticize others or even to demonstrate against others, yet can accomplish peace. Anyone can read this text, Buddhists and even non-Buddhists who desire world peace. This also protects individuals and the country from what are labeled natural disasters-of the wind element, fire element, earth element and water element-such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, fires, tornadoes, etc. They are not natural because they come from causes and conditions that make dangers happen. They come from past inner negative thoughts and actions of people, and external conditions. The benefits of reading this sutra are immeasurable, it says that even if you offer numberless precious jewels, in the amount of atoms of the Pacific Ocean, to numberless Buddhas, but to recite even just a few lines of The Sutra of Golden Light, one creates more merit than making these immeasurable offerings to the Buddha. Reciting this Sutra directs ones life towards enlightenment. There is so much merit created by reciting this Sutra, everything is taken care of, ones life becomes so easy, whatever one wishes for one receives. This is because there is unbelievable purification and one collects extensive merits. This is how one liberates numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric suffering and brings them to enlightenment. So here, I would like to make this request with my two palms together, to please recite the Sutra of Golden Light4 for world peace as much as you can. References Gyatso, Geshe Jampa. Everlasting Rain of Nectar. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1996. Pabongka Rinpoche. Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand. Translated by Michael Richards. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991. Rabten, Geshe. The Essential Nectar. Translated and edited by Martin Willson. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1992. Tsong Khapa, Lama Je. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Volumes 1, 2 & 3. Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2000–04. Zopa Rinpoche, Lama Thubten. Teachings from the Mani Retreat. Boston: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 2001. Originally dictated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to Ven. Tsenla, April 1999, and lightly edited between 2000 and 2002 by Ven. Connie Miller and Ven. Sarah Thresher based on Rinpoche’s modifications and rearrangements dictated to Ven. Brian, Ven. Tsenla, Ven. Holly and Ven. Sarah. Final edit by Nick Ribush, 2005. For further information on how to do the preliminary practices and to obtain commentaries on them please contact your local FPMT center or the FPMT International Office as listed in Mandala magazine or go to www.fpmt.org. See the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive for large collection of teachings by Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and many other great lamas: www.LamaYeshe.com. 1 om mani padme hum 2 namo ratna trayaya/ namah arya jnana sagara/ vairochana/ vyuha rajaya/ tathagataya/ arhate/ samyaksam buddhaya/ namah sarva tathagatebhyah/ arhadbhyah/ samyaksam buddhebhyah/ namah arya avalokiteshvaraya/ bodhisattvaya mahasattvaya/ mahakarunikaya/ tadyatha/ om/ dhara dhara/ dhiri dhiri/ dhuru dhuru/ itti vatte/ chale chale/ prachale prachale/ kusume/ kusume vare/ ili mili/ citi jvalam/ apanaye svaha/ 3 tadyatha om bekandze bekandze mahabekandze bekandze randza samudgate soha 4 To download the Sutra of Golden Light: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/goldenlight.asp

Respect

tashidorje — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:14:05 GMT

A Prayer dedicated to my Beloved Masters As I sit on my meditation cushion, My heart is filled with gratitude to you, My precious masters, For showing the intrinsic nature of mind, Beyond grasping. My eyes are filled with tears of devotion to you, The jewel of my heart. When I think of the inexhaustible ocean of your wisdom, Your kindness and unfathomable qualities, I truly believe that you are the essence of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Please remain inseparable from the lotus corolla of my heart. Please bestow upon me, your unfortunate child, The blessings of your body, speech and mind. Never let me stray from the shadow of your compassion, Even for a second. Hold me deep, deep within you. May the radiance of your being manifest itself again and again, In this world, to liberate countless beings from their endless suffering. - Khandro-la

Of logicians & reason

tashidorje — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:57:32 GMT

Of logicians & reason Why is the sphere of the egocentric mind so pervasive in modern society? We pride ourselves on the notion of being civilised and evolved, so much so that we feel it is necessary to offer advice to others when all the while our advice is rendered useless in the light and dark of personal interest. How many of us do away with the need to criticise others [those possessing mental continua and/or inanimate objects], only to focus our keen sense of cynicism upon ourselves? How many of us literally look into the nature of our own minds? Seeking to eradicate the afflictions we impose on others and through doing so decieve both others and ourselves. The answer to why we do not may lay in an innate ability to be little more than “intellectually lazy” to quote Venerable Robina Courtin. We pursue the idea of intellectualisation as little more than a scholastic meandering. Never thinking it may be of benefit to look into the heart of our motivations day to day. Food for thought, certainly.... Yet how would you apply it? So let us begin here, with the notion of what motivates and compels us. All human accomplishment is preceded by valid cognition. {Dharmakirti}

Of consorts fair and blissful

tashidorje — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 23:50:32 GMT

When we find the reference of yab and yum (masculine/feminine consort or father/mother consort) applied to deities, we shouldn't make the obvious mistake of assuming that this has to do with male/female in the physical sense. The deities are not male and female beings, but masculine and feminine energies. The bipolar imagery of the masculine and feminine illustrates the primordial union of appearance (or form) and emptiness. One of the descriptions of this imagery is that the masculine aspect, the yab aspect, refers to phenomenal appearance while the yum, the feminine aspect, is the expression of emptiness. So the way in which the deities manifest is simply a direct expression of the fundamental nature of reality as it is. http://www.palyul.org/eng_about_ngondro.htm

Rejoicing the moments

tashidorje — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:03:11 GMT

I just returned from some amazingly fortunate teachings and my first Nyingmapa empowerment; {Guru Rinpoche.} Also a Ngondro transmission and teachings on Dzogchen amongst other things from Khenpo Tendzin Norgay... oh and I took refuge again.. Rejoice, Rejoice.... Special thanks to Guru Rinpoche, Khenpola, Markla, Wendyla, Ordained and Lay Sangha friends and all beings for the most precious opportunities that rain down as a shower of blessings; May all benefit... Now I have to prep' for week long Mahamudra retreat and teachings...yay....blessings for all..... lol

Chasers War on Everything

tashidorje — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:42:27 GMT

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=8060801430961708195&q=chasers http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-6278622030595530374&q=chasers http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=6101776046284153390&q=chasers http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=7756086010715314612&q=chasers http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=2913427303193571621&q=chasers http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-3763659629816676485&q=chasers

Lama Rinpoche

tashidorje — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:11:57 GMT

Meaning of The Vajra Seven Line Prayer

tashidorje — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:06:22 GMT

http://quietmountain.org/links/teachings/7_Line_Prayer_To_Guru_Rinpoche/7lnpryr.htm

Aum Ah Hung Vajra Guru Peme Siddhi Hung

tashidorje — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 04:02:53 GMT

Compassion Teaching

tashidorje — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:22:33 GMT

Compassion Having compassion is like trading places with another person. When you put yourself in the other person's place, then you'll naturally feel what is needed of you. That's exactly what compassion is! You can't have compassion without feeling the pain of others. If you are not able to sense others' pain then you are not able to cultivate compassion. It's always like this, not only for compassion, but also for acceptance, forgiveness, everything. The cultivation of these all begin with your having some real understanding of where the other person is. However, we always cling to our particular point of view. When we judge something, or when we get angry at someone, it's always based on our own point of view. For instance, if someone close to you says, "You don't love me enough." Immediately your reaction might be, "What do you mean I don't love you enough? I've done this for you, I've done that for you. Can't you see? Just look what I have done for you." But who is it who's speaking? It's the "I" that is reacting. "I" has all the reasons why and how much "I" love you. Regardless of what I may think rationally or logically, though, often it's beneficial in our relationships to try instead to feel directly what the other person is feeling in that situation - to change places with the other person. Go beyond the logic because logic isn't always enough. Even if one's logic is very good, it is still based on one's own point of view. In this case, it would be better to connect directly with what the other person is feeling as "unlove." If you have even a glimpse of understanding - of that pain or suffering or confusion, then you are going to open up. We open our hearts. Anyone can open their heart when they get just a taste of that. - An excerpt from oral teachings given by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, 2004. 9/04 VOCL

many blessing for the new year

tashidorje — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:50:53 GMT

For the sharing of your thoughts, hearts and wisdom ; Thankyou for the laughter and the joy and everything in between, May your lives be full of joy and love, prosperity and abundance. I shall be away until the end of January, you shall all be within my thoughts So see you soon, have fun, laugh, dance, play and sing Enjoy the preciousness and beauty of your lives. With many blessings and every kindness tashi xo

Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment

tashidorje — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:55:16 GMT

We ordinary individuals share the characteristic of having our attempts to gain happiness thwarted by our own destructive self-centeredness. It is unsuitable to keep holding onto the self-centered attitude while ignoring others. If two friends find themselves floundering in a muddy swamp they should not ridicule each other, but combine their energies to get out. Both ourselves and others are in the same position of wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, but we are entangled in a web of ignorance that prevents us from achieving those goals. Far from regarding it as an "every man for himself" situation, we should meditate upon the equality of self and others and the need to be helpful to other beings. --from Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment by Ven. Lobsang Gyatso, translated by Ven. Sherab Gyatso, published by Snow Lion Publications

Rainforest Protection

tashidorje — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 23:15:19 GMT

{Green parts= Dense Tropical Rainforest} The eradication of the Amazon Rainforest and Rainforests around the world are wreaking havoc on the climate of our Earth. The Amazon Rainforest is like a giant "heat pump" that sends energy and moisture from the tropics into the colder high latitudes -it produces a climate in which we can live. The balance of nature is being destroyed. At the current rate of destruction the Amazon Rainforest will be gone in a few decades. Every second of the day land the size of 2 football fields is lost forever in The Rain Forests of the World. Now is the time to do something about this....before it is too late! Rainforests are the most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth. <Thankyou Inna> "If any tropical rain forest on Earth remains intact a century from now, it will be this portion of northern Amazonia," Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier said. Some good news for a change. ______________________ Brazil Protects Great Swath of Amazon Brazil Creates 7 New Protected Areas in Region of Amazon Rain Forest Known As Guayana Shield By PETER MUELLO RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil Dec 4, 2006 (AP)— A swath of Amazon rain forest the size of Alabama was placed under government protection Monday in a region infamous for violent conflicts among loggers, ranchers and environmentalists. Known as the Guayana Shield, the 57,915-square-mile area contains more than 25 percent of the world's remaining humid tropical forests and the largest remaining unpolluted fresh water reserves in the American tropics. The protected areas will link to existing reserves to form a vast preservation corridor eventually stretching into neighboring Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. Conservation International put up $1 million to facilitate the expansion, which preserves much of the jungle's largely untouched north. Still, it's far from clear how much the new reserves will do to stall Amazon destruction, since most of the deforestation is taking place along the rain forest's southern border. "If any tropical rain forest on Earth remains intact a century from now, it will be this portion of northern Amazonia," Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier said. "The region has more undisturbed rain forest than anywhere else." The Amazon region covers 60 percent of Brazil and 20 percent of its forest 1.6 million square miles already has been destroyed by development, logging and farming. Over the past four years, an area larger than South Carolina has been cut down. The protections announced Monday are all the more surprising coming out of Para, a state twice the size of France long known for ruthlessly cutting down the rain forest and where ranchers often gun down those who try to stop it. The 2005 murder of American nun Dorothy Stang is only the most notorious killing of forest defenders in the largely lawless jungle frontier. Stang, 73, of Dayton, Ohio was shot dead in a dispute over a piece of land she wanted to preserve and local ranchers wanted cut down to raise cattle. The new protected areas will help break the power of ranchers who often own plots of land the size of small European nations and rule them as their own personal fiefdoms, said Para state environment secretary Raul Porto. "Now there's no need for the plantation-type estate, which was our biggest problem," Porto said in a televised interview. Two of the new protected areas, covering 22,239 square miles, would place the land completely off limits to the general public and only be accessible to researchers. Together these two areas are believed to contain up to 54.1 percent of all bird, animal and plant species found in the Amazon, Conservation International said. They also are home to several endangered animal species, including the northern bearded saki monkey, jaguars, giant anteaters, the giant armadillo and the ariranha, or giant Amazon otter. The remaining areas have been declared sustainable use protected areas, allowing local communities to manage the natural resources and permitting limited logging under strict management. The creation of the new reserves places about 55.4 percent of Para state either under some form of government protection or on an Indian reservation. "Together, the protected areas and indigenous lands of northern Para form one of the greatest biodiversity corridors of tropical forests in the planet," Conservation International said. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. also; http://travel.mongabay.com/deforestation_photos.html

Tara teaching

tashidorje — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:19:35 GMT

http://www.fpmt.org/teachings/lzr/tara.asp