How to make compassion useful. - Kalu rimpoche

Hi Dear Friends,

Topic: How to make compassion useful...

As a Buddhist practitioner we talk a lot about compassion. I want to be precise about that in particular. In Buddhism we have many methods. Now we talk about compassion as a topic rather than applying it to ourselves. I want to talk precisely about compassion, how to apply it and how to bring that quality into our daily life. stop practicing Dharma or your spiritual path as if you were in the army, because spiritual Dharma practice means finding your freedom and stability and harmony and peacefulness in your state of mind; and also the willingness to give to others.

Right now in the 21st century the problem in Buddhism is that everybody is just following the same direction. You know, eating the same food is fine, but everybody practicing as one person, in one direction without any intellectual knowledge, without any doubt, without any question is the cause of suffering, that you are creating by yourself. Sooner or later you will fall into confusion.

My advice is find your own journey, that’s the most important part, because trying to copy another practitioner’s life story will not help you, but will cause you more suffering and more confusion rather than understanding the true meaning of Dharma. Never try to copy the master, never try to copy your Dharma brothers and sisters. Make your own improvement; make your own balance under the guidance of your own teacher. Remind yourself of the meaning of impermanence and naturally the meaning of compassion will apply to yourself. Running after compassion will no longer help you any time soon. So start by understanding the meaning of impermanence, and once understand the meaning of impermanence there will be understanding of reality. Once you understand the meaning of reality you will accept the meaning of Samsara. When you understand and accept the meaning of Samsara, genuinely, there will be genuine love and caring for sentient beings unconditionally. Once you have that, honesty and transparency will appear from your quality state of mind. Once you have that and once you have meditation and spiritual stability naturally there will be harmony with yourself and with others as well and that’s the purpose of everything.
Love and care from your Kalu rimpoche

Thinle Norbu Rinpoche or Dungse Thinle Norbu (gdung sras phrin las nor bu, 1931-2011)

གདུང་སྲས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ནོར་བུ་
Thinle Norbu Rinpoche or Dungse Thinle Norbu (gdung sras phrin las nor bu, 1931-2011)

This photo shows him as yogic practitioner practicing one posture for Thögal.

He was a prominent modern teacher in the Nyingma lineage, was the eldest son of Dudjom Rinpoche and the father of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. He was the incarnation of Tulku Trimé Özer, who was one of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa, and was also considered to be an emanation of Longchenpa. In his youth in Tibet he studied for nine years at Mindroling Monastery. He used to live in New York state, USA.

He passed away in New York on 27 December 2011, the 3rd day of the 11th month of the Iron Rabbit year.
Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was a major modern teacher in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the eldest son of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche, the former head of the Nyingma lineages.

Rinpoche was the father of Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche and of Garab Rinpoche. His association with the Dudjom Lineage is a long one: he is held to be the incarnation of Tulku Drime Oser, one of seven sons of Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904). He was also was considered to be an emanation of Longchen Rabjam, the great 14th century Nyingma scholar and siddha who composed the Seven Treasuries.

In his youth in Tibet, Rinpoche studied for nine years at Mindrolling Monastery, one of the six major Tibetan monasteries of the Nyingma school. Having fled his homeland, he spent some time in Bhutan, where his sons were born. He was the chief architect of the Thimphu Memorial Chorten, which he built in 1974, under the guidance of his father, to honour the memory of the third King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck (1928-72).

Dungse Rinpoche lived in Bhutan since mid-’50s and has many devotees all over Bhutan. He left Bhutan in the mid-’70s in deferment to the directives of his father, the late Kyabje Dudjom Jigdrel Dorje Rinpoche, to teach in the West. In later years he divided his time primarily between the United States and Nepal.

Rinpoche's best known works in English are Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis. (1982), White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems (1992) and A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar (2006).




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Guru Rinpoche, Monkey Year 2016 and beyond, Episode 1

Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom

It is naturally very difficult for us beginners to see the teacher as having exhausted all faults and perfected all good qualities. When the teacher is actually present, conditions can easily make wrong thoughts come up, and they may be very strong. We might think, “This teacher is very short-tempered, he’s so tight-fisted, he only likes new people . . .” 

You must resist such thoughts and think, “This is impossible, it is my own impure perception and way of seeing things.” Part from your disrespectful attitude immediately, or within four hours, or at least within twenty-four hours. The Great Omniscient One has said:

Constantly dwell on the teacher’s good qualities,
Don’t think of faults, and even if you see any, consider them as good qualities:
“They are surely my own perception, for the teacher has no faults.”
Think this sincerely, and use the antidote of parting and restraint.

Moreover, should you have a disrespectful thought in a dream with regard to the teacher’s conduct, you must part from it as soon as you wake up, as is explained in the Display of the Perfected Wheel:

If in the course of a dream
You see faults in the teacher,
Part from that the moment you awake.
Should you fail to part from it, it will grow into
The cause for rebirth in the Hell of Ultimate Torment.

If you hear others speaking of faults in the teacher, do your best to find a way to stop them, and if you cannot do so, block your ears with your fingers and reflect on the teacher’s good qualities. You should not keep the company of such people or relax with them. As the Source of Nectar Tantra says,

If they criticize the diamond master,
Stop them by peaceful means or wrathful.
If you do not have the ability,
Mindfully block your ears.
Do not associate with them or talk to them;
If you frequent them
You will cook in the lower realms.

Nowadays there are many people who talk about the qualities of, say, a good dog: they extol its fine pedigree and loud bark, they claim how much fiercer it is than the most savage carnivores, and so forth; and they praise the excellence of their horses and cattle, saying how indebted they are to them.

But when it comes to the excellent qualities of a master who teaches the Dharma, rarer than a star in the daytime, it seems, are those who think about all the qualities their teachers have and all the kindness they have shown.

Point at yourself, now, and think carefully: we do not even have as much regard for our teacher as for our horses and cattle and dogs; how could we ever attain accomplishment that way?

Reflect and call to mind even the smallest of your teachers’ good qualities. Think of their kindness — even just a single verse of a scripture that they have transmitted to you, or a cup of tea, or simply an approving look. By thinking about this, not just once, but again and again, your devotion will grow.

In this manner, work hard at the different ways to please your teachers: by serving them with material offerings, you will fill the measure of the two accumulations; by serving them with your body and speech, you will purify the obscurations of your body, speech, and mind; and, most importantly, by serving them with your practice, you will hold the teachings of the practice lineage. The benefits of so doing are described in the Sutra Requested by Maitreya:

Know that all attainment—all the mass of perfect liberation and vision of primal wisdom of the Listeners, Solitary Realizers, and Unsurpassable Buddhas — all of it arises from having perfectly followed a spiritual friend. Maitreya, you should also know that the benefit and happiness of sentient beings all arises from one’s own sources of good, and those too arise from the spiritual friend.

In the Sutra Requested by Ratnacuda we read:

Child of the gods, by following and venerating a spiritual friend, you will see everything as a pure Buddhafield, you will obtain thesupreme concentration of great compassion, you will never be without transcendent wisdom, you will bring sentient beings to full maturity, and all your hopes will be perfectly fulfilled.

And the Great Omniscient One says:

As a result, unbiased pure perception arises,
One is trained in loving kindness, compassion, and bodhichitta,
Experiences and realization naturally grow,
One acts on an infinite scale for others’ good
And accomplishes all their wishes in accordance with the Dharma.

And so on—all this is widely dealt with in numerous texts.

This completes a brief account of how to follow the spiritual friend, who is the root of the path.

- Dudjom Rinpoche - A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom


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Sogyal Rinpoche ~ Loving yourself and filling your heart with compassion

obstacles to practice and their antidotes. ~ Gyalwai Nyugu Rinpoche

Nyingma Teachings

Today I am going to talk about the obstacles to practice and their antidotes. Right now, there are basically two types of obstacles:
(1) obscurations due to mental afflictions and (2) cognitive obscurations.

Obscurations due to mental affliction refers to greed (our attachment to phenomena and feelings, desiring favourable circumstances), anger (to become mad, lose one’s temper, unwilling to accept unfavourable circumstances), stupidity (ignorance, unable to accept the truth), pride (arrogance, like to compare oneself with others), suspicion (do not bother to understand but immediately fabricate doubts).

Simply put, cognitive obstacles refer to our deep rooted habits. From the time we are born, our habitual thinking and behaviour are affected by the accumulated influences of our parents, society, environment etc. It is difficult to change when we are accustomed to a certain lifestyle or mindset. But, these can be transformed using a variety of different skilful methods, for example, through the practice of renunciation, cultivating compassion in order to develop positive habits. Through repeatedly contemplating the samsaric cycle of birth and death, until we recognize the truth. Then it will naturally integrate into our minds. We will value life and use our life to engage in practice and benefit others.

Every one of us has a different foundation, causes and conditions, karma and merits, therefore the rate of our improvement and our level of practice will not be the same. Mental afflictions and habits will not simply be removed and disappear immediately, we need confidence and courage to continuously deal with our afflictions.
Mental afflictions and bad habits can be transformed: deeply ingrained mental affliction can be tackled through understanding the dangers and faults of afflictions and transformed through Bodhicitta.

Stubborn habits may be defused by means of meditation. The first method is to use afflictions as the object of meditation; the second method is to observe the afflictions coming and going, and let it arise and dissolve naturally; the third method is to recognize its true nature in a natural and relaxed manner.

~ Gyalwai Nyugu Rinpoche

http://www.gyalwai-nyugu.com/

Guru Rinpoche Prayer Removing Obstacles