Monday, July 3, 2017

~ Dealing with Afflictions ~ Karmapa

~ Dealing with Afflictions ~

In order for us to know or to understand the afflictions, what’s most important is that we do this in our own experience. If someone explains it to us from their experience then this doesn’t really work in the same way. We have to come to our knowledge through the experience and, if we do, only then will we be really able to apply an antidote or deal with that affliction. 

[ You can watch the full teaching by the Gyalwang Karmapa on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/user/KarmapaTeachings ]

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On this anniversary of Guru Rinpoche, we would like to share a beautiful drawing of Padmasambhava by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa.

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Sunday, July 2, 2017

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Rongbuk Monastery Main Chapel Wall Painting of Simhamukha Sengdongma aka LION HEADED DAKINI.
OM MANI PADME HUM....One of the best methods for Anger....
Below is from a lecture given by His Holiness The Dalai Lama at the Kalmuck Mongolian Buddhist Center, New Jersey. It is transcribed by Ngawang Tashi (Tsawa), Drepung Loseling, Mungod, India. The picture is of His Holiness the Dalai Lama who visited the California Academy of Sciences in 1991 and bonded with Orbit, a black-footed penguin--LOL. Happy Birthday to His Holiness, and may he be blessed with many many more years!!
On the meaning of: OM MANI PADME HUM The jewel is in the lotus or praise to the jewel in the lotus by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet It is very good to recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast.
The first, OM, is composed of three pure letters, A, U, and M. These symbolize the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; they also symbolize the pure exalted body, speech and mind of a Buddha. Can impure body, speech and mind be transformed into pure body, speech and mind, or are they entirely separate? All Buddhas are cases of being who were like ourselves and then in dependence on the path became enlightened; Buddhism does not assert that there is anyone who from the beginning is free from faults and possesses all good qualities. The development of pure body, speech, and mind comes from gradually leaving the impure states and their being transformed into the pure. How is this done? The path is indicated by the next four syllables.
MANI, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factor of method- the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love. Just as a jewel is capable of removing poverty, so the altruistic mind of enlightenment is capable of removing the poverty, or difficulties, of cyclic existence and of solitary peace. Similarly, just as a jewel fulfills the wishes of sentient beings, so the altruistic intention to become enlightened fulfills the wishes of sentient beings.
The two syllables, PADME, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom. Just as a lotus grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud, so wisdom is capable of putting you in a situation of non- contradiction where as there would be contradiction if you did not have wisdom. There is wisdom realizing impermanence, wisdom realizing that persons are empty of self-sufficient or substantial existence, wisdom that realizes the emptiness of duality (that is to say, of difference of entity between subject and object), and wisdom that realizes the emptiness of inherent existence. Though there are may different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the wisdom realizing emptiness.
Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable, HUM, which indicates indivisibility. According to the sutra system, this indivisibility of method and wisdom refers to one consciousness in which there is a full form of both wisdom affected by method and method affected by wisdom. In the mantra, or tantra vehicle, it refers to one conciousness in which there is the full form of both wisdom and method as one undifferentiable entity. In terms of the seed syllables of the five conqueror Buddhas, HUM is the is the seed syllable of Akshobhya- the immovable, the unfluctuating, that which cannot be disturbed by anything.
Thus the six syllables, OM MANI PADME HUM, mean that in dependence on the practice which is in indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. It is said that you should not seek for Buddhahood outside of yourself; the substances for the achievement of Buddhahood are within. As Maitreya says in his SUBLIME CONTINUUM OF GREAT VEHICLE (UTTARA TANTRA) all beings naturally have the Buddha nature in their own continuum. We have within us the seed of purity, the essence of a One Gone Thus (TATHAGATAGARBHA), that is to be transformed and full developed into Buddhahood.


Over 200 years ago, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo instructed one of his attendants to go search for a
' Special' Tara statue.
When asked how he would know which one would be the special one, Khyentse Wangpo replied 'when it is the moment, you will just know'. The attendant looked through many Tara statues and did not find any special ones. However, just as he was about to give up, one statue spoke and said 'I am the one you are supposed to get'. The statue was taken back to Dzongsar Monastery and is said to have spoken to both Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. She is regarded as one of the protectors of Dzongsar, having saved the monastery many times in the past. She is affectionately known as the 'Tara who spoke'.
Namo Ara Tara Kheno

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Happy 52nd Birthday to His Eminence the 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche. 🎂 Dear Rinpoche la, we wish you longevity and the best of health. May your dharma activities flourish and your noble aspirations be fulfilled for the benefit of all beings.
བླ་མ་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ! Lama Khyenno ! 喇嘛千諾 ! ...... 🙏
Date of Birth : 30 June, 1965 (Western Calendar)

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Happy Guru Rinpoche's Day( Tomorrow is the Birth anniversary of Lopenchenpo Pema Jungney)
In the north-western part of the land of Oddiyana, on an island in the lake of Dhanakosha, the blessings of all the buddhas took shape in the form of a multi-coloured lotus flower. Moved by compassion at the suffering of sentient beings, the Buddha Amitabha sent out from his heart a golden vajra, marked with the syllable HRI, which descended onto the lotus blossom. It transformed into an exquisitely beautiful eight year old child, endowed with all the major and minor marks of perfection, and holding a vajra and a lotus. At that moment all the buddhas of the ten directions, together with hundreds of thousands of dakinis from different celestial realms, invoked the blessings and the incarnation of all the buddhas for the benefit of beings and the flourishing of the secret mantra teachings. Their invocation is known as ‘The Seven Verses of the Vajra’, or ‘The Seven Line Prayer’.
It is said that his birth took place in either an Earth Monkey or a Wood Monkey year, on the tenth day of the waxing moon in the monkey month. As Guru Rinpoche was born within the lotus flower upon the waters of the lake, the dakinis called out to him from their hearts, and their call spontaneously became the Vajra Guru mantra. So this mantra is his heart mantra, his life-core, his heart essence, and to recite it is to invoke his very being. It happened that at that time, the King of Oddiyana, Indrabhuti, as a result of his immense generosity to the poor and needy of his country, had finally emptied his treasury. In addition, he had no heir to succeed him as ruler, and his sight had failed him. So he had set out on a voyage on the lake of Dhanakosha to find a wishfulfilling jewel. As he returned with the jewel, he encountered the amazing child, and questioned him about his parents, his family line, his name and country, his sustenance and what he was doing there. The boy sang his reply in an enchanting voice:
My father is the pure awareness of rigpa, Samantabhadra,
My mother, the space of all things, Samantabhadri,
My line, the indivisibility of awareness and space,
My name, the glorious Lotus-born,
My homeland, the unborn dharmadhatu,
My sustenance, consuming dualistic thoughts,
My destiny, to accomplish the actions of the buddhas of past, present and future.
Guru Padmasambhava, from a set of thangkas depicting his eight manifestations
Indrabhuti took him back to the kingdom and installed him as the crown prince. At different points in his life, Guru Rinpoche is known by different names. Now he was known as Pemajungné, Padmakara or Padmasambhava, ‘The Lotus-born’, as well as Tsokyé Dorjé, ‘Lake Born Vajra’
Om Ahh Hung Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hung

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