Moon In The Water...

The Unseen Power of Karmic Affinities

2012-01-14T16:05:00.001+08:00

One day, when the Buddha entered a village with his assistant Ananda, he approached a poor woman to share his teachings with her. However, the woman disliked the Buddha so much, that despite his magnificent and pleasing appearance, she could not even stand the sight of him. Wherever the Buddha went, she would turn away. When he went to her right, she would look left. When he went to her left, she would look right… Even when the Buddha used his supernormal power to levitate above to catch her attention, she looked down and refused to look up. However, when she saw Ananda, her attitude became the reversed. She was naturally drawn to him, and happily listened to the Buddha's teachings related by him, which she found to be beneficial. This is very interesting as though Ananda almost resembled the Buddha in form, he was still not his equal, and especially not the same in compassion, wisdom and skilful means. How is this outcome possible then?

In a distant previous life, the woman once lost her child and was consumed by much grief. A spiritual practitioner passed by and enquired after her. After hearing about her misfortune, he replied somewhat 'indifferently', that there was no need to grieve as death is natural. As he seemed detached, his words felt cold and hurting, which gave rise to her aversion. When another practitioner came by and enquired similarly, he kindly offered his condolences, before sharing about the truth of death. The first practitioner was the Buddha-to-be and the latter Ananda-to-be. Due to these karmic affinities formed, the woman developed a 'natural' disdain for 'the Buddha' and a 'natural' attraction to 'Ananda'. As such,positive and negative karmic affinities can be carried not only from one moment to the next in this life, but also from one life to the next. This is a crucial reason why we ought to be mindful of the impact of our fewest words and slightest gestures, or even the lack of them, as they can affect present and future relationships for better or worse.

Although the Buddha, with his great wisdom, already knew the outcome of his approaches to the woman, what he demonstrated was the importance of doing our best in connecting to others, with as many skilful means as possible, before deciding the next skilful means is to step back, to let the 'next better player' try. The inexplicable 'first' impressions we have towards total or near strangers are often due to affinities formed in past lives. As these perceptions are not always rational, and often result from emotional bias, as in the case above, we should learn to manage all relationships anew, to form updated and thus truer perceptions of people as they are now. Feel-good vibes might not always turn out good, just like feel-bad vibes might turn out unjustified. Unless proven 'hopeless' for the time being, all deserve second chances – including ourselves. Remember, if you believe any affinity to be beyond hope, you are fatalistic with disbelief in the dynamic nature of karma, whose power you always hold!

- The Daily Enlightenment

The Key to Happiness

2011-12-18T16:02:00.003+08:00

A Guru Rinpoche Day message by Phachok Rinpoche (5 Nov 2011):

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We all want to be happy. This is our fundamental aim in life, right? But often we find it difficult to achieve. When we don’t know how to deal with our own emotions and our mind then sometimes life can become very tiring and depressing. On top of that, most of us are so busy these days, which makes us even more stressed and uptight. So here I would like to share with you three simple ways that helps me deal with my emotions and thus gives me comfort.

1. Creating Space
These days we have so many things to think about: our health, our family, our work, and if you’re a dharma practitioner, then on top of all that you have meditation and dharma practice to worry about. When we don’t know how to deal with them, these worries can make our minds start to slowly shrink, becoming more and more narrow, and as a consequence more and more negative. Sometimes things start to overwhelm us and we feel trapped physically. Our chest feels tight and then we let out a big sigh in an attempt to relieve ourselves of these feelings. That happens sometimes. A small problem can come to seem so big that we can’t deal with it at all.

A really good way to deal with this is to create space mentally. It helps relieve the tension and uptightness in your mind and in your body as well. Creating space is a very simple method. It’s not a Buddhist teaching or anything like that. It’s simply a technique we can apply to give ourselves space and freedom and relief from all our worrisome thoughts.

How to create space? When you have a few minutes, look ahead of you and simply imagine that you’re surrounded by empty space in all directions. Sometimes it is useful to look at the empty sky. Just imagine space everywhere: no walls, no boundaries, no buildings, nothing. And don’t start thinking about work, family, things you need to do. Simply imagine that everything is just like the vast, open sky, like empty space, and let your mind blend into the space so that it becomes just as vast and open. You can close your eyes if that helps. Imagine this spaciousness for a short while. After a minute or two you’ll start to really feel spacious mentally. Your chest will open up and you’ll feel relieved of all those tensions and thoughts that were crowding in on you just a few minutes ago. Your mind opens up and then your way of thinking changes, just like that. It takes just five or ten minutes and is so easy—that is the magic of creating space. You don’t have to believe me. Try it for yourself and you’ll see.

2. Knowing your own faults and Reducing Judgment
We all want to be happy, right? Yes or no? But what is our mind occupied with most of the time? Negative emotions, negative judgments, and negative thoughts. Look at your own mind and see the pattern of emotions. How many of them are negative? Have you ever before given this a moment’s thought?

So what you need to do first is to recognize your thought-patterns, your negative emotions and the way they arise, the way different feelings arise. Recognize, notice, but Don’t Judge. There’s a big difference between noticing and judgment. Noticing is simply recognizing and becoming aware of something: “Oh, yes, I have a problem with jealousy.” But judgment goes one step further—a step too far—and starts criticizing: “Oh, yes, I have a problem with jealousy. Oh my God, I’m such a bad person. I can’t believe I made that mistake! Oh, I feel so awful. I can’t bear it!....” Do you see the difference? Judgment has these emotional ties whereas noticing does not. So try to simply notice your faults and not judge.

The problem nowadays is not that people are not doing dharma or other spiritual practice and trying to improve. The problem nowadays is that we don’t notice and accept our own faults; so then of course we don’t improve, no matter how we might try. It’s a bit like taking medicine for an illness when you don’t even know what illness you have. So please give this a moment’s thought. Look honestly at yourself and acknowledge your own faults and mistakes.

3. Compassion and Loving Kindness
The third key I’d like to mention here is having compassion and loving-kindness. Traditionally speaking, in the Buddha’s teaching, compassion is defined as the wish for beings to be free from suffering and the cause of suffering and loving kindness is the wish for beings to have happiness and the cause of happiness. Here though, I’d like to explain compassion as meaning a basic understanding or empathy for others and loving kindness as meaning a good, kind heart.

Understanding is so important. For example, in order for a family to be happy and harmonious the parents need to understand their children, be able to see things from their point of view, and the children also need to understand their parents. It’s the same in all situations, in the office, other relationships and so on. We need to share with each other, get to know each other well, and learn to look at things from others’ perspectives; we need to put ourselves in their shoes. If somebody is shouting at you, do you think he’s happy? Do you think he’s enjoying that? No, he’s upset, stressed, and angry, and later on he might well feel a lot of regret for what he’s doing right now. Yes, many people make mistakes, but do you think they do so intentionally? Do you think they do so because they’re happy? No. So try to understand that instead of just reacting with more anger and judgment from your side. If you can do that, you’ll feel compassion.

Another aspect of compassion is that if you come to understand your own problems and gain some freedom from them, naturally compassion towards others will arise. On the other hand, when you don’t clearly notice your own problems in the first place and know what suffering you have then how can you have compassion for others? How can you wish others to be free from that suffering, suffering that you don’t even recognize clearly yourself? So first you need to see your own problem. How? When you create space, the first key, and gain some freedom from your stress and the onslaught of thoughts, you see what you’re getting out from, you see the benefits of how you become happier. From just the first point, creating space, you think, “Oh, my boss, poor guy. If he knew this method he would be in a much better place than he is now. The poor guy.”

When you have this kind of compassion, your mind becomes more and more loose. When you focus more on others, indirectly you’re reducing your focus to your ego and as a result your mind then becomes more and more relaxed, more expansive and then more intelligent. You can share these three points with anyone. It’s going to benefit them, not harm them. So these are the three keys to be happy.

The Qualities of HH the 16th and 17th Karmapa

2011-12-18T13:20:00.007+08:00

I was grateful to Ringu Rinpoche's straightforward and extremely moving account (for me) about the special qualities of HH 16th and 17th Karmapa.

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Ringu Tulku on Qualities of the 16th and 17th Karmapa (13/12/2011)

I was very much associated with the 16th Karmapa. I was recognised by Him, had received all my ordinations and teachings from Him, so I knew Him very well. His main and special quality was compassion. Anybody who went to see Him was extremely happy. He didn't have to give teachings or say anything. When people went to see Him, He just sat there, very relaxed. He laughed. He laughed a lot and everybody would be totally happy. He totally transformed everybody. This was His main kind of quality.

He had a special liking for the birds. Wherever He went, He wanted to buy birds. And He cared for the birds all the time. Everyday, He was busy with the birds. And when some of these birds died, they remained in samadhi. When they died, they sat (straight up) and didn't fall down for a long time, sometimes for few hours and sometimes whole day. So, He was probably teaching the birds. This was His strong speciality -- He didn't have to teach. There were lots of people in the West also. They said when they first saw 16th Karmapa, it was very strange -- He was wearing totally different clothes, the (sangha) people were making ceremonial music and the ceremonial hats and so on. Then, these people went in (and saw the Karmapa) and had this feeling that, "If I cannot trust this person, I cannot trust anybody." So, they took refuge, sometimes even monks and nuns' ordination vows (from the Karmapa), and later wondered "What is this all about?" Many people came into Buddhism like that, just seeing the Karmapa. They were so touched, so impressed and ended up taking everything (all the vows). So, this was His special quality -- like "liberation by seeing". He was not very learned. He never studied very much because He came from an aristocratic family. His father was a very powerful man -- He told the teachers of the Karmapa, "You should not give any trouble to my son. You should not beat Him, touch Him, do anything to Him or give Him any trouble. If He is Karmapa, He will know. If He is not Karmapa, He's my son." So, His teachers couldn't give Him many studies. The 16th Karmapa said, "I do not have much time to study. Hence, in my next life, I'll be a very good scholar."

Therefore, I think the special quality of the 17th Karmapa is He is a very good scholar. He was such a good scholar that I was totally bowed out. He asked me to come to India to translate the Kagyu Monlam prayer book into English. So, I and some Western people did the translation. I studied Tibetan all my life -- I did all sorts of degree, PHD so I am supposed to be good in Tibetan. When I was 17, there was a competition of Tibetan poetry writing. I participated and won the first prize, while my teacher won the second prize. The Sikkim government offered me a job, so I became a Tibetan expert in the Sikkim government when I was 17. Thus, I had a little bit you know, pride.

When we didn't understand some things very clearly or when some things are not so easy to understand (during the translation), I had to see and ask the 17th Karmapa. The Karmapa would say, "Oh, bring that so and so volume of Tengyur." There are 228 volumes of Tengyur. So, everybody went to search for that particular volume of Tengyur -- it was not easy to find it, nevertheless, it was found. And the Karmapa would open the Tengyur and said, "Here it is." We looked and exactly, all the things were explained there. I don't know if He read all these things before and remembered them, or is He doing it because of His supernatural power -- I don't know. But, there were many instances like that. He's so learned. I think this is His speciality -- He is very sharp and remembers so many things. I think He is the most learned lama in Karma Kagyu school now. He has many other qualities, but this seems to be His most special quality.

Most Fortunate Person

2011-12-15T16:59:00.004+08:00

The most fortunate person in the world is not one who has wealth, which allows him/her to indulge in endless consumerism. Neither is he the one who is powerful, influential and well-respected by others. Nor is he someone constantly surrounded by lots of good friends and relatives.

The most fortunate person in the world has to be someone who has genuine and right faith, who knows, feels and realises in a deep/profound way that soon a day will come that he/she is going to die.

The last time I saw him was when I visited him at his house after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 (last stage) lymphoma some time last year. At that time, I was surprised and sorry to hear about his condition when he suddenly told me about it. Through the phone, I could hear a sense of fear and uncertainty. I was not sure what to do, so I just talked and encouraged him.

By the time I went to visit him, he had already undergone several rounds of chemotherapy. He looked weak, but still in a chatty mood. He said his cancer cells had spread to his other major organs and that he had written a will. As he gradually got over his initial shock of his diagnosis and proceeded with the treatment, he actually shared that this illness was a blessing in disguise. Because he was on long medical leave, he could now spend more time in Dharma practice.

A year later when we met, he was still fervent in Dharma activities, especially enthusiastic in attending phowa and similar "death-related" pujas, empowerments and the like. His cancer was currently in remission. It was a good news but both of us knew that remission doesn't mean cure. There is no complete cure for advanced stage maglignancy and the cancer might just return. When it happens, it may rage more furiously than before (of course, I didn't tell him that). He added that he would have an early retirement next year (at the age of mid 40s) and move to Malaysia, where he decides to spend the rest of his time with his foster mother and Dharma practice.

I thought he is really fortunate -- he has faith in Dharma and has the opportunity to apply them under the best circumstance, under this looming uncertainty of death. I still remembered -- when I suffered from dengue fever a few years back, it was a horrifying experience. I seriously thought I might not survive, because I had never fell so sick in my life before. It didn't help when the doctor prescribed no medicine, refused to admit me to a hospital, drew my blood everyday for platelet count monitoring and said somewhat apathetically that my body had to fight the virus itself. There was fear, frustration and uncertainty. But this energy somehow was never been transformed to even the tiniest sense of urgency and diligence to practise Dharma. In a way, it was unfortunate for me that I had not realised even a single bit about impermanence and how Dharma is the only thing that will help me at that crucial time. The fortunate thing was I'm still alive, thus able to see where my downfall is and try to work on it.

Now I finally understand why some masters spent their entire lives meditating on impermanence...

Don't Close the Book. Just Turn the Page

2011-12-15T11:54:00.007+08:00

A wonderful advice by Zumang Gharwang Rinpoche. Just when we always envy how good and smooth life must be for a Rinpoche or tulku, think again. The way I see it, the genuine masters faced much greater hardship and responsibility than any of us, ordinary folks do. It doesn't help any better that we always load more and more of our personal problems onto their shoulders. I once asked my friend if he had a choice, would he still want to carry on with this title of a Rinpoche. He told me matter-of-factly that this question is irrelevant as he had no choice. For us, samsara is choiceless; for the master, because of their previous aspiration and us, they are choiceless too and will have to come back to experience what we experience to guide us.

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I have seen many colors of ups and down in my life. Sometimes I get what I want and occasionally which I never ask for. What really help me to move on with my day-to-day life is to accept, regardless of good or bad on positive notes. In addition, I must confess that nothing was really easy as I may like. Because sometimes I may wish for one thing and I may have to settle with something else.

Over the years, I realized that few factors in life can make all the differences. First, to be guided by compassionate teachers. Second, in order to avoid the same mistakes, always recall your past experiences. Third, make sure that do not let your assumption decide your path. Finally, one should build up a self confidence to carry on with your daily live without dictated by emotions, especially arrogance and pride.

Cherish the Opportunity

2011-11-12T21:09:00.003+08:00

A Singaporean friend had been denied of her Indian visa again despite her drastic move of changing her passport. Her old passport just ain't getting her into India after repeated attempts, hence the change. She had hoped a brand new passport, with brand new passport no. and with fresh blank pages would solve the problem. But it just didn't work, leaving her increasingly frustrated and desperate to go India and see her teachers. In the most pessimistic scenario, she might never be able to step into India again...

I've always taken for granted that Singapore passport can bring me everywhere without much problem at customs and as long as I don't commit any crime, there should be no problem. But from her example, I see how wrong I am! Now I realise it's so difficult and precious just to be able to go India, step into Bodhgaya and see my teachers. So to all Dharma friends, please cherish whatever opportunities you have to go India (and other holy sites) and whatever opportunities you have to be with and be close to your teachers. This is because one day, who knows you may not have the opportunity again...

Attachment and True Love

2011-11-07T23:55:00.008+08:00

Many times, we are confused between attachment love and true love. At some point, I experienced it for myself. Only then I realised how worlds apart the two really were and how attachment love was so destructive to our peace of mind. So you think it's true love? Think again (and check for the signs and symptoms)...

Attachment Love
1. Motivating factor: "me" and "my (perceived) happiness".
2. Nature: It binds us down, with extreme ups and downs in emotions.
3. After taste: There is pain in attachment love.
4. Expectation: We are expecting reciprocation of this "love" we give to the other person.
5. Fruition: Attachment love makes us mentally weak and insecure.

True/Unconditional Love
1. Motivating factor: "him/her" as who they are (not what we want them to be) and "his/her happiness".
2. Nature: It is liberating and frees us (emotionally).
3. After taste: There is no pain in true love.
4. Expectation: We love the other person without expecting he/she to reciprocate our love or change for us.
5. Fruition: True love makes us very strong and courageous.

It's All About Love and Generosity

2011-11-04T17:13:00.008+08:00

When I was filled with worries for Mingyur Rinpoche, one of my friends lifted my (down) spirit by sharing with me her positive and touching outlook of Rinpoche's retreat. I have no doubt that what He did is for the greatest benefit for extensive number of beings. This retreat is not simply His wish to do Dharma practice alone. It might easily be His way of reaching out to the many rural folks, who might not be able to gain "access" to qualified teachers or are non-Buddhists (India is a Hindu country). This was her account:

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"India has alms tradition, not to worry. This is exactly what alms tradition is about -- to teach people about generosity. Many practitioners in India do that -- my elderly Thai teacher did that all by himself in India. He was given food and shelter. Any excess food he got, he shared with the poor. I still remember him speaking about it with crisp laughter and joy. Alms is not about being selfish or a "small vehicle (Theravada)" thing. It is about teaching the people generosity.

The more I reflected on this, the more I have heartfelt and unspeakable respect for Rinpoche. He "lowered" Himself to mingle among the poor -- and the poor are usually generous in sharing food. The act of giving creates tremendous merits for these givers. Rinpoche is very 伟大 (altruistic) by giving them the opportunity to practise generosity. He is a realised being, yet He appeared among the ordinary villagers not in the form of a great master, but as an ordinary poor monk asking for alms. For those who are kind-hearted to give (and this is unpretentious giving, not knowing that He is a great master), it is selfless sharing. Rinpoche is giving them the opportunity to practise and make merits. Isn't that wonderful ? Isn't He 伟大? Isn't He doing what the Buddha Himself did 2600 years ago? Rinpoche is a true Shakyamuni's monk.

He is doing what a true Bodhisattva is doing, by giving opportunity to rural India , while at the same time, He is showing by His example to the rest of us (urban people) what a true Follower of the Buddha should be doing -- by practising non-attachment (by leaving His family and possesions), reaching out to vast number of people (who support Him daily by giving him food, maybe shelter, medicines and other necessities too) by showing them loving-kindness and giving them the opportunity to practise love and generosity. Maybe He is also teaching them BuddhaDharma. The decision to reach out to the people in this way takes tremendous courage, wisdom and energy and only a true practitioner, like Rinpoche, has the merits to do so. He is showing the rest of the world it is possible to do so.

I am very sure, Nyolshul Khen Rinpoche (Mingyur Rinpoche's teacher who inspired Him to tread this path of a wandering yogi) had reached out to many, many people at the banks of River Ganges and in the "death houses" at Varanasi. He had also touched the lives of the poor and destitute, who were facing death with fear -- I am sure Nyolshul Khen Rinpoche gave them comfort and encouragement. He would have prayed with them, helped them cope with their fear and despair, and maybe shared with them their joy and laughter, food and medicines. This is a true Bodhisattva in practice.

Rejoice for Mingyur Rinpoche. Pray for him. Do not worry for him. Support him by sending Him our positive energy daily. He is a true Bodhisattva, who is reaching out to the people, who is leading by example to show us what it means by working for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Rinpoche may be suffering from physical discomfort. But His mind is strong and it will get stronger and stronger as each day goes by.

I now realise that Rinpoche's retreat is NOT ABOUT HIMSELF. It is about all sentient beings and he is doing it in the most practical manner (my eyes are tearing now, this is very great beyond words). I bow to Rinpoche with all my heart and my mind. May He be safe and may He faces no obstacle. Rejoice for Him! Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu!

Please Come Back To Us Soon

2011-10-29T00:42:00.012+08:00

Ever since Mingyur Rinpoche left quietly from Bodhgaya to begin His 3-years retreat as a wandering yogi, nobody knew where He was.

While I was climbing up Taktsang (Tiger Nest monastery in Paro, Bhutan), I thought about Him. It was a very tough path to be a 'wandering monk' in India (ok, it's definitely much harder than ascending Taktasang, certain parts on all fours even) -- will He meet with dangers? When He is sick, will there be someone to take care of him? Will He have enough food to sustain His health? I was worried -- yet, I was really, very proud of Him. There may be many masters like Him, but I've no merit to meet any of them. He is the first and my most excellent role model of all.

Before, I had an intuition something happened when I dreamt of Him twice in 3 consecutive days, and ended up in tears when I awoke. Then, I heard of the news that He left. Nobody knew His whereabouts -- not even His close attendant, His elder brother Tsoknyi Rinpoche or His beloved mother. From a high Rinpoche well-supported by His students worldwide, He chose to take no money along with Him and disappeared. He only had His robes on. He didn't even take His passport, toothbrush and other necessities.

Then, a few months later in September, came the eathquake that rocked Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. I still had no idea where He was. I just hope He was fine, somewhere in the deep forests in India or among the remote snow mountains in the Himalayas in Nepal. There may be times when I am distracted and forget about Him, but I know He and His blessings will always stay with me no matter what. I just pray that may there be no obstacles to His life and health, that He is safe wherever He is, and may He overcome all adversities by the power of His pure intention.

Ultimately, I believe He doesn't want us to waste our energy and cause disturbance to our mind worrying for Him also, but instead use our energy and clear mind to practise. He wrote a letter before He left: "Practice is the most important. Among the practices, taming the mind and meditation is the most important. I want to do that and I want you to do that." So whatever happens, I will rejoice for Him because this is what He sincerely and single-mindedly wants to do. How many of us have the courage to pursue even our ordinary dreams? To think He actually have the tremendous guts to give up everything, from the relative comfort & safety of doing retreat in a retreat room, to even the money to sustain His living expenses, so as to pursue an austere spiritual path just for us beings and students. He is indeed extremely kind to us, kinder than the Buddhas and great masters!

Rinpoche, when the time comes that You've accomplished the Path, please come back to us again. And You must come back to us again. We will wait for you...

A Bhutanese Connection

2011-10-22T22:10:00.009+08:00

13 October 2011 was the biggest day for the Bhutanese royal family. As I browsed the photos of Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck's wedding online, colourful memories of my journey to Bhutan in June 2011 flooded into my mind. Here, would like to share my wonderful experience there.

Ever since I started working, I was fortunate to have the opportunities to visit some cities and rural areas of different countries. However, my trip to Bhutan was one of the most memorable so far.

Initially, Bhutan was not on top of my list when it comes to pilgrimages, although it is a country blessed with holy sites and rich in the Vajrayana Buddhist culture. After all, I had been a Buddhist of the Vajrayana tradition for a few years now. Eventually, perfect causes and conditions brought me to the Land of the Thunder Dragon. As our plane was landing in Paro international airport, my eyes spontaneously glistened with tears. I could not completely explain why. However, I was awestruck by the sheer magnificence and breathtaking beauty of the mountains, lush forests, villages and fields. In the short 7 days, we had travelled to Paro, the capital city Thimphu, Wangdue Phodrang and Punakha. The picturesque natural sceneries untouched by the mass influx of tourist and the architectural marvels of the dzongs were uncomparable to anywhere I had visited.

However, the most beautiful of things which touched my heart was the simplicity of its people. After living in a competitive pressure-cooker environment where people were forced to evolve into a diversity of personalities just to stay in the rat race of the society, I became very appreciative of the simple people, who remained relatively uncontaminated by the ills of Westernisation. Indeed, the government’s emphasis on Gross National Happiness (GNH) seemed to work its magic. Although the Bhutanese people might not be well-to-do, in fact, many led quite a hard agricultural life, they seemed contented. I did not see the heart-wrenching sight of beggars on the streets. It was safe to walk around, even safe enough to leave a donation box in the open, as I had witnessed at the site of Giant Buddha statue still under construction in Paro. We also went to the villages in Paro and Lobesa. I was impressed to observe that the people left doors of their houses open, even as they were working out in the fields. My guide’s impromptu request to visit a local’s house was also quickly acceded without much questions asked or a monetary negotiation – to my pleasant surprise. This was how we got a glimpse of the conditions in the house and how most of the locals lived. All these would have been absolutely unimaginable here at the place I lived in. And these were the simple things that revealed a lot about the values of the people there.

My communication with my guide also gave me a perspective of the attitude of the young generation. They generally embrace the modern culture outwardly, yet preserving their cultural and religious roots within their heart. I was impressed by my guide’s honesty, sensibility and especially, his sincere faith in Buddhadharma. I was also grateful to him for been so accommodating to all our requests in visiting non-conventional sites, where most tourists had never even heard of, and waiting long hours for us as we catch up with our Bhutanese friends.

Bhutan was no longer just a place or paradise, like Shangri-la, that some romantics envisaged. To me, it was about the wonderful memories I shared with the people whom I crossed my path with, about the new friendship forged and the existing ones deepened. And this was what really made the country so unique and beautiful.

A Bubbly Experience

2011-10-20T21:39:00.008+08:00

A pilgrimage to Lantau Island, Hong Kong last Monday, was more than a mere sightseeing of a holy site.

There were lessons to be taken back home. In fact, this openness to experience all things in our life, have been lost many a times due to our ignorance, attachment and adversion.

From something as simple as the numerous bubble-generating machines in Ngong Ping, we could see our plight right now. These machines were quite conspicuous and turned the heads of many passer-bys. Initially, I found their presence here, which was not far from the Giant Buddha statue, extremely odd and out-of-place. This was not an amusement park, so what were these cartoons, machines and bubbles doing here? I was puzzled. These toys were quite a sight as they constantly 'blew' out bubbles of all sizes towards the passer-bys, whom I observed reacted in very different ways.

Some were having fun playing with the bubbles like big kids (maybe they are real kids at heart), some were amused and grinned from ear to ear, while many others were indifferent. The third group might possibly even grumbled in their mind, "Hey, can't these people stopped playing and stopped blocking my way?" Amidst a difference in reactions outwardly, all these people actually, in essence, behaved in the same way. They were all similarly caught up and carried away by their emotions and ignorance -- pleasure in the first two groups and adversion in the last.

I initially behaved in the same way, as amused as some of the rest in the second group. It was only a while later this excerpt of a Buddha's teaching flashed into my mind, "ALL PHENOMENA ARE LIKE DREAMS, LIKE BUBBLES AND ILLUSIONS. THUS, THEY SHOULD BE REFLECTED UPON." Hence, these odd bubbles actually served as a reminder for the illusory nature and impermanence of all phenomena. I smiled as I recalled this timely teaching -- and reached out to touch the bubbles. Every one of them, no matter how big or small, how colourful they are, ended up in the same fate -- all of them burst, leaving no trace of their existence. And although one bursted, another was created. I was at peace to see them burst, I was at peace to see them created. I was at peace that without the hope of wanting to preserve these bubbles, reality became clear. They were just like that -- they came into being, remained for a while and then, they disappeared. There was nothing to be sad or regret about when they burst and nothing worthy to be exceptionally happy or excited about when these beautiful illusions are created. This was exactly their nature. Similarly, this was exactly how all the phenomena -- pleasurable, neutral or unpleasant -- actually existed as well. And this was how we should regard them -- with a peace of mind, free from overwhelming emotions.

正所谓 "一切有为法，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电，应作如是观。"

(All phenomena are like dreams, bubbles, shadows, dews and lightning. Thus, they should be reflected upon in this way.)

缘来，别高兴得太早！

2011-09-29T18:19:00.003+08:00

一般我們都以為，男女之間的感情是彼此緣分所感召，其實並不全然是，大部分的原因是有其他力量在干擾。

往昔有個服侍第三世康祖法王的喇嘛，他喜歡著一個女孩，兩人相約要私奔。

私奔的當晚，這個喇嘛如常在法王臨睡前幫忙蓋棉被，喇嘛突然想到這是自己最後一次服侍上師，以後再也沒有機會了，於是傷心的落下淚來。他的眼淚滴到棉被上，被法王看見，法王就問他：「你為什麼哭呢？」喇嘛心想私奔這種事雖然不堪，但是對於自己的上師沒什麼好隱瞞的，就向法王全盤托出。

法王聽了之後，叫他先拿些財物給女孩暫時緩一緩，然後叫喇嘛隔天跟在女孩身後，看她在哪裡小解，在女孩小解的地方用一塊石頭蓋起來，過一天再去看石頭底下有什麼東西，然後把東西帶回來。

喇嘛照法王的吩咐去做，第三天翻開石頭時，在石頭底下發現了三隻蛆，他把三隻蛆帶回去稟告法王。法王對喇嘛說：「這三隻蛆是你跟那女孩子共同的冤親債主，要來投胎當你們的孩子的，也正因為如此才會引動你們之間的愛欲。現在你只要把這三隻蛆養大，就會了結你與那女孩之間的緣分。」

喇嘛依照指示把三隻蛆養大，等它們變成成蟲飛走後，當他再看到一直喜歡著的那女孩時，就一點感覺也沒有了。

- 故事摘自〈康祖法王傳〉，多傑仁卿／著

Calling the Guru from Afar

2011-09-26T15:27:00.005+08:00

Although I have faith in the Dharma and my gurus, I am too logical to be completely convinced that my gurus can hear when I supplicate to them. It just sounds too romanticised.

But recently, my most important guru challenged this by coming right here to my hometown. He came at a precise time -- when a friend had issues with her passport and as a result, was repeatedly denied of travels to India; when another supplicated Him to come, something we then thought was impossible; and when I thought I would not see Him in India this year. In the end, He came and by merely doing this, He almost completely crushed my scepticism -- I had no other explanation why He chose to come here other than His wisdom and compassion, that He knows!!! He came and showed us that anything and everything is possible, although we were so fixated to the fact that because of His political sensitive status, He would not be able to come to Singapore. It ended up that He did and been in His presence was one of my most important real-life (Dharma) experiences and lessons in life...

********************
- Phakchok Rinpoche (7 Sep 2011) -

On an occasion like this, I'm reminded of the prayer, "Calling the Guru from Afar" by the Great Rime master, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. When reciting this prayer, it is crucial to have a firm confidence in the fact the one's Guru personifies all the Buddhas of the three times. By gaining certainty in the Root Guru, the student naturally develops unwavering devotion and gratitude towards the Three Jewels. And with the generated stability and certainty, the student then progresses on the path. Once on the path, the student develops certainty in the practice and with devotion and veneration in the Root Guru, fruition is attained. Therefore, when reciting the prayer, recite it with certainty, veneration and devotion.

The Preliminary Contemplations:
1) Samsara
Alas!
Sentient beings like me, with negative karma and evil deeds,
Have wandered in samsara from beginningless time.
I continue to experience endless suffering,
But I never feel even the briefest moment of regret.
Guru think of me, regard me with compassion.
Bless me that renunciation may arise from the depths of my heart.

Most importantly, we have to look at our own conduct and experiences, how we go through the day without any mindfulness. This is reinforcing our samsaric habitual tendencies, but we don’t see how we waste our time, we don’t see it as meaningless. Why do we not have regrets, consciousness or mindfulness? Why we don’t have any renunciation towards samsaric and mental activities? Why do we have so much activities and emotions, including positive emotions? Suffering is easy to abandon but we find it difficult to let go of any pleasure that we feel, any enjoyment that we have. The feeling of suffering is suffering of suffering, the feeling of joy is suffering of change, and the neutral feeling is the all-pervasive suffering. Whenever you feel that you lack something, this arises from the habits that you have from the past.

The suffering in samsara is not supposed to make you depressed. Being depressed and having renunciation are two different things. Mere suffering is when you are sucked into the meaningless suffering of samsara. Renunciation is when you know how to be free of that suffering and wanting to be free from that suffering. It will make you not waste your time, not be completely distracted to your daily activities and make wiser choice to follow the dharma to attain enlightenment.

2) Precious Human Birth
Though having attained the freedoms and riches I squander my life,
Always preoccupied by the pointless affairs of this world.
When applying myself to the great pursuit of liberation, I am overcome by laziness.
As I return from this island of jewels empty-handed,
Guru think of me, regard me with compassion.
Bless me that my human life may become meaningful.

What is actually a meaningful life? Using your time and effort towards the right path, the dharma. Doing something without good motivation, or doing activities with good motivation but acting without mindfulness, being completely distracted is like coming back from an island of jewels, empty-handed. Laziness, having a choice to meditate but not taking that choice, is also coming empty-handed. Having right motivation, right mindfulness and right meditation or practice to have a meaningful life. We ask the guru to bless us to remind us to practice every moment.

3) Death and Impermanance
Not a single life on earth escapes death,
Even now, they pass away one after the other.
Soon, I too must die. I am a fool, thinking I will remain forever.
Guru think of me, regard me with compassion.
Bless me so that with no time to waste, I will curtail my plans.

Thinking of impermanence is very important and the thought that I am may die today becomes a good reminder of it. On the contarary, we normally like to think that we will live until 90, work till we reach 50, and then spend 20 years practicing in retreat, and then spend the remaining in enjoyment. Impermanence makes you serious and cautious about your time, not meant to make you sad. It should transform your motivation to do your practice and a reminder to be more diligent, not to make you have fear.

There are different attitude towards impermanence – there are some people who celebrate death, some who are indifferent and some who fear even the name of death. If you are in the third category, you need to spend less time thinking of impermanence, and if you are in the second category, you need to spend more time.

There are a few ways of looking at impermanence – one is thinking that the individuals around you are dying one by one, and soon it will be your turn. Secondly, thinking that the time of death is uncertain. Thirdly, some people don’t care about death but don’t know how to practice when they die, so they should learn from today how to practice at the point of death.

However, we should be careful that impermanence does not become a motivation to practice the dharma. Fear of death being the main motivation to practice dharma is a lowly, samsaric motivation. Death should boost your practice but not be your motivation to practice.

4) Karma
In front, the black darkness of fear waits to take us in,
From behind, we are chased by the fierce red wind of karma.
The hideous messengers of the lord of death beat and stab us,
And so we must experience the unbearable sufferings of the lower realms.
Guru, think of me, behold us swiftly with compassion.
Bless me so that we are liberated from the chasms of lower realms.

We work so hard to make all our family and friends happy, to earn money and possessions. We spend a lot of money and time to improve our health. However, we don’t have any good results from all this time and effort – it’s a bad investment. However much we work for our family, they will die one by one. When we die, our possessions will be enjoyed by someone else. Our family will cry for us for some time, but after that we will fade from their memory. However much we work for our body, it will slowly deteriorate. However much we want to make our mind happy, the foolish mind will be wandering in the states of bardo and samsara.

Please guru, bless me so that I can see that all this time and effort spent is meaningless. Some people say family is good for practice. Without money how can we do retreat, how can we make offerings to the monks? Without a healthy body, how can I meditate? Without a happy mind, I am not motivated to practice? So what is this verse talking about?

But here what is meant is that you have to draw a line, how much time and effort do you want to spend in such pursuits? Does samsaric satisfaction benefit you in the dharma – making you wiser and attain enlightenment? Do not spend your time completely in samsara, spend your time meaningfully.

It's Better to Stay Faraway from Guru

2011-07-10T22:42:00.005+08:00

Milarepa said, “My feeling of sadness from loneliness (because he was always alone in the cave) never goes away. But yet, I feel very contented by realising that my guru is never separated from my mind.” What a wonderful instruction! Although we are always with our guru physically, every day we said, “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and “Good evening” to him. Then, we asked, “Can we go for coffee?”, “Can we go for dinner?” Later on, we treat him as a friend. Our guru becomes our friend. Later, he even becomes our assistant! This can happen. When we need help, when we have heavy stuff that we cannot carry, we said, “Hey, you carry this.” Sometimes, he/she is our guru, sometimes he/she becomes an assistant! This kind of mistake can happen. Therefore, too close to guru physically is also not so good because later we do not value him. This is because we can see him every day. This is not a good idea.

Occasionally, it is good to be far away from your guru for a few years, or maybe a few months. Let’s say after six or seven months later, you miss him desperately. You really long for his teaching and instructions and really want to get close to him. It is only then you will value him. This is why a long time back, great masters such as His Holiness the 14th Karmapa Thekchok Dorje, mentioned, “Those who simply saw me and walked away is liberated. And those who were always with me are difficult to be liberated.” In Tibetan, the word used is a frightening word.

In short, this means once you are close to our guru and always stay by his side, then you will always search for his fault rather than see his qualities. “Oh, he did this”, ”Oh, he did that”. Subsequently, negative thoughts arise, which will decrease your faith and devotion towards him. This is not good. Sometimes, it is good to keep away from your guru for a few months. Never even call or email him. Keep a distance from him. In the meantime, you reflect his teachings and instructions. Then, when you desperately miss him, you just go! No telephone, no sms. You just go! This is the value. You purposely go to find him. You do not wait for him to come to Singapore. This is because of the importance and value of the teaching. You have to go. Then, you get the precious instruction from him. This is the genuine and proper way of seeking the Dharma teaching. I think Gampopa meant it in this way.

- Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche in his teachings on 'Precious Garland of Supreme Path' by Gampopa (17 Jul 2010)

10 Wrong Motivations to Become a Buddhist

2011-06-28T12:44:00.002+08:00

This was posted by one of the Rinpoches on Facebook. It was funny and yet so true...

10 wrong motivations to become a Buddhist:
1. Light a bundle of jolksticks in the temple and complain to Buddha about your life
2. Pray, invite blessing to your home, success, so as to be saved
3. Scare of the hell realm and want to be with god in heaven after death
4. "My family is buddhist. I want to be a good kid to respect my parents."
5. "I felt blessing and the pujas are powerful."
6. Buddhism and meditation are in (fashion)
7. The masters and Rinpoches are cute and good-looking
8. "I am tired and lost so trying to seek spiritual path
9. "I wanted to be a monk or nun so as to have free food and home (great loser)
10. "I have lots of negative karma. I will be in samsara and I wanted to be saved."

Who Says I'm a Bodhisattva!

2011-05-23T21:52:00.004+08:00

To be a bodhisattva, it does not necessarily means you have to be a Buddhist...

There are beautiful beings who came to this world. To give a historical example, once upon a time in Tibet, all the Tibetans were cheated by the Indian sadhus who came to Tibet. They showed all kinds of magical things, making the Tibetans so excited and followed them. The then king of Tibet, whose name was Palama Yeshedu, I do not know how to translate into English, but his name can simply mean the “light or rays of wisdom”. He was deeply concerned about this matter. He loved the Tibetan people so much and he was worried about them because they were losing their principles. Therefore, he went to India to invite Atisha to Tibet to solve this problem and request him to give genuine Dharma.

On the way, he was caught by a Muslim king, as the king knew that he was going to India to invite this great master Atisha. So, he was subsequently put in the jail and the Muslim king demanded gold as huge as a human body. His nephew was Alema Changchubge, whose name means “light or rays of bodhi”. He went to search for the gold but he could not find. He found 75% of the, but there still remained 25%, which he could not find. Hence, Palama Yeshedu told his nephew, “Now, forget about that. You should go to India on behalf of me and request Atisha to come to Tibet to turn the genuine wheel of Dharma. I myself will give up my life for the people of Tibet.” This is because he could not tolerate the sufferings of his people in Tibet, who did not have genuine Dharma, were cheated with the so-called magic by others and they mistook this as genuine Dharma. In the end, Palama Yeshedu gave up his life and his nephew went to Tibet to invite Atisha. Atisha then went to Tibet and saw all the problems and there he turned the genuine wheel of Dharma.

Bodhicitta is like this. Palama Yeshedu did not do it for himself although he had the power and the name of a king. He gave up his life for the purpose of genuine Dharma and the purpose of benefitting beings in Tibet. He valued Dharma. He could not tolerate this. What I am saying here is the compassion and loving-kindness of a bodhisattva is like this. When we say, “I am nothing, others are more important. I am a bodhisattva.” We can simply say and repeat these words. But, when adverse events come to you, you are the first. At that time, you will think, “Ok later. Now, me first.” So, here I am trying to tell you here when you see these words “mind to benefiting beings, both directly and indirectly”, it menas any activities you engage in should be for benefiting beings. And Palama Yeshedu is such kind of person who came out of Tibet.

So, if you are a bodhisattva or if you had taken bodhisattva vows, then you cannot deny you are not a bodhisattva. If you had taken bodhisattva vows and yet, you are not a bodhisattva –- I do not understand this idea. I can give you another funny example, just for fun. This is a true story in 2005.

I was in Germany. My translator is a very well-known translator from Tibetan into German. He is much, much older than me, and he can be considered as quite an long-time practitioner. His guru is also very well-known – I do not have to say the name. He was supposed to come earlier than me to the teaching venue. However, he came late. I arrived today, but he arrived at midnight. And then, there was no transportation because nobody knew where he is and where is he coming from as he had not informed correctly. So, the members of the centre were also confused as there was no communication. He was stuck at the train station for almost four hours. He was expecting transportation. By the time he arrived at midnight, the centre members had left already. After that, he took a taxi. The next morning when he came to the centre for breakfast, he was so angry.

I know him very well and he is like that. I asked him, “What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“I’m not ok!” he replied.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Then, he said, “How come nobody arrange transportation for me…” As he said, he was so shaky.

I said, “Calm down, calm down. You are a very old practitioner. You have taken bodhisattva vows. Your guru is a very well-known guru…”

Then, he got more angry, “Who said I am a bodhisattva?!!”

Another monk was also there as a witness. I did not make up stories. This monk was there. In fact, the monk was very close to him also! This was why I said to him, “You are a bodhisattva. Each and every time, you take initiation, you are repeating and reciting the verses of generating bodhicitta. So, you are a bodhisattva.” Then, he said, “Who says I’m a bodhisattva?”

You see! It is very funny. On one hand, you say you are a very long-time practitioner, and yet on the other hand, you lose temper and say you are not a bodhisattva just because of transportation. Just because of no transportation, bodhicitta gone! No cup of tea, bodhicitta gone! In this way, how can we achieve bodhicitta? It should not be like this.

This is why I keep reminding my friends, “You better not say you have taken bodhisattva vows. Just do practice and don't expect anything." This is better. So, when we repeat “Sangye cho dang cho kyi cho nam la…” everytime and still like that, this is not a very good image -- particularly when the free thinkers, Christians and Judaism practitioners are there. They will be thinking, “What bodhisattva is this?” This is why I am trying to tell you now by giving an example. I am not blaming him. But this is a good example as it automatically happened to him. For me, it was a good lesson. Therefore, it will be a good lesson to you as well to be cautious in the future.

- Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche, Precious Garland of Supreme Path by Gampopa (14 May 2009)

一位藏密修行者的独白

2011-05-11T22:30:00.003+08:00

不用為我擔心，
我現在的狀況，是自己早已經預料到的，
也是每個修行人在修行的路上都會遇到的事情。
修行人就是乞丐！
既然當了乞丐，就要有風裡睡雨裡起的準備。
我已經做好了這樣的準備，
也許明天就會死去，死就死罷，
人總有一死，不過時間遲早的問題。
為了法我已經捨棄了家庭和朋友，
這條命，也許早已經不重要，
一切如夢如幻而已。
既使這樣死了，也比在世俗上行屍走肉般活著好。

From: 我的恐怖上师-一位藏密修行者得求法故事

What's In A Romance

2011-04-20T22:41:00.005+08:00

It had been quite some time since I found the time (and discipline) to pick up a Dharma book and read. The latest book that I read is Ajahn Brahm's "WHO ORDERED THIS TRUCKLOAD OF DUNG?" (2005, Wisdom Publications)

I loved Ajahn Brahm's stories. They are so realistic, drawing mostly from his own life experiences and some are really funny. Here is one of my favourites, a true story which drives across a very strong message on the ills of attachment and challenge us to think what is it that we are attached to:

**********************************************************

In my first year as a monk in northeast Thailand, I was travelling in the back of the car with 2 other Western monks, and with Ajahn Chah, my teacher, sitting in the front passenger seat. Ajahn Chah suddenly turned around and looked at the young American novice monk sitting next to me, and then said something in Thai. The third Western monk in the car was fluent in Thai and translated for us, "Ajahn Chah says that you are thinking about your girlfriend back in L.A."

The jaw of the American novice dropped almost to the floor. Ajahn Chah had been reading his thoughts -- accurately. Ajahn Chah smiled, and his next words were translated as, "Don't worry. We can fix that. Next time you write to her, ask her to send to you something personal, something intimately connected to her, which you can bring out whenever you miss her, to remind you of her."

"Is that allowable for a monk?" asked the novice, surprised. "Sure," said Ajahn Chah, through the translator.

Perhaps monks understand romance after all.

What Ajahn Chah said next took many minutes to translate. Our translator had to stop laughing and pull himself together first.

"Ajahn Chah says..." He struggled to get the words out, wiping away tears of mirth, "Ajahn Chah says you should ask her to send you a bottle of her shit. Then whenever you miss her, you can bring out the bottle and open it!"

Well, shit is something personal. And when we express our love for our partner, don't we say we love everything about them?

As I said, if you want the fantasy of romance, steer clear of our monastery.

No Regrets

2011-04-20T20:53:00.005+08:00

2 weekends ago, I had learnt an important lesson never to give up trying until the final moment.

I had written a previous entry 'Miss for 3 Years', trying to put down and let go a very strong desire to see Him one last time before He went for his long retreat. And goodness, I realised it was an extremely difficult task! On the week leading to His teaching in KL, this wish was always at the back of my mind, like some pending work 'nagging' at me for attention. I was contemplating how I must make it to KL or Hong Kong and analysing how I can do so. However, as the day went by day, this glimpse of hope became dimmer and dimmer until Friday night, when I knew it was impossible to go to KL. My colleague informed me of a potential donor who had just passed away and we meant I might need to work during the weekends. It was the final blow -- there goes my trip to KL!

The next Saturday morning, I woke up at 9am. My first thought when I opened my eyes was, "My friends are now attending the first session of the teaching." As this thought went on, I did not believe I could possibly join them there. In contrary, I was sitting at home, still waiting for the case to go through and ready to leave for the hospital anytime.

Before breakfast, I did my daily practice. But I hadn't been able to concentrate the whole time. As I continued, emotions began to well up until I couldn't hold on any longer -- I broke down uncontrollably. I was taken aback by the intensity of this emotion. I was still harborung this wish of going KL until this final moment when all seemed impossible by now. But I was not prepared to give up without a 'fight' -- I was very determined to give it my last shot, no matter how the outcome might turned out. For all it knows, this time, my stubborn character helped me...

I asked my colleague for the update on the pending case. She sms-ed back, saying the donor wasn't medically suitable. I then proceeded to ask if I can go KL since the case was called off. Unlike the previous 2 times when she gave an outright answer of no, she gave me an option this time -- if my other colleague from another department agree to stand in for me, I can go. If he doesn't give the green light, I can't go anywhere. Half a battle won -- I then proceeded to sms my this colleague to ask him for this huge favour to stand-in for me for a day, and thank Buddha, he said ok!

I was exhilarated!!! I couldn't believe it -- I can go KL at last! By now, it was already 11:30am. However, the obstacles were not over yet. I wasted no time and went online to buy air tickets -- to my frustration, I wasn't allow to book online. I went straight to the phone and called the airline who informed that I couldn't book the flight I wanted as the time then was less than 4 hours from take-off time. Hence, I asked for a next available flight. It took quite a while for the transaction to be approved as there was a problem with the credit card payment. By now, I was busy multi-tasking -- while waiting for my purchase of the departure ticket to be approved, my eyes were already back on the screen checking for the return flight from another airline. When departure ticket was finalised, I went on to book the the ticket for the return flight. Relief soon turned into more frustration as the same problem occurred. What made it worse was that I could never get through their main line...arghh what kind of airline is this! Fortunately, after refreshing the website umpteenth times, I succeeded in booking online. Immediately, I started to pack my belongings in a small backpack, ready to go.

At the airport, it was a very strange and surreal feeling -- a while ago, I just woke up without plan and air tickets. And now, I actually ended up in the departure hall of Changi airport?! I couldn't believe it! I just couldn't believe that in a few hours' time, I would see Him again.

Once I reached KL, everything happened as I wished. On the day of arrival on Saturday, I attended His last session of teaching for the day. When He left the teaching hall, He was very surprised to see me here in KL. He spoke to me a few words and I managed to speak with Him for a while. I was feeling absolutely thrilled and contented. Now, I thought, even if I got a tongue-lashing from my colleagues on Monday when I returned to work, it was all worth it...

When it was time to leave on the next day, I bade Him farewell and requested Him to take care for the next 3 years. Whatever I wanted to say to Him, I already did. This time, I no longer felt sad or emotional. Instead, I parted from Him happily. I was contented to fulfil this wish -- now I had no regrets!

This dramatic turn of events just reinforced to me that everything is uncertain -- in trying times when things aren't going our way, we should perservere and never give up. A 'miracle' might happen, just like it had happened to me...

No Certainty in Samsara

2011-04-03T13:21:00.009+08:00

There is a story worthy of our contemplation...

There is this person who had been a lay Buddhist and diligently practising meditation for the past few years. His practice has been stable and eventually, it came to a point when certain visions began to appear. He recognised them as images from his previous lives, which manifested because of his extensive meditation.

He saw in one of his earlier past lives, he was an abbott of a monastery. In that particular life, he was a very good monk and teacher, very compassionate to his monks and the people who came to him. He was active in spreading Buddhadharma and he practise meditation whenever he could afford the time. He lived his life in accordance to the Dharma, observed faithfully his precepts and was a source of light to the people he had the connection with. He was very well respected and loved for his kindness and compassion. Because he had lived his life in complete virtue, he had accumulated vastless amount of merit in that lifetime. Eventually, he passed away due to old age.

Because of the merits he had accumulated, he was reborn as a powerful king in the next life. In the earlier years of this life, when he was still a prince, he was a good, obedient and humble boy living a life of luxury in the palace. However, after he inherited the throne from his father, he began to change. As power and wealth corrupts, his desire for both increased tremendously. Instead of helping his country folks prosper, he passed a law for high taxation and left these poor ordinary people even poorer than before. He promised his people that he would use their money for development of their country's infrastructure to improve their lives, he ended up amassing them for sustaining his luxurious lifestyle. Because of his notoriety as a corrupted king, he was eventually assassinated by a group of disgruntled countrymen.

However, because of his huge merits he had accumulated in his lifetime as an abbott, he was still able to be reborn as a human being. But because of the negative deeds he had committed in his previous life as a king, he was born in an impoverished family who had problems making ends meet. Although he was poor, he was very intelligent and this caught the attention of the king. He was subsequently made a general to the king's military troops. Although becoming a general was a prestigious title for someone who had a humble background, he did not want to become one because he did not want to kill the innocents. However, because of his negative karma from his previous life, the condition was such that he was left with no other option -- this was the only way to lift his family out of poverty, and if he did not accept the offer, he and his family would be heavily punished by the king. There simply was no other choice but to accept. In that lifetime, because of his occupation as a general, he had killed and led his soldiers to kill many people who were named 'enemies' of his country. As a result, he had created a lot of bloodbath and destroyed countless families. Finally, he was defeated by his enemy forces and died in the battlefield.

In the next lifetime, because of the heavy killing karma he created, he was reborn straight into hell, experiencing immense physical and mental suffering for many, many eons. Subsequently, after his negative karma was exhausted, he was again born as a human, a life he has now.

Out of meditation, he burst out into tears and was inconsolable. In great sorrow, he recalled having lived a virtuous and religious life as a monastery abbott, and this was still insufficient to secure him better conditions to always meet the Dharma life after life. The seeds of Dharma did not manifest in his lifetimes as a king and general. Thus, he was cannot be saved from experiencing tremendous suffering in his subsequent lifetimes as he ignorantly followed his negative emotions and created new causes of suffering. Overwhelmed by covetousness and desire when he was a king, he had all the wealth and power he had. But sady, he neither used it to help his people nor to protect them. In the subsequent lifetime, he was a 'victim' to the adverse circumstances when he was made a general, an 'opportunity' presented to him which if he refused, would bring disastrous consequences to him and his family.

He realised that indeed, there was no real happiness, peace and stability when beings are still in samsara. The longer one is in this samsaric world, the higher the probablity to create more negative karma, which will be causes for future suffering. The only way to escape from this cycle of floating and sinking up-and-down in the 6 realms is to be totally free from samsara -- by been reborned to a Buddha's Pureland until one attains enlightenment there or to become enlightened in the existing lifetime while one has a precious human rebirth now. Do not procrastinate one's practice and wish that one attains enlightenment in the subsequent lifetime as one may not even have a precious human life ever again. There are simply too many odds against us. We should not believe or be complacent over the little virtues and good merits we create, as there are huge store latent negative karma in our alaya consciousness waiting to be ripened, which will defintely drag us deeper into the ocean of samsara.

To end this entry, there is another true story from a spirtitual friend. He was sharing in class one night that one of his teachers, a high and revered Rinpoche, had accidentally revealed that my friend was a Dharma king in a god realm in his previous lifetime. He then joked that so what he had been a god king?! He was still back as a human, stuck in samsara, full of suffering like all of us here in class!!

We had only one chance now -- live our existing life well and make strong aspirations and dedication that we must be enlightened by the end of our this life or at the very least go to Pureland, to prevent 夜长梦多...

Miss for 3 Years

2011-04-01T13:40:00.005+08:00

A friend, an organiser for Rinpoche's Malaysia programme, had been asking me a few times to join them in Malaysia. Come even if it's only for one day -- she said.

I was swayed. I thought I had already put down any thought of seeing Him before He went into His retreat in May. But after her words, the thought came back again. Can I fly to Malaysia just for a weekend to see Him? Then, I checked the calender -- it was impossible. My only 2 colleagues will be on leave back to back, and any one time, 2 of us will have to be around. Besides, my job nature was such that I was 24/7/365 days on-call. There was no official off-work time as I had to be always on-standby (unless I quit). So even a weekend getaway to Malaysia to see Him was such a far-fetched dream. If I missed this chance to go to Malaysia, I won't be able to see Him for the next 3 years...

I never knew He was so important -- until now. Although I met Him only about 4 years ago, I had travelled extensively because of Him. Because I was able to see Him 2 to 3 times a year, I always felt I can 'access' to Him easily. And now, He will be away for 3 years, I felt a sense of loss. From the most trivial level, I don't know which country I want to go during my annual leave (AL) as I predominantly planned my AL based on His teaching schedule. From the more profound level, He was the one who radically change my view on meditation. Meditation used to be something I don't like to do, but after what He taught, I realise no-meditation, open presence, is the best meditation. He also showed me a glimpse of who I am and what the world really is, which change my way of looking at myself and what's going on around me. Although I'm still experiencing problems, the way I look at myself and the world is never exactly the same again...

While I had received many teachings from many teachers, He was perhaps the only one whose words I can remember and somehow remain in my heart. Other teachers are great, but unfortunately due to my lack of merit, I don't remember most of their valuable teachings. But His I can remember. And for the next 3years, there'll be no one who can give me those precious reminders. His last 3 days of teachings in Singapore were emotional moments for me -- the feeling was like parting with a loved one, someone I considered my main teacher and a big brother. And that was when I gradually realised how dependent I was on Him and how important He was to me...

Temporary emotions aside, His wish to go into 3-years retreat came at a right time --it's time for me to put whatever I learnt from Him into real practice. If He was still teaching, I would have continue to receive more and more without experiencing the real meaning of any of them. Without experience, how can there ever be a chance to actualise the teachings? Now I had decided -- I will not go anywhere. So what if I see Him one last time before His retreat? A day will come we'll have to part again. And the emotions will arise all over again. It'll be a much better idea to part now.

From the day He left Singapore, I had put it down -- as I saw Him walked through the departure gate, as I waved at Him goodbye, He is no longer the teacher whom I can 'access' to physically. He'll be one who knows me, hears me and supports me in my mundane life as well as my practice. He will be in my heart, inseparable from my true nature of mind. And because of that, I don't have to seek for anything anywhere else. He will always be here and I will feel His reassuring presence and His unbearable kindness -- that's unless I forgot about Him, which I'll constantly pray that I will not.

Stop Comparing

2011-03-27T20:40:00.004+08:00

Ch'an Master Sheng Yen comments on two lines of the beloved sixth-century poem the Hsin Hsin Ming, or "Faith in Mind," by the third Zen patriarch, Seng Ts'an.

Not seeing fine or coarse,

How can there be any bias?

"FINE OR COARSE" refers to the deepness or shallowness of practice. I have often cautioned you against comparing your practice with that of others or your own self at different times. Such comparisons are only subjective. Today someone burst out crying in the meditation hall. One person may have thought, "Oh, she's not doing so well." Another, "I think she's becoming enlightened!" Or else, "Maybe she's going crazy." None of these thoughts may represent the true situation. Whether she felt pain or sorrow, became enlightened, or went crazy, it's her business. It has nothing to do with anyone else. Making comparisons inevitably means judging others.

When you are sitting, refrain from looking around and sizing people up. A common type of comparison people make on retreat is to see someone sitting through three periods and think, "How can he do that? Don't his legs hurt? Boy! My legs hurt all the time. I can barely get through one period." Sometime later, the person does move a little, and they say to themselves, "Ha! Probably his legs are hurting now. So he's not so special after all."

These are examples of comparing yourself with others, but you can also compare yourself with yourself. Perhaps you are having a miserable time from day one. Your legs hurt, you are generally uncomfortable and cannot get into the spirit of practice. You feel plagued with problems, but there comes a day when suddenly you feel great. Your body is comfortable and your mind is calm. You are pleased by this change of affairs and say to yourself, "I finally got it." You have become so excited you can no longer meditate. Later, when your meditation is not as pleasurable, you may try to analyze how you sat so well that one time and why you are so uncomfortable now.

Comparing good and bad is just deluded thinking. As long as you are immersed in these wandering thoughts, you will not enter the proper conditions for practice. Do not concern yourself with anything going on around you. Nor should you be concerned with anything going on inside yourself. Focus fully on the method and do not make external or internal comparisons. If you can do that, your practice will be effective.

Lesson From A Baby

2011-03-20T00:16:00.004+08:00

I had an interesting 'lesson' on past lives last week at the most unlikely place from the most unlikely person -- at a Tibetan friend's house in Toronto Canada, from a 6-month old baby girl, who is my friend's niece.

When I first arrived in their house, I was introduced to her family members, including her baby niece. I couldn't resist the temptation of wanting to carry this sweet little newborn. So I asked for permission and did. I carried her and she didn't cry. In fact, she even smiled at me and used her face to knock on my face! Initially, I was surprised why she did that. It was only later that I figured out that the baby might be trying to simulate the Tibetan's gesture of greetings, which involves the touching of the foreheads. However, more surprising to my friend and her family was the baby didn't cry when I carried her. Apparently, it was usual that she would always cry when she was carried by other strangers (non-family members). She even cried at neighbours whom she had seen so often. She would just make a fuss and refused to be held by them. Yet, she was so tamed and allow me to carry her although this was only our first meeting. I said to the family, "This must have been a case of mistaken identity...maybe she thought I'm her mother!" "Yeah maybe..." my friend believed so too since her sister and I wore spectacles so there might be some resemblance from a baby's point of view!

She was so sweet. She mostly smiled when she saw me. One day, when my friend's sister, the baby's mother, was busy in the kitchen, I was the only one in the house. She had been sleeping on the sofa on the living room. It was minutes later that she awoke and opened her eyes. As soon as she saw nobody around her, she started to whimper. I quickly went to her, fearing she might fell from the sofa. And as soon as she saw me, she smiled and waved her hands. Because this little one seemed to like me and never cry when she saw/got carried by me (which was very ununsual), I joked that she might have been "my friend from the previous life!"

On another day, we went to a Karma Kagyu centre nearby. We managed to go in to the main gompa (prayer hall), which was usually locked. It was an old centre of around 30 years, inaugurated by HH the 16th Karmapa. Traditionally, it was a gesture of reverence to the enlightened ones that Buddhists will do prostrations when one enters the gompa. Apparently, my friend's sister heard her grunt a few times (she was still too young to talk so she could only make noises) when the prostrations were been offered. After that, my friend's mother, who is the baby's grandmother, carried her around the gompa, speaking to her in Tibetan and introducing her to the various Buddhas and the photos of HHDL, HH Sakya Trizin and HH Mindroling. Then, grandmother brought her to the other side where HH the 17th Karmapa's photo was on the throne. When little baby looked at the picture, I saw with my own eyes that she smiled for the first time in the gompa! My goodness, she smiled at HH Karmapa only! At the other lineage teachers' images, she either had a blank look without much reaction or showed a little frown -- as if she was trying to decipher what/who's that? But when she saw HH Karmapa's photo, she actually smiled! It was something I couldn't really explain.

Throughout my stay, I had been very fascinated by this kid. She was pretty and sweet; she seldom cry or throw tantrums; she don't cry at night (thank goodness because of that, I had sound sleep at night); she don't even cry when she dirties herself -- she'll just wait patiently for her diapers to be changed every 3 hours.

Then one day, after dinner, I was having a chat with my friend. She told me she had this very strong feeling that this baby was her late grandmother. It was a really interesting concept for me so I asked her why she felt this way. She said this baby's personality resembled her grandmother, like how she always grunted in approval, just like the way the baby behaved in the centre. This was just one of the examples. After her grandmother's death 8 years ago, the astrology predicted that she will be reborn as a human being again this life, to a young couple who lived in the Northeastern direction from India, where she passed away. To my friend, this seemed to fit this baby's birth. However, the other family members did not share the same sentiment -- it was of course very hard for them to believe that this baby is their grandmother-in-return. Nevertheless, the family may wish to check the baby's astrology (some kind of fortune-telling) again to maybe find out more about her past, present and future.

On my last day of stay, the baby was behaving very restlessly. Before we went out for my final shopping in Toronto, I carried the baby for quite some time while my friend and her sister got changed. I said to the baby (never mind it was a little dumb as I didn't think she even understand!) that "I'm leaving today". And due to some coincidence or that the baby is very smart and knows (which I thought was really unlikely), she became more restless, cried and threw tantrums. I had not seen her behaving like this for the past 4 days. Perhaps she was just hungry? Perhaps she was just trying to seek attention? Perhaps she was just trying to be naughty and uncorporative? Nobody knew what was going on with her. However, she became good again when I finally stepped out of the house and bade everyone farewell. That was when she smiled at me again as if to say to me in a polite and nice way "goodbye!".

It was a really a pleasant meeting and stay with the family, especially this special baby. I even told my friend to update me after the baby goes for a second check in astrology. It would be interesting to hear more stories from this little girl, who will grow so big that I'll not recognise her in a few years' time.

Till we meet again, my encounter with this baby stopped here. There might have been a connection in the previous life, but what is certain and more important is there is a connection in this current life, and as such, we'll definitely meet again in the future.

The Key To Our Final Goal

2011-03-20T00:08:00.002+08:00

When talking about auspicious circumstances for practitioners, the most perfect circumstance for realising the correct view of emptiness is through generating complete non-judgmental and genuine devotion to all the enlightened ones and to cultivate unbound and unfabricated compassion for all sentient beings.

Some of you may be practitioners, some interested in practising and some just receiving this message as a junk, to which I deeply apologise. For you practitioners and for those who are interested in practising, when you do the practice, you need to have a certain goal or a boundary or a limit to where you want to reach. As mentioned countless times in my previous notes, devotion is key. For devotion, you need to have unerring certainty in the Dharma, grounded pure perception, and finally heartfelt kindness of the teachers and the teachings. With these intact, devotion will naturally arise.

In the moment of devotion, we should sincerely bring to mind our root gurus along with the lineage gurus and think of their great qualities and with great admiration, supplicate to them. Knowing that it is only through the kindness of the gurus that we'll be able to understand the ultimate nature of the mind, with such great gratitude, genuine devotion should naturally arise. Devotion should be applied through supplication; physically through putting your palms together, verbally through chanting the supplication, and mentally by aspiring to become a good practitioner in any condition whether in happiness or in sorrow. Your devotion shouldn't be judgmental as well. If it is, then your devotion is not pure. Devotion is actually a measurement of how deep your understanding of your realisation of emptiness is.

Although all sentient beings possess the self existing wisdom, they are unaware of it and as a result, beaten relentlessly in the illusory experiences of samsara and suffer tremendously. When seeing such, one should be overcome with great compassion and pity. At a moment like this, one should genuinely aspire with great compassion for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. Compassion should be without bounds, without attachment, without judgement, without hope and well grounded.

Losar Letter from Mingyur Rinpoche

2011-03-07T12:15:00.003+08:00

Happy Losar friends, students, and fellow meditators,

I’m now at my monastery in Nepal, where we’re just beginning to celebrate Losar, Tibetan New Year. Losar is a time to reflect on the year that has passed and to look ahead. As I sit here, surrounded by family, friends and the monks of Osel Ling Monastery, I’m thinking about all of you with whom I share a connection. My deepest wish is that each of you will flourish in the year to come, and that all beings, wherever they may be, will experience some quality of peace and joy in their lives.

For me, this is also a time to reflect on what meditation is all about, and to make sure that I haven't lost sight of the precious instructions that I received from my teachers. With this in mind, I thought I'd share with you some of my thoughts on the heart of meditation.

Over the past twelve months, I have travelled all over the world teaching people how to meditate.Whether I am talking to a large group or chatting with a few people in private, it seems that everyonewants to know the same thing: Where is lasting happiness to be found? True, not everyone phrases this question the same way - some people may not even know this is what they are asking - but whenwe reduce our many desires, hopes, and fears down to their essence, this is usually the answer we are seeking.

For those of us who follow a spiritual path, we may think we know the answer. Anyone who studies the Buddha's teachings, for example, will be able to tell you that true happiness is found within. But if we really understand that our basic nature is already whole, pure, and complete, why do we continue to act as though our level of contentment depends on the size of our paycheck, the quality of our relationships, or on the number of pleasurable experiences we can surround ourselves with? In other words, why do we expect things that are ephemeral and changing by their very nature to provide us with something stable and secure?

The answer is quite simple: It's a bad habit. We have believed this myth for so long, that it takes awhile for any new understanding to filter down to the core of our being. What's more, we often bring this same mindset - the expectation that temporary experiences can produce lasting happiness - intoour meditation practice as well. We mistake fleeting experiences of peace and relaxation for the true relaxation of feeling at ease with whatever manifests in the present moment. We think that calmingthe mind means to get rid of thoughts and turbulent emotions, rather than to connect with the naturalspaciousness of awareness itself, which doesn't get any better when there are no thoughts or any worse when there are. And we chase after ephemeral experiences of bliss and clarity, all the while missing the profound simplicity of awareness that is with us all the time.

What I'm getting at here is that we need to be patient with ourselves, and with the process of loosening this deep-rooted conditioning. The good news is that everything we hear about meditation is actually true. Our essential nature really is completely pure, whole, and infinitely spacious. No matter howtrapped we may feel by anxiety, depression, or guilt, there is always another option available to us,and one that doesn't ask us to stop feeling what we already feel, or to stop being who and what weare. Quite the contrary, when we know where to look, and how to look, we can find peace of mind inthe midst of raging emotions, profound insight in the midst of complete confusion, and the seeds of compassion in our darkest moments, even when we feel completely lost and alone.

This may sound too good to be true. In fact, I must admit that the first time I heard this, it did seem a little too easy, and too convenient. It took me a number of years, actually, before I stopped using meditation like a hammer, trying to beat all of my painful feelings and cruel thoughts out of existence.I can't tell you how hard it was to be confronted continually with the tempest of my own anxiety while still holding onto the idea that difficult thoughts and emotions were keeping me from tasting true peace of mind.

It wasn't until I gave up in desperation that I finally saw the truth of what my teachers had been telling me all along. What they taught me over and over again, waiting patiently for me to see in my ownexperience what they had learned themselves, was that love, compassion, and wisdom are manifesting all the time. It's not that we are pure way down in the depths of our being, but somehow up on the surface everything is messed up. Rather, we are pure inside and out. Even our most dysfunctional habits are manifestations of this basic goodness.

There is only one problem: We don't see this true nature in the present moment, and even less so the innate compassion and wisdom that arise from it. Even when we understand intellectually that wehave buddha nature - the potential to awaken ourselves from the slumber of ignorance and suffering- we rarely acknowledge this innate purity in the present moment. We see it as a distant possibility, as something that we can experience sometime in the future, or maybe even in another lifetime.

Nevertheless, these enlightened qualities really are present, even right now in this very moment. Don't believe me? Well, let's take a moment to see if this rings true. Why are you sitting here reading this letter? Why are you interested in meditation at all? I'll bet that at least part of the reason is that you want to be happy. Who doesn't? That wish to be happy is the essence of loving-kindness. Once we recognize this basic desire in ourselves, seeing how it manifests all the time in so many little ways, we can begin to extend it to others. Similarly, the flip side of wanting to be happy is the wish to be free from suffering. Once again, I'll bet that in some way, the drive to be free from suffering is motivating you at this very moment. This simple wish is the essence of compassion. And finally, it must be saidthat even though we want to be happy and free from suffering, we often do things that bring us the opposite result. Reflect for a moment on what it feels like in those moments. When you are looking for lasting happiness somewhere it can never be found, in switching on the TV, for example, can't you feel it in your gut that something isn't quite right? Isn't there a subtle nagging feeling that perhaps you arelooking in the wrong place for happiness? Well, that is your buddha nature calling, your innate wisdom.

So you see, we don't have to look outside the present moment to experience wisdom, compassion, and the boundless purity of our true nature. In fact, these things can't be found anywhere but the present moment. We just need to pause to recognize what is always right in front of us. This is a crucial point, because meditation is not about changing who we are, or becoming better people, or even about getting rid of destructive habits. Meditation is about learning to recognize our basic goodness in the immediacy of the present moment, and then nurturing this recognition until it seeps into the very core of our being.

Now that Losar has arrived, each of us has a fresh opportunity to take this message as the heart of our practice. The fact that you are reading this letter now shows that you are not only interested, but ready to wake up to your true nature, to directly experience the purity and richness of your own heart and mind.

Before you get up to do something else, please take a few moments to rest in this recognition, whatever that means to you right now. Simply let go and relax. Allow everything that is happening in and around you to be as it is. Then, as you carry on with your day, see if you can let this experience linger in yourbeing. Whatever you do and wherever you go, remind yourself to let go and relax from time to time.

I will keep you in my heart and prayers. My sincere wish is that you find true happiness within, and that you share this joy with all other beings. May the year ahead be filled with blessings and peace.

Yours in the Dharma,
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Refuge, Meditation, Visualisation And More

2011-02-05T00:02:00.006+08:00

Spent my first CNY night playing back the mp3 file and typing out what Nuptul Tenpei Nyima Rinpoche said during his talk titled "Introduction to Meditation" on 6 Jan 2011. Pretty happy about this 'accomplishment' as this means 1 thing down from my ever-piling list of tasks to be done...May all benefits from some of these words of wisdom!

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The Importance of Refuge

Today, we are going to practise a very simple meditation for our daily practice. Before we start meditation, we try to pray and sing this spiritual mantra of the general refuge mantra and the Tantrayana refuge mantra and hope this will bless us. This is because the Three Jewels are very important in Buddhism. So as Buddhists, we should know what is refuge – the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is very important. If we said we are Buddhist and don’t know what is the Three Jewels, people will laugh at you. This is the entrance and the key (to being a Buddhist).

Because in Buddhism, especially in the Tantrayana and for all types of Buddhism, whatever we do, whatever kind of prayers we do, meditation, chanting or anything, we will start with taking refuge. So, taking refuge is to identify ourselves as a Buddhist. Refuge is very, very important.

The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is called the general refuge. "Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmaya, Namo Sanghaya" is the general refuge mantra. And in the Tantrayana, there is what we called the inner refuge, which is also known as the Three Roots – the Guru, Dewa and the Dakini. The Guru is the master, the Dewas are all the deities (yidams) and the Dakinis are all the female deities and the Dharma protectors. Hence, these are our refuge. We always go through the outer (general) refuge before we go to the inner refuge. The outer refuge is the first step towards inner refuge. So in general, refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and to have refuge practice in whatever we do is very important. When we do charity, practice, chanting or meditation, we must always remember the Three Jewels. Then only will your meditation and practice will go to the right path. Then only will you have the right results and the right confidence to relax your mind.

Why do we need to take refuge? What is the importance? We have to understand this because of our lack of confidence. We don’t have any confidence. That’s why we need someone to guide us, someone to save us. In this world, nobody can save us. Our parents or whoever cannot save us because all of us are in the same place – the samsaric world. The Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Guru, Dewa and Dakinis are enlightened beings. Why are they called the enlightened beings? This is because they are free from all sufferings. They have the power to heal us from all our sufferings, defilements and negativities. They have the power so we need their support. That’s why we pray to them. Praying is like requesting them to help us or support us. Why? Because we need to purify. This purification and this blessing is something that our parents, our lovely husband or wife cannot give us. Money cannot give us blessing or purify us either. Only an enlightened being is able to bless us and free us from this samsaric world.

Life is very impermanent and uncertain. We don’t know when is the day our death will come. We have completely no confidence in this. What will happen if suddenly we are dead? Who can save us? We have to leave alone. We even have to leave our precious body behind. At that time, only the Buddha, Dharma and the deity, who are enlightened beings, will have the power to save us. They are the only ones who are able to lead us, bless us and save us.

The only thing we are able to carry along with us is the Dharma. So, this is why Dharma is the preparation for our future life and for our present life as well. Since we are young, everybody has spent every moment, every day, every month, every year, preparing for tomorrow, for the next and next. Every time we are preparing. But the only thing that many people don’t prepare is for their future lives and this happens since their beginningless lives. Now, we have a great opportunity to practise. We have such a meaningful and valuable life. This is because from our birth to our death, this is a journey and we must have a successful, meaningful, happy and blessed journey. How can we have a successful and meaningful life? We have to discuss and study about this and then try to reduce some of our confusion regarding our meditation and our daily practice.

Before we meditate, we must understand what it means by meditation. Without proper understanding in this, it is called blind meditation. So, we must learn and investigate on meditation – in our Buddhist context, what does it mean by meditation? We should understand how to meditate. Does anyone have an answer on what is meditation? Meditation is to develop your mental attitude and to find spirituality to improve your mental quality – that is called meditation. It does not mean only relax. People always say "relax" but they don’t know how to relax. They think about nothing and (as a result) there’s not much improvement and always stay the same. Then, they also do not develop any confidence. Hence, I feel that the actual meditation is much, much more than this. Sitting silently and closing the eyes are just the (external) form of meditation – like a Buddha’s statue in a sitting meditation form. But humans created this statue. I believe the actual meditation is much, much more than just this.

Preparation of Meditation

How to meditate? Before we meditate, we need an authentic spiritual master who is able to guide us. This is because meditation is not easy. All the buddhas of the three times, the yogis and yoginis who are enlightened – all of them cannot be enlightened without spiritual guidance. Today, we are only going to discuss very simple meditation because I am a very simple person. Therefore, we are going to discuss on the preparation of the meditation and the actual meditation.

So, the preparation of the meditation has something to do with the environment and our physical posture. This is very important for a beginner. I hope you all already studied this before but I still want to repeat once more.

There are 7 positions for the physical posture. This is a preparation for the meditation and but it is not meditation. If we believe this is meditation, then all the statues (which are in this posture) are also in meditation all the time. Then, we can make our own statues (of ourselves), put them in different rooms and they will all be in meditation. In this way, we don’t need to do meditation. We can go outside shopping!

7 Positions for the Physical Posture

The 7 positions are what we called dorje kedro in Tibetan. They are:

1) Vajra position
This has something to do with our beautiful legs. You have to cross your legs. And for those who are unable to do this due to your health, it’s still ok. The vajra position is very important as you can see all the Buddha statues always sit like this. It is necessary and very important. Otherwise, the statues will not always sit like this. Why don’t they lie on the bed or sit very comfortably? Why do they always sit like this? There must be a reason and meaning for this.

2) Spine must be straight
There are 21 different types of bones at our spine. Like our Singapore buildings are all very tall and straight, our spines have to be straight. Why is it that our spines have to be straight? This is because this is when the 4 elements in our body will become balance. Then, our mind will become focused. Otherwise, our mind will not be focused. So, we must balance our bodies first.

3) Arms must be slightly opened, like wings of a bird.

4) Tongue touch the top of our mouth. Try to close your mouth.

5) Neck rest naturally and lean a little forward.

6) Two hands must place on our lap, like holding a bowl.

7) Close our eyes or leave our eyes open and look at the tip of our nose (there are 2 options)

Actual Meditation – Points of Visualisation

Then, just stay silently for a while. Do not need to think of anything. Just relax for a while. Breathe normally and naturally.
Slowly think of the Buddha or a deity who we feel closer to. Visualise in front of us our master (guru) in the form of the deity. And then, recite some mantras softly. For me, for instance, I will visualise Guru Rinpoche in front of me and recite his mantra "Om Ah Hum Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Hum" with my heart and devotion. The deity is full of power and blessings. This power and blessing takes the form of the different lights that shine on us. Because of these lights shining on us, it purifies us of all our sins and negativities committed with the body, speech and mind.

While we are reciting the mantras, we’ve to confess to our master whom we visualise in front of us and say from our heart. Saying is not by saying something from our mouth, but saying from our heart that, "I did all these wrong things in the past. I really want to confess these to you and with your blessings, please purify all my sins, negativities and bad karma." We must also say, "Because of my ignorance, I did many wrong things in the past and I will still do some mistakes without analysing them myself. I am a very sinful person. You are the one who is my guide. Because I depend on you, you must bless me." We just say this from our heart to the deity. Then, visualise the master or the deity who is right in front of us, that he is very happy and smiling at us.

From his forehead a very bright white light, from his throat a very strong red light and from his heart a very strong blue light shine on our 3 places – our forehead, our throat and our heart. Through the blessing of the 3 places from the deities, we must believe, not only believe but also, we have to feel that this purifies all our negativities and bad karma. Especially visualise that because of this blessing, all our sicknesses or any particular diseases of our body are healed.

While we are reciting the mantra silently, our brain needs to work on this visualisation. Finally, when we want to stop our meditation, visualise the deity whose essence is our master, slowly comes to us and dissolves into our body. This is likened to the water in a glass being poured into another glass of water – we cannot differentiate the water in the two glasses after one is being poured into another. The deity’s body is not like our physical body but is in the form of a ‘light’ body. After dissolution, just think that the deity and ourselves are no different and now, our body, speech and mind are totally purified. The body, speech and mind of the deity, our master and yourself are inseparable – we’ve to visualise this way.

Slowly, we have to think that the place is the Universe or Pureland. Our body becomes smaller and smaller and finally disappears into space. An example is like the rainbow or clouds appearing and later, disappearing in the sky. In the same way, we’ll feel like we are in the sky. We’ll feel like we’ve no body and very light. This is because our body has already disappeared into space. Our body and space has become inseparable now. After that, just visualise on that moment, maybe for one or two seconds – this is very important. We don’t have to think anything. Just forget everything. At that point, we even forget our body but we are still there.

The Benefits of Practice

Through this practice, our mental state will improve. We’ll be more fresh. We’ll be healthier. We’ll be happier. We’ll be more open-minded everyday because we’ll be less sensitive and have a less conservative mind. All the unnecessary worries and thoughts will be reduced due to the power of our meditation. Then, our mind begin to relax. If we do this practice, we’ll forget that we’ve pain in your body. Maybe in the first week, we’ll not feel so comfortable with our body. But later on, all our pain and discomfort will run away from our mind. Sometimes we feel pain and discomfort because we are not concentrating on our actual meditation. We are just concentrating on our body – that’s why we feel the pain and discomfort.

Thus, we need to practise concentration because we need to achieve something. If we do not practise, it does not make sense. So, we need to be diligent. We need to put in more effort to achieve this state.

So coming back, do you remember where we are now? We just disappear into space. At this point, we are just meditating on emptiness for a few seconds. This is called nyam-shap in Tibetan. Hence, step by step we visualise, and finally our body disappear, and for only one or two seconds, it’s a chance for everybody to recognise the actual emptiness. Once we wake up from our meditation, we have to feel that we are so blessed and rejoice in ourselves because we have engaged in such wonderful merit by practising this meditation.

Before we get up from our meditation position, we must do a dedication. To whom do we dedicate to? To our beloved parents, relatives, and further and further we include our enemies, then all sentient beings. "Due to these merits created by this meditation, may this transform all sentient beings, especially all the mother sentient beings who are under very miserable state. May they be happy and be free from suffering. May they eventually be enlightened and attain liberation." So, we have to do dedication to others. This motivation of dedication will allow our bodhicitta mind and our compassion to arise more and more. Our mind will become more open-minded and less sensitive. When we’re less sensitive, we’ll have less stress. When we’ve less stress, we’ll have more opportunities. When we have more opportunities, then there’ll be more joy, happiness and peace of mind waiting for us.

Then, after this practice, we’ll also feel, "Oh, I did meditation." Through this practice, we’ll develop self-confidence. What will happen when we have self-confidence? This will reduce our confusion. When we have self-confidence, you’ll only have a peace of mind. When we don’t have self-confidence, we’re always lost, "Oh, this master said this, that master said that…which one is better?" Ok today this master said this and you believe it’s really true. Then, the next day, another master will say something and you’ll think, "Oh, you’re right. Yesterday, who told me is a mistake. Ok I’ll listen to you." You’re lost because you’re very confused. Why? Because you don’t know how to choose which one is perfect. At that time, you’re lost because you don’t have the self-confidence.

So, this is my daily practice. I always feel very safe and that I did something. Through this practice, I had more self-confidence. This self-confidence gives me realisation because unnecessary thoughts and worries become reduced. I also perceived the blessings and feel more fresh.

Visualisation is very powerful because everything is the result of visualisation or imagination. Because of a person’s imagination or visualisation, a not-so-beautiful place becomes beautiful. Also, this cup is created as a result of imagination or visualisation. And this handphone too. Even these simple tangible things becomes beautiful because of imagination or visualisation of the human’s intellect and potential.

Our meditation is much more than this because these are intangible knowledge that cannot be taught, and which no one can describe and explain. Through our own experience, we’ve to learn. We’ve to improve. This is why we need to do meditation. Through this, we can develop our mental quality and slowly, this will bring us to enlightenment. When we’re meditating, we’re not in this world. Why is it that other people cannot explain this to us? Because we are in a different state, in a different world, in a different Universe so we’ll have to experience it ourselves.

The 5 Unshakable Fortresses

2011-01-18T12:59:00.003+08:00

Another email update from Phakchok Rinpoche:

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Dear Friends,

I hope you've all been happy and healthy. This being the first Guru Rinpoche Day message of the year 2011, and to start off the year auspiciously, I would like to share with you the Five Unshakeable Fortresses that is key for all dharma practitioners.

The Five Unshakeable Fortresses:

The five fortresses are extremely important for all dharma practitioners. If you don’t have these five, then actually it means that you are not doing quite so well...

1. Gaining Certainty in the View

Many of us when practicing the dharma are so busy doing things, physically, in the dharma world. Such as offering butter lamps, doing circumambulations, reading many texts, doing a lot of different daily practices, and while doing so, our precious time runs out. Though the time is not wasted on doing something unnecessary, but while engaging in doing these "dharmic activity", we sometimes lose the focus or the point of doing it all and therefore completely lack in gaining certainty in and reconfirming, the view.

The earlier masters all said this so many times. Tilopa said that when you’ve lost the correct view your practice is gone. You may be very devoted and have a lot of faith, but you’re not going to have a correct practice because you lack the correct view. So the first most important thing is having certainty in the view.

How to get that?
Reinvestigating your emotions, your ego, ‘I’, your judgmental mind.

Why does my judgmental mind work so well?
Because I’m not reconfirming my understanding of egolessness.

Why are my negative emotions working so well?
Because, I’m not reconfirming my understanding of egolessness.

Why am I so moody?
Because, you forgot to reconfirm egolessness, selflessness. Really.

Why can we not have compassion that is free from judgment?
Because we lack an understanding of egolessness.

Why can we not have trust in emptiness?
Because we cannot gain trust in egolessness. That’s why.

Why when you practice the deity, do you see the deity as truly existent?
Because you have no understanding of egolessness.

So whatever practice you do, spend at least some time to re-investigate your emotions, your ‘I’, your judgment, your ego, your clinging, your anxiety. That is gaining certainty in the view and that means you are making an unshakeable fortress of the view.

2. Being Undistracted in Meditation

We talk about meditation all the time. This meditation, that meditation. Shamatha, Vipashyana, Mahamudra, the Development Stage, Mind Training, the Middle Way, the Great Perfection! But whatever meditation you do, we talk about five stages: movement, attainment, familiarization, stability, and perfection. The first is like a waterfall, the second a river gorge, the third a calm river, the fourth an ocean without waves, and the fifth like an unshakeable mountain. These experiences are actually measurements.

Measurements of what? Measurements of distraction. Having the most distraction is the first experience, the waterfall, and having a little less distraction is the river gorge. Again, when you’re a little calmer and when the rough distractions are gone, but subtle distractions are still there, it is the calm river. If you have less subtle distraction, that’s the ocean without waves, and even less, the mountain. So when you do meditation, you should know that the unshakeable fortress of meditation is non-distraction.

3. Conduct

Dharma practitioners should have a good conduct. Conduct is very important and on a simple level, we can say not doing harmful things to oneself and others and doing things to benefit others and oneself. Basically not harming others physically, verbally, or mentally. Bottom line; always being mindful of your conduct.

In the Mirror of Mindfulness, my master, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche said, "When you don’t have mindfulness, you are a shit pot. When you don’t have any mindfulness, you are a dead body."

To clarify Rinpoche’s quote, no matter how much you clean yourself, with brushing or washing, if you are not mindful of your conduct, you are always carrying that shit around and therefore you are always going to smell of shit no matter what. It is all the works of this "deluded mind" that we grasp to "what is" to "what is not" and therefore see unclean as clean, to what is impermanent as permanent, to what is selfless as having self, and to pain as pleasure. So how can we work with this delusion? By practicing mindfulness.

How to practice mindfulness in conduct? By reminding. Not watching, but reminding yourself in whatever you do, to not forget what the buddhadharma really is. When you walk around the Buddha’s stupa in Boudhanath, remind yourself that you are walking around it to tame your mind. Remind yourself, "I am studying for enlightenment, to tame my mind." Whatever you do, you need to remember the main core of the Buddha’s teaching; that is real conduct, how to keep conduct well. So please take it to heart.

I remember our late principal, Khenpo Kunga Wangchuk constantly telling the graduating class, "If you cannot help the dharma, at least don’t harm the dharma. Keep that in mind. Don’t think that you are acting alone. Individually, you are a pillar of the dharma. Individually, you represent the dharma. And therefore individually, your conduct will have a consequence on the dharma." So mindfulness in conduct is the key.

4. Clearing Away Obstacles

When you start practicing the dharma, you’re going to face obstacles. I asked Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche one day, "Rinpoche, why is it like this? Whenever I want to do some kind of practice, I have an obstacle. Whenever I don’t want to do practice, I have no obstacle. Why is it like this?" For example, whenever I start meditating, all my worries come up and whenever I meditate my answers to those worries also come. Whenever I start thinking, the answers don’t come!

When you have difficulties in meditation, what is the best way to remove them? You can check many Mahasiddhas’ methods, many different masters’ texts, but all the time they say the same thing. What? Devotion. All the time they say this, and we have difficulty with that. It’s difficult for us to practice devotion, but if you look in any text, by Tilopa, Maitripa and so on, they all say, "Visualize the guru above your head surrounded by the lineage masters, and supplicate to them, receive the four empowerments, and think that your obstacles have all been removed." In all the meditation manuals it teaches the same thing. So devotion is key.

What is devotion like? It has three qualities: certainty in the dharma, pure perception, and remembering the kindness. Parents’ kindness is extremely important: your mother keeps you for nine months in her womb, gives birth to you, feeds and clothes you, and helps you grow up. Our parent’s kindness is very important. But who teaches you to be independent? Who teaches you to actually be free from your emotions and suffering? Who guides you towards the truth so that you can actually be free? It’s the guru. That is remembering the kindness. Then we also have certainty and pure perception. With these three qualities, you can develop devotion easily.

5. Enhancement

How to enhance or improve your practice? First of all, why actually can we not improve our practice that much? It is because we have so many things to hold on to, and to get hooked with. For someone like me, we have monasteries, monks, projects, and all the planning that goes along with it. For some practitioners, it’s deities and accumulating merit, and for some, families, cars, your favorite brand, etc. These days, I’ve started liking the brand Burberry. Before I didn’t even know what it was, but now I really like it, and it’s very expensive. I love Mont Blanc too. There’s nothing there actually, but I like it. When people look at you, if you’re wearing a Mont Blanc pen, you’re okay, but if you’re wearing a lousy pen then you are judged to be worth just that. So all the time, we are judging and being judged. And now you feel you need to keep up to that. You start holding onto things, getting attached, worrying, and that’s why our meditation practice cannot improve well.

That’s why many great masters of the past practiced pongdag. For example, I heard that when Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche reached Bodhgaya in India, a long time ago, he decided to give everything up through pongdag. Pongdag literally means to give up or to abandon. Khenpo Ngakchung did this three times. I also heard a story about Trulshik Rinpoche. For old masters, old statues are extremely important for them. You can give them a kilo of gold and they don’t care at all, but they really treasure their old statues. When Trulshik Rinpoche was receiving empowerments from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, he cleaned out his entire altar by offering all of his precious statues to him.

In the past, I would count everyday how many things I owned, how many things I had to give up. I would count each thing on my fingers. We need to learn how to do this, how to practice pongdag mentally, to give up everything, and offer it as a mandala offering. Many masters say that when you go to retreat, you need to cut your worldly perceptions and then your practice will improve very fast, but if you bring worldly concerns with you then your practice won’t improve as much. So I try to tell myself everyday when doing meditation, first of all, to give up my projects, my house, everything. This is what I do first for five minutes. After that I give rise to devotion and supplicate and then I meditate. If you do that, your meditation will improve so fast that you will be amazed.

So these are called the five unchanging fortresses of the dharma practitioner:
Certainty in the view
Non-distraction in meditation
Mindfulness in conduct
Dispelling obstacles with devotion
Enhancing through pongdag

Don’t forget these five, and try to improve them. When you can improve these five things in yourself, your practice is going to improve. You can check a hundred texts, meet a thousand masters, but they are not going to say anything more than this. When practicing, too much information isn’t that helpful, but one pithy piece of advice, a key, can help us change a lot!

Sarva Mangalam,
Phakchok Rinpoche

The Day He Left

2011-01-17T23:03:00.008+08:00

When many were still in their dreamland, 4 of us sent Rinpoche to the airport. For a month, he was here with us. To be able to host him and spend so much time with him had been such a joyful and humble experience. And come to think of it, it was still extremely strange how this connection with him turned out to be.

He seemed to enjoy our company -- just chit-chatting on Dharma and mundane stuff, sitting around the table munching on packed dinners and watching Dharma DVDs and Bollywood movies together. I too enjoyed listening to his stories, embarassing jokes about himself, and playing on his iPhone cat (an game application which mimick our voices). Especially memorable was the Christmas eve when we threw him a birthday surprise -- a birthday cake, flowers and a choir of us singing "Lama Khyenno" and the "Seven Verses of Supplication to Guru Rinpoche". I wouldn't forget when it came to my turn to present him my gift, he said to me, "You all really made me cry." I looked into his eyes -- he was so touched, his eyes became a little red. That was when I realised he was so simple, his heart so pure that it is easily touched by simple sincere gestures such as this. I was pretty sure if it was me, my heart would be too hardened to feel moved!

Yesterday was our last gathering with him. We listened to him speak and thank everybody for their efforts in organising the Dharma programme and dinner for his monastery. Thereafter, it was a long night without decent sleep. As I needed to be there at the airport to send him off in the wee hours of the morning, I bunked in at my friend's house where he stayed. It was boring and awkward to be around the house after the rest were gone as I hated to encroach into the personal space of my friend's family. Because I didn't know what to do next, I tried to make myself useful. I helped him packed his lugguage. He allowed me to. When the rest left, he changed into his casual attire -- T-shirt and three-quarters pants (in lama colours of course). This was the first time I saw him without his robes, and he looked just like a typical youngster.

This was a strange connection that baffled me -- from my initial indifference/disinterest to the friendship we shared today. I still remembered when I was first introduced to his song CD, I refused to purchase it. At that time, I didn't know who is he and was not at all keen to buy yet another CD, which I would definitely leave at home to collect dust. Then, we met for the first time in Singapore. The meeting was brief as he came just one day before I was set to leave for Bodhgaya. A few months later, in Feb 2010, a group of us went to Nepal. I was strickened by the horrible effects of some contaminated food I took. I fell very sick for days. At this worst period, he was the one who especially looked out for me, even though we barely knew each other. Hence, while the others trekked down the slope of Nagarkot, Rinpoche and my dad stayed with me in the car. On my second visit to Kathmandu, he invited me to stay in his house with him, his sister and his small community of monastics. Even though in the end, this arrangement didn't come through due to last minute changes to his schedule, his simple acts of heartwarming kindness moved me. I would never forget his kindness.

There was a saying that for a disciple who is not ready, the closer you get to your guru, the more faults you will see in him. He is the only Rinpoche that I have the opportunity to get so close to. Initially, I didn't feel he is someone, from the spiritual point of view, very special or "powerful". However, I realised the closer to him, the more precious good qualities I see -- his compassion, sweet nature, impartial love, sincerity, genuinity, free nature, the spontaneity and charisma that draws people. He is also a creative person -- he draws excellently, composes his own music and plays his flute and "Tibetan guitar". As he had so many ideas, he shared them with me freely. As a "price", he gave me quite a no. of tasks to do. Although I still find it difficult to regard and treat him as a guru, I see him as someone who may be able to uncover some hidden potential in me.

Today was the day he left -- there was a little sense of loss. And I knew I was surely going to miss this ordinary yet not-so-ordinary spiritual friend.

Bodhgaya Dream 2010

2010-12-29T13:10:00.003+08:00

Back from Bodhgaya for more than a week now. Everything seems so real, yet surreal at the same time. I couldn't believe time flies so fast and this 3rd monlam I had participated had become yet another memory again.

I had brought my mum along with me this time. This is her second time to this holy seat of Vajrasana where 1000 Buddhas of our time will attain enlightenment. Expectedly, she didn't like the place at all. Bodhgaya, being situated in Bihar, one of the poorest state in India, was dirty and like anywhere in India, the traffic was chaotic and noisy, the air was dusty and polluted, the weather was freezing, there was nothing much to do (as she was not exactly a Buddhist and couldn't appreciate Bodhgaya) and nothing to eat (as we ate vegetarian food everyday and there wasn't much choice of good Chinese food). There are beggars and sellers everywhere, waiting to 'pounce' on tourists and this freaked my mum.

However, I was surprised despite all these, she still chose to come with me to India instead of Taipei in Oct, which she wanted to go. Perhaps, I was speculating, one of the reasons is because of HH Karmapa. She liked HH. On our way back to Singapore last year, she spoke about Him in front of my sisters, completely impressed by Him. That was the first time she met Him and the first time I heard my mum talked like that. For me, I was simply happy that she had this connection with Him. He is a very, very important 'person' in my this life (and hopefully, future lives too) and who I will seek consultation (either directly in person, indirectly through email or 'secretly' through aspiration prayers) for the major decisions I made. To me, He is my Buddha in 'person' and I am happy that my mum, who had experienced so much suffering, difficulties and obstacles in life, gets connected with him right now in her current lifetime. Now there is hope that she will eventually be saved by Him!!!

After 4 years, things never exactly improved when I see HH despite doing so for so many times now. Whenever I waited to have an audience, I still felt as nervous, with increased heartbeat, with cold and clammy palms. When I went inside to see Him this time with my mum, it was a plain embarassment -- my mum and I suddenly lost our as we interrupted each other when we both tried to talk to Him at the same time! And my mum actually told me before that she wouldn't be talking and would leave the talking part to me! Ha...anyway, I was used to it -- I can never keep my 'cool' in front of Him as everytime something would happen. It used to bother me but now, it doesn't disturb my mind anymore.

I had always looked forward for the monlam as it was a time of reunion with many of my friends again. There is this German lady who is my mum's age, whom I knew because both of us were stranded in Patna airport back in 2007 due to a flight delay. Then, there were my Taiwanese, HK and Mexican friends whom I knew as we were environment team volunteers for the monlam in 2008. My Mexican friend had since ordained under HH and studied with Thrangu Rinpoche -- I was really happy for her!!!

There is also a Nepali friend, who is my teacher Mingyur Rinpoche's relative. We met as he came to Bodhgaya for 3 days to discuss something with Rinpoche. Strange enough, he is one of those friends who I know for only 1 year plus, and yet I felt I knew him for a long time. I talked to him about things, sometimes related to practice and sometimes not -- and he will give me new perspectives or why I feel certain way during practice -- and sometimes, he was right as I explored deeper. It does confuses me how sometimes he seemed so (frightening) simple and ordinary that I have to keep reminding him and yet at certain times, he was sophiscated and firm when it comes to doing things for his village. Anyway, I was happy he came as because of him, I got (and had excuses to go up) to see Mingyur Rinpoche for almost everyday in my 1-week stay in Bodhgaya.

Now I was back in SIngapore -- a familiar yet unfamiliar environment. Yet another dream experience from Bodhgaya ended. I hope that there will many more such experiences in the future and I really looked forward to that.

Another Form of Laziness

2010-11-21T01:30:00.003+08:00

When taking the bodhisattva vow, you request the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the threee times and ten directions to bear witness as you don the armour of courage and determination to liberate all beings. Nothing brings more joy to 'gods and men' than dedicating yourself to benefit others. If you do not carry through with your promise, you will deceive and abandon not only yourself, but also the infinite number of sentient beings to whom you dedicated your efforts.

The immensity of this task might initially seem too daunting. We might fee discouraged and doubt our ability to fulfil such a promise. But actually, isn't becoming discouraged even before even starting something really just a form of laziness? The problem is not that the task is impossible, but our feeling that accomplishing the goal will require too much effort. In effect, we give up in a race before even getting out of the starting block.

Counteract this inertia by rememberng that you can accomplish anything with perseverance and determination. Innumerable beings have gradually progressed over many lifetimes from the state of animals to the human realm. Then after a long time as human beings, they persevered and achieved enlightenment. Even insects like bees and flies can achieve enlightenment. So why should we fall short of courage now when we have all the necessary conditions inherent in a precious human life? As Shechen Gyaltsap says:

With familiarity, everything gets easier. Repeating your efforts over and over, you must train your mind.

The Tibetan word for meditation means familiarisation. We can train our mind step by step with perserverance and diligence. In doing so, we can progress on the bodhisattva path. Time and effort are necessary before you can accomplish the most heroic deeds of the bodhisattva. So practise with perserverance and diligence. Make the vow and refect on it during the meditation session. Then, try to put this aspiration into practice in post-meditation.

- Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche (2006) THE GREAT MEDICINE - A REMEDY THAT CONQUERS CLINGING TO REALITY, Shechen Publications.

有緣的上師重要還是具德的上師重要？

2010-11-09T18:20:00.001+08:00

有緣的上師重要還是具德的上師重要？根據甯瑪巴竹欽寺閉關中的一位指導導師的開示：

一、如果沒有遇見自己有緣的上師的話，即使面見了佛陀也是利益不大

如果沒有遇見自己有緣的上師的話，即使面見了佛陀也是利益不大；如果永遠沒有見到的話，那就不可能有成佛的機會；如果見到上師、聽到了教言自己又好好修持的話，佛陀的果位就一定能夠很快的得到。

二、具緣上師一定要在具德上師的範圍中找

如果要尋找一個具緣上師的話，一定要注意：必須要在具德上師的範圍內找，也就是說必須要先無疑的確定他是一個如法的，合乎佛經續部標準的上師。然後才可以去考慮他是不是具緣上師的問題。

三、僅因緣分就去依止是很愚癡的行為

如果你看到一個師父就覺得很喜歡，那最可能的原因不是因為他是你生生世世的上師，而是因為你們前世有某種親友關係，比如他是你前世的父母、愛人、朋友等等。不能因為頭腦一熱就自作多情的以為某人是你的有緣上師，有緣分是有緣分，但不一定能作你的上師。如果因為有“一見鍾情”的感覺，就把他當作自己生生世世解脫的導師的話，那無疑是輕率的、愚癡的，甚至也可以說是瘋狂的。

四、選擇上師是最重大的事情，千萬要理智，不能感情用事

有一天一個大成就者和他的侍者一起出門，路上偶然碰到一個陌生的小男孩，他們彼此從來沒有相見過，但是當小孩看到這個侍者的時候，突然就控制不住大哭起來。大成就者就告訴侍者說：“這個小男孩是你前世的妻子，前世你們感情特別好，所以今世見到你他才會這樣。”假如這個侍者到漢地去化緣，結果會是怎麼樣呢？肯定是在哭的一片淅瀝嘩啦以後認定為生生世世的根本上師了吧。實際上這個侍者才剛出家不久，連念經認字都還困難呢，更別說有什麼成就了。所以選擇上師是最重大的事情，千萬要理智，不能感情用事。

五。具緣雖然很重要，但是相對具德來講，具緣就不是什麼重要的問題了。

有的人可能提出疑問了，當時密拉日巴大師可沒觀察上師，只是第一次聽到馬爾巴上師的名字就去依止了呀。這是因為馬爾巴上師很早就成為了名震印度和西藏的大成就者了，這是所有人都知道的事情了，所以不需要再重複去觀察了，因為整個印度和西藏的佛教界已經觀察過了，已經得到公認的結論了，所以沒有必要再去觀察了，也就是說密拉日巴大師是在已經確定了具德的基礎上找到的具緣上師。
... ...
如果昔世沒有多世的修行，並與具德上師結下深緣，自己也沒有證悟，不一定有一位真正的“根本上師”。

正如昔世若未真正修持過本尊，也不一定有一位自己的真正的本尊一樣。

而我們現在值遇的上師，也一定是諸佛菩薩加持我們值遇的，也可能恰是有緣的上師加持我們值遇的。

<藍寶石>中，空行護法對全知龍欽巴尊者說，與您有緣的弟子，我們一定會為您找來。

假如說有緣，也可能，我們和當今不止一位具德上師過去世都接過緣。

我們可以先依止大恩上師仁波切聞思修行，因為，無論依止哪一位具德的有緣上師，要做的都是聞思修行。

很可能，還有一些有緣的具德上師，但今世，由於語言和傳法等條件不足，無法以講經說法的方式引領我們。

出處： http://www.bodhiinstitute.org/forums/index.php?topic=21471.0
延伸閱讀：http://www.bodhiinstitute.org/forums/index.php?topic=9424.0

No Life, No Death

2010-11-07T16:31:00.004+08:00

5 November is the anniversary of the parinirvana of H.H. 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje in 1981. An excerpt from Reginald A. Ray’s book Secret of the Vajra World – The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet (Shambhala, 2001) was reproduced, which presents the 1981 interview with Dr. Mitchell Levy, the 16th Karmapa’s personal physician, who was together with Karmapa during the last remarkable moments of his life.

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Early Illness

I first saw His Holiness in May of 1980. Now he had cancer and had come to America to get worked on and to see if he had any further cancer in his body. His cancer was on top of serious diabetes, which he had had much of his life. I was engaged as his primary physician at that time.

When he arrived, we did a full workup on him. That was somewhat uneventful. A few things do stick out in my mind about that period. First of all, there was a thread that began here and ran through all the rest of my contact with him as physician. There was nothing other than a feeling of business as usual from His Holiness’ point of view. This was just another experience, and this happened to be an experience of finding out whether his cancer was going to kill him or not. But, in a way, to him, it didn’t make any difference one way or the other. You could have been talking about chicken soup.

From this time until the moment when he died the next year, there was always this thread of basic and tremendously overwhelming presence. His warmth and the clarity of his own mind through all these experiences were unfailing. It was very simple. I would say, ‘Do you have this pain or do you have that pain?’ And we would get rather complex with our questions. Almost inevitably, our line of questions led to a lot of smiling on his part, and the response, ‘No, no, there is nothing.’ Then we would say, ‘Well, how about…?’ and he would say, ‘No,’ and we would say, ‘Well, how about…?’ and he would say, ‘No.’

We were always running into this kind of vastness of his state of mind. He was never willing to narrow things down and focus on himself. It is sort of like when you have questions about your meditation experience and you have the same feeling of just spinning your wheels. And he smiles at you. Well, the same thing would happen when we said, ‘Are you in pain? Are you having discomfort after eating?’ We would run into that same vast space.

I think that that was very much a teaching situation for the medical people taking care of him. All of us, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, saw that there was no end point for His Holiness even in medicine, in bodily things. It wasn’t, ‘Yes, now you have hit upon it. That is where I have my pain.’ We never got to that. So we would be frustrated and awed at the same time. The way he approached his own death is just another tool for working with others and trying to help them. I think this was a commonly shared experience among all of us taking care of him: wonderment and also confusion about why he wasn’t following what we thought he should be doing, and amazement at his warmth and concern for others, no matter what was happening to him. This was the thread that ran up until the moment he died.

The same day we did the workup, later we went in and had a meeting with His Holiness. I started to ask him the same sort of questions, and he would keep smiling and saying no or yes to certain of them.

Finally, at the end, he said to me, ‘There is one thing that is very important for you to understand. If I am needed here to teach sentient beings, if I still have work to do here, then no disease will ever be able to overcome me. And if I am no longer really required to teach sentient beings, then you can tie me down, and I will not stay on this earth.’ This was certainly an interesting way to get introduced to one’s patient.

Hong Kong

The second time I saw His Holiness was in Hong Kong a number of months later. The first thing that impressed me was how much more weight he had lost and how much weaker and sicker he was, and also, at the same time, how he hadn’t changed at all, in terms of his presence and his warmth.

There was still this person lying in this bed who was absolutely dying of cancer, and he looked like he could have been there for a tonsillectomy. Every time I would walk into the room, he would smile and light up, and my mind would stop. And I would think, ‘Wait a minute, who is taking care of whom here? He is supposed to be sick, not me.’ And I started to want to go, ‘Well, uh, here’s what happened to me yesterday.’

So, instead, I would look at him and say, ‘How are you today?’ And he would smile and say, ‘I’m okay.” And then I’d say, ‘Well, are you having any pain?’ And he would laugh and say, ‘No. Not today.’

This sort of became an ongoing joke of ‘You have to look at me like I am sick, so go ahead and do your job. You know, and we will both pretend, that this is what is really happening.’

This began to affect the nursing staff as well, because you have a fixed idea of what a sick, dying patient should be like, and he never would do it. He would always lie there and people would feel totally uncomfortable that they couldn’t help this ‘poor invalid person.’ And this is the way it happened over and over again. He was just there doing what needed to be done for everybody else.

What came out of my experiences in Hong Kong was the realization that His Holiness’ state of mind was fundamentally unchangeable and that he was continually helping those around him. He was especially helping the four young tulkus [in their teens and early twenties] who were with him, the Rinpoches whom he had been training at his monastery in Sikkim since their childhood. His Holiness was helping them to accept what was going on.
“When I got to Hong Kong, I began to ask myself, ‘Why is he dying now?’ And I began to watch the way he dealt with the younger tulkus. He had brought up the four major Kagyu tulkus, and for some reason it turned out that they were all the same age and ready to go out now and teach in the world. He was their daddy, in some real sense, and he had brought them up to this point, and now this was another step in their education, the fact that he was dying.

There was something that felt to me very right about the whole thing. To me, in many ways, he had fulfilled his life work. But this may be just my own simple-minded view.

The younger tulkus would say to me, ‘Oh, he has so much else to do, this thing and that thing.’ And I would think that if he lived another fifteen years, he would start more projects, and at the end of fifteen years they would still say, ‘How could be die now?’ You could never imagine His Holiness retiring. And so I really felt the consistency of the whole thing: he had very much brought the tulkus up to the point where they were ready to go out into the world, and now he was exposing them to death.

Trungpa Rinpoche said something that made sense to me, later, when the younger tulkus were having such a hard time. He said, ‘Well, if we were living in Tibet, we would see death all the time. A real charnel-ground quality. Even at a young age. On the other hand, having grown up at His Holiness’ monastery at Rumtek [Sikkim], and now having been exposed to the West, they are not that familiar with death.’

And now, given that it was His Holiness himself who was dying, they were initially unable to reconcile that for themselves. And in many ways, it felt as if he were teaching them about death. I couldn’t help but feel that he was letting his own death be drawn out so that they could just slowly come to grips with it and watch the process and explore it, so that they could digest it later on.

And that is also what impressed me in my experiences with His Holiness in Zion, Illinois, where he finally died. I saw His Holiness’ presence and realized how he was taking care of the tulkus. They were young, and they might have had varying degrees of realization, but still, emotionally and chronologically, in terms of living in the world, they were young. And so this was part of their own growth process.

Zion, Illinois, USA

The third time I saw His Holiness was near Chicago, in a cancer hospital in Zion, Illinois, at the time when he died. People there — the hospital staff as well as visitors-were just completely overwhelmed by him. To appreciate this, you have to keep in mind that ICU [intensive care unit] personnel are typically quite jaded. They see death all the time, and this is their work — and the reason they are good is that they aren’t too affected by it, they can ‘take care of business.’

So to see a staff like that be so overwhelmed by His Holiness’ gentleness was very impressive. And that is what happened. Most of them were Christian, and none of them knew the first thing about Buddhism, but they had no hesitancy whatever in calling him His Holiness. They never once said, ‘Karmapa,’ it was always ‘His Holiness.’

And people, after a while, couldn’t understand how he wasn’t having pain or responding in the way people do in his situation. Then they began to just feel so much concern about taking care of him.

As you know, each Karmapa is supposed to write a letter before he dies, indicating the circumstances of his next birth. The staff expressed concern about the letter. And it was so amazing to see, because, you see, everybody’s concern switched from ‘What are we going to do for this patient today?’ and ‘did you give him his bath?’ to ‘Did he write his letter? Is this lineage going to continue?’

They had a nurse in the intensive care unit who came to me one day with tears in her eyes and said, ‘I am so worried that this lineage is going to end here in this hospital.’ I mean, mind you, we were in Zion, Illinois. It’s a dry town. It is very traditionally Christian. So, to me, it was very moving to see how completely they were taken with His Holiness.

The staff couldn’t stop talking about his compassion and about how kind he seemed. After four or five days, the surgeon — a Filipino Christian — came up to me and he said, ‘You know, every time I go in to see His Holiness, I feel like I am naked and that he sees me completely and I feel like I should cover myself up.’

He kept saying to me, ‘You know, His Holiness is not an ordinary man. He really doesn’t seem like an ordinary person.’ And everybody kept having that experience before his final days. Just the force of his will and his presence were so powerful, that they were completely taken with it.

This was a continuation of what I had experienced in New York, which was that he just kept going, and whether he was in shock or eating grapes, there was some complete unchangeability about his state of mind that radiated to everybody, and no one knew how to compute it.

His Holiness really seemed to have changed a lot of the staff of doctors and nurses. As it was, we left books for them, and beyond that, people were saying to me, ‘You know, I am Christian and I don’t believe in Buddhism, but I have to say the His Holiness is a very unusual person.’ They said this almost apologetically, not knowing how to combine both beliefs, but so obviously and deeply touched by His Holiness.

As the days went on, His Holiness seemed to deteriorate physically. Then he did a few things that, from what the Rinpoches were telling me, had some precedents in his life. Apparently when he was thirteen or so, when he was very ill, the doctors came to see him and said that his illness was very, very serious and that he had only a matter of hours to live, or a day at most. You have to realize that Tibetan doctors will never say something this negative as long as there is any hope. They will never say something like this until they believe that imminent death is certain. Yet His Holiness paid no attention to them, and he recovered quickly. The doctors couldn’t understand how that had happened. But this was in Tibet, and it was perhaps easier for them to accept, him being His Holiness.

But the same thing happened in Zion. One day after examining him and finding that drastic deterioration had set in, I came out and said, ‘His Holiness has two hours to live, maybe three hours.’ He had every symptom I have seen in that situation, and he was going downhill very rapidly. Every system was failing. He was having trouble breathing, he was vomiting up blood and coughing up blood, his blood pressure was dropping, even on blood pressure support medication.

When you have worked with a lot of critically ill patients, you get a very definite feel when a patient is about to go. You just feel it because you see the stress their body is under, and you know that it won’t be able to carry on much longer. You know they are going to collapse. And so I could just feel it.

I said, ‘We should wake him up if you feel a letter is important.’ And so I woke him up with some medication that we have that reverses some of the sleepiness. "The tulkus said, ‘Will you excuse us, now we need to talk to His Holiness in private.’

They came out in about forty-five minutes and they said, ‘Well, His Holiness said that he is not going to die yet, and he laughed at us. He laughed at us!’ They said that a few times, ‘He just laughed at us. And he said, ‘Don’t give me that pad. I am not writing any letter.’

I walked into the room and he was sitting up in bed. Just up. And his eyes were wide open and the force of his will was immense, and he turned to me and said in English (of which he knew only a few phrases), ‘Hello. How are you?’

Finally, I gave him two amps of intra-cardiac epinephrine and adrenaline and there was no response. Calcium. No response. So we stopped and this was the point as which we finally gave up. I went outside to make the call to Trungpa Rinpoche to tell him that His Holiness had died.

After that, I came back into the room, and people were starting to leave. By this time, His Holiness had been lying there for maybe fifteen minutes, and we started to take out the NG tube, and as someone goes to pull the nasal gastric tube out of his nose, all of a sudden I look and his blood pressure is 140 over 80. And my first instinct, I shouted out, ‘Who’s leaning on the pressure monitor?’ I mean, I was almost in a state of panic: ‘Who’s leaning on the pressure monitor?’ I said to myself, ‘Oh, no, here we go again.’ Because I knew that for pressure to go up like that, someone would have to be leaning on it with… well, it wouldn’t be possible.

Then a nurse almost literally screamed, ‘He’s got a good pulse! He’s got a good pulse!’

And one of the older Rinpoches slapped me on the back as if to say, ‘This is impossible but it’s happening!" His Holiness’ heart rate was 80 and his blood pressure was 140 over 80, and there was this moment in that room where I thought that I was going to pass out.

And no one said a word. There was literally a moment of ’This can’t be. This can’t be.’ A lot had happened with His Holiness, but this was clearly the most miraculous thing I had seen. I mean that this was not just an extraordinary event. This would have been an hour after his heart had stopped and fifteen minutes after we had stopped doing anything.

After this happened, I ran out of the room again to call Trungpa Rinpoche and tell him that His Holiness was alive again. ‘I can’t talk. Goodbye.’

To me, in that room, it had the feeling that His Holiness was coming back to check one more time: could his body support his consciousness?’ He had been on Valium and morphine, and that disconnected him from his body. It felt to me that, all of a sudden he realized his body had stopped working, so he came back in to see if it was workable. Just the force of his consciousness coming back started the whole thing up again — I mean, this is just my simple-minded impression, but this is what it actually felt like, in that room.

His heart rate and blood pressure kept up for about five minutes, then it just petered out. It felt as if he realized that it wasn’t workable, that his body couldn’t support him anymore, and he left, he died.

Trungpa Rinpoche arrived at the hospital shortly after that, not knowing whether His Holiness was alive or not. So I had to tell him that he had died. And that was it. Those were his comebacks, which were very remarkable.

Even in death, His Holiness did not cease to amaze the Western medical establishment At forty-eight hours after his death, his chest was warm right above his heart. This was how it happened.

Situ Rinpoche [one of the younger tulkus] took me into the room where His Holiness was lying. First I had to wash my hands completely and put a mask on. And Situ Rinpoche walks in and puts his robe over his mouth, as if even breathing might disturb the samadhi of His Holiness. And he took my hand, and he put my hand in the center of His Holiness’ chest and then made me feel it, and it felt warm.

After about three days, His Holiness samadhi was still continuing. It was interesting, because the doctors and nurses were as concerned as the younger tulkus that we leave his body there and not move it until the samadhi ended. This was unusual, because ordinarily when someone dies, hospital staff want to get rid of the body as quickly as possible. That’s just the way we do it in the West.

After three days, the samadhi ended. You could tell because His Holiness was no longer warm, and rigor mortis finally set in. And also the atmosphere in the room changed, becoming more normal…

The entire experience had had very pronounced effects on everyone involved, especially the non-Buddhists, who were the majority of those there. Just to give one example, the assistant administrator, one of the people who had been close to these events, one night was reading in some of the books on Buddhism that someone had lent her. She came to me the next morning and said the thing that she liked about these books was that after reading them, they pretty much matched some conclusions that she had come to on her own. They really made sense to her. And so I think that people there made very powerful connections with His Holiness and Buddhism. It will be interesting to see who he brought in, even in his death…

Source from: http://voiceofsikkim.com/2010/11/05/05-november-an-anniversary-of-the-16th-karmapa’s-parinirvana/

無常是好消息

2010-11-06T23:42:00.002+08:00

資料來源：《近乎佛教徒》節選
作者：宗薩蔣揚欽哲仁波切

佛陀不是一個悲觀者、也不是末日論者，他是重視實際者，而我們卻多是逃避現實者。當他說一切和合皆是無常，他並不認為那是壞消息，而是簡單、科學的事實。根據你的觀點，以及對這個事實的瞭解，無常可以是通往啟發與希望、光榮與成功的大門。例如，全球暖化和貧窮是貪婪的資本主義條件下的產物，但這些不幸都是可以反轉的。這就是感謝和合現象無常的本質。我們不用依靠神的旨意這種超自然能力，只需要單純地瞭解和合現象的本質，就能扭轉乾坤。當你瞭解現象，就能操縱它們，因而影響因和緣。你可能會很驚訝地發現，像是拒用塑膠袋這樣小小的一步，就能延緩多少全球暖化的問題。

我們能認清因緣的不穩定，就會瞭解自己有力量轉化障礙，並且完成不可能的任務。生活中的各種層面都是如此。如果你現在沒有一台法拉利，你完全有可能創造出因緣而擁有一台。只要世上有法拉利，你就有機會去擁有它。同樣的，如果你想活久一點，可以選擇不抽煙和多運動。合理的希望是存在的。而絕望，和它的反面——盲信一樣，都是相信恒常的結果。

你不只可以改變外在的物質世界，也能改變內在的情緒世界。例如，經由放下野心，將焦慮的心轉化，讓它趨於平靜；或者為人和藹，樂善好施，以便營造好名聲。如果我們都能訓練自己去設身處地為他人著想，就能在家庭、鄰裡、國際間增長和平。

這些都是我們在世間法上如何影響和合現象的例子。悉達多也發現，即使最可怕的地獄與懲罰，也是和合而成，因此是無常的。地獄不是永遠存在於地底下某處，而受懲罰者永遠在那兒受折磨。它比較像是場惡夢。你夢到被一隻大象踐踏，這是由各種條件所產生的。首先，是你睡著了，其次，你可能有過與大象相處不愉快的經驗。不管惡夢持續多久，在那段時間裡，你是身處地獄。然後，因為鬧鐘的因緣，或者只是因為睡夠了，你醒了過來。那場夢就是暫時的地獄，而它和我們概念中“真正的”地獄，沒有什麼不同。

同樣的，如果你仇恨某人並採取攻擊或報復的行動，那本身就是地獄的體驗。仇恨、政治操作和報復在這個世界上造就了地獄，因此我們看到比AK-47步槍還矮、還小、還輕的男孩，忙著從軍而無暇遊戲或慶生。這與地獄無別。由於因緣，我們有了這種地獄，因此我們也可以利用佛陀教導的愛與慈悲，對治憤怒與仇恨，來離開這個地獄。

無常的概念並非預言世界末日或天啟，它也不是對人類罪惡的懲罰。它沒有本具的正面或負面，只不過是事物和合的過程之一部分而已。我們通常只想要無常的一半過程。我們只要生而不要死，只要得而不要失，只要考試的結束而不要它的開始。真正的解脫來自領受整個迴圈，而不是緊緊地抓住自己喜歡的部分而已。謹記因緣的變異與無常，不論是正面或負面的，我們就能善用它們。財富、健康、和平、名望，和它們的反面一樣，都是暫時的。而且悉達多當然不會偏好天堂美景或天堂經驗，它們也都是無常的。

我們也許不懂，為什麼悉達多說一切和合事物皆是無常？為什麼他不只說一切事物皆是無常就好？不提“和合”二字，只說一切事物無常，也是正確的。然而，我們要把握每個機會提醒自己這第一部分、這個和合本質，因而維繫這句話背後的邏輯。和合本質是很容易理解的事，但它有許多層次，要深切瞭解它，就需要時時謹記在心。

這世上一切存在或運作的事物，一切想像和實體所構成的、一切心中所想的，甚至心的本身，絕對不會永遠一成不變地存在。有些事情也許會持續你一生經驗那麼長，甚至可能延續到下一代，但是它們也可能消逝得比你預期的更早。不論如何，究竟會變化是無可避免的。這和或然率或機率沒有關係。如果你感到絕望，記得這一點，你就不會再有絕望的理由，因為讓你絕望的原因也將會改變。凡事都會改變。澳洲成為中國的一部分，荷蘭成為土耳其的一部分，不是不能想像的；你會致人於死或餘生困在輪椅上，也不是不可能的。你有可能成為億萬富翁、全人類的救世主、諾貝爾和平獎得主或是證悟的人。

Attachment Is Pain

2010-09-19T00:12:00.003+08:00

Another quote from Phakchok Rinpoche:

"In this life, it is very important to search out what attachments we have; to self, life, etc. The more attachment you have in this life, the more suffering you have. It’s really true. The more you think of yourself, the more you will suffer. Why? The cause of suffering is thinking of your own welfare. Understand? If you don’t think of yourself so much, and if you are a little sick, it’s Okay. If you have much attachment, even if you’re only a little bit sick, then you cry out, “Oh, my leg, it's pain, my neck, it's pain! Oh!” A good practitioner, even with head pain or cancer inside the stomach, will not cry, will not say, “Ah." He will just be like he was before. Normal people will say, “Ahhh! Please give medicine! No! Pain is coming!” Why is it like this? Why is it different? They’re both human beings, what is the difference? You can control all suffering from you mind. If you can control your mind you can control all suffering. If you can control your mind you can control all happiness."

Glorious 'I', Problem Mind

2010-09-18T23:56:00.007+08:00

Email from Phachok Rinpoche on 18 Sep 2010:

************************************************************

Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening,

Wherever you all are, I hope that you have all been well and happy. And now here is my friendly reminder on this Guru Rinpoche Day.

A genuine motivation leads to a genuine practice.

Practicing the Dharma is very important, but at the same time, you need to know how to practice the Dharma properly. Just by doing some kind of practice or meditation or reciting a sadhana like a daily chore is not sufficient.

In order to practice the Dharma well, it is most essential to have a pure motivation, a selfless motivation. A motivation that is drawn specifically towards benefitting all sentient beings:

May all sentient beings find happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.

When you practice the Dharma, it is also very important to be mindful of your emotions and your chain of thoughts. Watch them close. See and reflect. How is that negative emotion arising? While arising, how soon are you getting attached to it? And how soon is your mood shifting? How easy to be changed, this mind, your mind!

Maintaining the practice is to know how to reduce the negative emotions.
Being free from mood swings and fleeting emotions.
Being free from this kind of impermanence.
Therefore, just look.

For those of you who think you don’t need to practice the above method thinking you are somewhat superior, the very fact that this thought occurred, I would like to specifically urge this “SUPERIOR YOU” to constantly check and reflect.

More so,

We all like to think.
We all like to feel.
We all like to do what we like.
All based on the likes of this glorious “I”.

But where is this liking coming from?
Where is this liking now?
And where is this liking going?
What a marvelous display of the mind!

The problem is itself created by the mind.
The problem is itself solved by the mind.
By resting in the natural state of the mind,
You are naturally freed from the entrapments of the mind.

This is taught by the Great Masters of the past, repeatedly.

In order to receive their blessings and take to heart their generous advice rooted deeply in the most genuine of motivation, you should follow them and work towards making your practice genuine and grounded. And the key here is meditation and more meditation.

The timing doesn’t matter, at first just sit and meditate. No matter what your experiences are, don’t get attached to them. Just sit and watch.

This is my simple and abrupt message on this Guru Rinpoche Day.

Sarva Mangalam,
Phakchok Rinpoche

Finding Our True Home

2010-09-14T22:47:00.007+08:00

On 8-12 Sep 2010, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Vietnamese Zen master, was in Singapore to lead a retreat. When I just started to be slightly more inclined towards Buddhism, maybe in year 2001 or 2002, his is the first Buddhist book I purchased. Its title "Finding Our True Home" is a beautiful, poetic, inspiring book of Sukhavati. And he lived his life as beautiful and inspiring as well. I knew of him as like HH Dalai Lama, who was a ardent peace activist, who is not afraid to speak up critically against violence esp. during the Vietnam war, which because of his efforts had got him nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize but got him exile from his own country too. For almost half a century, he lived in US and France. To me, he is one of those ideal great bodhisattvas who not only sit on high thrones and preach Dharma but stand by all of us and fight for lasting peace and injustice.

His focus for his entire talk on 11 Sep is the importace to stay mindful and aware, as he puts it "mindful breathing, mindful walking." In short, by staying mindful every moment, we can bring out our already beautiful Buddhanature and compassion within us. Here are some wonderful quotes I had 'jotted' down via my handphone. Simple words, but very profound to even have a glimpse of the true essence of these words...

"Amitabha is our true nature. And Pureland is in our heart. If we know buddha is our nature, we'll not have to go outside to look for buddha...and we'll be like waves, enjoying the up and down, knowing that our nature is water."

"The kingdom of god is now or never! Wherever I am, my Pureland is with me...Amitabha is here and now and right within us."

"Dear Buddha, not only I am empty. You are also empty. You are in me and I am in You. You cannot exist without me and I cannot exist wthout You. This is the teaching of interbeing."

For Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh's complete teachings in Singapore, please refer to http://plumvillage.org/dharma-talks/mp3/252-2010-dharma-talks-from-south-east-asia-tour.html

Knowing the Mind's Root, All will be Freed

2010-09-14T22:35:00.003+08:00

The Great Master of Oddiyana once said:
Don't investigate the roots of things,
Investigate the root of Mind!
Once the Mind's root has been found,
You'll know one thing, yet all is thereby freed.
But if the root of Mind you failed to find,
You'll know everything but nothing understood.

- Dudjom Rinpoche (2004) COUNSELS FROM MY HEART, Shechen Publications

On Afflictive Emotions and Mindfulness

2010-09-06T13:58:00.000+08:00

On Significance of Doing Prostration

2010-09-03T16:25:00.001+08:00

On Stronger Devotion to Miracle Power & Empowerment

2010-09-03T16:23:00.005+08:00

On Misconception that Vajrayana is Higher than Other Tradition & Loneliness As Dharma Practitioner

2010-09-03T16:23:00.003+08:00

On Guru & Student Relationship

2010-09-03T16:15:00.001+08:00

On the Meaning of Karma

2010-09-01T12:59:00.002+08:00

On the Quality of a Buddhist

2010-09-01T12:47:00.007+08:00

Always Preparing for the Next...

2010-08-30T22:36:00.003+08:00

Another similar circumstance to follow up on the previous post...

By Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (Parting from the four attachments, Nepal June 2009)

Jetsun Rinpoche Drakpa Gyaltsen says all we do is just prepare, set up for the next one, next event. This morning we are setting up and preparing for this afternoon. This afternoon we are preparing and setting up for this evening. This evening we preparing and setting up for the next morning. This goes on and on and on. So the aim of the preparation just never occurs. All we do is prepare and prepare. Why? Because grasping, story, getting entangled with the story, getting caught by the story, and you get emotionally involved of course, all of that. That is why we have to cultivate this wisdom.

http://goosebumps4all.net/justdzongsar/

A Travel Bug's Story

2010-08-30T21:23:00.006+08:00

When I was travelling alone, I love to take pictures. My mindset is I want to capture whatever and as many scenes that will be memorable to me during the trip as possible.

Sometimes, I feel really silly in doing so. I realised I was always looking for the moment to capture a shot that is of meaning to me. I realised I couldn't rest my mind in the beauty of the moment, to appreciate the moments that are constantly slipping away. I realised I was sometimes tensed up in order to wait for the precise moment to press down on the shuttle, only to get frustrated whenever the camera reacted too slow, thus missing the moment. My mind was forever chasing and looking everywhere. But I realised I did not always stop to truly look.

Then, when I looked back at those pictures taken, sometimes I felt a little regret. I realised that pictures are so limited. It doesn't matter how wide the camera lens are, it just doesn't work. I realised there's only so much I can capture and I can never entirely capture the exact moment, the exact atmosphere, the exact things that I see. They are gone, forever gone. Yet, I had never stopped to see how they come, how they stay and how they go, in front of my eyes. Like a fool, I consoled myself -- at least I had some memory of the journeys that once meant a lot to me. There'll be more regrets if I have no photos at all. I trust the camera, a lifeless machine more. After all, I still find it hard to trust my memory, as memory fades with passing time -- at least for mine, it does. There are so many things I can't remember anymore. It's only when I see the photos I go 'A-ha! I remembered this...' And I do not want to end up with no memory, no past at all.

And it's through this, I realised I'm still attached to the past. So what am I going to do about this? Maybe nothing... for now. For I still love the other parts of the world more, I still love the past more. It's obvious I'm still in samsara, and so the outside will always be so much more attractive than the inside and now...

Maybe this post doesn't make sense, maybe it does -- It doesn't really matter. I can't even make sense of myself, how can I expect to make sense to others?

Solo in Kathmandu

2010-08-26T21:38:00.005+08:00

It had been a very long time since my last post. Been busy all the way up to the last minute I boarded the plane to Kathmandu last week.

This is my most ill-prepared trips so far. No plan why I wanted to go there -- except to see what I can do for my friend for the Himalayan village project. Most importantly, I just knew I badly needed a break from the craze of workplace. So I just bought an air ticket online to Kathmandu, with no concrete plan of what I'm going to do, where I want to go, in the foreign land.

I didn't plan for anything. And as I like to plan for my itineraries, this thought is scary and daunting. Yet, there were expectations. I thought I could catch up with my friends there and they could bring me around. Expectation -- that's what causes the biggest disappointment in life. And that was what it had done to me when prior expectations fell apart one-by-one, when previous promises couldn't be fulfilled. It actually came to a point I didn't look forward for this trip at all.

Then, I decided to just leave it as it is -- no more expectations. I just (and choicelessly could only) let things go naturally and let whatever that should happen during the trip happened...

And I was grateful that it had turned out to be one of my most fruitful and unforgettable trips as I got to spend some very precious time with my most respected guru. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience to me to be so close to the teacher. I really cherished the time together -- the lunch, the sharing and jokes, the car rides and the stay at his monastery. Although he was a very high lama on the Karma Kagyu merit field, his humility, friendliness and down-to-earth nature was what made him so easy to relate to, like a father. Yet, approachable he is, I always remembered how uptight and nervous I would be whenever I come in his presence -- and this seemed to remind me at the same time this old saying: "to be too close to your guru, it burns."

Because I had no prior expectation towards him, I was very happy and contented for the every moment I spent with him. I think this was the biggest take-home message for this trip. Maybe to a certain extent, we'll be happier if we can live our life in this way too -- without expectations, without future plans, relax, be natural and just appreciate whatever comes. After all, it's better to have unexpected surprises than unfulfilled expectations in our life.

Counsels From My Heart

2010-08-03T23:39:00.021+08:00

To my Lord of Dharma, peerless kind,
My glorious Lama, homage!
His lotus feet I place
Upon my chakra of great bliss.

Here is my advice,
Some counsel useful for your mind.

Not to keep yourself from evil actions

is to have no pratimoksha.

Not to work for others' welfare

is to have no bodhicitta.

Not to master pure perception

is to have no Secret Mantra.

If illusions don't collapse,

there is no realisation.

If you opt for one side or the other,

that is not the View.

If you have a goal in your mind,

that is not the Meditation.

If your conduct's a contrivance,

that is not the Action.

If you hope and wish,

you'll have no Fruit.

Those with faith will go for refuge;

Those who have compassion will have bodhicitta;

Those with wisdom will gain realisation;

Those who have devotion harvest blessings.

Those who have a sense of shame are careful how they act;

Careful in their actions, they are self-possessed;

Self-possessed, they keep their vows and pledges;

Keeping vows and pledges, they'll have accomplishment.

Peaceful self-control: the sign of one who's heard the teachings!

Few defiled emotions are the mark of one who meditates.

Harmony with others is the sign of one who practises.

A blissful heart is witness to accomplishment.

The root of Dharma is your very mind.

Tame it and you're practising the Dharma.

To practise Dharma is to tame your mind --

And when you tame it, then you will be free.

- By Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje (1904 - 1987), COUNSELS FROM MY HEART (2004), Shechen Publications

Benefits of Tsok Offering

2010-07-27T23:06:00.005+08:00

Email from Phakchok Rinpoche on Guru Rinpoche Day (22 July 2010):

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Tsok offering in Sanskrit is called ganachakra, which if translated in Tibetan means tsok kyi khorlo, a wheel of accumulation. Accumulation of merit and wisdom are the two supreme elements needed in clearing away the cloud of obscurations obscuring us from realizing our buddha nature. And the practice of performing tsok offering is one of the skillful ways of swiftly accumulating and purifying our obscurations and mending our broken samayas.

In most of Guru Rinpoche’s termas or hidden treasures, it is mentioned that performing tsok offering can generate tremendous merit. And in certain historical notes, there are even incidences of Guru Rinpoche physically appearing in person and blessing the practitioner calling upon him with unwavering devotion and granting him/her with supreme siddhis.

Though we are all engaged in different methods or practices with their distinct tsok sadhanas on the path to buddhahood, but eventually they all lead to the accumulation of wisdom and merit and the purification of obscurations. For those of you who perform tsok offerings on days like Guru Rinpoche day (10th) and Dakini day (25th) of the lunar calendar, for the purpose of tendral or for the auspiciousness of all, I would like to suggest that you all supplicate to Guru Rinpoche first by reciting the Vajra Seven Line Prayer and then start with your tsok practice. And for those of you who are not yet familiar with the practice of tsok offering, reciting the prayer at least three times on those days will be highly beneficial for your practice on the path.

In one of the terma revelations of Guru Chöwang, one of the five Terton Kings, it is stated, when praying with the seven lines,

Pray in this way, over and over again.

Create a feeling of yearning and longing

So intense that tears spring from your eyes.

If the rapture of devotion overwhelms you,

Breathe out strongly, and then leave everything as it is.

Clear and awake, focused and undistracted, look within.

The Vajra Seven Line Prayer: Supplication to Guru Rinpoche - Invoking the Guru with unwavering devotion

HUNG

ORGYEN YUL GYI NUB JANG TSAM

In the north-west of the land of Orgyen,

PEMA KESAR DONGPO LA

In the heart of a lotus flower,

YATSEN CHOK GI NGÖ DRUP NYÉ

Endowed with the most marvelous attainments,

PEMA JUNG NÉ SHYÉ SU DRAK

You are renowned as the Lotus-born,

KHOR DU KHANDRO MANGPÖ KOR

Surrounded by many hosts of dakinis.

KHYÉ KYI JÉ SU DAK DRUP KYI

Following in your footsteps

CHIN GYI LAP CHIR SHEK SU SOL

I pray to you: come and bless me with your grace!

GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUM

History of the Vajra Seven Line Prayer:- Prayers of invitation of Guru Rinpoche to the assembly of feast offerings by Vajra Dakinis (Dorje Khandromas)

Heretical teachers who reviled the dharma once challenged Buddhist scholars at Nalanda through their scholarship in logic and different languages. Unable to refute the heretics and in desperation they called upon the vajra dakas and dakinis. And in their dreams appeared Dakini Zhiwa Chog (Supreme Peace) who prophesied, "You will not be able to defeat the heretics. If you do not invite here my elder brother, Dorje Thöthreng Tsal (Vajra Skull-Garland Power, Guru Rinpoche), who lives at the Dark Cemetery, the Dharma will be destroyed."

She then instructed the scholars to set up a grand tsok offering on the roof of the monastery and gave them the prayer of the Vajra Seven Line Prayer. The scholars recited the seven lines, and in an instant Guru Rinpoche came miraculously from the sky. He presided over the Buddhist scholars and defeated the heretics.

In the above seven-line prayer, the guru is only symbolized in the outer or the physical form, his appearance in a manifested form. In terms of the inner and the secret meaning of the seven-line prayer, emptiness and co-emergent wisdom respectively are manifested.

Sealing the tsok offering with the ultimate aspiration of bodhichitta, may all sentient beings benefit tremendously from this feast offering and may the cloud of obscurations clear away and may the blazing sun shine through.

Dudjom Rinpoche in Singapore

2010-07-25T23:56:00.006+08:00

A few days ago, it was purely by chance that I met Dudjom Rinpoche. He was in transit for 4 days in Singapore as he was on his way to Indonesia. It was really a great joy to see him and have lengthy discussions with him over my 2 night visits as I went to see him after attending teachings from my guru Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche.

Initially, I've absolutely no intention of wanting to meet him. I heard about the previous Dudjom Rinpoche through HH the 16th Karmapa from His DVD. Because of my busybody nature and since I had heard this name before, I thought ok and sneaked out during lunch hour when my friend asked me to accompany her to the hotel that Rinpoche was staying. Then, as I was waiting for my friend at the hotel, I saw a layperson in Bhutanese/ Tibetan style layperson clothes came out of the hotel and went into a taxi alone. Since I couldn't recognise him, I missed the chance. My friends and I tried again the same day after evening's teachings and we waited for almost half an hour. It was almost 11 pm before he returned to his hotel and it was then we got to see him.

How glad I was that we were persistent. There was this unusual joy as I experienced how spontaneous, sincere, wise and close he is and to think he is not even 20 years old! Oh wow!! His wisdom truly swept me off my feet. I'm very impressed. Perhaps it's no big deal and I was plainly ignorant -- as this simply shows the great quality of the mind of a highly realised master.

Many things he talked about during our lengthy discussions. And some of the most important things he said are that whatever Dharma we learned is only the skin. We have to dig deep into the bones to really experience the true Dharma -- and that is only through meditation we can do so. Speaking about the matter on 'true and fake' masters which can be a complex issue, he only have 1 advice -- "Even if a master is real, if you think he is fake, to you, he is fake." The key words lies in 'to you'. To us -- so it doesn't matter so much if a master is real or not, but to learn and follow whoever master you have a strong connection with, with faith and devotion. That's the key. Yet, on the other hand, once we follow one master, we shouldn't judge the other(s) masters. He advised we should just leave it as that.

Now that he had left, I'm already looking forward to see him again in Singapore in August!

A Powerful Message by a Powerful Yogi - Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche

2010-07-15T17:45:00.004+08:00

Kyabje Chatral Sangye Dorjee Rinpoche is one of the most accomplished Tibetan Buddhist Yogis alive today. He was born in June, 1913 in Kham, Tibet. He rescues millions of animals each year and has been a strict vegetarian for over forty five years. Now in his 90's, he is as active as ever, helping humans and animals alike with an unfathomably deep compassion. TVA had an exclusive interview with the Yogi himself on 29th May, 2005 in Nepal. Ven Khenpo Dorjee Tsering and Jamphel Rabten transcribed the Rinpoche's speech and Chonyid Zangmo translated it.

****************************

I was the first to become vegetarian since we came to India. The first year of the Nyingma Monlam in Bodh Gaya was non-vegetarian. In the second year I came there and spoke at a meeting of all the high Nyingma Lamas. I told them that Bodh Gaya is a very special place which is holy to all Buddhists, and if we say we are gathered here for the Nyingma Monlam and yet eat meat, this is a disgrace and the greatest insult to Buddhism. I said they should all give up meat from now on, during the Nyingma Monlam. Even the Tibetan lamas and monks eat meat! What a shame if even the lamas can't give up meat! First the lamas should commit themselves to being life-long vegetarians. If the Lamas become vegetarian, and then you can address the lay people. Then also you should urge the monks to become vegetarian. Otherwise if knowledgeable religious people eat meat, how can one expect the ignorant public, who follow along just like sheep, to become vegetarian?

Earlier in the Sakyapas, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo abstained from meat and alcohol. From then on gradually in the Nyingmapas there was Ngari Pandita Pema Wangyal, an emanation of King Trisong Detsen. He was a vegetarian all his life. Also the non-sectarian Lama Zhabkar Tsogdrug Rangdrol: he was born in Amdo and was a heavy meat-eater, but when he went to Lhasa and saw the many animals being slaughtered in the butchers' district of Lhasa, he became vegetarian for the rest of his life. Many of his disciples also became vegetarian. Many others - Sakyapas, Gelugpas, Kagyudpas and Nyingmapas - have done like this and become vegetarian.

In Kongpo, Gotsang Natsog Rangdrol told his monks to abstain from meat and alcohol. Because the Kongpo Tsele Gon monks wouldn't obey his orders, he became angry with them and went to Gotsang Phug in lower Kongpo, and stayed there in isolated retreat for 20-30 years. Abstaining from non-virtuous actions such as eating meat and drinking alcohol, he attained realization and became known as Gotsang Natsog Rangdrol, a highly qualified teacher. Similarly, Nyagla Pema Dudul abstained from meat and alcohol. He meditated in isolated hermitages for 20-30 years, not relying on people's food but rather nourishing himself on the essence of rocks and earth, and attained rainbow body. He is known as "Pema Dudul who attained rainbow body." He lived at the time of Nyagke Gonpo Namgyal. It happened like that.

When I was in Bhutan, sometimes meat would be served during big ceremonies or pujas for dead people. This killing of animals for the dead person is an obstacle for the spiritual evolution of the dead and an impediment on the path to liberation. It is of no benefit to the dead person.

The people in the Himalayan region are all Buddhist. Some of the Tamang and Sherpa lamas are ignorant. Because they want to eat meat and drink alcohol, they say that it is necessary since they are followers of Guru Rinpoche, who ate meat and drank alcohol. But Guru Rinpoche was born miraculously, not like those Lamas who were born from human parents. Guru Rinpoche is known as the Second Buddha. The teacher of the Sutras is Shakyamuni and the teacher of the tantras is the omniscient Guru Rinpoche, who prophesied exactly what will happen in the future. Abstaining from meat is a means of attaining world peace. I have given up meat, and I also don't eat cake since it contains eggs. Eating meat and eating eggs is the same. An egg will hatch into a chicken. A chicken is a sentient being. For example, there is no difference between killing the unborn fetus in a pregnant woman and killing the child after it is born; the killing is the same negative action. This is the reason why I don't eat eggs.

Your work is not useless - it is very useful. This message is not just for Buddhist; everyone who thinks and reasons can understand it. Especially all the learned scientists and doctors should think about this: are smoking and meat-eating beneficial? As an indication of this, who has a longer life span, smokers or non-smokers? Who has more illnesses, smokers or non-smokers? You university students can think about all the reasons and figure it out. I only speak Tibetan; I don't speak other languages. But I have studied the Buddha's outer vinaya and inner vajrayana teachings. Especially I have studied the Dzogchen writings of many scholars and yogis. They all say that abstaining from meat is good for longevity.

If I consider my own family, there is no one else who has lived beyond 60; all my relatives are dead. But because I left my homeland and abstain from meat and smoking, I am now 93 years old. I can still walk, sit and get around everywhere by car and plane. A few days ago I went to Lhakhang Gon in Helambu, where they are building a new Sherpa monastery.

You asked me to talk about the reasons for becoming vegetarian, and what I have told you may be publicized. What I have told you is all true, not a lie. It is based on the Buddhist scriptures, the teachings of the gurus, and on my own experience, not on the words of a few people who claim to be scholars.

That is why you should publicize this message. I also rejoice in your virtue. Your actions are definitely virtuous. You should continue your campaign to educate the lay people, and also the ordained people. You should tell it to the lamas and Tulkus who sit on high thrones and think they are important, and also to those of the lowest rank, to the monastic communities and also to the public, to those worldly people in high position with common sense who can reason for themselves and also to those without common sense.

This is what I have to say. You have asked this frail old man to speak, so I have told you my heart advice.

There is a need for this message and the reasoning to be publicized; there is nothing in this message that should be withheld.

Dedication:

May all sentient beings be happy.

May all the lower realms be empty forever.

Wherever the Boddhisattvas live,

May this prayer be realized.

From : http://www.moonpointer.com/bvf.php?itemid=2651

“I Know” Mantra

2010-07-14T17:46:00.003+08:00

A new Dharma friend I knew on Facebook, Khenpo Pasang, wrote this on his Wall post, which I felt make so much sense.

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Someone who is interested in Dharma - I want to send you some suggestion message here. I am sure most of you hear many Dharma teachings, but I think many of you will chant this mantra, “I know, I know.” I’ve heard the “I know” mantra chanted 100 times in a single conversation. Really! I think...it means, “I’ve got it, so don’t make me listen to it again…”

You’re all really smart, but in the case of the Dharma, repeating a teaching is not just for your conceptual mind. Once your conceptual brain understands, you think you understand. But that kind of understanding is not enough because repetition is for your mind’s emotional understanding. In order to feel the teachings deep down, the Dharma needs to take root in the alaya, your unconscious mind. Only then can the Dharma grow from the inside and be true nourishment for how you live.

I think this takes a lot of repetition. That’s why you need to hear the teachings 100,000 times or more, even a million, a billion times. Then, the preciousness of a teaching will stay with you. It’s the same as conceptually understanding the View and then meditating on it. It takes many, many, many years until it becomes part of you. First, you contemplate and then you rest in the View.

Agree to Disagree

2010-07-09T15:28:00.003+08:00

A good and relevant advice by Venerable Thubten Chodron (from WORKING WITH ANGER), which is incidentally a view I always try to take wherever possible on how to handle situations when non-Buddhists criticise Buddhism:

"That's their opinion. They're entitled to have it. Of course, we don't agreed with it. Sometimes, we may suceed in correcting another's misconceptions, but sometimes people are very close-minded and don't want to change their views. That's their business. Just leave it.

We don't need others' approval to practise Dharma. But we do need to be convinced in our hearts that what we do is right. If we are, then others' opinions aren't important. Others' criticisms don't hurt the Dharma or the Buddha. The path to enlightenment exists whether others recognise it as such or not. We don't need to be defensive.

In fact, if we become agitated when others criticise Buddhism, it indicates we are attached to our beliefs -- that our egos are involved so we feel compelled to prove our beliefs are right. When we are secure in what we believe, others' criticisms don't disturb our peace of mind. Why should it? Criticisms doesn't mean we are stupid or bad. It simply anothers' opinion, that's all."

Do check out ebook AGREE TO DISAGREE; CONVERSATIONS ON COVERSION http://conversion.buddhists.sg/

大实话

2010-06-18T17:29:00.000+08:00

問：家人不支持，反對我學佛怎麼辦？　　
上師答：那是你沒有學好。學好了，家人歡喜得很！　　

2、問：那怎樣是學好？　　
上師答：處處沒有自己，處處理解、幫助別人。　　

3、問：愛人因為我學佛，要跟我離婚怎麼辦？　　
上師答：要麼做個好居士，要麼做個好和尚。　　

4、問：我唸經、磕頭，家人反對怎麼辦？　　
上師答：那就幫家人掃地、做飯、洗衣服。不從心地上驅除自私，不從行動上慈悲他人，家人怎麼不反對？　　

5、問：為什麼我經常放生，可是還是很不順？　　
上師答：放生不是交易。　　

6、問：如何念佛才能有加持？　　
上師答：無私（無我）念佛，就有加持。　　

7、問：什麼是娑婆世界和極樂世界的界限？　　
上師答：念佛念到心誠時，自然知道。　　

8、問：怎麼會著魔？　　
上師答：自私心重、我見深、忘不了我、自私自利、一切為自己的人，容易著魔。　　

9、問：念佛一念，罪滅河沙，要怎麼念才能有這樣的功效呢？　　
上師答：無我無貪地念。　　

10、問：唸經時，總是打妄想，怎麼辦？　　
上師答：繼續念！　　

11、問：有人罵我、害我，怎麼辦？　　
上師答：那就謝謝他！學佛連自己都放不下，還學什麼？　　

12、問：怎麼才能成佛？　　上師答：先要學會做人。　　

13、問：在外面應酬多，可以吃肉喝酒嗎？　　
上師答：你願意吃毒藥，誰也沒有辦法。　　

14、問：家裡做些不好的事情時，要把佛像蓋住以示恭敬嗎？　　
上師答：掩耳盜鈴。　　

15、問：家裡環境不如意，無心修行怎麼辦？　　
上師答：地獄、鬼道更不如意。　　

16、問：怎麼修行可以知道自己的前世？　　
上師答：你應該問怎麼修行，可以知道自己的來世。　　

17、問：念佛會耽誤工作，怎麼辦？　　
上師答：吃飯睡覺也耽誤工作。　　

18、問：沒時間、沒條件做功課，怎麼辦？　　
上師答：做什麼事情，都不會耽誤你喘氣呼吸。　　

19、問：顯宗好還是密宗好？　　
上師答：爸爸好，還是媽媽好？　　

20、問：學佛如何改因果？　　
上師答：改的不是因果本身，而是改的面對因果的心。　　

21、問：師父有一些缺點，我不能接受，怎麼辦？　　
上師答：你的缺點，別人不能接受，怎麼辦？　　

22、問：為什麼我越學佛越痛苦？　　
上師答：為什麼你越學越貪，越自私？　　

23、問：怎麼讓學其他宗教的人一起來學佛？　　
上師答：菩薩隨機示顯，方便接引，眾生皆得得度。佛以安拉之身，去度應以安拉之身得度者；以上帝之名，去攝受應以上帝身得度者。　　

24、問：動物很可憐，怎麼才能讓大家不殺它們？　　
上師答：都來念佛。　　

25、問：外面的乞丐太多，而且分不出真假，怎麼佈施啊？　　
上師答：問問你的慈悲心是真還是假。　　

26、問：現在沒有時間念佛，等以後退休再念，可以嗎？　　
上師答：可以。如果你自信明天、明年、退休時，你還能活著。　　

27、問：我們什麼時候也可像您一樣沒有很多煩惱？　　
上師答：放下的越多，得到的越多。　　

- 宮不多吉

引用：http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!lptqJfeaHxrK3A0v2xD0JjxF9JE-/article?mid=9605

Dealing With Criticisms

2010-06-14T22:26:00.002+08:00

Bad reputation is very powerful to use for your practice, and it should be used that way. As a Kadampa geshe once said, "If someone criticizes you, this destroys your mistakes; it blows away immediately one’s own mistakes. If you are praised, it causes pride/the ego to inflate and causes great pride." …

Transforming bad conditions into happiness by looking at them as positive, favorable conditions is the way to make problems, bad conditions, beneficial, by using them as the path to enlightenment. How? Meditating on loving kindness and bodhichitta destroys the ego. We use them as a weapon to destroy the self-cherishing thought, which brings all obstacles. So, meditate on bodhichitta and wisdom.

In your case, use all the criticism and bad reputation, whether it is a result of your mistake or not, to destroy your ego and self-cherishing thought, which blocks one from achieving enlightenment. As long as self-cherishing abides in one’s heart, it stops one achieving enlightenment and benefiting all sentient beings. You can think of the kindness of the other person that helps you to destroy your ego. Usually, you are always supporting your ego, even developing it. Now, this person (the enemy) is helping to destroy your self-cherishing thought, so what is regarded as your enemy is really your most kind friend!

What we do is use undesirable situations, loss, etc., as experiences to be of most benefit to all sentient beings. This is not just making one’s own life emotionally happy, for some temporary peace.

There are other thought transformation teachings – so many ways you can make your life experience most beneficial for yourself and others. The essence is – if you are happy, make it beneficial for sentient beings; if you are suffering, use it as the cause to bring happiness to others. This way, whatever kind of life experience you have, use it on the path. There is no interruption to Dharma practice, and one’s life is most beneficial.

Go Tsampa said, "Others’ mistakes are one’s own mistakes. Clarify the appearance of the mistake into the deity." This means, however one is treated is the result of one’s own negative karma. Even if others create a bad reputation for you, and there is no apparent cause from your side to experience the result, still, you have to have created the cause. You can see what this yogi is saying. The second part of this technique is looking at that person as the guru, even visualizing that person in the form of a deity. This stops anger and negative emotional thoughts arising and the suffering results of those.

Karog Geshe said, "Experiencing this small suffering now finishes past negative karma, and there will be happiness in future lives. Because it finishes past negative karma, be happy for the suffering."

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche, from "Criticism" in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book freely distributed by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

Money Issues

2010-06-13T17:04:00.004+08:00

Ever since I started my learning journey in Vajrayana Buddhism, I had met some amazing Dharma friends from all over the world. Their dedication to the Buddhadharma and faith to their teachers are simply inspiring.

Here I would like to share this particular conversation I had with one of my American friends. It struck me deep, and I guessed it may be a good point to ponder about for some of you.

My friend had been staying near her teacher and doing her formal Dharma practice for many, many years in India. I had always been curious about how she managed her daily living since she was not working for a renumeration. If it were previously, I will not have probed too much into such personal things. But for now, since I have some short-term plan in mind, this question becomes quite relevant to me. Recently, I'm a little more cautious about saving -- athough it hasn't reach the stage of tightening my belt to the extent that I starve myself or lead a more stifling life so that I can save more, I do find myself thinking much more on this issue these days. So been very curious, I asked her how she managed her finances -- does her family members support her? Or does she do some work for a small allowance? etc.

Her answer is kind of unexpected. Nope, her family members don't support her financially. She replied that in her first few years in India, she used to worry all the time about what she would do when she run out of money - just like I do. And now, she said she had already arrived at the stage when she doesn't have any more money. So, she said she had no money to worry about!!!

Ok this is a really scary thought for me -- and I continued to ask if she actually feels the same.

She answered - yes, it is very scary until you already went through everything else and now you are here without a single cent. Yet, you are still doing fine. Nothing has happened -- the floor didn't fall out from under you. She even joked that if I were her, I will be getting fatter and fatter! Finally, she said and that's a crucial point, "If you really practice, the money you need will appear in all sorts of ways."

This reminded me of a story - when you are a beggar, you have nothing to lose since your only possessions are only a walking stick and a begging bowl. However, if you're a rich person who cannot let go of your wealth, you'll have a very heavy burden since you'll have a lot to lose. For your entire life, you will have this huge baggage and constant worry of how to guard / protect your wealth and assets. Your mind will not be able to rest, since you fear constantly; you even fear the people around you as you're uncertain if they come close to you for ulterior motives. Even when these people are sincere, you can't trust them because your mind is too fixated, too preoccupied, too obsessed with your wealth, such that it cannot let go and rest. Impure perceptions arise -- all because of a mind that clings, that attaches to wealth, to materialism (In fact, any kind of attachment, not necessarily money alone, causes impure perceptions to arise.)

This is what happens to most of us -- even though we are not rich, because of the fact we have accumulated some money, we feel attached to our money to the extent it becomes unthinkable, unimaginable if there comes a day we lose them and when we have less or no more money.

I'm not implying we need not save and in Singapore, surely life would be impossible without any money. Here, the point is we don't realise we have so much fear and insecurity with the wealth we earned in this materialistic society. From my friend's example, it took her the total expenditure of all her money to completely expend her fear for the lack of money -- and because now, she had no more money left, she had no more fear. She just lives moment by moment, day by day. And because she is a sincere practitioner, with the support of kind Dharma friends, somehow a little money or meal will 'appear' at the right time to sustain her. Her mind just rest and let be -- if there is, there is; if there's none, there' none; no plan or fear for the future in terms of money issue; there's just the present moment, this very day.

It is a very good point to ponder about and a good lesson to learn from my friend who had experienced this first-hand. Another relevant food for thought : another friend mentioned a quotation from the late Taiwanese Chan master Venerable Sheng Yan. He said something along the line, "佛法里有衣食，衣食里没佛法." In the pursuit of genuine Dharma (with the mind of renunciation), there's food and clothing; while in the pursuit of food and clothing (with the mind of attachment to samsaric life / pleasures), there's no Dharma. So do you genuinely want wealth, food and clothing or Dharma???

Lessons on Attachment

2010-06-06T14:22:00.005+08:00

Sometimes, a guru need not be someone who gives you profound, esoteric teachings. Outwardly, he may not necessarily be the kindest or nicest to you. He may not behave in a way that complies with your expectations, which will further boost your ego-clinging. In short, he is just someone whom you've that 'dangerous' Dharmic connection, who is capable of cracking down on your negative emotions when nobody else can (and 'dangerous' as in dangerous to your ego)

For me, His Holiness the Karmapa is one such guru. I have a few teachers and there is really nobody like Him. I had learnt so much dormant negativities about myself, not exactly through His verbal teachings, but more experientially through meeting Him (sometimes not exactly auspicious) or situations that are linked to Him.

All of us have a big problem with attachment - which is why we are still in samsara. We get attached to things, to people, to concepts and cling on to them. We can't let them go and this gives us a lot of suffering. In numerous instances, His Holiness had spontaneously exposed this problem in me. Spontaneous, not deliberate - the more I met Him, the more I felt what He did was what was natural, beneficial and ought to be done at that moment to the particular student(s). To me, that's His greatest quality.

I had told this story before in one of my earlier entries - On one of the first ocasions when I met His Holiness in Bodhgaya, I gave Him a tsa-tsa (small Buddha statue) that I made. I expected that perhaps He would be a little pleased when He saw this. However, since I regarded Him as guru Vajradhara and a wrathful yidam, I became so uncomposed in His magnificent presence. I fumbled on the tsa-tsa, khatag and angpao 'tangled' in both my hands. The tsa-tsa dropped on the table and cracked. His Holiness looked shocked. His eyes grew big and He asked me in a cold, serious tone, "What's that?" I told Him. Later, I was very upset with myself and the incident. So before my friends and I made our move, I asked Him what to do with the cracked tsa-tsa. He asked if I wish to take it back. This is meant for You - I answered. Then, no problem - He replied non-chalantly, as if nothing ever happened. This incident exposed my attachment/ expectation to a few things (in caps) - to MY tsa-tsa, that I want to offer my PERFECT tsa-tsa to Him, that I want Him to be PLEASED, that I will be UPSET if one / all these conditions can't be fulfilled. Eventually as it turned out, my first 3 expectations couldn't be fulfilled, and I was upset (which is also a form of attachment). To me, an unforgivable disaster had happened.

I was grasping on to my disappointment when He created a situation to realign my initial intention - "Would you like to take it back?" And when He replied, "Then no problem", He reminded me to open my tightly clenched fist and give up all attachment to the tsa-tsa. It had been given to Him and I should not have any emotional attachment / ownership to it. Now that it had been offered to Him, it would become His problem of what He wants to do with it. And I could see that to Him, nothing had happened. He had long put down His initial shock while I was still stubbornly clinging on.

Lesson taught – however, to an obstinate person like me, it’s not necessarily a lesson learnt that I’ll never repeat again. We’ve such a strong habitual tendency to grasp that it takes time to gradually loosen our grasping and finally eliminate all attachment.

During His birthday last year, I sent a parcel to India as a His birthday gift for Him. A friend based in Dharamsala would help me to track if the gift had reached His personal secretary, who would in turn pass to Him. To me, it was a fairly expensive gift, with quite expensive shipping charges. I really hope that it would reach Him. I was confident it would since my friend was there who had the connections to help me in tracking and since I had sent it via a registered mail. However, it was not meant to be. The parcel never reached Him. It was either lost somewhere or confiscated by some corrupted officials. Again, I was very upset – I blamed the unreliable Indian mail system, corrupted people, blah blah. But never did I once look at why I was so upset. Because of my expectation, ego-clinging and attachment again!

In truth, the moment I bought the offerings and make a conscious decision to give to Him, I had already offered to Him. And when they were been mailed out, they already belonged to Him. So no matter whether He received them or not, my mind had already offered them to Him. I should have relinquished all attachment / ownership to the gifts, no matter how expensive they are. A story goes of how Marpa went all over to accumulate gold so that he could offer to his guru Naropa - and when Naropa received the gold from his disciple, he immediately threw them away. Due to his attachment to his hard-earned gold, Marpa felt very upset. During that time, I thought I understood how Marpa must have felt.

Also, when things went wrong, we tended to take the easy way out by groundless speculation and play the blaming game. But obviously, at that time, I had not spotted the threads of attachment that still remained. If there's no clinging or attachment to the parcel, if there's a recognition that things can potentially go wrong, this inner disturbance wouldn't have arised at all.

His Holiness may never know about this incident – yet it is another painful lesson for me which I would never forget. And to me, that's the guru's greatest kindness - to spontaneously 'use' different situations to expose my various negativities so that I can realise and do something about them.

第17世大宝法王：卫塞节网络开示

2010-06-05T22:38:00.010+08:00

在卫塞节当天，凌晨约1：45分，原本兴致勃勃从睡梦中起身，想观看上师大宝法王的开示。谁知因缘不具足，看网络直播的人实在太多了，因此一再尝试连线40分钟都失败。带着沉重失望的心情回去睡觉，感叹或许这场开示还真的注定让欧洲弟子为优先连线！无论如何，虽听不到法王现场的法语开示，能读到这么棒的笔录也一样！

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開示：第17世大寶法王噶瑪巴鄔金欽列多傑

藏譯中：堪布丹傑

時間：2010年5月28日印度时间晚上11:30 （新加坡时间5月29日凌晨2点）

地點：印度達蘭沙拉上密院

在「薩噶月」，這一個月內同時具有釋迦牟尼佛出生、證道與涅槃三大重要紀念日的吉祥月，首先問候大家「吉祥如意」！今晚，有機會透過網路，和大家見面，我感到非常高興。藉此機會，跟大家說一聲「扎西德勒」！

釋迦牟尼佛以人的身形降生人間，距今已經2500多年了，佛陀留給我們的正法甘露，至今，一直都是眾生喜樂的泉源，而保存在人世間。因此今晚，我想和大家分享一些佛陀所開示的法教。

不僅是佛教，世界上各大宗教，尤其許多傳揚內在精神的人士，都帶給眾人喜樂，我相信這對於世界的和平共處，起了很大的作用。其中佛法是以「緣起法」和「慈悲」為根本，因此佛法不是一種哲學理論，而是能夠促使人與人、人與環境、人與其他生命，相互關愛的一股重要動力。

■相依而生，敬惜萬物

首先，所謂的「緣起法」，我們要如何加以理解呢？

身為一個人，生存的必要條件，例如水、氧氣、衣食等等，這些基本要素，都是事物之間互相依存而產生的，並不是我們一生下來就擁有，也不是不靠努力就能自然成就的。由於事物之間相互的利害關係，會產生各種善惡的條件，進而會影響我們人類的生存情況。因此，我們人和其他事物之間，存在一種特殊的關連性，這就是「緣起法」。

另外，從眾生業力作用的角度來說，「緣起法」也是一種因果的循環。總而言之，「緣起法」的定義就是：我們無法獨力存在，活在世上，多少都要依靠其他的力量，這就是佛陀想告訴我們的道理。

■放大心量，體貼包容

雖然萬物互相依靠、關係緊密，我們都需要靠「他力」而存活；但是我們天生具備著「取善捨惡」的道德觀，這是人類與眾不同的一種自力的特質。不過，我們試問自己：目前，我們的道德觀，對於善惡的取捨，真的做得很圓滿嗎？似乎並沒有。

現今世界上，就存在著許多生存矛盾、許多我們沒有圓滿取捨而造成的困境，例如，很多人會為了自己的衣食需求甚至享受，而宰殺動物。在自然環境上，也有著同樣的問題，人們為了便利舒適，過度用油用電、消耗大自然資源，而面臨環境的加速惡化。我們平時的善惡取捨，幾乎都只考慮自身的苦樂，總之自私自利，覺得對自己好不好才要緊，而對他人漠不關心。這樣，我們善惡取捨的範圍，實在很狹隘，很自私，很我執。所以，我們一定要把這善惡取捨的範圍，盡量放大，不僅是自己，其他人類、其他生命，甚至整個地球，都應該考慮進去。這點非常重要。

■感同身受，就是慈悲

此外，我們對一切有情的幸福，要具備一種責任感，要時時記得設身處地為他人著想。尤其當我們說慈悲，不要把它當成是一種宗教哲理，慈悲是指自身首先對於苦樂有了認識，知道想要離苦得樂的感覺是什麼之後，我們以此經驗去感受其他眾生的苦樂。

有時，我們會因為沒有真正經驗到對方的苦樂，而對他人漠不關心。所謂的觀修慈悲，就是要從自身的苦樂經驗出發，細心體會他人的處境，而對他人的苦樂，感同身受。心裡要想：「我就是他，他所承受的苦樂，就是我在承受的苦樂。」如此用心地去觀修。這就是慈悲心的修持方法。

■痛苦來臨，你怎麼做？

也許當我們試著去關心他人的苦痛、照顧別人的感受，常常覺得困難重重、真是給自己找麻煩。很多人一談到痛苦，會覺得痛苦是一個「結論」、一個「答案」，而且是最後的答案：一個人一感受到痛苦，他就覺得「完蛋了」，這時他覺得痛苦帶給他的訊息是什麼呢？就是「絕望」、「失敗」和「結束」。

實際上，痛苦是什麼？痛苦絕對不是個「答案」，痛苦其實只是一項「提問」；當一個新的痛苦來臨時，其實是在問你：「該怎麼做？」，因為這個新的狀況，「你會驚慌失措而放棄？」還是「我怎樣才能不灰心地繼續前進，讓這些痛苦成為增強自己勇氣和信心的助緣和莊嚴？」你應該這樣問問自己，這種思維是很重要的。

我們不應該把痛苦當成是個「絕望」的答案，反倒因為經驗到痛苦，心中更要想：「我該做什麼？」，「我是要被痛苦淹沒，還是我要站起來，戰勝這些痛苦？」自己應該好好地這樣去思維。因此，自己的痛苦也好，他人的痛苦也好，總而言之，痛苦是一個新知，一個考驗我們的題目，測驗我們會如何反應的考題。

■回到本性，當下快樂

很多人以為，得到快樂，是指需要遠離某個很大的痛苦，或者得到從未有過的某個快樂經驗。但是我覺得，快樂的本質，就是我們的本性；如果能夠回到自己的本性裡，當下就是快樂了。因此，快樂不是一個大的成就，不是新獲得的東西，也不是遠離痛苦而得到的喘息。

我時常想，我們每天都要呼吸，每分每秒都在呼吸，如果不能呼吸，就無法生存。我們呼吸的氧氣，並不是我們自生的，而是從大自然界產生的。產生的方式，是透過很多因緣的聚合，歷經繁複的步驟而產生的，最後才能成為我們呼吸的那一口氣。由此可知，原來我們每分每秒的呼吸，都圓滿具備了無數的條件和因緣，這些條件隨時都在我們的周圍，僅僅想到這一點，就會覺得：生命真是一個奇蹟，我們應該感到知足了。這是一個比較簡單的例子，可以幫助我們思維。

總而言之，我們每一個人，不會沒有痛苦，就算現在沒有，未來也可能會受苦；快樂，就算現在沒有，將來也會有的。重點是，無論遭遇任何情況，我們要能安住在各自的自性本質當中，安穩的、輕鬆愉快的安住，這是非常重要的。

■安住本性，靜心隨緣

最重要的是：一般事物都會變異，但是我們的本性不會改變。因此，我們一定要知道：就算現在沒有痛苦，之後也可能發生；就算現在沒有快樂，很快也會經驗到，為什麼呢？因為事物的本質就是無常，都會改變的；然而，我們的本性卻不會有任何變異。

因此，安住在我們的本質當中，這是根本。如果不懂得安住，那麼遇到突發的狀況，我們很容易不自主地跟隨情緒和感覺而走，造成很多問題。例如，上班的路上，遇一到塞車，我們就可能變得非常煩躁和易怒，其實，這只是一點小事，根本不用生氣。但是因為心沒有安住，就容易被外境牽動，因此就生氣了。又例如購物遇到大排長龍的情況時，我們也容易心亂、不耐煩。

其實，問題不在事情的大小，主要在於自己是以什麼心態去感覺、去認識，這會造成很大的不同。因此，我們任何時候，都要靜心，靜心的意思，就是讓心安住，輕鬆的放著，除此之外，沒有其他靜心的方法了。我相信，能夠不跟隨突發的煩惱妄念而走，這就是快樂的根本。

■我語我心，與你同在

按照楚布寺的曆法，今天才是「薩噶月」的十五日；當然一般來說是昨天，但今天依楚布寺的曆算還是月圓日。在這個吉祥日中，感謝各位法友很有耐性地等待，聽我說了這些話，我要謝謝你們。尤其是我們在歐洲的朋友們，我要特別問候你們「扎西德勒」！

如果按照原訂的計畫，今天，我應該已經在歐洲和你們見面了。雖然這次的計畫無法實現，我的身體無法前往，但是我的心和我的話語，今天能夠透過網路傳遞給各位，我還是感到非常高興。就像今晚天上藏曆十五日的明月，清涼的月光能夠感被大地，相信今晚，我們也感受到了彼此心中本具的慈悲光明。謝謝大家。

* Please visit www.livingthedharma.eu for the English transcript.

Letter From Phakchok Rinpoche

2010-05-23T23:13:00.006+08:00

Email from Phakchok Rinpoche on Guru Rinpoche Day (23 May 2010):

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First off, my deepest apologies for my very long silence. I hope you've all been happy and healthy. I'm at the moment traveling between cities and today being Guru Rinpoche's Day and also by accident my birthday, I would like to share with you a teaching that is very dear to my heart. A teaching given by my grandfather many years ago. It is to my hope that the teaching will have some positive impact on you on this very special day.

Heart Advice from my grandfather, Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:

THIS PRECIOUS HUMAN BODY
The body we have right now is called the precious humanbody. In this world there are countless sentient beings and among all of them, the best one is this precious human body, which is very hard to obtain again and again. Itis impossible to obtain a precious human body through demerit. It is only through the accumulation of merits inyour past lives and the residual of incredible great positive karma that we can arrive in a body like this. Having being born as a human is like arriving on an island of jewels. But if we don’t take any of them and just keep our hands crossed and go home empty handed, then what really is the point? So how do we make this precious human birth meaningful? It is only through practicing the spiritual path that one can make this precious human body significant. Without which you are just an ordinary human trapped in an ordinary human body. And why is this human body called precious? It is because of this body, that we can listen to precious teachings when they are explained and subsequently put them into practice. But if we waste such a precious thing like this, there is truly no greater loss than that. If we don’t practice the Dharma, then we are no different than an animal. So truly and honestly we should really persevere to practice the Dharma.

PRACTISING THE DHARMA
To practice the Dharma means having trust, diligence andbeing wise/intelligent. Trust means having complete trustand confidence in the Dharma, the teachings and in the onewho taught the teachings, the Buddha. Therefore havingcomplete trust in the Buddha and the Dharma. Complete trusting the Sangha, the ones who upholds the teachings andtherefore a feeling of gratitude towards the Sangha. We need to trust in these three (Buddha/Dharma/Sangha).

Diligence means, in any kind of job you do, if you begin and do not finish then it is never completed. Therefore what carries you to complete that job is called diligence. And being wise/intelligent is first of all what we gain from listening to teachings, from thinking about them and then later applying them. So when you hear something and you gain some trust and confidence, then you have some insight that is called the knowledge through learning. And then when you think it over, the knowledge through reflection and finally the knowledge through meditation practice and havingfull confidence and trust in it. It is for that reason invincible to have trust. If one mistrusts, then that is a great defect.

If one has no compassion and trust it is very hard to penetrate the very heart of the Dharma. It is like someone who when seeing Buddhas and bodhisattvas flying in the sky think they are just showing off and when seeing a creature lying on the floor with it’s intestines flowing out and saying 'oh it’s his karma, everyone dies'.

DEVOTION AND COMPASSION
Compassion and devotion shouldn’t just be a show. And shouldn’t only be of lip service. It should be from the depths of our heart. Trust towards the teachings of theBuddha should be with pure appreciation. We need to have the kind of trust which is penetrating so that tears comes out of our eyes and the hairs on our body naturally stand, a kind of feeling difficult to remain in. Simply by uttering some empty words won’t suffice. When thinking of other beings, you should have the kind of compassion thinking that they are all my parents and yet they don’t know what to do -- they create immense pain and suffering for themselves, yet they are not aware of it. They have no idea about the ultimate truth, the true state of Samadhi. So they wander from one life to the next in the endless chain of samsara. Therefore, the ones who are filled with overwhelming compassion for sentient beings and with unwavering devotion for the enlightened ones; they will without any doubt receive the blessings of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Just to pay lip service and superficially act as if one pities sentient beings and respects the enlightened ones isnot enough to receive the blessings. It has to be with hundred percent sincerity. So here are some signs of receiving the blessings, and they are when you no longer have to try to feel kind and compassionate, as it will comes pontaneously and you no longer have to try to be deliberately respectful, as it will come spontaneously as well. Those are the signs.

With a natural trust in the teaching and the consequences of karma, that is the real accomplishment of Dharma practice. That is the real siddhi.

RECEIVING THE BLESSINGS
You may not be having a lot of knowledge and information ofthe Dharma. But if you have real trust in the three Jewels and you have kindness towards other beings and acutely understand that in this life, nothing last forever, then you have already received the blessings of the three Jewels. Otherwise just to know a lot of teachings can sometimes really resolve in nothing but conceit. Or thinking I have practiced so much and so many years of Shamatha and Samadhi. People who have a lot of practice behind them usually become more miserly and stingy. This is proof that the teachings have not taken affect.

So what is the main mission at stake? It is after all about buddha-nature, which is the very identity within which the bodies, speech, mind, qualitiesand enlightened activities of all the Buddhas are complete. Actually the body, speech, and mind of any sentient being have its source or origin only in the body, speech, and mind of all the awakened ones. This unchanging quality is called the vajra body, the unceasing quality the vajra speech and the unmistaken quality, the vajra mind. The indivisible unity of these three is exactly what buddha-nature means.

BUDDHA NATURE
If we don’t recognize or acknowledge in our own experience what is the unchanging quality of this buddha-nature, then it is more or less like entering intothe entrapment of the physical body of flesh and blood, ourspeech being entrapped within the movement of breath to become voice and voice that appears and disappears. Our consciousness becomes fixated upon a perceiver or the perceived. In other words, fixation on duality that arises and ceases for each moment, in other words, thoughts that come and go, one after the other in an endless string of thoughts continued from beginning less time and just goes on and on. That is how our normal state of mind is.

If we don’t recognize our own nature in this very lifetime, we are then incapable of capturing our natural seat of unchanging self-existent wakefulness. Instead, we chase after one perishable thought after the other so that samsara becomes endless. Being overpowered by this involvement in thought day and night, life after life. Unless you become free of conceptual thinking, there is absolutely no way to truly awaken to enlightenment.

THE SUPREME METHOD
Great peace is when the conceptual thinking subsides or calms down. And there is such a way for that to happen. Thethoughts which are an expression, while thinking if you truly recognize that you are in natural phase, which is buddha-nature, at that same moment, any thought vanishes byitself leaving no trace. That brings an end to samsara. So the basic way for that is the supreme method, once you know that one method is there anything superior to that you needto know? And this way is something, which is already attained in your self, it is not something that we need toget from someone else, by bribe, search for and finally find. It is not necessary at all. Just recognize your own natural phase and you have already transcended the six realms of samsara. That way is what one asks for when asking a master to please give instruction on mind essence. This is the most precious which one doesn’t need to search from outside, it is in your self. This is called the Buddha being placed in the palm of your own hand. That is an analogy which means, at that moment, you don’t need to seek for the awakened state somewhere else. If you line up all the money and wealth of the whole world in a big heap on one side and on the other side the recognition of buddha-nature, the nature of our own mind then what is more valuable if you were to choose between the two? Obviously, you should without a doubt choose recognizing mind essence as beingmuch more valuable. This is called the amazing Buddha within.

If you have a wish-fulfilling jewel and yet don’t use it, then the endless samsara lies before you. Isn’t there more trouble? This is something we really need to think about.This is the real crucial point. If we didn’t have this innate buddha-nature, who can actually blame you. This buddha-nature, it is the identity of the three kayas of all Buddhas.

And in closing:
Although my mind is the Buddha, I failed to acknowledge it
Though the essence of thought is Dharmakaya, I failed torecognize it
Though the innate natural state is uncontrived, I failed tosustain it
Though this naturalness is the true state, I failed to trust it
So Guru, please look upon me with compassion and grant yourblessings
That I may quickly turn my mind towards the Dharma And have no obstacles on the path and quickly have diligence to practice

Sarva Mangalam, Phakchok Rinpoche
(The above teaching was given at Nagi Gonpa by Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche with Erik Pema Kunsang as his translator.)

Song of Spiritual Gain

2010-05-17T00:03:00.003+08:00

All of you disciples and monks,
if you heed my words,
you will accomplish in this life
a great task for yourselves and others,
and so achieve the intentions of past Buddhas and myself.
All other actions
go against the needs of oneself and others,
and fail to satisfy my wish.

Without the guidance of a lama who has lineage,
what benefit is there in seeking initiation?

Without the inner consciousness of the Dharma,
what is the use of memorising the Tantras?

What is the use of meditating according to instructionsm
if you do not renounce worldly aims?

What good are ceremonies,
without attuning your body, speech and mind to the Dharma?

What good is meditating on patience,
if you will not tolerate insult?

What use are sacrifice,
if you do not overcome attachment and revulsion?

What good is giving alms,
if you do not root out selfishness?

What good is governing a great monastery,
if you do not regard all beings as your beloved parents?

What use is there in building stupas,
if faith does not grow in your mind?

What use is there in moulding statues,
if one cannot meditate in the 4 sessions of the day?

What use is it to commerate my death,
if you do not invoke me with deep veneration?

What good to lament my death,
if you do not heed my instructions?

What good to view my dead body,
without venerating me when I'm alive?

Without disgust for samsara and the urge for liberation,
what good is the virtue of renunciation?

Without learning to love others more than oneself,
what good are sweet words of pity?

Without uprooting delusion and desire,
what profit in serving the Lama?

What good are great numbers of disciples,
if they do not listen to my words?

Give up all useless actions,
it can only bring you harm.
A hermit who has fulfilled his goal,
I no longer need to strive.

- One of Milarepa's last advices to His disciples before His Parinirvana

Keep The Essence Safe In Your Heart

2010-05-10T22:31:00.005+08:00

Contemplating the lives of the Masters,
One sees that even a desire for more instruction is a distraction.
Keep the essence of the teaching safe in your heart.

Too many explanations without the essence
is like too many trees without fruit.
Though they are all knowledge, they are not the ultimate Truth.
To know them all is not the knowing of Truth.

Too much elucidation brings no spiritual benefit.
That which benefits the heart is our sacred treasure.
If you wish to be rich, concentrate on this.

The Dharma is the skilful mean for overcoming mental defilement.
If you wish to be secure, concentrate on it.

A mind that is free from attachment is the master of contentment.
If you want a good master, concentrate on this.

The worldly life causes tears.
Abandon laziness.

A rocky cave in the wilderness was the home of your spiritual Father.
A deserted and solitary place is a divine abode.

Mind riding upon mind is a tireless horse.
Your own body is a sanctuary and celestial mansion.
Undistracted meditation and action is the best of all medicines.
To you who have the true aim of Enlightenment,
I have given instruction without concealment.

Myself, my instruction and yourself,
The three are placed in your hand, my son.
May they prosper as leaves, branches and fruit,
without rotting, scattering or withering.

- Marpa Lotsawa to his heart disciple Milarepa, after Milarepa decided to come out of his retreat and returned to his village. And after Milarepa left, he never met his Master in his lifetime again...

The Week of Deaths

2010-05-08T22:52:00.004+08:00

The phone rang. It was almost 5 in the morning. I forced myself out of bed, still in the 'half-asleep' mode and left for the hospital within 20 minutes. While in the cab, my eyes began to well up and silent tears flowed spontaneously. This was something that had never happened before. Even though each death is a solemn news and each case is a heavy undertaking, I had never shed a single tear. But this time, I cried -- for I had an instinctive feeling that this deceased person, this donor, is very young...

It was at the hospital that I knew who and how old he was. He was a young man who had not even reached 21 years of age. He had met with an accident while in holiday and had a suffered serious brain injury. I had read about his plight in the newspapers for the past few days and so when I realised the donor is him, I was even more saddened.

It didn't just stop here. A day later, I was activated for yet another case. This time, the donor was a boy who was even younger, who took his own life over a seemingly trivial incident. Then following the next day, the earthquake in Qinghai Yushu (previously known as Kham in Tibet) shocked the world, killing over 2000 people, amongst them many monks. One of my most revered masters Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery is almost in complete ruins. So many people died, even more will continue to suffer mentally and emotionally from the terrfiying memories (known as post-traunmatic stress disorder or PTSD) and the passing of their loved ones for a very long time...

Indeed, that fateful week was very depressing for me -- real-life scenes and news of death came one after another. The lives of my 2 young donors had already ended, defying the convention that at their current age, their lives as grown-ups should have just began. When will it be my turn? Where am I heading to? And what would matter most to me in my final moment? While I have no answers to the first 2 questions, I had a very clear answer for the 3rd one -- and I think for this, I had to be very fortunate!!

As the late Ajahn Chah said, "Why are we born? We are born so that we will not have to be born again." There are so many people and suffering sentient beings in the world who have no karma to even understand what this verse means (not to mention the ways not to be born again), we've to be so fortunate to feel even a little inspired by this verse and even more fortunate to be able to embark on the Path so that we'll not be born again. And this gives me a greater and renewed motivation of wanting to embark on the Path as soon as possible before everything becomes too late for me...

No Ajahn Chah

2010-05-04T17:59:00.004+08:00

The more I read about Ajahn Chah's teachings, the more I was thinking, "Are you sure he is just a simple Theravada master and monk from Thailand??" Well, these are some of his many quotes and short stories, some of which will probably hit you right in the face, like it did to me...

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"If you want to be sad, be sad when people are born: "Oh no, they've come again. They are going to suffer and die again!!"

"If you want to wait around to meet the future Buddha, then just don't practise. You'll probably be around long enough to see Him when He comes. "

"Don't be attached to visions or lights in meditation. Don't rise or fall with them. What's so great about brightness? My flashlight has it. It can't help us rid ourselves of our suffering."

"In meditation practice, it is actually much worse to be caught in calmness than to be stuck in agitation, because at least you will want to escape from agitation, whereas you are content to remain in calmness and not go any further. When blissful clear states arise from insight meditation practice, do not cling to them."

"The mind is intrinsically tranquil. Out of this tranquility, anxiety and confusion are born. If one sees and knows this confusion, then the mind is tranquil once more."

Once, a visitor asked Ajahn Chah if he was an arahant. He said, "I am like a tree in a forest. Birds come to the tree, they sit on its branches and eat its fruit. To the birds, the fruits may be sweet or sour. But the tree doesn't know anything about it. The birds say sweet or they say sour. But from the tree's point of view, this is just the chattering of birds."

More than merely teaching people, Ajahn Chah rained them by creating specific situations where they could learn about themselves. He would say things like, "He's been a monk for 5 years so he understand 5%." A junior monk said in response to the latter, "So I must have 1% since I'm been here 1 year." "No, " was Ajahn Chah's reply. "The first 4 years you have 0%, then the 5th year you've 5%."

- From the book NO AJAHN CHAH.

A Wake-Up Call

2010-04-12T12:32:00.006+08:00

It has been a extremely tiring week last week as I shuttled in and out of JB after work for a 1-week empowerment. Was very happy that I had received, with scares but without major obstacles, from Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche this very precious lineage of HH the previous 16th Karmapa, who is definitely a Buddha to me.

It was also a week of contemplation for me. A Dharma sister had poured out her woes on her strained relationship with her guru. Her messages were very disturbing to me and while I tried my best not to interfere, I began to seriously think -- why does this happen? What if such issue happened to me? What should I do to prevent it from happening at all?

Perhaps it all boils down to this fundamental question which we should all ask ourselves honestly -- When we first make this guru-disciple relationship with a master, what is our motivation? Is it for the sake of some temporal benefits for this life? Or is it pure tag-along attitude (i.e. my friends take this initiation and ask me to join, so I join)? Or is it that "I like this teacher, that's why I want to take this initiation from him"? In the end, how many times is our motivation that "I want to take this initiation so that I can practise the deity sadhana (or at the very least, chant mantra of the deity) so that I can attain enlightenment?" Sadly, to be frank, many times the answer is no. There can be 1001 reasons why we want to take initiations from a master -- however, there is seldom a time when we can confidently and one-pointedly say we take a particular initiation as we want to practise for enlightenment. Apparently nowadays, there's even a trend that some masters, when giving initiations, are careful not to use words that make it compulsory for initiates to fulfil certain committment. Although these masters are been very understanding and compassionate, it certainly reveals the level of a majority of the students these days.

Since this initial motivation is already screwed, it's no surprise that our relationship with our guru is so shaky, so vulnerable -- there are so many doubts in him, thus sometimes we commit negativities against him, talk badly, spread rumours, etc. When the guru treats you nicely, he is your guru. But when the 2 of you fall out or when he is no longer nice to you, you become very sad, angry etc and that's the end of the relationship. It becomes relegated to a very ordinary, worldly kind of relationship -- like when 2 people are friendly and close, they become friends and when things seemed to change for the 'worse', they split.

However, if we genuinely wish for enlightenment whole-heartedly from the depths of our hearts, this will never, ever have happened. With the correct motivation, we'll never forget the great kindness of our gurus who gave us the Dharma, the initiations, the precious transmissions and instructions. We'll recognise that we can never be able to repay their incredible kindness, even if we are to give up our lives. This is because with correct practice and blessings from the guru, we can indeed proceed very far and see our mind's nature. However, blessing is a 2-way thing -- the guru and the lineage buddhas / bodhisattvas cannot bless you if there's no genuine trust and devotion in the guru. For instance, even if the sunlight has enormous power, if we do not have a magnifying class to converge the sun's rays onto a piece of paper, how can the paper burn? No way! Blessings works like that...

And with this correct attitude, we'll know that it's no longer important how our gurus treat us. Nicely or badly -- he'll still be the most important person in our lives, who have given us the most precious lineage. This is what our family members and friends can never give us. Even Shakyamuni Buddha can't give us as we have no merit to meet Him to receive these precious instructions in His nirmanakaya form directly. It's only from our gurus that we are able to receive this precious lineage from Shakyamuni Buddha. What more do we want from our gurus? And since we can't even practise our guru's instructions properly, will having more actually benefits us?

It's everybody's wish to be close to their gurus. However, are we really ready for it? Our gurus is like the sun -- if you're too close, surely with insufficient protection, it'll definitely burn you! Yet if you are too faraway, you may not be able to receive its warmth. Hence, without a certain degree of mental power and purity in perception which acts as our own protection, it is surely a bad idea to be too close to our guru. And this is what happens to my friend. It's always beautiful to look from afar -- however when you get too close, our impure perceptions will begin to pick out faults, blow them up, which may result in negative actions created against our guru. While it's good to be assessible to your guru so that you can receive teachings and clarifications you need, it's also impertinent to keep a certain distance as our capacity have not reached the level where our perceptions and actions are pure. Our masters are perfect; but our perceptions aren't. If our perceptions are perfectly pure, all sentient beings would have been perfect in our eyes.

This is something which I had never thought of until this wake-up call from my friend and is a very important lesson for me...

The Aspiration of the Mahamudra of Definitive Meaning

2010-03-28T21:00:00.002+08:00

As a continuation of my previous entry, as reference are these supreme and beautiful verses from HH 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje. Namo Gurubya!!
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Namo Guru
Gurus, Yidams of all mandalas,
And buddhas and bodhisattvas of the 10 directions and 3 times:
Kindly consider me. Support and bless
the fulfilment of my aspirations.

Streams of virtue unsullied by the three-fold fixation
are born on the snow-covered mountain
of the pure intentions and actions of myself amd all innumerable beings.
May they flow into the ocean of the buddhas 4 kayas.

Until that is attained, throughout all births, all lives,
may even the words wrongdoing and suffering be unheard.
May we enjoy the splendour
of an ocean of happiness and virtue.

Acquiring the best leisure and resources, may we have faith, diligence and wisdom.
Relying upon good spiritual friends ans receiving the essence of the instuctions,
may we practise them properly without obstacle.
In all our lives, may we practise genuine Dharma.

Hearing scripture and reasoning frees from unknowing.
Contenplating the instructions conquers the darkness of doubt.
The light of meditation clearly reveals the nature as it is.
May the brilliance of the 3 wisdoms increase.

The ground is the 2 truths, beyond the extremes of eternalism and nihilism.
Through the supreme path of the 2 accumulations, beyond the extremes of exaggeration and denial,
the fruition, the 2 benefits, beyond the extremes of samsara and nirvana is attained.
May we encountered Dharma free from error and deviation.

The ground of purification is the mind's nature, a union of lucidity-emptiness.
What purifies is the great vajra yoga of mahamudra.
What is purified is the stains of adventitious delusion.
May the result of purification, the stainless dharmakaya, be revealed.

Severing misconceptions of the ground is certainty of the view.
Sustaining that without distraction is the point of meditation.
Training in all aspects of meditation is the best action.
May we have the confidence of the view, meditation and action.

All dharmas are the mind's manifestations.
The mind -- there is no mind; it is empty of mind's essence.
Empty, it is unceasing, and can appear as anything.
Having scrutinised it, may we find it.

We mistake self-appearance, which has never existed, to be an object.
Under ignorance's power, we mistake self-awareness to be a self.
Under the piwer of dualistic fixation, we wander in the expanse of samsara.
May we get to the bottom of ignoarance and delusion.

Not something -- it is not seen even by buddhas.
Not nothing -- it is the ground of all samsara and nirvana.
This is not a contradiction; it is unity, the middle way.
May we realise the mind's nature, beyond extremes.

Nothing indicates this, saying "It is this."
Nothing negates this, saying "It is not this."
Beyond the intellect, dharmata is not composite.
May we realise the perfect, ultimate truth.

Not realising this, we circle in the ocean of samsara.
If this is realised, buddha is not elsewhere.
Everything is this; there is nothing that is not this.
May we know dharmata, exposing the all-basis.

Appearances are mind; emptiness is also mind.
Realisation is mind; delusion's our own mind too.
Arisen, it's mind; stopped, it's also mind.
May we sever all misconceptions within the mind.

Not sullied by the meditation that is conceptual effort,
not stirred by the wind of ordinary distractions,
may we know how to rest naturally and freely, not altering.
May we be skilled in and sustain the practise of the mind.

May the subtle and coarse waves of thought be naturally calmed.
May the river of mind, unmoving, comes to a natural rest.
Free from the polluting stains of torpor and dullness,
may the ocean of shamatha be unmovingly stable.

When looking again and again at the mind, which has nothing to look at,
nothing to see is vividly seen as it is.
That is the resolution of doubts about what it is and is not.
Without delusion, may we recognise our own nature.

Looking at objects, there are no objects; they are seen as mind.
Looking at the mind, there is no mind; it is empty of nature.
Looking at both, dualism is liberated in its own place.
May we realise the clear light, the mind's nature.

This freedom from mental engagement is mahamudra.
Beyond extremes, it is the great middle way.
As this includes everything, it is also called the great perfection.
May we gain the confidence that to know one is to realise the meaning of all.

Unceasing great bliss without attachment;
the unveiled clear light, free from conception;
and spontaneously present freedom from thought, beyond the intellect:
May effortless experiences be unceasing.

May clinging to experiences as good be naturally liberated.
May the delusion os thoughts being bad be purified in the expanse.
May ordinary mind, with nothing to remove or add, to lose or gain,
unelaborate, the truth of dharmata, be realised.

Although beings' nature is always buddha,
not realising it, we wander in endless samsara.
May unbearable compassion arise in us
for all beings who suffer endlessly.

The display of unbearable compassion is unceasing.
Within that affection, its empty nature arises nakedly.
May we cultivate this integrated path without error
constantly throughout day and night.

The eyes and clairvoyances produced by meditation;
The ripening of beings, the purification of buddha realms;
and the completion of aspurations to the buddhas qualities:
May we perfect completion, ripening and purification, achieving buddhahood.

Through the compassion of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the 10 directions,
and the power of whatever pure virtue there is,
may the pure aspirations of myself and all beings
be fulfilled in accord with our intentions.

- From THE KAGYU MONLAM BOOK

HH Karmapa's Teachings on HH Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Aspiration

2010-03-27T22:56:00.004+08:00

Through my Mexican friend, now Ani Drolma's nuns community blogsite, I had found these very precious teachings of HH Karmapa. HH was in Sarnath's Vajra Vidya Institute, His teacher Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery when He gave the teachings to a diverse group of about 100 students. From 6 to 9 February 2010, HH Karmapa offered teachings on HH 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje's Mahamudra Aspiration. How wonderful!!

To download the teachings, please go to www.nunscommunity.blogspot.com. For those who understand espanol (Spanish), you can also refer to Ani Drolma's blog http://en-el-camino-andamos.blogspot.com. For their community website, you can also go to http://nunscommunity.net.

楚布寺的廚师

2010-03-27T01:04:00.001+08:00

性命交关、恐惧万分的时候，你会想到谁？常听一些上师说，这时候可以看出一个人的修行程度。也常听说，只要弟子对上师具备虔诚的信心，上师就会伴随在身边，意思是：上师的慈悲、智慧与力量，将伴随虔诚的弟子渡过重重难关。以下就有这么一个故事。

在康区和藏北高原的牧民，都非常敬重来自楚布寺──法王噶玛巴驻锡地的僧人，他们相信楚布寺的僧人，都具有噶玛巴的加持。

有一次，一位楚布寺的厨师僧人，途经北方草原准备回到寺院。由于长年在厨房工作，他没有学过经典，也不懂得修法念经，却正巧经过一户刚刚有人往生的人家。亡者生前暴力，重病而亡，走得很不好，死相极差。这家人像看到救星一样，赶忙把僧人请到灵堂，由于来自「楚布寺」，特别被请到上座，也就是最靠近亡者尸体的地方。

藏地的习惯会请僧人整夜守灵。理所当然，这位「最具有加持力」的僧人被请求留下来，可怜的他，一个人守在亡者身旁。

夜幕低垂，开始凄风苦雨，尸体竟然慢慢坐了起来，僧人吓得大喊「噶玛巴千诺」！一边念一边心中还有些抱怨，他想：「都因为是楚布寺、噶玛巴的名号，让我在这儿吓得半死。真是噶玛巴千诺呀！」相信是噶玛巴的加持吧，亡者安静地躺了下去。

好不容易，僧人熬到了隔天早上，亲属看到僧人庄严地端坐着，神情好似镇定安详，更增强了大家的信心，觉得这位来自楚布寺的僧人果然了不起。

当天，僧人一回到寺中，马上前去拜见第十六世法王噶玛巴。僧人一进门，就听法王微笑的说：「昨晚，你我都辛苦啰！」

转载自 http://www.hwayue.org.tw/karmapa/karmapastory21.htm

Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche's Singapore Programme

2010-03-26T00:09:00.006+08:00

I received Him at the airport. For once, I was contented just to see Him and say 'hi' to Him -- and that was quite unlike me!

Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche is a very special teacher to me. He was one of my rare teachers whose very precise teachings crushed some of my major wrong views in the practice of Vajrayana Buddhism. Although He was a very high teacher in the Karma Kagyu lineage (and the 1st Nyenpa Rinpoche is the root guru of HH the 8th Karmapa Mikyo Dorje), although He is very learned and have vast experience in the sutras, tantras and treatises, His simplicity and humility are qualities which I really appreciate. To me, He's the only teacher who actually "come all the way down to my level" to guide me. Hence, this time that He comes, I especially, especially look forward to His arrival.

Rinpoche will be here for Gangkar Samdup Buddhist Association's relocation ceremony on Sunday, 28 March 2010, before going to JB for a 9-days empowerment of 48 Peaceful & Wrathful Deities of Chit She Kun Drol from 3 to 11 April 2010. After that, He will be back in Singapore again for the international Kagyu Monlam from 30 April to 2 May 2010. And this is what will keep me busy for the next few weeks!

Notes from Dzongsar Rinpoche's Teachings

2010-03-24T23:36:00.002+08:00

After having attended Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's teachings last weekend, just wanted to pen down some interesting things and thoughts.

In the teachings, it was a pleasant surprise to see someone who had been part of my childhood years in the audience - the previous action star Jet Li 李连杰. I liked his films a lot. It was him who inspired me to wish to learn Chinese martial arts. However, I didn't quite have the right conditions to pick it up. Anyway, when I saw him, he was cleanly shaved, wore a simple grey top and bottom (from far, he looked like a monk) and was seated in the first row nearest to Rinpoche. I toyed with the idea that perhaps I really have this slightest connection with him -- when I was small, I liked his movies and now, we both end up as Buddhists in the Tibetan tradition and seated in the same hall listening to the same teacher in Singapore!

However, the best was this first meeting with Dzongsar Rinpoche. My perception of him was that he was still the one of the most unconventional -- if not, the most unconventional teacher I had ever met. He said the main practice of young bodhisattvas is to make aspirations. And after that, he added he doesn't want to be reborn as a tulku (incarnated masters) in his next life, but as an American or Chinese president. In fact, he specifically said he made aspiration to be the first African American Republican woman president of USA! Just when the entire audience broke into laughter as we thought he might have been kidding, he sounded dead serious about it. This time, as it was meant as a joke - he added the reason why he told us this was perhaps some of us among the audience might aspire to become his future ministers! Somehow, from my perspective, his view revealed big compassion. I always believed that sometimes, being reborn as a tulku has his 'limitations' -- he can mainly reach out to the believers. On the other hand, by becoming a hugely influential and powerful president who rules in accordance to compassion, perhaps the world can be more peaceful, less poverty and social issues and the destructive, power-hungry leaders can be ousted out. Perhaps in this way, the entire world population can benefit so much more!

Rinpoche started his teaching by talking about how our entire world is built upon beliefs, from culture to even mathematics. Some beliefs are very useful for those who understand and gradually, as more people share your belief, this further enhances and solidifies your belief. As Shantideva said: if there is one ignorance we should keep, that is the belief that there's enlightenment. Hence, we need these things that will bring us closer to the Truth, even though these are ignorance as well. Although there is no Amitabha Pureland that is out there where we can only go after our death, although there is no attainment after enlightenment, we sentient beings need these concepts, these skilful means to help us progress along the Path. According to Rinpoche, enlightenment is not a place but the state of absolute realisation of Truth.

For those who have some doubt in merit, which he defined as a poetic name given to cause, conditions and effect, he slapped us an example of how he thinks Dan Brown's Da Vinci code is one of the most stupid books ever. But yet, many of us must have owe Dan Brown a lot previously (in previous incarnation), which is why we like his book and spend so much time reading. That's why, we cannot say that merit doesn't exist!

He also mentioned about the 3 perceptions:

1. Impure perception is when a person with jaundice sees the conch shell as yellow. Although the conch has always been white, this defect in seeing conch as yellow is due to his sick condition. At this point, he cannot see remotely the whiteness of the conch, only yellowness, though it had never been stained yellow before.

2. Then, comes the intermediate stage whereby he sees a physician who told him there's something wrong with him and prescribed him with medicine. From the moment he heard this, his mindset of how he relates to the conch will be vastly different -- although he still sees it as yellow, at least in his mind, he has this new knowledge that "although I see it as yellow, it's actually not yellow but white." And this is the purpose why we receive abishekas (empowerments) -- we are asking someone to tell us the conch is actually not yellow but white.

3. As the person takes more medicine, he will be cured of jaundice and begin to see the conch as it is -- as white. This is when pure perception develops.

Lastly, Rinpoche also made a seemingly confusing statement, which in fact contains a deep understanding of emptiness. He said the relative and the ultimate truths are actually both relative truths, as in the end, there's no relative or ultimate truths. To quote his example, if we have no jaundice issue, the conch is not even white as there will be no basis of dualistic comparison. We said it's white (ultimate truth) only because we see it as yellow (relative truth). Simply speaking, the conch is not yellow, not white -- but just a conch. A conch is just a conch! This is a marvellous and profound food for thought to ponder and debate about.

Karma or Mere Excuse?

2010-03-17T00:11:00.004+08:00

This extract is a teaching by resident teacher Geshe Tenzin Zopa to LDC students in KL. Incidentally, Tenzin Zopa is the closest attendent to the late mahasiddha Geshe Lama Konchog, and his arduous search for his master's reincarnation Phuntsok Rinpoche had been made into this very touching documentary "The Unmistaken Child". A highly recommended film -- which I watched again and again...

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Covetousness is part of attachment. The karma of attachment brings the result of (discontentment) suffering. That is why the understanding of karma (especially subtle karma) is said to be infinitely more difficult to gain than the understanding of emptiness. Don't you think this statement is shocking? Understanding karma is far more difficult than understanding emptiness and requires far more effort than that needed to comprehend emptiness!

Emptiness can be realised by even Hearers and Solitary Realisers. Even the Hearer from the small scope who achieve the path of seeing can realise emptiness but to understand the subtleties of karma is so diificult. Even highly realised beings, Arhats, or Hearers even highly realised solitary realiser Arhat or the 10th bhumi bodhisattva, those who reached the final stage of the path, cannot see fully the subtleties of karma...

Yet, we use the word 'karma' very freely. We say "This is my karma"; "All the bad things happening to me is due to my bad karma". But who knows? It could be due to your good karma (in giving you the chance to attain realisation)!? Who knows?! "All the good things happening to me is because I created so much merit and that's why I am so rich and influential..." Who knows -- sometimes wealth and influence brings trouble and could be a result of your bad karma!?!

We simply use the term 'karma' too freely. Someone falls down -- oh karma! Someone gets sick at Tara retreat, bad karma ripened! Who knows? It could be your good karma?! We cannot judge and make assumptions about karma just like that. The moment our business declines, we cannot eat food, have no mood for parties, we feel ourselves in such bad shape. You think "My bad karma seems to be ripening everyday. All my bad luck is coming at once". Who knows it could be your good karma ripening because due to this, you were introduced to Dharma! That requires good karma, so one cannot depend on mere appearances and overly simple labelling.

Therefore to use "This is your karma..." is a very heavy statement. You are acting as if you are a Buddha, judging other's karma. You are making assumptions! We cannot simply use karma as an excuse. I see many of us use karma like an excuse. "Somehow, I don't have karmic affinity with this person." -- how do you know that? Do you know it because you're becoming a Buddha who has clairvoyance or are you already a Buddha?! "I don't have karma with this centre. Only today my karma with this centre has ripened and I am here" -- who knows, your not coming to this centre was purely due to your laziness! Your laziness created new karma and not necessarily because your past karma stopped you from coming! Like that.

The point here is -- the subtlest karma can only be known by Buddha, no one else! We are able to understand gross karma but not subtle karma. How does subtle karma function? How does it influence our day-to-day life? For this, only the Buddha knows!

- Geshe Tenzin Zopa (?) Karma and the 12 Links, Losang Drapa Buddhist Society (FPMT-LDC), Malaysia

Neckties and the Noose of Emotions

2010-03-13T15:28:00.004+08:00

One of the most unconventional (purely based on my own narrow-minded perception only) teachers of our time, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is coming to town next week (20 and 21 March 2010) for a 2-day teachings on Amitabha sutra. This will be the first time I see him in person.

Dzongsar Rinpoche is the director of 2 movies (The Cup and Travellers & Magicians), the lead actor of 1 (Words of My Perfect Teacher), a self-professed soccer fan, and whose teachings are so direct and sometimes even to the extent of 'crude', they mercilessly exposes the situations and hypocrisies we faced in modern times.

Here is an excerpt from his book WHAT MAKES YOU NOT A BUDDHIST:

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In Buddhist philosophy, anything that is perceived by the mind did not exist before the mind perceived it; it depends on the mind. It doesn't exist independently, therefore it does not truly exist. That is not to say that it doesn't exist somewhat. Buddhist call the perceived world 'relative' truth -- a truth that is measured and labelled by our ordinary minds. In order to qualify as 'ultimate' truth, it must not be fabricated. It must not be a product of the imagination, and it must be independent of interpretation.

The classic Buddhist example used to illustrate emptiness is the snake and the rope. Let's say a cowardly man named Jack, who has a phobia about snakes. Jack walks into the dimly lit room, sees a snake coiled up in the corner and panics. In fact, he is looking at a striped Giogio Armani tie, but in his terror, he has misinterpreted what he sees to the point that he could even die of fright -- death caused by a snake that does not truly exist.

While he is under the impression that it is a snake, the pain and anxiety that he experiences is what Buddhist called 'samsara', which is a kind of mental trap. Fortunately for Jack, his friend Jill walks into the room. Jill is calm and sane and knows that Jack thinks he sees a snake. She can switch on the light and explain that there is no snake, that it is actually a tie. When Jack is convinced that he is safe, this relief is none other than what Buddhist called 'nirvana' -- freedom and liberation. But Jack's relief is based on a fallacy of harm being averted, even though there is no snake and there was nothing to cause his suffering in the first place.

It's important to understand that by switching on the light and demostrating that there is no snake, Jill is also saying that there is no absence of the snake. In other words, she cannot say, "The snake is gone now," because the snake is never there. She never make the snake disappear, just as Siddhartha (Buddha Shakyamuni) didn't make emptiness. This is why Siddhartha insisted he could not sweep away the suffering of others by waving his hand. Nor could His own liberation be granted or shared piecemeal, like some sort of award. All He could do was explain from his experience that there was no suffering in the first place, which is like switching on the light for us.

When Jill finds Jack frozen in terror, she has some choices about what to do. She can directly point out that there is no snake, or she can use a skilful method such as escorting the 'snake' from the room. But if Jack is so terrified that he is unable to differentiate the snake from the tie even with the light on, and if Jill is not skilful, then she could actually make things worse. If she dangles the necktie in Jack's face, he could die of a heart attack. But if Jill is skilful and sees that Jack is delusional, she can say, "Yes I see the snake," and carefully take the tie out of the room so that Jack feels safe for the time being. Maybe then, when he is relaxed, he can be gently guided to the point of seeing that there is never a snake on the first place.

If Jack had never even gone into the room, if there was no misapprehension, then the whole scenario of seeing a snake or not is nullified. But because he saw a snake and is caught in the scenario, and because he is paralysed with fear, he wants a means of escape. Siddhartha's teachings are a method of such liberation.

- Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche (2007) WHAT MAKES YOU NOT A BUDDHIST, Shambala Publications

'Escapist' of Madyamika

2010-03-12T00:49:00.003+08:00

I was a student who always 'play truant' when it comes to teachings on Madyamika and emptiness. And today, I was glad that I attended the second lesson of Lama Tsongkapa's "Special Insight in the Medium Exposition of the Lam Rim" by Geshe Chonyi.

For a dull-minded person like me with thick obscuration, this is the most difficult Dharma topic to even have a glimpse of intellectual understanding in. Looking back, I couldn't remembered much during teachings on Chandrakirti's "Introduction to the Middle Way". However, I did recalled clearly I had a terrible time trying to keep myself awake. When I read Patrul Rinpoche's book "Words of My Perfect Teacher", the other topics were pretty interesting and make sense. Until I came to the part on emptiness, I dozed off with the book in my hand -- what perfect medicine for insommia! (better than sleeping pills maybe?) On another occasion, I printed the entire set of lecture notes and enthusiastically wanted to study Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara Chapter 9 on Wisdom. In the end, there was so much inner obstacles -- I had a hard time understanding the viewpoints from the different tenet schools. I didn't have the determination to go on -- I stopped reading (and I was not even halfway through) and went on to the other books instead.

So, because of these 'daunting' experiences with Madyamika and emptiness teachings, I developed an 'escapist' attitude. It's so easy to give up on difficult topics, difficult tasks, difficult people. It's an easy way out to think, "I won't be able to understand anyway". It's a convenient excuse than investing more time and effort trying to overcome the difficulties and aiming for a breakthrough. -- however small it may be. Precisely because it's difficult, we have to study it, contemplate on it and meditate on it. Precisely because our mind is too wired up with fabrication, that we have to undo this mass of knots. In the end, I wasn't sure if I was able to complete this 8-months twice weekly course successfully. However, I had made this decision -- that I should not look back at the past (unpleasant) experiences, that I should at least stop evading, face it and most importantly, don't give up.

A Sacred Vision

2010-03-01T23:09:00.004+08:00

Kye ho!
Inexpressible, self-aware wisdom
enters the land of craving when the radiance of appearances
becomes the ground of bewiderment.
Awareness' display follows that.
The chain of solidification, fixation on reality, and habit ensues.
The illusions of various appearances can arise as anything.
Whatever arises, pleasure or pain, is the appearance of an object without reality.
Look at it nakedly. Rest in naked self-awareness.
Appearances are the symbolic guru.
In the absence of craving, whatever objects appear are self-liberated. Emaho!
This is how to view the mind itself, the ground.
This is the symbolic guru of appearances.
This is how to meditate on the mind's nature.
Then, how to train one's conduct on the path:

Kye ho!
When unlimited variety appears
a mentality of bewiderment, dualism and hope and fear arises.
Look in this way at the very face of whichever of the 5 poisons arises:
Look at this bewilderment arisen from kleshas;
These 3 poisons; this craving for pleasure,
for food, wealth, possessions, position and companions.
Through the inacitivity that is the absence of solification, hope and fear,
rest in the vast, spacious expanse beyond the intellect,
the state in which, in the absence of craving,
whatever arises is self-liberated.
Seeing it nakedly with undistracted awareness is the path.
This is how to train the mind on the path. Samaya!

Kye ho!
Do not crave whatever arises from the ebb and flow of self-arisen awareness.
In the absence of elaboration of craving and fixation,
in a state beyond elaboration, cultivate experience and appearance.
Apparent objects are empty;
Emptiness is a spacious appearance.
In its midst abides inexpressible wisdom beyond the intellect,
naked seeing without distraction or bewilderment.
It is without substance yet produces variety.
Its ebb and flow are functions of awareness' display, the fundamental path.
The path of liberation-upon-arising is the unreality of whatever fuctions occur.
If the meaning of this is realised, you will become a buddha in one life. Samaya!

- As said by HH the 2nd Karmapa Karma Pakshi, to the First Yongey Mingyur Dorje during a sacred vision

From THE CHARIOT OF THE FORTUNATE: THE LIFE OF THE FIRST YONGEY MINGYUR DORJE (2006), published by Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, USA

The Heart of the Path

2010-02-21T23:20:00.004+08:00

Just started on this book on CNY and within a week, am at more than half of its 430+ pages book by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. "Seeing the Guru as Buddha -- The Heart of the Path" -- an excellent, well-written and very detailed book on the root of the entire Vajrayana path and the source of all spiritual progress (and for the extremely fortunate -- realisation, liberation and enlightenment within a single lifetime).

At least for the Vajrayana path, if there's anything more important, it has to be correct relation to the guru and correct reliance on His instructions. This is because all progress and realisation of renunciation, bodhicitta and true insight realising emptiness (Lama Tsongkapa's Lam-Rim teachings on Three Principle Aspects of the Path) stems from realisation of guru devotion. As LZR puts it in this illustration of his own guru Geshe Rabten, he said Geshe-la was once debating with someone in Sera Je College about whether Geshe-la's guru was a buddha. Geshe-la then answered by making a gesture for the other person to shut his mouth and said, "You don't need to argue about whether or not my guru is a buddha. That is my responsibility and I understand. You have nothing to say on this matter." From the guru's side, it doesn't matter if he's really a buddha; it's more a responsibility from the disciple's side to 'choose' the authentic guru and practise pure perception after establishing a Dharmic connection.

Here are excerpts from LZR saying how there is nothing to trust in our own view:

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There is nothing to trust in our own view is the most important outline in the guru yoga practice; meditating on this topic is like dropping an atomic bomb on our superstitious thoughts that see faults in the guru. It is the most powerful outline for the mind because it stops the arising of wrong conceptions, the hindrances to realisation.

One simple and concise reason that we don't see the guru as a buddha is that we don't have the view of a completely pure mind, the holy mind of a buddha...only an omniscient mind can definitely and faultlessly see the minds of other beings. Since we don't have an omniscient mind or even clairvoyance, we can't judge others. We can't really say whether or not anyone else is a buddha; we can only really be sure about whether or not we ourselves are a buddha. We can see clearly and judge our own mind but we can't see and judge the minds of others. Outside of this, there is nobody that we can be fully confident about...Therefore, our not preceiving our guru as buddha doesn't mean our guru is not buddha.

...We might not accept that something exists unless we can see it with our own eyes. But we are ignorant about so many things. There are so many things that exist but that we don't see...Besides the fact that we can't judge anyone's level of realisation, we can't even see the back of our head. We don't have the power of mind to see even our own face without taking refuge in the mirror. And unless we turn around, we can't even see what's happening behind us. We also can't see what's happening inside our body...We can't even remember our past life, even though our past life did exist and and our present life continued from it..We can't see anything that is going to happen in the future, not in the next hour, minute or even second. It's totally dark. Our mind is completely obscured.

...Until we have purified our mind of impure karma and obscurations, even if every single buddha actually descended directly in front of us, we wouldn't be able to see them as buddhas adorned with the 32 holy signs and 80 holy exemplifications, like the nirmanakaya aspect of Shakyamuni Buddha. At the moment, since our mental continuum is not free from obscuring negative karma, we don't have the fortune to see buddhas in the pure aspect of a buddha. We would have only our present view of them as ordinary beings, which is the projection of our present obscured mind; we would only see them as having faults, delusions and samsaric suffering...If they manifested in a purer aspect than this, we wouldn't have the karma to see them. Therefore, we are very fortunate to be able to see the guru in even ordinary human aspect.

Our seeing faults in our gurus doesn't prove that in reality they have faults; we can't say that our gurus are not buddhas because we see that they have anger, attachment and ignorance and other delusions. How things appear to us very much depends on us...What appears to us depends on the state of our mind. What we see is our mental projection, our own view. If our mind is pure, we'll see things purely, but the more impure or obscured our mind is, the more impure what appears to us will be...Pabongka Rinpoche says in Liberation at the Palm of Your Hand that if a disciple wants to go to bed early, she sees her guru going to bed very late as a fault, but if the guru goes to bed early, she sees it as a good quality. (If you are living with in the same house, you're normally not supposed to bed until your teacher does.) This is just 1 simple example of how things very much depend on our own interpretation. Whether we call something a fault or a good quality depends on our own definitions.

Losar Greetings from Mingyur Rinpoche

2010-02-15T15:37:00.005+08:00

Just a week ago, before the Losar preparation frenzy and the opening of Tergar Osel Ling in Kathmandu began, I was very fortunate to be in Kathmandu and Tergar Osel Ling to meet with Tsoknyi and Mingyur Rinpoche, Rinpoches' mother, Mdm Sonam Chodron and Rinpoches' grandfather.

As requested, Mingyur Rinpoche also gave our group a concise teaching on shamatha meditation and I was very happy to have the opportunity to clarify with him in detail some of the subtle points in meditation -- this would have been impossible if Rinpoche was teaching abroad. His wisdom, esp. that related to very subtle meditation experiences and clarity was amazing -- this injected in me a renewed sense of confidence to begin the new year. How auspicious!

May this letter from Mingyur Rinpoche inspired some of you too:

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Happy Losar, friends, students and fellow meditators!

I am at my monastery on the outskirts of Kathmandu at the moment, where all the monks are busily preparing for Tibetan New Year (Losar), the biggest holiday of the year. As I observe the frenzy of activity all around me, I am reminded of the time I spent with my father as a child and the gentle guidance he offered me as a beginning meditator. As I’m sure many of you already know, my father was a true meditation master and one of my most important teachers.

I was only eight years old when I went to stay with him at his hermitage, but even then I had a deep yearning to learn the art of meditation. I was troubled by overwhelming feelings of fear and anxiety that seemed to follow me like a shadow. When I timidly shared my troubles with my father, he told me that the constantly shifting thoughts and emotions we experience are only one small part of our inner world. Each and every moment, he said, we have the opportunity to connect with a timeless awareness that is not affected in any way by the changing conditions of our lives.

When he first introduced me to this timeless awareness, it seemed almost too good to be true. I respected my father tremendously, so I never really doubted what he was trying to teach me, but I was also very much caught up in the thoughts and feelings that crowded my mind. I truly believed that it was possible to make this pure awareness a living experience; I just didn’t believe it was possible for me.

Looking back, I can see that my biggest obstacle at the time was that I thought of meditation as something that would help me get rid of the parts of myself that I didn’t like. I sincerely hoped that meditation would lead me to happy, peaceful states of mind where panic and fear could not touch me. Yet what my father was leading me to was much more radical than that: He wanted me to see that the only way out of suffering is to move toward it; that the path of true awakening lies in experiencing every single moment, whether pleasant or painful, with complete and unconditional love.

Unconditional love is something we can immediately see the value of when it relates to others, but how often do we think of cultivating unconditional love for ourselves? How often do we not only accept, but even cherish our own tender spots and painful feelings? This is completely different than indulging or repressing destructive habits. What my father taught me in those early years was that when we simply let be and open ourselves to the richness of the present moment, we experience every thought, feeling, and experience as an expression of the mind’s luminous nature. From the perspective of awareness, no thought or emotion is any better or any worse than another. They are all manifestations of the mind’s infinite potential.

As you sit reading this letter, see if you can bring this attitude of complete openness and unconditional love into your life for a moment. You don’t need to sit in a specific posture or say any special prayer or mantra, nor do you have to alter your thoughts or feelings in any way. Just let be…completely natural, completely at ease with whatever arises in the present moment.

When you rest like this, you don’t have to wait for anything special to happen. What we are doing here is profoundly ordinary. In a way, there is nothing new here. It’s the same body, the same mind that we experience all the time. The only difference is that now we are not resisting our experience. It doesn’t matter if you feel open and spacious or completely tense. You may even feel that simply relaxing and letting go is entirely impossible. If so, that’s wonderful. Just be with resistance, be with frustration…be with whatever manifests in the moment. Always remember that there is nothing in the entire world that can rob you of this timeless awareness. It’s with you all the time.

Though we often make meditation complicated and difficult, it is really quite simple. As my father taught me so many years ago, all we have to do is embrace each experience with awareness and open our hearts fully to the present moment. Once we’ve done that, we can bring this same open-hearted attitude to our interactions with others. Indeed, awareness and compassion are contagious. You don’t need to do or say anything. When you are completely at ease with your own being, the ripples of your awareness will naturally spread out in all directions, touching the life of everyone you meet.

In Tibet, Losar is considered to be a very sacred occasion and a special opportunity to make an auspicious beginning for the year ahead. As you continue your spiritual journey in this new year, please make this the very heart of your practice: Bring unconditional love into your life whenever and wherever you can. Let your life unfold with confidence and grace, embracing each moment with the radiant awareness that is your true nature.

I will keep you in my heart and in my prayers.

Yours in the Dharma,

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

(http://tergar.org/resources/2010-2-letter-from-rinpoche.shtml)