Saturday, March 12, Day 1
Rinpoche began by saying that even though he has not come to Gyalwa Gyatso Buddhist Center very often, he thinks about us all the time.
He thanked all the people who have been working at our Dharma centers since the beginning, and through all these years.
He told some stories about some of the lamas who have taught at Vajrapani—the oldest center in America in our organization.
One of those great lamas was His Holiness Zong Rinpoche [also spelled Song Rinpoche]. The mother of the reincarnation of Zong Rinpoche was in the audience and Rinpoche mentioned her.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has great hopes for and confidence in the current incarnation of Zong Rinpoche [who is now in his twenties]. Zong Rinpoche spent a school year living in California, with Pam and Karuna, when he was young, but after that he stayed put in the monastery and completed his geshe degree last year. Lama Zopa Rinpoche feels that he could be a great leader for the Tibetan monasteries in this life, and that teaching in the West and elsewhere in the world would be easy for him, without question.
Another great lama who taught at Vajrapani was His Holiness Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche, who was the reincarnation of Marpa's son, Dharma Dode. Rinpoche told the life story of Milarepa, whose guru was Marpa, mentioning some of the principles of guru devotion. Even though the enlightened Marpa put Milarepa through so many hardships, Milarepa never got angry with his guru.
And of course, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one of the most important great lamas to have visited Vajrapani Insitute around the time that his Nobel Peace Prize was being announced.
Later in the evening, Rinpoche said that praying that His Holiness's holy wishes may be fulfilled "is the most important prayer in the world, in your life." If this prayer succeeds, then every single sentient being will get enlightenment.
We are so fortunate here to have the opportunity to receive the oral transmission of the Golden Light Sutra. In many parts of the world people are overwhelmed with disasters and violence. And even in places where there is so-called peace—the mere absence of war—people don't have any idea of how to live a meaningful life. They have no idea about rebirth, so they live totally wrong, all their actions done with the wrong motivation.
Then, Rinpoche read the benefits of the Sutra of Golden Light. For example, for those who hear this sutra, there will be no turning back from enlightenment. The place, the area where the sutra is recited will be protected.
After going through the opening prayers—the Diamond-cutter verse and the Seven Limbs—very slowly with meditation, Rinpoche recited the first chapter of the 31-chapter version of the Sutra of Golden Light.
We finished with a Vajrasattva mantra practice for the people in Japan who were killed by the tsunami.
We finished with a Vajrasattva mantra practice for the people in Japan who were killed by the tsunami.
Rinpoche stayed close to the schedule, starting soon after 4:00, breaking for dinner around 6:15, and finishing before 11:00.
The room seemed quite full, well over 100 people, but you are still welcome to jump in even if you missed this first night.
Sunday, March 13, Day 2
Rinpoche is spending much of each session teaching and leading meditations, including going through the opening prayers very slowly explaining how to meditate on them.
At the end of this evening, Rinpoche had completed Chapter 3 (of 31 chapters) of the Sutra of Golden Light.
Because of the recent earthquake-tsunami and related catastrophes in Japan, Rinpoche continues to comment on that and include the Japanese people in the prayers. For example, this evening the Seven-Limb Prayer included an extensive explanation of the importance of merit under the limb of rejoicing—how important it is to have merit and not to destroy it with anger.
“The people in Japan didn't have the karma to experience peace and happiness. Or they had the karma, but it hadn't ripened. The negative karma was more powerful; it was not purified before. If it had been purified, then they would not experience these problems. Or they experience but very small.” [from roughly typed notes]
And [again roughly]:
“Every single sentient being can attain enlightenment. So it's possible for you to purify so that you won't receive this suffering result. But if it's not purified then you experience all these problems like there have been in the world—disease, famine, torture, war, dictatorship, dangers of fire, water, earthquakes, tsunamis.”
Unfortunately, we often destroy whatever good karma we've created by getting angry.
Rinpoche gave us something to write down in our notebooks so that we remember to do it every morning when we start the day. Say to yourself: “Today, I'm not going to make myself irritated or disturbed; whatever happens I won't let it bother me. I will be happy to receive obstacles.”
Use the obstacles, problems as part of your spiritual path. “Whenever a problem comes, immediately give it to the selfish mind, the ego, your enemy, blow it away.” The self-cherishing egotistical attitude was the original source of the problem, so blow it away through the practice of tong-len. “Put all the blame on the one,” as it says in the Seven-Point Thought Transformation, i.e. blame your problems on self-cherishing.
“When you use the problems for tong-len practice, you get courage, a brave heart. Limitless skies of wow wow wow merit.”
After the dinner break, we received the oral transmission of The Dharani Called 'Possessing the Limbs of All the Buddhas' (Arya sarva buddhadgavati nama dharani, PAGPA SANGGYE TAMCHI KYI YENLAG DANG DENPA ZHE JA WE ZUNG).
Rinpoche explained the benefits of the Sutra of Golden Light, which you can read here: http://www.fpmt.org/sutras/golden-light-sutra/benefits.html After hearing the recitation of Chapters 2 and 3, we finished up at 10:00.
Saturday, March 19, Day 3
Rinpoche phoned in some instructions for us to start doing some prayers for the disaster victims in Japan while we were waiting for him to arrive; namely, Vajrasattva,, Tong-len, and Ksitigarbha. Venerable Sarah led the prayers but we were only nearing the end of the Vajrasattva practice when Rinpoche arrived.
Rinpoche led an extensive meditation on the Diamond-Cutter verse—the verse from the beginning prayers: KAR MA RAB RIB MAR ME DANG, A star, a visual aberration, a flame of a lamp, etc., which segued into some examples of how people try in all sorts of distorted ways to get satisfaction. They go about it in the wrong way because of the underlying ignorance which believes that things truly exist.
Rinpoche then discussed some verses from the Foundation of All Good Qualities:
län chig nye päi däi wäi ten zang di
shin tu nye ka dön ch'en she gyur nä
nyin tsän kun tu nying po len päi lo
gyun chä me par kye war jin gyi lob
Precious freedom of this one-time life
Is so meaningful and hard to find.
Bless me with the mind which day and night
Always takes its essence without cease.
Rinpoche explained that this perfect human rebirth which has the freedom to practice Dharma is more precious than a whole sky filled with wish-granting jewels, because with this human life we can achieve enlightenment in one brief lifetime of the degenerate age through practicing not only the Mahayana Paramitayana path to Buddhahood, but also the Mahayana Secret Mantra path which is able to cease the course conceptual mind and develop the clear light and illusory an a means to achieving Buddhahood. Then:
lü sog yo wa chu yi chu bur zhin
nyur du jig päi chi wa drän pa dang
shi wäi je su lü d'ang dr'ib ma zhin
kar nak lä drä ch'i zhin drang wa la
Like a water bubble, this life is
Fleeting—it decays and then death comes.
After death, your good and bad karma
Follow you around like a shadow.
nge pa tän po nye nä nye päi tsog
dra zhing dra wa nam kyang pong wa dang
ge tsog ta dag drub par je pa la
tag tu bak dang dän par jin gyi lob
Knowing this with a firm conviction,
I'll give up even small non-virtues,
And take up all virtuous actions.
Bless me to live conscientiously.
And so we are urged not to waste even a day, or an hour, or a second, but to take every opportunity to collect virtuous actions, however small. And to be careful to avoid even small non-virtues because the end up ripening as such big problems in the future.
As the motivation for the oral transmission, we were reminded that bodhicitta covers all sentient beings so it benefits them all. We heard a quote from Kyabje Kunnu Lama Rinpoche's Praise of Bodhichitta, about your bodhicitta, i.e. your good heart, being the base which causes continual happiness and peace for all sentient beings from this life up to the happiness of full enlightenment.
Rinpoche cited verse 92 from the Guru Puja:
Contemplating the advantages of cherishing others:
MA NAM CHE ZUNG DE LA GÖ PÄI LO
The mind that cherishes mothers and places them in bliss
THA YÄ YÖN TÄN JUNG WÄI GOR THONG NÄ
Is the gateway leading to infinite qualities.
DRO WA DI DAG DAG GI DRAR LANG KYANG
Seeing this, I seek your blessings to cherish these beings
SOG LÄ CHE PAR DZIN PAR JIN GYI LOB
More than my life, even should they rise up as my enemies.
We received transmissions of some practices to avert earthquakes and other harm from the elements; namely, Wishing to Control the Earthquakes, Prayer fulfilling Wishes Simultaneously, and Making Requests and Offerings to the landlord and Goddess of the Four Elements.
After finishing the transmission of Chapter Four of the Golden Light Sutra, Rinpoche also gave us the oral transmission of the Heart Sutra in English.
The Sixteen Arhat practice did not happen this day as had been previously announced. We finished at 11pm.
Sunday, March 20, Day 4
Lama Zopa Rinpoche began saying, “Before the Golden Light Sutra I thought to do this abbreviated Medicine Buddha prayer. There is an elaborate Medicine Buddha practice composed by the 5th Dalai Lama which is very inspiring. That one was requested a long time ago. That one is available in English—the first translation into English from the Tibetan text. And then there is the one we have been doing for many years composed by Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, who composed the Mahamudra text and the Guru Puja and so many other works.”
The transmission we received was of this text: Medicine Buddha Sadhana. The English edition was translated in 1982 by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, edited by Ven. Thubten Gyatso (Dr. Adrian Feldmann).
This particular sadhana spells out the mantra: TADYATHA / OM BHEKHANDZYE BHEKHANDZYE MAHA BHEKHANDZYE / RADZA SAMUDGATE SVAHA – with one BHEKHANDZYE after the MAHA. However you can also recite two BHEKHANDZYE's. His Holiness the Dalai Lama seems to recite two, like this: TADYATHA / OM BHEKHANDZYE BHEKHANDZYE MAHA BHEKHANDZYE BHEKHANDZYE / RADZA SAMUDGATE SVAHA
At first Rinpoche thought it was composed by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen, but then the colophon said it was composed by another lama. Anyway, the mention of Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen prompted some stories about the early days of Kopan Monastery and the annual one-month introductory courses there which were inspired by Rinpoche's reading of a certain lo-jong text by Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen.
The Kopan course has been happening for 40 years now and out of Kopan there have emerged about 150 Dharma centers around the world. In the early courses, Rinpoche would spend about 3 days just talking about the mind, because people from Western countries have such a different idea about the nature of the mind and for many of them the idea of rebirth—the continuity of consciousness from one life to the next—is a foreign idea.
Rinpoche said, “It's because of karma, who can understand Buddhism. People have different capacities. Some can understand the extremely profound meanings, such as emptiness. Some cannot understand that, no way. Only the gross level, the gross dependent arising. It all depends on their past karma, whether they have learned, meditated. They found it extremely beneficial for their life, they found answers. Then they went back to their home countries and wished for people in their country to meet Dharma so that's how the centers happened.”
Not everybody comes away from these courses continuing to do any formal daily spiritual practice, but Rinpoche thinks it's worthwhile just that they stop killing things—that they realize that ants and fish, etc., are sentient beings. Most people stop killing because of compassion; a fewer number stop killing because they understand karma. “You love yourself and you don't want to suffer, so you don't create the cause, so you don't have to experience the result.”
The 84,000 teachings of the Buddha can be condensed into Hinayana, Mahayana-Paramitayana, and Mahayana-Vajrayana. Rinpoche said, “If you say just Mahayana, and then Vajrayana as if Vajrayana were not part of Mahayana that would be totally wrong. That's not correct Vajrayana.” Vajrayana must be practiced on the basis of bodhicitta, the special attitude which defines something as Mahayana. Without that Mahayana attitude, Vajrayana doesn't become a cause of enlightenment. Not only that, it can even cause rebirth in the lower realms.
Another way to summarize all the Buddha's teachings is, “The foundation is to not harm; the second thing is to benefit.”
Rinpoche then discussed the importance of having bodhicitta in your heart as the motivation for receiving the transmission of the Golden Light Sutra. When someone has been very kind to you, you feel that person in your heart. Actually every sentient being has been kind to us. We just need to think about it. When they were our mothers, in past lives, they were kind to us in these four ways: 1) They endured hardships giving birth to us; 2) They protected us from dangers when we were young; 3) They educated us in the ways of the world; 4) They collected negative karma on our behalf, doing things like stealing and lying to support us, and even the seemingly good or neutral things they did for us were done with ignorance and so became causes for their further circling in samsara. Therefore, we owe each of them a great debt.
Rinpoche then gave what seems to be a complete summary of the entire path to enlightenment, pointing out how amazingly fortunate we are to have met this authentic path while having the opportunity to practice.
Then, whatever happens to us, we must realize that it is a result of our karma. It is a causative phenomenon, and we created the cause. If we don't want more results like that, we must refrain from creating more harm, for example, by retaliating. Moreover, we need to be very careful not to be the cooperative cause for other people to create negative karma causing their own future suffering. If we fight with people, causing them to fight back, just think of the negative karma they will be creating. Therefore it is our duty to develop compassion.
We received a little bit more of the Golden Light Sutra transmission, stopping somewhere in Chapter Five, page 100.
Then we received the jenang (subsequent permission) of White Tara.
After the jenang, people lined up to offer katas to Rinpoche.
Rinpoche was pleased with how things went and plans to come back to continue the Golden Light Sutra.
This last evening had the most people in attendance. The jenang was finished before 11pm, but with people lining up to make offerings it probably went till about midnight.
There are some wonderful pictures of the event in the photo album of our center's Facebook page.
Why do the most famous Tibetan monks reincarnate in male form rather than in female form? Consequently, the most popular or highly visible Tibetan monastic teachers in the West seem to be mostly males.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't more Tibetan monastics learn to speak and write English? Many Westerners have learned to speak and write Tibetan in order to translate ancient texts, probably a very tedious and lonely task which doesn't pay into one's senior care.
Many years ago at LMB, there was Western a nun who had given up her Engineering career and donated her savings. When she needed surgery for a life threatening medical problem, no fund was set up for her, whereas the male Tibetan teachers are usually taken care of. Why such different treatments of monastics?
This question about gender issues is really a separate topic. I'll respond to it later under a new post.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the nun who had given away savings from her engineer career: Am i to understand that Monastics cannot receive medicare or medical? Or is it by choice?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
I'm going to pull this question out too and answer it with the same post as the first comment.
ReplyDeleteSome of my friends have asked me questions about which of such practices and attitudes are Buddhist and which are part of the Tibetan culture.
ReplyDeleteThis nun was too young for Medicare and probably would have died before getting approved for MediCal. I think her intestine was bleeding, perhaps due to a tumor. She believed that her best solution was to substitute teach math at the local high schools, although she suffered constant pain.
I wonder why she and others with illnesses didn't follow Lama Zopa Rinpoche's advice..."Benefits of Reciting the Four Tathagatas' Names:... sentient beings are released from ...their negative karma and its result, such as poverty....humans get mountains of millions of dollars;
Holy Beautiful Form (ZUG DZÄ DAM PA): All beings are freed from their miserable bodies, and acquire perfect,
strong bodies.
Very Gentle Body (KU JAM LÄ): All beings are released from all physical illness....."
Victorious One Free of All Fears (GYÄL WA THUG JIG PA THAM CHÄ DANG DRÄL WA): All beings are liberated from
the fear of being tormented by others and enjoy peace. Think that sentient beings who have less power and are
controlled by others, who have fear of danger and sufferings, are made safe; those dangers are pacified. They are
liberated from all dangers and powerlessness."
I asked a Tibetan Geshe why the Tibetan people had the Karma to lose their country. He replied that they had much corruption in their government. I don't understand why they didn't clean up their Karma by reciting these mantras. In fact, maybe Land of Medicine Buddha's financial problems could be solved by the Tathagata Many Jewels recitation!
I look forward to the results of Lama Zopa Rinpoche's advice regarding "To Control Earthquakes and the Four Elements (advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, March 23 2011)
Practices for Protection from Radiation (advice given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, March 23 2011)
The recent rain storms have washed out my newly planted seeds and blown over a few precious trees. Please let me know when and where I will be able to watch someone demonstrate Lama's advice:
"Performing Sur1 helps ....to stop the rain
completely and for you to receive rain only when there is need for it. "
To stop rainfall, recite, “NAGA RADZA,” “Stop the rain!” Recite many malas of this. Especially
after each mala, blow over salt and tsampa, then put them on the fire to make smoke. Then,
give orders to the landlord by offering torma to the landlord. (This is included in the same
sadhana practice Sur, Aroma Charity to Spirits).
NAGA RADZA [STOP THE RAIN!] (many malas)
It is also mentioned that if you make smoke from musk and snake meat, that also stops rain.
Mix salt and tsampa, put it in your mouth and blow it in the direction the rain is coming from.
Do this as you are able.
It’s very important to continuously have smoke by burning salt and tsampa either on charcoal
or on a wood fire. Using this and the previous method, you must continue the smoke offering
for several hours. "
'Sur' is performed most mornings by the Tibetan monk who lives at LMB, out by the big prayer wheel, usually at dawn.
ReplyDeleteNote: I responded to the previous questions under a new post heading, "Responding to Questions about Gender, Language, and Financial Support."