"By thinking of all sentient beings As more precious than a wish-fulfilling jewel For accomplishing the highest aim, I will always hold them dear." ---Geshe Langri Thangpa “In this world there are many valuable things than cannot be bought by money and require merit. In any case, whether we have money or not depends on… Continue reading DON’T BE LIKE A PARROT RECITING ‘MANI’ MANTRAS. The most valuable investment in the universe, dealing with demons/obstacle-makersand the importance of motivation and discipline when accepting ‘food of faith’ offerings and reciting rituals and texts (17th Karmapa Spring 2022 teachings, Day 3)
Month: Mar 2022
THE ‘CENSORED’ TARA: POWERFUL PASSION VS PRUDISH PURITY. Depictions of women in Buddhist art and literature and the sexual objectification, denigration and censorship of women’s biology and nakedness
This short research article for Dakini Day today, inspired by a recent visit to the British Museum (London), considers ancient and modern representations of the bodies and sexuality of women in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist art and texts and how the excessive sexualisation and denigration of women’s breasts and genitals (exemplified by online porn), combined… Continue reading THE ‘CENSORED’ TARA: POWERFUL PASSION VS PRUDISH PURITY. Depictions of women in Buddhist art and literature and the sexual objectification, denigration and censorship of women’s biology and nakedness
‘NEVER TAKING AN ORDINARY BREATH’: ASPIRING BODHICITTA AND EXCHANGING SELF WITH OTHERS. The unbearable compassion of the boy 8th Karmapa who slept with a calf and the extraordinary life of Kadampa mind-training master, Geshe Langri Thangpa (Day Two, Spring Teachings, 17th Karmapa)
"Benefiting others depends at root on giving awayYour happiness to others and taking their pains upon yourself" ---from 8th Karmapa's 'Good Deeds' (Verse Ten) "If you cannot even get your mind around people (including those you do not like) having good fortune in this lifetime, but at the same time think ‘oh I will give… Continue reading ‘NEVER TAKING AN ORDINARY BREATH’: ASPIRING BODHICITTA AND EXCHANGING SELF WITH OTHERS. The unbearable compassion of the boy 8th Karmapa who slept with a calf and the extraordinary life of Kadampa mind-training master, Geshe Langri Thangpa (Day Two, Spring Teachings, 17th Karmapa)
‘WALKING IN MY SHOES’: STORIES TO INSPIRE FAITH AND DEVOTION. THE IMPORTANCE OF LIBERATION-STORIES (NAMTHAR) OF GREAT BEINGS (17th Karmapa, (Day One. Spring Teachings 2022)
‘Through the form of its topic and language it [the liberation-story] must be a cause, when students see or hear it, to lead them to full liberation and omniscience.’ ---Second Drugchen, Kunga Peljor (1428-1476) cited by 17th Karmapa ‘A criticism from someone who does not know how to criticize, is better than praise from someone… Continue reading ‘WALKING IN MY SHOES’: STORIES TO INSPIRE FAITH AND DEVOTION. THE IMPORTANCE OF LIBERATION-STORIES (NAMTHAR) OF GREAT BEINGS (17th Karmapa, (Day One. Spring Teachings 2022)
APPROACHING VAJRAYOGINI: THE NECESSITY OF FOUNDATIONAL PRACTICE AND EMPOWERMENT AND NEW TRANSLATION OF DAILY VAJRAYOGINI TEXT BY 6TH ZHARMAPA (INCLUDED IN THE NINTH KARMAPA’S NGONDRO TEXT)
"Without empowerment there's no accomplishment; You can't get oil from pressing sand." --Patrul Rinpoche in Words of My Perfect Teacher "Vajravarahi is the mother who begat all Buddhas. She is essentially Mahamudra, appearing in the form of Sahaja. She belongs to a family of yoginis who are especially warm-hearted toward sentient beings. Hence, through her,… Continue reading APPROACHING VAJRAYOGINI: THE NECESSITY OF FOUNDATIONAL PRACTICE AND EMPOWERMENT AND NEW TRANSLATION OF DAILY VAJRAYOGINI TEXT BY 6TH ZHARMAPA (INCLUDED IN THE NINTH KARMAPA’S NGONDRO TEXT)
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (MARCH 08): THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE AND FEMALE LINEAGES RESEARCH AND TRANSLATIONS
"Male or female–there is no great difference. But if she develops the mind intent on enlightenment, to be a woman is better.” -Guru Padmasambhava. "It is time we truly recognize that the era of the hunter is past. This should be a more “feminine” era – an era when women make greater contributions to society.… Continue reading INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (MARCH 08): THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE AND FEMALE LINEAGES RESEARCH AND TRANSLATIONS
LIBERATING ONE’S BUDDHA NATURE AND FOUR WAYS OF SEEING A TORMA: Garchen Rinpoche Medicine Buddha teachings 2022
For the Tibetan Losar New Year on 3rd March 2022, HE 8th Garchen Rinpoche generously bestowed the Medicine Buddha empowerment (video here), which I was also fortunate to be able to take online. I have written about the Medicine Buddha before in connection with the Sutra of Medicine Buddha (see here). The teachings Garchen Rinpoche… Continue reading LIBERATING ONE’S BUDDHA NATURE AND FOUR WAYS OF SEEING A TORMA: Garchen Rinpoche Medicine Buddha teachings 2022
NEW WEBSITE PAGE: ART AND AESTHETICS
On the second day of the Tibetan Losar, am happy to announce a new website page for reviews, research and articles about Buddhist art, aesthetic experience and spiritual practice. If you have any new works, exhibits etc. you would like to be reviewed or considered, please contact at the website. As a philosophy postgraduate in… Continue reading NEW WEBSITE PAGE: ART AND AESTHETICS
‘EXPANDING SMILE OF A FEROCIOUS TIGER’ LOSAR GREETINGS BY 17th KARMAPA and NEW ARTWORK
Original artwork and Losar 2149 Verse by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, see here: https://kagyuoffice.org/losar-tashi-delek/ 'ཚེ་ནོར་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རླབས་ཕྲེང་འཕྲོ་བའི། །May life, wealth and resources flow wave after wave!བསོད་ནམས་ཆུ་བོ་དྲག་ཏུ་བབས་པའི་ངོགས། །Merit descend like a slope’s rapid current!དབང་ཐང་ འཛུམ་དྲུག་རྒྱས་པའི་དམར་ཡག་སྟག །Power and dominion expand like the smile* of a ferocious tiger!དེང་འདིར་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་གྲོགས་སུ་རྩེན་གྱུར་ཅིག ། །Right here and now, may you become a frolicking playmate! For… Continue reading ‘EXPANDING SMILE OF A FEROCIOUS TIGER’ LOSAR GREETINGS BY 17th KARMAPA and NEW ARTWORK
LOSAR GREETINGS AND NEW ART REVIEW: 15th Century Tibetan Tārā with the ‘Roman nose’
ཨོཾ། འཇིགས་པ་བརྒྱད་སྐྱོབ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །Oṃ! To the protectoress from the eight fears. prostrate!བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབར་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །To the female blazing with the auspicious splendour prostrate!ངན་སོང་སྒོ་འགེགས་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །To the female who blocks the door to the lower realms, prostrate!མཐོ་རིས་ལམ་འདྲེན་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །To the female who draws us onto the path of the higher realms, prostrate!རྟག་ཏུ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་སྡོང་གྲོགས་མཛད། །May you always accompany us as a friendly ally!ད་དུང་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བསྐྱབ་ཏུ་གསོལ།… Continue reading LOSAR GREETINGS AND NEW ART REVIEW: 15th Century Tibetan Tārā with the ‘Roman nose’
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 