"As more monks began to reside at the location, it became a place for the monastics to engage in listening, contemplating and meditation and to gather, and perform the main rituals, such as (like ‘poṣadha’, the rains retreat, ‘pravāraṇa’, and ‘kaṭhina’) created a need for permanent, more practical, structures and they began to construct assembly… Continue reading FROM WANDERING MENDICANTS TEMPORARILY SHELTERING FROM THE RAIN TO LARGE, AUTONOMOUS MONASTIC COMMUNITIES IN MONASTERIES: Development of monasteries and categories and terminology for Sangha dwellings and members (Day 3, 17th Karmapa (2022)
Month: Aug 2022
THE ‘FAT JOYFUL’ NUN, STHULANANDA: ‘BADDEST-BALDIE’ IN THE VINAYA OR ‘BAD-ASS’ PROTO-FEMINIST? Early Buddhist nun, Sthūlanandā’s ‘badness’ challenging male monastic privilege or a powerful symbol of the futile ‘trappings’ of following rules without real, inner transformation
“Sthūlanandā was not well turned out, did not practice good deportment, and had very dirty ripped robes [revealing] great breasts hanging down like gourds and large buttocks. She was arrogant, unseemly, frivolous, fractious, and garrulous in her speech. [The families] did not respect her and did not host her.”--- Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravādin Bhikṣuṇī-vinaya “We have to see… Continue reading THE ‘FAT JOYFUL’ NUN, STHULANANDA: ‘BADDEST-BALDIE’ IN THE VINAYA OR ‘BAD-ASS’ PROTO-FEMINIST? Early Buddhist nun, Sthūlanandā’s ‘badness’ challenging male monastic privilege or a powerful symbol of the futile ‘trappings’ of following rules without real, inner transformation
THREE-MONTH MONSOON MEDITATION AND PUBLICLY DECLARING ONE’S FAULTS: A DIFFICULT, YET SIMPLE LIFESTYLE TO REDUCE GREED, DESIRE AND SELF-CLINGING. Seniority ranking in the sangha, one meal per day, no fixed abode, the three month rains retreat and fortnightly Sojong (confessing faults) (17th Karmapa Summer 2022 Teaching, Day 2)
"Generally, within our worldly society, most people consider seniority to be based upon age. However, in the Vinaya, it is based on the length of time you have taken and held the vows." “If one has qualities and realizations, even if a person is made to sit at the end (or back) of the… Continue reading THREE-MONTH MONSOON MEDITATION AND PUBLICLY DECLARING ONE’S FAULTS: A DIFFICULT, YET SIMPLE LIFESTYLE TO REDUCE GREED, DESIRE AND SELF-CLINGING. Seniority ranking in the sangha, one meal per day, no fixed abode, the three month rains retreat and fortnightly Sojong (confessing faults) (17th Karmapa Summer 2022 Teaching, Day 2)
‘THE GURU’S GOLDEN HANDS’ and DAKINI DAY CALL TO GET THE CREATIVE ‘JUICES’ FLOWING: New poem ‘The Guru’s Golden Hands’ and poetry, art and music call for submissions for publication
"I feel what they feel. People who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they’re not alone."—Nina Simone "A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires."—Hedy Lamarr “Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires… Continue reading ‘THE GURU’S GOLDEN HANDS’ and DAKINI DAY CALL TO GET THE CREATIVE ‘JUICES’ FLOWING: New poem ‘The Guru’s Golden Hands’ and poetry, art and music call for submissions for publication
ARCHAIC, ANGLO/EURO-CENTRIC GOBBLEDYGOOK?: A case for abandoning the use of Romanized (Wylie) transliteration of Tibetan script
This brief research note is for the Tibetology linguists and scholars, but also for those readers who have ever wondered about the commonly used ‘anglicised’ transliteration systems (often called Wylie) for the Tibetan script, used by scholars and translators. In it, I ask the question: why are we still using transliteration for Tibetan in the… Continue reading ARCHAIC, ANGLO/EURO-CENTRIC GOBBLEDYGOOK?: A case for abandoning the use of Romanized (Wylie) transliteration of Tibetan script
BOKAR RINPOCHE PARANIRVANA ANNIVERSARY, THE KALACAKRA RELIC STUPA AND KARMA KAGYU KALACAKRA LINEAGE
Yesterday, according to Bokar Monastery, it was the 18th anniversary of the paranirvana of HE Bokar Rinpoche, Karma Kagyu and Kālacakra master (1940-2004). To commemorate the passing of this great teacher, am re-publishing some information and photos I wrote about HE Bokar Rinpoche, the Karma Kagyu Kālacakra lineage holders, and the stunning Kālacakra temple and… Continue reading BOKAR RINPOCHE PARANIRVANA ANNIVERSARY, THE KALACAKRA RELIC STUPA AND KARMA KAGYU KALACAKRA LINEAGE
PLAYFUL PRACTITIONERS OR MINDLESS MISOGYNISTS? THE ‘ARTS OF LOVE’ OR ‘ARTS OF ‘A**HOLERY’? The question of sexist double standards, silent women and two Tibetan Buddhist male ‘heroes’, Gendun Chophel and Drugpa Kunley
"Pay no respect to mean Lamas, Pay no respect to immoral monks, Pay no respect to dogs, crows or women: That is the teaching on the Three Rejects."― Drugpa Kunley "Because of my lowly status and state of poverty, I was reviled and abused by practically everyone. So—although I had the capacity to reveal profound… Continue reading PLAYFUL PRACTITIONERS OR MINDLESS MISOGYNISTS? THE ‘ARTS OF LOVE’ OR ‘ARTS OF ‘A**HOLERY’? The question of sexist double standards, silent women and two Tibetan Buddhist male ‘heroes’, Gendun Chophel and Drugpa Kunley
THOSE WHO ‘APPROACH VIRTUE’ (GENYEN), ‘ADOPT VIRTUE’ (GELONG) AND “ASPIRE FOR VIRTUE TOGETHER’ (GEDUN): THE FORMATION, MEANING AND LIFESTYLE OF THE EARLY BUDDHIST SANGHA (Day 1, Karmapa’s Summer teaching (2022)
“They are worthy of veneration with palms joined together.They are worthy of receiving prostrations.They are a glorious field of merit.They provide a great purification of offerings.They are an object of generosity.They are in every way the greatest object of generosity." ---Excerpt about the Sangha, from Sutra on the Recollection of the Three Jewels “In any… Continue reading THOSE WHO ‘APPROACH VIRTUE’ (GENYEN), ‘ADOPT VIRTUE’ (GELONG) AND “ASPIRE FOR VIRTUE TOGETHER’ (GEDUN): THE FORMATION, MEANING AND LIFESTYLE OF THE EARLY BUDDHIST SANGHA (Day 1, Karmapa’s Summer teaching (2022)
CONCISE LIBERATION-STORY OF JE GAMPOPA BY 17th GYALWANG KARMAPA (2022): Influential doctor, Kadampa Masters, Milarepa’s Dream and Unifying Sutra and Tantra
"That physician, Gampopa will benefit many sentient beings. Last night, I had a dream that a yellow bird flew away from me in the direction of central Tibet. It landed on the peak of a great mountain. Then many large flocks of geese from all directions gathered there. After a short while, each flock was… Continue reading CONCISE LIBERATION-STORY OF JE GAMPOPA BY 17th GYALWANG KARMAPA (2022): Influential doctor, Kadampa Masters, Milarepa’s Dream and Unifying Sutra and Tantra
‘NAKEDLY SEEING THE DHARMAKAYA’ FULL MOON OFFERINGS FOR JE GAMPOPA DAY: English language outline and overview of Je Gampopa Guru Yoga by Jamgon Kongtrul and other Guru Yoga/Praises Texts; the Paranirvana of Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje and live online puja today led by17th Gyalwang Karmapa
Gleaming golden-white, smiling, with with slender, gazing eyes.On the head, a meditation hat, wearing the three Dharma robes.With the samadhi mudra, holding a wish-fulfilling jewelSeated in vajra posture, blazing with magnificent bliss-emptiness. དཀར་སེར་བརྗིད་འཛུམ་ཟིམ་བུའི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་གཟིགས། །དབུ་ལ་སྒོམ་ཞྭ་སྐུ་ལ་ཆོས་གོས་གསུམ། ། ཏིང་འཛིན་ཕྱག་རྒྱས་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་བསྣམས། །རྡོ་རྗེ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་བདེ་སྟོང་གཟི་བརྗིད་འབར། ། OM AH HUM MAHAGURU VAJRADHARA HUM ༀ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ་མ་ཧཱ་གུ་རུ་བཛྲ་དྷཱ་ར་ཧཱུྃ། ---Excerpt from 'Nakedly Seeing the Dharmakāya: Gampopa's Guru Yoga' by… Continue reading ‘NAKEDLY SEEING THE DHARMAKAYA’ FULL MOON OFFERINGS FOR JE GAMPOPA DAY: English language outline and overview of Je Gampopa Guru Yoga by Jamgon Kongtrul and other Guru Yoga/Praises Texts; the Paranirvana of Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje and live online puja today led by17th Gyalwang Karmapa
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 