"Blazing with bravery, like a great lion soaring through space,Turquoise mane of thousands of oral instructions on the tantras’ meaning,Bellowing laughter that stirs the ‘earth’ of the whispered lineage,Remembering again the supreme translator.སེང་ཆེན་མཁའ་ལ་འཕྱོ་འདྲའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་འབར༎རྒྱུད་དོན་མན་ངག་འབུམ་གྱིས་གཡུ་རལ་གསིག༎སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ས་གཞི་གཡོ་བའི་གད་རྒྱངས་ཅན༎སྐྱེས་མཆོག་སྒྲ་བསྒྱུར་རྒྱལ་སླར་ཡང་དྲན༎། --17th Karmapa's Praise to Marpa With great courage, you travelled many times to the noble land.With great wisdom, you mentally captured all… Continue reading MARPA GURU YOGA AND PRAISES
Month: July 2023
‘TURNING THE WHEEL OF DHARMA’ – CHO-KHOR DUCHEN 2023
“I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering,” ---Shakyamuni Buddha from his first teaching Today, is one of the major dates in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, called Cho-khor Duchen in Tibetan. Traditionally, it is celebrated on the fourth day of the sixth Tibetan lunar month. It commemorates when Buddha… Continue reading ‘TURNING THE WHEEL OF DHARMA’ – CHO-KHOR DUCHEN 2023
MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART IV): SUGATAS GONE TO BLISS, THE EMPTY-OF-OTHER (ZHEN-TONG) VIEW. Buddha Nature bliss beyond suffering and clarity awareness-emptiness indivisible union ultimate nature (Thrangu Rinpoche teaching, Day 7)
རྫོགས་སངས་སྐུ་ནི་འཕྲོ་ཕྱིར་དང༌། ། དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དབྱེར་མེད་ཕྱིར་དང༌། །རིགས་ཡོད་ཕྱིར་ན་ལུས་ཅན་ཀུན། ། རྟག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། །Because the perfect buddhas’s kaya is all-pervading,Because reality is undifferentiated,And because they possess the potential,Beings always have the buddha nature. --Maitreya, Sublime Continuum, I, 27 “These explanations are taught in the third turning the wheel of dharma and contain irrefutable statements of the definitive meaning, which explain that Buddha nature… Continue reading MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART IV): SUGATAS GONE TO BLISS, THE EMPTY-OF-OTHER (ZHEN-TONG) VIEW. Buddha Nature bliss beyond suffering and clarity awareness-emptiness indivisible union ultimate nature (Thrangu Rinpoche teaching, Day 7)
‘AWAKENING WISDOM’ NEW ONLINE COURSE: Read, study and understand the Heart Sutra in Tibetan (September 2023)
Read and Understand the Heart Sutra in Tibetan with Adele Tomlin, scholar-translator and founder of Dakini Translations Ever wanted to read and understand a well-known text in Tibetan? But lack of time and guidance? Well here is your chance! At the beginning of the Autumn season this September 2023, due to requests for Tibetan language… Continue reading ‘AWAKENING WISDOM’ NEW ONLINE COURSE: Read, study and understand the Heart Sutra in Tibetan (September 2023)
HEVAJRA, MARPA LOTSAWA AND THE ‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, the Hevajra mandala, and Jamgon Kongtrul’s preservation of them in ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’ and teaching by 17th Karmapa
"The lineage is not renownedYet it possesses the Dharma vision of ḍākinīs.The forefather is not renownedYet Tilopa is the innate face of Buddha.The guru is not renownedYet he possesses the Dharma vision of Nāropa.I, myself, am not renownedYet I am the heart son of Nāropa.The pith instructions are not renownedYet they are three wish-fulfilling gems.The… Continue reading HEVAJRA, MARPA LOTSAWA AND THE ‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, the Hevajra mandala, and Jamgon Kongtrul’s preservation of them in ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’ and teaching by 17th Karmapa
ASPIRATION FOR THE SWIFT RETURN OF JONANG LINEAGE HEAD BY 17th KARMAPA: Memorial Tribute to the Supreme Head of the Jonang Lineage, Jigme Dorje Rinpoche and ‘Swift Re-Birth Aspiration for the Definitive Teachings Holder’ by 17th Karmapa
"To the firm root discipline of the individual liberation ‘mother and child’, The flourishing petals conduct of the Bodhisattvas’ benefiting others, The ripened fruit of the secret mantra supreme vehicle, and To the holder of the three vajras bow down!" ---excerpt from Swift Re-Birth Aspiration by 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje On 14th July 2023,… Continue reading ASPIRATION FOR THE SWIFT RETURN OF JONANG LINEAGE HEAD BY 17th KARMAPA: Memorial Tribute to the Supreme Head of the Jonang Lineage, Jigme Dorje Rinpoche and ‘Swift Re-Birth Aspiration for the Definitive Teachings Holder’ by 17th Karmapa
THE DAKINI SCRIPT HIDDEN TREASURE OF PEMA VAJRA: Vajra-Lotus treasure hidden by Yeshe Tsogyel as revealed by 1st Yongey Mingyur
"This treasure text (ter-sho) of Pema Vajra meditation is from the first Mingyur Rinpoche who revealed this text from a rock in Tibet. That is what we call a treasure sadhana. More than one thousand years before, Guru Rinpoche came to Tibet and taught this sadhana, the Pema Vajra practice in Tibet but during those… Continue reading THE DAKINI SCRIPT HIDDEN TREASURE OF PEMA VAJRA: Vajra-Lotus treasure hidden by Yeshe Tsogyel as revealed by 1st Yongey Mingyur
SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW AT THRANGU RINPOCHE’S MONASTERY: Remarkable and auspicious rainbow signs at Thrangu Rinpoche’s Nepal monastery during 49-day parinirvana ritual
These stunning and moving photos (see below) of a rare spherical rainbow surrounding the sun and human-like clouds, were posted on July 6th by the Thrangu Tashi Monastery in Namo Buddha, Nepal. Such a rare rainbow and clouds phenomenon are seen as highly significant and auspicious signs of realisation in a Vajrayana Buddhist master of… Continue reading SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW AT THRANGU RINPOCHE’S MONASTERY: Remarkable and auspicious rainbow signs at Thrangu Rinpoche’s Nepal monastery during 49-day parinirvana ritual
‘FOOD OF SINFUL DEMONS’ AND THE FAULTS OF EATING ANIMALS: Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet: Interview with Dr. Geoffrey Barstow (Dakini Conversations: Ep.4)
"Meat is a food for sinful demons." ---Nyammey Sherab Gyeltsen (1356-1415) Tibetan Bon master "I was struck, however, by Patrul [Rinpoche]’s mocking description of monks, beards tinged red from the bloody meat they were eating, covering their heads in shame. I had lived with Tibetans long enough to know that most ate meat with… Continue reading ‘FOOD OF SINFUL DEMONS’ AND THE FAULTS OF EATING ANIMALS: Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet: Interview with Dr. Geoffrey Barstow (Dakini Conversations: Ep.4)
MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART III): ‘CONEQUENTIALIST MIDDLE WAY’ SCHOOL. The Consequentialist (Prasangika) Middle Way school and the fault of negating everything into empty-of-self (rang-tong) without asserting the ultimate ‘basis’ and qualities of Buddha Nature, the union of clear awareness-emptiness
“These days in this scriptural tradition people take mere words that appear as 'no propositions' as a refuge. They do not accept the presentation of the path and result, and do not even assert the Buddha Nature (Dezheg Nyingpo). Then they focus their mind single-pointedly on the blank, mere emptiness of the lack of elaborations…… Continue reading MAGIC KEY FOR ENTERING KNOWLEDGE (PART III): ‘CONEQUENTIALIST MIDDLE WAY’ SCHOOL. The Consequentialist (Prasangika) Middle Way school and the fault of negating everything into empty-of-self (rang-tong) without asserting the ultimate ‘basis’ and qualities of Buddha Nature, the union of clear awareness-emptiness