"At the three times with supreme faith, with mandala and flowers between your palms, revere the Guru and teacher, and bow your head down to their feet." "If they are a householder or 'new', In order to avoid worldly censure, Those who have vows arrange sacred Dharma and such in front, and mentally holding 'unconventional… Continue reading ‘DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER’, ‘UNCONVENTIONAL CONDUCT’ OF A FULLY ORDAINED MONASTIC: Inner qualities more important than outer appearances/clothes, how to ask a qualified guru to be your vajrayāna teacher, and what to do when student is a monastic and the guru is a householder (Fifty Verses on The Guru, 17th Karmapa, Day 5)
Month: February 2024
REMEMBERING ‘CHOTRUL DUCHEN’ AND JE MILAREPA’S ANNIVERSARY: New Praise to Je Milarepa by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and Milarepa Guru Yoga live today from Bodh Gaya
ཁ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག་སྤུངས་པའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར། །A mass of snow flowers in this worldརས་དཀར་འདབ་གཤོག་སྐྱོད་པའི་འཕུར་ལྡིང་གིས། །Flying and soaring with wings of white cotton robes --17th Karmapa excerpt from Praise to Milarepa (23 February 2024) Today, is the full moon of Saga Dawa, the first month of the Tibetan lunar year, which is considered to be especially sacred, and today is called… Continue reading REMEMBERING ‘CHOTRUL DUCHEN’ AND JE MILAREPA’S ANNIVERSARY: New Praise to Je Milarepa by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and Milarepa Guru Yoga live today from Bodh Gaya
“INSEPARABLE FROM THE BODHICITTA VAJRA”, VAJRA MASTERS WORTHY OF PROSTRATION FROM THE BUDDHAS. The stainless tantras source of the Fifty Verses text, the meaning and qualifications of ‘vajra master’, and why all the Buddhas venerate them (Fifty Verses on the Guru, 17th Karmapa, Day 4)
"At the three times, the Tatagatas, who dwell in the world realms of the ten directions, prostrate to vajra masters who have received the supreme empowerment." "Son of noble family, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who dwell and live and reside in the worlds of the ten directions, no matter how many there, come to… Continue reading “INSEPARABLE FROM THE BODHICITTA VAJRA”, VAJRA MASTERS WORTHY OF PROSTRATION FROM THE BUDDHAS. The stainless tantras source of the Fifty Verses text, the meaning and qualifications of ‘vajra master’, and why all the Buddhas venerate them (Fifty Verses on the Guru, 17th Karmapa, Day 4)
A BIRTHDAY PRAISE AND A BLESSED REUNION OF TWO RED-HAT ‘HEART SONS’. 71st Birthday poem to Kenting Tai Situpa by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and historic meeting after many years of Tai Situpa and Gyeltsab Rinpoche and visit to Sikkim
May the cooling camphor droplets of benefit and well-being drip down, and སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཚ་གདུང་མ་ལུས་རབ་འཇིལ་བའི། ། Eliminate completely without exception heated suffering, སྔོན་མེད་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བསིལ་ངད་ཀྱིས། ། May the cooling of the unprecedented sacred Dharma, ལན་གཅིག་མིན་པར་འགྲོ་རྣམས་བརླན་པར་མཛོད། ། making all beings moist, not only once! --Lines from the 17th Karmapa's new praise to 12th Tai Situpa (February 2024) On the 17th… Continue reading A BIRTHDAY PRAISE AND A BLESSED REUNION OF TWO RED-HAT ‘HEART SONS’. 71st Birthday poem to Kenting Tai Situpa by 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and historic meeting after many years of Tai Situpa and Gyeltsab Rinpoche and visit to Sikkim
THE TRANSLATOR’S HOMAGE TO VAJRASATTVA AND ‘SECRET MUDRAS UNDER THE ROBES’: opening stanza, homage to and meaning of the word ‘Vajrasattva’, reason for composing the texts, and the importance of secrecy in secret mantra practice and the meaning of ‘bowing down to the lotus feet of the guru’ (Fifty Verses on the Guru, Day 3, 17th Karmapa)
"Relying on/serving a guru has been described in many stainless tantras, I shall explain it in brief. Listen respectfully to this." --lines from opening verse of Fifty Verses on the Guru "In particular, Dromptonpa said there is this tradition of saying "I prostrate to the Lord of Secrets" at the beginning of Vajrayana texts. In… Continue reading THE TRANSLATOR’S HOMAGE TO VAJRASATTVA AND ‘SECRET MUDRAS UNDER THE ROBES’: opening stanza, homage to and meaning of the word ‘Vajrasattva’, reason for composing the texts, and the importance of secrecy in secret mantra practice and the meaning of ‘bowing down to the lotus feet of the guru’ (Fifty Verses on the Guru, Day 3, 17th Karmapa)
THE EMERALD BUDDHA AND BUDDHA’S RELICS IN BANGKOK: The Reclining Buddha, Wat Arun and the Emerald Buddha and Wat Saket
“This third nirvana is called the “final nirvana of the relics.” Until that time, the relics of the Buddha are to be regarded as his living presence, infused with all of his marvellous qualities. The relics of the Buddha are, essentially, the Buddha.” From the 9th -11th February 2024 (New Year's Eve and Day in… Continue reading THE EMERALD BUDDHA AND BUDDHA’S RELICS IN BANGKOK: The Reclining Buddha, Wat Arun and the Emerald Buddha and Wat Saket
THE POWER OF LOVE AND ITS ROLE IN LIBERATION. The Buddhist vs. worldly view of love and attachment and its connection to joy and bliss, and Je Tāranātha on love as the ‘water of compassion’ and an essential qualification of a teacher
"Love is the wish that sentient beings meet with fresh and unprecedented bliss. Similarly, compassion is the wish that they be separated from suffering and, from now onwards, the ways in which suffering arises are stopped. Joy is the mental bliss that is brought forth by rejoicing and liking it when other sentient beings experience… Continue reading THE POWER OF LOVE AND ITS ROLE IN LIBERATION. The Buddhist vs. worldly view of love and attachment and its connection to joy and bliss, and Je Tāranātha on love as the ‘water of compassion’ and an essential qualification of a teacher
Losar Tashi Delek! New Year greetings from Chinatown, message and advice from 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and footprint he left in rock as the boy, Apo Gaga
"May we not engage in jealousy, rivalry/competitive mind, bullying and harassing each other, and may we all help and benefit each other."--17th Karmapa (Losar speech 2024) Today (10th February), is the first day of the Tibetan New Lunar Year 2151, Losar and also the Chinese New year. I shared some photos of the Chinese New Year… Continue reading Losar Tashi Delek! New Year greetings from Chinatown, message and advice from 17th Gyalwang Karmapa and footprint he left in rock as the boy, Apo Gaga
‘YOU’RE MY WORLD’: GURU AS ROOT OF ALL SIDDHIS. Becoming a Qualified Vajrayana Student, Examining the Guru, Taking Vows and then studying the Fifty Verses text (Fifty Verses on the Guru, 17th Karmapa, Day 2)
"What it says in this [Drogmi Lotsawa] tradition is that the primary reason for writing the Fifty Verses is that "the root of all siddhis, all of the common and ordinary siddhis is the guru". Whether you achieve the siddhis or not depends primarily on the guru. So the author wrote it so that we… Continue reading ‘YOU’RE MY WORLD’: GURU AS ROOT OF ALL SIDDHIS. Becoming a Qualified Vajrayana Student, Examining the Guru, Taking Vows and then studying the Fifty Verses text (Fifty Verses on the Guru, 17th Karmapa, Day 2)
THE ‘HEAVY’ GURU FULL OF WEIGHTY QUALITIES: Meaning of the word ‘guru’ and introduction to the editions, translations and commentaries on the crucial Vajrayāna text on how to correctly follow a guru, ‘Fifty Verses of the Guru’ (17th Karmapa, Day 1)
"The source for the Tibetan word ‘lama’ seems to be the Sanskrit word 'guru'. There are many different explanations we can give of the word ‘guru’, one that we often say is 'heaviness'. Heavy normally means, a heavy thing/object, here it means someone who is 'heavy' with great qualities. That is what guru should mean.… Continue reading THE ‘HEAVY’ GURU FULL OF WEIGHTY QUALITIES: Meaning of the word ‘guru’ and introduction to the editions, translations and commentaries on the crucial Vajrayāna text on how to correctly follow a guru, ‘Fifty Verses of the Guru’ (17th Karmapa, Day 1)