Introduction Today on the full moon, I offer this first translation and publication of a practice text on Avalokiteśvara, Path of Blissful Union: Great Compassionate One. Extremely Concise Practice from Tsembu Tradition, by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo ('jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po, (1820-1892). It can be freely downloaded on request here. Vajrayogini who gave the… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: Vajrayogini’s ‘Extremely Concise Practice of the Great Compassionate One’ by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
Tag: 8th karmapa
The Chinese and the Karmapas: Historical survey from the 2nd to 19th Karmapas
"Marvellous indeed is the play which comes to its end before a large audience. The duty of a monk is to go wherever a peaceful place is to be found and to help spread the doctrines through compassion to all beings." –4th Karmapa, Rolpe Dorje to Chinese Emperor and Ministers Tibet has always had a strong… Continue reading The Chinese and the Karmapas: Historical survey from the 2nd to 19th Karmapas
NEW PUBLICATION: ‘Direct Instructions on the Great Compassionate One’ by 8th Karmapa and commentary by 17th Karmapa
Here is the first published English language edition of an instruction text by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, the Direct Instructions on the Great Compassionate One [1] (Avalokiteśvara) from the Tsembu lineage. As I wrote about here [2], the Tsembu lineage is one of the five main traditions of Avalokiteśvara in Tibet, and came from the deity… Continue reading NEW PUBLICATION: ‘Direct Instructions on the Great Compassionate One’ by 8th Karmapa and commentary by 17th Karmapa
Vajrayogini’s instructions on the ‘Great Compassionate One’: Tsembupa’s Lineage
Vajrayogini Today, for Ḍākinī day (and the launch of a new website section) here is a short post on Avalokiteśvara (the Great Compassionate One) in the lineage of 13th Century yogi, Tsembupa Dharma Ozer (tshem bu pa dar ma 'od zer), that came directly from the deity, Vajrayogini [i]. This post considers the origin of… Continue reading Vajrayogini’s instructions on the ‘Great Compassionate One’: Tsembupa’s Lineage
NEW TRANSLATION: ‘The difference between Buddha-Nature and Dharmakāya’ by 8th Karmapa
For Tāra day, am happy to publish the first translation of a small teaching given in response to a question by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, on Buddha-Nature and Dharmakāya[1] from Volume 3 of his Collected Works (that contains several short teachings in answer to questions): ''In response to your question: Even though the resultant… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: ‘The difference between Buddha-Nature and Dharmakāya’ by 8th Karmapa
Developing the decisive wish ‘to emerge’ from samsara by 8th Karmapa
8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje I have been reading and translating some of the Short Instructions of the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, in his Collected Works, in particular, his Guiding Instructions on Chod[i] (which will be published here in full soon). In 2012, after attending the 17th Karmapa’s empowerment of Chod and his teachings on this… Continue reading Developing the decisive wish ‘to emerge’ from samsara by 8th Karmapa
NEW TRANSLATION: ”One Day’ Meditation on Mind of Awakening’ by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje
On this full moon day, I offer this spontaneous new translation of a short ‘instruction’ by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje 91507-1544), 'One Day' Meditation on the Mind of Awakening[1] taken from his Oral Instructions: The Excellent Tree of Immortal Nectar[2] (in Volume 19 of his Collected Works) also referred to as the 100 Short Instructions.… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: ”One Day’ Meditation on Mind of Awakening’ by 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje
NEW TRANSLATION: ‘White Tārā, Wish-Fulfilling Wheel’ by 8th Karmapa
For Chokhor Duchen today, I offer this is the first English translation of the White Tārā Wish-Fulfilling Wheel Concise Daily Sadhana text[1] by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje (1507-1544). It can be downloaded here. For more on the 8th Karmapa's life see the short biography here and the most extensive account in the English language, The… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: ‘White Tārā, Wish-Fulfilling Wheel’ by 8th Karmapa
The 8th Karmapa on the ‘Single Intention’ (Gong Chig) by Drikung Jigten Sumgon
འཇིག་རྟེན་གྲགས་འདུས་བྱས་བསླུ་བའི་ཆོས༎ གང་ཡིན་དེ་དག་རྫུན་དང་གསོག་གསོབ་པ༎ཆོས་འདི་ཐམས་ཅད་སྒྱུ་འདྲ་བཏགས་པ་ཙམ༎ ཅི་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་ཙམ་གྱིས་རབ་དབེན་པ༎ དེ་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི༎ཡེ་ཤེས་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་གི༎ ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀུན་གྱི་མགོན་པོ་སྟེ༎འཁོར་འདད་ཀུན་གྱི་རྣམ་འདྲེན་ཟླ་མེད་པ༎ མཉམ་མེད་འདྲི་ཁུང་རིན་ཆེན་དེར་ཕྱག་འཚལ༎ To the Refuge Jigten Sumgon, Drikung Rinchen Pal, I pay homage!Deceptive, conditioned, worldly phenomena,Whatever it is, is false and hollow of meaning, andAll like an illusion, merely labelled.The one ‘isolated’ from whatever merely appears,Method of omniscience of all-aspects, andPower of utterly luminous primordial-awareness,Protector of all Dharmāta and phenomena,Incomparable guide… Continue reading The 8th Karmapa on the ‘Single Intention’ (Gong Chig) by Drikung Jigten Sumgon
The ‘vajra descent’ and ‘authentic completion stage’: the 8th Karmapa and Tāranātha on the meaning of ‘vajra’ and ‘non-conceptual primordial awareness’
In this post today, for the auspicious day of Saga Dawa, that celebrates the birth, enlightenment and paranirvana of Buddha Shakyamuni, I consider and share some thoughts from two great Tibetan Buddhist masters on the 'completion stage' and 'signs' of attaining full awakening and what the word 'vajra' means in that context. The first text… Continue reading The ‘vajra descent’ and ‘authentic completion stage’: the 8th Karmapa and Tāranātha on the meaning of ‘vajra’ and ‘non-conceptual primordial awareness’