In Day 3 of the Kagyu Monlam 2025 Life of Atisha teachings, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa spoke about the importance of Je Atisha as a Buddhist leader and teacher in India at that time, and why and how the Tibetans, via the Tibetan Kings, who tried to invite him several times but failed to get… Continue reading JE ATISHA’S DECISION TO SHORTEN HIS LIFE-SPAN TO GO TO TIBET: Historical background to inviting Atisha, to Tibet, the prophecies of Noble Tārā and the dakini about his life-span, and the invention of the Tibetan Ragdung horn
Tag: Atisha
JE ATISHA: A PRIMARY SOURCE OF THE DAGPO KAGYU PRACTICE AND TEACHINGS (Life of Je Atisha -17th Karmapa, Day 1, 2025)
“Great Scholar, if you had not come to Tibet, there would have been no teachings of the Buddha, and people would have been deluded about the profound meaning. I prostrate to you who taught well”--Dromtonpa in Thirty Praises to Je Atisha "Not only was Atisha important for the teachings in Tibet in general, but also… Continue reading JE ATISHA: A PRIMARY SOURCE OF THE DAGPO KAGYU PRACTICE AND TEACHINGS (Life of Je Atisha -17th Karmapa, Day 1, 2025)
THE CAUSE OF BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS BEING DESTROYED: DISPUTES BASED ON ATTACHMENT AND AVERSION: 8th Karmapa on the dangers of religious sectarianism and harmful disputes based on arrogance, pride and jealousy (17th Karmapa Spring Teachings 2023, Day 6)
"We take it that everyone in our lineage is practising in accord with the Dharma and everyone in our own lineage is excellent. However, in actuality, we need to examine and see are they really good like that though? The way we examine this is if the monastics and lamas in that tradition are good;… Continue reading THE CAUSE OF BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS BEING DESTROYED: DISPUTES BASED ON ATTACHMENT AND AVERSION: 8th Karmapa on the dangers of religious sectarianism and harmful disputes based on arrogance, pride and jealousy (17th Karmapa Spring Teachings 2023, Day 6)
‘EVERY SIX DAYS LEAVING THE MONASTERY TO PRACTICE SECRET MANTRA’: THE STUDIES AND MAIN TEACHERS OF THE ‘GREAT YOGI PANDITA’ MONK ATISHA: Atisha’s names, monastic ordination, his main teachers and historical background to his being invited to Tibet (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa Day Two)
"In any case, the only lama whom Tibetans call Jowo Je is Atisha, there is no-one else. This shows how close Tibetans felt to Jowo Je, and how much gratitude they have for his kindness. Tibetans have a different feeling for Jowo Je than any other lama from the very depths of their hearts. So,… Continue reading ‘EVERY SIX DAYS LEAVING THE MONASTERY TO PRACTICE SECRET MANTRA’: THE STUDIES AND MAIN TEACHERS OF THE ‘GREAT YOGI PANDITA’ MONK ATISHA: Atisha’s names, monastic ordination, his main teachers and historical background to his being invited to Tibet (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa Day Two)
‘YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF TANTRAS IS LIKE A HORSE-HAIR IN THIS WORLD!’: NOBLE TĀRĀ’S ADVICE TO YOUNG, HANDSOME TANTRIC YOGI, ATISHA: Jowo Atisha’s early life, studies of tantras, secret mantra unconventional conduct with Indian mahasiddhas, ‘pride-smashing’ direct instructions from Tārā and Ḍākinīs, and upholder of Mind-Only view. (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa (Day One))
"In the excellent land of Za-hor [Bengal] in the east,Is a great city, Vikramanipura. In its center is a royal residence,A palace extremely vast, Called the "Golden Banner."Its resources, might, and fortune, Were like that of the eastern emperor of China. ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཟ་ཧོར་ཡུལ་མཆོག་ན། །དེ་ན་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོད། ། བི་ཀྲ་མ་ནི་པཱུ་ར་ཡིན། །དེ་ཡི་དབུས་ན་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ། ། ཕོ་བྲང་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས་པ་ཡོད། །གསེར་གྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཅན་ཞེས་བྱ། ། ལོངས་སྤྱོད་མངའ་ཐང་འབྱོར་བ་ནི། །རྒྱ་ནག་སྟོང་ཁུན་རྒྱལ་བོ་འདྲ། །" ---description of… Continue reading ‘YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF TANTRAS IS LIKE A HORSE-HAIR IN THIS WORLD!’: NOBLE TĀRĀ’S ADVICE TO YOUNG, HANDSOME TANTRIC YOGI, ATISHA: Jowo Atisha’s early life, studies of tantras, secret mantra unconventional conduct with Indian mahasiddhas, ‘pride-smashing’ direct instructions from Tārā and Ḍākinīs, and upholder of Mind-Only view. (Life and Liberation of Atisha by 17th Karmapa (Day One))
PRAISES TO TĀRĀ! TWENTY-ONE TĀRĀ BLESSINGS IN BODH GAYA FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE. Empowerment by HH 14th Dalai Lama, introduction to the four main traditions of twenty-one Tārās and ‘The Explicit and Secret Aspects’ of Tārā commentary by Jetsun Tāranātha
Introduction As an offering for the Twenty-one Tarā (jenang) permission empowerment given today by HH 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (video here), in the place where Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, (which I was fortunate to attend in person), I offer first a brief introduction to the four main traditions of the Twenty-One Tārās (two from… Continue reading PRAISES TO TĀRĀ! TWENTY-ONE TĀRĀ BLESSINGS IN BODH GAYA FOR NEW YEAR’S EVE. Empowerment by HH 14th Dalai Lama, introduction to the four main traditions of twenty-one Tārās and ‘The Explicit and Secret Aspects’ of Tārā commentary by Jetsun Tāranātha
GOING BACK TO THE FEMALE ROOTS OF VAJRAYĀNA: A 21st Century review of the female and yogic roots of Vajrayāna, monastic vows and tantric practice, and the invisible, silent female consort
“My female messengers are everywhere; They bestow all the spiritual attainments By gazing, touching, kissing, and embracing. The most excellent place for yogis is Wherever there is a gathering of yoginis; There all the magical powers will be attained By all those blissful ones.” --Cakrasaṁvaratantra “As The Great Tantra of the Primordial Buddha emphatically forbids… Continue reading GOING BACK TO THE FEMALE ROOTS OF VAJRAYĀNA: A 21st Century review of the female and yogic roots of Vajrayāna, monastic vows and tantric practice, and the invisible, silent female consort
‘WAKING UP FROM THE SLUMBER OF IGNORANCE’: THE ‘KA-NYING’ CONNECTION. Reasons why the 8th Karmapa did not write Nyingma refutations and why people assumed he did, and the profound connection of the Karmapas and Nyingma Dharma, 3rd Karmapa as main disseminator of Dzogchen in Tibet, (17th Karmapa Spring teachings, Day 6)
"There are also many famous tertons who were disciples of the Karmapas. In fact, it is traditionally said that the person who had to determine whether a terton was authentic or not was the Karmapa. During the time of the Tai Situ Chokyi Junge, the terma practice spread widely in the Kamtsang, and many of… Continue reading ‘WAKING UP FROM THE SLUMBER OF IGNORANCE’: THE ‘KA-NYING’ CONNECTION. Reasons why the 8th Karmapa did not write Nyingma refutations and why people assumed he did, and the profound connection of the Karmapas and Nyingma Dharma, 3rd Karmapa as main disseminator of Dzogchen in Tibet, (17th Karmapa Spring teachings, Day 6)
MOTHER TĀRĀ AND PADMASAMBHAVA GURU OF ALL LINEAGES: ‘Aspirations to End Adversity’ with 17th Karmapa (Part VI)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q7qFQefjCE On the sixth day of the ‘Aspirations to End Adversity’ with 17th Karmapa, there was a recitation of the Praises of the Twenty-One Tārās and two supplications to Guru Rinpoche, Clearing the Path of Obstacles and Spontaneous Fulfillment of Wishes together. Here is a transcript of the teaching on the recited texts compiled with… Continue reading MOTHER TĀRĀ AND PADMASAMBHAVA GURU OF ALL LINEAGES: ‘Aspirations to End Adversity’ with 17th Karmapa (Part VI)
NEW PUBLICATION: ‘The Explicit and Hidden Aspects of Tārā: A Commentary on the Twenty-One Tārās’ by Jetsun Tāranātha
On the the Kālacakra New Year, the full moon of the third lunar month (Nagpa Dawa), I am happy to announce the first English translation (and publication) of the Commentary on the Praises to the Twenty-One Tāras (Phyag 'tshal nyer gcig gi bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa), The Explicit and Hidden Aspects of Tāra, composed… Continue reading NEW PUBLICATION: ‘The Explicit and Hidden Aspects of Tārā: A Commentary on the Twenty-One Tārās’ by Jetsun Tāranātha