THE YOGA OF LADY NIGUMA AS COMPILED BY JETSUN TARANATHA AND PRESENTED BY 2ND KALU RINPOCHE: Niguma Yoga presentations in Bhutan and India by 2nd Kalu Rinpoche; and textual and historical background

"When one realizes that our many thoughts of anger and desire,which churn the ocean of Samsara,are devoid of any self-nature,everything becomes a land of gold, my child.--A Song of Niguma "When he requested these vajra verses [from Niguma], the learned and accomplished Kyungpo Naljor offered five hundred measures of gold to the wisdom dakini. He… Continue reading THE YOGA OF LADY NIGUMA AS COMPILED BY JETSUN TARANATHA AND PRESENTED BY 2ND KALU RINPOCHE: Niguma Yoga presentations in Bhutan and India by 2nd Kalu Rinpoche; and textual and historical background

‘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)

MIND-ONLY IN TIBET (PART II): FIVE DHARMAS OF MAITREYA; KAGYU, JONANG AND SAKYA ZHENTONG VIEWS AND DIFFERENCES; DOLPOPA’S ASSERTIONS ABOUT MIND-ONLY TEXTS AS ZHENTONG MIDDLE WAY; AND THE NEED FOR THE THIRD MAHAYANA SCHOOL ‘BUDDHA NATURE’ (17th Karmapa teaching, Day 8)

"Generally, when talking about the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, he had studied and contemplated the Five Levels and many other Mind-Only texts. However, he mainly emphasized the Dharmas of Maitreya, and was the first Kagyupa, in the general and the sub-Kagyu lineages to spread the teachings of the Dharmas of Maitreya in Tibet. He left… Continue reading MIND-ONLY IN TIBET (PART II): FIVE DHARMAS OF MAITREYA; KAGYU, JONANG AND SAKYA ZHENTONG VIEWS AND DIFFERENCES; DOLPOPA’S ASSERTIONS ABOUT MIND-ONLY TEXTS AS ZHENTONG MIDDLE WAY; AND THE NEED FOR THE THIRD MAHAYANA SCHOOL ‘BUDDHA NATURE’ (17th Karmapa teaching, Day 8)

THE EIGHT MAIN HEVAJRA LINEAGES AND ‘INNATE’ HEVAJRA OF SHANTIPA: Lineages, Texts and 2021 Teaching and Empowerment by 8th Garchen Rinpoche

  "Jigten Sumgon also said that the highest practitioner (or disciple) sees the guru as the dharmakāya; the average disciple, a medium capacity disciple sees the guru as sambhogakāya; and the lowest practitioner sees the guru as nirmanakāya."--8th Garchen Rinpoche For the new moon (and Indian festival of light, Diwali) today, am happy to offer… Continue reading THE EIGHT MAIN HEVAJRA LINEAGES AND ‘INNATE’ HEVAJRA OF SHANTIPA: Lineages, Texts and 2021 Teaching and Empowerment by 8th Garchen Rinpoche

NEW TRANSLATION: Milarepa’s Song on the Ten Pāramitās

"Great Kind, Lord Marpa Translator, Please be a refuge for sentient beings of degenerate times. May your dharma blessing pacify jealousy. Listen, Darlo, you teacher who seek fame: Thinking one is immortal, Obsessing over words that connect or contradict, Thirty-two years wasted without sensing it, If you practice now, that would be best." --Excerpt from… Continue reading NEW TRANSLATION: Milarepa’s Song on the Ten Pāramitās

‘SIMULTANEOUSLY-ARISEN’, LIKE SUN AND SUNLIGHT: Dagpo Gampopa on the meaning of ‘simultaneously-arisen’, ‘white panacea’ and Dzogchen in the context of Mahāmudrā

Simultaneously-arisen ‘mind-itself’[1] is dharmakāya.Simultaneously-arisen appearances are the light of dharmakāya.Simultaneously-arisen ‘mind-itself’ is  the nature or essence.Simultaneously-arisen appearances are thoughts that arise from [that].Like the sun and rays of the sun, or sandalwood and scent of sandalwood[2]. སེམས་ཉིད་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ༎ སྣང་བ་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་ཆོས་སྐུའི་འོད༎ སེམས་ཉིད་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི༎ སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ནམ་ངོ་བོ་དེ་ཡིན༎ སྣང་བ་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་ནི༎ དེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་དེ་ཡིན༎ དེ་ཡང་ཉི་མ་དང་ཉི་མའི་འོད་བཞིན་ནམ༎ ཙན་དན་དང་ཙན་དན་གྱི་དྲི་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན༎ “Once, when Milarepa was in the company of many people, I… Continue reading ‘SIMULTANEOUSLY-ARISEN’, LIKE SUN AND SUNLIGHT: Dagpo Gampopa on the meaning of ‘simultaneously-arisen’, ‘white panacea’ and Dzogchen in the context of Mahāmudrā

UNSUNG HEROINES, MOTHERS OF MAHĀMUDRĀ AND SOURCE OF SARAHA’S SONGS : Re-telling the (her)stories of the symbolic ‘arrow-maker’ Dakhenma, and the ‘radish-curry’ cook gurus of siddha, Saraha

"The Buddha's meaning can be known through symbols and actions, not through words and books." [1]   ---Arrow-Maker Woman’s teaching to Saraha "A solitary body is not solitude. Being [mentally] solitary, away from the mental references and concepts: this is the supreme solitude. Even though you were settled in a meditative trance for twelve years ,… Continue reading UNSUNG HEROINES, MOTHERS OF MAHĀMUDRĀ AND SOURCE OF SARAHA’S SONGS : Re-telling the (her)stories of the symbolic ‘arrow-maker’ Dakhenma, and the ‘radish-curry’ cook gurus of siddha, Saraha

GURU PADMASAMBHAVA’S RETURN (2424 AD): Hero King of Shambhala, Rudra Cakri (Wrathful Chakra-Holder), Conqueror of Barbarians

Rudra Cakri/Guru Padmasambhava, atop a white snow lion, going into battle as King of Shambhala "The emanations will appear to kill the barbarians, pacifying their arrogance and having brought them to the true path, the emanations will return. Then will start the Kṛida age (yuga). Cakrī will have two sons, Brahmā and Sureśvara. In the… Continue reading GURU PADMASAMBHAVA’S RETURN (2424 AD): Hero King of Shambhala, Rudra Cakri (Wrathful Chakra-Holder), Conqueror of Barbarians

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)

A Woman’s Voice : the Autobiography of Kunga Trinley Wangmo, (Zhentong lineage holder and secret consort of Tāranātha)

I first became aware of an extraordinary woman, Kunga Trinley Wangmo (Kun dga’ ‘Phrin las dbang mo (1585-1668)), a few years ago in 2016-17, during my postgraduate research on Tāranātha’s Commentary on the Heart Sutra (LTWA, 2017). While delving into Tāranātha’s lifestory, I was made aware (particularly by discussions with the main English language scholar… Continue reading A Woman’s Voice : the Autobiography of Kunga Trinley Wangmo, (Zhentong lineage holder and secret consort of Tāranātha)