Teachings

The Law of Karma: Explanation by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

The law of cause and effect, or karma, has been explained a number of times by Jetsunma and myself.  Whatever exists in this world is just the creation of oneself.  There is logical proof and proper reasoning for this, and one can experience it for oneself.  There are many examples that prove everything is the result of one’s own karma combined with one’s present life conditions.  If you never do any harm to any sentient beings, you will not suffer.   It is definite.  In this lifetime, if you never say anything bad to someone, then this person is not going to do anything bad to you because you have not created any problem.  When you create problems for another, then the other person also feels unhappy and gets angry, and then he creates problems for you.  It plays back and forth and creates many troubles.  That is how the law of karma works.

The law of karma is very, very subtle and very, very strict, no corruption.  Whether one is very rich or a great philosopher or a very great doctor or a very great scientist or a very great modern technologist, whoever, there is no corruption of the karma.  Whatever you have done, you will have to bear it.  What you have not done, there is no way that you can experience it.  Even if you wished to experience it, there is no way to do it.  It is very, very subtle and very strict, and it has very good justice.  There is no way that it can forget anything, that it can lose anything.  Everything is fully imprinted, like the hard disk on your computers.  Everything is there.  Our mind and our actions, our body, speech and mind are like the floppy disk, and they are constantly putting things on the hard disk, where it stays.  When you need something, you switch disks, and it comes out.  When conditions happen, then it is ripening back to you because you have already inserted something in the hard disk of karma.  You have put it in there, so never can that get lost or corrupted or erased.  Fires cannot burn it.  Waters cannot wash it.  Winds cannot carry it away, unlike computers, which fires can burn.  Your whole hard disk with 10 years of programs, when it is burned, it is gone like that.  But none of the five elements can harm the karma computer.  No one can harm it.  When conditions happen, it will definitely ripen back to you and you alone.  There will be no mistake.  Mr. A’s karma will not ripen to Mr. B, and Mr. B’s karma will not ripen to Mr. A.  Those sorts of things are not going to happen in that way.  It is very subtle, very strict, very just.  No corruption.  It cannot get lost, cannot be burned.  Everything is so organized, much, much better organization than your schedules.  When there are proper conditions, then that is going to ripen to you.  That is the actual life process.  That is experienced by all sentient beings.  That is the law of karma.

I Will Follow

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The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

How comes this one?
He speaks no truth to me.
Nor to the visions I do see, he has nothing.
And if only he could see it so-
Maybe time will let him go.

I do grieve, not for hurtful misdeeds,
But, for flowers and hours of beauty, relentless bliss at the fiery tent.
I can’t resent
I’ll always follow…

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Blessings of the Tsawei Lama

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The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

An incense offering to be made first thing every morning with the purest intention and incense.

“This pure supreme incense, which bears the scent of pure moral self-discipline, by the blessings of mantra, mudra and samadhi.
Is offered to the realms of the buddhas. May this fragrant incense completely please and satisfy the ocean-like assembly of buddhas!

NAMA SARWA TATHAGATA BENZA DUPE PRATITSA PUDZA MEGHA SAMUDRA SA PHA RA NA SAMAYE AH HUNG”

This is a sacred way to begin the practice or start one’s day. One can also offer morning tea or coffee with ring finger on right hand, flicking the substance with finger in all directions with mindfulness.

Sadly it is often the case that practitioners perform a session every day, then forget to carry it forward, to bear it always. One way to antidote that is making morning offerings, and placing the Tsawei Lama above the crown of one’s head. Carrying that samaya is beautiful. Every moment think the Lama lights your way, protective and enlightening all.

To ready for sleep , the Lama descends through the central channel into the heart chakra where the Lama is enthroned on the lotus throne in the heart. From there, Tsawei Lama radiates compassion and wisdom all through the night. Upon awakening move Lama up to above the head, and there Tsawei Lama remains and blesses us all.

One may recite mantra before placing Tsawei Lama above head and on heart. And signs may occur. Like: auspicious dreams or other miraculous visions!

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Importance of a Qualified Teacher

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche on Meditation, reprinted here with permission from Palyul Ling International:

Emptiness is not something like just remaining there without having thoughts or anything at all. It has been said in the texts that if one does not know how to meditate properly on emptiness, then one can fall into the wrong pot. So one has to investigate the true nature of the mind in order to really establish its absolute nature as emptiness, and this must be maintained through the practice of meditation.

Emptiness which is merely emptiness, and the emptiness which is the nature of mind, are two different things. The one emptiness is kind of like nothingness. This kind of nothingness emptiness in the Dharma teachings is explained by the example of the rabbit’s horn – something which does not exist at all. But the emptiness of the mind, which does not have any form or colors or shape, is in certain ways non-existing, but at the same time this mind is everything. It is that which creates all these samsaric phenomena and all the nirvana phenomena.

When you do meditation practice, it is good to cut through all these conceptual thoughts. To be without any such thoughts and then to remain in meditation is very beneficial. This is what is known as samatha or tranquility meditation. If one carries through with such meditation practice for awhile, one begins to have some stability of the mind, and then it is easier to achieve the vipassana or insight meditation practices.

All Dharma teachings and practices have to follow through the proper lineage. That is to say, the lama, the master, must be really qualified to give these teachings. Then the disciple, the practitioner, if he or she has really strong devotion or faith, can understand through his or her actual practice. There is no other way to give and receive these teachings.

So the lama, the master, must have that quality by which he can “read” the disciple’s mind. When the lama has that quality – the knowledge by which he realizes the mind-stream of the practitioner – then according to that knowledge he can give the right introduction of the nature of the mind. For example, when the lama examines a practitioner, he can directly experience whether or not the practitioner has the actual recognition of the nature of the mind.³

Other than that kind of direct mind-to-mind interaction, there is no way to explain, “Oh, the nature of mind is something like this.” There are no words to handle it. If there was any kind of expressway diagram about the nature of the mind, then we could just draw it and then explain, “Here! This is the nature of mind!” So it is important to carry through all the practices, constantly watching through the samatha meditation practice, getting used to that kind of concentration of mind, so that there can be a way for one to have the true recognition of mind.

The Tibetan word, “lama,” means the Unsurpassable Teacher. The “la” is based on the quality of the realization and the “ma” symbolizes the mother, the loving-kindness and affection that one needs to have, just like a mother gives to her children. All the past, present and future Buddhas obtained Enlightenment by relying upon the lama². There is not any Buddha who just by him or herself attained Enlightenment.

The lama, the master, means someone that has complete knowledge about all these practices. So all who just have a red cloth are not lamas. Those also who wear yellow clothes, they are not necessarily lamas! Someone who has true purification and realization internally is who is known as the lama³. And the lama’s mind-stream must have the genuine Bodhicitta to benefit all sentient beings.

The Power of Devotion: from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso on Ngondro given at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Today, from The Great Perfection, Buddha in the Palm of the Hand, we are going through the Four Thoughts Which Turn the Mind, Refuge and Bodhicitta.  There are many practitioners in Tibet who only accumulate  prostrations and chant taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha who achieve purification and have some kind of experience.  There are not just one or two, but thousands.  Really!  Tibetan lay people who could not enter monastic life or those who could not study like you guys.  Here lamas come and give teachings and you all are very smart and want to understand everything step by step and you want to make everything clear.  In Tibet, they have very strong devotion.  When a lama is giving teachings, they all rush up there and listen. They are not so attentive, but they have so much devotion.  Whenever a ngöndro teaching is given on prostrations, they have no doubt.  They will do that accumulation.  They will not consider whether it makes sense or not.  They just practice it, thinking, “This must be something of benefit, so I have to do it.”  They do it continuously.  Even when they are working in the kitchen or tending the cows, they continue chanting “Lama la kyab su chi-o, Sangye la kyab su chi-o, Chö la kyab su chi-o, Gendun la kyab su chi-o,” like this.  They are constantly chanting, and they don’t think, “Lama la kyab su chi-o, why do I have to say this?”  They really don’t have that kind of thought.  “Why do I have to take refuge in Buddha?  Who is Buddha?  What is Dharma?  What is Sangha?  Why do I have to do that?”  They really don’t have that kind of thought.  They just go on constantly chanting. And they really do have some kind of purification, and they could have many different kinds of experiences, dreams, clear understanding.  I think it is due to the culture that they have that kind of belief and constantly do that.  Nobody knows what kind of practice a very ordinary appearing human is doing, just that every time people see him he is chanting, “Lama la kyab su chio, Sangye la kyab su chio…” “I take refuge in the Lama, I take refuge in the Buddha…”  People think he is just ignorant.  But when death comes, he sits calmly with a smile and rainbows appear.   Then people realize that this was a great practitioner.  We didn’t know that.

 

The Need to Tame the Mind: from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche on “Meditation”

The mind – does it need to be something which we can see? If we think that what has pain, suffering, problems and so forth, that this is what is called the mind, in this way we have to perceive the mind as something like a round ball. When we investigate into the mind itself there is not anyone who can really perceive a mind.

At the same time, this mind does not really die. From beginningless lifetimes until now, the mind of Samsara has just been getting rebirth over and over. The mind which has been conceptualized by having that thought of subject and object is that which binds oneself here. It is that which projects the external world and then one’s body and so forth. But no matter how much we investigate, there is no way anyone can perceive this mind.

All the past Buddhas have explained that there is no way one can perceive the mind in the past, present and future. If it is self-existing, then we could see it, like a round pill or something! So why do we think that it has to be perceived as some “thing?” All these “things” are created by the mind. All the experiences of happiness and suffering of Samsara and nirvana – everything is just created by the mind itself.

So we will find if we think over the absolute nature of the mind, it is definitely emptiness. Some people might say, “Oh, my mind is very active and multicolored! Maybe it is possible somebody might have it!” Or maybe somebody might say, “My mind is something like a white light!” But it does not really exist in that way.

When we don’t control the mind and just let it be free, then it starts to create all these negative actions and thoughts. That is why in these practices which we call meditation, although there are many levels of meditations, whatever the Dharma teachings that have been taught by all the Enlightened Buddhas, it is mainly to subdue this mind and to tame this mind. It is to recognize the fault of the mind is conceptual thought, which is a very dualistic thing where there is always subject and object, and this binds us into Samsara or cyclic existence. At the same time we try to realize its absolute nature, to realize or recognize this, and that is the most important part of our practice.

When lama gives all these teachings, the practitioner receives them and tries to put them into practice and then they say, “Oh! I recognize the nature of the mind!” But by just recognizing the conceptual mind, it is very difficult that one could attain Enlightenment. That which creates all these emotions and conceptual thoughts – that is called the mind. But the actual practice is of something which is beyond that kind of conceptual mind, which is known as wisdom. It is that which we need to realize. So we cannot achieve the ultimate happiness just by recognizing the conceptual mind.

There are many kinds of practices which aim to pacify all these kinds of negative thoughts and to control the afflicted mind, to purify and abandon them. When we do these practices and achieve some tranquility through which we can concentrate our mind and make it very stable, then we can perhaps concentrate our minds on the emptiness through which we may achieve some realization. So when we practice meditation and manage to get kind of settled and stable, even having just a little bit of experience of emptiness is really beneficial and can accumulate lots of merit.

Chickens and Worms

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The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Of course, all sentient beings are equal in nature. I pick my battles by what I can do! Those that argue this usually do nothing at all!

I wish I could save every sentient being instantly. I do my part, do for pets and parrots, give to National Wildlife Society regularly, and work hard to re-build my clear-cut land to wholesome habitat. What can you do? Yes, chickens, parrots, and gossips full of hate are the same, and I love and pray for all. Worms too.

Do what you can! Benefit through compassion, stop cruelty, give to charity and get a job so you can.

www.garudaaviary.org

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

 

 

 

 

 

Impermanence and Death: a Teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

Precious human birth does not mean everyone who is born as a human being.  It doesn’t mean that.  There is precious human birth and ordinary human birth.  Those who don’t do any kind of practice, those who don’t even try to go to church on weekends, those involved in New Age groups or modern ways of belief, or those who enter into some kind of entertainment and waste their lives in that manner—that is just an ordinary human birth.  You really must have accumulated some merit in your previous lifetime.  You must have done some kind of purification in your previous lifetime.  You must have made some kind of connection with the Dharma and your lamas. That is why you are here.  Otherwise there is no possibility.  That would never, ever happen.  So since you have a precious human rebirth, you must immediately think,  “I should not waste it.  I have to get some advantage from this opportunity.”

Then how can one do it?  You must then think that all phenomena which are composed of cause and condition are impermanent.  Impermanence does not just mean that everything comes to an end.  Impermanence means that each and every moment is impermanent. Each and every moment of our lives we are becoming older and older; we are getting nearer and nearer to death.  If you waste even one hour, you are one hour closer to death.  If you spend your weekend enjoying yourself, still you are getting nearer to death.  Whenever you sit idle, still you are getting nearer to death.  Even if you do practice, still you are getting nearer to death.  Even if you don’t do anything, still you are getting nearer to death.  You are always getting nearer and nearer and nearer.  Every sentient being who is born is subject to death.

At the same time, death is uncertain.  You can see many examples.  Someone will say, “Just yesterday he was talking with me, and then last night he had an accident.”  Or somebody shot him or killed him or whatever.  There are so many conditions that may bring death.  If I cannot do actual practice and if I do not have something I can carry with me, then tonight if something happens, what can I do?  What are you really going to carry with you?  You cannot pack up like when you get divorced or when you get mad at your friends and you say you’re going to leave and you take your suitcase and pack all your clothes and everything and whatever money and credit cards you have and you leave and go some other place.  When death comes, you cannot do that.  There is no way that one could do that.  Up until now in this world, even the great popes, even Milarepa, even Shakyamuni Buddha, even His Holiness Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, they left all their belongings behind.  Even His Holiness Karmapa left his black hat behind, even his body.  Never mind about an ordinary sentient being who cannot carry all those things.  Even the great Christian popes who passed away, could not carry anything.  All the great ones and not so great ones—when death came, nobody could pack anything, nobody could carry anything along.  You could not even make a phone call.  “I’m coming very soon, so could you please reserve a place for me?”  There is no way that one can do that.  You say, “Oh please, you save a better place for me since I am coming very soon.”  Or you want to make a phone call to heaven.  “Oh God, please save a place for me.”  So you have to realize that life is like that.

In one sense, life is very long.  You can experience lots of things.  In another sense, life is gone like that.  When death comes, what one can carry is just whatever accumulation of merit or whatever negativity one has done.  That is the only thing that comes with you.  Even if you don’t want it, it is stuck there and will be coming with you.  So you have to realize that life is uncertain and death is uncertain.  At any moment it can come.  When you really consider that, you really get scared, goose bumpy.  Then you really get motivated to do practice.  Then your sleepy way of thinking and laziness and everything is gone just like that.  You cannot feel so tired if death is coming like that.  Then you can make yourself so alert. You can generate so much courage in yourself.  “Why can’t I do 100,000 prostrations in a month?  Why can’t I do that?”  Then you can have that kind of courage within yourself.  Otherwise you say, “Other people are out enjoying the weekend and going here and there and I am stuck here doing prostrations. I get pain in my legs and my knees and pain there. When can all this be finished?”  Then it feels really difficult.  When you really see that death is coming, then you can bear it.  If you think about that, then that will really help you to apply yourself into practice with full energy and with full courage.

A Treasury of Wisdom and Blessing

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The following are some teachings from other Lineages:

Terton Sogyal Rinpoche: On Ignorance

Surely one of the most heart-breaking aspects of our lives is that we cannot recognize the fundamental cause of our suffering. Isn’t it curious how we can not detect ignorance at work? But, you see, this lack of awareness is exactly what ignorance, ‘ma rigpa’ in Tibetan, is.

For full teaching go to: http://www.rigpa.org/en/teachings/extracts-of-articles-and-publications/more-articles-and-publications-/view-and-wrong-view.html

From Khenchen Palden Sherab: Cause and Effect

Now we shall explore the third attitude, the cause and effect system. This is also known as the understanding of the system of the cause and effect. Everything really depends upon the cause and effect system. The law of cause and effect is always working. If a cause and condition are present, there will definitely be a result. Results must come from their causes and conditions. Right causes and conditions produce right results or effects. This never alters. This always operates. If we don’t have the right causes and conditions, there will not be right results no matter how much we hope or expect them. If we have the right causes and conditions, definitely the right results will come. It is inevitable. Even if we say we don’t want them, the results will definitely show up. Inwardly everything is like this also.  Positive inward causes and conditions bring positive inward results. Negative inward causes and  conditions bring negative inward results. Mixed positive and negative inward causes and conditions bring mixed inward results or effects. Knowledge of the cause and effect system is very important in Buddhism. Karma is the name of this system. You are the one who gets the results of your own causes and conditions. You are the producer of your own causes and conditions; you are therefore the producer of your own effects. Whatever you do, the results will come to you. By understanding this system, we can learn the importance of having more positive attitudes. Reduce your negative activities, and learn more positive activities. This is the lesson of this line of the text.Cause and effect are inevitable.

For the full teaching go to: http://pbc-tn.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/NgondroCommentary.pdf

From Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche: Cause and Effect

The third ordinary foundation practice is the truth of karma, cause and effect. Unfortunately, many deluded people believe that although death may be a very harrowing experience, after it has occurred, one is then completely free. Some believe that once you’re dead, things are all taken care of for you, as if somebody picks you up and puts you in a very enjoyable place where there are all kinds of pleasant entertainments. Other people believe that after death there is nothing, all experience just abruptly ends. There’s no good or evil, it’s just ashes to ashes and that’s that. Of course, such attitudes are the epitome of ignorance, and reveal a total lack of wisdom. It is utter delusion to believe that there will be no suffering, only pure enjoyment awaiting you after death. It is grievous that people do not realize that we are experiencing this life and its various conditions because of our conduct in previous lives.

Sometimes we think that once we are dead we will experience a very magical realm, and that even if we face suffering we’ll have the ability to immediately transform it. But how could this possibly be done? We should use our intelligence and other abilities now, while we have time, to see through our delusions. For instance, if it’s winter and you want it to be summer, no matter how much you long for the seasons to change, you are powerless to do anything about it. And if you are sick and want to be healthy again, you can’t just miraculously cure yourself. All suffering and experiences of the phenomenal world are caused by our habitual patterns and our karmic accumulations, and these are the materials with which you must work.

Furthermore, when somebody says that nothing exists after death, that you are free of suffering because you’re dead and it’s all finished, that is a very ignorant attitude. It’s something like standing before a blazing fire and telling somebody that if they close their eyes and jump into it, it’ll be okay. This will of course just make the situation worse. It’s a simple refusal to acknowledge reality, a wishful desire to escape the order of things. But it doesn’t change anything. It will only make reality that much more difficult to face. It’s also akin to playing around on the edge of a cliff, believing you won’t fall off. But then, once you’ve fallen, and you’re in midair, it’s completely useless to say to yourself, “Oh no, I hope I land softly.” No matter how much wishful thinking you do at that point, it won’t help you at all.

For the full teaching go to: http://www.kagyu.org/kagyulineage/buddhism/dha/dha03.php

Contemplating this Precious Opportunity by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

The Four Thoughts that turn the mind from samsara are very important.  Our minds are distracted by this world.  We practice a little bit, and then get distracted, thinking life is good — eating pizza in the restaurant, going to the beach on weekends, and enjoying ourselves.  It is really nice.  One could have a very happy life with one’s family, and eating, and experiencing all those happy experiences.  At the end of life, if one could not have the continuation of that kind of happiness in the next lifetime and many future lifetimes, one may get a little upset and think, “I should have done something.  I have just been going to the beach, the mountains, camping, bungee jumping, and all that.  I’ve spent my time doing all that, but I really didn’t do anything.”  Then all one’s karma ripens.  Whether you believe in karma or not, understand it or not, it doesn’t matter.  Whether you are a Christian or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jew or a Muslim, in cyclic existence, karma is the life process.  It is the nature of cyclic existence itself.  So that nature ripens to everybody.  Everyone experiences that.  After death, if one has to bear all different kinds of suffering, then one may experience some regret.

This is how one has a very happy life.  You can have entertainment, but at the same time have a kind of entertainment which really makes sense, which you can carry with you.  On weekends, you could come here and participate in a tsog offering or a puja or some kind of a practice.  While you are doing the practice, you may experience some minor problems with your knees or sitting or doing prostrations, but still you are bearing some karma and having some purification.  After all, you could have something you can really carry with you after death.  It is as the Buddha, who is fully enlightened, has explained.  Jetsunma has also explained all this a number of times.  The important thing to realize here is that this precious human birth is one in which one could really become involved in practice, in which one could become involved with the Dharma teachings, in which one could really become involved in Dharma activities.  If one could really have some time to apply to practice, then this becomes a precious human birth.

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