Tibetan Buddhism

Nourished by Compassion

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A Vow of Love:

Living an extraordinary life

of Compassion

By Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Why Compassion?

I would like to talk about a subject that is of the utmost importance to everyone. The subject is compassion.

You may think, “Oh, I know all about compassion. I’ve been a Dharma practitioner for a long time. I’ve had many teachings about compassion.” Or you might think, “I’m a person with a good heart. I try not to do any harm, and I try to help people. Therefore, I know about compassion.” If we hold these ideas in our heart, we have already lost precious opportunities, and will continue to lose more, because the cultivation of compassion in the heart and mind is an ongoing process.

Even if you come into this world with a compassionate ideal you must still cultivate the idea of compassion as though it were the first time you ever thought of it. Due to intense spiritual practice in the past, you may have been born into this lifetime with the idea that you want to be of benefit to sentient beings.  Yet still you must cultivate the idea of compassion everyday, as though it were a delicate orchid that could die in an unnatural environment. Until we are supremely enlightened, we have obscurations of our mind that will fight against the idea of compassion.

There is no one on this earth, unless they are supremely realized, who has the purified mind of compassion. If you have been meditating for many years, and think compassion is a baby subject and you’re far beyond that, or if you think because you’ve practiced for a long time, compassion is just one of the beginner studies, and now you’d like to get on to the mystical or the “higher” Dzogchen teachings, then I think you’re making a mistake. I hope that you will relax your mind and come to the point where you commit to studying compassion deeply and profoundly, as though it were your mother. You should have that kind of intimate relationship with the idea of compassion. You should seek to be taught by it. You should seek to be suckled by the mind of compassion. You should seek to be nourished in that way.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

FOUR GREAT FESTIVAL DAYS

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There are four Great Festival Days throughout the year that celebrate different significant aspects of the life of the Buddha.  On these days, positive or negative actions are multiplied by 10 Million times.

CHOTRUL DUCHEN:  Display of Miraculous Activities

15TH day of the first month of the New Year

On the first fifteen days of the New Year, the Buddha displayed a different miracle each day in order to increase the merit and aid in the devotion of future disciples.

In India at that time, the Buddha was being challenged by the various philosophical schools of the day in a contest of miraculous powers.  For fifteen days, the Buddha displayed a miracle and completely defeated his opponents.  His students were inspired by this display and it increased their faith and devotion.

SAGA DAWA DUCHEN:  The Birth, Enlightenment and Parinirvana

Of the Lord Buddha Shakyamuni

15th day of the fourth month (full moom)

This day marks the day when the Buddha attained Enlightenment at Bodhgaya at age 35.  It also marks his Parinirvana at age 81.  Both of these events happened on the same day, the full moon of the fourth lunar month.  The birth of the Buddha happened on the 7th day and is also celebrated on this holiday.

In general, the entire fourth month is regarded as important.  In the words of the Buddha:

Individuals who are involved in practice of Dharma should make a strong effort to do extra practice during this particular month.  During this month, any wholesome or virtuous action that we do brings benefits of one million times.

CHOKHOR DUCHEN:  The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

4th day of the sixth lunar month

For seven weeks after Lord Buddha Shakyamuni attained Enlightenment, he did give any teachings.  After being encouraged to teach by Indra and Brahma, he turned the Wheel of Dharma for the first time at Saranath, by teaching the “Four Noble Truths.”

LHA BAB DUCHEN:  The Descent from Tushita Heaven

22nd day of the ninth lunar month

Lord Buddha’s mother was reborn in Indra’s Heaven.  To repay her kindness and to liberate his mother as well as to benefit the gods, Buddha spent three months in the realm of the gods giving teachings.  This holiday represents Buddha’s descent from Tushita’s heaven.  Also, traditionally in the monasteries this is regarded as a good time to begin renovations.

Offering Mudra

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ARGHAM PADYAM PUPE DHUPE ALOKE GENDE NEWIDYA SHAPDA PRATITSA YE SWAHA

Water for drinking and for bathing, flowers, incense, scented water, celestial food and sound are all offered.

Lama Pema Rangdol, head umdze at a Palyul Monastery for many years and now living in NYC, visited KPC Maryland to instruct students in the Rigzin Dupai Tsog Practice. This is an excerpt from that training.


Tibetan Schools and Palyul

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Tibetan Buddhism has four main traditions:

Nyingma “the Ancient Ones” This is the oldest, the original order founded by Padmasambhava andSantaraksita.  Whereas other schools categorize their teachings into the three vehicles: The Foundation Vehicle, Mahayana and Vajrayana, the Nyingma tradition classifies them into nine vehicles, among the highest of which is known as Atiyoga or Dzogchen “Great Perfection”.  Hidden treasures (terma) are of particular significance to this tradition.

Kagyu “Lineage of the (Buddha’s) Word” This is an oral tradition, which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an 11th century mystic. It contains one major and one minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu schools that trace back to the Indian master Naropa via Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa, and consists of four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, headed by a Karmapa, the Tsalpa Kagyu, the Barom Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu. There are a further eight minor sub-sects, all of which trace their root to Pagtru Kagyu and the most notable of which are the Drikung Kagyu and the Drukpa Kagyu. The once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by the 20th century teacher Kalu Rinpoche, traces its history back to the Indian master Naropa via Niguma, Sukhasiddhi and Kyungpo Neljor.

Sakya “Grey Earth” This school very much represents the scholarly tradition. Headed by the Sakya Trizin, this tradition was founded by Khon Konchog Gyalpo, a disciple of the great translator Drokmi Lotsawa and traces its lineage to the Indian master Virupa. A renowned exponent, Sakya Pandita 1182–1251CE was the great grandson of Khon Konchog Gyalpo.

Gelug “Way of Virtue” Originally a reformist movement, this tradition is particularly known for its emphasis on logic and debate. Its spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and its temporal one the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is regarded as the embodiment of the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Successive Dalai Lamas ruled Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries. The order was founded in the 14th to 15th century byJe Tsongkhapa, renowned for both his scholasticism and his virtue.

Within these, Kunzang Palyul Choling is Nyingma

There are six “Mother” Nyingma Monasteries:

  1. Katok Monastery, in east Tibet, was founded during the twelfth century, and expanded in 1656.
  2. Dorje Drak Monastery was founded in central Tibet, in 1659.
  3. Mindroling Monastery, in central Tibet, was established in 1676.
  4. Palyul Monastery, founded in east Tibet in 1665.
  5. Dzogchen Monastery, in east Tibet, established in 1685.
  6. Shechen Monastery founded in east Tibet, in 1735.

Within these monastic traditions, Kunzang Palyul Choling is Palyul.

Palyul Monastery — one of the Six “Mother” Nyingma Monasteries. It was founded in either 1632 or 1665 by Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, a disciple of Terton Migyur Dorje, and Karma Chagmed. The monastery specializes in kama practices, the termas of Ratna Lingpa and Tulku Migyur Dorje (1645-67). The current head of Palyul Monastery is the Fifth Karma Kuchen.

The inspired masters who contributed to the teachings practiced within Palyul

To date, Palyul has had 12 throne-holders in its history.  According to His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, while Nyingma is generally practiced as a Ngagpa tradition, within Palyul it has never been true. The Lineage Holders of Palyul have always been fully-ordained.

Important “elder statesmen” of Palyul, contemporaries and close senior students of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, are:

It is because of these pure Lineage teachers that we continue to have a pure unbroken stream of wisdom to guide us today to reveal our own enlightenment.

Sources include Wikipedia, Rigpa Wiki, and most of all Pathgate.org, who gave us permission to use their thangka images and biographies

The Dalai Lama Visits Washington, D.C.

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Photo by Lee Pham
Photo by Lee Pham

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is coming to Washington, D.C.—our very own neighborhood! Of particular interest to Buddhists, whether aspiring or practicing, is the teaching he will give at American University on October 10, “The Heart of Change: Finding Wisdom in the Modern World.” His Holiness is renowned for his clear, direct teaching style, his humor, and his excellent command of English.

Winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, compassionate diplomat and peace maker, and leader of the Tibetan Government in Exile, he is the face of Tibet for many around the world.

And the Dalai Lama is much more than a temporal leader. Tibetan Buddhists revere him as an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion. Spiritual Head of the largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the Gelupa, he is honored as a spiritual authority by the other three sects as well (the Nyingma, or Ancient, School, the Kagyu, and the Sakya).

Born in 1935 and discovered two years later as the rebirth of the previous Dalai Lama, His Holiness assumed full political responsibility in 1950, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Under increasing pressure from the Chinese, he escaped into exile in 1959, and established the Tibetan Government in Exile from his base in Dharamsala, India.

A prolific writer, the Dalai Lama is particularly notable for his interfaith dialogues. His book The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus (by H.H. the Dalai Lama, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1996) is studied by Buddhists and Christians alike. Others among his widely read works is The Art of Happiness (by H.H. the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, Riverhead Books, New York, 1998) and An Open Heart (by H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited by Nicholas Vreeland, Little Brown and Company, New York, 2001).

Avidly interested in modern science since childhood, His Holiness has also engaged in dialogue with neuroscientists. This interest is reflected in Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism (Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, 1999) and, more recently, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (Morgan Road Books, New York, 2005). Other books by His Holiness—too numerous to mention—are listed here.

We are honored to have his lotus feet touch the earth in our part of the world, and hope that you will engage with this mind of compassion in some form!

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