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Channel Posts
Repost from N/a
The drop of sperm & blood belonged to others. Yet, through strong habituation, I came to have in its regard a sense of "I," though, in itself, it is devoid of entity.
& so, why not identify another's body, calling it my “I”? & vice versa, why should it be hard to think of this, my body, as another's?
Perceiving now the faults possessed by "I,” the ocean of good qualities that are in “other," I shall lay aside all love of self & gain the habit of adopting other beings.
Just as hands & other limbs are thought of as the members of a body, can we likewise not consider others as the limbs & members of a living whole?
Just as in connection with this form, devoid of self, my sense of "I" arose through strong habituation, why should the thought of "I,” through habit, not arise related to another?
—Bodhisattvacaryavatara
| 2 |  No text... | 81 |
| 3 | I have not written much here of late because I have very little I want to say. My time and thoughts are more and more spent on practice.
I have never wished for Telegram clout, and I only really started this channel to dialogue with my friends. I certainly have no desire to present my own ideas or project anymore.
Realising how little I know has created in me the firm determination to look inwards. As such, things like politics have become much less interesting to me.
However, for those who are politically minded, I think it is important to realise that we deserve everything we go through. There is not a single thing happening to our countries, or ourselves, that we did not create the causes for in the past.
It's your fault. You made this for yourself.
That is the inviolable Law of Karma manifesting through dependent origination.
When Shariputra asked Ashvajit what it was the Buddha taught, Ashvajit said:
ye dharmā hetu-prabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgato hy avadat
teṣāṃ ca yo nirodha evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ
"All phenomena arise from causes, the Tathagata has taught these causes, and the means of their cessation, thus teaches the great ascetic."
This is so profound that it became a mantra used by all Buddhist schools to understand the essence of the Buddha's teaching.
Therefore, if you wish to put an end to the suffering of yourself, your family, nation and the world, you have no choice but to work on your own mind.
If you try to get retribution without cultivating universal love within yourself, you simply perpetuate the cycle of samsara. When you understand that all beings are seeking happiness, you can successfully forgive them for the horrific mistakes they make, and therefore overcome the delusion of inherent self that causes suffering for yourself and everyone around you.
To rise above the cycle is the only way to end it.
This is true for you, as well as everyone you wish to protect. | 71 |
| 4 |  For the purpose of cleansing Jetsun Milarepa of his obstructions, Marpa made him build a nine-story tower by himself. Sores formed on Milarepa’s back as a result, exposing his spine. When Marpa was conferring initiations on others, he would eject Milarepa from the rows of initiates.
On those occasions, Milarepa became so overwhelmed with despair that he thought, ‘May the ground open up and swallow me!’ However, Marpa’s only wish was to cleanse Milarepa of his karmic obstructions and he did not harbour the slightest selfish desire.
—Second Panchen Lama | 81 |
| 5 | Two novice monks in Khotan meditated on Venerable Manjushri for twelve years but failed to receive a vision of him. They lamented, ‘Arya Manjushri’s compassion is too feeble,’ whereupon Venerable Manjushri appeared in space and informed them that they had no karmic connection with him. He told them that Avalokiteshvara was residing in the Land of Snows where he had taken birth as Songtsen Gampo and advised them to go there.
When they arrived in Tibet, they saw heads, arms and legs that had been chopped off lying in the lower valley of Tolung as a result of punishments dealt out by the king and also walls of heads, heaps of eyeballs and torture chambers of arms and legs within the tents in Denbak. They thought, ‘That Manjushri must be a mara. What is he an emanation of? This king is a murderer.’
Thinking that, they prepared to leave. The king summoned them before him, removed his headdress to reveal Amitabha and spoke, ‘I am the Avalokiteshvara of Tibet. You do not have to be afraid.’
They asked, ‘Well, is the killer of all of these living beings Avalokiteshvara, the Great Compassionate One?’
He replied, ‘Since coming to power, I have not caused even the slightest harm to living beings. Since these trainees of mine cannot be guided by peaceful means, I display emanated instruments that punish emanated victims. What do the two of you want?’
They replied, ‘We just want to go home.’
He said, ‘Well then, fill your bags with sand and lie on them.’ They did as they were told and found themselves at the opening of a rock cave in Khotan. At sunrise, the sand turned into gold.
If the two novice monks had not developed misconceptions toward the king in the beginning, they would have attained the supreme attainment of mahamudra, yet they achieved nothing in their lifetime apart from that attainment. However, it is said that they attained the state of unadorned arhats in the next birth.
—Second Panchen Lama | 179 |
| 6 |  Avalokiteshvara | 51 |
| 7 | At the advice of the sage Jayosmayatana, youthful Sudhana, the merchant’s son, went to request instructions from King Anala on the bodhisattva deeds. The king happened to be carrying out his judicial duties and was seated upon a huge throne ornamented by precious stones.
Ten thousand ministers and executioners who were as terrifying as hell guardians were meting out punishments such as gouging out eyes and cutting off arms and legs. Upon witnessing that, Sudhana thought, ‘This King Anala is devoid of spiritual virtue; he creates nothing but misdeeds. How can he have the instructions on the bodhisattva deeds?’
When he gave rise to that doubt, the gods in the sky spoke, ‘Do you not remember the instructions of the sage Jayosmayatana?’ Sudhana then circumambulated the king three times and the king led him into the palace.
The king explained, ‘I have attained the bodhisattva’s play of illusory liberation. Since most of the people residing in my country engage in various nonvirtues, by displaying emanated executioners who kill emanated victims, these residents will come to fear misdeeds and feel remorse.’
—The Stem Array | 54 |
| 8 |  Sudhana learning from a teacher | 61 |
| 9 |  To create powerful merit with little effort,
Rejoicing in virtue is praised as best.
In particular, regarding previous virtues you have accrued,
If you cultivate, free of conceit, great joy in your past virtues,
These previous virtues will increase even more.
—Je Rinpoche | 79 |
| 10 | If you do not sincerely confess your past misdeeds by feeling regret for them and generating the intention to refrain from committing them in the future, then excellent qualities that have not yet been produced in your continuum will not be produced and those that have been produced will decline.
If, instead, you sincerely regret the misdeeds you have committed in the past as if you have ingested poison and produce the mind of restraint that resolves not to repeat them again even at the cost of your life, then excellent qualities that have not yet been produced in your continuum will be produced and those that have been produced will increase.
Therefore holy beings of the past have regarded the confession of misdeeds and downfalls as of utmost importance. During his journey to Tibet, whenever the tiniest of misdeeds occurred, Atisha would immediately assemble the leaders of the caravan, offer a mandala and perform confession.
‘Should I die before confessing it, I will reborn in the lower rebirths,’ he would say. Accordingly, he would carry a wooden stupa with him wherever he went and would perform confession and restraint right there and then. This was done so that he would ‘not be accompanied by misdeeds or downfalls for longer than a day.’
Upon arriving at Cholung Monastery, Tsongkhapa was highly inspired and strove assiduously in accruing the collections of merit and wisdom and the purification of misdeeds. He first perceived Nageshvararaja and later the Thirty-Five Buddhas and so on. We must emulate these holy beings of the past and train accordingly
—Second Panchen Lama | 67 |
| 11 |  No text... | 61 |
| 12 | ‘Kings who kill deer contravene the Dharma,’ replied Prince Chandra, ‘but eating human flesh is worse. Humans are higher than deer. And if it is wrong to eat the flesh of someone who died a natural death, how could killing people to eat them be right?’
Sudasaputra then said, ‘You haven’t learned much from the scriptures if you came back to me!’
I returned in order to keep my word, and so I have learned much from the scriptures.’
‘The other men were afraid when I had them in my clutches. But you have proved to be a steadfast hero: you have not lost your composure. You seem unafraid to die.’
‘Those men were full of remorse because they had sinned,’ said the prince. ‘But there is no sin I can recall ever having done. I am therefore unafraid. I offer myself to you—you may eat me.’
Sudasaputra had by now developed faith in the prince. His eyes were full of tears, and the hairs on his body were standing on end. He looked at the prince in awe and told him about his sinful nature. ‘Deliberately sinning against a person like you,’ Sudasaputra said, ‘would be like drinking strong poison. Teach me, I beg you, what the Brahman so eloquently taught you.’ He also said at this point the verse we had above:
When I see the form of my evil deeds Clearly in the mirror of the Dharma,
My mind is terribly tormented;
I shall now turn to the Dharma.
Prince Chandra saw that he had become a suitable vessel for the Dharma and said:
Drink the nectar of these words
While sitting on a low seat,
While wonderfully subdued in manner, Your eyes bright with joy.
Develop respect; listen single-pointedly.
The mind most clear and undefiled,
Listen to these words as a patient heeds his doctor; In reverence, listen to the Dharma.
Sudasaputra laid out his upper garment on a flat stone and invited Prince Chandra to sit on it. Sudasaputra sat in front of the prince and, while gazing at his face, said: ‘O noble one, now teach.’
Prince Chandra then began:
Meeting the holy saints just once
Is enough to grant whatever you desire. You need not know him well;
It still will make you steadfast.
And so on. He subdued Sudasaputra’s mind with the Dharma teaching. Sudasaputra, to return this kindness, presented Chandra with the ninety-nine princes he had been holding prisoner in order to eat them; he vowed from then on to uphold right behaviour and to give up killing sentient beings and eating human flesh.
—Pabongka Rinpoche | 91 |
| 13 | When the Blessed Buddha was still a learner treading the path, he was reborn as the bodhisattva, Prince Chandra. There was a man called Sudasaputra, who used to kill people and eat his victims.
One day the prince went into a grove and an eloquent Brahman came to him. While the prince was receiving a Dharma teaching from this eloquent Brahman, suddenly they heard a great noise. People were sent to see what was happening. They found that Sudasaputra was coming.
The prince’s bodyguards said, ‘Sudasaputra Kalmashapada eats people. He is a man to be feared; our army, its many horses, elephants, and chariots have scattered and fled. What are we to do? The time has come to parley with him.’
This idea pleased the prince and, deaf to the pleas of his wives and entourage, he went to where the great clamour was coming from. The prince saw Sudasaputra pursuing the king’s army in a rage, his sword and shield held high. But the prince fearlessly and without hesitation said, ‘I am Prince Chandra. I am here; come here to me.’
Sudasaputra turned around and made for the prince, saying as he ran, ‘It’s you I want.’ He flung the prince over his shoulder and ran off with him to his lair. This terrifying place was full of human skeletons; the floor was red, and the whole place resounded with the gruesome calls of ferocious flesh-eaters such as jackals, vultures, and ravens. The lair was black with the smoke of roasted corpses. Sudasaputra put the prince down in this horrifying place and rested—but with his eyes fixed on the handsome body of the prince.
The prince thought to himself, ‘I had no chance to make an offering to that eloquent Brahman in the grove for the Dharma I received.’ This thought made him cry.
‘Cease! Enough!’ Sudasaputra said. ‘You, Prince Chandra, are famed for your steadfastness. How strange you should be crying now that I’ve captured you. They say, “Steadfastness is useless when you undergo pain. Studies don’t help when you suffer. Everyone cringes when struck.” You know, I think this is true. Tell me honestly: are you afraid I am going to kill you? Are you afraid you will be parted from your friends, relations, wives, children, and parents? Tell the truth, whatever it may be: why are you crying?’
‘I was receiving the Dharma from a Brahman,’ the prince replied, ‘but I was unable to make him an offering. Let me go to him and give him something, and I will definitely return to you.’
‘That cannot be true, no matter what you say,’ said Sudasaputra. ‘After once being saved from the jaws of the Lord of Death, who would return to his presence?’
‘Have I not given my word and promised to return? I am he known as Prince Chandra, and I value the truth as much as my own life.’
‘I do not trust what you say; however I am willing to test you,’ he said. ‘Go back, and we shall see if you really value the truth. Go back, complete your business with the Brahman—whatever it is—then return quickly. I will get the fire ready to roast you, and I will wait for you.’
The prince returned to his home and gave the Brahman four thousand ounces in gold as payment for the four verses the Brahman had taught. The prince’s father tried various means to stop him, but to no avail. The prince returned to the lair of Sudasaputra, who was astonished to see him in the distance. The prince told him, ‘You may now eat me.’
‘I know the time to eat you,’ Sudasaputra replied. ‘The fire is now smoking. If I roast flesh when the fire is smoking, it will stink of smoke and the taste will be ruined. In the meantime, teach me what you heard from the Brahman, which you claim is so important.’
‘The Brahman’s eloquent words told how to distinguish between non-Dharma and Dharma. Your evil ways are worse than the man-eating rakshas. What good could study possibly do you?’
Sudasaputra could not bear this remark. ‘Stop! Enough! You kings kill deer with your weapons. That goes against the Dharma!’ | 84 |
| 14 |  No text... | 86 |
| 15 |  When I study, I increase my contemplation and meditation.
When I contemplate, I increase my study and meditation.
When I meditate, I increase my study and contemplation.
I know how to gather them as the one foundation,
And take the Dharma as my path
I am a Kadampa and don’t do things in parts.
People who wear blinkers are deceived;
Those who well understand the excellent are Kadampas.
—Dromtonpa | 73 |
| 16 | If you know how to think, then the practice of dharma is really quite simple. The practices of rejoicing, generating bodhicitta and dedicating are so easy to do at any time and create an enormous amount of merit, and these involve just altering your normal ways of thinking. But if you don’t think properly and do not create a good motivation, then nothing you do becomes Dharma. If you’re offering to Buddha or monks just to defeat your enemy, for instance, that’s not Dharma practice!
Since you do have buddha-nature, the potential to become enlightened, however, if you purify your negativities and accumulate virtues then your buddha-nature will become activated and you will become enlightened. This is why practicing the seven limbs is so important.
Even if you cannot practice the entirety of the stages of the path to enlightenment, if you do the various preliminary practices, then you are holding the essence of the entire practice. Just doing the six preliminary practices is sufficient for maintaining the essence of Dharma practice.
—Gyume Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa | 77 |
| 17 |  No text... | 63 |
| 18 |  Only rejoice in positive deeds, not negative ones. Rejoicing in others’ virtues allows you to create as much merit as they are creating but rejoicing in others’ harmful deeds causes you to create a similar amount of bad karma. If someone kills a person and you rejoice in that, you create the same amount of negative karma as the murderer! When you watch television or read the news, it’s very easy for negative rejoicing to arise. Such negative rejoicing doesn’t help anybody and harms you. So take care to only rejoice in the positive actions of others.
—Gyume Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa | 79 |
| 19 |  Do not commit any nonvirtuous actions,
perform only perfect virtuous actions,
subdue your mind thoroughly—
this is the teaching of the Buddha.
—Buddha Shakyamuni | 99 |
| 20 | We do not want to confess our sins; our lack of belief in the laws of cause and effect is at fault and means that we are not afraid of our sins. If we had that belief, we would avoid committing even the smallest sin.
For example, whenever Atisha committed the slightest misdeed while he was traveling, he would halt the caravan and rigorously expiate it. We could do this too, yet we normally think we have no great sins to confess—that is only because we have not thought through how we commit sins.
If we were to think about it deeply enough, we would come to know just how many sins we have committed with our mind and speech—harmful intent, idle gossip, insults, and so on—since we got up today.
We may be ordained, for example, yet, leaving aside any major vows we may have broken, we not only break our other vows with the frequency of raindrops in a cloudburst but also say that this does no harm. Yet not putting the lower garment of our robes on straight, for example, is all that is needed to break a major tantric vow.
We also break the major bodhisattva vows as frequently as raindrops fall. Breaking a minor bodhisattva vow is one hundred thousand times more serious than breaking the major pratimoksha vow of a monk. Breaking a major bodhisattva vow is one hundred thousand times more serious than breaking a minor bodhisattva vow; breaking a secondary tantric vow is one hundred thousand times more serious; and breaking a root tantric vow, one hundred thousand times more serious still.
So if we count up the misdeeds we have done since, say, we got up this morning, we will see we have many full sets of causes for rebirth in all the lower realms.
Every day we are burdened with many misdeeds—the ten nonvirtues, transgressions of the three vows, etc. We are told that the greatest of these will get us rebirth in the hells; the medium, rebirths as hungry ghosts; and the least, rebirths as animals.
A ‘great sin’ need not be killing a person and stealing their horse; it could even be calling your pupil a mangy old dog in a great fit of anger. Such things as criticising karmically potent beings also become greater sins because of the object [of the criticism]. So just today we have acquired a complete set of causes to take us to the three lower realms.
—Pabongka Rinpoche | 71 |
