Relying on the Spiritual Teacher

Did this research paper as part of my final exam in holy retreat at Kopan; because Venerable Course Teacher + German so demanding.  He liked it.  Gave “100% + 10 points”.  Ha ha ha.

I wrote this as a first-year-naive dharma girl student.   Jangchup Lamrim in South India, HH The Dalai Lama warned us several times:  “Choose your teachers carefully.  Up to 12 years.  Before you practice guru devotion.”  I became newly aware:  this concept is not for beginners.

HH the Dalai Lama gives one of the best teachings on this Tibetan Buddhist path in Chapter Three:  “Relying on a Spiritual Teacher”  from Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment (Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive 2002) .

Enjoy the photos from my hometown province – Beautiful British Columbia – 39 outdoor murals from the old logging town of Chemainus; First Nations totem art at the Museum of Anthropology; beach creatures at Ucluelet; summer blooms at Capilano Suspension Bridge .

You, Sleeping in Class?

“Everyone’s Teacher”.   Khensur Lama Lhundrup Rigsel.  Kopan Monastery.  

Sera Je Lharma Geshe.  Master Debater.  Father.  Walks around holy campus.  

Talks to every new student.   Mischief manages our turbulent emotions.  Emotionally regulates things.   Says,   “Be kind.  Patient.  Courageous.  Oh yeah.”

Happy Saka Dawa – Day 13 + the awakening of a funny-happy-old memory.

Kopan Monastery – September 2007.   Two weeks remaining to cram-study for our Basic Program Year 1 “Big Final Exam,” Our Highly-demanding + German Venerable Course Teacher had decided all his students would also write a graduation essay on a lam-rim topic we would each randomly select from folded slips of paper inside a Tibetan singing bowl.  

He said, “600-word essay, please.”

That 2895-word Dharma Research Paper

Venerable Course Teacher.  Brilliant Scholar.  Geshe-in-training.  Good teacher.  Does translations.  Happy Monks Publication .   Buddha’s Sales Rep.  Very German Traditional.   Workaholic.  Button Pusher.   Middle-Aged Moody.   

Happy Saka Dawa – Day 12 + the awakening of a funny old memory.


When you wrote that 2895-word research paper:  “Relying on the Spiritual Teacher” , two monks appeared on the path to give you special attention.  

Draft-Paper Stage:  Khensur Lama Lhundrup.   Paper-Submission:  Course Teacher.   

Who do you choose?  The Perfect Teacher to rely on?

The Ch’an Teachings of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-Neng 六主惠能

My old university research paper about the Buddhist teachings of a famous ancient Chinese monk from the 7th century.  Funny how I wrote this 20 years ago, as an undergraduate student in year four, for a course “History of Chinese Thought”, long before I became a “dharma girl” (in the Tibetan tradition).  

I didn’t know anything about anything but the professor did say to me:

“Final exam, you wrote the best answer, better than my graduate students, on the emptiness question – on the definition of nothingness.  ”

Ha ha:  I was that girl who got good grades in school.  And now, in this our Dog-eat-doggy 21st century, I still haven’t learned all the tricks to “empty” my two mental obscurations – afflictive and knowledge – directly.

Like The Elephant Man, I fight for my human dignity, I cry,

“I have afflictions, but I am not an affliction:  I am a human being.  

With feelings.  Therefore, I am not an object of abandonment.”

This our troubled times, I fight for the dignity of all SSBs,

“You are not an affliction:  you are a suffering sentient being.

Therefore, you are also not an object of abandonment.”

我是有情 、雖然「我」有煩惱、我並不是「煩惱」所以、我不是「拋棄之物 」妳們也不是 。

Lama says, “We are all in jail, our minds, in jail.   Samsara Jail .  You, must get out of jail, samsara jail.  Study and practice the Buddha-dharma.  Your mind, get out of jail.”

First Basic Program at Kopan 2007 - 2011

FPMT Basic Program – Year 1 at Kopan Monastery – July to October 2007 (3 months)

Focus:  “Lam rim – the Graded Path to Enlightenment – 3 Scopes”

Graduation Day.  Basic Program Class of 2007 with our precious course teachers = Late Great Abbot Khensur Lama Lhudrup Rigsel + Venerable Fedor Stracke, Kopan Monastery .

Lama Tsong Khapa:  Middle Length Lam-Rim.  Additional Outlines by Trijang Rinpcoche.  Translated by Philip Quarcoo.

•   Outline:  Up to the Calm Abiding Section of the Great Scope (February 2006)

•   Up to the Calm Abiding Section of the Great Scope (February 2006

•   Calm Abiding Section (FPMT March 2007)

•   Special Insight and Concluding Sections (FPMT April 2007)

Kopan Monastery Library Bookstore「柯盤寺圖書館書店」

“Restoration”.  Post Nepal Earthquake, the library holding a very good collection of dharma books in English, Tibetan, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian.  Beautiful oak cabinets were first installed in 2010.  

First year retreat during Basic Program, I remember re-organizing the shelves with the help of an 10-year-old young monk who did very well in school, often best in his class, who liked to hang with me during free time, eat ice cream, and talk about his Nepalese mommy.

Geshe Nawang Thinley, Kopan Library Bookstore Manager and more.

Geshe-la kindly let me use the library computer.  This is where I typed up that 2895-word dharma research paper.   Before nearly body-crashing into Khensur Lama Lhundrup.

Graffiti on the Wall「 牆壁上的塗鴉 」

“I love my rice noodles sitting next to Ilha Formosa Taiwan.”

「我愛台灣米粉」