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 .

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)

Shantideva’s Dedication Prayer

From Chapter 10 – “Dedication” in Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life is HH the Dalai Lama’s favourite prayer, and one I love the best of all.

“Healing Anger:  The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective”, by The Dalai Lama, translated by Thupten Jinpa (Snow Lion, 1997).

In the book, HH shows how the power of patience and tolerance can help us overcome anger and hatred.  He bases his discussion on A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, the classic work on the activities of Bodhisattvas – those who aspire to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all SSBs – suffering sentient beings.

By Shantideva

May all beings everywhere

Plagued by sufferings of body and mind

Obtain an ocean of happiness and joy

By virtue of my merits.

In Praise of Dependent Origination

1.    He who speaks on the basis of seeing, this makes him a knower and teacher unexcelled, I bow to you, O Conqueror, you who saw dependent origination and taught it.

2.    Whatever degenerations there are in the world, the root of all these is ignorance; you taught that it is dependent origination, the seeing which will undo this ignorance.

3.   So how can an intelligent person not comprehend that this path of dependent origination is the essential point of your teaching?

Thought Transformation Prayer of the Buddha’s Previous Lives

When difficult people appear in my life, to test my peacock training, I like to do this meditation, to remind me of this truth:  Buddha has already done it, I can, too.  One step at a time, one person at a time.  One arm, one leg, one eyeball, one ear, one drop of blood, one chocolate bar, one iPad, one BMW, I can give away, a little more at a time.  From wanting to give, to actually giving.  Intention to action.  For all SSBs.  All hungry for something from me.

Source:  “Thought Transformation Prayer of the Buddha’s Previous lives (from Chöd)”

Lama Chopa Jorcho,  FPMT Foundation Store

PHAT!  When my teacher, the Buddha, the endowed transcendent subduer,

Was Prince liberated from All on the path of mighty courage,

He gave away his son, daughter, and the kingship.

In the same way, may I be able to give away without clinging

My surroundings and possessions

That are so dear to me.   (1)

PHAT!  DAG GI TÖN PA SAN GYÄ CHOM DÄN DÄ

NYING TOB CHÄN GYI LAM GYI NÄ KAB SU

GYÄL BU THAM CHÄ DRÖL DU GYUR PA NA

BU DANG BU MO GYÄL SI JIN PAR TAR

SHIN TU PHANG PÄI KHOR DANG LONG CHÖ NAM

PHANG PA ME PAR YONG SU TONG NÜ SHOG