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Paramemetic (or anyone), do you have a biography of Guru Rinpoche that you would recommend? He sounds dope as hell.
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Nov 30, 2016 17:55
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:40 |
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This is mostly a series of dumb newbie questions for Paramemetic but I’m sure that I could get some useful information from anyone else experienced with Tibetan Buddhism / Vajrayana. I recently rook refuge with the lama at the temple that I’ve been visiting regularly for the past six months or so. Kyagbon Phakchok Rinpoche recently visited our temple and granted several Vajrayana empowerments. I attended two: The Dzogchen Kunzang Tuktig (Heart Essence of Samantabhadra) and The King Songtsen Gampo (both are from the terma cycle of Dudjom Dorje Thinley Jampa Jungne). I have a couple of questions about them. I know they would be best answered by the lama there, but I wanted to get at least a baseline about the empowerments before I ask silly questions and make myself look disrespectful of the teachings. 1.) There were no texts distributed with the empowerments, although Kyagbon Phakchok Rinpoche did briefly explain the visualizations and mantras in English. Are those visualizations and mantras alone the practice, or are there associated Sadhanas? Basically, what am I supposed to do with what I have been shown? I did some hunting online and it looks like a version of the Kunzang Tuktig was translated into Nepali last year, but I’ve had no luck in finding any online versions. 2.) The Songtsen Gampo empowerment contained three separate empowerments. Amitabha, Chenrezig and Hayagriva & Vajrarahahi in consort located at different places on the body. The Kunzang Tuktig involved the 100 deity mandala of Samantabhadra with the 42 peaceful and 58 wrathful deities of the Bardo that appear in the body as well. Am I now empowered to visualize all these different deities separately, or am I limited to visualizing them in their respective mandalas? 3.) Because I have not completed (or even begun) the Ngondro, am I not authorized to practice either of these empowerments at all? 4.) As part of the samaya for these empowerments, Rinpoche said that we should recite Vajrasattva every day. Should I be reciting the formal, 100 syllable mantra or the informal Om Bendza Sattva Hum? Without empowerment into Vajrasattva, can I even do this? I am finding my way at the beginning of my dharma practice. I found the empowerment ceremony extremely powerful and affecting. I’m still trying to carve out a formal meditation practice, and I really hope I didn’t do the wrong thing by attending these empowerments so early into my life as a buddhist.
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Mar 21, 2017 21:03
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Thanks so much for the thoughtful response. You reinforced the ideas that I was knocking around with. I should probably abandon clinging to seeming that I know what I'm doing and ask the lama for help! I may not be in such close proximity to a temple for much longer so I should try and get as much guidance as possible while I still can.
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Mar 25, 2017 23:29
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Laocius posted:I saw this statue in a dollar store and couldn't figure out who it was. My top two guesses were Vairocana and Vajrasattva, but I'm still not sure. I think that Vajrasattva is traditionally depicted holding a vajra and bell? Vairocana's hands are usually in the turning the wheel of the dharma mudra so it doesn't look like him either.
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Mar 26, 2017 23:22
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thorsilver posted:As for the empowerments, I can see how that would cause some divisions. For my part, I'd also like to attend in person, but opportunities here in the UK are quite rare in my experience, and as my wife is not working I can't blow through too much money chasing them down elsewhere. I'm taking the view that whether online or off, empowerments would depend on my connection to the teacher and my ability to take in the teachings; I feel like if I were going to get the benefit of the empowerment from that teacher, I'd get it whether I see them on a screen or in the same room. This is my perspective as well re: online empowerments. I attended two empowerments offered by the Gyalwang Karmapa Orgyen Trinley Dorje on his visit to Toronto last year, and the event was so large and he was so far away it was more or less like I took part remotely. I never received the vase empowerment, so I suppose that was incomplete in a strict sense. But, I've also attended the Vajrakilaya and Vajrasattva empowerments offered by HE Garchen Rinpoche and experienced very strong connections with both practices and the lama. I definitely believe that I have received the empowerments, but your own mileage may vary. It really depends on the lama themselves. I know that Garchen Rinpoche (Drikung Kagyu) and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu (Dzogchen) state that empowerments can be imparted online. If they are lamas that you have strong connections with, then you should go with what they are teaching.
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Jan 4, 2018 21:31
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Escape Addict posted:This is a great thread! I'm grateful for all the informative posts. First, I am not educated in these matters and no one should listen to me about anything. A simulation would require a basis in something, i.e. a machine, or system or whatever. At least according to a Mahayana / Madyamika view, this isn't the best analogy because Samsara itself is without a basis, it is entirely empty without any self-nature. Causation and even time itself only appear to exist because of our perspectives, and lack any real nature at all. Samsara is more our own ignorant projections on these empty phenomena which we impart labels or judgements on. These imputations cause the three poisons (Ignorance, Aversion and Desire), from which leads all other sufferings. I suppose you can use the simulation as a way of understanding the empty nature of reality, but it really gives the idea of some sort of architect to the simulation. That's not the case in Buddhist cosmology, even Brahma (the being at the tip-top of Samsara) didn't actually create the universe, and is certainly not immortal or omnipotent. Interestingly though to your concept, I am remembering Words of My Perfect Teacher which basically a primer for beginner Buddhists from the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. When taking us through a tour of Samsara the author, Patrul Rinpoche makes reference to Pretas and various other unfortunate beings. Because of their karma, Pretas perceive water as fire, and various other wholesome things as great suffering. Other beings exist in "Peripheral Hells" where they may exist in the belly of a fish while being tormented by continually being digested and thrown up again or something. I suppose he's talking about the possibility of an entirely different perceived reality depending on ones own situation informed by karma, which could be understood as being a kind of simulation, no?
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Jul 27, 2018 21:47
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Laocius posted:There's also the Kadampa Center in Cary, which is Gelug-affiliated. Despite their name, they thankfully have nothing to do with the New Kadampa Tradition. But I only visited a couple of times, so I can't really speak to what the community is like. IIRC the formal name of the Gelugpas is "The New Kadampa School", because Je Tsongkhapa reformed the Kadam school of Atisha. The NKT obviously took the name because it makes them sound legitimate, and its very close to the English names of a lot of orthodox Gelug schools.
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Mar 13, 2019 19:17
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Senju Kannon posted:the only illegitimate form of buddhism is nichiren Honorable mention
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Mar 14, 2019 00:52
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Herstory Begins Now posted:E: /\ I feel like that's a good encapsulation of the danger of fully secularizing buddhist practices The guru / disciple relationship is at the heart of the Vajrayana, and has massive potential for abuse. The Rigpa and Shambhala scandals demonstrate what can happen if the guru is bad. Too often gurus like Sogyal Lakhar and The Sakyong will fall back on the idea of "Crazy Wisdom", which is in most cases an excuse to act like a loving monster under the pretence that your helping disciples "wake up". There is a reason why Patrul Rinpoche said to examine the gurus qualities for 12 years before making the decision to take them as a guru or not.
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Mar 14, 2019 01:13
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Tias posted:Since y'all know a lot about the pitfalls of tibetan stuff, what is your opinion of Reggie Ray? His two books Indestructible Truth and The Secret of the Vajra World are the most accessible introductions to the Tibetan strain of Mahayana and Vajrayana for Westerner's in my opinion. I'm not aware of any controversies about him in particular, beyond the connection to Trungpa. His podcast is pretty good as well.
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Mar 14, 2019 13:46
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Paramemetic posted:... aaaalso I think I've discussed before my gripes about the Tibetan term "phowa" for "projection" referring to projecting your consciousness out of your body being interpreted by Western translators as some kind of metaphor or some poo poo. Then in the course of looking up if Marpa was a warlord or just a rich guy (lmao these are the same things it's feudal Tibet), I found out that Marpa had a son named Darma Dode. When Marpa's son died in an accident, Marpa used his miracle powers to keep him alive long enough to teach him to project his consciousness into dead bodies. Then Darma Dode transferred his consciousness into a recently deceased pigeon, flew to India, found a recently deceased child, and transferred into that body. Then he took care of that kid's parents until they died, went back to Tibet, and taught some poo poo to one of Milarepa's students. Padampa Sangye also did Phowa and stole the body of Kamalashila while Kamalashila was reanimating a corpse to clear a lake of pollution. Padampa Sangye did this because he was ugly, and apparently Kamalashila was very attractive. Padampa Sangye in Kamalashila's body then ran off into the mists of history, and Kamalashila in Padampa Sangye's ugly as hell body goes to the Himalayas and imparts Chod. The lineage of the Chod traditions are crazy. The magical powers of mahasiddha's are not just metaphorical devices showing the purification of their minds, but are real wizard powers that are seen as being totally real.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:09
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Mushika posted:I simply can't reconcile the fact that there is work to be done here in this life with the idea that merit somehow opens up opportunities in the next. How do we know what the next existence entails? What we do know is that there is work to be done in this life. There is suffering that we can alleviate here and now. The choices that we make in this life have far-reaching consequences. One of the common framing ideas of Pure Land practice in the Tibetan tradition is that they are your reserve chute. If you are lax in your practice (like everyone is) and don't achieve the rainbow body this lifetime, then the practices that you have performed for rebirth in Sukhavati or the Copper Coloured Mountain or wherever are insurance. Dzogchen has a similar thing going through navigating the bardo while dying and using guru yoga to clip through the floor of samsara and respawn in front of Samantabhadra.
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Feb 13, 2020 02:16
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Mushika posted:So it's spiritual Accelerationism, then. Hope that suffering in this life leads others to the Dhamma in the hope that their future lives will be alleviated of spiritual suffering. Dukkha in this life is irrelevant, only merit for the conditions of our rebirth is worthy of concern. Not at all, conditions in this life can lead to suffering being so intense that it is impossible to practice dharma in a meaningful way. If you're like an 8th level bodhisattva or something you are unconcerned with all samsara has to offer, but most normal sentient beings aren't like that. The alleviation of the coarser suffering (hunger, poverty etc) is essential to allow the more subtle obscurations (self grasping at an eternal self) to be identified and overcome.
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Feb 13, 2020 02:24
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:40 |
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Birth as a human, regardless of ones disabilities or circumstances, is the result of unfathomable meritorious activities in previous lives. Further, the true "fortunate human birth" is one in which one comes into contact with the dharma. Someone with severe physical and mental disabilities who practices the dharma is more meritorious than someone without who acts like an rear end in a top hat. The texts say that all sentient beings have at some point been one's parents. To look at this another way, there isn't a single illness, disability or unfortunate circumstance that you haven't had at some time or another. To say that these people "deserve" such a thing due to previous actions is to assume that samsara has a purpose and rationale behind it, when the whole point of the buddhas teaching is that it doesn't. Samsara isn't like hell or heaven or whatever, it has no moral point to show. It's unfair, that's why the point is to escape it. Finally, only buddhas know the true path and flowering of ones karma. Where you see a disabled person, a buddha may see a fellow bodhisattva manifesting for the benefit of beings. Or perhaps this person is a once-returner purifying the remnants of their negative karma. The point is that you cannot tell, so all sentient beings should be honoured with the respect due the Tathagatha.
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Feb 16, 2020 16:57
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