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The Importance of Failure – Guru Rinpoche day message by HE. Phakchok Rinpoche

03 Jul’17
(คำแปลภาษาไทย https://www.facebook.com/RangjungYesheThailand/posts/1581638288547939 วีดีโอมีภาษาไทยแปลโดยการกดปุ่มวงกลมด้านล่างของวีดีโอ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g6mys_Hc44)

Dear Friends Near and Far,

Hello. Happy Guru Rinpoche Day again.

Today I want to share with you the sixth of the Twelve Manifestations of Guru Padmasambhava. His name is Guru Pema Jungney, the Lotus Born Guru. Guru Rinpoche himself explained, “I taught many times in the beginning how to practice and how to gain blessings and siddhis and liberations, improvements. But my disciples in the future, those people are going to be very lazy, and will not be able to practice well.” So he actually taught six or seven different ways to gain realization and liberation: how to gain improvements through seeing, through tasting, through smelling, through touching, through reading, and such like that. Guru Pema Jungney has very great teachings of the six or seven different ways of liberation.

With that, I just want to say, in normal life, what we really need when we make mistakes or when we go through difficulties is a different way to see something. When you make a mistake, yes, I know that you really feel like a failure. You made a mistake or you feel down. You feel self-judgment. You feel negative. But always know that whenever you make mistakes, you need to encourage yourself to want to do better, and that you want to improve yourself. Don’t, how do you say, discourage yourself. Whenever you face obstacles or challenges in life, when you fail in life, try to think that it is an opportunity for improvement and to become more mature through your experiences. Because in life, you will always fail. In spiritual, you are always going to fail. And I really encourage you to see that failing is important. Every time you fail, you stand up. You keep trying. You keep doing it. Do that in the spiritual way and do that in the mundane way. You will get better and better. When you are stopped when you fail, or when you are stopped when you judge yourself and you really feel bad, that is the time of really big obstacles. So don’t look at it that way. Always see difficult things as a kind of way of encouraging, experiencing, and getting more mature. So keep that in mind and remember Guru Pema Jungney.

I like to share this with all of you: be happy and whatever you’ve done, the mistakes, improve yourself. If you’re chasing some difficulties, don’t judge everybody. Don’t judge yourself. Don’t judge others. Think instead, “It is my experience” and you get stronger. Stand up and do well. Easy to say. Difficult to do. But don’t forget. Then you will get better each time.

Thank you very much. Happy Guru Rinpoche Day.

Click here to view the video message

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g6mys_Hc44

We are happy to announce that there are subtitles for this month’s message in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Ukranian, and Vietnamese. Please click the settings wheel in the bottom right corner of the video to access these options.

We are also interested in your feedback about what teachings you would like to hear in the Guru Rinpoche messages.

Submit your feedback here


Lotus Light Dharma Institute

The construction is progressing along steadily thanks to the generous donations we have received. As you can see from the latest progress report below, the main building is really starting to take shape. Yet there is still a lot of work to be done before we reach completion.

What better chance to make merit than contributing to a such a wonderful construction on the Vajravārāhī pilgrimage site? Any donation you give, large or small will create a karmic link with this sacred site. An investment in the future preservation of the Buddha’s teachings is certainly a great opportunity to rejoice!

Here is the latest progress report

Click the image below to donate!

Sarva Mangalam,

KPR-Signature

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche

Gaining the Siddhis – Guru Rinpoche day message by HE. Phakchok Rinpoche

4th June 2017 – Gaining the Siddhis
Dear Friends Near and Far,

Happy Guru Rinpoche Day.

In this month’s video message, Phakchok Rinpoche introduces the manifestation Dzamling Gyenchog, who is Yangdak Heruka inseparable from Guru Padmasambhava.

In relation to this, Rinpoche contextualizes the importance of meditation as a daily practice.
Click here to view the video message
https://youtu.be/u2jSh9NF7lc
Today, I want to continue the Twelve Manifestations series. Now we are focusing on the manifestation named Dzamling Gyenchog, who is Yangdak Heruka inseparable from Guru Padmasambhava. Instead of Yangdak Heruka, sometimes they say Vishuddha Heruka, and sometimes they have different translations.

This particular practice of Dzamling Gyenchog that Guru Rinpoche taught is how to gain the siddhis, especially the higher siddhis. He also taught the great practice of phowa – the ejection of consciousness. This particular Guru Rinpoche practice is to achieve the great siddhis. Yangdak Heruka Dzamling Gyenchog is very profound.

Now, with that, I just want to say that all of us are very busy. We have many great qualities. We have self-confidence. We have a happy life. We are content. We do good things. We do compassionate acts. And we all have dignity. We all have many things and we know how to balance our life. But when we don’t have meditation, then we have nothing. This practice, Dzamling Gyenchog, explains how to gain the siddhis, especially through meditation.

Our meditation is important in life. How important is exercise? How important is it to have good food? How important is it to share with our friends when we are struggling with ourselves? How important is it to get advice from wise people? Actually, meditation is more important than all of that because meditation allows you to see your own self. Meditation makes your mind calmer. Meditation makes you improve yourself a little bit. And meditation makes you reduce your bad habits, negative emotions, and negative actions.

So how to do meditation? Meditation means bring focus. You can focus on an object. You can bring your mind to focus on your breath, on Guru Padmasambhava, or on compassion. All these three are actually called meditation.

To close, I want to tell you: yes it’s very difficult to meditate every day. So that’s why you need to find the experiences and benefits to encourage yourself. You need to find the faults and difficulties that come without meditating. You need to find inspiration especially through experiences. And consider sharing this with your friends to encourage them to try meditation as well.

Thank you very much all of you. Take care! Happy Guru Rinpoche Day.

I am happy to announce that there are now subtitles in Italian! The Italian and Japanese translators kindly added subtitles to all the videos of the manifestations series, which started in November. This month’s video message also has subtitles in French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Ukranian, and Vietnamese. There are currently some technical difficulties with the Chinese and Nepali language subtitles that should be addressed shortly. Please click the settings wheel in the bottom right corner of the video to access these options.

One of Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche’s recent practice requests for us from his birthday message was the accumulation of the Six Vajra Line Prayer.

Samye Dharma has created a counter so we can all upload our accumulations (log in required). Please log any of your accumulations starting from Phakchok Rinpoche’s birthday on May 23, and especially persevere until the Saga Dawa Duchen on June 9th. The counter will continue at least until the next Guru Rinpoche Day, July 3rd, so keep logging your accumulations until then.

Sarva Mangalam,
Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche

phakchokrinpoche.org | samyedharma.org

The Wholeness of Wealth – Guru Rinpoche day message by HE. Phakchok Rinpoche

6th April 2017 – The Wholeness of Wealth

Dear Friends Near and Far,

Hello! Happy Guru Rinpoche Day again.

Today, we are continuing our series on the Tukdrub Barché Künsel Twelve Manifestations. To start, I want to review what I taught in past messages. First, I talked about the practices of Long Life Amitayus including releasing life and being happy. Second, I talked about Avalokiteshvara. I spoke about how to be compassionate, release life, and remind you to be eco-friendly, animal-friendly, and to have good motivation. Then I talked about Guru Padmasambhava and the practices of having certainty, having trust, and especially making supplications.

Then we began with the Twelve Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche. The first manifestation is magnetizing: Gyalwey Dungdzin. I reminded you that developing self-confidence is very important. Then after that, I talked about the wisdom or intelligence of Mawey Senge. Important practices include offering candles, being focused, and not forgetting things. Try to notice things clearly and practice the breathing exercise I shared.

So today in order to magnetize things as Guru Rinpoche taught, you need wholeness of wealth. You may have intelligence, but if your wholeness of wealth is not there, then you cannot achieve things. Wholeness of wealth includes life, family, income, success, and whatever you wish to achieve. Here, Guru Padmasambhava manifests as Lama Norlha, who is Dzambala (the deity of wealth) and Guru Rinpoche inseparable.

Guru Rinpoche taught that to increase wealth, it’s very important to know how to make offerings and practice generosity. Start with small things so you learn how to give. If you are a Buddhist, then knowing how to do altar offerings as well as how to offer to others and give support is very important.

The second part that I want to mention to you is that contentment is very important in life. Without contentment, you are always poor. So it is very important to have contentment. But only having contentment is not enough. You need to do what you need to do, while always being aware of the right time. Taking the right opportunity is very important. Many of us forget to take the right opportunities. So listen to your gut and most importantly, when an opportunity comes, think decisively and take the opportunities. OK?

Click here to view the video message

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyaSG0NXfLw

I am happy to announce that there are now subtitles in Polish and Romanian! This month’s video message also has subtitles in English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Indonesian, Thai (coming soon), Vietnamese, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukranian. Please click the settings wheel in the bottom right corner of the video to access these options.

Thank you very much for listening. I send many love and prayers to you all and I hope it helps you. Thank you. Bye bye.

Sarva Mangalam,

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche

Introduction to Meditation Dharma talk by Lama Rinchen in Bangkok Jan 29th 2016

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok

Introduction to Meditation Dharma talk by Lama Rinchen Phuntsok

ขอเชิญร่วมฟังธรรม โดยพระลามะรินเชน ในการให้คำแนะนำในการปฏิบัติสมาธิในวันศุกร์ที่ 29 มกราคม 2559 การบรรยายนี้เหมาะสำหรับผู้ปฏิบัติทุกระดับ

You are invited to the “Introduction to Meditation” Dharma talk by Lama Rinchen in Bangkok on Friday 29th January 2016. This talk will cover basic principle and essence of meditation which will be useful for all levels of practitioners from beginner to advanced.

Date/Time: Friday 29th January 2016 6pm-8pm
ศุกร์ที่ 29 มกราคม 2559 18.00น. ถึง 20.00น.Venue: Windsor Tower Apartments, unit 20B
อาคารวินเซอร์ทาวเวอร์ อพาร์ทเม้น ห้อง 20B สุขุมวิทย์ซอย 20 ใกล้ BTS/MRT อโศก

Directions: Windsor Tower Apartment is located right opposite Windsor Hotel in Sukhumvit soi 20 which is near BTS-Asoke/MRT-Sukhumvit lines. The entrance to the building is next to “THEE” hotel. Please tell the guard that you come to see Ram in unit 20B which is on 20th floor.
ทางเข้าอาคารอยู่ติดกับโรงแรม “THEE”

Biography of Ven. Lama Rinchen ประวัติพระลามะรินเชน:
The Venerable Lama Rinchen Phuntsok is a skillfull teacher with a light and joyful manner. He is a scholar and meditation master of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.
http://dongakcholing.org/LamaRinchen.html

Cost: Free ไม่มีค่าใช้จ่าย
RSVP: Not required ไม่ต้องจองล่วงหน้า

Web: www.mongkol.org
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1Kq5LxH (You can get Dharma news and announcements here as well)

Contact us:  here ติดต่อเรากดที่นี่ “contact us
Please do not to bring your car as parking spaces are very limited.
กรุณาอย่านำรถส่วนตัวมาเพราะที่จอดรถมีจำกัด แนะให้มาโดย BTS/MRT
Feel free to email or call me at ติดต่อ/สอบถามเพิ่มเติม 0819855564.

Chod Ngondro explanation by Lama Rinchen in Bangkok Jan-Feb 2016

Ven. Lama Rinchen in-depth Chöd Ngondro explanation

Chod Teachings

Ven. Lama Rinchen will offer a very detailed explanation of the Chöd Ngondro, which contains the View of the great Prajñāpāramitā, Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen, and which includes the foundational set of practices that come at the forefront of most Vajrayāna systems.

The teachings will be conducted over 3 weekends from 2pm-6pm on each day total of 7 sessions–

Date/Time (2016): 
Saturday Jan 23: 2pm-6pm
Sunday Jan 24: 2pm-6pm
Saturday Jan 30: 2pm-6pm
Sunday Jan 31: 2pm-6pm
Friday Feb 5: 2pm-6pm
Saturday Feb 6: 2pm-6pm
Sunday Feb 7: 2pm-6pm

Venue: Windsor Tower apartment unit 20B, opposite Windsor hotel on Sukhumvit soi 20. Easily reachable via BTS Asoke/MRT Sukhumvit station.

Cost: Baht800 per person to cover the cost of text which will be used and remaining will be made as a donation to the Lama.

Payment detail–
Bank:Kasikorn Bank
Branch: Silom Branch
Account type: Savings account
Account number: 001-2-79564-7
Account name: Ram Narula

(If you would like to make donation for Lama’s traveling expenses such as airfare and other related costs do let me know.)

Signup/Questions please feel free to contact us using the contact us button above or call at 081-9855564

Chod retreat with Lama Rinchen – Sep 17-20 2015

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok Chod retreat in Thailand Sep 17-20 2015

Chöd retreat Sep 17-20 with Lama Rinchen

 

We would like to invite you to Chod retreat which will be held from September 17th to September 20th in Thailand
—–
Chöd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%B6d
—–
According to Mahayana Buddhists, emptiness is the ultimate wisdom of understanding that all things lack inherent existence. Chöd combines prajñāpāramitā philosophy with specific meditation methods and tantric ritual. The chod practitioner seeks to tap the power of fear through activities such as rituals set in graveyards, and visualisation of offering their bodies in a tantric feast in order to put their understanding of emptiness to the ultimate test.
—–
About Lama Rinchen http://dongakcholing.org/LamaRinchen.html
—–
The Venerable Lama Rinchen Phuntsok is a skillfull teacher with a light and joyful manner. He is a scholar and meditation master of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. Born in Tibet, Lama Rinchen began receiving instruction in the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism at the age of six in Tsasum Chokhorling Monastery in Tibet. After he left Tibet in 1958, he studied at Young Lama’s Home School in Dalhousie, The Buddhist Monastic School in Rewalsar, Nyingmapa Lama’s College in Dehra-Dun, and Zongdog Palri Monastery in Kalimpong. Lama Rinchen graduated from Sanskrit University in Varanasi India where he completed advanced studies in Sutrayana Buddhist philosophy and scriptures, commentaries, logic, literature, history, and the major sciences of the Tibetan curriculum.

To complete his training in Vajrayana Nyingma School studies, he served as private secretary to the late His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, supreme Head of the Nyingma order of Tibetan Buddhism for over fifteen years. During that time he received all the important empowerments, transmissions, essential instructions, the oral teaching of Nyingma Kama, and the Profound Rediscovered Teachings of Terma of the great Lotus Born Teacher, Guru Padmasambhava, the founder of Vajravana Buddhism.

Venue: About 2-3 hours out of Bangkok, we will keep you informed.

Cost: 4000-4500Baht per person, all meals and text included (transport cost not included)

Limited places available, kindly signup at your earliest convenience.

This retreat is suitable for all levels of practitioners.

Contact: (Eng) 0819855564, (Thai) 0894817754
Email: ram@pluslab.com

Ven. Lama Rinchen Dharma classes in Bangkok in June 2015

Meditation and Dharma classes by Ven. Lama Rinchen (Tibetan Buddhist Master)

 

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok

We would like to invite you to public Dharma talks be Ven. Lama Rinchen Phuntsok in Bangkok areas in June 2015.

Venerable Lama Rinchen Phuntsok is a skillfull teacher with a light and joyful manner. He is a scholar and meditation master of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.
Biography can be found at http://dongakcholing.org/LamaRinchen.html

Topic: “Attachment, Detachment, Aversion and Antidote”
Date: Sunday 21st June 2pm-5pm
Venue: The Continent Hotel (near Asoke intersection next to Interchange tower, on Sukhumvit road, hotel web site: www.thecontinenthotel.com/location/) 33rd floor GMT room
Note: Limited seats, please RSVP by email ram@pluslab.com

Topic: “Virtuous and Unvirtuous mind and their action”
Date: Monday 22nd June 6:30pm-8:30pm
Venue: ‘APARTMENTS’ building, Ekkamai road near Ekkamai BTS station, more information on www.littlebang.org Location: www.littlebang.org/step-inside/apartments-meditation-studio-2/

Topic: “The Textual Tradition of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism”
Date: Wednesday 24nd June 1:30pm-3:30pm
Venue: Mahidol University, Kanpai Room, Ground floor, Department of Humanities, Salaya
For more information please email: prasajya@gmail.com
For more information please feel free to contact us at:
Tel: (Eng) 0819855564,0989195519 – (Thai) 0894817754
Email: ram@pluslab.com
Web: www.mongkol.org
You can signup to our mailing list at: www.mongkol.org/contact/

These events are free of charge and suitable for everyone.

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok

Lama Rinchen Phuntsok Bangkok Dharma classes in June 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Dear Friends – Phakchok Rinpoche message in July 2014 สารจากท่าน พักชก ริมโปเช สิงหาคม 2557

Guru Rinpoche Day, 6th August 2014

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Dear Friends Near and Far,

Firstly on this Guru Rinpoche day, I would like to share a short video in which I talk about the five dear friends that everybody should have. Watch the video here, or click the image above.

Next, I would like to talk about motivation. These days when we talk about enlightenment, many people, including sometimes myself, don’t have a full understanding of what enlightenment really is. As a result, they end up thinking that it’s not of much benefit or relevance to them and then lose the wish to reach enlightenment. And this can happen to us whether we be practicing dharma or involved in the mundane world.

But if you can do what you do—whether it be the dharma or ordinary activities—with the ‘mind of enlightenment’, meaning the motivation to help free all sentient beings from suffering and the cause of suffering and establish them at the precious state of enlightenment, it has a really positive effect. From one’s own side, when you have this motivation you become free from personal, selfish desires and free of anger and aversion towards others. And when you are free of both selfish desires and aversion then you don’t make many mistakes; you are free of ignorance. On the other hand, when you have selfish desires and this kind of self-importance you might regard yourself as having many good qualities and others as being lower than you, and then you easily criticize others and can end up making many problems. So this motivation, the mind of enlightenment (bodhicitta) is so important and beneficial.

For example, in the morning when I recite prayers and make the sang (smoke) offering and so on then I do it focusing on all of our monks and nuns, the Rinpoches, our students, sponsors, the people working in our Foundation, and all the people I know with the wish to benefit them through these prayers. But at the same time we also need the mind of enlightenment that focuses on all sentient beings. And sometimes I forget that. My motivation is indeed very positive—to benefit everyone I know, meaning the lamas and monastics, and all our students and friends—but we need to have the motivation of the mind of enlightenment that keeps in mind all sentient beings and sometimes we can forget that. So in this case the motivation I have is not perfect. There is attachment to others and aversion or indifference towards others. Even if you don’t have any evident aversion to others, if you fail to include all sentient beings in your motivation and think, “Well, I don’t know those other sentient beings, they are strangers to me, I have no real reason to focus on them or think of them” this is actually an aspect of aversion and ignorance. We need to include all sentient beings with the wish that we can help all of them attain perfect enlightenment, understanding that we have been connected to them from beginningless time up until now through the relationships we’ve had with them throughout our past lifetimes—as mothers, fathers, friends, relatives.

If you can really think about this, engender this motivation, and take it to heart you will feel quite differently towards other sentient beings. How so? Immediately your anger and aversion will decrease. Likewise, your self-interest and selfishness will decrease. Your mind will become more open, relaxed, and joyful, and also kinder.

This being so, today I would like to remind you all about this precious motivation of bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. Whether you are practicing the dharma or doing ordinary things, do it with this motivation seeing that all sentient beings without a single exception have been your parents and dear friends in the past and that you are connected with them in that way and wishing all of them to be free from their suffering and its causes and attain the precious state of enlightenment.
What is enlightenment? The state free of all negative emotions and suffering and endowed with primordial wisdom. This motivation is so important.

So today on this precious occasion of Guru Rinpoche Day, please make some prayers, practice generosity, perhaps give your parents a gift, be loving to your children and others, and speak kindly to people. If you are a practitioner, then do some practice. Do some meditation, some recitation, make prayers, and if you know how then make a gathering (feast) offering to Guru Rinpoche.  And throughout please keep all sentient beings in your heart and think of them. Work on developing this motivation that thinks of all sentient beings.

I am sending this short message from Heathrow airport in England where I am in transit on my way back to the United States. As always, with many prayers and aspirations for you all,

Sarva Mangalam,

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche

   

www.phakchokrinpoche.org

6 Vajra Verses and 3 Points of Practice – Phakchok Rinpoche message in July 2014 สารจากท่าน พักชก ริมโปเช กรกฎาคม 2557

 

Guru Rinpoche Day, 7th July 2014

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Dear Friends Near and Far,

First of all, on this very auspicious Guru Rinpoche day, I would like to share with you this short video in which I give some advice on how to solve our problems in daily life. I also explain the meaning and significance of supplication to Padmasambhava by means of the six vajra verses .

The supplication I mention in the video is as follows:

དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ༔
dü sum sangye guru rinpoche
Guru Rinpoche, the Buddha of past, present and future,

དངོས་གྲུབ་ཀུན་བདག་བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཞབས༔
ngödrub kün dak dewa chenpö shyab
‘Dewa Chenpo’—Guru of Great Bliss—the source of all siddhis,

བར་ཆད་ཀུན་སེལ་བདུད་འདུལ་དྲག་པོ་རྩལ༔
barché kün sel düdul drakpo tsal
‘Düdul Drakpo Tsal’—Wrathful One that Subdues Negativity—who removes all obstacles,

གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ༔
solwa deb so jingyi lab tu sol
Grant your blessings, we pray!

ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་བའི་བར་ཆད་ཞི་བ་དང༌༔
chi nang sangwé barché shyiwa dang
Through them, may all obstacles—outer, inner and secret—

བསམ་པ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔
sampa lhün gyi drubpar jingyi lob
Be quelled, and may all our aspirations be fulfilled.

Secondly, I’d like to quickly remind you to reflect on three important aspects of your practice:

Motivation, which is the way of clearing and showing our path
Aspiration, which is the way to fulfill our path
Dedication, which is the complete accomplishment of motivation and aspiration

Lastly, I’d like to know what I can do to help you in your practice. Please complete this simple form to let me know what you need and what obstacles I can help you overcome. I’ll try to fulfill your wishes in the coming months.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1rcdzDJc8slIcdGb4QfQgF7ZUPsDeGZuPYoIKbFIWFh4/viewform

With constant aspirations for you all,

Sarva Mangalam

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche

   

www.phakchokrinpoche.org

Supplicaton credit: http://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/chokgyur-dechen-lingpa/removing-obstacles-and-fulfilling-wishes

Four Qualities – Phakchok Rinpoche message in June 2014 สารจากท่าน พักชก ริมโปเช มิถุนายน 2557

Video from Phakchok Rinpoche
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qhl8FGBAwQ

Watch the Video

 

Phakchok Rinpoche message on Guru Rinpocheday 8th June 2014
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Guru Rinpoche Day, 8th June 2014

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Four Qualities

Dear Friends Near and Far,

These days we often mistake what it’s meant to be a dharma practitioner. The heart of the buddhadharma is to tame one’s own mind, so a dharma practitioner is someone who is able to do this, who can see their own faults, address them, and tame and transform their minds. Someone who is unable to do this is not a dharma practitioner. Secondly, a dharma practitioner should be sincere and honest. So if you wish to practice the buddhadharma authentically this you need these qualities.

In terms of our motivation for practice, we need to have compassion and our compassion should have four qualities.

To generate compassion means to see sentient beings’ suffering and the causes of their suffering and to wish to free them from it. You also need to be able to see your own suffering and its causes, to see and experience this directly for yourself. If you can, it will not be difficult to generate compassion for others. Likewise, if you can understand that you have been connected to all sentient beings from beginningless time until now as parents and children that will make generating compassion easier, and will also help you to have more equanimity.

You need to contemplate compassion in this way and when you see someone else suffering put yourself in their shoes and try to imagine what it would be like to be going through what they are going through. If you can put yourself in their position and really understand their suffering, you’ll develop some compassion. Having developed this initial compassion then you need to improve it. Don’t leave compassion as a mere thought; apply it in your behaviour and actions. When you do this you will be able to see whether your compassion is genuine or not, whether it is pure, strong, and constant or not. This is the first quality our compassion should have: application.
Since compassion is the wish to free oneself and others from suffering and its causes the second quality our compassion needs to have is dignity. Dignity here means you see and acknowledge your suffering and the suffering of others, and you have the confidence that you can dispel it and its causes, that you have the means and methods to do that. Where does this dignity arise from? It arises from genuine practice of the dharma. It is through practice that you will develop this confidence that you can bring about change. And therefore, someone who has this dignity is a practitioner. Someone who lacks this dignity, who lacks the confidence that they can change, is not a practitioner.

The third quality is aspiration, the sincere and heart-felt aspiration to benefit other beings. We need to have this genuine aspiration and wish.

But it’s not enough to leave it there, as an aspiration. To make our compassion pure, we need wisdom, prajna.

So to reiterate, whatever we do we should do it with compassion – we need to apply compassion in all of our actions. Secondly, our compassion needs to be accompanied by dignity, a confidence that we can change. Thirdly we need aspiration and fourthly wisdom. If our compassion has these four qualities, it will be pure, genuine, and strong.

Since, as you all know, we need to develop this kind of genuine compassion then while thinking of you all on this Guru Rinpoche Day I am sharing these few points on compassion with you. But in addition to generating compassion ourselves we also need to teach our family and friends about compassion, to talk about it calmly and nicely with them while continuing to practice it ourselves.

With constant aspirations for you all,
Sarva mangalam,
Phakchok Rinpoche

 

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