The Dalai Lama Path to Bliss

He carries many epithets. To most Tibetans, he is the Lord of Compassion. Also known as Kundun, the omniscient one. He is Buddha. I first caught sight of him in person in 2003, in India. He was within touching distance. Escorting him then under parasols were The Sakya Holiness and The Drikung Chetsang Holiness. It may have been my imagination but sweet bouquet wafted as I sat yards away from him – deities offering flowers perhaps! ( Friends and i also had the good fortune of bumping into and chatting with the Sakya Holiness in a sweets shop in Dehra Dun last year).

Here is a quote from THE Dalai Lama,

“By emulating the examples of great personalities of the past, by pondering upon scriptural quotations and anecdotes taught by teachers, by employing all sorts of means, you should be able to develop a deep conviction that this present human body has great potential and that you shall never waste even a single minute of its use. On the other hand, not taking any essence of this precious human existence, but just wasting it, is almost like taking poison while being fully aware of the consequences of doing so.

It is very wrong for people to feel deeply sad when they lose some money, while when they waste the precious moments of their lives they do not have the slightest feeling of regret. Such an indifference comes as a result of not realizing the value and rarity of the precious human existence. Therefore, you should determine that on the basis of this precious human existence you have the capability and capacity to undertake the practice of dharma.”

–from The Path to Bliss by H.H. the Dalai Lama, translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa

It is an honour to know you, friends who have responded so swiftly and with such generosity and compassion to those in need in the aftermath of the Yushu Earthquake.

The earth of Yushu quaked on 14/4/10 and left thousands dead and many more homeless and traumatised. The relief you provided through the funds you compiled have saved lifes and help many more through the freezing cold as they pick up the pieces.

Why donate? You could very easily have excused yourself by saying that there are many more in your backyard whom your $10 could benefit. But you see that it is in times of need that the small become giants. Granted, kindness knows no definition but at this hour you see that like those swept away in a storm, those nearest the precipice are in the direst need of help.

It is indeed my honor to know you! Thousands may not know your face but if they do, they would have felt honored too. Not that you care.

Birds on Lower Windows of Songtsen Library

Thanks India Addict… for providing the photos of the birds of Songtsen Library.

I was told that the birds mistook the sky reflected in glass of the Library and mess hall windows and flew right into them. That accounts for the many bumps you see on the head of the birds around Dehra Dun.

A kind lady (was she German?) sponsored for the stick on silhouettes of the birds on the glass so that the birds will not continue getting more bumps. Seemed it worked.

The first picture is of the mess hall, the second of the vintage Mercedes once used by HH The Dalai Lama, the third inside the audience room of HH Chetsang Rinpoche where the very regal Chetsang Holiness poses with visitors. Second from right is the Ven Chen Chung who is in retreat now.

I have also taken the liberty of including two more pictures, taken one cold chilly night, of the library and King Songtsen Gampo on his horse. Last year, there was some maintenance work done on the base and it should be ok now. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did the library.

Birds at Songtsen Library Mess Hall

HH Dalai Lama Vintage Mercedes

Pure Land of HH Chetsang Rinpoche

King Songtsen Gampo - Surreal Warrior

Songtsen Library under Full Moon

Goddess

The story of Nanda is an interesting one. If you care for visits to heavenly realms, of goddesses whose beauty makes your heart pumps and your throats dry or handsome gods who makes your knees weak and your heart flutters senselessly, this is one story like no other.

Nanda was the cousin of the Buddha. Well, most accounts of the Buddha concerns his cousins. Maybe Kapillavastu was a very small kingdom which explains why everyone is related one way or other.

Nanda loved the Buddha and was very much inspired to become a monk and live the homeless life. Unfortunately, he was married, to the lovely Pundarika. Her beauty had such a hold on Nanda that, much as he liked the Buddha’s message, he can’t bear to be away from his wife no more than a few hours, missing her soft skin and the fragrance of her body.

Understandable, since she was in every way equal if not better than the Bollywood screen sirens we see today. One flutter of those lovely large eye and we are undone. She too was very smitten with Nanda and used to put a drop of water on Nanda’s forehead whenever he goes out, bidding him to return to her arms before it dries.

Ah yes, where were we? Oh yes, Nanda. The Buddha knew what was going on so he asked Nanda to take a walk in the forest with him. Forests then were (still are) filled with monkeys. Pointing out one particular old mangy female monkey, Buddha asked Nanda whether this monkey or his wife was more beautiful. The answer was obvious.

Soon their walk took them to the heaven of Indra, the Trayatrimsa. Remember, he was the Buddha who had miraculous powers. Within those pearly gates of Indra’s heaven, the beautiful daughters sported with the fortunate divine gods. Their beauty and radiance are blinding and their seductiveness and sensuality is beyond us mere humans, not even in our weirdest dreams.

Oh, where are we again. Yes, within those pearly gates, sat the loveliest of all goddess. And she was alone. With his already bursting heart, the captivated Nanda asked her why she unlike the others was not sporting with some god or other.

“Why am I alone?” she replied. “I am waiting for my one true lover, Nanda, who will soon become a monk. Through his practice, he will gain this world and I can’t wait to show him all the delights of the sense and pleasures of the flesh beyond anything that he has ever known before!”

Oh, my goodness! Imagine you were Nanda! When asked, he told the Buddha that Pundarika (his wife if you have forgotten) looked like that monkey when compared to these daughters of the gods, screen siren or no screen siren that she was.

As the story goes, Nanda became a monk in no time and was tops in practice and meditation. His motivation was, how to say, rather un-monk-ly.

By and by, the Buddha came along. Nanda was getting lonely as the other monks knew what he was up to and isolated him. Off they went again for another walk. Amidst the pleasantries and ‘how is your practice getting along’, Nanda soon found himself led to the fearful infernal realms.

Ghastly tortures were taking place and the place was filled with chilling screams of pain which can turn your blood to ice. Steam hissed as the smell of roasted flesh and skin fills the air. Karmic offenders scream and writhe in pots of molten copper, unable to die or swoon as they were made to endure the sufferings in full awareness. Seems some have been here for centuries…

This Buddha tour soon arrived at the nethermost of hell. Fearsome looking engineers were at work on another hellish torture gadget. This one was so bizarre, a prize winning design engineered to extract the greatest juice that even the most fevered, sick maniacal human mind would not have been able to devise.

Upon being queried by the Buddha, in full hearing of Nanda who was by then cowering in fright and fear, the engineer replied, “The other apparatus are too friendly. This one is special and we are making it for a special guest. His name is Nanda and he is now practicing very hard at spirituality. His next life is in Indra’s heaven where he will enjoy eons of pleasure. When he has sported enough and his good karma has expired, this is his next stop. Please excuse us, we have to be ready and must hurry!”

If we are to talk about insight, to Nanda, this one was deep insight! He abandoned all attachment to worldly pleasures and in time became an Arhat.

I wonder what happened to Pundarika. I think a nice end to the story would be that she too obtained deep insight from her grief and realized the fragility of this world. She too took the homeless life and also attained liberation. What a wonderful couple.

Ajahn Brahm told the story of “two bad bricks”.

As a DIY bricklayer for the fledgling monastery, he could only see two bad bricks which he had laid. To him it was a mistake and it was there for all and sundry to see. Never mind that the other bricks were perfect.

The moral of this story is that we often only see the bad features of others. In a relationship this is the road to failure. He says that if we choose to see the other perfect bricks, things can only be better. Also the bad bricks are what make us unique.

Life in general is often fraught with imperfections. Well, we just have to take the long with the short.

Apparently this is an Udumbara flower.

My idea of this flower was that it is much larger. This one measured just 1mm in diameter.

An udumbara flower is said to be so rare that it flowers every 3000 years. (Given our short history the last one if this one is real would have been circa 1000bc. Well, so much for legends.

Botanically it is quiet common and is a flower of the cluster fig tree. Both the tree and the flower are referred to as the udumbara (Sanskrit, Pali; Devanagari) in Buddhism.^[5] Udumbara can also refer to the blue lotus (Nila udumbara) flower. The udumbara flower appears in chapters 2 and 27 of the Lotus Sutra, an important Mahayana Buddhist text.

The Japanese word udonge (優曇華) was used by Dōgen Zenji to refer to the flower of the udumbara tree in chapter 68 of the Shōbōgenzō (“Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma‎”). Dōgen places the context of the udonge flower in the Flower Sermon given by Gautama Buddha on Vulture Peak.

In Hinduism (Arthava Veda)  it is given prominence as a means for acquiring prosperity and vanquishing foes.

The picture comes from here.

One of my most treasured books is ‘a Meditator’s Handbook’ by Ajahn Brahm. As the title implies, it serves as the best guide I have read so far. Sadly, action is another matter. J

Another book which I recommend is “Who Ordered This Truck Load of Dung”. It is really a book of anecdotes but more importantly those stories reveals many personal insights as well as life as a monk. Ajahn Brahm’s writings and talks are delightful to read and hear. Behind that wit, I am quite certain lies an enlightened mind.

You may be able to find them at the local stores but if Amazon’s the thing, here’s the link:
Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life’s Difficulties

Earlier I posted the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I hope that the following little that I have read about will be helpful.

I must declare that what is written below are just a summary (and a very brief one at that) of my own readings. Some would be my own assumptions and simplifications. How real it is I do not really know. Perhaps the truth of it can only be realized by the individual. The more fortunate would ‘bump’ into a teacher who has realizations of what is taught in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The Book (of the dead) describes the process of dying into eight stages. I observed that it is in two major processes.

These two processes are:

1 the dissolution of the gross physical body

2 the dissolution of the consciousness winds

The Gross Physical Body

This is what we see walking around. Our physical body that we identify as ourselves is comprised of five elements: earth, water, fire, wind, space.

The other way of relating to these five elements is to think like this:

Earth = our cells, the solid organic matter that eventually decay to become earth or dust

Water = the liwuid part of us, the water in our cells and blood

Fire = the warmth or heat energy of our bodies

Wind = the cavities, the spaces between all cellular structures

Space = the gross consciousness (because there is also the subtle consciousness) which a part of the composition of us as a living thing.

The Consciousness winds

The critical part of the art of dying lies in the fact that there is that part of us that we cannot see. This is the subtle winds.

Before talking about winds, perhaps we need to know that there are 80 instinct patterns that comprise our makeup. A little technical but knowing this helps us to accept that these 80 patterns are driven by winds. These winds are the subject of the next stage of dissolution when we die.

As mentioned before in the earlier article, the winds, just like the gross physical body also dissolves in 4 stages.

The 8 stages of Dying

To sum it up, there are 8 processes to be aware of in the process of dying. These are:

1              earth dissolves (our cells die or lose its vitality) – things become blur . An image like water flowing down a highway is perceived

2              water dissolves – our body fluids dries up or stagnates. The image of being enveloped in smoke is perceived. We no longer hear well.

3              fire dissolves – our body heat subsides. The feeling of cold arises. An image of fireflies or bursts of sparks is perceived.

4              wind dissolves – breathing stops. Taste disappears. Body sense disappears. An image of being in the middle of a dying candle flame is perceived.

This is the point of being clinically dead.

The next 4 stages also gives rise to perceptions which arises from the dissolution of the winds and the ‘flying out’ of the indestructible  “subtle clear-light consciousness”. After this point we are truly dead.

Here are the next 4 stages and experiences which arises from the dissolution of the winds into the central channel.

5              gross consciousness dissolves. The male essence descends to the heart complex. An experience of a vast sky filled with white moonlight is perceived.

6              the luminance dissolves. The female essence rises to the heart complex. One experience a vast sky of orange sunlight.

7              radiance dissolves. The male and female essences meet at the heart and envelope the consciousness. One perceives pure darkness.

At this point one loses consciousness. Most will not know what happens after the next stage as it is too subtle to be perceived unless one has adequate training. The 8^th or last stage of dissolution is characterized by its non-dual nature and perceiving and making use of this stage offers the opportunity for enlightenment, ultimate wisdom and transcending the rounds of birth and death.

What often happens, it seems, is that most will not even know this last stage, going in and out of the 7^th stage of darkness as the reverse process of taking gross form takes its course – all driven by our karmic winds or imprints of past volitional actions.

The in-between state

While one is in the in-between state, one is embodied in ghostlike body effected by the imagery of the mind.

The important lesson I find most useful is to train our mind to go through these process in our meditation and to sharpen our awareness of them and to remain fully aware as they occur.

If this is of any help, visualizing the process and developing mindfulness and lucidity of our dream state is a good suggestion for practice. The Dalai Lama said that he practices this dissolution and generation 6 times daily.

Dream practice appears to be most useful and is a very useful tool. The process of sleep, it is said, contains all the experiences of death and being lucid of these stages helps one to understand the dying process.

It is a conjecture on my part but I believe that the traditional vipassana or awareness meditation also works in the same direction. The deeper levels of calm and awareness practices offers us opportunities of being familiar with our mind states as we go through the meditative states besides honing our insight into the Buddha’s four noble truths.

All errors are mine.

It is the Season of Christmas cheer and soon it will be 2010.

This year round instead of making the annual resolutions, I found myself reading “How To Practise” by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

I have had this book around for quite some time and only got round to reading it. I suppose in many ways, it beats making New Year resolutions. The Dalai Lama is indeed on eof the great personage of this lifetime and his experience and wisdom is as they say as vast as the ocean. He is as Jeffrey Hopkins says in the foreword amazing.

His Holiness opens his book with this:

“I travel to many places around the world, and whenever I speak to people, I do so with the feeling that I am a member of their own family. Although we may be meeting for the first time, I accept everyone as a friend. In truth, we already know one another, profoundly, as human beings who share the same basic goals: We all seek happiness and do not want suffering.”

The teachings are brief in most aspects but nonetheless is a great guide and reminder of the need to practice and to never underestimate our own potential as human beings to find happiness.

He includes and assimilates all the different religions. For example on page 12, he stresses that the encompassing compassion is common in all religions irrespective of whether we are Hindus, Muslims or Christians.

Death and more accurately understanding of the death process as well as the intermediate state after death is delved into. More importantly is instruction of familiarizing and practicing to help us eventually handle the dying process. He speaks with knowledge and in his very humble ways points out the correct way to practice. I find this part very simple and encourages me to develop this aspect in my daily life.

He stresses that he speaks as a humble monk but from hints dropped of his regular practice routine and expressions of confidence that his practice can bear fruit makes this a book that has one place – beside one’s bedside – to be continually referred to.

He talks about the special method of extending help and exchanging oneself with others on page 85 going on to bodhisattva practices on page 107.

For those who wish to know something about tantric practices, The Dalai Lama discusses tantric meditation in the later parts of the book. I find the structure of the book leads me on gently through and believe it is useful for both seasoned practitioners and new ones alike.

Take it as an introduction to Buddhism or simply as a guide to living a good life, this book I recommend. I believe this book is easily availabIe in your local book store and I have linked this book to Amazon. You can visit amazon.com or to go there straight, click this link: How to Practise: The Way to a Meaningful Life

Or you can click on the image of the book at the top.

Good Reading, may you benefit and Happy New Year!

Khenchen Rinpoche

I had the rare and great opportunity to have a cup of tea with Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche at his home in Jangchub Ling a few weeks ago.

Khenchen Rinpoche was his usual smiling self when he invited us in. All our fears of disturbing him at an awkward time were melted away by his warm smile. The how-are-yous were hardly over when he offered to make us tea. The best Darjeeling tea he said as he washed the pot. But how could we ever dare to allow him be the tea maker?!

We talked and he imparted and cleared doubts. Amidst much boisterous laughter, he touched on essential Dharma practice. Practice, he said has to be founded on the right motivation. If not, one would not be sitting on that meditation carpet for very long let alone in any secluded place. This motivation has to be right and founded on being of benefit to help others.

Dro La Phen Chir..for the benefit of others..how often have that been read and heard! But its meaning has missed me. On that cool sunny morning, its relevance to practice flickered a little in my mind. I thought I saw its relevance. The strive for awakening and enlightenment take many routes but for a moment it seemed the idea of doing a little more became meaningful.

As has been said, heaven is meaningless if you are up there alone while your family and friends are not around or worse, roughing it out in full view.

Thanks Rinpoche, my heart said as I walked back. The crisp fresh air glittered in the sun or was it the dust dancing in the sunshine?

(Khenchen Rinpoche has a new book – A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path due to be released in March 2010. To pre-order you can click on the title- in blue- or on the image on column to the right. I have not read it but I strongly believe it is invaluable)