Blazing Wisdom Institute

SPECIAL ONLINE EVENT: NOVEMBER 7, 2020 @ 3:00 PM (NY TIME) ~~ 5:00 PM As a special offering to commemorate Lha Bab Duchen, the final major holiday of the Bud...dhist calendar this year, Tulku Sherdor will give reading transmissions and explanations of two pith instructions: Paltrul Rinpoche’s famous teaching (Khepa Sri Gyalpo) on Garab Dorje’s Three Phrases that Drive Home the Crucial Point (Tsig Sum Nay Deg); and Orgyen Kusum Lingpa’s Meditation Instruction from Waxi Lama Sonam Khedrup, his uncle and teacher who was a famous Lama in Golog in the early 20th Century. These are practice-oriented guidance texts (upadesas), not theoretical or academic treatises. The first one Tulku received from Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, Lama Wangdor Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Puntsog Rinpoche, and others. The second he received orally from and transcribed and translated for Kusum Lingpa fifteen years ago. Please note that the offering of these instructions is not intended as a pointing-out transmission per se, as Tulku does not feel that he can properly offer such a transmission online, live or recorded, no matter what transcendent beings like HH Dalai Lama, Garchen Rinpoche, or other such masters may be able to accomplish. That said, recognition is always possible within the spacious mind of one with faith, pure perception, acuity, and a storehouse of merit. Still, some previous familiarity with teachings on the nature of mind is recommended. To register, kindly send a recommended donation of at least $25 via PayPal to [email protected], using your own PayPal account or the Donate button on the Blazing Wisdom home page at www.blazingwisdom.org. Please be sure to use or note the email address to which your Zoom meeting invitation should be sent. Please do not repost this notice in any groups or on any public pages. However, please do forward it personally to individuals whom you feel would be interested and qualified to receive it. Note that Tulku reserves the right to decline the registration (and return any donations) of anyone for any reason at his sole discretion, including, for example, because they previously have registered for one of his classes and broken their commitments without apology or explanation. Also, for example, please don’t register out of mere curiosity, or if you are skeptical of Tulku’s qualifications or motivation to offer this program. These are not conducive conditions. Thanks for your understanding.

For my birthday this year (October 11): The Treasures of Orgyen Kusum Lingpa: Completing The Final Chapter An appeal to all merit-seeking dharma friends to joi...n in raising $7000. In 2013, through the dedicated work of many Lamas and Khenpos in Tibet, decades of collected hand-written notes and transcriptions were gathered, edited, and published in a 30-volume pecha series entitled A Pile of Precious Gems: The Profound Treasures of the Lord of Siddhas, Orgyen Kusum Lingpa. Through a project initiated and supported by Blazing Wisdom Institute, in 2019, for the first time, a comprehensive 275-page bilingual index of these volumes was prepared by Penam Chicorelli, and that index has now been published for public use on the TBRC/BDRC website as well. Outside of Golog, Tibet, Blazing Wisdom Institute is the main repository for all of the dharma materials of His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, including audio, video, physical texts, images, and other digital files. HH traveled twice to the USA every year from 1995 through 2008, often for months at a time. He revealed many termas and composed many texts here, many but not all of which eventually found their way into the edition published in 2013. In BWI’s files and archives there are approximately 40 short texts, in all different formats, gathered over the course of 25 years from all available sources in the USA, which as yet have not been published anywhere, including sadhanas, written meditation instructions, poems, and others. Many of these were given to us by His Holiness specifically for our practice in the West. It is my strong wish and aspiration finally to format, edit, and publish these texts in a supplemental volume of His Holiness’ Treasures, so that they will not be lost in the future; to distribute many copies of that supplemental volume to the Khenpos, Lamas and Ngagpas who practice these treasures in Tibet; and to preserve it on the BDRC site as well. This will take considerable work, as there are hand written items, photocopies, and texts typed in dedicated legacy Tibetan fonts, all of which must be re-entered in Tibetan Machine Font or another unicode standard font, before formatting, editing, printing, and so forth. Thank you for your interest in helping us to preserve and share these precious works.

Lung (Reading Transmission) for Longchen Nyingtig Ngondro (Preliminary Practices) A Chokhor Duchen (Turning the Wheel of Dharma) Offering from Tulku Sherdor On ...Friday July 24, 2020, the Chokhor Duchen Holy Day, at 7 a.m. New York time, Tulku Sherdor will offer via Zoom the complete reading transmission for the extensive liturgy of this practice, which he received many times from His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa and has practiced and taught for decades. The reading transmission will take 30 to 45 minutes, and will include the traditional melodies. This is the practice taught in Words of My Perfect Teacher by Paltrul Rinpoche (Kunzang Lama’i Zhal Lung), in Entering the Great Expanse by Tulku Sherdor, and in many other commentaries. The English translation, along with phonetics and Tibetan script, is published as The Excellent Path to Omniscience (Blazing Wisdom Publications, 2017), and is currently being reprinted. There is a weekly online (Zoom) practice group for this ngondro as well. If you would like to receive this reading transmission, please write to [email protected] for the zoom meeting information. There are no prerequisites other than faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and pure motivation and aspirations. There are no commitments other than the intention to use your precious human existence wisely and kindly. Feel free to share this announcement with other friends and groups.

MIPHAM’S CORE PRINCIPLES OF TANTRA IN THE NYINGMA TRADITION: A UNIQUE ONLINE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY The great Rimay master Ju Mipham, who was like Manjusri in per...son, composed an overview of the key points of tantraOsel Nyingpo; Essential Luminosityas a companion guide to Longchenpa’s extensive commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the primary source of secret mantra practice in the Nyingma tradition. Mipham’s work explains, thoroughly and lucidly, everything you might want and ought to know, in order to practice tantra in this tradition. While clearly the work of a master scholar, Essential Luminosity is not an academic treatise, but a practitioner’s source book. In particular, he explains the uncommon meaning and function of eleven vajra points according to this system: The VIEW of reality, unwavering SAMADHI; and sustained CONDUCT; MANDALA structure, progressive stages of EMPOWERMENT, and SAMAYAS to be guarded; PRACTICE engagement, furnishing OFFERINGS (puja), and partaking in ACTIVITY; binding MUDRAS, and MANTRA recitation. Each year from 2010 to 2012, at Tulku Sherdor’s invitation, Riwoche Khenpo Sonam Topgyal Rinpoche taught Mipham’s text in a week-long intensive course to a small, private group at Blazing Wisdom Institute. Tulku translated extemporaneously in clear and cogent English, and was the kyorpon (teaching assistant) for the review sessions each day. A few years ago, Tulku Sherdor taught a weekend program on this text at the invitation of Tulku Sangngag Tenzin Rinpoche in Nepal. He realized then that there is simply no satisfactory way to do justice to its many remarkable points without offering a full transmission. With a wish to benefit and serve students throughout the world who might otherwise never have an opportunity to receive this set of instructions in full and in English, Tulku Sherdor will now offer a weekly online course on Saturdays from 10:30 to 11:45 am New York time, beginning on October 19, 2019, and continuing until the course is complete. If you join the course, you also will have unlimited access to video recordings saved online of the three most recent sessions, on a rolling basis, if you cannot join the live sessions or wish to review them again. In this way, you always will have three to four weeks in which to keep up, and so don’t have to worry that if you are unusually busy, or traveling, you won’t be able to join or continue the course. There will be a simple application process, and a few prerequisites for those interested to participate. To find out more about the course and how to apply, please write ASAP to [email protected]. Registration will start on September 1 and close on October 15.