Diamond Way Buddhist Group Oneonta-Catskills

Home (online) retreat under the Guidance of Jigme Rinpoche October 6-11, 2020 Details on organizer's Dhagpo Kagyu Ling page: https://bit.ly/3d8sIKt

My thoughts on living the pandemic Dear dharma friends, These reflections, just like all the previous posts that I have shared with you over the past few months..., are just my own thoughts, rather than dharma teachings that should be canonised in any way. It is a wish of mine not to water down what the realised noble ones have shared with us already in the form of the Buddha dharma. So I hope that all of you will understand that. Like many of you, due to the pandemic I have had plenty of time on my hands to think. I have been writing down some of my concepts, and using the various digital platforms to share them with you simply as a way of thinking out loud, and in the hope that it might comfort you in some way. Someone once told me I listened to a lot of what was said and I didn’t understand a word of it actually, but for whatever reason just listening to it cheered me up enormously. I cannot even remember now who this person was, or whom he was talking about, but it’s in that sense that I hope my thoughts have cheered you up in some way. I’ll try to continue writing as long as thoughts come to me. Your questions are definitely a great source of inspiration. They trigger my child-like thoughts in ways I wish to explore further and verbalise. I would also like to take this opportunity to change the original heading for this collection of my thoughts, which so far has been ‘Meditations for our Times’, a title that came up spontaneously at the beginning of the pandemic. But now that I have had some time to reflect on it, it has become clear that what I am writing and sharing is basically just my own thoughts. So this is what I would like to call this collection from now on: ‘My Thoughts’. To get back to the topic of this post ‘Living the pandemic’ it seems to me that this current viral pandemic is not the only one out there. Rather, we are living with pandemics of various kinds, both mental and physical. We can outlive them in some ways. We can find cures for them in some ways. But no matter what we do, as long as life seems to exist, challenges like these will always seem to tag along with it. From a Buddhist point of view, when I try to pray for an end to this particular virus-related illness, I try to think in this way: May we not only find a way to end it, may we be able to make sense of it. I consider this pandemic as an opportunity unlike any other calamity, in that it is not man-made, like a war for instance, where we don’t have any time to think or reflect, because we are too preoccupied with simply surviving. In contrast, while the current crisis is indeed alarming and in many cases life-threatening, it nevertheless offers most of us some time to reflect and gain some understanding, if possible. So I pray that we may find some meaning within this situation. In this context, I would like to say something about the virus itself. Scientists and spiritual schools have their own ways of defining living beings or sentient beings. From a Buddhist perspective, there is a distinction between living beings and sentient beings. In the case of this virus, it’s a fine line as to whether it should be considered a sentient being or not. But whatever the case may be, the virus does show some similarity with sentient beings, in terms of how it survives and thrives. So, although I am not certain about this, the virus may have a sentient nature a consciousness like ours and it might just be trying to find a way to live life in this universe just like us. So we might just want to spare a thought for these beings. I am not trying to imply that we should become overly pious or religious and go to the extreme of giving in to the virus and throwing all caution and care overboard. I’m just suggesting that we might spare a thought for these beings, for this form of life about which we still don’t know much, other than the spiky image that all of us have become so familiar with. Although this virus seems primitive, and in many ways so completely different from us, we might be able to recognise at least a part of ourselves in it, by way of comparison. Just like us, it tries to find a host where it can live and reproduce. We too try to find hosts to accommodate us, according to what we think is the right way to live. So this virus might be doing just the same. That may be something to reflect on. For whatever reason, however, the virus’ way of living is not yet harmonious with ours, and just like this globule-like earth tries to shake us off every now and then, we are trying to do the same with the virus. And this shaking-off instinct or reaction is not purely malevolent, I feel. This shaking-off reaction could certainly be seen as a message that implies that how we try to live, or how the virus tries to live, is not necessarily harmonious with the earth or with us. Then, at some point, this stubborn virus will realise and understand this message and find a way to live with us. Maybe I’m too naive. But at least that is how I feel. I am not really making a point here. It’s just a reflection. And according to my reflection, what we expect in terms of life after this pandemic to go back to the normalcy of the way of life that we knew prior to it may come true or it may not. It is possible that through finding a vaccine and through simply outliving this virus we can survive and overcome this challenge. But if we can somehow learn from the variety of experiences that this pandemic has brought us from life-ending experiences to everyday nuisances then we will have lived the pandemic, instead of just surviving it. #Karmapa (Photo / Karmapa) Source: https://www.karmapa.org/my-thoughts/

Dakini and Vajrayogini Day + Birthday of Milarepa Saturday, 12 September 2020 Dakini and Vajrayogini Day: (25th day of the Lunar month.) Tsok offering and cel...ebration. To be observed in the same way as the Guru Rinpoche Day. > www.karmakagyucalendar.org/LunarMont/Dakini-Vajrayogini-Day Birthday of Milarepa: When his father died, Milarepa was only seven years old. His relatives stole his father’s property, and Milarepa’s mother forced him to learn black magic to wreak revenge. Milarepa became adept at black magic and killed many people but, in time, he came to regret his actions and looked for a way to shed his bad karma. He was told to seek out Marpa the Translator (https://www.karmapa.org/karma-ka/lives/marpa-the-translator) Marpa gave Milarepa a very hard apprenticeship. Finally, though, Marpa transmitted the precious Kagyu transmissions to Milarepa, who practiced them in isolated mountain retreats for many years, gained enlightenment, and became famous for his spiritual songs of realization. > www.karmakagyucalendar.org/kagyumaste/life-stories/Milarepa Happy every day & Tashi Delek! > > > Next special day: Monday, 14 September 2020 > Nyinak. Black Day The next same days: Dakini and Vajrayogini Day: Thursday, 1 October 2020 Birthday of Milarepa: Wednesday, 1 September 2021 #DakiniVajrayoginiDay #Milarepa #KagyuMasters #JetsunMilarepa #Birthday #KarmaKagyuCalendar #specialday www.karmakagyucalendar.org > > > The CHENREZIG MANTRA COLLECTION is already over 89 million mantras, with which we all support the activities of His Holiness Karmapa. Details and counter form here: https://www.karmakagyucalendar.org/chenrezig-mantra-collect We would like to draw your attention to one of our services: UPDATE LETTER, from which you can be informed about Calendar entries in advance. https://www.karmakagyucalendar.org/update-letters

A message from Karmapa for you: Dear dharma friends, I truly appreciate your candid and sincere thoughts and questions, and over the coming weeks and months I ...will do my best to answer some of your questions. Please bear with me, as I am still learning myself. I also hope that you will all understand that this conversation, and all of my reflections over the last few months, originated in the context of the pandemic. Hopefully this conversation has helped us to let go of trying to perfect what is the true spirituality, true temporal life etc. So therefore, let us not let this conversation slide into matters such as politics and religion, and continue on this journey together. Yes, we are going through challenging times, but we have gone through such patterns before, so this type of experience is not really new to us. We might call these current patterns fresh, but not necessarily new. So that is one thing to focus on. Another thing to focus on is this: Without knowing each other, we have found ourselves in these common challenges, and in a way we have to be thankful for these challenges, because it is due to them that somehow our thoughts have been brought together. It is a curious thing: the human condition is such that we always seem to need a common purpose, a common challenge, in order to bring us together. If we look at history, we can see that more often than not this challenge appears in the form of ‘someone’, some kind of antagonist or villain. This is quite unfortunate in a way, because this ‘someone’ is a sentient being just like ourselves, someone who has thoughts and feelings. At least the present challenge doesn’t necessarily have a face that we recognise. This pandemic, this virus, is a strange challenge because it doesn’t appear in the form of ‘someone’ - it is not ‘you’ or ‘me’ or ‘they’. This virus feels completely ‘out of the world’ and we cannot communicate with it. In some ways, we don’t know very much about this virus yet, but we can probably say that it doesn’t look like humans or animals. In some ways this virus challenge may be a blessing in disguise, as it has come in a form that brings us together globally. Unlike most of the challenges in history, which appeared in the form of antagonists that brought some of us together, but never on a global scale, in this case we are all together, no matter our race, caste, gender, background or religion. So from a certain perspective, one could almost say that we have to be thankful though of course this is a sensitive issue and could sound callous, because so many lives have been lost, and so many individuals face all kinds of peril because of it. However, the point I am trying to make here is that it has brought us together, and in that sense this pandemic brings almost a sense of unity that we haven’t felt in a long time, and which comes from the fact that emotionally and mentally we are all in this together. For once, we are able to forget what race or religion we belong to and that, at least, is something to be thankful for. Now when I talk about ‘being thankful’, I am not encouraging us to have a thanksgiving dinner I am talking about using what is already there in the dharma, which shows us ways to turn obstacles and difficult conditions into friends. This is one particular opportunity, one particular chance that we all have, and in order to realise it we don’t have to be scholars or rocket scientists. We can relate to this no matter how sophisticated or unsophisticated we are. We don’t have to focus on whether this challenge is man-made or not we simply make the best of this moment. What matters is that we are all in this together. Therefore, we can be thankful and we have to make the most of it. From my side I will try to share my reflections with all of you, and hopefully this will amount to something. From your side, please continue to share your questions, and hopefully that will amount to something, too. So, without having to sit down and formally say, Let us meditate, let us say this prayer, let us do this recitation together, through this simple, understandable process of questions and answers we will be able to understand something, to make the best use of this moment. In this way, it will contribute something to us as practitioners: we will find meaning again in terms of why we practice, meditate, recite these sutras, and why we reflect on what the enlightened ones have shared. #Karmapa (Photo/Tokpa Korlo)

White Tara Day. Friday, 21 August 2020 Dedicated to the White Tara practice connected to health, longevity and wisdom. 3rd lunar day.... More infos (and languages) here: www.karmakagyucalendar.org/LunarMonthly-Spec/White-Tara-day Happy every day & Tashi Delek! > > > Next special day: Saturday, 22 August 2020 > Baden Next White Tara Day: Sunday, 20 September 2020 #WhiteTaraDay #KarmaKagyuCalendar #specialday www.karmakagyucalendar.org > > > The Chenrezig Mantra Collection continues: www.karmakagyucalendar.org/chenrezig-mantra-collection We would like to draw your attention to one of our services: UPDATE LETTER, from which you can be informed about Calendar entries in advance. https://www.karmakagyucalendar.org/update-letters If you fill out the form under the link with your date of birth, we will write in response the date you were born according to the Tibetan Tsur Calendar and you will also know when it is your birthday is also according to the Tsur Calendar. We also write about the year you were born (according to Animal-Element) and your Birth-year linking. https://www.karmakagyucalendar.org/your-birthday

Thaye Dorje, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, shares the following meditation on 11 June, the anniversary of the parinirvana of Mipham Chökyi Lodrö, His Ho...liness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche, according to the Western calendar. 'The awakened ones never ventured anywhere else. The unawakened ones never came from anywhere else. The string of endless beginnings is just a figment. The string of endless finales is just a figment, too. If it’s comforting to accept this, then one can do that. What is in-between the endless beginnings and the endless finales? Is it not that the in-between is also just a figment? So, nothing really goes or comes. All there is is just cycles of figments. The awakened ones set sail on this beginningless current of the ocean. They have no purpose for themselves to sail. To them ports are as relative as islands or lands. Islands and lands are as dynamic as the ocean they only move slower. So it makes no sense to the awakened ones to believe ports and shores to be static. They just sail. If a purpose is truly required to be shown in their sailing then that is that they sail only for the benefit of unawakened ones. The unawakened ones are sailing too, in a way. However, due to their slumber they aren’t aware or they aren’t certain that they are sailing. They feel more of a drifting sensation, yet at times, every now and then, a sense of sailing appears in flashes. Maha Bodhisattva Shantideva said: Just as a flash of lightning momentarily brings a pitch dark and stormy night into view, due to the awakened ones’ force (Buddha Nature) meritorious wisdom can originate in this world on extremely rare occasions. During those momentary flashes, which are almost like disturbed sleep, some awareness that the unawakened ones experience is most of the time ignored and passed by, and therefore forgotten. Sometimes, the excellence of these mini-awakenings is understood to a minimal degree, so that they either sail with immense fear and pressure to find a port, or cling on to any shore they find and blindly believe that there is a static quality both in sailing and in finding the promised land. So they go in circles for ever more. Swimming swimming, walking walking, flying flying and then doing it all over repeatedly with this desperate chase-like hope and fear...' To read the full meditation, please see: https://www.karmapa.org/karmapas-meditation-for-the-annive/ #Karmapa Photo: Mipham Chökyi Lodrö, His Holiness the 14th Kunzig Shamar Rinpoche For all of Karmapa's 'Meditations for our times' please see: https://www.karmapa.org/meditations-for-our-times/

Karmapa’s introduction to the empowerment of Avalokiteshvara (Chenresig), the Buddha aspect representing enlightened compassion, at The Europe Center in Germany

"When you eat, visualize your food and drink as pure nectar and first offer it to the Three Jewels. Then, imagining that the Buddhas return to you the food you have offered them, eat as a blessing. At the end of the meal, visualize that you are Chenrezi and that the food you have just eaten is transformed into nectar, which flows out from your hands and from your whole body to relieve the hunger and thirst of all the beings in the realm of starving spirits; the ordinary act of eating thus becomes a way to accumulate merit. By integrating the Dharma into all your actions, every aspect of your daily life can be made into a practice which enriches your understanding. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

At the conclusion of Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche's Long Life Ceremony today, the Ven. Khenchen Rinpoche dedicated the merit of all who so generously gave to the birthday campaign in honor of Rinpoche to the benefit of the donors and all sentient beings.

Thaye Dorje, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, shares the following meditation on the eve of Vesak 2020: (smon lam) MONLAM, Aspiration When it comes to becomi...ng a Buddha, when it comes to blossoming into a Buddha, aspiration is a beautiful way to seed this state of Buddhahood. To be a ‘Buddha’ is to be awakened. To be more precise, if we split this method or vehicle of aspiration in half, the two parts can be understood as: The 1st half is (smon lam). ‘Monlam’ is the Tibetan term for aspiration, ‘praidhna’ in Sanskrit. The 2nd half is (bsngo ba). ‘Ngowa’ is the Tibetan term for dedication, ‘parima’ in Sanskrit. ‘Monlam’ is like inhaling and ‘Ngowa’ is like exhaling. Just like breathing, it is most natural. This path is known as becoming a Bodhisattva, a child of the awakened one not to be taken literally, of course. Right now, we are most probably dreaming. This state of being human is a balanced dream. Because we aren’t absorbed in ecstasy. A being in a higher state, a god being, is in a constant state of rapture so that they cannot see reality (like a life in luxury). A being in a lower state, a tormented being, is in a constant state of agony so that they equally cannot see reality (like a life in poverty). Both luxury and poverty are examples that are just relative. A human state is what is known as a middle state, where we are on the verge of waking up. Dreaming still as ‘you’ and ‘me’. But every now and then we doubt, in a way questioning who you are and who I am, or whether we are dreaming or not. A stream of curiosity pushes us to check. The appearance of birth and death, and various states of changes, are the cues for our curiosity, which leads us to doubt whether we are really here or not. So, human birth may not be ideal for pleasure, but it is ideal for waking up. So, this smidgen of curiosity is a perfect and fertile ground for planting the seed of awakening. This is done not by forcing something onto the human condition, but by implying that it’s not wrong to doubt whether we are dreaming or not. And to imply that waking up is not frightening at all. Either a spiritual guide can do it for us, or we can nudge ourselves to go a little beyond our habitual norm of being content with this dream. At the same time, we have a kind of knack or instinct to always want to be different from the norm or from others, to stand out, like for example in the realm of fashion. In this case, we shouldn’t fight this habit of wanting to be different, but go along with it. If we want to be really different and do something ‘out of the box’, it is most interesting to set out on the adventure to wake up. That’s what Buddhas are saying actually. Now, coming back to seeding awakening (Buddhahood): being content with dreaming this human dream is alright, but sooner or later this dream will cycle and there is no real guarantee that it will come full circle to reach back to this human state. That’s why waking up is sensible. After waking up we can dare to dream any dream we wish. So, when it comes to seeding awakening, aspiration is the simplest seed. Because it’s something we do all the time. It doesn’t require any kind of effort. All it takes is to aspire continuously, just like breathing or beating your heart. That’s not an effort, it’s just a rhythm, like dancing. Lungs dancing in and out, hearts dancing up and down. Likewise, aspire away day in and day out. Aspire to wake up, and from time to time look around and see who is still dreaming, and aspire for them to wake up. Right now their dream is too real, to the point that we can’t really force them and splash water on them to wake them up even if we wanted to, but we can aspire for them. Most of them are too captivated by their dreams of being themselves, the way they are, the way others are it’s just so real that if we say it’s a dream they will think we are insane. Since we aren’t fully awake ourselves, it’s hard for us to convince others too. So instead we aspire. Mind you, aspiring is not like empty words or thoughts. These feelings of ‘Oh, it is just empty words and thoughts’ are habits that have got stuck over time, when we took the easy route for ourselves and demeaned curiosity by saying that it’s just child’s play. For example, we may do this when someone is enthusiastically in their own rhythm, but we can’t get it, so we say he or she is like a ‘machine’. Or when someone is taking things easy, we say he or she is like a ‘child’. This kind of habit of not having understood something or someone completely, and labeling it as a machine or something, is making it easy for us, but it can stick with us, and plant seeds for us to dream deeper and not wake up. So, aspire in a way that you breathe in, inhale, take in every act and thought, of yours and others, that are in alignment with waking up namely, virtues and merits, such as kindness. This has a quality that is not associated with slumbering, and instead it’s associated with awakening. So take that in, breathe that in. That’s aspiration. Now that your lungs are full of the oxygen of virtue and your miracle-like human body has transformed it into CO2, you have to breathe it out. Exhale it. Give it away. Let it go. Of course, you have to let it go without any real prior decision, just as the lungs do. Without any religious or political decision, just dedicate. That’s dedication. The best example is that of a child breathing in a more profound way than an adult. Now, that’s karma well owned. So, dear dharma friends, on this eve of Vesak, please aspire. And all your dreams will become awakened!

Happy Vesak 2643 The World Buddhist Community celebrates today the birth of Buddha Sakyamuni, born 623 BC in Lumbini, the today Republic Nepal Sarva Mangalam May all be auspicious

This number of Chenrezig Mantra was collected in 2 weeks to support the activities of His Holiness Karmapa! This is amazing. Thank you very much! Stay tuned! What is it about? Click here: https://www.karmakagyucalendar.org/chenrezig-mantra-collect