Lekshe's Mistake

More Light

Whether or not we actually achieve the realisation of bodhicitta and to what level or depth we gain such a realisation depends upon the force of our experience of great compassion. This great compassion, which aspires to free all sentient beings from suffering, is not confined to the level of mere aspiration. It has a dimension of far greater power, which is the sense of commitment or responsibility to personally bring about this objective of fulfilling others' welfare. In order to cultivate this powerful great compassion, we need to train our mind separately in two other factors. One is to cultivate a sense of empathy with or closeness to all sentient beings, for whose sake we wish to work so that they become free from suffering. The other factor is to cultivate a deeper insight into the nature of the suffering from which we wish others to be relieved.

--His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Lighting the Way, just published by Snow Lion Publications

A brand new book that includes teachings on The Four Noble Truths, Seven Points of Mind Training and more, from a Gelugpa perspective.

How Could You Ask?

You asked, "What is mahamudra?" You might have asked me, "What is love?" I am equallly unable and unqualified to answer that.

But because you ask, I will poste this aspirtation prayer, so you can consider it for yourself. This prayer, from Ken McLeod's fine web site Unfettered Mind, describes the whole path, including mahamudra.

For the first 5 years I recited it, every word was a mystery. Little by little, I have begun to recognize the things described in my own experience. I suspect in another decade, I'll begin to

Aspirations for Mahamudra

Namo guru.

Gurus and yidams, deities of the mandala,
Buddhas of the three times and ten directions and your offspring,
Consider me with kindness,
Pour into me your energy so that these wishes are fulfilled.

A river of virtue undefiled by the three spheres
Springs from the snow-mountain of pure actions and intentions --
Mine and those of all sentient beings without limit.
May this river flow into the ocean of the four expressions of full awakening.

Until I wake up to full presence,
Through all my lifetimes, birth after birth,
May not even the words for defilement and suffering be heard
And may I enjoy the wealth of oceans of happiness and virtue.

Having obtained this excellent free and well-favored life along with faith, energy and intelligence,
Having attended a worthy master and received the pith of the sacred instructions,
May I practice the sacred dharma properly
In all my lives without interruption.

The study of scriptures frees one from the veil of ignorance.
The contemplation of oral instructions overcomes the darkness of doubt.
Light born of meditation illuminates the way things are.
May the radiance of the three wisdoms increase.

The basic ground consists of the two truths, free from the extremes of eternalism and nihilism,
The excellent path, the two accumulations free from the extremes of assumption and denial,
The result obtained the two benefits, free from the extremes of existence and peace.
May I meet teaching which is free from error.

The ground of refinement is mind itself -- indivisible luminosity and emptiness;
The refining -- the great vajra composure of mahamudra;
What is to be refined -- the incidental stains of confusion;
The result of refining -- the unstained experience of being: may I know it.

Confidence in outlook cuts assumptions about the ground.
The key to cultivation is to maintain that without distraction.
The supreme expression is to exercise the sense of cultivation in everything.
May I have confidence in outlook, cultivation and expression.

All experience is the manifestation of mind.
As for mind, there is no mind; mind's nature is empty.
Empty and unceasing, mind arises as experience.
By looking into mind deeply, may I be clear about how it is.

Perceptions, which never existed in themselves, are mistaken for objects;
Awareness itself, because of ignorance, is mistaken for a self;
Through the power of dualistic fixation I wander in the realm of existence.
May ignorance and confusion be completely resolved.

It doesn't exist: even buddhas do not see it.
It doesn't not exist: it is the basis of samsara and nirvana.
No contradiction: the middle way is union.
May I know the pure being of mind, free of extremes.

If one says "it is this," nothing has been posited.
If one says "it is not this," nothing has been denied.
Unconditioned pure being transcends intellect.
May I gain conviction in the ultimate outlook.

Not knowing it, I circle in the ocean of existence,
Knowing it, buddha isn't anywhere else.
"It is everything", "It isn't anything": none of this.
Pure being, the basis of everything, may I see any misunderstanding here.

Since perception is mind and emptiness is mind,
Since knowing is mind and delusion is mind,
Since arising is mind and cessation is mind,
May all assumptions about mind be eliminated.

Unpolluted by meditation with intellectual effort
Undisturbed by the winds of everyday affairs,
Not manipulating, knowing how to let what is true be itself,
May I become skilled in the practice of mind and maintain it.

The waves of subtle and coarse thoughts return to their source.
Undisturbed, the river of mind flows naturally.
Free from the contaminations of dullness and torpor,
May I establish the still ocean of shamatha.

When one looks again and again at the mind which cannot be looked at,
And sees vividly for what it is the meaning of not seeing,
Doubts about the meaning of "is" and "isn't" are resolved.
Without confusion, may my own face know itself.

Look at objects and there is no object: one sees mind;
Look at mind and there is no mind: it is empty of nature;
Look at both of these and dualistic clinging subsides on its own.
May I know sheer clarity, the way mind is.

Free from mental constructions, it is called mahamudra.
Free from extremes, it is called madhyamika.
Because everything is complete here, it is also called maha ati.
May I gain the confidence that, in understanding one, I know them all.

The great bliss of non-attachment is continuous.
Sheer clarity without fixations is free of obscurations.
Passing beyond intellect, non-thought is naturally present.
May these experiences continually arise without effort.

Attachment to good and fixation on experience subside on their own.
Confusion and evil concepts are cleared away in the realm of ultimate nature.
In the ordinary mind, there is no control or alteration.
May I know the truth of pure being, complete simplicity.

While the nature of beings has always been full enlightenment,
Not knowing this, they wander in endless samsara.
For the boundless suffering of sentient beings
May overwhelming compassion be born in my being.

While such compassion is active and immediate,
In the moment of compassion, its essential emptiness is nakedly clear.
This conjunction is the undeviating supreme path;
Inseparable from it, may I practice day and night.

From the power of attention come eyes and direct knowing.
Sentient beings are ripened and domains of enlightenment refined.
Aspirations for the realization of all aspects of buddhahood are fulfilled.
May I complete these three -- fulfillment, ripening and refinement -- and become buddha.

By the compassion of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions
And the power of whatever pure virtue there may be,
May my wishes and those of all beings
Be fulfilled in the way I am seeking.

Aspirations for Mahamudra, the definite point of the teachings, was composed by Lord Rangjung Dorje, Karmapa III. This translation was made by Ken McLeod at the request of several students who wanted to use this prayer in their practice.

You Matter

Last weekend, on a sunny and windy day, we broke ground to begin construction on a Buddhist long-retreat center. My teacher asked me to say a few words about what we were doing. This is what I said:

Whatever we’re doing here, whatever our work is, I think, can be reduced in the end to one thing: to finally seeing that we are precious, that this life is precious, and that we are not separate from one another, nor this land, nor anything around us.

We build a retreat site here so that those who are able, can through extended practice, be witness to their full potential as human beings.

We make this place so that we may each pause in stillness, without the demands and distractions of ordinary life, in the simple safety of a cloistered environment, until we realize with our own experience that we are not only not alone or separate, but that we never have been–we cannot be. And that finally, face to face with our own basic goodness, and the basic goodness of all things, we will know this interconnectedness first hand, and we will know that we matter–-that everyone matters, that every thing matters.

If we busy ourselves here with ritual, with building, with cooking and teaching and learning, it’s really for one reason: because we are called–-our hearts are called–-by our teachers, whether they are Buddhist or not, to accomplish wisdom and compassion, and then, to live the only way one can when one has had such an experience: in the fuller flower of generosity and kindness, in clarity and joy, benefitting others without preference, or fear or worry.

Living in this way, we will be a relief and a blessing to the world. We will be useful and available to our friends, those we choose as family, to the members of our communities and our planet. We will hold the well-being and benefit of others–-even strangers, or those who declare themselves to be our enemies–-above our own, and from that place of honest caring, we will do whatever work we are called to do, we will nurture families, and build communities of responsibility, generosity and peace.

We are here today–-all of us–-to collect our inheritance. I hope you feel welcome to take hands-full. Pockets-full and buckets-full, as much as you like.

It belongs to you.

P. S.

i love you all, if such a thing is possible.

lekshe

Thangka

Earlier this week Carlos, on his blog, Mysterium, posted a link to some wonderful Buddhist cave paintings. I made a brief comment to his poste about how those images are made, and some reference to what role they play for practitioners.

I lived in Nepal for three years or so and when I was there I took up Buddhist icongraphic or thangka painting. It was a great experience. My teacher was an old Tibetan lama who had escaped to Nepal from Tibet during the Chinese invasion. He ran a small thangka "factory," which was a school or sorts, in a small Newari mud brick home he owned in the Thamel neighborhood in Kathmandu. He employed a half-dozen or so top-notch thangka painters. They were not monks, they were bluejean clad, headphone wearing, Arnold Schwarzenegger fans. But they took their painting seriously and they produced some of the finest Karma Gadri style work I have seen.

Since I was the only female student, I was shut in a room by myself for six hours a day, memorizing the complicated mathematical grids that the images are drawn upon. For most of the year I studied, I'd draw the grid, draw the face of the Buddha over the grid, erase it, and draw it again.

Magically, more or less each time I was done, the lama would knock, come in the room, sit down, say the very few words of English he knew, "Oh good," and then proceed to draw over my mistakes and erase the entire page (grid and all), smile and say, "Again." Arrggh.

Each day in the afternoon, a small, smiling, mute boy would knock on the door and deliver hot milk tea to my room. At this time, I was allowed to go into the other room and see the work of the other artists. We talked and laughed for a half hour or so and then I began the next drawing, alone in my room. In a year, though I had drawn for years, I never progressed beyond the body of the Enligtened One. And in the end, I had used less than one pad of paper. That was good practice.

These drawings are tools for memorzing visualizations in Buddhism, and they are drawn according to ancient tradition, evey small detail has meaning. The position of hands, or mudras, for example, can say much about what the painting is meant to convey.

There is a wonderful site, Dharmapala Thangka Center, with an extensive gallery of good-quality work, and a most fascinating "thangka cam," where you can watch a painting be created, step by step.

There is a reasonably good explanation of thangkas and their use by Ann Shaftel.

There is a an excellent book on thangka painting how-to, called Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods and Materials , by David P. Jackson, Janice A. Jackson, and Robert Beer, a famous American-born thangka artist. The Dharmapala site also has a good listing of other books.

If you have interest in learning more about thangka painting in a fun environment, there's a great teacher, Sanje Elliot, in Portland, Oregon, who teaches from his home studio. Class schedules and prices are on the site, and they're very reasonable. What the site doesn't tell you is that Sanje is a total hoot--waaaay too much fun. Though some of Sanje's students are professional artists, there are a few who describe their skills as "I couldn't draw my way out of a paper bag," and they don't seem to have any less fun in his classes.

thangka being presented to Venerable Bokar Rinpoche in Mirik, India, 2003