Bhairavi Shatakam from Isha

Additional Dedication Prayers - Bodhicitta Day from Tibet House, New Delhi

Bodhisattva vows

(http://cesimplu.blogspot.com/2023/05/bodhisattva-vows-from-buddha-purnima.html)

 

In the land encircled by snow mountains,

You are the source of all happiness and good;

All-powerful Chenrezig Tenzin Gyatso,

Please remain until samsara ends.

 

Just as the brave Manjushri, and Samantabhadra too,

Realised things as they are,

Also I dedicate all these merits in the best way,

That I may follow their perfect example.

 

I dedicate all these roots of virtue

With the dedication praised as the best

By all the Buddhas who appeared in the three times,

So that I might perform the noble Bodhisattva's deeds.

 

May the supreme Bodhicitta

That has not arisen, arise and grow,

And may that which has arisen not diminish

But increase forever more.

As long as space remains,

As long as sentient beings remain,

Until then, may I too remain

To dispel the miseries of the world.

Due to the merits of these virtuous actions,

May I quickly attain the state of a Guru-Buddha

And lead all beings, without exception,

Into that enlightened state.

I dedicate the merit thus gathered,

Towards the realisation of the deeds and the prayers,

Of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the three times,

And to the upholding of the Dharma of teaching and realisation.

May I, in all lives, through the force of this merit,

Never separate from the four wheels of the Mahayana vehicle,

And accomplish all the stages of the path,

Renunciation, Bodhicitta, perfect view and the two stages.

With the wish to free all beings,

I shall always go for refuge

To the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha

Until I reach full Enlightenment.

May the poor find wealth,

Those weak with sorrow find joy;

May the forlorn find new hope,

Constant happiness and prosperity.

May all who are sick and ill

Quickly be freed from their illness,

And may every disease in the world

Never occur again.

May the frightened cease to be afraid

And those bound be freed;

May the powerless find power,

And may people think of benefiting one another.

By the merits I (have accumulated),

May every single being

Abandon all forms of wrongdoing

And perpetually engage in virtue.

May they never be parted from the mind of Bodhicitta,

And may they always engage in the Bodhisattva's conduct;

May they be cared for by the Buddhas

And relinquish the actions of devils.

May no living creature ever suffer,

Commit wrong or ever fall ill.

May no one be afraid or belittled,

Or their minds ever be depressed.

May all the pains of living creatures

Ripen (solely) upon myself,

And through the might of the Boddhisattva Sangha,

May all beings experience happiness.

Having dispelled all inner and outer obstacles and downfalls,

Such as poverty, despair, oppression, cruelty,

Epidemics, and natural disasters due to environmental degradation,

May all beings forever enjoy the glory of peace and happiness.

Inspired by wisdom and compassion,

Today in the Buddha's presence,

I generate the mind of full awakening

For the benefit of all sentient beings.

I go for refuge to the Triple Gem,

I confess the negativities individually,

I rejoice in the virtues of all the beings,

I hold the precious Buddhahood in my heart.

By the power of practicing and supplicating to you

May all be free from sickness, poverty and conflicts

And may Dharma and the auspiciousness proliferate,

In all the places where we abide.

The path of the union of emptiness and compassion

Is lucidly explained by the Protector of both, the Dharma and the beings of the Land of Snows.

You are the Lotus Holder, Tenzin Gyatso.

We supplicate you that your wishes are fulfilled spontaneously.

May the operations of evil thoughts and deeds,

Of the negative forces of humans and non-humans,

Who harbour malice through perverted prayers against the teachings of the Buddhas,

Be totally vanquished through the power of the truth of the Three Jewels.

 

By the dependent realisation of the profound suchness of appearance and emptiness,

Together with the force of great compassion of the Three Jewels and the power of the truth,

And through the virtue of the infallible law of karmas and their fruits,

May this truthful prayer of ours be unhindered and quickly fulfilled.

May the teaching of this Beneficent One till world's end

Be unshaken by the winds of evil thoughts;

May it always be met by innumerable beings who find conviction

In the teacher by understanding the teaching's true nature.

May I never falter even for an instant

To uphold the excellent way of the Sage,

Which illuminates the principle of dependent origination,

Through all my births, even giving away my body and life.

May I spend day and night carefully reflecting,

"By what means can I enhance

This teaching achieved by the Supreme Saviour

Through strenuous efforts over countless aeons?"

In all my lives, never separated from perfect Gurus,

May I enjoy the magnificent Dharma.

By completing the qualities of the stages and the paths,

May I quickly attain the state of Vajradhara.

Throughout my future lifetimes,

May I always be guided by Arya Manjushri

And be able to uphold the Dharma in general and

The teachings on Dependent Origination in particular, even at the

cost of my life.

TADYATHĀ OṂ GATE GATE PĀRAṂGATE PĀRAṂSAṂGATE BODHI SVĀHĀ (x7)

 

Marriage through the lens of awareness

 Marriage would simply mean just this woman.

Just this woman,when relationships once started they go on forever, would mean that one is bound to be with the woman even so the form of the relationship may change. As woman need to be loved not understood just this woman would mean on the part of the man to be just love.

When love cannot be guaranteed what the institution of marriage does is that it demands just love which is just awareness.

So to be just loving-awareness is to be a Jesus, a Buddha, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Muhammad and no short than that or else ...

The absolute Truth is that in our heart of hearts we are all just loving-awareness but to the extens that every man married rises to be a Jesus, a Kṛṣṇa, a Rāma, A Muhammad, (I heard in Buddhism there is no such thing as marriage so ..) that's not according to the facts because pf the many divorces known.

So why would one make an absurd demand on many, many people that not even 0.1 percent can fulfill and embody ?

The woman taking the man knows the man falls short of perfection, the priest knows it, but still they insist upon imposing unrealistic expectations upon people. The woman concedes to a painful compromise because of the hormones and the wish to be a mother and the thought that she can change the man, we all know where non-acceptance comes from and that true transformation always comes from acceptance. For the priest is simply a lucrative business, an insurance that someone will need him in the future in case as one might expect the man falls short of the standard set by the institution of which in many cases because of hormones also has not the slightest idea what the trio of woman, priest, and society is cooking up for him.

My guess is that the institution came because of the fact that both women and men, most of them at least, the ones that do not choose to become monks and nuns that is, need to have sex.And because women would naturally, as they do anyway, go with the man they fancy, when not receiving what they might expect they would make unreasonable demands (as seen above that they do in fact anyway) a certain protective idea that goes with the logic of the woman to assuage her needs for security (which by the way are not solved by that) was invented. (which is also to be deduced from the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke 20:34-35

Happy birthday, Dalai Lama!

 

In the land encircled by a fence of snow mountains.

The source of all happiness and benefit

Is Tenzin Gyatso who is Lord Avalokiteśvara.

May he live until cyclic existence ends.

Being total in action

When action is not pursued as a means to an end it becomes freeing, it doesn't create karma. Such an action can be an internal action or completed action which is called Kriya or it can come from being in union or Yoga with existence as spontaneous action.

When liberal education ( The 7 liberal arts:Trivium + Quadrivium) which is pursued as a way to open up to Sophia withdrew from mainstream, people were left with an education devoid of purpose that was teaching knowledge as a basis for actions meant to fulfill certain roles and functions in a service oriented society.

Certainly it would have been proper for people to believe that performing such actions would offer them certain forms of gratification but most importantly not to be split between worldly and so called otherworldly actions. What would have happened if people would have understood that renouncing the world as a way not to entangle themselves in the actions performed in the world, would perceive material pursuits as wordly and choose otherworldly pursuits ? That would have made them split and unfit for the tasks to be pursued which always require total involvment if they are to produce anything of value. So that wasn't mentioned ... 

Renouncing the world is not a way to give up material pursuits but a way to be total in action so that attention and intention flow and infuse the activity, bringing joy to the action. In this way the action is not performed as a means to an end. Joy is already ... No further gratification is needed to increase it ... 

When ome thinks of action as action in and of itself ... certainly one might wonder what would the knowledge for such an action be and where would this knowledge come from ? That is just knowledge. Knowledge which is not for a subject matter at the expense of other subject matters. This is to know that by which everything else becomes known. When one closes his eyes distinguishing between what one knows and what is a dream is by watching. Everything that arises in consciousness is perceived in consciousness and subsides in consciousness is like a dream. This doesn't mean this is a dream but that this has the qualities of a dream, it seems so real when is experienced and yet so fleeting when it subsides. So what is real ? The dream is not real but for the dream to be dreamt the one who dreams is. Knowing that is freeing. That is inner knowing. But is there any outer ? If one is pursuing actions as a means to an end or is seeking knowledge by means of a knower. When we let go of the need to label that which we are experiencing we are left with pure experiencing where there is no distinction between the perceiver and that which is being perceived but one consciousness knowing itself as consciousness. What is the source of that ? The questioner that which is being questioned and the answer: A reflective consciousness, a source of inspiration and a hearing consciousness. These are qualities of consciousness: hearing, reflecting, inspiring. Most of the sounds we hear are struck, either they are produced by two objects coming in contact or by vocal cords and tongue. However there are unstruck sounds. Are you there ? That hearing of the consciousness reflecting upon the question ... that very quality of hearing is unstruck that is innate that is real.

How is your meditation ?

This post is meant to be a reflection upon the teachings imparted by Erik Pema Kunsang on the Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself.

How is your meditation could be asked also as How is your inner spaciousness ? or How are you Now ? Are you Here Now ?

The question as such comes from a reflecting consciousness and lands upon a hearing consciousness when asked in person. When there is hearing that is awareness of the present moment the inner spaciousness of the reflective consciousness of the questioner and the inner spaciousness of the hearing consciousness are bound to merge into the eternal Now. And that is meditation!

That's basically the first stanza of the Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself of not only this birth but of the birth of any experience as such which is arising in consciousness and it involves hearing, thinking or reflecting or contemplating and meditation all at once a merging of subject and object in the present moment.

The second stanza is the experiencing in consciousness of this life and of any experience as such either sensation, image, feeling or thought and is dream like. It is dream like because we cannot grasp or clinging to the experiences. When we try there is an unnecessary layer added to the dream like experiencing, a dream within a dream of the memory and projecting a future which is not existential as such.

The third stanza is the insight into the true nature of our mind, pure unconditioned awareness before taking form as sensations, images, feelings, thoughts, the gap between two thoughts, the field of infinite possibilities.

The fourth stanza is subsiding of this experience in consciousness. Allowing makes room for the unfolding of what is and makes room for the new. The body as such facilitates sensations, images, feelings and thoughts. But we are neither sensations, images, feelings or thoughts. We are pure withnessing, choiceless awareness.

Remembering (hearing) who we truly are, through habituation (reflective inquiry, mantra, gratitude), we enter the gap between two thoughts (meditation, prayer).

Here we plant the seeds of intentions:

In order to fulfill the interest of oneSelf and others I generate the mind for awakening.

May all be kind to each other.

May all who are afflicted like this share in the merits of this good deed.

Intentions in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power.

Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself

Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself

from the Secret Dakini Training Mother Tantra of the Great Perfection

Ema!
Now that while the bardo of this lifetime is unfolding,
I will not be lazy since there is no time to waste.
Enter nondistraction's path of hearing, thinking, training,
While it is just now I have the precious human form.
Since this free and favored form ought to have real meaning,
Emotion and samsara shall no longer hold the reign.

Ema!
Now that while the bardo of the dreamstate is unfolding,
I will not sleep like a corpse, so careless, ignorant.
Knowing everything is self-display, with recognition,
Capture dreams, conjure, transform, train lucid wakefulness.
Instead of lying fast asleep like animals are sleeping,
I will use the Dharma just as in the waking state.

Ema!
Now that while the meditation bardo is unfolding,
I will set aside every deluded wandering.
Free of clinging, settled within boundless nondistraction,
I'll be stable in completion and development.
As I'm yielding projects to the single-minded training,
Delusion and unknowing shall no longer hold the reign.

Ema!
Now that while the bardo of the death-state is unfolding,
I will cast away attachment, clinging to all things.
Enter undistractedly the state of lucid teachings,
Suspending as a vast expanse this nonarising mind.
Leaving this material form, my mortal human body,
I will see it as illusion and impermanent.

Ema!
Now that while the bardo of dharmata is unfolding,
I will hold no fear or dread or panic for it all.
Recognizing everything to be the bardo's nature,
Now the time has come for mastering the vital point.
Colors, sounds and rays shine forth, self-radiance of knowing,
May I never fear the peaceful-wrathful self-display.

Ema!
Now that while the bardo of becoming is unfolding,
I will keep the lasting goal one-pointedly in mind.
Reconnecting firmly with the flow of noble action,
I will shut the womb-doors and remember to turn back.
Since this is the time for fortitude and pure perception,
I will shun wrong views and train the guru's union-form.

If I keep this senseless mind that never thinks of dying,
And continue striving for the pointless aims of life,
Won't I be deluded when I leave here empty handed ?
Since I know the sacred Dharma is just what I need,
Shouldn't I be living by the Dharma right this moment,
Giving up activities that are just for this life ?

These are the instructions which the gracious guru told me.
If I do not keep the guru's teachings in my heart,
How can this be other than myself fooling myself ?

Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang

https://www.youtube.com/live/qDmV1puKDYQ