Om Mani Peme Hum is a mantra that invokes great compassion and wisdom. By understanding the meaning, reciting it can become more powerful, helping to reduce all kinds of negativity in one’s own mind and in the minds of others! Om Mani Peme Hum is like the national mantra of Tibet. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the embodiment of Chenrezig who is the embodiment of great compassion. So this mantra can help us connect with our compassion energy and also with His Holiness!

Read the explanation of Om Mani Peme Hum mantra by the Dalai Lama here

Related Article:
ZaChoeje Rinpoche’s explanation of Om Mani Peme Hum

Link to article

Blood rain in India? Sounds like something out of the National Enquirer - but here’s an article in Popular science about it.

Excerpt:

Specifically, Louis has isolated strange, thick-walled, red-tinted cell-like structures about 10 microns in size. Stranger still, dozens of his experiments suggest that the particles may lack DNA yet still reproduce plentifully, even in water superheated to nearly 600?F. (The known upper limit for life in water is about 250?F.) So how to explain them? Louis speculates that the particles could be extraterrestrial bacteria adapted to the harsh conditions of space and that the microbes hitched a ride on a comet or meteorite that later broke apart in the upper atmosphere and mixed with rain clouds above India. If his theory proves correct, the cells would be the first confirmed evidence of alien life and, as such, could yield tantalizing new clues to the origins of life on Earth.

Link to Article (Popular Science)

Thanks Trav/s for the link.

Creative Commons is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright

Link to Creative Commons page on Flickr

In Zen we sit Zazen. Zazen means ‘just sitting’. So we sit just sitting. Is that redundant? Here’s an exceclent and clear guide on different ways to sit for meditation.

There is absolutely no esoteric significance to the different positions. What is most important in zazen is what you do with your mind, not what you do with your feet or legs.

Link to Zen Meditation Instructions

Pictures Manjushri retreat at Mormon Lake. Click This (Photos hosted on Flickr)

These pictures are 2.1 megapixel, so if you want you can download them and print a 5×7 picture. 4×6 will look best but 5×7 is pretty good. I think most film developers will print files on a CD so if you don’t have a printer you can go that route. Often it can be less expensive than printing them yourself.

I will post more pictures later.

Thanks to everyone for a great retreat!

More Retreat Pictures
Daniel’s Pictures
DhiDhi’s Pictures
More DhiDhi Pictures

I’m back from retreat. I’ll post something about that soon and put up some pictures. But for now look at this question I got on my post, ‘The Dart of Painful Feeling‘:

Linda Said:

So, according to Buddha, there is no difference to Chronic Pain and Pain? Having a dart thrown at me, or being hit in the face,or burned by incense on the arm does sound like no big deal to me, it sounds like nothing really. How do you deal with Chronic Severe Pain? It takes energy to have patience, and long term agonizing pain disrupts the spirit, makes meditation impossible, sends shock waves through the whole body constantly, relaxation cannot happen. Enlighten me.

Click here to read my answer.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week. I’m excited to share pictures and thoughts from the Manjushri Retreat, stay tuned!

Related Posts:
The Dart of Painful Feeling
More help with meditation and chronic pain (Mudita Journal)

Did you know that the band, “The Cure” used to be called “Goat Band”?

See other early band names

I’m going on an “Orange Manjushri” retreat starting tomorrow morning. I probably won’t be back until the 25th or 26th. The reatreat will be held outdoors in the Mormon Lake area at Dairy Springs campground. The retreat is being put on by Emaho and will be lead by ZaChoeje Rinpoche. So what is an Orange Manjushri retreat?

From the Emaho website:

Manjushri represents Buddha’s infinite wisdom: the embodiment of all the Buddha’s wisdom identified with penetrating insight into the nature of reality and interdependent origination. The great power of the wisdom aspect of the mind’s inherent clarity can rescue us from confusion. Identifying with Manjushri’s aspects of transcendental wisdom can be used to free ourselves from suffering and the causes of suffering. Invoking the deity Manjushri and accomplishing the related practices produces the relative benefits of sharpened intelligence, and, ultimately, enlightenment.

In the aspect of Orange Manjushri, Manjushri demonstrates the qualities of enlightened wisdom by holding a flaming sword that symbolizes the ability to cut through the roots of ignorance. His double-edged sword cuts through obscuring layers of misconception and discriminates accurately between the independent way things mistakenly appear to exist and the interdependent way they actually do exist. Manjushri’s sword destroys the false and misleading conceptions fabricated by ignorance, the root of all of our delusions. Manjushri’s realization of Bodchitta, his ultimate compassion, never loses sight of the welfare of those who, like ourselves, wish only to be happy and to escape from suffering and reminds us that we seek happiness and the causes of happiness not for only ourselves but for all sentient beings throughout the vastness of limitless space.

I think it important to note that Manjushri is not a diety like most Americans think of. He does not have any independent existance. He does not exist ‘out there’ for us to invoke and to come fulfill our wishes. The Tibetan word for this kind of diety is ‘Yidam’ and can be translated as, ‘meditation being’ or ‘meditation diety’. This type of practice comes from the Vajrayana and visualizing the Yidam is a very skilfull way of eliminating the disturbing emotions that prevent us from having real happiness. We actually are invoking our own inner wisdom in the form of Manjushri. In our minds we hold the vision of Manjushri and relate to our wisdom through that. Why is this helpful? Well, from my side I can say that wisdom, compassion, fearlessness, equanimity - these types of things are very subtle and hard to grasp. Eventually we can imagine our own selves as the embodiment of these qualities - these Buddha qualities by identifying with the Yidam, instead of our ordinary and limited way of looking at our lives. By really connecting with our Buddha qualities we can actually become Buddhas ourselves. Again, you see the non-dual nature of these practices. We are not ultimately praying to a Yidam out there, we are not praying to a Buddha out there. All of these things, even the Guru, are ultimately projections - dream figures - aspects of our own true selves.

Buddhism is not Monism - we do not believe that everything will come back together in one god - head that has some sort of more real existance than our own. Ngak’chang Rinpoche says that we are pluralistic non-dualists. We remain individual - but completely interconnected, even at the time of full omniscience.

So, I am going on retreat and one result will be no posts during this time.

I dedicate any merit that I accumulate through the practice of Orange Manjushri to the attainment of enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

This is part of four related posts about “The Four Seals” of Buddhism. Please see the links at the bottom to view the other posts.

So what does defiled mean in this context? What is the defiled? What is the stain? Defiled means defiled by disturbing emotions. When something is defiled by disturbing emotions then with that there is suffering. The three main defilements, the root of all other disturbing emotions are called ‘The three Poisons’ in Buddhism: Anger or aversion, clinging attachment, and ignorance. The root of these three is ignorance - ignorance is the most important. If we remove ignorance than anger and clinging can not remain. Ignorance does not just mean that we don’t know something, it means that that we are actively misapprehending our situation and so we make mistakes - no matter what the actions we engage in while influenced by ignorance will bring some amount of suffering - for instance, even if we have a happy outcome from an action, we are reinforcing the ignorant view. If we act out of ignorance then we are reinforcing that state.

His Holiness said,

It may not be experienced as suffering, but suffering is there.

So when the Buddha taught the first noble truth, he said, ‘Life is suffering’. ZaChoeje Rinpoche says that is a bad translation, that we should say, ‘life has suffering’, or ‘life has the potential of suffering’, but the point here is that life under the influence of the disturbing emotions is suffering. So the first noble truth is born out of this axiom: “Everything defiled is suffering”. The first Noble Truth describes a result - one of suffering. The cause is illustrated in the second noble truth. There is a cause of suffering. The cause of suffering is disturbing emotions and karmic actions. The cause of disturbing emotions is ignorance. The result of these is suffering.

We first said that, “All composite things are impermanent”, and I think I mentioned that our bodies are composite. The composites that make up the body are called the “Skandhas” - form, feeling, perception, impulses, and consciousness. So if you we have these skandhas and we have the disturbing emotions caused by ignorance, then we are suffering. This mix of ignorance and Skandhas is called ‘the suffering of the composite’

None of us want to suffer. That is true. Even if we are hurting ourselves we will say, ‘i just want to feel alive’ or something like that. We want to feel alive instead of dead - instead of suffering. So if we can see this suffering due to ignorance and disturbances, then we will want to turn away from the suffering of the composite - this is called renunciation. That is what we mean by renunciation. The mind of someone who realizes the source of suffering will turn away from that source.

Now what is it that we are ignorant of? What are we missing that is causing us to misapprehend our reality and give rise to disturbing emotions? That question will be answered in the next installment of this series which will deal with the third axiom: “All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity”.

The Four Immeasurable Thoughts
May all beings have happiness and it’s causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and it’s causes.
May all beings never be separated from the happiness which is free from suffering.
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from both attachment and detachment.

Related:
The First Seal - All Composite Things are Impermanent
The Second Seal - Everything Defiled Is Suffering
The Third Seal - All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity
The Fourth Seal - Nirvana is peace

Sometimes people ask me why I get so caught up in things - why I care about ‘enlightenment’ and don’t just get on with things. Like this (what follows is an excerpt from an article on non-conceptuality by Ngak’chang Rinpoche):

I have some friends who seem like being spontaneous; and they ask me sometimes why I need to concentrate so much on how everything is, instead of just getting on with things and doing things, and I think if one of them were sitting in this room hearing us talk about, you know, letting awareness ride on our experience, and this sort of thing, I mean that would be, to them, an extraordinarily complicated, sort of double-dualistic way of behaving - when they just simply do something… Is this because my friends are more enlightened than me, or am I misunderstanding the..?

I never really have an answer for that. I say things like, “I’m obsessed”. But that is really simplistic. I always feel a little uncomfortable with that answer - because I realize that I am not getting accross something - I am not being clear. People think, ‘whatever happens, I am fine’, but then they walk in the front door and their parakeet has fallen into a boiling pot. “OH WHAT HAVE I DONE! OH NO, Sweet Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”. Then it is all kinds of problems, ‘why am I so upset? I thought I was better now? I thought I had it figured out.’

Anyway, here’s the answer to the question above:

[laughs] I have met people who have been quite surprising in a lot of ways. I think people who just get on with things - who simply live life with verve and enthusiasm are much to be admired - especially if they are relaxed, care-free, kindly, generous, tolerant folk… I think that with a certain amount of narrowness you can get by… At the narrowed off end of the spectrum, it is easy because questions just do not occur. For a lot of people it remains easy until tragedy hits… and then… they are hit really hard. So sometimes people who don’t question too much, appear to be very worked-out… until… they come back home and find some horrendous thing happening in their living room [laughs]: their partner is making out with their best friend; their father’s been eaten alive by the goldfish; or their family get killed in an accident; or…

This really is just a tangent in the conversation. The bone of the article is that thinking is not necessarily ‘dualistic’. An enlightened person is not bereft of the ability to think. But there is a context, the context of Shine, in which we experience a mind free of concept. This, however, is not regarded as the goal, or the final state, of Buddhism.

Please read more of Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s conversation about non-conceptuality here.

Note: I am referencing a teaching on DVD that I have borrowed called “The Six Paramitas” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Do you know what the four seals are? According to His Holiness, the Four Seals are four axioms that define Buddhists. He said,

‘The acceptence of these four marks the difference between a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist.”

There are many teachings in Buddhism, thousands of axioms. Some are interperatable, some are direct, but with so many it is nice to have these four pointed out as the essence. So, luckily, the Buddha’s teachings can be summarized with these:

1. All composite things are impermanent
2. Everything defiled is suffering
3. All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity
4. Nirvana is peace

These Four Seals also establish the Four Noble Truths, the first thing the Buddha taught after his enlightenment through his own efforts. By knowing what is real and rejecting what is not real, we can also become enlightened, we can become the Buddha. By knowing what is real we can establish ‘valid cognition’ and by observing our reality correctly we can stop creating bad karma which is actions based on not understanding our reality. If we act without knowing, we are making a mistake. So by understanding the Four Seals, we can free ourselves, little by little, from the troubles we are having and become happy. All beings want to be happy and to avoid suffering.

So let’s start with “All Composite things are impermanent”. If we pay attention, if we look at our reality, we will see that everything that comes to be, gradually changes and then disintegrates. Everything is like that. Even this planet will eventually disintegrate. What need is there to mention then all the beings on the planet. Composite can mean, ‘everything that comes to be’. Anything that is made up of parts is called composite. If parts are drawn together, then that thing is impermanent. It will not last. There are categories of phenomena that are not impermanent, like space, but for the most part, everything we are dealing with has the seed of it’s destruction growing inside of it. It’s also important to note that impermanence does not happen at the end, only at the final destruction of the object. It is happening right now - we are in the process of decay as is everything around us. Our nature is impermanent and moment to moment we are experiencing change. As his holiness says,

“It is not the case that things remain without change for months and years, and finally they suddenly change and cease to exist.”

This is a true statement - “all Composite things are impermanent.” In meditation we see this is true through analysis. As soon as something arises, it’s cessation is established. Nothing can exist without arising and then ceasing. The establishment of something ensures its destruction. Therefore, “All composite things are impermanent” or more traditionally, “All composite phenomena are impermanent”.

Am I being too repetitive? I think that the Buddhist teachings seem very repetitive to people who aren’t used to them. The teachings come from an old oral tradition. All of these things were memorized and passed from disciple to disciple and I think the repetition helped with that. Anyway, these teachings can bring true happiness so the repetition helps to firmly establish these things into the mind stream so that we can use them and see for ourselves if they are true or not. It’s good to go over them many times because our understanding can grow over time that way.

So that is the something about the four seals. I’ll follow up on the other three this week, but for now I have to get going to work.

I hope that everyone will be able to benefit from knowing these Four Seals and put them into practice so that they will have more happiness and bring more happiness to others.

Tashidelek!

Related:
The First Seal - All Composite Things are Impermanent
The Second Seal - Everything Defiled Is Suffering
The Third Seal - All phenomena are empty and without inherent entity
The Fourth Seal - Nirvana is peace

I watched the first DVD in a set of four about the Six Paramitas by His Holiness the Dalai Lama last night. Honestly I was amazed. He discoursed on the entire Buddhist path. I’m very humbled by his knowledge and brightness - knowing the path is essential to obtaining the fruit. He admonished us to not just meditate, but to understand suffering, impermanance, this precious human life, emptiness, and bodhicitta. To just meditate and picture the dieties, he said, is not Buddhism. Buddhism is only developing Bodhicitta and meditating on emptiness. The other methods are helpful, but without this understanding they are not Buddhism.

So he goes through the whole path and after an hour and fourty minutes he still hasn’t even mentioned the paramitas. The foundation for understanding the paramitas is called the ground. As I said, it comprises various understandings as above. The path is the actual practice of the perfections - six or ten paramitas. Paramita is a Sanskrit word that translates to ‘far reaching attitudes’. The paramitas are seen as the path to omniscience and as the fruit. They are techniques that the Bodhisattva (one who seeks to liberate all beings from suffering) practices on the way to realizing Buddha Nature and they are the spontaneous qualities of Buddha. This means they are already present in us as a potential and at the time of obtaining Buddhahood, no effort is needed to maintain them - they are attributes or qualities inherent in the Buddha.

So I will write up notes on over eight hours of teaching and relate them here - in my own style. I don’t do this because I have great pride or a think my way is superior. But maybe someone with a similar disposition as mine can easily understand what I have. Any mistakes are my own and do not belong to the Dharma or His Holiness. Also, I do not have the instructions committed to memory - doing so will increase the power of my meditation. This blog did not start out to be a “Buddhist” blog, but that is what it has become. Being that this is the case, it would be very beneficial to have the entire path available to anyone who wishes to tread this precious path of freedom.

“She gets to the hospital and while she’s waiting for an examination, she gets up from the chair and runs,” Mayes said. “Somebody remarked, ‘That’s where the great miracle occurred.’”

It’s a miracle! (Reuters.com)

If good things happen, good. If bad things happen, good

We can transform bad into good. We can do this by changing our attitudes towards what we label ‘bad’. This is why suffering is unneccessary, because everything can become the basis for bliss. There is a lot of dharma about how you can do this emotional alchemy, lots of books and teachers who can help you to understand this point.

If a bad thing happens it generally is a great opportunity to practice patience. Patience is a transcendent quality and it’s practice is fundamental to becoming a Buddha. It means you can let things slide. You see that pain is temporary and so the pain is diminished. It almost vanishes. Not because of drugs either! If you can have an attitude like this at a time when you are experiencing a lot of pain, then the pain will all but dissapear. Here, dissapear means that you can integrate dispassionately with your experience. The pain doesn’t go away, you just see it for what it is and it transforms you. You do not have to regard the pain as an enemy.

That’s an example of trasformation of bad into good. This is a very skillful way of putting down bad and good altogether. No need to hold on to your oppionions or defend your territory.

It’s also very important to note that this does not mean that we don’t try anything, that we never make any movement. Just don’t be attached to the outcome. If you succeed, great. If you fail, great. See how that works? Maked failure and success dissapear. What’s left is bliss. That’s really the best part.

Putting all this stuff down will reveal a new sensitivity and you can discover that your entire existence is luminous, harmonious, vast, and unborn. So do what the Buddha said, put down Buddha. In emptiness No eyes, no ears, no nose, etc. No Buddha, no God, no you, no me. Just mind experiencing it’s own luminence.

I’ve heard that this is like drinking from a well. The experience of emptiness energizes and maintains the effort of practice. Also, eventually we (we means every sentient being) will be able to function while dwelling in this luminance. Meaning we have obtained happiness.

So another benefit of transforming negativity is that sentient beings become your great friends, all of them. Someone who is causing you trouble is an opportunity to learn eqaunimity and patience. If you take your practice seriously this can happen. Someone who insults you brings about humility. He grounds you, takes you off of your cloud. Seeing him this way, anger won’t arise. This is SUPER important because everyone around us has a great effect on our happiness in general. If someone dies in your life then maybe you will feel pulled away from the practice. Or if we get fired by someone, that can cause a big break in our mindfullness. All of this leads to anger and territorialness and jealousy, whatever - but nothing good. But if we don’t see the problem . . . “I don’t see the problem with getting fired”. That type of attitude. This way you don’t have to go meditate in solitude to learn what the sages teach. You can be on the spot.

There are books on how to work with this and sutras and great masters of many traditions who are available to help with this. None of them will require that you become a Buddhist. If someone requires that it is highly suspect. This should be practical, spiritual help and for everyone.

May we all bring more happines to our lives and to each other’s lives!