Saturday, January 28, 2017

Fundamentals of Meditation


My root guru always said to me that it is very simple to meditate on our minds.  The reason he explained is because everyone has a mind, the one who guides the mind to meditation is the self, and the very mind to bring to meditation is also that of self.  Therefore, it is one’s own mind that guides the delusional mind to a perfect one.

When my root guru and I meditated together, he would look at me and say, “Where are you now Lama?”  Even though I sat right in front of him, he would look at me directly and repeat it several times.  He meant to ask me if my mind was really in my body.  On a daily basis he would say to me that he could see my body in the temple but he hoped that my mind was in my body.  For the mind to be in the body and for that mind to be free from all the delusions are quintessential instructions that I consider of utmost importance and analyze every day of my life.  So the word “mindfulness” in English is related to this.  For instance, in Tibetan, we say “mayeng” (be undistracted) which is connected to mindfulness.  Our everyday habits must be anchored by this mindfulness.  

A beginner starts to meditate and determines that he will not let his mind wander or has great hopes for a good session. Then when the meditation session does not go well, there is great discontent and doubt.  The thoughts that the meditation did not go well yesterday and today, all arise hope and doubt.  This continuous hope and doubt has led us to the unending cyclic existence.  Gag (stop the unwanted) and Drup (hope for the good) and this endless hope and doubt have kept us in the samsara until now.  When meditating, if your mind constantly waxes and wanes between hope and doubt, it is not beneficial.  It is very important to keep the mind as is.  Whatever thoughts arise in the moment, let it arise, whatever it may be.  Thoughts cannot be stopped and should not be stopped.  Thoughts are countless.  If one ponders on every thought, one thought will lead to another and to another, and one could become mentally unstable.  The vital instruction is to be undistracted and be aware.  Whether thoughts arise or not, if the mind is aware, this harness of awareness, is called meditation.

During a snowfall, when snow falls from the sky, it is just snow but the moment it falls onto a hot rock, it is no more snow, the form has changed from snow to liquid.  Likewise, when the mind is not aware, we call it thoughts but once our consciousness is harnessed by awareness, we do not call it “thoughts”.  Thoughts are released into Dharmakaya.  When in awareness, the rise and release of thoughts occur simultaneously.  In other words, thoughts do not have any effect on our minds.  The most important thing during meditation is to be aware and mindful.   One cannot meditate without mindfulness.

When beginning to meditate, it is very important to do so in short but frequent sessions.  If you sit for five minutes today, sit for ten minutes tomorrow.  Don’t bother about the length of a session that you sat for one hour, two hours, or one day, but rather, while in meditation, be aware of the lucidity and clarity of mind with the grasp of mindfulness over thoughts.  With the instant release of all thoughts that arise into Dharmakaya, rest your mind in the clarity of Rigpa.
For many, meditation may mean only stopping the six senses.  Many think that by merely blocking the sense of sight, sound, speech, smell, and touch, they have meditated well.  This is a good experience for a beginner, but meditation is beyond that.  When one meditates, one experiences a profound sense of joy and bliss from the depths of one’s mind, without any effort.  The reason why this happens is because as thoughts release into Dharmakaya, the strength of that Dharmakaya or Rigpa manifests itself as extraordinary joy and bliss.  At that moment, one develops an immense devotion towards one’s root guru and great compassion towards all sentient beings as tears begin to flow from one’s eyes.  In this experience, one develops the wish to meditate more.  If one has meditated for an hour, one wants to continue for two hours and does not wish to part from one’s meditation cushion.  One develops a very deep and keen interest in meditation.  As Buddha himself experienced and said, “Profound peace, free of fabrication, unborn clear light!I have found a Dharma that is like nectar! If I reveal it to anyone however, they won’t understand so I should just stay in the forest! Profundity, peace, freedom from fabrication, being unproduced, these are all characteristics of emptiness.  When one experiences the qualities of emptiness, one develops conviction in it, an appreciation for it from the depths of one’s heart and develops a single pointed devotion towards it.  We should all  strive for that. 
Regarding the stages of meditation, I usually talk about, “Tayatha Gate Gate Para Gate Para Sam Gate Bodhi So Ha”.  Tayatha” refers to all sentient beings.  Gate Gate Para Gate Para Sam Gate Bodhi So Ha ” are the five paths, the paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more training. (In Tibetan, tsoklam, jorlam, thonglam, gomlam, and milopa lam).  Through the path of meditation, one can reach the path of no more training. milopa.  At “Gate”, during great tsoklam, path of accumulation, an individual with ripe karma & fortune recognizes emptiness.  Emptiness recognized at this stage is likened to the size of the moon on the third day of the month.  We can only see a small moon but one has still seen it and thus is able to say that one saw the moon.  At this stage, you can say that you have recognized emptiness.  Gate Para Gate” is a stage of development or perfection of one’s experience and equated to the size of the moon as it becomes larger from day three to day fifteen, on the full moon day.  Bodhi So Ha” is the ultimate stage our mind can reach.  In Tibetan, it is called the “Mi nae pa nyang dae”, the non-abiding nirvana.  So one can ultimately develop the perfect mind and make strides at each stage at a time to arrive at the final stage. 
My greatest aspiration in this lifetime is to develop this mind.  In Dharma, there is the path to fruition of the stages and an opportunity to develop our mind, and so, I tell my students of this deep aspiration.   As a spiritual guide, I teach the dharma in its most genuine form, however, some of you may be sad being unable to practice it diligently and think that that may cause me sadness.  I would like to say that each one of your individual circumstances is different, including, temperament, time, family, other commitments and so forth, so if you have felt so, there is no need to be sad.  However, as we all know, we must hope for the best.  As we are fortunate to have this precious human life with a precious human mind, it is important to make good use of it.  
Whatever, I said above is intended for a dharma practitioner.  Whether one believes to be a Buddhist or not, meditation helps to transform one’s mind from an afflictive state to a non-afflictive one.  Even though one does not believe in rebirth and aspire to attain Buddhahood, we are currently in this human form, and having taken birth as a human, if we want to become a kind human being, one must make the transformation from within oneself.  This transformation is not separate and cannot be externally borrowed or bought.  To transform an afflictive mind to a non-afflictive one, must be brought about through one’s own mind.  I speak about “good, better and best”.  So, there is a path to the “best”.
In our lives, we are daunted with many challenges, both physical and mental.  Physical adversities are easier to overcome.  For instance, physical ailments can be treated with available medical facilities, but mental hardships can be overcome only by oneself, and very seldom by others.  As Buddha said, “I have shown you the path of liberation.  You must follow it in order to achieve it”, similarly, a spiritual teacher can only guide you towards the path, it is upon oneself to choose to follow and pursue the path.  A lama cannot solely help you towards liberation, the main effort must come from you.  So if you pursue your practice diligently, it will help you enormously on the day you are confronted with great adversity.  If you practice diligently, one day you will realize emptiness.  Emptiness is like a tree.  Kindness, compassion, four immeasurables and six paramitas are like the branches, leaves and flowers of the tree.   Once one develops emptiness, one’s mind will be undeterred even when confronted with the greatest hardship of one’s life.  To develop the mind is like the ultimate security and protection for the mind.  A good human being is not defined by one’s physical traits but rather one who is kind and compassionate, and if one is a dharma practitioner, who practices the four immeasurables and six paramitas.   So, it is extremely important that we practice to develop our mind through meditation.
by khenpo karten Rinpoche 11/5/2017



Thursday, January 26, 2017

ཉིས་སྟོང་བཅུ་བདུན་ལོའི་སྐྱིད་པའི་ལོ་གསར་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱིས་བསུས་པ།

མི་མང་པོ་ཞིག་ནས་སྐྱིད་པའི་ལོ་གསར་རམ་happy new year ཞེས་འགྲོ་སོང་མང་པོ་གཏོང་ཞིང་འཁྱམས་ཉུལ་དང་འུར་འུར་ཟིང་ཟིང་བྱེད་པའི་དུས་སྐབས་འདིར་ངས་ནི་ལོ་ལྟར་ངོས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་གྲོགས་ཕོ་མོ་རྣམས་དང་ལྷན་མཚམས་ལ་འདུག་ནས་སྐྱིད་པའི་གསར་ལོ་འདི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བསུ་གིན་ཡོད། འདི་ལོར་ཡང་ང་ཡི་ཆོས་གྲོགས་དགེ་བཤེས་བློ་བཟང་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལགས་རྒྱ་གར་ནས་ཆེད་དུ་ཕེབས་ནས་ངོས་ཀྱི་དགེ་ཕྲུག་སུམ་བཅུ་མ་ཟིན་ཙམ་དང་ལྷན་ཉིན་གསུམ་རིང་མཚམས་ལ་འདུག་རྒྱུ་བྱུང་བ་དེ་ནི་ཧ་ཅང་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཡིན། འདི་ལོའི་མཚམས་ལ་ཉིན་དང་པོར་སྔ་ལོར་ཁོ་བོས་བྲིས་པའི་"དབེན་གནས་ལ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་"ཞེས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐོག་ནས་མཚམས་ཀྱི་ཕན་ཡོན་དང་དགོས་པ་སོགས་བཤད། ཉིན་གཉིས་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་ཞོགས་པར་བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་སྒྲུབ་མདོར་བསྡུས་དང་སྒོམ་བྱས་ཞིང་། ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་ཀརྨ་གླིང་པའི་གཏེར་མ་བར་དོ་དྲུག་གི་རྩ་ཚིག་ཐོག་ནས་འགྲེལ་བཤད་བྱས། ཉིན་རྒྱབ་སྔར་བཞིན་ཆོས་ཁྲིད་སྔ་མའི་འཕྲོ་མཐར་དབྱུངས་ཤིང་། དགུང་ཐུན་ལ་དགེ་བཤེས་ལགས་ནས་ཞི་གནས་དང་ལྷག་མཐོང་དཔྱད་སྒོམ་ཐོག་ནས་བཀའ་ཆོས་གནང་། ཉིན་གསུམ་པའི་ཞོགས་ཐུན་ལ་སྔར་བཞིན་བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་སྒྲུབ་མདོར་བསྡུས་བཏོན་ནས་ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་པ་མཉམ་ལེན་བྱས་པ་མ་ཟད་ལོ་འགའ་ཡི་ཡར་སྔོན་ཁོ་བོས་བྲིས་པའི་"སྙིང་གཏམ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བདུད་རྩི་"ཞེས་པའི་དེབ་ཆུང་དེ་ཉིད་མཉམ་འདོན་དང་ཆོས་ཁྲིད་མདོར་བསྡུས་བྱས། ཉིན་རྒྱབ་ཆུ་ཚོད་བཅུ་གཉིས་སྐབས་སུ་ཉིན་གུང་གསོལ་ཚིག་མཚམས་སུ་ཆོས་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ལས་སྣེ་རྣམས་བརྗེ་བསྒྱུར་དང་ཚོགས་མི་གསར་བསྡུ་སོགས་བྱས་ནས་འདི་ལོའི་ལོ་གསར་གྱི་མཚམས་ཐེངས་མ་ལྔ་པ་དེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་དགེ་ལེགས་ངང་ནས་ལེགས་གྲུབ་བྱུང་། 
སྔ་ལོར་ཁོ་བོས་བྲིས་པའི་དབེན་གནས་ལ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་ཞེས་པ་ཡིག་རིགས་གསུམ་ལྡན་ཅན་ཞིག་ཉིན་ཐོའི་མཇུག་ཏུ་བཞག་ཡོད་པས་དུས་ཚོད་ཁོམས་ན་དྲྭ་གྲོགས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྤྱན་རས་གཡོ་ཙམ་རེ་གནང་རོགས་ཞུ།། 
༅༅།། དབེན་པའི་གནས་ལ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།།
Showing the Path to Liberation
An Exhortation To Seek Isolated Places
勸居僻靜-示解脫道
མི་མེད་ལུང་པ་ཡི་དབེན་གནས།
མ་བཅོས་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡུལ་ལྗོངས།། 
།གཏན་གྱི་བདེ་བ་ཞིག་བསམ་ན།
སྐྱིད་པའི་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག།
Isolated places without any people
Arise naturally, free of fabrication.
If you want eternal happiness
Go to pleasant isolated places.
杳無人煙僻靜處
無修自然所生地
 若思欲得究竟樂
 請至歡喜僻靜處
།ཆགས་སྡང་ལས་ངན་གྱི་ཅོ་རོང་།
།འཁོར་བའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་སྐྱོ་ན།
།ཞི་བདེའི་སྣང་བ་ཡི་ལམ་བཟང་། 
།ཡང་དག་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག
If you are disillusioned with the cities of samsara
Chasms of attachment, aversion, and bad karma,
Go to a perfect isolated place
For good paths lit with peace and happiness.
貪瞋惡行深谷中
 倘若心厭輪迴城
顯明寂樂之善道
 請至清淨僻靜處
།མནོག་ཆུང་ཚེ་འདི་ཡི་བྱ་བ།
།རང་ཁེ་གཞན་ཕམ་གྱི་ཆེད་དུ།
།དོན་མེད་སྡིག་ལས་སུ་སོང་ན། 
།ཆོས་ཀྱི་བདེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག
If you are doing insignificant things for this life,
Defeating others for your own profit,
Creating bad karma for no reason,
Go to an isolated place for the Dharma.
此生少利諸俗事
為求自勝他敗故
 無端而造眾惡業
請至妙法僻靜處
།བསམ་རྒྱུ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཞིག་བསམ་ཡང་།
།འགྲུབ་རྒྱུ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས་མ་བྱུང་།
།ལམ་ལོག་གྱུར་པ་ཡི་མ་རྣམས། 
།ཐར་པའི་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག། 
What you want is only happiness
Yet what you create is nothing but suffering.
O mothers following mistaken paths,
Go to isolated places of Liberation!
所思雖欲得安樂
所獲卻僅有痛苦
 誤入歧途如母眾
 請至解脫僻靜處
།ཚེ་འདིའི་སྣང་བ་ལ་ཞེན་ནས།
།སྡིག་སྡུག་ལས་ངན་གྱི་ཁུར་པོས།
།ལྕི་མོའི་ཕྲག་པ་རུ་ནོན་ན།
།ངལ་གསོའི་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག།
If attachment to appearances of this life
Has laid a heavy burden of obscuration
And negative karma upon your shoulders
Go to a restful isolated place.
因由貪執此生相
背負種種苦惡業
 沈重肩擔更加重
 請至棲息僻靜處
།སྤུ་གྲི་སོར་ཆགས་ཀྱི་སྦྲང་རྩི།
།ལྟར་སྣང་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱིས་བསླུས་ནས། 
།ཐར་མེད་འཁོར་དོང་དུ་ལྷུང་རྣམས། 
།ཞི་བདེའི་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག།
You who are deceived by fake happiness,
The taste of honey on the edge of a razor,
You who have fallen into the pit of samsara, unable to escape,
Go to isolated places of peace and happiness!
猶如刀鋒上舔蜜
受諸假象樂所欺
不得解脫輪迴眾
 請至寂樂僻靜處
།བསྒྲུབས་ཀྱང་འགྲུབ་དུས་ཞིག་མེད་པ།
།འགྲུབ་ཀྱང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་སྣོན་མ།
།འཁོར་བའི་འདིར་སྣང་གིས་སུན་ན།
།ལ་འུར་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག།
If the work you do is never finished,
Or, once accomplished, just adds to suffering,
If you are sick of attachment to things of this life,
Quickly go to isolated places.
雖修卻無修成時
雖成卻仍添苦惱
 倘真厭此輪迴相
迅速請至僻靜處
།འདི་ལོའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་སྐྱོ་ནས།
།གསར་ལོའི་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཞིག་བསམ་ན།
།ཉིན་གསུམ་གནས་མལ་གྱི་ཚུལ་དུ།
།ལོ་གསར་དབེན་གནས་སུ་ཕེབས་ཤོག།
Disillusioned with suffering of this past year,
If you want happiness in the coming year
As a place of rest for three days,
Go to an isolated place for the new year.
今年受諸苦所累
明年若欲得喜樂
 寢室好好躺三天
過年請至僻靜處
བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྟག་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་གྲངས་ལྡན་གྱི་ཤོ་ལོ་ཀ་འདི་ཉིད་ཀྱང་ངོས་ཀྱི་དགེ་ཕྲུག་རྙིང་པ་ཞིག་ནས་གནས་སྐབས་ལས་ཀའི་ཆེད་དུ་འདི་ལོའི་ཉིན་གསུམ་རི་ཁྲོད་དུ་བཅར་ཐུབ་ས་མ་རེད་ཅེས་པའི་ལན་དུ་དེ་མ་ཐག་གང་དྲན་དུ་ཆོས་སྨྲ་བའི་མིང་འཛིན་ཀར་བསྟན་དེས་༡༧་༡༢་༢༠༡༥་བྲིས་ཏེ་ཕུལ།།
These verses, numbering as many as the eight auspicious signs, were written and offered by Khenpo Karten Rinpoche on the 12th of December, 2015, in spontaneous response to his old student who said he didn’t think he would be able to come to a three day retreat.
此與八吉祥等數之偈文,是我一老弟子暫時因事無法于今年新年期間來山上相聚,故以此文答复,講法師噶燈書于17/12/2015
English Translation by Jampa Tharchin