Author: Lama Lekshe

By the Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche

May the blessings of the exalted sources of refuge,
The Buddha, his teachings and community: the Three Precious Jewels,
And the spiritual teacher, meditational deities and protectors
of the Buddhist teachings: the Three Roots,
Fully pacify the terrors of illness, famine and war,
Along with chaotic disturbances of the four elements—
The imminent and terrifying danger that the whole world will
become a great wasteland,
As temperature imbalance causes the solid glaciers of snow
mountain massifs to melt and contract,
Afflicting rivers and lakes, so that primeval forests and
beautiful trees near their deaths!
May the sublime endowments of good fortune and spiritual
and temporal well-being flourish,
And may all beings nurture one another lovingly and kindly,
So that their joy may fully blossom!
May all their aims be fulfilled, in accordance with the sacred teachings!

Save this link. This source is rich with books in English and several other languages that cannot be found in other places. Some of today’s best translators work on these projects. Have a look!

This update includes a book by Thrangu Rinpoche on aging and dharma practice. Karma Chagme’s Mountain Dharma series, Volume 4 is also available. His books are among my most cherished for advice about how to do retreat.

Try this.

Let us know about other resources for hearing the full spectrum of dharma diversity perspectives.

We received this generous invitation on a vitally important topic, and wanted to share it.

Dear colleagues,

You are warmly invited to join us for the Inaugural UBC Himalaya Program Annual Lecture on March 7, 2022, 6:00 – 7:30 PM PST (online) with Ven. Prof. Karma Lekshe Tsomo about “Gender in Himalayan Buddhism: Glacial Shifts in Attitudes and Institutions.”

https://himalaya.arts.ubc.ca/events/event/gender-in-himalayan-buddhism-glacial-shifts-in-attitudes-and-institutions/
Please register here: https://bit.ly/32hp8wa

Abstract: The very mention of Himalayan Buddhism conjures visions of an exotic tradition. A gong reverberating amidst resonant baritone voices. A red-robed monk gliding serenely off into the sunset. Delightful young acolytes giggling and blowing bubbles. But where are the women and how long will it take for them to get in the picture?

Although there are many inspiring images of awakened women in Buddhist iconography, conditions on the ground are not always as enlightened. In the Himalayan region, almost all religious leaders are male and contradictions between the Buddha’s egalitarian teachings and the patriarchal structuring of Buddhist institutions are stark. In recent years, however, significant changes have been taking place for Buddhist women around the world. Major challenges still lie ahead but the shift in attitudes and opportunities for women in Himalayan Buddhist societies has been quite remarkable. What accounts for this shift? Awakening, the goal of the Buddhist path, is ultimately beyond gender. The challenge is to how to translate this noble ideal into practice, for the good of all.

About the speaker: Ven. Prof. Karma Lekshe Tsomo is a renowned specialist in Buddhist studies and a Professor at the University of San Diego. Her research interests include women in Buddhism, death and dying, Buddhist feminist ethics, Buddhism and bioethics, religion and politics, Buddhist social ethics, and Buddhist transnationalism. She integrates scholarship and social activism through the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and Jamyang Foundation, an innovative education project for women in developing countries, with fifteen schools in the Indian Himalayas, Bangladesh, and Laos.

With best wishes, 
Dr. Dagmar Schwerk (she/her/hers)
Khyentse Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Tibetan Buddhist Studies
Department of Asian Studies | Himalaya Program
University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

This prayer would be good to recite often during these times.
– Lekshe

Namo Guru Ratnatraya! 
To the Teacher and the Three Jewels, I bow. 

  True leader of the golden age – Crown of the Sakyas! 
  Second Buddha, Prince of Oddiyana, Lake-Born Vajra, 
  Bodhisattvas – eight closest spiritual heirs 
  High Nobles, Avilokiteshvara and Manjushri, 
  Vajrapani and the rest! 
  Twenty-one Taras, Host of Noble Elders, 
  Root and lineage lamas, deities, 
  Peaceful and wrathful gods! 
  Dakinis in your three homes! 
  (the earth, the heavens and the emanated worlds!) 
  You who through wisdom or karma have become Defenders of the Doctrine! 
  Guardians of the Directions! 
  Seventy-five Glorious Protectors! 
  You who are clairvoyant, powerful, magical and mighty! 
  Behold and ponder the beings of this age of turmoil! 

  We are beings born at the sorry end of time; 
  An ocean of ill-effects overflow from our universally bad actions. 
  The forces of light flicker, 
  The forces of darkness, a demon army, inflames great and powerful men. 
  And they rise in conflict, armed with nuclear weapons 
  That will disintegrate the earth. 
  The weapon of perverse and errant intentions 
  Has unleashed the hurricane. 
  Soon, in an instant, it will reduce the world 
  And all those in it to atoms of dust. 
  Through this ill-omened devils’ tool 
  It is easy to see, to hear and think about 
  Ignorant people, caught in a net of confusion and doubt, 
  Are obstinate and still refuse to understand. 
  It terrifies us just to hear about or to remember 
  This unprecedented thing. 

  The world is filled with uncertainty, 
  But there is no means of stopping it, nor place of hope, 
  Other than you, undeceiving Three Jewels and Three Roots, 
  (Buddhas, Teaching and Spiritual Community, Lama, Deity and 
  Dakini) 
  If we cry to you like children calling their mother and father, 
  If we implore you with this prayer, 
  Do not falter in your ancient vows! 
  Stretch out the lightning hand of compassion! 
  Protect and shelter us defenseless beings, and free us from fear! 
  When the mighty barbarians sit in council of war 
  – barbarians who rob the earth of pleasure and happiness 
  – barbarians who have wrong, rough, poisonous thoughts. 
  Bend their chiefs and lieutenants 
  To the side of peace and happiness! 
  Pacify on the spot, the armed struggle that blocks us! 
  Turn away and defeat the atomic weapons 
  Of the demons’ messengers, 
  And by that power, make long the life of the righteous, 
  And spread the theory and practice of the doctrine 
  To the four corners of this great world! 
  Eliminate root, branch and leaf – even the names 
  Of those dark forces, human and non-human, 
  Who hate others and the teaching! 
  Spread vast happiness and goodness 
  Over this fragile planet! 
  Elevate it truly with the four kinds of glory! 
  And as in the golden age, with all strife gone, 
  Let us be busy only with the dance of pleasure, the dance of joy! 
  We pray with pure thoughts- 
  By the compassion of that ocean the three supreme refuges 
  And the power of the Realm of Truth; 
  The complete sublime truth, 
  Achieve the goal of this, our prayer 
  Magically, just as we have hoped and dreamed! 

Translated from the Tibetan by Richard Kohn and Lama Tsedrup Tharchin 

More about Chatral Rinpoche

This concise instruction manual for the meditation we do in most public meditation sessions at Dekeling is offered freely by Rinpoche on his website. Of course, we are free to visit the site and offer something at any time. https://namobuddhapub.org/zc/Dharma-Books

Many of you have asked for explicit instructions and I have recommended Crystal Clear as my best recommendation. And we are working on creating some videos for you. But in the meantime, this short PDF booklet is an excellent option. `

“Right now there are Tibetan Buddhist monks in a temple in the Himalayas endlessly reciting mantras for the cessation of your suffering and for the flourishing of your happiness. Someone you haven’t met yet is already dreaming of adoring you. Someone is writing a book that you will read in the next two years that will change how you look at life. Nuns in the Alps are in endless vigil, praying for the Holy Spirit to alight the hearts of all of God’s children. A farmer is looking at his organic crops and whispering, “nourish them”. Someone wants to kiss you, to hold you, to make tea for you. Someone is willing to lend you money, wants to know what your favorite food is, and treat you to a movie. Someone in your orbit has something immensely valuable to give you — for free. Something is being invented this year that will change how your generation lives, communicates, heals and passes on. The next great song is being rehearsed. Thousands of people are in yoga classes right now intentionally sending light out from their heart chakras and wrapping it around the earth. Millions of children are assuming that everything is amazing and will always be that way. Someone is in profound pain, and a few months from now, they’ll be thriving like never before. From where they are, they just can’t see it . Someone has recently cracked open their joyous, genuine nature because they did the hard work of hauling years of oppression off of their psyche — this luminous juju is floating in the ether, and is accessible to you. Someone just this second wished for world peace, in earnest. Someone is dedicating their days to protecting your civil liberties and clean drinking water. Someone is regaining their sanity. Someone is coming back from the dead. Someone is genuinely forgiving the seemingly unforgivable. Someone is curing the incurable. You. Me. Some. One. Now.”

   — Mary Standing Otter

This article tells us about Dudjom Rinpoche’ sudden and unexpected passing. We remember his community with respect and love.

Saturday, Feb 19th, is the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, creating a sudden situation of distress and tragedy for our neighbors, friends and family. of Japanese ancestry.

Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps—as prisoners without a crime. 

Grounded in the confusion, fear and sadness of war and and in the still on-going persecution and racism against Japanese American citizens in the US, this act disrupted life and liberty for so many. Even today, the impacts of EO 9066 are embedded in the thoughts, feelings and actions of the citizens of our country, and the world. 

Many of those interred were practitioners of Buddhism, and like many Tibetans who were and are persecuted today, they brought practice to their suffering. Their stories are important to our spiritual formation as contemporary American Buddhists. Please read more on this topic. Please use the suffering of these and all beings—including the perpetrators of these actions—as practice this weekend. As community, let’s keep these events in the light, and resolve to own our own role in the creation and resolution of suffering of all kinds. Suffering has no past, no future:  it is alive in hearts and minds right now, right here, and can be created and must be resolved in this and every moment. 

Learn more about Executive Order 9066 and its impacts on the lives of our Japanese American sisters and brothers here, and here and many other places online. May the Dekeling community ground itself on the fundamental equality of all, understanding that there is no ‘other.’

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

(from The Selected Poetry of Yehudi Amichai, translation by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell, University of California Press, 1996,)