A Gift of Dharma for 2.19.10 February 19, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.Tags: His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoch
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Today’s quote comes from His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), whom I previously quoted and wrote a short biography for in the very first “A Gift of Dharma” post. This is it–from his book Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training, pg. 19-20:
Bodhichitta is the unfailing method for attaining enlightenment. It has two aspects, relative and absolute. Relative Bodhichitta is practised using ordinary mental processes and is comparatively easy to develop. Nevertheless, the benefits that flow from it are immeasurable, for a mind in which the precious Bodhichitta has been born will never again fall into the lower realms of samsara. Finally, all the qualities of the Mahayana Path, as teeming and vast as the ocean, are distilled and essentialized in Bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment.
We must prepare ourselves for this practice by following the instructions in the sadhana of Chenrezig, ‘Take refuge in the Three Jewels and meditate on Bodhichitta. Consider that all your virtuous acts of body, speech and mind are for the whole multitude of beings, numerous as the sky is vast.’
It is said in the teachings that, ‘Since beings are countless, the benefit of wishing them well is unlimited.’ And how many beings there are! Just imagine, in this very lawn there might be millions and millions of them! If we wish to establish them all in the enlightened state of Buddhahood, it is said that the benefit of such an aspiration is as vast as the number of beings is great. Therefore we should not restrict our Bodhichitta to a limited number of beings. Wherever there is space, beings exist, and all of them live in suffering. Why make distinctions between them, welcoming some as loving friends and excluding others as hostile enemies?
Throughout the stream of our lives, from time without beginning until the present, we have all been wandering in samsara, accumulating evil. When we die, where else is there for us to go to but the lower realms? But if the wish and thought occur to us that we must bring all beings to the enlightened state of Buddhahood, we have generated what is known as Bodhichitta in intention. We should then pray to the teacher and the yidam deities that the practice of the precious Bodhichitta might take root in our hearts. We should recite the seven branch prayer from the Prayer of Perfect Action, and, sitting upright, count our breaths twenty-one times without getting mixed up or missing any, and without being distracted by anything. If we are able to count our breaths concentratedly for a whole mala, discursive thoughts will diminish and the practice of relative Bodhichitta will be much easier. This is how to become a suitable vessel for meditation.
Check Out Karen Kissel Wigela’s New Psychology Today Blog February 19, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhist psychology, Karen Kissel Wigela, Naropa University.Tags: Buddhist psychology, contemplative psychology, Karen Kissel Wigela, Naropa University, Psychology Today, The Courage to Be Present
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Karen Kissel Wigela is a super-cool professor of contemplative psychology at my graduate alma mater Naropa University. She’s also the author of the wonderful books How to Be a Help Instead of a Nuisance: Practical Approaches to Giving Support, Service, and Encouragement to Others and The Courage to Be Present: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Awakening of Natural Wisdom. She also has a new blog at Psychology Today, also called The Courage to Be Present, that you should check out immediately if not sooner.
Tiger Woods Talks about His Buddhist Practice in Statement to the Media February 19, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhism and popular culture.Tags: Brit Hume, Buddhism, Tiger Woods
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The full video is below, but, over at Shambhala Sun Space, our bud/editor Rod Meade Sperry pulls out the specific mentions of Buddhism:
I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path, for me, is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught. As I move forward, I will continue to receive help, because I’ve learned that that’s how people really do change.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Appear on Larry King Live Monday Night February 19, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Dalai Lama, Television.Tags: CNN, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Larry King, Larry King Live
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This via our bud/Shambhala Sun Space editor Rod Meade Sperry at The Worst Horse:
That’s right, folks, set your DVRs. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be on Larry King Live this coming Monday night. The LKL site says he will talk “about China, human rights and Haiti in his only interview after his controversial meeting with President Obama.”