Gazing at the queue of patients huddling tightly for warmth at the Medical Camp gives a glimpse into the lower realms. Bihar is the poorest state in India but their condition is beyond poverty. Many are truly the wretched of the earth, a jumble of skin and bones in threadbare outer garments with parchment skins and haystack hair. Some seem like figures from an apocalypse emerging from under the ground.
Lhakpa Tsering works with His Holiness Karmapa’s office in Delhi and comes to Bodhgaya for the medical camp at the Kagyu Monlam. He has been coming here for the past 5 years and has faced many challenges.
Most of the complaints revolve around malnutrition, joint pain, back pain, cold, cough, fever, stomach problems, vertigo. Last year we had 4-5000 people. We are trying to keep the numbers down this year so we did not do much publicity. Yesterday there were 500 people, the day before, 400. On average we treat 600-700 people a day. The camp has increased from four to seven days running from 9 am to 5 pm.
Every year we bring more and more professionals to conduct the camp. Now there are 14 nurses, 2 doctors from Himachal Pradesh and another 4 from Gaya Medical College. This year we have a lab technician from the Delek hospital in Dharamsala, and a pharmacist. We collect blood samples; we also give liver and kidney function tests. The hepatitis tests show results in 15 minutes. If the patient doesn’t have it, they are advised to receive a vaccination program. We try to make people aware whether they have it or not.
First they get registered, then they go to a nurse for weight, height, blood pressure, sugar test, temperature, and a pulse check. After that they go to see a doctor who proscribes medicine and they receive counselling. A very important component is counselling. When they pick up their medicine they meet the nurses and pharmacists and get another round of counselling on lifestyle and nutrition. They are told what to avoid, what to eat. We treat between 4-5000 people in the course of a week and then there’s a follow up as well.
The arrival of Mingyur Rinpoche, who steps lightly from a black SUV, brightens up the starkness. He goes from room to room talking to nurses, doctors, checking the technology, observing the conditions with composure. His radiance and presence is like a healing balm. He’s relaxed in ordinary mind. It is as it is.
If only a course of medical treatments could restore full humanity. Like everything else, it’s not the final answer, but it’s the only way to go. It’s lighting a lamp in darkness.
All the buddhas of the past attained Buddhahood because they could take on the sufferings of others and send them well- being and happiness. If one cannot give rise to bodhicitta, even if one engages in the profound dharmas, one is not going to attain Buddhahood.
Atisha’s renowned Seven Points of Mind Training, transmitted into the Kagyu lineage through Gampopa, is a summary of seven essential practices on the path of the bodhisattva. The second point is the actual practice of meditation on relative bodhicitta, called taking and sending.
The Goshir Gyaltsapa explained clearly the stages of this practice, which forms the foundation of the Mahayana.
First we need to understand that there is no sentient being who has not been our mother, our son or daughter. They have all been extremely kind to us at one point or another. For example, even if we try to count how many times one sentient being has been our mother, it is endless. All sentient beings have been our mothers but it’s difficult to recall their kindness. These key instructions habituate our minds to it.
We begin by thinking about our mother in this life. Visualize her and reflect on the kindness she has shown us. We were conceived in her womb; our body was formed by taking the essence of her body to develop our own. Our eyes, ears, tongue, arms, and legs developed by extracting her essence. Her life force was taken from her, weakening her body, to nurture us with her body. Further, she experienced a lot of pain at birth. Once we were born, she had to look after us 24 hours a day. She didn’t have time to eat her own food or take care of herself.
If we can remember our mother’s kindness in this way, compassion will grow and we will be able to think of other humans, or animals who have been kind to us. In this way we become habituated to the mind of compassion and we can extend it to all beings on planet earth, increasing our compassion even more. Then extend the reflection further. Think of the beings we don’t see – certain animals, pretas, hell beings. Most of the beings who have been our mothers in the past are said to be residing in the hells and their sufferings are so great we cannot even imagine what they are.
The story is told of a person who asked Ananda for proof that the hell realms actually existed. He wanted to be shown with his own eyes. Ananda cut through the earth with his hands and told him to look inside a large crevice in the ground. For a second he experienced the hell realms. Once he had this glimpse he never forgot it. If he was eating food and he remembered the hell scene, he would vomit. ‘’It is said that the fires that burn in hell, are hundreds of times greater than the fire in the human realm. If hell beings could experience the fire in the human realm they would find it rather pleasant in comparison,’’ Rinpoche commented. To further illustrate his point, ‘’It is said when the Buddha was teaching the sufferings of hell, it was so difficult to bear he could not teach it clearly. Had he recounted it fully his students would have been extremely terrified. Many of these beings who have been our mothers are experiencing it right now.’’
When you develop compassion to that extent, then meditate on beings you don’t like, those who have harmed you. Extend your reflection to enemies. They have also been our mothers in the past, and they are experiencing the same suffering. We must do everything we can to remove their suffering and establish them in happiness. We need to increase our fortitude, our strength of mind, and continue this meditation until compassion really happens.
The suffering we experience here in the human realm is hardly anything at all, said Rinpoche. It cannot be compared to the hells. Illness and death are the main sources of our suffering but even when we are ill, it’s hardly suffering compared to the hells. And when we die we lie on a nice bed with good conditions around us.
Animals’ experience is very different. ‘’If one animal attacks another there’s no police, no one to help them. In the human realm we can call the police or bring cases to court.’’
The root of all of this suffering is the afflictions, ever present in our mind ready to harm us. Attachment, aversion, and ignorance are the causes of the lower realms. Although we are not in the lower realms, we have the seeds within our being. As humans we’re on the edge of a steep cliff ready to fall should we be overcome by them. We have to be careful.
We have already given rise to bodhicitta, the wish to do everything we can to establish all beings in happiness. Now we have to develop it, to make our minds strong and become familiar with these teachings on mind training. The next stage is to develop the wish to take on the suffering ourselves and to give our happiness to all beings. We have to alternate between these two thoughts.
We do the meditation by joining it with our breath. Imagine the suffering of all beings and its causes. All this suffering enters our body in the form of a very dark light. Think that all beings are freed from their suffering and its causes. When one is breathing out one imagines the white of the moon is exhaled through our nostrils striking each and every sentient being. Every being experiences our merit, our happiness, our qualities and its causes equally until they attain Buddhahood. Imagine it has actually happened and feel their great joy. Do this repeatedly. We can join the visualization with the recitation of the mani mantra. Working in this way will amass the accumulations.
Through this practice we can work with the six perfections – patience, generosity, diligence- all are included. The ultimate fruit is the state of complete and perfect Buddhahood. Everything a Buddha does benefits others. Every breath the Buddha takes is of benefit to sentient beings. Every step, every breath. We can develop the wish that each of our actions will help sentient beings. The cause is the practice of sending and taking with the breath. This is how we work with the practice in terms of the session.
When the session is ended and we’re off the cushion, Rinpoche explained, we can continue the practice when aversion to things we don’t like arises, or attachment to pleasing objects, or the dullness of ignorance towards neutral objects. ‘’We don’t understand their ultimate nature, we don’t understand how they have arisen interdependently, based on causes and conditions. Their nature is obscured; as is the nature of how our own body has arisen interdependently.’’
The Mahayana has a way to work with these objects and poisons, to turn these three kinds of objects into virtue. This is spelled out clearly in the mind training instructions.
The words are easy to understand. We experience a beautiful object, desire arises. Reflect on others. This affliction is a cause for taking birth in the lower realms. Understanding that all beings have this cause, we think ‘Ah, this is not good’. So we make the wish: may all these afflictions be gathered into me and may they be freed from attachment. Then we wish that virtuous states of mind arise in them. When one is free from attachment, it’s easy to engage in generosity, and maintain ethical conduct and so forth.
Similarly, with anger. We reflect that all beings have been my mothers and will be reborn in the hells. We make the wish, may all beings be freed from anger and may all their anger dissolve into me and be subsumed into the anger I’m experiencing. Then freed from aversion, virtuous states can arise, especially the perfection of patience. May they attain this.
Ignorance is the root of the other two afflictions. It’s pervasive. We wish all beings to be freed from this ignorance and may their ignorance be absorbed into me. Having done this, the perfection of wisdom arises in their mind.
In this way, our many misdeeds can be purified.
[NB This is not a transcription of the teaching. It is a report using edited extracts from an oral translation of the teaching.]
Goshir Gyaltsap Rinpoche began the first day of the 36th Kagyu Monlam by giving the participants the twenty-four hour sojong vows. Having concluded the early morning chanting and a tea break, Gyaltsap Rinpoche directed our attention to cultivating bodhichitta, the mind of awakening.
He reminded everyone that if you practice the Mahayana path and take vows, whether as a young novice monastic or as a lay person, they should be taken and received with a mind moistened with bodhicitta. He emphasized, if we are to practice the teachings of the secret Mahayana, every empowerment should also be received with the mind of awakening.
As he noted, the Buddha dispensed the teachings of the Mahayana based on the capacity of the student. These days, however, it is difficult to find a lama who can distinguish which disciples have the right capacity. Therefore, the teachings are given on the basis that the student wishes to develop a strong capacity to receive the teachings. For any practice these days, interest must be vast and longing must be strong. Only then will we come to possess and embody the practice.
Even if we give rise to the mind of awakening, we need it to increase. We cannot simply give rise to the mind of awakening and leave it at that. In order to increase the mind of awakening further and further, we should always consider the benefit of others and never regard our own benefit as important.
For instance, he continued, if we are practicing and we receive fame or wealth, it should only be received so that it can of benefit to all sentient beings. Otherwise, if fame or wealth will not benefit others, we should not ask for it. Another example is that we may have aspirations to experience the sufferings of hell if it will be beneficial to other sentient beings. Furthermore, when we are practicing the Dharma, our aspiration should be for the result of realizing the path of seeing in order to benefit sentient beings. If this benefit is not there, then there is no benefit in striving for this. Similarly, the timing of when the Buddha Maitreya attains the state of Buddhahood is in accord with when it will be most beneficial to sentient beings.
So now, even though we may have given rise to the mind of awakening, we do not have fortitude. For countless births in the past, we have only thought of our own benefit and engaged in misdeeds for a hundred-thousand or more lives, since we have a strong habituation for self-cherishing.
It is like Shantideva said, even though we want happiness, we view the causes of happiness as an enemy. When striving for happiness, we engage in things that are actually misdeeds and we end up experiencing suffering. We want happiness but we are engaging in the wrong means. Subsequently, when experiencing this suffering, we do even more things for our own benefit which we mistakenly believe will lead happiness. Then again, these turn out to be misdeeds. We engage in negative actions and then experience more suffering. Suffering just increases and increases. This is because we are not seeing things clearly. We are obscured by ignorance. We engage in the wrong paths and the wrong means to accomplish our wishes for our own benefit.
Rinpoche gave several examples. We think we want some delicious food and end up killing an animal, which results in a negative birth in a hell realm in the future. Other times, we encounter things we wish to avoid and fall sway to aversion and jealousy creating further causes for suffering. So to abandon this way of thinking we must give rise to compassion and loving kindness. The Buddha gave these teachings to Maitreya who taught them to Atisha. Rinpoche continued, due to Atisha’s kindness of spreading these teachings throughout Tibet, and since we are so fortunate to receive these teachings, we need to put them into practice.
Following this profound instruction on bodhicitta, as requested by His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa, Gyaltsap Rinpoche began teaching the mind training text – Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje’s The Seven Points of Mind Training: Oral Advice of the Mahayana. These teachings were passed through Jowo Atisha to Lord Gampopa. During this session, Rinpoche focused on the first point, the preliminaries, and on one aspect of the second point, actual practice.
Regarding the preliminaries, we must give rise to the fruit of practice for it to take root in our being. And for this to happen, we have to receive the blessings of the lama. Rinpoche noted that long ago, when the Buddha turned the first wheel of Dharma and gave teachings to his five great disciples, on hearing the teachings which were imbued with the Buddha’s blessing and compassion, they simultaneously attained the state of arhat.
So, for that very reason, when we are beginning our session, we begin our meditation seated in lotus posture, visualizing our guru on a lotus on a moon disk above our head. We supplicate our guru who rests in non-referential compassion and who is none other than the Buddha Shakyamuni and Maitreya gathered into one. We supplicate the guru with prayer and then in this way, we imagine a glow of light in our heart center and the guru descends from the crown of head into our center. We beseech the guru to give us blessings so that our mind becomes mixed with the mind of the guru.
Once we complete these stages of supplication, we do preliminary meditation on precious human rebirth, death and impermanence. Then we contemplate that there is not one sentient being who has not been our mother, son, or daughter in the past. This has been the case over countless births: these beings have been our parents and this should inform every experience. When we see birds, insects, and so forth, we should remember that each and every sentient being has been incredibly kind to us.
Likewise, he continued, the same is true for our own children. We work really hard to give them the best of everything and we have great hopes for them. We hope that they will get a good education and great work. Whether it is our sons and daughters we have from previous lives or this life, it is clear that when we consider our countless sons and daughters in a very deep way, it helps give rise to the mind of bodhicitta.
Rinpoche then turned our attention to the actual practice. For these particular teachings, we should meditate on ultimate bodhicitta and relative bodhicitta. When engaging in the practice of ultimate bodhicitta, we should find a proper seat and follow our own breath twenty-one times without making a mistake. If we make a mistake, it is a sign that our discursive thinking is out of control. If we can follow our own breath twenty-one times, then it is a sign that we are ready for meditation. We must let our mind rest as a preliminary practice.
Rinpoche elaborated on the text which instructs, “regard all phenomena as dreams.” He stressed that we need to meditate that all forms and phenomena are like a dream and that all appearances arise based upon causes and conditions. As he said, “Every instant, each and every moment is changing. When we look at a piece of paper and say it is old, it is because in each instant it is changing. This is why we say that all phenomena are like a dream.”
He asked, “How are phenomena like this? Is this inner mind truly existent?” He replied, “This inner mind is also not truly existent. When we look to see where this mind came from and where it stays or where it goes, we cannot find that place and that is because the mind is not truly existent.” Then, we look at outer phenomena and see it also like a dream. This is one antidote to grasping. So we must rest in the very nature of mind and if you are unsure how to do this, then you try to do your best at it, Rinpoche encouraged. He then concluded the session with a meditation for supplicating the guru.
His Eminence the Goshir Gyaltsapa bestowed the Torma Empowerment of Gyalwa Gyatso to an assembly of international Sangha and Himalayan laypeople, who filled the massive vaulted pavilion to overflowing, spreading outside like a river to the pop-up stalls and hubbub of Indian street life.
The mandala, contained within an exotic glittering gold pagoda, came to life as the Goshir Gyaltsapa narrated the glorious history of Gyalwa Gyatso.
As was the command of the Gyalwa Karmapa during this event of pre-Monlam, I will give the 5 deity empowerment of Gyalwa Gyamtso. All of our practice of the dharma in the Himalayan region is related to generating the mind of awakening so we should think we receive this empowerment for the benefit of all sentient beings who fill the whole of space.
Gyalwa Gyamtso or the red Chenresig is one of three main yidams of the Karma Kagyu along with Chakrasamvara and Vajra Yogini. Many who have practised it attained siddhi and it has been of benefit to a great many beings.
There are many different lineages of Gyalwa Gyatso, some coming from India and later schools in Tibet. There were many texts of the practice of Chenresig but amongst them all, the one that has had vast benefit is this practice of Gyalwa Gyatso. There are different configurations of the deity; sometimes there are nine but in this particular practice there are 5 deities. Lamas, buddhas, bodhisattvas, heroes, dakinis, protectors, are all represented, so it is said there is no Buddha, bodhisattvas, hero, dakini, or protector that is not contained within this practice; including all the treasure texts of Chenresig that Guru Rinpoche hid in Tibet.
Gyalwa Gyatso is in the middle; the five deities are Hayagriva to the right, Tsomo Yeshe, a form of Vajra Varahi to the left, above is Padmasambhava, below are dakinis and protectors. Each of them is surrounded by a vast retinue of their kind. This practice is unique in that Gyalwa Gyatso’s retinue is an ocean of all the yidams, in Hayagriva are all the heroes, in Tsomo Yeshe all the dakinis are contained, around Padmasambhava is an ocean of siddhas and with Bernakchen below is the ocean of protectors.
History of the Lineage
Marpa brought back many teachings from India to Tibet but some of the secret mantra were left behind. He said to his disciple Milarepa, if it was possible to go to Tibet, he should go himself but if it was not possible, he should send one of his students. And so Milarepa sent his disciple Rechungpa to India, who attended a great many masters, but most special was the teaching of Gyalwa Gyatso that he received from the female mahasiddha, Machik Drupe Gyalmo. He also received another version of the practice from Tipupa. At this point the history becomes multi-dimensional. Tipupa was the consciousness transference of Marpa’s son Dharma Doday who died tragically in a horse riding accident. Marpa was able to transfer Dharma Doday’s consciousness to a pigeon who flew to India and transferred its consciousness into that of a dying Brahmin boy. So Rechungpa brought back to Tibet this practice from Tipupa, to the delight of Milarepa. Rechungpa transmitted the practice to one of his students, his attendant, Zangri Repa, a ngagpa. Zangri Repa passed it to Dropa Repa, another ngagpa. When Dropa Repa travelled to Tibet at the age of 37, he took ordination and became one of the great siddhas of the Karma Kagyu lineage. His two principle students were Lodro Gyaltsen and Pomdrakpa, who attained siddhi. Pomdrakpa became the guru of Karma Pakshi who received many teachings from him, including Gyalwa Gyatso.
Karma Pakshi became a renowned mahasiddha through this practice, seeing the deity face- to-face. From that time, he became inseparable from Gyalwa Gyatso. When he met the Mongolian kings Kublai Khan and Gushri Khan, he showed miracles such that they became Buddhists. Through their influence, they spread the Buddhadharma and their benefit to beings was as vast as the sky. Karma Pakshi’s main student passed the lineage to Rangjung Dorje and then it continued through the line of Karmapas. Many great masters of Karma Kagyu have taken Gyalwa Gyatso as their yidam, including Karma Chagme Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrol Lodro Thaye; and many of the Karmapas, Shamarpas, Gyaltsapas, and Pawo Rinpoches.
Rinpoche led us through the meditation in which the five tormas represent the five deities of Gyalwa Gyatso.
He then conferred the torma empowerment individually on everyone present, as the monk and nun umzes led a continuous recitation of the ‘Twenty-One Praises of Tara’. Accompanied by Drupon Dechen Rinpoche and Shelri Tulku, Gyaltsap Rinpoche walked up and down the rows of monks, nuns and laypeople, placing the torma on the crown of their heads, before venturing outside to confer the empowerment on the hundreds who were waiting patiently in the approach to the pavilion. There were approximately 9000 people present and it took two hours.
The great Kagyu Lineage Holders, Rinpoches, Lamas and Khenpos have shown us all a wonderful example of how we can continue to work together to fulfil the aspirations of His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa. The Kagyu Monlam continues to grow. There are various humanitarian projects connected to the Kagyu Monlam that express His Holiness Karmapa’s vision of a world where we all look after each other with kindness. Compassion in Action is flourishing and this year another new initiative has been added. Close by the magnificent Monlam Pavillion is a room in a small hotel where a pilot project is running to empower young local women taking part in a 2-month sewing training course.
The Sewing Happiness Project started on 1st December 2018 and will run until 30th January 2019. A group of 18 women, between the ages of 15 and 33, has been gathering for two hours each day, six days a week. The training has been delivered by two skilful local teachers who have previous experience in this type of project. The course has been designed as an introduction to sewing and tailoring, including: using a sewing machine, hand sewing, using fabric and understanding patterns. The aim is that by the end of the course the participants will be able to repair items of clothing and know how to make six useful types of traditional garments.
This programme was the brain child of Jangchup Lingpa, the Secretary of the Kagyupa International Trust. Lama Chodrak, CEO of Kagyu Monlam was happy to support the initiative and immediately gave Jangchup the go ahead to pursue his idea further. For some years the Kagyupa International Trust has been working in collaboration with the Hart Knowe Trust from Scotland on charitable projects such as the Akong Tulku Memorial Soup Kitchen. The Hart Knowe Trust was started by students of the late Akong Rinpoche and when Jangchup contacted them they were delighted to be able to help. One of the trustees, Vin Harris said: “When working with Lama Chodrak and Jangchup we have often talked about finding projects that will contribute some longer term value for the people of Bodhgaya. I’m really excited to see how the Sewing Happiness Project can develop in future to help participants gain trust in their own potential as well as bringing them much needed economic benefits. Perhaps one day the project may even be able to provide sewing services for Monasteries and the Kagyu Monlam”.
Representatives of Hart Knowe Trust accompanied Lama Chodrak when he visited the Sewing Happiness Project and they were introduced to the teachers and participants. They learnt how suitable participants from Bodhgaya and surrounding villages had been selected through local connections. A great deal of care has gone into making sure the project goes well and transport has been provided for the young women to make sure they are kept safe. The teachers reported that the students are making rapid progress because they are so keen to learn such useful skills. It now looks like they will be able to learn to make three extra types of garments than had originally been anticipated. Following her visit to the project, Marilyn Harris from Hart Knowe Trust commented: “It is really lovely to see how much these young women have learnt already. They are so enthusiastic to have this new skill and seem happy to be making new friends. It is definitely a worthwhile project that can be expanded”.
Following discussions with the teachers and students, Kagyupa International Trust and Hart Knowe Trust will be meeting to review what has been learnt from the pilot scheme and to consider the next steps in this inspiring journey.
