Podcasts about karma chagme

Part 2: Lama Dawa Rinpoche teaches from a special text by Karma Chagme Raga Asya, on visualizations to be practiced in conjunction with the Leu Dunma, the Seven Chapter Prayer of Guru Rinpoche.  Recorded in Iowa, 2006. Part 2: Covers the  Chapter 2 & 3 of the Leu Dunma.

Part 1: Lama Dawa Rinpoche teaches from a special text by Karma Chagme Raga Asya, on visualizations to be practiced in conjunction with the Leu Dunma, the Seven Chapter Prayer of Guru Rinpoche.  Recorded in Iowa, 2006. Part 1: Covers the Background, History and Chapter 1 of the Leu Dunma.

Part 3: Lama Dawa Rinpoche teaches from a special text by Karma Chagme Raga Asya, on visualizations to be practiced in conjunction with the Leu Dunma, the Seven Chapter Prayer of Guru Rinpoche.  Recorded in Iowa, 2006. Part 3: Covers the  Chapter 4 & 5 of the Leu Dunma.

Part 4: Lama Dawa Rinpoche teaches from a special text by Karma Chagme Raga Asya, on visualizations to be practiced in conjunction with the Leu Dunma, the Seven Chapter Prayer of Guru Rinpoche.  Recorded in Iowa, 2006. Part 1: Covers Chapter 6 & 7 (Sampa Lhundrub).

This week's Dharma Talk is entitled My Favorite Dharma Book: Mountain Dharma, Part 2 by Cathy Lhamo Jackson. Cathy Lhamo continues her exploration of Karma Chagme's comprehensive book Mountain Dharma...

This week's Dharma Talk is entitled My Favorite Dharma Book: Mountain Dharma by Cathy Lhamo Jackson. This is an Introduction to Karma Chagme's comprehensive book Mountain Dharma written in 1659....

As a bonus, at the end of our retreat Alan presented to us the teachings on Sukhavati from Karma Chagme. If you missed your chance for the three modes of achieving enlightenment, then it is definitely not Alan’s fault, with all the podcasts up to now you guys had your opportunities. If not, don’t start crying yet, there is still the light of hope on the Western horizon, and that’s Amitabha’s pure land. There are different levels of pure lands that can be reached by beings, depending on their abilities. If you have already achieved a high level of realization you have full choice. Would you like to be in Akanishta or is it not challenging enough for you to go there? Well, most of us might want to start trying with Sukhavati first, that is more within reach of ordinary beings who are still prone to mental afflictions. What could prevent you from going there are the five deeds of immediate retribution. But other than that, the entrance examination is comparatively easy. Once you have achieved rebirth in Sukhavati you are all set. You can achieve enlightenment either there or in any other pure realm of your choice, Alan’s favorite will be Shambala. I am sure that he will establish the tradition of the 8-week retreats there, so make sure you will be able to join!

As a bonus, at the end of our retreat Alan presented to us the teachings on Sukhavati from Karma Chagme. If you missed your chance for the three modes of achieving enlightenment, then it is definitely not Alan’s fault, with all the podcasts up to now you guys had your opportunities. If not, don’t start crying yet, there is still the light of hope on the Western horizon, and that’s Amitabha’s pure land. There are different levels of pure lands that can be reached by beings, depending on their abilities. If you have already achieved a high level of realization you have full choice. Would you like to be in Akanishta or is it not challenging enough for you to go there? Well, most of us might want to start trying with Sukhavati first, that is more within reach of ordinary beings who are still prone to mental afflictions. What could prevent you from going there are the five deeds of immediate retribution. But other than that, the entrance examination is comparatively easy. Once you have achieved rebirth in Sukhavati you are all set. You can achieve enlightenment either there or in any other pure realm of your choice, Alan’s favorite will be Shambala. I am sure that he will establish the tradition of the 8-week retreats there, so make sure you will be able to join!

Today's evening session begins with the continuation of the discussion on the power of prayer and blessings. Alan gives a few examples of how blessings work and their possible bandwidth and draws analogies with the so-called placebo effect. After that, we move onto a beautiful practice of the stage of generation of Avalokiteshvara - the embodiment of compassion. The practice is based on a text titled "A spacious path to freedom" by Karma Chagme (which Alan translated) and the sadhana from the text together with its commentary will be made available to listeners of the podcast via the SBI website. Alan explains that this practice is part of public Dharma, which means that it can be done without an empowerment and/or oral transition, unlike other deity practices that do require an empowerment. In fact, it is highly recommended by Karma Chagme to begin one's daily practice with it as a means of obtaining blessings for the rest of the practice of meditation. First Alan explains the sadhana in detail and then we have a guided meditation. After this beautiful meditation, we continue discussing the four practices of the Seven Point Mind Training and the aphorism: "do not rely on the individual, rely on the Dharma; do not rely on the words, rely on the meaning; do not rely on the provisional meaning, rely on the definitive meaning." Alan also stresses the importance and meaning of a genuine teacher and the possibility of receiving blessings form one. Meditation starts at: 37:58

Teaching: Alan presents the conclusion from Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Emanation of Padmasambhava’s speech, Atisha addressed how to combine all the teachings of the 3 yanas into one practice. The fivefold practices are: 1) bodhicitta as motivation, 2) meditation on one’s own body as the deity, 3) meditation on one’s spiritual mentor as the deity, 4) view of non-conceptuality (insight into emptiness and rigpa), 5) dedication. Alan also introduces the 4 reliances: Rely not on the person but on the dharma. Rely not on words but on the meaning. Rely not on the provisional meaning but on the definitive meaning. Rely not on conditioned consciousness but on primordial consciousness. Both coarse mind and subtle mind (substrate consciousness) are conditioned consciousness. Meditation. Fivefold practice with shamatha, vipasyana, and vajrayana. Attend closely to sentient beings who all wish to be free from suffering. Arouse bodhicitta to be achieve awakening for the sake of sentient beings. Practice mindfulness of breathing to clean the space of awareness. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and tactile sensations therein. Monitor the space of the mind. Include the flow of knowing already present: awareness of being aware. Probe into the nature/referent of awareness, and know emptiness. Imagine personification of primordial consciousness Samantabhadra before you. Take refuge in the ultimate source of refuge. Samantabhadra comes to your crown, dissolves into light, flows down your central channel, and reforms at the heart. With every in breath, light of all the buddhas flow in from all directions. With every out breath, light flows out serving the needs of sentient beings, guiding each one to freedom. Dedicate the practice with your most meaningful aspiration. Q1. How can we keep motivation for practice fresh and unwavering?
Q2. What advice for people who want to do retreat? 
Q3. In mindfulness of breathing, sometimes I’m very aware that mind is right there. If I go into mind, it slows rumination. I’m not sure this is OK. Please explain the image of the air mattress. 
Q4. In settling the mind, sometimes everything is very vivid like I’m in right in the thick of things. Does this mean grasping? Meditation starts at: 35:30

Teaching pt1: Alan continues with verses 104-105 of Ch. 9 of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Since awareness cannot precede, co-occur, nor follow the object of awareness, awareness is not inherently real. Similarly, no phenomenon comes into (inherent) existence. Inherently existent phenomena cannot causally interact with anything. Only conventionally does awareness arise in dependence on an object. 
Alan talks about the entry point of the 5 paths and 10 bhumis as outlined in Asanga’s Abisamaya Alankara and summarized into the 4 yogas of Mahamudra in Karma Chagme’s Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Shamatha is the first step on the yoga of single-pointedness. The 4 applications of mindfulness brings you from earth-like bodhicitta to gold-like bodhicitta. Shamatha is the on-ramp to the bodhisattvayana. Meditation: Mindfulnes of the mind preceded by awareness of awareness. 
1) awareness of awareness. Settle the mind in the immediacy of the present moment. With every out breath, release awareness into space without an object. With every in breath, awareness converges on itself for an unelaborated experience of being aware. There is nothing to think about. Just taste it continually.
2) mindfulness of the mind. While you may have the sense that mind is empty, how about awareness which seems really there? Does awareness have attributes? Is it static? Does it have the quality of knowing? Luminosity and clarity? Is awareness still? What is the nature of awareness with these attributes? What is the distinction between awareness and non-awareness? Awareness and appearances? Rest non-conceptually in knowing emptiness of awareness—emptiness by nature luminous, luminosity by nature empty. Teaching pt2: Alan describes the development of ESP and other paranormal abilities. In the Theravada, paranormal abilities require realizing the dhyanas for each element. In the Mahayana, paranormal abilities appear in the first two paths through the union of shamatha and vipasyana on the nature of awareness. meditation starts at: 55:00

Teaching pt1. Alan recounts 2 parables from Karma Chagme’s Naked Awareness. 1) foolish prince who likes horses but develops renunciation and 2) foolish prince who becomes a beggar due to amnesia but rediscovers his true identity. Remain in the castle of your own awareness while beholding the kingdom of your own body. Take satisfaction in awareness resting in its own place. After rumination, take satisfaction in recovering awareness and coming home. Meditation: empathetic joy preceded by shamatha method of choice. 
1) shamatha method of choice. Let awareness come to rest, releasing all grasping and effort. 
2) empathetic joy. Take satisfaction in awareness holding it s own ground—still, relaxed, luminous, content. As you gain experiential insight into your own consciousness, take delight those sowing the seeds for the renaissance of contemplative traditions and a revolution in the mind sciences. Take delight in those identifying the true causes of suffering and pursuing the true causes of happiness. With each out breath, shine light of gratitude and appreciation. Teaching pt2. Who’s there according to the 3 turnings of the wheel of dharma? In the 1st turning, the autonomous agent is not there. In the 2nd turning, there is no sentient being to be found. In the 3rd turning, 1) where you are, there’s buddha mind, rigpa, or dharmakaya, 2) the ultimate nature of your mind and buddha mind is no different, and 3) all sentient beings belong to the same buddha family. We can either adopt and identify with mind and body arisen through karma and mental afflications or buddha mind. We need insight into emptiness of self and the guru in order to practice guru yoga which leads us to buddha mind. Guru yoga isn’t blind faith idolatry. Even in the 1st turning, we are advised to check the guru carefully before viewing him/her as an emissary of the Buddha. Apologies, there has been a cut in the recording at: 57:28 Meditation starts at: 18:45

For this short bonus episode, I extracted a question that Elizabeth said was maybe unanswerable, about the very beginning of ignorance and delusion (and samsara for that matter). But we all know by now that Alan always has something up his sleeve.He starts by talking about the problems that can arise when we misniterpret the Buddhist view that "samsara is beginningless". Infinite past lifes would mean infinite chances to achieve Bodhicitta, to go into meditation retreat for 60 years, to achieve enlightenment, etc, which would mean that we probably failed an infinite number of times. Not very motivating! So Alan gives a very sharp and amazing answer to this "unanswerable" question, which is both completely aligned with the Buddhist notion of a beginningless samsara and extremely logical, drawing from everyday examples such as thinking and dreaming. To illustrate his explanation, Alan draws on a short parable from the book "Naked Awareness" by Karma Chagme (although in the recording you will hear him say it was from "A Spacious Path to Freedom," which is actually the prequel... He made the correction later in the day). In the last 5 minutes, we go into the question of the "end of samsara," where Alan quotes H.H. Dalai Lama and then he ends by sharing a laughter-filled question he made back in Dharamsala about how the last sentient being can achieve enlightenment. I just laughed out loud again listening to it to write the desription.This much more flattering picture of last week's rainbow was provided by Rosa - thank you!