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Mandala
Art by Shirley Dodge
“I was sexually abused by a daycare worker the year before I started kindergarten. It was one of those situations that are often reported in newspapers, except this time no one was caught and there was no story. I forgot all about it until I was in my early thirties, yet it colored every aspect of my life, and when I started to remember the abuse, it ruled my life,” writes Ven. Gyalten Mindrol. “… Although I was fortunate to find a deeply gifted psychotherapist, who gave me a place to talk and didn’t overload me with theory and advice, it was the Dharma that helped me assimilate the abuse into my conscious life, and it was the abuse that radically deepened my understanding and practice of the Dharma, my faith in it, and my longing for it.”
From Mandala June-July 2006
Yangsi Rinpoche, Institut Varja Yogini
“Two things are happening right now: one is that Western students have completed all the necessary training and have come out with the label of ‘qualified’ or ‘ready to teach.’ Then, there is the other side where, due to individual karmic relationships, the teacher just naturally builds up the necessary qualities, but is not trained in the traditional way. In terms of individual students, you can relate to someone as ‘this is my teacher, I see he/she as qualified,’ but as for society, at this moment, all the traditions are trying to standardize that status.
“For me, personally speaking, there are a lot of qualified Western teachers, ordained and non-ordained, but right now the West is a “crossed place”; even though some qualified teachers exist, there’s not this box where people can categorize who is qualified and who is not.”
Read more …
From Mandala December 2006 – January 2007
Photo by Bob Cayton
“It is extremely important to know how to live our daily life. We need to know what is spiritual practice and what is not spiritual, or what is Dharma and what is not Dharma. The benefit of understanding this, of having this wisdom, is unbelievable, is infinite.
“What we have to realize is that all of our activities throughout twenty-four hours – walking, sitting, sleeping, talking, doing our job – can become a cause for enlightenment, for liberation, for happiness in future lives; or for the lower realms. It all depends on our motivation.”
Read Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s complete teaching …
From Mandala March 2001
Many Buddhist practitioners have encountered feelings of loneliness. According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book, Rinpoche once heard a monk comment that he felt people didn’t want to be with him and were avoiding him. Rinpoche offered this advice:
That is no problem at all. It is good, because you waste so much of your time if people are interested in meeting you. Then, no meditation, no study, nothing, just blah, blah, blah, blah. That is why Milarepa achieved enlightenment in a brief lifetime during degenerate times. Why did he go to meditate in very high mountains? That is the whole point. He did it in order not to waste his life. … Buddha said that as long as one follows desire, one will never get satisfaction. Satisfaction, here, means peace of mind, but in a broader way it also means to understand that as long as one follows desire, there is no liberation and no enlightenment.
You can read the complete advice Rinpoche offered this monk at “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book” on the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive website.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
After the terrorist attacks in the United States in September 2001 and the beginning of war in the Middle East, Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote an open letter to former U.S. President George W. Bush about the effectiveness of spiritual solutions for the crisis the world was facing.
“War is what ordinary people in the world regard as the solution,” Lama Zopa Rinpoche wrote. “The problem is that war, even if it is won, is like a medicine that has side effects. It may temporarily help the situation but afterwards there will be continual complications. Why? Because the people you defeat generate hatred towards you and in future generations they harm you back. In the natural law of actions, called karma in Sanskrit, the action of harming leaves an imprint on the mental continuum and that imprint is like a seed. When it ripens later, the person experiences the result of receiving harm from others.”
From Mandala March-May 2002.
Photo by Jeff Gould
In Ultimate Healing, published by Wisdom Publications, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) suggests the cure for not only depression, but all forms of illness and disease: unqualified love in the form of compassion for all living beings – including oneself. Written with humility and kindness, Ultimate Healing is rich in wisdom and practical help for those in pain.
“Depression can be the result of a specific situation, in which case you can apply the relevant meditation to deal with those conditions; however, depression and feelings of hopelessness can also arise for no particular reason. When you are experiencing depression, you should prepare yourself each morning by making a strong determination not to allow the situation to upset you. [This] strengthens you and gives you courage. Also make a strong determination to transform your depression into happiness. During the day, when you start to feel depressed or upset, you should immediately remember the determination you made in the morning and not let the situation overwhelm you. No matter how bad the situation seems, and even if it is commonly regarded as a serious problem, you should not allow it to make your life dark and depressed.
“After making this determination, you then mentally prepare yourself for the day by thinking of the methods you will use when you start to feel depressed or upset. There are various special techniques for fighting depression …”
From Mandala March-May 2002
FPMT News Around the World
Image: Dreamstime
You may have noticed that FPMT Education Services’ has been doing a lot of great work, updating and organizing their webpages to help students find the materials and information they need to do practice and study Dharma. Now you can find the latest news from Education Services about new practices, booklets, study materials, education programs and trainings on their new “FPMT Education News” page. Even better, you can subscribe to the page and receive announcements directly in your email inbox.
With more than 160 centers, projects and services around the globe, there is always news on FPMT activities, teachers and events. Mandala hopes to share as many of these timely stories as possible. If you have news you would like to share, please let us know.
If you like what you read on Mandala, consider becoming a Friend of FPMT, which supports our work.
Photo by Robin Bath
Lama Yeshe’s talk in Berkeley, California, in the summer of 1983 was given at a time when the world was in a state of anxiety about the threat of nuclear war. How easily it translates to today when new fears have arisen. As Lama said, “First we create a situation; then we’re scared of it. … However, there’s no need for fear, worry or anxiety because, first of all, nuclear energy is a reality and secondly, our opinion of what’s happening is just that – an opinion. It’s not yet a reality; it’s simply a presumption.” This extract, edited by Nick Ribush of the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archives, reflects Lama’s inimitable style.
Read more …
From Mandala March-May 2002
Photo by Sarah Keen
“There was a sense of shock in the large living room looking out onto the native Australian bush outside the windows. Kangur Khensur Rinpoche had been giving an impromptu after-dinner teaching to three married couples, and myself (his attendant), and had just said words to the effect that all ordinary sexual activity is non-virtuous…”
Read more on one monk’s thoughts about the process of growing up as a sexual being …
From Mandala March-May 2002
Every issue Mandala reviews new books spanning a wide variety of Buddhist topics. In this issue’s “Editor’s Choice” section we review His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s From Here to Enlightenment: An Introduction to Tsongkhapa’s Classic Text The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and Ven. Thubten Chodron Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Living with Wisdom and compassion. We also take a look at Susan J. Stabile’s Growing in Love and Wisdom: Tibetan Buddhist Sources for Christian Meditation and Inner Peace – Global Impact: Tibetan Buddhism, Leadership, and Work, edited by Kathryn Goldman Schuyler and featuring a chapter by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive director Nick Ribush. You can read all the reviews exclusively in the online edition of Mandala January-March 2013.
“The Tenth Karmapa, Chöying Dorjé (1604-1674), head of the Karma Kagyu school, was not a professional artist, but in Debreczeny’s words ‘painting and sculpture was his passion (65).’ Chöying Dorjé’s painting style was very different from ‘the mainstream Tibetan painting of his time (69),’ which was dominated by the Menri style from the mid-fifteenth century. Menri is known for its predominance of blue and green palette, strict iconography and iconometry [artistic conventions for the proportions of buddhas, deities and so forth], and a symmetrical composition crowded with details that fill the canvas. Chöying Dorjé was trained in part by his religious teacher, the Sixth Shamar, as well as a master painter of the Menri tradition, but seems to have developed most as an artist through the viewing and copying of Buddhist art encountered in his wide-ranging travels. Chöying Dorjé was especially interested in archaic styles and the art of Tibet’s neighbors, developing a highly personal idiom that incorporated features from what Tibetans called ‘Kashmir’ (northwest India), Nepal, and China and was unusually versatile in styles from the Tibetan Yarlung (7th – 8th century), Chinese Song and Yuan, and fifteenth century Tibetan master artists. He was especially fond of the Chinese theme of the Sixteen Arhats, and painted sets of the subject multiple times.”
From Mandala January-March 2013
Participants in the 108 nyung näs at Institut Vajra Yogini, 2012
“Following up on the success of last year’s round of 108 nyung näs at Institut Vajra Yogini (IVY), the French center has begun a second round,” reports center director François Lecointre. “Six people intend to do the full 108 nyung näs that started at IVY on November 18, 2012. Rinpoche’s offer to sponsor up to 10 people willing to do 100 nyung näs has made it possible for them to commit for the whole seven months of intense practice.”
Read more …
From Mandala January-March 2013