Infinite diamond of wisdom
Your faces are as infinite as facets
Illusory as moons, reflected across an ocean of love.
Words only reveal a fraction of you
Broken fractals, which when complete
No one can draw or speak.
You always share
Yet there’s never a missing piece
The puzzle’s always complete.
Yvonne Gold, July 2010
This is a photo gallery of all our Gentle Voice Online Issue 4 photos.
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By Ani Pema Chodron
I am living in the retreat centre, up the hill behind Namkai Nyingpo Rinpoche’s monastery in the midst of Juniper trees. It has a most beautiful outlook, over the Bumthang Valley with the medieval looking Jakar Dzong on the opposite mountain. The sound of the Chamkar River below is the background to the day and night activities. The Bumthang valley is famous for many sacred temples, monasteries and sites holy to Guru Rinpoche, Pema Lingpa and Longchenpa and is truly fragrant with Dharma. As I sit for meditation practice, it feels that there is a tangible Dharma energy that elevates and supports one’s own effort. I can hear the 400 monks in Lhodrak Kharchu Monastery below me, joyfully chanting. Throughout the day, I hear the different gongs and bells for different activities. Their wake up bell goes at 4.30, then the gong starts inviting them to the temple for their morning prayers.
One of the biggest events during my six month stay in Bhutan was the visit of Dungtse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s father. He had not been to Bhutan for over 20 years, and was invited by the Prime Minister for a month’s stay along with about 30 of his students from the United States.
He was escorted by his son Garab Dorje. He participated in two large public events in Thimphu. A large chorten in the centre of Thimphu had been dedicated many years ago by His Eminence to his father, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche. Dungtse Rinpoche met huge numbers of people there one morning, giving Benza Guru Mantra lung and a short Teaching. His arrival was preceded by hundreds of gomchen practitioners with large drums chanting and conducting the Chod practice. Gomchen practitioners are those trained in the dharma and also live in the community with their families.
The enthusiasm of the people was overwhelming, crowding and rushing towards Dungtse Rinpoche, but restrained by the army and police. Dungtse Rinpoche’s response was deeply moving as he opened his arms towards all those who had come to meet him. He continued his tour for a month conducting Drupchens and other events, spending most of his time in Eastern Bhutan where he had previously lived. Everywhere he went, he had his young students from America ,who had been trained by him since children, conducting the rituals, leading the chanting, and performing an extremely beautiful Cham dance that he himself had choreographed.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche arrived in Thimphu at the end of his father’s tour and over one weekend he gave a teaching on the 9th chapter of Bodhicharavatara.. His primary message, seemed to be to caution the young and educated Bhutanese, (as his talk was in English) not to lose their Buddhist values in the face of modern materialism and western education. His concern was evident as Bhutan faces more and more influence from international media, and the young people are very keen to be like their international counterparts.
It was particularly lovely to see Rinpoche relaxing with his own people “Half of Thimphu is my family, and that is very nice,” he said… He addressed many of the cultural rituals of Bhutan as having meaning only if people are aware of why they do them, otherwise they become empty rituals without meaning. In time people would start to feel that such rituals are irrelevant to their modern life. Rinpoche has several students here maintaining Deer Park Centre, and helping to restore Buddhism into the education curriculum. At the conclusion of the teachings Bhutan Broadcasting System set up and filmed a panel discussion on the topic, “Is Buddhism Relevant to Modern Bhutan?”. The panel consisted of Rinpoche and Lama Shenphen an educator, a scientist and director of Deer Park.
The audience was invited to ask questions and one woman stood up and said, “I am an architect here in Bhutan, and I design Lhakhangs, (Temples). Very often I am not allowed to even go into the Lhakhangs I have designed (women are forbidden to enter into any of the Protector Temples). My question to Rinpoche is : What do you think of this. If you were not Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, would you choose to be reborn as a woman?” Rinpoche responded saying that “Whoever tells you that Buddha discriminated against women, ask them to find such things anywhere in the Sutras of Buddha’s Teaching. They will not find it. Such attitude has been superimposed in various cultures, including ours.” Then he went on to say, “Every year when I go to Bodhgaya I make an aspirational prayer to be born as a woman, a black woman, very beautiful and to be a republican president of the United States!!!”
As you can imagine, this brought the house down!!
Ani Pema in the garden of 500 arhats,Taiwan Photo Ani Pema Chodron
Rinpoche visits Hong Kong normally once a year to give teachings which are organized by Siddhartha’s Intent Ltd. (SI HK). Despite the absence of a physical centre, some students of Rinpoche gather together for group practice on a regular basis at a private place. (more…)
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The vision of the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project (BLHP) is to make the precious teachings of the Buddha universally available through translation.
History has shown us that in order for the Dharma to take root in a society, it is imperative that the Dharma be made available in languages that its people could comprehend. The various movements to translate the Buddha’s teachings into world languages, which subsequently formed the Pali Canon, the Chinese Mahayana Tripitaka, the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur, and the many non-canonical collections, all led to the revival and growth of Buddhism in different parts of the world. In particular, the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur form the largest surviving collection of Buddhist texts, after the massive destruction of Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and other Indic languages in India in the 11th and 12th centuries. While Buddhism was almost wiped out in India, that it flourished in Tibet was in large part due to the availability of translations in Tibetan.
Over the past few decades, the Tibetan Buddhist community has sadly seen the loss of many of the most learned and accomplished Buddhist masters, and most of those who remain are in their old age. Their knowledge of the texts, handed down over the generations in a living tradition going back to the great masters of the past and to the Buddha himself, is an essential part of every Dharma translator’s work. With only less than 5% of the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist literary heritage translated into modern languages, the world faces the imminent risk of losing access to the profound messages and meaning contained within this precious heritage.
At the same time, there is growing curiosity towards and demand for the teachings of the Buddha in Western societies today, as well as a revival of interest among English-reading Asians. However, the lack of material available in modern languages has set considerable limits on what is possible in terms of study, research, and personal advancement.
It was with these perspectives in mind that the BLHP was subsequently formed in January 2010, and has since worked progressively towards the establishment of an organizational framework and infrastructure to support its long-term vision. Six months since its inception, the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project (BLHP) has already funded 27 pilot translations, and will soon be providing more translation grants to support translators in their important mission to translate texts of the Kangyur.
Dzongsar Khyenste Rinpoche addressing BHLP 2010 Photo from Huang Jing Rui
We hope you will be part of this huge endeavour to offer the Buddha’s heritage of ancient wisdom to the future generations of the world. You can:
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“So, yes, it is a daunting task, but as followers of the Buddha, it is our practice, it is our path, and, if you are a Mahayana practitioner, it is also our act of benefiting sentient beings. It is serving the Buddha, therefore, it is also serving all sentient beings. So we do realise that this is quite an important task that we can’t afford to ignore.”
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