by Jakob Leschly
The 59 slogans of Lojong practice are found in numerous contexts. This particular sheet features the translation of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the design is created by the students of the Ven. Traleg Kyabgön. Slogan practice is an extension of studying and reflecting on the Seven Points of Mind Training. Placing this sheet where we regularly see it, is a highly efficient method for recollecting the great vision of the bodhisattva path in our ordinary life.
While the entire Buddhist path is dedicated to ending delusion, and as such renouncing samsara, the Mahayana path is distinguished by the bodhisattva’s renunciation of nirvana as well. As long as there are suffering sentient beings, the bodhisattva will not rest. Some of us may be inspired to travel the great path of the bodhisattvas, and the Tibetan Mahayana traditions have numerous profound teachings on how to generate such awakened courage. The Indian Buddhist master Atisha Dipamkara who came to Tibet in  the 11th century, particularly promoted this path of Lojong and it spread throughout all the Buddhist traditions of Tibet. These are highly practical methods, and lie at the core of Mahayana Buddhist view and practice.

Lojong, or training of the mind, has two aspects – absolute and relative bodhicitta. The first – absolute bodhicitta – is cultivating the greatness of awakening in meditation; the other – relative bodhicitta – is cultivated through joining greatness of awakening with our post-meditation life.

While meditation cultivates absolute bodhicitta by freeing us from the grasp of thoughts, the lojong path of relative bodhicitta skilfully accommodates the dualistic habits of the ordinary post-meditation intellect, yet purifies it of the narrow attitudes that invite suffering. This pro-active engagement of our own psychology brings our entire existence on to the path of awakening. As the lineage masters point out, when the brilliance of the slogans dawn on us, they come to us by themselves. Situations themselves remind us of the slogans and provide the sounding board for our path. As such we do not exclude our path from our ordinary life and our interaction with the world. The slogans ideally should be memorised, but even if we can’t do that, we should invite them to be part of the thoughts that occupy us throughout life.

For a Full Explanation of these 59 Slogans please read;

Enlightened Courage by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Published by Shechen Publications

Lojong Slogans Image from Kagyu E-vam

Download the above Lojong Slogans jpeg from E-Vam Institute

by Amelia Chow and Ron Stewart
Over the last few years SSRC’s activity has increased with 2009 marking the 15th year open as a retreat centre. In 2009 Sea to Sky Retreat Centre was blessed with the Rinpoche’s presence for a 3 month retreat. Before and after Rinpoche’s retreat, SSRC was fully booked with a variety of community and external group retreat programmes. The 2009 SSRC season began with a Shamatha/Vipashyana retreat that was attended to full capacity and ended with a two week Green Tara ( Zabtik Drolma ) retreat dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life. A full house of participants from Europe, Asia, the USA as well as Canada made this retreat a wonderfully rich event in the icy wonderland of SSRC.

SSRC Lojong Retreat Photo from SSRC

As SSRC does not advertise, it relies on word-of-mouth referrals for its external group bookings. Most of these are by repeat participants delighted with the staff, facilities, and great food. Increasingly, numbers of residents of areas nearby to SSRC such as Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver are attending yoga, therapy, and meditation programmes and confirming SSRC as a valuable regional asset.

In 2010 SSRC has added Dharma Gar retreats to its schedule of community programmes. Also the number of its popular work-as-practice weekends have been increased to one per season; short meditation sessions will bookend the days’ physical work. The Spring’s work weekend focuses on forest clean-up, Summer’s on roadwork and painting, and Autumn’s on winter preparation, tucking in the centre for its sometimes quieter but never dull winter break. There is always much to do as the centre operates its own hydro-electric system, has fire protection and silviculture concerns for its buildings and 40 forested acres, and must maintain 12 buildings and the long private road into the property.

SSRC has developed a plan that covers its financial, human resource, and environmental requirements. Coincidentally, the first draft of this SSRC Sustainability Plan was completed on Earth Day, 22-Apr-2007. Since that time, SSRC staff members, guests and volunteers, as well as Siddhartha’s Intent (SI) Board members have extensively reviewed and commented on this document. The Board also resolved to re-assess the plan annually on Earth Day; an up-to-date version is posted on the SI website:
www.siddharthasintent.org/centres/retreat-centres/ssrc/sustainability.html

MEDITATION & STUDY PROGRAMMES:

Alex Trisoglio has been leading an on-going Sunday morning Dharma group, first at Amelia house, and then, when that sold, in his own apartment. Readings have been from: The Student Manual to Rinpoche’s new Ngondro, Buddhism: A Short History, What the Buddha Taught and both Patrul Rinpoche’s “Words of My Perfect Teacher and Dzongsar Khyentse’s Teachings on that text. Via Skype, sangha members from Victoria, Edmonton, Sooke, Seattle and SSRC have been able to join the wide-ranging and spirited discussions

SI OFFICE IN VANCOUVER

With the sale of Amelia’s house and treasurer Rob MacLachlan’s move to Sooke, the SI office has become a floating one. With our increasing shift to electronic communications these moves have not impeded the work of Siddhartha’s Intent–meetings continue to be held via Skype when gathering is not possible and email communication thrives in the intervals between meetings. In June, SI board members gathered and did a work retreat for 3 days in the very relaxing setting at SSRC. In Amelia’s home office, Pat Armstrong set up the equipment and procedure for volunteers like Lakshmi and Jamyang to digitize teaching cassette tapes. Those already digitized and uploaded are archived at SSRC under Ron’s care.

We regularly invite Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and organise his Teachings in Germany. Also Rinpoche’s Dharma Gar, an open retreat for 10-20 years, and regular study groups lead by his instructors are held near Berlin. In addition to that we are running the Manjughosha Edition under Rinpoche’s guidance to publish rare texts on demand and to translate them into German. If you are travelling through Germany and wish make contact please email Arne Schelling at the.great.sun@gmx.de

Click here for Siddharthas Intent web page Europe in German and English

Afternoon mantra: "There are more important things to attend too", Berlin, Dharma Gar 2010 by Tineke Adolphus

A centre for art and contemplation….

By Shenphen Zangpo
Prior to moving from Taipei to Thimphu to establish a new Deer Park centre, I had little knowledge about Bhutan. While I understood, that the needs of people who live in a small city hidden in the folds of the Himalayas, would obviously be far different from those who live under the gaze of skyscrapers and neon, it was far from clear what those needs would be. As an indication, Rinpoche had merely said that we should reach out to the youth and that our activities should be low key.

Meditation at Deer Park Thimphu

As a firm believer in the allegory of Dharma being like gold – the essence remaining, while the form adapts to circumstances – I felt sure that with Rinpoche’s blessings Deer Park would find a niche in Bhutan’s society. After two years of twists and turns, we currently have a small centre that is conveniently located in a youth complex near the centre of town. Here, we hold weekly meditation and discussion gatherings as well as mindfulness classes for children and screenings of indie movies. Since the inauguration of the centre in 2008, the classes have continued to expand, and in particular the meditation meetings and movie nights have gained a strong following.
Outside the centre, we organise a nightly drug outreach program, meditation classes at two colleges and a drug rehab centre and engage in social activities, such as cleaning the city dog pound and reforestation.
In the future, I would like to offer more activities based on the contemplative disciplines and also increase the number of treks to sacred sites for recovering drug addicts. Along with meditation, I hope such activities can provide the means for the youth of Bhutan to fully embrace the opportunities of the modern world, while at the same time giving them the skills to remain firmly rooted in the wisdom traditions of the kingdom.

Meditation Class In Changjiji, Thimpu. Between 90 -100 kids attend twice weekly

Shenphen Zangpo

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche teaching at Warsaw University Library,
Warsaw, Poland, July 2010

Warsaw University Library Photo by Rafael Izyk

Rinpoche teaching in Warsaw Photo by Rafael Izyk

Rinpoche in front of Warsaw University Library's famous wall
Photo by Rafael Izyk

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche teaching from The Way of the Bodhisattva in Prague,
Czech Republic, August 2010

DJK Rinpoche teaching in Prague, Czech Republic Photo by Vladimir Vimr

Listening to Rinpoche teach in Prague Photo by Vladimir Vimr

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.
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge in the slideshow gallery,
run the cursor over the photo till you see the next button appear
and then scroll through the gallery… enjoy.
[miniflickr photoset_id=”72157629367955449″]

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…)

BHLP Logo

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Chair, BLHP

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:
• Subscribe to our mailing list:
http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/subscribe
• Donate to our cause:
http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/donate
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http://www.buddhistliteraryheritage.org/tellyourfriends

“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.”

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche