I write as I see n feel it!

Am I a Buddhist?

2007-10-27T21:33:00.000+05:45

Am I A Buddhist ?

Many people declare themselves to be ‘Buddhists’ when in actual fact they do not know what being Buddhists really means. Many students ( I was once like that too ), when required to fill forms state their religion as “Buddhism” or “Agama Buddha” although they have no idea at all what the essential Teachings of the Buddha (Dhamma) is all about …. let alone understanding and practicing the Dhamma.
Today, we see so many different ‘Brands’ of “Buddhists” . Let us look at them and do some reflection.

The ‘Burning’ “Buddhist”

You see quite a number of such “Buddhists” …. they burn bundles of joss sticks, joss paper and other paper paraphernalia at home, in Buddhist Associations and even Buddhist Temples. Poor Mother Earth ! She is choking and suffering and our environment gets more and more polluted. Talk about wise, wholesome and good Karmic actions ! When will such “Buddhists” ever learn that the ‘gods will not be appeased ’ ( and we don’t get peace within and without ) through a ‘combustion reaction ’? We need to conquer the Devils of Greed, Hatred and Delusion.

The ‘Wesak’ “Buddhist”

These ‘once a year’ “Wesak Buddhists” throng Buddhist Associations and Temples on Wesak Day carrying out so many deluded practices. They perform many meaningless rituals, have their fortunes read, their amulets and talismans blessed, rush for free Dana food ( the “Hungry Ghost” Realm is very real ! ) and “Holy Water”. They make supplication to the Buddha, asking for all sorts of favors with promises to do certain things if their material wishes are granted. Poor Buddha ! He must be very tired listening to the “bargains’ of these “Wesak Buddhists”.

The ‘Intellectual’ “Buddhist”

I have come across many friends who are like “Walking Encyclopedias” when it comes to ‘intellectual Dhamma’. They devour one Dhamma book after another , listen to many Dhamma Speakers and Tapes but alas all these remain at the intellectual level. The Dhamma is not practiced and actualized . Such intellectual Buddhists still cling on to their negative traits and habits. Talk about the practice of Dana … ha, now we understand partly why so many Buddhist Organizations lack Volunteer workers for Dhammaduta work. We have too many “intellectual Buddhists’ walking around !

The ‘Ceremonies’ “Buddhist”

We can see such Buddhists in some Buddhist Temples and Associations. They are caught up in lots of devotional rites, rituals and ceremonies the whole year long. So much of their time and energies are sapped indulging in unnecessary rites and rituals. When will they ever learn, understand, practice and realize the Sublime Teachings of the Buddha ? Unless and until they do, the defilements will remain or even multiply. We do not deny the role of a certain degree of devotional Buddhism but beware …rites and rituals can bind us more and more to the Wheel of Samsara.

The ‘Social’ “Buddhist”

There are Buddhists who are particularly active when it comes to socializing and fun activities. Of course, we need good Buddhist Fellowships, excursions, tours and other healthy recreational activities. But beware ! Our primary aim in being a Buddhist is to learn and practice the Dhamma , to seek and realize Enlightenment. ‘Social’ Buddhists sometimes frequent Buddhist Temples, Buddhist Societies and Associations with ulterior motives. They may be looking for potential life partners or have a hidden business or political agenda. The Dhamma takes backstage.

The ‘Deity’ “Buddhist”

It is interesting to note that many Chinese “Buddhists” regard the Buddha as another of their gods or deities. If you visit their homes, you can find the image of the Buddha placed at their shrine altar together with a host of other gods . ‘Deity’ “Buddhists” perhaps believe in this : ‘ The more gods, the better ( and merrier ) ….more protection and security ! ’ Will they ever learn the meaning of true Refuge in the Triple Gem ? I know of a ‘long-time Buddhist’ ( also an ex-Committee Member of a Buddhist Organization ) who was so afraid of removing his many gods from his shrine altar at home. He believes misfortune can strike him if he does so !

The ‘Emergency times’ “Buddhist”

Such Buddhists only pray to the Buddha or Kuan Yin in times of trouble, problems and conflicts. They pray for immediate solutions to their problems of health, poor business, love relationships, academic studies etc. etc. At other times, when they are relatively trouble-free, they will be too busy chasing material wealth and indulging in sensual pursuits. For such Buddhists, there is no time and place for Dhamma. I remember some time ago, there was a “Buddhist” man who came to our Buddhist Association with a very lost and stressed-up look. He wanted to learn Meditation to solve immediately his big problem …. insomnia and business loss. I suggested that he joined our Dhamma Study Class first. He did but it did not last . He was not patient and just wanted to solve his ‘emergency’ problem.

The ‘Preaching’ “Buddhist”

The Buddha once said, “ Others faults are easy to see but one’s own faults one hides like a fowler in disguise.” “Preaching” Buddhists do a lot of talking, suggesting, ordering and commanding. They project themselves as the “Know-All” in Dhamma but they themselves do little when it comes to real Dhammaduta work and Dana. Such Buddhists can be quite intelligent and creative but alas they don’t really practice the Dhamma. Talking and suggesting is one thing but wise pro-active action is another. Intelligence and Wisdom can be worlds apart.

The ‘Cultish’ “Buddhist”

Such Buddhists can be found everywhere. They can be filled with delusion, ego and conceit. Instead of spending their time practicing good Dana, Sila and Bhavana, they waste much time and energy chasing after “cultivated monks/nuns”, futile arguing over hair-splitting Dhamma points, attempting to convert others to their “cultish” brand of Buddhism and hero-worshipping and tending to their “enlightened leaders or teachers’. ( Let us not forget that our real Teacher is the Dhamma. The Buddha says, “He who sees the Dhamma sees Me.” )

Sky Like Nature

2007-09-11T23:19:00.000+05:45

"The purpose of meditation is to awaken in us the sky like nature of mind, and to introduce us to that which we really are, our unchanging pure awareness that underlies the whole of life and death. In the stillness and silence of meditation, we glimpse and return to that deep inner nature that we so long ago lost sight of amid the busyness and distraction of our minds."

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

autmn

2007-09-08T08:54:00.000+05:45

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds

To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements
of a dance.

A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky,
Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.

BUDDHA

Let's Not Quit

2007-08-31T09:18:00.000+05:45

One day I decided to quit...

I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality...

I wanted to quit my life.

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I said.

"Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me...

"Look around", he said.

"Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"

"Yes", I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.

I gave them light.

I gave them water.

The fern quickly grew from the earth.

Its brilliant green covered the floor.

Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.

And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.

But I did not quit on the bamboo."

He said. "In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.

But I would not quit.

In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed."

"I would not quit." he said.

"Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.

Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...

But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

It had spent the five years growing roots.

Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.

I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."

He said to me.

"Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?"

"I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you."

"Don't compare yourself to others." He said.

"The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern.

Yet, they both make the forest beautiful."

"Your time will come", God said to me.

"You will rise high!"

"How high should I rise?" I asked.

"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.

"As high as it can?" I questioned.

"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."

I left the forest and brought back this story.

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you happiness;

Bad days give you experiences;

Both are essential to life.

Just keep going....

Happiness keeps You Sweet,

Trials keep You Strong,

Sorrows keep You Human,

Failures keep You Humble,

Success keeps You Glowing!

The Diamond Cutter Sutra

2007-08-11T22:39:00.000+05:45

The Diamond Cutter Sutra Shakyamuni Buddha < The Diamond Cutter Sutra (or Vajra Cutter Sutra) is one of the texts within the Prajnaparamita, or Perfection of Wisdom sutras. The Prajnaparamita is the body of sutras and commentaries representing the essence of the Mahayana Buddhism, particularly those related to the realization of the illusory nature of all phenomena. This wisdom which realizes the true nature of all phenomena is like a diamond, which cuts through our wrong conceptions and brings liberation.

The Diamond Cutter Sutra has been specifically recommended by Rinpoche as one to study and recite, and Rinpoche has translated and annotated a dedication to be read at the end of a Diamond Cutter recitation.

This translation was based on the Tibetan Lhasa Zhol printing, and translated into English by Gelong Thubten Tsultrim (American Buddhist monk George Churinoff), © George Churinoff, 2002. It has been made available in a variety of languages in pdf format by the FPMT Education Department.

THE VAJRA CUTTER SUTRA

In the language of India, Arya Vajracchedika Nama Prajñaparamita Mahayana Sutra1

In Tibetan, ’Phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

In English, The Exalted Mahayana Sutra on the Wisdom Gone Beyond called “The Vajra2 Cutter”

I prostrate to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Bhagavan was dwelling at Shravasti, in the grove of Prince Jeta, in the garden of Anathapindada,3 together with a great Sangha of bhikshus of 1,250 bhikshus and a great many bodhisattva mahasattvas.

Then, in the morning, having put on the lower and upper Dharma robes and carried the begging bowl, the Bhagavan entered the great city of Shravasti to request alms. Then, having gone to the great city of Shravasti to request alms, the Bhagavan afterwards enjoyed the alms food, and having performed the activity of food,4 since he had given up alms of later food,5 put away the begging bowl and upper robe. He washed his feet, sat upon the prepared cushion, and having assumed the cross-legged posture, straightened the body upright and placed mindfulness in front. Then, many bhikshus approached to the place where the Bhagavan was and, having reached there, bowing their heads to the Bhagavan’s feet, circumambulated three times and sat to one side.

Also at that time, the venerable Subhuti, joining that very assembly, sat down. Then, the venerable Subhuti rose from the seat, placed the upper robe over one shoulder, set his right knee on the ground, bowed, joining the palms, toward the Bhagavan, and said this to the Bhagavan: “Bhagavan, the extent to which the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Enlightened Buddha has benefited the bodhisattva mahasattvas with highest benefit, the extent to which the Tathagata has entrusted the bodhisattva mahasattvas with highest entrustment – Bhagavan, it is astonishing; Sugata,6 it is astonishing. Bhagavan, how should one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle abide, how practice, how control the mind?”

That was said, and the Bhagavan said to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, well said, well said. Subhuti, it is so; it is so. The Tathagata has benefited the bodhisattva mahasattvas with the highest benefit. The Tathagata has entrusted the bodhisattva mahasattvas with the highest entrustment. Subhuti, therefore, listen and properly retain it in mind, and I will explain to you how one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle should abide, how practice, how control the mind.”

Having replied, “Bhagavan, so be it,” the venerable Subhuti listened in accordance with the Bhagavan, and the Bhagavan said this: “Subhuti, here, one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle should generate the mind [of enlightenment] thinking this: ‘As many as are included in the category of sentient being – born from egg, born from the womb, born from heat and moisture, born miraculously; with form, without form, with discrimination, without discrimination, without discrimination but not without [subtle] discrimination – the realm of sentient beings, as many as are designated by imputation as sentient beings, all those I shall cause to pass completely beyond sorrow into the realm of nirvana without remainder of the aggregates. Although limitless sentient beings have thus been caused to pass completely beyond sorrow, no sentient being whatsoever has been caused to pass completely beyond sorrow.’

“Why is that? Subhuti, because if a bodhisattva engages in discriminating a sentient being, he is not to be called a ‘bodhisattva.’ Why is that? Subhuti, if anyone engages in discriminating a sentient being, or engages in discriminating a living being, or engages in discriminating a person, they are not to be called a ‘bodhisattva.’

“Further, Subhuti, a bodhisattva gives a gift without abiding in a thing; gives a gift without abiding in any phenomenon whatsoever. A gift should be given not abiding in visual form, nor should a gift be given abiding in sound, smell, taste, tactility, or a phenomenon. Subhuti, without abiding in discriminating anything whatsoever as any sign, thus does a bodhisattva give a gift. Why is that? Subhuti, because the heap of merit of that bodhisattva who gives a gift without abiding, Subhuti, is not easy to take the measure of.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Do you think it is easy to take the measure of space in the east?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, similarly, do you think it is easy to take the measure of space in the south, west, north, above, below, the intermediate directions, and the ten directions?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, similarly, the heap of merit of that bodhisattva who gives a gift without abiding is also not easy to take the measure of.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Is one viewed as the Tathagata due to the perfect marks?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so; one is not viewed as the Tathagata due to the perfect marks. Why is that? Because, that itself which the Tathagata called perfect marks are not perfect marks.”

He replied thus, and the Bhagavan said this to the venerable Subhuti: “Subhuti, to the degree there are perfect marks, to that degree there is deception. To the degree there are no perfect marks,8 to that degree there is no deception. Thus, view the Tathagata as marks and no marks.”9

He said that and the venerable Subhuti replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, in the future period, at the end of the five hundred,10 when the holy Dharma will totally perish, will any sentient beings produce correct discrimination upon the words of sutras11 such as this12 being explained?”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, do not say what you have said, ‘…in the future period, at the end of the five hundred, when the holy Dharma will totally perish, will any sentient beings produce correct discrimination upon the words of sutras such as this being explained…’13 Moreover, Subhuti, in the future period, at the end of the five hundred, when the holy Dharma will totally perish, there will be bodhisattva mahasattvas, endowed with morality, endowed with qualities, endowed with wisdom. Subhuti, those bodhisattva mahasattvas moreover will not have made homage to just a single buddha; they will not have produced roots of virtue to just a single Buddha. Subhuti, there will be bodhisattva mahasattvas who have made homage to many hundred thousands of buddhas and produced roots of virtue to many hundred thousands of buddhas.

“Subhuti, those who will acquire merely a single mind of faith upon the words of such sutras as this being explained, Subhuti, the Tathagata knows. Subhuti, they are seen by the Tathagata; Subhuti, all those sentient beings will produce and perfectly collect an unfathomable heap of merit. Why is that? Subhuti, because those bodhisattva mahasattvas will not engage in discriminating a self and will not discriminate a sentient being, will not discriminate a living being, will not engage in discriminating a person.

“Subhuti, those bodhisattva mahasattvas will not engage in discriminating phenomena nor discriminating non-phenomena; nor will they engage in discrimination or non-discrimination.14 Why is that? Subhuti, because if those bodhisattva mahasattvas engage in discriminating phenomena, that itself would be of them15 grasping a self and grasping a sentient being, grasping a living being, grasping a person. Because even if they engage in discriminating phenomena as non-existent, 16 that would be of them grasping a self and grasping a sentient being, grasping a living being, grasping a person.

“Why is that? Further, Subhuti, because a bodhisattva should not wrongly grasp phenomena, nor grasp non-phenomena.”

Therefore, thinking of that, the Tathagata said, “If, by those who know this Dharma treatise as like a boat, even dharmas should be given up, what need is there to mention nondharmas?”

Further, the Bhagavan said to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, exist whatsoever? Has any Dharma been taught by the Tathagata?”

He said that, and the venerable Subhuti replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, as I understand this meaning that was taught by the Bhagavan, that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever. That dharma that was taught by the Tathagata does not exist whatsoever. Why is that? Because any dharma manifestly and completely realized or taught by the Tathagata is not to be grasped, not to be expressed; it is not dharma nor is it non-dharma. Why is that? Because arya beings are differentiated by the uncompounded.”

The Bhagavan said to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? If some son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage, completely filling this billionfold world system21 with the seven types of precious things, were to give gifts, do you think that son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage would produce an immense heap of merit on that basis?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, immense. Sugata, immense. That son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage would produce an immense heap of merit on that basis. Why is that? Bhagavan, because that very heap of merit is not a heap; therefore, the Tathagata says, ‘Heap of merit, heap of merit.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, compared to any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who, completely filling this billionfold world system with the seven types of precious things, were to give gifts, if someone, having taken even as little as one stanza of four lines from this discourse of Dharma, also were to explain and correctly and thoroughly teach it to others, on that basis, the heap of merit produced would be much greater, incalculable, unfathomable.

Why is that? Subhuti, because the unsurpassed perfectly completed enlightenment of the Tathagata arhat perfectly completed buddhas arises from it; the buddha Bhagavans also are produced from it. Why is that? Subhuti, because the buddha dharmas called ‘buddha dharmas,’ are those buddha dharmas taught by the Tathagata as non-existent; therefore, they are called ‘buddha dharmas.’

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the stream enterer think, ‘I have attained the result of stream-enterer’?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. Why is that? Bhagavan, because one does not enter into anything whatsoever; therefore, one is called ‘stream-enterer.’ One has not entered into form, nor entered into sound, nor into smell, nor into taste, nor into tactility, nor entered into a phenomenon; therefore, one is called ‘stream-enterer.’ Bhagavan, if that stream-enterer were to think ‘I have attained the result of stream-enterer,’ that itself would be a grasping of that as a self, grasping as a sentient being, grasping as a living being, grasping as a person.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the once-returner think, ‘I have attained the result of once returner’?”
Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. Why is that? Because the phenomenon of entry into the state of the once-returner does not exist whatsoever. Therefore, one says, ‘once-returner.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the non-returner think, ‘I have attained the result of nonreturner’?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. Why is that? Because the phenomenon of entry into the state of the non-returner does not exist whatsoever. Therefore, one says, ‘non-returner.’"

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the arhat think, ‘I have attained the result of arhatship’?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. Why is that? Because the phenomenon called ‘arhat’ does not exist whatsoever. Bhagavan, if the arhat were to think, ‘I have attained the result of arhatship,’ that itself would be a grasping of that as a self, grasping as a sentient being, grasping as a living being, grasping as a person.

“Bhagavan, I was declared by the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha as the foremost of those who abide without afflictions. Bhagavan, I am an arhat, free of attachment; but, Bhagavan, I do not think, ‘I am an arhat.’ Bhagavan, if I were to think, ‘I have attained arhatship,’ the Tathagata would not have made the prediction about me saying, ‘The son of the lineage, Subhuti, is the foremost of those who abide without afflictions. Since not abiding in anything whatsoever, he abides without affliction, he abides without affliction.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does that dharma that was received by the Tathagata from the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha Dïpaôkara exist whatsoever?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. That dharma that was received by the Tathagata from the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha Dïpaôkara does not exist whatsoever.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, if some bodhisattva were to say, ‘I shall actualize arranged fields,’ they would speak untruly. Why is that? Subhuti, because arranged fields called ‘arranged fields,’ those arrangements are taught by the Tathagata as nonexistent; therefore, they are called ‘arranged fields.’ Subhuti, therefore, the bodhisattva mahäsattva thus should generate the mind without abiding, should generate the mind not abiding in anything. They should generate the mind not abiding in form, should generate the mind not abiding in sound, smell, taste, tactility, or phenomenon.

“Subhuti, it is like this: If, for example, the body of a being were to become thus, were to become like this, as big as Sumeru, the king of mountains, Subhuti, what do you think about this? Would that body be big?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, that body would be big. Sugata, that body would be big. Why is that? Because it is taught by the Tathagata as not being a thing; therefore, it is called a ‘body.’ Since it is taught by the Tathagata as not being a thing; therefore, it is called a ‘big body.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? If there were also just as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges, would their grains of sand be many?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, if those very Ganges Rivers were many, there is no need to mention their grains of sand.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, you should appreciate; you should understand. If some man or woman, completely filling with the seven kinds of precious things that many world systems as there are grains of sand of those rivers Ganges, were to offer that to the Tathagata arhat perfectly completed buddhas, Subhuti, what do you think about this? Would that man or woman produce much merit on that basis?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, much. Sugata, much. That man or woman would produce much merit on that basis.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, compared to someone who, completely filling that many world systems with the seven types of precious things, were to give gifts to the Tathagata arhat perfectly completed buddhas, if someone, having taken even as little as a stanza of four lines from this discourse of Dharma, were to explain it and correctly and thoroughly teach it also to others, on that basis the merit that itself would produce would be much greater, incalculable, unfathomable.

“Furthermore, Subhuti, if, at whatever place on earth even a stanza of four lines from this discourse on Dharma is recited or taught, that place on earth is a real shrine of the world with devas, humans, and asuras, what need to mention that whoever takes up this discourse of Dharma, memorizes, reads, understands, and properly takes to mind will be most astonishing. At that place on earth [where] the Teacher resides; other levels of gurus also abide.”

He said that and the venerable Subhuti replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, what is the name of this discourse of Dharma? How should it be remembered?”

He said that and the Bhagavan replied to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, the name of this Dharma discourse is the ‘wisdom gone beyond’; it should be remembered like that. Why is that? Subhuti, because the very same wisdom gone beyond that is taught by the Tathagata is not gone beyond; therefore, it is called ‘wisdom gone beyond.’

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the dharma that is taught by the Tathagata exist whatsoever?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, the dharma that is taught by the Tathagata does not exist whatsoever.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do think about this? Are the quantities of particles of earth that exist in a billionfold world system many?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, the particles of earth are many. Sugata, they are many. Why is that? Bhagavan, because that which is a particle of earth was taught by the Tathagata as not being a particle; therefore, it is called ‘particle of earth.’ That which is a world system was taught by the Tathagata as not being a world system; therefore, it is called a ‘world system.’”

The Tathagata said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Is one to be viewed as the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha due to those thirty-two marks of a great being?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so. Why is that? Bhagavan, because those thirty-two marks of a great being that are taught by the Tathagata are taught by the Tathagata as no marks; therefore, they are called ‘thirty-two marks of the Tathagata.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Further, Subhuti, compared with some man or woman completely giving up bodies numbering the grains of sand of the river Ganges, if someone, taking even as little as a stanza of four lines from this discourse of Dharma, also were to teach it to others, they would produce on that basis many greater merits, incalculable, unfathomable.”

Thereupon, the venerable Subhuti, due to the impact of the Dharma, shed tears. Having wiped away the tears, he replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, this discourse on Dharma taught thus by the Tathagata, Bhagavan, is astonishing. Sugata, it is astonishing. Bhagavan, since my production of exalted wisdom, I have never before heard this discourse on Dharma. Bhagavan, those sentient beings who will produce correct discrimination upon this sutra being explained will be most astonishing. Why is that?

Bhagavan, because that which is correct discrimination is not discrimination; therefore, correct discrimination was taught by the Tathagata saying ‘correct discrimination.’ Bhagavan, upon this Dharma discourse being explained, that I imagine and appreciate is not astonishing to me. Bhagavan, in the final time, in the final age, at the end of the five hundred, those sentient beings who take up this Dharma discourse, memorize, read, and understand it will be most astonishing.
Furthermore, Bhagavan, they will not engage in discriminating a self; will not engage in discriminating a sentient being, discriminating a living being, discriminating a person. Why is that? Bhagavan, because that itself which is discrimination as a self, discrimination as a sentient being, discrimination as a living being, and discrimination as a person is not discrimination. Why is that? Because the buddha Bhagavans are free of all discrimination.”

He said that and the Bhagavan replied to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, it is so; it is so. Upon this sutra being explained, those sentient beings who are unafraid, unterrified, and will not become terrified will be most astonishing. Why is that? Subhuti, because this highest wisdom gone beyond, taught by the Tathagata, the highest wisdom gone beyond that is taught by the Tathagata, was also taught by unfathomable buddha Bhagavans – therefore, it is called ‘highest wisdom gone beyond.’

“Further, Subhuti, that itself which is the patience gone beyond of the Tathagata has not gone beyond. Why is that? Subhuti, because when the king of Kalinga41 cut off my limbs and appendages, at that time there did not arise in me discrimination as a self, discrimination as a sentient being, discrimination as a living being, nor discrimination as a person, and in me there was no discrimination whatsoever, yet there was also no nondiscrimination. Why is that? Subhuti, because, if at that time there had arisen in me discrimination as a self, at that time there would also have arisen discrimination of malice; if there had arisen discrimination as a sentient being, discrimination as a living being, discrimination as a person, at that time there would also have arisen discrimination of malice.

“Subhuti, I know with clairvoyance that in the past period, during five hundred lifetimes, I was the rishi42 called ‘Preacher of Patience’; even then there did not arise in me the discrimination as a self; there did not arise the discrimination as a sentient being, discrimination as a living being, discrimination as a person. Subhuti, therefore, the bodhisattva mahasattva, completely abandoning all discrimination, should generate the mind for unsurpassed perfectly complete enlightenment. One should generate the mind not abiding in form. One should generate the mind not abiding in sound, smell, taste, tactility, or phenomena. One should generate the mind not abiding in nonphenomena either. One should generate the mind not abiding in anything whatsoever. Why is that? Because that itself which is abiding does not abide. Therefore, the Tathagata taught, ‘The bodhisattva should give gifts not abiding.’

“Further, Subhuti, the bodhisattva should thus totally give away gifts for the welfare of all sentient beings. However, that itself which is discrimination as a sentient being is non-discrimination. Those themselves who were taught by the Tathagata saying ‘all sentient beings’ also do not exist. Why is that? Subhuti, because the Tathagata teaches reality, teaches truth, teaches what is; the Tathagata teaches what is without error.

“Further, Subhuti, the dharma that is manifestly and completely realized or shown by the Tathagata has neither truth nor falsity. Subhuti, it is like this, for example: if a man with eyes has entered darkness, he does not see anything whatsoever; likewise should one view the bodhisattva who totally gives up a gift by falling into anything.
“Subhuti, it is like this, for example: upon dawn and the sun rising, a man with eyes sees various kinds of forms; likewise should one view the bodhisattva who totally gives up a gift by not falling into anything.

“Further, Subhuti, those sons of the lineage or daughters of the lineage who take up this Dharma discourse, memorize, read, understand, and correctly and thoroughly teach it to others in detail are known by the Tathagata, they are seen by the Tathagata. All those sentient beings will produce an unfathomable heap of merit.
“Further, Subhuti, compared to some man or woman, at the time of dawn, totally giving up bodies numberingthe grains of sand of the river Ganges – also totally giving up bodies numbering the grains of sand of the river Ganges at the time of midday and evening, in such number totally giving up bodies for many hundred thousands of ten million, hundred billion eons – if someone, having heard this Dharma discourse, would not reject it, if they themselves would produce much greater merit on that basis, incalculable, unfathomable, what need to mention someone who, having written it in letters, takes it up, memorizes, reads, understands, and correctly and thoroughly teaches it to others in detail?

“Further, Subhuti, this Dharma discourse is unimaginable and incomparable.44 This Dharma discourse was taught by the Tathagata for the benefit of sentient beings who have correctly entered into the supreme vehicle, the welfare of sentient beings who have correctly entered into the best vehicle. Those who take up this Dharma discourse, memorize, read, understand, and correctly and thoroughly teach it to others in detail are known by the Tathagata; they are seen by the Tathagata. All those sentient beings will be endowed with an unfathomable heap of merit. Being endowed with an unimaginable heap of merit, incomparable, immeasurable, and limitless, all those sentient beings will hold my enlightenment on the shoulder. Why is that? Subhuti, this Dharma discourse is unable to be heard by those who appreciate the inferior, by those viewing a self, by those viewing a sentient being, by those viewing a living being; those viewing a person are unable to hear, to take up, to
memorize, to read, and to understand because that cannot be.

“Further, Subhuti, at whatever place on earth this sutra is taught, that place on earth will become worthy to be paid homage by the world with devas, humans, and asuras. That place on earth will become worthy as an object of prostration and worthy as an object of circumambulation. That place on earth will become like a shrine.

“Subhuti, whatever son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage takes up the words of a sutra like this, memorizes, reads, and understands, they will be tormented; will be intensely tormented. Why is that? Subhuti, because whatever non-virtuous actions of former lifetimes that were committed by those sentient beings that would bring rebirth in the lower realms, due to torment in this very life, those non-virtuous actions of former lifetimes will be purified, and they will also attain the enlightenment of a buddha.

“Subhuti, I know with clairvoyance that in the past period, in even more countless of countless eons, much beyond even beyond the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha Dipankara, there were eighty-four hundred thousands of ten million, hundred billion buddhas whom I pleased, and having pleased, did not upset. Subhuti, from whatever I did, having pleased and not having upset those buddha Bhagavans and in the future period, at the end of the five hundred, from someone taking up this sutra, memorizing, reading, and understanding, Subhuti, compared to this heap of merit, the former heap of merit does not approach even a hundredth part, a thousandth part, a hundred- thousandth part; does not withstand enumeration, measure, calculation, similarity, equivalence, or comparison.

“Subhuti, at that time, the sons of the lineage or daughters of the lineage will receive a quantity of heap of merit that, if I were to express the heap of merit of those sons of the lineage or daughters of the lineage, sentient beings would go mad, would be disturbed.

“Further, Subhuti, this Dharma discourse being unimaginable, its maturation indeed should also be known as unimaginable.”

Then, the venerable Subhuti replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, how should one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle abide, how practice, how control the mind?”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, here, one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle should generate the mind thinking this: ‘I shall cause all sentient beings to pass completely beyond sorrow into the realm of nirvana without remainder of the aggregates. Although sentient beings were caused to pass completely beyond sorrow like that, no sentient being whatsoever was caused to passed beyond sorrow.’ Why is that? Subhuti, because if a bodhisattva engages in discriminating a sentient being, he is not to be called a ‘bodhisattva.’ Also, if he engages in discriminating a person, he is not to be called a ‘bodhisattva.’ Why is that? Subhuti, because the dharma called ‘one who has correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle’ does not exist whatsoever.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata from the Tathagata Dipankara, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, exist whatsoever?”

He said that and the venerable Subhuti replied to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata from the Tathagata Dipankara, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever.”

He said that and the Bhagavan replied to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, it is so. It is so, that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata from the Tathagata Dipankara, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever. Subhuti, if that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata were to exist at all, the Tathagata Dipankara would not have made the prediction to me, saying, ‘Young brahmin, in a future period you will become the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha called Shakyamuni.’ Subhuti, thus, since that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever, therefore, the Tathagata Dipankara made the prediction to me, saying, ‘Young brahmin, in a future period you will become the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha called Shakyamuni.’ Why is that? Because, Subhuti, ‘Tathagata’ is an epithet
of the suchness of reality.

“Subhuti, if someone were to say, ‘The Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha manifestly and completely realized unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment,’ they would speak wrongly. Why is that? Subhuti, because that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever. Subhuti, that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata has neither truth nor falsity. Therefore, ‘all dharmas are buddha dharmas’ was taught by the Tathagata. Subhuti, ‘all dharmas’, all those are non-dharmas. Therefore, it is said that ‘all dharmas are buddha dharmas.’ Subhuti, it is like this, for example: like a human endowed with a bodyand the body became large.”

The venerable Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, that taught by the Tathagata, ‘a human endowed with a body and a large body,’ is taught by the Tathagata as not being a body. Therefore, ‘endowed with a body and a large body’ is said.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, it is so; if some bodhisattva were to say, ‘I shall cause sentient beings to completely pass beyond sorrow,’ he should not be called ‘bodhisattva.’ Why is that? Subhuti, does the dharma that is called ‘bodhisattva’ exist whatsoever?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it does not.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, therefore, it was taught by the Tathagata that ‘all dharmas are without a sentient being, without a living being, without a person.’

“Subhuti, if some bodhisattva were to say, ‘I shall actualize arranged fields,’ he too should be expressed similarly. Why is that? Subhuti, because the arranged fields called ‘arranged fields’ are those taught by the Tathagata as non-arranged. Therefore, they are called ‘arranged fields.’ Subhuti, whatever bodhisattva appreciates that dharmas are selfless, saying ‘dharmas are selfless,’ he is expressed by the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha as a bodhisattva called a ‘bodhisattva.’

“Subhuti, What do you think about this? Does the Tathagata possess the flesh eye?”
Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; the Tathagata possesses the flesh eye.”
The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the Tathagata possess the divine eye?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; the Tathagata possesses the divine eye.”
The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the Tathagata possess the wisdom eye?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; the Tathagata possesses the wisdom eye.”
The Tathagata said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the Tathagata possess the dharma eye?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; the Tathagata possesses the dharma eye.”
The Tathagata said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does the Tathagata possess the buddha eye?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; the Tathagata possesses the buddha eye.”
The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? If, there being also just as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand in the river Ganges, there were just as many world systems as there are grains of sand of those, would those world systems be many?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so; those world systems would be many.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, as many sentient beings as exist in those world systems, I totally know their continua of consciousness of different thoughts.54 Why is that? Subhuti, because a so-called ‘continuum of consciousness’ is that taught by the Tathagata as a non-continuum. Therefore, it is called a ‘continuum of consciousness.’ Why is that? Subhuti, because past consciousness does not exist as an observable, nor does future consciousness exist as an observable, nor does present consciousness exist as an observable.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? If someone, completely filling this billionfold world system with the seven types of precious things, were to give gifts, do you think that son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage would produce an enormous heap of merit on that basis?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, enormous. Sugata, enormous.”
The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, it is so. It is so; that son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage would produce an enormous heap of merit on that basis. Subhuti, if a heap of merit were a heap of merit, the Tathagata would not have taught a heap of merit called a ‘heap of merit.’

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Should one be viewed as the Tathagata due to total achievement of the form body?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so; one should not be viewed as the Tathagata due to total achievement of the form body. Why is that? Bhagavan, because ‘total achievement of the form body’ is that taught by the Tathagata as not being total achievement; therefore, it is called ‘total achievement of the form body.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? Is one to be viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so; one is not to be viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks. Why is that? Because that which was taught by the Tathagata as perfect marks was taught by the Tathagata as not being perfect marks; therefore, they are called ‘perfect marks.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, what do you think about this? If it is thought that the Tathagata considers, ‘the dharma is demonstrated by me,’ Subhuti, do not view it like that, because the dharma that is demonstrated by the Tathagata does not exist whatsoever. Subhuti, if someone were to say ‘the dharma is demonstrated by the Tathagata,’ Subhuti, he would deprecate me since nonexistent and wrongly seized. Why is that? Subhuti, because that demonstrated dharma called ‘demonstrated dharma,’ which is referred to saying ‘demonstrated dharma,’ does not exist whatsoever.”

Then, the venerable Subhuti said to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, in the future period, will there be any sentient beings who, having heard this demonstration55 of such a dharma as this, will clearly believe?”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, they are not sentient beings nor non–sentient beings. Why is that? Subhuti, so-called ‘sentient beings,’ because they were taught by the Tathagata as non– sentient beings, therefore are called ‘sentient beings.’
“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Does that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, exist whatsoever?”

The venerable Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, that dharma that was manifestly and completely realized by the Tathagata, unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment, does not exist whatsoever.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, it is so; it is so. For it, even the least dharma does not exist and is not observed; therefore, it is called ‘unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment.’

“Further, Subhuti, that dharma is equivalent since, for it, inequivalence58 does not exist whatsoever; therefore, it is called ‘unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment.’ That unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment – equivalent as selfless, without sentient being, without living being, without person – is manifestly and completely realized through all virtuous dharmas. Subhuti, virtuous dharmas called ‘virtuous dharmas,’ they, taught by the Tathagata as just non-dharmas, are therefore called ‘virtuous dharmas.’

“Further, Subhuti, compared to any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage collecting a heap of the seven types of precious things about equaling whatever Sumeru, king of mountains, exist in a billion world systems, and giving gifts, if someone, having taken up even as little as a stanza of four lines from this wisdom gone beyond, were to teach it to others, Subhuti, compared to this heap of merit, the former heap of merit having not approached even a hundredth part, does not withstand comparison.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? If it is thought that the Tathagata considers, ‘Sentient beings are liberated by me,’ Subhuti, do not view it like that. Why is that? Subhuti, because those sentient beings who are liberated by the Tathagata do not exist whatsoever. Subhuti, if some sentient being were to be liberated by the Tathagata, that itself would be, of the Tathagata, grasping a self, grasping a sentient being, grasping a living being, grasping a person. Subhuti, so-called ‘grasping a self,’ that is taught by the Tathagata as non-grasping, yet that is grasped by childish ordinary beings. Subhuti, so-called ‘childish ordinary beings,’ they were taught by the Tathagata as just non-beings; therefore, they are called ‘childish ordinary beings.’

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? Is one to be viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is not so; one is not viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks.”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, it is so; it is so. One is not viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks. Subhuti, if one were viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks, even a chakravartin king would be the Tathagata; therefore, one is not viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks.”

Then, the venerable Subhuti said to the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, as I understand the meaning of what the Bhagavan has said, one is not viewed as the Tathagata due to perfect marks.”

Then, these verses were spoken by the Bhagavan at that time:
Whoever sees me as form, whoever knows me as sound, has wrongly engaged by abandoning, those beings do not see me.

The buddhas are dharmata viewed; the guides are the dharmakäya.
Since dharmata is not to be known, it is unable to be known.

“Subhuti, what do you think about this? If one grasps that ‘the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha is due to perfect marks,’ Subhuti, you should not view so for, Subhuti, the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha does not manifestly and completely realize unsurpassed perfect and complete enlightenment due to perfect marks.

“Subhuti, if one grasps that ‘some dharma has been designated as destroyed or annihilated by those who have correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle,’ Subhuti, it should not be viewed so; those who have correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle have not designated any dharma whatsoever as destroyed or annihilated.

“Further, Subhuti, compared to any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who, completely filling with the seven kinds of precious things as many world systems as there are grains of sand of the rivers Ganges, were to give gifts, if any bodhisattva attained forbearance that dharmas are selfless and unproduced,63 on that basis the heap of merit they themselves would produce would be much greater. Further, Subhuti, a heap of merit should not be acquired by the bodhisattva.”

The venerable Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, should not a heap of merit be acquired by the bodhisattva?”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, acquire, not wrongly grasp;64 therefore, it is called ‘acquire.’

“Subhuti, if someone says, ‘The Tathagata goes or comes or stands or sits or lies down,’ he does not understand the meaning explained by me. Why is that? Subhuti, because ‘the Tathagata’ (‘the One Gone Thus’) does not go anywhere nor has come from anywhere; therefore, one says, ‘the Tathagata Arhat Perfectly Completed Buddha.’

“Further, Subhuti, if some son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage were to render as many atoms of earth as exist in a billionfold world system, like this for example, into powder like a collection of subtlest atoms, Subhuti, what do you think about this? Would that collection of subtlest atoms be many?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it is so. That collection of subtlest atoms would be many. Why is that? Bhagavan, because if there were a collection, the Bhagavan would not have said ‘collection of subtlest atoms.’ Why is that? Because that ‘collection of subtlest atoms’ that was taught by the Bhagavan was taught by the Tathagata as no collection; therefore, one says ‘collection of subtlest atoms.’ That ‘billionfold world system’ that was taught by the Tathagata was taught by the Tathagata as no system; therefore, one says ‘billionfold world system.’ Why is that? Bhagavan, because if there were to be a world system, that itself would be grasping a solid thing. That taught by the Tathagata as grasping a solid thing was taught by the Tathagata as no grasping; therefore, one says ‘grasping a solid thing.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, grasping a solid thing is itself a convention; that dharma does not exist as expressed, yet it is grasped by ordinary childish beings. Subhuti, if someone were to say, ‘Viewing as a self was taught by the Tathagata and viewing as a sentient being, viewing as a living being, viewing as a person was taught by the Tathagata,’ Subhuti, would that be spoken by right speech?”

Subhuti replied, “Bhagavan, it would not. Sugata, it would not. Why is that? Bhagavan, because that which was taught by the Tathagata as viewing as a self, was taught by the Tathagata as no viewing; therefore, one says, ‘viewing as a self.’”

The Bhagavan said, “Subhuti, those who have correctly entered the bodhisattva’s vehicle should know, should view, should appreciate all dharmas like this; they should appreciate65 like this, not abiding whatsoever in any discrimination as a dharma. Why is that? Subhuti, because discrimination as a dharma, called ‘discrimination as a dharma,’ is taught by the Tathagata as nondiscrimination; therefore, one says ‘discrimination as a dharma.’

“Further, Subhuti, compared to any bodhisattva mahasattva who, completely filling unfathomable and incalculable world systems with the seven kinds of precious things, were to give gifts, if any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage who, having taken66 as little as a stanza of four lines from this perfection of wisdom, were to memorize or read or understand or correctly and thoroughly teach it to others in detail, on that basis the merit he himself would produce would be more, incalculable, unfathomable.

“How should one correctly and thoroughly teach? Just how one would not correctly and thoroughly teach; therefore, one says, ‘correctly and thoroughly teach.’

“As a star, a visual aberration, a lamp, an illusion, dew, a bubble, a dream, lightning, and a cloud – view all the compounded like that.”

That having been said by the Bhagavan, the elder67 Subhuti, those bodhisattvas,68 the fourfold disciples – bhikshus, bhikshunis, upasakas and upasikas69 – and the world with devas, humans, asuras, and gandharvas, overjoyed, highly praised that taught by the Bhagavan.

The Exalted Mahayana Sutra on the Wisdom Gone Beyond called ‘The Vajra Cutter’ is concluded.

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Colophon to the Lhasa Zhol text: 70
Compiled, revising the translation of the Indian abbot Silendra Bodhi and Yeshe sDe with the new language standard.

Colophon to the English translation:

This translation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra is based on the Tibetan Lhasa Zhol text, having compared it with various other Tibetan printings as well as with Sanskrit versions, and having viewed several excellent earlier English translations. It was completed on 22 March 2002 at the Chandrakirti Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Centre, near Nelson, New Zealand, by Gelong Thubten Tsultrim (the American Buddhist monk George Churinoff).

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May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes.
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes.

Some inspiring quotes

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“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.” — Charles Dickens (1786-1851) novelist

“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” —Mother Theresa (1910-1997), founder of the Missionaries of Charity

“The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.” —Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) aviator, author

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” —Tenzin Gyatso, (b. 1935), The 14th Dalai Lama

“You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.” — Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) motivational author

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.” —Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) philosopher, writer, publisher

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” — Lucille Ball (1911-1989) actress, producer

Nagi Gompa

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A perfect place for meditation and practicing Dharma. Just above the hill in Shivapuri National Park of Kathmandu, Nepal

Meditation in Nagi Monastery

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Drops of Advice from My Heart

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by Kyabjé Khenchen Jigmé Phuntsok

May the youthful sun of speech, Manjushri, in his enlightened form,
with its signs and marks, embodying the secret body, speech and mind
Of all the infinite buddhas and their bodhisattva heirs,
Turn your minds towards the path to perfect awakening!

There are countless Dharma teachings, profound and extensive,
Suited to the mental capacities and inclinations of limitless beings,
Yet, by gathering all the key points together in a way that can be practiced,
I offer this pithy advice to you, my friends, who I hold as dear as my own heart.

Becoming attached to this life, you will lose your fortunate connection to the Dharma. Indulging your desires again and again, your craving will only increase,
and you will never find satisfaction. Wealth, happiness, fame and praise—
To pursue them is like buying and selling in a dream. Let go of such concerns!

By relying on a genuine and qualified teacher,
Your spiritual qualities will develop and increase,
And all your faults and failings will be cast away,
So serve him in the three ways and others’ aims will be accomplished.

Just as gardens are not to be found growing in midair,
All the bounties of the higher realms and liberation,
Will never be yours as long as you lack moral discipline,
So with mindfulness, awareness and caution, control your mind.

Up to now, you have wandered like madmen lacking any guidance,
Through the vast darkness of unknowing in beginning less existence
So now, in order to find the great sanctuary of peace and happiness,
It is right that you take joy in studying the vast ocean of excellent teachings.

Yet hearing alone will not be enough to eliminate misconceptions,
And confidence in the teacher and teachings will not come easily,
So take advantage of hundreds of debates, teachings and compositions,
And rely upon the elixir of mind that is the wisdom born of reflection.

Even the most erudite of teachers with vast scriptural learning,
Can repeat words like a parrot, without taking them to heart,
But when death suddenly arrives, this will bring only pangs of regret,
So rely on the essential meaning of the teachings, my heart-friends!

All the infinite teachings of the buddhas, so vast in number,
Are imparted purely as a means to subdue our own minds.
Don’t put your faith in words alone! I urge you once again:
Let the key points of the deeper meaning seep into your hearts!

This physical existence is difficult to find, like an udumvara flower,
Yet more rewarding than the discovery of a million precious gems.
It will be incredibly difficult to find another opportunity like this later on,
So don’t let it pass you by without accomplishing the highest purpose!

Our great enemy, the lord of death, arrives like a bolt of lightning in the sky,
And nobody can predict when and where he will strike next.
So you can not afford to wait for months and years.
Now is the time for virtuous practice—right here, right now!

For all beings, actions will not go to waste, but will bear their fruit,
And when karma ripens, there is no way to change its outcome.
So now, while you are fortunate enough still to have some control,
If you insist on bringing ruin upon yourself, who will ever save you!

If merely thinking of the various sufferings of samsara,
Which are so unbearably intense, can make you shudder,
Ask yourself: What will it be like when body and mind
Are actually afflicted by these countless forms of duhkha?

Only they have the power to lead us out of this great terror,
So extremely difficult to escape. No one else could ever save us!
So we should take these three most precious jewels as our refuge,
For they are undeceiving, wise, compassionate and powerful.

All the suffering of the three worlds comes from wanting happiness for ourselves,And all virtue and happiness is born of a mind that wishes others well.
So, following the example of the teacher of all gods and men,
You should generate the supreme and unsurpassed bodhichitta.

When the glass mirror of your own mind is completely covered over,
With the thick layer of dust that is the adventitious defilements,
It is difficult for the reflection of profound and clear samadhi to appear,
So take pains to wipe it clean using the pure cloth of the four powers.

All appearance, sound and awareness are deity, mantra and dharmata.
And the view is knowing that this is how it always has been.
Without losing this view, take aim with the arrow of your meditation,
And gain mastery over the practices of elimination and development.

If you can generate bliss, clarity and non-thought as means of support,
Through the techniques of breathing and adopting physical postures,
You will come to master the illusory body of clear light,
So penetrate to the core of enlightened mind through the perfection stage.

When the darkness of the five degenerations prevails,
It is not easily overcome with the starlight of the eight lower yanas,
So shine the brilliant light of the sun of Nyingtik with its countless rays,
All drawn along by the swift carriage of the three kinds of faith!

Whatever arises, in pure awareness, unaltered and unconfined,
Look into the mind that is settled by itself, resting naturally.
If you recognize the natural clarity, always empty and without origin,
You traverse the paths and stages all at once, and seize the stronghold of the fruition.

Resting in a state of just-as-it-isness, through the right postures and gazes,
If you experience the natural manifestation of basic space and spheres of light as pure awareness,
The darkness of samsara’s dualism will disappear in absolute space,
And, passing through the four visions, you will reach maturity in the light body of great transference.

What I have said here—this plain talk arranged in verses—is my heart’s advice. Although it lacks the poetic turns of phrase that might delight the intellectuals,
As a spontaneous and unaltered outpouring from the depths of my mind,
It is in the preferred style of the vidyadharas of the old translation school.

Through the merit of this, may all beings without exception
Receive the supreme royal empowerment of the four kayas,
And may I never be separated, even for a moment,
From the courageous strength of youthful Manjushri!

In China, at the solitary place of Wu Tai Shan (The Five-Peaked Mountain), on the peak where the supreme deity, the youthful Manjushri, turned the wheel of the profound and vast Dharma for tens of thousands of bodhisattvas, the one with unparalleled power of speech and intelligence (Khenchen Jikmé Phuntsok) set down in twenty-three minutes whatever came to mind. May it be virtuous!

Translated by Adam. Thanks to Lama Chökyi Nyima for his kind assistance and to Matthew Pistono for his encouragement.

For as long as space endures
and for as long as living beings remain
until then may I too abide
to dispel the misery of the world.

----Shantideva

India has its own 'soft power' - Buddhism

2007-07-08T08:52:00.000+05:45

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - As the Sino-Indian battle for influence in East and Southeast Asia intensifies, India is backing its political and economic diplomacy with soft-power diplomacy. To counter China's efforts to keep India out of the region on the grounds that it is an "outsider", India is drawing attention to its solid Buddhist credentials.

Buddhism originated in India around the 5th century BC. But after flourishing here for many centuries, it declined in the land of its birth. However, it spread across Asia, winning adherents in such countries as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Mongolia and China.

Buddhist monks traveled far to spread the religion. Scholars came to India to study at its universities. There was a healthy exchange of ideas, of philosophic, religious and cultural traditions right from ancient times. The impact of this interaction and exchange can be seen and felt to date across Asia. It is this shared Buddhist heritage that Delhi is now emphasizing in its engagement with East and Southeast Asia.

"China has sought to keep India out of regional arrangements in Southeast Asia by portraying India as an outsider. By underlining the multi-millennia-old bond of Buddhism that it shares with these regions, India is quietly clarifying that it is not a gatecrasher," said an official in India's Ministry of External Affairs.

Although the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, or the Buddha as he came to be called, was born in Nepal and not India, all the important milestones in his life, whether it was his enlightenment, his first sermon or his attainment of nirvana, happened in India. Most of the important sites of significance to Buddhists the world over are in India.

While India has emphasized its cultural and civilizational links with East and Southeast Asia for decades, this diplomacy has received a boost with the pan-Asian initiative to revive Nalanda University.

An ancient seat of learning, Nalanda University was primarily a center of Buddhist studies, but it also imparted training in fine arts, astronomy, politics and languages. The university died a slow death around the 12th century AD.

A giant, multinational effort is now on to set up an international university at Nalanda that will capture the grandeur, spirit and essence of this renowned seat of learning. Several countries, including India, Japan, Singapore and China, are part of this effort.

And while India is at the center of the Nalanda initiative (the university being located here), China is ensuring that its links with the university are not forgotten. Besides being part of a mentor group (headed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen) that will provide vision and direction to the Nalanda initiative, China has contributed funds for the Xuan Zang Memorial Hall in the university. "It is making sure that its links with Buddhism are noted," said the Indian official.

Xuan Zang was a Chinese Buddhist scholar of the 7th century AD who spent two years at Nalanda. His contribution to Buddhism is substantial. Not only did he translate Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese during his years in India, but it was from his translated Chinese copies that scholars recovered Indian Buddhist texts lost in subsequent years.

Buddhism might have arrived in China several centuries after it was born in India, but China has more Buddhists than India does today. In fact, with 100 million, it is home to the largest number of Buddhists in the world.

In recent years, China has been making a concerted attempt to project a Buddhism-friendly image of itself, drawing attention to its Buddhist heritage. Monasteries and temples destroyed during the Cultural Revolution have reportedly been rebuilt. Last year, China played host to the First World Buddhist Forum at Hangzhou in which Buddhist monks and scholars from 37 countries participated.

China's projection of a Buddhist-friendly image today has to do with its Tibet policy.

"Having destroyed Tibetan Buddhism and put in its place a state-sanctioned version of Buddhism, Beijing is making grand gestures to shore up its Buddhist credentials. It wants to soften its image for East and Southeast Asia but, more importantly, Tibet," said the official. "Hence Beijing's bonding with Buddhism."

The Hangzhou meet, he said, was aimed at presenting China as a country that is in favor of harmonious living with its neighbors. More important, it provided Beijing with an international platform to present to the world Gyaltsen Norbu, the Panchen Lama (Tibet's second-ranking spiritual leader) it appointed in 1995, and to showcase its Buddhist credentials. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists who fled to India in 1959 in the wake of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, was not invited to the gathering.

China's effort to project its Buddhist credentials has been tarnished by its record in Tibet. Indian officials say that so long as the Dalai Lama lives in India and millions of Tibetan Buddhist refugees remain in India, China's claims over Buddhism will be weak. While China's Buddhist credentials are questionable thanks to its blood-soaked record vis-a-vis Tibetan Buddhists, that of India's is impeccable. China cannot match India's formidable record as a protector of Buddhism. India has provided refuge to millions of Tibetan Buddhists fleeing Chinese oppression.

Indian officials admit that in the past India neglected highlighting adequately its central role in the Buddhist world and its Buddhist legacy. In the process, "it surrendered the mantle of being the custodian of Buddhist heritage and its leadership role in the Buddhist world, which was quickly appropriated by countries like Japan and China", said the official. This is being corrected now.

Indrani Bagchi writes in The Times of India: "In the past five years, India has fought back, to reclaim what the government believes is India's by right - that it is India which is at the heart of the Asian civilization, that in many ways, India has been the cultural trend setter."

Last year, India built a Buddhist temple in Luoyang in China. The temple is in the Baima temple complex where a Chinese emperor welcomed Buddhist monks from India 2,000 years ago. "The temple in Luoyang has been built in the Indian style," said the official. "It marks the fact that Buddhism traveled to China from India." It underscores the fact that Buddhism in China is an Indian export.

India has made Buddhism the core of its soft-power push in Asia. This is aimed not only at reminding countries of their long-standing links with India but also that the roots of their cultural heritage lie in India.

The dispute between India and China over territory and their race for military and economic supremacy are a familiar tale to the outside world. The outcome of these contests will determine who will dominate Asia - if not the world - in the coming decades. Less visible but equally important is their tussle over ownership of Buddhism. This keenly fought contest will determine which of the two is Asia's "mother civilization".

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

Source: Asia Times Online Ltd.

Buddhist monk files suit for cutting of Bodhi tree

2007-06-29T08:34:00.000+05:45

Patna, India -- A Buddhist monk has filed a criminal complaint against top officials of the Bodh Gayatemple in Bihar for allegedly cutting a branch of a Bodhi tree there, considered sacred to millions theworld over as it is believed Lord Buddha attained enlightenment under it about 2,550 years ago.

The Bodh Gaya Temple management finds itself in the midst of a fresh controversy, with a criminal complaint filed in the court against the cutting off a branch of the famous 'Mahabodhi' tree.

Arup Brahmachari, a monk in his 30s, has filed a criminal complaint case against officials of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee in the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Gaya. "I have filed a criminal case against officials of the temple with evidence, including eight photographs, that a branch of the Bodhi tree was cut off," said Arup Brahmachari.

Around a year ago it was widely reported that some miscreants had cut off a branch of the Bodhi tree. The Nitish Kumar-led government was quick in issuing a denial. However, after a hue and cry over the incident worldwide, the state government got samples collected from the cut area on the tree and sent it to a Pune-based forest laboratory to ascertain the truth.

Ironically, nearly 11 months after, the laboratory report is yet to be made public. The Gaya district administration said the report was awaited. Some Buddhist monks suspect that the government is trying to hide truth.

"My complaint was supported by an affidavit filed by Deepak Malakar, a gardener of the temple, who used to look after the Bodhi tree," Brahmachari said. In his affidavit, Malakar claimed that he cut off a branch of the tree on July 10, 2006, allegedly on the order of Bahadant Bodhipal, the temple chief priest, and carried it to his residence.

Brahmachari has accused top temple officials, including the ex-officio chairman, secretary Kalicharan Yadav, chief priest Bahadant Bodhipal and the Gaya district magistrate, of trying to temper with Malakar's affidavit.

"These powerful people are doing everything to frighten Malakar to change his mind over the issue and police have even raided his house," Brahmachari claimed. Brahamchari, who has been spearheading a campaign against the mushrooming of fake NGOs in Bodh Gaya,said that last week when he went to the police station to file the criminal case the police refused to register it.

The Bodhi tree behind the Mahabodhi temple, which has grown from the original banyan tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment, saw new leaves after four years last year. Last month IANS reported that the tree was threatened by an unknown disease. Hundreds of fresh leaves of the holy tree are falling off daily. Brahamchari blamed the temple officials of negligence of the Bodhi tree. Sources in Bodh Gaya said plant scientist A.K. Singh had suggested some corrective measures after examining the tree. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from across the world carry back leaves from the tree. An official of the Mahabodhi temple, which the UNESCO has declared a World Heritage Site, said the Bodhi tree is the sixth regeneration of the original banyan tree.

Indo Asian News Service
June 25, 2007

Psychological Healing-- Buddhism

2007-06-24T22:00:00.000+05:45

"It is possible to understand the Buddhist teachings as a method of psychological healing, comparable to psychotherapy that teaches us how we can master destructive forces like anger, envy, and greed. Human beings seem to be a bundle of different qualities and psychological processes. We should attentively examine our qualities and be alertly aware of our experiences in order to recognize what we truly feel and think. At the same time, the personality of human beings is not seen as a unified whole."

According to these teachings, the heart of consciousness is composed of various elements, the five types of attachment, or skandhas: body, sensations, perceptions, instinctual forces, and consciousness.

"These inner forces impart the false concept of an ego-consciousness. The basic problem of emotional disorders therefore lies in a false concept of identity. This I-blindness should therefore be abolished through self-study.... The goal is not self-realization but selflessness."

--from Path of Wisdom, Path of Peace by His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Felizitas Von Schonborn, foreword by Wei Jingsheng

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Compassionate

2007-06-21T07:48:00.000+05:45

Be kind to the destitute

Be kind to the destitute,

Be patient and loving toward the wicked,

Be kind to the afflicted,

Be gentle with the fool,

Empathize with the weak and oppressed,

Be especially compassionate to those who clingto concrete reality.

- Patrul Rinpoche

You should know this

2007-06-16T23:03:00.002+05:45

Here is few things I would like to share with you all. Please copy it (if you wish to do so) and forward it to as many as you can and like.

Thanks

Have a great day!!

Money

It can buy a House............But not a Home
It can buy a Bed..............But not Sleep
It can buy a Clock............But not Time
It can buy you a Book.........But not Knowledge
It can buy you Medicine.......But not Health
It can buy you Sex............But not Love
So you see money isn't everything.And it often causes pain and suffering.I tell you all this because I am your Friend,and as your Friend I want to take away your pain and suffering.
So send me all your money, cash only please
And I will suffer for you.

===============

Some quotations

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

-Frank Lloyd Wright(1867-1959) Architect

“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

-Henry Ford(1863-1947) Founder of the Ford Motor Company

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

-Japanese Proverb

Meditation

2007-06-08T00:25:00.000+05:45

Meditation describes a state of concentrated attention on some object of thought or awareness. It involves the attention inward to the mind itself. This positive cycle of experience and release creates an exciting new outlook on life and enables us to pursue our purposeful place in it and it is also a process of healing and liberating. Also it is one of the proven alternative therapies. It can be broadly classified under the mind-body medicine.

Nowadays the doctors are prescribing meditation as a way to lower blood pressure, improve exercise performance in the angina, help people with asthma breathe easier, relieve insomnia and generally relax the everyday stresses of life. It’s a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional and mental states. Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. It has been rooted in the traditions of the world’s great religions. Practically all religious groups practice meditation in one form or another. It is the key for opening the doors of mysteries to the mind. Man abstract himself in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects. In that subjective mood the man immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things in themselves.

All meditation methods are effective in reducing stress. But they do so in different ways. The main characteristic of meditation is conscious breathing. The single most effective relaxation technique is conscious regulation of breath. Breathing is the only function which can perform consciously as well as unconsciously. It can be completely voluntary act or a completely involuntary act. It is controlled by two nerves. Breath is the bridge between to the voluntary and involuntary systems. It has direct connections to emotional states and moods – observe someone who is angry, rapidly, shallowly, noisily and irregularly. Beyond conscious breathing, which all meditation methods share. It’s a wide variety of intentions and corresponding techniques.

The distinguishing characteristics of meditation are contrasted and it’s downward, heart-centered, In-Life, lover active reality based, Awakening. Most meditative traditions discourage drug use. Meditations includes an increase in patience, compassion, and other virtues. Consciousness of sin, temptation and a spirit of contrition. Experience of spiritual phenomena such as kundalini, extra-sensory perception or visions of deities etc. Mindfulness meditation and related techniques are intended to train attention for the sake of provoking insight.

Meditation on Emptiness

2007-05-31T08:07:00.000+05:45

An Explanation of the Shunyata Mantra and a Meditation on Emptiness

The main body of the yoga meditation begins with the shunyata mantra:

"OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHO SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM"

First, it's significant that the words of this mantra are the original Sanskrit--just hearing or reciting them imparts great blessings.

Also, this mantra contains a profound explanation of the pure, fundamental nature of both human beings and all other existent phenomena. It means that everything is spontaneously pure--not relatively, of course, but in the absolute sense. From the absolute point of view, the fundamental quality of human beings and the nature of all things is purity.

We need to understand what the mantra means by nature, or natural. Much of the time we are unnatural; we go against our nature. Our ego tries to be clever and intelligent; it's always dreaming up ways to generate hatred, anger and desire, but that's bad, negative intelligence. It creates an artificial self and then believes that this artificial self is the real me: "This is me; look how beautiful I am." We present an artificial emanation to ourselves, believe that this false image is real, and then present ourselves to others in that way.

As long as we're on this kind of psychological ego trip we can never be natural. In order to touch our fundamental nature we have to go beyond our false self. When we do, we touch purity.

Thus the shunyata mantra also shows that the self-pity wrong conception that constantly repeats in our mind--"I'm hopeless, I'm impure, I'm a bad person, I'm evil, I can't do anything, I can't help myself, I can't help others"--is completely deluded and an unnatural way to think. In other words, Lord Buddha's philosophy and psychology teach us that we should not believe that we are totally negative or sinful by nature.

That's absolutely incorrect. Our fundamental nature is pure. The artificial cloud projected by our ego is not our nature; it's just something fabricated by our intellectual ego. Therefore, we should disregard this wrong view and just be natural, as we are.

Let me give you an example of how we're not natural. Look at how people have changed through the history of human evolution. Women have changed their image; men have changed the way they work. Have you noticed? I have. I don't look at the world from only the religious point of view; I observe human history, too. This kind of change explains the generation gap: old people don't understand the way young people act. They look at them and think, "What on earth is that!?" Young people look at the elderly and think they're out of touch. They see their peers acting and dressing in a certain way, believe that that's the best way to be, and adopt a new kind of emanation. But it's completely artificial, not at all natural.

Therefore, through understanding the fundamental nature of the human being, we should try to be natural. The shunyata mantra shows the positive reality of what a human is; why should we have only a negative self-image? That's just ego. And that's why Buddhism never has anything good to say about the ego. From our point of view, the ego is always bad because all it brings is suffering.

And that's why we practice meditation--it's the way we transcend artificial thought, gain peaceful tranquility and touch our fundamental reality.

Reciting the shunyata mantra helps us cut the conceptions that lead us to misery, such as ideas of permanence and the inherent existence of the self. Such conceptions should be cut. If they are not completely eradicated they just build up; they diminish today and tomorrow recur. We have no control. We suppress something here, it comes out there; we suppress something there, it comes out here. Sublimating problems is no solution.

Anyway, whether or not you recite the shunyata mantra, the important thing to understand is that the self-pity image of yourself to which you cling does not exist. I can easily explain this in a detailed, philosophical way but the simple approach is to look at how you hold yourself today--"I am that-this"--and compare that with how you held yourself last year. Do you hold yourself the same way or has your self-conception changed? It's actually very difficult for that to change--we always feel that the "me" of today is exactly the same as the "me" of last year. But of course, that's wrong, both relatively and absolutely.

First of all, things are constantly changing in the shortest fraction of a second. There's no way that the Mr. Jones of today can be exactly the same as the Mr. Jones of yesterday. It's just not possible, and when you clearly see the way in which you hold a permanent self-image you can only laugh at yourself. It's just so nonsensical. You believe that you're the same person you were ten years ago. That's what Lord Buddha meant when he said that we're deluded, deluded, deluded!

Deluded means holding and hanging on to nonsensical conceptions and hallucinated projections of ourself and as long as we don't eradicate this cause of all problems, we're not doing a good job. We can meditate for twenty or thirty years but if we don't touch the root of problems, don't shake our ego, only make it more beautiful and solid, we're not doing a good job at all.

What we need to do is to shake our samsara, the root of ego, the way our ego conception holds things. When we shake the Mt. Meru of our ego, our entire samsaric mandala collapses. That's a real earthquake.

Lord Buddha's teaching on universal reality is so profound. It shows us the best way to be healthy by shattering all our concepts and illusions. He said, "Even if you hold concepts of me, the Buddha, you're still trapped in samsara."

The so-called religious practitioners of today are going to run to their guru saying, "You're a fantastic guru, I love you; please love me." They're going to want their self-existent guru to love their self-existent selves. That's their ego at work. If people had run up to the Buddha like that he'd have told them to get lost. That's beautiful. Lord Buddha didn't want people to be hung up grasping at anything, much less him and his doctrine. He said that such people were foolish; that that was no way to be healthy. He said even if we're attached to the bodhisattva path, the six perfections, the tantric path-- any Buddhist philosophy--we're trapped.

It's very simple. Lord Buddha made no exceptions. He said that we should grasp at neither samsaric nor religious phenomena, not even Buddhist philosophy. His aim was universal health.

We also find that many gurus are attached to their disciples and want their disciples to be attached to them. That's totally wrong, too. Gurus should not be attached to their disciples; disciples should not be attached to their guru. True spiritual practitioners should not be attached to any person, doctrine or philosophy. It's unhealthy. The Buddha taught so that we might also become buddha: healthy, eternally happy, free of all concepts, misery, doctrine and bondage. That's all he wanted.

Therefore we have to recognize the falsity of the conception of the permanent, concrete self of last year that we're clinging to right now and break it down; we have to see how our go grasping creates an atmosphere of ignorance within which we then grasp at sense pleasures, which tantalize and trick us by their dancing in the dark.

This shunyata mantra is most profound: "All existent phenomena in the universe and I are of one reality." At the moment, our ego divides us from other phenomena. It says, "You are this, this, this; I am that, that, that." It keeps us from getting close to even our loved ones. We spend our whole life with another person but never get really close because of the games our ego plays. Our ego prevents us from understanding one another.

The mantra finishes with, "That is me," HAM. "All existent phenomena in the universe and I are of one reality and that is me; I am that." This signifies divine pride. Through experiencing shunyata we experience a kind of unity of self and other, like pouring milk into milk. When you mix two lots of milk they become indistinguishable from each other. That is the beauty of the nature of shunyata--understanding, experiencing or realizing it makes our dualistic mind vanish. Dual means two; relatively speaking, you and I are dual. But from the ultimate point of view, when I realize my universal nature and yours, we become indistinguishable.

People talk about racism: it's a bad thing, we should do away with it; many people have been killed as a result of racism. From the Buddhist point of view, without destroying the dualistic ego there's no way to eliminate racism; it's too deeply rooted within. So until we discover the reality of universal unity, any talk of racism disappearing is a joke. It's just not possible.

However, Lord Buddha gave precise, practical teachings on overcoming duality that we can implement in our everyday life. That's the beauty of being human; that's why from the Buddhist point of view, humans are beautiful. In the relative world we can practice charity and so forthbut we can also transcend the relative world; we're capable of both functioning in the relative world and going beyond it into the absolute.

Experiencing emptiness

From the practical point of view, tantric techniques help us gain direct experience of shunyata. The usual way to do this is to first visualize the deity that you are practicing-- Maitreya, for example--in space in front of you, seeing this deity as your guru, a buddha or a bodhisattva, depending upon your level of understanding. A laser-like beam of radiant white light emanates from Maitreya's heart and shoots into your heart, transforming all the energy of the self-pity image you have of yourself into radiant white light. This white light image of yourself then gradually dissolves, becoming smaller and smaller until it completely disappears into the space of non- duality. Then, with complete awareness, you concentrate single-pointedly on that.

This technique for experiencing emptiness epitomizes the tantric approach. Lord Buddha taught tantra so that we could not only understand emptiness intellectually but also to experience it directly.

If you want to practice this technique right now, do it as follows. First, close your eyes. We meditate with our eyes closed because, from the Buddhist point of view, sense perception is no good--the moment we open our eyes we're assailed by dualistic impressions. So close your eyes and visualize Maitreya in the space in front of you. As if magnetically attracted, a laser beam of radiant white light shoots out of his heart into yours, instantly burning up your entire concrete self-image. This nuclear energy transforms your body into radiant white light. It gets smaller and smaller, dissolves into atoms, neutrons...and completely disappears into selflessness.

Remain in this state, fully aware, and just experience it without any intellectualization; just let go.

[Meditation]

Your normal, ego-conceived self-image disappears. Think strongly that it has completely gone. Let go.

[Meditation]

Think, "My self-pity image of myself is universal reality." Feel this, fully aware; let go without intellectualization.

[Meditation]

Think, "In the great universal reality of emptiness there's no form, no color, no substantial physical energy."

[Meditation]

"The view and experience of non-duality is great peace. This is the experience of enlightenment."

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Lama Yeshe gave this teaching at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, New Delhi, November 1981. Edited from the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive by Nicholas Ribush. [Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive]

I would like to thank Pema Kunsang Erik and others who provided me with this text on Meditation on Shunyata, which is considered to be one the greatest meditation practices in Buddhism.

Death is Watching

2007-05-28T22:52:00.000+05:45

When we listen to sounds, we can distinguish between two phenomena: "sounds" and "listener listening to sounds":

"Sounds" is when we are hearing all sounds indiscriminately, like a tape recorder does; when all sounds are impacting on our awareness with equal vividness.

"Listener listening to sounds" is when we are focusing on one specific sound, and the other sounds are in the background of our awareness. That "listener listening to sounds"– that focus, or sense of there being a detached perceiver there who is perceiving – is what magicians call lower self. At least, that is what dies when the person's body dies. When there is no longer a sense of a separated perceiver perceiving, when everything is impacting upon our awareness with equal vividness, what is left is a feeling of oneness, a background of peacefulness, which is what magicians call higher self, or death. Death is in the background all the time. Death is the canvas upon which our lives are painted.

When we feel that we are watching ourselves – that there is some part of us that is watching our every move – that part is our death. It is constantly looking over our shoulder; it's the sense we have that something out there is watching us (the Spirit is watching us too, not to mention lots of other beings, both angelic and demonic; but our root self-consciousness, the sense that we feel within ourselves that something is watching us, is our death).

Observe that this is not the false watcher thought form, which we use to watch ourselves with glory, and exalt in how marvelous we are. That watcher is a phony copy of the true watcher – death – which is utterly cold and dispassionate. The false watcher– ourself-consciousness, or need to keep referring everything back to ourselves – is a thought form which takes anything that is going on and glamorizes it, and imagines other people applauding us for it. We learn the false watcher thought form from our society: the false watcher thought form is in fact society's way of papering over death. We do have a true watcher watching us, and that watcher is our death. The false watcher is society's way of eradicating death from people's awareness, to make people act as if they weren't going to die, to make people forget about death as much as possible.

Only by making people forget about death can they be led into believing that there could be anything more important than the fact that they could die in the next instant. And part of banishing awareness of death is substituting a glory thought form of watching ("watching oneself in glory; watching oneself with approval / approbation") for the true watcher thought form, which is death.

Another way of saying this is: the sense we have that we are perceiving; that there is some detached perceiver there perceiving; that there is some "us" there to which things are happening; is our death. Without that sense of a detached perceiver there, we wouldn't be able to focus on anything. Everything that we see, hear, touch, etc. at every moment – not to mention bleed-through from other lifetimes and probable realities – would bombard our senses with equal impact. We would be overwhelmed with information; indeed, we would have no sense that "we" exist at all (just as an infant doesn't) – we would be pure perception.

This is a common experience when one is tripping on psychedelic drugs; for example, when we take a shower while tripping, we can feel (are aware of) every individual drop of water as it hits our skin as a discrete event. On the other hand we can't balance a checkbook while tripping because we can't focus that much attention – there's too much going on to be able to focus. To use mind – to be able to focus on one thing at a time by separating it out from its background – is to create a perceiver which is perceiving; and that's what we call death.

When we say that death is watching, what we're saying is that the act of watching is what we mean by death. Anything that watches will die. This is because watching – separatedness – is a lie which eventually must run out. Separatedness is a lie which all sentient beings tell themselves. That lie is what embeds them in linear time. If a vortex in a river were to suddenly start saying to itself something like "I'm a vortex! I'm a vortex! I'm a unique, individual, separated vortex!" then that vortex would be lying to itself – it's not a unique, individual, separated anything. But by telling itself that lie, it embeds itself in a linear temporality in which it watches this, and then it watches that, and then it watches the other thing; until the vortex runs out of energy and dissolves back into the river and stops lying to itself about having been separated in the first place – i.e., it dies. But it was "dead" all along.

Watching = separatedeness = death; they are just different ways of talking about the same phenomenon.

Our sense of personal continuity in the dream state is not based upon a linear, sequential, unfolding of events, as it is in the waking state, but rather is based upon an awareness of self as experiencer (i.e., one's death). That vibrant, alive quality that dreams have is actually awareness of death. In dreams we are aware of death every second, willy-nilly, because there's nothing solid in dreams to cling to: there's no way of toning down the intensity of what we are experiencing by focusing our attention elsewhere (on our thoughts). We're face-to-face with death every second in dreams. That's why we feel more alive in dreams than we do in wakefulness – because we are seeing with the eyes of death; we are one with death when we are dreaming, which is why we can't die in dreams – we're already dead. In wakefulness we make a separation between ourselves and our deaths – an absurd pretense, but a useful one for certain purposes (such as being able to focus attention enough to e.g. balance a checkbook) – and that's why wakefulness is duller, less vivid, less joyous than dreaming.

Here's the answer to the mystery: what we consider to be "ourselves" is just a given thought form at a given moment. Our lifetimes are like a collection of scenes or tableaux strung together by mind into a lattice of threaded beads. All of the beads (or life events) which directly connect to a given bead are probable realities. From that bead, mind can take any number of directions to another bead. The black threads connecting the beads are death– we literally die from moment-to-moment. We always have to pass through death to move to the next bead (the next scene; the next moment); and if we take a turn which leads to a long run of black thread till the next bead, that's "real" death and the next bead is birth in another lifetime.

Another way of saying this is, we have ourselves separated into a bunch of little pieces, each of which feels isolated and disconnected from (more important than) the rest. However, within each little piece we have tremendous focus and stick-to-itiveness ("fear of death") – a willingness to keep up the struggle to stay awake and separated no matter how much of a bummer it is.

The "you" who is reading this sentence is actually a very different being than the "you" who read the previous sentence, and this is not meant in a trivial sense (that a few cells have split in the interim) – it is meant in the deepest sense possible. The belief that you are the same person from moment to moment is an illusion, a lie. To maintain this illusion you must snatch yourself back from death every instant, be on the qui vive every second. It is precisely this clenching up against death which creates and sustains waking consciousness (gives us the focus and control we lack in dreaming, e.g. the ability to balance a checkbook). This is why we are so uptight when awake compared to how open and vulnerable we are in dreaming. To maintain waking consciousness requires incredible fortitude and self-discipline (not to mention completely lying to ourselves every second that we are awake).

In actual fact, we are nothing more than our death. Our death is the complete written record of our life. It is all contained in our death. Our death can be likened to a microdot which contains our entire life inone little point. We are like the little point which moves on an Etch-a-Sketch board or computer drawing program, blazing out a path through life (making a squiggle on a previously blank screen) and leaving a trail behind it. The entirety of our being is like that blank screen, and the squiggly path is this particular lifetime. It has a beginning and an end, and is delimited. That delimitation is death.

In other words, just as our sense of space is our sense of having feelings (familiarity); and our sense of time is our sense of having thoughts (importance – our ability to focus our attention); so too is our death our sense that there is some contained entity which is having those feelings and thoughts. Death is our sense of containment, of boundedness, of singularity, of discreteness. It is a species of glue which binds random feelings and thought forms together into an integrated, cohesive whole.

Death projects a body thought form to symbolize this sense of discreteness, solidity, stability, boundedness – just as we project a body thought form when we are dreaming, to symbolize "us". What we consider our unity – our individuality, our continuity, our "us-ness" – is actually our death. When we cling to our sanity, our sense of being centered in a stable environment where things are more or less predictable, what we are clinging to is our death. Wakefulness could not exist without it.

Observe that in reality there is no such distinction as importance – but if we were to say that one is more important than the other, certainly our death is more important than (primary to) our life. Our life is just a symbolic reflection of our death; it's not the main issue at all. To think that our life is more important than our death is not only gross stupidity, but plays right into death's hands.

Death is neither malevolent or benevolent – it just is, like the force of gravity. Gravity can both hurt us and help us, depending upon how we use it (or let ourselves be used by it). So too with death. Death actually calls all the shots and we have to dance to its tune, really; but we can do that either elegantly or spasmodically. Master magicians waltz with their death; caress it fondly; and then seduce it.

Importance – that is to say, focus: our ability to focus attention – is the means by which we consolidate death, or grab onto it (though what we believe we're doing is pushing it away). Importance is the illusion that we are controlling our death, when actually the reverse is the case. It's like hanging on for dear life to a runaway stallion and all the while trying to pretend that everything's just fine and dandy. The runaway stallion we cling to is death, and the pretense that we are in any way, shape, or form in charge of the situation is importance. It's what keeps us from enjoying the scenery as we gallop along.

Without our fear of death thought form we would be more aware of our past and probable lives (at least the feeling of them, if not the actual thought forms) as well as of the feelings of other people. We'd be able to feel them as our own feelings, as infants do. And thus we'd lose much of our sense of separatedness. That's how lunatics and magicians live: they still have individual lives, things happen to them, but there's less of a difference between something happening to them or to someone else. Something which happens to them is no more important than something which happens to someone else. Their feelings are no more important to them than someone else's feelings.

Death is the blank screen upon which all of our lifetimes are painted. Those lives don't exist; they're just momentary plays of light and shadow. However, to us they seem utterly fascinating and absorbing. To get to who we really are we would have to pull all of that obsession (energy pinned down by importance) out of all of those lives. As we do this, we find less and less of what we now consider to be "ourselves". We find the barriers which separate us from other people and the world around us becoming less and less distinct. It becomes harder for us to feel where we end and the next guy begins.

Death is just a way we keep score, keep count, keep track of things: it's how we separate this moment from that one, and this lifetime from that lifetime, and me from you. Without death the whole thing would just be one big stew. Death is what props "us" up – if it were not for death we would not have any sense of there being an "us" there at all. After all, what are "we" anyway? The sum total of all our experiences (memories) and expectations (desires). Right? What else is there? Nothing, right?

We, of ourselves, are absolutely nothing. Zero. All we are is something that is going to die. That's the only reason we have life at all, is to die. We are something that death conjured up, as an afterthought, to give itself a raison d'etre. And then, once it created us, we took off like a lumbering Frankenstein monster, and death tagged along to watch what we did.

All death is doing is watching us. It doesn't approve or disapprove of what it sees; it isn't conscience or shame; it just watches dispassionately. And what we are is death watching itself. It has nothing to do with us whatsoever. We are just a reflection in death's mirror – a symbol for death. We have no primary awareness: just as the moon only reflects light, we only reflect (are a symbol of) death's awareness of itself. We only exist as death is watching itself through the metaphor of our lives.

And that's why we say that death is mind: because that sense that we have that we are being watched is our death watching us. Without our death there watching us, we are nothing – nothing but a little point on a random walk through an infinite jungle in which nothing makes any sense whatsoever – there is no rhyme nor reason to anything (no mind). Mind (order) can only exist when there is something there watching the path that this random blip on the screen is taking.

And that's what we call death.

(excerpted from Magical Almanac ezine, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MagicalAlmanac/ Copyright © 2007 by Bob Makransky. All rights reserved).

More of Bob Makransky's articles are posted at: www.dearbrutus.com

A Short Biography of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)

2007-05-28T08:53:00.000+05:45

(Note: Dear All, I would like to inform you all those interested in Buddhism that I have published this short biography of Guru Rinpoche, one of the most honored Buddhist preachers and tantric teachers, on the occasion Padmasambhava Day. Enjoy Reading)

By Jamgon Kongtrul

Now follows a short life story of Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmakara or Padmasambhava, extracted from the Precious Garland of Lapis Lazuli, a collection of life stories of the 108 main tertons written by Jamgon Kongtrul the First and found in Volume I of his Treasury of Precious Termas – the Rinchen Terdzo:

Padmakara has influenced countless beings through the Vajrayana teachings and in particular through the activity of the profound terma treasures. This great master was not an ordinary person on the path or just a noble being on one of the bodhisattva bhumis but an emanation of both Buddha Amitabha and Shakyamuni who appeared in order to tame the human beings and spirits difficult to convert.

Even the great bodhisattvas are incapable of fully explaining his life example but in brief I will narrate it as follows.

In the dharmakaya realm of the Luminous Vajra Essence he has by nature attained perfect enlightenment since the very beginning as the liberated ground of primordial purity. He is renowned as the original protector, Unchanging Light.

In the self-manifest sambhogakaya realm of the Thunder of the Drum of Perfection, he spontaneously manifested as the boundless wisdom array of the five families of Buddha Immense Ocean possessing the five certainties.

As the external manifestation of this self-appearing display, in the countless sceneries of bodily forms in buddhafields of the five families comprised of the semi-manifest natural nirmanakaya realms of Mahabrahma, he appears to all the bodhisattvas on the ten bhumis. Since these all are the cloud banks of Guru Rinpoche's wisdom display, the 'inexhaustible wheel of adornment,' he is known as the All-Holding Lotus.

By the power of these wisdom displays he appears in countless worlds of the ten directions as the magical apparition of nirmanakayas who tame beings. In particular, it is taught that only in this Saha world-system he illuminates fifty worlds with the lamp of the teachings of Sutra and Tantra appearing as the eight manifestations to tame beings in the different parts of the world.
The Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal had a vision in which she saw a manifestation of Guru Rinpoche called Immense Vajra Ocean in the direction to the east. Each of the pores in his body held one billion realms and in each realm there were one billion world systems. In each of these world systems there were one billion Guru Rinpoches who each created one billion emanations. Each of these emanations carried out the activity of taming one billion disciples. She then saw the same display in each of the other directions and in the center.

In this world of Jambudvipa, Guru Rinpoche is known as just one nirmanakaya who tames beings but according to the different capacities and giftedness of people he is perceived in various ways. The history of the Oral Transmission of Kilaya and most Indian sources explain that he was born as the son of a king or a minister in Uddiyana; while the terma treasures for the most part narrate that he was miraculously born. In some texts he is said to have appeared from a bolt of lightning at the summit of Mount Malaya. Each of these wondrous stories differ in many ways. This is indeed a topic that lies far beyond the reach of an ordinary person's intellect.

I shall now limit the explanation down to a mere seed, the life of Guru Rinpoche according to miraculous birth as it appears in the terma teachings.

In the land of Uddiyana situated to the west of Bodhgaya there was an island in a huge lake on which appeared a multicolored lotus flower through the blessings of the buddhas. Buddha Amitabha sent from his heart center a golden vajra marked with the letter HRIH into the bud of this lotus flower which miraculously turned into a small child eight years of age holding a vajra and a lotus and adorned with the major and minor marks. The child remained there teaching the profound Dharma to the devas and dakinis on the island.

At that time Indrabodhi, who was the king of the country, had no sons. He had already emptied out his treasury by making offerings to the Three Jewels and giving alms to the poor. As a last resort, in order to find a wishfulfilling jewel he embarked on a journey with his minister Krishnadhara on the great lake. On their return first Krishnadhara and later King Indrabodhi met the miraculous child. The king regarded him as an answer to his prayers for a son and brought him to the palace where he was given the name Padmakara, the Lotus Born. Padmakara was then asked to sit on a throne made of precious gems and given lavish offerings by all the people.

The prince grew up, bringing countless beings to maturation through his youthful sports and games. He married Prabhadhari and ruled the kingdom of Uddiyana in accordance with the Dharma. At that time he perceived that he would be unable to accomplish the immense welfare of other beings by governing a country so he asked Indrabodhi permission to leave which was not granted. In an act of play, he then pretended that his trident slipped out of his hand; it fell and killed the son of one of the ministers. He was then sentenced to be expelled to a charnel ground. He remained in Cool Grove, Joyful Forest and Sosaling, engaging in the conduct of yogic disciplines. During this time he received empowerment and blessings from the two dakinis Tamer of Mara and Sustainer of Bliss. When bringing all the dakinis of the charnel grounds under his command, he was known as Shantarakshita.

Padmakara returned to Uddiyana, to the island in Lake Danakosha where he practiced Secret Mantra and the symbolic language of the dakinis through which he brought the dakinis on the island under his command. He then practiced in the Rugged Forest and was blessed with a vision of Vajra Yogini. He bound under oath all the nagas of the lakes as well as the planetary spirits and was invested with supernatural powers by all the dakas and dakinis. Thus he became renowned as Dorje Drakpo Tsal, Wrathful Vajra Power.

He then journeyed to the Vajra Throne in Bodhgaya where he showed many miracles. People asked who he was and when he replied that he was a self-appeared buddha they did not believe but instead defamed him. Seeing the many reasons to have a teacher, he went to Zahor where he took ordination from Prabhahasti and was given the name Shakya Senge. He received the teaching on Yoga Tantra eighteen times and had visions of the deities. The he went to the female master Kungamo who was the wisdom dakini Guhya Jñana appearing in the form of a nun. He asked for empowerment and she changed him into the letter HUNG which she then swallowed and emitted through her lotus. Inside her body he was bestowed the entire outer, inner and secret empowerments and purified of the three obscurations.

Later, he met the eight great knowledge-holders and received the Eight Sadhana Sections. He received the Magical Net from the great master Buddha Guhya and Dzogchen from Shri Singha. In this way he studied and received all the sutras, tantras and sciences from numerous learned and accomplished masters of India. He became adept by learning a topic just once and had visions of all the deities even without practicing. At this time he was known as Loden Choksey and he displayed the manner of perfecting the vidyadhara level of maturation.

He then went to the country of Zahor where he magnetized Mandarava, a qualified dakini who was the daughter of King Vihardhara. Taking her as his sadhana support, they practiced for three months in the Maratika Cave after which Buddha Amitayus appeared in person, conferred empowerment upon them and blessed them to be inseparable from himself. They were given one billion tantras on longevity and accomplished the vidyadhara level of life-mastery. Having attained the vajra body beyond birth and death, they went back to teach the kingdom of Zahor. When begging for alms, they were arrested by the king and his ministers and burned alive. The master and his consort inspired faith by displaying the miracle of transforming the pyre into a cool lake in the center of which they sat on a lotus flower. They caused all the people to embrace Dharma practice and established them in the state beyond falling back into samsara.

Padmakara then returned to convert the people of Uddiyana. While begging for alms, he was recognized and burned in a huge pyre of sandal wood. The master and his consort again appeared unharmed on a lotus flower in the center of a lake wearing a garland of skulls to symbolize liberating all sentient beings from samsara. Because of showing this miracle he was then renowned as Padma Totreng Tsal, Powerful Lotus of the Garland of Skulls. He remained in Uddiyana for 13 years as the king's teacher and established the whole kingdom in Dharma practice. During this time he gave the empowerment and teachings for the Dharma Ocean Embodying All Teachings (Kadu Chokyi Gyamtso), through which the king and queen as well as all the destined ones accomplished the supreme vidyadhara level. He was then known as Padma Raja, the Lotus King.

In accordance with a prophesy in the Sutra on Magical Perception, Padmakara transformed himself into the monk Wangpo Dey in order to convert King Ashoka. Having established Ashoka in unshakable faith, during a single night he erected in this world one million stupas containing the relics of the Tathagata. He also subdued several non-Buddhist teachers, was poisoned by one king but remained unharmed. When he then was thrown into the river he made the river flow upstream and danced about in mid-air. Through that he became known as Powerful Garuda Youth.

Moreover, Padmakara manifested himself in the form of Acharya Padmavajra, the master who revealed the Hevajra Tantra, as well as the Brahmin Saraha, Dombi Heruka, Virupa, Kalacharya and many other siddhas. He practiced in the great charnel grounds where he taught the Secret Mantra to the dakinis. He subdued the outer and inner mundane spirits and named them protectors of the Dharma. At that time he became known as Nyima Özer.

When five hundred Non-Buddhist teachers were about to defeat the Dharma in debate at Bodhgaya, Padmakara challenged them and was victorious. Some of the teachers resorted to evil spells, but Padmakara scattered them by means of a wrathful mantra given by the dakini Tamer of Mara. The rest converted to Buddhism and the banner of the Dharma was raised to the skies. At that time he became known as Senge Dradrok. Up to this point he had exhausted the three defilements and resided on the vidyadhara level of life-mastery, the stage of having fully perfected the supreme path.

Proceeding to the cave of Yanglesho situated between India and Nepal he met Shakya Devi, the daughter of a Nepalese King, whom he accepted as his sadhana support and consort. While practicing Vishuddha Heruka three powerful spirits created obstacles, preventing rainfall for three years and causing disease and famine. Padmakara sent messengers to India asking his masters for a teaching that could counteract these obstacles. Two men returned loaded with Kilaya scriptures and the obstacles were spontaneously pacified the very moment they arrived with the scriptures in Nepal. Padmakara and his consort then attained the supreme siddhi and abided on the vidyadhara level of mahamudra.

Guru Rinpoche perceived that the practice of Vishuddha Heruka brings great accomplishment. But that practice is like traveling trader who meets with many hindrances, whereas Kilaya is like an indispensable escort. Due to this coincidence Guru Rinpoche he composed many sadhanas combining the two herukas. At this place he also bound under oath the sixteen mundane protectors of Vajra Kilaya.

Padmakara visited other ancient kingdoms where he taught the Dharma: Hurmudzu in the vicinity of Uddiyana, Sikojhara, Dharmakosha, Rugma, Tirahuti, Kamarupa, and Kancha, as well as many others. It is not sure when he went to the land of Droding, but the tantric teachings he gave there on Hevajra, Guhyachandra Bindu, Vishuddha, Hayagriva, Kilaya and Mamo are still continued this present day.

Padmakara is generally regarded to have lived in India for 3600 years benefiting the teachings and sentient beings. But it seems that learned people accept that to be half-years and simply a generalization.

In order to convert people in Mongolia and China Padmakara emanated in the form of the King Ngonshe Chen and the yogi Tobden. Moreover, he appeared in the country of Shangshung as the miraculously born child Tavi Hricha who gave the instructions on the hearing lineage of Dzogchen and led many worthy disciples to the attainment of the rainbow body.

In this way Padmakara's activity for bringing people to the path of liberation by means of appearing in various places, in various forms, speaking various languages is indeed beyond measure.

Now I will describe how Padmakara came here to the land of Tibet. When King Trisong Deutsen, himself an emanation of Manjushri, was twenty years of age he formed a strong aspiration to spread the sacred teachings of the Dharma. He invited Khenpo Bodhisattva from India who taught about dependent origination and the ten virtuous actions. A year later the foundation was laid for a huge temple but the spirits of Tibet created obstacles and prevented the building. In accordance with the Khenpo's prediction, the king sent five runners to invite the great master Padmakara to come. Having foreknowledge of this, Padmakara had already gone to Mang-Yul between Nepal and Tibet. On the way to Central Tibet, he went via Ngari, Tsang and Dokham and miraculously visited all of the districts where he bound under oath the 12 Tenma Goddesses, the 13 Gurlha and 21 Genyen as well as many other powerful spirits.

At the Tamarisk Forest at Red Rock he met the king of Tibet where he proceeded to the top of Hepori to bring the gods and demons under his command. He laid the foundation for Samye and saw it through to completion, employing also the gods and demons who had earlier hindered the building. In five years the work was completed for the temple complex of Glorious Samye, the Unchanging and Spontaneously Accomplished Temple, including the three temples of the queens, which was built to resemble Mount Sumeru surrounded by the four continents, eight subcontinents, sun and moon, and the wall of iron mountains. During the consecration ceremony five wondrous signs occurred.

Kangyur - the TripitakaThe king then wished to translate the scriptures and establish the Dharma so he had many intelligent Tibetan boys study to become translators. Inviting other masters of the Tripitaka from India, he had the Khenpo ordain the first seven monks and gradually establish an ordained sangha. The Khenpo Bodhisattva and Padmakara and the other panditas together with Vairotsana, Kawa Paltsek and Chog-ro Lui Gyaltsen and the other translators then rendered into Tibetan all the existent Buddhist scriptures on Sutra and Tantra as well as most of the treatises explaining them.

Vairotsana and Namkhai Nyingpo were sent to India where Vairotsana studied Dzogchen with Shri Singha while Namkhai Nyingpo received the teachings on Vishuddha Heruka from the great master Hungkara. They both attained accomplishment and spread the teachings in Tibet.

King Trisong Deutsen then requested empowerment and instruction from Padmakara. At Chimphu, the hermitage above Samye, the great master disclosed the mandala of Eight Heruka Sadhanas into which he initiated nine chief disciples including the king. Each of them were entrusted with a specific transmission and all nine attained siddhi through practicing the respective teaching.

Padmakara gave numberless other profound and extraordinary teachings connected with the three inner tantras to many destined students headed by the king and his sons and the twenty-five disciples in Lhodrak, Tidro and many other places.Tidro at Drikung Guru Rinpoche remained in Tibet for 55 years and six months; 48 years while the king was alive and seven years and six months afterwards. He arrived when the king was 21 (810 A.D.). The king passed away at the age of 69. Padmakara stayed for a few years after that before leaving for the land of the rakshas.

Padmakara visited in person the 20 snow mountains of Ngari, the 21 places of practice in Central Tibet and Tsang, the 25 sacred places of Dokham, the three hidden valleys, and numerous other places each of which he blessed to be a sacred place of practice. Knowing that a descendant of the king would later try to destroy Buddhism in Tibet, he gave many predictions for the future. Conferring with the king and the close disciples, Padmakara concealed countless terma teachings headed by the eight personal treasures of the king, the five great mind treasures, and the 25 profound treasures.

The reasons for hiding these termas were to prevent the teachings of Secret Mantra to be destroyed, to avoid that the Vajrayana is corrupted or modified by intellectuals, to preserve the blessings and to benefit future disciples. For each of these hidden treasures Padmakara predicted the time of the disclosure, the person who would reveal them, and the destined recipients who would hold the teachings. He manifested in the terrifying wrathful form of crazy wisdom in the thirteen places named Tiger's Nest binding all the mundane spirits under oath to serve the Dharma and entrusted them to guard the terma treasures. At that time he was named Dorje Drollo.

To inspire faith in future generations, he left an imprint of his body at Bumtang, hand prints at Namtso Chugmo and footprints at Paro Drakar as well as in innumerable other places of practice.

After the death of King Trisong Deutsen, Padmakara placed Mutig Tsenpo on the throne. He performed a drubchen at Tramdruk where he entrusted the profound teachings to Gyalsey Lhaje, the second prince, and gave him the prophesy that he would benefit beings by becoming a revealer of the hidden treasures in thirteen future lives.

It is impossible to count exactly how many students in Tibet received empowerment from Padmakara in person, but the most renowned are the original twenty-five disciples, the intermediate 25 disciples and the later 17 and 21 disciples. There were 80 of his students who attained rainbow body at Yerpa and also the 108 meditators at Chuwori, the 30 tantrikas at Yangdzong, the 55 realized ones at Sheldrag. Of female disciples there were the 25 dakini students and seven yoginis. Many of these close had blood lines that have continued until the present day.

When about to leave for the land of rakshas to the southwest, the king, the ministers and all the disciples tried to dissuade Padmakara from parting but to no avail. He gave each of them extensive advice and teachings and departed from the pass of Gungtang, riding on a horse or a lion, accompanied by numerous divine beings making offerings. At the summit of the Glorious Copper-colored Mountain on the Chamara continent he liberated Raksha Totreng, the king of the rakshas, and assumed his form. After that, he miraculously created the palace of Lotus Light endowed with inconceivable decorations and also emanated a replica of himself on each of the surrounding eight islands where they reside as kings who teach the eight heruka sadhanas.

At present he dwells on the vidyadhara level of spontaneous presence in the form of the regent of Vajradhara, unshakable for as long as samsara remains. Full of compassion he sends out emanations to benefit beings. Even after the teachings of the Vinaya have perished he will appear among the tantric practitioners. There will be many destined disciples who attain rainbow body. In the future, when Buddha Maitreya appears in this world, Padmakara will emanate as Drowa Kundul and spread the teachings of Secret Mantra to all worthy people.

This short biography is just a partial narration which conforms to what was perceived by some ordinary students.

Translated by the Erik Pema Kunsang, and included in Dakini Teachings, © Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1990.

For as long as space endures and for as long as living beings remain

until then may I too abide
to dispel the misery of the world.

--Shantideva

10 Things that Make Men Happy

2007-05-26T23:41:00.000+05:45

If men and women are truly equal, then men must stop bending over backwards in the pursuit of making women happy, right men? Relationships are increasingly full-fledged partnerships after all, so why should we be the only ones trying to make women happy?

We want to be happy and boys just want to have fun as well, so here are 10 things that men look for in the pursuit of happiness and Ms. Perfect. Read the list and answer the question that all men deliberate: do we prefer a pretty face or a beautiful body?

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10. Charm

Charm is what draws men to those women who are not as good-looking as the others in our black book. Charm is what pulls us back to women even after they burn us. Charm is the one thing that lets women get away with murder ‑- okay, charm and the next thing on the list.

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9. A statuesque body

We may not admit this to them, but when we're walking down the street with our women, we want to show them off. Show off what? Their crazy curves and full figure.

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8. A beautiful face

This one will stand the test of time. A pretty face can get away with murder. While this should not be the top characteristic, it is helpful to admit that you must find a woman who will please your eyes and excite your everything else.

Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, unless of course you are a magician named David. So do not choose someone based on what your friends say, go with whom you want to wake up with. We like beautiful things and we shall make no apologies for this.

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7. Honesty & trust

When the games are played, final rounds called and booty calls over, we want someone we can confide in. The most successful relationships are built upon trust, candor and honesty; anything else is equivalent to building a house on quicksand.

Receiving a pat on the back when we do things right is nice, but it's even nicer to be told when we're wrong, provided of course that we are not made to feel like crap, which takes us to the next point...

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6. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The last thing we want is a woman who lets us down, embarrasses us and makes us out to be fools, especially in public. Gentlemen, there is nothing wrong with admitting that we are excessively proud and sensitive to criticism, but if done right, constructive criticism from the one person who knows us best can only make us better men, fathers, lovers, brothers and human beings.

Why do I say this? Next time your woman tells you something, do not cut her off and put her in her place; listen, pay attention and remember: actions, not words, are what matter. True, we may not have Tammy Wynette standing by us in a state of oblivion, but respect in a partnership is about praise as well criticism, not shutting up and telling it like it is. It helps when it is done with humor (well, not at our expense).

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5. Sense of humor

This will forever remain a priority for any man. We work hard, we put up with a lot, and we need a woman who will put a smile on our faces when things are gloomy, and make us laugh when things are down. Now guys, I have been curious as to whether we like it when women make us laugh or when we make them laugh. Being able to make them laugh is good for our egos, but getting a smile on our faces is the best tonic possible.

Women always rank a sense of humor as the trait they like most in us. A woman who finds it challenging to smile and be pleasant will be a thorn in your side until the day you die, and trust me, your judgment day will come before hers.

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4. Intelligence & confidence

Previous generations probably preferred a smart woman ‑- not just book smart, but also street smart. But truth be told ‑- and this will not please feminists (but then again, who cares?) ‑- many men did not want an overly smart woman, after all, it would be too hard to tame and control her. After all, men feared that women could become unstable and make demands (oh no...)

Today, I like to think that we have matured a bit and now see the value in having a valuable ally as a partner. If a housewife, mother and maid is all that you are looking for, you are selling yourself short men, so go out and find someone who will learn from you as much as you will learn from her; imagine the powerhouse couple that you will make.

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3. Ambition & drive

If a partner is what you seek, then you will have to find a woman who will challenge your thoughts, stir up your emotions positively and give you a run for your money. Challenges start at home and end on fields, boardrooms and life, so make sure that you meet your match, because practice does make you perfect.

A woman that is too strong-willed will also be too stubborn, and this is just plain frustrating, but one that chooses her battles diplomatically will prove to come out a winner in the game of life. Would you not want her on your team?

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2. Heart of gold

If you are looking to get involved for the long haul, a kind woman with a heart of gold will nurture you and offer the compassion, sincerity, warmth, and affection you need to make it to the top. Just make sure you are able to reciprocate the kindness, because someone ultimately will and then she'll run for the hills.

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1. Love

Although there are different things that make us happy ‑- some of them may not have been on the list but should have been, while others are but should not have been ‑- when all is said and done and the ink has dried up, the first dates turn into the honeymoon stage, and the relationship develops, all men really want is love.

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have a good weekend

2007-05-26T11:59:00.000+05:45

ME and MY BOSS

When I Take a long time to finish, I am slow ,

When my boss takes a long time, he is thorough

When I don't do it, I am lazy,

When my boss does not do it, he is busy,

When I do something without being told, I am trying to be smart,

When my boss does the same, he takes the initiative,

When I please my boss, I am apple polishing,

When my boss pleases his boss, he is cooperating,

When I make a mistake, I' am an idiot.

When my boss makes a mistake, he's only human.

When I am out of the office, I am wondering around.

When my boss is out of the office, he's on business.

When I am on a day off sick, I am always sick.

When my boss is a day off sick, he must be very ill.

When I apply for leave, I must be going for an interview

When my boss applies for leave, it's because he's overworked

When I do good, my boss never remembers ,

When I do wrong, he never forgets

The Six Vajra Verses

2007-05-24T13:31:00.000+05:45

Although apparent phenomena manifest as diversity
yet this diversity in non-dual,
and of all the multiplicity
of individual things that exist
none can be confined in a limited concept.

Staying free from the trap of any attempt
to say "it's like this", or "like that",
it becomes clear that all manifested forms are
aspects of the infinte formless,
and, indivisible from it,
are self-perfected.

Seeing that everything is self-perfected
from the very beginning,
the disease of striving for any achievement
is surrendedered, and just remaining in the natural state
as it is, the presence of non-dual contemplation
continuously spontaneously arises.

From:
" Draxisbai Oal Rigbai Kujyug Tantra"
"Fortune Bringing Cuckoo of Non-dual Awareness Tantra"
Translation by Brian Beresford and Jon Shane.
Edited in the Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche's book:
"THE CRISTAL AND THE WAY OF LIGHT".

nothing else to do

2007-05-24T09:31:00.000+05:45

With constant, vigilant mindfulness, sustain this recognition of empty, open, brilliant awareness.
Cultivate nothing else.

Thre is nothing else to do, or to undo.
Let it remain naturally.
Don't spoil it by manipulating, by controlling, by tampering with it, and worry about whether you are right or wrong, or having a good meditation or a bad meditation.
Leave it as it is, and rest your weary heart and mind.

--Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche,

View and Meditation of the Great Perfection.

Moon reflected in Water

2007-05-22T07:49:00.000+05:45

Moon reflected in Water

All the various objects of experience are like the moon reflected in water— neither really true nor really false. Those appreciating this do not lose the view.

~ Arya Nagarjuna, Sixty Stanzas on the Nature of Emptiness

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Instruction of Pointing the Staff

2007-05-20T08:06:00.000+05:45

Padmasambhava

Advice from the Lotus-Born

While the great master Padmasambhava was staying in Great Rock Hermitage at Samye, Sherab Gyalpo of Ngok, an uneducated sixty-one year old man who had the highest faith and strong devotion to this master, served him for one year. All this while Ngok didn't ask him for any teachings, nor did the master give him any. When after a year the master intended to leave, Ngok offered a mandala plate upon which he placed a flower of one ounce of gold. Then he said, "Great master, think of me with kindness.First of all, I am uneducated. Second, my intelligence is small. Third, I am old, so my elements are worn down. I beg you to give a teaching to an old man on the verge of death which is simple to understand, can thoroughly cut through any doubt, is easy to realize and apply, has an effective view, and will help me in future lives."

The master pointed his walking staff at the old man's heart and gave this instruction: Listen here old man! Look into awakened mind of your own awareness! Such has neither form nor color, neither center nor edge. At first, such has no origin but is empty. Next, such has no dwelling place but is empty. At the end, such has no destination but is empty. This emptiness is not made of anything and is clear and cognizant. When you see this and recognize this, you know your natural face. You understand this nature of things. You have then seen this nature of mind, resolved the basic state of reality, and cut through doubts about topics of knowledge.

This awakened mind as awareness is not made out of any material substance; such is self-existing and inherent in yourself. This is the nature of 'things' which is easy to realize because such is not to be sought elsewhere. This is nature as mind which does not consist of a concrete perceiver and something perceived to fixate on. Such defies limitations of permanence and annihilation. In such is no thing to awaken; awakened state as enlightenment is your own pure awareness, naturally awake. As this, here is no thing which goes to the hells; awareness is naturally pure. As this, within is no practice to carry out; our nature as such is naturally cognizant. This great view as this natural state is present within yourself. Resolve this: such is not to be sought elsewhere.

When you understand view in this way and would like to apply this in your experience, wherever you stay is the mountain retreat of your body. Whatever external appearance you perceive is a naturally occurring appearance and a naturally empty emptiness; let this be, free from mental constructs. Naturally freed appearances become your helpers, and you can practice while taking appearances as path.

Within, whatever moves your mind, whatsoever you think, has no essence but is empty. Thought occurrences are naturally freed. While remembering (being mindful of) your mind-essence, you can take thoughts as path and practice is effortless and easy! As for innermost advice: no matter what kind of disturbing emotion you feel, look into the emotion and such tracelessly subsides. The disturbing emotion is thus naturally freed. This is simple to practice.

When you can practice in this way, your meditation training will not be confined to some kind of 'sessions'. When you know everything is a helper, your meditation experience is unchanging, this innate nature is unceasing, and your conduct is unshackled. Wherever you stay, you are never apart from this innate nature.

Once you realize this, your material body may be old, but awakened mind doesn't age. Such knows no difference between old and young. This innate nature is beyond bias and partiality. When you recognize such awareness, innate wakefulness, is present in yourself, here is no difference between sharp and dull facilties. As you come to understand this innate nature, free from bias and partiality, is present within yourself, here is no difference between small and great learning. Even though your body, this support for mind, falls apart, dharmakaya of awareness wisdom is unceasing. As you come to have stability revealed in this unchanging state, here is no difference between a short or long life span.

Old man, practice this true meaning! Take practice to heart! Literally! Do not mistake words and meaning! Do not part from your good friend diligence! Embrace everything whatsoever with mindfulness! Do not indulge in such idle talk and pointless gossip! Don't become involved with common aims! Do not disturb yourself with worry of offspring!

Don't excessively crave food and drink! Intend to die an ordinary man! Your life is running out, so be diligent! Practice this instruction for an old man on the verge of death!

Because of his pointing his staff at Sherab Gyalpo's heart, this is entitled "The Instruction of Pointing the Staff at the Old Man". Sherab Gyalpo of Ngok was liberated and attained accomplishment. This was written down by the Princess of Kharchen for the sake of future generations. This is also known under the name "The Instruction of Pointing the Staff".

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Dakini Queen Tsogyal from Padmasambhava in "Advice from the Lotus-Born", 1994, RYP.

An Interesting Fact

2007-05-19T23:30:00.000+05:45

Thought you may find this of interest.

TWO TOUGH QUESTIONS

Question 1:

If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Read the next question before looking at the answer for this one.

Question 2:

It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates.

Candidate A -

Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.
He's had two Mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B -

He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until
noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C -

He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your Choice?

Decide first, no peeking, then scroll down for the answer.

----------------------------------------------

Candidate A: is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B : is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C: is Adolph Hitler.

And, by the way, the answer to the abortion question: If you said yes, you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it? Makes a person think before judging someone.

Never be afraid to try something new.

Remember:

Amateurs built the Ark
Professionals built the Titanic

and in case you never saw this one..! .

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Relying on Joy

2007-05-17T23:05:00.000+05:45

At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called Relying on Joy. She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings to Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do the same. But she could only beg enough oil to fill a single lamp.

However, as she placed it before Buddha she made this wish: "I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from their darkness. May I purify all their obscurations, and lead them to enlightenment."

That night, the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha's great disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect the lamps. He saw no reason why one lamp was still alight and tried to snuff it out.

But whatever he did, the lamp kept burning.

Buddha had been watching all along, and said: "Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp? You cannot. You could not even move it, let alone put it out. If you were to pour the water from all the oceans over this lamp, it still wouldn't go out.

The water in all the rivers and lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with devotion, and with purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it of tremendous benefit."

Love and clear light,

Sarva mangalam,

Buddha I Know

2007-05-17T22:55:00.000+05:45

I started writing or collecting some thoughts about Buddhism and Buddha for last couple of months. I'm really impressed by the Buddhist philosophy and I would like to share what I have come through and share my views on it.

Before I begin to write few words on Buddha, I found this statement appropriate to mention here. Buddhism is very vast and without knowing a bit about it, it would be meaningless for having this life.

"Let a wise man blow off impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little, and from time to time."

Buddha is not a god, or a man carrying from heaven a supernatural revelation, to be accepted on faith. He does not speak of a God, a creator. He does not tell why we live, but how to live. He teaches a way of life, a way to rise above the troubles of life and finally, a way to achieve the ultimate happiness of Nirvana, in which a state of blissful, untroubled peace accompanies the complete opening up of understanding.

Drinking Tea in Darjeeling

2007-05-12T23:14:00.001+05:45

(Before I let you read this interesting story (travelogue), I would like to tell you that I picked up this article to let you read and know what I love to read. Thanks Satis Shroff for writing such a beautiful article!!)

By Satis Shroff

The 126-year-old cobalt blue coloured narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway train chugged and snorted its way from Kurseong to Darjeeling via Ghoom along the serpentine route, against the silvery backdrop of the 8598m Kenchenjunga Range, past the tea gardens, shanty tea-shops and tin-roofed huts. And painted across white-washed hillside walls you could still read the words: "Jai Gorkha! Jai Gorkhaland! Jai Hind!"

Hind is an anachronistic, pre-partition name for India, namely Hindustan: the land of the Hindus. After independence India became a secular state, because it didn’t have much of a choice due to the Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and other religious communities who all started demanding their own rights under the constitution. And the 750,000 Gorkhas in the 70 odd tea-gardens of Darjeeling District (north Bengal) also made it clear that they didn't have autonomous ambitions like: the Sikhs and their fight for Khalistan, and the Nagas with their Nagaland claims. The Gorkhas, who are ethnic Nepalese, only wanted a Gorkhaland within India's framework and the recognition of Nepali, pardon me, Gorkhali, as one of the languages of the secular Indian Constitution.

After a 28-month fight, which began in the spring of 1986, the GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) submitted their arms, and pledged to join India's mainstream.

Darjeeling (2123 m), like in the hey-days of the British Raj, has remained a cool mountain resort for rich Indians and a few foreigners with its fresh air, British fashioned public schools, churches, Planter's Club, Gymkhana and the blue-domed Governor's summer residence. The English schools bear names like: Victoria, Dow Hill, St. Joseph's, Goethals, St. Helen's, St. Paul's...reminiscent of a nostalgic era of colonial British establishment. My parents had sent me to the Kindergarten at St. Helen’s, near Kurseong and I have pleasant memories of that convent school. The morning prayers, breakfast with porridge and toast-marmalade and the sumptuous Indian cuisine at lunch, because we were Hindus and didn’t prefer to eat at the English refectory, where they served beef.

Darjeeling is a dying Queen of the Hills, ignored and neglected after the British left the Raj. Its streets have become mean and violent, and you see the economic decline on the faces of the Nepalis living in the small towns and the sprawling tea gardens. The obsolete infrastructure is corroding. It never received the much-needed financial shot-in-the-arm (like Sikkim did from the Central Government) from the egocentric, troubled and arrogant West Bengal government.

"The British sahibs have gone. And now we have Indian brown sahibs who try to be more English than the English", said a Gorkha waiter at the Glenary’s near Chowrasta.

Today, a visitor to this restricted area in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas will be witness to a sad, depressing scenario. The houses look dirty, rusty, poor, dilapidated and neglected. And the tea garden worker has a hard time trying to make ends meet. The wages are low. Even the monoculture tea-production in Darjeeling went from 25,503 hectares in 1935 to 19,739 hectares in 1983. The Gorkhaland conflict reduced tea harvests by about 65%. The breakdown of the Soviet Union market has caused a total slump in tea-export. The price for Darjeeling tea was never so low, due to the heavy reliance on the Soviet consumers.

In the past, Darjeeling has been neglected by the Central Government in Delhi. And Sikkim received top priority. The administrative offices are all occupied by the Bengalis. The Newar community in the Darjeeling district has been pushed out by the clever Bihari businessmen and shrewd Marwari moneylenders from the plains of India. The Gorkhalis attend the schools and colleges, but the only university of the district still lies in Siliguri in the plains, and they have to compete with the Bengalis, Biharis and the rest of 1000 million Indians for seats in the different faculties. And for jobs.

In the jungle of Indian bureaucracy, where corruption, nepotism and communal feeling is rampant, the common, honest Gorkha hill man cuts badly and gets a bad deal. No wonder the Gorkhas were enraged. Their very existence was being endangered. Their demands were apparently justified, for they only wanted to stay inside the Indian Union on better terms.

The longstanding friction between the Nepalis and the Bengalis was always there", said my school-friend Sushil Basnet, a burly Gorkha hill man with a public school background, over a cup of excellent Darjeeling tea at his home.

"But when the Meghalaya State Government threw out some 7000 Nepalis from Assam, the matter really exploded and took the present form of the Gorkha National Liberation Front headed by Subhas Ghising as its president".

He only stops to catch his breath, because he’s wheezing with asthma, and says, "The evicted Nepalis were mostly from Darjeeling and some were from Nepal. When this happened, the age-old treaty between British India and Nepal, which was ratified later in 1950 between Independent India and the Kingdom of Nepal, was violated. As a result, it placed the Nepalis residing in India at an insecure position with dual nationality or without any nationality."

He explained further, "Actually, Clause 7 of the Indo-Nepal Treaty states that the citizens of both countries can do anything under the sun, but have political rights, like asking for a separate state.

"In fact a Gorkha can be labelled as a Nepal-ko-raity (Nepalese subject) and thrown out of the country, and you can't do anything: like the Nepalis of Assam. How's that for calling oneself Indian all these years?" he says with bitterness. Sushil Basnet was born in Darjeeling and so were his father and grandfather.

His tirade went on: "It was in protest to this Clause 7 that the GNLF dished out an 11-point programme, and it was supported by all sections of the people of Darjeeling. This irritated the Communists (CPM) and so violence and killing broke out on both sides. Like the police shooting down people, women and children included, and midnight arrests. At least 200 people died.

"What we really wanted was the creation of a Gorkhaland district and the recognition of Gorkhali (Nepali) as one of India's national languages and better job opportunities. But the Bengali politician Jyoti Basu and Rajiv Gandhi made a hash of it" says an angry Sushil Basnet.

Gorkha is a fortress in Nepal belonging to the House of Gorkhas, from where the Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah led his troops to conquer the whole of Nepal. In 1810 Nepal's domain extended from the Tista river to the Sutlej, that is from present day Sikkim to Kashmir. The word 'Gorkha' is derived from the Sanskrit work 'go' which means a 'cow' and 'rakh' which means 'protector,' and the Gorkhas are the 'protectors of the cows', that is, they are Hindus primarily. The Indian Army uses the term 'Gorkha` which is correct, and the British Army uses the term 'Gurkha'. The English also say 'Nepaul' when they mean 'Nepal'.

The Gorkhali population of Darjeeling is made up of: Tamangs, Rais, Newars, Thapas, Poudels, Gurungs, Topdens, Lepchas and Sherpas. In 1800 the British encouraged the migration of the Nepalese to the eastern Himalayas to work in the newly opened tea gardens in Darjeeling (West Bengal) and Assam (Meghalaya).

At Glenary’s I met Riddhima Pradhan, who said: "I can assure you, it was more than a storm in a tea-cup." She was a 26-year-old college student from Darjeeling, referring to the Gorkhaland crisis. She went on to say, "The town was crawling with Sikh soldiers armed to the teeth and there were Gorkha civilians getting arrested, and night-raids that made us pretty uneasy. I was scared to go out in the streets even during the day."

Akin to the British Raj, the Central Government sent Sikh soldiers to Darjeeling to fight down the Gorkha demonstrators. The British, it might be noted, deployed Gorkha troops in the 1857 Indian Sepoy Mutiny and the Jalainwalla massacre. In April 1919 troops under the command of the British General Dyer fired on civilians killing 379 people and injuring 1000 in Amristar (Punjab).

Pitching one ethnic group against the other seems to work even today, after the age-old divide-and-rule tradition so well practiced by the British in its colonies.

Reynold Gurung, a 32-year-old Gurkha soldier on leave says: "My father was a British Gurkha who fought against the Japanese in World War II in Imphal and Burma. He died in action in the jungles of Burma. We'd settled down in Burma. Later, we were driven away by the Burmese nationalists from Rangoon and came over to Darjeeling. I'll be damned if the Indians can drive me away from these hills", he says.

"In 1961 our school soccer team defeated the 2/8 Gurkha Rifles," he says with a boyish twinkle in his Mongolian eyes. "Yes sir, that was a terrific match in Kurseong: School-team Beats the Gurkhas!" A year later, the 2/8 Gurkha battalion, which was then stationed in Lebong, was wiped out in the Himalayan war against China in a decisive battle at Nathu La (Sikkim). It was India's Himalayan blunder. After that Nehru and Menon were dubbed "the guilty men of '62," said Reynold Gurung, whom I chanced to meet near the Rink cinema. He lost an elder brother in the war. He took me to his home and told me the story of his family. He invited me for a cup of tea in his house, which was one-storied, with lots of windows and a lovely garden full of marigolds, because it was the Nepali festival season of Dashain.

A Gurkha-hat that hung on the wall of his spartan sitting-room, a few regimental swords, a khukri in silver and a Naga spear are all that remind him of his dead Gurkha father and the Burma war. Huge well-polished artillery shells serve as vases for marigold flowers. He supported his mother with his small Indian Gorkha payroll, and said he was stationed in Punjab with the elite Black Cat battalion.

Soldering still seems to be the best profession for a Gorkha in the hills of Darjeeling.

"You can at the most be a low-paid teacher or a clerk here, says Adip Rumba, "But you can't climb higher. There's always a Bengali blocking the career ladder." The polytechnic school in Kurseong produces only junior engineers (overseers). The senior engineering schools are located in the plains of India, and financially too expensive for Gorkha pockets. Even the medical college is located in Siliguri and thus accessible only to the Bengalis.

At high-school age, a lot of young males tired of learning boring subjects like integral calculus and the Moghul Dynasty, took off till recently for Dharan's British Gurkha Recruiting Depot or enlisted at the local Indian Gorkha office in Kurseong or Darjeeling.

Take Kunjo Moktan for instance who joined the British Gurkhas and "saw the world beyond the mountains" namely London, Gibraltar, Hong Kong and Brunei. Or Ganju Tamang who joined the Indian Army and landed in Sri Lanka with India's Peace-keeping Force. Keshab Namgyal, a 1961 Congo blue-helmet veteran, who was disgusted by the war in Katanga, said he gave up soldiering, and worked for the Indian Railway as a clerk, and looked forward to his railway pension.

There are quite a few Nepalis from Darjeeling who have gone to Nepal seeking better jobs after the Darjeeling district was declared a 'restricted area'. Jobs were scarce in Darjeeling after 1962. A sizeable number of Gorkha civilian car drivers with experience in the heights of Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan were hired for their driving skills in the difficult mountain areas of Ladakh, Bomdila and Tripura in the wake of the Himalayan conflict with China.

Lain Singh Bangdel, a talented artist, went to Nepal and became the president of the Royal Nepal Academy. Likewise, Amber Gurung, a singer and composer, has carved himself a niche in the Nepali world of music in Kathmandu. Banira Giri is internationally known for her poetry and lives in Kathmandu. The airhostesses for the expanding Royal Nepal Airlines were mostly girls from Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Tourism was booming in Kathmandu, and English-speaking smart Gorkha-guides and hotel personnel were in demand. Not in India, but in Nepal.

Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Darjeeling and the first Nepali to climb Mt. Everest with Edmund Hillary, was an exception who stayed on in Darjeeling and was made the Field Director of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute located in Birch Hill, now dubbed Jawahar Parbat. The principal of the institute was naturally an Indian from the plains. I can still hear the refrain of Dharmaraj Thapa's song praising Tenzing's feat and his glory:

Tenzingga timi, sansara bhari.

Amara huney chau (refrain).

However, the plight of the Sherpas, Lepchas and Tamangs of Darjeeling hasn't improved since then. You see them carrying heavy loads for Indian tourists from the plains and foreigners from abroad with their namlo-ropes for almost a song.

"The Indians take almost a sadistic delight in putting down the prices," says Maila Tamang, a porter at Darjeeling's Chowrasta. "Pairo Ayo!" is a dreadful cry that is often heard in the Darjeeling hills when a landslide occurs. The Gorkhas have mixed feelings about the landslides in the monsoon period because of the endless suffering caused by the disastrous and torrential rain. The monsoon is good for the tea, but bad for the humans living in the hillsides, for they live in the angst of being swept away in a landslide. The forests in the Darjeeling area are denuded and the ecological balance of the hills is threatened also by the monoculture: tea. Thickly wooded forests are a rarity. The flora and fauna have dwindled.

"Here's to the Pagla Jhora, the Mad Torrent!" is a toast that you hear frequently in Darjeeling. The local contractors rejoice secretly when a major landslide sweeps away the railway tracks and blocks the only road leading to Darjeeling. Gorkha contractors rush to file tenders at the junior engineer's office bureau of the Public Works Department. The tenders go to the chief engineer, who is inevitably a Bengali gent who takes the cream of the bribe.

"It's a game called: oiling-up-the-Bengi-babu", says a Gorkha contractor who chooses to remain anonymous. Corruption is as common as tuberculosis in the government offices and at the border check-posts at Kakarbhita and Manebhanjyang. The Bengali policemen take bribes from both sides: Nepal and India.

A home-coming Johnny Gurkha from Hong Kong was telling his woes to a sari-clad Nepalese woman about the corrupt Indian customs officers at Kakarbhita, for his problem was getting his worldly belongings across the border to Darjeeling where he lived. Since the Gorkha bride has a high affinity for gold from Hong Kong (in the old days it was Lhasa), it's a big headache for a Gorkha to get his gold through the Calcutta customs. The Bengali customs officers do their best to confiscate the luxurious items (by Indian decree and standards) and jewellery brought into the country by the thrifty and spartanic living Gurkhas, and probably hand them to their own Bengali wives in Calcutta. It is a never-ending tale of corruption and injustice.

"It is this harassment at the Indian customs that made me build a house in Katmandu than in Darjeeling, and now my family is all the more happier", says Wangdi Lama, a Hong Kong retired Gurkha-major.

Due to the early exposure to the British, the Nepalese of the Eastern Himalayas (Darjeeling area) tend to be smart, extrovert, street-wise, intellectually awakened, and generally well-informed about current world affairs. The level and percentage of education is also much higher than in eastern Nepal.

Most Nepalese in the Darjeeling area have a school or college background. Even a simple jeep-driver or policeman speaks a smattering of English, in addition to Hindi, Bengali and Gurkhali (Nepali).

The influence of Hollywood, and Bollywood masala films shown at Darjeeling's Rink and Capitol cinemas and make-shift, mushrooming video-parlours is evident in the streets of Darjeeling. A Gorkha is well-dressed, his shoes are polished, his trousers well-ironed and he has a certain smartness about him, despite the fact that he may be living from hand to mouth. The Nepalis take delight in joking about themselves and you hear often: bahira rumaley, bhitra gundruk umaley. It's his positive attitude towards life and his indomitable cheerfulness that distinguishes him from the rest of the ethnic groups in the sprawling Indian subcontinent.

"A Gorkha never begs. We are too proud of ourselves and of our self-respect," says Kiran Singh Rana who runs a photo-shop in the Laden La Road in Darjeeling. He seems to hate haggling with what he calls "deshi" customers from the plains. We're having a chat in his shop and a Bengali babu (civil servant) wants him to reduce the price of a picture of 'sunrise from Sandakphu' done in black and white print and hand coloured. The Bengali speaks in the typical tactless and arrogant Indian manner. Kiran tells him to "take it or leave it" in no uncertain terms.

"I have my own local customers and don't have to rely on these seasonal hagglers", he says. He and his brother have opened a lodge below the Chowrasta at the Danth Koti, and seem to be doing well in comparison to others. The strange thing was that when I visited Kiran in his shop a decade ago, he was also having a jolly row with three customers from Calcutta. Another friend of mine, a Gurung, runs a travel agency and takes French tourists to Sandakphu and the Kanchenjunga base camp during the tourist season.

"Survival isn't much of a problem for a Nepali", says Sushil Basnet, who has a pot-belly and looks like the Italo-German actor Mario Adorf. He explains: "Once a year during the Maghay Sangrati festival, we eat sweet-potatoes and other boiled stems and roots in memory of our ancestors, who lived on such roots and stems from the forest".

Maghay Sangrati marks the turning point between the winter and summer months, and Nepalis bathe in the tributaries of rivers such as the Narayani and Bagmati and chant religious hymns.

"The beggars in Darjeeling or Katmandu are never Nepalis or Gurkhas. They're mostly Bhutias or Indians from the plains," says Ajit Subba, another Gorkha teacher.

In my childhood, I remember seeing a lean old Limbu Gorkha lady wearing a glove in one hand, and brandishing a sickle with the other, busy cutting stinging-nettles for lunch in a wayside bush. Sisnu-ko-jhol (nettle-soup) is a Nepalese delicacy. Nettle-soup, which is called Brennesselsuppe is also used in Germany and other Alpine republics. Hunger makes one creative. And the Nepalis are creative. Gundruk-ko-jhol is another frugal but delicious speciality, which is dehydrated salad served as a soup with rice. Sikuti-machha (dried fish) is another fine dish.

Unlike in Nepal, where it is forbidden to carry out missionary activities, the Gorkhalis in the Darjeeling hills have been proselytised into Christendom by the British Jesuit priests in the major hill towns like: Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling, where they opened dispensaries, 'English Medium' schools, chapels, grottos and churches. The British missionaries have left but even today it isn't common to find Gorkhas with names like: Lawrence Gurung, Benjamin Rai and Nelson Mukhia. Darjeeling also has its own Gorkha bishop.

The Nepalis in the hilly tracts of Darjeeling have certainly arranged themselves with Bengalis, Biharis, Marwaris, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians. Inter-caste and inter-ethnic love-marriages are also not uncommon. Though not without problems. Raj Basnet, who has married his college girlfriend Geeta from the Rai tribe has problems with his pollution-conscious high caste parents with their orthodox attitudes. He left his father's house and eloped with his Rai-girl and lived like an outcaste in Thimpu (Bhutan). "But my wife and I are happy, so what-the-heck!" he says with a shrug of his shoulders and an air of optimism. "It's not my problem. It's theirs." He now lives in Darjeeling and recalls nostalgically the many traditional Bhutanese gates and bridges he built during his tenure as an engineer and contractor in the Himalayan Kingdom.

It is understandable that Subhas Ghising is rather sulky and disappointed with Nepal because of its neutrality during the Gorkhaland crisis, and hence wishes to have nothing to do with Nepal. But in view of the fact that the Gorkhas of Darjeeling wanted to be officially recognized as an autonomous district within the Indian Union, especially West Bengal, the reluctance on the part of Katmandu to respond to Ghishing and his GNLF gestures, was diplomatically perhaps the best solution.

The Gorkhaland struggle cost 200 lives and brought a new amendment to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council Act. The Gorkhas have their Gorkhaland and the Indo-Nepalese relationship and cooperation flourishes, without any evident changes whatsoever in the 1950 Treaty between India and Nepal. And Nepali has been recognised officially in the Indian Constitution.

It's all quiet in the Gorkhaland front, despite the poverty and discontent.

(Satis Shroff is a writer & poet based in Freiburg. He writes regularly for www.Americanchronicle.com and its twenty-one affiliated newspapers in the USA. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Sciences in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. He was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.)

Happy Weekend

2007-05-12T07:05:00.000+05:45

Its weekend again. I don't know how do you spend your time, but I have to go to office. It's too boring. Though there is no much work and only very few people come to office, it's an ideal and quite day for most of us.

This weekend I had planned to go for a rafting trip to Bhotekoshi, some 150km away from the city. But no chance. It's all because of job. Anyway I would make it some day. I strongly feel for spending sometime out of job. But god knows when do I get time.

So, what's your plan? How can we make it more interesting and valuable or productive weekends? Any idea? Looking forward to read you soon

Devotion

2007-05-11T21:47:00.000+05:45

"Just as Buddha said that of all the buddhas who attained enlightenment, not one accomplished it without relying on the master, he also said: "It is only through devotion, and devotion alone, that you will realize the absolute truth."

So then, it is essential to know what real devotion is. It is not mindless adoration; it is not abdication of your responsibility to yourself, nor indiscriminately following of another's personality or whim. Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth. Real devotion is rooted in an awed and reverent gratitude, but one that is lucid, grounded, and intelligent."

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Power of MANTRA

2007-05-11T08:59:00.000+05:45

"A meditation technique used a great deal in Tibetan Buddhism is uniting the mind with the sound of a mantra. The definition of mantra is "that which protects the mind." That which protects the mind from negativity, or which protects you from your own mind, is mantra.

When you are nervous, disoriented, or emotionally fragile, inspired chanting or reciting of a mantra can change the state of your mind completely, by transforming its energy and atmosphere. How is this possible? Mantra is the essence of sound, the embodiment of the truth in the form of sound. Each syllable is impregnated with spiritual power, condenses a deep spiritual truth, and vibrates with the blessing of the speech of the buddhas.

It is also said that the mind rides on the subtle energy of the breath, the prana, which moves through and purifies the subtle channels of the body. So when you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of the mantra, and so working directly on your mind and your subtle body."

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Bardo Moment

2007-05-11T08:52:00.000+05:45

"Because life is nothing but a perpetual fluctuation of birth, death, and transition, so bardo experiences are happening to us all the time, and are a basic part of our psychological makeup. Normally, however, we are oblivious to the bardos and their gaps, as our mind passes from one so-called solid situation to the next, habitually ignoring the transitions that are always occurring.

In fact, as the teachings can help us to understand, every moment of our experience is a bardo, as each thought and each emotion arises out of, and dies back into, the essence of mind. It is in moments of strong change and transition especially, the teachings make us aware, that the true skylike, primordial nature of mind will have a chance to manifest."

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Absolute Truth

2007-05-11T08:47:00.000+05:45

"The absolute truth cannot be realized within the domain of the ordinary mind. And the path beyond the ordinary mind, all the great wisdom traditions have told us, is through the heart. This path of the heart is devotion."

Sogyal Rinpoche

No Petrol Again

2007-05-10T08:41:00.000+05:45

Kathmandu denizens are once again hit hard by fuel shortage. The old story is repeating again. The state-run petroleum import monopolist Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has the same reason the mounting losses and its inability to pay dues to its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

The shortage of petroleum is not a new problem, especially after the establishment of Loktantra last April. Neither the government nor the political parties are serious about resolving the problem for ever. The best way to resolve the problem could be introduction of automatic price adjustment system. But it is also getting late, as the losses incurred by NOC is climbing up everyday, mainly because of huge price disparity and mismanagement.

A week ago government had tried to get nod from political parties to hike the petroleum prices. However, the government's attempt was backfired with all of them warning to obstruct election of constituent assembly, if prices are hiked. It is shame on the government and NOC officials, in particular, when they would be able to convince these politicians.

It is also a disgusting fact that this problem has been on place for many years. The problem got panic for more than five times this year only. God knows how many time people will have to be worried about gasoline, cooking gas, kerosene and diesel. Let the god decide on it !!!!

My Cyber JOURNEY: Mr Weng_Namaste

2007-05-09T21:53:00.000+05:45

My Cyber JOURNEY: Mr Weng_Namaste

Mr Weng_Namaste

2007-05-09T21:34:00.000+05:45

It was a great fun while, we were in China. The picture on the right side was taken just outside Mr Weng's office in Guangzhou. Mr Weng was our host in China, a calm, handsome and determined man with great love for work with a better sense of humour.

It was a week before China's Lunar New Year (you can see the background of orange tree) and people were quite busy for shopping, and preparing for the New Year. Thanks Mr Weng, I got an opportunity to see how China is progressing and doing great in terms of development.

Here I would like to dedicate few words to Mr Weng, who welcomed us in his hometown Guangzhou and took us around the city.

The best thing I like about China was clean city, hard working people and Chinese discipline. I think we all need to learn from Chinese way of living and working, so we may can change the world. But I do have also some disagreement on China's strict law, limited freedom of expression and artificial like development. I hope China would gradually change all these and they should, also if they really want to become the world's next super power.

What kind of TREE are you?

2007-05-08T22:29:00.000+05:45

You know your birthday. According to the date when you are born, find your tree. Let me know what tree you are and how accurate is it to your personality

Dec 23 to Jan 01 - Apple Tree
Jan 01 to Jan 11 - Fir Tree
Jan 12 to Jan 24 - Elm Tree
Jan 25 to Feb 03 - Cypress Tree
Feb 04 to Feb 08 - Poplar Tree
Feb 09 to Feb 18 - Cedar Tree
Feb 19 to Feb 28 - Pine Tree
Mar 01 to Mar 10 - Weeping Willow Tree
Mar 11 to Mar 20 - Lime Tree
Mar 21 (Only) - Oak Tree
Mar 22 to Mar 31 - Hazelnut Tree
Apr 01 to Apr 10 - Rowan Tree
Apr 11 to Apr 20 - Maple Tree
Apr 21 to Apr 30 - Walnut Tree
May 01 to May 14 - Poplar Tree
May 15 to May 24 - Chestnut Tree
May 25 to Jun 03 - Ash Tree
Jun 04 to Jun 13 - Hornbeam Tree
Jun 14 to Jun 23 - Fig Tree
Jun 24 (Only) - Birch Tree
Jun 25 to Jul 04 - Apple Tree
Jul 05 to Jul 14 - Fir Tree
Jul 15 to Jul 25 - Elm Tree
Jul 26 to Aug 04 - Cypress Tree

Aug 05 to Aug 13 - Poplar Tree
Aug 14 to Aug 23 - Cedar Tree
Aug 24 to Sep 02 - Pine Tree
Sep 03 to Sep 12 - Weeping Willow Tree
Sep 13 to Sep 22 - Lime Tree
Sep 23 (Only) - Olive Tree
Sep 24 to Oct 03 - Hazelnut Tree
Oct 04 to Oct 13 - Rowan Tree
Oct 14 to Oct 23 - Maple Tree
Oct 24 to Nov 11 - Walnut Tree
Nov 12 to Nov 21 - Chestnut Tree
Nov 22 to Dec 01 - Ash Tree
Dec 02 to Dec 11 - Hornbeam Tree
Dec 12 to Dec 21 - Fig Tree
Dec 22 (Only) - Beech Tree

YOUR TREE (In Alphabetical Order)

Apple Tree (Love) -- quiet and shy at times, lots of charm, appeal, and attraction, pleasant attitude, flirtatious smile, adventurous, sensitive, loyal in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, many talents, loves children, needs affectionate partner.

Ash Tree (Ambition) -- extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.

Beech Tree (Creative) -- has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialistic, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.)

Birch Tree (Inspiration) -- vivacious, attractive, elegant, friendly, unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar, loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination, little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.

Cedar Tree (Confidence) -- of rare strength, knows how to adapt, likes unexpected presents, of good health, not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, a great speaker, determined, often impatient, likes to impress others, has many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waits for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

Chestnut Tree (Honesty) -- of unusual stature, impressive, well-developed sense of justice, fun to be around, a planner, born diplomat, can be irritated easily, sensitive of others feelings, hard worker, sometimes acts superior, feels not understood at times, fiercely family oriented, very loyal in love, physically fit.

Cypress Tree (Faithfulness) -- strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give but doesn't necessarily like it, strives to be content, optimistic, wants to be financially independent, wants love and affection, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered at times, can be unruly and careless, loves to gain knowledge, needs to be needed.

Elm Tree (Noble-mindedness) -- pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not to forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, likes making decisions for others, noble minded, generous, good sense of humour, practical.

Fig Tree (Sensibility) -- very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, few sexual relationships, great sense of humour, has artistic talent and great intelligence.

Fir tree (Mysterious) -- extraordinary taste, handles stress well, loves anything beautiful, stubborn, tends to care for those close to them, hard to trust others, yet a social butterfly, likes idleness and laziness after long demanding hours at work, rather modest, talented, unselfish, many friends, very reliable.

Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary) -- charming, sense of humour, very demanding but can also be very understanding, knows how to make a lasting impression, active fighter for social causes and politics, popular, quite moody, sexually oriented, honest, a perfectionist, has a precise sense of judgment and expects complete fairness.

Hornbeam Tree (Good Taste) -- of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very conscientious.

Lime Tree (Doubt) - intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough, but is actually soft and relenting, always willing to make sacrifices for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time to use them, can become a complainer, great leadership qualities, is jealous at times but extremely loyal.

Maple Tree (Independence of Mind) -- no ordinary person, full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, has many complexities, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Oak Tree (Brave) -- robust nature, courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not like change, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.

Olive Tree (Wisdom) -- loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

Pine Tree (Peacemaker) -- loves agreeable company, craves peace and harmony, loves to help others, active imagination, likes to write poetry, not fashion conscious, great compassion, friendly to all, falls strongly in love but will leave if betrayed or lied to, emotionally soft, low self esteem, needs affection and reassurance.

Poplar Tree (Uncertainty) -- looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.

Rowan Tree (Sensitivity) -- full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, extremely generous, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Walnut Tree (Passion) -- unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often admired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromise.

Weeping Willow (Melancholy) - likes to be stress free, loves family life, full of hopes and dreams, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful, musically inclined, loves to travel to exotic places, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with when pressured, sometimes demanding, good intuition, suffers in love until they find that one loyal, steadfast partner; loves to make others laugh.

You R special To mE

2007-05-08T08:10:00.001+05:45

One in A Million

by Larry Graham

Love had played its game on me so long
I started to believe I'd never find anyone
Doubt had tried to convince me to give in
Said you can't win

But one day the sun it came a shining through
The rain had stopped and the skies were blue
And, oh, what a revelation to see
Someone was saying "I love you " to me

A one in a million
Chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called you
A one in a million you

I was a lonely man with empty arms to fill
Then I found a piece of happiness to call my own
And life is worth living again
For to love you to me is to live

A one in a million
Chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called you
A one in a million you

A one in a million
Chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called you
A one in a million you
A one in a million you

A woderful Trip to China

2007-05-07T08:47:00.000+05:45

I recently made a trip of China. Though I been to Guangzhou and Shenzen, two big cities of Southern China, I had an opportunity to know more about the red giant economy. It was a fantastic trip to get first hand information about China's economic and development progress in recent years.

Of course China is progressing at a faster rate and many Chinese cities are turning to be a global city with growing skycrappers and number of vehicles on the road. However, I felt that China is losing its originality and many things look like an artificial. People have become like a machine in the name of earning and making life prosperous. I hope China will correct it in the coming days.

Talk more soon about my trip.