Active Protectors?
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Active Protectors?
Hi
Quick question about dharmapalas / protectors of the Buddhist teachings in TB: Apart from something I read about protecting practitioners (presumably initiates) 'from themselves', do Protectors manifest in any way? I'm thinking particularly of direct action to prevent misassociation or misrepresentation of the dharma (or worse), for example by destroying the minds of those likely to create such situations
Quick question about dharmapalas / protectors of the Buddhist teachings in TB: Apart from something I read about protecting practitioners (presumably initiates) 'from themselves', do Protectors manifest in any way? I'm thinking particularly of direct action to prevent misassociation or misrepresentation of the dharma (or worse), for example by destroying the minds of those likely to create such situations
you wore out your welcome with random precision {Pink Floyd}
- Adamantine
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Re: Active Protectors?
You can read about some concrete examples of manifestations of protectors in guarding gompas in Tibet from Chinese desecration in Chagdud Tulku's autobiography Lord of the Dance. It's a must-read anyway.undefineable wrote:Hi
Quick question about dharmapalas / protectors of the Buddhist teachings in TB: Apart from something I read about protecting practitioners (presumably initiates) 'from themselves', do Protectors manifest in any way? I'm thinking particularly of direct action to prevent misassociation or misrepresentation of the dharma (or worse), for example by destroying the minds of those likely to create such situations
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
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Re: Active Protectors?
{In case of doubt, I was thinking of myself in the example given - I wasn't wishing heavenly fire down on unorthodox practitioners!}
Last edited by undefineable on Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
you wore out your welcome with random precision {Pink Floyd}
- Adamantine
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Re: Active Protectors?
You think your mind is being destroyed by protectors?undefineable wrote:By the way I was thinking of myself in the example given
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
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Re: Active Protectors?
Haha! I didn't mean that _ {I understand this would breach the ToS in any case} - I just meant to angle it from the point of view of one's own practice, rather than the angle of demonising othersAdamantine wrote:You think your mind is being destroyed by protectors?undefineable wrote:By the way I was thinking of myself in the example given
you wore out your welcome with random precision {Pink Floyd}
- Adamantine
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Re: Active Protectors?
Protectors are never about demonizing others, this is Mahayana Buddhadharma
not a black metal gang.
not a black metal gang.
Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha
- ClearblueSky
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Re: Active Protectors?
There are definite stories of concrete examples of worldly, visible activities. I remember this thread went into discussion and debate about it (for a bit, I should add that wasn't the only thing in the thread. I just remember it is all): http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... 725&hilit=
- conebeckham
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Re: Active Protectors?
There are stories in my lineage of visions of Mahakala Chagdrupa and the retinue being seen building a monastery for Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Re: Active Protectors?
why don't you do Mahakala sadhana (for example) everyday for few years and see how your life is changing?
this way you will have direct experience of Dharmapalas activity yourself
this way you will have direct experience of Dharmapalas activity yourself
Re: Active Protectors?
Protectors seem to be able to do many things, including physically.undefineable wrote:Hi
Quick question about dharmapalas / protectors of the Buddhist teachings in TB: Apart from something I read about protecting practitioners (presumably initiates) 'from themselves', do Protectors manifest in any way? I'm thinking particularly of direct action to prevent misassociation or misrepresentation of the dharma (or worse), for example by destroying the minds of those likely to create such situations
Practicing tantra with a wrong view, like no bodhicitta, can destroy your mind without a protector doing anything.
Protectors do go after people that are harming practitioners with harmful teachings or fake empowerments. Maybe some of you have heard the warning to not give an empowerment until you've accomplished the practice or the protectors will come after you.
"My main teacher Serkong Rinpoche, who was one of the teachers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, explained that having a protector is like having a very strong and vicious dog. If you are a strong person, you could go sit and guard your own gate every night to make sure that thieves don’t attack, but usually people wouldn’t do that. It’s not that we don’t have the ability, it’s just: why bother? You could post a dog there instead." - Alex Berzin http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/ar ... rs_ab.html
Re: Active Protectors?
I have to say that sounds unsettlingly close to the "chant for wealth" doctrines taught by some religious groups, including at least one nominally Buddhist one.Karinos wrote:why don't you do Mahakala sadhana (for example) everyday for few years and see how your life is changing?
this way you will have direct experience of Dharmapalas activity yourself
All best wishes
"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
"The profundity of your devotion to your lama is not measured by your ability to turn a blind eye."
Re: Active Protectors?
how else you want to experience Dharmapalas? Waiting for miracles to manifest?Lingpupa wrote:I have to say that sounds unsettlingly close to the "chant for wealth" doctrines taught by some religious groups, including at least one nominally Buddhist one.Karinos wrote:why don't you do Mahakala sadhana (for example) everyday for few years and see how your life is changing?
this way you will have direct experience of Dharmapalas activity yourself
Dharmapalas are there to remove obstacles for your practice, but one need to practice...
Change happens in practitioner mind, and that's the real blessing of Dharmapalas.
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Re: Active Protectors?
There are many "chant for wealth" practices in both Sutrayana and Vajrayana. With proper motivation, wealth can be quite useful to Buddhist practitioners. For sure, it can also be a huge impediment. But so can being poor.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
Re: Active Protectors?
Wealth ritual events tend to attract the most ironic practitioners.
"My main teacher Serkong Rinpoche, who was one of the teachers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, explained that having a protector is like having a very strong and vicious dog. If you are a strong person, you could go sit and guard your own gate every night to make sure that thieves don’t attack, but usually people wouldn’t do that. It’s not that we don’t have the ability, it’s just: why bother? You could post a dog there instead." - Alex Berzin http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/ar ... rs_ab.html
Re: Active Protectors?
What use is it to practice religion to attain wealth? The Buddha says to simply gather one's pollen (or whatever is of value to one) harmlessly.pemachophel wrote:There are many "chant for wealth" practices in both Sutrayana and Vajrayana. With proper motivation, wealth can be quite useful to Buddhist practitioners. For sure, it can also be a huge impediment. But so can being poor.
Proud yet humble practitioner of Bhramarayana Buddhism. Namo Buddhaya.
Re: Active Protectors?
HAhaha Did you make that account just for this Old Buzz?
"My main teacher Serkong Rinpoche, who was one of the teachers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, explained that having a protector is like having a very strong and vicious dog. If you are a strong person, you could go sit and guard your own gate every night to make sure that thieves don’t attack, but usually people wouldn’t do that. It’s not that we don’t have the ability, it’s just: why bother? You could post a dog there instead." - Alex Berzin http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/ar ... rs_ab.html