Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Forum for discussion of Tibetan Buddhism. Questions specific to one school are best posted in the appropriate sub-forum.

Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Nyingma
24
34%
Kagyu
21
30%
Gelug
14
20%
Sakya
6
8%
Jonang
2
3%
Shingon
1
1%
Bön
3
4%
 
Total votes: 71

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Luke
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Luke »

It's nice to see that practitioners of other lineages have joined the forum.

It seems like Sakya is always the least widely practiced school in the West (out of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism) for some reason. However, the Sakyapa are continuing to open new Dharma centers around the world, so maybe one day this will change. I wonder if there were simply fewer Sakyapa in Tibet than practitioners of other schools during the beginning of the 20th century?

I guess we're still waiting for our first Jonang and Shingon members...
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catmoon
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by catmoon »

Gelug always scores high on these lists. Sometimes I wonder if it is due to members of The Sect That Shall Not Be Named slotting themselves in as Gelugs. Which they have every right to do, of course.

I'd love to start a thread on the relative speed with which the sects are spreading in North America, but I suppose that would entail a violation of the terms of use here, right?
Sergeant Schultz knew everything there was to know.
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mudra
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by mudra »

catmoon wrote:Gelug always scores high on these lists. Sometimes I wonder if it is due to members of The Sect That Shall Not Be Named slotting themselves in as Gelugs. Which they have every right to do, of course.

I'd love to start a thread on the relative speed with which the sects are spreading in North America, but I suppose that would entail a violation of the terms of use here, right?
I just voted and it looks to me like there are more Nyingma than anything else...

I do follow the Gelug tradition (not the not to-be-named-one). Just a quick note: I think there are plenty of practitioners who have been inspired by HHDL and Lamas close to him - one doesn't additional numbers from you-know -who to inflate the figures.
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conebeckham
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by conebeckham »

For those that don't know me, I identify as a Kagyupa. you could say I "specialize" in practices from the Shangpa Kagyu lineage, if indeed I can be said to specialize in anything (that's why they call it "practice," eh? :smile: ) though I've practiced a fair amount of Kamtsang practices, and, because I'm a current-day Karma Kagyupa I maintain some practices from a few Nyingma lineages, the Kadampa Lojong lineage from Atisha, as well as Machik's lineage of Chod.

I have established connections with the Drikungpas (HH Chetsang Rinpoche), the Sakyapas (HH Sakya Trizin), the Gelukpas (HH Dalai Lama) and Nyingmapas (HE Trulshik Rinpoche), and have great respect and devotion for all the practice lineages.
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")
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Sherab
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Sherab »

Started off with Gelug (the acceptable one), then switched to Nyingma. I am intellectually more comfortable with Nyingma's philosophy than Gelug's.
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

conebeckham wrote:For those that don't know me, I identify as a Kagyupa. you could say I "specialize" in practices from the Shangpa Kagyu lineage, if indeed I can be said to specialize in anything (that's why they call it "practice," eh? :smile: ) though I've practiced a fair amount of Kamtsang practices, and, because I'm a current-day Karma Kagyupa I maintain some practices from a few Nyingma lineages, the Kadampa Lojong lineage from Atisha, as well as Machik's lineage of Chod.

I have established connections with the Drikungpas (HH Chetsang Rinpoche), the Sakyapas (HH Sakya Trizin), the Gelukpas (HH Dalai Lama) and Nyingmapas (HE Trulshik Rinpoche), and have great respect and devotion for all the practice lineages.
Cone and I seem to be largely on the same page. I'm self-identified as Ka-Nying, but Rimé in attitude. All authentic Dharma is good Dharma. I have strong connections to the Palyul lineage of Nyingma, the Drikung Kagyu (including the Yangzab Dzogchen), and most recently the Karma Kagyu.

Having started with Palyul and developed a strong affinity for the Namchö cycle and Mahasiddha Karma Chagme, it's probably not too big a stretch to consider myself a Nyedo Kagyupa with a heavy Drikungpa influence. The majority of the lamas I've met and received teachings from have been Drikungpas.
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"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

MJH wrote:Karma Kagyu :smile:
Karma Kagyu has branches too; Shambala, Diamond Way, 2 different Karmapas with their own organizations, plus the Kalu branch of the tradition. You could probably break it down even further I imagine if you include Reginald Ray and such.

My actual practice is so from the Kalu end of the spectrum, but I've got a lot of Gelug and Nyingma influence in my perspective. Nothing wrong about the Sakya, I just haven't had that much exposure. I've met 3 Sakya lamas and liked them all, just no karmic connection. I must admit I occasionally do the 7 line prayer and ask Guru Rinpoche to keep me from being too Kagyu. Kagyus can be a little stogy sometimes.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
KonchokZoepa
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by KonchokZoepa »

drikung kagyu
If the thought of demons
Never rises in your mind,
You need not fear the demon hosts around you.
It is most important to tame your mind within....

In so far as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned,
there are neither buddhas or demons.
He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue,
will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion.
Samsara will then appear as the mahamudra itself….

-Milarepa

OMMANIPADMEHUNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls6P9tOYmdo
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ClearblueSky
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by ClearblueSky »

Drukpa Kagyu mainly. Though I've had some wonderful teachings from other lineages, and not just Vajrayana!
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Myogen
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Myogen »

mostly the Tendai school but have a couple of things from the Tibetan schools. Not fixed to a school.
gasshō, myōgen
~Homage to the most compassionate, most kind Bodhisattva Mahasattva Ksitigarbha of the Six Paths of Rebirth~
KonchokZoepa
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by KonchokZoepa »

me neither not fixed on school, but some schools are fixed on me, meaning that i have a stronger karmic connection with some teachings and lineages so thats what we end up practicing. im also newly getting to nyingma, i found out a nyingma rinpoche living here in my country and i will dig deeper into the nyingma teachings :)

i also love pure land school and zen.
If the thought of demons
Never rises in your mind,
You need not fear the demon hosts around you.
It is most important to tame your mind within....

In so far as the Ultimate, or the true nature of being is concerned,
there are neither buddhas or demons.
He who frees himself from fear and hope, evil and virtue,
will realize the insubstantial and groundless nature of confusion.
Samsara will then appear as the mahamudra itself….

-Milarepa

OMMANIPADMEHUNG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls6P9tOYmdo
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Which school of Vajrayana do you practice?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Meditated with a Chan teacher from the Dharma Drum Mountain lineage, who also happened to be one of my university professors, for several years. And the first Tibetan lineage I was exposed to was Palyul Nyingma. Still fond of both. That's why I consider myself Neydo Kagyu, cuz Karma Chagme Rinpoche integrated Karma Kagyu & Palyul Nyingma together.

The Chan influence remains in that I try to remember that Ha-shang Mahayana's sandals were left at Samye. This helps me remain a bit more Rimé and see the similarities between Zen and Dzogchen. Most Dzogchen lamas (especially Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche) seem to have an affinity for Zen.
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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