Tibetan Culture and History

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

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Tashi delek,

Wanted to start here a thread which deals with Tibet and its history and culture.

As first the Potala Palace / temple, the highest palace / temple in the world.

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kalden yungdrung
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Sera Khandro - 00.jpg
Sera Khandro - 00.jpg (16 KiB) Viewed 3651 times







From "The Excellent Path of Devotion" by Sera Khandro

Eh ma ho!
Listen, pure Fortunate One,
to this explanation of the oral instructions on the secret of mind.

First, rest your body, speech, and mind at ease;
the key points of the body are the 7 points of Vairochana.

The key point of speech is to stop talking,
like the strings of a vina breaking.

Don’t attempt to speak.

Rest your voice and breath in their own places.

The key point of mind is to rest
in an uncontrived, clear, and empty state.

The mind’s nature is empty—
the dharmakāya, free from elaboration.

Its clear-light aspect is sambhogakāya,
unobstructed self-luminosity.

Its radiation and reabsorption, the appearances of whatever arises,
is nirmāṇakāya.

Awareness, inseparable from the 3 kāyas,
is perfected in the ground.

For those of sharpest faculties
who can understand self-appearances as awareness,
these essential oral instructions are supremely profound.

Those of intermediate faculties, whose minds rely on objects,
need the oral instructions on destroying the house of dualistic fixation
through discerning saṃsāra and enlightenment with body, speech, and mind
and through the mind’s arising, abiding, and so forth.

You must take my advice—these profound oral instructions—
to heart without being lazy like a child
or allowing them to dissipate.

The view of emptiness is nothing more than this.

The awareness of the three kāyas is this itself.

Great self-originating wisdom is this.
Even if you search the entire 3000-fold universe,
you won’t find a higher secret of mind.

Because your mind is actually the perfected buddha,
do not search elsewhere for some other so-called buddha.


http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Sera_Khandro
The best meditation is no meditation
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kalden yungdrung
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Tashi delek,

H.E. Kalu Rinpoche the 2nd is back since some time and he explains here some Dharma. :twothumbsup:



https://paldenshangpa.org/his-eminence- ... -rinpoche/
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kalden yungdrung
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Tashi delek,

There are in all the Tibetan Traditions, meat eaters and non meat eaters.
Therefore difficult to defend the position of a vegetarian or meat eater in the 5 Tibetan Traditions.
Some say the status / level of Mind is more important than meat eating or non meat eating.

====================
~H.H Jadral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche. - 00.jpg
~H.H Jadral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche. - 00.jpg (12.89 KiB) Viewed 3638 times


Meat eating is not approved for anyone not for monks, nuns, or lay people those who are committed Buddhist practitioners should never eat meat.
One who has taken the Budhisattva vow will incur great a sin in eating the flesh of sentient beings who were one's parents in past lives.

~H.H Jadral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Tashi delek ,

The Dalai lama(s), we know this Tibetan Tradition very well, because everybody knows the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso as a representative of Tibetan political affairs abroad and prominent member of the Kashag.

The title Dalai Lama was given by the Mogul Khan (Altan Khan) and in Mongolian language it was Talai lama.

But we know him also as an anti Dorje Shugden person.
The 14th Dalai Lama is a very open minded person and he is welcome in the whole world.

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

Below the Dalai Lama history:
By: Yukiyasu Osada

1st-dalai-lama.jpeg
1st-dalai-lama.jpeg (120.58 KiB) Viewed 3630 times

The Dalai Lama is regarded as the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara (Bodhisattva of Compassion). As Religious King, the highest authority of Tibetan Buddhism, and also the Tibetan political leader, the Dalai Lamas have reigned over both Tibetan religious and secular life.

1st Gendun Drupa (1391-1474)
2nd Gendun Gyatso (1475-1542)
3rd Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588)
The head of Drepung and Sera Monastery, Sonam Gyatso was invited by Altan Khan of Mongolia to Chabcha, Amdo (Gonghe, Qinghai Province) in 1578 and received the title of Dalai Lama (Ocean of Wisdom). The title of Dalai Lama started with the third incarnation, and the 2 predecessors were named Dalai Lama only later.

4th Yonten Gyatso (1589-1616)
5th Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682) The 5th Dalai Lama is commonly known as Gyalwa Ngapa (5th, the Great). Supported by Gushi Khan of Mongolia, Lobzang Gyatso became the head of all Tibet in 1642 and established the Dalai Lama’s government. In the reign of the 5th Dalai Lama, Tibetan culture flourished, and this led to the construction of the Potala Palace.
When the 5th Dalai Lama passed away, the great regent, Desi Sangye Gyatso, who held absolute power in the country, suppressed the news of the death for 14 years while he was grooming the sixth incarnation and completing the Potala Palace.

6th Tsangyang Gyatso (1683-?) Tsangyang Gyatso was born to a Nyingmapa family in Monyul (Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh in India). Maybe because he was offended by the dogged struggle for power, Tsangyang Gyatso grew to become a lover of the fast life and fell well short of the regent’
s expectations. He often escaped from the Potala Palace to play around and eventually decided to return to secular life. Nonetheless,
his personality and down-to-earth nature continues to appeal to Tibetans, and his love songs still delight the people.
It is said that Tsangyang Gyatso was relieved of the title of Dalai Lama by Lhazang Khan, who occupied Lhasa, due to his bad behavior, and he later died in Amdo, as he was being sent under escort to Beijing. His body was not preserved.

7th Kelzang Gyatso (1708-1757)
8th Jampal Gyatso (1758-1804)
9th Lungtok Gyatso (1805-1815)
10th Tsultrim Gyatso (1816-1837)
11th Khedrub Gyatso (1838-1855)
12th Trinle Gyatso (1856-1875)

After the 7th Dalai Lama passed away, there was a deadly struggle amongst the country’ s nobles for the seat of regent, who ruled for the Dalai Lamas until they came of age. All of the Dalai Lamas from the 9th to the 12th died unnaturally in their teens and early twenties.

13th Tubten Gyatso (1876-1933) A pawn in the struggle between the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty and Britain, which eventually invaded Tibet, Tubten Gyatso was the first Dalai Lama to really be dragged onto the world stage.

14th Tenzin Gyatso (1935-) Born in Taktser, Amdo, Tenzin Gyatso ascended to the throne in Lhasa at the age of 4. In 1950 the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet, and the Dalai Lama assumed his majority in the face of the aggression. After failed attempts to work with the Chinese, the Dalai
Lama finally secretly fled to India in 1959.

Since then, Tibet has lost its independence, and the Dalai Lama heads the government-inexile in Dharamsala, India.
Appreciated for his adherence to non-violent struggle against the Chinese occupation, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Although he lives in exile, the 14th Dalai Lama is still seen as the highest leader of Tibet and has continued with his pleas to the Chinese government for negotiations, while appealing to the international community for support.
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kalden yungdrung
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by kalden yungdrung »

Tashi delek,

Rare video.

Tantra practitioners in Rebkong.
Rebkong is famous for their Ngakpas.

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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Lingpupa »

kalden yungdrung wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:21 am download/file.php?id=5092
I think you will find that this picture is not Sera Khandro ( :bow: ), though I have seen it called that on the net, but rather Khandro Tsering Chödrön.

AFAIK no photographs of Sera Khandro exist, only a few statues and paintings, such as the one at the rigpawiki link you provide: http://www.rigpawiki.org/images/thumb/a ... ro.jpg.png
All best wishes

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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Queequeg »

kalden yungdrung wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:21 am Sera Khandro - 00.jpg








From "The Excellent Path of Devotion" by Sera Khandro

Eh ma ho!
Listen, pure Fortunate One,
to this explanation of the oral instructions on the secret of mind.

First, rest your body, speech, and mind at ease;
the key points of the body are the 7 points of Vairochana.

The key point of speech is to stop talking,
like the strings of a vina breaking.

Don’t attempt to speak.

Rest your voice and breath in their own places.

The key point of mind is to rest
in an uncontrived, clear, and empty state.

The mind’s nature is empty—
the dharmakāya, free from elaboration.

Its clear-light aspect is sambhogakāya,
unobstructed self-luminosity.

Its radiation and reabsorption, the appearances of whatever arises,
is nirmāṇakāya.

Awareness, inseparable from the 3 kāyas,
is perfected in the ground.

For those of sharpest faculties
who can understand self-appearances as awareness,
these essential oral instructions are supremely profound.

Those of intermediate faculties, whose minds rely on objects,
need the oral instructions on destroying the house of dualistic fixation
through discerning saṃsāra and enlightenment with body, speech, and mind
and through the mind’s arising, abiding, and so forth.

You must take my advice—these profound oral instructions—
to heart without being lazy like a child
or allowing them to dissipate.

The view of emptiness is nothing more than this.

The awareness of the three kāyas is this itself.

Great self-originating wisdom is this.
Even if you search the entire 3000-fold universe,
you won’t find a higher secret of mind.

Because your mind is actually the perfected buddha,
do not search elsewhere for some other so-called buddha.


http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Sera_Khandro
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Aryjna »

Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Trichiliocosm
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Queequeg »

Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:57 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Trichiliocosm
Thank you. I've heard those explanations before. That does not explain the 3000. Is this a translation choice?
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Aryjna »

Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:43 pm
Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:57 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Trichiliocosm
Thank you. I've heard those explanations before. That does not explain the 3000. Is this a translation choice?
I suppose it should be three times a thousandfold, not three thousandfold, as the single universe is multiplied by a thousand and then two more times by a thousand. It seems like a translation mistake/misunderstanding.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Queequeg »

Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:46 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:43 pm
Thank you. I've heard those explanations before. That does not explain the 3000. Is this a translation choice?
I suppose it should be three times a thousandfold, not three thousandfold, as the single universe is multiplied by a thousand and then two more times by a thousand. It seems like a translation mistake/misunderstanding.
It would be interesting if someone could check the Tibetan original. Chinese Tiantai has a notion of 3000 fold world. Just curious if that number has precedent.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Queequeg »

Lingpupa wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:23 am
kalden yungdrung wrote: Sun Sep 02, 2018 10:21 am download/file.php?id=5092
I think you will find that this picture is not Sera Khandro ( :bow: ), though I have seen it called that on the net, but rather Khandro Tsering Chödrön.

AFAIK no photographs of Sera Khandro exist, only a few statues and paintings, such as the one at the rigpawiki link you provide: http://www.rigpawiki.org/images/thumb/a ... ro.jpg.png
Whoever she is, is it disrespectful to say she's hot? :smile:
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Aryjna »

Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:05 pm
Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:46 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 2:43 pm

Thank you. I've heard those explanations before. That does not explain the 3000. Is this a translation choice?
I suppose it should be three times a thousandfold, not three thousandfold, as the single universe is multiplied by a thousand and then two more times by a thousand. It seems like a translation mistake/misunderstanding.
It would be interesting if someone could check the Tibetan original. Chinese Tiantai has a notion of 3000 fold world. Just curious if that number has precedent.
http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/stong_gsum Though I don't really know any Tibetan, it seems clear that it is a misunderstanding in some translations, as in tibetan it is two words meaning three and thousand, and also in sanskrit it is trisahasra, both of which leave it apparently open to misinterpretation if one is not familiar with the explanation. Though it would be interesting if someone has more in-depth knowledge on the matter.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Aryjna »

There is a somewhat amusing twist in the book by Jamgon Kongtrul:
The total number of world-systems comprising one Flower-Filled World is calculated by progressively multiplying by factors of one billion: One billion great thousand third-order thousand world-systems constitutes the world-system Infinite Links. A billion of those is the world-system Infinite Continuums. A billion of those is the world-system Oceanic Infinity. One billion of those is the extent of one Flower-Filled World. Each world-system rests on its own great ocean and is encircled by a rim. At the same time, one great rim encircles them all.
One [arrangement] of such dimension constitutes the sphere of influence of a single supreme manifest dimension of awakening. To those of limited intelligence, [the sphere of influence] is taught to be only a third-order thousand world-system.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Queequeg »

Interesting about the possibility of mistaken translation. Please if anyone knows definitively...
Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:27 pm There is a somewhat amusing twist in the book by Jamgon Kongtrul:
The total number of world-systems comprising one Flower-Filled World is calculated by progressively multiplying by factors of one billion: One billion great thousand third-order thousand world-systems constitutes the world-system Infinite Links. A billion of those is the world-system Infinite Continuums. A billion of those is the world-system Oceanic Infinity. One billion of those is the extent of one Flower-Filled World. Each world-system rests on its own great ocean and is encircled by a rim. At the same time, one great rim encircles them all.
One [arrangement] of such dimension constitutes the sphere of influence of a single supreme manifest dimension of awakening. To those of limited intelligence, [the sphere of influence] is taught to be only a third-order thousand world-system.
Nice quote. :smile:

I was talking with my in-laws about gravity yesterday and how the reach of gravity is infinite, though so weak it can't be felt below certain thresholds... And also about folded up dimensions appearing as phenomena in the three dimensional world such as electromagnetic energy and photons... Had my head spinning in wonder.

Also Mobius strips, Klein jars and fourth dimension ...
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Malcolm »

Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?

The Tibetan term is stong gsum, literally "three one thousands," or trisāhasra in Sanskrit. But 3000-fold is not a good translation equivalent. I render it "a billion world universe."

It refers to 1000 * 1000 * 1000 = a billion.

There are a billion planets in the Sahaloka. Each planet has a Mt. Meru, 4 continents, sun and moon., etc.

See Trichiliocosm:
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Malcolm »

Aryjna wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:27 pm There is a somewhat amusing twist in the book by Jamgon Kongtrul:
The total number of world-systems comprising one Flower-Filled World is calculated by progressively multiplying by factors of one billion: One billion great thousand third-order thousand world-systems constitutes the world-system Infinite Links. A billion of those is the world-system Infinite Continuums. A billion of those is the world-system Oceanic Infinity. One billion of those is the extent of one Flower-Filled World. Each world-system rests on its own great ocean and is encircled by a rim. At the same time, one great rim encircles them all.
One [arrangement] of such dimension constitutes the sphere of influence of a single supreme manifest dimension of awakening. To those of limited intelligence, [the sphere of influence] is taught to be only a third-order thousand world-system.
The Flower Filled World is Kusumatalagarbhālaṃkāra. This world system, the Sahaloka is contained within Kusumatalagarbhālaṃkāra, which rests in the palm of the hand of Vairocana Jñānasagara, the mahāsambhogakāya, within whose body all of the cosmos resides.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Mantrik »

Malcolm wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 5:51 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?

The Tibetan term is stong gsum, literally "three one thousands," or trisāhasra in Sanskrit. But 3000-fold is not a good translation equivalent. I render it "a billion world universe."

It refers to 1000 * 1000 * 1000 = a billion.

There are a billion planets in the Sahaloka. Each planet has a Mt. Meru, 4 continents, sun and moon., etc.

See Trichiliocosm:
Depends which Billion we mean. When first coined, 1 Billion was 1 million x 1 million, but as a modern translation your version is OK. Is the '1 Billion' planets of the Sahaloka referring to the original or the amended 'short' Billion, or just meaning 'infinite' or 'a lot' as the term did not exist until recent centuries.
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Re: Tibetan Culture and History

Post by Malcolm »

Mantrik wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 9:31 pm
Malcolm wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 5:51 pm
Queequeg wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:45 pm
What is the 3000 fold universe above? How is that number arrived at?

The Tibetan term is stong gsum, literally "three one thousands," or trisāhasra in Sanskrit. But 3000-fold is not a good translation equivalent. I render it "a billion world universe."

It refers to 1000 * 1000 * 1000 = a billion.

There are a billion planets in the Sahaloka. Each planet has a Mt. Meru, 4 continents, sun and moon., etc.

See Trichiliocosm:
Depends which Billion we mean. When first coined, 1 Billion was 1 million x 1 million, but as a modern translation your version is OK. Is the '1 Billion' planets of the Sahaloka referring to the original or the amended 'short' Billion, or just meaning 'infinite' or 'a lot' as the term did not exist until recent centuries.
Stong gsum refers to 10 to ninth power. It is a very specific number in Indian mathematics.
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