Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

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Ogaf
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Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Ogaf »

Hi all, I am looking to start doing the Fivefold Mahamudra ngondro recently composed by Garchen Rinpoche. Does anyone know if the recording of the lung found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AxAjmxOtMQ) is enough to get started, or must I receive it live?
Also, are there any videos or documents of his teachings regarding this specific ngondro available?
In the above video he makes it clear that anyone who has received the lung can pass it on, therefore would anyone be willing to do so if the recording does not suffice, please?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide :)
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

I do not think recording is enough. I do have the lung tho, and also the text. I think there are no teachings to that ngöndro available yet. But I guess it is the same like the old drikung ngöndro. If you do not find anything you can pm me and we can try to do sth with it.

You can always email garchen institute for more info.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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anjali
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by anjali »

Garchen Rinpoche's The Excellent Path to Enlightenment: A Practice of the Preliminaries of the Fivefold Mahamudra is posted on the Drikung Seattle website: http://www.drikungseattle.org/uploads/5 ... g_chn_.pdf. As recommended by Miroku, you should contact Garchen Institute about practice requirements.
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Ogaf
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Ogaf »

Thank you for your help, peeps.

GI got back to me and said it is ok:

" Garchen Rinpoche does give you permission to start your ngondro practice if you've received the lung from the You Tube video and takem refuge from afar.

Hope you get the chance to meet Garchen Rinpoche in person in the future. "

Happy New Year!
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Ogaf wrote: Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:52 pm Thank you for your help, peeps.

GI got back to me and said it is ok:

" Garchen Rinpoche does give you permission to start your ngondro practice if you've received the lung from the You Tube video and takem refuge from afar.

Hope you get the chance to meet Garchen Rinpoche in person in the future. "

Happy New Year!
Glad to hear that buddy!! :twothumbsup: Good luck. :) Try reading some books about ngöndro, there is plenty, but for drikung kagyu there is Diamond Rosary, it is commentary of the Blazing Glory of Blessing ngöndro but it could help.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
Ogaf
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Ogaf »

Thanks again, Miroku. Yep, a stack of books is on hand, including Diamond Rosary, and Lama Abao taught Garchen Rinpoche's ngondro text - which was livestreamed from Drikung Seattle - last weekend. Hopefully, they will also upload it to their Youtube channel at some point.
KoolAid900
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by KoolAid900 »

Congrarulations and enjoy the journey! Ngondro is wonderful, powerful, and challenging. I personally love the five fold formulation, though I haven't seen that sadhana.

All the best,
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Anyone have the links to Lama Abao's teachings on this text at Drikung Seattle? The videos don't seem to be listed on their YouTube channel...

Khenpo Samdup also taught on this text at Drikung Dharma Surya last year. Note that a decent part of Day 2 was dedicated to actually practicing the sadhana.

Day 1:

https://youtu.be/7ReTo6PO08M (1 of 2)


https://youtu.be/xZhWF1kW32Q (2 of 2)

Day 2:

https://youtu.be/hdpxfa2UY4Q (1 of 4)


https://youtu.be/TPGtSPXPrsk (2 of 4)


https://youtu.be/chi8CdCovN8 (3 of 4)


https://youtu.be/CrO1XD0GAEE (4 of 4)
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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
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Oh thanks Palzang!! This is great! :twothumbsup:
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

You're very welcome. I noticed that these vids don't seem to be published publicly on the DDSC channel, so I thought I'd share them in this thread since it was already here.

Incidentally it was this poor excuse for a Dharma practitioner who wouldn't take no for an answer and eventually goaded Khenpo Samdup to successfully request the transmission for the new ngöndro sadhana directly from Garchen Rinpoche back at Gar Drölma in 2016.

Ina had mentioned to me in private at DDSC that she was still working on the translation of the text for the then upcoming teachings in Singapore, so I made several failed attempts to get the lung from other lamas who should've had it because I didn't want to make Rinpoche hurt his eyes (those who know him are aware that his eyesight is very poor and he experiences a lot of pain on daily basis because of it). Not being willing to miss the opportunity, eventually I printed the raw Tibetan that Ina had kindly sent me via email (complete with spelling mistakes, according to her), and cornered Khenpo to ask him to get Rinpoche to give it since no one else would do so.

He said he would try, but that i should know that he'd also attempted to get the lung before and Rinpoche had actually refused him! Apparently our combined insistence paid off because it was given at the tail end of the Spring 2016 Retreat in Ohio, months prior to the release of Ina's translation and the beautiful pechas we now have.

Not that I am seeking credit or deserve any, really. It's all the root guru's extraordinary kindness, which is readily apparent in that pithy sadhana. I merely recount this story because it was interesting (even funny) how things unfolded, and it might serve to inspire some sincere students to not be deterred by being shrugged off or meeting with obstacles. It reminded me of how, in Judaism (the religion of my birth), prospective converts are refused three times just to see if they are serious.

Point being, if you want Dharma bad enough and sincerely are seeking to benefit beings by requesting it, keep trying and eventually you'll hit pay dirt. You might not even have to sleep out on the monastery steps to get it!
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
Aspiring.Monk
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Aspiring.Monk »

Palzang Jangchub wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 10:22 am You're very welcome. I noticed that these vids don't seem to be published publicly on the DDSC channel, so I thought I'd share them in this thread since it was already here.

Incidentally it was this poor excuse for a Dharma practitioner who wouldn't take no for an answer and eventually goaded Khenpo Samdup to successfully request the transmission for the new ngöndro sadhana directly from Garchen Rinpoche back at Gar Drölma in 2016.

Ina had mentioned to me in private at DDSC that she was still working on the translation of the text for the then upcoming teachings in Singapore, so I made several failed attempts to get the lung from other lamas who should've had it because I didn't want to make Rinpoche hurt his eyes (those who know him are aware that his eyesight is very poor and he experiences a lot of pain on daily basis because of it). Not being willing to miss the opportunity, eventually I printed the raw Tibetan that Ina had kindly sent me via email (complete with spelling mistakes, according to her), and cornered Khenpo to ask him to get Rinpoche to give it since no one else would do so.

He said he would try, but that i should know that he'd also attempted to get the lung before and Rinpoche had actually refused him! Apparently our combined insistence paid off because it was given at the tail end of the Spring 2016 Retreat in Ohio, months prior to the release of Ina's translation and the beautiful pechas we now have.

Not that I am seeking credit or deserve any, really. It's all the root guru's extraordinary kindness, which is readily apparent in that pithy sadhana. I merely recount this story because it was interesting (even funny) how things unfolded, and it might serve to inspire some sincere students to not be deterred by being shrugged off or meeting with obstacles. It reminded me of how, in Judaism (the religion of my birth), prospective converts are refused three times just to see if they are serious.

Point being, if you want Dharma bad enough and sincerely are seeking to benefit beings by requesting it, keep trying and eventually you'll hit pay dirt. You might not even have to sleep out on the monastery steps to get it!
Palzang,

Thank you for posting the videos. Do you happen to have a link to the Sadhana from day 2?
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

anjali wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 5:40 pm Garchen Rinpoche's The Excellent Path to Enlightenment: A Practice of the Preliminaries of the Fivefold Mahamudra is posted on the Drikung Seattle website: http://www.drikungseattle.org/uploads/5 ... g_chn_.pdf. As recommended by Miroku, you should contact Garchen Institute about practice requirements.
It should be this sadhana, no? Khenpo was specifically teaching on the Fivefold Mahamudra ngöndro text by Garchen Rinpoche (rather than the other Drikung ngöndros like the Yangzab Dzogchen or HH Chetsang Rinpoche's short Fivefold Mahamudra text). That's why I linked the videos in this particular thread, as opposed to another one.

I feel that this sadhana is particularly precious, as it includes both the outer and inner ngöndro (Four Thoughts, Refuge/Prostrations, Vajrasattva, and Guru Yoga). In my experience the Four Thoughts are usually left out because the Tibetan texts assume the practitioner has already contemplated them. This is likely the case for Tibetans, but their absence has often led Westerners to assume that the Four Thoughts are somehow separate from ngöndro, which is held to be exclusively tantric. Indeed, some of my own former fellow sangha members seemed to consider the Four Thoughts as less important than the Four Accumulations. They even refused to request teachings on them because they were already in the midst of accumulation... a move that still baffles me to this day!

The Four Thoughts are in fact the lifeblood of the teachings; they are the common foundational practices and not separate from ngöndro. Ideally, one should start their ngöndro by contemplating precious human birth, not jump right into refuge/prostrations. Many would even go so far as to do a 100 day retreat on the Four Thoughts in Tibet before they tackled the tantric portion! Garchen Rinpoche's inclusion of the outer ngöndro in this sadhana is therefore a great kindness that helps the practitioner not skip steps or develop wrong view.

The above link is for the multilingual (Tib/Eng/Chi) booklet version which was originally given out in Singapore (where Ina had expected the 1st public lung to be given). If you'd rather have the pecha formatted version (i.e. Tibetan style landscape pages) with just Tib/Eng, you can email Garchen Institute or PM me.

Either way it would be good to donate to the respective center if you're able to do so. Translators and Dharma centers are often on shoestring budgets, so we need to help support them if at all possible.
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
Ogaf
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Ogaf »

Hey Palzang, I managed to find a link to Lama Abao's teachings. It was unlisted, however the link was still available on Farcebook. If you still don't have access to FB, let me know if there are any other teaching videos you are after that have been de-listed (for example, a lot of the Seattle ones have recently) and I will search for the links to them on FB and share them. Thank you so much for sharing Khenpo's ngondro teachings, they are very much appreciated.
From what I remember, the sound quality was particularly poor, so headphones and high volume may be needed to listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Hpm2qiY0I

I'll try to reply to pm soon!

Kind regards,

Ogaf
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Thanks for this, Ogaf! I appreciate you digging up that link, and am happy to report that my FB access has been restored. I'm glad you gained something from those vids with Khenpo.

I, too, have noticed that often videos are delisted after a certain amount of time, or oftentimes never publicly listed on the channels in the first place after the luge events wrap. Perhaps there are specific storage constraints or other factors that I'm not aware of, or else maybe it's to encourage folks to support the centers by purchasing the recordings, but I wish all the teachings that are appropriate for the public would be freely available.

Whatever the case, we can simply continue to work on our paramita of diligent effort and share what we can with those interested.

:spy:
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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
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Ogaf wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:00 pm Hi all, I am looking to start doing the Fivefold Mahamudra ngondro recently composed by Garchen Rinpoche. Does anyone know if the recording of the lung found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AxAjmxOtMQ) is enough to get started, or must I receive it live?
Also, are there any videos or documents of his teachings regarding this specific ngondro available?
In the above video he makes it clear that anyone who has received the lung can pass it on, therefore would anyone be willing to do so if the recording does not suffice, please?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide :)
Sorry for being late, but found this URL recording of the practice. Could be helpful.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Miroku wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:07 pm
Ogaf wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:00 pm Hi all, I am looking to start doing the Fivefold Mahamudra ngondro recently composed by Garchen Rinpoche. Does anyone know if the recording of the lung found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AxAjmxOtMQ) is enough to get started, or must I receive it live?
Also, are there any videos or documents of his teachings regarding this specific ngondro available?
In the above video he makes it clear that anyone who has received the lung can pass it on, therefore would anyone be willing to do so if the recording does not suffice, please?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide :)
Sorry for being late, but found this URL recording of the practice. Could be helpful.
Looks like that link is broken, Miroku. Perhaps the URL is missing something? I get a missing page error.
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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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Palzang Jangchub wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:47 pm
Miroku wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:07 pm
Ogaf wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:00 pm Hi all, I am looking to start doing the Fivefold Mahamudra ngondro recently composed by Garchen Rinpoche. Does anyone know if the recording of the lung found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AxAjmxOtMQ) is enough to get started, or must I receive it live?
Also, are there any videos or documents of his teachings regarding this specific ngondro available?
In the above video he makes it clear that anyone who has received the lung can pass it on, therefore would anyone be willing to do so if the recording does not suffice, please?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide :)
Sorry for being late, but found this URL recording of the practice. Could be helpful.
Looks like that link is broken, Miroku. Perhaps the URL is missing something? I get a missing page error.
Heh, sorry I tried to be all fancy but destroyed the link. :D Here it is https://www.mixcloud.com/bearinmind2017 ... -rinpoche/
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Javierfv1212 »

Hey Palzang! just wanted to thank you for these posts. This has been very helpful!

-Javier :heart:
It is quite impossible to find the Buddha anywhere other than in one's own mind.
A person who is ignorant of this may seek externally,
but how is it possible to find oneself through seeking anywhere other than in oneself?
Someone who seeks their own nature externally is like a fool who, giving a performance in the middle of a crowd, forgets who he is and then seeks everywhere else to find himself.
— Padmasambhava

Visit my site: https://sites.google.com/view/abhayajana/
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Re: Queries regarding 5fold Mahamudra ngondro of garchen Rinpoche

Post by Mirror »

Palzang Jangchub wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 8:22 am Anyone have the links to Lama Abao's teachings on this text at Drikung Seattle? The videos don't seem to be listed on their YouTube channel...

Khenpo Samdup also taught on this text at Drikung Dharma Surya last year. Note that a decent part of Day 2 was dedicated to actually practicing the sadhana.

Day 1:

https://youtu.be/7ReTo6PO08M (1 of 2)


https://youtu.be/xZhWF1kW32Q (2 of 2)

Day 2:

https://youtu.be/hdpxfa2UY4Q (1 of 4)


https://youtu.be/TPGtSPXPrsk (2 of 4)


https://youtu.be/chi8CdCovN8 (3 of 4)


https://youtu.be/CrO1XD0GAEE (4 of 4)
Thank you soooo much for the videos :anjali: , I can finally learn ngöndro :)
Thank you so much!
Memento mori
Remember that you die
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