1,000-arm Chenrezig
As we mentioned back in June, the UK Nyungne retreat took place from Friday 29 October to Monday 1 November 2010. 30 friends from around the country gathered in Bedfordshire in the heart of the English countryside to take part in a long weekend engaged in the fasting practice of the 1,000-Armed Loving Eyes (Skt. Avalokiteshvara; Tib. Chenrezig).
Lama Ole Nydahl’s website has undergone an impressive redesign and was re-launched today:
The site features an interesting biographical section, including his first contact with Buddhism in 1968, the transmissions he received from his teachers, and a review of his activity since 1972. There is also a section on his work, describing his introductory lectures and courses, meditation on Conscious Dying (Tib. Phowa), The Great Seal (Tib. Mahamudra), The Four Foundational Practices, and 72 hour meditations on “Loving Eyes” (Tib. Chenresig). You can also find details about his main teachers: H.H. the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, H.H. the 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, Kunzig Sharmar Rinpoche, Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche.
Enjoy!
An interesting piece that appeared earlier this month in the British Psychological Society’s Research Blog. Reproduced here expecially for those of us working on our Ngondro practice!
How to form a habit
This has nothing to do with nuns’ clothing. Habits are those behaviours that have become automatic, triggered by a cue in the environment rather than by conscious will. Health psychologists are interested for obvious reasons – they want to assist people in breaking unhealthy habits, while helping them adopt healthy ones. Remarkably, although there are plenty of habit-formation theories, before now, no-one had actually studied habits systematically as they are formed.
Buddha descends from god realm
Today, Friday 29 October 2010, is Lhabab Düchen, one of the four special days in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It falls on the 22nd day of the ninth lunar month of the Tibetan calendar, and marks the anniversary of Buddha Shakyamuni’s descent from the god realm to earth. The Buddha’s mother, Queen Mayadevi, had died six days after his birth. When Buddha became enlightened, he saw that his mother had been reborn in the desire god realm known as The Heaven of Thirty-Three (Skt. Trayatrimsha) as a result of her pride. Read the rest of this entry »
EC Channel Countries Weekend flyer
Here’s a report from the Europe Center blog about the recent channel countries weekend (23-24 October 2010):
These questions and answers were taken from H.H. 17th Karmapa‘s ‘Black Hat Lama’ MySpace blog:
17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje
Q: What are the criteria of a true Buddhist lama?
H.H. Karmapa: “Lama” means teacher. It is as plain as that, actually. Therefore, a Buddhist teacher has to have the qualities of genuine compassion, a great extent of dharma knowledge, and he or she needs to be someone who doesn’t just teach but also practices what they teach, which means believing in their product.
Other than that, there are many other qualities, but these two are the main ones. These are the guidelines of examining a teacher. Beyond that, there’s no real way to check whether someone is a teacher or not. Only time tells if someone is an authentic teacher.
Q: How can you tell whether a teacher has genuine compassion?
H.H. Karmapa: Genuine compassion is expressed both physically and mentally. If someone is truly compassionate, this will show in both his physical and verbal gestures, any time, under any circumstances.
This video presentation was shown worldwide during the 2010 Europe Center summer course, it is from the Gdansk Centre in Poland, showing the progress they have made with the construction of their new centre building. The pictures speak more than words, but if you want to follow the project further, check their blog (in English). We hope you like it and in particular, we hope it provides inspiration for Buddhists in the UK and elsewhere who are active in their own centre projects!
You might also be interested to read about the history of the Gdansk Centre which goes back almost 30 years – it shows that this sangha’s new centre project is the culmination of their three decades of practice, challenges, blessing and development: click here.
9th Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje with Black Crown rendered in perfect detail
The superb Himalayan Art website recently posted this beautiful new image of an 18th Century thangka of the 9th Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje (click on images to enlarge).
Latest London Blog Posts Europe Center Blog Meditation Research Blog