Posts Tagged ‘Compassion’

Compassion in Action: Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche visits London, July 2013

Saturday, August 10th, 2013
Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche giving the Loving Eyes empowerment in London, in 2013

Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche in London, July 2013

From 25-31 July 2013, the London Diamond Way Buddhist Centre was very fortunate to be able to host Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche for a program of teachings and transmissions at the Beaufoy Institute in Lambeth. Rinpoche is a highly respected lama of the Karma Kagyu lineage. He was ordained in Rumtek monastery by the 16th Karmapa, and is one of the few lamas who holds the title ‘Maniwa’, given to masters of the Loving Eyes (Skt. Avalokiteshvara; Tib. Chenrezig) practice who are able to encourage others to recite the mantra of Loving Eyes, OM MANI PEME HUNG, more than one billion times. Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche has led 30 “Mani Dhungyur” festivals in his homeland of Nepal, which are attended by thousands of students, in which a billion mani mantras are accumulated. Loving Eyes is the Bodhisattva of compassion, so the friends from London, the UK and abroad who gathered for the programme were particularly fortunate to receive teachings and transmissions related so closely to this most noble of qualities, from a master who embodies it so perfectly. London was one of the destinations on Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s 2013 tour of Europe.

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17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje on the criteria of a true Buddhist lama

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

These questions and answers were taken from H.H. 17th Karmapa‘s ‘Black Hat Lama’ MySpace blog:

17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje

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.

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Lama Ole Nydahl on Happiness

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Lama Ole Nydahl gave this talk at a Seminar on Psychology in Basel, Switzerland. It was originally printed in the magazine Buddhism Today in 1998 and can also be read here.

Lama Ole Nydahl

Happiness, by Lama Ole Nydahl

What do Buddhist teachings say concerning happiness?.. Basically, in Buddhism one makes a separation between conditioned and unconditioned happiness, between a relative and an absolute kind. Relative happiness has to do with experiences, absolute happiness has to do with experiencer itself. When one watches the outer world, the factories, streets, houses and cars, it is evident that they were made because beings wanted to experience something pleasant. Hospitals and prisons, on the other hand, were built in order to avoid certain kinds of suffering. Actually, beings constantly try to change outer conditions with the aim of (more…)

17th Karmapa in London: A Retrospective Pt.2, 2007

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

In our second retrospective post, we would like to share some inspiring impressions of H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje’s second visit to the UK at the invitation of Diamond Way Buddhism UK, in June 2007.

Reports of other visits of the 17th Karmapa to London can be found here (2005) and here (2009).

Poster for 17th Karmapa in London August 2007

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Interview with Lama Ole Nydahl in Varsity Magazine, 1994

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

This interview with Lama Ole Nydahl is from the very early days of Diamond Way Buddhism in the UK.  It appeared in Varsitiy, the independent student weekly newspaper of the University of Cambridge. Lama Ole Nydahl taught in Cambridge at the invitation of Stephen James, who was a student in Cambridge University at the time.

Rock n’ Roll Buddha

Matthew Arlidge communicates with Ole Nydahl about Spirituality and Motorbikes. Varsity, 28 October 1994

Lama Ole Nydahl in Varsity Magazine 1994

Cast a critical eye over the picture above and what do you see? A debonair-yet-macho top Hollywood actor? A ruthless mercenary hot-foot from a bazooka battle with the forces of SPECTRE? Or perhaps even a well ‘ardbouncer from Fifth Avenue? Well you’re wrong matey, so no nubile young banana for you. (more…)

Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche and Lama Ole Nydahl in London

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Lama Ole Nydahl & Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche in London, September 2009

In September 2009 we were very fortunate to be able to welcome two of our precious teachers to London; Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche and Lama Ole Nydahl. This was a particularly auspicious occasion, as it was the first time Rinpoche had given teachings in the UK.

Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche (born 1950), a highly respected Karma Kagyu lama, holds the title “Maniwa”, given to masters of the Loving Eyes (Tib. Chenrezig) practice who have accomplished at least a billion OM MANI PEME HUNG mantras. Rinpoche was ordained in Rumtek Monastery by the 16th Karmapa. The official programme took place over the weekend of 18-20 September 2009, a course entitled “Meditation in Diamond Way Buddhism”.

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