Tibetan Buddhism Vajrayana Tantrayana esoteric tradition

Releasing the Knot of the Mind By Anam Thubten

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100,000 Songs of Milarepa: Talk 7: Sale O and Her Understanding

By Mahamudra Master Chogyam Trungpa

Karme Choling, Barnet, Vermont, USA

Commentary on Milarepa's song about Sale O, one of his four chief female disciples. Talk focuses on specific teachings presented in the song: renouncing materialism, including the elephant and the barn analogy describing ego's trap; chandali practice (yogic practice of inner heat symbolized by AH syllable), kundalini practice (destroying dualistic clingings), and their union in the central avadhuti nadi (energy channel); and the mother and son principle of becoming conscious (son) of bardo or primeval state of mind (mother), or joining the shunyata experience of emptiness and space with the compassionate aspect. Q&A Highlight: [Q5] What place does retreat or solitude have in the bodhisattva path, or in practicing skillful means?

Free streaming video/podcast here:

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Free Buddhism Dharma teachings podcasts and videos

100,000 Songs of Milarepa: Talk 7: Sale O and Her Understanding

By Mahamudra Master Chogyam Trungpa

Free streaming video/podcast here:

https://cti.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2230/collection_resources/125057/file/229242

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

The Praise to Tara with Twenty-One Verses from Dege Kangyur and commentaries from Nagarjuna tradition

Part 16 of 22

ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཀུན་ནས་བསྐོར་རབ་དགའ་བའི། །

chaktsal kunne kor rabga be

Homage to you, who, immersed in rapture,

དགྲ་ཡི་ལུས་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་འགེམས་མ། །

dra yi lu ni rabtu gem ma

Shatters the bodies of all your foes.

ཡི་གེ་བཅུ་པའི་ངག་ནི་བཀོད་པའི། །

yige chupe ngak ni kope

You manifest from the wisdom-syllable huṃ,

རིག་པ་ཧཱུྂ་ལས་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཉིད་མ། །

rigpa hung le drolma nyi ma

And display each of your mantra’s ten syllables. (16)
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Homage to her, who, immersed in rapture, shatters the bodies of all her foes. She manifests from the wisdom-syllable huṃ, for this is the essence of her wrathful mantra—oṃ namas tare namo hare huṃ hare svaha. She likewise displays each of her peaceful mantra’s ten syllables—oṃ tare tuttare ture svaha. (16)

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Dhammapada, beloved and favorite teachings of the Buddha channel:

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An effortless compassion can arise for all beings who have not realized their true nature. So limitless is it that if tears could express it, you would cry without end. Not only compassion, but tremendous skillful means can be born when you realize the nature of mind. Also you are naturally liberated from all suffering and fear, such as the fear of birth, death and the intermediate state. Then if you were to speak of the joy and bliss that arise from this realization, it is said by the buddhas that if you were to gather all the glory, enjoyment, pleasure and happiness of the world and put it all together, it would not approach one tiny fraction of the bliss that you experience upon realizing the nature of mind.

NYOSHUL KHEN RINPOCHE

The essence of Dzogchen practice has two key points. The first is cutting through the root of suffering: the dualistic mind and ego-clinging that give rise to anxiety, loneliness, and all kinds of emotional turbulence, which manifest in our life, in society, and even between countries, creating war and so many conflicts. The second is transforming negativity into awareness without object, wisdom without concept, and love and compassion without reason, discovering what is always here, spontaneously present.

— Mingyur Rinpoche

The Praise to Tara with Twenty-One Verses of Homage, and the Excellent Benefits of Reciting the Praise
From the Words of the Buddha (Tibetan : Dege Kangyur)

༄༅། །སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་གིས་བསྟོད་པ་ཕན་ཡོན་དང་བཅས་པ།

Tibetan : Drolma la chak tsal nyi shu tsa chik gi to pa pe nyon dang chepa

Sanskrit : Namas-taraika-vimsati-stotra-guna-hita-sahita

And

Brilliant Rays of Light
A Commentary on the Praise to Tara based on Nagarjuna tradition

by Jetsün Drakpa Gyaltsen

This Praise was transmitted by Nagarjuna to Nyen Lotsawa Darma Drak who translated it into Tibetan. Later, the great Jetsün Drakpa Gyaltsen revised the translation. This completes the commentary on the Praise to Tara with Twenty-one Verses of Homage, entitled Brilliant Light.

Part 15 of 22


ཕྱག་འཚལ་བདེ་མ་དགེ་མ་ཞི་མ། །

chaktsal de ma ge ma zhi ma

Homage to you, blissful, gracious and tranquil,

མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཞི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཉིད་མ། །

nya ngen de zhi choyul nyi ma

Whose domain is the peace of nirvana.

སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཨོཾ་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་པས། །

soha om dang yangdak denpe

With oṃ and svaha in perfect union,

སྡིག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་འཇོམས་པ་ཉིད་མ། །

dikpa chenpo jompa nyi ma

You lay to waste every terrible evil. (15)
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Homage to her, the lady who is blissful, since she is endowed with untainted bliss; and gracious, because she is free from what needs to be abandoned, the afflictions.[10] She acts out of the domain of the peace—the pacification of suffering—of nirvana, which is the total exhaustion of all thoughts. With the essence of her enlightened from, oṃ and svaha in perfect union, she lays to waste every terrible evil—the afflictions of others, which must be abandoned. (15)

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Controversial Kadampa Meditation Centre, Alhaurín el Grande, Malaga, Spain. Built as a traditional Buddhist temple set against the Andalusian hills, complete with ornamental stupas, statues, and beautiful gardens. One of world largest temple to enshrine Dorje Shugden, a problematic deity within the Gelug order.

These four methods for turning anger around and for learning a little patience come to us from the Kadampa masters of eleventh-century Tibet. These instructions have provided encouragement for fledgling bodhisattvas in the past, and they are just as useful in the present. These same Kadampa masters advised that we not procrastinate. They urged us to use these instructions immediately—on this very day in this very situation—and not say to ourselves, “I will try this in the future when I have a bit more time.”

From The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chodron.
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Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist teacher, author, nun, and mother who inspires millions worldwide with her down-to-earth message of practicing peace in turbulent times. In The Wisdom of No Escape, The Places that Scare You, and other important books, she has helped us discover how difficulty and uncertainty can be opportunities for awakening. She serves as resident teacher at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia and is a student of Dzigar Kongtrul and the late Chogyam Trungpa.

For more, visit www.pemachodronfoundation.org
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Buddha dharma teachings channel:

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Third is the instruction on seeing difficulties as teachers. If there is no teacher around to give us direct personal guidance on how to stop causing harm, never fear! Life itself will provide opportunities for learning how to hold our seat. Without the inconsiderate neighbor, where will we find the chance to practice patience? Without the office bully, how could we ever get the chance to know the energy of anger so intimately that it loses its destructive power?

The teacher is always with us. The teacher is always showing us precisely where we’re at—encouraging us not to speak and act in the same old neurotic ways, encouraging us also not to repress or dissociate, encouraging us not to sow the seeds of suffering. So with this person who is scaring us or insulting us, do we retaliate as we have one hundred thousand times before, or do we start to get smart and finally hold our seat?

Right at the point when we are about to blow our top or withdraw into oblivion, we can remember this: we are warriors-in-training being taught how to sit with edginess and discomfort. We are being challenged to remain and to relax where we are.

The problem with following these or any instructions is that we have a tendency to be too serious and rigid. We get tense and uptight about trying to relax and be patient.

This is where the fourth instruction comes in: it is helpful to think about the person who is angry, the anger itself, and the object of that anger as being like a dream. We can regard our life as a movie in which we are temporarily the leading player. Rather than making it so important, we can reflect on the essencelessness of our current situation. We can slow down and ask ourselves: “Who is this monolithic me that has been so offended? And who is this other person who can trigger me like this? What is this praise and blame that hooks me like a fish, that catches me like a mouse in a trap? How is it that these circumstances have the power to propel me like a ping-pong ball from hope to fear, from happiness to misery?” This big-deal struggle, this big-deal self, and this big-deal other could all be lightened up considerably.

Contemplate these outer circumstances, as well as these emotions, as well as this huge sense of me, as passing and essenceless, like a memory, like a movie, like a dream. When we awaken from sleep we know that the enemies in our dreams are an illusion. That realization cuts through panic and fear.
Right at the point when we are about to blow our top or withdraw into oblivion, we can remember this: we are warriors-in-training being taught how to sit with edginess and discomfort.

When we find ourselves captured by aggression, we can remember this: there is no basis for striking out or for repressing. There is no basis for hatred or shame. We can at least begin to question our assumptions. Could it be that whether we are awake or asleep, we are simply moving from one dreamlike state to another?

What to Do When the Going Gets Rough

Pema Chodron on four ways to hold our minds steady and hearts open when facing difficult people or circumstances.


The most straightforward advice on awakening enlightened mind is this: practice not causing harm to anyone—yourself or others—and every day, do what you can to be helpful. If we take this instruction to heart and begin to use it, we will probably find that it is not so easy. Before we know it, someone has provoked us, and either directly or indirectly, we’ve caused harm.

Therefore, when our intention is sincere but the going gets rough, must of us could use some help. We could use some fundamental instruction on how to lighten up and turn around our well-established habits of striking out and blaming.

The four methods for holding our seat provide just such support for developing the patience to stay open to what’s happening instead of acting on automatic pilot. These four methods are:

not setting up the target for the arrow,
connecting with the heart,
seeing obstacles as teachers, and
regarding all that occurs as a dream.

First, if we have not set up the target, it cannot be hit by an arrow. This is to say that each time we retaliate with aggressive words and actions, we are strengthening the habit of anger. As long as we do this, without doubt, plenty of arrows will come our way. We will become increasingly irritated by the reactions of others. However, each time we are provoked, we are given a chance to do something different. We can strengthen old habits by setting up the target or we can weaken them by holding our seat.

Each time we sit still with the restlessness and heat of anger we are tamed and strengthened. This is instruction on cultivating the root of happiness. Each time we act on the anger or suppress it, we escalate our aggression; we become more and more like a walking target. Then, as the years go by, almost everything makes us mad. This is the key to understanding, at a completely real and personal level, how we sow the seeds of suffering.
In times of anger, we can contact the kindness and compassion that we already have.

So this is the first method: remember that we set up the target and only we can take it down. Understand that if we hold our seat when we want to retaliate—even if it’s only briefly—we are starting to dissolve a pattern of aggression that will continue to hurt us and others forever if we let it.

Second is the instruction for connecting with the heart. In times of anger, we can contact the kindness and compassion that we already have.

When someone who is confused or distressed starts to harm us, we can easily understand that she doesn’t know what she is doing. There is the possibility of contacting our heart and feeling sadness that she is out of control and is harming herself by hurting others. There is the possibility that even though we feel fear, we do not feel hatred or anger. Instead we might feel inspired to help this person if we can.

Actually, a person in distress are far more rational than a grounded person who harms us, for that so-called sane person has the potential to realize that in acting aggressively he is sowing seeds of his own confusion and dissatisfaction. His present aggression is strengthening future, more intense habits of aggression. He is creating his own soap opera. This kind of life is painful and lonely. The one who harms us is under the influence of patterns that could continue to produce suffering forever.
Recognize that, just like us, millions are burning with the fire of aggression. We can sit with the intensity of the anger and let its energy humble us and make us more compassionate.

So this is the second method: connect with the heart. Remember that the one who harms us does not need to be provoked further and neither do we. Recognize that, just like us, millions are burning with the fire of aggression. We can sit with the intensity of the anger and let its energy humble us and make us more compassionate.

Pema Chodron

At some point in the Eastern Jin period (317–420 CE), a monk from the west named Master Sengjian arrived, carrying a complete copy of the bhiksunis’ Vinaya. Now in possession of these scriptures, on the eighth day of the second month of 357 CE, they founded a Vinaya academy at Luoyang and transmitted the Vinaya vows.

When Jingjian requested bhiksuni ordination, the requisite conditions were not met because there was no bhiksuni preceptor to receive it from. When the masters looked into the matter, they determined she could not receive the vows, worrying that if she did, it could lay the ground for future discord in the Chinese sangha.They continued discussing the matter and discovered a line in the scriptures that said, “If one receives the vows on a riverbank, the vows are valid, and the faults do not obtain.” Consequently, Jingjian, together with four other women and Master Sengjian, boarded a boat moored on the riverbank, and there received full ordination.

Because of her leadership role, Jingjian is credited as China’s first bhiksuni. It is said that when she received her vows, an unprecedented sweet fragrance wafted through the four directions, everyone’s faith in her intensified, and she guarded all her vows like her very eyes.

In 361 CE, at the end of the Shengping period,[23] one day, people smelled the same sweet fragrance in the air, and the red band of a rainbow extended down from the sky like a rope. High up, a beautiful woman resembling a devakanya[24]—a daughter of the gods—appeared, scattering flowers all around. At the sight of this, Bhiksuni Jingjian said to her community, “All of you, please strive in the Dharma even more than before. As for me, it’s time to go.” With these words, she flew up, entered the band of the rainbow, and her body and the rainbow became indistinguishable. Only later was it understood that she had attained the rainbow body of great transference[25] spoken of in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

This story was translated from Chinese to Tibetan by Khenmo Dawa Drolma.

Translated by Joseph McClellan, 2026.
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Bhiksuni Jingjian : The Earliest Chinese Bhiksuni

from the Dakinis’ Great Dharma Treasury
By Khenmo Dawa Drolma

The earliest Chinese bhiksuni, Jingjian, was born into the Zhong clan. Her given name was Lingyi. Her father, Zhong Dan, was the governor of the Wuwei district of Gansu. In her youth, Jingjian was a diligent student, but her life would see many twists and turns. She married young, but her husband passed away, and she found herself in poverty, forced to earn a meager living teaching musical instruments and calligraphy to the children of the aristocracy. Eventually, she had the good fortune to hear about the holy Dharma, and she was filled with joy and faith. However, failing to grasp the deeper meaning of the holy Dharma, she grew discouraged.

Later on, during the height of the Jin Dynasty (265–420 CE), she was fortunate to meet an eminent Dharma master named Fashi. Having thoroughly studied the holy Dharma, he had become exceptionally learned. He had established a new monastery in the western quarter of the capital and was teaching there when she encountered him. In Master Fashi’s presence, she cut through her doubts about the Dharma, and her spiritual potential awakened.

She thought to herself,

Birth and death are vital matters. There is not much time in life, so it is better to train earlier in the Dharma rather than later. Now, I am still in the full bloom of my youth, so why wouldn’t I put all my efforts into the holy Dharma? I will fully understand the holy Dharma and then work to benefit myself and others.

She then borrowed books from Master Fashi and, arousing immense diligence, pursued comprehensive studies. Not only did she come to understand the meanings of all the sūtras, but she also gained experience in the profound key points of practice.

One day, she approached Master Fashi with the following question:

Teacher, when I study the sūtras, I see the terms “bhiksu and bhiksuni.” In the Buddha’s Dharma, is it permissible for both men and women to go forth? If it is permissible, I beg that you look on me and hold me with your compassion and grant me ordination.

Master Fashi replied, “In the western lands, both men and women are ordained, but in our China, conditions are incomplete, so we still don’t have ordination for women.”

Jingjian then asked, “If ordination for both women and men is discussed in the Buddha’s teachings, and here in China we have it only for men, is there a difference in the Vinaya rules for men and women? Why can’t women practice going forth?”

Master Fashi replied, “In the scriptures transmitted from the western lands, there is a difference between men and women’s Vinaya vows. It is said that bhiksus have 250 rules and bhiksunis have more than 300 rules. I will have to ask others about the details; then I can tell you more.”

Another master told them, “There is no great difference between a bhiksu’s Vinaya rules and those of a bhiksuni, though, technically, a bhiksuni has more vows to keep. If you really want to proceed with ordination, it is best to take first, from a bhiksu, the ten basic vows of a novice, or sramaneri, and guard those.”

Upon hearing that, Jingjian requested and received sramaneri ordination from a Western monk named Zhi-shan, and she kept her vows perfectly. She was China’s first sramaneri. Twenty-four other women joined her and also received ordination. In the western quarter of the capital, they established Zhulin Nunnery. Since there were no bhiksunis to guide them, the nuns all relied on Jingjian to clarify their doubts about Dharma. She was described as wise, compassionate, generous, and humble, with pure motivation, a soft voice, gentle character, and pure conduct. These qualities allowed her to get along with everyone, and everyone respected her; everyone was open to her teachings, and they all gained immense benefit.

Bhiksuni Jingjian, the earliest Chinese Bhiksuni by Khenmo Dawa Drolma

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The Sakya Lineage in Historical Context
By HH the 41st Sakya Trizin

The Sakya tradition was established by and flourished within the Khon family. The Khon are believed to be direct descendants of celestial beings who originally came down to dwell on the high mountains of Tibet. Some of them returned, but others stayed, and the family line descended from those who stayed. At that time, they were known as the “Clear Light Celestial Race.” This was the original name for the Khon family. In this early period, outwardly, the Khon were engaged in a struggle with the rakshas, or demons. These rakshas were defeated. Inwardly, these early Khon were emanations of Mañjuśhrī. Thus, inwardly, Mañjuśhrī defeated ignorance. The word “Khon” originates from this. “Khon” means disagreement—disagreement outwardly with the rakshas, and inwardly with ignorance.

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