 Dearest Friends @ CAS,
Coming Programme
We are elated to announce the coming teaching on The SEVEN POINT MIND TRAINING by the Principal of Kagyu College: Khenpo Konchog Rangdol.
No practitioner can do without having received a teaching on this.
One contemporary Kagyu leader has said that the Seven Point Mind Training is the "Heart" and that all other teachings fall off track without involving taming one's mind and taming of one's mind is what this teaching mainly instructs in.
Given the already several good programmes offered, we have strategically diverted from over-crowding the landscape, choosing instead to feed more sustainable bites. Khenpo Rangdol should count as one of few faithful programmes we are sticking to !!
Some talk
For us, we are glad to have one of our beloved teachers back in Singapore again and to include yet another precious Dharma tied into the bluging bag of authentic teachings into our CAS A/V.
Despite this year of the jumping Tiger, we have launched Singapore's first Buddhist TV online, via both channels: the "Live Streaming" and "On Demand".
We have riled some hives but remembering the old saying that when you have poked and provoked grumblings from the naughty some, you do right !!
Camden Education Center is blessed with 10 shining teachers. They are giving their best to heave our 80 ++ students( calculated as per subjects-places offered ) for skills in living latter on.
Under wraps, we are working on a big present in Malacca. HH the Drikung Kyabgon and Geshe Wangchen-la, the Teacher of Ling Rinpoche Yangsi, have given their synonymous advice. Whatever they say, we do. We will unveil when the time is right !!
Rightfully, too, the latest polls revealed that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the most trusted figure in the world, ahead of the US President Obama and the Pope. Genuine sincerity does not fail.
Every blessings from the holy beings !!
bb & all Smileys @ CAS
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SEVEN POINT MIND TRAINING
The "Heart"
This
Seven Point Mind Training teaching encompasses all the salient points of
sutra and tantra, covering both the Relative and Ultimate Bodhicitta teachings.
Very importantly, it is presented in a manner especially applicable to sentient beings like ourselves still struggling in both the mundane and spiritual spheres !!
Almost every masters, both past and contemporary, including the late Dilgo Khyentse and the present Tenga Rinpoche has hailed the Mind Training teachings as a supreme instruction, best suited for chaotic people tortured by festering jobs and bewildering modern day living.
This is one of the few teachings ( no claims of sectarian exclusivity ) that cuts across all the 4 main lineages of Tibet and which has enjoyed generous commentarial offerings from the Dalai Lamas, Tertons, the Jamgon Kongtruls amongst such super-masters !!
The "Spread"
This
is the main teaching to have been transmitted from Lama Serlingpa in the "Golden Islands" ( today: Indonesia ) to Lama Atisha, who then brought it back to India, then Tibet where his student, Geseh Chekawa elaborated into the form and text the world has known.
"Although I have many precious Teachers whom I equally have faith in, I benefited most from Lama Serlingpa. If you ask me how I have benefited - in spite of all the supreme sutra and tantra teachings I have received from my other Teachers - I have to tell you that it is because of this "Heart" of them all: the Mind Training teachings."
The Teacher
 Khenpo & flowers
Khenpo
Rangdol is no stranger to many quarters on planet earth having taught extensively in South East Asia, India and Nepal and Europe. He is a senior / guest teacher in several major Buddhist colleges and is involved in monumental seminars, conferences and projects including the historical translation of "Gong-Chik" ( "One-Taste" ), the critical text elucidating the heart-transmission of the Buddha as expressed through the great Drikung Kagyu masters.
His non-monastic students exclaim his sincere kindness, unchanging compassion and certain blessings throughout the decades they have known him.
Time: 2 to 4 pm & 5 pm to 6:30 pm
Date: 10 & 11 July 2010
Day: Saturday & Sunday
Venue: Kwan Yin Welfare Society
34 Jalan Eunos ( beside Mangala Vihara / nearest MRT: Eunos )
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 Lama Atisha
____________ Story of Lama Atisha in You Tube:
____________ An "Aside"
When
we visited our late Root Teacher, the 100th Ganden Trisur Rinpoche who
was then staying in the priate quarters of HH the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 2004, Rinpoche enquired carefully about whether He could make a pilgrimage to the holy places associated with Lama Atisha. ( We had subsequently done that for Him - see www.casotac.
Trisur Rinpoche then said, "The kindness of Lama Atisha to the Dharma especially for Tibet and Tibetans is unrepayable.
We then heard that Rinpoche is sponsoring a gigantic statue of Lama Atisha ( about 8 to 10 metres high ) for the grand new hall of Drepung Loseling in India. Rinpoche's attendant told us that Rinpoche frequently mentioned about Lama Atisha and that probably, in Rinpoche's last lives, He has been connected to Atisha.
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From the Buddha's life-story:
.... the householder Anathapindika ( one of the Buddha's main lay disciples ) acquired 2 parrot chicks. He brought them home, then taught them to speak, reared and nourished them, and instructed them in the language of humans. The Venerable Ananda frequently visited these two parrot chicks and gave them a discourse on the dharma that penetrated the Four Noble Truths ... the most senior monks would also approach the householder Anathapindika'
One time the Blessed One arrived at the householder Anathapindika'
Then, to do a good deed for the two parrot chicks, the Blessed One entered that house and sat down in the seat specially prepared for him. After sitting down, the Blessed One gave a discourse on the Dharma that penetrated the four noble truths and established those two parrot chicks in the taking of refuges as well as in the precepts. Then the Blessed One, having instructed, incited, inspired, and delighted the two parrot chicks and members of the household with this discourse on the Dharma, got up from his seat and went out.
Afterward, as the members of tthe household were wandering about, the two parrot chicks were acting carelessly and were seized by a cat. With looks of pain on their faces as their vital points were pierced and their joints were broken, they said, "Praise to the Buddha! Praise to the Dharma! Praise to the Sangha!" And with that said, they died ....
Meanwhile, in a certain place, the Blessed ONe smiled. The Venerable Ananda saw the Blessed ONe manifesting his smile, and at the sight of the Blessed One, he said this to him, "Perfectlt awakened tathagata arhats do not manifest a smile, Bhadanta, without proper cause and reason. Bhadanta, what is the proper cause and reason for your menifesting a smile?"
" .... Ananda, did you see those two parrot chicks ... As soon as i left, Ananda, those two parrot chicks were killed by a cat. With their awareness focued on the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, they died and were reborn among the Heavenly Gods of the 4 Great Kings... those two parrots, as a result of taking refuge, will be reborn 36 times among the Heavenly Gods of the 4 Great Kings .... 36 times aomng Gods of the 33, Yama, Tushita, Nirmanarati and Paranirmitavashavar
In just this way, monks, listening to the Dharma has great results and great benefits, what to say of discoursing on the Dharma or clearly understanding the Dharma? So then, monks, this is to be learned: "We shall be devoted to listening to the Dharma." It is this, monks, you should learn to do."
( 16th Chapter - Shukapotaka-
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Dalai Lama updates:
 His Holiness - Zurich, Switzerland ( 2010 ) ...
he is a lama from a particular sect - the Gelugpa sect ... a lot of the
old government was directed toward support of this huge Gelugpa hierarchy
and monasteries .... this Dalai Lama, however, despite the fact that
his primary education .. was from the Gelugpa perspective and using those
textbooks - and about which he has that tremendous facility of knowledge
- he has become non-sectarian. He has sincerely, and with a lot of effort, studied the major systems of Tibetan Buddhism - asked the lamas from
the traditions to come in and teach him - and he has opposed sectarianism
within Gelugpa ....
It would have been easy for him to go with the dominant group ... he instead has become a friend to all orders of Tibetan Buddhism and he considers that everything that he does in his office is non-sectarian ... in his own practice, he has incorporated teachings from all of the sects ... this is unusual and has given him more influence with other sects than most Dalai lamas would have.
( Dr Jeffrey Hopkins - Oral biography of HH the Dalai Lama ) | |||
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