General

To the reader that emailed me recently regarding Buddhist epistemology and Buddhist metaphysics.
Your email address is bouncing back. So I can’t reply to your email.
You will need to try sending through your email again.

I’ve being tagged by Danny Fisher and so he are my answers to the following questionnaire.

I will tag…
Vincent Horn
C4Chaos
Hokai
Danzan
William Harryman

I haven’t answered all the questions as some of them are silly.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Well being a Buddhist monk my understanding of happiness is not based on experiences of bliss generated from physical stimuli. Besides the bliss that is a by product of meditation is far far far greater than most people can even imagine.

However to answer the question…the happiness from being generous.

What is your greatest fear?
I’m not afraid of anything. But, if I had to pick something it would be dying before I have finished my life’s work. I know that sounds corny but its true. 

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Identity…hmmm…that is a tricky word…if it means relate to or feel close to, then that would be Lama Tsong Khapa the head of my school of Buddhism, the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism.
He was a great meditation yogi that strove to articulate what he saw in meditation.

Which living person do you most admire?
No brainer here! His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my root Lama Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Deplore is a strong word, lets just say I’d rather not be so ‘A’ type.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
From within the context of love and compassion with a genuine wish to help all living beings.
This would be anger, attachment, pride (in the sense of arrogance), doubt, wrong-view and ignorance.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Too many books. I seem to collect them. Even though I keep telling myself I have enough!

What is your favorite journey?
The path to being a prefect being of course…what other journey is there!

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
While I don’t want to take away the fun of this post. I have to say that if it is a virtue
it is pervaded by being a functional mind and by definition not overratedable.

On what occasion do you lie?
If it is beneficial to others. That is, if through lying I can help protect other living beings, then it is my obligation to lie. Although I was once debating (in the Tibetan monastic sense) with my teacher about this, and it turns out that from a debating pointing of view. This would not constitute lying as lying is necessarily negative and protecting others is positive.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I’m quite happy being a middle aged, balding, with a bit of a tummy Buddhist monk. I’m quite happy with the skin I’m in. I find it funny that these question comes from a magazine called VanityFair.

Which living person do you most despise?
All being want happiness and do not want suffering just like me. If you really understand these words fully it is impossible to hate or despise anyone….yes I mean anyone! This doesn’t mean Buddhists are a passive lot!
It is permissible to defend and even in some cases prevent problems from others by using force. But NEVER with hatred. 

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
My father would say I use the ‘umm’ word too much.

What is your greatest regret?
Not seeing Geshe Jampa Gyatso again before he passed away.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
The Buddhist path and helping others.

Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to articulate dharma well.

What is your current state of mind?
very happy, thanks for asking

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I’d like to see all mother sentient beings find real happiness.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I haven’t achieved anything…yet!

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
This is clearly a non-Buddhist question but, anyway to play along. I’d say I don’t care as long as it is a human person in a country where I can practice without fear of being persecuted for doing so.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
as above…this is getting silly!

What is your most treasured possession?
My vows

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Pride is the worse. Because someone with pride suffers from not being liked by others. They cant see their own mistakes and therefore have problem changing. All other forms of mental suffering can be removed more easily over time. Pride on the other hand is difficult to remove. A person with pride won’t listen to advise. They think they are correct even in  the face of many people saying they are not. It is the illusion of knowledge. I find that I can help most people with mental suffering but, people with pride are the most difficult.

Where would you like to live?
I like living where I am, if I didn’t I’d move

What is your favorite occupation?
Anything that can make a contribution.

What is your most marked characteristic?
This is not something I don’t think about much. Not because I don’t like to. Just because it relative.
What I might see as a quality, if compared to other is not. It doesn’t really help me develop my mind and so I don’t.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
I will answer the next 3 question here by saying the quality that I admire in all beings, regardless of their gender is compassion, loving-kindness, spirit of enlightenment, the spirit of enquiry, open-mindedness (in the sense of not being judgmental)

Who are your favorite writers?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden.

Who is your favorite hero/heroine of fiction?
don’t read fiction…sorry

Who are your heroines/heroes in real life?
The Buddha, Lama Tsong Khapa, HHDL, Geshe Loden and all those beings who have realized the path regardless of age, race or gender!

What are your favorite names?
???

What is it that you most dislike?
Silly question!

How would you like to die?
With a clear mind, slowly and without pain.

What is your motto?
There is a verse from Shantideva that HHDL likes that would be nice here.

For as long as space endures,
For as long as sentient beings remain.
May I too remain to remove the suffering of the world.

I received an email from a reader asking a biography on the 98th Ganden Tripa HE Jampel Shenpen the head of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Does anyone have any information or links? I have Googled but didn’t find make. In fact I was surprised to see that there is no wikipedia entry for him. If we find anything perhaps we should create a wikipedia page for it?

Hoping someone can help

The next Mandala magazine features a tribute one of my teachers, the late Geshe Achraya Jampa Gyatso.

Here are some short quotes form Ven Joan’s well written tribute.

Geshe-la taught us not to misuse our own or others’ belongings, to not waste or throw out what could still be used, to not go running after the latest gadget, whether a cell phone or a car. He showed us how to laugh at ourselves, our silly habits, our shortcomings, our weaknesses. He taught us to accept ourselves for what we are, while striving to become the buddha that is everyone’s potential. He taught us with endless patience, repeating time and again how to develop equanimity, love, compassion, patience, concentration, and wisdom. He told us his favorite stories over and over again, checking our memory by always adding a slight variation from the time before. He delighted us with his acting out of the sufferings of aging (often pointing out the fact that we would have a heart attack if we were suddenly to wake up old with a wrinkled face, gray hair, no teeth, loose skin), as well as the torment of attachment and the way we say “I love you,” while meaning “I am attached to you.” He shocked us with his outspoken opinions about politics and politicians (both Western and Tibetan). He surprised us with his lack of etiquette, tranquilly cleaning the wax out of his ears, taking out his false teeth to clean them, or scratching his legs or back while we talked to him. He charmed us with his imitations of people, his knowledge of our world, his insight into our lives and problems. He forced us to work on ourselves, on our minds, on our mistaken way of viewing ourselves and our world. He made us be truthful and honest with him and with ourselves. In short, he never put up with any of our usual garbage.

I remember during a teaching one time looking up at Geshe-la and he had placed his mala on his head wearing it like a head-band…inside I was rolling on the floor laughing…he just sat there with a slight smile on his face. Please come back soon Geshe-la
You can read more here about Geshe-la here

I’ve been tagged by hokai to make a list of five favourite dharma books.

1: The Graduated Path to Enlightenment - Geshe Thubten Loden

2: Ocean of Indivisible Method and Wisdom - Geshe Thubten Loden

3: Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy - Thubten Jinpa

4: Middle Way Master Program - Geshe Jampa Gyatso

5: Meditations on Emptiness - Prof Jeffrey Hopkins

Actually, I could list a lot more than this

Tag goes out to-
Danny Fisher
Bill
Tricycle
Stephen Parks Bell

I was going through some old photos of my time with Geshe Jampa Gyatso the other day and found this one.

The photo is part of a series of photos taken of me offering Geshe-la a mandala after a weekend of teachings of the lamrim text Path to Bliss. This would have been December 1998.

more photos here http://lodenjinpa.com/photos

Over at the Tricycle blog Phil is looking for a headline to go with this photo.

Here is mine!

1: Meditation, what rubbish!

2: They never told me it was used for meditation. I thought it was a pillow!

3: Gone dancing

Well that is the best I can do in 2 minutes, how about you?

The royal free photos I purchased from the 2007 HHDL tour have finally arrived. click on the image to see a larger version.

Below are a couple of photos from the Melbourne teachings.

Earlier this week my monastery got a call from someone who’s mother had past away and they wanted a monk to says some prayers at the funeral.  The mother was a Buddhist sympathizer and had recently been to Burma to participate in the protests there.

I was asked by to attend and to chant the Je Tsong Khapa Lamrim prayer and two dedication prayer written by Geshe Loden.
I often have fun at these events because people are more open at these times and you can get all types of people asking all sorts of questions. So it is a good chance to smooth out some of the misconceptions that the average Joe or Mary has about Dharma and boy there are some strange ideas about what Buddhism is!

I was asked back to the wake which was just around the corner and so of course I went. The afternoon was nice and I spent most of the 3 hours fielding questions ranging from what is meditation to how does Buddhism explain evolution! 

During the actual funeral ceremony when it came time for the Buddhist part. I started by given a small introduction into Buddhism as the Lamrim prayer would be quite difficult for people to understand that have had no exposure to Dharma.
Then I recited the prayer and went back and sat back down. Later on I thought to ask Geshe-la about this as perhaps the prayer was not the best one to recite. So, when I got back home I went straight up to Geshe-la room, knocked on the door (3 times) and entered quietly. Geshe-la looked at me smile and said come in sit, sit, there, there, you sit there. I explained to him about the events of the day and then I remembered I had to ask about the Lamrim prayer. I was going to ask whether the prayer was a little too difficult for non Buddhists but, I didn’t even get the sentence fully out…maybe the first 2 or 3 words when Geshe-la interjected saying this prayer much power! So that was that the prayer stays

I guess it’s a karmic thing that leaves an deep imprint in the hearers mind!

As I walked out of Geshe-la room I thought WOW I am so lucky to be here.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Am I silly or does this list make a whole lot of sense!

1: Don’t listen to your teacher.

2: Don’t put what your teacher has taught you into practice.

3: Don’t study the great texts.

4: Don’t meditate on what you have studied.

5: Don’t integrate what you have meditated on into your daily life.

6: Don’t pay attention during teachings.

7: Think that you know everything.

8: Think that your tradition is better than the rest.

9: Always look at what others are doing wrong.

10: Oh and of course to don’t forget to think…the Buddha was just plain wrong! I do inherently exist…

Can you add to the list?