Patience Paramita

Inspiration on Patience, Paramita for the month of March:

In Sanskrit it is: kshanti
In Tibetan it is: bzod pa (Pro. "zopa")

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Patience

Jetsun Milarepa sings in Song of the Ten Perfections:

Be perfectly unafraid of genuine reality,There is no other patience than that.

Patience or forebearance is the antidote or remedy to anger and agression.

Shantideva sings:

6.1

Good works gathered in a thousand ages,
Such as deeds of generosity,
Or offerings to the blissful ones -
A single flash of anger shatters them.

6.2

No evil is similar to anger,
No austerity to be compared with patience.
Steep yourself, therefore in patience -
In all ways, urgently, with zeal.

6.3

Those tormented by the pain of anger
Will never know tranquility of mind -
Strangers they will be to every pleasure;
Sleep departs them, they can never rest.

Padampa Sangye sings:

To hate enemies is a delusion caused by karma.
Transform your vicious thoughts of hatred, people of Tingri!

Atisha's slogans for Patience paramita are:

When the world is filled with evil,
Transform all mishaps into the path of bodhi (awakening).

Drive all blames into one.

Be grateful to everyone.

Seeing confusion as the four kayas (bodies) Is unsurpassable shunyata (emptiness) protection.

Four practices (accumulation of merit, laying down evil deeds, offering to the wrathful spirits, offering to the dharma protectors), are the best of methods.

Whatever you meet unexpectedly, join with meditation.

Contradictions to the Paramita of Patience:

Not practicing the four dharmas of a practitioner (not returning curses for curses, anger for anger, blow for blow, or insult for insult).

Not working peacefully with, but rejecting, people who are angry at you.

Refusing to accept another's apology.

Giving in to anger.

DPR on the Radio!

Ponlop Rinpoche will be interviewed about his new book, Mind Beyond Death, on Ron Reagan's radio show on Tuesday, March 27 at noon PDT.

You can listen via the internet:

http://radiotime.com/program/p_68281/The_Ron_Reagan_Show.aspx

His interviews are archived online, so folks can listen at other times.

http://www.kiro710.com/showdj.asp?DJID=31725

Copies of Mind Beyond Death can be ordered from the Bodhidharma Store by contacting sbaek@nalandabodhi.org

Sarva Mangalam!

Aspiration Prayer

Dear Nalandabodhi Sangha,

As we prepare for increased activity in the coming months at Nalanda West and within the entire Nalandabodhi mandala, please make aspiration prayers that Nalanda West and the network of Nalandabodhi centers will receive all the financial and human resources they need to accomplish the vast vision of our teachers, His Holiness Karmapa, Khenchen Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche and our beloved guru, The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.

On Chotrul Duchen and throughout the year when you recite "The Aspiration Prayer of the Victorious Ones" (included in this message) and do other practices, please think specifically about strengthening Nalanda West, Maitrivana, and all Nalandabodhi centers and study groups for the benefit of limitless sentient beings.

Rinpoche has taught that these intentions are the tendrel, or auspicious causes and conditions, for our fruition on the Mahayana journey. With that in mind, may we join together in the aspiration for fulfillment of the wondrous opportunities now arising in the Nalandabodhi Mandala. Please include this prayer in your liturgy today, on Chotrul Duchen, celebrating Buddha Shakyamuni’s display of fifteen days of miracles to spur devotion and increase the merit of his current and future disciples. How appropriate!

With great appreciation for this Nalandabodhi Family,

Lynne Conrad Marvet/ Robert Fors/ Lama Karma Gyaltsen

Nalanda West Directors

Kim McMeans

Chair, Nalandabodhi Executive Council, Canada

Mark Power

Chair, Nalandabodhi Executive Council, US

ASPIRATION PRAYER TO THE VICTORIOUS ONES OF THE TEN DIRECTIONS AND FOUR TIMES

NAMO GURU

In the monkey month of the monkey year, on the tenth day, in the middle floor of Samye in the Turquoise Room, at the time of opening the Vajradhatu Mandala, the one from Uddiyana uttered this aspiration. Just as the king and his disciples then did continuously, those of future generations should make this aspiration one-pointedly as their heart practice.

Victorious ones of the ten directions and four times and your heirs,
Assemblies of gurus, yidams, dakinis and dharmapalas,
Innumerable as the atoms in all realms without exception, please approach
And take your seat upon the lotus and moon in the sky before us.

Respectfully, we prostrate in body, speech and mind.
We present you with outer, inner, secret and suchness offerings.

In the presence of the sugatas, the supreme support,
We are ashamed of the accumulation of our past wrong doings
And with regret, we fully confess our present negativity.
From now on, we vow to refrain from these.

We rejoice in all accumulations of merit and virtue
And beseech you, victorious ones, to not pass into parinirvana,
But turn the wheel of dharma of the tripitaka and the unsurpassable vehicle.
We dedicate the accumulation of virtue to the mindstreams of all beings without exception:
May they travel to the ground of unexcelled liberation.

Buddhas and your heirs, please think of us.
May this supreme aspiration that we compose to you
Be equal to that of the victorious Samantabhadra and his heirs,
And may our knowledge be like that of the noble Manjushri.
May we train in the footsteps of them all.

May the precious gurus, the glory of the teachings,
Pervade everywhere like space,
Illuminate all, like the sun and moon
And like mountains, remain eternally stable.

May the sangha, the ground of the teachings,
Be of harmonious mind, pure conduct, and rich in the three trainings.

May the retreat practitioners of secret mantra, the essence of the teachings,
Keep their samayas and reach perfection in creation and completion.

May the sovereigns of the dharma, the patrons of the teachings,
See their domains expand, and may the teachings thus be benefited.

May the royal ministers, the servants of the teachings,
Their intelligence flourishing, be effective in their endeavours.

May fortunate householders, the nourishers of the teachings,
Have material comfort and be free of all harm.

May everyone in all countries throughout the word who have faith in the teachings
Be happy and free of obstacles.

Moreover, we yogis and yoginis who abide on the path,
May our samaya not decline and may our wishes be fulfilled.

May everyone with whom we have good or bad connections
Be both immediately and ultimately accepted by the victorious ones.

May all beings, having entered the door of the unsurpassable vehicle,
Attain the great kingdom of Samantabhadra.

Vigorously make this aspiration throughout the six phases.

SAMAYA GYA.

This was extracted as a public terma by an emanation of Price Murub, the great treasure-revealer Chogyur Dechen Lingpa, from the lower part of the Snow Grouse Pass on Jewel Rock Mountain, the right side of the supreme sacred place called Great Lion Sky Cliff. The text, written upon the silk dharma robes of Vairocana by Tsogyal in dakini script, was then immediately copied down correctly by Pema Garwang Lodro Thaye. May virtue and goodness increase.

Under the guidance of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche and based on explanations by Lama Tashi Dondrup, translated by Tyler Dewar.

© 2001 by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Nalandabodhi and Tyler Dewar.