Happy New Year 2024!🌿🕉🍀

It is the law of nature that

Truth is always greater than falsehood.
Love is always greater than hatred.
Patience is always greater than anger.
Compassion is always greater than attachment.
Non-violence is always greater than violence.

Peace is stronger than war.

World peace is the ultimate destiny of humanity.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WORLD PEACE!

ཨོཾ 

HAPPY Christmas 

and 

New Year 2024!

བཀྲིས་བདེ་ལེགས། 

🌿🍁🍀

 

Project for BUDDHA MEDITATION CENTER in Rome.

TO THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED

 

Project for BUDDHA MEDITATION CENTER in Rome

I am a free Dharma teacher and have been teaching in various parts of Italy for over 25 years. To avoid travelling and to satisfy the desire of many friends who want to follow my teachings and participate in my meditation meetings, I am thinking of creating a BUDDHA MEDITATION CENTER in Rome. 

I have thought about creating a small space in Rome as a base to conduct regular Dharma meetings in Rome. My intention is for everyone to be able to attend meditation meetings free of charge, with the possibility of practising the Dharma for anyone who wishes to do so.

Of course this project is aimed to prompte cultural and interreligious activities and to spread peace as a universal value as an integral part of the center based on my experirnces of more than 25 years frequenting Intercultural activities, attending Interreligious meetings and various form of social and humanitarian conferences in Italy and other parts of the World.

This requires financial support to have and maintain a place with the necessary amenities.

This is my attempt to find some benefactors who can contribute to the realisation of the project.

I thank you in advance for your attention.  For any contributions, please do so via the following PayPal or bank references as indicated on my Dharma Archive.

For any suggestions and further information, please contact:
Email. gedun.tharchin@gmail.com
Mobile. +39 3391189480

Archive of Geshe Gedun Tharchin's teachings
https://geshetharchin.blogspot.com

 

 

Meaning of Avaloketsvara's extensive Dharana

Meaning of Avaloketsvara's extensive Dharana

नमो रतनत्रयाय, नमो आर्य ज्ञाना, सागरा, वैरोचना, व्यूहाराजय, तथागताय, अर्हते ,सम्यक सम् बुद्धाया।। नमो सर्व ताथगतेभ्य, अरहतेभ्य, सम्यक सम् बोधिभ्य। नमो आर्य अवलोखितेश्वराय,बोधिसत्वाय, महासत्तवाय महाकरुणिकाय। तद्यथा, ॐ धरा,धरा, धीरी, धिरी, धुरू धुरु, इतिवित्वी, ज्वले ज्वले, प्राजवले, प्राजवले कुसुमे कुसुमः धरे, इरि मिरी, चित्रेछ्ते चरम अपनाय, स्वाहा।।

ན་མོ་རཏྣཏྲ་ཡཱ་ཡ། ན་མཿ ཨཱརྱ་ཛྙཱ་ན་སཱ་ག་ར། བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན། བྷུ་ཧ་རཱ་ཛཱ་ཡ། ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏ་ཡ། ཨརྷ་ཏེ་སམྱཀྶཾ་བུད་དྷ་ཡ། ན་མཿ སརྦ་ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏེ་བྷྱཿ ཨརྷ་ཏེ་བྷྱཿ སམྱཀྶཾ་བུདྡྷེ་བྷྱཿ ན་མཿ ཨཱརྱ་ཨ་ཝ་ལོ་ཀི་ཏེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ། བོ་དྷི་ས་ཏྭ་ཡ། མ་ཧཱ་ས་ཏྭ་ཡ། མ་ཧཱ་ཀ་རུ་ཎི་ཀཱ་ཡ། ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་དྷ་ར་དྷ་ར། དྷི་རི་དྷི་རི། དྷུ་རུ་དྷུ་རུ། ཨིཊྚེ་ཝིཊྚེ། ཙ་ལེ་ཙ་ལེ། པྲ་ཙ་ལེ་པྲ་ཙ་ལེ། ཀུ་སུ་མེ། ཀུ་སུ་མ་ཝ་རེ། ཨི་ལི་མི་ལི་ཙི་ཏི་ཛྭ་ལ་མ་པ་ན་ཡེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

NAMO RATNA TRAYĀYA / NAMA ĀRYA JÑĀNA SĀGARA VAIROCANA VYŪHA RĀJĀYA / TATHĀGATĀYA / ARHATE / SAMYAKSAṂ BUDDHĀYA / NAMAḤ SARVA TATHĀGATEVYAḤ / ARHATEVYAḤ SAMYAKSAM BUDDHEVYAḤ / NAMA ĀRYA AVALOKITEŚVARĀYA / BODHISATVĀYA / MAHĀSATVĀYA / MAHĀKĀRUṆIKĀYA / TADYATHĀ / OṂ DHARA DHARA / DHIRI DHIRI / DHURU DHURU / IṬṬI VAṬṬI / JVALE JVALE / PRAJVALE PRAJVALE / KUSUME / KUSUMA / DHARE / ILI MILI / CHITRE CHITE JVALAM APANAYA / SVAHA

 

ན་མོ་རཏྣཏྲ་ཡཱ་ཡ། རིན་ཆེན་རྣམ་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

Namo Ratna Trayāya (Homage to the Triple Gem, Buddha Dharma and Sangha)

 

ན་མཿ ཨརྱ་ཛྙཱ་ན་སཱ་ག་ར། ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ་འཕགས་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ལ། 

Namaḥ Ārya Jñāna Sāgara (Homage to the ocean of noble wisdom)

 

བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན། ལུས་ཅན་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད། 

Vairocana (With form of Buddha Vairocana, the Luminous One or the Enlightening)

 

བྱཱུ་ཧ་རཱ་ཛཱ་ཡ། བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ། 

Vyūha Rājāya (the King of the Manifestations)

 

ཏ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏཱ་ཡ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ། 

Tathāgatāya (the Tathagata, who has gone to blissful state)

 

ཨརྷ་ཏེ་སམྱཀྶཾ་བུདྡྷ་ཡ། དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ལ།

Arhate Samyaksam Buddhāya (who has destroyed all illutions and the perfectly awakened one)

 

ན་མཿ སརྦ་ཏ་ཐ་ག་ཏེ་བྷྱ༔ ཐམས་ཅད་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །། 

Namo Sarwa Tathātebhyaḥ (Homage to all Tathāgatas)

 

ཨརྷ་ཏེ་བྷྱཿ དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་རྣམས་ལ།  

Arhate (To the Arhats)

 

སམྱཀྶཾ་བུདྡྷེ་བྷྱ༔ ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ལ། 

Samyaksam Buddhāya (the perfectly awakened one)

 

ན་མཿ ཨཱརྱ་ཨ་ཝ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཏེ་ཤྭ་རཱ་ཡ། འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། 

Namo Arya Avalokiteśvarāya (Homage to Noble Avalokitesvara)

 

བོ་དྷི་ས་ཏྭ་ཡ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། 

Bodhisattvāya (the Bodhisattva)

 

མ་ཧཱ་སཏྭ་ཡ། སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ། 

Mahasattvāya (the Great Bodhisattva)

 

མ་ཧཱ་ཀཱ་རུ་ཎི་ཀཱ་ཡ། ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ལྡན་པ། 

Mahakarunikāya (the Great Compassionate one)

 

ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། འདི་ལྟ་སྟེ།

Tadyathā.  (Thus)

 

ཨོཾ་དྷ་ར་དྷ་ར། གཟུངས་སྔགས། 

Ōṃ Dhara Dhara (Om Mental protection)

དྷི་རི་དྷི་རི། འཛིན་པ་འཛིན་པ། 

Dhiri Dhiri (Protect us fermly and sustain us )

 

དྷུ་རུ་དྷུ་རུ། ཟུངས་ཤིག་ཟུངས་ཤིག། 

Dhuru Dhuru (Oh Sustain us)

 

ཨི་ཊྚེ། ཝེ་ཊྚེ། དབང་ཞུ་བ།། 

Iṭṭe vitte ( May we have the strength )

 

ཙ་ལེ་ཙ་ལེ། བསྐྱོད་ཅིག་བསྐྱོད་ཅིག ། 

Cale Cale  ( Move forward, Move forward )

 

པྲ་ཙ་ལེ་པྲ་ཙ་ལེ། རབ་ཏུ་བསྐྱོད་པ་རབ་ཏུ་བསྐྱོད་པ། 

Pracale Pracale ( Move forward further, Move further along the path)

 

ཀུ་སུ་མེ། ཀུ་སུ་མ་ཝ་རེ། མེ་ཏོག་འཛིན་པ། མེ་ཏོག་གི་མཆོད་པ་འཛིན་པ། 

Kusumē, Kusumavare (who holds flower, Who holds flower-offering)

 

ཨི་ལི། ཐབས་ཤེས། 

Ili (Compassion and wisdom) 

མི་ལི། བླ་མ་མཆོད། 

Milli (the Supreme bliss)

ཙི་ཏི་ཛྭ་ལ། སེམས་ཀྱིས་འབར་བ། 

Citi jvalam (The blazing of mind) 

 

མ་པ་ན་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། གཞི་ཚུགས་ཤིག ། 

Apanāye. Svāhā. (Hail! or Lay down the foundation)

 

Edited by Geshe Gedun Tharchin

Basic Puja of Arya Tara

Basic puja practice of Tara:
Taking refuge and generating bodhicitta.

Meditation on the four immeasurables.

Invocation and prostration.

Practice of the seven limbs and mandala offering.

Reciting short praises to the twenty-one Tara of Atisha.

Recitation of mantras.

Dedication at the end.

Invocation

༈ པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཡི་གནས་མཆོག་ནས། །

ཏཱཾ་ཡིག་ལྗང་གུ་ལས་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང༌། །

ཏཱཾ་ཡིག་འོད་ཀྱིས་འགྲོ་བ་སྒྲོལ། །

འོད་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱིས་དབུ་ལ་རྒྱན།།

དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་འཕྲིན་ལས་མ།།

སྒྲོལ་མ་འཁོར་བཅས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ། །

From the excellent ground of the Potala.

Originates from the green letter TAM.

Protects beings with the ray of the green letter TAM.

On your head you have Amitabha as your crown.

The emanation of the action of all the Buddhas of the three ages.

I pray and invite you, Tara, with the whole circle.

Homage

ལྷ་དང་ལྷ་མིན་ཅོད་པན་གྱིས། །

ཞབས་ཀྱི་པདྨོ་ལ་བཏུད་དེ། །

ཕོངས་པ་ཀུན་ལས་སྒྲོལ་མཛད་པའི། །

སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

The crown of the gods and demigods,

Prostrate to the lotus of your feet.

You are the protector of all poverty.

I prostrate myself before Mother Tara.

The concise praise of the twenty-one Tārās

སྒྲོལ་མ་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་བསྟོད་པ་བསྡུས་པ་བཞུགས་སོ།།

ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཏཱ་རེ་དཔའ་མོ། །

ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས་འཇིགས་ཀུན་སེལ་མ། །

ཏུ་རེ་དོན་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟེར་མ། །

སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཡི་གེར་བཅས་ལ་རབ་འདུད། །

OM. Homage to the Supreme Arya Tara.

Homage to Tara TA RE, the courageous one,

TUT TARA who dispels all fears.

TU RE who grants all good.

SO HA, A profound homage to all Taras.

ཅེས་བྱ་བ་འདི་ནི་མཉམ་མེད་ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་སྙེ་ཐང་དུ་བཞུགས་སྐབས་སྐུ་གཟུགས་བསྙུན་ནས་རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མར་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པའི་ཚེ། རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཉི་མ་གཅིག་ལ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཁྲི་གཅིག་སྨིན་སྒྲུབ་བྱོས་ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་ན། ཇོ་བོ་རྗེས་ཉིན་གཅིག་ལ་མི་འབྱོར་བས་ཐབས་ཅི་ཞིག་འཚལ་ཞེས་ཞུས་པས། དེའི་ལན་དུ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ་འདི་ཉིད་རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མ་རང་གིས་དངོས་སུ་གསུངས་པས་བྱིན་རླབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། །།

(When the incomparable master Atiśa was staying in Nyethang, he suddenly fell ill. He pleaded with Tārā and asked for her intervention. The noble goddess appeared before him and told him that in order to cure his illness he should recite the Praise to the twenty-one Forms of Tārā at least ten thousand times in a single day. Atiśa replied that it would be impossible for him to do so and asked if there was no other way. Tārā replied by granting him this extremely concise praise; coming from Tārā herself, this praise is said to be highly blessed).

Mantra of Tārā

ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་ཏཱྃ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

OM TARE TUTTARE TAM SOHA

དགེ་བ་དེ་ཡིས་མྱུར་དུ་དག །

འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་སྒྲུབ་འགྱུར་ནས། །

འགྲོ་བ་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མ་ལུས་པ། །

དེ་ཡི་ས་ལ་འགོད་པར་ཤོག།

Through this merit, may I swiftly accomplish 

the realization Of Arya Tara

may I bring each and every single living beings

to the Enlightened state of Arya Tara.

Meaning of the Mantra of Green Tara and Tara general

TARA literally means star. Translated into Tibetan as Drolma, it means liberator, liberating beings from samsara.

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA

OM means the enlightened qualities of Tara's holy body, speech and mind. By realising the true path - the union of wisdom and method - in our mind, 

our impure body, speech and mind are purified and transformed into the holy body, speech and mind of Tara.

TARE, Tara frees us from true suffering.

TUTTARE frees us from the true causes of suffering, karma and illusions.

TURE, Dharma and true cessation, Tara guides us on the true path of the three vehicles according to our aspirations and abilities and grants us every success. 

Success here refers to the goals of the three vehicles - Arhats, Solitary Realizer and Fully Enlightened Buddhas.

SVAHA means "May the blessings of Tara contained in the mantra OM TARE TUTTARE take root in our hearts.

སྒྲོལ་མ་དཀར་མོའི་ཚེ་གཟུངས།

The long life and healing mantra of the White Tara

ཨོཾ་འཁོར་བ་ལས་སྒྲོལ་ཏཱ་རེ་མ། །

ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཡིས་འཇིགས་བརྒྱད་སྒྲོལ། །

ཏུ་རེས་ན་བ་རྣམས་ལས་སྒྲོལ། །

སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

OM. TARE who saves from samsara.

TUTTARE who protects from the Eight fears.

TARE who frees from diseases.

I pay homage to Tara, the Mother.

ཨོཾ་ཏྭ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་མ་མ་ཨཱ་ཡུར་པུཎྱེ་ཛྙཱ་ན་པུཥྚིཾ་ཀུ་རུ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jñana Pustim Kuru Svaha

 ཨོཾ་ཏྭ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་གུ་རུ་ཨཱ་ཡུར་པུཎྱེ་ཛྙཱ་ན་པུཥྚིཾ་ཀུ་རུ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Guru Ayuh Punya Jñana Pustim Kuru Svaha

སེམས་ཅན་ནད་པ་ཇི་སྙེད་པ། །

མྱུར་དུ་ནད་ལས་ཐར་གྱུར་ཅིག །

འགྲོ་བའི་ནད་རྣམས་མ་ལུས་པ། །

རྟག་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བ་མེད་པར་ཤོག །

All those who live with sickness,

May they soon be free of sickness.

All forms of disease of beings,

May they cease to exist forever.

Meaning of the Mantra

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE MAMA AYUH PUNYA JNANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.

The White Tara Mantra begins in the same way as the Basic Green Tara Mantra, with OM TARE TUTTARE TURE. A short way of interpreting this mantra is "I prostrate myself to the Liberator, Mother of all Victorious Ones".

In the White Tara Mantra we add MAMA AYUR PUNE GYANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.

This is essentially a request for increased longevity, merit and wisdom, where AYUR, PUNE and GYANA refer to life, merit and wisdom. MAMA means mother. PUSTIM KURU means to increase it.

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE GURU AYUH PUNYA JNANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.

Here we add GURU which means Master, so we pray Tara one with Master.

Composed by Geshe Gedun Tharchin

LO JONG The Seven Points Bodhicitta Training

 LO  JONG

The Seven Points Bodhicitta Training

Geshe Chhekhapa Yeshi Dorji

 

Homage to the Great Compassion!

 

Point 1: - Preliminaries: Preliminaries for the whole body Lo Jong practice

First practice the preliminaries.
 1. Meditate on and become acquainted with the preciousness of human life.
 2. Meditate on and familiarise yourself with the reality of death and impermanence.
 3. Meditate on and become aware of karmic cause and effect.
 4. Meditate on and learn the DUKHA of Samsara.

Point 2: The actual training in the two types of bodhicitta

Training in the ultimate bodhicitta:
Preparing to meditate.
First take refuge in the three jewels. Cultivate motivation and ask for the blessings of masters and deities.
The practice of the seven branches of the accumulation of merit and the purification of negativity.
The offering of the mandala.
The 21 rounds of inhaling and exhaling breathing practice.

Main practice: Effective meditation with analytical, contemplative and one-pointed concentration.
Consider that all phenomena are like a dream.
Analyse the innate nature of the mind.
Acknowledging the non-existence of the remedy, which is one's own self, and freeing oneself by meditating into the empty state of recognition of Ultimate Reality.
To settle into the nature of the path in the state of the foundation of all phenomena, Dharmadhatu.

Concluding practice: Mindfulness practice accompanying the moments after meditation.
Be in an illusion state between sessions.

Conventional bodhichitta training:
Contemplation and post-contemplation;

Practice of giving one's own happiness and taking the pain of others, alternately.
Practice of giving and receiving through the inhalation and exhalation of breath.

Whenever the three toxic attitudes of craving, anger and ignorance arise towards the three respective objects, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, the practice of Tong Len turns them into the three roots of virtue: detachment, compassion, and consciousness.

One trains with words, reciting the Lo Jong Prayer, the Eight Verses of Mental Training, mantras, etc., in order to constantly encourage this practice.

With regard to the order of taking suffering, you practice starting with your own future suffering, and this practice facilitates the ability to take the suffering of others.

 

 

Point 3: Transformation of adverse circumstances into a path to enlightenment

Change of perspective of world observation:
When one realizes that the environment and its inhabitants are filled with negative forces, transform adverse circumstances and unfavorable conditions into a path to enlightenment through the practice of Lo Jong.
       
By practicing Bodhicitta:

Fully realise that one's egocentric attitude is solely responsible for all the negative things happening to oneself.

Meditate on great kindness towards all sentient beings. This is a great resource for compassion practice and Lo Jong.
       
By the Supreme Bodhicitta:
Whenever mental confusions arise due to wrong views, meditate on them as the four forms of Buddha (Ultimate Dharma-kaya as the vacuous nature of mind, Dharma-kaya of Wisdom as the conscious nature of mind, Sambhoka-kaya as the beauty of mind and Nirnama-kaya as the action of mind). The emptiness that is the supreme protection that removes obstacles.
       
The application of the four practices is the supreme method of purification and accumulation of merit;
Accumulating positivity.
The purification of negative force.

The creation of harmony with harmful spirits.

Requesting the enlightening influence of positive spirits.

The transformation of sudden obstacles into a path:
Applying to meditate on whatever unexpected obstacles may arise along the way.

Point 4: The application of the practice throughout one's life

The essence of the quintessential teachings is the application of the five forces:
1. the force of intention; motivation, or positive intention.
2. the force of virtuous karma; collecting merit through positive action.
3. the force of familiarisation; habituation to the practice through constant application.
4. the force of the total elimination of all unnecessary superstructures; the immediate repudiation of negative actions from the heart.
5. the power of prayer; using inspirational thoughts and devotional prayers on a regular basis.  
       

The application of the practice of PHO WA at the time of death:
The quintessential teaching for transferring the mind, or PHO WA Mahayana, consists of applying the five powers to be guarded with great care.

1. Positive action seed power.

2. The power of the rejection of non-positive actions.

3. Power of the Bodhisattva's prayers.

4. Power of determination, bodhicitta.

5. The power of familiarising oneself; regularly contemplating and meditating on the process of dying through the various stages.

 

Point 5: Measuring the extent to which one has really trained in the mind of Lo Jong

If you are able to focus all your Dharmic practice on the essential goal of ultimately liberating the mind from self-grasping.

If one is able to make oneself the primary witness to the purity of one's practice, instead of relying on an external witness.
When you check whether you are mature in the following qualities,
A being with a big heart, who thinks first and foremost of the welfare of others;
A great being trained to be constructive;
A great being who is able to endure difficulties and to overcome negativity;
A great being disciplined in fulfilling commitments;
A great yogi who is concerned with the goal of bodhichitta.

When one is able to maintain a constantly joyful mind, transforming adverse circumstances into favourable ones by practising lo jong.

If you are able to maintain a calm mind even in the midst of distracting circumstances, it means that you are well trained in Lo Jong!

 

 

Point 6: The 18 Lo Jong Commitments

(1-3) Always practice the three general points:  
-Do not allow your Lo Jong practices to contradict other Dharma practices.
-Don't allow egregious behaviour resulting from misapplication of Lo Jong practices.
-Don't allow your Lo Jong practice to be one-sided.
4. Transform your inner quality, but externally maintain behaviour in harmony with other Dharma friends.
5. Do not talk about the negative aspects of others.
6. Even if you see the faults of others, do not think about them.
7. Practice the antidote to the most disturbing emotions in the first place.
8. Give up the expectation of worldly achievements such as fame, respect and other material objects.
9. Do not allow poisonous attitudes such as obsession with external objects and covetousness to be mixed with Dharma practices.
10. Not to resent harmful actions against oneself.
12. Never respond to any harmful action with the same attitude.
13. Not to commit actions that cause harm to the body and mind of others.
14. Do not blame others for one's own mistakes and wrong actions, as if transferring the burden of a dzo to an ox.
15. Abandon all intentions and actions of possessing the wealth of the community for oneself alone.
16. Avoid practising Lo Jong with the expectation of gaining small benefits, or even to ward off the harm of negative spirits.
17. Do not let the practice of Lo Jong become a source of food and satisfaction for the ego.
18. Do not wish others to suffer in order to nourish your own happiness.

 

Point 7: The 22 Lo Jong exercises

1. Perform all yogas with the single intention of benefiting others, including the yoga of eating, because all forms of daily mindfulness practice must be performed with the single intention of selflessness.
2. All practices to remove obstacles and intensify realisations should be done with the attitude of equating and exchanging oneself for others.
3. Apply the two actions at the beginning and at the end: Each practice should begin with the motivation of bodhicitta and end with devotion to the welfare of others and appropriate prayers.
4. In life one may encounter desirable or undesirable conditions, but all should be welcomed in the practice of Lo Jong.
5. All Dharma commitments in general and Lo Jong commitments in particular should be kept, even at the cost of one's life.
6. Whenever negative thoughts arise, they should be immediately confronted with positive thoughts as an antidote that can eliminate and eradicate them.
7. One should learn to cultivate the right causes and conditions, such as relying on teachers and relaxing the mind, and only the indispensable material requirements.
8. Do not abandon the respect and inspiration of spiritual masters, the appreciation of the practice of Lo Jong and the observance of the commitments of Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva and Mantrayana.
9. Body, speech and mind must be inseparable in the virtuous mind,
10. One must practise Lo Jong with an attitude of impartiality towards all.
11. One should learn that everything that can be perceived should be covered by the practice of Lo Jong.
12. Practice Lo Jong to develop loving kindness towards all, even those who are averse to one's way of being.
13. Learn to meditate on Lo Jong regardless of favourable or unfavourable situations.
14. One should learn to practice Lo Jong by concentrating on the essentials.
15. One should not fall into misunderstandings by misinterpreting things regarding faith, patience, compassion, pure vision, motivation, appreciation, intentions, etc.
16. One should maintain the practice without interruption.
17. One should engage in the practice by concentrating with the heart, without arrogance and conceit.
18. One should learn to eliminate negative thoughts and actions by means of thorough analysis and investigation, rather than by means of uncritical, unthinking, blind faith.
19. Do not boast when you have done good things by repeatedly emphasising them and receiving rewards for them.
20. Do not feel or express dissatisfaction when someone makes an inadequate or unsatisfactory remark about you.
21. Do not show yourself to be short-tempered and unstable in carrying out Dharma practice.
22. Do not glorify your Dharma practice in order to gain fame and reward.

 

Closing words by Author
Thus you are transformed into the path to enlightenment,
this time as degeneration (Kali yug) increases.
This is what the teaching is all about,
The quintessential nectar of the Serlingpa lineage.

The awakening of karmic residue from previous training,
My admiration for this practice has been on the increase.
Therefore I have endured suffering and infamy.
I have received the instruction to tame myself.
I have no regrets, even in the event of my death now.

 

SARVA MANGALAM

Note of Geshe Gedun Tharchin
     This is the ancient tradition of the Seven Points of Bodhicitta Mental Training, composed by Geshe Kadampa Chhekhapa on the essence of the teaching on the practice of Bodhicitta received from Geshe Kadampa Drom Tonpa Gyalwai Jubgney, the principal disciple of Master Atisha Dipamkara Shree Gyana. 

     Atisha had received the doctrine of bodhicitta from his master Serlingpa. Later, Lo Jong teachings became the main practice of all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
     The main sources of Lo Jong's teachings are Buddha's Avatamsaka Sutra, Nagarjuna's Ratnavali and Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara.
     The text of Lo Jong's Seven Points of Mental Training is presented in a number of versions due to the different sources of transcription and the different lineages of transmission.
     However, this translation is based on one of the oldest versions and has been translated in the simplest language to make it understandable to ordinary practitioners. Furthermore, this translation focuses on meaning rather than literal interpretation.

 

1. The original Tibetan text

༄༅། །སྙིང་རྗོ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

༡༽དང་པོ་སྔོན་འགྲོ་དག་ལ་བསླབ། །

༢༽ཆོས་རྣམས་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་བསམ། །མ་སྐྱེས་རིག་པའི་གཤིས་ལ་དཔྱད། །གཉེན་པོ་ཉིད་ཀྱང་རང་སར་གྲོལ། །ངོ་བོ་ཀུན་གཞིའི་ངང་ལ་བཞག །ཐུན་མཚམས་སྒྱུ་མའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་བྱ། །གཏོང་ལེན་གཉིས་པོ་སྤེལ་མར་སྦྱང༌། །དེ་གཉིས་རླུང་ལ་བསྐྱོན་པར་བྱ། །ཡུལ་གསུམ་དུག་གསུམ་དགེ་རྩ་གསུམ། །སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཚིག་གིས་སྦྱང་། །ལེན་པའི་གོ་རིམ་རང་ནས་བརྩམ། །

༣༽སྣོད་བཅུད་སྡིག་པས་གང་བའི་ཚེ། །རྐྱེན་ངན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར། །ལེ་ལེན་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་ལ་བདའ། །ཀུན་ལ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་བར་སྒོམས། །འཁྲུལ་སྣང་སྐུ་བཞིར་སྒོམ་པ་ཡི། །སྟོང་ཉིད་སྲུང་བ་བླ་ན་མེད། །སྦྱོར་བ་བཞི་ལྡན་ཐབས་ཀྱི་མཆོག །འཕྲལ་ལ་གང་ཐུག་བསྒོམ་དུ་སྦྱར། །

༤༽མན་ངག་སྙིང་པོ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ། །སྟོབས་ལྔ་དག་ལ་སྦྱར་བར་བྱ། །ཐེག་ཆེན་འཕོ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ནི། །སྟོབས་ལྔ་ཉིད་ཡིན་སྤྱོད་ལམ་གཅེས། །

༥༽ཆོས་ཀུན་དགོས་པ་གཅིག་ཏུ་འདུས། །དཔང་པོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་བོར་གཟུང༌། །ཡིད་བདེ་འབའ་ཞིག་རྒྱུན་དུ་བསྟེན། །ཡེངས་ཀྱང་ཐུབ་ན་འབྱོངས་པ་ཡིན། །

༦༽སྤྱི་དོན་གསུམ་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་བསླབ། །འདུན་པ་བསྒྱུར་ལ་རང་སོར་བཞག །ཡན་ལག་ཉམས་པར་བརྗོད་མི་བྱ། །གཞན་ཕྱོགས་གང་ཡང་མི་བསམ་མོ། །ཉོན་མོངས་གང་ཆེ་སྔོན་ལ་སྦྱང༌། །འབྲས་བུའི་རེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤངས། །དུག་ཅན་གྱི་ཟས་སྤངས། གཞུང་བཟང་པོ་མ་བསྟེན། ཤག་ངན་མ་རྒོད། འཕྲང་མ་བསྒུག གནད་ལ་མི་དབབ། མཛོ་ཁལ་གླང་ལ་མི་འབྱོ། མགྱོགས་ཀྱི་རྩེ་མི་གཏོད། གཏོ་ལོག་མི་བྱ། ལྷ་བདུད་དུ་མི་དབབ། སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་ཏུ་སྡུག་མ་ཚོལ། །

༧༽རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་གིས་བྱ། །ལོག་གནོན་ཐམས་ཅད་གཅིག་གིས་བྱ། །ཐོག་མཐའ་གཉིས་ལ་བྱ་བ་གཉིས། །གཉིས་པོ་གང་བྱུང་བཟོད་པར་བྱ། །གཉིས་པོ་སྲོག་དང་བསྡོས་ལ་བསྲུང༌། །དཀའ་བ་གསུམ་ལ་བསླབ་པར་བྱ། །རྒྱུ་ཡི་གཙོ་བོ་རྣམ་གསུམ་བླང༌། །ཉམས་པ་མེད་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ་བསྒོམ། །འབྲལ་མེད་གསུམ་དང་ལྡན་པར་བྱ། །ཡུལ་ལ་ཕྱོགས་མེད་དག་ཏུ་སྦྱོང༌། །ཁྱབ་དང་གཏིང་འབྱོངས་ཀུན་ལ་གཅེས། །བཀོལ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་བསྒོམ། །རྐྱེན་གཞན་དག་ལ་ལྟོས་མི་བྱ། །ད་རེས་གཙོ་བོ་ཉམས་སུ་བླང༌། གོ་ལོག་མི་བྱ། རེས་འཇོག་མི་བྱ། དོལ་ཆོད་དུ་སྦྱང༌། རྟོག་དཔྱད་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཐར་བར་བྱ། །ཡུས་མ་བསྒོམ། ཀོ་ལོང་མ་སྡོམ། ཡུད་ཙམ་པར་མི་བྱ། འོར་ཆེ་མ་འདོད། །

སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ་པོ་བདོ་བ་འདི། །བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་དུ་བསྒྱུར་བ་ཡིན། །མན་ངག་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི། །གསེར་གླིང་པ་ནས་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡིན། །སྔོན་སྦྱངས་ལས་ཀྱི་འཕྲོ་སད་པས། །རང་གི་མོས་པ་མང་བའི་རྒྱུས། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཏམ་ངན་ཁྱད་བསད་ནས། །བདག་འཛིན་འདུལ་བའི་གདམས་ངག་ཞུས། །ད་ནི་ཤི་ཡང་མི་འགྱོད་དོ།། །།

 2. Another version of The 7 Points of Mind Traning English translation

Homage to great compassion.
The essence of this nectar of secret instruction
Is transmitted from the master from Sumatra.

Revealing the features of the doctrine to engender
respect for the instruction

You should understand the significance of this instruction
As like a diamond, the sun and a medicinal tree.
This time of the five degenerations will then be transformed
Into the path to the fully awakened state.

The actual instruction for guiding the disciple
is given in seven points

1. Explaining the preliminaries as a basis for the practice

First, train in the preliminaries.

2. The actual practice, training in the awakening mind
(a) How to train in the ultimate awakening mind
(b) How to train in the conventional awakening mind

(According to most of the older records, the training in the ultimate awakening mind is dealt with first. However, according to our own tradition, following the gentle protector Tsongkhapa, as contained in such works as the Mind Training like the Rays of the Sun, Ornament for Losang’s Thought, The Essential Nectar and Keutsang’s Root Words, the order is reversed for special reasons.)

(b) Training in the conventional awakening mind

Banish the one to blame for everything,
Meditate on the great kindness of all beings.
Practice a combination of giving and taking.
Giving and taking should be practiced alternately
And you should begin by taking from yourself.
These two should be made to ride on the breath.

Concerning the three objects, three poisons and three virtues,
The instruction to be followed, in short,
Is to be mindful of the practice in general,
By taking these words to heart in all activities.

(a) Training in the ultimate awakening mind

When stability has been attained, impart the secret teaching:
Consider all phenomena as like dreams,
Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
The remedy itself is released in its own place,
Place the essence of the path on the nature of the basis of all.

In the period between sessions, be a creator of illusions.

3. Transforming adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment

When the environment and its inhabitants overflow with unwholesomeness,
Transform adverse circumstances into the path to enlightenment.
Apply meditation immediately at every opportunity.
The supreme method is accompanied by the four practices.

4. The integrated practice of a single lifetime

In brief, the essence of the instruction is
To train in the five powers.
The five powers themselves are the Great Vehicle’s
Precept on the transference of consciousness.
Cultivate these paths of practice.

5. The measure of having trained the mind

Integrate all the teachings into one thought,
Primary importance should be given to the two witnesses,
Constantly cultivate only a peaceful mind.
The measure of a trained mind is that it has turned away,
There are five great marks of a trained mind.
The trained (mind) retains control even when distracted.

6. The commitments of mind training

1. Don’t go against the mind training you promised to observe,
2. Don’t be reckless in your practice,
3. Don’t be partial, always train in the three general points,
4. Transform your attitude but maintain your natural behavior,
5. Don’t speak of others’ incomplete qualities,
6. Don’t concern yourself with others’ business,
7. Train to counter whichever disturbing emotion is greatest,
8. Give up every hope of reward,
9. Avoid poisonous food,
10. Don’t maintain misplaced loyalty,
11. Don’t make sarcastic remarks,
12. Don’t lie in ambush,
13. Don’t strike at the vital point,
14. Don’t burden an ox with the load of a dzo,
15. Don’t abuse the practice,
16. Don’t sprint to win the race,
17. Don’t turn gods into devils,
18. Don’t seek others’ misery as a means to happiness.

7. The precepts of mind training

1. Every yoga should be performed as one,
2. All errors are to be amended by one means,
3. There are two activities—at beginning and end,
4. Whichever occurs, be patient with both,
5. Guard both at the cost of your life,
6. Train in the three difficulties,
7. Seek for the three principal causes,
8. Don’t let three factors weaken,
9. Never be parted from the three possessions,
10. Train consistently without partiality,
11. Value an encompassing and far-reaching practice,
12. Train consistently to deal with difficult situations,
13. Don’t rely on other conditions,
14. Engage in the principal practices right now,
15. Don’t apply a wrong understanding,
16. Don’t be sporadic,
17. Practice unflinchingly,
18. Release investigation and analysis,
19. Don’t be boastful,
20. Don’t be short-tempered,
21. Don’t make a short-lived attempt,
22. Don’t expect gratitude.

This is concluded with a quotation from Geshe Chekawa, who had an experience of the awakening mind:

My manifold aspirations have given rise
To humiliating criticism and suffering,
But, having received instructions for taming the misconception of self,
Even if I have to die, I have no regrets.

 

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The Social activities

My birth into a traditional Tibetan family influenced my path to turn to Tibetan Buddhism as a foundation in my life. Eventually my arrival to the west further influenced my life to strive to integrate into the modern world. As you mature your responsibility in society increases. Following this principle I have been trying to support Tibetan people in India and Nepal since my arrival to Italy with the help of my Dharma friends and many others. The projects to which I have given special support are orientated to the Tibetan society in Exile.

Tashiling Tibetan refugee settlement

        The prayer site with prayers set in stone plates and prayer flags for regular public prayer meetings in the middle of Tashiling Tibetan refugee settlement, Pokhara, Nepal. This was built in 2000. My friends donated one third of the construction cost.

Mundgod Tibetan settlement      

Mundgod Tibetan settlement is located in Karnataka State and is home to two monastic Monasteries: Gaden and Drepung and nine Tibetan villages. There are several smaller monasteries in the villages, as well as Sakya, Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug. Mundgod Tibetan Settlement, established in 1970, has nowadays approximately fifteen thousand inhabitants which makes it one of the major Tibetan resettlements in India.

I recommended AREF International Onlus Rome to support Mundgod Tibetan Settlement. I myself is a founding member of AREF International Onlus. Since many years now the AREF are involved in carrying out various projects and sponsor a program in Mundgod Tibetan Settlement and Gaden Jangtse Education Project, Gaden Jangtse School, and other Tibetan areas including Dharamsala, India.

 

Gajang Gyalrong Khangtsen

Gajang Gyalrong Khangtsen is a small group of monks as one of 12 monastic communities called as Khangtsens - House Sections, within Jangtse Dratsang of Gaden Monastery, where I spent 19 years. Initially Gajang Gyalrong monks lived in resettlement camp rooms according to the circumstances of those initial resettlement schemes.  

In 1987 we laid the foundation of a new building for Gajang Gyalrong Khangtsen and two years later we built the first floor, with six rooms, a small assembly room, two toilets and a small kitchen. Gradually in 2000 we completed the construction of the upper floors of the building according to the original plan. 

In 2006 the compound with garden and courtyard for dharma debate was completed. AREF International Onlus Rome has been supporting Gajang Gyalrong monks for many years.

Toe Marushar Cultural Association

      Toe Marushar Cultural Association in Mundgod Tibetan settlement has about 200 members. We have supported since 2000 elderly people, children and sick persons of the group through a sponsorship program. It was run for many years by my very dear friends; Ezio and Roberta through their websites. Unfortunately Ezio’s spirit left his body some years ago. Though we had to stop the sponsorship program, it has been carried on by volunteers, but with difficulty as the work is hard. But its spirit still continues on a personal level through direct contact between westerner sponsors and Tibetans. The project also included supporting many Tibetans in Nepal and Dharamsala

The Gateway to Abhidharma

      In 2005 I visited Gaden Monastery in Mundgod, India. I spent three weeks there to complete editing my work, Gateway to Abhidharma, now at the Library of Gaden Jangtse Monastic University. The book was published in 2007 and the first copies were presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. The books have been given to scholars, Monastic Libraries and Tibetan Institutes free of charge. A brief introduction of the book is included in the following link; Chos mngon blo gsal rab gsal / Dge-ʼdun-mthar-phyin = Gateway to Abhidharma : illumination the treasure of knowledge / Gedun Tharchin. Library of Congress Control No.:2008308473, http://openlibrary.org/b/OL22553633M