Saturday, February 25, 2017

Mindfulness

Today is the 15th day of the 1st lunar month of 2017, which is also known as “A Joyful Day of the Buddhas”. Dundo Rinpoche and Renqin Lama from Taiwan joined us for our group prayer tonight. After the prayer, Acho Rinpoche introduced Dondo Rinpoche to the group as the author of a book entitled “The Golden Garuda”, who is also known as a reincarnated Bodhisattva of the 10th Level. The first Dondo Rinpoche was the teacher of the 5th Dalai Lama in the past.
Dondo Rinpoche shared with us on the history of Tibetan Buddhism which is a very complete set of teachings passed down from Sakyamni Buddha without a break in the lineage transmission over more than a thousand years. He also explained the “secrecy” of the Vajrayana which originated from an era in India when the Vajrayana practice was very much confined within the royal circle by royal decree; it was not allowed to be practised by the commoners. At the time, only Sutrayana teachings were allowed to be transmitted in the public and were being taught free at the Nalanda University.
Acho Rinpoche reminded us that the internalization of the teachings is more important than mere teachings in a theoretical form. A practitioner should truly attain the state of emptiness before he could actually embark on a true path of practice which leads to the ultimate state of enlightenment. The teachings in a theoretical form could only provide us with a sense of direction and an idea of the ultimate objective to guide us in our practice. A practitioner must internalize the teachings through practice in order to accomplish the ultimate state of enlightenment.
Acho Rinpoche also shared with us a story about Nagajurna. Nagajurna said, “When I finally realized my innate pristine awareness, the rest of the things in life became meaningless.” Since his enlightenment, he walked around naked for alms. One day, a queen offered to swop his ordinary bowl with one studded with expensive jewels. Nagajurna simply accepted the queen’s offer without discrimination and brought the food back to his place. A thief noticed the jewel studded bowl and planned to steal it from Nagajurna. So, he followed the latter home and waited for his chance. When Nagajurna finished his meal, he just threw the bowl out of the window. The thief immediately took it away but turned back to Nagajurna after a while, in order to find out the reason why the latter behaved so strangely.  Nagajurna told him, “When I finally realized my innate pristine awareness, the rest of the things in life became meaningless. You may continue to do what you want but remember to remain in a state of mindfulness at all times.
The thief left Nagajurna but returned to him again later. The thief told Nagajurna that he could no longer steal under a state of mindfulness. However, he noticed a sense of joy and contentment in him that he had never experienced in the past until now, while dwelling in a state of mindfulness. So, he decided to take Nagajurna as his teacher.
Acho Rinpoche advised us that we should strive to keep our state of mindfulness at all times, during our daily activities. Such practice could help us break free of the state of sufferings eventually and attain the ultimate state of liberation.                
 
Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 26 Feb 2017.