Blind Faith

          Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Prayer under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, he mentioned a recent teaching given by Asong Rinpoche of Yaqing Monastery who said, “Even if all the people in the world dislike you or feel unhappy about you, let them be, no matter. However, when your guru is feeling unpleased, dislikes and unhappy about you, you will only fall into a Vajra Hell. This is true. A Guru is really someone whom you should be taking seriously. Similarly, even when all the people in the world love you and are fond of you, no matter, let them be. However, when your Guru is fond of you, you will earn the most precious and unique spiritual attainment including the fruit of Buddhahood in your present and future lives through his grace.” Acho Rinpoche opined that such teachings are the highest guiding principle for our spiritual practice according to the traditional Tibetan Buddhism. It worked in ancient Tibetan society which produced many great adepts. However, in the current degeneration age, we have seen many spiritual teachers falling in their practice and therefore, a Buddhist student should not blindly accept such guiding principle for his spiritual practice.

          Acho Rinpoche opined that there must be a pre-condition for this guiding principle to be followed by a student in the current era, that the teacher must be a truly enlightened master! Otherwise, it will be a very dangerous advice given to a student. Those spiritual teachers who are not acting in accordance to the teachings of the Buddha are not truly enlightened masters, and they cannot expect blind faith from their students. Mingyur  Rincpohe reminded us that if a spiritual teacher acted violently against his students, that teacher must be in the wrong! Spiritual masters who are great adepts hardly use violent methods to teach their students. Besides, such methods are not suitable for the current society that we are in. So, Acho Rinpoche reminded us that if a spiritual teacher continues to transmit such teaching of blind faith, we ought to be cautious.

Finally, we ended our prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche, and dedicated the merits to all sentient beings - may all sentient beings be happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment one day. 

Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 20-10-2017 @Singapore

Only a True Practitioner will Attain Enlightenment, Regardless of Ordained or Layman.

          Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Prayer under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, he told us about an ordained Tibetan Khenpo, who was quite actively teaching in Taiwan and Australia in the past, has disrobed and renounced his monkhood. This Khenpo admitted in public that he has failed to abide by the precept of an ordained monk, as he has succumbed to the temptation of desires. An ordained monk who chose to disrobe means that he has not accomplished his spiritual practice, which is certainly not a glamorous thing.

          This Khenpo was praised by H.H Dalai Lama in the past, and the latter requested him to teach in Taiwan. He has many students in Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. He has also published some books on Buddhism and appeared quite frequently on TV and radio, doing the teaching. Acho Rinpoche met him once when he came to Singapore in the past.

          This Khenpo became a monk since young. He was trained in Tibetan Buddhism for about thirty years by now and is very familiar with the method of Tibetan Buddhist Debate too. He also expressed his disagreement with the views of a Taiwanese layman Buddhist teacher who opposed to the practice of Smoke Puja. This Khenpo said that there were many patriarchs including the 5^th Dalai Lama who commended the merits and advocated the practice of Smoke Puja in the past. Therefore, he disagrees with that layman Buddhist teacher who opposed to the practice of Smoke Puja. He also explained the method of Tibetan Buddhist Debate, in which the two parties involved will simply oppose and argue against the views of each other, in order to win the debate. Therefore, the party which wins the debate may not necessarily mean that his argument represents the “truth”, for there is no right or wrong between two debaters. So, he is worried that the Taiwanese students of the layman Buddhist teacher might be misled by their teacher, for they do not understand the rule of Tibetan Buddhist Debate.    

          Acho Rinpoche opined that our spiritual practice ought to be guided by the ethics and social values of the current society; one should not follow the literatures blindly. Besides, a person who can convey the teachings very well in writing or in speech does not necessarily mean that he has truly attained the state of realization. One who has disrobed clearly shows that he has failed to uphold the precepts of an ordained monk. However, Acho Rinpoche commended his honesty of admitting his own faults in public, for failing to uphold his precept as an ordained monk. One should renounce his ordination when he transgresses the precepts of ordination, instead of hiding his faults from the public. When an ordained person transgresses the precepts of ordination and refuses to renounce his ordination, this act of ignorance will bring an end to the true teachings of the Buddha. Acho Rinpoche also opined that the merits and pace of practice of an ordained practitioner is certainly far more superior than that of a layman practitioner. However, the real issue does not lie in the question of ordination nor its renunciation. What truly matters is whether a practitioner has attained a true state of realization. Actually, an ordained practitioner can attain a true state of realization, so can a layman practitioner. So, learning too much of the teachings does not help much because the teachings are, essentially, just theories. Actually, the most important point lies in the “practice”, which is the only way to attain the true state of realization.  

Finally, we ended our prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche, and dedicated the merits to all sentient beings - may all sentient beings be happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment one day. 

Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 21-10-2017 @Singapore

The Danger of Over Emphasis on Scholarly Study

Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Practice under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, he reiterated the two methods of Buddhist practice: practice and study. To layman Buddhists like us, we can’t afford to go into a long-term retreat for intensive training but we can do our daily practice as a householder. He also mentioned a young layman Buddhist in Taiwan who became an ordained monk since young, who later left for India to study under the guidance of the 17^th Karmapa for 6 years. He did very well in his debates in Tibetan Buddhism and was well regarded by H.H Karmapa as one of the best. Later, he went to Japan and learnt the Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism in Koyasan, and earned himself the qualification of an Achraya. So, he has gone through an illustrious training on Buddhism ranging from Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan Buddhism to Japanese Vajrayana Buddhism. He is well learnt and endowed with great memory. H.H Karmapa approves his qualification as a Buddhist teacher who can start teaching others. He has also read a lot of Buddhist doctrines translated from Pali to Chinese, some of which have yet to be translated into Tibetan language. When he took part in the debates with other Tibetan lamas, he would often make them dumbfounded when he drew his citations from these doctrines which did not exist in Tibetan Buddhism. He is now planning to translate these doctrines into Tibetan language for the benefit of the Tibetan Buddhists, as he is fluent in Tibetan.

Acho Rinpoche has watched a few video clips that he posted on the Internet. From these clips, it was quite clear that those who emphasize too much on doing scholarly study on Buddhism face the dilemma of being misguided by the superficial meaning of words. For instance, someone asked him about his view on homosexuality. He did not think that homosexuality was a transgression of precept. For he opined that when Sakyamuni Buddha was about passing into Nirvana, he told Ananda that in future, all Buddhists should regard the precept as their teacher; however, some of the precepts could be forgone. At that juncture, Ananda did not seek clarification from the Buddha on which precepts could be forgone and what would the bottomline be. Later, Mahakasyapa facilitated a conference involving may fellow students to study this issue and finally decided that none of the precepts told by Sakyamuni Buddha in the past could be eliminated; however, any precept not being mentioned by the Buddha in the past must not be included either. Acho Rinpoche cited an example of the misuse of marijuana which did not exist during the time of Sakyamuni Buddha. Does it mean that the misuse of marijuana and drugs should not be included as part of the precept now? Although Nagarjuna also advocated a few other precepts which were not being mentioned by Sakyamuni Buddha during his time, they were simply ignored by this Taiwanese Buddhist because he said that only the words of the Buddha count. Someone else asked him about a sutra related to the vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and he did not seem to think that this sutra was a teaching given by Sakyamuni Buddha personally, and regarded it as one of those controversial issues. His way of explanations on the various Buddhist doctrines was indeed not quite right and worrying.

Acho Rinpoche explained that there are indeed arguments between the Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, for the former does not recognize the authenticity of the Mahayana Sutras as being taught personally by Sakyamuni Buddha. This is indeed a problem when one emphasizes too much on his scholarly study on Buddhism and fails to attain the true state of realization through practice, which goes beyond the superficial meaning of words. So what if a person is the best debater? When he is facing his final moment in life, all these literatures that he has read in the past will only drag him back into the Six Realms of Cyclic Existence if he is just an average practitioner. When a person is unable to fully comprehend the various teachings and fails to understand the true meaning expounded by Sakyamuni Buddha beyond words, he will end up sharing his weird ideas with others which are not the true teachings of the Buddha. Therefore, Acho Rinpoche advised us that it is suffice for a practitioner to learn the primary teachings and guiding principles initially, such as the core teachings expounded in the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra, but the next important step is for us to do the practice. Practice is the only way to help us attain realization in our daily life.  

Finally, we ended our prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche, and dedicated the merits to all sentient beings - may all sentient beings be happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment one day. 

Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 7-10-2017 @Singapore 

Do Not Anyhow Criticize Others

          Tonight, we did a Guru Rinpoche Practice under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, he shared with us an article on the Internet which mentioned about the serious mistake of blaspheming a Bodhisattva, as such conduct is equivalent to committing a negative karma of killing all the people in this world. In fact, this is a common mistake made by us when we simply criticize others of their shortcomings; we have indeed committed a negative karma by doing so simply because we can’t tell who are the Bodhisattvas among us! Even a prostitute, a practitioner who has seemingly transgressed the precept etc., might just be a manifestation of a Bodhisattva who are trying to help the sentient beings by some skillful means! So, we should not criticize others. Even H.H Dalai Lama, H.H Jigme Puntshok, Khenpo Sodargye, Venerable Jingkong, Venerable Haitao etc., have been criticized by others too. So, who is right and who is wrong?

There are simply too many accusations on the Internet. Just ignore them. As long as a person teaches sensibly and in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings – it can be considered a right teaching. At times, a teacher may stress the importance of a particular aspect of the teaching and end up with a slightly different way of interpretation. We just need to choose a teaching that is suitable to us and apply it in practice. There is really no need for anyone to criticize others. The Mahayana Buddhism, especially that which is transmitted in China today, tends to criticize the Tibetan Buddhism wrongly due to the lack of understanding of the skillful means employed by the latter; the former has committed a very serious negative karma indeed. Therefore, Acho Rinpoche advised us that we ought to be very careful in our conduct by voiding such mistake.

Finally, we ended our prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche, and dedicated the merits to all sentient beings - may all sentient beings be happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment one day. 

Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 2-9-2017 @Singapore   

The Connection Between Mid-Autumn Festival and Buddhism

          Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. We did a Guru Rinpoche Practice under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche. After which, Acho Rinpoche shared with us a story told by Venerable Haitao with regards to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Venerable Haitao said that the folk tale about a rabbit residing in the moon was somehow related to Buddhism too. In one of the numerous past lives of Sakyamuni Buddha, he was born as the king of rabbit once. It became the spiritual leader to the animals in the forest and advocated the practice of offering on every 15^th day of the month. One day, this king of rabbit made a vow that it wished to offer its body for the benefits of other sentient beings. It was a very powerful vow that shook the entire universe. Even the Jade Emperor in the heaven felt the tremors while sitting in his throne. A sentient being can be born as a Jade Emperor endowed with the greatest wealth and longevity in the heavenly realm if he abides by the Five Precepts (no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying and no overdose of alcohol) and observes the Seven Good Conducts (filial piety, reverence to the elders and teachers, gentleness in speech and conduct, no criticism of others, no lying, no scolding and no anger). So, the Jade Emperor decided to test the determination of the king of rabbit and transformed himself into a poor old man begging for food. The rabbits offered him vegetables for meal but he rejected them and demanded for meat instead. The king of rabbit did not hesitate at all and just leaped into a fire, planning to offer its body as meal to the old man. The Jade Emperor was very touched by the conduct of the king of rabbit and transformed the fire into lotus through his magical power, thus saving the king of rabbit from sacrificing itself. Ever since, come the 15^th day of every month on a full moon day, we are reminded of this touching story about the king of rabbit and the importance of offering. 

Besides, the Tibetans also celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in a different way. Their version of the story was related to the Karmapa. In 1339, on the 14^th day of the eighth lunar month, the 3^rd Karmapa gave his teachings to his audience upon the request of the Mongolian emperor, Yuan Shun. After giving his teaching, the 3^rd Karmapa passed away on the 14^th of the eighth lunar month. However, on the following day, many people saw the appearance of the 3^rd Karmapa in the moon above the sky! Ever since, the Karma Kagyud school of Tibetan Buddhism regarded the 15^th day of the eighth lunar month a very sacred day.

Finally, we ended our prayer by reciting the names of the Buddhas under the guidance of Acho Rinpoche, and dedicated the merits to all sentient beings - may all sentient beings be happy, free of sufferings and attain enlightenment one day. 

Reported by Sun Moon KFS on 4-10-2017 @Singapore