Impermenance

Acho Rinpoche gave the following teaching after the group prayer tonight.

Grand Master fell seriously ill during Apr-May 2016, during which his physical body was overwhelmed with great pain that he could merely maintain his inner state of wakefulness. When a person goes through such major crisis in life, he will realize that all other things in life are no longer relevant to him.

Acho Rinpoche shared with the group that one of his former colleagues who was about 30+ year-old went missing while doing white water rafting in Malaysia, who was a very experienced water sports trainer. His friend sought help from Acho Rinpoche, hoping that he could be saved. Acho Rinpoche said that he could only help the search team find his body. The body of the deceased was finally found by the search team and brought back to Singapore.

Acho Rinpoche attended his wake and prayed to Avalokitesvara Bodhdisattva to help deliver the soul of the deceased. The body of the deceased lying in the coffin bled profusely through the various openings on the body and looked dreadful. Those attending the wake did not have the courage to go near his coffin except Acho Rinpoche who thought that a practitioner should face the reality of impermanence in order to increase his sense of renunciation.  

          Acho Rinpoche advised us that a practitioner should think of helping others to eradicate their sufferings when he goes through a suffering himself – “May the pain I felt help to eradicate the pain of all sentient beings!” A practitioner should aspire to help all sentient beings and take over the pain felt by the sentient beings. Abiding by the precepts, aspiring to help others attain Buddhahood and practicing the teachings are the conditions for one to be born as a human in his next life. A self-fish person who only takes care of his own interest will only fall into the three lower realms (animal, hell being and hungry ghost) when he passes away from this life.  

Acho Rinpoche also shared with us a dream that he had recently. In his dream, Mayumla was hosting a few of her friends at home by cooking a meal. One of her friends told her that he just came back from Taiwan where he paid his respect to Grand Master. Acho Rinpoche thought that the dream probably means that he should make a trip to Taiwan at the end of this year, to take part in a Buddhist function presided over by Grand Master.

Reported by Sun-Moon KFS on 6-11-2016

Two Methods for Accomplishing the Practice of Dzogchen

After our White Tara practice tonight, Acho Rinpoche did the following sharing.

There are two methods for attaining the practice of Dzogchen (The Great Perfection).

The first method requires a practitioner to learn widely and practise renunciation, bodhicitta and the Six Perfections (offering, discipline, tolerance, diligence, meditation and wisdom), who eventually needs to attain the state of emptiness in order to accomplish the practice.

The second method requires a practitioner to trust his root guru fully, with utmost reverence and confidence in his teacher and believing in his teacher as a Buddha. The greater his confidence is in his teacher as the Buddha, the greater is the power of blessing he would receive in return. In short, a practitioner must find a qualified spiritual guide and trust his spiritual guide completely as a Buddha; however, it is actually very difficult for one to fulfil the second conditions due to his personal ego.

Reported by Sun-Moon KFS on 14-11-2016

View Others as Buddhas

Acho Rinpoche shared a teaching given by Venerable Jin Kong after our Guru Rinpoche practice tonight.

Venerable Jin Kong advised a practitioner to learn the attitude of a bodhisattva by the name of Good Wealth. Good Wealth always regarded others as the Buddhas who meant to help him walk the path to enlightenment and regarded himself as the only commoner. Such attitude can prevent a practitioner from falling in his practice.

“No matter how others scolded me, criticised me, praised me or belittled me, they actually meant well to help me on my spiritual cultivation.” It is likened to another bodhisattva by the name of “Belittling No One” who regarded everyone as a Buddha and prostrated to everyone whom he met with reverence.

          “I’m a commoner. The rest of the people are the Buddhas who meant well to help me in my spiritual cultivation,” which is in fact a key teaching to a practitioner. Only one who beholds such attitude can prevent himself from falling in the practice.

Reported by Sun-Moon KFS on 19-11-2016

A Message from Olivier Faneuil in France

Olivier is the fiancée of Dharma Sister Yue in Hangzhou, China. He is from France. He came into contact with Acho Rinpoche in August 2016 when he visited Yue in China. He took part in a few of our group prayers through Internet webcast during the visit. Initially, he found it hard to appreciate our practice because Buddhism was quite foreign to him, as he was brought up in a completely western culture since young. So, he declined the suggestion by Yue to go further into the practice by taking refuge in Acho Rinpoche. Acho Rinpoche advised him that there was no need for him to take refuge hastily but they could continue to keep in touch with each other as friends through WeChat.

Through WeChat, Olivier discussed with Acho Rinpoche on the many questions he had about the practice, and Acho Rinpoche recommended him a book entitled “The Power of Now” which was written by a westerner, providing a westerner’s perspective on the practice. This book helped Olivier appreciate the teachings better. And gradually, he also gained some personal experiences which were inexplicable including seeing a rare rainbow appearing in the sky one day and a bird that seemed to be following him for some long distance; and he began to notice the change in him.

Here he is, sharing his experience with us:

Hello everyone. I'd like to share with you what I've been feeling for a few days through meditation. The first thing I want to say is I try to be present in everything I do, all day. The meditation is for me just a training for what I live everyday. Since I do that, I can feel a strong feeling of happiness inside all my body. But it's not something I ever felt before. It's stronger and always there. I just have to be quiet to feel it. I can feel it all day. My heart can be moved just when I walk in the street. I can feel people, trees. Just everything. I can't put a name to it or it will mean less than what it is. I feel good, I feel me. This weekend I told my mom, “I love you.” As far as I remember, I had never told her that. I thought I never could. I try to be a Buddha everyday. I don't care whether I can achieve that. I just try to be one. And it makes me different, a better person, or just the person we all are inside us.

Acho Rinpoche has the following advice for him, “This is bodicitta nature within us and the more your share, the more happiness will arise at present.”

May we wish Olivier a fruitful journey in search of the true purpose of life. 

Reported by Sun-Moon-KFS, Singapore.

10 October 2016

Sakyamuni Buddha's Footprint on Karimum Island of Indonesia

On 28^th August 2016, a group of forty plus of us joined Acho Rinpoche on a visit to Karimum Island of Indonesia situated about 30km from the southern part of Singapore, in search of a Sakyamuni Buddha’s footprint. There is a Sanskrit inscription believed to be written in the 10^th CE bearing the following translated message: “This is a holy footprint of the most revered Sakyamuni Buddha. ~~ A Mahayanist from Bengal.”

We boarded a ferry from Singapore’s Cruise Centre early in the morning. The whole journey took us about one and half hours. After arriving at Karimum Island, we had our breakfast somewhere in town before heading towards the northern part of the island. It took us about 45 minutes to drive from town to our destination, Pasir Panjang. The location is just next to a lovely beach; it is actually a granite quarry. About 100 meters from the main entrance of the quarry, there stood a small pavilion painted in yellow. The Sanskrit inscription was actually done on a boulder enshrined within the pavilion, with the words clearly visible still. We saw a few pictures of Hindu saints placed above the inscription and some used incense sticks. Just a few meters away from the pavilion, lied the Buddha’s footprint. It was a very huge foot print indeed, obviously Buddha was huge in size. Buddha left his footprint on the rock as a form of blessing, hinting the flourishing of Buddhism in this land in future. According to the locals, there are several similar footprints in this area which can be rediscovered gradually. There is a much smaller footprint next to the big one. There is a spring behind the footprints, on top of a rock. According to the locals, the spring never runs dry. Someone even tasted the spring water and found it sweet; so it cannot be just rain water collected overtime nor sea water. Acho Rinpoche led a group prayer at the Pavilion. After which, he blessed the footprints and the spring, liberating the spiritual beings and consecrating this land, wishing that Buddhism may flourish again in future like how it did in the 8^th CE.

Actually, between the 8^th and 12^th CE, Indonesia was a Buddhist country (with Vajrayana being the mainstream Buddhism); it was called “Srivijaya” then, with Palembang being its capital city in the Sumatra Island. Srivijaya was a huge empire in the south east Asia during the said period, with its territory covering the current Sumatra Island, Java Island, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and the southern parts of Thailand and Cambodia. Srivijaya was located at a very strategic location, at the entrance to the Malacca Strait which is an important sea route for merchants plying between India and China. Srivijaya was in control of the Malacca Strait and built its wealth from collecting taxes from the merchants.  During the same period, there was another strong empire emerging in the north eastern part of India - Pala. Pala dominated the current Bihar Province and Bangladesh (called Bengal then). Vajrayana Buddhism also flourished in this kingdom during this time. Pala and Srivijaya established a strong diplomatic tie then which facilitated the exchange of Buddhism teachings between the two countries too.

Buddhism was flouring in the Sumatra Island then. A Sumatran prince was sent to study Buddhism in Pala as the renowned Buddhist institutions such as Nalanda, Vikramshila and the-likes were mainly within the region of Pala then. The prince spent eleven years in Pala studying Buddhism. When he returned to his homeland in Sumatra, he became a renowned Buddhist teacher and propagated the teachings actively, which contributed much to the flourishing of Buddhism in Srivijaya. He was Dharmakirti - the teacher of the renowned Atisha. As Pala and Srivijaya became the strongholds of Buddhism in the region then, both countries had established their own renowned Buddhist Institutions attracting many Buddhist scholars. Atisha from Bengal went to Sumatra to study under Dharmakirti for twelve years. Atisha was in Srivijaya around the time when the Sanskrit inscription was done, which made him the likely candidate who did the inscription found in Karimum Island. According to our tour guide, the history about this Sanskrit inscription and the Buddha’s footprint could be found in the British Museum. We will need a volunteer to study the historical artefact kept in the British Museum to confirm the fact then. When Atisha finally returned to India, he was invited by a Tibetan King to help rebuild the Buddhadharma in the snow-capped Himalayan region, which is yet another beautiful story to be told on its own.

 Sakyamuni Buddha's Footprint

  

Reported by Sun-moon KFS