Interpreter from Tibetan into English: Alexandra Suhanova
Location: KWON, Strojarska bb (bivši Gredelj), Zagreb
Teachings, practice, empowerments and oral transmissions:
Six Perfections (pārmitās)
26. IX - 27. IX. 2015. Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 – 18:00h
The Sanskrit word pāramitā means to cross over to the other shore. Pāramitā may also be translated as perfection, perfect realization, or reaching beyond limitation. Through the practice of these six pāramitās, we cross over the sea of suffering (saṃsāra) to the shore of happiness and awakening (nirvāṇa); we cross over from ignorance and delusion to enlightenment.Each of the six pāramitās is an enlightened quality of the heart,a glorious virtue or attribute – the innate seed of perfect realization within us. The pāramitāsare the very essence of our true nature. However, since these enlightened qualities of the heart have become obscured by delusion, selfishness, and other karmic tendencies, we must develop these potential qualities and bring them into expression. In this way, the six pāramitās are an inner cultivation, a daily practice for wise, compassionate, loving, and enlightened living. The pāramitās are the six kinds of virtuous practice required for skillfully serving the welfare of others and for the attainment of awakening. We must understand that bringing these virtuous qualities of our true nature into expression requires discipline, practice, and sincere cultivation. This is the path of the Bodhisattva – one who is dedicated to serving the highest welfare of all living beings with the awakened heart of unconditional love, skillful wisdom, and all-embracing compassion.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Prajñapāramitā sūtras, the Lotus Sūtra and a large number of other texts list the six perfections:
White Tārā – Empowerment and teachings
(Accessible to all)
29. IX 2015.Tuesday, 16:00 - 18:30h
She is the protective, helpful and comforting mother who shows limitless kindness, generosity and protection towards those who are tossed in the ocean of suffering, and if we recite her mantra and make a connection to her, we draw closer to developing her enlightened qualities in ourselves.
Ultimately, she is the very nature of the Dharmakāya – “the ultimate nature or essence of the enlightened mind, which is uncreated, free from the limits of conceptual elaboration, empty of inherent existence, naturally radiant, beyond duality and spacious like the sky” (definition by Karma Lingpa). Her practice is a means for attaining liberation.
Practiced by all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, White Tārā has been the main deity practice of many well-known Buddhist scholars and siddhas in both India and Tibet, foremost among whom where Nāgārjuna and Atisha. White Tārā’s special function is to promote long life, peace, prosperity and health through her enlightened activities, both for the practitioner and for others.
She is seen as is a beautiful loving mother figure, with a body that is the brilliant white of a thousand autumn moons. She seated in the posture of the vajra (padmāsana) above a white moon disc and an open lotus. Her aura glows, as various colored rings framed with lotus blossoms surround her. Her garments are elaborately decorated with ornaments; on her head she wears a sparkling crown, crested by Amitābha himself; and she is adorned with beautiful jewelry - a long and a short necklace, as well as various gold and jewel ornaments. Her right hand rests across her knee in the mudra of supreme generosity, while her left hand holds near her heart the stem of an utpala flower, which is blossoming near her left ear.
White Tārā is always depicted as a peaceful deity. She has seven eyes, enabling her to clearly "see" all beings in all the realms of existence. Her expression is one of the utmost compassion. She has three eyes on her face, the third eye in her forehead symbolizing her ability to see the unity of ultimate reality, while her two other eyes simultaneously see the relative and dualistic worlds. She has one eye on each palm of her hands and feet, showing that all her actions are governed by her ultimate wisdom and compassion.
Tārā OR Amitābha practice
30. IX 2015. Wednesday, 16:00 – 18:30h
Preliminary Practices in Drikung Kagyu lineage (ngӧn-dro) with Oral Transmission (lung)
The Key to Vajrayāna
1. X. 2015. Thursday, 16:00 – 18:30h
The preliminary or ‘foundation’ practices of Vajrayāna Buddhism (ngӧn-dro) are profound and powerful means for effecting a deep purification and transformation, at every level of our being. Not only do they prepare practitioners for the path of Vajrayāna and teachings of Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā, but they also lead them gradually towards the experience of awakening. These 'practices' or 'disciplines' are common to all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, i.e., Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug, because they establish the foundation for the more advanced and rarefied Vajrayāna sādhanās. Nevertheless, Vajrayāna masters are careful to point out that "foundational" does not mean "lesser", that the practice of ngӧn-dro is a complete and sufficient practice of the Buddhist spiritual path because it can take practitioners all the way to full enlightenment.
The main purpose of this seminar is to point out and clarify why ngӧn-dro is considered to be the very key to Vajrayāna practice.
Dzambala Empowerment with teaching and practice
(Accessible to all)
2. X 2015. Friday, 16:00 – 18:30h
Dzambala - Deity of Wealth and General Prosperity
Dzambala is the Deity of Wealth and considered an emanation of Avalokiteśvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. There are five different wealth Dzambalas, each has his own practice and a mantra to help eliminate poverty and create financial stability. He is the protector of all Lineages and of all sentient beings from sickness and difficulties. He is a Bodhisattva of material and spiritual wealth as well as many other things, especially of granting financial stability.
Because in this world, there are all kinds of wrathful and negative emotions or bad spirits, and sometimes they will harm you and other sentient beings, Dzambala must take on a wrathful and powerful form to protect us from these harmful spirits and negative karma. Especially, Dzambala helps us minimize or decrease all misfortunes and obstacles and increase all good fortune and happiness.
White Dzambala Empowerment
White Dzambhala, known as an emanation of Chenrezig, is thus an embodiment of the perfect generosity of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the past, present and future. White Dzambhala is seen as a great king, sitting astride a turquoise dragon. In his left hand rests a mongoose that spits out precious jewels, a symbol of abundance.
The White Dzambala Empowerment is a powerful Tibetan Buddhist ritual that summons good fortune. Accordingly, this practice can create the causes and conditions which lead to the cessation of material suffering, the generation of wealth and prosperity, the relief of poverty and suffering of both psychological and material level, and the development of the compassionate mind to enlightenment. It encourages good fortune for all Dharma practitioners, in order to accomplish greater generosity and all virtuous aims. Thus, White Dzambhala that helps dharma practitioners to have a stable life and be free from worries while practicing dharma fulfills wealth in terms of both material and dharma aspects.
When Ven. Garchen Rinpoche and Ven. Dorzin Rinpoche bestow the empowerment to all participants, they always emphasize the importance of generating an altruistic intention for the benefit of all sentient beings, both when receiving and engaging in this practice. Therefore, before receiving the empowerment, iti is essential to generate the wish for all beings to be relieved of suffering of any kind and that all needs may be fulfilled because this will establish a good and pure motivation that really increases the strength of receiving this precious empowerment.
Śamatha and Mahāmudrā
Teachings on calm-abiding meditation and the nature of the mind
Instructions, meditation and a Q/A period
3. X - 4. X 2015. Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 – 18:00h
The practice of meditation is basically a process of getting to know oneself by becoming familiar with one's mind. The Buddhist view of the mind is that it is always awake. Its nature is awareness and compassion.
With a proper motivation, one's mind-training begins with a basic resting meditation practice called “calm abiding” or śamatha. Several different spiritual traditions teach this meditation, but all forms of śamatha are designed to help calm the mind and bring forth its natural qualities of spaciousness, clarity, and attentiveness. These qualities allow one to work with different meditation practices that build upon the foundation of śamatha later on.
Having familiarized oneself with calm abiding, one begins working with vipaśyanā, or “clear insight” meditation, which is the next stage in the Path of Meditation. Like śamatha, vipaśyanā can also take on many forms and techniques. At this stage, however, clear insight involves the practice of analytical meditation: relying on the foundation of calm and settled mind, one begins to investigate or analyze the true nature of one's mind and how it creates its world.
By practicing analytical meditation, one harnesses and further develops the more active, inquisitive, and penetrating qualities of the mind. This allows one to identify and gradually transform mistaken beliefs about the nature of experience. By alternating calm-biding with clear insight, one gains a new certainty and confidence in emptiness (śūnyatā), the spacious and open, ultimate nature of reality. One also gains certainty and confidence in “dependent arising,” or the direct connection between the actions we perform and the quality of life we experience. Through this certainty, one gains the ability to lead a life that is of genuine and increasing benefit to oneself and others.
Whatever meditation practices one may engage in, they are all intended to increase our mindfulness and awareness, strengthen our sense of inner peace, and improve our ability to deal with our emotions, develop love, compassion and wisdom as well.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, wisdom is not something we acquire or develop — it is who we really are, the true nature of the mind. Through mahāmudrā meditation, we relax into the emptiness, clarity, and awareness of ever-present Buddha wisdom. The meaning of mahāmudrā is found in its name: (Skt.) mahā means “great” and (Skt.) mudrā means “symbol” or “seal.” The Great Symbol referred to is the wisdom of emptiness, which is the very nature of our mind and of all phenomena — any object or idea the mind can observe or become aware of. Because it covers the totality of our experience, the Great Symbol is known as the all-encompassing reality from which there is no escape or exception.
Mahāmudrā is a contemplative Buddhist tradition known for its simplicity. The practice is to be genuine, relaxed, and aware in every situation in life, to accept and appreciate who we are. To engage in its profound methods, we aren’t required to change our lifestyle, and any message contrary to that is not a true mahāmudrā teaching. The practice of mahāmudrā is an experience of our mind that’s completely free and joyful, no matter what our life brings us. It points us to mind’s true nature.
Originating in India, the view and practice of mahāmudrā gradually spread across Asia and today has reached the West. As a philosophy, it aims to communicate clear knowledge of the true nature of the mind. As a meditation practice, it is designed to bring about that experience swiftly and unmistakably.