Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 10 (Karma II)

On 28 February, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We continued Chapter Four on Karma, "Actions: Cause and Effect" (from p.105 in the Padmakara translation ofThe Words of My Perfect Teacher). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 9 (Karma I)

On 21 February, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We started Chapter Four on Karma, "Actions: Cause and Effect" (from p.101 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Tiger Woods & Buddhism

As the Year of the Tiger unfolds ...

Today, Tiger Woods gave a press conference to apologise for his marital infidelity. As part of his statement, he specifically referred to having been raised as a Buddhist by his Thai mother, and how he sees Buddhism as part of his path towards becoming a "better person."

"I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught."

There are several good articles exploring Tiger's statement in more detail, as well as discussing the controversial criticism from the conservative Christian commentator Brit Hume on Fox News, who suggested that Tiger should convert from Buddhism to Christianity, as in Hume's opinion Buddhism doesn't provide "the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith".

• "Tiger Woods Apology: Golfer promises a return to Buddhism" (Christian Science Monitor)
• "Woods apology: Buddhist, biblical and Bill Clinton-esque" (USA Today: Faith and Reason)
• "Tiger Woods on Buddhism, craving, impulse control and our search for security" (BeliefNet)
• "Tiger's Buddhism" (Washington Post)
• "Tiger Woods, Buddhism and redemption" (David Nichtern, senior Shambala teacher)
• "Tiger Woods, Buddhism and the Eight-Fold Way" (SBNation)
• "Tiger Woods' 12-Step Classic" (Salon.com)

Iron Tiger Year

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 8 (Samsara, Part 4 - The Asura and God realms)

On 14 February, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We reached the end of Chapter Three, "The Defects of Samsara" (from p.92 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher), completing the sections on the sufferings of the asura (demigod) and god realms (sections 5 and 6). A recording of our conversation is available here. Some of the topics we talked about include:

• The pride and jealousy of gods in other religions (e.g. Christianity and Islam), and how this interpretation of the nature of god is based on strong dualism (i.e. extreme views)
• The difference between renunciation as path (e.g. to give up a particular "samsaric pleasure" such as a latte, or to adopt some form of spiritual practice such as taking vows or going on retreat, as a way of cultivating discipline) and renunciation as view (e.g. the advice "do not adopt and do not abandon": once we no longer see nirvana as a separate realm "over there", then we see that our current realm is equally samsara or nirvana - it all depends on our awareness and perception, so renunciation is about changing our inner world rather than making changes in the external world)
• The benefits of wandering, as "If you stay in one place too long, you will find fault even with the Buddha" (p.98)
• How renunciation is about cultivating nonduality, full self-expression and openness to experience, rather than the common misunderstanding of renunciation as harsh, nihilistic self-sacrifice (just as the Buddha initially tried the path of the ascetic, before realising that extreme paths cannot lead to enlightenment). Although the six realms are suffering, that does not mean Buddhism is a negative/depressive path. In fact, renunciation is the only means to be able to live fully.

Happy Losar

Happy Losar (Tibetan New Year) to everyone! Rinpoche's Losar message is available here. He reflects that although being dharma practitioners will not make us less vulnerable to the kinds of crisis and turbulence we have seen over the past year, it nevertheless brings us something very important:

There is a big difference between ordinary people, those who have no connection to the dharma, and us. Of course, there’s no difference between them and us as far as being victims of cause and condition and karma, but there’s a valuable and important difference. That is, we have a path. We have Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We have our masters and we have our path. And that will make the difference.

If we lose this aspect of Dharma, then really our life is meaningless. It’s just like a plant. Some plants grow in the morning, and they will die towards the afternoon and then that’s it. That’s the end. If we lose values such as morality, ethics, love and compassion, values such as bodhicitta, then our life really has no meaning.

So for my New Year’s message, I ask you to remember that we have something. We have a path. We have Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and that makes our life so special. And this is something to remember.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 7 (Samsara, Part 3 - The Human realm)

On 7 February, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro, The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We continued with Chapter Three, "The Defects of Samsara" (from p.81 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher), spending our time on the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death, and completing the section on the sufferings of the human realm (sections 4.2 and 4.3). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 6 (Samsara, Part 2 - The Hungry Ghost & Animal realms)

On 31 January, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro, The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We continued Chapter Three, "The Defects of Samsara" (from p.72 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher), and completed the sections on the hungry ghost (preta) realm (section 2) and the animal realm (section 3). We started on the human realm, covering the three fundamental types of suffering (section 4.1). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 5 (Samsara, Part 1 - The Hell realm)

On 17 January, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro, The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We started Chapter Three, "The Defects of Samsara" (from p.61 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher), and completed the section on the hell realms. A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 4 (Impermanence, Part 2)

On 10 January, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher. We concluded Chapter Two, "Impermanence" (from p.39 in the Padmakara translation of The Words of My Perfect Teacher). A recording of our conversation is available here.