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| Sitting in a cell at the Hermitage of St Finbarr, at Gougane Barra. |
Ringu Tulku spent four days in Dublin at Kagyu Samye Dzong this year, continuing his teachings on The 'Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones' by Patrul Rinpoche, with a commentary by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and he focused this year on five stanzas on View, Meditation, and Action relating to the emotions, with instructions on seeing the kleshas or mind poisons as empty of themselves, to be self liberated using the six syllable mantra, OM MANI PEME HUNG.
A question was asked about meaning of the Dharani or Mantra that Do-Drupchen Rinpoche of Sikkim has suggested followers of His Holiness Karmapa recite for his good health, long life, and increasing activity. Here's an edited transcript of Rinpoches answer:
"This
a mantra or dharani is known as the Interdependent Dharani – it is called a stanza in Sanskrit. OM YE DHARMA HETU PRABHAVA …..There’s a history to this: Quite a short time after his enlightenment,
when the Buddha became Buddha, he didn’t give any teachings for 7 weeks, he
just relaxed, had a holiday in the forest. Then, he walked to Varanasi –
another city, and there in the park called Rishipattana – known
now as the Deerpark, Sarnath- he gave his first teachings to his first five
students – and slowly they became arhats.
Then, a few years after that, there were two very bright people called
Shariputra and Maudgalyayana who had a very good teacher – although he was not
enlightened, he was very good. This
teacher realised he was dying and he said “Now I am dying I give all my
students to you, because you are my best students, Shariputra and
Maudgalyayana. But they thought they were
not good enough to teach, they didn’t want to guide these people, they wanted
to find a teacher for themselves and went to search. They went in two
directions, and agreed to meet later at a certain place. Shariputra went one
way and met a monk, and when he looked at him, he knew by the way he looked, this
was highly realised monk: by the way he walked, dressed – every movement showed
he was very special and Shariputra was extremely impressed.
So
he asked, “Who are you?”
“Just
a monk”.
“Who is you teacher?”
“My
teacher is Buddha”.
“What does he teach?”
“YE
DHARMA HETU PRABAVA...”
And
when Shariputra heard the first two
lines of the stanza he completely understood something – he saw everything as
it was, all doubts disappeared, and his mind completely cleared of all
confusion.
When
the stanza was finished, Shariputra had attained what is known as stream entering stage – he fully understood
the truth. This stanza was actually
about The Four Noble truths in a certain way, the four lines had the strength
to completely transform him. He said, “I must see your teacher”. He went to see the Buddha, and knew. He returned
to meet his friend, and his friend saw him coming from afar and could tell by
his appearance he had found what they were looking for. They both went back to Buddha
and received some teachings together, and then returned to the other 500
students, and said, “We are going to be students of the Buddha. You don’t need
to come if you don’t want to, but we will go”.
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Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Tashi Bhutia, Karma Rinchen
[behind Rinpoche] and Irish students at Gougane Barra Lake,
Co Cork. Rinpoche will visit Rinchen's sangha on the
Caribbean Islands in October this year. |
But
the 500 students said, “Yes, we will follow you”, and so they became the first major
sangha of the Buddha. Both Shariputra
and Maudgalyayana became Buddhas themselves, and the others became Arhats. Following
that, these stanzas became the main mantra of Buddha’s teachings. The root
text. They are recited by everyone, Theravadin,
Mahayana and Vajrayana students, everybody, because it had that kind of effect,
it is a complete teaching of the Buddha, so it has deep meaning, but is also a
blessing. So therefore, if you want to say a strong mantra for protection, to
get rid of obstacles, clear the mind of confusion, say this mantra. You want to
bless something, say this. It is for any occasion.
So
this was changed from instruction to mantra with the addition of OM at the
beginning, and SWAHA at the end.
The
context of the recitations for His Holiness Karmapa is this: This year the
Karmapa’s sister requested the advice of Do Drupchen Rinpoche, who is 90 years
old and lives in Sikkim. Everyone asks him predictions, so many people come
that he gets sick and has to stop seeing people and take a break. So His Holiness’
sister asked Do Drupchen Rinpoche what should we, the followers of Karmapa do
for his wellbeing. So he said, “Recite this mantra and his life will be long and
without obstacles, his activities will be good, he will benefit a great many beings: so just recite this mantra”. She announced this and everybody started to make
commitments to say this mantra, people in Tibet have committed a million, million recitations, individuals in other places have done the same
thing also. So we put this up on our different websites and people have made
commitments. There’s two things to say – one is that, to recite this mantra is
accepted by all Buddhists, they feel it is very meaningful; and another thing,
when you are doing something that is for others, from a Buddhist point of view,
if I do some practise, say some mantras like this one, with the intention to
make my own life better–– the result is not so much, but if I do it for others,
then the benefit is much greater. Then, if I do something for someone who will themselves benefit many others, the
benefit is much, much greater again. So, His Holiness Karmapa has been
predicted to be the one who can perform the activities of all the Buddhas, so
we will get huge merit and benefit from these recitations. That is how it is".
Rinpoche also taught for a weekend on Dealing with the Emotions, Riding the Stormy Waves, to a group of more than one hundred people, in a marquee at the beautiful Dzogchen Beara Buddhist Centre, a favourite place overlooking the dramatic coastline of the Beara peninsula, West Cork. Dzogchen Beara is under the spiritual directorship of Sogyal Rinpoche.
More information on the Dharani of Interdependent Origination can be found on the Karmapa Foundation Website link prayers.
