gentle voice march 2015
DESCRIPTION
Jamyang Buddhist centre LondonTRANSCRIPT
March 2015
In This Issue
Friends Scheme
Q&A with Lama Yeshe
This Month at Jamyang
Geshe Tashi's column
Great Prayer Day
The Director's Column
Lama Zopa in Holland
Venerable Anie returns
Coming up this Spring
Community News
Dharma Bites: The Benefits of Meditating on Reality
Poetry Corner
Landof Joy Programme
FPMT Annual Review
Tibet News
Opportunities for Service around the FPMT
About FPMT
Your Thoughts for Gentle Voice
Quick Links
Jamyang Website
Current Programme
Talking Buddhism The Foundation Study Course
Editor's welcome
Orchids from Kew Gardens annual exhibition
Dear friends,
What a short month this has been. Scarcely 28 days since the last month and every year that astonishing fact still catches me out. I take it as a lesson on how difficult it is to challenge our normal pre-conceptions. I expect I will wake up one day in the bardo thinking, "Gosh, is it that time in cyclic existence again?"
We have an early view of some of the programme coming up this Spring so that you can set aside time in your schedules. We also print Lama Yeshe's superb down to earth answer to the question, what is karma? Don't miss the equally precious advice from Guru Rinpoche in the Dharma Bites section, and for all you yoga practitioners we have a specially selected poem on how to practice.
Do enjoy this edition of Gentle Voice and keep happy.
The Lamrim Chenmo Study Course
FPMT
Become a Friend of Jamyang
Help Jamyang stay afloat with a regular donation to the Jamyang Friends scheme. A regular donation is the best way to help keep Jamyang going. It's amazing how even modest contributions from a few hundred individuals can make all the difference.
As well as the vast merit you will receive by helping to spread the Dharma, there are also some more worldly perks on offer, a free quarterly Mandala magazine, discounts, etc. So if you can spare around £15 a month to help us stay afloat we would be very appreciative. You can find all the information about the Friends Scheme and how to become a member by following this link.
Jamyang Friends Sceme
Alternatively you can make a one-off donation by following this link.
Donate to Jamyang
Many thanks!
Return to Contents
Lama Yeshe Answers Questions
In 1975 Lama Yeshe gave a talk at Melbourne university. We thought you would like to see how he answered the following question. Q. Lama, could you please talk a little about karma. Lama. Sure: you are karma. It's that simple. Actually, karma is a Sanskrit word that, roughly translated, means cause and effect. What does that mean? Yesterday something happened in your mind; today you experience the effect. Or, your environment: you have certain parents, you live in a certain situation, all that has an effect on you. As you go through life, every day, everything you do, all the time, within your mind there's a constant chain of cause and reaction, cause and reaction; that's karma. As long as you're in your body, interacting with the sense world, discriminating this is good, that is bad, your mind is automatically creating karma, cause and effect. Karma is not just theoretical philosophy, it's science, Buddhist science. Karma explains how life evolves; form and feeling, colour and sensation, discrimination; your entire life, what you are, where you came from, how you keep going, your relationship with your mind. Karma is Buddhism's scientific explanation of evolution. So, even though karma is a Sanskrit word, actually, you are karma, your whole life is controlled by karma, you live within the energy field of karma. Your energy interacts with another energy, then another, and another, and that's how your entire life unfolds. Physically, mentally, it's all karma. Therefore, karma isn't something you have to believe in. Because of the characteristic nature of your mind and body, you are constantly circling through the six realms of cyclic existence, whether you believe in karma or not. In the physical universe, when everything comes together - earth, sea, the four elements, heat and so forth - effects automatically result; there's no need for belief to know this happens. It's the same thing in your internal universe, especially when you're in contact with the sense world; you're constantly reacting. For example, last year you enjoyed delicious chocolate with much attachment but haven't had any since, so you miss it badly, "Oh, I'd really love some chocolate." You remember your previous experience of chocolate, that memory causes you to crave and grasp for more. That reaction to your previous experience is karma; the experience is the cause, the missing is the result. It's actually quite simple. Reproduced from "Make Your Mind an Ocean" by Lama Yeshe Return to Contents
CLASSES AND EVENTS IN MARCH AND APRIL AT JAMYANG
Full information about these and all our events can be found here on the Jamyang
Website
CLASSES and RETREATS with
GESHE TASHI
Middle Length Lamrim
Wednesdays until 18th March at 7:30
Teachings on Emptiness: middle length
Lam Rim -Superior Insight
7 March 10am - 5pm
Great Prayer Day
Thursday 5 March 8am - 5pm
Shamata Morning
Sunday 8 March 10am - 1pm
Community Dharma
Sunday 8 March 2 - 4
Easter Compassion Retreat
Good Friday 3 April, Sat 4 April (with 8
Mahayana Precepts), Sun 5 April
(finishing with a shared lunch at 1pm)
Fri 9am - 5pm, Sat 8am - 5pm (precept
lunch at 11.30am), Sun 9am - 1pm
VISITING TEACHERS AND
WEEKEND TEACHINGS
Mind and Cognition
with Tenzin Josh
(can be taken as part of the Basic
Programme)
Weekends Sat 28 Feb & Sun 1 Mar, Sat
28 & Sun 29 Mar
10am - 5pm registered students only
Vajrasattva Retreat
with Venerable Robina Courtin
Weekend Sat 21 and Sun 22
March 10am - 6pm
Sublime Continuum
with Andy Wishreich 18, 19 April
(can be taken as part of the Basic
Programme)
PRACTICE GROUPS
Insight Meditation Practice Group
14 March, 11 and 25 April 10.30- 12.30pm Open to all
WEEK DAY EVENINGS AND
AFTERNOONS
Buddhist Meditation: Beautiful Minds
Mondays to 30 March 7.30.
Heart Practices for Death and
Dying with Jo Gillibrand and John
Bonell Tuesdays 3 Feb to 31 March
7:30pm. Meditation for Beginners with David
Ford 12 Mar, 9 April 7.30pm Vajrasattva Practice with Mike
Murray. Wednesdays 25 Mar, 1, 8 April
7.30pm
Mindfulness. Really? with Mike
Murray Tuesday14 and 21 April
7.30pm
Vajra Cutter Sutra with John Bonell
Wednesdays 15, 22, 29 April 7.30pm
Kindness with Robin Bath
Mondays 13, 20 April
7.30pm
Mahayana Mindfulness
With Mike Murray
Monday 27 April 7.30pm
Lunchtime Meditation
Thursdays 1 - 2pm
Silent Meditation
Thursdays weekly
6.15 - 7.15pm
Tara Puja
Tuesdays at 4.30pm
Medicine Buddha Puja
Tuesdays at 6pm
COMMUNITY
Community Dharma
Sunday 8 March 2 - 4
Jamyang Walk Saturday 25 April
Guhyasamaja Practice Group
Saturdays 28 March, 11 April
2 - 5pm for initiates only
Vajrayogini Practice Group
Sundays 1, 29 March and 12, 26
April For initiates only
Kalachakra Practice Group
Sat 14 March, 25 April
2 - 5pm For initiates only
SPECIAL EVENTS
Great Prayer Day
Thursday 5 March 8am - 5pm
Please book for all weekend classes or
retreats other than practice groups on-
line if you can.
If you can't call the office on
02078208787 or email
You can drop in to all evening classes
unless we state otherwise
Chi Kung and Tai Chi
Monday evenings taught by William
Walker.
For more information and to book call
William (follow the link above)
Satyananda Yoga
Tuesday evenings taught by Judy
Watchman
For more information and to book call
Judy (follow the link above)
Gentle Vinyassa Flow
Wednesday
6:00pm to 7:15pm
Hridaya (Heart Centre) Yoga
Taught by Naz Wednesday evenings 7.30pm For more information please call Naz
(follow the link above)
Chair Yoga
Taught by Cathy Brebion
Tuesdays 10.30am - 11.30am
Meditation and Yoga for Mind and
Body Fridays 6.45-7.45PM
For more information please
call Nicolette (follow the link above)
COMING SOON
Special Insight with Geshe Tashi
weekend 16, 17 May
Andy Weber Art Workshop 29 - 31
May
Return to Contents
Geshe Tashi's column
Hello Everybody,
Well Spring is nearly upon us and that is always a good feeling. That feeling of the sun warming your face for the first time in the year is one of the pleasures of life. We should enjoy these simple pleasures, but enjoy them for what they are, without adding any attachment or value judgements. It is better not to enjoy by comparing them to how unpleasant we found the cold or the wet weather. That way we can enjoy without increasing our attachment, without increasing our long-term suffering! I am enjoying my Wednesday classes studying the middle length Lamrim text by Lama Tsongkhapa and I am looking forward to restarting my Tuesday classes in May. The subject is one that we have been reading together before. This is the Buddha Nature as explained in the Uttara Tantra, or the Sublime Continuum, by Maitreya. I have also decided to extend the series of classes that I am giving on Special Insight as I think we need to really go through these teachings in a methodical and careful manner and we will need more time. So there will be an additional weekend on this next term. I am also very pleased that we have some excellent visiting teachers coming to Jamyang in the coming months. I would encourage you all to make the time to meet these teachers and learn with them. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also coming to the UK this June, though he will not be giving any public talks. So I encourage you all to keep on practicing. As His Holiness says practicing the good heart. If you combine a good attitude in your daily life, an attitude with a good heart, with receiving teachings and practicing these teachings, then that is a very productive way to spend your life. Return to Contents
Great Prayer Day Thursday, 5th March
Great Prayer Day/ Day of Miracles Thursday 5 March, 8am - 5pm. Geshe Tashi will attend part of the day. On this day, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the Tibetan New Year we recall the Buddha's great display of miraculous powers at Sravasti in ancient India in the 5th century B.C. and Tsongkhapa's setting up of the Great Prayer festival in Lhasa in the 15th century A.D. We celebrate with a day of puja and prayer and, if you want the taking of the Mahayana training of the Eight
Mahayana Precepts, which are held for 24 hours. The Eight precepts are: No killing; No stealing; No lying; No intoxicants i.e. things that dull the clarity and brightness of the mind; No sexual activity; No activities that increase arrogance; No activities that increase attachment; and No eating after noon. We will offer a free vegetarian lunch at 11.30 am. This will be made according to the dietary restrictions of the Kriya Tantras, i.e. avoiding meat, eggs, alcohol, onions, garlic and radishes all of which are considered either to pollute the body or to excite sexual desire energy (yes we know that might not be immediately obvious, but that is what we are told) and so affect the mind. The programme for the day will look like this: 08.00 Motivation and Mahayana Precepts 09.15 Shakyamuni Buddha puja 10.15 Tea break 10.30 Vajrassatva, Buddha of purification, puja 11.30 Lunch 13.00 Refuge (only for those who have previously discussed this with Geshe Tashi and got his agreement to them participating in the ceremony) 14.00 Chenrezig, Buddha of Compassion ,puja 15.00 Silent meditation 16.00 Tara, the Liberating Goddess Buddha, puja and dedications. Return to Contents
Director's Column
Losar has passed - happy Tibetan New Year! It has been a very mild winter here in London but March can still be a very frustrating month. The spring equinox is so near, yet the ever present possibility of unpredictable, sharp and dramatic changes in the weather remains. Yet, for now, it is clear, bright and sunny. The daffodils that became a crowd and a host for Wordsworth in his lonely cloud-like poetic wanderings are fast pushing their buds up through the damp earth and will soon be "Fluttering and dancing in the breeze". Tenzin Josh gets March off to a great start this Sunday with another Basic Programme session on Minds and Mental factors, throughout the month, meditation makes for Beautiful Minds every Monday evening, John and Jo continue with Practices for Death and Dying on Tuesdays. On Wednesdays we
have Geshe-la's precious series of Middle Length teachings. As it says on our can, Lam Rim is not something that you just listen to once or twice, do a couple of times, and then put on the top shelf having 'ticked the box'. Lam Rim is for Life. It always repays revisiting regularly. Do join Geshe-la as he journeys through the Lam Rim, taking time to explain and contemplate the profound transformative insights transmitted by the tradition. For a number of years now Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been emphasising that in order to really be of benefit for others we need not only to know the meditations of the Lam Rim but to also familiarise deeply with them so that their insights become a part of the very fabric of our minds. This is our chance. Next Saturday Geshe-la is also teaching in depth on the Superior Insight section of Lama Tsongkhapa's Middle Length Lam Rim. This text is rightly considered as the most subtle and refined presentation of his view of emptiness in the Prasangika Madhyamaka system and what that means for practice. Correct experiential understanding of emptiness is what frees us and others from samsara, the repetitive cycle of being unenlightened. On the Sunday Geshe-la is leading a Shamata morning and hosting Community Dharma for families in the afternoon. The Venerable Robina is here on the weekend of the 21 & 22nd to lead a Vajrasattva Retreat. Vajrasattva Practice is a really powerful tool for helping us to move on from being mired in the consequences of our unskilful actions of the past that have left unhelpful taints and propensities in our mindstreams and hold us back from experiencing the bliss of freedom and enlightenment for the sake of all. On the final weekend, Tenzin Josh closes the month as he started it with another Basic Programme session on Mind and Cognition. The Cafe is thriving, Maria has joined the team from Spain as the resident yogini and Sabrina, Aisha and Krista on the hospitality team take us through to the spring. The garden is beginning to burst into bud. As the days get longer and the weather warmer, come and spend some time there and enjoy some refreshment with us. There is still a lot of work to do on the building and we really need the funds to sustain it - if you have not already done so, think about becoming a Friend of Jamyang to help us with this. We saw our very special Venerable Barbara off to Land of Joy last week - our loss is very much their gain. Party, cake, poem and lion! We will miss her a lot but wish her well, will keep in touch and she will be back here in August for the Vajrayogini retreat. Great time of the year to turn the mind to planning retreat - check out the Land of Joy programme and consider getting away to listen, reflect, practice and actualise the unmistaken teachings of the Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings. Return to Contents
Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Holland this July
A reminder that Lama Zopa will be back in Europe this summer. He will be at the Maitreya Institut, Loenen in the Netherlands. It's a great programme that currently stands as follows: July 11 - 12 Teachings on the Essence of the Kadam July 13 - 19 Heruka Five Deities Initiation July 20 Long Life Puja Full details on the Maitreya Institut website www.maitreya.nl/loenen-lama-zopa-2015.htm Return to Contents
Venerable Angie Muir Returns to Jamyang in April
Yes, Venerable Angie has kindly agreed to make space to visit Jamyang London as part of her incredibly full UK and European tour in April and May 2015. We are enormously grateful for her kind offer and it will be lovely to see her again.
Over the evenings of the 23 and 24th of April Venerable Angie Muir will look at the practice of Buddhist tantra and how it can transform our experience right now, let alone in the future. She will base her two talks on the book Introduction to Tantra, by the Lama Thubten Yeshe the founder of Jamyang London.
Venerable Angie Muir will lead the Tara and Medicine Buddha Pujas and Lama Choepa at Jamyang in the smaller temple. Tuesdays 14 April Tara Puja at 4.30pm and Lama Choepa Puja at 6pm
Tuesday 21 April Tara Puja at 4.30pm and Medicine Buddha Puja at 6pm.
Come along and catch up with her. She is a lovely person and the ideal person to question about all levels of practice and meditation.
Return to Contents
Coming up this Spring
Here are some of the highlights from our programme in the next few months.
Easter Compassion Retreat
Good Friday 3 April, Sat 4 April (with 8 Mahayana Precepts), Sun 5 April (finishing with a shared lunch at 1pm) Join with Geshe Tashi in working to develop those positive emotions. A beautiful way to spend Easter. Vajrasattva Retreat with Venerable Robina Courtin Weekend Sat 21 and Sun 22 March 10am - 6pm Practice the Buddha of purification with the inimitable Venerable Robina. Special Insight Geshe Tashi will be continuing his teaching on Special Insight from the middle length Lamrim. In these classes, Geshe Tashi is very carefully explaining how to approach the understanding of emptiness. That is very special indeed. The classes will take place over the weekend of the 16 and 17 May. This will replace the teachings on Dependent Arising which are advertised in the printed programme (when available). Buddha Nature Weekends 18/19 April, 13/14 June and 11/12 July 9am - 6pm each day Andy Wistreich and Shan Tate: Sublime Continuum, Buddha Nature (A stand alone module of the Basic Programme) What in us gives us the capacity to break free from samsara and become a fully enlightened Buddha truly capable of helping others also break free from samsara. What is it? How does it operate? Is it something we have to acquire or is part and parcel of our very being ? You need to register for all three weekends, as this this is not a drop in course. Please visit the website entry for the April weekend and register there. For those doing the Basic Programme at London (registration for which is now closed) please note that Andy is teaching on one of the required study texts for the course. Don't Just do something, sit there! Natascha Bolonkin and Anne Swindell Saturdays 2 and 9 May 10am - 5pm each day A facilitated course over two days introducing students to the basics of
meditation through the FPMT Introductory course Meditation 101. In American English '101' means introductory/ for beginners.Nat and Anne promise it will be fun, exploratory, creative and sharing journey. Nat is a school teacher and street performer and Anne is a fully qualified psychotherapist and landscape gardener. Andy Weber Tibetan Art Weekend Illustrated Lecture 7.30 - 9.30pm Friday 29 May Weekend art course 30 and 31 May 9am - 6pm each day The Eight Auspicious symbols (for indoors and outdoors) A unique opportunity to study the art techniques and guild secrets for the creation of the Eight Auspicious Symbols in the painting lineage of this revered master. The Eight Auspicious symbols are a very practical method for attracting positive energy into your life and have a long history of rich symbolism in Tibetan Buddhism. Having matured over forty years of practice Andy is at the peak of his creative potency and is now actively transmitting his encyclopedic knowledge and creative lineage to his disciples. Be part of a rare and unique creative flow. Andy Weber's chief disciple Dolma Beresford, the highly successful CEO of the world famous Meridian Trust, will be in attendance. Do connect with her as she runs regular group practice days in London, designed to embed, support and reinforce what Andy has taught over the weekend Return to Contents
Community News
Hello everyone, Venerable Barabara, stalwart of Jamyang for many years, and a key member of our community team is migrating to the Far North. That's the Land of Joy retreat centre to you and me. We wish her every success and much happiness in her new home and we hope she comes down to visit us very frequently. We are still looking for people to help us with school visits. It's a great way to meet some really lovely young people (and their teachers). If you would like to help then please contact Jane - [email protected] We reproduce the following extract from the FPMT Newsletter: Every year, the International Merit Box Project collects offerings from students all around the world and disburses them as grants to deserving FPMT centers, projects and services. Since 2001, almost US$1,000,000 in Merit Box grants has been given to build stupas, help long-term retreaters cook and stay warm,
publish Dharma books, and fund many, many other activities. Two of the 14 most recent grants went to support community service initiatives in the caring field. With their community being hit hard by funding cuts in public services, a team from Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London was inspired to develop Repaying the Kindness, a program to give back to those who take care of others. This compassionate program brings in carers from all ages and backgrounds to rejuvenate with yoga, counseling, celebrations, group trips, art therapy, and simple warm chats over tea and cake. Jane Sill, co-director of Repaying the Kindness, shared about the program recently, "Our aim is to be sustainable and to be able to offer some kind of continuity and care at a time when so many lives are being affected by cuts and stoppages of public provision. As such, we are happy to be able to offer a quiet and relaxing place to re-energize and reconnect, allowing our carers to be able to carry on with renewed strength in their caring roles." If you would like to get involved with either of the above initiatives contact Jane via her email [email protected] Return to Contents
Dharma Bites: The Benefits of Meditating on Reality
In the text titled "The Royal Seal of Mahamudra", the third Khamtrul Rinpoche talks about the benefits of meditating on reality. He quotes from numerous sutras and then goes on to tell a story about Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal (his consort). Here is an extract. "In particular, Yeshe Tsogyal asked Padmasambhava, "What is the measure of the merit and qualities of a yogi who meditates without modifying?" The Master replied, "The merits of one instant of meditation cannot be measured." As Shri Singha said: The immense merit of giving away One's body to all beings, As numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges, Is not even close to that from a fraction of a second of meditation. Saving the lives of beings, As numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges, Does not compare to one-hundred-thousandth part of one-pointed meditation. To fill the billion-world system With precious stupas would generate merit; Yet not even this would be close to a fraction of meditation. The virtuous root of giving to all beings Many mounds of jewels
Does not come close to that of a fraction of samadhi. The merit of meditation is beyond measure. Yeshe Tsogyal also asked the Master, "Supposing there is a yogi who practices such meditation but in whom realisation has not dawned. If he died while meditating, how would he be reborn?" The Master answered, "He who was genuinely meditating with renunciation will be reborn as a human, and in that life will gain a state from which he will not fall back into samsara. If a meditative experience had arisen and he died while simply not wavering from it, he will be reborn having the nature of a god, and through that birth he will awaken to buddhahood. He who has attained extremely stable and unwavering experience and realisation seizes samadhi in the bardo of existence and becomes a buddha." Reproduced from "The Royal Seal of Mahamudra" (volume 1) by the third Khamtrul Rinpoche, translated by Gerardo Abboud Ed. My question to you is: do you meditate without modifying? Return to Contents
Poetry Corner
HA! HA! HA! HEE! HEE! HEE! HO! HO! HO! When you practice yogic exercise, Know your body is not solidly real - It is appearance-emptiness. Your body is like a dream body. When you practice yogic exercise, Know sounds are not solidly real - They are sound-emptiness. Sounds are like echoes in a valley. When you practice yogic exercise, Let mind rest relaxed within itself. All that appears in your mind is naturally liberated. HA! HA! HA! HEE! HEE! HEE! HO! HO! HO! Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche Reproduced from "Training the Wisdom Body" by Rose Taylor Goldfield Return to Contents
Land of Joy announce their first programme
We are pleased to announce the very first season of retreats at Land of Joy! Below you'll find some brief details about what they have planned. Please go the land of joy website for more information about any of these. www.landofjoy.co.uk/programme May: 31 April - 3 May: Mindfulness in Nature 1 [3-nights] 14 - 17 May: Mindfulness in Nature 2 [3-nights] 28 - 31 May: Mindfulness in Nature 3 [3-nights] June: 3 - 7 June: Lamrim Retreat - Refuge [4-nights] 17 - 21 June: Harmony in Kalachakra [4-nights] July: 2 - 9 July: Inseparability of HH Dalai Lama and Chenrezig [7-nights] 25 July - 1 August: Lamrim Retreat [7-nights] August: 15 - 22 August: Vipassana Retreat [7-nights] 29 August - 5 September: Debate Retreat [7-nights] - course participants only Return to Contents
FPMT Annual Review
The FPMT International Office are pleased to announce that their Annual Review 2014: Preserving, Developing and Spreading the Mahayana Tradition, is available for the worldwide FPMT community in eZine and PDF formats. Please click on the links to read more. Return to Contents
Tibet Freedom March
Tibet Freedom March and Rally
in London Saturday 7 March.
Gather in Whitehall opposite Downing Street at 11am.
This is the annual rally to protest at the oppressive regime in power in Tibet
Hosted by Free Free Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet. Further info from any of those organisations or the Tibet Society.
Return to Contents
Mount Kailash
Opportunities Around the FPMT
There are work and volunteer opportunities in many of the FPMT Centres around the world. You can find details of these on the FPMT website. There are also volunteer opportunities in India, Spain, New Zealand.......... .................. And especially here at Jamyang, London! Return to Contents
FPMT
Jamyang is affiliated with FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) and is one of more than 150 centers and projects worldwide.
FPMT is based on the Gelugpa tradition of Lama Tsongkhapa of Tibet as taught by our founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe and spiritual director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche. If you would like to receive FPMT's monthly newsletters please subscribe here.
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