January 2009

January 23, 2009
BUDDHADHARMA IN BRAZIL
Cangioli Che Reports on Rinpoche's Consecration of Padmasambhava’s Pureland and Eventful Trip to the Rainforest.
Over six hundred people from all over Brazil and the world attended the week-long consecration ceremonies and offering rituals to celebrate the completion of the replica of the Glorious Copper Colored Mountain (Padmasambhava’s Pureland) near Três Coroas, Rio Grande do Sul.

The seed of the project was planted by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche before his death in 2002, and it has been nurtured by the intention and effort of his many students, as well as other lamas, artists, and sponsors, under the inspired and capable leadership of Chagdud Khadro. Chagdud Gonpa’s replica of Padmasambhava’s Pureland brings from Tibetan culture symbols of nonviolence and inner clarity.

During this visit, Rinpoche:
• Conducted the consecration of Padmasambhava’s Pureland at Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling in south Brazil
• Taught in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to large and attentive audiences
• Visited the native Asháninka, deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, to learn from their wisdom and share their plight, which is also ours.

Visit Our Downloads Page for a Wonderful Slide Show

For much more information and videos of scenes from the consecration ceremony, go to the Padmasambhava’s Pureland site.

Photographer John Swearingen has posted even more photos of Rinpoche at the consecration on his site, dharmaphotos.skillful-means.com.

Supporting Buddhist Education in Brazil

During the visit, Rinpoche met with Chagdud Khadro and representatives from Chagdud Gonpa and Khyentse Foundation to explore ways to set up and support Buddhist education programs for both children and adults in Brazil.

In Rio de Janeiro, Rinpoche taught publicly for the first time on how to do the Ngöndro (preliminary practices) and how beginners who are interested in pursuing the Buddhist path can start practicing. His talk was based on his new Student Manual, which is still a work in progress.

Preserving the Rainforest and Supporting Its People

After the consecration and teachings, Rinpoche visited the Asháninka, a native group of the Amazon rainforest, living in the state of Acre in northwestern Brazil near the Peruvian border. It took two days of travel to reach the Asháninka from R io de Janeiro (two commercial flights, a chartered flight, and a three-hour boat ride). Because of their location, the Asháninka are at the frontline of the deforestation and exploitation that are threatening their culture and livelihood. Rinpoche learned about efforts to preserve the rainforest and to support its people.

Rinpoche is taking action to mitigate his carbon footprint. He has asked his students to estimate the carbon emission from all aspects of the Rio teaching, including all travel, and has offered to cancel the carbon emission by planting trees, supporting alternative renewable energy, and other means.

SECOND THREE-YEAR RETREAT TO BEGIN: 2009-2012
Vision and Values
On 12 January 2009, 16 western Buddhist practitioners were sealed in three-year retreat at Vajradhara Gonpa. We won't have news of them until 2012, but you can learn more about three-year retreats and how to apply for a future retreat on the Siddhartha’s Intent Vajradhara Gonpa page. Here Jakob Leschly discusses some perspectives that are the basis of Buddhist three-year retreat.

With the emergence and subsequent spread of Tibetan Buddhism far beyond its original Himalayan homelands, teachers such as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse have worked tirelessly to promote the a vision of basic goodness. Over the last thirty 30 years, in seeking to guide others to find peace and happiness, Rinpoche has engaged with western audiences, sometimes teaching philosophy, sometimes teaching meditation, sometimes being a traditional Buddhist master, sometimes being a contemporary film maker.

The three-year retreat at Vajradhara Gonpa is one of Rinpoche's many initiatives. It is a space in which individuals can take time out to unravel confusion and cultivate wisdom, become familiar with the Buddhist traditions of theory and method, and ultimately become of service to the greater community. Retreatants are individuals who are concerned with the ultimate happiness of sentient beings. Discarding the cocoon of their comfort zone, they establish grounding in truthfulness and selflessness. They become beacons for others, inspiring trust in basic goodness and the value of human existence.

Causality and Change

Buddhism asserts causality. Nothing happens without our participation. Our suffering and happiness are contingent on our actions, confusion and wisdom are contingent on our actions. In turn, the value of our actions is contingent on the attitudes behind. In Buddhism, these actions and attitudes are seen as conditions that we can work with and change, which is the purpose of the Buddhist path. Throughout his teaching, the Buddha empowered individuals to take control of their existence, and ultimately to free themselves.

The three-year retreat that just began at Vajradhara Gonpa is based on the Buddha's vision of such trust in the basic goodness and workability of our existence, and the realization that vision without practical integration is only a passing thought; to penetrate the inertia and dullness of habit we need the discipline of meditation. Actually sitting down and being present is to establish a mental calm where sanity can emerge, a gap where our habitual patterns can give way to an insight that can see through the deceptions of habitual ignorance.

Retreat Is to Take Responsibility

Retreat practice is not done to enhance and glorify our person, or to gain a small piece of nirvana. Retreat is to take responsibility for our being, liberating our mind, and consequently dedicating ourselves to the welfare of the world. Everyone recognizes the need for wisdom, peace, compassion; everyone cherishes such noble ideals. Yet sometimes it seems that no one actually believes they can be translated into reality. Buddhist meditation challenges such a poverty mentality. Basic goodness is inherent to all sentient life, but the objective of the Buddhist path is to actually make it manifest. The Buddha taught in order that we can claim this natural inheritance, and consequently contribute to dispelling the gloom and poverty of the world.

THREE YEAR RETREATS, PAST AND PRESENT
There Was No Longer Any Escape, Or Entertainment, Or Excuse
But There Was a Practice Session to Start. Sydney and Chris Jay report on their 2005-2008 three-year retreat in Australia.

We stood in the summer rain with Rinpoche in the muddy parking lot of Vajradhara Gonpa, all 300 of us. It was January 6, 2005, the day of closing the boundary to start the retreat, way out in the semitropical rainforest hills of northeastern New South Wales, Australia.

Rinpoche chanted auspicious prayers, invoked the boundary guardians, threw rice. And then he commanded: “All of you who are not retreatants, go down the hill now! Get outside of the boundaries now!” He too stepped outside the boundaries. Twenty-eight of us were left, standing there under our umbrellas, and we watched and waved as Rinpoche and everyone else drove down the slick, rutted road. Then, looking at each other nervously, we turned and headed back up the hill to our solitary retreat rooms. There was no longer any escape, or entertainment, or excuse. But there was a practice session to start, the first one of the retreat, the first one of 1,180 consecutive days. Read more… We soon got into our routine: first practice session at 4 AM, second session at 8:30, third session at 2 PM, fourth session at 7 PM. And we soon began to experience how difficult Dharma practice is, and how right Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye was when he wrote,

My outer appearance is that of an authentic dharma practitioner,
But inside, my mind is not mixed with the dharma.
Like a poisonous snake, the klesas are concealed within me.
When I encounter bad circumstances, my hidden faults … are revealed…

To be honest, the hardest part of retreat life was interacting with the other retreatants. Rinpoche told us that we all must practice Lojong mind training, the essence of which, he told us, is taking the side of the loser. Oh, that is hard, that is really hard. We secretly thought we were pretty good at Dharma practice before we got to the retreat, but in short order we discovered otherwise.

Steve Cline, the resident retreat master, told us before the retreat that we would never, ever regret our decision to go to the retreat. That is most definitely true. With great gratitude, we bow down to our fellow retreatants, for helping us face head-on our egos. And with devotion to Rinpoche, we pray that we might do another three-year retreat in this lifetime.

EXPANDING THE DHARMA IN SOUTH AFRICA
The Multiplier Effect of KF Scholarships
An article by Luke Younge, who completed two summer courses of study at Nitartha Institute in the United States with the support of a KF scholarship. Luke is bringing a systematic two-year Buddhist studies program to Cape Town and Johannesburg.

In 2007 and 2008 I attended Nitartha Institute’s month-long programme of intensive Buddhist Studies in the United States. My studies were partially funded by a scholarship from Khyentse Foundation. Nitartha’s curriculum is modelled on the Kagyu Shedra, but with a commitment to being appropriate to its western context. As one of their stated aims is to train western Dharma teachers, it seemed the perfect place to go for some training.

The scholarship from Khyentse Foundation this year was absolutely crucial, and enabled me to attend and benefit greatly from the programme. This benefit rolls on with every training I do here in South Africa, touching people’s hearts and opening them up to the wisdom of our lineages. Read more… In 2008 I completed the Core Curriculum at Nitartha. I am keenly aware that there is major work needed to anchor Buddhadharma in western culture and society, and I am deeply interested in the philosophical and psychological interface that Buddhism has with the West.

Back in South Africa, while some excellent teachings had been given over the years, there had yet to be a systematic presentation of the major Dharma teachings. The Nalandabodhi curriculum seemed to be the type of programme we needed to fill that gap. Designed by Ponlop Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsutrim Rinpoche, the Nalandabodhi curriculum is a two-year course that goes through a step-by-step training in Hinayana and Mahayana.

So it was that I started the first Nalandabodhi group in Cape Town. We have completed the first year’s teachings in Hinayana and will commence with Mahayana in the new year. There is a general feeling of relief at finally having a systematic presentation of Dharma—no longer the need to worry about “where does that fit in?”

In 2008 we also started a second group in Johannesburg and have completed our first weekend study-retreat there. Our Zimbabwean Sangha have expressed a desire to have the teachings offered there too, but it may be some time before that can happen. At the moment, our Sangha is largely focussed on providing food to a population devastated by famine, disease, and violent political suppression. In addition to Dharma teaching, I have continued to be involved with secular mindfulness training. Together with other curriculum designers, we are currently designing and running a teacher training programme for established meditators to become accredited mindfulness trainers through our organizations in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
With deep appreciation,
Luke Younge

FOCUS ON SCHOLARSHIPS
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
KF Supports the Spread of Dharma Throughout the World. By Florence Koh, Scholarship Committee Chair.

There is so much benefit in helping those who want to study and practice. Milarepa said the practitioner and the patron will face Buddhahood together. It is important that we train Tibetans and non-Tibetans alike. And if we really want to help people understand Buddhism, I think that it is quite important for students to themselves become teachers. This comes with study and practice. So if we can offer support, we should.
—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

During the past year, Khyentse Foundation allocated and spent over $100,000 for scholarships worldwide for scholarships. Recipients come from Australia, Canada, Bangladesh, Belgium, Cambodia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Nepal, South Africa, Tibet, the UK, and the USA. And they’re studying and practicing in their own countries or in great centers of Buddhist activities in Thailand, India, or Nepal.

Your generous donations fund Rinpoche’s vision of spreading Buddhism throughout the world. To learn more about the KF Scholarship Fund, and for information about applying for a scholarship, go to http://khyentsefoundation.org/scholarshipfund.html.

In May, 2006, Rinpoche made the Scholarship Fund the top priority among Khyentse Foundation’s Five Projects. Even in countries where Buddhism is widely practiced, support for practitioners is growing less, and in the West such support is almost nonexistent. Scholarships help to make the Buddhadharma accessible to all who seek it, and the recipients are a powerful force for spreading the Buddhadharma throughout the world.

There are three types of KF scholarships:
• Scholarships that support Rinpoche’s work, such as funding for three-year retreatants and for attending Rinpoche’s teachings around the world
• Scholarships to individuals for study and practice projects that they define
• Scholarships established with other institutions, such as Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal and the Khmer-Buddhist Education Assistance Program.

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