FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

Knowing Our Experiencing Mind By Lama Ole Nydahl

Niguma, The Secret OneBy Ulla Unger

His Way of Teaching Was Very Skillful, Part IIBy Hannah Nydahl

Where Does Truth Lie?Between Buddhism, Science, and ReligionBy Matt Huddleston

Transmission in Diamond Way BuddhismBy Manfred Maier

Questions and Answers With Miphan Rinpoche

Book Review: Life Before LifeBy Josh Greene

Meditation Basics By Tasso Kallianiotis

Buddhism in Everyday LifeBy Susan Bixby

Movie Review: Milarepa: Magician, Saint, MurdererBy Joseph Lyman

BUDDHISMTODAY B O U N D L E S S J OY A N D F R E E D O M

Spring/Summer 2008 Number 21

TABLE of CONTENTS

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Kenn Maly

Executive Editor

There is a kind of hidden thread that runs through this issue of Buddhism Today

and it points to what Buddhism is all about: mind. Of course many people of

the 21st century with fresh and intelligent minds are probably concerned with

how we work with mind and the benefits that we can personally accrue when

we do a good job. And for those of us lucky enough to meet with Tibetan

Buddhism, we also learn that the goal of our practice is development of mind

and enlightenment for the sake of benefiting others, human and nonhuman beings.

In this issue we investigate mind, its origins, its qualities, and its activities.

We explore the purpose of bringing benefit to others and uniting wisdom with

compassion. I invite you to follow this thread.

First in “Questions and Answers,” Mipham Rinpoche, father of H.H. the 17th

Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, discusses the mind and brain. He talks of the

coarse mind, which is connected to the nerve cells in the brain and perhaps the

mind on which neuroscience is generally focused. But this coarse mind mani-

fests out of what he calls subtle primordial mind. He engenders excitement in

his description of a case where doctors worked with a boy without a brain but

with a mind! I hope you enjoy this story.

Second, Lama Ole Nydahl addresses our experiencing mind that is not mate-

rialistic, nor even an emotional mind. He shows that mind is space: potential,

indestructible, a non-thing. Read what this means for our development. Along

with his focus on benefiting others, he stresses how important it is to preserve

the teachings and methods of Buddhism, lest they disappear, as has been

happening with many cultures and languages around the world today.

Third, enjoy the inspiring words of Hannah Nydahl about how the 16th Karmapa

instructed her and Lama Ole. She does not speak specifically of mind and

its development, but her stories of how the 16th Karmapa worked with them

clearly show the way mind is involved and benefits from the refined and subtle

methods of a teacher.

Keeping in mind what these three teachers tell us about mind, see what

happens with this theme in Tasso Kallianiotis on meditation, Matt Huddleston

on Buddhism and science, and Manfred Maier on matters of transmission and

lineage. Truly, Buddhism is primarily about mind!

Executive Editor: Kenn Maly

Art Director: Anilou Price

Copy Editor: Eveline Smilack

Associate Copy Editor: Jessica Prohuska

Associate Editors: Claudia Balara, Aaron Crook, Carin Crook, Cristina Ferrando, Joshua Johnson, Tasso Kallianiotis, Joseph Lyman, Angelika Prenzel, Eveline Smilack

Transcription: Jim Macur, Rachelle Macur

Designers: Heidi Bernhardi, Jeremy Kuzinger, Anilou Price, Bozena Sudnikiewicz

Photography Coordination: Marcin Muchalski

Photography: Nina Joanna Dmyterko, Andri Efimov, Sven Guttormsen, Jeremy Kuzinger, Hania Lubek, Marcin Muchalski, Ginger Neumann, Bartosz Ostrowski, Rubin Museum of Art, Augis Skackauskas, Bozena Sudnikiewicz, Marcin Szymeczko, Buddhistischer Verlag, Mathias Weitbrecht

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Buddhism Today is a bi-annual magazine published by Diamond Way Buddhist Centers USA, a California non-profit corporation. Contents copyright Diamond Way Buddhist Centers USA. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission

Editorial Board

Buddhism Today aims to be a living document of authentic Buddhist trans-

mission intended for the lay person and yogi practitioner in the West. It

is meant for people leading normal active lives, who wish to understand and

experience mind’s vast potential.

Buddhism Today will challenge your mind by providing information and

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appeals to educated critical-thinking people with fresh independent minds:

people for whom nihilism rings hollow and existentialism provides no joy.

The teachings presented here are beneficial if taken at face value, but they

can provide boundless levels of joy and freedom when applied at the Diamond

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of its direct connection to the “hearing lineage” of accomplished practitioners

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and development.

It is said that we live in “interesting times.” To some, these words reflect

the degenerative nature of the modern world in which we live. But to us,

these words are a call to action and a statement of renewal, an opportunity for

seeing new possibilities and openings. In either case, we promise to expound

joy and humanism above political correctness or dogmatic assumptions.

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From the Editor

II LOWER RATES!LOWER RATES!

Editor’s Note: This article is a shortened version, edited for

publication, of a lecture given by Lama Ole Nydahl in June

2004 in Prague, Czech Republic.

In 1959, when Communist Chinese attacked and

destroyed Tibet, we nearly lost some of the finest and most

advanced psychological and philosophical wisdom known to

man. It was a streak of extreme luck that about eighty

five thousand Tibetans managed to flee over the Himalayas

into India, Bhutan, and Nepal. While most of the fugitives

had little education, there were several hundred wisdom

holders, people with a full practical or theoretical training

concerning the nature of mind, that made the journey. This

gave the idealists of the world a precious opportunity to

keep and save that knowledge.

Back in the late 60s and early 70s, the West was

getting ready. Especially in North America and Northern

Europe, some people had already gone beyond their own

cultures and were eager to learn new things. That was my

very visible generation of hippies. I won’t say we were the

most regular of students. Most of us had spent twenty

years at schools and universities, so we were not satisfied

to simply hear something. Also we usually arrived with

exotic smoke coming out of our noses and ears. What we

wanted was experience.

To the Tibetans, we took some getting used to. Not only

was our democratic and taboo free culture a mystery to

them, but our appearances made many think we might

be from another universe. Carrot colored hair, big noses,

and booming voices were a novelty. And long arms and

legs like ours they only knew from their Eastern warrior

tribes, the Khampas, who can be truly majestic.

However, they also noticed that we had compassion

and were very honest, that as Westerners we said and did

the same, which is quite different from Asian preferences

for politeness over directness. We were always trying to

make them eat vitamins, avoid polished rice, and stuff

like that. Even though they couldn’t always understand us,

they did see that we wanted to benefit them.

In 1969, sensing an interesting potential, two brave

teachers started instructing Westerners for the first time.

The highly learned Geshe Rabten, from the Gelupa school,

started teaching their conceptual way in the Western

Himalayas, but stopped soon after, as he got sick. He con-

tinued later at Rikon in Switzerland, with the blessing of

the Dalai Lama.

Kalu Rinpoche, a great Kagyu yogi with thirty years of

meditation experience in Eastern Tibet, worked from his

monastery in foothills of the Eastern Himalayas. His small

village, called Sonada, lay on the road to Darjeeling and

Sikkim. He taught with the blessing of the 16th Karmapa.

Knowing our ExpEriEncing Mind

LAMA OLE NyDAHL

“AROUND THE WORLD THESE DAyS,

A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE DISTURBED

BECAUSE THEy KNOW THAT

MANy UNIQUE ANIMALS AND

PLANTS ARE DISAPPEARING, NOT

jUST EVERy MONTH OR EVERy

yEAR, BUT EVERy DAy. BUT FEWER

PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT AS

FOREIGN CULTURES DISAPPEAR,

WE ARE ALSO LOSING ESSENTIAL

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT MIND.”

�� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008

� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 �

Later he went to the West several times, as my books

Entering the Diamond Way and Riding the Tiger describe.

He kept working until his yogi death in 1989.

In 1969, the main Tibetan rinpoches decided that to

preserve their heritage, they had to teach Westerners.

The neighboring Asian cultures were too rigid and as

desperately poor refugees in a country like India, most

Tibetans could not afford years of education. Instead many

of their young men wanted to trade and experience the

world. Worst of all, especially due to tuberculosis, the

main Tibetan wisdom holders were dying very quickly. If

they did not pass on their insights, they would disappear.

The conscious exchange between two rich cultures that

started there has continued ever since, producing

560 Diamond Way centers worldwide to date. It fills

halls everywhere.

So why the happiness every time we meet? Well, we

celebrate both mind’s potential and Buddha’s trust in us.

He only taught because we can recognize that happiness

comes from functioning well; behaving like buddhas until

we become them and then living his highest level of iden-

tification with the finest of motivation. From these perspec-

tives, meaningful activities must follow.

The key to this is knowing our experiencing mind. How

many of you have ever tried to find out what is aware

right now, looking through your eyes and listening through

your ears? If you did and discovered that your mind was

green, or striped, or had any other material characteristic,

this would be a historic discovery. On the other hand, if

you didn’t find anything, you should be happy beyond

compare. Though at first you might have a nihilistic flash,

thinking that maybe mind doesn’t exist, soon a state of

freedom and great bliss will pervade. And why? Imagine

that your mind has a certain weight, color, smell, size, or

form. That what is looking through your eyes has given

dimensions and that you want to think of something much

bigger. Would you then try to stretch mind, or would you

try to fold whatever object you wished to make it fit?

Thus any materialistic concept of mind presents major

practical problems and the emotional ones are much

worse. If mind had been made or born or put together, like

all discernable things, it would certainly also die, disappear,

and fall apart. The reassuring thought that mind is a thing,

that it has a certain voltage or some other physical charac-

teristic, and the superficially secure feeling that people

seek through such a view, would become a short lived

happiness at one’s second realization: that all things and

events are transitory and impermanent. On the other

hand, if we recognize that mind is not a thing, that it is

without size, color, smell or form, then like space, we

see that our awareness has not been created and also can

never die nor disappear.

The realization of the non-existence of any personal

ego or self is the goal of the Theravada Buddhist traditions

in of Indochina (minus Vietnam) and Ceylon, and it brings

the unshakeable state of liberation. As there is no me that

can be a target, suffering is an illusion and upon discover-

ing this, disappears. It is a most relieving insight that

we are not the bodies that get old, sick, and die, no matter

how many vitamins we eat, and also not the thoughts

and feelings which come and go, which would make con-

fusion a lasting state.

In its essence, mind can only be explained as potential,

a neutral element, a non-thing. But the best description

of mind remains indestructible space. And this understand-

ing gives beings a true refuge, something we can rely

upon. It is not the experience of not being anything or vul-

nerable that really transforms peoples’ awareness.

It provides a growing certainty that mind is indestruc-

tible and has a pervasive and very strong effect. It really

does remove fear, tightness, and so on. One becomes ever

more aware that the clear light experiencing the world

through our senses is outside the limitation of time. That it

has never been made, created, born or put together, and

can therefore be trusted to last.

If beings see only the pictures in the mirror and not the

mirror behind them, experience only the waves but not

the unmoving ocean underneath, living only for objects of

awareness, the things we think of and notice, then every-

thing is Disneyland. We are then always in the past or in

the future, holding onto or pushing away, trying to prove

or excuse things, and there is no center. We are like leaves

in the wind; sometimes here, sometimes there. On the

other hand, if we experience our power of awareness,

feel something to be conscious right here and now, know

that there is something between and behind the thoughts

that perceives and understands, then everything is free

play and a gift.

Once the mirror is known, whatever comes and goes

is its richness and always interesting. When we rest in

the indestructible certainty that what knows and experiences

consciousness can neither be improved nor harmed in any

way, then we stop being like ordinary people, going to

the cinema and hoping for a good film. Instead we own

the film studios and the whole industry and are simply

impressed by all the amazing things going on. With this

view, things become interesting and fantastic, just because

they reveal mind’s potential.

We live in highly productive societies and usually think

of mind as intelligence. But after recognizing its empty

essence and the non-reality first of a self and later also of

an existent outer world, its boundlessness becomes evi-

dent. Mind is much more than abstract or practical thought.

One also has memory, feelings, dreams, artistic and inven-

tive abilities and so on. Beyond its space and awareness,

one will notice yet a third quality, that mind plays inces-

santly and is limitless in its expression.

After fearlessness and love, compassion, sympathetic

joy, and equanimity become inseparable and it is diffi-

cult to separate one’s own experience from that of

others. At this point one notices how everybody thinks

they are very special cases and should be happy. More

than that, it becomes evident that others are countless

“On the other hand, if we experience our power of awareness, feel something to be conscious right here and now, know that there is something between and behind the thoughts that perceives and understands, then everything is free play and a gift.”

� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 �

The first of these, using one’s power of awareness,

calms and holds mind through focusing on one object.

This makes a meditator intuitive. Its effect is markedly

enhanced though the bodhisattva motivation, that one will

use any progress for the benefit of all. Methods of breathing

and one’s focus on the inner energy channels and wheels

of the body are the basis for the second way of energy,

yielding results which amaze scientists even today. Most

important, however, remains the guru yogas of identifica-

tion, used by countless Westerners, that give free access

to both mind’s awareness and energy, and skillfully mani-

fest one’s buddha nature.

respond with devotion. A deep kind of trusting thankful-

ness arose in them because they understood that perfec-

tion may only be seen outside because it is inside one

all the time. This insight confirms that beings can achieve

buddhahood.

The fourth group of teachings which point directly to

mind has several names: Buddhist Tantrayana (Hindus use

the same word for a very different practice), Vajrayana,

and Mantrayana. Tantra in Sanskrit means weaving, using

one’s totality of body, speech, and mind. Accordingly

experiences are made which have a lasting and enlighten-

ing effect. Tantra is therefore the opposite to a Buddhist

intellectual understanding, often gathered under the title

of Sutra, which is like covering a hole in one’s develop-

ment with a patch. When the thread wears out, the patch

falls off and the hole reappears. In Tantra, experiences

mature and become a part of one, like the first act of love-

making or the first time tasting sugar.

Mantrayana is the name for conscious and protective

vibrations. They open and charge one’s bodily awareness

centers with beyond personal energies. The energy forms

invoked and the mantras used in this practice are really like

making telephone calls. The OM at the start is like lifting

a receiver and getting a dial tone. The next syllables are like

dialing a Buddha’s number, and the line is never busy. The

last syllables show direction, like HUNG for strength,

HRIH for compassion, TAM for the female compassion

of liberatrice, PE for cutting through, and SOHA for

spreading out.

The third term for these transformative teachings is

Vajrayana or Diamond Way. This is not to attract rich ladies

who have read that such compressed pieces of carbon

are their best friend, but because it makes mind exceedingly

radiant and indestructible, like a diamond. The Diamond

Way of behaving like buddhas until we become them uses

the three truly transforming powers inherent in all beings:

their capacity to know and their awareness to act, their

energy, and above all, their ability to identify with their

enlightened potential through their bond to a teacher.

appears as a blessing and everything difficult as purification

and a teaching to better help others later.

Buddha had a most practical goal, to give others the

chance to become like him. He instructed his students to

ask any questions they wanted and to continue until they

were satisfied. With his powerful presence, it was impor-

tant that his students did not just choose the easy way

and start believing things. Therefore he frequently used

concept shattering methods.

It is said that one monk was afraid of the doctor but

had a bump on his head that was infected. The doctor

went to Buddha and said, “He always runs away from

me and if I don’t operate, it will go into his brain and he

will die.” So Buddha replied, “Tonight I will give a teaching

which will especially interest him. While he is listening

with the others, you come from behind and do the opera-

tion.” It is actually said that the man only knew the bump

was gone after the teaching ended.

It seems that Buddha could have sold refrigerators in

Greenland and woolen underwear in the Congo. But he

also knew how quickly superficial convictions can change.

That’s why his teachings always included a phase of anal-

ysis and clarification. What he wanted to avoid were

teachings that were fulfilling on a Friday afternoon before

a sunny weekend but lacked power on a rainy Monday

morning when the boss is sour. He provoked his students

to be sure that they really understood what was said and

that the level of teachings corresponded to their lives.

Buddha’s teachings consist of 84,000 non-dogmatic

instructions and pieces of advice, contained in four

groups of 21,000 each. In print, they fill 108 books, called

the Kanjur. If we take these teachings as information

to study and learn, we see that three of the groups are fit

for that, but the fourth one is not. The Vinaya, given

against desire and attachment, holds rules mainly for

monks and nuns. It concerns things to do and not to do.

His second field of advice, the Sutra, is for lay people.

It transforms anger and shows us how to skillfully protect

others and benefit society. The third group, called

Abhidharma, targets ignorance. It is a practical and very inter-

esting kind of logic, unlike the formal kinds we learn at

Western universities. Buddhist logic deals with scenarios

that can be understood through real world observations,

and avoids premises that cannot be solved with experience.

Vinaya was given for monks and nuns, Sutra to the lay

people, and the Abhidharma was presented to philoso-

phers, the thinkers. Buddha also gave a fourth and self-

secret level of teaching to those who can see him as a

mirror to their minds and not as a god or a person. Show-

ing them their timeless inner essence, they could only

and each of us is only just one. Simple arithmetic then

makes it clear that others must be more important and

naturally brings forth the four kinds of perfect love men-

tioned above. They peak as mind’s quality of compassion,

meaning, and active kindness.

And how can a normal critical person trust something

so wonderful to be true and dependable? Because space

with its inherent awareness, constant play, and active

compassion is indestructible. Realizing that, mind’s dis-

turbing feelings lose their hold. From the view of inde-

structible space, any thought, feeling, or situation will

be seen as at least interesting. We may then think, “A

while ago I was proud, then I got jealous. Right now I

am confused. How interesting. Let’s see what comes

tomorrow.”

Viewing the whole circus from an unshakeable point

of reference, one merely notices the originality of an

interesting show. If desired, there also exists a whole

box of tools. When formerly disturbing feelings come,

one may avoid them, be aware of the situations of others

or simply think, “Make yourselves a cup of coffee, I’m

busy right now.” Also one may be smart enough to let

the thief come to an empty house. On the way to true

inner freedom, one learns to experience whatever pleasant

About Lama Ole Nydahl

Lama Ole Nydahl is one of the few Westerners fully qualified as a lama and meditation teacher in the Karma Kagyu Buddhist tradition. In 1972, after completing three years of intensive meditation training, Lama Ole began teaching Buddhism in Europe at the request of H.H. the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. He has since transmitted the blessing of the lineage in a different city nearly every day, traveling and teaching worldwide as an authorized lama. His depth of knowledge and dynamic teachings inspire thousands of people at his lectures and retreats in North and South America, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Asia.

10 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 11

niguMaTHE SECRET ONE

By ULLA UNgER

n iguma was one of the legendary 11th century female Indian yoginis and is reported to have been born in 1016 AD. However, there

are few historical sources about her or her student, the Shangpa Kagyu master Khyungpo Naljor, who transmitted teachings in Tibet. It is said he only met her in several visions, 150 years after her lifetime. The only reliable sources of information on Niguma are from the biographies of the Indian scholar and accom-plisher (Sanskrit: Mahasiddha, Tibetan: Drubchen) Naropa (956-1040), with whom she kept close contact. Tibetan sources describe Niguma with the words Cham Mo, which means both sister and wife.

In Naropa’s life story, as translated by Herbert V.

Guenther, Niguma was Naropa’s wife. Guenther described

Naropa as the son of a respected royal family with an

extraordinary education in both spiritual and worldly fields.

At the age of eighteen he was already considered a

scholar and he wanted to become a monk. However, his

parents insisted that he should marry and continue the

family line. To avoid this without appearing rebellious,

Naropa demanded a number of impossible conditions a

potential candidate had to meet: She was to be sixteen

years old, very beautiful, intelligent, free from prejudice,

clean, the daughter of a Brahmin, and in addition

be called Niguma. Finally, she had to be open to the

teachings of the Great Way and have blonde hair. He

assured his parents he would agree to marry as soon as

they had found such a bride.

His parents were totally desperate, faced with this

hopeless situation. Nevertheless, out of devotion to

Naropa‘s father, a very loyal minister started on a journey

together with a friend to find this special bride. After they

had been traveling in vain for more than a year, one day

they had a special encounter at a well in Bengal; just then

a Brahmin‘s daughter came to the same well.

Her blonde hair was tied up in a knot and she looked

around with wide eyes. When she saw nobody to draw

water with a rope for her, she did the job herself without

the slightest hesitation. Then the minister addressed her

and asked for some water. The girl was deeply touched

by how tired and exhausted they both looked and fulfilled

their wish with great pleasure. She paid meticulous attention

to handing them a clean drinking bowl. This showed the

minister that she had a very compassionate nature and a

natural sense of cleanliness, so he asked about her parents,

her name, her age, and to what caste she belonged.

She answered, “My father is the Brahmin Tisya. My

mother is the Brahmin Nigu and my brother is the Brahmin

Nagu. I am called Niguma. I am sixteen years old and

belong to the Brahmin caste.”

The minister could hardly believe that all these details

corresponded to Naropa‘s demands. So he asked her if

she had ever heard of Naropa, King Santivarman’s son, and

if she could imagine marrying him. She said he would

have to ask her father about it and she would follow her

father‘s wishes. Her parents subsequently agreed to

the marriage.

Naropa was quite astonished since the impossible

conditions he dictated seemed to him a rather secure

way of avoiding marriage. The couple was married for eight

years and Niguma was eager to learn from Naropa and

practiced the Great Way. After being married for eight

years, Naropa’s previous aspiration to be free from

samsaric life awoke again and he decided to get a divorce

in order to be able to enter a monastery. It is said that

Niguma offered to take all the blame for the failed marriage

by saying she had made so many mistakes that he

could no longer endure being married to her. The couple’s

parents negotiated the matter and decided to dissolve

the marriage.

After that, Naropa built an impressive career at the

famous monastic university of Nalanda, where he was

even granted the position of gatekeeper, an enormous

responsibility. However, he later renounced this respected

position to become a disciple of the yogi Tilopa (988-1069).

Having suffered twelve greater and twenty four smaller

disasters in the course of his spiritual development, after

twelve years Naropa finally became enlightened.

While there is no clear description as to how Niguma

attained enlightenment, one source states that she

practiced together with her teacher, the great accomplisher

Lavapa , and became enlightened in only one week!

This article is a reprint of one chapter from Dakinis: Life Stories of Female Buddhas, edited by Angelika Prenzel and published by Buddhistischer Verlag in 2007. Buddhism Today thanks the publisher for permission to publish this chapter. The book tells eleven life stories from the time when Diamond Way Buddhism was blooming in India and Tibet. They show how people, by applying these views and techniques, can use personal challenges for development, take responsibility for oneself and one’s environment, and above all, reach inner freedom and lasting happiness. Hannah Nydahl said about this book, “We don’t so much learn the same meditations, but rather use the biographies as motivation for our own practice and development here and now.”

“The fruit is the realization that

one’s own mind is indestructible and

infallible.”

Pho

to c

ourt

esy

of t

he R

ubin

Mus

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of

Art

, New

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12 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 1�

There may still be original Tibetan texts which could

offer further details when translated to a Western language,

however, at present only fragments are available. All

available sources, such as those authored by Taranatha

(born c.1575), who is especially known for his work History

of Buddhism in India and a standard text on Green Tara,

clearly states that she received neither the teachings on

working with enlightened energy nor those on working

with the mind from a human teacher, but from Diamond

Holder (Sanskrit: Vajradhara, Tibetan: Dorje Chang)

in a vision. Since Buddha Shakyamuni often appeared in

the form of Diamond Holder to his disciples when giving

tantric teachings, Diamond Holder is considered to be

inseparable from him. Thus, Niguma received teachings

directly from Buddha‘s mind and since she was able to open

up so deeply, she did not have to practice for many years.

After her enlightenment Niguma took the form of a

wisdom dakini. Since then she has been dwelling in

the enlightened awareness of the joy State (Sanskrit:

Sambhogakaya, Tibetan: Long Ku) of buddhahood and can

no longer be perceived by normal beings. However, she

never ceased to exist. Historically, Niguma is mentioned

only very rarely after her divorce and she is said to have

remained a devoted disciple of the great master Naropa.

The Buddhist scriptures preserve some of Niguma’s

oral instructions, such as the empowerment of the Buddha

Oh Diamond (Sanskrit: Hevajra, Tibetan: Kye Dorje), in whose

direct lineage of transmission she appears together

with Sukhasiddhi. Other known teachings by Niguma deal

with the steps on the Path of Magical Illusion (Sanskrit:

Mayadhanacrama). These are explanations for very advanced

meditations on insight into the illusory nature of all things.

Niguma even considered buddhahood itself an illusion, the

highest illusion of all, but still an illusion.

In biographies of the translator Marpa (1012-1097),

who became a disciple of Naropa, Niguma is mentioned

as Marpa’s tutor who helped him work on and write down

various texts. Also, Naropa sent Marpa to Niguma to

learn from her as one of his many teachers. Naropa, however,

gave no hint as to the relation between him and Niguma.

“On the shore of a poisonous lake in the south, at the

cremation grounds of Sosadvipa, there lives the [dark

skinned] Wisdom Dakini, who adorns herself with bone

ornaments. Whoever encounters her is liberated. Meet

her and ask her for the teaching on the Cathuhpitha Tantra.”

Marpa met Niguma there, where she was dwelling in a

grass hut. After he had presented her with a gold mandala,

he asked her for the teaching. Very happily she gave

him the full empowerment and the oral transmission of the

Cathuhpitha Tantra. Moreover, Niguma instructed him

on the Developing Stage (Sanskrit: Utpatti, Tibetan: Kyerim)

and the Completion Stage (Sanskrit: Sampannakrama,

Tibetan: Dzogrim) of meditation. On his later journeys Marpa

frequently returned to Niguma to receive further teachings

and one time he stayed with her for a whole month.

All further encounters with the enlightened Niguma

took place in the form of visions, experienced by her later

lineage holders Khyungpo Naljor, Sangye Tonpa, Kunga

Drolchok, and Taranatha in Tibet. In addition, the famous

lama and engineer Thangtong Gyalpo, who built numerous

suspension bridges with solid metal chains in old Tibet,

had three visions of her. The first time, she appeared from

a cloud, descended to earth, gave him empowerments

and many teachings, and held a vajra celebration with him

after she answered his many questions. Some years later,

she appeared again, this time as a singing fifteen year old

shepherdess, who sadly told Thangtong Gyalpo how hard

it was to benefit beings as a girl. She had shown herself

at various places in central and western Tibet to give

teachings to happy people, but he was the only one who

had recognized her.

At the end of Thangtong Gyalpo’s life, one of his

disciples who had received the traditional Shangpa

teachings from him had gained clairvoyant control over his

dreams. This disciple discovered that Thangtong Gyalpo

knew many more visualizations and asked him why he had

not passed these on. Thangtong Gyalpo answered that

they had been given to him directly by the dakini and she

had expressly forbidden him to pass them on. Like

many other Shangpa masters, Thangtong Gyalpo respected

Niguma‘s wish to keep her teachings secret.

The later founder of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition,

Khyungpo Naljor studied with 150 such teachers and one

of the most famous among them was Niguma. According

to jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, Kyungpo Naljor was

one of the most highly realized masters Tibet has ever

produced. Khyungpo Naljor met Niguma about 150 years

after her official lifetime in a wild vision. Despite his

already substantial knowledge, he still wished for more

advanced teachings and asked all the highly realized

Indian masters he knew for them. He longed for teachings

as they were given by Buddha himself.

Their response was that he could only receive these

from a dakini like the great Niguma. And where could

he find her? Well, she could show up anywhere, but for

“When the ocean of conditioned existence

has run dry and any attachment to external phenomena or one’s ego

has been abandoned, then everything experienced

will become golden fields of non-attachment.”

1� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 1�

beings constantly confused by their own emotions it was

very hard, if not impossible, to encounter her at all.

Niguma had dissolved her normal, physical body into rainbow

light and regarding her spiritual state, she was inseparable

from Diamond Holder himself. But it might be possible to

encounter her at one of the cremation grounds, where

she instructed a number of dakinis and presided over a

large ritual offering festival (Sanskrit: Ganacakra, Tibetan:

Tsog Kyi Khorlo).

When Khyungpo Naljor heard about Niguma, he knew

instantly that he had to find her. just hearing her name

touched him so deeply that his eyes filled with tears and

he began to tremble. Without hesitation he started on

his way to a cemetery named Sosaling, although he could

not be sure whether he really would find Niguma there.

While traveling, he constantly made wishes to the Three

jewels: to Buddha, to his teachings, and to the community

of realized practitioners.

When he arrived at Sosaling, Khyungpo Naljor had a

vision: high above, he saw a female light and energy form

of a bluish color. She was wearing bone ornaments, held

a trident in one hand and a skull cup in the other. While he

was looking at her, sometimes there seemed to be only

one dakini, sometimes many. Some were sitting in meditation

posture and others were dancing very gracefully. He

didn’t have the slightest doubt; this had to be the great

bodhisattva Niguma! He started prostrating to her and

entreated her to transmit her teachings. But she answered

him with scathing mockery, “Beware! I am a flesh eating

dakini and I have a large retinue of other dakinis. Run

away before they come and devour you! Run before it is

too late!”

Khyungpo Naljor was not intimidated; however, he

pressed on and asked for teachings, so she started to

demand gold from him. Fortunately, this posed no problem

as he had 500 gold pieces, which he offered her without

hesitation. An offering of this kind was quite common

in those days. In return teachers then took responsibility

for their disciples’ living expenses once they had been

accepted.

Niguma, however, just took the gold and threw it away

into the bushes. Obviously she had no attachment to

conditioned things such as gold and Khyungpo Naljor took

this as confirmation that he had indeed found the real

accomplisher Niguma. An evil, flesh eating dakini would

certainly have at least kept part of the gold for herself.

So he felt even more assured and continued to ask for the

teachings.

With flaming eyes Niguma looked in all directions

and suddenly she was surrounded by a large gathering of

dakinis. They were doing all kinds of things: Some built

palaces, others mandalas, some prepared Dharma teachings

and others the evening’s festival. Eventually, when the

full moon rose, Niguma gave the empowerment and trans-

mission of the Dream yoga teachings (Tibetan: Milam) to

Khyungpo Naljor. In the middle of the ceremony she said,

“Son of Tibet, rise!” and he found himself hovering in

the air. When he looked up to Niguma, she was sitting on

top of a golden mountain, surrounded by a large retinue

of dakinis. Waterfalls were flowing down the four sides of

the mountain. Khyungpo Naljor wondered whether what

he saw was real or if he was just witnessing the magical

play of the dakinis.

Niguma gave him teachings and explained, “When

the ocean of conditioned existence has run dry and any

attachment to external phenomena or one’s ego has been

abandoned, then everything experienced will become

golden fields of non-attachment. The present nature of

samsara, the world of phenomena, is like a play of dreams

and magically produced illusory pictures. If you really

experience that the world of phenomena is nothing

but a dream, comparable to the pictures a magician may

produce, then you have overcome the ocean of samsara.

To do so you must be extremely devoted to your teacher.

1 Lavapa was one of the 84 great Indian Mahasiddhas. He was one of the teachers of Tilopa (988-1069) and Atisha (982-1055).

Understand this! Now you have to leave. Go and take hold

of your dreams!”

Khyungpo Naljor understood her teachings and in his

dreams he received the Five Golden Doctrines of Niguma

and three empowerments including the Six Teachings of

Niguma. After this, Niguma told Khyungpo Naljor that

apart from him nobody had received the entire transmission

of these teachings three times in a dream. On the next day,

Niguma granted Khyungpo Naljor the complete transmission

with detailed explanations while he was awake. She

made him promise to keep the transmission of the Six

Teachings of Niguma secret together with only one other

great accomplisher by the name of Lavapa. After that time,

for five generations the transmission was to be given

by only one teacher at a time to one very special disciple

in an unbroken lineage of transmission. After these five

generations it would be appropriate to spread the

teachings further for the benefit of all beings.

One can only guess why Niguma wished for such

secrecy. Perhaps she wanted to prevent her teachings from

becoming a school and subsequently an institution.

Khyungpo Naljor was not by any means the only one Niguma

asked for such secrecy. Thangtong Gyalpo had been

instructed likewise. Therefore, it is no surprise that the

Shangpa lineage has never grown very large and that

only those practitioners that can encounter it are seriously

setting off on a path towards enlightenment.

In essence, there is no difference between the Six

teachings of Naropa (Tibetan: Naro Cho Druk) and the

Six Teachings of Niguma. It is said only that Niguma’s

teachings are physically less strenuous. The main

difference is the transmission line itself; the Six Teachings

of Naropa have been transmitted through Marpa and

his lineage holders within the Karma Kagyu School.

The Five Golden Doctrines of the Shangpa Kagyu

are often illustrated in the form of a tree. The roots are

the Six Practices of Niguma:

• Inner Heat (Tibetan: Tumo)

• Illusory Body (Tibetan: Gyulu)

• Dream yoga which removes spiritual darkness

(Tibetan: Milam)

• Clear Light yoga (Tibetan: Osel)

• Transference of Consciousness (Tibetan: Phowa)

• Intermediate State (Tibetan: Bardo)

The trunk is The Great Seal of the Amulet Box

(Sanskrit: Mahamudra, Tibetan: Chagchen, Chagya

Chenpo). The branches are the three methods of how to

integrate the understanding of all phenomena the

practitioner has gained through meditation into their every-

day life. The blossoms are the Meditations on the White

and the Red Dakini. The fruit is the realization that one’s

own mind is indestructible and infallible.

These teachings go back to both Niguma and

Sukhasiddhi. They have never been rewritten or changed

in the slightest and are considered as fine and pure as

gold. Since Niguma and Sukhasiddhi transmitted their

knowledge to Khyungpo Naljor, they are considered the

Mothers of the Shangpa Kagyu. Moreover, jamgon Kongtrul

Lodro Thaye considers them to be incarnations of the

two main wives of Guru Rinpoche, Mandarava and yeshe

Tsogyal.

Niguma reached enlightenment in only one week

and therefore, was doubtlessly one of the most successful

practitioners ever. Still, her history can only be told with

the help of other masters’ biographies and not by the

usual means of chronologically arranged information. The

reason that the information is missing may be that in

Niguma’s day in medieval India it was just not customary

to write a woman‘s biography. On the other hand, she

also left the physically perceptible, material world at the

time of her enlightenment. Therefore, she never was in

the position of a Guru with many disciples who would have

told her story. Or perhaps she was just a wild yogini,

who did not want anybody to make too much of a fuss

about her.

About Ulla Unger

Ulla Unger, a nutritionist by training, joined Diamond Way Buddhism in 1981. She organized the Buddhist Karma Kagyu Meditation Center in Munich, Germany and has coordinated it for fifteen years. She is co-founder of the German Buddhist magazine Buddhismus Heute, originally called Kagyu Life. She now owns and drives a taxi in Munich.

Sources:- Guenther, Herbert V., The Life and Teaching of Naropa, Shambhala South

Asia Editions, Boston (Massachusetts) 1999.- Kongtrul, jamgon, Retreat Manual, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca (New

york) 1994.- Kongtrul, jamgon, Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse from the Shangpa

Masters, Tsadra Foundation, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca (New york) 2003.

- Riggs, Nicole, Like an Illusion: Lives of the Shangpa Kagyu Masters, Dharma Cloud Press, Eugene (Oregon) 2001.

- Shaw, Miranda, Passionate Enlightenment, Princeton University Press Paberbacks, Princeton (New jersey) 1994.

- Trungpa, Chogyam, The Life of Marpa the Translator: Seeing Accomplishes All, Shambhala Publications, Boston (Massachusetts) & London 1995.

Niguma

1�

Since we could not stay in Rumtek, we agreed that the best thing we could do was to go to Sonada, where Kalu Rinpoche was. Lopon

Tsechu Rinpoche had already told us about the lama who sometimes taught Westerners. Although Sonada was only half a day trip from Rumtek, we were very, very sad that things weren’t progressing in Rumtek and that we were sent there. Kalu Rinpoche had a few students around him and they had started to practice. The time had come where we would actually start to learn something.

Kalu Rinpoche gave teachings for about one hour

every day. It started out with, “What does refuge mean?

What is karma?” and, “What are the Paramitas?” This

lasted for many months, during which time we also started

on our Ngondro. But the whole time we were staying

there, we really wanted to go to Sikkim to be with Karmapa.

Already at that time, there was quite a difference

from being with Karmapa or being with Kalu Rinpoche,

being the student of one or the other. The people in Sonada

Hannah Nydahl on the16th KarMapa

PART II

This is the second and final installment of a talk that Hannah Nydahl gave at a course on H.H. the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje in Leverkusen, Germany in 2005. Part I appeared in Buddhism Today No. 20. This portion con-tinues to tell the story of how she and Lama Ole Nydahl first met Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism in the late 1960s and how the 16th Karmapa worked with them for development of mind and bringing Diamond Way Buddhism to the West.

Hannah Nydahl spent over thirty years doing just this. She saw it as her and Lama Ole’s responsibility, simply their specific function in this time or epoch, “to make the deep wisdom of Tibet acces- sible to our part of the world,” as she once said. She died on April 1, 2007.

This article, in its two parts, is a tribute to her work. Buddhism Today is extremely grateful to Claudia Balara for her careful and intense work in translating this article from the German and preparing it for publication here.

were students of Kalu Rinpoche and he always made it

clear that we were students of Karmapa. We didn’t really

know what that meant at that time, but Rinpoche was

always very kind to us. One day he told us that Karmapa

was going to Bhutan and there was a possibility to meet

him. We went off immediately and met Karmapa at the

Teeshta Bridge when he came down from Rumtek. He

then took us all the way to Bhutan with him. Illegally, he

hid us in his truck.

The deeper we got into the practice, the stronger our

bond to Karmapa became. He was our connection to the

dharma and we gradually started to gain more and more

understanding.

I would like to tell you a little more about how he

worked with us. His method was to throw us in the water

and we simply had to learn how to swim. One day in

Rumtek, for example, he called us and asked, “Do you

have a driver’s licence?” And when we said “yes,” he

said, “Okay, then we are going to Nepal. We don’t have

enough drivers. So why don’t you drive a car?”

“HIS WAy OF TEAcHINg WAS VERy SkILLFUL”

1� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 Hannah Nydahl

H.H the 16th Karmapa

1� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 1�

you have to know that driving a jeep in Asia is very

different from driving a car in the West. First of all, they

drive on the left side of the road. The jeeps were really old

and the roads in the Nepali mountains back then were

even worse than they are today. So we drove all the way

from Rumtek to Kathmandu.

I do not think I ever had such a hard drive in my

whole life. It was terrible! Ole was in one car and I was

driving one of the other jeeps. It took one and a half days

of constant driving. We stopped once to get some sleep,

but during the day we drove non-stop on bad roads, up

the mountains. And then Ole had the accident.

I was driving the car behind him and I saw Ole’s

car in the front going faster and faster. And it didn’t stop

when we were going in the curves, but I just stayed

behind him, having no idea what was going on. Then he

suddenly drove into the side of the mountain! (Laughs.)

It looked very dangerous. The road was really steep. I

stopped and Ole got out of the car. He said that the brakes

had entirely failed and he couldn’t stop the car anymore.

Luckily Ole was at the wheel, because he was able to

handle the situation. Karmapa had been in another car

further up front, and of course the whole convoy stopped.

The Tibetans still talk about it to this day, because Ole had

the lama who was holding the black crown sitting next to

him and had just started to say Karmapa Chenno mantras,

thinking of Karmapa.

Karmapa came over and we debated what to do.

After all, we were in the middle of the mountains. Ole

suggested tying the car to another car. Karmapa was there

during our discussion, checking everything out. It was a

crazy thing to do, all sorts of things could have gone wrong,

but it seemed like the only feasible solution. Ole would sit

in the car by himself and it would be pulled.

Karmapa came over to me and wanted to know

whether I thought it was a good idea. I asked him back,

“What do you think?” Because we trusted him so much,

we were totally confident that he knew exactly what was

going on. If he would give the go ahead, it would work

out. He said, “Okay” and so we went on and nothing hap-

pened. But it was crazy!

Karmapa would constantly check our trust in him.

Something would happen and he would always want our

feedback and find out how far we would go, how far our

trust would go. Some of these things we only understood

after many years. For example, when we met him the first

time, we gave him some LSD, in our eyes the best gift.

He politely accepted it. Many years later he talked to other

people about it, saying that LSD is not good but he accepted

it from us because he knew that then we wouldn’t take it.

When Karmapa gave us the refuge and lay promise, he

only asked us for one thing; that from now on, we weren’t

allowed to take any LSD anymore, because we took the

promise not to take any intoxicants.

His blessing was so powerful that from that moment

we never even thought of LSD again. It just vanished from

our minds, when before it was the thing. We didn’t believe

in any other drugs and had stopped smoking hash, but we

had still believed in LSD. From that moment, we never

thought of it again. Whatever Karmapa said, whatever he

blessed, would immediately work without any hesitation.

When he gave us teachings, it was never in a formal

way, but they were essential teachings. He would suddenly

ask what we thought about different things. We would

answer and then started thinking how to improve the answer

to make it sound more intelligent. But Karmapa wouldn’t

listen anymore, he just said: “First thought, best thought!”

That was his level of teaching, very direct and not

conceptual in any way.

Sometimes I had to translate for Karmapa, which

was quite tricky and very different from translating for

anyone else. I had learned the alphabet before, so this came

in very handy when we stayed in Sonada and did our

Ngondro, because the texts were in Tibetan and there

was no translator. This is how I started. We got hold of a

dictionary and with my knowledge of the alphabet, I could

read the dictionary and then translate everything word by

word. When we did prostrations, I translated the text and

we did our 100,000 repetitions. Then we came to the next

part and I translated that. We really started from scratch

and learned in that way, and slowly we also started to

gain more and more understanding.

After a few years, we had been coming and going to

Sikkim and had finished our Ngondro. Karmapa called us

up to him one day and told us, “Okay, now you go home.”

“Home? Where is home?” We thought that we would

be there forever. We had even given him our passports at

some point and we thought that was it. Then he said,

“yes, now its time for you to go home. There are other

people who will like to hear about what you have been

learning here.”

He gave us a thangka (scroll painting) of the three

main bodhisattvas: Loving Eyes, Wisdom Buddha, and

Diamond in Hand. He said, “you will need compassion,

“The deeper we got into the practice, the stronger our bond to Karmapa became. He was our connection

to the dharma, and we gradually started to gain more and more understanding.”

Kalu Rinpoche

Lama Ole and Hannah Nydahl with H.H the 16th Karmapa in the mid 70s

20 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 21

wisdom, and strength. I will give them to you symbolically

in this picture and that is what you will take with you

when you go back [to Europe].” So he sent us to the West

and said, “I will send Kalu Rinpoche first, so he can

prepare the way. He has done the same when we came

from Tibet. And then I will come.”

So we went back to Europe in the autumn of 1972.

We prepared everything the way he had told us to, and in

1974 Karmapa came for the first time himself. He arrived

in Oslo and we had prepared a car for him. you may have

seen films of Karmapa being welcomed in the US. All we

had was our small VW bus, painted, with nice curtains and

nice cushions. And that’s how we picked him and the

crew up from the airport. We spent a little time with him

in Oslo and then went over to Stockholm.

It was there when I had a dream about my mother. I

went to Karmapa and told him about her. He didn’t say

much. He just took it in. A little later, I was sitting in a room

with Karmapa in a place in Sweden where we had started

a center with Kalu Rinpoche. Someone suddenly brought

in a telephone. It was Ole’s mother who told me that my

mother had just died. She had a heart attack, so it was a

sudden death. Karmapa was sitting next to me, so he

immediately got the message and said, “your mother is

very lucky!” He told me that she had a connection

with him and that she had died in this moment was very

auspicious. Karmapa immediately held a ceremony for my

mother. One could not wish for a better death. Of course

it was difficult, but to have Karmapa there at that moment

and let him take her through, that was very special.

Right after that we went to Copenhagen, where he

gave the Black Crown Ceremony for the first time in

Europe. At that time nobody knew what Buddhism was or

who Karmapa was, but 2000 people came, among them

my father. My parents had spent their whole life together

and such a sudden death is always difficult for the one

who is left behind. My father was invited to come and

Karmapa really looked after him, explaining to him how

happy my mother was now. Of course that was difficult

for my father, who wasn’t a Buddhist, to understand and

to accept, but it helped him anyway.

Karmapa gave my mother a lot of attention. A few

days after the Black Crown Ceremony, he gave an

empowerment especially for my mother: Almighty Ocean

(Tibetan: Gyalwa Gyamtso), the red form of Loving Eyes

in union. She had a strong connection to him. Even when

she was still alive, she was very open to Buddhism.

Through Ole’s and my first hippie years and the times

in prison, she was the one who was always the most

understanding and who often saved the situation when

things were difficult. Before Karmapa came, she already

had a premonition. The last time I saw her, she told me

what I should do when she died. So there was this very

very close connection between them. The way Karmapa

took care of things with my mother was very kind. Later,

it was the same with Ole’s parents and my father. He

even came to our homes. He was caring and very compas-

sionate on all levels.

As mentioned earlier, Karmapa’s way of teaching us

was by throwing us in the water and we simply had to

swim. I have experienced that with him several times.

One time, I think it was in 1977, we were driving with

Karmapa and the whole group from Denmark to Holland in

a bus. There must have been a real draft, because when

we arrived I was really ill with what I later found out to be

pyelitis. The Buddhist center was a tower and Ole and I

were staying on the top floor of the tower. Karmapa

was staying somewhere else. I was really sick. I had fever

and cramps. It was incredibly painful. In order to go to

the toilet, one had to walk down six floors. I really thought

I was dying. I never had anything like that before and I

had no idea what it was.

They had planned a program with Karmapa for the

evening, a Karma Pakshi empowerment, and I was

supposed to translate. Karmapa called me to him and I

literally crawled to him. He smiled and said, “It is okay.

Where does it hurt?” I showed him where, he blew on it

and said, “Okay, so you go to the hospital, but first we

have the empowerment!” So the empowerment took

place and I translated for him. I don’t know how I

managed to get through.

Even under normal circumstances, translating for

Karmapa was totally different from translating for anyone

else because he taught in a quite unusual way. At that

time I had just started to translate and usually the teachings

I translated were quite structured. I had learned a little bit

about dharma by then and could follow the thoughts. you

heard some words and translated them, and it made sense.

When Karmapa taught, he would speak very poetically

and not follow any structure. It would seem like he had no

idea of what he was talking about. And you could not use

your normal intellectual way of translating. It just didn’t

work. The only chance was to forget everything and just

try to tune in to him, to trust that he would somehow be able

to work through you and the right things would come out.

During the empowerment, Karmapa explained what

to visualize and how some details appeared. There is a

part in the Karma Pakshi empowerment about the nature

of the mind that is usually never explained by any of the

lamas, Karmapa included. But on that day, Karmapa started

teaching about the nature of mind. It was a part of the

Word Empowerment where the teacher uses Mahamudra

words, which then, click, make you understand mind.

On that day he actually taught that and I had to translate it.

“Karmapa always taught the essence,

not so many detailed traditional things.

That is what he wanted to transmit and what he wanted us to use

and realize.”

22 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 2�

“The only chance was to forget everything and

just try to tune in to him, to trust that he would

somehow be able to work through you and the right things would come out.”

I’m very grateful. It was another of his skillful means.

In an extreme situation like that, one does not

function in a normal way. you can only do it if you under-

stand the teachings intuitively, that is the only way. He

gave me this incredible blessing and I managed to make it.

I don’t know what I said, but it was okay and everything

was all right. After the empowerment I was taken to the

hospital. Karmapa could put you in the most extreme

situations, and then teach you something. He did that a lot.

Quite a few people were actually slightly afraid of

Karmapa because he was so powerful. When he was

laughing, the whole house was laughing. When he frowned,

it was the end of the world. I had moments like that as

well, where it would be almost too much for me. That

was part of the purifications. At other times when he

expressed his compassion, everything he did was out of

compassion anyway, but when he showed it in the loving

way, he would melt everybody’s heart. And people, whether

they were Buddhists or not, would get the blessing.

Once I was driving a car and Karmapa was with me.

We had to go from Frankfurt all the way down to Austria.

It was a van and it was very slow. It just had no power.

No matter how much I stepped on the pedal, nothing

really happened.

We already knew at that time that Karmapa loved to

drive fast. And I had to drive him in this car, so I knew

from the beginning it would be a disaster. So I was driving

and then he started looking at me. I started to ask him

some questions and after a little while he asked me to

stop the car because he wanted to sit in the back seat.

(Laughs.) I kept on driving.

At some point when we were going uphill and were

even slower, he suddenly said, “Now pass!” And I just

couldn’t. It would have taken forever to pass the car in front

of us and I had no chance of seeing if anyone would be

coming from the other direction. Karmapa really tried to

make me do it and I just didn’t know what to do. I had

them all in the car and if something happened, it would

have been terrible. At the same time, he told me to do it.

But before we came up to the top, the car was so slow

that it was simply impossible.

Again it was a situation where he just wanted you

to do something that was totally against common sense,

but you have the trust and you just do it. I tried, but in this

situation it just didn’t work and he was already in the back

seat. The journey took, of course, much longer than it

would have taken with a faster car. But there was nothing

I could do about it and when we came to Munich, Karmapa

went into the fast car with Ole. But he was laughing about

it too. He would do these things all the time. He watched our

reaction and then laughed. It was like a teaching and

purification at the same time.

Another time Karmapa took Ole and me up to his room

in Rumtek, as he wanted to give us some gifts. He gave

me some folded clothes and I was so happy! He asked

me to put them on, so I did. It was an old fashioned

Tibetan chuba for women. Today they have a version which

is quite easy to put on. It is one piece and you turn it

around and it fits everybody. But this was an older version

and it was quite tricky to dress up in. you are meant to

wear a chuba down to your ankles. It is a sign of class, but

of course I was much taller than the average Tibetan

woman. So you can imagine how funny it looked. It was

impossible to wear it that short. But Karmapa made me

wear it and I had to walk around in it, and he just couldn’t

stop laughing. He was laughing his head off, because in

Tibetan eyes I looked funny anyway. Being so tall, they didn’t

know if I was a boy or a girl, and then with this chuba

only down to here. But it was a gift from him, so I had to

wear it. And he thought it was simply hilarious.

Karmapa’s sense of humor was amazing. When I had

to translate for him, he would sometimes crack jokes,

which of course you should not really translate. He loved

bringing me in that kind of situation in front of other people.

We were with him for twelve years and of course

you can say that he died very young. As his student, you

feel the loss. But at the same time, it is not a coincidence

when a Karmapa dies. He knows when to die and everything

fits. It is not an ordinary way of dying.

What we do regret was that we could not commu-

nicate with him more. In the beginning we didn’t really

know the language, but later there were many situations

where he would teach us. His way of teaching us was about

giving us the essence, not so much the details. This is

generally the function of a Karmapa. We will see how it will

be with Thaye Dorje, but generally the Karmapas work like

that: not so many long teachings and explanations, but

more empowerments and direct instructions.

At several occasions Karmapa called us over to him

and gave us direct mind teachings, the essence of every-

thing. For explanations about the details of the meditation,

for example the 8th Karmapa, he would send us to other

lamas. Sometimes he would send other lamas to us and

asked them to teach us something. He would then check

with them how it had gone and how our practice was

going and then checked with us. For example, in order to

learn the Phowa, he sent us to Ayang Rinpoche and said

that this would now be a good thing to learn. H.H. the 16th Karmapa and Ling Rinpoche

2� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008

Nearly everything Karmapa said, every instruction

he gave was really meaningful. Even if in that moment

you didn’t understand it, you would suddenly remember it

later, something he had said, which would make you

understand a situation. Nothing was ever coincidental

and no words or time were wasted. Everything had

meaning on some level and was a teaching of some kind.

We were lucky that he was here in Europe. I think that

the growth in the West has happened through him. We

just followed entirely what he had asked us to do. He

was very clear about what we should do in the West, how

we should practice, what our activities should be, down

to the smallest details.

One time in England he told us that he was going to

Samye Ling in Scotland and it would be good if we would

go over to Ireland. At that meeting he gave us a banknote

and said, “If you really keep your motivation completely

pure and have no self-interest, you will never lack anything.”

As a symbol for that he gave us the note. It really is like

that. When you have the right motivation and keep your

bonds, you can’t go wrong. Whatever happens will have

meaning and will be right. That is the main quality of every-

thing, and Karmapa illustrated that so strongly.

Again and again he would emphasize the importance

of not mixing activity with politics. That was one of the

things he told us so often and we didn’t know what he

was talking about at that time because we didn’t know

what he meant with politics. Later we found out what he

meant and we remembered his words. Politics means to

not keep your motivation just for the dharma and what

you do in the dharma just for the benefit of others. If you

have your own interest and start to manipulate things,

instead of thinking of the benefit for everybody, then

things become political. When the Karmapa controversy

started, these were the words that guided Ole and me.

We remembered what he had told us, saw what others were

doing, and it became clear what he had warned us about.

In 1980, Karmapa came to the West for the last

time. He had a stopover in London on his way to America.

He didn’t go to any other places there and we went on

to America to see him. It was the last time we saw him.

Ole has talked about how we met him in Woodstock

and received the last Crown Ceremony, the last time we

were with him was in Boulder. Looking back now, we can

see what was going on then, but at that time we didn’t

understand that it was the last time we would see him.

Karmapa of course knew exactly and there were already

some signs.

When we said goodbye to him, I started crying. I didn’t

know why, there was no obvious reason. It just felt

different. There were so many signs, but you don’t really

want to know it.

It was in Boulder where Karmapa gave us instructions

on what we should do in the future. After we had said

goodbye to him and we had already left, he called us back

and told us a few more things. All this happened in a

different unusual way. Since this was the last time we saw

him in that incarnation, his words stayed with us very

strongly. He also told us to come to Rumtek at a certain

time. Karmapa knew already then that he would die.

Later, I dreamed that the dakinis called me and told me

that Karmapa had died. Unfortunately it was true.

We went to Rumtek and were there when he died.

The news came during a Red Crown Ceremony with

Gyaltsab Rinpoche. We knew immediately what had hap-

pened. Many of you experienced that with Lopon Tsechu

Rinpoche because you developed a strong bond with him.

When your teacher dies, it is a mixture of feelings.

On a normal human level, of course one is sad and misses

them. That is understandable because one will not see

him in that form anymore. One is attached to that form

and misses them. At the same time there is also a unique

opportunity to be very close to your teacher when you

meditate at that time. The teacher rests in meditation and

one can receive very strong blessings from him. We expe-

rienced that in Rumtek. In the middle of all this sadness

was this enormous blessing where one could feel Karmapa’s

presence, which was beyond everything we had expe-

rienced before.

An experience like that confirms our true nature, which

is there, no matter whether we have a physical body or

not. These qualities continue. It will always stay with you

and give you strength. It shows that what you do is right

and it gives you strength for the activity. What Ole does

is Karmapa’s activity. It is what Karmapa empowered him

to do, and that is what is happening.

I remember from the first moment we met until he

died, Karmapa’s most striking feature were his eyes. When

you looked into his eyes, you were somewhere else, light

years away, in another dimension, both here and at the

same time everywhere. He would often look at Ole with

these eyes. Now that we are more aware of what you can

know when you are on the level of a Karmapa, we are

sure that he could, already in the beginning when we came

to him as hippies, see everything that is going on today.

This is why he empowered Ole.

We also had several meetings with him where he

would just look, not say anything, and just rested in space. I

don’t know how much time passed and then he blessed

us without saying anything. This blessing pervades all our

activity. It is our root, our source.

During all the years, from when Karmapa died

and until the 17th Karmapa came, the activity only grew

because he was present all the time and his directions

were so clear. In that way it didn’t change anything, that

he wasn’t physically present. Whenever anything came

up, the answers were always there, as if he was there.

When one keeps the connection through the Guru yoga,

there is always a guideline. One can be sure that things

are right and it confirms everything. you know that. you

are the confirmation of that.

The controversy was not a bad thing, I think. For us,

it worked like a filter and made it possible for things to

continue as the 16th Karmapa wanted them. He did not

want all these political games, which suddenly became

so dominant. It is not what he wished for and definitely

not what he wanted us to transfer into our countries. It is

something from Tibet we really didn’t need.

Karmapa always taught the essence, not so many

detailed traditional things. That is what he wanted to

transmit and what he wanted us to use and realize. And

really that is what it’s all about. He transmitted the

methods already. The activity of the 17th Karmapa is exactly

as the 16th Karmapa wanted, and he is exactly as he said

he would be. He said, “I will not be like this the next time.

I will be more gentle. I will study more because that’s

what the world will need at that time.”

And that’s how he is now. He’s not the huge power-

house that the 16th Karmapa was. The power is always

there of course, but the activity is a little bit different. The

Karmapas and the bodhisattvas always express the

activity that has the most benefit for all beings. That is what

we are experiencing now with the 17th Karmapa. He is

not a child anymore. He is really becoming very strong.

The funeral of H.H. the 16th Karmapa

He gave us a banknote and said, “If you really keep

your motivation completely pure

and have no self-interest, you

will never lack anything.”

2�

2� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008

Buddhists are not the only people searching for

truth. Countless scientific, religious, and philosophical

groups throughout history have sought a higher meaning

to our time on earth. Our exploration of philosophy, the

love of truth, is something that binds us all, when we are

not trapped in our more mundane pastimes. This activity

links so much of our rich history in the wars and struggles

humankind has endured. Our current wonderful health

and lifestyles are the fruit of the pursuit of truth through

modern scientific and medical methods.

The search for truth has been hugely varied. When

flicking through The Joy of Sects by Peter Occhiogrosso,

my favorite sect is a 19th century Russian group that found

a very special way to liberation through tickling, with some

even dying in the fervor. While this is an amusing story

to us, the people involved clearly believed in the goals of

their tradition. To them it was more than just a pastime, it

was a complete reality.

In search of truth people do all sorts of activities,

from the completely bizarre to the awe inspiring. There is

a japanese Buddhist school that sees running marathon

length quests every day to pray at 300 temples as their

main path to enlightenment. But can anyone objectively

say which paths are more meaningful than others?

Though some say it is politically incorrect to make these

judgments, there is no doubt that developed cultures

do compare and contrast the options that are available,

whether in public or in private. yet some feel threatened

by other traditions. Out of fear and confusion they resort,

variously, to using blind faith, proselytizing, propaganda,

absolute rule, aggression, and in extreme cases even

violence to make their ideas dominant. Critical clarity,

therefore, is encouraged in the search for truth.

How We Know What We Know There are only three ways of knowing something: direct

experience, logical explanations, and what others tell

us. The way we interpret the knowledge we get from

these three sources is key to our being able to question

the relative benefit of different traditions. Here I include

everything that can be learned, from the stories our

old grandma used to tell to the scientific experiments

in space.

First, there is what we experience directly. With our

eyes, ears, nose, body, and tongue we get a constant

stream of impressions that are shaped by our sense organs.

This information is interpreted by an awareness, which

in Buddhism is called mind. In the teachings explaining

the 3rd Karmapa Ranjung Dorje’s text on the discrim-

ination of wisdom and consciousness, each sense organ

or faculty is described as having a corresponding conscious-

ness. The moment that one sense experiences the

objects of knowledge, one sees them exactly as they

are. This non-conceptual moment can, however, be

mistaken. For instance, if one wears blue sunglasses,

one’s eye cannot see things how they are, but sees

them in an altered hue. In this way one can see that an

experience is not absolute, but rather relative. Similarly,

our senses of smell are poor compared to that of dogs,

some of which can reportedly smell ten thousand times

more intensely than humans. Our impressions are

quickly colored by our previous experiences, likes and

dislikes, hopes and fears, collectively called our disturbing

emotions.

What we experience directly however, cannot be

denied. Assuming we are not hallucinating and all our

faculties are in good working order, what we experience

cannot be taken away from us and is believed to be real.

The moment we start interpreting our experiences and

calling them names or putting them in categories (concep-

tualization), we start removing the true nature of the

experience. In Tibet, they say the finger pointing at the

moon is not the moon, meaning that we limit things once

we start interpreting them. If we name an object a cup,

then it is immediately not thought to have the potential to

be used as a pot, bowl, toilet, shovel, weapon, or countless

other things. Furthermore, while our direct experiences

cannot be denied, our explanations of what we experience

are on much shakier ground. For centuries the earth was

believed to be flat and the sun seemed to be eaten by

various gods every night because we had limited abilities

to explain what we experienced.

There is a way to build trusted understanding in the

world around us. This is the second type of knowledge,

that of logic. If we have had a bad experience of eating

blue cheese, for example, we know very well that other

cheeses with thin threads of blue and green mold going

through them are likely to be just as pungent. Now, this

interpretation isn’t based on experience of all cheeses,

but uses a basic reasoning. Indeed if we had first tasted a

fully ripened English Stilton, but then taste a delicate

and creamy Italian Dolce Latte, our interpretations could

be quite misguided. Still in general, we will make more

sense of the world around us based on our experiences

and an ounce of good logic. On top of this, if the experience

and logic are correct, when based on a proper reason

as it is explained in Buddhism, then we can have an “ah-ha”

moment, a direct experience where the truth becomes clear.

Logical reasoning can be developed to an amazing

degree. The results of basing an understanding on a

correct interpretation of another’s experience can lead to

great towers of realization and meaning. As Isaac Newton

explained, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the

shoulders of giants.” Modern science has enabled

incredible levels of understanding, to the degree that

modern theories of the universe often suggest what

should be tested and experienced directly to prove or

disprove the theories. Science, however, is not truly

science if a theory can not be tested in the realm of

experience. It then belongs in the realm of philosophy,

faiths, and religion.

Where Does Truth Lie?

Matt HuddlEston

Between Buddhism, Science, and Religion

H.H. the 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorge 2�

2�

What the Neighbors Say The third source of experience is information that we

learn, not through direct participation or rational reasoning,

but from books, the scriptures of religions, the internet,

TV news, and anecdotal stories like what our great Aunt

Molly said was good for colds. A lot of this information

is incredibly useful and meaningful, like a recipe to bake a

delicious chocolate cake. While this is based on another’s

experience and understanding, we can quickly gain the

direct and mouth watering experience ourselves. Then

we can make a host of logical conclusions about the

relative benefit of tasty but fattening cakes on our mental

and physical health.

All of this information, however, is not personally

tested or tried and is inevitably more unreliable than our

direct experience or understanding. But life would also be

awfully slow if we had to work out everything for our-

selves. So we build up experience, confidence, and trust

in certain sources and certain people. We do need to

maintain a certain healthy skepticism though, if we really

aim to find the truth and meaning in our lives. Absolute

faith and belief in the words and writings of others is

nonsensical in the modern world and doesn’t fit with our

contemporary scientific societies.

Question Question Question So why don’t we question our own faiths and beliefs more

often? Naturally we don’t like the feeling of floating in

space without guidance, unless our minds are full of a lot

of richness. We lack confidence in our own abilities and

experiences, feeling them to be less meaningful or of

less value than others. Intellectually we can also be

undermined by others who are more adept and run rings

around us with their logical arguments.

There are many tricks and pitfalls in using rational

logic. Sometimes we can simply feel safer by either

using a book to tell us what we should do or relying on

others to take the intellectual and emotional risk in finding a

new truth. The sheer desire to have richness and qualities

beyond our current experience can also lead to the adoption

of irrational practices, which lead to further confusion.

Keeping up with the joneses is quite a motivation.

Chicken or Egg? Where Science and Buddhism Meet For critical thinkers, fun starts once we start looking at

how different philosophical and religious traditions value

these three different sources of information. Clearly

some religions hold the written word above anything an

individual can experience or rationally explain. Indeed the

written word can be directly at odds with our experience,

which puts an individual in a difficult position. Here we

have little option but to try and convince others of our

truth in a somewhat desperate attempt to convince

ourselves of the leaky holes in our own arguments.

Experience is king in our scientific Western cultures,

where our amazing abilities for rational thinking are based

on methods developed by the ancient Greeks. In this

system, anything written down can be disproved by clear

reasonable thought and direct observations of our world.

Experience exposes where our rational thinking is mistaken.

This open minded but critical, skeptical, and rational

position has allowed the West to extend the life expec-

tancy of hundreds of millions of people and has enabled

whole civilizations to reach new heights of quality of life.

The modern western world view is really very similar

to Buddhism, where what is clearly experienced is more

directly true than what is written in all of the sutras, tantras,

and their commentaries. Lama Ole Nydahl often says,

“Highest truth is highest joy.” In this way, our search for

truth by being present in the moment should bring the

greatest happiness. Indeed in 1981, the year before the

16th Karmapa died, he said, “The nowness of the mind is

the practice that should be developed by you all.”

Great Buddhist masters, from Lama Ole Nydahl to

H.H. Dalai Lama, have also made a stunning call; Where

science really proves Buddhism wrong, we should trust

science. In his recent book, The Universe in a Single

Atom, the Dalai Lama calls for the Buddhist explanations

of the size and shape of the universe to be re-examined

given the amazing results from the Hubble Space Tele-

scope. The nature of the observed universe cannot be denied.

I Don’t Mind if You Don’t Matter Buddhism is particularly concerned with understanding

consciousness. Science has also turned a keen eye to

this pursuit. As pointed out in the introduction to The Road

to Reality - A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe

by Roger Perose, the so-called mind-body problem is

the key to all our philosophy. The body and outer world

are physical, having all sorts of qualities that can be

measured like weight, color, energy. The mind is clear

and aware, experiencing everything that happens but

having no measurable qualities. Indeed, even though mind

is experiencing, it can be seen to be completely empty.

Mind and matter are so different from each other; it’s

clear that they can’t interact. But as I type a few more

words on this keyboard that follow my thoughts, I can see

that they clearly do.

The solution to this conundrum in Buddhism comes

in the four main Buddhist philosophical schools: Vaibhasika,

Sautrantika, Cittamatra, and Madhyamaka. The first two

correspond closely to the traditional scientific view: that

everything is said to be real, made of particles, and moving

all the time. Mind is also made of the smallest real

moments. Unfortunately this doesn’t help to explain how

mind and matter communicate. The Cittamatra is the

famous mind only school, saying that we can only

overcome the mind-body problem if we say that

everything is mind, but the moments of that mind are

also real. In the Madhyamaka, we can see that this is a

limited view and we need to go beyond, where form

and emptiness are seen as inseparable. The great

Kagyu master Saraha summed this up when he said,

“Grasping existence is like cattle. Grasping non-existence

is even more stupid!”

These differing viewpoints help us to explain the

experiences we have and can also, somewhat slowly,

lead to a realization of the true nature of reality. Science,

at this time, is reluctant to examine the possibility that

mind and matter may be intimately linked, although there

are hints and suggestions from fields as diverse as string

theory, quantum computing, and neuropsychology. The

view that the brain generates mind, with no direct evidence

to date that supports this, is an assumption where

science seems to have a blind spot. There will no doubt

be large developments in the future.

The Search for Meaning—Old Traditions and the New Age

So where does that leave huge the array of traditional

religions and the various more recent practices that are

lumped together into the category of New Age beliefs?

Certainly, a clear explanation of our experiences and the

The Role of Compassion The four Tibetan Buddhist schools emphasize different aspects of the path to enlightenment. In the Kagyu and Nyingma

schools, practice is key. In the Gelupa and to some extent the Sakya traditions, rational debate and analysis is primary.

So how should we balance the different aspects of practice within our own lives? In the end, no amount of studying

will on its own bring about liberation and enlightenment.

We need to meditate to be able to clarify our perceptions of what is experienced. Beyond anything we can read

pointing out the nature of mind, in the end it is up to us to realize it. The purpose of Buddhism is to bring a permanent

happiness. While wisdom teachings point to the nature of reality and truth, or the lack of it, they are also felt to be dry,

dogmatic, and uncompassionate. Indeed they can stir some quite angry reactions. To some, they fail to see the

meaning and happiness that some people derive from their tickling festivities and dream catchers.

This is where compassion is key and must grow in equal measure with wisdom, so we can develop the skills to

help others see meaning beyond what is experienced. If what people do is not directly damaging to themselves

or others, this already a wonderful step in the right direction. If we are to wake up from the dream of irrational explanations

of our wonderful world, we need to make it a happy dream. Perhaps a little more humor and like our Russian

friends, moderate tickling would be as good as any a place to start.

“The nowness of the mind is the practice that should be developed by you all.” H.H. 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

2� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008

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repositioning ley lines, and so on. While these may produce

interesting results, they point to what mind can experience,

rather than what mind is in itself. In this way, Buddhism

would be skeptical of anything that offers a permanent

refuge in the conditioned world, as it won’t last. Science

requires rational logical explanations that can be inde-

pendently verified before an agreed truth is found.

The Buddhist view of other traditions is rather compas-

sionate and pragmatic. Where they are humanistic in

their approach, other traditions are beneficial. Buddhism

certainly doesn’t seek to convert others. It sees benefit

in people being true to their own culture. Buddhists should

not take it upon themselves to undermine other people’s

confidence in their gods if adherents are generally happy

and not overtly harming others.

In Buddhism, all the traditional 360 non-Buddhist

schools are said to hold wrong views as the great

Kagyu-Nyingma teacher Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche explained

in The Bardo Guidebook, “Their tenets cannot ultimately

withstand the scrutiny of reasoning and logic. Wrong views

are incorrect in the sense of not being in accord with

the nature of things.” This means that we should apply a

strong rational basis to all the offerings that we see at the

spiritual fair.

A student in Buddhism needs many qualities, including

enthusiasm, to learn and especially to use the teachings,

test them in the world, and to make them a part of one’s

experience. This takes a lot of effort, to really engage

one’s brain and think, “Is this right? Does it fit with my

experience? How are these teachings relevant in the 21st

century?” In the end, even with the warm glow of con-

fidence a teacher gives us, it still depends on each of us

to realize where truth lies.

Buddhism isn’t science. It describes a path to real-

ization and concludes things about the nature of reality

that are beyond the current realm of scientific method.

While scientific theories apparently become more

Buddhist, this doesn’t mean that science will eventually

become Buddhism. There is a meeting point between

the two traditions, where Buddhism can help science to

develop objective methods for the study of conscious-

ness and expand its view of what is possible. Science can

verify that Buddhist methods and philosophy are true in

all times and places, and then help to make these methods

for happiness accessible to all.

mind-matter problem is needed by any complete system

to be credible.

There are many New Age practices that seek not to

explain anything, but to gain particular experiences, be

they spiritual insights or special abilities, like using spirit

guides to know the past or the future, insightful dreams,

About Matt Huddleston

Matt Huddleston met Diamond Way Buddhism in 1994, while studying climate physics at the University of Cambridge. As an antidote to the ivory towers, in 1997 he moved to Nepal to teach math at a high school and experience Buddhism in its native environment. Back in the UK, he has helped establish Buddhist centers in Reading and Exeter and is now based in London. Since 2002 he has traveled through North America, Europe, and South America giving talks on Buddhism. In any spare time he likes stand-up comedy, motorbikes, and having fun in snow.

“Grasping existence is like cattle. Grasping non-existence is even more stupid!”Saraha

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Saraha

“To practitioners of the Karma Kagyu school, the term transmission is of vital importance.”

Transmissionin DiamonD Way BuDDhism

by Manfred Maier

To practitioners of the Karma Kagyu school, the term

transmission is of vital importance. This is seen in the

term Kagyupa: the syllable Ka means transmission. Karma

Kagyu is the living tradition of the four transmissions,

which Tilopa received from the Indian masters Nagarjuna,

Ngagpopa, Lawapa, and the Dakini Kalpa Sangmo. The

experience of this transmission as the ultimate insight into

the nature of mind was passed on by realized masters

over many centuries, in a close exchange between

teacher and student. It is for this reason that it is still alive

today. When we meditate with our friends in the center,

we connect into this stream of realization.

Students encounter a variety of methods and explana-

tions within Buddha’s complete teachings. These teachings

correspond to the different potentials and perspectives

of various people, and therefore there are many possibilities

for learning and development.

My teacher in secondary school often wrote the follow-

ing lines into the notebooks of his students, “There are

three ways to learn. Learning by experience: this is the hard-

est. Learning by reflection: this is the noblest. Learning

by imitation: this is the fastest.”

When learning by experience, action precedes full

understanding. Since the way to the goal

is not clear, one simply tries some-

thing out. It is like

an experiment which one is not certain will bring the

desired result. If everything goes well, one has made a

step on the way. If it goes wrong, one is at least richer by

experience.

Learning by reflection may help one avoid making

mistakes, but thoughts are only a small fraction of our

totality. It often takes a lot of time until the understanding

is transformed into experience.

When one learns by imitation, one learns from an already

functioning example. The steps of trial and error and

of contemplation were already performed by the master

whom one is imitating. Imitating others is not a good idea

when attempting technological development; most creative

people like to work on their own ideas and innovations.

But imitation is the best way to learn about human abilities

and qualities, since it gives the fastest results. It is a

spontaneous way of learning that, after recognizing certain

qualities, aims directly at transformation. If the learner

chooses a perfect example, one is largely protected against

confusion and can look forward to an inspiring phase

of learning.

The example of Buddha’s life shows the first two

possibilities as a part of his own story of accomplishment.

He practiced with many masters in the woods of

Northern India, but he

himself with the absolute aspect of his mind, so he could

go through to an unbroken experience of highest insight

and joy.

If we wish to follow this way of showing the goal,

then an experienced teacher is essential. He is the source

of inspiration and transmission and makes it possible for

a student to discover the unconditional qualities and abilities

within oneself, again and again. In this case, teacher

does not mean anything personal, but is an example of

the unconditioned experience on two legs. By looking into

“For a living transmission in the

understanding of the Diamond Way

to happen, different fortunate conditions

are required. In short, it is mainly about the

connection to the outside, to the teacher,

who shows us the nature of mind and to the inside, to the

perceiver.”

realized that their teachings were not able to lead him

beyond concepts and ideas. As an ascetic, he tried to break

through to the ultimate experience by absolute deprivation,

until he became aware that the mind does not work properly

in a half-famished body.

The third kind of learning was not known at his time:

the one of imitation or identification, as we now call it.

He himself was the one who would bring this method into

the world by his own accomplishment.

In Buddha’s teaching it is clear what should be learned;

liberation and enlightenment is the goal. Enlightenment is

an unconditional state of mind beyond thoughts and ideas,

which expresses itself as joy, fearlessness, and love and

appears spontaneously and effortlessly for the good of all.

The question of how we develop towards enlighten-

ment has many aspects and can be roughly divided into two

categories. The first is working with conditions that lead to

the freedom of mind. These are positive actions, good

impressions, compassion, and wisdom. This is the step-by-

step way of changing habits and views to gain more

insight and an ultimate experience. The second group is

being introduced into the absolute by a master, who

opens the way of identification, showing the goal itself,

where transmission is of fundamental importance.

A story from Tilopa’s life tells us about this: One day,

while Tilopa was studying the Prajnaparamita teaching, an

old woman appeared in front of him. She became inter-

ested while looking at the texts and asked, “My son,

what are you doing there?” He answered, “I am study-

ing.” She raised her eyebrows and said, “yes, the teach-

ings are profound, but the way is hard and leads through

many lifetimes. If you really want to understand their

meaning, I know a way that is fast and has few obstacles.”

Tilopa realized she was a dakini and answered, “yes, I very

much wish to accomplish the direct experience of the

teachings.” She then showed him the Mandala of High-

est joy as a power field of energy and light in front

of him in space. That way she gave him a direct trans-

mission of the blissful nature of his mind

and taught him how to identify

�2 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 ��

the teacher’s mind, one looks into a mirror of one’s own

mind. The two are not different in their absolute expression.

The process of transmission, which has a special

importance in the Diamond Way and the Great Seal

(Mahamudra), can be encountered in various areas of life.

It happens every time an exchange includes a sharing of

experiences beyond words. Every expression of a physical

or mental ability becomes a direct experience for the

attentive student, when one recognizes these qualities in

the example of the teacher. If the student’s conditions are

good, one can directly transfer what is shown and in that

way, make big leaps in his development. If human connec-

tions are supported by confidence and openness, whole

levels of experience can be shared. If one has a lot of joy,

it is easily awakened in others. If one is loving, this

quality becomes an immediate experience for others.

For a living transmission in the understand-

ing of the Diamond Way to happen, differ-

ent fortunate conditions are required. In

short, it is mainly about the con-

nection to the outside, to

the

teacher, who shows us the nature of mind and to the inside,

to the perceiver.

Buddha taught that all sentient beings have the buddha

nature. That which is conscious and perceives, the mind,

is open like space, radiantly clear and without boundaries.

Buddha’s experience is to recognize the nature of the

experiencer in this way. If our mind were free of ignorance

and the mixed feelings that stem from ignorance, all its

unconditioned aspects would spontaneously and effort-

lessly manifest. Whereas limited consciousness is trapped

in liking and not liking and is scattered between past and

future, the liberated mind rests spontaneously and effort-

lessly in the here and now. This is what we get mirrored

by the teacher, the spontaneous mind beyond concepts and

attachments. This is in the end, our

timeless nature.

Often the mind is com-

pared to a diamond:

indestructible,

radiant, and clear. The more the diamond of the mind is freed

from obscuring veils, the more one becomes aware of

one’s own ultimate nature. The connection to the inside

awakens. If we then meet the unshakably joyful space of

the mind of our teacher, we discover the same qualities in

our mind and transmission has already happened. From

this moment onward, something is awakened that we are

not able to forget so easily. A view of ultimate importance

is established. Some experience it as a second birth or like

falling deeply in love. The life stories of our transmission

lineage show inspiring examples for this.

From the recognition of the shown goal, there is more

and more a certainty from which trust and openness

naturally arises. If the mind is free from doubts, devotion

can develop. The more of our totality we use, the faster

we achieve our goal. The transmission of the teacher

leads the student to more autonomy, because there is no

greater independence than the growing trust into the

indestructible space of our mind. If we want to look directly

at the perceiver and make that our main practice, trans-

mission is essential.

Although the nature of mind is exactly the same for

Buddha and all humans, this is often not recognized,

because of ignorance. Everyone all over the world knows

what he or she experiences and whether he or she likes it

or not, but only the very few know who experiences all

of that. just like the eye, the mind perceives and experi-

ences the outer world, but is barely, if at all, aware of itself.

Now, if like Tilopa we want to look directly at the expe-

riencer, the core of our practice, then transmission is

essential. The teacher is necessary, as the holder of the

ultimate insight and power. If we look at the history of

the realized ones and pay attention to their teachers as

the source of inspiration, we can see that transmission

can happen in myriad ways.

Besides the formal transmission by empowerments

into the different aspects of mind, like Highest joy, Wis-

dom Buddha, or Diamond in Hand, there is the transmission

of the yogi, also called accomplisher. Free from an outer

form, here the teacher represents the freshness of mind.

By the close connection to his students, he is always

ready to show them the mirror, wherever their openness

appears. That can happen while running into each other

between toilet and lecture hall, during the quiet sharing of

the same space, or whilst driving fast on the highway.

Even if the teacher is far away traveling, the student

can rest in the transmission of the teacher and can always

gain new power and insight. With each transmission

and inspiration, the level of experience is raised and

the trust into the mind is strengthened. The richness

of mind is the goal and, at the same time, the way.

To keep this certainty and experience in the

troubled waters of daily life is part of our practice

and at the same time the best way to express

gratitude to our teacher. Here it is useful to

remember Lama Ole’s teaching on transmission:

“Highest truth is highest function. The more

there is love and joy, insight and power; the

closer we are to truth.”

Manfred Maier Manfred Maier lives in the Diamond Way Buddhist Center in Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, where he works as a music teacher in the local schools. A student of Lama Ole Nydahl since 1982, Manfred also travels with his wife, Beate, and gives many talks on Buddhism.

“Even if the teacher is far away traveling, the student can rest in the transmission of the teacher and can always gain new power and insight. With each transmission and inspiration, the level of experience is raised and the trust into the mind is strengthened. The richness of mind is the goal and, at the same time, the way.”

�� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 ��

�� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 ��

or primordial nature. Shes is mind which knows this

primordial nature of phenomena perfectly. This is the

meaning of ye shes in general, as explained in different

treatises. Sometimes it can be understood as omniscience

and sometimes as the realization of emptiness. There are

different meanings according to the different treatises.

From the path of accumulation to the tenth Bodhisattva

Level, it is possible to understand primordial wisdom.

From a general perspective, the nature of shes rab is

mental events. Its function is to remove doubts and to

focus on objects of examination. So through its own power,

it can distinguish what is to be done and what is to be

rejected. This wisdom is in the mind stream of all kinds of

beings, Buddhists as well as non-Buddhists. Therefore,

there is a big difference between wisdom and primordial

wisdom.

If we meditate, how does this benefit others?If we cultivate completely pure meditation, we will even

be able to obtain the state of a buddha, the supreme

benefit for ourselves and others, without difficulties. The

one who can benefit others best is the Buddha himself.

Therefore, huge benefit for others arises through medita-

tion. In particular, the way in which meditation benefits

others, depends on the type of meditation.

Many non-Buddhists believe that what we experience is unchangeable fate or at least not caused by our-selves, but by something or somebody else. What exactly is the difference between the Buddhist and the non-Buddhist view of karma and destiny?

The difference between the Buddhist and non-Bud-

dhist view is whether one sees or not, that all ways in

which happiness and suffering appear depend on one’s

own positive or negative actions of body, speech, and

mind. Karma, according to the Buddhist system, means

that beings bring about various experiences of happiness

and suffering in accordance with their positive and nega-

tive actions of body, speech, and mind. Moreover, they

are born in a place that corresponds to the accumulations

of karma of the respective kind of beings. They experi-

ence feelings of happiness and suffering together with a

world created according to the respective kind.

But recently in America, a boy called Andrew was born

without a cerebrum and, until he died at the age of five,

was watching movies and laughing. The doctors who

examined him explained that he, who has a head but no

brain, was a real human being. After that, everywhere

people without cerebrum appeared. Moreover, the girl

Shanti Devi, born on October 16th, 1926 in New Delhi,

India, could clearly remember five previous lives. Many

cases like this became known everywhere around the

world. For example, it is well known that, according to

statistics, in 1992 there were 1,300,000 such cases in

America alone. Based on the findings of brain research, it

became known that consciousness depends on an entity

different from the cerebrum.

In 1972, Dr. R. A. Moody examined 150 people, and in

his books, such as Life after Life and The Light Beyond,

he explained that people gained confidence that there is

still something which remains after death. His primary

proof is that people close to death have the experience of

a consciousness separated from the body, so-called near-

death-experiences (NDE). The English scientist john

Eccles, Nobel Prize winner in 1963, wrote in the research

paper that won him the prize,”What mutually links

together the neurons and the formless is a component of

consciousness.” And, “After the death of the cerebrum,

consciousness, which is non-material, still remains; it

does so uninterruptedly.” Dr. john von Neumann, who is

very famous all around the world and praised by scien-

tists with the sharpest minds among all the people in the

world said, “Within the human body, there is a Self or an I

which is non-material con-sciousness. It is dominated by

the cerebrum of the body. From the distance, it perceives

things.” Moreover, based on the progress in quantum

physics and other disciplines, it has become well known,

just like the wind all around the world, that consciousness

is of a different essence than the brain.

What is wisdom in a Buddhist sense? What is the difference between the terms wisdom (She Rab, pronounced: sherab) and primordial wisdom (Ye Shes, pronounced: yeshe)?

The word for primordial wisdom, ye shes, consists of

two syllables, ye and she. ye means from the beginning,

As for their relationship, mind and consciousness, the

indestructible continuum which goes from one lifetime

to the next is called primordial mind. It is a state which is

completely beyond anything. It depends on the channels

and energies of the various favorable and unfavorable

rebirths of the body in each successive life. The subtle

primordial mind mentioned above is activated by these

channels and energies, and coincidentally emanates coarse

mind. In the beginning ordinary beings, who have not

yet trained their mind stream by means of listening and

meditating, are not able to recognize this.

In a normal human body, mind’s location is the wind

in the central channel on the heart level. Coarse mind,

which has been brought forth from the subtle primordial

mind, conceives of forms, sounds and so on. Mostly, this

depends on nerve cells in the brain; from that place, it

becomes involved with objects. From the Medical Tantras,

“The nerves of the sense faculties, which cause the sense

objects to arise, depend on the brain.”

What is this brain like, the object on which coarse mind

depends? The nerve cells, a net of nerve particles, are

called Chu Rtsa in Buddhism. The brain stem is many sin-

gle subtle nerves, called neurons, joined together. For

example, as soon as ink is attached to the edge of a

fountain pen or brush pen, one may draw whatever pic-

ture one desires. In the same way, coarse mind, accompa-

nied by winds that are in essence unhindered, and based

on these nerves, appears as having the ability to cling to

objects and to distinguish them. When people die,

coarse mind dissolves into subtle mind. Through the

power of the wind which also brings forth subtle mind, it

moves to other places and takes hold of a different body

as its base. As explained, again it emanates coarse mind.

In spite of this, some scholars maintain that mind and

brain are one or even that the mind is a quality of the

brain. For example, the mechanical and materialistic view-

point of the English philosopher Hobbes, “Concerning the

material foundation of the psyche and all the movements

of mind, they are truly existent within the human brain.”

Also, the French Dr. Augustin Cabanès explained, “Mind

consciousness is a thing arisen from the movements of the

cerebrum. It is like for example bodily fluids emerging from

the liver.” Therefore, many people say that if there is no

cerebrum, one should leave the examination of the mind,

because then it is impossible that there is an essence

to consciousness.

Questions and Answers

Editor’s Note:Editor’s Note: What is presented here is a continuation What is presented here is a continuation

of teachings by Mipham Rinpoche that appeared in of teachings by Mipham Rinpoche that appeared in

Buddhism TodayBuddhism Today No. 19. Because of a stroke, Mipham No. 19. Because of a stroke, Mipham

Rinpoche is unable to speak. Therefore, he does all his Rinpoche is unable to speak. Therefore, he does all his

teaching by writing on a board, in response to questions. teaching by writing on a board, in response to questions.

For this article he wrote down everything in Tibetan For this article he wrote down everything in Tibetan

and it was then translated into English. Helping with the and it was then translated into English. Helping with the

interview and translating this text were Gabi Coura and interview and translating this text were Gabi Coura and

Khenpo Karma Ngedon.Khenpo Karma Ngedon.

What is the difference between the mind and the brain? What is their connection?

Mind is something formless and unobstructed, which

has the characteristics of being empty, clear, cognizant,

and conscious. The brain is a material form which is made

of atoms. Therefore, there is a big difference between

these two.

Mipham Rinpoche

“Moreover, based on the progress in quantum physics and other disciplines, it has become well known, just like the wind all around the world, that consciousness is of a different essence than the brain.”

Mipham Rinpoche and Lama Ole Nydahl

�� BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008

pure path of methods, the positive actions in accordance

with the Dharma, is like good health. And all the friends

who also practice this path of methods are called the

Sangha jewel. Basing oneself on these jewels in the

appropriate way enables one to become free from all

suffering and to obtain all happiness, the state of perfect

Buddhahood. This is what is special about the Buddha’s

teachings.

How can we influence our karma in a positive way?Investigate and examine carefully the unmistaken

methods for generating benefit and happiness for our-

selves and others. At the same time see what the path

towards generating temperate and ultimate benefit is and

in what manner one needs to abandon bad behavior

not in accordance with the practice of these methods. Finally

understand the need to practice with body, speech, and

mind whatever is in accordance with them. If we hold on

to the positive, we will see for ourselves what is benefi-

cial and what is not, at all times and in all situations. By

being our own teacher and our own pilot and always

concentrating on our understanding, we will easily become

able to change our actions of body, speech, and mind into

a positive direction.

Are mind and consciousness the same?It is correct to say that mind and consciousness are

the same.

The answers to these questions, as well as those The answers to these questions, as well as those

presented in presented in Buddhism TodayBuddhism Today, No.19, were composed , No.19, were composed

by the one named Ju Mipham Tulku during five mornings by the one named Ju Mipham Tulku during five mornings

and evenings, based on what he heard and on a multitude and evenings, based on what he heard and on a multitude

of historical texts. May it be auspicious! of historical texts. May it be auspicious!

Non-Buddhists have many different positions. One can

organize them in two kinds: those maintaining that all worlds

arose by themselves and those maintaining that they

were made by a supreme creator such as Shiva. If one

asserts the first position, namely that everything is self-

arisen, it becomes impossible that there is either a

method for beings to improve their way of life in the

desired direction towards joy and happiness, or a method

to stop the conditions for undesired suffering. So any

kind of effort becomes useless, because everything arises

by itself.

According to the second viewpoint, a creator made the

inanimate outer world, things without feelings like the

continents, which exist for a long time and are free from

sickness, and at the same time animate beings, like

humans, that have feelings and short lives tormented by

sickness, trouble, and suffering. Also, during this short life,

happiness should come about effortlessly. Therefore, in

brief, the supreme creator, who brought about the many

sufferings of the world, should have been created by

another creator. There are also many other subjects to be

discussed or questions to be examined, such as whether

or not the creator has complete power to create everything,

but we cannot go into detail here.

If we go back to the Buddhist understanding of karma,

for example, just as the wellbeing of a body, whether free

from sickness or having sickness, depends on one’s

health, all happiness and suffering depends on one’s posi-

tive or negative actions. Moreover, just as with the

experiences of positive actions, the health of a body free

from sickness and in a good shape will be exhausted one

day. For a person who is planning more positive actions,

the Buddha jewel, the one who shows the path of the

teachings, is like a doctor. The Dharma jewel, the completely

“If we hold on to the positive, we will see for ourselves what is beneficial and what is not, at all times and in all situations.”

About Mipham Rinpoche

Mipham Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1949. In 1959, many Tibetans fled the country because

practicing the dharma became impossible. Because he was seriously ill at the time, Rinpoche was

allowed to stay in his monastery, junyung Gompa. He spent thirteen years in retreat learning Bud-

dhist philosophy and practicing meditation. Later, he worked on rebuilding the monastery. Having

suffered a stroke, he left Tibet in 1994 for medical treatment. He is a scholar and master of the

Nyingma tradition, and he teaches in the traditional style. He is the father of H.H. the 17th Gyalwa

Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. He now lives with his wife Mayumla at the Karma Kagyu International

Retreat Center in Karma Guen, Spain.

Book Review

By Josh Greene

LIfE BEfORE LIfEjim B. Tucker, M.D.

256 pages

St. Martin’s Press (2005)

ISBN 0-312-32137-6

Life Before Life by jim B. Tucker is about an investigation

into the memories of children who claim to have had

previous lives. Dr. Tucker is a child psychiatrist at the Univer-

sity of Virginia in the Division of Personality Studies. For

the past forty years, members of that department have com-

piled over 2,500 case studies examining the phenomenon

of mostly very young children who talk about a previous life

from a first person perspective. The cases have attributes

ranging from unusual play, behaviors, emotions, and specific

phobias to recognition of people and places that seem

to be related to the life and death of a previous personality.

The most remarkable cases involve memories that were

checked against independent sources and were shown to

correspond to an actual deceased person.

The book is definitely not a dry scientific collection of

case studies, nor is it simply various anecdotal stories or

new age pseudo-science articles. Rather it is a very pragmatic

and readable account, written for the layperson, about

ongoing research by the University of Virginia. It is a guided

presentation of the cases that have been conducted using

impartial scientific methods. The book reads not as an

argument for or against reincarnation but examines what

those arguments are and what documented evidence is

available. The writer asks the reader to use common sense

and reason as he describes the various points of the cases.

He does not offer up a scientific theory for what happens

when we die. He does, however, try to interpret the evi-

dence and then stops short of making any conclusions, leav-

ing that to the reader.

It is interesting that the author uses many examples

similar to descriptions and analogies we have heard from

Karma Kagyu teachers to describe the possible mechanisms

of reincarnation. One such analogy used in the book,

that of the mind and body relationship, is similar to that of

an electrical signal and television set. The mind, like a

signal, is not created by the brain but instead is transmitted

and transformed by it.

In the book, the author examines statistics from the

University’s database of cases. One finding shows a posi-

tive correlation between previous personalities who were

meditators and an increased awareness of the period in

between lives by those same children. These children gave

much more detailed descriptions of where they were,

who they met, and what they saw in between lives.

Many of the cases in Life Before Life involve violent

deaths resulting from accidents or crimes. In some cases,

there are birthmarks or birth defects on the child that spe-

cifically match wounds that were usually fatal on the

body of a previous personality. These facts, along with knowl-

edge of cause and effect, lead me to consider that most

of these children have these memories and physical markings

due to especially strong impressions from previous lives.

Despite this, the majority of the children eventually stop

talking about their previous experiences and go on to lead

regular lives.

One of the assets of this book is that its logical scien-

tific style fits well with the teachings of the Buddha. He

taught the way things are, including how reincarnation

manifests. However as Buddhists, we are not required to

blindly believe in anything, including reincarnation. Instead,

Buddha encouraged us to check things out and reach our

own conclusions.

For the reader who has meditated and has confidence

that mind is not limited to this body and this lifetime, Life

Before Life will fit well with Buddhist teachings on reincar-

nation. For the reader who is just starting down the path

of meditation, this book offers compelling evidence that

the perceiver listening through one’s ears and looking

through one’s eyes may not be limited to the confines of the

body. This book may give new practitioners some confidence

that reincarnation is not simply an exotic eastern idea,

but something that it is within the realm of measurable

scientific inquiry.

��

�0 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 �1

GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF

MEditationBy TASSO kALLIANIOTIS

t o be on the Buddhist path is to train our mind so that we are not overwhelmed by the habitual tendencies that govern it. In an endless

continuity of moments we constantly think, say, and do things that are driven by what we have thought, said, and done before. Although the potential for complete freedom and choice is always there, we find ourselves, more often than not, lacking the ability to keep disturbing thoughts and feelings under control.

Acquired behaviors from the beginning of this life—

and according to the Buddhist view, over countless

lifetimes—heavily influence not only what we say and

do but also how we perceive and interpret every-

thing. Enlightenment, the goal of every Buddhist, is to

perfect these two aspects of our being: our awareness

and our behavior. This is traditionally referred to as the full

development of wisdom, compassion, and skillful means.

So to be a practicing Buddhist is to train so that we

may gain the necessary control over our mind in order

to recognize its nature and be able to act accordingly,

with spontaneity and freedom. Meditation is described

as the central pillar of such practice because it bridges

practical experience with insight and brings awareness to

our every thought, word, and action. In order for this

highest result to manifest, we need to apply the methods,

passed on for the last two and a half millennia, as prop-

erly and as precisely as we can. This is no small feat. But

as we begin to work with Buddhist meditation, repetition

and consistent joyful effort are the key to improvement,

development, and finally perfection.

There are thousands of meditation practices that

constitute the complete Buddhist transmission across all

lineages and traditions. Regardless of which one(s) we

choose, with the guidance of our teacher, there is a set of

guiding principles that applies to all of them and which we

are instructed to follow. They are an inherent part of

every practice we do and we are advised to bring them

to mind and develop them in every meditation session.

The Right AttitudeFor a practitioner of the Great Way, Mahayana, as well

and the Diamond Way, Vajrayana, enlightenment is more

of a side affect than the goal. The goal of a bodhisattva

is to liberate all beings, to help them go beyond their

Meditation Basicslimitations and reach buddhahood. However the only way

this can be done is by developing and perfecting the

skillful means and wisdom necessary to accomplish this

task. One’s own benefit is simply a stepping stone for the

accomplishment of this ultimate goal: the benefit of all

beings. This enlightened attitude, Bodhicitta, is the

fundamental motivation behind every effort we put into

working with our mind.

Seen from a purely analytical approach, how is it

possible to overcome our fixation on the idea that we are

single, distinct, and separated from all others, if we

continue to focus only on our own benefit? All the things

that separate us from others are incidental, transient, and

interdependent: our thoughts, feelings, tendencies, body,

ideas, background. What we all have in common is

constant and exactly the same in everyone: our abilities to

think, feel, and experience. All beings share the same

nature and are part of one totality. We all are the endless

expression of mind’s limitless qualities.

A pragmatic approach to this guiding principle is

meaningful and touching. One can see beings everywhere

constantly seeking refuge and happiness in things they

cannot ultimately depend. This brings confusion and

disappointment, makes joy dependent and conditioned,

and leads to varying degrees of distress. If we don’t take

it upon ourselves to do something about it, who will?

Devotion and TrustOur teachers are our deepest inspiration. They embody goal,

teaching, support, methods, and protection. They show

us that what we have set out to accomplish is doable.

Always supportive, they explain things to us over and over,

patiently and lovingly. They are the highest principle, Lama,

our direct contact with enlightenment, our reference point.

Through their guidance, our every step becomes more

meaningful, more aware, and more solid. If it were not for

them, we would not have the opportunity to work with our

mind in a way that brings lasting results.

One of the most essential Kagyu wishes reads,

“Devotion is the head of meditation.” The constant growth

of unwavering gratitude for the precious opportunity to

use these methods and for the one that brings the teachings

to us, gives us the trust necessary to further our development.

UnderstandingAlthough there is always benefit and progress towards our

development when we sit to do our practice, the results

of our meditation are maximized when balanced with a

good understanding of what we are doing. Clarity about

the goal, as well as the methods themselves, prevents us

“We walk away from the cushion with

thankfulness and the clear understanding that the

purpose of the meditation is to remind us that we

are more than the limited set of conditions with

which we identify.”

�2 BUDDHISM TODAY | SPRING/SUMMER 2008 ��

from considering our goal a distant and remote state, taking

our meditation experiences too seriously, losing focus, or

straying down a different path.

Enlightenment is full and complete awareness beyond

all concepts in every moment. The present moment is

all that ex\ists. The past is only a memory and the future

has not happened yet. When we approach the meditation

cushion, it is not to become enlightened in the future but

right now in this sitting. The now is what we are always

experiencing. This understanding brings the goal closer

and makes it a real and immediate possibility because we

recognize that we are not trying to acquire anything or

reach a destination somewhere else. We are developing

mind’s inherent qualities, which are already present. The

buddha forms we meditate on are the embodiment of

these qualities and are an exceptionally skillful way of

keeping us inspired and focused by manifesting in a way

we can relate to them.

ConfidenceThe meditation that we do has been given by someone

who has used it successfully and achieved the full results.

It has been passed on and brought to us in an unbroken

chain of transmission over the last 2500 years. We are the

current end point of a precious garland of accomplished

meditators who began at the very same place we are now.

Their achievements and vast activity are a testament that

these methods simply work.

Considering this and developing the right attitude,

devotion, trust, and understanding allows confidence to

arise and continue to grow. Confidence in the goal,

methods, and support that is fueled and inspired by the

realized teacher brings the recognition that the path we

are on is unshakable and completely dependable. This

eliminates all doubts that prevent us from reaching our

objective and gives us the strength and courage to overcome

any obstacle that may appear on the way.

Beyond Hope and fearSo, with all this in mind we sit to do our practice. From

the moment we begin our meditation we simply go

through it exactly as taught following the instructions we

have been given and without any deviation. Still, we

are not perfect yet and therefore, all existing habits continue

to show themselves and seek every opportunity to

display their distracting abilities. They are powered by the

momentum they have built up through the attention we

give them.

Criticism may arise and we think, “I am too distracted,”

or, “I’m not meditating well today.” Our tendency to hope

comes up and we may think, “It felt so good last session,

I want that again this time.” Finally, fear may arise and

we may become weary or even frightened of purification.

These are exactly the habitual tendencies we are training

to overcome. They only live through our attention, and

so the best remedy is to starve them of this attention.

It is natural for thoughts and feelings to appear.

That’s what mind does. But what do we do when these

thing come up during meditation? How do we deal with

them? We simply go back to where we were in the

meditation, keeping our focus where it needs to be to

the best of our ability. We add more distractions to our

practice the moment we think, “Oh I’m distracted. I

shouldn’t do that.” So we diligently and continuously bring

our attention back to the meditation without a second

thought. Then we notice over time how our distracting

thoughts become fewer and our mind becomes more

focused and stable, satisfied and joyful.

Clarity and AlertnessEspecially when we are doing formless meditation, like

following the breath, or long mantra repetitions, we

may easily find ourselves in a dull, cloudy, or sleepy state.

The purpose of such practices is not to simply complete

a certain number of repetitions or minutes of sitting

quietly. It is to develop stability and to concentrate on the

quality, or qualities that the mantra activates. In order

for this to happen we must maintain as much clarity as

possible. We need to remain alert to what is going on

in our mind so that we can address distraction as soon as

it appears. In such cases we can simply let go and return

our focus to the meditation.

If this is too difficult to maintain, then the best solution

is to keep our sessions short but frequent. The aim is

quality not quantity. It is often advised that we may also

bring our meditation to completion when we are at a point

where we feel good about it and have good clarity and

alertness. This way we avoid enforcing habits we don’t

need, by just trying to stay awake for example, and will be

more willing and inspired to come back to it.

ThankfulnessAlthough our meditation session may come to a conclusion,

our practice does not. We remember that we didn’t do it

for ourselves alone. We extend every positive impression

to all beings everywhere, so that we make use of them

immediately in the best possible way. We realize the

precious gift we have been granted by our teacher, that it

brings the highest possible result and benefit. We decide to

hold our teacher in our mind at all times.

We walk away from the cushion with thankfulness

and the clear understanding that the purpose of the

meditation is to remind us that we are more than the

limited set of conditions with which we identify. Mind’s

perfect qualities, limitless power, and boundless compassion

are inherent within us all. We decide to behave as best we

can, as if we have already accomplished our goal. Through

this constant effort and repetition, this training, we will

certainly reach the point where direct realization will be

accomplished and no further effort will be necessary. In a way,

we can say that we meditate so that we don’t have to.

In 1982, Tasso Kallianiotis took refuge with Lama Ole Nydahl and has remained his close student ever since. He has received teachings and transmissions from many high lamas of the Karma Kagyu lineage. Since 1994, at Lama Ole’s request, he has been teaching and introducing people to Diamond Way methods throughout North America and Europe. He has also given radio interviews and written articles on Diamond Way Buddhism.

About Tasso kallianiotis

FROM FEAR TOJoyfulnEss

THROUGH BuddHist

MEditationA Little GirlAs children we are very vulnerable and we need to be

protected: My Dad was my protector. Because he was

a parasitologist, a doctor of tropical medicine, I lived most

of my childhood in the tropics. Our brick house in Liberia,

West Africa was close to the jungle and built on pillars

to protect us from snakes. Lying in bed at night, I listened

to the drums of nearby villages and the cries of wild

animals. I loved those sounds. I remember one day I

made the short walk from our house across a field to

my Dad’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. When I walked

through the open door, I saw a long shiny snake slithering

across the cement floor. It fascinated me and I walked

towards it. My Dad grabbed me. The beautiful snake

was a deadly black mamba.

I’m told that when we lived in Calcutta, India

and my two year old body was covered in hundreds of

mosquito bites, my Dad took care of me in a quiet, efficient

way with no attendant drama. As I grew older and

expressed more fears, my father, a supreme optimist,

continued to reassure me that everything would always

be all right.

My family and friends saw my dependence on my

Dad and wondered how I’d survive when he could no

longer protect me. I didn’t worry because I thought he

would be with me forever. His death, and death in general,

was something that terrified me, so I put it out of my

mind. I was deliberately blind to the nature of impermanence,

to the fact that everything I loved would one day disappear.

A Young WomanChris and I met in high school. I was fourteen and he was

sixteen. Four years later we began dating. Our courtship

was sweetened by endless bottles of wine and swimming

Buddhism in Everyday Life

naked under the stars in a lake near Montreal. We had

all the time in the world for wonder-filled gymnastic love

making and long talks. When we were twenty two and

twenty three, and still in university, a judge married us in

an empty courtroom. The judge looked down at these two

clueless young people and asked, “Do you know what

you’re doing?”

I moved from my parents’ home to our own home,

but the pattern of fears that led me to unsatisfying

solutions continued. Before I reached thirty, we had a

daughter and twin boys. We had the usual challenges

that face young parents after carefree self-involved dating

and the obstacles arrived with a vengeance: sleep deprived

nights, sick children, and money constraints. We kept

busy and distracted. I was going to art school and running a

household. Chris was practicing law.

When our children were young, I was in a constant

state of tension. I often called my Dad for medical and

other advice. He continued to inject humor and optimism

into my life. I believe that his view helped keep me sane,

but it was becoming difficult to pretend that everything

was really okay. I was caught up in samsara, or conditioned

existence. When conditions were good I was happy. When

they weren’t, I was unhappy.

Like many mothers, I worked every waking moment

and fell into bed at night exhausted. Although I was

physically present for my children and my husband, it was

a nervous, worried, and controlling presence. I was full

of fear that I wasn’t doing everything perfectly.

Meeting The LamaThis was our life when my husband and I met Lama Ole

and Diamond Way Buddhism in 1994. We received a

flyer in the mail announcing his upcoming talk in Calgary.

By SUSAN BIxBy

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During those years we rarely went out in the evening but

for some reason we put the notice on the fridge. At the

last moment, we decided to go.

Even though I had no interest in military looking men

(Ole has short hair, often wears clothes from army surplus

so as not to waste money, and has a strong, muscular

build) or in religion (my Dad was an atheist), I was blown

away by the intense feelings of joy invoked in me by the

Lama. I couldn’t stop smiling.

What I understood that night was that we can all

obtain “the unchanging experience that (our) mind is

indestructible, timeless and joyful.”1 If we and others

behave badly, it’s not because we’re bad or evil, it’s

because we’re ignorant or in a stupor. Ole said that we

don’t realize that our essence is space, which can’t be

improved and can’t be harmed. If we can’t be harmed

because our essence is clear space, full of richness and

potential, then there is nothing to fear. That was a “wow”

for me! It was a seminal moment in my life.

Over the past fourteen years of practicing Buddhist

meditation my fear has been largely supplanted by joy.

I learned that everyone wants lasting happiness but doesn’t

understand what that means or how to get it. When

we believe that our bodies, thoughts, and feelings have a

permanent reality, then happiness is elusive. We live

in fear of losing what we have and want and of keeping

away what we don’t.

When we recognize our true nature, absolute happi-

ness is the only possible result. In order to find enduring

happiness, one needs to take refuge in something lasting.

Refuge is what we habitually turn to in our lives, partic-

ularly when the going gets tough. “Taking refuge creates

a spiritual connection that, on the one hand, protects us

from the fears and anxieties we may have about suffering

in samsaric or conditioned existence. It also protects

us from obstacles in this life and in death until we reach

enlightenment.”2

Diamond Way practitioners take refuge in the Buddha

(our goal of full enlightenment), his teachings (the way

to the goal), the community of practitioners with whom we

travel, and especially in the Lama. The Lama represents

blessing, methods, and protection. He is a reflection of our

essence. When we see him clearly, we see our own

buddha nature. Until we understand that we are buddhas

and can maintain that view without falling down, we

need protection.

A GrandmotherI held my first grandson Max, named after my father, an

hour after he was born. I looked at his perfect, tiny,

vulnerable body: a body that needed protection in order to

survive. I know that I’m able to do what is necessary to

protect him and my other grandchildren when my mind

is clear. I used to think that protecting children meant

preventing them from ever falling down, from ever failing.

I realize now that this isn’t helpful and in fact, it creates

dependent adults who can’t function in the real world.

Through my meditation practice, I have a deeper under-

standing of protection. Children need to be protected

from physical and mental harm. But as we grow and

mature, we come to realize that our biggest enemy is not

what goes on outside, it’s what goes on in our minds. We

need tools to protect ourselves from identifying with

disturbing emotions and stiff ideas about how things are.

The meditations taught in our Diamond Way Centers

teach us how to create a space between our awareness

and these disturbances so that we don’t engage them.

Instead we watch them arise and pass away again.

I observe how quickly emotions come and go with

my grandchildren. They cry hard and minutes later they

look beautiful: their eyes shining and round, with no signs

of swelling or tears. Their emotions weren’t present five

minutes earlier and have completely disappeared moments

later. When my grandchildren are upset, it doesn’t tear

me apart the way it did with my own children because I

know it will pass quickly, like other equally impermanent

feelings.

When I’m calm and confident, I can give my grand-

children the space they need to see a connection between

their actions and the results of those actions. Karma,

cause and effect, is the best teacher of all. Even a baby

with a few sharp teeth can learn from cause and effect.

When he bites on the nipple he gets a different reaction

than when he sucks gently. He likes one reaction; he gets

Mama’s milk. He doesn’t like the other; Mama pulls away

her warm milky breast.

I hold our four little grandsons just like I held my now

grown daughter and sons and I see how everything

amazes babies just because things appear out of space.

Babies are blown away by a shaft of light on the grass, a

bus going by the window, or a cheerio on the carpet.

And their amazement rekindles mine and the circle of joy

goes round and round.

I see how my state of mind impacts others. I know

now that I am responsible for my own happiness and I have

the choice of seeing problems as obstacles or opportunities.

When I see them as opportunities, I go through my days

with a light shield protecting me. joyful people and

experiences manifest all around me. And when we have

that surplus, we can behave in the only way that makes

sense; we can be here for the benefit of others. Even

the biggest sourpusses or angry drivers shine back at us

when we greet them with a genuine smile.

In early 2006, my ninety one year old father was diag-

nosed with inoperable lung cancer. He died two months

later in Los Angeles and boom! My childhood protector

was gone. We were at his side fifteen minutes after the

doctor pronounced him dead. His face looked tense. We

told him what he had told us for many long years: that

everything would be all right, that he would be fine. We

used all the tools that Lama Ole had taught us during

the many Phowas (courses on conscious dying) that we

had attended. We told him to go to the light, that every-

thing was a projection of his mind and that there was nothing

to fear. We said mantras and touched the top of his head,

the place where our consciousness leaves the body. His

face relaxed.

I looked at his old face, now peaceful. After so many

years of having my dear old Dad as my protector, I knew

absolutely that the protection was inside me and that I could

let him go. Death no longer frightened me. When we left

his side it was well after midnight. Through the neon lit

streets, we walked and ran back to our hotel. We were

crying, smiling, and laughing.

A month later Lama Ole and Hannah were staying at

our Calgary center, upstairs in our bedroom where I had

a photo of my Dad. We had all just returned from a Phowa

north of Calgary. It was late. Chris and I were alone in

the kitchen. Ole had never met my Dad but he knew the

photo was of my Dad because he had done Phowa for

him after he died. Ole bounded down the stairs and into the

kitchen. He smiled his big beautiful Danish smile and told

us that my Dad had gone off very well and that everything

really was all right.

____________________________1 Ole Nydahl, Refuge and the Enlightened Attitude, Diamond Way

Buddhist Center, San Francisco, USA, 2003, p. 112 Kalu Rinpoche, Luminous Mind, Wisdom Publications, Somerville, Massachusetts, 1993, p.107

About Susan Bixby

Susan Bixby met Lama Ole Nydahl in 1994. Along with her husband, Chris, she was one of the founding members of the Calgary Diamond Way Buddhist Center in 1995. The center has been in their home since 2001. Susan has been very involved in the workings of Diamond Way Buddhism in North America. Before having children she was a French teacher. She is now a writer and painter, mother to a daughter and twin sons, and grandmother to four little boys.

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There are few films today that compare with the recently

released film Milarepa. There are no shoot-outs, no strate-

gically planned super crimes. No drug deals gone wrong,

leading to a hyper-paced chase scene. Without any of

these elements, Milarepa is a thoughtful well crafted film

that deals with the issue of personal responsibility.

Neten Chokling Rinpoche’s feature film is a work of

uncommon skill and beauty. Filmed in the exquisite setting of

Northern India, the picturesque background itself becomes

a part of a larger story. Interestingly, the film was not

made in Tibet because the Chinese government forbids

superstitious depictions in film.

What some might consider slow paced is nothing more

or less than the simply told tale of the Buddhist master

Milarepa. The first part of the film deal with the early years

of Milarepa’s life. The emotional story of the death of his

father and his mother’s subsequent descent into destitution

has elements that are timeless and unconfined by their

cultural surroundings.

Impoverished by the hands of family members, his moth-

er’s desire for revenge borders on madness. She coerces

Milarepa to seek training in the black arts. Once proficient,

he returns to his village, destroying most of it and killing

dozens of inhabitants. But this is a bitter victory for

our hero. Almost immediately, he regrets his actions and

perceives the futility of the violence. He is happy with

neither the outcome, nor his own actions. There is a won-

derfully emotional moment that follows his act of terror

when a local village woman sits by him, silently weeping.

He flees the wrath of the survivors and takes refuge

with a Buddhist monk who tells him, “your enemies arise

from your own mind. To conquer them, cease negative actions,

cultivate positive ones, and tame your mind.” Haunted by

images of the pain and suffering he caused, Milarepa starts

to question his motivation and understanding.

In the end, the film leaves Milarepa as he begins his

journey towards enlightenment. Those familiar with the story

know his travels have only begun. The sequel is set to be

released in 2009. The story of Milarepa’s life is one of the

most commonly told tales in Tibet and is a cautionary

tale, but ultimately one of hope and redemption. The 11th

century practitioner spent his later years working through

the karma he accumulated in his early life.

As director Chokling commented, “People who feel kind

of hopeless because of (mistakes they’ve made) in their

lives. The key is that (Milarepa) was so ordinary and that he

stuck to this path. He was completely determined to make

a huge amount of progress. To prove that the worst person

like him can (become) enlightened. That there is no one

who is beyond redemption.”1

Not everyone today will consider Milarepa’s story ordinary,

but everyone can appreciate the depth of his encounter with

karma and his mind on its way to enlightenment.

1 The Orange County Register, Monk Brings Tale of ‘the Sinner’s Saint’ to Screen, September 19, 2007

Movie ReviewJoseph Lyman

MILAREPA: MAGICIAN, MURDERER, SAINT

Written and Directed by:

Neten Chokling Rinpoche

90 minutes, Tibetan with

English subtitles

Distributed by: Shining

Moon Productions

(2006)

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