OM RETREAT (24-26 Jun 2017)

5th Om Retreat 2017 at a new venue: Singapore Putian Association.

A cosy hall which was well decorated and surprisingly this year I was allocated at front rows, being first time so near the stage, the sangha and real cose to Chenrezig!!! 

Yes, on such a blessed seat, with His blessings, I was wide awake and able to focus relatively well during the chanting session. Though during breaks, I felt tired but somehow when I returned to my blessed seat, miraculously, I felt energised. :-)

Rabsang Rinpoche gave teachings with translation to Chinese by Lama Dawa and then to English by sister Michell (our Singapore pride ~ Schooling of Dharma translation ~ who had helped to translate teachings of Karmapa on Heart Sutra to English in New Delhi in 2016!)

On 24th Sat afternoon, I was glad to attend Rabsang Rinpoche's teachings on Seven Limb Prayers and used that frequently throughout the retreat to reflect and enhance my chanting motivation. 

(Summary of what I could recall below and sincere apology to visitors (if any)  for any incorrect and incomplete recording of the wonderful teaching...)

Seven Limb Prayer is a good way to purify negatives and accumulate merits 累积福报
福德merit
智德wisdom
7 Limb Prayer include both merit and wisdom accumulation.

1. Prostration 顶礼
Prostration is antidote to pride 去除敖慢心
We prostrate with body speech and mind 身语意
There are Full as well as short prostration.
Scholars write commentaries and view prostration as a way to express faith.
Prostration is a means to show respect as religion as well as an expression of respect by non religious people. 

There is
Body prostration with physical full prostration 
Speech with chant of prayers
Mind with faith in Triple Gems. 
We clasp palms to represent eliminating negativity before our forehead-body,  throat -speech, and chest- mind.

Remember the Buddha's infinite merit is boundless.
Head, hands and knee down on floor represent  elimination/ purification of 5 poison of afflictions/obscurations. 
Such accumulation of merits purify our pride.
Prostration is also the Best exercise to keep healthy and accumulation of merits.

2. Offering 供养
Offer could be what we possess or via visualision.
Many ways of offering. 上供下施 Offer to Triple Gems or the other realms.
Offering helps eliminate stringiness. 
We may Offer what we own and do not own.
E.g See a flower and visualise it as an offer to Triple Gems.
We should offer with arouse of Bodhicitta and such offering with vast heart has great merits verus making great offerings but with small goal which merits may not multiply as much.
One who likes to sing and dance can offer with joy the song or dance. The state of mind  is important that makes it different. 
Buddha is wise and for sake of sentient beings  allow different methods.

3. Confession 忏悔
As humans, we had done many negative deeds over countless lives. 做过记得不记得,懂与不懂的恶业.  If we do not purify negative deeds, they can become serious problems.
We need to confess them as we need to purify ourselves as Buddha and no other beings can help us purify except ourselves. 

When confess, we use 4 power
1) Reliance eg. Chenrezig, a deity to confess to whom we confess over here  依止力仠悔对象
2) Antidote to nullify negative deed 
Eg. Recitation and visualisation are antidote 对制力 咒语慈悲心
3) Regret:  recognise seriousness of such negative deeds 忏悔力 认识严重性
4) Resolve not to do it again.
Eg. Poison drank and will not drink it again after knowing 决力 过去无明现在不要再造恶业

Using the 4 powers we will be able to purify the deeds.
Against  对制憎恨心

4) Rejoicing 
We should rejoice in merits of others, such as flower offering by others.
It is antidote Against jealousy. The person is rich and beautiful because of their accumulation of merits in past. 

Jealousy won't affect the person in any way hence Rejoicing is what a smart person should do.
Reciting Mani mantra which is Essence of 84,000 Dharma  teachings and rejoicing in each other's merit accumulation here is important. 

5) Requesting for turning of wheel of Dharma ( Teachings )
For 49 days Buddha did not teach till the heavenly king and 4faced Buddha present couch and wheel before He teach at Varanasi.
Now we should also request teachings from current great teachers.
善知识~ 法身佛, 报身佛, 普通人
We can only now request for teachings from .报身佛. and ordinary beings.
This is Antidote to ignorance.

6) Praying for long life of great masters
Many great masters are Manifestation of Buddha and Bodhisattva, because of them we can be trained.
We may recite long life prayers and mantras and do life liberation for the masters .

7) Dedication of merits
Merits may disappear if we regret or anger arises so we should dedicate to deposit it to Merit bank.
Drop single drop of water to ocean so if ocean is there, water is there.
Milarepa and masters had done dedication of merits to sponsors below the hill and similarly in this retreat , we dedicate merits to retreat sponsors and they will benefit and plant good seeds.
Hence dedication is important and here we had done meritorious deeds today to dedicate to all sentient beings for well being of all...

Rejoice in the offering and participation of All in the Mani retreat!!!

Next, he taught on common preliminaries practice ~ 
The 4 Thoughts Foundation for Main practice. 

1) Precious human life
Rare and precious die and rebirth due to merit accumulated over various past life.
It is extremely precious & rare that we have the 
8 opportunities and 10 perfections so we should Cherish and make good use of it.

Humans are smartest and via virtuous deeds can attain Enlightenment compared to other beings, likewise humans can easily harm lots of beings so we must be careful with our deeds and make good use of our human life.Comparatively, 

Hell beings or hungry ghosts or animals have no chance to practice;
Animals may be smart but not able to train its mind on Renunciation and Bodhicitta.
We are not born in place with no Dharma or with disabilities. 
We are not in Heavenly or Asuras realm  so we have 8 opportunities to practice. 

Hence, Human realm has good chance to practice.

10 perfections ~ 
5 self perfections
1. Precious Human life 
2. Born in Dharma available place
3. Contact with Dharma
4. Not born with disabilities 
5. Not with wrong views 

5 other perfections
1. Buddha has come to human realm 
2. Buddha turns the Dharma wheel for teachings (useless if come and not teach)
3. Dharma had not disappeared  yet
4. We have contact with Dharma 
5. We have Loving kindness and compassion to others 

We hold this treasure human life in our hand.

25/6 morning
We should make good use of our human life.
We already possess, we need to rejoice and think I have this precious human life with this mindset recite the mantra.

25/6 evening 
Since we started to learn Dharma, all the causes of becoming Buddha is present.
Faith in Triple Gems gives one blessings.
Analogy of planting seed to grow on land ~  Seed is like faith. 

Without which cannot grow any grains.

3 Faiths

Wishing kind of faith 欲求信心
~ infinite compassion and wisdom which you wish to attain too

Great faith 信心信心

~ You see great capabilities hence great faith in Buddha

Belief in strengths of Buddha 相信的信心
~ Blessing from Buddha is everywhere like suns rays boundless and with equanimity as long as one has faith. You can say Buddha is within you but without faith you cannot see.

Buddha's blessing everywhere because of His great compassion .

We have pure faith in Chenrezig.
We must believe in ourselves with 100% faith  as Chenrezig with confidence~Vajra or Deity pride.

26/6 morning
Impermanence 人生无常
We strive for material gains thinking there is permanence. 
With understanding that things change, when we encounter difficulties of life, we will know all phenomenon change moment by moment and will be able to handle difficulties and challenges better.With above understanding, we will Cherish time to practise. 

All external things change and inner of human beings change too.
Time of death is indeterminable and how one dies is also uncertain.
Birth and death, Hugh buildings,  gatherings dispersed are examples of impermanence. 
It is Important to contemplate on impermanence to remind us not to be lazy and develop renunciation.  When someone understand impermanence, one will handle daily life better with understanding that there are ups and downs in life .
Precious human life is also impermanent and so we should resolve to practise and learn well from today so that we do not regret wasting this precious human life.

Cause and Effect / Result 因果不虚 

With or without belief whether one believes in karma or not are, we are subject to Karma because it is a natural law.

Do good get good results and vice versa.
Some results materialise which can be seen immediately or in future lives. 
Positive conditions in current time life arise because of what we did in past.
For future lives, we need to do good deeds for happiness and joy and we are reminded bad deeds will result in suffering.

Some karma may ripen 
a) Immediate see immediate result e.g smile back or frown at each other.
Story of a person caught a rat and want to set it to fire and the rat ran to his home,  destroying the home. 

b) Indeterminable result e.g. a bad deed but with repentence 
Puified the result via doing good deed.

c) Do deed now but result ripen future lives.

Everyone wants happiness but does actions with opposite results. E.g. Plant grain for bead plant.

We must do more good deeds to get happiness results. Stop bad acts to eradicate and stop suffering and affliction. 
Sometimes we feel once in touch with Dharma, more bad things happen.

This is because of bad deeds conditions ripen but it is sometimes better to ripen in this life as human so we can handle it in better capacity. 
...

We have obtained this precious human life and this opportunity to practice together this precious teaching of Chenrezig.
We should rejoice each other that we have this opportunity to do it now .

------

On June 26, 2017 afternoon, we also celebrated the 800th Anniversary of Lord Jigten Sumgon's Maha Parinirvana. 

Lama Dawa gave a good history of the founder : Lord Jigten Sumgon and also about the 1st reincarnation of Garchen Rinpoche ~ Gar Dampa, who was already one of his main disciples then!
A replicate of the story can be found below:
...At one time a naga-king named Meltro Zichen went to Drikung for teachings. Jigten Sumgön sent a message to his disciples to remain in seclusion in order that those with miracle powers would not harm the naga and those without such power would not be harmed themselves. 
The message was received by everyone except the Mahasiddhi Gar Dampa, who was meditating in the depths of a long cave. When the naga arrived, he made a thundering noise which was heard by all including Gar Dampa.
Gar Dampa came out of the cave to see what was happening and saw a frightful, dark-blue snake whose length encircled the monastery three times and whose head was peering in the window of the palace. 
Without examining the situation, he thought the naga was there to harm his guru and thus manifested himself as a giant garuda and chased the naga away. 
At Rolpa Trang, there is a smooth, clear print left by the garuda when it landed on a rock. Near the river of Kyung-Ngar Gel, there are marks left by both the garuda and the naga. ...
(source: http://www.drikung.org/drikung-kagyu-lineage/lord-jigten-sumgon)

Thanks to his story, we are reminded of Garchen Rinpoche and the teachers and motivated to chant well to dedicate merits to all teachers...:-)

26/6 evening

Fivefold graduated path of Mahamudra 大手印五支道
1) Bodhicitta 
2) Deity practice 
3) Guru Devotion
4) View of Mahamudra
5) Dedication 

When practising Mani mantra, we should arouse with Bodhicitta for sake of all beings. 
Visualise self as Chenrezig and that is our Deity practice 
Above head of Chenrezig is Amitabha Buddha.
We can visualise our root Guru above our head or if not then Drubwang Rinpoche, a great teacher and source of the Mani retreat.
When we do the practice, we had our mind rest naturally, not grasping to have direct view of Mahamudra.
We have and at end of session Dedication .
If we do correctly, we had practiced Mahamudra!!!

And Rabsang Rinpoche sang us the Dharma Song on Drikung Kagyu's Mahamudra.

(How I wish to find the English translation soon)

Rejoice in the Completion of 5th Mani Retreat!!!

Gratitude to All for able to attend another Rejoiceful retreat!!! _/|\_