Edward Hyde 49th day reminder

Dear Friends,

This is a reminder that today Wednesday Dec. 2 marks the 49th day since our dear friend Edward Hyde passed away, a devoted student of our teacher, Gyume Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa. On the Tibetan calendar, Wednesday is a Medicine Buddha Puja day, so reciting this sadhana while thinking of Ed and generating the strong wish that he may swiftly attain Enlightenment would be most auspicious. The sadhana is attached. Your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Rebecca Freeman
Spiritual Program Coordinator

Question of the Week: what are you thankful for?

Please share your thoughts on what you are most thankful for in your life from a Buddhist perspective. Is there a difference between feeling thankful and feeling gratitude?

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa Teachings 2010

Sending an update regarding Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa’s teachings at Guhyasamaja Center for 2010….

Rinpoche has agreed to again visit the center for five months in 2010. This year they won’t be five consecutive months. Rinpoche will visit intially quite soon, from January 20-March 15. Rinpoche will then return for a week in early summer to again lead a residential retreat on a Tantric topic. And, then Rinpoche will return again in the Fall to teach for another 2 1/2 to 3 months!

For Rinpoche’s Winter visit, he will continue teaching on Shantideva’s “Guide to the Bodhisattva’ s Way of Life” on Saturdays. The focus will be on the practice of patience followed by teachings on the practice of joyful effort or enthusiasm. Rinpoche will also give teachings on two Sundays in Manassas on the topic of Buddhist Cosmology–explaining the Buddhist conception of the Univserse (or Universes or perhaps Buddhaverses) in which beings take rebirth.

For the final weekend of this visit, Rinpoche will give a Vajrayogini Initiation on Friday, March 12 followed by two days of teachings on the Tantric Path and the Practice of Tsok based on these sections from the Guru Puja. (The practice of Tsok twice per month is one of the commitments that comes with taking the Vajrayogini Initiation, so these teachings will be extremely useful for all who take the initiation! Pre-registration forms for the initiation will be up on the center’s website in a few weeks.)

The summer retreat for this year will run for a week and will be on the topic of “Stages and Paths of Tantra.”

The topics for the Fall teachings will include Shantideva and an intensive weekend on Emptiness based on Lama Tsonkhapa’s famous poetic teaching entitled “Praise to Dependent Origination.” We’ll also be beginning teachings on at least one new topic in the fall–to be announced later.

Plans for 2010 also include a weekend visit from the highly accessible and practical Geshe Gelek, teaching visits from a number of senior Western sangha teachers from within the FPMT, a class on compassion based on Shantideva’s text, and more of Discovering Buddhism!

You can check with website in coming weeks (and months) for more details.

So, on Thanksgiving Weekend, those who love studying Dharma have even more to be thankful for!

All Good Wishes,

Lorne Ladner
Director, Guhyasamaja Center

Bodhisattva Samantabhadra

Samantabhadra is one of the great bodhisattvas in Buddhism. He is reknowned for his practices of generosity.  In the  Avatamsaka Sutra (“The Flower Ornament Scripture”, translated by Thomas Cleary), he is known as “Universally Good”. Chapter 3, The Meditation of the Enlightening Being Universally Good introduces Universally Good. Other chapters in this long and fascinating sutra present his teachings.

The Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra Sutra is available on buddha.net. It contains background information about the bodhisattva and related prayers.

In the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, a common dedication prayer is “The Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra” (Samantabhadracarya pranidhana in Sanskrit). In the FPMT prayer book volume 1, it is referred to as the King of Prayers. Lama Zopa Rinpoche suggests that we also read this prayer on behalf of someone who has died.

Finally, the book Garland of Jewels: The Eight Great Bodhisattvas by Jamgon Mipham contains stories about several main Bodhisattvas including Samantabhadra.

Daily Practice: November 21

In preparation for the Dec 5th class, please do the following:

1. Read the Golden Light Sutra (my personal favorites for those of you new to reading the sutra: Chapters 1, 5 (Confession), and 6 (Emptiness). For a related blog article regarding an upcoming animal sacrifice in Nepal and Lama Zopa’s request that we read the sutra, click here. Please complete the reading by Nov 24th.  The main Golden Light sutra website is: http://www.fpmt.org/golden_light_sutra/.

2. Finish reading the Wishfulfilling Golden Sun and other required readings.

3. On Nov 25th and Dec 2, please take the Eight Mahayana Precepts, make the commitment to keep the precepts realistic, even a few hours is a good start. The latest version of Direct and Unmistaken Method — Lama Zopa’s advice on taking the precepts is available from the FPMT store, and it contains the practice itself. The original version published by the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive is out of print, however, it’s available online.

4. Try doing the Food Offering Prayer. If you can do it at every meal, that’s great. If not, maybe just pick one meal a day. Get your family involved — be creative, make it secular if you feel more comfortable.

Question: please share a few ideas on how you’ve incorporated Buddhism into your daily life — whether it’s a special thought you have when you’re cooking for your family, or a new attentiveness to a particular relationship, maybe a mantra or saying that you’re practicing in your mind when you’re out walking your dog.

The Dec 5th class, the last in this series, will focus on over coming obstacles, death and dying practices, and the Confession to the 35 Buddhas prayer. We will mostly likely hold an optional group reading of the Golden Light Sutra from 12:15 – 1:00 pm. More information will be available soon.

For students who attended the Nov 21 class and will come to the Dec 5th class, please email Rebecca Freeman (spc@guhyasamaja.org) if you’d like the required readings.

Give up turkey this Thanksgiving

Are you considering a vegetarian Thanksgiving but not relishing a plate of cold, texturized soy protein?

One of Guhyasamaja Center’s long-time friends and student of Khensur Rinpoche, Michelle, is a vegetarian and a superb French cook. I asked if she could share some of her favorite recipes for a vegetarian Thanksgiving (actually, once you indulge in the breads, salads, soups etc. — and save room for the best part — dessert! — who has room for turkey anyway?). So here are two recipes from Michelle, and if you have recipes to share, please do so!

OVEN-ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
(adapted from a recipe in Vegetarian Times, Nov. 2003)

Ingredients:
9″ x 11″- inch baking pan
1 lb. parsnips,
2 medium-sized turnips
3 lb. sweet potatoes
3 medium-sized onions
3 bunches spinach, stems trimmed
1 TBSP. 1/2 salt
olive oil to coat vegetables

Preparation:
1. Wash spinach well in cold water, and drain. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Peel and quarter onions; peel other vegetables, and cut all into irregular pieces, about 1/2 -to 1-inch thick. Place in mixing bowl, toss pieces with salt and olive oil to coat and place in baking pan.
4. Bake 30 minutes, stir vegetables to redistribute oil and stir every 15 minutes until they are soft, sweet and beginning to brown, about 1 1/4 hours. (Don’t cover!)
5. Before removing vegetables from the oven, steam spinach in boiling water until it wilts. Drain.
6. Remove from oven, and transfer to serving plate. Arrange in circle around spinach, and serve while hot. (I served the root vegetables in my Corning Ware baking dish, and mounded the spinach in the center.)

Nota Bene: I changed the V.T. recipe, which called for 4 lbs total parsnips, rutabagas and turnips for oven roasting. Having eaten my share of rutabagas during the Second World War, I have substituted sweet potatoes for taste and color.

Auntie San Filippo Cranberry-Orange-Pineapple Relish

My children’s baby-sitter shared this family recipe with us in 1977 (my youngest son turned 45 today!)

1/3 cup water
1 1/2 cup of sugar
1 lb. cranberries
small can of pineapple chunks
2 or 3 oranges (I use a small can of mandarin segments)

Dissolve water and sugar on medium heat. Add 1 lb. of fresh cranberries (washed and drained) and cook about 5 minutes, until they burst open. Let cool and add orange segments and pineapple chunks.

Bon appetit!
Michelle

May all animals be free from suffering

Where’s Rinpoche? Google Calendar To the Rescue

Want to know where Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa will be teaching? The three Centers, Do Ngak Khun Phen Ling, Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center and Guhyasamaja Center are all using Google Calendar. You can add all three calendars to your Google calendar and you’ll be able to tell where he’s teaching! All you need is a Google email account. You can add your own personal calendar items too so you’ll never miss a teaching. Works great!

Another Center calendar to check if Rinpoche is not teaching in any of the Centers listed above: Gyuto Vajrayana Center in the San Francisco Bay area. This Center does not use Google calendar.

(FPMT) Urgent — 500,000 animals about to be sacrificed

(source: FPMT email dated November 10, 2009)

Dear Center Directors, students and friends,

You might have heard the Nepal news about the 500,000 animals that are going to be sacrificed over two days on 24th November (Ghaddimai animal sacrifice festival, happens every five years in the terrai).

The Buddha boy wrote to the organizers asking them not to do it but his request was rejected. It is a big Hindu festival and now the Buddha boy is thinking to go there and try to stop it. I think unless one has special powers to show, people will not listen. It is a big religion with not 100 or 1000 followers but millions. Now it seems to have become a problem in Nepal like the problem with shoes and the Hindus in Pashupati. Now probably no matter what the reality is they will think it is the Buddhists who are making problems.

My observation shows that the Buddha boy won’t be able to stop it. Possibly some animal rights organisations might be able to help, but it’s not sure. If western organisations and people like Nobel Peace (laureates) ask, maybe could help, but it would need many.

It came out good to read the Golden Light Sutra 100 times so i have asked Kopan gompa to send some monks to read it at the stupa and make strong prayers for the sacrifice not to happen, to dedicate like that and of course dedicate for world peace. You can find the Sutra in various languages here: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/goldenlight.asp

I would like to request the centers and students to read the Golden Light Sutra and recite the Padmasambhava prayer for removing obstacles and for quick success, for the sacrifice not to happen. This needs to be done quickly as the sacrifice is happening on 24th November. You can find the Padmasambhava prayer here: http://www.fpmt.org/teachers/zopa/advice/pdf/Padmasambava%20prayer%20to%20clear%20obstacles%20feb05km.pdf

Please recite any number of the Golden Light Sutra and the Padmasambhava prayer for removing obstacles and for quick success.

With much love and prayers,

Lama Zopa

Compassion for a Killer: John Allen Muhammad

John Allen Muhammad is scheduled to die tonight by lethal injection in Virginia. For an interesting, moving article on how his defense attorney’s Jon Sheldon and James G. Connell III, have come to know him,  please see the Washington post article.  The article quotes Sheldon who is also president of the board for Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, as saying he thinks executions “erode” society.

“It’s not about him; it’s about us,” he said. “When we see hatred and violence, what should our response be?”

Capital punishment is a sensitive issue and deserves careful, balanced analysis keeping in mind both the suffering of the victims and the complex circumstances that caused the killer to commit the crime. Please say prayers for both John Allen Muhammad and his victims tonight.

Buddha’s Descent from Tushita

Today we celebrate Buddha’s descent from Tushita Heaven. This is one of the four major Buddhist holy days (the day of miracles, the day the Buddha was enlightened, the day the Buddha first taught the four noble truths, and the day he descended from the god realm of Tushita to earth).

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa suggests that we chant the Praises to Shakyamuni Buddha prayer and any other prayers related to Shakyamuni Buddha.

Buddha Shakyamuni ascended to The Heaven of Thirty-Three in order to give teachings to benefit the gods in the desire realms and to repay the kindness of his mother by liberating her from Samsara. This is considered to be one of the great deeds of the Buddha among eight great deeds. On Lha-Bab Duchen, the effects of positive or negative actions are multiplied ten million times. It is part of Tibetan Buddhist tradition to engage in virtuous activities and prayer on this day.

(source: http://www.gyutocenter.org/component/content/article/112-special-annoucment.html)