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The Sakyong has designated May 7, 2013 — the day of the release of [his latest book] The Shambhala Principle — as Basic Goodness Day. This will be an opportunity for each of us to celebrate our understanding and manifestation of basic goodness.

Rinpoche passed on April 04, 1987, 19h00 EST. A number of dharma students —and some who never met him — have had so-called “mystical” experiences vis-a-vis Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I’d like to share this story with you as an example of how I received a very clear instruction thirteen years after Rinpoche had died on how to manifest basic goodness at its most simple level in April 1990. This is exactly how I wrote about the experience in my journal.

It is 23h03, April 11, 1990, Toronto, Canada.

I put my head on the pillow.

Immediately, I am in the guestroom at my childhood home in Forest Hill Village, Toronto, Canada. Same yellow-gold bedspread that used to be there when I was a child. I prepare to die.Try to remember a mantra to say — I repeat the Padmasambhava mantra several times, and remind myself about the lights one sees in the bardo after death [see Tibetan Book of the Dead].

I shoot out of my body on a channel of energy in the northwest corner of the ceiling. There are flashing lights. People I know welcome me.

There are other people in the area who had not died. They are still in the bardo of this life. [In other words, we all share the same “space.”] They are not aware of those of us who have died. We move among them freely but they do not see us. Two women sit on a park bench talking; they do not see me — I am dead. I am standing behind them. They are chatting. I listen to their discussion. But not for long. It bores me.

So I turn away.

And there is Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche!  Sitting at a 45-inch floor Nilus LeClerc loom — the very loom I have in my recreation room — surrounded by two women with long dark hair — dakinis. I have never seen such black hair. Nor so straight. Blacker than black.[Do you remember the elocution lessons we had in the 1980’s? One of Trungpa’s examples was the sentence “Cathy’s hair is black.”] And straighter than straight.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche tells me “Be nice.” I was somewhat baffled. Just “be nice”? Is that all? No more message? Just…. “be nice”???

{Turns out that our present Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche had a similar reaction when his father [Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche] told him decades ago that he [Sakyong] would become a sakyong:

“When I asked my father what the sakyong did, he replied “The sakyong wakes people up to their own basic goodness.”

That’s it? I thought. <Please click here for source>}

That’s it.

I then move back “out” of the experience and into my body. Whereas at the beginning of the experience, I shot out to “the other side” in an extremely fast way through what I can only describe as a column of energy, I return to the bardo of this life in “stages.” In other words, I am in control of how quickly I re-enter the bardo of this life.

I realize that I’ve just had a monumental experience.  Felt some sort of freedom altogether. Once fully back in the body, I am in a state of bliss, and I realize that I will will not fear anything anymore. I have a totaly new perspective on life now.

I had just had my first direct exposure to the Shambhala principle of basic goodness in Plain English. “Be nice.” Be kind. Be wise. Be brave. Do no harm.

Went to sleep in a state of bliss and peace.

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(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

I am having a back-and-forth with my friend Louise about an intense situation in which I was recently involved. Her last e-mail to me was “so what [are you going to do] now?”

I hope my reply to Louise is helpful to more than myself. May it be so.

I can’t change the karma. The outcome has already been decided from my actions in previous lifetimes. There’s some karmic obstacle here.

In certain ways, this is very helpful to know. I simply stopped struggling. Instead, I continued to practice and study; to, hopefully, serve others by being emotionally nurturing; and to help people deal with crises with some insight, dignity and integrity.

On the other hand, I am left with a lingering sadness that I really cannot do anything about the situation. Once we have committed certain actions in a past lifetime, we cannot take them back. We can soften the effect. But we can’t take the actions back. The karma is going to ripen. [Added May 12’13: Of course, as senior teacher Jay Lippman pointed out to me today, you don’t know how long the karma will last. It might be for a whole lifetime. Or just a part of a lifetime.]

My lifetime has been about one choice and one choice only: simply deciding on what my response will be when the karma ripens. That’s it! What I do or don’t do makes no difference whatsoever to the outcome. Other than creating future karma, my present actions have no effect on the karma that is ripening. To repeat, once we have committed certain actions in a previous lifetime, we cannot take them back. We can soften the effect. But we can’t take the actions back. The karma is going to ripen.

 

Recognizing that I had one choice, I made it: I could be resentful, angry, paranoid, embittered, morose etc. But I decided decades ago that I would be as gracious as possible in the face of an almost overpowering amount of negative karma.

 

I knew what I was heading into before I was born. Supposed to be born around February 27th,  exactly 38 weeks after the day of conception, D-day June 6, 1944. But refuse to exit the womb. Wait until March 11th. Still only 5 lb 5 oz. I am called “5 by 5” in the hospital. Umbilical cord wrapped tightly around my neck. Doctor gets it off just in time. It is 60 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, Toronto, Canada. People are playing tennis.

Fast forward to 1956. I have a distict and very vivid memory of sitting in my bathtub at age 11 and realizing what the rest of my life would be like. It wasn’t pretty.

But there’s another factor that impinges on my life that we must consider: Up until now, I’ve only been talking about my own karma and karmic obstacles. There are other people’s karma and their obstacles as well! I cannnot change that. It is up to them.

So, Louise, back to your question “so what [are you going to do] now?”

Isn’t there some story about a princess and a frog? The frog tells the princess that he once was a human being. But then, by some evil [ego], got turned into a frog. Now the princess must kiss the frog to turn him back into a human being.

Let’s tweek that story a bit.

Frogs seem to think that they have to be in love with someone to be loving. Otherwise, they fear they may get embroiled in something they don’t want. So they hold back. Perform harmful, hurtful actions that show rejection. Become takers rather than givers. Are completely self-involved. They have lost their humanity to the forces of fear. This creates and maintains negative karma. In short, frogs put their fears before their friends.

But frogs, too, have a choice. If they are aware that they have become frogs who are stuck in their ponds, they can ask the warrior princess (heart, feeling, basic goodness, bravery) to embrace them so that that mind of fear can be put into the cradle of lovingkindess.

The frogs then awaken into full human beings, warrior princes. They put their friends before their fears.Princes understand that, no matter what type of relationship they are in, they can be true to the core of their being, which is to be kind, loving, caring, supportive. This creates and maintains positive karma.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

BOSTON, MA, March 05, 1770 The Boston Massacre — British troops kill five unarmed colonists and wound six others after the colonists hurled taunts and snowballs.

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers opened fire on colonists that were heckling a British sentry.

BOSTON, MA – Monday, April 15, 2013, 14h50 EST — two bombs explode near the finish line of the Boston Marathon at 673 Boylston Street

A Boston Marathon competitor and Boston police run from the area of an explosion near the finish line in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh) MANDATORY CREDIT

Violence is rare in this picture-book city.

What would make two young men alleged to be the bombers perpetrate this horror? In this post, we’ll try to answer this question.

1.  Ignorance — The two killers don’t realize how bad this type of action is, or understand the karmic results that flow from such a negative action.
2. Karmic creation — Because of this ignorance, the killers perform the actual act of killing.
3. Consciousness — This factor includes the killers’ motivation, how strongly they feel about what they want to do, and their vizualization of the act step-by-step. Their feelings, and imagining the act, “nourish” the minds of the killers. Seeds of negative karma are now sown in killers’ minds and they will come to fruition at some point in the future.
4. Name and Form— The act of killing confirms the killers’ (ego) identity.
5. Six Senses — During the act of killing the killers’ senses are active – seeing, hearing, touching etc.
6. Contact — takes place when victim is actually killed by the weapon.
7. Feeling — how the killers feel – upset, pleased, neutral etc.
8. Craving or Adoption — Emotional indulgence is now full-blown. Their minds are fixated on the act and killers carry it out to the end.
9. Grasping or involvement — Killers becomes involved in the act because they want something, or want to avoid something. In other words, a self-indulgent reaction to their feelings takes place.
10. Becoming — Now that the killing has been committed, karma has been created.
11. Birth — Killers have given birth to consequences that will affect their future in a negative way.
12. Aging and Death — End of the act of killing.

<source: based on Thrangu Rinpoche’s schemata>

This is the mind of the killers.

It can make us question whether people are basically evil or basically good.

A video of the attack surfaced today showing the moment when the bomb detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The video captures the fiery explosion of one bomb and the thunderous boom of another. But it also captured something else. <source: click here>

Then the Boston Bodhisattva Warriors step forward. They are motivated by selfless and courageous service to others despite the possible danger to themselves.

Before the dust had settled from the explosion police officers and marathon runners were rushing to the scene to help those who were injured. No one knew at the moment what was going to happen next. No one knew if there would be another explosion. All they knew was that there were people who needed help and they rushed to help them. <source: click here>

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the light blue-coloured Comment button at the end of the webpost.

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(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

Karma isn’t just accumulated by individuals. It can be accumulated by groups as well. I believe that companies like Red Bull that make “energy drinks,” heavily laced with much more caffeine than regular soft drinks, are motivated by greed for money. So they “shoot the bull” and promote their drinks to impressionable adolescents as “harmless.” Just like the cigarette companies once did.

On January 6, 2008, my 15-year-old son Brian was competing in a day-long paintball tournament. Around noon, Red Bull representatives came into the venue and handed out free samples of energy drinks. The lead detective investigating Brian’s death stated that Brian was witnessed drinking one of these samples. My wife and I arrived around 4:00 p.m. to watch the semi-finals and finals. His team won second place overall for the day. At about 7:20 p.m., while waiting for the awards ceremony, and a victory team dinner, Brian collapsed and later died in hospital to an arrhythmic event that could not be corrected. <source: Jim Shepherd, Toronto, Canada>

Jim makes a promise to himself, his family, and his dead son Brian: he will work tirelessly to inform others of what he believes caused the death, or partially contributed to the death, of his son: energy drinks.

The Government of Canada’s Standing Committee on Health invites Jim to speak before them on June 08, 2010. A friend of his asks if I would like to help Jim with his speech. As I used to write speeches for a cabinet minister in the Government of Ontario, I’m glad to support Jim’s campaign against these deadly, dangerous drinks. He has five minutes to convince the Minister of Health, through this Standing Committee on Health, to regulate the companies that make “energy drinks.” Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

Please note: the underlined words are hyperlinks. Click on them for more information.

This weblog is dedicated to an in-depth study of karma and its many facets and factors. Today is Milarepa Day in the Buddhist calendar. Milarepa, a magician, murderer and saint is, for me, the best object lesson for karma!

When we hear the name Tibet, many people think of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Gentle. Compassionate. Humourous. Loving. Wise.

Milarepa, one of the greatest figures of Tibetan Buddhism, couldn’t present a better contrast to the perception we have of the Dalai Lama.

Mila was one bad dude. Got into black magic in a big way. Murdered his enemies to avenge some wrong-doing done to his family after his father had died.

But he is favourite of mine. Why? It’s really quite simple. He was a very naughty boy who went from sinner to saint. From a murderer to a magician and mystic. And did it all in one lifetime.

Milarepa’s message to me is: “I transformed a great deal of negative karma into enlightenment. So can you.” Well, it’s taking me many, many lifetimes. But Mila is my inspiration.

Let’s start at the beginning of his story. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

What warning did Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche never tire of repeating? It’s this: the more senior we become in practice and study of the Shambhala Buddhist teachings, the more subtle ego gets.

First, here’s how I’m using the word “ego”:

Ego is the absence of true knowledge of who we really are, together with its result: a doomed clutching on, at all costs, to a cobbled together and makeshift image of ourselves, an inevitably chameleon charlatan self that keeps changing, and has to, to keep alive the fiction of its existence.

In Tibetan, ego is called dakdzin , which means “grasping to a self.” Ego is then defined as incessant movements of grasping at a delusory notion of  “I” and “mine,” self and other, and all the concepts, ideas, desires, and activities that will sustain that false construction.

Such grasping is futile from the start and condemned to frustration, for there is no basis or truth in it, and what we are grasping at is by its very nature ungraspable. The fact that we need to grasp at all and to go on grasping shows that in the depths of our being we know that the self doesn’t inherently exist. From this secret, unnerving knowledge spring all our fundamental insecurities and fears. (Italics are mine.)

(source: Rigpa Glimpse of the Day February 10, 2011)

So what is it that has become more subtle as we advance and become senior students? 

Its  [the Sadhana of Mahamudra] essential teaching is that the nature of the practice itself undercuts any ideas of spiritual materialism. The practice addresses the subtle corruption that can take place when our spiritual practice makes us feel superior to others and we become engaged in rebuilding the fortress of ego. <emphasis mine>

Senior students and practitioners have done years of work on understanding ego. We have experienced, to some extent, what I call the Humpty-Dumpty syndrome. 

But the danger lies in going into GUT mode:

1. Grasping onto this understanding;
   
2. Using advanced knowledge to feel superior to others;  and,
   
3. Turning it into just one more way to build ego back up again.

OK. That’s the summary of the webpost. Now let’s examine a little more. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

A head like “These two are inseparable” evokes the idea of lovers. In the case of this webpost, the pair of lovers are the two components that create karma, namely, intention and volitional action.

On May 06’12, I wrote a post that offered the view that, of  these two components, it is not the volitional action per se that causes the accumulation of karma. It is the intention behind the action. Please click here if you wish to review that webpost.

On May 10’12,  having received some e-mails around this topic after I published the webpost, I wrote to Jay Lippman, a senior dharma teacher to ask him about this. Please click here for a biography of Jay.

While we end up realizing that we are saying essentially the same thing, the way we come to that conclusion is interesting. Jay’s focus is slightly different than mine. He focuses on the fact that the intention and volitional action are inseparable. My focus is on the component of intention.

yes we are.  My only point is that there must be the actual slap as well as the intent {i.e. the volitional action and the intention are inseparable}.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog. Just click on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and follow one of the three, easy-to-follow instructions. Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

We’re taught that we accumulate karma through volitional action. (Please click here for detailed description of what karma is, is not, and how it works.) This is  what I call the outer level of karma.

My understanding is that it’s not the action per se that creates karma. It’s the intention. The motivation. What the law calls mens res. That’s what I call the inner level of karma.

(Most of us are not necessarily aware of our real intentions. It takes a lot of honesty and conscious awareness and willingness to really explore.)

The purification process can only be successful if we understand that it is the intention we have to purify, not the action per se.

Specifically, two people can carry out the same action. One person accumulates negative karma. The other person does not. For example, if a fully evolved dharma teacher slaps a student, there is no negative karma because there is no anger. Wrath perhaps. But not anger. If we were to do the same thing, we would probably do so in anger and thus accumulate negative karma.

Why then is it taught that we accumulate karma by our volitional action? Because if we just have an intention, but don’t act on it, then we do not accumulate karma.

As my root guru used to say, “Got it, sweetheart?”

Recap of Part One: We feel like Humpty Dumpty. We fell off the wall (symbol for our life, our identity).  We feel traumatized. Shattered. Damaged. Rattled. I relax when I understand that, when karma from past lives ripens, I cannot change it. The only choice I have is the attitude I adopt.

When we’re in a serious crisis or have experienced some trauma, well-meaning friends give advice about what we “should do.”  Some suggest “roll up your sleeves,” or “pull your socks up.” Others might suggest that we try to “get motivated” to change our situation, to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Others suggest that we should try to “solve” the crisis.

I myself embrace the following perspective: Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

 “Making mistake after mistake, I walk the unmistaken path.” Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche

I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my lifetime.

But this one “takes the cake.”

Now I am reaping the karma.

The “cake” is no longer pleasing to me. The icing on top has evaporated, exposing the guts of a cake that is no longer whole. Slices have been taken out of it. I cannot find my self anymore.

I obsess over what I see as my mistakes and ask again and again “how could I have been so stupid?” This past week I talk to a fellow practitioner about this constant daily “review” of my “mistakes.”  He quotes the following to me by heart:

……
……
The everyday practice is simply to
develop a complete acceptance and
openness to all situations and emotions.

And to all people — experiencing
everything totally without reservations
and blockages, so that one never
withdraws or centralises onto oneself.

<source: The Vidyadhara, Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, excerpt from Maha-Ati text>

That phrase “centralises onto oneself” grabs me, shakes me up  — that’s what I am doing. Centralizing into myself. I’m glad for the reminder. While I don’t necessarily “feel better,” without that reminder I will mindlessly continue to deepen the rut, the stuckness, that I am experiencing.

The Good News! I find it strangely helpful to realize that Read the rest of this entry »