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- September 7, 2025
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Full Moon ( Buddha Amitabha Day) - All day
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To not become happy because of praise, To not become unhappy because of blame, To support one's own good virtues, This is the character of the supreme being.
If the intention is good, the levels and paths are good. If the intention is bad, the levels and paths are bad, Since everything depends on intentions it is important that we make them positive.
Do not do anything harmful to one another, do only what is good. Discipline your own mind to subdue negative emotions.
Do no evil whatsoever, practice virtue perfectly, tame your mind completely. This is the teaching of the Buddhist doctrine.
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Author Archives: Ven. Lopon Osel
The Refuge vow
Refuge and Bodhichitta, So, to begin with , what is it that brings us into the Buddha’s teaching? What is the door through which we must enter, the “ mental soil,” so to speak, in which we can plant the seed of Dharma?
It is taking refuge. This marks the difference between a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist, between one who is inside the teachings and one who is outside.
To take refuge is to recognize the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sanghaas one’s unchanging protectors, and to turn to them sincerely and with full confidence. This opens the door of the Dharma at the very outset.
When we have taken refuge in the Three Jewels, what should our fundamental attitude be? We should understand that the whole of space is pervaded by living beings; there is not one of them that has not been, at one time or another, our father or our mother.
We should recognize that they have been our parents and feel gratitude toward them for the love and kindness they have shown us. We should also realize that all these beings, once our mothers, are sinking in the ocean of the sufferings of samsara.
We should cultivate the attitude of bodhichitta, taking the decision to practice the supreme Dharma for their sake. Bodhichitta is thus the fundamental preparation and the basis of our practice of the path. Continue reading
Advice for Nyingma Practitioners
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Since I am the eldest of the Nyingma lamas, I have been asked to share some humble thoughts and opinions with all those who have gathered here this year in the sacred place of Bodhgaya, India on the occasion of the Eleventh Annual Great Prayer Festival of the Early Translation School. I will therefore speak a few words of advice to express my point of view, so I hope you all listen well. Continue reading
Develop and Maintain a Relationship Between Teacher and Disciple
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Nagarjuna, a great Bodhisattva, said:
“Just as the wise ones will respect a statue of the Sugata
Even though it may be made of wood [and] however [unadorned] it may be,
So in the same manner, although this composition of mine may be pitiful,
May you not criticize it, for it is based on the Sublime Teaching.”
I am not saying this as my idea. This is from the Sutra and Tantra teachings of
Shakyamuni Buddha. Most people haven’t read it, and that’s why I made this
collection of teachings.
Generally speaking we must not misinterpret the teachings.
Because we have had bad habits for many lives, the truth is hard for us to
believe. That’s why it’s necessary to maintain a good relationship with our
teacher. Continue reading
Words for the West
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For Westerners, compassion is not authentic because it is connected to pride. It is from up to down, because it comes from those who are in some way considered better or higher, and goes toward those who are in some ways considered lower.
Almost all western teachers of Buddhism are either nihilists or eternalists, and not actual Buddhist lineage holders. Some times American Buddhism look like communism, some times like democracy, sometimes like socialism, and sometimes like nothing, only circling between worldly systems, never cutting from them but only circling between negative phenomena. Continue reading
Shechen Rabjam Rinopche Teaching
The Point of All This
Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche is the grandson of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. This is an excerpt from his book THE GREAT MEDICINE THAT CONQUERS CLINGING TO THE NOTION OF REALITY
If you’ve been practicing for years, you should be seeing some results, If you’re not, you may be missing the point.
The result of spiritual practice should be our inner transformation into better human beings. After practicing for months or years, we should be less prone to anger, pride, and jealousy. Our practice should lead us to a vaster, calmer mind. Continue reading
Thomas Merton in the Himalayas, vesite and Interview with Chatral Rinpoche Buddhist Review,
Thomas Merton in the Himalayas, An Interview with Harold Talbott
Excerpt from Tricycle: the Buddhist Review, Summer, 1992
In his best selling biography, the Seven Storey Mountain (published in 1948), Thomas Merton tells of his conversion to Catholicism and subsequent entry into Our Lady of Gehtsemani, A Cistercian abbey in Kentucky. to a world savaged by war, Merton’s embrace of a Christian life was made all the more authentic by his Cambridge-educated intellect, stunning candor, and the New York street humor he acquired while attending Columbia University.
Single handedly, he restored credibility to the very possibility of contemplative virtue which had long been denigrated by liberal intellectuals and traditional Christians alike. His was a voice of sanity, filled with sacred wonder, and replete with inquiry and contradiction.
Merton appreciated perspectives refined by their distance from the society and considered them essential to maintaining the health of the community. In fact, he spoke of the marginal view as an obligation for monastic’s and artists. From his cloistered outpost, Father Louis (as he was designated by the Church) kept a vigilant eye on the Civil Rights movement and anti-nuclear efforts, and in the last years of his life, he watched with undisguised frustration as the United States lost its footing altogether in Vietnam.
Political concern was one of Father Louis’ many departures from monastic tradition. A voracious reader and legendary correspondent, Merton’s interests extended beyond Church conventions and, under the influence of Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki, came to include Buddhism.
In 1968, after a quarter of a century if life in the monastery, and after repeated requests for permission to travel, the Order finally granted it’s most renowned and respected monk to leave for an Asian journey for the purpose of delivering a paper (on Marxism and Monasticism) to Asian monastic leaders in Bangkok. But before and after the conference, he would have ample opportunity to meet Buddhist masters.
Merton’s letters, made public in recent years, confirm that while he submitted to the rigors of monastic life, he was also a man of wild and sometimes whimsical enthusiasms:
Words of Advice from Kyabjé Chadral Rinpoche
Precious master of unrepayable kindness, Pema Ledrel Tsal,
Remain as the crown ornament on the top of my head, I pray!
Grant your blessings so that we may find freedom here and now
From all the sufferings of samsara and its lower realms!
Listen well, my dear disciples who are gathered here,
And whose hearts have not been spoiled, consider this. Continue reading
Longing Melody of Faith
Prayer to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal – Longing Melody of Faith
Mipham Rinpoche’s prayer to Dakini Queen Yeshe Tsogyal from Cascading Waterfall of Nectar, by Thinley Norbu.
Like that, the embodiment of all these immeasurable Dakinis of the Three Kayas is praised by the Triumphant Omniscient Lord, Mipham Rinpoche, in his prayer to the Dakini Queen Yeshe Tsogyal called the Longing Melody of Faith. Continue reading
The power and benefit of the Vajra Guru Mantra
Explaining the Benefits and Advantages of the Vajra Guru Mantra By the great tertön Karma Lingpa (14th century) OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUNG
is the mantra of Guru Padmasambhava, you can say this mentally or verbally, it is better to start out loud until your mind is quiet and then say it mentally, the benefits of this mantra are below. It should sound like this if pronounced correctly:
How to determine levels of Practice and that pracitce’s meditations.
Buddhas teaching has many categories. Is all very beneficial. Why? Because in Buddhas Omniscience he knew all of the beings various faculties. This is why there are so many teachings. However all of them can be classified in the system of the 9 yanas that exists in the Nyingma Lineage.
The three baskets of teachings are the Vinaya, emphasizing renunciation and teaches us to see samsara as a harmful fire and helps us develop the need for liberation from samasara, renunciation. Because of this emphasis it is known as the vehicle of self-liberation, Vinaya. Sutra teachings is Mahayana. This is View.
We recognize that all beings in truth have been our father and mother, because of this recognition, we realize that to seek only liberation for myself would be of no use because all my mothers and fathers would still be caught in unending suffering.
In Mahayana the motivation is to do something to help them. In Mahayana, the motivation is very very important. If you do not have the proper motivation, even if you practice high level meditations your practice will become a Hinayana practice.
You will achieve Hinayanahood instead of Perfect Buddhahood. Why is this? The motivation is what determines the level of practice not the meditation practiced. When the Great Scholar Atisha was visiting Tibet, he became very sad and said to his attendant, “Oh no, one of my students in India who is practicing Dorje Jigje practice just entered the path of Hinayanahood.” Dorje Jigje is a high level Mahayoga Tantra practice but because of his low motivation, this high practice was brought lower.
For the Higher Level Tantric teachings the key point is maintain pure view, pure perception. Then all high level practices will yield good results. People who mix levels of practice and try to practice many at once need to learn the deep meaning of the level suitable to them and then practice that. Most people don’t like to visualize deities or recite mantras, they like to do meditation. Meditation helps the mind temporarily but does not usually bring good results.
Why? Our habitual tendencies are so thick and ingrained that the best way to purify is to visualize deities and recite mantras to powerfully transform our negative energies. When a Lama has powerful energy and merit encouraging and cultivating it is how Buddhahood will be reached. Once you have this positive power then meditation is appropriate. If you buy good vegetarian food at the store, while you are in the store you can’t immediately eat it, but should first take it home and wash and cook it to have a delicious healthy meal. It is the same way if you like to meditate, you need a foundation to practice first – visualize deity,
use recitation mantra. It will encourage you toward a warm heart. This encouragement and wisdom is for loving compassion for all beings. Otherwise some people do meditation for a very long time, but the mind is so confused and the meditation feels empty.
This is because there is no loving compassion there. For example, if you don’t visualize deities or recite but jump straight to meditation, it is just like eating the produce out of the package, you could get sick. There is a danger of falling into the sickness of Nihilism or Externalism. Buddhist meditation is far from this.
How can we follow the Buddhist Dharma and uphold the lineage?
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I would like to briefly explain this, because people need to know the importance of these two key points. Otherwise they will be wasting their time and their life. The Buddha gave the teachings of the eighty-four thousand Dharma Gates because sentient beings have specific individual negative obscurations and each teaching was a specific antidote for that sentient being. The eighty-four thousand teachings all together are designated as the Tripitaka. In actuality the Tripitaka is the most profound and supreme among teachings. Continue reading
