So we will make a prayer and mandala offering, just like we did in the morning.
[Prayers] [REFUGE AND BODHICITTA PRAYER] sang gyé chö dang tsok kyi chok nam laསངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ།
I take refuge in the buddha, Dharma, and Supreme Assembly
jang chup bar du dak ni kyap su chi
བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི།
Until the attainment of enlightenment.
dak gi jin sok gyi pé sö nam kyi
བདག་གི་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས།
Through the merit of practicing generosity and so forth,
dro la pen chir sang gyé drup bar shok
འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག
May Buddhahood be accomplished for the benefit of beings. [SEVEN-BRANCHED PRAYER] chak tselwa dang chö ching shak pa dang
ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ་དང་མཆོད་ཅིང་བཤགས་པ་དང་།
Through homage, making offerings, confession,
jé su yi rang kül zhing sölwa yi
རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རང་བསྐུལ་ཞིང་གསོལ་བ་ཡི།
rejoicing, exhorting, and supplicating,
gewa chung zé dak gi chi sak pa
དགེ་བ་ཅུང་ཟད་བདག་གིས་ཅི་བསགས་པ།
whatever small virtue I have amassed,
tam ché dak gi jang chup chir ngo
ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་གིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཕྱིར་བསྔོའོ།
I delicate it all to supreme enlightenment. [OFFERING MANDALA] sa zhi pö chü juk shing mé tok tram
ས་གཞི་སྤོས་ཆུས་བྱུགས་ཤིང་མེ་ཏོག་བཀྲམ།
The ground is anointed with fragrant waters and strewn with flowers,
ri rap ling zhi nyi dé gyen pa di
རི་རབ་གླིང་བཞི་ཉི་ཟླས་བརྒྱན་པ་འདི།
adorned with Sumeru, the four continents, the sun, and the moon.
sang gyé zhing du mik té pülwa yi
སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་དུ་དམིགས་ཏེ་ཕུལ་བ་ཡིས།
Through my imagining this as a buddha realm and offering it,
dro gün nam dak zhing la chö par shok
འགྲོ་ཀུན་རྣམ་དག་ཞིང་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག
may all beings enjoy and completely pure realm.
…
Ok, so this morning we have reached to the …
Oh, I think it will be good if you have any question, one or two questions and then maximum three questions. And then we have to focus on the text, otherwise it becomes a whole conversation. Anybody have one question, maybe we start with the participants here. You can raise your hand and ask, okay?
Q: Almost fell asleep there for a second, I didn’t get “defined awareness” and I have a little empty space after it. Wondering if you would mind, defining awareness again?
A: Defining the awareness. Right? Ok. The definition of, defining the awareness, it means …
It has to be separate from the idea of the concentration. Concentration is not awareness. Many people they think the concentration is awareness and they think that by the result of concentrating, fully and only by that, and gives you some sort of a progress eventually in the meditation of the deities and practice and so on. But, in the reality, there is a, quite a distinction between awareness and the concentration.
Concentration requires an immense strength and lot of rigidity. Like you play sport, you have a concentration, adrenalin, you have that, adrenalin right? am I saying it, adrenalin? yeah. So like when you’re playing sport, riding bicycle, going for running. You focus on the breath, your heart rate, you know, you have to, that’s the concentration. So it’s a lot of misunderstanding. Concentration is helpful, in its own way and awareness requires a little bit of concentration but eventually awareness itself is not a concentration. You understand?
So that sort of understanding and distinction is very much required. Because if you perceive the Dharma practice requires a full concentration that will lead to exhaustion and burnout. So if you practice with awareness, you kind of continue for much more longer endurance. Let’s put it like this. Day and night also. Because your mind is not, you’re not pushing yourself. You’re going according to your will, you’re going according to your wishes, according to your desire, to practice, experiencing the bliss, witnessing everything.
Concentration is good for starting the engine. To start something, to push a little bit, like saying: “Ah I’m falling asleep, let’s not fall asleep”, “Oh I’m getting distracted, Ah let’s not get distracted”, “Oh I’m losing the focus of where I am supposed to visualize, Ah let’s focus” That’s concentration, that’s not awareness.
Awareness is simply, simply witnessing everything, without any judgment. And not just a mental attitude but mind attitude itself. Is it okay?
And that becomes a profound over the time. That awareness itself becomes much more strengthened eventually over the time, as you progress with your practice, in a retreat, teachings, practicing.
Niguma’s “Amulet Mahamudra” by Kalu Rinpoche (afternoon session)
Kagyu Sukha Chöling – Friday March 11, 2022
To be continued …
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