Rangjung Yeshe Gomde The Netherlands - Study Group Amsterdam

Support the monks
of Ka Nying monastery.
Read more...

Follow Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche's "Saturday teachings"
Here...

Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Home Page. Click here...

Information about the Shedra.
Click here...

The Key to Happiness, The Chokgyur Lingpa Foundation.
Click here...

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche "The Essence Teachings of Buddha", Denmark. June 29 - July 6. For information and registration,
Click here...

Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche
seminar Gomde Denmark.
July 25 - August 3.
Information follows...

Tsoknyi Rinpoche seminar Gomde Denmark.
"A Dzogchen Approach to an Open Heart and Open Mind". October 13-19. Information and registration,
Klik hier...

Lineage and History. Roadmap of Buddhist Traditions, Lineages, and Practices.
More info:
Click here...

From Present Fresh Wakefulness, by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche.

The great yogi Milarepa said, "This life is mere illusion, a mere dream. Be compassionate towards beings who don't understand this." All our various experiences and dreams are simply the magical display of our thoughts. Until our thoughts are cleared away and dissolve, karma and disturbing emotions will not end. It is important to understand that thoughts themselves are karma and disturbing emotions.

Life is like a magical illusion or a dream. Because we are asleep, unaware, we dream up all types of different episodes, involving various degrees of pleasure and pain. In this sleep, everything feels as if it were real. The moment we wake up, however, it is obvious that all those experiences have no real existence. Yet, within the dream, they felt the same as our daytime experiences. The anxieties, the fear, the worry we entertained in the dream are all completely unreal, but while dreaming, we do not know them to be a dream, to be illusions. Only after we awake do we realize, "Wow, it was a dream — only a dream." We can even laugh at ourselves for being so overtaken! If it was disturbing, we are happy to wake up, while we feel a sense of loss upon awakening from a pleasant dream.

I'm using the example of a dream as a metaphor for our waking reality. All things, all of our ordinary experiences, are like dreams. They are as essentially insubstantial as the moon reflected in water. Though from time to time we have a hunch that this might be true, only after we have spent some time learning, reflecting and meditating do we fully understand that our life experiences are like a dream.

Three kinds of knowledge are necessary to ascertain the nature of things — the basic situation, you could say. First is the knowledge resulting from learning. When we examine, analyze and inspect what we learn, we are able to gain the second type of knowledge, resulting from reflection. Finally, we achieve the third type of knowledge by making what we've learned part of our own experience through practice. Through these three types of knowledge, we are able to completely end the cause of confusion.

Everything that we see, everything that we experience, appears due to a combination of factors. Nothing has any independent or true existence. Everything is 'groundless and rootless', yet appears due to dependent origination. While this is definitely true, a buddha does not explain this immediately.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

>>