Some Glimpses

Dear friends, I have just opened my thick folder with letters to be answered. What a disaster! There were still some letters dating back more than 1 1/2 years, even 2 years old, which I had not taken care of. Sorry! Truly sorry! I now burned everything older than one year and also "fresher" ones; to some of the more recent ones I will answer these coming days, but I have to give out a general warning: Please do not expect answers to your letters! I do indeed read them and I make immediately wishes and prayers, if they are requested. However I have not gotten around to answering them, and I believe this situation will not change. I am not a letter writing personality, and I have already great difficulties in keeping up with my emails; also I was happy that thanks to a stroke of lightning my phone was out of order for several months (which is not the case anymore, since I need it for my parents). The simple reason for this state of affairs is that I prefer to meditate and do nothing in the morning and evening instead of engaging in more exchanges which in general I enjoy a lot. So I have to admit that my excuses will not be followed by a change of attitude, I simply come to a more reasonable assessment of my capacities... Lots of warm greetings to all of you, I prefer direct contact, face to face! Yours, Lhundrup

Click on the image or follow the link to their website which is www.Ecosia.org. To select your language click on the upper right corner on the country name. Take the time to watch the 8 minute video clip which explains everything! 8 minutes are not muc and their fabulous suggestions are worth that time plus te time of installing that search engine on your computer!

Happy Christmas and New Year to all! Lhundrup
(right now in Germany with my parents)

There is a ne website which you might find interesting: The network of buddhist women in Europe.
From their site: For your better understanding: this is not a society but an information platform trying to offer to the interested public in Europe news around the topic of Women and Buddhism. The trilingual form is only a start for hopefully more European languages to appear on this platform with the same information plus additional news on Women and Buddhism in the respective countries. Anybody interested in the topic of women and Buddhism is invited to cooperate in this valuable task.
This website aims to further Buddhist women as teachers and to help them in all their varied and important contributions – as well as making books and texts more easily accessible to as many people as possible.
Since the time of the Buddha women have been deeply inspired by and gained strength in Buddhist practice. And although full ordination of women was introduced by the Buddha himself, it unfortunately has not been accepted everywhere as a matter of course. In their development towards full enlightenment, women have often passed on their experiences by unconventional means.
The network of Buddhist women in Europe would like to provide a forum where these experiences can be collected and preserved and to be passed on to as many people as possible, so that they too can draw inspiration and courage to find their way.
There are many texts to be translated, information to be collected and much social assistance is needed. This is a mammoth task, and needs the support of many people. We are looking forward to your contributions.

Dear friends, our newest book is available in the Norbu Verlag, unfortunately only for German speaking readers.



It has 415 pages and contains all the necesssary texts for study and practice of the Mahayana Mind Training (Lodjong), starting with sutras from Buddha Shakyamuni up through the teachings of Serlingpa, Atisha, Chekawa Dorje and many other masters to Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye and Gendün Rinpoche who lived closer to our times. I am happy to present it to you, since I have been working on it in my "free time" of the last two years. Enjoy it! You are welcome to translate the book into other languages (except into English where most of the material already exists). Lhundrup

Dear friends, I did not take the time (since 3 months) to put the link on my blog for those of you who wish to buy the newly published extensive Mahamudra meditation manual of the Ninth Karmapa Wangchug Dorje. The new English version has 335 pages, the reworked German version has 395 pages (publishing house: MV-Buchhandel). It was translated by Lama Henrik Havlat, a close disciple of Gendun Rinpoche who asked him to do the translation. The book is the centre of our Mahamudra transmission in the three year retreats and is most recommended as a source of inspiration and guidance for you meditation practice. Best wishes for your practice! Lhundrup

HOMAGE TO LAMA DJANGCHUB NYINGPO

[English text --- French text]

To Our Dear Friend and Brother Lama Djangchub Nyingpo,

Your sudden departure,
struck down during the high point of one of our group practices,
has left us stunned with disbelief.

Your presence was so much a part of our life
we will continue to see you out of the corner of our eye
and expectantly wait for your cheerful laughter.

Your life which has touched and benefited so many people
you have met and given teachings to is an example for us
of how to practice and live with the dharma with constancy and faithfulness.

You were utterly sincere, honest and pure in intention,
always with a warmth, humor and friendliness
that left you available to be of help to others.

Your manner of leaving this life, in the middle of your joyous activity
reminds us continually of the Dharma teaching
that is repeated to us so many times and in so many ways:
our precious life is impermanent
and we may have to leave it behind at any moment.

And yet you have shown us the process of dying
the experience of which will come to all of us
need not be something of heaviness or sorrow,
but the entrance into a higher life.

Now we must say farewell
but we know that you will fare well
because we know that it is always so for
someone good and pure in mind and conduct.

And knowing that all of us, friends,
brothers and sisters are held by the blessing and compassion
of the lineage of great masters
we know that death cannot separate us
and we will meet again.

(by Lama Tenpa, spoken at the cremation in Clermont-Ferrand, 23/11/2009)

Meeting in Dharmazentrum Möhra, Germany, new date: March 27-28, 2010
(German/English)

Dear dharma friends, if you are interested to participate in the next foundation retreat starting in early 2012 in France, Dhagpo Kundrol Ling, please come and meet Lama Chönyi (responsible for the women) and myself (responsible for the men) who will come in March to the beautiful dharma center in Möhra, Thüringen. The meeting is open for everyone interested and will be held for one weekend (Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th March, 2010). It gives the occasion to get to know each other and to clarify questions on how to prepare for such a retreat etc..
We will speak English and German, this gives the possibility for people from other countries like Russia, Hungary, Slovakia etc. to join us. We will present the structure of the retreat and answer to all your questions, as much as we can. We have both been guiding the 3year retreats for 15 years now, but still we will certainly not be able to answer all your questions; much is left to your own discovery! Please write to us, if you are interested in joining us for the weekend.
You can contact me under: lhundrup@dhagpo-kagyu.org
All the best, more informations will be given later, sincerely yours, Lama Lhundrup

On request I just uploaded a transcript of 2 public talks that I gave on death, bardo and rebirth in Freiburg, Germany. I have not looked through and corrected them, but it looks as if I would not find the time to do so in the immediate futre. Please let me know if you find passages that need to be worked over. Thank you.

Two files seem to have been damaged after each having been downloaded more than 600 times: "Kontemplation über Vergänglichkeit" and "Kontemplation über Liebe" in the section "contemplations". They have been replaced by new ones. Have a try...

Dear friends,
today is a worldwide day of planetary action for reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. If you do not know how much you actually contribute to the warming up of our planet, there is a nice English website where you can make your own calculations. I did mine on a German website, supported by the German ministry of ecology.

I was shocked at my personal results: due to traveling 25.000 km per year by car and several trips by plane I actually produced close to 18 tons of CO2 every year! The average in Germany is 10,88 tons per person and the average for the world should be around 2 tons/person/year, if we are to avoid any further heating up of the planet. Shocked as I was I took to going almost everywhere by bicycle and train. This works wonders for my health but also for my carbon output. If I continue like this I will be at about 8,5 tons per year... far from what we aim at, but less than half of what I used to pollute this planet with!

I could not find a French website offering this service while there are several in English and German. How come? Could you help me to find such a service for our French friends?

I feel that it is our duty as Buddhist practitioners to express our respect for all living creatures and for our planet which sustains our spiritual path by direct action, a change in our attitude and life style. Personally, it is the discovery of a slower pace, more time to feel nature and my own body as I am on the bicycle and more time to read and to talk with unknown people as I am traveling by train. And when I take the car I practice "ecological driving" which is much more relaxing than my normal speed... Nice discoveries!

I hope we all join in in this change of awareness which leads to a change of priorities. We need to preserve the conditions for the dharma practice of future generations. All the best, Lhundrup

Dear friends, thanks to Craig Meulen, I became aware of the following discussion on Einstein's quotes on Buddhism (follow the link to get a full picture):

"There are two similar versions of a prominent Einstein quote on Buddhism floating around the web, reproducing themselves in viral fashion. They are:

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
and:
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.

These quotes are rarely said to come from a particular book or speech, but we sometimes see this attribution: Albert Einstein, The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press, 1954. Now, this book is subtitled New Glimpses From His Archives and is not by Einstein, so the quote may not actually be his, but someone quoting him or paraphrasing him, as pointed out on the E-Sangha discussion forums (see below for more on that)."

I myself wrote 10 days ago:
I am probably the last one to get to know this quotation of Albert Einstein (from the 1950's), but I still share it with you although his dream is almost too much of a praise of Buddhism:

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It will have to transcend a personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Encompassing both the natural and the spiritual, it will have to be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, considered as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description... if there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism."

What I feel especially important today is his intuition of the need for "encompassing the natural and the spiritual". Spirituality cannot leave nature with it's laws, needs and discoveries aside.

I would like to let you know about the nice artistic work of one of our ex-retreatants, Christine Cely-Soulier. She opened a workshop called "brin de soie" (silk fibres) which also proposes some nice presents for Buddhist practitioners in her collection "graine de lotus". Although everything is in French, she will understand commands coming in in English. Let's give her a little help for the start!

Dear friends, on my short trip to the European Buddhist Union last month I had the chance to participate in a few presentations around this year's topic "Youth and Buddhism". Among the presenters was not only Tulku Trinley from Paris but also Munisha from Manchester, a woman who dedicates her life since 15 years to developing teaching material on Buddhism for the general schools in Britain.

She works for the Clear Vision Trust which is a charity promoting the understanding of Buddhism through audio-visual media. It is run by practicing Western Buddhists and associated with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO). I thought this video and online material could be highly interesting for any one of us. The representative of the German Buddhist Union immediately asked for the rights to translate the material (7 DVD, books, games etc.) into German. I myself was impressed with the quality of the teaching material which has of course greatly improved in those past 15 years of experience. Click on the link above or type www.clear-vision.org in Google to find more information.

Munisha just wrote to me:
Dear Lhundrup, it's lovely to hear from you. Thank you so much for mentioning Clear Vision in your blog. This is the kind of publicity we need more and more of! As you know, we are moving on now to make free Dharma materials for young people at home/temple worldwide - and this work urgently needs financial support if we are to continue. Our first free materials should go online in the next few months, and then we'll send round a press release. We want to get the message out to as many Buddhists worldwide as possible. It is not exaggerating to say that although we have made all this wonderful material, we cannot continue to exist unless we start to receive donations. We simply do not earn enough money to support three people, even on our very modest financial allowances!
With all good wishes in the Dharma, Munisha (Catherine Hopper),
Director and Education Officer
The Clear Vision Trust, 16-20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ, 0161 839 9579

You can find a beautiful teaching by the late Third Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche which he gave in Toronto in 1990. Thanks to Lama Irene Dorje Drölma the text was recently translated into German. The English text can be found by following this link to the website "A View on Buddhism".

If you have a look at the attached invitation letter, you can see the house into which Peggy and Tashi are moving now. (You can also look for the file in the "News Section") On New Year they are organizing their first dharma course, and everyone is welcome in this house with its 15 autonomous apartments to have a quiet time of practice and relaxation, 20 km from the Baltic sea!
Their email is: tashioeser@gmx.net