LIFE RELEASE

Date: June 2, 2013 (Sunday)

Time: 10:00 AM

Place: Portside Park, East Waterfront Road, Vancouver (at the north foot of Main Street)

Everyone is welcome to participate in this meritorious event. You can contribute money for the purchase of live fish. Any amounts (cash only) are welcome, but please do so on or before May 26th.

You are also welcome to join the Life Release practice on that day. Please arrive 15 min. before the ceremony starts.
Life release is a Buddhist tradition of saving lives of animals that are destined to be killed. Although every life is precious, the fact of being alive inevitably causes taking lives of other beings. We cannot completely prevent this situation because as long as we walk, breath, eat, and so forth; we cause deaths of many creatures. However we can cultivate mindfulness, and try to reduce taking lives to the best of our ability. We can also offer a gift of life and protection through the practice of Life Release. The practice has two aspects: 1) the act of saving lives; and 2) the blessing of the prayers that accompany life release.
It is said that no virtue brings greater merit than the act of saving beings and ransoming their lives. It benefits those who offer the gift of life as well as those who receive it. It is the best practice for your own longevity and health. It dispels all external and internal adversity and obstacles. Its result will be strengthened if the practice is conducted with love and compassion, and the merit dedicated to all beings without exception to enjoy happiness and a life free from any harm.
If we are Buddhists, we dedicate the merit from the practice of life release to the benefit of all beings, to long life of Buddhist teachers and practitioners, and to the flourishing of the Dharma. As students of Thrangu Rinpoche in particular, we dedicate the practice to his long life, and to the flourishing of his activity in the world.

Dear Dharma Friends,

Tashi Delek!

May 25, 2013 (Saturday) at 7:30 pm, we will be  praying  entitled “Calling the Lama from Afar.” It would be good to go through the verses and see what they mean to us. This spiritual text is not only a prayer but it also offers instructions that we receive from our Lama.

The title of the prayer is “Calling the Lama from Afar.” Who is a Lama? Lama is our Root Teacher, the Lama who bestows the empowerment, reading transmission of a text, and the practice instructions that enable us to mature. One’s Root Lama is a very personal matter. One can meet many Lamas who are famous but experience no change when one does. It is possible to experience deep faith and devotion in a Lama whose name one merely hears or whose picture one only sees, without every having met him in life. So please joins for the prayers and acknowledge his great love and compassion for us and every beings The Lama who is relevant for oneself is the Lama who is one’s inner source of inspiration, who one trusts and reveres deeply.

We will dedicate all the merits to World Peace, freedom from illness and disasters.

Light a Lamp with a prayer and a wish for developing inner peace, kindness, love, compassion and for world peace. Let the light glow until the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings is attained

You have reached a place where you can make a difference to this world and for all the sentient beings, Light your Free Virtual  Lamps with a prayer and a wish for developing inner peace, kindness, love, compassion and for world peace so that we can make a better today and tomorrow. Let the light glow until we attain the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

In the Tune of Brahma, Shakyamuni Buddha mentioned the 10 benefits of offering lights:

One becomes like the light of the world
One achieves clairvoyance of the pure eye as a human
One achieves the Deva’s eye
One receives the wisdom to discriminate virtue from non-virtue
One is able to eliminate the concept of inherent existence
One receives the illumination of wisdom
One is reborn as a human or deva
One receives great enjoyment wealth
One quickly becomes liberated
One quickly attains enlightenment

The offering of light is a means of dispelling the darkness of our own ignorance, giving rise to clarity and wisdom. We offer them with the wish that their light will illuminate the lower realms and the bardo, assuaging the torment of beings who suffer in darkness. We also aspire that all beings will develop greater mental clarity in order to discover the causes of long-lasting happiness in virtuous actions of body, speech and mind. Finally, we offer them so that the inner light of great knowing will arise in the minds of all beings and remove the darkness of ignorance and intellectual obscurations.

For the deceased - We make light offerings to ease their passage after death, with the wish that they make a positive future connection with a true spiritual path.

For someone undergoing suffering - we offer butterlamps and dedicate the merit who are suffering, with the wish that suffering and its cause may be dispelled.

As a prayer for someone’s long life - You can offer butterlamps on the occasion of someone’s birthday or anytime, with the wish that they remain long in this world to bring benefit to beings.

Whether you are able to attend the prayers in person or not, you are still welcome to make donations for butter lamp offerings, flower offerings, and fruit offerings.  Please contact us for details.

Dear Sangha Members & Dharma Friends,

Our beloved Thrangu Rinpoche has been with us for more than two weeks now since his return to the Monastery at the beginning of the month. We are so grateful and happy to be blessed with his presence.  A lot of you have enquired about and sent your best regards to Rinpoche, and understandably many of you are keen to see him and have requested individual appointments with him.  So we would like to give you a brief update here on Rinpoche’s schedules in the next few months.

Rinpoche is in retreat at present and he will be in retreat until July 19th.  From July 20th to 27th, there will be Long Life Prayers for Rinpoche at the Monastery.  This is a public event and everyone is welcome to participate.  After the Long Life Prayers, Rinpoche will be available to receive visitors and individual appointments can be made.

Thank you all for your regards and care for Rinpoche.  Let’s continue to pray for his good health and longevity!

5 • 24 ~ 26 • 2013

An extensive commentary by Thrangu Rinpoche on the Union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen: the Direct Instructions of the Great Compassionate One by Karma Chagmey. Whatever your lifestyle may be and whatever form your practice may take, if it includes the practice of Mahamudra it will be successful. Mahamudra is essential or necessary practice even if you do other practices as well.

Mahakala Practice
February 3 ~ 9

Mahakala is known as the “Dharma protector.” The emanation of Avalokiteshvara, Mahakala eliminates obstacles in one’s practice of dharma, keeping away deception and delusion. Having fierce and powerful energy, Mahakala takes on different forms and colors. When chanting the Mahakala mantra or reciting his sadhana, practitioners are protected from negative forces. One’s Dharma practice is supported by the purifying of negative thoughts and actions.

Celebration of Yogi Milerapa’s Anniversary
February 24

Using the text “Blazing Wisdom-The Guru Yoga and Feast Offering to the Great Jetsun Milarepa” composed by Jamgom Kongtrol Lodro Thaye, please join us in celebrating the parinirvana of The Great Yogi Milarepa. The practice of Guru Yoga is praised again and again by the victors of all Tantras. When called, Milarepa surely looks upon us with compassion, and showers us with blessings.
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