Contents:
Form 2. Feeling 3. Perception 4. Mental formations 5. Consciousness The first aggregate - form - comprises the material elements of our physical existence. This includes our sense faculties and their objects. Feelings of pleasure, pain or neutrality arise when a sense faculty makes contact with an object, such as hearing a beautiful birdsong and feeling happy. Perception is the recognition of the sound and naming it, as for example identifying what kind of bird is singing.
Mental formations are the thoughts and emotions that arise in relation to one's feelings and perceptions, as for example thinking 'I would like to get up every morning and listen to that beautiful bird singing'. Consciousness is what links the senses with their objects and enables us to have awareness of them. There are five consciousness pertaining to each of the five senses of sight, sound, smell, touch and taste; and a sixth consciousness pertaining to the mind.
This consciousness co-ordinates the input from the five senses and experiences thoughts and feelings. When the five aggregates are working together in combination, we develop the idea of 'me' as someone who is doing this seeing, feeling, thinking, etc, but this is merely a mental construct, much the same as we develop the idea of a 'stream' when we see drops of water aggregated together.
It remains that this is just an idea - a mental formation - and what is really there are simply the five aggregates working together. Although on an ultimate level self is an illusion, the experience of 'self' at a relative or everyday level happens because of ignorance and karma. When we fixate on a sense of 'me', we then perceive everything else as 'other than me' and our way of relating to things is conditioned by this separation.
This is the meaning of 'ignorance' in Buddhism. This sense of separation causes us to develop feelings of attachment and aversion. We then act on these emotions, seeking to be nearer things that we like, pushing things away that we don't like and ignoring the rest. Like planting a seed, which bears fruit, these actions produce results. In Buddhism, this cycle of actions and results is called 'karma'. Furthermore, the Buddha taught that if we act in unskilful ways we experience suffering and if we act in skilful ways we experience happiness. The Twelve Links describe in detail how the process of karma works.
According to this teaching, the life that we are now living is not something that has just happened by itself, it is not a 'one off' experience. Instead, it is part of an on-going process of actions and results over many lifetimes. Our current life has been moulded in the way it has because of things that we did in former lives.
In the same way, what we are doing now is shaping what our next life will be like. In Buddhism, this is called the process of interdependent origination, meaning that things originate from each other and depend upon each other. This process is going on all the time and is unbroken. We are the way we are now due to how we acted in the past. Depending on how we act now, we shape the future.
This circular, on-going process is often compared to a wheel in Buddhism. It is the famous analogy for samsara: a wheel that turns round and round and round. The process starts with ignorance because it is ignorance which causes the mistaken perception of reality that happens when the mind contracts around a sense of a 'me', thus separating 'me' from what is 'other' or 'not me'. Once ignorance is present, it starts the process of 'becoming', which is made up of the Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination.
This volume is part of a series of three books devoted to Tibetan Buddhism as seen through the teachings of one of the most revered masters of modern times. Profound Buddhism From Hinayana to Vajrayana book. Read reviews from world's largest community for readers. Kalu Rinpoche, a lama of the Kagyu Shanghai.
This process is the force which propels sentient beings through samsara and results in them taking birth in different realms of existence. The Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination are called 'links' because each one is the cause of the next one. They don't happen independently. Instead, they behave like a row of dominoes lined up next to one another. If you push the first one over it knocks down the second one, which knocks over the third one and so on. In a similar way, when the first link occurs, it then causes the second link to happen and this in turn causes the third link to occur and so on.
These links describe our moment by moment experience of the world, as well as the life cycle of an individual. The Twelve Links are: 1. Ignorance produces 2. Karma the law of cause and effect produces 3. Consciousness produces 4. Form produces 5. Senses produce 6. Contact produces 7. Feeling produces 8.
If recognition of the clear light cannot be made, the second phase of the bardo of the nature in itself begins. On re-reading the text, however, I found it very charming and down to earth. Actions that are rooted in compassion and wisdom—even when they appear odd, eccentric, or even wrathful—do not instill fear or anxiety. A very popular book for every practitioner on the Diamond Way. From the moment one considers someone as a master and receives teachings, it is no longer possible to adopt a critical attitude. Merit and wisdom can be accumulated by the mandala offering, and the grace of the master can be received by the guru yoga.
Craving produces 9. Grasping produces Becoming produces Birth produces Aging and death And death starts the cycle of existence over again by producing a state of unknowing or ignorance. June Campbell , a former Kagyu nun who is an academic feminist , acted as Kalu Rinpoche's translator for several years. In her book Traveller in Space: Gender, Identity and Tibetan Buddhism [1] , she writes that she consented to participate in what she realised later was an abusive sexual relationship with him, which he told her was tantric spiritual practice.
She raises the same theme in a number of interviews, including one with Tricycle magazine in Lama Gyaltsen had served since his youth as his secretary. Former Kalu Rinpoche, he himself, chose whom to come into this world through. Situ Rinpoche sent a letter of recognition with Lama Gyaltsen to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama , who immediately confirmed the recognition. He is now known as the Second Kalu Rinpoche.
Kalu disclosed he was abused, paused then broke down, revealing for the first time that he had been sexually abused at the age of 12 by older monks [7] from the monastery he attended. Shortly after that he posted a video on YouTube [8] so that the story would not become unsubstantiated gossip. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Kham , Eastern Tibet. A very popular book for every practitioner on the Diamond Way. Shambhala; Revised edition , pp. Buddhist Ethics is the 5th part of that work and is considered to be the heart. This text presents the three major systems of ethics, widely know as the three vows. Myriad Worlds presents the four levels of cosmology. This text is one of The Five Teachings of Maitreya, the future Buddha, who transmitted it to Arya Asanga after Asanga had gained the realization necessary to be entrusted with such instruction.
It is regarded as very important as it presents in great detail and clarity the view which forms the basis of any Vajrayana and especially Mahamudra practice. Thus it builds a bridge between the Sutrayana and Vajrayana levels of the Buddha's teachings. A wealth of study material. Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling , pp. This translation contains subtle and penetrating wisdom expressed through the age-old tradition of spiritual songs. Two songs by the great Indian master Naropa are explained in detail by Thrangu Rinpoche, a realized Tibetan Buddhist teacher of the present time.
The text is one chapter of his monumental Buddhist encyclopaedia, Treasury of Knowledge. Translated by Ron Garry. He instructed his main disciple Yeshe Tsogyal to conceal terma treasures to be revealed at the destined time for future practitioners. The profundity of this advice is meant to be personally applied by all individuals in all circumstances.
North Atlantic Books , pp. Famous among all Kagyupas.
An extensive iconography completes the book. This book gives detailed instructions for practice acc. This manual was written in the midth century for those who wish to embark on this rigorous training. It guides them in preparing for retreat, provides full details of the meditation program and offers advice for their re-entry into the world.
This book presents the short text and reveals the main teachings for starting the path of Mahamudra. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives , pp.