Whatever You Give is Truly Yours

By matt | Published: February 9, 2018

[From a teaching on Songs of Barway Dorje by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given at KPL in 2017. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]

Because of the practice of imaginary offerings we tend to be a little skimpy on the practice of actual offerings. For example,  if you can afford to make more offerings, you should not think that offering a single candle or a single stick of incense is sufficient. With actual offerings the point is not how much you offer, but how much it affects you to make that offering, how much of a change it makes in you. The practice of offering is an aspect of dharma and dharma is a means of changing, a means of ameliorating our character. So the question when making an actual offering is, does this touch you enough that it actually helps you change?

In the practice of actual offerings, the issue is not so much of what the actual offering is, as how it affects your mind. Because all of this is working with the power of the mind. I have to say these things because my job, my responsibility, is to be honest with you. So I have to say: We are all far more attached to ourselves than we are to the Three Jewels.

Nevertheless, the practice of offering, whether it is offering to the Three Jewels, or generosity to the needy, is extraordinarily powerful. The Buddha said, “Whatever you give is truly yours, whatever you keep is not yours.”
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Everything is Amrita

By matt | Published: January 25, 2018

[From a teaching on Essence of Wisdom: Stages of the Path, Part 15, by Lama Tashi Topgyal. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]

What is the nature of amrita? What is really meant by amrita?

This is the key point: it’s not just that some things that exist, such as the five meats and five nectars, and so on, that have these special attributes. The view of amrita accomplishment is that everything in the environment – below the ground, on the ground, and in the sky –  all of the elements, all of the aggregates of sentient beings, all of the objects of the senses, and all of our kleshas — all of these fives — the five elements in the external world and within our bodies in the form of flesh, blood, warmth, breath, and space; the objects of the five senses; and the five kleshas — what appear to us as those things have really, from the beginning, been self-arisen, great, five amritas.

So the view is that everything is amrita. And it always has been. Therefore, it does not need to be changed. You don’t need to change things or sublimate them in some way into some kind of amrita. They are; they always have been. Nothing exists other than the five amritas. Briefly put, the view is that all of samsara and nirvana is amrita. And that’s why in our messed-up perception, we see five elements, five aggregates, five senses, five kleshas, and so forth.

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All Things Rest on the Point of Intention

By matt | Published: December 26, 2017

[From a teaching on The Songs of Barway Dorje, Part 10, given by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche at KPL in June 2017. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]

To be able to understand every single word of every single Dharma teaching we receive would be wonderful, but we should not hold ourselves hostage to that ambition. The most important thing when listening to teachings, especially teachings like these, is your intention for doing so.

In fact, the amount of benefit that you reap or accrue in listening to the songs [of Barway Dorje] depends more on your intention then it does on your understanding of the literal meaning of each line of the song. As it is said, “All things rest on the point of intention.” So if you find yourself unable to understand part of a song, or the main body of a song, don’t worry too much about it. Simply regard it as a source or vehicle for receiving the blessing of the Dharma.

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