A NEWSLETTER OF SIDDHARTHAS INTENT

April 2007

HOW TO LOOK FOR A GURU AND BE A STUDENT TENZIN PALMOS NEW NUNNERY READING ALOUD THE WORD OF THE BUDDHA UPDATE ON THREE YEAR RETREAT

IN THIS ISSUE

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In This Issue
Editorial
Welcome to a new edition of Gentle Voice. After many years of outstanding work our Editor, Lynne Macready, has handed over the role to me. I hope I can live up to her fine example. Gentle Voice connects the students of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche with his teachings, with his work, with each other, and with the world of Buddhism. We are a part of something greater than ourselves as individuals and each ones contribution expands the whole. Buddhism is developing in the West at an incredible pace. Every year more translations are published, teachings are given and centres established. A massive cultural integration is taking place. Gentle Voice is a publication of Siddharthas Intent and is connected to all the other projects of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, including the Khyentse Foundation, which funds monasteries, university chairs, scholarships for both monks and lay people and other projects. We are also linked to Lotus Outreach, which is helping to prevent child trafficking in Cambodia and provide vocational training for survivors of trafficking. Our spiritual home is the Dzongsar Monastery in Tibet and four other monasteries and retreat centres in India and Bhutan. Siddharthas Intent has branches in eight countries including Australia and here we are particularly excited to follow the progress of the three year retreatants at Vajradhara Gonpa in Kyogle. This is a big mandala, a big circle, and it is exciting to be a part of it. We are also a part of the lineage established by the historical Buddha two and a half thousand years ago in India. Many of us have spent time in India visiting the holy places of pilgrimage such as Bodhgaya, and I plan to include pictures and stories from these foundational places of inspiration. New developments are taking place all over the world and some of these will also be featured. In this issue we include a further instalment of Dzongsar Khyentses teaching on how to look for a guru and be a student, an interview with the British nun, Venerable Tenzin Palmo at her newly built nunnery, a report on the three year retreatants and an account of the transmission of the Buddhas teachings in Bir. Much is new but much endures. Things change but there is a continuity empowering new growth. Sunyata (Di Cousens), Editor
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Contents
How to look for a Guru and be a Student Next Three Year Retreat Reading Aloud the Word of the Buddha Realising the Potential of Nuns Announcements Book Review Practice Sessions for Students 3 5 6 7 9 10 12

Teachings by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

The Madhyamakavatara Series 3 Teachings in Sydney

This is one of the key philosophical expositions of emptiness and its study has been an essential part of Buddhist training in Tibet for many centuries. Though not very long, the text contains complex and subtle arguments in a condensed form. This is the third in a series of four annual programs. Date: Address: 15- 24 June 2007 Fred Hutley Hall North Sydney Council 200 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060, Australia Enquiries: (02) 9420 1340 [email protected] Registration: www.siddharthasintent.org

About Siddharthas Intent Founded in 1989 by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Siddhartha's Intent is an international Buddhist association of non-profit centres, most of which are nationally registered societies and charities, with the principal intention of preserving the Buddhist teachings, as well as increasing an awareness and understanding of the many aspects of the Buddhist teaching, beyond the limits of cultures and traditions. (http://www.siddharthasintent.org/about.htm)

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How to Look for a Guru and Be a Student

I've already said a lot of things about the students motivation, which should be the wish for enlightenment. And the teacher must have the motivation to enlighten the student. That should be the gurus main aim. If there's anything else, you can consider it a bonus. There is a fair amount of confusion among students, especially within Tibetan Buddhism and probably also Japanese Buddhism. There is, of course, a fascination with the words of Gautama Buddha, but there's also a fascination with eastern cultures with colourful Indian culture, chaotic Tibetan culture, bare, simple Japanese culture, orderly Confucian Chinese culture. This fascination with culture and the words of the Buddha can get mixed up. Most of the time, as Patrul Rinpoche said, fascination with the culture takes over. Thats how one loses contact with the dharma, the Buddhas words. You have been chanting the Prajnaparamita or Heart Sutra, the quintessence of the Mahayana sutras, which states, "No nose, no eyes form is emptiness, emptiness is form " and so on. There is no ceremony in this; the closest thing to ceremony in it is the prajnaparamita mantra. There is no culture in it. However, even if one wanted to do without culture, you will not find a way and it would be unwise to do so. Unless you are already accomplished (which means you have already been groomed in a certain tradition), you cannot read the Heart Sutra and contemplate the words, without depending on a master, a tradition, a culture or teachings. It is almost impossible to get the benefit of it without depending on some kind of method. The important point, though, is not to think that the method is the dharma. Yet there is no black-and-white judgement we can make. If your Tibetan master prescribes that every day before your meditation you must have a cup of butter tea as some kind of skilful means coming from the master's wisdom and compassion, then this is a skilful means prescribed for you and it's what you have to do. But not everybody has to learn how to make butter tea just because they are following Tibetan Buddhism.

by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche at his library in Bir.

Anyway, seeking enlightenment should be the student's primary goal. Then all that we are supposed to practise trust, devotion, renunciation, bodhicitta should not have any difficulty arising within us. Let's talk about devotion. The great siddha Saraha defined devotion as trust in cause, condition and effect. For example, if you're boiling an egg, there are certain causes and conditions you must have, such as water, a pot and fire. Of course, the egg itself is the most important thing, isnt it? (And an egg is such a good example of ourselves: beautiful to look at, but completely closed.) Perhaps a kitchen would make it easier. You can cook an egg right on the street, but it's very uncomfortable and messy and in the process the egg may not be cooked properly unless the cook is skilled. We're reluctant to rely on the cook these days, aren't we? But the cook is actually quite important in this case, as you can see. This is why I think the guru is almost a must. When all the causes and conditions come together, even if you prayed for the egg not to be cooked, the prayer would not succeed. The egg will be cooked: there's no choice. When we cook an egg, what do we have? Devotion. And when the cook, the water, the pot and the other conditions are gathered together, we gain a certain confidence.

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In order to develop this kind of devotion you have to hear the instruction that you need water to cook an egg, then you can contemplate that and actually perform it yourself, which is meditation. During the cooking of an egg the main aim is the egg being cooked. In our practice, during meditation and on the spiritual path in general, the main aim should be enlightenment. That means a lot, though, so let's approach it from another angle. When you experience negative emotions such as desire, anger, jealousy and pride, you have to learn, at least through listening in the beginning, that they can all be destroyed. How can you learn that? By reminding yourself again and again, "These emotions come from causes and conditions. They are not inborn nature or permanent; they are compounded phenomena. Depending on how much effort I invest, they can be changed." Then develop a sense of trust that, no matter how grim the situation seems, by the law of cause, condition and effect it can be manipulated. That's not only trusting the path of enlightenment, that's actually believing in the result enlightenment itself. Devotion is so important. The Kagy lineage says, "Devotion is the head of meditation." Its very true.

First, you believe that you can drive; second, you believe that he has the ability to teach you how. Now just do whatever he says. If he says, "Drink coffee", drink it. If he says something else like, "Operate the brake with your hands, not your feet", do it. Some incredible instructions could be given and this is because of you, not so much because of the teacher. Perhaps other driving-school students are wondering what you two are doing. They may also think he is taking advantage of you. Yet you have one-pointed, unshakable devotion towards him. I think this second kind of devotion is the most obvious devotion and it actually overshadows the first kind of devotion a lot. Im talking about two kinds of devotion: the first kind is knowing that you can drive because you have all the attributes to learn to drive and this master can teach you. The second kind is really following his instructions even though they're not coming from the textbook. This second kind of devotion seems to have taken over the first kind of devotion too much. That's not so good.

One should learn that if even ten per cent of what we're planning succeeds, we should celebrate.

I want to stress this because devotion seems to have some kind of negative connotation such as believing whatever the teacher or the path says and not asking questions or analysing. That approach also exists. But it should exist after you have finally convinced yourself that the egg is cookable, that your emotions are destroyable. Once you have that confidence, at least intellectually, it's usually better just to believe in the master because you dont have time. The clock is ticking. For instance, if you want to learn how to drive, first you must believe within yourself that you can drive. You assure yourself that you have two hands, two feet, two eyes, a mind, some kind of sanity and language ability. Then you ask someone to teach you how to drive and he does so. But along with your abilities come other attributes such as nervousness, sleepiness or being distracted. If your good karma leads you to an instructor who thinks you're not alert enough, he might tell you to drink a cup of coffee before you drive. You should not go back home and read your car manual to find out where coffee is mentioned. Thats not going to help you; it will merely waste your time unnecessarily.

Devotion is important, especially the first kind, but also what you may call blind devotion. However, I would rather call it time-saving devotion. Just do it. Why ask too many questions? All this time, life after life, you have been asking questions and it hasnt really led you anywhere, so just do it. Time-saving devotion comes naturally if you have the first kind of devotion. Again, let me remind you that this all has to be based on one thing: the wish to seek enlightenment. Its really the fundamental ground. In addition to that we have other things like renunciation mind. I've noticed that some practitioners lack the first kind of devotion, but they have some kind of renunciation mind. This could lead to pointless, nihilistic depression. So if you experience that, think about the first kind of devotion: trusting yourself and trusting someone else, based on seeking enlightenment. Whenever you have a problem with too much renunciation but a lack of trust in yourself, remember the example of the egg. Of course, more eternalist-oriented students have another problem. They also have depression, but instead of pointless depression, they have endless depression. Many of my students fall in love, get married and come to me for blessings. I give them my best wishes, but because they are more eternalist-oriented I also explain the idea
Continued on page 11

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Next Three Year Retreat

by Steve Cline, Kyogle
Vajradhara Gonpa Now Accepting Expressions of Interest for 2009 Three Year Retreat With about a year remaining before completion of the first three-year retreat, Vajradhara Gonpa is now well established as Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's dedicated three-year retreat facility in the West for both Australian and international students. Three year retreat at Vajradhara Gonpa is a residential program of strenuous contemplative practice conducted within a formal retreat boundary according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The inaugural retreat began in December 2004 with 28 Australian and overseas participants. Retreats recur on a four year cycle. Outside the retreat, many sangha members have said they feel much encouraged in their own practice knowing that friends are practising full time in the threeyear retreat. The three year retreat is grateful to the many sangha members who have offered their time and energy as external helpers for the three year retreat and to Byron Bay Buddhists for their assistance in bringing visiting teachers such as Khyentse Jigme Rinpoche and Dzigar Kongrul Rinpoche to the three year retreat. Vajradhara Gonpa is now accepting expressions of interest for the next three year retreat expected to commence in early 2009. Selection of participants is at the sole discretion of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. There are no formal prerequisites for this program, although a strong ongoing relationship with Khyentse Rinpoche is significant. Experience with sitting meditation and the preliminary practices are useful preparation. The acceptance process is in three or four stages: 1. Make contact with the three year retreat administrator to request an expression of interest questionnaire and submit the questionnaire to Vajradhara Gonpa. 2. You will be notified by the three year retreat administrator whether Khyentse Rinpoche advises that you submit a full application to attend the retreat. 3. If your application to attend the retreat is approved by Khyentse Rinpoche, pay a non-refundable portion of the retreat fee. 4. If you are an overseas applicant, acquire a temporary residence visa (with assistance of retreat staff). One may only be accepted into the retreat after completing these steps. In addition to these steps it is good if you can discuss your interest with Rinpoche in person. The cost of the next retreat is expected to be finalised by July 2007. To request an expression of interest questionnaire, contact Kate Miller, the three year retreat administrator, email: [email protected]; postal address: PO Box 345, Kyogle, NSW 2474 Australia Please provide your postal address. For more information see www.siddharthasintent.org/VajradharaGonpa.htm.

Mani stones at Neten Choling Gonpa, Bir.

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Reading Aloud the Word of the Buddha

by Maggie Westhaver, Bir

conducted numerous planning and development meetings with people from the Khyentse Foundation, Deer Park and other organisations -- and hosted dinner guests practically every night of the week. Further, it was said that Rinpoche was up very early taking care of his own practice commitments. During the transmission of the 8,000 Root Verses of Prajnaparamita, Rinpoche gave a pithy teaching. May this tiny excerpt from that teaching give you a taste of how significant it is to hear the words of the Buddha and its importance to our practice and understanding of Buddhadharma. With Shariputra, Buddha talks about the importance of hearing these teachings--which is something you should know in case you are wondering why you are sitting here. He says, Shariputra, if you could invite all the Buddhas of the past, present and future to lunch and dinner--not just for a day or two but for month after month, lifetime after lifetime--there must be so much merit, dont you think? Shariputra says, Yes. And, of course, Buddha says, Thus it is. Good. Good. Buddha continued, But that merit is nothing compared to the merit of someone who is reading this, or of someone who is just accidentally hearing the sound of this and not even contemplating it. Their merit will surpass the first merit, and this goes on and on.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche giving the Kangyur lung. (Photo: Steve Cline)

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche gave the complete Kangyur lung at the Chokyi Lodro College of Dialectics in Chauntra, near Bir, India from November 19, 2006 through Feb 14, 2007, reading at the speed of light, stopping for three days only during this time. Questions we attendees raised on a daily basis were: What is the Kangyur, anyway? What is Rinpoche giving today? How can Rinpoche read this fast day after day! Why did Rinpoche invite me here? The Kangyur is the collection of Shakyamuni Buddhas words and contains three sections: Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma. It includes the root texts of all the Indian tantras such as Hevajra and Chakrasamvara, as well as dharanis for deities such as Vajrapani and Yamantaka. Receiving lung - or reading transmission - is an important part of the Tibetan transmission trilogy, taking its place between wang and tri, empowerment and instruction. Before this experience many of us thought that lung was a Tibetan-made formality but now I, for one, believe that receiving lung has a powerfully transformative effect, which cant truly be described but only experienced. (Its certainly not just sitting there listening to someone read something in a foreign language--although technically to receive a lung one does have to hear it.) Youd think that transmitting the extensive Kangyur lung would be enoughbut not for Rinpoche. During this time Rinpoche gave private and group teachings and interviews, worked on a book on the subject of karma,
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The first Buddhist council was held at the Saptaparni cave near Rajgir. This was where the teachings of the Buddha were recited from memory for the first time. (Photo: Di Cousens)

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Realising the Potential of Nuns

Interview with Ven. Tenzin Palmo at Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery, near Tashijong, India, September 2006 Gentle Voice first spoke to Ven. Tenzin Palmo in 2001 and then again in 2004. In this interview we catch up on the progress of her nunnery and the development of the nuns education. Since 2004, the number of nuns has increased from about 20 to nearly 60. Many buildings have been completed and the nuns, the Khenpo, Ani-la and the staff all have residences on site. At the moment work is continuing on the study centre, including a library, a workshop and a puja hall. A retreat centre is under construction and when these are completed work will commence on the main traditional temple. Q. Where do the nuns come from, including the new nuns that are coming in a couple of weeks? A. They come from Tibet and from Himalayan regions such as Ladakh, Spiti and in particular Kinnaur and in the new intake we have got a number of Bhutanese. This will be very interesting. We never had Bhutanese before but suddenly we had quite a few applications, so this will be a new departure. Q. Tell me about the retreat, how is it guided? Your nuns go on retreat every year during the rainy season for two months, so how does the retreat work? A. Well, this year [2006] because we have now got a junior class as well as our senior class, the nuns are split in two. They practise together with the two groups in separate rooms and they keep silence the whole time, apart from their chanting. For a group of teenage girls and girls in their 20s this is quite a challenge, but they really enjoy it. They are very, very scrupulous about not speaking. So the younger group are now doing the first Ven. Tenzin Palmo at D.G.L. Nunnery two parts of their ngndro

By Diana Cousens, Tashijong

practice. In the first month they did their prostrations and now they are doing Vajrasattva. The senior nuns this year are doing Buddha Akshobhya practice which is special for the Drukpa Kagyu. Q. Is there anything youd like to say about the development of the bhikshuni issue or development of higher teachings for nuns? A. As far as the nuns development is concerned, it is coming up quite well. One of the main areas which nuns usually lacked was education and now more and more nunneries are having a philosophical educational program so this is a big leap forward. Just recently we got a letter from the Tibetan Religious Office saying that this years gathering of the nunneries for the annual debate would be held in Mundgod in the South. So now it has become the tradition for the nuns to come together to debate at different nunneries. This is a really wonderful thing. Q. Are they all Gelugpa nunneries who are debating? A. They are, but the Nyingma nunneries and the Sakya

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nunneries sometimes come as spectators. They are a little afraid to debate because the Gelugpas have such a mastery of logic which is not so emphasised in the other traditions, so you cant best them at logic. Of course you could get round this by debating subjects that they are not so good at. But, anyway, its very good that so many nunneries now have educational programs. Even those nunneries which dont have study programs want them if they can afford it. One of the problems for nuns is still that monasteries usually have a lama at the head, and one of his functions is to go out and raise funds for the monastery. Nunneries dont normally have any lama who is raising funds for them. So therefore the nunneries are usually quite poor. And to have a study program, not only do you need some building in which to have the studies, but also you need to pay for a professor. Most nunneries are too poor for this and so it is a bit difficult. Some nunneries, such as Thrangu Rinpoches nunnery, have some senior nuns who have studied for many years in Sarnath Tibetan University and they themselves are now the teachers for the nuns. That again is a step forward beyond relying on the monks. So gradually things will begin to change for the better. Also in Kyabje Penor Rinpoches nunnery, a number of nuns have graduated and to all extents and purposes should eventually be able to become Khenmos. Two of these nuns are in our nunnery and are teaching the DGL nuns because we want the nuns to have the example of senior nuns to respect, not always the monks. Our Khenpo Tsering is from Dzongsar Institute and so he is Sakya but very ris-med (non-sectarian) in attitude. Actually his mother was Drukpa Kagyu so he was brought up knowing some of these Drukpa Kagyu prayers. So he feels very at home. He is a very kind and good Khenpo who believes in the nuns and their future. Q. So what needs to happen for nuns to realise their potential in the best possible way? A. They need to have the opportunities to realise their potential. They need the opportunities for developing themselves intellectually and spiritually. This is the reason why here we give them a training program. For the first six years they do the study program and they do two months every year of strict meditation. At the end of those six years they are asked whether they want to carry on and do more studies - because we hope some of them will become teachers for the future nuns. Or whether they want to go into a three year retreat and then perhaps further years of practice to become what are called Togdenma [Ed: yoginis]. A number of our nuns, especially the Tibetans, are very keen to become Togdenma. Its their big dream and they are praying sincerely that they should be able to go into retreat and really practice. Now we have to deal with the problem of
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finding qualified teachers for the nuns when they are in retreat. To find professors is relatively easy but to find good meditation teachers for nuns is more of a challenge. Q. And in terms of the development of your nunnery, how is it going with fundraising? Have you got all the funds you need to build all the things you are building? A. Well, its very difficult. Every year the price of building materials skyrockets and so our original estimates are way under. So we are endlessly fundraising. But my feeling is truly that it is all in the hands of Jetsun Drolma [Ed: Arya Tara] and if she wants this nunnery then she has to put out her influence and get the funds we need. Q. So the projects that are yet to be completed are the study centre, the retreat centre, and youre going to build a temple? A. Yes. Q. What statues are you going to put in the temple? A. Well, in the puja hall of the shedra, the monastic college (study centre), the main figure will be Prajna Paramita (the goddess of the Perfection of Wisdom), and on one side will be Jetsun Drolma and on the other side will be Manjushri, because the Khenpo said, Wheres Manjushri? Also there will be statues of the Venerable Ananda and of Mahaprajapati, the Buddhas stepmother. Because Ananda was the one who persuaded the Buddha to allow women into the order. And of course Mahaprajapati was the first nun. Not only had I always intended to do this, but without my saying anything, Dugu Chogyal Gyamtso Rinpoche who had come to advise us on the statues, said that we must have Ananda and the Buddhas aunt. I was very happy to hear him say so too. In the main temple, seeing as it will be more open to the public, the main statue has to be the Buddha Shakyamuni, I think. Hindus get very confused sometimes when they go into Tibetan temples and there are no statues of the Buddha. There is Guru Rinpoche and there are various other deities but there is no Buddha. Again there will be Jetsun Drolma and maybe Guru Rinpoche or Buddha Akshobhya. In the retreat centres there will probably be statues of Vajrayogini and maybe Vajrasattva or Vajradhara. Contact: [email protected] www.tenzinpalmo.com Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery Village Lower Mutt P. O. Padhiarkar, Tensil Baijnarth, Dist. Kangra H.P. 176081, India

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Announcements
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will tour Australia from 6 June to 16 June. See http://www.dalailama.org.au/ or call (03) 9579 7955. Her Eminence Jetsun Kushola will visit Australia from 30 August to 18 November. She is the most eminent woman lama in the world. For details of her program go to: http://www.sakya.org.au/hejkl/index.html or call Sakya Tharpa Ling on (02) 9745 1888. Tsog Days Dakini Day (25th) Saturday 12 May Sunday 10 June Monday 9 July Wednesday 8 August Thursday 6 September Friday 5 October Guru Rinpoche Day (10th) Saturday 26 May Monday 25 June Tuesday 24 July Thursday 23 August Friday 21 September Sunday 21 October awareness of their suffering, they decided to go on a fast. For two days, Tara and Talia went without food, even resisting the offerings at a Christmas party! They raised $511 for Lotus Outreachs Girls Access to Education program in Cambodia. Thank you, Tara and Talia, for showing us how to put compassion into action! Contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information on how to support Lotus Outreachs work. Births, Deaths, Marriages and Retreats His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche was born in Shigatse, Tibet in 1920 and passed away on 22 January 2007. At the age of 12 His Eminence was enthroned at the Phenpo Nalendra Monastery in Central Tibet from where he completed his studies and mastered the monastic scriptural rituals, the rituals of mandala, and the musical accompaniment of the rituals. His Eminence was a master of both Sutrayana and Mantrayana teachings and a great scholar of literature, poetry, history and Buddhist metaphysics as well as a highly accomplished poet. He was the head of Tsharpa branch of the Sakya Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, had students in many different countries and travelled widely. Dr Peter Della Santina passed away on 16 October 2006. For more than twenty-five years Dr. Santina had been a student of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, head of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He had a number of publications including including Nagarjuna's Letter to King Gautamiputra (Delhi 1978 & 1982), Madhyamaka Schools in India (Delhi1986) and Madhyamaka and Modern Western Philosophy (Philosophy East and West, Hawaii 1986). His widely read book, The Tree of Enlightenment, serves as a basic guide for those new to Buddhism and the Mahayana and Vajrayana Traditions. (Contributions to this section are invited from readers. Email: [email protected])
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Siddharthas Intent Southern Door email list If you are on our email list please ensure that Siddharthas Intent Southern Door ([email protected] and [email protected]) are on your list to be accepted. Many emails are returned or automatically placed in Spam Folders because we often send to large groups. If you have dropped off our list, changed your email address or would like to be placed on our list, please email [email protected] School News The Siddhartha School is now a tax deductible gift recipient and has a new website at www.thesiddharthaschool.org.au They are running monthly Childrens Day programs at the Southern Cross University in Lismore. These have focused on developing qualities such as generosity and patience. Enquiries: The Siddhartha School P.O. Box 520, Kyogle, NSW, 2474 (02) 66 331257 [email protected] Lotus Outreach When Kyogle teenagers Tara Thomas and Talia Wallace heard that young Cambodian girls their age were trafficked and forced into prostitution, they wanted to do something. To help support the girls education and raise

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Book Review
The Buddha and the Sahibs: The men who discovered Indias lost religion by Charles Allen, John Murray (Publishers) London, 2002

Reviewed by Dr Peter Friedlander, La Trobe University

of this story in Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia (Ashgate 2003) and the Indian scholar Upinder Singh has written an excellent book focusing on Indian archaeology as part of the development of modern archaeology in The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginning of Archaeology (Permanent Black 2004). One aspect of Allens book is occasionally a bit irritating; his understanding of the history of modern Buddhism is a bit rough at the edges. For instance, he states that Angarika Dharmapala was responsible for the revival of meditation practice in Budhism (p. 255) and whilst Dharmapala was responsible for many things, reviving meditation practice was not one of them. With so many books on this topic what makes Allens book special? Its the engaging manner in which this is written which catches the attention first and keeps you turning the pages like a detective mystery. You may know the end, but you still want to find out how it was discovered. Second this book is good read as it brings vividly to life the different actors in this drama, the British and European administrators, scholars and eccentrics who pieced together the story. Overall this is an excellent book on an important topic and very well worth reading.

This book tells the tale of how Buddhism was discovered by the West during the 19th century. Its not so much a dry factual account as a kind of mystery story in which the author shows how the story of the Buddhas life and the history of Buddhism in India was discovered. Nowadays its hard to imagine a time when most Westerners did not even know that such a thing as Buddhism existed, or that there had ever been a teacher called the Buddha. But two hundred years ago in the West knowledge of Asian religious traditions was still very sketchy and it was only gradually during the 19th century that this changed. This then is the story of the people who rediscovered the Indian origins of Buddhism as they explored India. This book in some senses covers much of the ground told in the classic 1981 book India Discovered by John Keay (Harper Collins 2001) which set the story of the 19th century British discovery of Buddhism within the context of the broader picture of the British rediscovery of ancient India. More recently the American art historian Janice Leoshko has written a scholarly account

Buddha statue at Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India. (Photo: Di Cousens)

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How to Look for a Guru and Be a Student (continued)

of the three strawberries. First you have one strawberry and, of course, it sits well by itself. Then you try to put a second strawberry on top of the first one. There's a little bit of hardship without glue or toothpicks, but it might work. However, the third strawberry will not sit easily on top of the second. While trying to position the third strawberry, even the second one falls off. But eternalists just believe that one day the third strawberry will sit on the second. When they wake up after trying millions of times and experiencing many nasty things, they are fifty or sixty years old, but the third strawberry is still not on the second one. This is what I call endless depression. It's so sad really because there's not much time for celebration. I think in our lives we try to gather a lot of things like relationships with family and friends, practice, influence, money and so on. One should learn that if even ten per cent of what we're planning succeeds, we should celebrate. But eternalists like to celebrate when the third strawberry is on top of the second one. The sad thing is that many movies and books talk about the third strawberry being on top of the second strawberry, making some eternalists believe that this will happen one day. I have been telling you that enlightenment should be our aim. While enlightenment should be the fundamental ground, as a student you must also learn not to look for a result. That's difficult. The master Gtsangpa said, "As soon as you look for a result, that longing for a result is the sound of a devil knocking on the door." The devil in this case is, of course, is nothing external, but an obstacle. Longing for a result in meditation or whatever you do is goal-oriented. Remember that the Heart Sutra says, "Nothing to gain, nothing to lose no increase, no decrease" This actually means enlightenment is not a result. That's a very big lesson to learn. If enlightenment is labelled a result, it will hinder you. Instead, enlightenment is basically the final undoing of all the knots. Reaching the second bhumi is nothing but undoing the knot of the first bhumi. Then you dismantle the second bhumi and reach the third bhumi. When you undo the knot of the tenth bhumi, I guess its conveniently called enlightenment. Its not a result; it's part of your true nature. Being resultoriented is actually one of the main obstacles; it's not only an obstacle but it attracts obstacles. In fact, looking for a result is like a magnet to obstacles - it ferments your path and produces very strong, well-aged, subtle obstacles, just like wine. (The Gentle Voice thanks Tom Pengelly and Claire Blaxell for this transcription. The teaching is available from Siddhartha's Intent, Southern Door, as an MP3. For details please contact Anna Vlajkovic at [email protected] or phone 02 9518 1363) The 2550th Birthday of the Buddha was celebrated by all Victorian Buddhist communities at the Melbourne Town Hall. Over 500 art works were displayed in an exhibition that included contributions from the Chinese, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese, Sri Lankan, Korean, Thai and Japanese traditions. Five thousand people attended and the event was organised by the Buddhist Council of Victoria. (Painting of Ksitigarbha by Katie Munson) Guru Rinpoche Statue Consecration Australias largest Guru Rinpoche statue, located at the Great Stupa site in Bendigo, Victoria is being consecrated in April. A large crane was used to turn the four metre high bronze statue upside down, leaving the base open for filling with consecrated texts and other precious objects. Once it is filled it will be gilded with gold leaf and a shrine room build around it. This will form the nucleus of an anticipated Australian reproduction of the Great Stupa of Gyantse in Tibet.

Gentle Voice : page 11

Practice Sessions for Students Byron Bay 1/22 Fawcett Street Brunswick Heads NSW 2483 Contact: Paula Raymond-Yacoub [email protected] 02 66 851 646 Regular Practice Sessions Wednesday evenings Shamatha meditation Fortnightly, Monday evenings Madhyamakavatara study group Monthly Tsa Sum Dril Drup tsog practice on Guru Rinpoche Day Monthly Longchen Nyingthik Ngndro practice, third Sunday of each month Sydney 1/141 Redfern Street Redfern Contact: Jill Robinson [email protected] 02 9420 1340 Regular Practice Sessions Wednesday evenings, Shamatha meditation and Madhyamakavatara Revision Guru Rinpoche Day, Tsa Sum Dril Drup tsog offering practice Dakini Day, Chime Phagma Nyingthik tsog offering practice Monthly all-day Longchen Nyingthik Ngndro practice

Blue Mountains 28 Fletcher Street Wentworth Falls Contact: Hugo Croci [email protected] 02 4757 2339 Regular Practice Sessions Monday evenings, Shamatha meditation Canberra 16 Sabine Close Garran Contact: Suzie Erbacher [email protected] 02 6281 1101 Regular Practice Sessions Monday evenings, Shamatha meditation Friday evenings, Madhyamakavatara study group Adelaide Contact: Tineke Adolphus 08 8362 7553 Auckland, New Zealand Contact: Buddha Dowunder 09 424 3334 [email protected]

Cover Image - Manjushri statue at Deer Park Institute, Bir. Photo by Steve Cline.

PLEASE NOTE: Because of its sacred content, please treat this newsletter with respect. Should you need to dispose of it, please burn it, rather than throwing it away.

A NEWSLETTER OF SIDDHARTHAS INTENT

April 2007

PO Box 1114 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Australia