Do you believe as some of Japhy’s co-religionists do that that the Karma Kagyu needs to pull the plug on America?
That HHK17 prohibits Tibetans for doing his “Brief Recitations” suggests to me that the direction His Holiness has chosen for us here in the States is otherwise.
Japhy sees HHK17’s efforts to distinguish between the needs of Tibetans living as Tibetans and the global Karma Kagyu as a much welcome step in the right direction.
Tinfoil Ushnisha 
Well, I don’t know what it’s like to be a Tibetan so I can’t speak from that point of view. I also don’t have enough knowledge about the Karma Kagyu infrastructure as a religious institution. What I do know is that this expansion is nothing new to religious orders; Christianity migrated to other regions and there’s no reason Tibetan Buddhism can’t. They just have to be willing to be attentive to the audience and adapt it to them. Unless they just want to be bullies, then they shouldn’t bother.
That the Karma Kagyu is no longer exclusively Tibetan is not at issue. What is at issue is whether or not we are prepared to support such a Karma Kagyu. My impression is that my co-religionists aren’t up to this challenge at present.
Mahamudra and the six yogas make the Kagyu lineage special. Gampopa and Milarepa prefered to teach Tummo before Mahamudra because then students would have some definite experience and wouldn’t get heady with intellectualizing Mahamudra. Although some students were given Mahamudra first according to their situation.
Then always the student would practice renunciation in remote places in order to get genuine experiences. They would dialogue with their teacher and continue their practice at the expense of all other activity. They didn’t blend mahamudra and work. They focused their whole lives on the teachings they had been given.
So in a way all Mahamudra students remove themselves from conditioned cultural situations. This is where the practice leads.
In this sense, as Mahamudra practioners/realizers, we are leaving this place. We are going beyond socially constructed meaning. We are here, but not here.
However, if we Kagyus start to fixate then we are not following our forefathers. Our forefathers were more than just Tibetan or Indian. They were removing themselves from those culturally constructed classifications. So we get to be Kagyus by ‘going beyond’ conventionality written meanings. If we think we have to show our spiritual wares in the market place then we become sick. We Kagyus are really more crazy than that and if we try to act normally then we get sick.
I hear you, but how about Khenpo Gangshar?
Khenpo Gangshar? Wonderful. Perfect kagyu.
We forget what a horror show this samsara is. Whatever variety of the horror show we are watching we get conditioned and pushed into comfort. So Tibet becomes an interesting travel destination. American Vajrayana becomes a self-help shopping mall where we chose off-the-shelf solutions for our sense of worthlessness. Our buddhism castrates us into feeling comfortable and shockingly superior. It’s our fault too. We allow our buddhism to become a sleeping pill that has no radical edge. It becomes an opiate. A fix that we get that calms us down like a shot of internet porn.
The four thoughts are the ngondro. They demand that you keep the pain of the horror show in mind. We suffer the same injustices as a prisoner falsely accused of a crime. We have had our freedoms taken away and where ever we go and whatever samsaric solution we propose mires us deeper in the horror. When you see this process of false imprisonment going on within you so clearly, then the ngondro is established and a yearning for true freedom comes about and the kagyu magic begins.
But don’t believe teachers who value your comfort, otherwise you get stuck in to thinking that things are basically o.k. That’s the sickness of the lineage when they pander to the needs of the spiritual market and make a person feel good about the horror show.
I mention Khenpo Gangshar since in his pedagogy ngondro follows pointing out.
Pointing out first. Definitely. The practitioner has to know that there is another possibility. That reality is not what they think. Then whathever practices after that that bring about a genuine experience. Definitely, definitely the pointing out first.
Samsara is a dung heap. As cruel a place as can be imagined. The pointing out instruction gives us a way to turn it all upside down. It’s a must that kagyus get immediate access to this.
If the pointing out instruction is something like a goal to be worked towards then it becomes very much part of the samsaric situation. An organizatioal construct or prize.
I received pointing out from HHK16 in 1981. Soon afterwards Khenpo Karthar gave me the lung and tri for Mahamudra. The paradigm is Khenpo Gangshar’s.
Wonderful. That’s how it should be.
Hi Andrew, I am not trying to be argumentative but do you mind if I ask you some questions? I understand that samsara is a strong motivation for practicing but is it the only motivation? What if I don’t consider myself to be in samsara?
Good question.
In one sense we can say that samsara is not real and that we are not in samsara. It is absolutely correct to say that. We can easily think that enlightenment is a future goal without recognizing that it is here in the present. We can fixate on samsaras’ suffering and make it too real.
But then alternatively if we fixate too much on the unreal character of samsara there is a tendancy for our practice to be informed by a subtle nihilism. What this subtle nihilism induces is a desensitization to others’ situation. So we end up paying lip service to the idea of benefiting others and only think that we are natural buddhas. We only think that we are out of samsara. Dharma becomes kind of poisonous or unhealthy. I’m not saying this about you, but in general this is how things seem to go when practice is nihilistic.
In the past, Kagyu practitioners would undergo quite a lot of personal suffering. Those difficult personal circumstances were ripening for them. They understood that even though they might hold the highest view, the suffering inherent in ordinary circumstances needed to be overcome. When they suffered they understood very well the limits samsara enforces. They understood that the ego always wants to be in a comfortable place. Kagyu lamas’ realization is all about bringing suffering to the path. See HHK17’s situation now. Kagyu lamas are extremely happy when they suffer and immensely sad when they see other beings suffering. This is how it is with Kagyu lamas. Without suffering there is no wisdom.
The instructions of the Kagyu lineage are so powerful that they enable a practitioner to overcome both extreme physical and mental pain. If you are dying from cancer and experience great pain then the teachings, if applied well, will allow you to overcome this pain. You actually feel quite happy about the situation. If you are imprisoned for no reason and held without trial for years then the teachings are powerful enough for you to overcome this and still feel free even though you are imprisoned. So the teachings are very very powerful in relation to understanding that the sufferings of samsara can be overcome or turned around into wisdom.
The teachings have no power at all if just held onto intellectually. They are kind of dangerous in that sense because they easily lead to an arrogance that is out of touch with basic reality, physical or otherwise. They can lead to a practitioner becoming a desensitized drifter.
Samsara is saturated with suffering and at the same time saturated with opportunities to overcome that suffering. Samsara is very close. It’s even in our bodies and physical situation. We could say that our physical situation is a manifestation of samsara. There needs to be a real physical connection to wisdom just as there is a real physical connection to suffering. We are never out of samsara until we feel what samsara really is and what it means. We need to feel the suffering in order to display the wisdom. This is especially true in Vajrayana. If you read this far then thank you. Thank you for your question.
If I may jump in here, there are four ordinary foundations which we contemplate in the Karma Kagyu. If the contemplation of the shortcoming of samsara doesn’t speak to someone, this is not an issue for us. If one prefers to contemplate the preciousness of human birth, impermanence, or the nature of karma instead, if the result is that one turns to the dharma, this is sufficient.
Contemplating the shortcomings of samsara is much about contempating the shortcomings of delusion. It’s essential to understand the situation that all of us are in. Personally I don’t think one can pick and chose when it comes to the four thoughts. What it means when it says ‘The four thoughts that turn our mind to the dharma’ is not that we become interested in religion, but instead that we become acutely aware of the reality of our delusion. That’s how I understand it, but of course there are other ways.
According to HHK17 the four thoughts that turn the mind to the dharma, the four ordinary foundations, allow for us to contemplate whichever thought speaks to us, personally. As His Holiness notes if you contemplate one sufficiently enough to turn your mind to the dharma the purpose of the remaining thoughts will reveal itself naturally over time. In other words, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. You can introduce the four ordinary foundations to someone. You can’t force a person to contemplate them though. You must allow people to choose for themselves which, if any of the four thoughts, resonate for them. Brow beating someone with what Ponlop Rinpoche refers to the Tibetan equivalent of a Stephen King novel simply doesn’t work. My over thirty years of doing this supports this approach.
Has the 17th Karmapa instructed KTD to switch Ngondro practices?
Yes. In 2010 KTD published HHK17’s “Brief Recitations” (along with instructions) as “Ngondro For Our Current Day” so there is no question that KTD is on the same page as His Holiness as an organization. What appears to be the issue with its adoption is that Tibetans are prohibited from doing it. We must take the initiative ourselves. I’ve been doing it as a daily recitation since 2008 based on HHK17’s instructions at the time. I have recently begun following the KTD sanctioned instructions, which are based on a teaching His Holiness gave in 2006. I’ve almost finished the Refuge Foundation. I have Congestive Heart Failure. So much the excuse “I can’t do ngondro.” If I can complete the refuge foundation in heart failure anybody can.