The Importance of Honouring Dharma Texts
Buddha himself said that in the future he will appear as writing on a page, so we should always wash our hands before handling sacred texts. We should also always show the greatest respect for representations of the Buddha wherever they may be, near or far, up or down, and one excellent method is to discipline ourselves to be mindful about not stepping over holy objects such as dharma texts and monks' robes.
Dharma texts these days are often photocopied rather shoddily. Nevertheless, the words that appear on those grubby pages have the power to liberate us from delusion, and by making the effort not to step on or over a text in itself accumulates a great deal of merit. As a result, the next time you read a dharma text, you will find you are able to understand the words of the Buddha even more clearly. And so, when you dedicate the merit of your activities towards the enlightenment of all sentient beings, always add, "May all dharma practitioners never tread on their dharma books." It may require a bit of reconditioning, but is a good habit to adopt.
— Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
from Not for Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices
Scout retweeted
Today is the day that Shakyamuni transmitted the practices of Kalachakra. These are the highest teachings, and open to all humans. Don't delay! Receive the teachings as quickly as possible and put them into practice.
Scout retweeted
Thangka(ཐང་ཀ་) Painting.
“The final details to be painted in a thangka are the eyes. This is known as ‘opening the eyes’. The thangka is then considered sacred, but it does not become an object of practice until a lama has performed the consecration(Rabné/རབ་གནས་).”
Scout retweeted
Sky burial in Tibet.
Returning the dead body to the nature, the tradition is also rooted in Buddhist ideals of compassion and non-attachment, and Jataka Tales in which the Buddha sacrificed himself to a starving tigress in past life.
Vultures are also viewed as manifestations of Dakini birds helping in the smooth soul transitions.
Besides, cremation is costly on the Tibetan plateau due to the lack of trees, and burial is highly inconvenient on the rocky soil making sky burial still widespread in rural areas.
༄༅། །འབྲུག་པ་ཀུན་ལེགས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་པ།
དུས་གསུམ་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གར། །
གདུལ་བྱའི་མགོན་དུ་ཤྲཱི་ཧེ་རུ་ཀའི། །
རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་གྲུབ་པའི་སྤྱི་མེས་མཆོག །
ཀུན་དགའ་ལེགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
གཟུང་འཛིན་སྣང་བ་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀློང་གྲོལ་ནས། །
བླ་མ་ཁྱེད་དང་དབྱེར་མེད་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །
ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཆོས་འཛིན་གྱི་བཞེད་ངོར་འཁྲུལ་ཞིག་བརྒྱད་མིང་པས་བྲིས།།
Scout retweeted
24 hours a day, every action we do should be done with bodhicitta, not for ourselves but for others. No matter what action we do, if it’s done with the mind cherishing others it’s a Dharma action, one that will lead us to peerless happiness & lead all others to peerless happiness
Scout retweeted
“Enlightened heart is expansive. It is not territorial, and it does not demand that we gather our own flock of egotistic companions.”
Chögyam Trungpa
Scout retweeted
merry christmas!
did you know that “Santa” is a word in Pāli? as a past participle of the verb “sammati” it means “calmed, peaceful.”
it’s also the name of one of Atthadassi Buddha’s chief disciples, as well as the name of 4 kings said to be past lives of the elder monk Tissa
