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Mar Ngok Summer Teachings 2022: Day 4 His Holiness warmly greeted the teachers, the geshes, the tulkus, the community of sangha members, and all those listening by way of the internet to this fourth day of teachings. He announced that he would be speaking about three topics during this session: i) what the sangha is and how it originated; ii) the origination of the monasteries; and iii) how the Vinaya originated and how the rules were made. The non-observance of the Vinaya and the origin of the Vinaya In previous sessions, His Holiness spoke of the meaning of the word...
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The Mar Ngok Summer Teachings 2022: Day 3 Poṣadha Karmapa opened the teaching session with an introduction to the meaning and practice of the early sangha’s rituals. According to the Japanese scholar Umada Gyokei, at the completion of the rains retreat and before sangha members set out on their travels, they performed the ritual of ‘pravāraṇa’. As mentioned earlier, the designated confession time was every two weeks during the ‘poṣadha’ (Tib.: ‘sojong’) ritual. However, speaking of offences that violate the precepts was disallowed during the rains retreat so the time of ‘pravāraṇa’ was allocated for each of the monastics to reveal their violations and downfalls without withholding....
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The Mar Ngok Summer Teachings 2022: Day 2 3 August 2022 1. Establishing seniority in the sangha In secular society, seniority is often given according to age or status, but in the vinaya tradition it is given according to the “seniority of vows” irrespective of age. The seniority of vows is determined by the level of the vow taken, so bhikshus who hold the most important liberation vow were considered senior to novices. It is also determined by the length of time the vow has been held. Bhikshus who had held the bhikshu vow for the longest time were the...
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Mar Ngok Summer Teachings 2022: Day 1 1 August 2022 To open the long awaited 5 weeks of summer teachings, His Holiness the Karmapa welcomed the Sangha and international community with warmth and a quiet radiance. In the previous year, he reflected, he had covered many topics: the spread of Indian civilization, the Vedic period, the view and philosophy in the Upanishads, how the Buddha appeared in the world and turned the wheel of dharma, and how the teachings spread, particularly in the time of the Emperor Ashoka. This year, he continued, we would look into Early or Original Buddhism...
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Today was an historic occasion in the history of the Karma Kamtsang. For the first time, monasteries, nunneries, dharma centres and individuals worldwide were able to join together through Zoom and over the internet to celebrate the Karmapa’s birthday according to the Tibetan calendar, that is the First day of the Fifth Month. Previously, during the Special Kagyu Monlam in February 2022, the Gyalwang Karmapa had expressed his hope that in future, by utilising the facilities of modern technology, all the monasteries and nunneries of the Karma Kamtsang would be able to unite to celebrate important anniversaries such as the...
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"We have to remember that we are always changing. Every second we're changing. We're changing from moment to moment. As the watch goes 'tick tock, tick tock' we are also changing with every second. So what this means is that while we might have a problem in the first moment, in the next moment we have an opportunity to be a new person who doesn't have that fault. We have the choice that we can actually be a new person in every moment." - Gyalwang Karmapa Today's episode is from a teaching that the Gyalwang Karmapa gave to school students...
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A Teaching on Vasubandhu's The Thirty Verses: Day 10 8 February 2022 Karmapa began by offering his greetings to the Sangha members in the Shedras, spiritual friends and teachers, tulkus and all of the lay and monastic people who were listening. He said, "To all of my dharma friends who are listening over the webcast, and especially to those who live in Tibet, all of our friends and relatives in Tibet: I hope that you are all doing well." This was the last day of the teachings on the Thirty Verses for the annual Kagyu Gunchoe Winter Teachings. Previously, Karmapa...
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