THE POWER of FAITH and SUSTAINED SELF EFFORT on THE SPIRITUAL PATH
One of the most valuable things I received from my teachers was the glowing example of how they lived their lives
The 16th Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche’s teacher and the head of our lineage
THE DAWNING LIGHT, VOLUME 8, # 802 Thursday, February 29, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 131 Stories by Chinmayan to inspire you to use all your relationships and the challenges and blessings of daily life as vital opportunities for spiritual training
The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa giving a Chenrezig Meditation initiation which includes the great mantra of LOVE and Compassion—
“Om Mani Paydmeh Hung”
THE POWER OF FAITH AND SUSTAINED SELF EFFORT ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH
One of the most valuable things that I have received from my spiritual teachers is the example of how they lived their lives.
My teachers were all highly realized people who dedicated themselves completely to serving others and the world every minute of every day.
The greatest teachings of each of them was in the example of how they lived their lives and how they served others humbly and effectively through the power of being vessels of pure Love and divine wisdom.
Every one of them attained Realization, that is achieved Enlightenment, through making their spiritual path and practices their first life forming priority which they considered to be the most important use of their time, energy and resources.
Kalu Rinpoche often said “You can study with all the greatest masters and receive all the teachings and practices from them, but unless you have faith in your teachers and the dharma and make intense long term self effort to actually practice what you have been taught, it will be of no benefit to you or anyone.”
Kalu Rinpoche and the 16th Karmapa
He warned us that you can study and even memorize the entire vast universe of Dharma teachings so well that you can recite them for days on end….
“You may be admired and praised by thousands of people for your knowledge and skillful dharma presentations….and become someone with a powerful ego but with only a tiny awareness of the ultimate truth…and wasting the precious opportunity of having the dharma in your life, but not applying it.”
My teachers all attained realization after years of total focus and dedication to their own spiritual practices.
Dharma was their life and making massive sustained self effort in dharma practice and activity was their life style.
Dharma was not a theory or a dogmatic belief to them.
The 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa
My teachers attained Realization through learning and then applying the teachings and doing the actual practice.
They had complete and enduring faith in their own teachers, in the teachings of the Dharma and in the effectiveness of their practices…
And they understood that to achieve Enlightenment would require their steadfast overcoming effort through however long it would take of doing the inner work to reach that goal.
My teachers all poured themselves into the practices and spiritual path because they were deeply motivated by seeing the suffering of people all around them and wanting to do whatever they could to help.
When my teachers were in training and doing their practices to become the enlightened masters they eventually became, they understood that “a drowning man cannot save others from drowning until they save themselves first…”
Because they were always motivated by truly wanting to serve others, and their hearts were full of love, caring and compassion instead of self interest, all the power of their sustained effort was multiplied by the power of pure LOVE.
They were great teachers who were able to teach not just through words and ideas, but through direct mind to mind and heart to heart transmission.
They were living embodiments of the power of self effort and intense practice.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (another one of my teachers) and Kalu Rinpoche
KALU RINPOCHE SPENT 13 YEARS in solitary retreat in Tibet
For example, when Kalu Rinpoche was a young monk, he spent 13 years in full time practice in solitary retreat in remote mountain wilderness areas in Tibet.
He was following in the footsteps of all the great teachers of our lineage, who all stressed the absolute necessity of strong practice and powerful self effort as much more important that just knowledge.
After 13 years of living in solitude in the wilderness focused on intense meditation and spiritual practices, Kalu achieved supreme enlightenment.
While reporting his experiences to his Guru, he asked if he could dedicate the rest of his life to solitary retreat.
Fortunately for us, his teacher said “No. Now that you are awakened, we need for you to become the retreat master for our monastery and focus on teaching the Dharma from now on.”
Rinpoche immediately took his teacher’s request as a command.
Though he loved the extremely simple life of a wandering unknown yogi for himself, he devoted the rest of his long life to teaching and founding dharma centers around the world.
As a result he trained hundreds of ardent disciples who achieved high levels of mastery themselves and are now teaching, guiding and inspiring thousands of students all over the world…
….so that the precious Dharma, the path to freedom from suffering through self transformation, continues to grow…just as it has over the past three thousand years in India and the past thousand years in Tibet from enlightened master to their students who become masters themselves and then train the next generation of disciples.
And the keys to progressing on the path have always been and will always be faith and sustained self effort.
Kalu Rinpoche would often say “No matter what you do, the days of your life are passing by. It is up to you to use this precious life for its highest purpose of studying and practicing the Dharma…or waste this rare and wonderful opportunity. Remember…when times of great suffering come and death is approaching, nothing but the Dharma is even a hair tips help.”
One of the main messages of every one of my teachers was, as Rinpoche often said…”Every human being has the ability to become enlightened and completely free of suffering and the sources of suffering if they recognize the precious opportunity this life is and make the sustained effort to learn and practice the Dharma with faith in your self and your teachers for as long as it takes. The spiritual path is the most challenging and difficult thing you will ever do and it is by far the most rewarding!”
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“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das
“When God is the center and focus of my life, everything else falls into it’s rightful place.”
—Chinmayan
Chinmayan meeting Kalu Rinpoche Yangtsi (Reincarnation) during Chenrezig Initiation, summer 2023
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