Longchenpa's Jewel Ship NEW VIDEO SERIES

 

My dear spiritual friends,

I want to tell you a little bit about this year’s coming Spring Retreat at Pema Ösel Ling. It has been twenty-six years since I came to America, and during those years we have met each other many times. Our connection has become deeper and deeper, and our trust in each other has grown stronger. We have established a deep, profound and loving relationship. I truly trust you all so much, and appreciate that you have continued practicing the Dharma. This has made me very happy and completely satisfied. For that reason, I want to return your kindness with a special offering for this year’s upcoming Spring Retreat. I would like to offer a teaching on a text by Omniscient Longchen Rabjampa called "The Jewel Ship: A Guide to Ultimate Bodhicitta (pacifying all dualism of conceptual mind and perfecting non-duality wisdom, the original essence of mind), the Source of all Samsara and Enlightenment."

This is a most profound and special text. Of course, in Buddhism we have so many different relative teachings according to sentient beings’ mental capacity. In this case, this is the most essential and ultimate teaching because it is from the Dzogchen Great Perfection. It gives the essential pointing-out instructions on the essence of mind, the ultimate Buddha, our own original abiding nature. It is called "The Jewel Ship" because it shows how to cross the ocean of samsara in one instant.

In "The Jewel Ship," Longchenpa explains the extraordinary qualities of the Great Perfection among all Dharma teachings. He gives a basic preparation for the path with an explanation of how to find a teacher that you can rely on, explaining the positive qualities of such a teacher as well as describing the kinds of teachers that are fake and unreliable. He also shows what kinds of students the teacher can rely upon and what kinds of students are unreliable. The Omniscient Longchenpa then synthesizes all of the teachings of the view, meditation, conduct, and result of the Great Perfection teachings as the main practice in this short text. We can discuss all of these during this retreat.

This teaching will introduce you to a profound practice, one that you can use your whole life. The result of receiving this kind of teaching and then putting it into practice is the accomplishment and attainment of fully enlightened buddhahood in this very lifetime.

Then we will see each other at Spring Retreat where we can have a great Dharma party and drink wisdom nectar together, getting drunk through meditation experience and realization.

With love, Lama Tharchin

We are very fortunate to have these recordings available to our members for the first time. If you are not a current subscribing member and are interested in receiving The Jewel Ship 2010 series, please visit our Membership page where you'll find information and links to sign up.

Recorded at Pema Osel Ling, Corralitos, California, April 2-4, 2010. Lama Tharchin Rinpoche teaches in Tibetan and English with interpretation in English by Lama Ngawang Zangpo.

Please note: Rinpoche's Jewel Ship teachings in English from 2001 are also available here.

Longchenpa image from www.rigpawiki.com