His Holiness transmits the empowerment of Drolkar (White Tara)

On June 17 His Holiness gave the empowerment of Drolkar (White Tara), once again to a similarly large gathering.

Drolkar is a Buddha aspect connected with longevity, and His Holiness Karmapa explained the importance of having a long life, once one has been born as a human being.
“White Tara is a practice of liberating ourselves from all forms of obstacles, and in particular clearing the obstacles of life, the obstacles related to longevity, the life span. Without it, it is possible that we might lose very precious opportunities to practice the dharma, to utilize the dharma to develop ourselves. Of course, what we’re trying to realize is enlightenment in absolute, but in practical terms we are trying to develop the basic kind and compassionate qualities that are there as a potential within all of us, so that we all become decent citizens, decent human beings, decent friends, decent fellows whom others can look up to, and follow our example. So that’s what we’re trying to achieve in practical terms. When we make the division into “outer, inner and secret practice” then the secret aspect would be that we wish to be enlightened, perfectly enlightened. But as for the outer and inner aspects, we try to develop ourselves as a very good human being, a very kind human being, a respectable human being, so that it becomes inspiring for others to follow our good example. And most importantly, in order to practice the way of the bodhisattvas, we ourselves have to be very “engageable” when it comes to receiving others in our mandala or in our activity. We have to be very very engageable, meaning that we have to give them good access; we need to have that openness, that extra energy in terms of really being there, and in order to be able to do that we need to develop all the qualities of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is someone who is compassionate and kind but also wise – not just compassionate but blind but also someone possessing wisdom, knowing one’s own limits and able to assess the situation, being able to assess your own capability and capacity… Then we can deal with everyday challenges also, and in that way it becomes much easier to engage, not just for ourselves but also for others – that they will really be able to relate to what we do, relate to how we live our lives, that is no different from the rest: we breathe the same air, we’re living on the same soil, basically sharing everything, but… we have a very special attitude. And this attitude doesn’t make us better than them in any way, but it’s an attitude that is very pliable, very friendly and kind.”