His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa transmits teachings and an empowerment in Dhagpo Kagyu Ling

His Holiness arrived in Dhagpo Kagyu Ling, his main seat in Europe, on August 14, for a five-day programme.
He continued his commentary of the second chapter of the Bodhicarya-Avatara, on the confession and purification of negative actions (karma).

“Going through this great text, what it will do is plant a virtuous seed in our mind… so depending on each and every individual’s karma, wisdom and enthusiasm, accordingly it will grow, and it will help not only us but many many others, and eventually all sentient beings.”

Talking about the workings of karma Gyalwa Karmapa explained that

“the everyday activities of our body, speech and mind in an ordinary life are always a mixture of virtuous and non-virtuous actions or karmas. By examining the bodhisattvas’ way of life we can see that it’s a path where we can focus on virtuous activities, and we also find a very skilful way to avoid and keep a distance from non-virtuous ways. So that is why we examine this great teaching, so that hopefully we will learn something that will help ourselves as a practitioner, as a human being, and furthermore we also learn ways of not only benefiting ourselves but benefiting all sentient beings, but with a realistic approach. So therefore it is very appropriate that we start from the middle of the 2nd chapter of the Bodhicarya-Avatara.

So the great Shantideva has introduced here that prior to purifying negative karmas, or in other words non-virtues, in order to purify them completely, to completely cut the root of such non-virtues, one must have a proper path, because from his perspective the worldly paths are not working… To some extent they do give certain results but never all the way, so therefore the answer is to take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha – the Three Jewels, and then to generate a very brave attitude – bodhicitta – an attitude of wanting to benefit all sentient beings. If we have this, then we have a beginning, then we have the means to purify the negative karmas, the non-virtues.”

On August 18 His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa transmitted the empowerment of Chenresig to a large gathering of devotees.

Before starting the empowerment proper he explained that there was great benefit in the practice of Chenresig because

“it’s a practice that helps us develop our inherent quality of compassion, until one day it will blossom fully. The kind of compassion that we can imagine of Chenresig involves knowing that the problems and difficulties of life, but even the fun and joyous sides of life, that all of this is just temporary – it’s not permanent, not really existing, like an illusion…. He can see that as clear as daylight.”