His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje Transmits the Empowerment of Avalokiteshvara in Benalmadena
His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje Transmits the Empowerment of Avalokiteshvara in Benalmadena
On June 18, 2012, His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa traveled from Karma Guen to Benalmadena to transmit the empowerment of Avalokiteshvara (Chenresig), “the complete manifestation of the compassion of all the Buddhas of past, present and future” (His Holiness’ definition).
The venue of the unforgettable event was the enlightenment stupa in Benalmadena, the largest stupa in the Western world, constructed under the inspiration of Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche and inaugurated on October 5th, 2003.
Despite the sweltering heat and the glaring sun thousands of devotees had gathered around the stupa to receive the transmission.
Before starting the empowerment proper, His Holiness Karmapa gave an introductory teaching about the nature and meaning of compassion.
Unconditioned compassion overcomes all forms of obstacles, doubts, fears and expectations. Unconditioned compassion and loving kindness go beyond all boundaries, not only physical boundaries but also mental ones. Having been born as human beings, we all experience emotions, we all accumulate unnecessary karmas – that’s part and parcel of our human existence – but it doesn’t have to hold us back.
It’s not something we cannot overcome – there are various means of overcoming emotions and unnecessary karmas, but the practice of compassion is something we can easily apply and develop…
Since we’re all trying to follow the way of the bodhisattvas, compassion should be our main practice.
But at the same time we have to develop wisdom as well. Of course, wisdom is a very general term, but in this case developing wisdom means that we have to absorb all the basic core knowledge that brings stability and clarity. This kind of wisdom can only be developed if we investigate the nature of our mind. Of course we can explore lots of phenomena – in human history we have already explored lots and lots of phenomena. Phenomena always fascinate us, there is no end to it. But if we ask ourselves, “Did it bring peace of mind?” we might find that question rather difficult to answer.
So the kind of wisdom which comes from investigating our mind is essential for knowing how to apply compassion.
At first, it is very common to identify compassion and wisdom as separate qualities of the mind – this is quite normal at the beginning – but as we spend more time investigating the nature of mind, it is possible to understand that there is not much of a separation between the expression of compassion and the expression of wisdom.”
At one point during the teaching His Holiness expressed concern about the audience sitting in the glaring sun and offered to cut short his teaching, but the gathered assembly in one voice asked him to continue.
By the time the last of the devotees had received the blessing with the ritual implements seven hours had passed during which the audience had waited patiently, undaunted by sun, heat and lack of space.
