Recalling Tulku Thondup’s healing wisdom
On the morning of December 29, the Buddhist world lost a leading light as Tulku Thondup Rinpoche passed away.
But we’ve no need to fear the dark when people like Rinpoche have
dedicated their entire lives to illuminating our way on the path of
wisdom and compassion.
We at Lion’s Roar have been fortunate enough to publish Tulku Thondup a
number of times. He was a scholar, for certain — but he was above all a teacher. (A “lama’s lama,” as publisher Shambhala Publications put it in a statement about Rinpoche’s passing.) Karma,
the healing potential of meditation, the Buddha’s essential teachings…
when Rinpoche set himself to a subject, the results were as immediate as
they were authoritative. (It’s not for nothing that he so kindly
participated as one of “the teachers” in Buddhadharma’s Ask the Teachers department.)
So in this Weekend Reader we’re sharing a handful of Tulku Thondup’s
writings and meditations; what better way to recall a teacher than to
dive into their heartful, helpful teachings?
Newcomer and long-time practitioner alike, we can all find inspiration
in the words of this wonderful dharma exemplar. May we do so!
—Rod Meade Sperry, Editor, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide
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Tulku Thondup on the four simple and practical statements that encompass
the entire Buddhist path, the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths.
“According to Buddhism, we living beings are trapped in the cycle of
existence known as samsara. In samsara, we wander aimlessly and
experience unbearable suffering — day and night, year after year, life
after life — because of the tight grip of our grasping at self. In order
to heal this disease-like condition, first we have to find its cause,
and then we apply the medicine-like path of training to restore our
original good health, which is enlightenment. This healing process is
described in the Buddhist formula of the Four Noble Truths.”
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Tulku
Thondup Rinpoche, Blanche Hartman, and Narayan Helen Liebenson are
asked why someone’s practice has become less effective over a period of
infrequent practice.
Tulku Thondup:
“If we stop meditating for a while and develop bad habits such as
giving in to afflicting emotions, an unhealthy daily lifestyle or a
tendency to wander, such conditions might overwhelm us. Or it may be
that we are not meditating with the correct approach. It is not uncommon
for people to enjoy one-pointedness, clarity and/or joy when
experiencing a meditation result for the first time. But if our mind
becomes attached to or distracted by these sensations, those qualities
will fade away like marathon runners in the distance, and we will find
ourselves back at square one.”
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Our mind — not our body — is who we really are, says Tulku Thondup
Rinpoche, and the mind that is calm, joyful, and deeply loving is the
foundation of true health and healing.
“Loving-kindness ( maitri in Sanskrit, metta in Pali)
is not simply a quality we have. It is an important Buddhist meditation
that we can learn to practice regularly, and the most powerful form of
generating healthiness. Loving-kindness, along with compassion,
sympathetic joy, and equanimity, is one of the four immeasurable
attitudes that heal the temporary ills of our life and awaken the
enlightened qualities that we all have inherited.”
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