Awakened Masters from the Ear-Whispered Lineage

Care for me! Care for me, 

Infallible Lord!

Watch over me! Watch over me! 

Treasury of Compassion without Limit!

Forget me not! Forget me not, 

Keeper of the Past Promises!

Think of me! Think of me and

Quickly, quickly set me free!

- Aspiration Prayer Composed by the 1st Jetsun Dampa

INTRODUCTION

Shining a light on the Great Masters of our Lineage, the Ganden Ear-Whispered Lineage, I listened again to Khandro-la’s teachings from our June Cho Mastery Journey. Here are some of the highlights from her teachings:

Lineage means an uninterrupted flow coming from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way to the present Masters. There are many different lineages, rivers that all lead to the ocean of awakening. Ours is the river of the Ear-Whispered Lineage, consisting of realized masters, their practices, teachings, methods. Everything is here and carried by the flow of the river. You are supported by all the lineage masters and their realizations.

The unique flavor of this lineage of wandering yogis is that all the Great Masters put their entire life into practice and came to authentic realization and awakening with the methods taught by Lama Tsongkhapa, in their own lifetime, one life, one body.

Buddha said, “I can only show you the way. You have to practice it yourself.” That makes human teachers, human masters, and the unbroken lineage of teachings very important. His teachings came to our masters, and now to us. We have to put the teachings into practice. As individuals, that’s how we make progress on the path – through a connection to a teacher and lineage, walking the path that the Great Masters walked.

Get familiar with this lineage and our great masters. What are their life stories? What kind of practice did they do? What did they do to come to awakening? What would it be like to make my life into a life like that? If I practice, will I become like them?  Then, we can meet our masters through our own practice with opening and devotion. 

Their awakened mind is available right here when we open to it. The more you open, the more you receive blessings. We practice with the intention to follow their authentic footsteps. We are the ones that make these teachings come alive! Rejoice in this opportunity and do your best.

Rejoicing in the blessings of the Masters of the Ganden Ear-Whispered Lineage,

Ellen,

Dakini's Whisper Team

KHANDRO-LA'S CORNER

Liberating life Stories of the Ear-Whispered Masters

A Teaching by Khandro-la

This particular lineage, the Ear-Whispered Lineage, sometimes translated as Ganden Oral Tradition, is an uninterrupted flow coming from Shakyamuni Buddha all the way to the present masters, like a river. It’s like Shakyamuni Buddha is on the snowy mountain peak. The snow melts into all different river formations. Then one river, very pure, comes flowing. That’s the lineage. The lineage consists of all the Realized Masters’ practices, teachings, methods, realizations, and literature that they put into that river––everything is in there and carried by the flow of the river. It came to our Master, then came to us.

There are six Masters from the Ear-Whispered Lineage who are known to be the original disciples of Lama Tsongkhapa. By reading their life stories we can learn so much–what kind of practice they did, which teacher they had, what happened at the time historically, and what they did to come to awakening. Each master practiced exactly what we practice--Cho, Mahamudra, Lam Rim, Lojong, Tonglen. Everything supports Tantric practice because tantric practice is about awakening in this life with this body, without abandoning this body.  So that’s kind of my punch line. 

Have you started to have a little smell of this Lineage, even by practicing?  That really makes a difference when you practice, not just reading the name and the location.  You can really meet with the masters because their awakened mind is available--it’s here, omnipresent.  The more you open, the more you receive blessings. They are like us in this human life, but the difference is they put their entire life into practice. They took the essence of this precious life.

Watch More of Khandro-la's Teachings on Youtube by clicking the button below.

STUDENTS' REFLECTIONS

Great Masters’ River of Powerful Energy

What I’m feeling today is the river, the river of energy of the masters that have come before. It feels like putting a name to these masters and understanding their walk is one way of making them more tangibly real. If I just listen to the information and not get too caught up in that, I feel the river so much stronger. It almost feels like a vehicle, just like the practices are a vehicle, to bring me into that place of recognizing how powerful the passing down of these practices is, and how so alive they still are today. Even with all of our ways of distracting ourselves on this earth from these energies, they still are breaking through all those obstacles, and we can feel them. That to me is the gem of really going into these stories:  To really stir the pot so we can feel those energies more powerfully, even now.   

Elizabeth

These Hands on My Back

I’ve never been in a practice where there’s been a lineage like this, or any kind of a background like this. For me, it’s really powerful. It’s also a little bit confusing and strange, and sometimes it feels a little bit nebulous. Maybe a few weeks or a month ago, you did a meditation and you talked about having all the teachers behind us with their hands on our back supporting us. That was really, really powerful for me. That was one of the first times I could really start to grasp this idea of lineage, what it means, and how it is that all these practices are kind of flowing down to us.  

Amanda 

A Living Lineage

Je Tsongkhapa gave spoken instructions to his disciples, who did the same, and so on until Khalka Rinpoche spoke or whispered instructions to Choying Khandro.  The lineage is a living thing.  Now, like those before us, I am learning particular ways of chanting, and especially the unique and special tunes which can only be handed down directly, in the same way that Jetsun Khalka Dampa heard them.  That’s exciting to me, but also humbling when I think of the efforts of all those people.

I can thank lineage lamas for whatever little learning I have, but before now they often existed for me as distant images in a refuge tree or such.  I believe there is an energy and direct transmission happening now from Tsongkhapa through the lineage.  It has entered my ears, and I feel it in my heart.  If I feel a connection, I think I have an obligation to at least try to keep my commitments and vows.  A lineage is not only its Masters; and even as a poor practitioner, I do believe that the lineage Masters are helping me to keep trying.

Peter        

The Whisper of the Lineage

When I read the last chapter in Khandro-la's book, The Heart of Cho, that focuses on the Cho practice, I felt an opening into intimacy with this ancient ritual that I had not experienced previously.  I was especially struck by the image of Khandro-la kneeling next to her teacher as he actually whispered the melodies into her ear, and I could feel the power of these melodies in the embodiment and metabolization of this amazing paradigm shift in my life.

Elizabeth

FURTHER LEARNING

ABOUT THE EAR-WHISPERED LINEAGES 

Background - Two Streams into the River of Cho

Over the centuries various streams from the river of awakening have flowed down from the pure source of the awakened teaching and practice called "Chö."  Among them, two streams have fed into the river of the Geluk Chö tradition and been carried down by the Geluk masters.  These lineages were transmitted directly to Dakini’s Whisper Founder and Spiritual Director, Chöying Khandro from the late Ninth Khalkha Jetsün Dampa.

Main Stream: The Ganden Ear-Whispered Lineage (Ganden/Ensa Nyengyü)

This lineage has come to us from the founder of the Geluk tradition, Lama Tsongkhapa’s, direct transmission from Manjushri.  Recent historical research suggests that the lineage gurus of the Ganden/Ensa Ear-Whispered Lineage were the original disciples of Lama Tsongkhapa.  Lama Tsongkhapa also received the Chö lineage that is traced back to Machik Labdrön and Padampa Sangye.

Underground Stream: The Machik Ḍākinī Ear-Whispered Lineage (Machik Khandro Nyengyü)

 The Machik Ḍākinī Ear-Whispered Lineage is like a stream of pristine natural spring water that has been flowing hidden over the centuries.  Much treasured, it spread from the borders of Eastern Tibet to Amdo and all the way to Inner Mongolia.  This lineage has been carried as an oral and living tradition without necessarily being affiliated with any sect or institution.  It is a rare, secret and unequaled Tibetan Vajrayana Chö tradition that has been kept very secret and unrecognized.  Consequently, by the early 20th century, it was on the verge of disappearing, unrecognized until recent years. 

The Machik Ḍākinī Ear-Whispered Lineage has been distinguished by the unique lifestyle of its practitioners:  As a lineage of yogis and yoginis;  wandering hermits (Ensapa);  mountain solitary dwellers (ritöpa);  ones who go to and dwell in frightful sites with fearless daring (nyentröpa); wanderers in the 108 springs (chumik-gyatsa- korwa);  as well as Chö practitioners in general (chöpa).  The emphasis of this lineage is placed on retreats through which one can develop flawless renunciation, bodhicitta, the wisdom of cutting through the demon of self-grasping, and the realization of emptiness--the ultimate meaning of Prajnaparamita.  Strong emphasis is on the integrated system of “view,” “meditation,” and “conduct” as the path of a Chö practitioner.  The lineage presents a complete authentic system of Tantric practice to guide practitioners to the fruition of the path--full awakening.

By the early 1990s, the 9th Khalkha Jetsün Dampa had become one of few lineage holders.  Khalkha Rinpoche was concerned that the lineage would completely disappear if it was kept as secret as it was in the past.  He took the liberty to open up the tradition to the West, and it was the first time key Chö empowerments and transmissions of the Machik Ḍākinī Ear-Whispered Lineage were bestowed outside of Tibet.  After his first visit to the West twenty-five years ago, upon his request and encouragement, Chöying Khandro, his direct senior disciple, completed the translation of the entire set of 11 lineage texts and the recordings of all the lineage melodies. The Dakini’s Whisper Five-Level Chö Mastery Journey facilitates passing on all the transmissions, teachings, and practices of the lineage to individuals in the modern world.

For more information about our teachers and lineage, please visit our website - Teachers and Lineages.

"GRADUATED STAGES OF THE PATH” SUPPORTED PERSONAL RETREAT 

A one-month Immersion,

beginning on August 3, 10 am, PST, with Tsok Feast and 

closing on Dakini Day, September 1, 10 am, PST, with Tsok Feast.

Join Dakini’s Whisper in deeply diving into the foundation of all the Buddha's teachings, a spiritual map for practitioners in sutra and tantra, the path to extract the essence of precious human life.

During this time, we will commit to set aside daily, personal retreat time for engaging in the study, contemplation, and meditation of Lamrim, the foundation of Buddhism, especially essential for Cho and advanced Tantric practitioners. Each person's actual daily retreat plan can be adapted to one's own individual daily life and personal situation.  DW will provide resources, a framework within which to move through your retreat, examples of daily practice options (one time a day, two times a day, etc.), as well as DW online Zoom offerings throughout the Retreat Month as a way to support retreatants in their efforts.

By participating in this opportunity, we greatly aspire to follow in the footsteps of our great masters who devoted their lives to dharma practice, the source of happiness, and we commit to devoting some of our busy lives to retreat.  Please do not miss this precious opportunity, carefully structured, to create virtuous propensities, individually and collectively, towards awakening.  

More detailed information is available on the DW webpage here.

NEW BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

“Enlightened Beings, Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition”

Join us on the 1st Sunday of every month, starting September 5, 11 am - 12 noon, PST, for a lively and inspiring student-facilitated discussion of Enlightened Beings, Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition by Janice D. Willis.  This book, a rare writing about the great masters of our Ganden Ear-Whispered lineage, will bring the lineage alive in our practice as we study, contemplate and meditate about the lives, teachings, practices and realizations of these magnificent beings.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Enlightened Beings, Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition is a documentation of the “sacred biographies of six great tantric meditators from the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism,” and it is the only such resource available specific to our Ganden Ear-Whispered lineage.  Featuring the “earliest siddhas to immediately succeed Tsongkapa in this lineage,” these “liberation life stories inform the readers on many different levels--historical, inspirational, and instructional--in ways geared to manifest Buddhist liberation and enlightenment.”

The Zoom Link - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83228307087

ANCIENT SAGE, ANCIENT WISDOM

Gyelwa Ensapa, Great Master, Sage, Bodhisattva (1505–1566)

Ensapa is said to have been an extraordinary student and practitioner even from youth, quickly surpassing the knowledge and understanding of all his peers.  He had a great, spontaneous, and natural faith for Tsongkhapa, and prayed to be able to embody the essence of his teachings. Thinking solely of this, and keeping it always in his heart, he lived as an Indian-style siddha, smearing his body with ash and sitting in a seven-pointed posture for days on end.  He prayed to Tsongkhapa day and night, and had a vision that he appeared and blessed him.  He became the chief holder of the Oral Tradition given by Manjushri to Tsongkhapa.

Ensapa is really significant in terms of the Cho lineage.  This Ganden Ear-Whispered Lineage of Cho which we follow is also called Ensa because Ensapa was responsible for transmitting this special Cho lineage which we practice.  

In 1566, Ensapa died with many miraculous signs appearing, such as rainbows and flowers that fell from the sky.  Thus, born in 1505, Ensapa “roared his great cry of compassion,” by uttering the six sacred syllables OM MA NI PAD ME HUM.  In response, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas prayed, “May the purpose of this great Bodhisattva be realized!”  From the moment of birth, he felt revulsion toward everything he saw of the mundane world.  Seeing any sentient being, he felt only great compassion, and thought to himself, “How shall I rescue this poor being from the prison of samsara?”

This Bodhisattva became known in all the holy places in every realm of the world as a second Buddha. 

Source: The Treasury of Lives and Enlightened Beings by Janice D. Willis.

UPCOMING AUGUST EVENTS

Ancient Wisdom-Living, Breathing,' Whispering' in Our Lives

Sunday, August 1, 10-11:30 am. Open to All

NEW SBT SERIES - Subtle Body Training as Sadhana

 5 Saturdays, August 21 - September 25 (No class on Sep. 11)

DAKINI DAY - Vajrayogini Chö Tsok Feast

August 3, 10 - 12 noon

The Zoom Link of offerings open to all is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83228307087

To share upcoming online teaching and practice opportunities, we have attached the Dakini's Whisper Google calendar which gives you a complete view of the various events, at-a-glance, so to speak. Please note, however, that all times listed here are PST. More detailed information can be found on the webpage or DW members can check their personal version of the DW Google calendar. You can access the DW calendar from the website as well.

If you have further questions, please contact Ellen (dakiniswhisperteam@gmail.com).

AUGUST CALENDAR