PRAYERS AND BODHICITTA

On the Occasion of Our First Chö Monlam Prayer Festival 

THE GREAT PRAYER FESTIVAL (MONLAM CHENMO)

This year, Dakini’s Whisper brought the Great Prayer Festival alive online for its first Chö Monlam Prayer Festival in commemoration of the 9th Jetsun Dampa with Chö Empowerment, transmissions, and prayers. During the festival, we were honored to celebrate the masters of the past and make heart-felt prayers individually and globally, as well as strengthen our commitment to bodhicitta. It is said that “on the final day of the Great Prayer Festival, Tsongkhapa performed a large public ceremony of the generation of bodhicitta, the Mahayana aspiration to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings” (From Tsongkhapa, A Buddha in the Land of Snows by Thupten Jinpa.)  This month’s Dakini’s Whisper Journal, filled with Student Reflections from our Prayer Festival as well as a Teaching on Prayer from our generous teacher, is devoted to the spread of the dharma and the wish to awaken for the sake of all beings.

KHANDRO-LA'S CORNER

Prayers Touching Mind Essence

A Teaching on Prayer by Khandro-la

The essence of prayer is reaching out. Aspiration prayers, like Jetsun Dampa’s Aspiration Prayer, are one way to reach out. You reach out by expressing your longing, your yearning. You may not have an object. You may not be sure what you’re longing for. But somehow there is kind of a fire or spark of longing there. That’s an aspiration prayer. You reach out by expressing your heartfelt longing.

A supplication prayer, like Supplication to Machik Five Dakinis, supplication to gurus, lineage gurus, root gurus, goes one step further than the aspiration prayer. It is an action taken on the basis of that yearning. You are requesting of the Buddha or lineage masters or Machik and the Five Dakinis something which you haven’t recognized yet, but you have a kind of smell, a sense of it. Something is there. If you take a look at supplication prayers to the guru or lineage masters, they say, “I supplicate you, bless my mind.” Bless my mindstream. That’s of course something you haven’t recognized, the true nature of your mind. But then you are asking for the blessing to be able to do that. That’s supplication prayer. In this kind of prayer, you go to the edge of the world so to speak, reaching out. You reach out beyond what is currently known. Reaching out is the first step in making a connection with what you yearn to know. Actually, you go beyond the confines of your conditioning. That’s the place where your practice becomes real. This is a kind of paradox. The paradox of prayers where our thinking-minds stop.

Prayer has power. The mind stops, gets rid of “me,” beyond this small idea about me. So, just praying is enough then. Don’t think too much about it, to whom, how this works, you know, how is this possible and all that doubt coming up, right? How? It’s inconceivable! Actually, that’s the point. Just trust that. When we pray, it’s important not to get caught up in magical thinking and become attached to the outcome. 

See if you can just pray. We have been praying since we were a child. See if we can bring that into a little deeper context. We have all grown up in different environments. Each of you has a story based on your tradition. 

Rumi said, “I have come to drag you out of yourself and take you into my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky. I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer. I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer. The ego is a veil between humans and god. Prayer clears the mist and brings back peace to the soul.”

Notice how prayer can put us in touch with something that is infinitely greater than we are. That’s the place where your thinking mind stops, mind essence, mind itself. 

This question of who do you pray to? There is no longer any separation. I don’t know if you have that experience or not when the one who prays and the one to whom we pray, subject and object, become no longer separated, inseparable. In that sense, we are not praying to something or for something. You and buddha, you and god, who you are praying to, become inseparable in reality. In fact, that is the reality, ultimate reality.

STUDENTS' REFLECTIONS

From Dakini's Whisper's First Cho Monlam Prayer Festival

Arising from sleep the morning after our Great Prayer Festival and preparing to journey into my routine day, I was aware of a feeling of some sort of deep presence, a bit indescribable, but palpable. We had all just immersed ourselves in ancient, yet timeless melodies, chantings, and prayers and received Empowerment and transmissions. How this celebration manifested in our deepest dimensions as well as our ordinary being will be different for each of us.  Thank you to each student (below) who generously shared their very personal experience to light the flame in all of our hearts.

Ellen 

My experience with Dakini's Whisper has been something of a “slow burn”. However, the flame always felt reliably present, if subtle at times, remaining warm through these initial years of exploration. The Cho Monlam retreat, with the renewal of refuge vows, receiving empowerment, and the heartfelt prayers and group practice, fanned the flame and gave it strength. Deeper connection. A melting of resistance. Opening and relaxing. More trusting. New appreciation for the preciousness of the lineage. 

On the other side of the retreat, shifting back into familiar daily routines, I can feel a change within. The seeds planted over the course of my time with Dakini's Whisper seem to find a new depth, settling more firmly into the soil of my spiritual longing. Now growth as a practitioner feels more assured, less hesitant; motivation flows more readily, and the sense of connection feels activated in a more experiential way.  

Amanda S.

I noticed that the retreat caused a bubbling sensation to come up within me. When we did a practice session after the empowerment I noticed that I felt fear and uneasiness, but it wasn't like an active state of mind. It was like coming face to face with fear and anxiety. Instead of the usual response of taking on that state of mind it was more like looking at someone in need and just smiling- happy to help. After the practice ended I felt a sense of relief and peace. I visualized the afflictive emotions as being satisfied and going about their day- sort of like when a "bully" is given a hug and a sense of compassion. That's all they needed and they were at peace. 

Cameron G.

I went into the Chö Monlam Prayer Festival with a fresh and open mind. After the festival, I felt a lightness in my body that I haven't felt in about 1 1/2 years. A re-connection with the preciousness of my soul & those around me.  This feeling still lingers with me now.

Raj G. 

I’ve tried all week to find words about last weekend and it’s a feeling I have... ... I am ‘cradled’ in ancient practice, prajna, prana, love, and spaciousness.  Touched deeply.  And still reverberating.  

Dorothy S. 

Each morning, as I step into our meditation place here in Washington DC, Tara Rose, I’m in awe: I light the candles on the altar, gaze at photographs of beloved teachers—great enlightened ones who extend their compassionate wisdom well beyond any center or shrine—and I feel their direct loving support. I’m suffused with gratitude for what I’ve been given in this precious lifetime. I feel, as Khandro-la says, that the lineage and masters “have my back”: they are supporting my own heart unfolding, and showing me the true power of open-heartedness. I feel my aspirational prayer as it meets my teachers’ prayers: heart-to-heart, inside-to-inside. 

Even a few weeks after our Monlam prayer festival, I feel a strong-yet-tender poignant welling up in my heart.  In a dark time—one of so much uncertainty, death, and loss for so many—we gathered as one human family, joined by our longing for peace, love, and freedom for ourselves and for all beings. With this aspiration and prayer, we connected our compassionate hearts with the great teachers, those enlightened ones who’ve gone before us, and with the lineage lighting our path. I’m humbled by the power of our aspirational prayer. 

Each time we practice, we take refuge and generate Bodhicitta.  Yet as we extend this heartfelt prayer for all beings—this Bodhicitta—I recognize that Bodhicitta is not something that is distant or “out there,” somehow separate from us or our own human lives. We are all manifestations of great compassion; we are all vehicles of Bodhicitta. In essence, we are—and our lives are—Bodhicitta in action. Our every breath is our prayer. So as Spring begins, my heart’s prayer and yearning are that I awaken and become the benevolent presence and ambassador for all beings that I truly can be. Through aspiration and application, may my life be an offering, an unfolding within my ordinary human life.  

What is your prayer?

Kate

Co-Host of the Monlam Festival

Tara Rose Center 

UPCOMING APRIL SHCEDULE

Please join us for DW Public Sundays on April, 11, 18 & 25, noon - 1 pm, PST, Khandro-la will offer dharma teachings and meditation on "Songs of Spiritual Realization".

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

Register Now! 

A New Five-Week Online Subtle Body Training Series
Meeting the Dakinis, "Sky Dancers"
Saturdays, 4/10, 17, 24, May 1, 15, 9am-10:20pm
This compelling Subtle Body Training Series will delve deeply into an exploration of the realm of Dakinis, “Sky Dancers.” Dakinis manifest (or are expressed) in the three dimensions, outer, inner, and secret, all of which are in actuality, inseparable. Subtle body training is one of the profound ways to connect all of these dimensions. For more information and to register, please see our website.

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 webpage. 

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