Losar Tashi Delek and Happy Lunar New Year
" Jealousy is like a cancer. It eats us up from inside. Often
this happens without us knowing, as
jealousy is often subliminal, going unrecognized. To become
mindful and pay attention to what is happening inside our heart and mind helps us identify these
negative attitudes like jealousy. Judgment is a close partner.
Putting others
down and putting ourselves down a/so eats us up from the inside.
First recognizing these destructive attitudes, and then working
with them brings inner
peace. We can simply say, "bye bye" to them. We can a/so recognize how they close our hearts
and minds" - H.H. the Dalai Lama
" When hearing the virtue others are making, By abandoning the jealous mind of nonvirtue And
sincerely rejoicing from the heart,
It is said that one will receive the same merit."
-The Great Bliss Prayer to Be Reborn in the
Pureland of Amitabha
Message from Lama Konchok Sonam
There are many ways to rejoice. For example, I rejoice and feel very grateful because I have great
parents, great country, great teachers, great school and great friends. I’m really rejoicing for what
I have. Moreover there is this small
temple to help me understand joy and inner peace. I am rejoicing
because I have everything I wanted in different conditions. Rejoicing is not a small Dharma topic. Rejoicing means anything that makes you happy because you have so many friends, equipped with
so much knowledge as
well as good creative ideas to have super power energy to help other people
and
animals, protect the environment, and respect parents and teachers. I wish all children in the
world could be just like me and my friends here in the United States
especially the Dharma class group; I rejoice that we have the opportunity to see each other from time to time. I aspire to be stronger by practicing the Four Super Powers (loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity)
and
to help others to be strong and happy as
well.
Ask the Lama
LBS: How did Buddhism live so long?
Lama Sonam: More than 2500 years ago Buddha Shakyamuni
attained enlightenment under a
Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya and then gave
his first teaching at Varanasi, Northern India. Buddha’s teachings later are generally categorized into three vehicles (yana) to suit different disciples - the Theravada tradition, the Mahayana tradition and the Vajrayana tradition. Buddha predicted that his
teachings would spread from the land of center (Bodhgaya) to north (Himalayan mountains ), and then from north to further north, which was from India to Tibet, and then from Tibet to Mongolia and
now
spreading to the North America. Back in Buddha’s time, Buddha taught his disciples in the
morning, and they meditated together in the afternoon
and had discussion in the evenings . With this thorough
learning and practicing together under the guidance of Buddha every day, all Buddha’s disciples understood the teachings. After Buddha entered Mahaparinirvana, his disciples
gathered and put Buddha’s teachings into writing collections, known as PāliTipitaka for the
Theravada tradition or Sutra for the Mahayana tradition. Buddhist teachers such as monks and nuns have to undergo proper studies and training before they can teach, to ensure that they are teaching authentic Buddha’s teachings and continue to benefit everyone with Buddha’s wisdom.
(This is a column specifically for LBSs to ask questions about
Buddha-Dharma. If you have any questions, please
email
us
or drop off your questions to the “Ask the Lama” jar during
class. We would invite Lama Sonam and other Buddhist teachers to answer selected questions.)
Dharma Game Time Practice the Four Super Powers (loving-kindness, compassion, joy
& equanimity) everyday
whenever possible. How
to do so? Let us start with the following for now:
1. Meal time – When you eat, make a wish that everyone in the world will not be hungry and have
enough food. Do not be picky about the food. Only take the portion you would eat and not waste
food. Share your delicious food with others.
2. Bathing time – When you take a shower or use water, make a wish that everyone in the world
will have clean water for consumption. Do not waste water. Appreciate how the clean water gets delivered to the pipes of your house.
Parents' Corner
[Parenting s a challenging task especially in this 21st century. We intend to share some parenting suggestions given by
various Buddhist practitioners and teachers via this Parents' corner in our newsletters.]
Editorial note: Last issue we shared about the six-perfections (generosity, discipline, patience, joyous effort,
meditative concentration and wisdom) by taking care of our children and family. This issue we continue to share more on this.
With Bodhichitta
(a spontaneous
wish to attain enlightenment motivated
by great compassion for all sentient beings, accompanied by a
falling away of the attachment to the illusion of an inherently existing
self. ) Your Child Becomes
the Most Precious
Being in Your Life
If you have Bodhichitta, you will feel that your child is the most precious, the kindest being in your life. In general, this is the case for all sentient beings, but you should keep in mind that your child is one of those sentient beings. By doing so, you will take care of him or her with a healthy and positive mind, rather than with negative
emotional thoughts and the pain of attachment. Consider your child to be the most precious, kindest being, and remember that you are responsible for take caring of him or her. Rejoice
in this thinking: "How wonderful
it is that my life is beneficial, that I am able to take care of at least one sentient
being. How wonderful it is that my limbs can be useful for looking
after one sentient
being, to bring happiness to even just one sentient
being. How wonderful
this is." Rejoice in this way. With Bodhichitta, you can rejoice in a positive way. I don't know
whether this is possible
with attachment,
but with Bodhichitta your rejoicing definitely becomes
positive and pure.
When you encounter
difficulties -when your child does not listen to you, when you cannot control
him, when you have a job and many things to do, and you become
disappointed and parenting becomes very difficult for you -then it is good to rejoice thinking: "My life is beneficial for at least one sentient being; my limbs are beneficial for the happiness
of this one sentient being." If you can rejoice
like this, there will
be no difficulties in your mind or in your heart. With this positive wish to help your child, the thought of being annoyed at or exhausted
by your child will not arise.
(Excerpt taken from "Planned Parenting: How to Make Having Children Meaningful" by H.E. Lama Zopa Rinpoche)
Congratulations & Thank You!!!!
Happy Birthday and congratulations to the following Little
Bodhi Seed whose birthday falls in
January:
1. Ritika Gurjar
2. Tenzin Phelgay
3. Tashi Mulung-Labrang
We also thank Kristin Mullen, Thinleg Ghapontsang and Bonie Williamson for donating to our program.
Green Tara prayers
will be dedicated to our birthday Sodhi Seed and donors and donors' families during the month.
Recap of the Fourth LBS Dharma Class
Page 4 of 4
We gathered on 17 January 2015 for the fourth LSS Dharma class. We started the session with some mindfulness training by practicing calligraphic writing for the word "Sangha" in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese languages. After a brief silent meditation session, Lama Sonam
talked about Compassion and focused
on the Four Super Powers
-the Four lmmeasurables (Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity). Lama Sonam explained
that these four qualities are called "immeasurables" due to their boundless qualities and effects in
benefiting oneself and others. These four Super Powers are like
cleanser in cleaning our mind to see our pure nature
of our mind - like a shiny mirror. You'll
get to see a smiley face from the reflection of the mirror when you're smiling.
Likewise when you're angry, you would only see an angry face reflected from the mirror. It is all from your own actions. When you have the Four Super Powers, you will have many friends. For example with the power of Compassion, you would make people happy
and healthy and our anger, sadness, jealousy all afflictive emotions would be pacified. Then this would lead us to the Sodhi Path. For issues like racism, if we have the Four Super Powers, then we would realize that ultimately there is
no difference in colors, genders, sizes etc., everyone is
equal and similar. When we eat lunch, she,
he and everyone
also need lunch too. When we want happiness, he, she and everyone
else also need happiness. Therefore we must respect everyone.
When we have joy, we must have the wish to share
our joy and happiness to others and this will
be covered by the Four Super Powers. If you practice the Four Super Powers bit by bit every day, your mind will be sharper and your learning will be better, you'll be comfortable and happy everywhere you go, making many new friends.
A Sodhi mind can remove darkness, and is more powerful than the combined light from sun, moon and electric light. Where is this Sodhi mind? It is in our mind. How to we realize our Sodhi mind? We would be able to realize this pure bright clear Sodhi mind if we practice and apply these
Four Super Powers in our day-to-day activities, days and nights.The class concluded
with some breathing
yoga.
LBS Dharma Class
Calendar
28 February 2015
Theme: Rejoicing
Topic: Who is Buddha? What did he
teach? Part 5 - Overcome
Jealousy
21 March 2015
18 April2015
16 May 2015
20 June 2015
10 am to 12 pm
Announcement: Please note that there is a change of date for this month's
class due to Losar
Celebration. The next class will be 28 February 2015.
In this upcoming class we will introduce an exciting and meaningful program to our Bodhi Seeds- the "Support a Friend Program". We will also have some Lunar New Year festival tidbits
to share that day, as part of our effort in appreciating and learning about different cultures.
Don't miss out this month's
class.
Lots of fun activities are waiting for us.
Little SodhiSeeds (LBS) Club free membership
Interested to sign up your child for our LBS programs? Membership is free. Sign up your
