The Dharma Lineage
by HE Kunzig Shamarpa Rinpoche

Being a disciple of the Karma Kagyu Lineage is fortunate and uncommon because Karma Kagyu is one of the most precious lineages in Tibet. Initially, Marpa received this lineage from his guru, Naropa and brought it back from India to Tibet, thus laying the foundation of the Kagyupa Lineage in Tibet. Milarepa was the first master to receive its transmission in Tibet. To date, this lineage has spread to almost every corner of the world and everywhere well recognised and respected. Rinpoches are spreading its teachings to benefit beings.

It has been recorded way back to the Buddha's time in the "Samadhi Raja Sutra" that during the Dharma ending age, a mahasattva called Gampopa (a disciple of Milarepa) would be born in this world to help liberate sentient beings from their ignorance. Similarly, this sutra also clearly mentioned about Karmapa.

While still at the mahasattva stage, the Buddha Karmapa had pledged many vast and pure vows for the sake of all sentient beings. In this sutra, he is considered to have already reached the 10th bodhisattva bhumi. The purpose of his manifestation is to protect and uphold the Buddha Dharma.

This sutra also clearly mentioned that Gampopa would establish this lineage and pass to his disciple Karmapa who would then continue the lineage by his successive reincarnations. You are now a disciple of this lineage. This is indeed a very rare and precious opportunity, and you definitely do not want to waste it.

What is considered wasted then? The greatest waste is when you have a very opportunity to practice the Dharma and yet cannot obtain any progress from it. This is because the chance of coming in contact with the Dharma can be quickly destroyed by other Karma forces. We are beings afflicted by too much conflicting emotions and obscuration since our previous lives. We have feelings and the amount of karma committed by actions propelled by these feelings countless. These karma will lead to retribution millions of times. Among these countless 'Karma", the strongest one will eventually ripen, thus we will reap the results of these ripened karma one by one. For example, this life you are born as human and whatever you experience in the human realm, whether good or bad, originates from the ripening of your previous karma. The strongest karmic force which causes you to take rebirth in the human realm has ripened and that is why you are here as a human beings. But this will have an ending point. If in this life you do not aggressively accomplish your practice and accumulate merits, then the good karma of being a human will not continue and will finally end. Subsequently, another karmic cause which will normally be a negative one will ripen. This is due to the fact that you have already experienced the good karma of taking rebirth as a human being previously, and naturally what remains will most likely be bad karma.

If you reflect on this for five minutes, you will discover that we are afflicted all the time with too much emotions and desires. It is for sure that these emotions and desires will bring us bad karma which can destroy our chances of obtaining happiness. Therefore we should make use of this body to practice properly to reach a certain stage of accomplishment so that in future we can continue to be diligent in the Dharma.

The bodhisattva path is actually formed by the many opportunities available. You have many opportunities available. You have many opportunities to choose from in this life and there will to choose from in this life and there will definitely be as a result associated with the choice made. The choice and its karmic choice made. The choice and its karmic effect will form a cyclic chain of reactions. Accordingly, if you have initially chosen to develop bodhicitta, naturally you will have a breakthrough in your cultivation of bodhicitta and the bodhisattva path.

How to obtain the opportunity to help sentient beings then? This is actually determined by the bodhicitta and bodhisattva conducts of an individual. This opportunity basically arises from the generation of bodhicitta and the practice bodhisattva conducts. With these, you are able to help sentient beings spontaneously and because of helping sentient beings you will obtain even more good opportunities. This is a sort of benign cycle and interdependent development. The various merits accumulated from the bodhisattva conducts are our strongest power to destroy bad karma. Irrespective of the type of bad karma, the merit of a small bodhisattva conduct can destroy it. No matter how many bad deeds committed, the pure motivation of a bodhisattva conduct can purify them. Only with this we have the possibility of achieving realization and entering buddhafield.

Bad karma is extremely stubborn and strong. Nevertheless, it can be reduced gradually till extinction by merits accumulated from the practice of bodhicitta and bodhisattva conducts. In other words, your previous karma are samsaric karma and bodhicitta is the guide to the opposite of this, that is purified karma. Therefore, bad karma. Therefore, bad karma can be transformed and purified.

Anybody who has reached the first bhumi will mean that he or she has transcended the samsaric world and no longer be hindered by cyclic existence. Prior to this, the bodhisattva path can still be divided into five stages. In the second stage, the influence of bad karma on us become weak . At this juncture, practice will be very smooth and diligent and there will be a swift advancement in the practice of the bodhisattva path. This stage is however still very far from Buddhahood. But if we compare with ordinary beings, this is already a very high state of attainment. Therefore, it is very necessary that you should spend all your efforts to reach this stage in this very life. Only by this, the precious human body is not considered wasted. Of course, if you are very intelligent, virtuous and practice very diligently, it is very possible to complete these five stages within one lifetime. Even though you may not be so keen and skillful in your practice, you can still achieve considerable results by practicing gradually with a strong and irreversible bodhicitta mind.

The most important aspect of practice is its methods. You must practice with a correct and flawless method.

The enlightened practice of the Buddha is actually 'no Dharma to be taught' All the teachings serve merely as a guide to enlightenment and this is called the Buddha Dharma. When you have taken refuge and become a Buddhist, the Buddha is your supreme teacher, the Dharma becomes your path or guide and it will clearly show your direction. The various teachings of the Buddha are taught according to the capacities of the beings. Therefore, the so called Dharma is actually immeasurable and boundless. Each lineage holder is basically an enlightened being. They posses very profound knowledge and skillful means. For the convenience of the sentient beings, they compassionately arranged many of the profound teachings into orderly sets of graduated practices. In spite of this, whether the sentient beings themselves can get the correct practice and meet a qualified teacher or not are still the crucial factors. That is why I said that you are very lucky to become a disciple of Karma Kagyu Lineage.

Gampopa had compiled a set of teachings which is systematic and very easy to practice. Generally, there are very few people who can accept profound and complicated teachings. This is because people in general do not possess very strong virtuous roots. I am not purposely underestimating all people. This is the actual fact about all beings and this is also the reason why we become sentient beings. Anyway, you are already here to receive the correct teachings and also very fortunate that you are already here to receive the correct teachings and also very fortunate that you do not need to contemplate on some baseless philosophical matters. Please do not ever think of practicing to gain psychic power which enables oneself to fly, radiate lights or to become powerful. Many people might also wish to have the great powers of lineage masters like Tilopa, Naropa and Marpa after reading their autobiographies. In fact, these psychic powers will come naturally after you have achieved certain level of realization by following the teachings complied by the lineage masters and practice correctly based on instructions given by the masters. But you must understand this is only the secondary result of your practice.

On the path of Buddhahood, we need strong will power to achieve the first level of attainment. You must be a very determined practitioner. When you have achieved the second level of attainment, you can completely avoid from falling into the three lower realms. At this level, there will be major developments in your practice, but great determination is still needed. Perhaps somebody may say it is very difficult to attain Buddhahood like how hard you must practice …. Of course, this is correct but to you all this is too remote and difficult, isn't it? This is a different situation from what I am now saying. However, achieving a certain level of attainment this life is good enough, but I am to remind you that it is absolutely necessary to practice very hard even for this. Everybody must be brave and firm with their practice until the attainment is able to break through certain strong bondage.

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