Mon, 01 Jun 2009
Jhambhala Empowerment
Last weekend I was at the retreat at the Drikung Meditation Center in Frederick again. Drupon gave an empowerment Saturday afternoon for Jhambhala, the practice associated with increasing wealth. If you're not familiar with the practice, it's interesting to note the way this is pictured: Jhambhala holds a pet mongoose that spits up gems and in the practice you visualize him spitting up a pile of them. I took notes during the talk with my new laptop. This is my first attempt to move them over to move my notes over to the web. They were transferred via an SD card, which worked easily enough. So here are my notes from the empowerment:
The Buddha in a previous life was a poor woodcutter and gained the wealth to practice by doing the practice of Jhambhala. By practicing he was able to attain the first bhumi. This is a practice of the kriya yoga class. This practice is associated with good health and abundance, but without the accumulation of merit one will not have abundance. Even with diligent work one cannot accumulate wealth without merit and one is at risk to lose the wealth. So the accumulation of merit is true wealth. Through generosity, buddhahood is attained. So gaining wealth cam be the cause of buddhahood if it is used generously, but without generosity, it is the cause of suffering. Empowerment is an introduction to the four kayas and five wisdoms within us. In practice we meditate on ourselves in the form of the deity, with our speech we recite the mantra of the deity, and with our minds we meditate on inseparable clarity emptiness. Our body, speech, and mind, Jhambhala's body speech and mind, and the lama's body speech and mind become inseparably one. So the lama and the student can obtain enlightenment together within a single mandala if the commitments are maintained. The commitment is to maintain mindfulness and awareness by not becoming overcome by afflictive emotions. If we can maintain this, all of our commitments are maintained and we are practicing at all times.
