How I entered the Buddha's Teachings.


Avalokitesvara, Buddha of Great Compassion... saved my life on more than one occasion. I will tell you a story from my own meandering experience...

Many years ago, I had a nervous breakdown. At the time, I met a new friend that was a social drug user. I, myself, didn't partake in it, but as you keep the company of fools too long, soon you become a fool. Since I did not know how to deal with my life's affliction's, soon I too became a drug addict. During the course of my addiction, I felt immense shame, and I tried different approaches of rehab to end my suffering, but to no avail.

One day, I was browsing the book store, I bought a book by Thich Nhat Hanh called the Heart of the Buddha's Teaching's. In the course of three months, I tried to read this book, but didn't understand it's meaning, most likely due to the drugs still in my system. I put the book down. A thought arose, "I remember in the past, I was told if I was ever in danger to call out to Kuan Yin, the Great Compassionate Buddha!"

Fastforwarding...One day, in the wee hours of the morning, I was hallucinating on drugs. I saw demons in the backyard starring at me. Some had smiles on their faces. These demons I saw were nothing I had seen in movie's nor television let me add. I was immediately frightened out of my wits, of course being on drugs we are already out of our wits in the first place. Hah! At that moment, I remembered that if I was ever in danger to call out to Kuan Yin, the Buddha of Great Compassion. So when I saw the demons, I screamed to the top of my lungs, "KUAN YIN! Please help me STOP!"...guess what happened after I woke up next day? I never touched it again. I didn't even have craving nor withdrawals. It was an efficacious and miraculous event!

From that moment onward, I wanted to know what it was that saved my life. So I picked up every free distribution books on Buddhism I could get my hands on, and I spent the next year, from when I awaken in the morning to time I rest at night, I read, read, read, read. After I read those free distribution books, I bought Sutra's, and read those. Some I continue to read over and over again. That's my story of how I entered the Buddha's teachings.

I learned an important lesson. You see, I used to look down on other's that were drug addicts. I had to learn compassion the hard way. I no longer look at drug addictions with a discriminating mind, I try my best to accept all people with all faculties and conditions with a sense of understanding, empathy, and compassion. If you have an arrogant mind, and think yourself better than other's just because your situation is more pleasant, do take heed and learn from my own experience so you too do not have to encounter such a test yourself.

I hope my story will benefit other's now and in the future. No matter how doomed one may feel, there is help. There is a way to redemption. Always remember and keep in your heart and your mind that if you are ever in compromising situations call out to Kuan Yin, the Great Compassionate Buddha that Hear's the Cries of the World.

The reason why this Buddha is depicted as having so many arms is because it takes so many to reach all living being's.

Rest in natural great peace



Rest in natural great peace
This exhausted mind
Beaten helplessly by karma and neurotic thought
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.

Rest in natural great peace.

~Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche

"How do thoughts and emotions settle? If you leave a glass of muddy water quite still, without moving it, the dirt will settle to the bottom, and the clarity of the water will shine through. In the same way, in meditation we allow our thoughts and emotions to settle naturally, and in a state of natural ease. There is a wonderful saying by the great masters of the past. I remember when I first heard it what a revelation it was, because in these two lines is shown both what the nature of mind is, and how to abide by it, which is the practice of meditation. In Tibetan it is very beautiful, almost musical: chu ma nyok na dang, sem ma chö na de. It means roughly, ‘Water, if you don’t stir it, will become clear; the mind, left unaltered, will find its own natural peace.’

What is so incredible about this instruction is its emphasis on naturalness, and on allowing our mind simply to be, unaltered and without changing anything at all. Our real problem is manipulation and fabrication and too much thinking. One master used to say that the root cause of all our mental problems was too much thinking. As Buddha said: "with our thoughts we make the world". But if we keep our mind pure, and allow it to rest, quietly, in the natural state, what happens, as we practise, is quite extraordinary."

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Words spoken by Soygal Rinpoche inspired by a poem by Nyoshul Ken Rinpoche set to music written and performed by Richard Page.  Vajra Guru Mantra song on Sacred Chants of the Buddha album.  Video by Dharma Doors.

The Avatamsaka Sutra



 ‘THE GREAT MEANS EXPANSIVE BUDDHA FLOWER ADORNMENT SUTRA.’