Black Manjushri and An Overview of the Mind
(By Tsem Rinpoche and Admin)
7 November 2015 was an important day in the history of Kechara. This day marked the first of a series of Dharma talks by Kechara’s Pastors and H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche’s senior students, who are steeped in Dharma knowledge and practice from years of being close to and learning from Rinpoche.
The inaugural talk was given by Pastor David Lai on the topic “Black Manjushri and An Overview of the Mind“, which was very well-received by an audience of 119 in the packed Dining Room of Dukkar Apartments in Kechara Forest Retreat.
Apart from explanations on how to engage in the practice and yogic exercises of Black Manjushri, and the benefits of this practice (including wisdom, healing, alleviating obstacles, bad dreams, spirits, black magic and other negative interferences), Pastor David also covered a wealth of topics on the mind including the process of death, the chakras in the body, and how our past experiences shape our future.
The crowded room was testament not only to Pastor David’s wealth of Dharma knowledge and skill in conveying the teachings in a manner easily understandable by the general public, but also to Rinpoche’s ability to imprint the Buddha’s wisdom AND its practical applications in the minds of his students. This ability to create sincere practitioners, Dharma scholars and holders of the lineage, especially in a place where Dharma has only begun to take root, is a sign of a great master who has returned lifetime after lifetime to bring ultimate happiness to others.
Thus, even the creation of Kechara Forest Retreat is part of a grand plan to ensure the Buddha’s teachings live on to be taught and practiced by future generations. In fact, Kechara Forest Retreat will be an institution where home-grown spiritual teachers, meditators and practitioners are created.
So, it was an extremely auspicious omen when a huge double rainbow appeared over Kechara Forest Retreat immediately after the talk concluded! In the words of H.E. Tsem Rinpoche:
“This rainbow is NOT coincidence as there is no rain or clouds. This rainbow is a sign after today’s teachings by Pastor David Lai that our people here can hold the lineage, can disseminate the teachings and can gather many people here to learn the dharma. That Kechara Forest Retreat can become this type of place if we set out to accomplish this.”
~ H.E. the 25th Tsem Rinpoche
Starting December 2015, Black Manjushri puja will be conducted weekly in Kechara House, so watch the video below if you were not able to attend the talk or if you want to brush up on the practice!
Feedback from Participants
Pastor David Lai was extremely patient in his teachings and made sure we understood what was being taught. Everything went well and I left feeling blessed with Black Manjushri’s Sadhana and some understanding of the Mind. Thank you to all involved for making this talk a success.
~ Jill Yam
Brilliant teaching on Black Manjushri and An Overview of the Mind. Thank you Pastor David. Thank you to the wonderful and hardworking organizing team.
~ Lucy Yap
Pastor David Lai gave a clear teaching of Black Manjushri and how our mind and thought processes are related to a yidam practice like this. The model, Phng Li Kheng demonstrated the breathing exercises required and Martin Chow was a good emcee. These kinds of teachings should not be missed because these Kechara pastors are imparting rare and precious teachings to fortunate Dharma students to benefit their spiritual growth. Thank you for organising these. The best thing is a double rainbow appeared, while there were no rain clouds, over in Kechara Forest Retreat and Bentong town just after the teaching finished. How auspicious indeed.
~ May Ong
Pictures from the Dharma talk
The registration team: Li Kheng, Abby and Pastor Jean Ai
The crowd poured in once the doors opened!
Selected Dharma items were available for invitation at a special price
The VajraSecrets team: Wai Meng, Doreen and Wei Theng
Emcee Martin Chow kept the crowd enthralled while awaiting the arrival of Pastor David Lai
The talk begins!
The Dining Room in Dukkar Apartments was filled to capacity.
People even sat in the corridor!
Pastor David Lai taught about the mind...
... about Black Manjushri's iconography...
... even cracked a few jokes...
... which were well-received by the audience!
Participants came prepared for the talk...
...and many took detailed notes.
Phng Li Kheng demonstrated the Nine Round Breathing Meditation...
...and the crowd followed suit.
Demonstrating Black Manjushri's yogic exercises for protection from sickness...
... for calming disturbing people and spirits...
... for suppressing interferences...
... for creating healing nectar...
... for healing arthritis and much more!
Happy participants and their newly invited Black Manjushri sadhana books
An aerial view of the double rainbow over Kechara Forest Retreat and Manjushri Hill
Beginning from one side of Manjushri Hill...
.. to somewhere beyond the statue of Four-Armed Manjushri
More Interesting Reads
- A Black Manjushri Sadhana: Self-Healing Meditation and Exercises
- White Manjushri Daily Practice
- Manjushri on a Pond
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
Mantras in the waters of Kechara Forest Retreat-Malaysia
Mantras represent the blessings of the enlightened beings in the form of sound. When we recite mantras they stimulate the various parts of our body to heal itself, to clear itself, to purify itself and to gain higher states of consciousness. Therefore, mantras are very powerful. They can be written, visualised or recited out aloud. The mantras of enlightened beings bless ordinary beings, animals, ethereal or formless beings and everyone in the environment.
In Kechara Forest Retreat, Malaysia, we have a koi fish pond, on which sits a magnificent statue of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. When the fish circumambulate around Manjushri they are blessed by his divine presence. At the same time, people who come to visit the pond and circumambulate around Manjushri receive the same blessings.
Along with the Manjushri fish pond, we also have a lake in Kechara Forest Retreat. In the middle of this lake is a Shakyamuni Buddha statue. In both these places we have placed Manjushri mantra stones underneath submerged under the water so that the animals, humans and beings who circumambulate these holy statues, not only circumambulate the images of the Buddhas but also sacred mantras. The is done in order to plant the seeds of enlightenment in their mindstreams so that in the future they are able to realise Bodhicitta, the realisation of Emptiness and higher states of consciousness. So, I thought I would share this little video with everyone. Thank you.
Tsem Rinpoche
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1542840739.mp4
This video, narrated in Chinese, features Manjushri mantra stones. These are stones carved with the sacred mantra of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. The mantra of any Buddha is basically the manifestation of the enlightened being in the form of sound. Therefore, Manjushri’s mantra embodies the special qualities of his transcendent wisdom. Offering of these mantras stones is likened to an offering of Manjushri-like speech to the Three Jewels.
Sponsoring and offering such stones has the benefit of gaining deeper insight into spiritual practice, improving one’s memory, critical thinking, creativity, language and the purification of negative karma related to speech. It also promotes the development of powerful speech that has a positive impact on others.
In the video we see mantra stones placed at the majestic Four-armed Manjushri statue in Kechara Forest Retreat, Malaysia. The more stones are offered there, the more benefit it brings to the person circumambulating and paying homage to Lord Manjushri. These stones are available at Naropa’s Cave in Kechara Forest Retreat and can be offered to the statue of Manjushri here just as you see in the video.
Tsem Rinpoche
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videouploads/comment-1542838906.mp4
Dear All
I would like to share with you the sacred prayer of Manjushri – A Concert Names of Manjushri (’Jam-dpal mtshan-brjod, Skt. Mañjuśrī-namasamgiti), which consists of 160 verses and mantra sentences. One version is translated by Alexander Berzin, a scholar, translator, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, and the other one is from FPMT.
Valentina
Black Manjushri teaching by Pastor David Lai is still vivid in my mind and it was a very powerful dharma talk to listen to. And Pastor David delivered it sincerely and almost effortlessly, not that it is without efforts but rather Pastor David’s wish to benefit us made it so.
The talk and Dharma sharing did not end at just a talk, our Guru, H E the 25th Tsem Rinpoche, then had a Black Manjushri retreat organised for us and I was one of the very lucky ones who was able to participate.
The retreat was extremely powerful and personally, I found relief from the pain that was in my right hip, a miracle relief from faith.
Thank you, Rinpoche and Pastor David.
Thank to everyone who organized this talk. Black Manjushri practice is one of the most awesome practices and very healing and very strong to avert obstacles to spiritual work.
Thx Rinpoche and Pastor David. From the YouTube I watched , I learned that mind transform is very important. We must always think rationally or positive to avoid more and more negative karma created. Don’t be emotional. We must overcome it. We must treat the problem we facing as a way purifying our karma.
It is wonderful for Pastor David to teach the practice of Black Manjushri. I remember attending it once when the practice was taught by Tsem Rinpoche many years ago. I was very fascinated by the potency of the practice. Many of us practiced it and did a mini retreat in Kechara House of Black Manjushri.
His Eminence seldom teaches now and encourages our Pastors to disseminate the dharma instead of always relying on him. I feel that this is good direction to take because of many reasons.
First is that it encourages us to learn up and practice the teachings asap.
Secondly, it encourages us, the students to become dharma teachers so that our organization is not 100% dependent on His Eminence.
Thirdly, because many Pastors are being trained to take on the role of dharma teachers. This marks the beginning of Kechara being able to preserve Buddhism for many generations to come.
Fourthly, Kechara produces our own dharma teachers who will in turn produce future dharma teachers.
I’ll be starting a Black Manjushri retreat tomorrow with KFR team and other dharma brothers and sisters for the next few days. I look forward to this retreat very much.
Dear JP,
Through what you have shared, I see the importance of Pastors or other Kecharians sharing Dharma from time to time. These holy teachings can only endure and preserve for many years to come through the personal practice and disseminating of Dharma at the same time. Thanks for the above points.
This talk by Pastor David Lai is excellent. Although the main topic of the Dharma talk is about Black Manjushri, this talk covers a lot of basics in Buddhism, such as the mind, the “wind” in our body, chakra, how it affects our emotions, the death process, what is Didam, the difference between Yidam practice vs Protector practice, the mantra, wisdom vs knowledge, etc. And of course the Black Manjushri practice is very detail, with the help of demonstration.
Again, thank you so much Pastor David and team who organised this Dharma talk!
Dear Rinpoche,
This is a great talk by Pastor David. Although, Pastor David hand’s hurt badly, but he continued to give the Dharma teaching with full of passion. He started by talking how the chakra works a bit then proceed to our mind. The knowledge that he gave to us he will always quote that the knowledge is from Rinpoche.
Black Manjushri is a very powerful practice especially for today’s world where cancer seem like occur very frequently. In medical, every part of the body, either internal organ to skin the cancer illness can be manifest. The only part do not have cancer is hair. Thus, Black Manjushri is a very effective practice especially when it says that it is good for cancer.
I sincerely thanks Rinpoche for having Pastorship program around and now the Pastors have done a great job to serve sentient beings tirelessly.
With Folded hand,
Freon
Pastor David is a true Dharma teacher, not just because he has Dharma knowledge but because he put the interest and benefit of others before himself. Pastor David absorbed our negative karma in a fluke accident just days before the teaching so that many people will not face to face obstacles before a receiving the pure and precious Dharma. Pastor David received many stitches to close the wounds in his hands but yet was able to focus on the audience and give a long, concise and precise teaching. Not only did he expound the precious practice of Black Manjushri, he patiently answered the many questions from the crowd.
My respect for Pastor David multiplied many folds by his transformation of Dharma into action, following the impeccable example set by Rinpoche.
It was a great sharing by Pastor David Lai. This teaching has it authentic lineage way back from HH Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. It’s really a great honor that we are able to receive them. Pastor David had delivered the teaching with great passion and details which make us understand it well.
Through out the teaching it really gave me a great knowldege how Black Manjushri practice able to help oneself in so many way. It’s really a strong practice for one really need great help in term of protection from ecternal or internal deseases caused by different types of spirits, protection from harm casued by black magic, spirits possessions, helps practitioners to confront and deal with negative emontions, protection from inauspiciouness and malevolent astrological elements and so many more.
The teaching was explained together with the practical example and to make sure we know how to do it. Thanks a lot to the team who are preparing and working for this teaching.
Again I would like to thanks Rinpoche for creating Kechara Forest Retreat as the portal of spiritual education and for Pastor David passion, eventhough he’s not well but he still put aside his own sickness but to put others a head of him and to benefits all the people in the rooms.
I am very glad to have attended Pastor David’s talk on Black Manjushri. It was a good refresher on the practice for me.
In 2008, Kechara was advised to complete 1 million Black Manjushri mantra to clear obstacles in order to create conducive conditions for the growth and success of activities throughout the organisation and for individuals. Since then, Kechara has grown and I believe that the practice of Black Manjushri is very effective.
Pastor David’s gave a good introduction to Mind and Cognition (Lorig)as well at the beginning of the talk before the practice.
I personally like Pastor David’s talk because he always tries his best to share with others what he has learnt from Rinpoche, and through his many readings of Dharma texts and books from various genre. He always seems to have a lot of fun teaching 🙂
Please support our Pastors’ talk and encourage your friends to join as it will benefit those who attend, as well as encourage our Pastors to organise many more talks/ classes.
See you at the next talk!
Thank you Rinpoche. Thank you Pastor David Lai and everyone for the sharing.
Looking forward to joining the weekly Black Manjushri puja in December 2015.
With folded hands
Pee Bee Chong
I would like thank everyone who were involved and arranged this Dharma talk in Kfr by Pastor David Lai. Pastor Lai is a very knowledge pastor who indeed gave a very profound teaching on Black Manjushri and an over view of the mind, the crowd of this dharma talk was overwhelm and thus have benefited many. May we have more and more dharma talks like this continuously to improve our dharma knowledge so that we can be of benefit to others.
Nothing is coincidence in Buddhism… and having double rainbow appeared after the Black Manjushri teaching given by Pastor David Lai is a clear sign that the “Gods” must be happy that Dharma is spreading and taking root here in KFR and from here out to the world… just like what Rinpoche has envisioned and planned since day one.
Pastor David’s teaching was clear a truly enjoyable, with some humour which made the whole teaching lighter. Pastor David’s sincerity cup with his wealth of knowledge and “humility” makes the whole Dharma learning experience a very delightful one and many felt this way.
Someone also said when Pastor David teaches it is more like a Dharma “sharing”, not like a teacher to a student in terms of looking like “holier than thou” or to show off his knowledge, that is what makes it all the more a wonderful experience.
I’ve know Pastor David for over ten years now and now I bare witness of all the late nights Rinpoche had him hang out with Rinpoche has manifested in Pastor David being so knowledgeable and how kind of Pastor David to be so patient to share it with all of us humbly. Thank you Pastor David Lai, I am really proud of you! All those late nights with Rinpoche was truly a great blessing. May you grow even more and your Dharma work flourish!
Seeing you with your “injuries”yet you still appear to teach, was very heart warming and appreciative… (initially I thought it was a prank you were pulling)…. Thank you for absorbing the obstacles of others so that the precious Dharma can be disseminated. May there be more Dharma teachers flourishing from Kechara like ambassadors of Lama Tsongkhapa spreading light where there is darkness.
Dear Rinpoche,
I was one of the 119 fortunate people who attended this wonderful Dharma talk by Pastor David Lai. Pastor David Lai delivered and splendid Dharma talk. He has been well nurtured by your Eminence very well and I am very grateful towards your compassion and unending kindness in bringing Dharma to all.
With folded hands, I would like to request that such talks and sharing be organized and I am sure that more and more people will come to Kechara.
Thank you again on sharing Black Manjushri and may the Three Jewels bless Kechara and its Pastors always.
Humbly yours,
_/\_
Lum Kok Luen