The 1st Jamgon Kongtrul lived from 1813 until 1899 and is revered worldwide to this day as one of the most brilliant stars in the galaxy of scholars and saints from Tibet.(1) He became learned in the ten ordinary and extraordinary branches of knowledge, and it became his responsibility to explain and compose texts, which incorporated a great number of teachings from both the old and new traditions, including the lineages of oral teachings, hidden treasures (terma), and teachings of pure vision.(2)

❀ Buddha Shakyamuni’s Prophesy ❀

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye was prophesied by Buddha Shakyamuni in the Samadhirajasutra and foretold in many Treasure Teachings by Guru Padmasambhava. The following line from the Lankavatarasutra is taken as a prophecy referring to him: “In a later age there will come a great hero, called Lodrö the Guide, a teacher of the five sciences.”(3)

❀ Jamgon Kongtrul’s Family ❀

Jamgon Kongtrul was born into a Bönpo family on December 14th in the year of the water-horse in Rong-gyab. This little village is situated near Pema Lhatse, which is one of three sacred mountains in Do-Kham, East Tibet. His father, Yungdrung Tenzin (an illustrious Lama of the Kyunpo clan) was killed in a war that raged in his homeland. Jamgon Kongtrul’s mother, Tashitso, married Sönampäl after her husband’s death. He was a lay practitioner of Bön and transmitted the teachings and rituals of the indigenous tradition of Tibet to his stepson.(4)

❀ A Terton ❀

The 1^st Jamgon Kongtrul was supposed to be a Terma Revealer, a Terton (revealer), just like Chokgyur Lingpa, but after seeing how the very ancient, sacred Termas of the past had been lost from this world he decided to preserve the past Termas by compiling them into volumes. He formally requested Chokyur Lingpa to please see if Guru Rinpoche would allow him to begin, while he also realized that by doing this work it might well mean that he would have to give up his own Terma that he was suppose to reveal during this time.

A few days later Chokgyur Rinpoche replied to the 1^st Jamgon Kongtrul, “Guru Rinpoche is very happy with your proposal. Please proceed.” That is how we have the the Rinchin Terdzod today. Guru Rinpoche granted his permission for the 1^st Jamgon Kongtrul to give up his duty of being a Terton (revealer) in paving the way for the 1^st Jamgon Kongtrul to compile the Termas of the past.

❀ The Five Great Treasures ❀

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye the Great authored and compiled more than ninety volumes of scriptures. They are referred to as “The Five Great Treasures, mDzöd chen lnga.” In the chronological (and not hierarchical) order in which he composed them, they are:

“Shecha Dzö, Shes bya kung khyab mdzöd – The Encompassment of All Knowledge“ (an extensive compendium that succinctly elucidates the logical progression through the study and practices of the paths taught in Sutra and Tantra and the final fruition);

- “The Kagyü Ngagdzö, bKa’ brgyüd sngags mdzöd – The Treasury of Mantra of the Kagyü School” (a compendium of practices, ancient and new Tantras, accompanied by the completion stage of the Tantra, the rites of empowerment, and various authorizations);

- “Dam Ngagdzö, gDams ngag mdzöd – The Treasury of Precious Key Instructions” (the collected instructions of the Eight Great Lineages practiced in Tibet. These teachings reveal the essence of Jamgon Kongtrul’s open-mindedness since they are a collection of instructions gathered impartially from other sources rather than from his own summary of them);

- “Rinchen Terdzö, Rin chen gter mdzö – The Precious Treasure Teachings” (a collection of the Termas that Jamgon Kongtrul found, gathered, compiled, and arranged for initiations with the help of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Chogyur Lingpa);

- “Gyachen Kadzö, rGya chen bka’ mdzöd – The Treasury of Vast Teachings“ (a collection of writings, such as praises and advice, as well as compositions on medicine, science, and so on).(5)

❀ Like A Second Buddha ❀

The 1st Jamgon Kongtrul served all traditions of Dharma without any bias, through his teaching, practice, and activity. At the age of eighty-seven on January 19, 1899, he passed away.(6)

References:
[1][3-5] take from the Kagyu Golden Rosary, http://bit.ly/db1h5e
[2 & 6] http://www.jamgonkongtrul.org/namthar1.htm

Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

❀ This Precious Human Body ❀

The body we have right now is called the precious human body.  In this world there are countless sentient beings and among all of them, the best one is this precious human body, which is very hard to obtain again and again. It is impossible to obtain a precious human body through demerit. It is only through the accumulation of merits in your past lives and the residual of incredible great positive karma that we can arrive in a body like this.

Having being born as a human is like arriving on an island of jewels. But if we don’t take any of them and just keep our hands crossed and go home empty handed, then what really is the point? So how do we make this precious human birth meaningful? It is only through practicing the spiritual path that one can make this precious human body significant. Without which you are just an ordinary human trapped in an ordinary human body.

And why is this human body called precious? It is because of this body, that we can listen to precious teachings when they are explained and subsequently put them into practice. But if we waste such a precious thing like this, there is truly no greater loss than that. If we don’t practice the dharma then we are no different than an animal. So truly and honestly we should really persevere to practice the dharma.

❀ Practicing the Dharma ❀

To practice the dharma means having trust, diligence and being wise/intelligent. Trust means having complete trust and confidence in the Dharma, the teachings and in the one who taught the teachings, the Buddha.  Therefore having complete trust in the Buddha and the Dharma. Complete trust in the Sangha, the ones who upholds the teachings and therefore a feeling of gratitude towards the Sangha.  We need to trust in these three (Buddha/Dharma/Sangha).

Diligence means, in any kind of job you do, if you begin and do not finish then it is never completed. Therefore what carries you to complete that job is called diligence.

And being wise/intelligent is first of all what we gain from listening to teachings, from thinking about them and than later applying them. So when you hear something and you gain some trust and confidence then you have some insight that is called the knowledge through learning. And then when you think it over, the knowledge through reflection and finally the knowledge through meditation practice and having full confidence and trust in it. It is for that reason invincible to have trust. If one mistrusts then that is a great defect.

If one has no compassion and trust it is very hard to penetrate the very heart of the dharma. It is like someone who when seeing Buddhas and bodhisattvas flying in the sky think they are just showing off and when seeing a creature lying on the floor with it’s intestines flowing out and saying oh it’s his karma, everyone dies.

❀ Devotion and Compassion ❀

Compassion and devotion shouldn’t just be a show. And shouldn’t only be of lip service. It should be from the depths of our heart. Trust towards the teachings of the Buddha should be with pure appreciation. We need to have the kind of trust which is penetrating so that tears comes out of our eyes and the hairs on our body naturally stand, a kind of feeling difficult to remain in. Simply by uttering some empty words wont’ suffice.  When thinking of other beings you should have the kind of compassion thinking that they are all my parents and yet they don’t know what to do, they create immense pain and suffering for themselves, yet they are not aware of it. They have no idea about the ultimate truth, the true state of Samadhi. So they wonder from one life to the next in the endless chain of samsara. Therefore, the ones who are filled with overwhelming compassion for sentient beings and with unwavering devotion for the enlighten ones; they will without any doubt receive the blessings of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Just to pay lip service and superficially act as if one pities sentient beings and respects the enlighten ones is not enough to receive the blessings. It has to be with hundred percent sincerity. So here are some signs of receiving the blessings, and they are when you no longer have to try to feel kind and compassionate, as it will come spontaneously and you no longer have to try to be deliberately respectful, as it will come spontaneously as well. Those are the signs. With a natural trust in the teaching and the consequences of karma, that is the real accomplishment of dharma practice. That is the real siddhi.

❀ Receiving the Blessings ❀

You may not be having a lot of knowledge and information of the dharma but if you have real trust in the three jewels and you have kindness towards other beings and acutely understand that in this life, nothing last forever, then you have already received the blessings of the three jewels. Otherwise just to know a lot of teachings can sometimes really resolve in nothing but conceit. Or thinking I have practiced so much and so many years of Shamatha and Samadhi. People who have a lot of practice behind them usually become more miserly and stingy. This is proof that the teachings have not taken affect. So what is the main mission at stake? It is after all about buddha-nature, which is the very identity within which the bodies, speech, mind, qualities and enlighten activities of all the Buddhas are complete. Actually the body, speech, and mind of any sentient being have its source or origin only in the body, speech, and mind of all the awakened ones. This unchanging quality is called the vajra body, the unceasing quality the vajra speech and the unmistaken quality, the vajra mind. The indivisible unity of these three is exactly what buddha-nature means.

❀ Buddha-nature ❀

If we don’t recognize or acknowledge in our own experience what is the unchanging quality of this buddha-nature, then it is more or less like entering into the entrapment of the physical body of flesh and blood, our speech being entrapped within the movement of breath to become voice and voice that appears and disappears. Our consciousness becomes fixated upon a perceiver or the perceived. In other words, fixation on duality that arises and ceases for each moment, in other words, thoughts that come and go, one after the other in an endless string of thoughts continued from beginning less time and just goes on and on. That is how our normal state of mind is. If we don’t recognize our own nature in this very lifetime, we are then incapable of capturing our natural seat of unchanging self-existent wakefulness. Instead, we chase after one perishable thought after the other so that samsara becomes endless. Being overpowered by this involvement in thought day and night, life after life. Unless you become free of conceptual thinking, there is absolutely no way to truly awaken to enlightenment.

❀ The Supreme Method ❀

Great peace is when the conceptual thinking subsides or calms down. And there is such a way for that to happen. The thoughts which are an expression, while thinking if you truly recognize that you are in natural phase, which is buddha-nature, at that same moment, any thought vanishes by itself leaving no trace. That brings an end to samsara. So the basic way for that is the supreme method, once you know that one method is there anything superior to that you need to know? And this way is something, which is already attained in your self, it is not something that we need to get from someone else, by bribe, search for and finally find. It is not necessary at all. Just recognize your own natural phase and you have already transcended the six realms of samsara. That way is what one asks for when asking a master to please give instruction on mind essence. This is the most precious which one doesn’t need to search for outside, it is in your self. This is called the Buddha being placed in the palm of your own hand. That is an analogy which means, at that moment, you don’t need to seek for the awakened state somewhere else. If you line up all the money and wealth of the whole world in a big heap on one side and on the other side the recognition of buddha-nature, the nature of our own mind then what is more valuable if you were to choose between the two? Obviously, you should without a doubt choose recognizing mind essence as being much more valuable. This is called the amazing Buddha within.

If you have a wish-fulfilling jewel and yet don’t use it, then the endless samsara lies before you. Isn’t there more trouble? This is something we really need to think about. This is the real crucial point. If we didn’t have this innate buddha-nature, who can actually blame you. This buddha-nature, it is the identity of the three kayas of all Buddhas.

And in closing:

Although my mind is the Buddha, I failed to acknowledge it
Though the essence of thought is Dharmakaya, I failed to recognize it
Though the innate natural state is uncontrived, I failed to sustain it
Though this naturalness is the true state, I failed to trust it
So Guru, please look upon me with compassion and grant your blessings
That I may quickly turn my mind towards the dharma
And have no obstacles on the path and quickly have diligence to practice

* The above teaching was given at Nagi Gonpa by Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche with Erik Pema Kunsang as his translator.

❀ ORGYEN DORJE DEN (ODD) IN ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA ❀

Invites you to join them for a historic Dharma event.

ODD Shrine Room

❀ VENERABLE GYATRUL RINPOCHE ❀

Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche

At the request of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, Yangthang Rinpoche will bestow the transmissions of the Rinchen Terzod.

❀ THE RINCHEN TERZOD ❀

The Rinchen Terzod, the Treasury of Precious Termas, was compiled by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great with the blessings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Chogyur Lingpa. The precious collection includes many of the major termas that had been discovered before 1889 and is extensive. It will take over three months to confer the entire cycle of hundreds of empowerments.

❀ VENERABLE YANGTHANG RINPOCHE ❀

Venerable Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche

Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche is an emanation of the great Vimalamitra and the immediate reincarnation of the Terton Dorje Dechen Lingpa. Rinpoche is a main lineage holder in the Nyingma Tradition and one of the most highly respected Buddhist teachers in the world today. Gyatrul Rinpoche says that …“Yangthang Rinpoche is truly a precious jewel.”

❀ SUPPORT ❀

Please consider becoming a sponsor for this rare and auspicious event. Your generosity and support for this program is greatly appreciated! For more information and to register please contact: orgyendorjeden@gmail.com

❀ GREEN TARA ❀

One of my main mantras for my morning practice is the one devoted to Green Tara, The Swift Liberator, The Lotus of Wisdom, the principal female manifestation of virtue and enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism. She is the ACTIVE principle of compassion and in paintings she is represented in the process of stepping from her lotus throne in order to help sentient beings. To westerners, having a female form representing compassion may seem natural but in traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconography the male form tends to represent compassion while the female form more often represents wisdom. Tara bucks that trend.[i]

Green Tara is capable of bringing all activities that benefit others to fruition. In Tibet she is the most important deity, the Bodhisattva who’s name means ‘she who ferries across’, ‘she who saves’, or ‘star’.[ii] Green Tara lengthens the lives of her followers, protects us during our earthly travels, and guards us on our spiritual journey to enlightenment. It is said that her compassion for living beings is stronger than a mother’s love for her children.[iii]

❀ I Bow Before You, Green Tara ❀

I do three full prostrations in front of Green Tara before praying to her as this helps me to observe and contemplate the nature of my heart/mind so it becomes still, one-pointed, and able to gain insight into the changing flow of my experiences. By bowing I am also raising up Green Tara higher than my own personal ego-self. Before I recite the Green Tara mantra I ask for certain wishes, one of them being that she take care of the feral cats I help to feed, that “they all find safe, dry, and warm places to sleep, and that they never know hunger and experience love.” I care about those three cats, the “59th Street Cats,” as we call them, as if they were my own children.

❀ Princess Is Missing ❀

One of these cats, “Princess,” the only female and the most tame, the one I can pet and is very affectionate back to me, went missing for nearly a week. (I would often sit and pet Princess while reciting the Green Tara mantra quietly under my breath. She liked it and always purred loudly.) I sent out an email to the four other feral feeders and none of the other women had seen Princess at feeding time either.

❀ Fooled By My Feelings ❀

My Precious Princess

I began to worry about Princess, “Who had her? Was she all right? Was she safe and dry inside someone’s home and being fed?” I didn’t want my mind to go to terrible places so I had to block out images of her being hit by a car or being taken in and then being treated cruelly. I couldn’t help but wonder why Princess had gone missing on me when I had been reciting the Green Tara mantra for her protection and dedicating the merit of saying it to her and the other two cats each day. How could Green Tara let me down? I started thinking about what it means to have faith and started to realize I had very little faith in Green Tara as far as Princess and the other feral cats were concerned. I began to question myself, “Why am I reciting the Green Tara mantra? I can read all I want to of Green Tara but is she me? Am I her? Is it an energy outside of me? Is it both? After all of my praying for the protection of Princess and her buddies something worse shouldn’t have happened to her, right?”

❀ Please Show Me A Sign ❀

I told Michele, one of the other women who feeds the 59th Street Cats, that I planned to drive around the neighborhood where Princess lived. I planned to walk around calling out her name to see if she would come running to me like she used to do. Michele said she’d meet me with “missing” fliers for Princess and we could go hang them in the area to see if someone might have spotted her. All during this time I thought very strongly, “What does it mean to have faith?” I started to realize I need to believe in Green Tara as something bigger than me, the deity she is and and not just an energy inside of me. Michele and I agreed to meet in an hour and I went to take a shower, still in deep contemplation about Green Tara and my missing Princess. After showering I went to my altar and did my prostrations before Green Tara, I asked, “Please Green Tara, give me a sign, something about Princess, let me know she is all right. If she is not happy where she is at now, please let her come back to me.”

❀ My Story Has A Happy Ending ❀

Green Tara Brought Princess Back

I met Michele at the building where we feed Princess and she had already posted one flier at a nearby grocery store. We walked to the back of the building together and I expected that Princess wouldn’t be there. We each called out for Princess a few times and then suddenly she came running to us from the corner of the large empty parking lot. That afternoon she had been hiding behind many stuffed, green garbage bags around the dumpster. The sun was shining but the air was chilly and we thought that the bags probably provided a good windbreak for her while she sunned herself. I was so happy to see her I cried a little inside as I reached down to pet her as if nothing had changed. She was healthy and she purred. I said out loud to her, “Princess where have you been? We’ve been worried. Next time you leave like that you need to tell us where you’re going.” Inside I questioned myself, “Is this an answer to my prayer Green Tara? Is this about having faith? You’ve definitely show me a sign, now I should believe?”

❀ What Does It Mean To Have Faith? ❀

In Buddhism, faith is built through years of perseverance and proper understanding of Dharma. Green Tara’s Buddha nature is indifferent from our own, which is within. Green Tara’s activities are vast, something we haven’t achieved, and are without. So, we pray to her and sometimes our wishes are not seemingly answered, at least not in the way we thought they might be. This is mainly due to the essential element of karma, or it could even be an inappropriate wish.

❀ Karma And Control ❀

What I had forgotten but need to always remember as a Buddhist is that all sentient beings have their own karma. Karma is not the same thing as ‘fate.’ Karma is the results of previous actions in this life and in the past. I had forgotten that Princess has her own karmic fruition to face. I know I can’t control any situation but I still want the best for Princess and I’ll do whatever I can to make her life easier. At the time I didn’t know how far to go, how much to believe, when one says have faith in Green Tara, the active principle of compassion, how will she answer my prayers?

❀ Mind Nature Of Buddhas And Sentient Beings Are Indifferent ❀

From a western point of view, being ‘indifferent’ usually means that someone doesn’t care, that they have no feelings one way or the other, and having no feelings is generally seen as a bad thing in the West. It doesn’t have the same meaning in Buddhism. At the same time, if we had no feelings, wouldn’t we be heartless? If our actions were based on doing what’s right without consideration of another’s feelings wouldn’t that seem cruel? In Buddhism the practice of praying to Green Tara or another deity isn’t teaching us to not have feelings, it is teaching us to not be fooled by our feelings.

If we study the nature of our mind further we’ll find it’s like a mirror. If we placed a flower before it the image of the flower will vividly appear on the mirror, but when we take away the flower, the mirror is still a mirror. The quality of the mirror is not tainted at all by witnessing the flower. Mind is simply fooled by our senses, fooled by our concepts.

We are often fooled by our feelings. We need to look at things the way they are, the way it is. It’s all right to feel the things we feel but we need the realization that if we are together with our loved ones one day we will be apart from them. When we are born into this world one day we will surely die. Having clarity of the reality of painful situations we then understand, and we have a choice in how we’ll respond and react in the world. In Buddhism the point of our praying is to gain MINDFULNESS, praying becomes a form of meditation for us rather than merely petitioning a higher external force for what we desire.

❀ Praying For Princess ❀

I missed Princess while she was gone yet I continued to pray for her well being. I thought if someone had taken her into their home and they loved her, well, then I am happy. I naturally share some qualities with Green Tara, but not seeing it is one thing that makes me a sentient being and not a God.

Reciting the Green Tara mantra helped me to calm my mind and in fact probably helped Princess return to me that day as I became mindful of our situation- Princess is a feral (homeless) cat, who fends for herself and finds shelter in the wild of the city. She also has her own karma from her past and present to live out. I no longer pray that Princess return to me each week but I still pray for her protection. No matter what happens next my faith is restored. The devotee of Green Tara may recite even the short mantra of ten syllables whenever needs are being denied and she will hear it and respond.

Being mindful will help one calm their mind…Mantras will only manifest their powers when one’s mind is calm. Remember this.

**NOTE- It’s been another week and Princess has disappeared again. She came back to me for a few minutes one day, two weeks ago, after I prayed to Green Tara for a sign. The most I can do now is to continue loving her while I pray, to take care of her when and if she does come back to her feeding area, and remain mindful of our situation together.

***Many thanks to my faithful friend Hermit who helps me to understand Dharma and myself better, and thank you to Michele Nelson, a volunteer at the fixourferals.org serving Alameda and Contra Costa counties in California, for providing me with the great pictures of Princess and for helping me get the images to show up in my blog again.

[i] Green Tara Mantra – Wildmind.org
[ii] Tara – Khandro.net
[iii] Images of Enlightenment, Tibetan Art in Practice

“Of Buddhahood’s abundant crop, compassion is the seed.
It is like moisture bringing increase and is said
To ripen in the state of lasting happiness.
Therefore to begin, I celebrate compassion.”

From Chandrakiriti’s Introduction to the Middle Way (Shechen Publications, New Dehli, 2004)
© Translation by the Padmakara Translation Group.

What is the Buddha Seed that is said to be in all living things? It is our compassionate nature, sometimes well developed and sometimes remaining dormant. Even animals are said to have this Buddha Seed, however animals rarely get a chance to develop it.

What is compassion? Compassion has nothing to do with a sentimental view of life. It is not like pity, which is a feeling of sorrow and sympathy for the misfortunate. Compassion urges us to take bold, strong, and courageous action, to feel the suffering of the sufferer and to release them from their suffering, no matter their status in society, whether it’s a relative or a stranger, friend or perceived foe, animal or insect. It is said that it is because of this Buddha Seed that all living beings will eventually become Buddhas. True compassion cherishes all of life.

In general it is easier to care about the happiness of our friends and relatives, but much more difficult to feel compassion for those who we consider against us and who do things in the wrong way, hurting themselves and others. And while many people have pets and love them as dearly as a family member or loyal friend, they feel more pity for their condition than true compassion.

What is the difference between self-centered compassion and true (selfless) compassion? While a mother cat will rescue her kitten from a certain danger, this is not seen as true compassion as all mothers, human and animal, would attempt a rescue of their child whether they behaved good or bad. Therefore, most of us practice a very biased and limited compassion that has more to do with our attachment to the suffering being and our needs, than it does for wanting the others genuine happiness. Simply put, we want them to feel better again so that we do as well.

Wayne Smallman in his post, “Is Altruism The Illusion Faith Seeks?” on his “Blah, Blah Technology” website refers to the puzzling behavior of a leopard who saved a baby baboon after it killed the baboon’s mother, and believes that what he called “altruism” to be useful only in preserving evolution. I argued that since most of us humans are more like our chimpanzee brothers, or the leopard who saved the baby baboon, we have little hope for evolution if our needs alone are the motivating factor to do any kindness. It is only by the ripening of the Buddha Seed through personal development and lots of practice, (many acts of selfless compassion), that true compassion can be realized. But we’re all born into life understanding and acting on different levels of compassion, most of us allowing our environment to shape our mind even further.

In Buddhism it’s believed a human is re-born into the animal realm because of the person’s own ignorance, or stupidity, stemming from their wrongly held views and blind obedience to a person, group, or cause in their past human life. (See my blog post “Animal Love” to read more about this.) Humans have many more opportunities for advancement than animals because of our ability to develop true compassion. Because animals act mostly in their own self-interest they stay trapped in their realm for eons, or at least until their negative karma is dissolved.

It is the motivation of the mind that determines whether an action taken to help the suffering being is selfish or selfless.

While a rescue dog in Haiti who sniffs out the living from among the dead in a pile of rubble is certainly a hero when he finds someone alive, the dog is trained to do this job by rewarding him for when he gets it right. Certainly there is merit earned for saving a life, but this is much different than an animal with no training who feels the suffering of another, longs to stop their pain, and takes bold action to stop it. While some might argue that their dog would do the same thing as the dog in this video, the truth is that all dogs are not created equal, and neither are people. In humans and in animals, this kind of compassion is said to ripen over many lifetimes of experience:

Dog Saves Dog

Thousands of YouTube viewers around the world watched this savior dog bravely risk it’s own life on a busy highway, using his paws to pull an injured dog to safety. (That hurt dog unfortunately died.) The savior dog lived but the highwaymen who were there when it happened couldn’t find it after the event. It was like the savior dog disappeared. If we could all be as selfless in our compassion as this unwanted and unloved mutt, who reached out to help the suffering of another, the human race might take one step closer to Nirvana.

Transference of merit is giving, specifically. If one wants to give the merit to oneself, on need not say anything. There is no need to say ‘let me be rich, let me be good, let me be free from debt.’ If you make merit you will be rich anyway. You are the one who does it, so, you are the one who gets. There is no need to mention the name when you give it to your parents. When the child makes merit and attains wisdom, the parent also receive it because the are close to you. Parents are within you. the more merit you make the more it reaches your parents. If you have your own child, who is good and wise, you are automatically pleased. There is no need to say anything.

The word is n~a~taka~nan~ca and means to ‘all relatives.’ Whoever is your kin will receive it. Even kin from your past existence, not this existence, also receives it. If you know someone and you like each other, united, acquainted, understand each other and help or depend on each other; then it is called n~a~taka~nan~ca. Kin from all places is combined.

Sometimes, someone may not be your relative in this existence. But you do not know whether he has been in your relative in a previous existence or not. If you happen to like each other, thinking the same thing, you may have been relatives in the past existence. Since you have been apart for a long time, just re-united, you may have a vague memory. But you can still be relatives according to the above meaning. The relation of husband and wife in the past existence can be applied in the same way.

If you were not relatives in the past, but you support each other now, you can be relatives in the future.

Written by Phra Dhepsinghupacariya