Buddha Shakyamuni – Diamond Holder

To get an idea and a feeling of what Diamond Holder really means one has to let go all constricting views. He stands at the very beginning of invocation of the Mahamudra transmission lineage as all-pervading, radiant Diamond Holder – Vajradhara or Dorje Chang.

What does that mean? In his all-encompassing totality Diamond Holder is the joy state of the truth state; he naturally expresses compassion and wisdom incessantly and effortlessly. Beyond all forms he transcends space and mind with his qualities, which are inherent in all beings.

Another explanation is, that our kind root lama gives his body to Diamond Holder, simultaneously the latter gives his mind to our root lama. This means that both are completely inseparable. Additionally in the Karma Kagyü Lineage, all lamas are expressions of Karmapa. In its essence, our root lama, Karmapa and Diamond Holder are one. The understanding of the inseparability of enlightened mind, which is like space, expressed through different forms and emanations, is a challenge to many practitioners.

For our project it’s necessary to have a brief overview about Buddha’s life:

Buddha Shakyamuni lived a around 2,500 years ago. His Shakya clan belonged to the highest Hindu warrior caste, his father was a local king. When, after a six-years-search for a method of overcoming suffering for all beings, he reached enlightenment, a peaceful and effective method, which later was seen as a religion, spread throughout many Asian countries. Teaching for 45 years and based on countless questions of his fellow citizens, Buddha taught how to stabilize one’s mind in order to terminate suffering and pain, and, in many Buddhist schools, to also support others in their strive towards happiness.

Born into a royal family in Kushinagar, today’s Nepal, formerly India, Siddharta Gautama enjoyed a typical education – writing, reading, mathematics, poetry, music, and military drill. Based on a prediction of wise men after his birth, Siddharta was kept away from any kind of suffering. He married and became the father of a son. In his late twenties he urged his father to show him the kingdom he should rule one day. Despite well-prepared rides, his father could not avoid that his son saw old people, sick people and a corpse, three profound forms of suffering. Siddharta was deeply shaken by these experiences. He developed the wish to find a method that each human could apply in order to overcome suffering. One day, he sneaked out of the palace, left everything behind and looked for teachers who were able to grant him tools how to implement his wish into reality. After six years of learning and developing, he remembered the meditator he saw years before in the streets: It’s not the outer conditions that have to be changed but the state of mind.

To go beyond all intellectual knowledge and discovering mind itself, Siddharta decided to meditate until all the veils of his mind dissolved. Thus, he reached enlightenment under a bodhi-tree in Bodhgaya.

Being shiny and trustworthy, a growing number of followers gathered around him. Those who started to practice, Buddha called ‚people of inner life‘ (not Buddhists – this is a Western term!). He turned the wheel of teaching three times, as it is phrased traditionally, meaning the different core-themes:

1.     Teachings about karma – cause and effect – and self-responsibility: Developing growing awareness about what we do with our body, speech and mind, brings forth a stable mind that ultimatelly leads to liberation, the end of suffering. This path is nowadays called the Theravada path.

2.     Teachings about love, compassion and wisdom: Here the bodhisattva ideal is very important; we develop for the good of all beings: the well-being of others is more important than one’s own well-being. This will finally lead to enlightenment. Buddhist schools that apply these teachings a called the Great Way.

3.     Teachings about the buddha nature and all its inherent qualities, which are reflected in a realized teacher or lama, are called Diamond Way. One behaves like a buddha until one becomes a buddha. The methods that are used here are also based on the bodhisattva ideal – the difference is that the lama is everything, the holder if all enlightened qualities. This is the Mahamudra path. The full realization of Mahamudra is enlightenment.

For 45 years Buddha taught his students in a way that they only received these kinds of transmissions that they could work with. The most gifted ones received the highest teachings - the Mahamudra, which Buddha gave within the last few years of his life.

Later, a long time of Buddha’s passing away, highly realized students collected all his teachings and wrote them down: 84.000, which, depending on the edition, fill 108 books.