The Jewel Ornament of Liberation
The Jewel Ornament of Liberation is a classic twelfth century text that outlines the Buddhist path of compassion and insight in great detail. In his forward to H. Guenther’s 1959 translation of this text, Chögyam Trungpa has said, “I highly recommend The Jewel Ornament of Liberation as a thorough and complete exposition of the stages of Mahayana.” As such, The Jewel Ornament provides an ideal introduction to the Buddhist path that supports the work we do with Medicine Buddha. It explains why and how we experience suffering in ordinary life, the wakefulness within that takes us beyond suffering, and the actual mechanics of how we can shine our inherent wakefulness out to our world. By its focus on core aspects of the Buddhist path, this text can help us understand the ultimate goal of Enlightenment and how Menla helps us promote health on all levels for the benefit of all beings.
The Buddhist teachings could fill many libraries. It is said that there are as many paths as there are sentient beings who need to find ways to wake up. In the Tibetan tradition, the teachings are said to fall into three general streams—the foundational stream of individual liberation, the middle stream of compassion for all beings, and a third stream that engages the basic energies of life to help accomplish the first two streams more quickly. Menla works on all three levels. While focusing primarily on the middle path of compassion, The Jewel Ornament is so logical, precise, clear and far-reaching that it puts all the paths in clear, personal perspective. This text is an indispensable aid to gaining a clear view of a path to liberation. In addition to Guenther’s translation, there are more recent translations available on lin3, including an excellent exposition and commentary by His Eminence, Thrangu Rinpoche entitled, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation.
In this series we will feature a brief outline of each chapter and a discussion of each chapter led by one of two senior students in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, Rebecca Hazell, and James Sacamano, MD.
Introduction to the Medicine Buddha Teachings
The first recordings are an introduction to Medicine Buddha. The Jewel Ornament Study Group practiced Medicine Buddha and sitting meditation prior to each recorded discussion. Practicing a bit, however you do it, can help the teachings come to life for you. Recorded at the Victoria Shambhala Centre, 2015-2016.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Chapter 1: The Motive—Why We Search for Enlightenment
Teacher: Rebecca Hazel
Here we examine what within us motivates us to search and incorporate into our lives wisdom. This motivating factor is the Buddha already within, called our Buddha Nature. When we know this nature, we know how to live and to heal. Meditation is our tool that helps us keep Buddha Nature in mind. Recorded 2015.04.06.
Chapter 2: The Working Basis – Our Precious Human Body
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
In this chapter we examine the supreme benefits of having our human body, the life form most conducive to awakening and an understanding of the nature of healing. We look not only at the benefits of our body, but also of this fortunate time we live in, a time in which we are reasonably free and safe and in which we have access to the teachings that support our traveling a path to awakening and a true healing path.
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Chapter 3: Meeting Spiritual Friends
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
In this chapter we look at Gampopa’s instructions on the benefits of connecting with a genuine spiritual teacher and tradition. While each person’s path to wisdom and ultimate healing is unique, learning how to connect with and learn from the experience of qualified others can be extremely helpful.
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Chapter 4: Constant Change and Facing Mortality
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
“A great truth is a truth where the opposite is also true.” In this talk we learn that change is a felt experience. It happens on a cellular level but is also something we can know in our hearts. The themes of this talk are life and death, and all the ground of change in-between. Recorded 2015.07.06.
Chapter 5: Working with Suffering
Teacher: Rebecca Hazel
This talk focuses on the realms and the method we have in hand to deal with the suffering we experience. Samsara and nirvana are inseparable by nature. Recorded 2015.08.03.
Medicine Buddha Practice
The Medicine Buddha practice as recorded with our community. Recorded 2015.09.14.
Chapter 6: Karma
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
After a review of the first five chapters, the talk focuses on the nature of karma. “The world is made and produced by karma.” What does that really mean, and how do we live within that? Recorded 2015.09.07.
Chapter 7: Loving-kindness and compassion
Teacher: Rebecca Hazel
In this talk, Shastri Hazel weaves the teachings of Shambhala into the teachings of Gampopa in a discussion about how holding our minds to goodness-regardless of exterior conditions, leads to enlightenment. Recorded 2015.10.05.
Chapter 8: Taking Refuge
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
The term taking refuge refers to the idea that living in uninformed, self-focused ways can be like having to endure a great storm of negative karma. We see how the teachings and practices we are studying here can shelter us from this horrific onslaught of unnecessary suffering. Taking refuge means committing to living in wakefulness with body, speech and mind, whether formally as a declared Buddhist, or as a person committed to living in truth wherever it can be found. Recorded 20151102.
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Chapter 9: Acquiring an Enlightened Attitude
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
Here we look at how true wakefulness goes beyond self-concern to dedicating one’s life to the benefit of all others — those for whom we feel a natural sense of care and allegiance and for those for whom we do not. Only in committing to help all others can we realize the natural radiance in our human heart.
Chapter 10: Buddhanature is in all
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
How do we discover Buddha Nature in ourselves and cultivate the peace this awareness brings? This talk looks at how we can find it not only for ourselves but for everyone. Recorded 2016.01.04.
Chapter 11: The Practice of Entering
Teacher: Rebecca Hazel
To reach enlightenment one must begin with a wish to benefit all and get off the ‘me’ plan. Recorded 2016.02.01.
Chapter 12: The Perfection of Generosity
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
Here we look at the real heart of generosity, not just as the act of giving, but as an expression of a natural openness to the universe. We also look at practical advice on what and how to give in order to maximize the benefits to others. Recorded 20160210.
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Chapter 13: The Perfection of Ethics and Manners
Teacher: Dr. James Sacamano
This talk is on discipline and morals, as seen through the teachings of Gampopa and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The talk includes discussion on collecting merit and the larger implications this path may have on one quality of life. If one interacts on this earthly plane with these precepts in mind what might happen? Recorded 2016.03.07.
Chapter 14 & 15: The Perfection of Patience and Exertion
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
In these chapters we look further into both the challenges and the realizations that a person on the path of waking up in life in a state of dedication to the benefit of others will face. Among these is how we can use seeming obstacles as building blocks in assembly of a life of wakefulness and compassion. Recorded 20160502.
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Chapter 16: The Perfection of Meditative Concentration
Teacher: Dr. James Sacamano
In this chapter we discuss Gampopa’s treatment of the actual process of meditation and how it frees us from the “fangs of afflicting emotions.” We also consider an expanded meaning of “monastery” and we practice three forms of meditation as ways to deal with difficult emotional experience.
Chapter 17: The Perfection of Awareness
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
In this chapter we discuss awareness as the crucial piece of the spiritual puzzle that takes us past ordinary concerns to the attainment of full enlightenment. The main focus is on the practice of Madhyamika as the essential means to fully lay fear to rest and bring the natural brilliance of our own Buddha Nature into life.
Chapter 18 & 19: The Five Paths and the Spiritual Levels
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
In these two chapters we look at the stages of realization of our innate awareness in both our meditation practice and in our life. And in particular, we see the progressively closer natural linkage between increasing personal wakefulness arising from meditation practice and effective benevolence in the world.
Chapter 20: Perfect Buddhahood
Teacher: Dr. Jim Sacamano
In this chapter we will look at three fundamental ways to see the realization of complete wakefulness from the human perspective. We will also see how these natural radiances of wakefulness arising from the spiritual heart of all humans take us beyond categorization, labels and conceptual bounds. Recorded 20160912.
Chapter 21: Buddha Activity
Teacher: Rebecca Hazell
In this final chapter, we will discuss how all of what we have studied up to this point, the nature of life, the attainment of wisdom, and heartfelt concern for others, and following the path of meditation, can be practically applied to life experience as it arises in our current human, world and environmental situation. Recorded 20161003.
About Jim Sacamano
Rebecca Hazell is a senior teacher in Shambhala International. As well as practicing and teaching Buddhism in both the Kagyu and Shambhala traditions, she is a wife and mother and an artist, illustrator and award-winning author. She also teaches art and creative writing. For further information on Rebecca’s work as an author, illustrator and educator, and for her teaching schedule, please see her website.
She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area but moved to Canada with her husband, first to Nova Scotia, where she was deeply involved in the Shambhala community as a teacher and administrator. She was also a regular participant in Nova Scotia’s Writers in the Schools program, visiting high needs elementary schools, where she taught modules on art and writing. She and her husband now live on Vancouver Island, where she served as Shastri for the Victoria Shambhala Centre, teaching and training teachers and meditation instructors.
