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Q. Quite a
number of Karma Kagyu disciples are followers of Sharmapa. If after hearing your teaching,
and they believe Urgyen Trinley Dorje is the real Karmapa, how are they going to face
their teacher Sharmapa? A. The crux of the matter is the Karmapa lineage. It has
to do with the purity of the whole Kagyu Lineage. This is because of the fact that in the
Kagyu Lineage, the continuous transmission of all the blessing, Dharma practice, method,
initiation, oral transmission, mantra and teaching come from the unbroken lineage of the
Karmapas. In other words, if the Karmapa Lineage from the first to the 17th reincarnation
is pure, then we will receive pure blessing in our practice. We can thus see that purity
in the lineage is extremely important. This is the reason why we want to follow Karmapa
Urgyen Trinley Dorje. If disciples of Sharmapa Rinpoche realise that the person chosen by
him is not the real Karmapa and still think it is fine for them for as long as they follow
Sharma Rinpoche because the issue of the real and fake Karmapa is immaterial to them, then
their thinking is very wrong. As a matter of fact, they are cheating themselves. If you
believe Urgyen Trinley Dorje is the Karmapa, your faith and the blessing of your master
will quite naturally take you close to Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje. In such a situation,
you will naturally leave Sharma Rinpoche.
At this juncture, I
must clarify that I am not giving this teaching from the side of Tai Situ Rinpoche. I am
not saying all this to show support for Tai Situ Rinpoche or Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Neither am
I trying to criticize Sharma Rinpoche or negate his stand. The real purpose of this
discussion today is to explain clearly that in Vajrayana practice, in whom we take refuge
is the most important matter. The person/image to whom we express our aspiration and say
our prayer must be a clear and pure one. This is very important. A clear and pure
person/image will be of tremendous help to the practitioners. If the person in whom we
take refuge and to whom we say our prayer is a wrong one, then there will not be much good
result in our practice. This point is what I want to stress very strongly today. My
purpose is to let Karma Kagyu practitioners know where their true refuge is. I hope all of
you understand clearly the purpose of today¡¦s discussion is about true refuge. This
topic is being discussed from the angle of Dharma practice.¡@ |
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