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Secrets of turning obstacles into opportunities to achieve great feats...

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DSFriend:
I've had "Cave in the Snow, Vicki Mackenzie" for awhile now but just never got round to reading it till now. I'm half way through it and found it hard to put down. Tenzin Palmo, the 1st Western nun ordained by the Karmapa spent twelve years of intense meditation in a remote cave, 13200 feet up in the Himalayas all by herself.

Tibetan Buddhism were not easily accessible to women at that time. I've always thought that the greatest challenge for Tenzin Palmo was during the 12 years of solitary retreat in her remote cave. That was tough but she felt most alone, and discriminated in the Monastery of 100 monks. She wasn't allowed to learn rituals, receive higher empowerments, and teachings other than just listening to some buddhist stories...all because the female form is considered a weaker sex, an inferior born, filthy and not a vessel of the Law.
 
Where did this come about? Did Buddha taught enlightenment cannot be attained thru this form because it is inferior?

Tenzin Palmo's research shows that "The Buddha never denied that women could become Enlightened. In the early sutras the Buddha talked about thirty-two points of the body which were to be meditated on in depth. The meditator had to visualize peeling the skin off to examine what really was there - the guts, the blood, the pus, the waste matter. The Buddha's purpose was twofold: to create detachment from our obsession with our own body and to lessen our attraction to other people's bodies."

Tenzin Palmo made a vow to return again and again to show that Enlightenment can be attained thru this form. Sure does brings to mind how Goddess Tara arose.

In the book, Tenzin Palmo shared that by the 1st century AD during Nagarjuna's time, the object of contemplation had turned into a woman's body. The meditator now has to see the woman's body as impure which works out to arouse disgust in the female form, so as to gain detachment.

We sure are living in a different era, where dharma, rituals, secret teachings, that which are forbidden and kept are now available to women as well. How fortunate!

People of different times face different karmic obstacles. If I was Tenzin Palmo, would I have held on, not give up, and use the obstacles to fuel the motivation of making a vow to return in this form until enlightened or would I have long given up and become a bench warmer in some Church of England?

What is the secret of turning obstacles into opportunities to achieve great feats instead of letting it crush us?

Big Uncle:
In Buddhism, the person whom we can easily associate with compassion is our mothers (besides our Gurus). So, when we contemplate on all sentient beings of having been our mothers before at one lifetime before (because our previous lives is as numerous as the sands on the riverbanks of the Ganges), we developed compassion for all beings. All mothers are female.

We, too were female once before in various lifetimes and so in Tantra, deriding women is deriding ourselves and our infinite potential for compassion that leads us to become fully enlightened. Hence, it is one of our sacred Tantric vows to always respect women.

As for turning obstacles into opportunities, it is the stuff of great thinkers, spiritualist to never give up on our spiritual practice. As it gets harder, it is a sure sign that you are advancing along the spiritual path. Hence, never giving up and always stepping back to assess ourselves where we are is important. I say assess and not criticize and when we find ourselves inadequate, we read the stories of great practitioners to inspire ourselves. 

Helena:
What a beautiful story and sharing, DS Friend! Thank you so much.

Now, I am also inspired to read "Cave in the Snows". 12 years is really amazing! I can't even sit still and meditate for more than 25 minutes - without seeing my mind fluttering about into every where else but my main object of concentration.

In any case, I love how Tenzin Palmo's story is so likened to Tara's story. I'd like to see that it is the very "Tara" energy in her that motivated her and inspired her to do what she did. So, she must have a strong affinity with Tara - may be.

I remember a friend telling me that a Guru will only point out and trigger what is already in us. Otherwise, it is not possible at all. If something is not in us, then it cannot be cultivated - it's like the seedlings are already there inside us. Then the Guru comes and does what he needs to do in order to make that seed in us grow and blossom fully. Our Buddha potential.

At the beginning, we the students may not realise any of this, because we do not see any of it in ourselves. Probably drowned by too much bad karma and lifetimes of bad habituations. Hence, the Guru is so essential.

So, the 16th Karmapa can only encourage and cultivate what Tenzin Palmo is already capable of.

Now, how does all this answer your question about turning obstacles into opportunities to achieve great feats?

1) Trust the Guru
2) Commit and go all the way like what Tenzin Palmo did
3) Trust in yourself because your Guru cannot give you something that you cannot achieve

We are all capable of greatness, because we all have the Buddha nature in us.

If we give up, we will have lost.

If we continue, we will definitely achieve something.

hope rainbow:
A person that can turn problems into opportunities has a powerful tool at hand!
A problem is nothing more, nothing less than our karma at play, it is the demonstration of The First Noble Truth -the truth of suffering.
For some of us, we have a vague notion of what suffering is through sipping on a coca-cola while watching CNN, not exactly compelling. CNN does not come across as a "problem".
For some of us, we see decades of hard work and commitment disappearing with a tsunami wave, we see our relative all die within seconds, house gone, car gone, job lost, everything was going as we had planned a few seconds earlier and then everything is gone, gone with the wave... Now, that is a problem, the only opportunity in it is that one gets very, very clear on the concept of The First Noble Truth, propelling one to learn more about the other three Noble Truths.
Then, most of us are in between.
So are we waiting for a tsunami wave to be clear on the concept of suffering?
Or are we in denial, and turn our relatively small problems into "self-pity parties" instead?
A small problem that is not turned into an opportunity is a cause for another problem, be it depression, resentment or what...

Big Uncle:
Cave in the snow is a namthar! Namthars means liberation stories. These are life stories of great masters and practitioners that brave through tremendous obstacles personal and those of others to come out triumphant and benefiting others. They are meant to inspire us to go through ours and to keep spirituality as our main priority in life because thats what they did to benefit others. I love all these stories and especially of modern Lamas like Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Zong Rinpoche.

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