The Double Dorje: Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
Series One of the Double Dorje podcast finished in the spring of 2025. Season 2 is now starting. A FORTNIGHTLY release schedule is planned. Topics will be treated in more ”granular” detail than in Season 1. THE SAME AUDIO will be released with added images on YouTube. Tips. Travellers’ tales. Perspective. Gossip. Experience. Stories. Wonder. Putting a bit of flesh on the bones of Vajrayana (Tibetan style) Buddhist practice in today’s society. Are you curious about Tibetan Buddhism? But how, and where, and when, and all that? Is the water safe? Or have you taken the plunge, but want to plug into it better? Come - let’s enjoy a bowl of dharma momos in the Double Dorje. Chilli with yours? Special emphasis on Nyingma, Kagyu and on non-monastic practice.
Episodes
A crucial text for the mahamudra tradition of, in particular, the Kagyu traditions descended from Marpa the Translator
Season 2 is coming soon
Final episode of Season One!
Groping towards the dharma in the midlands of England in the 1960s.
Bookworm paradise: Birmingham Central Library as it was then:
Words or phrases you might want to look up (in no particular order, and some best forgotten!):
Man, Myth and Magic (magazine)
Gurdjieff
PD Ouspensky
Paul Brunton
Anagarika Govinda
Edward Conze
Alexandra David-Neel
Evans-Wentz
Christmas Humphreys
Marco Pallis
Waddel’s “Lamais...
Note: the next episode, no 44, will be the last of Season 1. Season 2 is in the works!
Buddhism is all about simplicity, isn’t it? Well, no, at least not when it comes to Tibetan style Buddhism. The very essence may be simple, but typical practice makes use of an enormous amount of kit - malas, dorjes, bells, hand-drums large and small, trumpets, vases, conch shells...
As beginners, we may well be tempted to start collecting some o...
Termas and tertons – spiritual treasures and their finders – are an inescapable feature of some branches of Tibetan Buddhism. Come along for the magical ride!
A phurbu
A ngagpa, undoubtedly a practitioner of termas. Note the phurbu tucked into his belt.
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Terma
- Terton
- Nyingma
- Dudjom
- Jamyang Khyentse
- Jamgon Kongtrul
- The Nyi...
Most traditions of Buddhist practice have nothing that resembles the tulku tradition. In the Tibetan traditions, you can’t get away from them. What are they? And what are they good for?
Karma Pakshi, one of the first tulkus.
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Tulku, emanation body, transformation body
- Three bodies of the Buddha (kusum, trikaya)
- Karmapa
- Karma Pakshi
- The Second Karmapa K...
Come with me over the plains of Amdo in a little blue and white bus 30 years ago.
We have a couple of dozen pilgrims, two Chinese drivers and a supply of diamox. Should be fine!
Stupa at Benchen
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Amdo
- Kham
- Benchen
- Tsurphu
- Lhasa
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Mahamudra #Dzogchen
Some verses you'll hear again and again.
Not a definitive list – there ain’t no such thing. But if you know these by heart and can join the recitation at the drop of a hat, you will achieve one great thing: you will look good!
The "Three Jewels" (I don't know who to credit - it's all over the 'net)
The Refuge formula:
Lama la kyab su chi o ‘I go for refuge to the lama.’
Sangye la kyab su chi o ‘I go...
Q: Is the lama your boss? Big daddy? Friend? Mate? Therapist?
A: Mostly not
Then what?
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Jamgon Kongtrul
- Treasury of Knowledge
- Longchen Rabjampa
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Lama
Longchen Rabjampa, one of the most famous Nyingma Lamas.
Empowerments – what happens?
You’ve been to a Buddhist ceremony. Perhaps you knew it was an empowerment. Whatever does that mean? Are you cooked?
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Einweihung
- Ermaechtigung, Ermächtigungsgesetz
- Wang
- Lung
- Tri
- Khata
The seed-syllable HRIH
Or are you a vajrayana practitioner?
Is it a question of rites and rituals and pictures and mantras? Or is it something deeper?
Empowerment card showing a vajra
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Vajrayana
- Samaya
- Dorje Sempa
- Tsog (or tsok)
- Guru Rinpoche
- Dakini
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #Samaya
Namo Buddha - the smallest, but perhaps most beautiful, of the three stupas of the Kathmandu valley:
Where the Buddha is said to have sacrificed himself to a tigress:
And where this temple, study and retreat centre now stands:
Words you might like to look up:
- Namo Buddha
- Thrangu Rinpoche
- Bon (form of Buddhism, sort of)
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #DoubleDorje #NamoBuddha #Tigress
Mahamudra and dzogchen are often spoken of as the “highest” practices of Tibetan Buddhism. How very exciting! Are they really? What does “highest” mean anyway? And what is the difference between mahamudra and dzogchen?
Milarepa, who received Mahamudra teachings from Marpa the Translator
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Dzogchen
- Mahamudra
- Chagchen
- Arhat
- N...
Beside the best-known mantras used in popular Tibetan-style Buddhism – the famous “Mani”, Tara and Guru Rinpoche for example – there are a number of prayers which are also very widely known and used. The “Seven Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche” is one of these.
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Guru Rinpoche
- Seven Line Prayer
- Mani mantra
- Tara
- Read more
Emptiness (shunyata, or tongpa in Tibetan) is an utterly core theme in Buddhist teaching. When we first hear about it, we usually don’t have much idea what it’s about at all. We may mistake it for some kind of void, or a teaching that nothing matters because “everything is empty”. Can we get a handle on it without years of study?
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Perfection of Wisdom
- Shunyata (spellings in English va...
When you start to get “serious” (whatever that is and however you try to define it) about your vajrayana practice you will face the question of the “preliminaries” or “foundation practices”. Best to be warned about what’s involved. And it would be good to have an idea of what this ngondro is good for.
Prostrating - again and again!
A powerful Vajrayogini shrine, Guru Rinpoche caves, and much, much more. Pharping is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Kathmandu valley.
A shorter episode, but with a nice bit of a flute tune!
The Vajrayogini Temple at Pharping and the fairy-cake stupa
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Pharping
- Vajrayogini
- Asura cave
- Sheshnarayan
- Guru Rinpoche
- Kudung
#Buddhism #Va...
What does the “Tibetan Book of the Dead” tell us about being dead? Will we see the Peaceful and Wrathful deities?
- Bardo
- Tibetan Book of the Dead
- Bardo Thodol
The 42 Peaceful Deities of the Bardo
The 58 Wrathful Deities of the Bardo
#Buddhism #Vajrayana #Tibet #DoubleDorje #Bardo #TibetanBookOfTheDe...
The fruit of our actions – our karma – is said to be unavoidable. Sooner or later, every action comes back to us. But that does not mean that everything that happens to us is predetermined.
Bonus speculation on the fundamental nature of reality!
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
Karma
Jewel Ornament of Liberation
Words of my Perfect Teacher
A Lamp Illuminating the Path to Liberation / Khenpo Gyaltsen
Kepler
Newton
“The Sa...
She was a new bride, but for the help she gave I call her a princess! The pilgrimage trip to the Vajrayogini shrine at Sankhu could have been a LOT, LOT worse.
The Welcome Gate at Sankhu town
The damaged main temple at the top
Words or phrases you might want to look up:
- Vajrayogini
- Vajravarahi
- Boudha
- Swyambhu
- Sankhu
- Kathmandu
#...
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