Iconic Phrase 'SHORT MOMENTS, MANY TIMES' Copyrighted?
Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 5:38 am
Saw this posted elsewhere (not my writing):
"~ SHORT MOMENTS, REPEATED MANY TIMES ~
(It's now Private Property ! - so don't repeat it, you may be in breach of copyright law!)
This fundamental instruction for gaining confidence in awareness has traditionally been communicated by teachers of the Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra Lineages, as part of their ancient cultural heritage.
One of the many Lamas to have done so in recent years, is Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, whose books 'AS IT IS' clearly, frequently and openly share this important instruction, and the context which is essential for complete understanding and application of this method for realization of Awareness.
'The practice, as I state over and over again,
is SHORT MOMENTS REPEATED MANY TIMES'
(citation from Tulku Urgyen's 'As It Is'
v2. p145, published 2000).
Multiple variations of this term 'SHORT MOMENTS REPEATED MANY TIMES' are used literally hundreds of times in these two volumes of 'As It Is' alone, and also have been used extensively in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions for hundreds of years.
In fact for centuries the term 'SHORT MOMENTS MANY TIMES' has been utilised, preserved and passed on by many Tibetan Wisdom masters of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen Lineages, and in the west it has been widely available to English readers for several decades, in the published works of Tibetans wisdom teachers such as Tulku Urgyen, Chokyi Nyima, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and others.
This very precious traditional instruction, that is an essential part of the freely given wisdom inheritance of the human race, was never once 'possessed', nor were the legal rights to it's use 'owned', by any single individual or organization, as if it could be their own personal 'intellectual property' (legally enforceable under copyright law). And for the good ethical reason that to do so would have been a flagrant violation of the very spirit of the Bodhisattva tradition of compassionate wisdom activity in which that particular practice, and the terms used to describe it, were used.
The very important point i'm emphasizing here is that no phrase as central to the tradition of Dzogchen as is 'Short Moments Repeated Many Times', could ever possibly be 'legally owned' as the 'intellectual property' of any individual, or business corporation.
Even to suggest so, seems to me to be not at all credible.
And yet, incredibly, now it actually is so.
As of last year the traditional term, already widely used and previously published in easily available english language books of Tibetan Dzogchen teachings, has been seized for exclusive, and legally enforceable use, by a self-appointed American teacher of a form of hybrid Tibetan/techno-futurist self-improvement.
So now we find, in september 2010, after countless years of the term and practice 'Short Moments Many Times…' being freely available to all (altho encountered by relatively few), this one particular individual was able to seize legal control over the use of this term by buying the trademark, claiming that it was her own invention.
As bizarre as it seems, that individual now seeks to claim, as her own legally enforceable exclusive 'intellectual property', the term already used by others, and in circulation in the public domain for decades before her attempt at 'spiritual piracy' was perpetrated.
Perhaps this was just an innocent mistake made by a clever but naive individual who, believing herself infallible due to her 'brilliant unerring clarity', foolishly mistook a term, which she knew to be a traditional Dzogchen wisdom instruction, to be an item of personally obtainable intellectual property that she would seize for her own exclusive use. An understandable mistake, from some points of view, perhaps.
Whatever it is, she has succeeded in gaining the legal trademark of the term 'Short Moments Many Times' and its variants, and she and/or her business corporation will now be able to legally prevent others making any public use of the term or its variants, unless authorized by her or her organization. Using this trademark she is now legally empowered to threaten and suppress their public activities if they ever teach, or publish, the ancient traditional Dzogchen practice of 'Short Moments Many Times' (as Tulku Urgyen and many other Lamas have been doing for many years before she bought the term and removed it from the public domain.)
Of course it's not likely that she trademarked these terms to curtail the activities of authorized lineage masters in the Dzogchen tradition. That would be the height of hubris.
What then is her intent in trademarking these terms? When one reads the copyright statement that accompanies all her teachings and which students are required to sign, it would appear that she seeks to prevent anyone, beginning with her own students, from ever publicly 'competing with' her by disseminating anything 'similar to or competing with' whatever she considers to be 'her' teachings.
Her trademarking of part of a simple and profound wisdom instruction that has existed in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition for hundreds of years, therefore, has to be understood as part of a calculated strategy to control the activities of her students, and others, now and into the foreseeable future.
It is most likely a criminal offense for anyone to trademark an item of 'intellectual property' as if it's their own invention, when in provable fact it was already in independent use by others in the public domain, prior to the trademark date. We'll have to look into this further.
Anyway, if you want to see for yourself, please check out the company 'Trademarken' for the Trademarks #85175572 "Short Moments"; #85175579 "Short Moments Many Times"; #85175602 "Short Moments of Awareness, Many Times, Become Automatic" #85175586 "Short Moments of Clarity, Many Times, Become Continuous" ; #85175592 "Short Moments of Clarity, Many Times, Become Automatic" .
I must say that to me this individuals act of seizing 'SHORT MOMENTS...' from the 'spiritual commons' for her own very exclusive business enterprise seems very much like an attempt at spiritual and cultural theft. I find it quite difficult to imagine what could possibly serve as a credible excuse for what seems like very unethical and underhanded behavior. And it's an orientation that appears to be at odds with the tradition of compassionate wisdom from which she is known to have lifted so much of her own supposedly original material.
In fact it's very obvious to anyone familiar with the writings of Longchenpa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and many other traditionally trained masters of Tibetan Dzogchen, that the supposedly 'original' early teachings of this person (or her 'products, concepts, systems and technologies' as she prefers to call them) are extensively derived from those earlier Tibetan authors and their traditional perspectives.
After discovering her many trademarks for the common variations of this term 'Short Moments..', which she has bought despite the provable fact that it has been, and still is, widely used in the Mahamudra/Dzogchen traditions, I wondered if she'd succeeded in trademarking any other traditional Buddhist terms or phrases.
In fact many additional terms and phrases, clearly originating in the Buddhist tradition, and published as such for very many years, have also been very frequently used by this particular individual (The 'trademarker' of the Tradition) as if they were unique inventions of her own. These include terms and phrases such as - 'short moments of awareness' , 'resting as awareness' , 'let everything be as it is' , 'the basic space' ,'natural perfection' , 'primordial purity', 'for the benefit of all', 'body, speech, mind, qualities and activities' and 'timelessly free'.
She has in fact begun that process of trademarking other traditional terms. Not only has she seized 'Short Moments Many Times', and several variants, as if they were her own inventions, and as if she had an ethical right to do so, but to my astonishment i found she has also already gained legal control over 'for the benefit of all' ! (Trademark #85175618)
Watch out you Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, you are all now in breach of her copyright, by using 'her intellectual property' !
Now I can't help ironically wondering if, as an ex-catholic, she would try to trademark 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit' or 'Hail Mary, full of grace, . . . '. To do so would give her great leverage over much of Christendom.
However, unlike the Tibetans, those Vatican guys would have so many lawyers onto her she wouldn't know what hit her. And she'd find it impossibly costly to enforce.
But most Buddhists who realize the lack of inherent self-existence and let everything be as it is, don't manipulate their data-streams, and may appear as push-overs, so she's probably not worried."
"~ SHORT MOMENTS, REPEATED MANY TIMES ~
(It's now Private Property ! - so don't repeat it, you may be in breach of copyright law!)
This fundamental instruction for gaining confidence in awareness has traditionally been communicated by teachers of the Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra Lineages, as part of their ancient cultural heritage.
One of the many Lamas to have done so in recent years, is Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, whose books 'AS IT IS' clearly, frequently and openly share this important instruction, and the context which is essential for complete understanding and application of this method for realization of Awareness.
'The practice, as I state over and over again,
is SHORT MOMENTS REPEATED MANY TIMES'
(citation from Tulku Urgyen's 'As It Is'
v2. p145, published 2000).
Multiple variations of this term 'SHORT MOMENTS REPEATED MANY TIMES' are used literally hundreds of times in these two volumes of 'As It Is' alone, and also have been used extensively in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions for hundreds of years.
In fact for centuries the term 'SHORT MOMENTS MANY TIMES' has been utilised, preserved and passed on by many Tibetan Wisdom masters of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen Lineages, and in the west it has been widely available to English readers for several decades, in the published works of Tibetans wisdom teachers such as Tulku Urgyen, Chokyi Nyima, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and others.
This very precious traditional instruction, that is an essential part of the freely given wisdom inheritance of the human race, was never once 'possessed', nor were the legal rights to it's use 'owned', by any single individual or organization, as if it could be their own personal 'intellectual property' (legally enforceable under copyright law). And for the good ethical reason that to do so would have been a flagrant violation of the very spirit of the Bodhisattva tradition of compassionate wisdom activity in which that particular practice, and the terms used to describe it, were used.
The very important point i'm emphasizing here is that no phrase as central to the tradition of Dzogchen as is 'Short Moments Repeated Many Times', could ever possibly be 'legally owned' as the 'intellectual property' of any individual, or business corporation.
Even to suggest so, seems to me to be not at all credible.
And yet, incredibly, now it actually is so.
As of last year the traditional term, already widely used and previously published in easily available english language books of Tibetan Dzogchen teachings, has been seized for exclusive, and legally enforceable use, by a self-appointed American teacher of a form of hybrid Tibetan/techno-futurist self-improvement.
So now we find, in september 2010, after countless years of the term and practice 'Short Moments Many Times…' being freely available to all (altho encountered by relatively few), this one particular individual was able to seize legal control over the use of this term by buying the trademark, claiming that it was her own invention.
As bizarre as it seems, that individual now seeks to claim, as her own legally enforceable exclusive 'intellectual property', the term already used by others, and in circulation in the public domain for decades before her attempt at 'spiritual piracy' was perpetrated.
Perhaps this was just an innocent mistake made by a clever but naive individual who, believing herself infallible due to her 'brilliant unerring clarity', foolishly mistook a term, which she knew to be a traditional Dzogchen wisdom instruction, to be an item of personally obtainable intellectual property that she would seize for her own exclusive use. An understandable mistake, from some points of view, perhaps.
Whatever it is, she has succeeded in gaining the legal trademark of the term 'Short Moments Many Times' and its variants, and she and/or her business corporation will now be able to legally prevent others making any public use of the term or its variants, unless authorized by her or her organization. Using this trademark she is now legally empowered to threaten and suppress their public activities if they ever teach, or publish, the ancient traditional Dzogchen practice of 'Short Moments Many Times' (as Tulku Urgyen and many other Lamas have been doing for many years before she bought the term and removed it from the public domain.)
Of course it's not likely that she trademarked these terms to curtail the activities of authorized lineage masters in the Dzogchen tradition. That would be the height of hubris.
What then is her intent in trademarking these terms? When one reads the copyright statement that accompanies all her teachings and which students are required to sign, it would appear that she seeks to prevent anyone, beginning with her own students, from ever publicly 'competing with' her by disseminating anything 'similar to or competing with' whatever she considers to be 'her' teachings.
Her trademarking of part of a simple and profound wisdom instruction that has existed in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition for hundreds of years, therefore, has to be understood as part of a calculated strategy to control the activities of her students, and others, now and into the foreseeable future.
It is most likely a criminal offense for anyone to trademark an item of 'intellectual property' as if it's their own invention, when in provable fact it was already in independent use by others in the public domain, prior to the trademark date. We'll have to look into this further.
Anyway, if you want to see for yourself, please check out the company 'Trademarken' for the Trademarks #85175572 "Short Moments"; #85175579 "Short Moments Many Times"; #85175602 "Short Moments of Awareness, Many Times, Become Automatic" #85175586 "Short Moments of Clarity, Many Times, Become Continuous" ; #85175592 "Short Moments of Clarity, Many Times, Become Automatic" .
I must say that to me this individuals act of seizing 'SHORT MOMENTS...' from the 'spiritual commons' for her own very exclusive business enterprise seems very much like an attempt at spiritual and cultural theft. I find it quite difficult to imagine what could possibly serve as a credible excuse for what seems like very unethical and underhanded behavior. And it's an orientation that appears to be at odds with the tradition of compassionate wisdom from which she is known to have lifted so much of her own supposedly original material.
In fact it's very obvious to anyone familiar with the writings of Longchenpa, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and many other traditionally trained masters of Tibetan Dzogchen, that the supposedly 'original' early teachings of this person (or her 'products, concepts, systems and technologies' as she prefers to call them) are extensively derived from those earlier Tibetan authors and their traditional perspectives.
After discovering her many trademarks for the common variations of this term 'Short Moments..', which she has bought despite the provable fact that it has been, and still is, widely used in the Mahamudra/Dzogchen traditions, I wondered if she'd succeeded in trademarking any other traditional Buddhist terms or phrases.
In fact many additional terms and phrases, clearly originating in the Buddhist tradition, and published as such for very many years, have also been very frequently used by this particular individual (The 'trademarker' of the Tradition) as if they were unique inventions of her own. These include terms and phrases such as - 'short moments of awareness' , 'resting as awareness' , 'let everything be as it is' , 'the basic space' ,'natural perfection' , 'primordial purity', 'for the benefit of all', 'body, speech, mind, qualities and activities' and 'timelessly free'.
She has in fact begun that process of trademarking other traditional terms. Not only has she seized 'Short Moments Many Times', and several variants, as if they were her own inventions, and as if she had an ethical right to do so, but to my astonishment i found she has also already gained legal control over 'for the benefit of all' ! (Trademark #85175618)
Watch out you Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, you are all now in breach of her copyright, by using 'her intellectual property' !
Now I can't help ironically wondering if, as an ex-catholic, she would try to trademark 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit' or 'Hail Mary, full of grace, . . . '. To do so would give her great leverage over much of Christendom.
However, unlike the Tibetans, those Vatican guys would have so many lawyers onto her she wouldn't know what hit her. And she'd find it impossibly costly to enforce.
But most Buddhists who realize the lack of inherent self-existence and let everything be as it is, don't manipulate their data-streams, and may appear as push-overs, so she's probably not worried."