Negative Consequence of Playing Cards

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

Negative Consequence of Playing Cards
(Foretold by Guru Padmasambhava)

Publised in
XXth Annual Nyingma Monlam Chenmo
The World Peace Ceremony
Bodhgaya 2009

(Contact Address: Ngagyur Rigzod Editorial Committee
[email protected])

NAMO GURU MANJUSHRI YE! Homage to Manjushri!

When the great master Guru Padma Jungney taught the Condensed Words of vast teachings at the top floor of Samye Monastery, he set forth this prophecy to his fortunate disciple Gyalwa Chogyang.

“Listen, my son,
When the degenerate life span has deteriorated to the limit of thirty years.
The seven sisters of Damsin will escape to Tibet.

Owing to their evil aspirations,
The bright papers (cards), causes of five delusions,
Will be admired by all men and women;
And the norm of playing the cards will be instigated.

At that period the beings become desperate,
Their luck and fortune will deteriorate,
Perverted aspirations and behaviors will proliferate,
Many different diseases will spread,
Different sorts of acts will be performed,
People will carry out killing and various evil practices,
Execute those who practice virtues,
People will esteem the evil performances,
The father will not trust his son,
Mother will not believe her daughter,
One won’t compromise anything of one’s own.

Being enslaved is like being an animal,
Deprived of a protector is like the beings in the intermediate state,
Their body, speech and mind, will never be free.
At all times of eating and sleeping, moving and sitting –
Owning to the perverted aspirations of seven sisters of Damsins,
The old, young and middle-aged men and women will
Disparage the fine traditions of society and play cards.

If anyone holds those papers,
The deity who guides, protects,
The deity of previous generations and the like,
In short all deities who protect the virtuous ones, will scatter off like a flock of birds when frightened by a slingshot.

More evil demons and spirits, and
The Damsins will escape.

The ghosts of the dead, the ghosts of the living and the gonpos;
The nine types of diseases and adversity of degenerate time,
Will cluster like flies gathering upon rotten meat.

The eagle-headed Damsin, has perversely prayed thus –
‘In future when the life span falls below the limit of thirty years,
We the seven sisters shall meet in Tibet,
And thereby destroy the life force of the Buddhadharma;
So that the good fortune of Tibetans comes to exhaustion;
My prayers be thus fulfilled.’


As means for all men and women
To indulge in all the five poisons simultaneously;
The game of colorful papers will flourish.

Each person has one colorful paper I his hand;
In his heart the five delusions burn like fires;
From his mouth utters all sorts of lies, negative words and swears;
At such time the norms of mine will flourish.

Their minds will not believe in the virtuous Dharma,
Covetousness, evil mind, anger and so forth,
The five poisons will occupy their minds.

They will always hold those despicable cards,
Discard the early traditions and moral conducts like sheds,
So the eagle-headed Damsin and Theorang will merge with their minds,
Different types of diseases will spread,
They will act upon various immoral styles of conducts.

All men will play,
So the protectors of village and place, and
The guardian deity of ancestors,
Will be annoyed and they will inflect diseases,
Animal diseases, scandals, fights, resentments and so forth,
And all such varieties of inauspicious things.

All women will play, and Damsins and the black ghosts
Will obviously put the women amongst the meat eating demons,
Then women will passionately stockpile the lives of beings
Impede the prosperity of wealthy people,
They will even devour their own child,
This way they will stray amongst the evil spirits, and
Become wandering ghosts in their future lives.

If the monks play,
All their spiritual experiences, attainments, together with their roots
Will die and fade away;
The monkey-headed king of Damsin will
Merge with their minds and they will behave senselessly,
Diseases of madness and losing consciousness will spread
Which will risk the lives of many beings.

To those who hold those cards –
The Gyalpo and female ghost will merge with the cards and distort their minds, destroy their ten virtues,
Cause the ten non-virtues to cluster to them like clouds,
Cause them to abandon the Triple Gem
And they will take refuge in Damsins and Gyalpos.

The cause of those cards is the evil demons
And they will incarcerate you in hell realms after death,
Presently you cannot practice doctrine, virtues and
You cannot eat or wear, go to sleep regularly;
Being distracted unconsciously is the work of demons,
And being idle you cannot achieve any outcomes.

Who holds the cards of perverted aspirations,
The Triple Gems are far from them,
The Dharma protectors will be powerless,
The Dakas and Dakinis will be apathetic,
The blessing of the tutelary deity will fade,
The demons and obstacle creators will devour them, They will seek refuge in Theorang and Gondpos,
The nine sisters of Damsin will merge with their soul,
Therefore, abandon the evil cause, the cards.

Oh, beings who have heart, turn to yourself and introspect,
Do not put yourself among the demons,
Do not call craving spirits for aids,
Do not flout your luck,
Do not misuse your authority.

If you wish to reply upon me, Ogyen,
With those who play the fifty four cards
Do not exchange your words,
Eat not from their home,
Look at yourself with sympathy.

During the latter period of the degenerate time,
Even if the opportune of executing virtuous actions is lacking,
Grab not to the roots of non-virtues.

Demons will spread the cards of perverted aspirations,
Senseless Tibetans will also spread them to other beings,
Which are causes of non-virtuous actions and distractions;
The wealth and prosperity of those idle people will exhaust.

The female Semos will spread the cards,
As means for astrological calculations and divinations.

The Gyalpo will spread the cards of evil causes,
Psychotic episodes, insanity, and heart-attacks appear all over the world.

When the four types of cards spread,
Diseases, famine, weapons of destruction,
Calamities of wild beasts, ghosts, life-spirits, losing of life force will occur;
Earthquakes, calamities of fire and wind,
Calamities of rain and water, and calamity of conducts,
Calamities of plants and trees, sun and moon, the like
Such various calamities will occur.

The Gylapo’s card will be red and bear a heart shape,
That is cause of psychotic episodes, and ominous conducts;
The Semo’s card will be red and bear a square shape,
That is cause of nerve diseases and calamities of life-ghosts, rain and water.

The eagle-headed Damsin’s card will bear the shape of a black heart,
That is the cause of calamity of tretreho, beasts and straying of life-force;
The Damsin’s and Theorang’s card will bear the shape of a black flower,
Those are the causes of regional infection
Of tuberculosis and calamities of female ghosts.

Understand that they (cards) are causes of many calamities,
Do not hold the cause of various diseases, Do not hurl your weapons at your own body,
Do not exhaust your merit by yourself.

If honored to listen to me, Ogyen,
Do not initiate the norm of playing cards.

One, who sees, hears and ponders about the cards,
He will have no fortune of receiving my blessings.

To the forgetful mind, Vajrasattva, and other Buddhas will not bestow blessings;
On the path of distraction the devil robbers are numerous.

This is the illustration of the effects of cards,
And the person who use them, the evil practice of degenerate times.

You, Gyalwang Chogyang, write these words
And conceal it in the vastness of the sky.

When the life span falls below thirty years of age,
When the norm of playing cards thrives,
This must be given to the fortunate person;
And should be spread, read and written.

The persons who do not respect this,
I entreat the Ekazati, Rahula and Vajrasadhu,
And the nine brothers of lord of life force to have
Their warm heart blood as their potent feast;
The deities of village and locality, chastise them!
The person who believes this after having heard,
And he either burns the cards of perverted aspirations,
Or hurls them into waters and into the airs,
Or promises never to hold them in hands,
Then the village deities and local deities
The eight classes of gods
And those who protect the virtuous ones will be pleased,
And bestow help, admiration, protection and always accompany him.

I, Ogyen, will consider him as my great son,
And he will be reborn in the realm of Zangdog Palri,
Undoubtedly I, Ogyen, will greet him there.

In this life he will be free of diseases and penalties from lords,
The menace of four elements cannot threaten him,
These are promise words of mine, Orgyen.
Samaya narkan”.
Then the Gyalwang Choyang asked Guru thus,
“AH my supreme master,
The last class of the five hundred years;
It is the time the foreigners to enter into the center,
The Tibetans to undergo torments,
The norm of playing the cards to surface,
Indulging in five delusions to increase,
The wheel of false promises to spin,
To belittle the sanctity of dharma,
To respect the practice of non-virtues;
If it is so how can the beings of Tibet be saved?
Please Guru, teach the ways to save them too.”

Then the great Guru continued,
“When the life span falls below thirty years of age,
The good fortune of the sentient beings will be exhausted,
The fruits of non-virtuous actions will be ripe with the power of fruition according to cause;
There will one tradition in one village,
Different sorts of joys and pains will take place,
The Buddhadharma is merely a wealth of thieves,
Whoever practices it will be punished,
At that time if just one butter lamp is offered,
Then the merit of this is equal to the merit of offering a butter lamp, that is,
Filling the three thousand universes
With butter as much as the vast ocean
And a staff as high as the Mount Meru.

In the same way, if a morsel of food is offered to a monk,
The result of such action is beyond calculation.

The Mani carved into stones,
Circumambulating a small Tsatsa;
The merits of these are equivalent to
Completing a clockwise circumambulation of the world.

If one syllable of Mani is printed,
Tied onto a flag-post as tiny as your finger
And fluttered in air, the beings touched by that air will be liberated; therefore, however small virtues may be,
Do not ignore or overlook them;
There is no way the impact of degenerate times could be changed.

Beings and subjects of Tibet,
Do not alter your mind but be careful,
Do not change your lifestyles but follow your tradition,
Do not change your activities but preserve the old traditions,
Do not change your language but talk in your mother tongue,

Put your trust in the Triple Gems,
Assume the happiness and sufferings are results of previous karma,
Be calm with the good or bad words you hear,
Be indiscriminative to joys and pains,
Recite Mani and Siddhi in your mind,
Contemplate compassion for all beings,

Practice pure vision to all and whatsoever,
I, Ogyen, and the twenty five disciples,
In order to save the Tibetans,
Will manifests as villagers, as kings, warlords, girls,
Butchers, female butchers, hunters
Thus manifest in many forms as possible
And strive for the welfare of beings.

Therefore, have pure vision to all and whoever,
Keep all bad or good things indiscrimately.
The beings of degenerate times are not trustable;
Entrust yourself unto you,
Remember the Triple Gems,
Rely upon them in all activities and conduct;
Because there is no protector other than them.
Even if I, the Guru, personally comes,
There is no way beings could be saved
Unidentified manifestations will always come.
The evil substances, smoking, snuffs,
The distracting norm of playing cards and the like,

If you abandon them as per my words,
I, Orgen; Tara, Kumara, the Singchen (Gesar) of the world,
Masters, tutelary deities, dharma protectors,
And the protectors of virtuous ones will bless and bestow guidance,
To those persons of pure conduct and the fortunate ones;
Clear away their adversity and obstacles;
They will be reborn in Zangdog Palri and other pure realms,
And live with the flocks of dakas and dakinis;

Thus the indivertible words are cast,” Guru concluded


In the male iron Rabbit year, the evil norm of playing card will spread to all lands, the men and women are led onto the perverted path and the Gyalpo, Gonpo, Damsin will merge with their minds and cause different sorts of diseases spread far and wide. So, at that period spread thjis prediction to everybody and it is very important that everybody should read and write and spread this message. Do not think that the words of enlightened ones are untrue.

If it is done as per the words, the Buddha Dharma is advanced. But if this is ignored, then everything will be affected by the evil force; the conduct, traditions and all will degrade and go in the perverted path, thus Buddhadharma is destroyed.

So, I enjoin the haughty Dharmaphalas to feed on the warm heart blood of those dharma destroyers, devour them. Samaya!!!!

Damsin : nine sibling spirits who have violated their commitments.

Gonpos: A type of mischievous spirit, sometimes counted among the ‘eight classes of gods and demons, which can cause nervous disturbances and epilepsy.

Theorang: sky-traveling preta-demon that possesses kids.

Semos: A type of evil spirit often found in company with the gyalpo class; female spirits who manifest through lust.

[Konchog1]

The Gylapo’s card will be red and bear a heart shape,
That is cause of psychotic episodes, and ominous conducts;
The Semo’s card will be red and bear a square shape,
That is cause of nerve diseases and calamities of life-ghosts, rain and water.

The eagle-headed Damsin’s card will bear the shape of a black heart,
That is the cause of calamity of tretreho, beasts and straying of life-force;
The Damsin’s and Theorang’s card will bear the shape of a black flower,

Heart, Diamond, Spade, and Club.

[Adamantine]

What is the original source of the tibetan text, and who translated this from that?

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

What is the original source of the tibetan text, and who translated this from that?

I gave the source at the beginning of the text. It is published in Tibetan and English in the commemorative magazine for:

XXth Annual Nyingma Monlam Chenmo
The World Peace Ceremony
Bodhgaya 2009

(Contact Address: Ngagyur Rigzod Editorial Committee
[email protected])

I am thinking of contacting them also for the source of this terma.

Regards,
Gyaltsen Tashi

[Adamantine]

What is the original source of the tibetan text, and who translated this from that?

I gave the source at the beginning of the text. It is published in Tibetan and English in the commemorative magazine for:

XXth Annual Nyingma Monlam Chenmo
The World Peace Ceremony
Bodhgaya 2009

(Contact Address: Ngagyur Rigzod Editorial Committee
[email protected])

I am thinking of contacting them also for the source of this terma.

Regards,
Gyaltsen Tashi

Yes, thank you I saw the source of the publication in the OP, but I meant what is the source of the original Tibetan text: i.e. the terma, or if not a terma, whatever it is, etc. And then, the identity of the translator from the Tibetan to the English. Also, maybe it would be interesting to scan the Tibetan text since you have it and post it here, so some Tibetan readers here could look at how things are being translated. . just a thought!

[Grigoris]

Yeah, I imagine the translation would play a huge role because, to me, it seems that he is talking about money, or credit cards, or id cards and not playing cards. Playing "card" games (mah jong, dice and dominoes are some other examples) has been around for a REALLY long time whereas what Guru Rinpoche is talking about is something that would happen in the future.

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

My files are too big. Can I send it via email to one of you? Or some other mega upload/dropbox site?

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

My files are too big. Can I send it via email to one of you? Or some other mega upload/dropbox site?

I have 5 files about 12.4 MB in all.

[Nilasarasvati]

Welll...people in Asia really do get carried away with Mahjong.

My roommate at the Kung Fu school on Mt. Wudang lost the equivalent of $20,000 gambling over the course of Chinese New Year celebrations. He had disappeared for days and when he came back, he was all messed up on homecooked Chinese drugs and had lost his (Admittedly very wealthy) Guangdong family a fortune.

[DGA]

I wonder if this is a blanket ban against all card games, or against gambling on poker & 21 in particular?

I have to ask because I'd hate to say goodbye to the family cribbage board.

[Nilasarasvati]

In my opinion...

card games/dice/dominoes/mah jong are all just the old school way to waste precious human birth. You still see families/neighbors/rivals up all night playing them in East Asia...let alone the gambling aspect, which ties people in knots.

I think that relatively speaking, our glowing boxes (phone/computer/TV) are way worse and I'm sure somebody can produce or will reveal a terma where Guru Rinpoche tells us how the Gyalpos and Mamos are all sucking us into the void of cyberspace and feasting on our distracted entrails

[udawa]

It can only be a matter of time before we get a similar text about the harm caused by internet discussion forums (such as this one).

[Adamantine]

It can only be a matter of time before we get a similar text about the harm caused by internet discussion forums (such as this one).

Well, we seem to forget it but an internet forum is at the end of the day just a bunch of human beings having group discussions. . . the warnings are already there about the degenerate age, the afflictions blazing like wildfires in the minds of human beings, etc. So any group discussions will be difficult most likely in that context.. I don't think that means we should all stop talking. Sangha, online or otherwise can be beneficial as a support... I have seen that online community can help people who otherwise have no physical community of practitioners nearby. If we all follow our own vows of basic human conduct, not to mention Dharmic conduct when we post here. . . there will be less harm, and maybe even some benefit.

[udawa]

It can only be a matter of time before we get a similar text about the harm caused by internet discussion forums (such as this one).

Well, we seem to forget it but an internet forum is at the end of the day just a bunch of human beings having group discussions. . . the warnings are already there about the degenerate age, the afflictions blazing like wildfires in the minds of human beings, etc. So any group discussions will be difficult most likely in that context.. I don't think that means we should all stop talking. Sangha, online or otherwise can be beneficial as a support... I have seen that online community can help people who otherwise have no physical community of practitioners nearby. If we all follow our own vows of basic human conduct, not to mention Dharmic conduct when we post here. . . there will be less harm, and maybe even some benefit.

I didn't say I would pay any attention if someone were to post such a thing

Quite agree. I wouldn't bother reading and occasionally posting here if I thought it was completely hopeless. And can I take the opportunity to thank those knowledgeable and kindly people who have the ksanti to participate in all those seemingly endless debates about dzogchen vs mahamudra vs Zen and ngondro etc. So particular thanks to Magnus and Cone, who come immediately to mind.

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

My files are too big. Can I send it via email to one of you? Or some other mega upload/dropbox site?

I've uploaded the files onto my dropbox account. How do I share the files?

Regards,

Gyaltsen Tashi

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

My files are too big. Can I send it via email to one of you? Or some other mega upload/dropbox site?

I've uploaded the files onto my dropbox account. How do I share the files?

Regards,

Gyaltsen Tashi

Here are the files:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmt2fqpui1ffa ... uences.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w3mvygq93gfhj ... es%201.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/77b6jg2kap9r2 ... es%202.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/43noco8uph5v6 ... es%203.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qlg2dgso033ef ... es%204.jpg

Regards,
Gyaltsen Tashi

[Arnoud]

Well, it seems to be a Terma but I can't find the terton just yet. Anyone? Also the title itself does not show up on Google.

[Grigoris]

Put the files inthe "public" folder.

Right click on the file.

Choose "copy public link'.

Paste the link into an email, or post, or private message or...

PS The links you gave above are working anyway.

[Gyaltsen Tashi]

Can anyone make sense of the Tibetan?

Regards,
Gyaltsen Tashi

My files are too big. Can I send it via email to one of you? Or some other mega upload/dropbox site?

I've uploaded the files onto my dropbox account. How do I share the files?

Regards,

Gyaltsen Tashi

Here are the files:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmt2fqpui1ffa ... uences.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w3mvygq93gfhj ... es%201.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/77b6jg2kap9r2 ... es%202.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/43noco8uph5v6 ... es%203.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qlg2dgso033ef ... es%204.jpg

Regards,
Gyaltsen Tashi

[Caz]

Well I don't think i'll be playing cards again !