Podcasts about Rigpa

Today's episode is the final part of three parts ~ 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:49 Signs, visions, dreams 00:12:00 Protector land spirits 00:16:00 Tests, conceptual collapse and faith 00:20:00 Meditation boxes 0023:30 Sky burial 00:28:00 Sri Lanka vipassana reform 00:29:30  Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok and Larung Gar 00:32:00 Modernity, realization and tacit knowledge 00:39:00 Old world preservation 00:43:50 Yidam neuroscience and dilution 00:46:00 Changes in education system 00:49:00 Yogini tulkus and titles 00:57:00 The Gebchak way, peer-pressure and self-responsibility 01:03:00 Becoming a translator 01:07:00 Disrobing 01:10:00 Historical rarity of terms Rigpa and dzogchen 01:12:00 Character of yoginis and aspirations ༓ Listen to Part One here: On Gebchak's History & Yogic Activity in the Realm of the Meditators https://oliviaclementine.com/elizabet... ༓ Listen to Part Two here: On Embodied Practitioners of Tsa-lung Inner Fire & Dzogchen https://oliviaclementine.com/elizabeth-mcdougal-gebchak-yoginis-part-two/ ༓ Podcast website & transcripts https://oliviaclementine.com/podcasts ~ About Elizabeth Elizabeth McDougal, known also as Tenzin Chozom, grew up in Western Canada and then trained as a Buddhist nun in India and on the Tibetan Plateau for seventeen years. Towards the end of her time as a nun – she studied a Masters of Indian philosophy at Banaras Hindu University and then a PhD (2021) at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on the modernisation of Tibetan Buddhist practice lineages and on pedagogy as a crucial bridge in translating pre-modern wisdom traditions to the modern world. Elizabeth currently lives in Australia with her human and animal family where she lectures at Nan Tien Institute in applied Buddhist studies. She continues to serve as a Tibetan-to-English translator for Gebchak Wangdrak Rinpoche and other practice lineage lamas. Elizabeth published a book in 2024 called “The Words and World of Gebchak Nunnery: Tantric Meditation in Context.” Images included: 1: Of two Gebchak yoginis by Jerome Raphalen 2: Yoginis looking out in ceremony to a sacred feminine vulva form in the landscape

Trump's Town Hall DJ love-in stumped a lot of folks. From the conspirituality angle, however, there's something familiar about this improvised ritual. Because the world we cover is strewn with the wreckage of charismatic patriarchs who bleed their followers dry in the closed-loop system of cultic dynamics.  When leaders like Trump get to the end of the line, all that's left is pure affect. They have exhausted themselves in the efforts of self-aggrandizement. They have nothing left to say because they've said it a 1000 times. They're all out of stories. They might even be bored of their own bullshit. Underslept or dysregulated by chaotic schedules, they may not be sure where they are. They're beset by enemies, ill and in cognitive decline, but can't admit it. And when they start to feel overwhelmed by their followers' pathetic—in their view—neediness, they will reach for any help they can get in maintaining their emotional dominance.  What October 14 showed us is that in these moments, Trump's go-to resource is canned music, and, without his own iPad at the ready, a DJ handler who can spin the tracks and support his reverie of relief and control.  Show Notes Trump holds town hall in Pennsylvania suburbs with focus on economy  How Media Outlets Covered Trump's Musical Town Hall Donald Trump is DJing weekly at Mar-a-Lago, plays Broadway songs and Celine Dion from his iPad, report says DJ T: How Trump controls the music at Mar-a-Lago   Twitter thread  152: Tulsi Gabbard's Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph) PLAYING FOR OSHO 1989 Introduction – Chinmaya Dunster  Patted Down by India's Hugging Saint  The Soft Nationalism of Amma, India's Hugging Saint 37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin) Letter to Sogyal Rinpoche from current and ex-Rigpa members details abuse allegations  Trump's bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity  Brief: Trump's Impending Ego Implosion (w/ Daniel Shaw) Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation Sex abuse allegations surround L.A. Buddhist teacher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this session, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview influential Tibetan Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten, touching on such subjects as Dzogchen, Rigpa, "pointing out instructions", and their possible Theravada correlates.

Première partie du chapitre 10 du Livre Tibétain de la Vie et de la Mort traitant de notre essence véritable. Chapitrage:  00:00:22 Introduction 00:08:32 La vue Bibliographie: Livre Tibétain de la Vie et de la Mort aux éditions de la Table Ronde (https://www.babelio.com/livres/Rinpoche-Le-Livre-tibetain-de-la-Vie-et-de-la-Mort/28155) Musique: Ethereal Ephemera (https://etherealephemera.bandcamp.com/track/the-vastness-of-night) Narration et réalisation: Bruno Léger Production: Les mécènes du Vieux Sage Soutenez-nous sur PayPal et Tipeee !

In this interview I am once again joined by Dr Nida Chenagtsang, Buddhist teacher, doctor of Tibetan Medicine, and author of ‘Foundations of Sowa Rigpa: A Guide to the Root Tantra of Tibetan Medicine'. Dr Nida discusses the traditional Tibetan medical system of Sowa Rigpa and reveals its core doctrines such as health as balance, pulse and urine analysis, and how to discover your body's typology. Dr Nida also delves into the esoteric side of Sowa Rigpa, including Tibetan demonology, the crossovers with tantra, and the use of magic rituals and spells to treat mental and physical illness. Dr Nida also discusses the similarities between Sowa Rigpa and Ancient Greek medicine, the importance of sleep, the toxicity of emotion, and offers a direct warning to spiritual people around the world. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep240-foundations-of-sowa-rigpa-dr-nida-chenagtsang Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics Include:
 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - What is Sowa Rigpa? 03:27 - Connecting to the European medical tradition 07:02 - Pros and cons of modern medical science 10:05 - How Dr Nida's teaching changed after integration into European culture 12:46 - Cultural conditioning in Asia vs Europe 17:58 - Similarities between Ancient Greek medicine and Sowa Rigpa 21:19 - 8th century international medical conference in Tibet 24:21 - A universal medicine 25:14 - What is medical tantra? 27:33 - The ‘4 Tantras' 30:34 - Why study an 8th century medical text today? 32:34 - A new translation by Dr Ben Joffe 35:47 - Compiling Dr Nida's commentary 36:56 - Sowa Rigpa Institute 37:47 - The core of Sowa Rigpa 41:11 - How to understand your typology 44:15 - Healthy sleep 45:03 - 3 methods of diagnosis in Sowa Rigpa 46:27 - Urine analysis 47:57 - 3 levels of pulse reading 52:03 - How to receive to the body's signals 54:15 - Bedside manner 56:58 - Connecting to the unconscious mind 01:00:03 - Art of conversation 01:02:54 - Buddhist influences on Sowa Rigpa 01:07:48 - Emotional toxins 01:11:02 - Toxic energy 01:14:49 - 3 nyepas and the 3 doṣas 01:18:18 - Monastics vs ngakpas 01:22:36 - The esoteric specialisms of the village ngakpa 01:27:44 - Tibetan demonology 01:29:21 - How spirits cause health problems 01:33:57 - The esoteric side of Sowa Rigpa 01:36:37 - Dr Nida's warning to spiritual people 01:38:37 - Dangers of materialism Previous episodes with Dr Nida Chenagtsang: - https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=nida To find out more about Dr Nida Chenagtsang, visit: - https://www.facebook.com/DoctorNida/ - http://www.skypressbooks.com/ … For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James

In this session, Ajahn Kovilo and Ajahn Nisabho interview Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo on the topics of Rigpa, training in seclusion and society, debate, female ordination, and much more. To support the nun's community Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo founded and guides please visit https://tenzinpalmo.com/ or Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery's website at https://dglnunnery.com/, where you may make general donations or sponsor a nun.

  In the last few episodes, we've talked about the fact that many of us suffer from a case of mistaken identity in which have come to believe that we are actually the contents of our neural template, which is largely responsible for forming our ordinary mind. We looked at some of the limitations of it, especially that it is, by nature, always dissatisfied, that it has the element of fear deeply rooted in its awareness and that it cannot dwell in present time. We also discussed the existence of its voice, called our inner critic which feeds us over 30,000 negative messages every day. And we touched on the phenomenon of self-sabotage, in which we often become our own worst enemy.           In this episode, we're going to look a little deeper into the make-up of our overall intelligence by considering some of the differences between our ordinary mind and our higher mind. Now, even though we have made tremendous advances in neurology, the brain sciences, psychiatry, and psychology, we still know very little about the actual potential of our intelligence. Current thinking is that is far greater than we currently imagine. So, let's dig into it.   Obviously, even though, in reality we each have only one intelligence, the easiest way to examine it is by separating it into two distinct parts – our ordinary mind and our higher mind. In that regard, I am going to present some information from a tremendous resource, “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying,” which gives a terrific overview of the key teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. This classic compilation of wisdom was first published in 1982, with a thirtieth anniversary edition released in 2012. As an aside, I find that even though it may be thousands of years old, Ancient Wisdom often captures the obstacles facing us in modern times with uncanny clarity, as though it were written today. I remember once reading a description of our ordinary life as lived through the filter of our ordinary mind which said something like this, “When we are children, all we think about is - my toys, my toys, my toys. Then we get older and it becomes – my mate, my mate, my mate. Finally, when we become adults, it turns into – my worries, my worries, my worries. And it just stays there.” Sound familiar? I guess on a certain level, some things never change.   Anyway, let's use some of the text from the “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” to help shed some light on the ordinary mind and then on the higher mind.              The Ordinary Mind   Let's remember that after years of neural firing and the establishment of billions of neural pathways, our brain sets up our neural template, which is an incredibly interconnected matrix of all the information stored in our brain. By around age five, we become increasingly identified with this template, which is also called our Ordinary Mind and we basically start filtering our life entire through it. It's important to understand that we can't function in the world without it. Afterall, among many other critical tasks, we use it to navigate our way through life. The problem is that even though it is an incredibly multi-faceted tool, it is also severely limited. For the most part, we are given no training in using it at all and we can easily become over-identified with it. If it gets out of control, it can be the cause of endless trouble for us. So, let's take a look at what we are dealing with here. The Tibetan book says that while the ordinary mind does possess discriminating awareness, its focus is largely external, always making us look outside of ourselves. It also possesses a basic sense of duality – good and bad, light and dark, which makes it constantly grasping or rejecting.  And it is discursive, which means it is always digressing from one subject to another, often focusing on a projected and falsely perceived external reference point. After this, the text really gets down to brass tacks. Even though this is thousands of years old, see if it sounds familiar to you: “So, the Ordinary Mind is the part of the mind that thinks, plots, desires, manipulates, that flares up in anger, that creates and indulges in waves of negative emotions and thoughts, that has to go on and on and on, asserting, validating, and confirming its existence by fragmenting, conceptualizing, and solidifying experience. “The Ordinary Mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning. The Ordinary Mind can seem like a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstances. “Seen from one angle, the ordinary mind is flickering, unstable, grasping, and endlessly minding others business, its energy consumed by projecting outwards. The ordinary mind can be thought of as a Mexican jumping bean, or as a monkey hopping restlessly from branch to branch on a tree. “Yet seen in another way, the ordinary mind has a false, dull stability, a smug and self-protected inertia, a stone-like calm of ingrained habits. The Ordinary Mind is as cunning as a crooked politician, skeptical, distrustful, expert at trickery and guile, ingenious in the games of deception. It is within the experience of this chaotic, confused, undisciplined, and repetitive, ordinary mind that, again and again and again, we undergo change and death.” So, while we do have this vast neural network that makes up our Ordinary Mind, and we can't live without, it is critically important to understand its limitations. Again, this mind is not our true identity and it is certainly not the sum total of our intelligence. Far from it.   Here are some things to remember about it, so you can avoid its pitfalls, which in many ways are the source of most human problems, both individual and societal:   1.     It is dualistic, constantly fluctuating, and reactive in nature. 2.     It generally vacillates between attachment and rejection, which leads to endless desires and negative emotions and thoughts. 3.     It is unstable and reactive in nature. It projects constantly flickering reactions to an endless parade of external circumstances. 4.     It fragments and conceptualizes experiences and its assumptions and conclusions can be significantly flawed. 5.     It is continuously vulnerable to external influences and circumstances which change constantly. 6.     By the nature of its insecure and skeptical foundation, it is cunning, and skilled in deception and trickery. 7.     Despite its apparent instability, it also possesses inherent inertia and is resistant to change due to ingrained habits and patterns. So, this is quite a list. Again, it's just a summary of some of the characteristics of the limiting aspects of our ordinary mind. They are common to us all and personally, as intense as they may be, take it from me, my own ordinary mind makes them look pretty tame. Anyway, we can all benefit by gaining a simple awareness of them and understanding and eventually transcending these limitations is a central goal to many of the spiritual and contemplative practices contained in Ancient Wisdom. According to it, a higher state of awareness can be achieved, bringing a state of consciousness that exists beyond the dualistic and reactive tendencies of the Ordinary Mind, resulting in a state of peace, equanimity, and ultimate freedom from suffering. This is a great introduction to looking into the other part of our intelligence, which is said to be the primary foundation of our identity: Our Higher Mind.   The Higher Mind   We all start out life with the awareness of only our Higher Mind and if you've ever spent time with a baby or toddler, you know how magical and creatively intelligent this level of consciousness is. Its learning capacity alone is truly astonishing. Here is what the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying says about it: “Then there is the very nature of mind, its innermost essence, which is absolutely and always untouched by change or death. At present, it is hidden, within our own mind, enveloped and obscured by the mental scurry of our thoughts and emotions. “Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide-open sky, so, under certain special circumstances, some inspiration may uncover for us glimpses of this nature of mind. These glimpses have many depths and degrees, but each of them will bring some light of understanding, meaning and freedom. “This is because the nature of mind is the very root itself of understanding. In Tibetan, we call it ‘Rigpa,' our primordial, pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake. It could be said to be the knowledge of knowledge itself. “Do not make the mistake of imagining that the nature of mind is exclusive to our mind only. It is, in fact, the nature of everything. It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things. “Saints and Mystics throughout history have adorned their realizations with different names and given them different faces and interpretations, but what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential nature of the mind. Christians and Jews call it God, Hindus call it the self, Shiva, Brahman, and Vishnu. Sufi Mystics name it the hidden essence, and Buddhists call it the Buddha nature. “At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it.” I don't know about you, but whenever I come across a great description of this higher state of being, I always feel like something is knocking on some kind of door within me. I know it sounds vague, but I also feel a deep desire to open that door up. What the Tibetans call the nature of mind, or Rigpa, is another term for the higher mind. Now most of us feel that it is easier to relate to and understand the ordinary mind than it is the Higher Mind, probably because we've had much more experience experiencing it. Understanding the Higher Mind can seem much more challenging and I'm very fond of what inner growth teacher Prem Rawat has to say about it. According to him, the Ordinary Mind is finite in nature and therefore, our finite mind can easily understand it. But the Higher Mind is infinite in nature and therefore, we can never truly understand it. According to him, we can just feel it and trust it. And that is far more than sufficient. Even though we may not be able to comprehend it, here is a very brief summary of some of its remarkable aspects:    1.     At its essence, it is immutable, meaning it is not subject to change. Ancient Wisdom says it is not only untouched by change, it is also untouched by transient thoughts and emotions, and incredibly, even by death. 2.     It is universal in nature. Not limited by anything, including the individual mind and ego, it is the root of understanding, transcending all other personal boundaries. 3.     It is inherently connected to the infinite essence that is at the root of all creation, and is the home of our insight, intuition, inspiration and aspiration. 4.     It is the source of all the “better angels of our nature,” including among countless other aspects, love, compassion, integrity, courage, altruism, etc. 5.     It represents a constantly expanding horizon for us. Infinite in nature, no matter how much of its positive essence we are able to grasp and experience, there is always more. 6.     It exists in the state of the “ever new.” Not subject to the limitations of time and space, it is the essence of the “now” and can never age. Therefore, the ever-enlarging experience of it is always new for us. 7.     Whether or not we are currently aware of it, we are infinitely attracted to it. At the essence of our intelligence, we have an intense desire to merge into it.   So, we've seen that there are two basic aspects of our intelligence – our ordinary mind and our higher mind, and we've taken a quick look at some of the characteristics of each. Personally, I've always been attracted to the idea of the Higher Mind. But like the rest of life's endeavors, growing from the idea stage into reality is the challenge and probably the opportunity as well. When it comes to the Ordinary Mind, like blindly stepping into a mud puddle, it's basically effortless. But to grow into the Higher Mind, it seems to take some intention, like you have to want it, like a truly thirsty person needs water. Yet, voices from Ancient Wisdom through to modern neuroscience assure us that it is, in fact, available to us. Some say that our thirst for it is inborn and fulfilling it is the actual purpose for incarnating here in the first place. Who knows? I guess we each have to figure that one out for ourselves. Well, once again, this has been a lot of information for one episode. So, keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and let's get together in the next one.

Christofer and meditation coach Charlie Awbery speak about their article 'Relating as beneficent space' in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss fixed patterns in interaction, psychological vs. Vajrayana perspective, Rigpa, accurate response, extraception, basic okayness, and other related topics.Charlie Awbery is a British born Vajrayana meditation coach, living in the US. They have a ton of experience in traditional Vajrayana - decades of practice, retreats, and application in ordinary life - that they bring to their coaching and teaching for contemporary practitioners uninterested in the cultural baggage associated with traditional contexts. They work with nerdy high-achievers, tech and finance industry professionals dedicated to understanding their minds, people who want to lead their best, most productive and beneficial lives.They co-founded Evolving Ground, a community for contemporary Vajrayana practitioners, where they lead group practices, discussions, gatherings, and retreats.'Relating as beneficent space'-article: https://vividness.live/relating-as-space Charlie's relationship-course page: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/vajrayananow/1020122#Evolving ground website: https://evolvingground.orgVayrajana Now newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/t/8959B51E58109207Support the podcast at:https://www.patreon.com/doexplain (monthly)https://ko-fi.com/doexplain (one-time)Find Christofer on Twitter:https://twitter.com/ReachChristofer

Venerable Robina Courtin is known for her clear teaching, explaining the Buddhist approach to thinking and acting in terms we can understand. Through examples that are relevant to our lives, she presents multiple ways we can put these ideas into practice. Venerable Robina explains the beneficial actions of body, speech and mind we can adopt, and actions to avoid. She gives us ways to create positive new habits benefiting ourselves and those around us, and how to slowly - completely - rid ourselves of harmful, ancient, negative ones. Q: I struggle to give loving kindness & forgiveness to my mum who lives with mental health challenges & anger what practice should I develop? (3:43) Q: Knowing I have not demonstrated compassion in these moments what can I do to reduce my agitation & karmic imprint and forgive myself for not being able to not react (12:46) Venerable Robina leading a short Vajrasattva purification practice:    • Venerable Robina Courtin Leads A Shor...   Teachings on Vajrasattva and the four opponent powers:    • There's no karma that can't be purified!   Q: My sister has been listening to your teachings on YouTube not being a Buddhist and being curious what would you suggest she should do to start a Buddhist practice (21:50) Q: How important is meditation in our daily practice, what recommendations do you have for a lay person's daily practice? (25:18) Q: Can Buddhism be learnt from books? Or should you have a teacher? How do you you find right teacher for you? (28:18) Q: I'm a performer and have been so inspired by Tina Turner- as an artist I always think that Art Practice is also a spiritual pursuit - (even though that may not be in the Sutras!) Tina practiced the mantra Nam Myho Renge Kyo' from the Ringchen practice. I looked this up but could not find the Lotus Sutra in the fpmt website- but found it on the Rigpa website. However because of my Gelugpa lineage I don't feel as connected- and a bit guilty looking elsewhere… (29:45) Q: When you go into meditation and you think it is not successful (because there are so many thoughts coming up)... (34:03) The real purpose of mediation is to become more familiar with your mind (48:00) We do need relaxation; however, this meditation is not for relaxation - it is about ALERTNESS! (51:48) Q: [Regret about not spending time on the cushion doing practice - But I do argue with my ego throughout my day] (54:29) Q: Do we have to wait 9 months for Lama Zopa's rebirth? (58:49) Q: Are we at a point where there can be a female reincarnation? (1:01:43) Q: How to maintain enthusiasm when obstacles arise and how to embrace it when the obstacles are gone! (1:03:50) Q: What to do when I'm in the classroom (as the teacher) and there is conflict and confrontation and I have to make a decision in the moment (1:08:31) "the deepest most subtle attachment of all and the hardest to recognise" - Worry about what people think (1:10:15) Q: My brother is a programmer and we were recently talking about AI. He told me that Google is experimenting with storing data on atoms. He tells me he believes they are making headway. If this happens AI will probably develop full consciousness. I thought about King of Prayers, on every atom is a Buddha field. Under these circumstances do you think from a Buddhist perspective that a conscience could enter an AI? It seems like a silly question but people really fear this. (1:12:17) A short meditation on the breath with introduction to the posture (1:16:18)

In this episode I am once joined by Justin Von Bujdoss, American Buddhist teacher, chaplain, and author of ‘Modern Tantric Buddhism'. Justin describes his powerfully transformative dark retreat practice in which he embarked on multiple 7-day and 49-day meditation retreats in complete darkness under the guidance of Dr Nida Chenagtsang. Justin recalls his life-changing encounter with the rarefied religious experience of rigpa, and details his visions of spiritual beings, animals, elements, and Bardo deities. Justin recounts his first meeting with Dr Nida, how he became his student, and explains the significance of Dr Nida's endorsement of Justin as both a Dzogchen teacher and dark retreat guide. Justin also reveals the daily routine and practice instructions for dark retreat, and reflects on current trends within Buddhism and nonduality in America today. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep205-my-49-day-dark-retreat-justin-von-bujdoss-2 
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 01:07 - Justin's personal practice revolution 02:27 - Meeting Dr Nida Chenagtsang and showing him a secret text 06:10 - Dr Nida's qualities as a teacher 08:00 - Justin's 25 years of Mahamudra practice 08:18 - Preparing to enter dark retreat 08:56 - The impact of multiple 7 and 49-day retreats 13:35 - 7-day preparatory dark retreat 15:03 - Intense visionary experiences and risk of psychosis 18:38 - Dr Nida's dark retreat terma 20:48 - Justin's previous experience with dream yoga and visions 22:57 - Dark retreat instructions and opening visionary capacity 27:48 - Undermining the visual system binary 24:37 - Justin's visions of the Bardo deities 27:46 - Contradictions in Mahamudra and forcing it 31:38 - Daily routine and practice schedule in dark retreat 36:38 - No contact with Dr Nida during the retreat 38:45 - Visions of the purified elements 42:00 - Visions of animals and dead people 42:59 - Visions of beings who offered gifts to Justin 43:30 - Did Justin relive his traumas? 45:22 - Quitting prison chaplaincy 47:50 - How chaplaincy falls short of resting in rigpa 50:56 - Profound healing opportunity of dark retreat 54:50 - Rigpa supersedes Justin's ordination 56:18 - The totality of everything occurs right here 59:54 - Endorsed by Dr Nida to teach Dzogchen 01:04:10 - Justin's special karmic connection with Dr Nida and other tulkus 01:07:00 - Justin's loss of social functionality post-awakening 01:09:25 - How Justin's teacher punctured his ego 01:12:54 - Struggles with students who are fixated on tantra 01:16:42 - Student retention and abusive teaching methods 01:18:18 - Where is Buddhism going in America? 01:19:13 - Is Tibetan Buddhism trendy? 01:23:08 - Dark retreat as liberating psychotherapy 01:25:45 - Dark retreat as the ultimate experience product for psychonauts 01:27:30 - Assessing those who wish to embark upon dark retreat 01:31:22 - Where to find out more … Previous episode with Justin Von Bujdoss: - https://www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep196-modern-tantric-buddhism-justin-von-bujdoss Previous episodes with Dr Nida Chenagtsang: - https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=nida To find our more about Justin Von Bujdoss, visit: - https://justinvonbujdoss.com/ - https://www.yangtiyoga.com/ For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - https://www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James

Christofer and meditation coach Charlie Awbery speak about Dzogchen in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss different types of non-duality, spontaneity, spacious presence, Rigpa, emptiness and form, pointing out instructions, Evolving Ground, and other related topics.Charlie Awbery is a British born Vajrayana meditation coach, living in the US. They have a ton of experience in traditional Vajrayana - decades of practice, retreats, and application in ordinary life - that they bring to their coaching and teaching for contemporary practitioners uninterested in the cultural baggage associated with traditional contexts. They work with nerdy high-achievers, tech and finance industry professionals dedicated to understanding their minds, people who want to lead their best, most productive and beneficial lives.They co-founded Evolving Ground, a community for contemporary Vajrayana practitioners, where they lead group practices, discussions, gatherings, and retreats.Charlie's course page: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/vajrayananowAugust retreat page: https://www.evolvingground.org/dralaVayrajana Now newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/t/8959B51E58109207Support the podcast at:https://www.patreon.com/doexplain (monthly)https://ko-fi.com/doexplain (one-time)Find Christofer on Twitter:https://twitter.com/ReachChristofer

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Steve Harper Interviews Douglas de Becker Sowa Rigpa Wellness Consultant -- indigenousmedicine.nethttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network

Christofer and meditation coach Charlie Awbery speak about Vajrayana in this episode of Do Explain. They discuss Charlie's early awakening experience, the importance of view in meditation, Tantra and Dzogchen, experiential sameness, renunciation vs. engagement, self-love, no self, the "should" of being more mindful, the possibility of stabilizing Rigpa, Evolving Ground, Ultraspeaking, silence as a superpower, and other related topics.Charlie Awbery is a British born Vajrayana meditation coach, living in the US. They have a ton of experience in traditional Vajrayana - decades of practice, retreats, and application in ordinary life - that they bring to their coaching and teaching for contemporary practitioners uninterested in the cultural baggage associated with traditional contexts. They work with nerdy high-achievers, tech and finance industry professionals dedicated to understanding their minds, people who want to lead their best, most productive and beneficial lives. They co-founded Evolving Ground, a community for contemporary Vajrayana practitioners, where they lead group practices, discussions, gatherings, and retreats. Coaching practice page: https://vajrayananow.com/about-my-approach… Newsletter: https://createsend.com/t/t0BB803DA87EE91842540EF23F30FEDED…Opening awareness online book: https://evolvingground.org/opening-awareness…Evolving ground community: https://evolvingground.orgSupport the podcast at:https://www.patreon.com/doexplain (monthly)https://ko-fi.com/doexplain (one-time)Find Christofer on Twitter:https://twitter.com/ReachChristofer

ROV PODCAST 31: REALIZING RIGPA ALL AT ONCE: What is Rigpa? In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Rigpa points to our essential nature, which is known by realizing three essential qualities. Kevin and Stephen describe these qualities and guide a simple practice to realize Rigpa all at once!For more information on meditation and awareness practices, including our 10-Week Subtle Energy Meditation Course, Raising Our Vibration book, ROV Meditation App, and online practice community, visit: https://raisingourvibration.net

Mary Finnigan and Rob Hogendoorn have co-authored an amazing book exposing the corruption and abuse perpetrated by Sogyal Rinpoche and his multinational Tibetan Buddhist organisation Rigpa. Sogyal was probably the 2nd most famous Tibetan Buddhist in the world, after the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is a hugely successful book, selling millions of copies and being translated into many languages and in fact started my own spiritual journey in the 1990's. Mary and Rob show that Sogyal didn't even write most of the book, and that it was mainly written by a couple of his students, although he claimed authorship. Incredibly, despite numerous serious scandals revolving around sex, power and money, Sogyal managed to “teach” and lead the Rigpa organisation for about 45 years. This demonstrates a failure of the Tibetan Buddhist community at large to rein in such rogue actors and charlatans. In this conversation we explore the nature of Sogyal's abuse of his students and what the warning signs are that people should look out for when joining spiritual communities and teachers. We also make suggestions of actions individuals and communities can take to make wholesome and healthy environments for spiritual practice and learning.  Mary and Rob's book (Sex and violence in Tibetan Buddhism: the rise and fall of Sogyal Rinpoche) can be found here www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Violence-Tibetan-Buddhism-Rinpoche/dp/0986377090 For more information about Rob's work please visit www.openbuddhism.org/ For more information about my work please visit www.bodyheartmindspirit.co.uk To hear more of my music please visit my soundcloud page https://soundcloud.com/ralphcree My YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfQp5jM16pPB7QX2zmMYbQ My Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/bodyheartmindspirituk/ My Evolving Spiritual Practice Podcast can be found on all major podcast platforms P and C owned by Ralph Cree 2022

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Parinirvana of His Holiness Rangjung Rigpe Dorje the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, I decided to do the first Modern Meditation Master Monday profile on this King of Kings, the NIrmanakaya emanation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of Compassion, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.  He was called the Miraculous 16th because of his tremendous and seemingly effortless spiritual power that he playfully and majestically transformed millions of lives with.  He was a Buddha in the flesh and this was clearly evident to those who entered his mandala. Karmapa Khyenno! Karmapa Khyenno! Karmapa Khyenno!Buddhaversepodcast.com

In this episode I am joined by Delson Armstrong, spiritual teacher and star student of Bhante Vimalaramsi, who's senior student David Johnson has said ‘Delson Armstrong has mastered every practice we have given him. He is the most amazing student we have ever seen.' In this interview, Delson recalls his early life training in the Himalayas where he mastered the system of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, attaining to all of its highest states of Samadhi; attained all 6 levels of Kriya Yoga under three separate lineages; studied Sanskrit; and was exposed to practices of Shaiva Tantra through students of Osho. Delson shares his subsequent explorations of Buddhism, including Mahamudra, Dzogchen, and the TWIM practice of Bhante Vimalaramsi. Delson recounts and contrasts his experiences accomplishing the 8 jhanas, attaining the 4 levels of Buddhist awakening, and realising Rigpa. Delson also reveals yogic feats such as recalling past lives and entering into a type of suspended animation called nirodha-samāpatti for up to six days, and reveals his passion for neuroscience and recent participation in a study at the University of Amsterdam that has examined his brain and body in this state of yogic suspension. …

 Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/ep120-meditation-virtuoso-delson-armstrong/ 
Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics include: 00:00 - Intro 01:17 - David Johnson's endorsement 02:46 - Raised in America, and return to India 04:57 - First encounter with yoga 06:16 - Leaving school to study the practices of the yoga sutras and kriya yoga in the Himalayas 11:07 - Return to the US and meeting Bhante Vimalaramsi 14:29 - How was Delson able to master Raja Yoga, Kriya Yoga, and Buddhism so quickly? 15:17 - Raja Yoga path 23:56 - The Kriya Yoga path 26:29 - Delson's timeline to mastery of Raja and Kriya yogas 28:51 - Brahmacharya and sexuality after realisation 31:34 - Is Delson beyond sexuality? 34:41 - Yogic vs Buddhist samadhi 41:13 - Studies of the Yoga Vasistha 46:00 - Intergalactic beings 47:09 - Studies of Shaiva Tantra 51:55 - Learning from Osho's lineage 52:52 - Studying Dzogchen and Mahamudra with Lama Lena 55:10 - Rigpa vs TWIM 59:24 - Achieving all challenges set by Johnson and Bhante Vimalaramsi 01:07:14 - Attaining Stream Entry and the other path attainments 01:18:22 - How to see past lives and Delson's previous life as a Sadhu 01:25:02 - Entering suspended animation of nirodha-samāpatti for 6 days 01:27:55 - Studied at University of Amsterdam 01:30:33 - Surprising results from the study 01:35:09 - Conflicts between traditional accounts and the scientific data 01:43:06 - Is Delson an outlier? 01:51:06 - Why do so few people become enlightened if anyone can do it? 01:54:30 - Why do people keep enlightenment secret? 01:55:35 - Delson's view on his future 02:00:25 - Delson's upcoming book and previous publications … Previous episode with Bhante Vimalaramsi: - https://www.guruviking.com/ep112-bhante-vimalaramsi-relaxing-into-nibbana/ To find out more about Delson Armstrong, visit: - https://www.suttavada.foundation/our-teachers/ - https://www.dhammasukha.org/ 
For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James

In today's episode, we will explore the rich and fascinating world of Sowa Rigpa, the Tibetan Science of Healing, and discover some of the ways that traditional medicine can help to revolutionise our approaches to health, personal and social wellness, and environmentalism. For years, scientists have been warning of an impending rise in zoonotic infections like Covid-19. A perfect storm of deforestation, global warming, widespread inequality, and disrespect for the ‘sensitive' regions of the planet have forced us into a new and frightening era of uncertainty. But beyond tackling this singular epidemiological eruption, how can we truly heal on a deeper level?800 years ago, the renowned yogi-physician Yuthok Yönten Gönpo composed a collection of texts that would come to represent the basis for all Tibetan medicine, seamlessly integrating cutting-edge Indian, Chinese, and Greco-Arabic medical developments with indigenous healing knowledge. Of particular interest is Tibetan Medicine's unique theory of ‘provocation' (Tib. gDon). Rooted in a deep and sophisticated indigenous understanding of the energies of the natural world, Tibetan scientists like Yuthok concluded that infectious diseases arise in part due to an imbalanced relationship with the natural world.We will also explore Tibetan perceptions of rLung (‘wind'), a highly sophisticated and fascinating framework for conceptualising mind-body interactions, along with a simple traditional method for soothing excess rLung on your own. Together, these two concepts – rLung and gDon – illustrate two of the many ways that traditional medicine can help us to unite disparate fields of science, health, and philosophy to enter into a new age of revolutionary wellness.This episode was recorded during 'Healing the Body, Healing the Mind', a weekend of workshops and talks organised by Science & Wisdom LIVE in collaboration with Jamyang London Buddhist Centre and Land of Medicine Buddha.About Erik Jampa AnderssonErik Jampa Andersson, director and founder of Shrīmālā, is a Sowa Rigpa practitioner, SKI teacher, and meditation instructor with students and clients across the world. Erik is one of the few westerners to have completed a comprehensive education in the Gyu-Zhi (Four Tantras of Tibetan Medicine) as well as clinical training in Tibetan herbalism, dietetics, and manual therapies.A Buddhist practitioner since age 14, Erik found an early home in the Tibetan tradition under the close guidance of Lama Tsultrim Allione, Tulku Sang-Ngag Rinpoche, and Khenpo Urgyen Wangchuk. After a stint in Tibetan Studies and Eastern Medicine at Naropa University, he completed the Shang Shung Institute's Traditional Tibetan Medicine program between 2012-2017 and trained extensively under notable senior Amchis such as Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, Dr. Namgyal Tsering, Dr. Nyima Tsering, and other Sowa Rigpa physicians in America and Asia.

Losar Tashi Delek and Happy Lunar New Year!In this episode, a Good Refugee Podcast speaks with Buddhist teacher, activist and writer Lama Rod Owens on a wide spectrum of topics covering spirituality, silence and power (06:55); how class, race, wealth and justice intersect with Buddhism today (12:35); sexual abuse in dharma spaces (26:56); drawing boundaries between the teacher, student, sangha and social life (29:38); and mental health (40:00).This is part one of the conversation. Listen/read part two here.The full transcript of this interview is posted below, lightly edited for clarity and flow.BioLama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, yoga instructor and authorized Lama, or Buddhist teacher, in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and is a co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger.Lama Rod will be hosting a seven-week online course and practice group based on his book “Love and Rage.” It starts on February 15. Sign up here. lamarod.comInstagramTwitterEpisode notesMaking sense of these times. [02:30]How “Love and Rage” fits in this moment. [04:20]Meditations on silence and power. [06:55]The evolution of activism and dharma from when Lama Rod first began. [11:18]How class, race, wealth and justice intersect with Buddhism today. [12:35]Sexual abuse in dharma spaces. [26:56]Drawing boundaries between the teacher, student, dharma and social life. [29:38]Seeing the teacher as a mirror to your own wisdom. [32:58]Understanding mental health from Buddhist, western and Indigenous perspectives. [40:00]Interview transcriptLama Rod thank you so much for joining us. Welcome. Tashi Delek!Thank you so much.Where are you speaking from?I am speaking from Atlanta, where I just relocated to. This is traditionally, historically the land of the Muskogee people and the Cherokee people. But I am originally from Rome, Georgia, so this is like returning home.And how are you doing at this moment?I'm ok. I'm a little tired, but for the most part, mentally I'm feeling clear, open and fluid which is really wonderful.Has it felt like lately there has been a much more ramped up conversation or discourse about existing and how to make sense of these times?Yes, oh absolutely. I think last year the beginning of quarantine and the pandemic really forced people to do intense discernment about exactly what they were doing in their lives. The beginning of the quarantine reminded me of my years in my three-year retreat where everything just kind of shut down and I was just really holding space in one place for an extended period of time. That kind of holding space for me always triggers this deep kind of contemplation and discernment about what my work is. Last year, I think a lot of folks just started waking up and realizing that they had to start making different decisions and choices about how they were living their lives. And of course, on top of that, the world continues. We continue to live within systems and institutions that are creating violence for a lot of different people. So we were having to negotiate racial injustice, economic injustice, climate instability [while] at the same time negotiating a pandemic. A lot of folks started waking up to the reality of these harmful systems.When you first started [Love and Rage], you wrote that there was this moment where you were giving a talk with your co-author of Radical Dharma [Rev. angel Kyodo williams], and there was this Black gentleman who spoke about anger, and that was kind of the genesis which started your writing of Love and Rage. When was this around?2017. Before that I was really avoiding writing a book on anger. I wasn't really interested. But at that event, where this young Black man was just like, “What do I do with anger? How do I choose happiness?” I really realized that this would be an important teaching to offer. When you locate yourself back to that time in 2017 and how things just unfolded from that point on—understanding of course that so many of the injustices and violent things that we've witnessed and experienced have already been happening for many decades—and then this year has been such a collision of all those injustices. And then of course we have the pandemic. As I was reading through the book now, so many of those things were almost prophetic in some ways. Was that a realization that you had to also reckon with?I will say this: my experience as I was writing that book was an experience of feeling as if I—it's hard to articulate. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I felt like I wasn't talking about what was happening in the moment of writing the book. And this is why I didn't really think the book was that interesting. When I wrote it, I was like who's gonna actually resonate with this because I don't think it's actually talking about anything that's happening now. On top of that, the book was supposed to be out much earlier than last summer [2020]. It was supposed to be out the fall of 2019 and I couldn't meet the deadlines for getting the drafts in. I kept missing all these deadlines. Classic writer's dilemma.Exactly. Finally, my publisher was like, you have to get it in at this date or we have to push it back like a year. And so I made that deadline and when the book finally was published a year later, then it kind of landed within this current… well, apocalypse.June 2020.Yeah, I had no idea. Absolutely no idea that 2020 was gonna be the way that it was.Silence, which I know has been an important piece in your practice, is a recurring theme in the book. It also coheres with how many of us have lived in isolation throughout this pandemic. Is that something you've meditated on length and spoken to others about?Yeah absolutely. For me, quarantine was something that I knew how to do because of retreat. And quarantine was something the majority of folks didn't know anything about so I just felt like I was coming home to an old practice. For me, silence is also about stillness. A lot of folks didn't have the privilege of being in the space that felt still and quiet. Many folks were kind of bound together in family units and other roommates and other kinds of living arrangements where it felt very crowded and intense and stressful. But even in that kind of stress and crowdedness there's still this incredible way we can touch into this stillness within all that movement and constriction. So I've spent a lot of time meditating on silence itself and trying to understand what silence is. I'm really influenced by the work of Audre Lorde; she talks about silence and the transformation of language. For me what I began to understand is that silence helps me to understand language and all the different ways we communicate.If I may quote a passage from [Love and Rage], you say, “The transformation of silence into language is the migration from captivity into freedom or even the migration from invisibility into visibility. However, freedom and visibility come with the burden of confronting all those who don't want you to be free or seen.”What I read from that, and understand from you, is you also wrestling with the complexity of silence and how that can also be weaponized on those who are oppressed into being silenced. Can you please expand on that?I think about another quote from Zora Neale Hurston who, among many things, also wrote “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and she has this quote where she says, and I paraphrase, if you don't speak, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it. So that weaponization of silence is really about how silence is used to erase people and then to replace that erasure with a narrative that's much more comfortable than the true reality of things. And so, I was doing two things: I was trying to figure out how to move into language as an act of liberation. And secondly, I was trying to figure out in my practice how to use silence to communicate as well. That's where we talk about the weaponizing of silence. It's like, yeah we silence people but in my practice I wanted to be empowered in both silence and language. I wanted agency to choose the best way to be in the moment. I think silence, when we're conscious, intelligent and aware about it, can speak even louder than words or language.I think that's a very keen insight, especially when you pair silence with power and the notion of agency as well. You cite specific examples in your book of how silence can just be another form of abuse. You also make it a point to mention your root guru Norlha Rinpoche and how all that episode played out. How even in those instances silence is another one of the ways that people not only perpetuate violence but also delusion. Was that a piece that was intentional for you when you speak of silence? Yeah absolutely. I think that also silence is something that when we get to a certain agency, we choose because that silence—in a really complicated, complex situation, particularly in the case with my teacher—was the best choice to make for me personally.Have you noticed changes both in the spaces of activism and the dharma communities from when you were first starting out? Have you noticed any tangible differences, just even in terms of discourse?I think one of the shifts that I've noticed is that there are more resources that tend to expand the discourse. More of us are writing and speaking out, which is actually deepening the subject matter of what we're talking about. So I think this idea of justice and the practice of justice has expanded quite a bit for a lot of sanghas, particularly around inclusivity and sexual misconduct. I think there have been, over the past five years, such intense—I hate to use the word scandal but—real situations in sanghas that have created a lot of harm. From Shambhala to Rigpa to Against the Stream (these are the major ones), my monastery, Palpung Thubten Choling, people are aware of the potentiality of certain kinds of violence and injustices happening in their communities.I grew up in a Buddhist surrounding; both of my parents are very devout Buddhists. It's a tradition that is deeply instilled in me and I feel like it's almost part of my being. I can't quite extricate myself from it even though lately I've grown quite disillusioned with it. Disillusioned in the sense that I feel Buddhism is kind of devolving into this very individualistic pursuit of just finding a way to be a little bit more at ease with your existence and minimizing suffering—which is completely valid. But I find that people get too engaged in that and they lose the larger justice based framework of Buddha dharma, which I find to be much more compelling and also authentic. You speak on that quite often in your book. Is there an evolution in that discourse that you've witnessed?Absolutely. I think what's happening is that there are teachers like me who have decided to step outside of lineages and institutions to create the communities and sanghas that we most want to see. I'm no longer a reformist. I used to be a reformist.Can you explain what that is?I believed at one point in my teaching life, practice life, I can just change the sangha that I was in. That I could bring these issues of justice, inclusivity, ethics and so forth and try to transform the community to be based on these values. Over time I realized how difficult that was. And so I kind of transitioned into this space of being much more of a visionary and innovator. I just really started practising creating the communities that I want to see instead of super investing in communities to transform them. This is a better use of my time and energy.I had to make some really hard decisions about leaving a lot of sanghas to do this work of creating communities that are justice informed and ethically based. A lot of our communities, specifically here in the west and United States for instance... the convert, white western communities weren't really thinking about justice and ethics. They were just thinking about practising and feeling better and I think that has created a foundational sangha culture [in the west] which people are really attached to; [people] who will fight really hard to keep a foundational culture which is just really a culture of comfort and avoiding conflict. A culture that lacks transparency. And so when we bring up the idea of justice—it's not that people are opposed to justice; they're opposed to being uncomfortable. People can get with justice, people want accountability, people want to be safe, people don't want to be victims of violence. I think that's a universal desire. But when we talk about disrupting comfort in a culture people specifically created to be comfortable in, that's the issue. That's when justice becomes a problem. Whenever Buddhist teachers say stuff like in western societies, there's an excess of materialism… and I'm like, you can be more specific and say rich white people. That kind of specificity I think has been lacking, and for me, my contention is that it continues to lack. There is this invisibilizing of people, even in western spaces, who don't conform to that identity. There's obviously a breadth of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, but also in terms of class, ability, sexuality...we're losing that granular aspect of it and I think that speaks to a great loss of how Buddha's teachings are then transmitted.The idea of a practitioner early on, particularly in the west, was of a white, educated, resourced person. That's still the stereotype of a practitioner now. Even a Buddhist is like a white person, not an Asian person, or anyone of any other racial background even though we have like the Dalai Lama, who's like an icon—everyone knows who the Dalai Lama is. Many people have never met an Asian Buddhist practitioner, quite honestly, but a lot of folks know white folks [laughs] who walk around chanting with dharma names and wearing whatever. So when I came along, it was obvious that to be a practitioner was to somehow assimilate into a culture that actually erased much of my identity: my queerness, my Blackness. Back then, my economic class was erased. Class was actually one of the harder things for me to deal with. I just didn't have endless resources to do retreats, to do teachings and to always offer money for everything. I felt super alienated and resentful to be in a path where money was always the thing that people operated from. And of course I heard all kinds of excuses and reasons why we have to charge [people] and to an extent I get that. But it's still really restrictive for many of us. So now as a teacher I've made a commitment to try to make everything as accessible as possible. Economically, ability-wise… just trying to invite as many people as possible into the work that I'm doing and then challenging myself to make it even more accessible. But basically, I make it accessible by just being visible. People look at me and say, oh you're a Buddhist. Not only are you a Buddhist, you're a lama. Which I don't even [understand]—how did I make it through this system to get this title? And knowing that there have been many lamas before me, even a couple of Black lamas, who haven't had the level of visibility that I've had. I am a majority of people's first Black lama that they've ever met. I'm the first one to have pushed through in this kind of public space and I mostly did that by stepping around lineage because quite frankly a lot of teachers are encapsulated within the lineage. The lineage can be quite competitive, it can be hierarchical, and I just never felt a part of that so I stepped out and created this whole other kind of, I don't know, path into teaching.You were being a punk.Yeah. Well, my teacher Lama Norlha Rinpoche, that was one of the things he told me to do. This older Tibetan master was like, “I'm not Black. There are people that will not listen to me but they'll listen to you. So you should go and try to do that.” That was one of the wisest things he ever told me. I have friends with Tibetan teachers who would never have heard that from their teachers. My teacher was like go out into the world and do what you feel is most skillful. I would go back to Rinpoche and tell him what I was teaching—justice, sex and all kinds of stuff—and he would be like, fine, whatever. Going back to your point about some of the different teachers who, for reasons that are sometimes beyond their control, don't quite include the concept of class in how they build their sangha—I think that partly informs some of my resentment towards rinpoches and tulkus. They'll speak grandiloquent things about how people are just too obsessed about work and earning money and that they should be less materialistic. Well that's easy for you to say because you don't have to worry about paying bills. A single mom who's working in a factory shift or is a healthcare provider… they don't have time to think about these things. So that's kind of situating Buddha dharma squarely within the confines of course of a capitalistic society. I think this also speaks to your persistent theme of earth, of grounding yourself.Right. Wealth has always been a factor in Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism has been a feudal system. A lama is like a lord [laughs]. When I talk to teachers in other traditions, I have to communicate that when I say I am a lama, I have this incredible agency and autonomy. You get the title and you can do whatever you want. There is no accountability. Traditionally, if I were in a feudal system in medieval Tibet, I would be in a monastery or go off, claim territory, build a monastery, collect wealth from the local village and then maybe I'll be recognized as a tulku. Wealth just begins to accumulate life after life and it keeps getting transferred into my reincarnation so it becomes this system of wealth transfer.Isn't that so bizarre?It's so bizarre! I mean there are all kinds of sophisticated ways that have been created to make sure wealth stays within a particular line of succession. There are present rinpoches who are incredibly wealthy—millions, billions of dollars, but we don't talk about that at all. I have such animosity towards the accumulation of wealth in that way.I remember in my early days of going off to retreat, I would have to get financial aid. A week-long retreat may be $1,500. That was impossible for me to afford. That's what I made in a month. So I would always have to get these hugely reduced retreat fees and in those days, [in order to get that discount] I had to work during the retreat. So it creates this class of people who are actually beginning to serve those who are more resourced. I resented that. I resented having to clean during retreat because I didn't have the financial resources. It wasn't ever framed in a way of like, “oh this just a service that we're offering.” Only the poor people had to do this. It would have been much more intuitive if everyone had to do it.A lot of teachers now in retreat centres are structuring work in a way that everyone has to do work to help run a retreat. But back in those days, it was just the poor people, who were usually the young folks or the people of colour. Whenever I see large gatherings of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the lama is seated high on a throne, usually very ornate and with a slate of attendants around… mostly him, it's always a him—there's not a lot of Tibetan women Buddhist teachers—and I would think it would be so revolutionary if that rinpoche who was doing the teaching made it a point to be level on the ground. To be level with the people seeking his teaching or wisdom, and to actually serve the people. I don't think I've seen anything like that.Sometimes my teacher would cook and serve. But I think also the other part of that is the communities also really intensely force this kind of…Veneration. That's true.Yeah, veneration. I know that early on—of course I experienced this on a very very small level—at the beginning of my teaching in my sanghas, I felt that pressure to be a certain way. To wear certain things and accept certain kinds of devotion, which I eventually resisted. It really, over time, influenced me to leave these intense communities altogether. I just think that people find a lot of comfort in that kind of veneration and I think there are teachers—doesn't matter their background, Tibetan or westerner—who actually don't have the capacity to hold that level of devotion that people are expressing towards them. As I often say there are a lot of teachers, and this is extremely the case for Tibetan tulkus, where they've actually never had a chance to figure out who they were outside of a monastic institution. So they get recognized, get swept up into a system where they are actually being abused—emotionally, physically and sexually. And then they mature into adulthood and they have this incredible shadow side which is all this stuff, this material, that they've never processed and developed because they bypassed all of that. One of the reasons why we have these intense scandals with all these teachers is because they're trying to get their needs fulfilled within a community where it's inappropriate for those needs to be fulfilled. And also the notions of boundaries, things like agency and where someone is coming to you with authentic needs versus projections—that's a skill, like you've said. A lot of it is the skill of discernment that you develop through the course of living and when that part of your life has been excised, swept up in this tradition of tulku and the teachings and the abuses, that all gets very distorted.Everyone's a victim in the way this system has been conceived. I would say that it's important for me in my teaching that I resist these forms of veneration because I want to live a life, and to have a teaching life and to be a teacher where I'm just really honest about my life. As a teacher, you have to know that I'm also queer and that I have these beliefs about sex positivity and relationship and dating and sex… I want that to be transparent. I don't want you to ever assume that I'm like a monk. I actually get really offended, and a little scared when people from other spiritual paths relate to me like a monk. I'm like, you can't do that. You can't do that because I don't want you to assume something that isn't true. It's important for me to be truthful about how I show up in the world as a teacher. It's also a form of fragmentation in a way, right? Which is again something that you're quite persistent in your book about it being a delusion that we need to remove and liberate ourselves from.Yeah, well it's the distinction that we make between the public life and the private life. The private life becomes the shadow life. So you have these people who have these intense, devout and sacred public lives where they're really wonderful and great. They're saints. And then in their private life they begin to engage in certain desires and appetites that are not in line with their public self. I think that that's what creates the struggle and the tension within sanghas. It's that tension where teachers aren't allowed to bring their personal and public lives together and it's not accepted by the sangha. It's also different though from how you explicate in the book about your need to differentiate your sangha and the people who look up to you versus your own community of friends and sexual partners. You make it a point to keep those groups discrete, right?Absolutely. Even when I'm on a hookup app and people recognize me [there] that becomes a really important space for me to set boundaries, to say this is who I am, this is what I believe in. Depending on how this relationship goes, it's going to be a different relationship. Are you going to see me as a teacher? If you do then this other stuff isn't going to happen. And that happens. If you're more interested in me as a teacher then I can show up as that. But it can't be this mixed thing because you have to keep those roles really separate and different.If there is any binary that you subscribe to, I guess that would be one of the few ones.Yeah, absolutely. It's just getting clear about what you want. And it's not to say that I haven't had partners who've also seen me as a teacher. But they've seen me more as a partner and a lover than as a teacher, and that's been really important for me to differentiate in that way. It's just about being clear. I think it's easy to kind of get addicted to the power that being a teacher offers you. That's really where it gets messy in romantic situations. Are you into me because I'm a teacher or are you into me because you're attracted to me?Oh that's such an incredible tension or struggle. Because I can easily imagine so many times someone coming to you for guidance and that need and that projection and love and everything gets wrapped up and then that can easily become sexual. So it's important for you to make it very clear from the outset that that's a hard line that you want to maintain.I also have a very natural, built-in safeguard—which I think is just a result of very good, virtuous karma from past lives—this intuition that I have which is that I know what people are like, why people are approaching me, or why they want to be in a relationship with me. If people just see me as a teacher or a guide, I get completely turned off, sexually. It just naturally happens. I get really resentful, actually. That's part of the safeguard that people would rather see me as a teacher than as this person that they want to get intimate with. And that's a very different feeling than someone coming to me who wants to be with me romantically or as just a friend. It's a whole different energy and I've just learned how to identify that. I've been in many spaces, casual and informal, where people recognize me and I can tell which way they're gonna go. Sometimes [someone] will go, “oh it's Lama Rod. That's cool. I'm not interested in what you do but you're cool.” On the other hand, it's like “oh you're Lama Rod. Can you teach me on the spot about something?” And I usually say no. [laughs] That's not why I'm there.You write in your book that when you first met Norlha Rinpoche, there was this very incredible energy that you sensed within you and that intuitively told you that this is your teacher, in one form or another. I wonder for someone who's perhaps seeking a teacher and who has that same kind of emanation of energy, what is your guidance on how to make sense of that energy and secondly, making sure that you then don't project it in a way that becomes unhealthy and makes you prone to being manipulated or abused.Well, it's different ways I want to answer that. Beginning with: how do we make sense of the feelings that we experience around certain teachers? For me, when a teacher opens up something inside of me, I see them as my teacher or one of my teachers. Because they have this incredible capacity to do something. To create this opening for me to do work and to understand dharma deeper. And so I take that person as a teacher. When we have those experiences I encourage people to see them as these invitations to move deeper into their own experience. I think all a teacher is doing is reflecting your wisdom back to you. They're just mirrors and they're pointing us back to these parts of ourselves that we're discovering for the first time. I think the misconception is that somehow the teacher is doing something really extraordinary and special. That somehow the magic is with the teacher. I mean yeah there are incredibly powerfully realized teachers, but really, particularly in Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism, the teacher is a mirror that points us back to our own wisdom, clarity and mind. So that's what you're experiencing, it's just your self for the first time. I've had that [experience] so many times. Of course I've had to learn what that was. At the beginning, I was like, oh this teacher is powerful and they're doing something. No, they're actually just pointing back towards me and saying, look! You're just like me, if you can just realize that. And if you trust that to take those people as a teacher in whatever way feels appropriate.Another way to think about this, from the perspective of students, is I think it's really easy to lose agency within relationships with very realized folks because we feel as if we don't know anything. It's a very [infantilizing] relationship, where we become children. At my monastery, it was like we were all the kids and Rinpoche was like the dad. No decision could ever be made without consulting Rinpoche, but that was the culture. That's Tibetan Buddhist culture because again the rinpoche, the abbot, is like the head of the manor, the king, the lord. And of course as someone who naturally distrusts authority I came into that really resentful. I was like, yeah of course I wanna ask Rinpoche about my personal practice but I don't think Rinpoche needs to be consulted about the colour of curtains you're going to put in the library. [laughs] I mean I just don't think that's necessary and I just got turned off over time by that kind of deference, that kind of, oh we can't do anything without his consent. And so I was interested in agency; I wanted to make my own decisions. Again, my relationship with Rinpoche was him always reminding me that I have agency. I think partially he did that to get me out of the way. [laughs] To get me out of the community after I was authorized, to get me into the world. It's hard and complex because I needed to be in the world. I wouldn't be here, if he didn't send me away. He dissuaded you from taking a second three-year retreat.Right. He was like, no. [laughs] He was like, “just go out into the world. Do something. If you still want to do the [retreat] after a bit, come back and do it.” Once I got into the world, I realized that this phase of my life was over, this retreat phase. But yeah, agency. I think this is a part of how we're going to cut through abuse between teachers and students. For us, as students, to remember our agency, to remember that we can make choices. If something doesn't feel comfortable, we have a right to say no. And then as a teacher—because I'm both a student and a teacher so I'm always flipping back and forth—my job is to make sure my needs are fulfilled outside of spiritual communities, and teacher student relationships. That I have other spaces that I have created in order to express different parts of who and what I am. I tell teachers all the time, you need to have friends who aren't Buddhists. [laughs] Like you need really messy friends. I'm gay, queer… so I have really messy queer friends who are really catty, and really superficial and some of them are really selfish, but all really loving. So I take refuge in those communities. I'm not Lama Rod there; I'm like one of the girls. In that space, among my friends they're like, “yeah, whatever. We see what you do. We see how you're doing it but we're here just to have fun and spend time with each other. You're not here to teach us.” And I have friends who were very clear about those boundaries, and those were very hard to hear initially because it sounds like they don't give a s**t about what I do. But instead, they're saying “we respect what you do, but you're not the teacher here. You can be the teacher somewhere else, but here you're a friend.” So we have to find those spaces and create them. That will make us a better teacher. So I can go into spiritual communities, sanghas, whatever and I'm not forcing that community to meet all of my needs, which is how traditional monastic communities are established. All the needs, even sexual needs, are being met in ways that are not articulated but are known and experienced by almost everyone within an institution.The other thing I thought about when you spoke about the need for setting boundaries, having agency and all that, is also about being true about your state of mental health. In many ways the Buddhist tradition has means of addressing those. But in other ways I also feel like there's this externalizing of it, where it feels like if you just pray on it, chant on it, meditate on it… that will hopefully find you some measure of relief. You were very deliberate in your book—you've actually outlined various different practices to deal with anger, contentment etc.—but you also state that if you need medication, therapy... you have to take that. It's about skillful means. It's about understanding the best way to reduce harm and violence. We also have to understand, as you know, within Tibetan psychology mental health is conceived of being very different. Mental health is externalized in Tibetan culture, whereas in western culture it's internalized. So we [westerners] may experience depression, traditionally Tibetans experience demons. I'm not depressed; I'm just being tormented by this demon that I can actually direct practice towards. Like the practice of chöd. What's really interesting for us right now is that we're moving through this synthesis where we're bringing together western psychology, Tibetan psychology and trying to synthesize something that I think is really quite powerful. And I'm kind of back and forth with that because for me that kind of externalization of mental health is also in a way very Indigenous. There's an indigeneity there that I'm really interested in. I think it's maybe both. I think sometimes, growing up in the west, there are energetic forces that the best way for us to name it is to name mental illness, depression, or anxiety. But maybe it's actually an energetic being that's affecting us somehow. So I'm interested in discerning those nuances as well.—Part 2 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agoodrefugee.substack.com

In this episode I am once again joined by Dr. Ian Wickramasekera, Bön Buddhist practitioner and associate professor of Mindfulness Based Transpersonal Counseling at Naropa University. We learn how a divination from a Tibetan master radically changed the direction of Ian’s life, and how he encountered the man who would later become his teacher, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Ian recounts how, on an intense tummo meditation retreat, he attained to the Dzogchen spiritual realisation known as rigpa, and its profound consequences in his life. Ian also discusses how he uses energy practices such as tsa lung and Tibetan yoga in his clinical practice to treat personality problems, substance abuse, and more. … Video version: https://www.guruviking.com/ep67-dr-ian-wickramasekera-tummo-hypnosis-realising-rigpa/ Audio version of this podcast also available on iTunes and Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Topics Include 0:00 - Intro 0:46 - Receiving a personal mirror divination from Lama Dawa 9:30 - Ian’s previous life as a monk at Tashiding Monastery in Sikkim 10:50 - Trying to meet Namkhai Norbu 13:09 - Encountering the Bon master Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 15:02 - Meeting Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and learning lucid dreaming 19:41 - Personal interactions with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 26:40 - Choosing to follow the Bon path 30:30 - Taking refuge with Ato Rinpoche 36:42 - Advice for studying in dharma and hypnosis 40:20 - Learning Tummo from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in retreat 45:38 - Realising Rigpa 50:11 - Was this a glimpse or an abiding shift? 55:02 - Did tummo practice directly cause Ian’s realisation? 56:40 - The mind-body effect of tummo and chakra practice 1:05:57 - About Daniel P Brown 1:08:48 - Directly experiencing the subtle body anatomy 1:10:04 - The experience of rigpa and devotion 1:14:37 - Empowered to teach tsa lung and shiné 1:15:51 - The effect of rigpa on cognitive work 1:20:22 - Criteria for combining dharma and hypnosis 1:24:25 - Rigpa, tsa lung, the personality structure, and substance abuse 1:32:12 - How Ian uses Tibetan yoga and tsa lung in his therapy practice 1:36:55 - Confirming Ian’s realisation with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 1:44:01 - Receiving pointing out instructions from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 1:46:26 - Similarities between Dzogchen and hypnosis 1:48:28 - Ian’s opinion about NLP 1:51:37 - Humility on the spiritual path 1:53:52 - Ian’s prophecy cliffhanger … Audio version of this podcast available on iTunes and Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Previous episodes with Ian:
- https://www.guruviking.com/ep61-dr-ian-wickramasekera-devolving-the-self/ To find our more about Ian, visit: - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian_Wickramasekera2 - https://www.naropa.edu/faculty/ian-wickramasekera.php … For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - http://www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

Neuroscientist and mindfulness expert Jud Brewer speaks with host Michael Taft about his research into the four steps of Rigpa (with teacher and psychologist Dan Brown), effortlessness in meditation and the feeling of openness vs. closedness, the neurochemistry of reward, the historical Buddha's insight into the results of exploring gratification "to its end" and how that leads to effortless change (the system corrects itself), and the fact that willpower is a myth.Judson Brewer is an MD-PhD and a thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” having combined nearly 20 years of experience with mindfulness training with his scientific research. Jud is the Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center and associate professor in psychiatry at the School of Medicine at Brown University, as well as a research affiliate at MIT, and has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for smoking, emotional eating, and anxiety.Jud's website: DrJud.comYou can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, professor of Tibetan Buddhism, offers teachings on the foundations of rigpa. Rigpa is a Tibetan word that means an awareness that transcends the ordinary, dualistic mind. In this retreat, Khenpo Sherab Sangpo instructs his students on how to recognize the difference between dualistic mind (sem) and the nature of mind (rigpa) according to the view of Dzogpachenpo (Dzogchen, Great Perfection). He also emphasizes the importance of meeting with a genuine teacher (guru), developing faith and devotion to receive the blessings of the teacher's lineage, and the foundational meditation instructions and practices that enable one to recognize the nature of mind and stabilize that recognition so that it is not a fleeting or temporary experience. Please visit our website to learn more about Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, his teachings and for practice texts. This episode can be seen on Youtube.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, professor of Tibetan Buddhism, offers teachings on the foundations of rigpa. Rigpa is a Tibetan word that means an awareness that transcends the ordinary, dualistic mind. In this retreat, Khenpo Sherab Sangpo instructs his students on how to recognize the difference between dualistic mind (sem) and the nature of mind (rigpa) according to the view of Dzogpachenpo (Dzogchen, Great Perfection). He also emphasizes the importance of meeting with a genuine teacher (guru), developing faith and devotion to receive the blessings of the teacher's lineage, and the foundational meditation instructions and practices that enable one to recognize the nature of mind and stabilize that recognition so that it is not a fleeting or temporary experience. Please visit our website to learn more about Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, his teachings and for practice texts. This episode can be seen on Youtube.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, professor of Tibetan Buddhism, offers teachings on the foundations of rigpa. Rigpa is a Tibetan word that means an awareness that transcends the ordinary, dualistic mind. In this retreat, Khenpo Sherab Sangpo instructs his students on how to recognize the difference between dualistic mind (sem) and the nature of mind (rigpa) according to the view of Dzogpachenpo (Dzogchen, Great Perfection). He also emphasizes the importance of meeting with a genuine teacher (guru), developing faith and devotion to receive the blessings of the teacher's lineage, and the foundational meditation instructions and practices that enable one to recognize the nature of mind and stabilize that recognition so that it is not a fleeting or temporary experience. Please visit our website to learn more about Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, his teachings and for practice texts. This episode can be seen on Youtube.

Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, professor of Tibetan Buddhism, offers teachings on the foundations of rigpa. Rigpa is a Tibetan word that means an awareness that transcends the ordinary, dualistic mind. In this retreat, Khenpo Sherab Sangpo instructs his students on how to recognize the difference between dualistic mind (sem) and the nature of mind (rigpa) according to the view of Dzogpachenpo (Dzogchen, Great Perfection). He also emphasizes the importance of meeting with a genuine teacher (guru), developing faith and devotion to receive the blessings of the teacher's lineage, and the foundational meditation instructions and practices that enable one to recognize the nature of mind and stabilize that recognition so that it is not a fleeting or temporary experience. Please visit our website to learn more about Khenpo Sherab Sangpo, his teachings and for practice texts. This episode can be seen on Youtube.

Loch Kelly’s new book, The Way of Effortless Mindfulness, is a practice manual for living a fully embodied, open-hearted life. Loch insists the goal of effortless mindfulness is not to escape or transcend, but to recognize and embody wakeful pure awareness, which is ever-present in the midst of the full range of human experience. To help listeners directly know effortless mindfulness, Loch offers a few mindful glimpse practices along with in-depth structural descriptions of what differentiates effortless mindfulness from mainstream mindfulness, or what he calls, deliberate mindfulness. The Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism says nature of mind or pure awareness is hard to recognize precisely because it is so close, so subtle, so simple, and so good! Our dialogue cuts though the esoteric clouds of confusion which often pervade instructions on how to recognize this extraordinary yet, so completely ordinary mind. Loch shares the unique framework explicated in The Way of Effortless Mindfulness: The Eight Types of Awareness, the Five Foundations of Effortless Mindfulness, and what he calls no-self Self. And because we are both clinicians, Loch and I also discuss how effortless mindfulness skills can be delivered in clinical contexts to alleviate cognitive, affective and physical distress.Listen to this episode on Lisa's YouTube ChannelLoch Kelly, M.Div., LCSW has been teaching seminars, supervising clinicians and practicing awareness psychotherapy in NYC for 30 years. Loch is a graduate of Columbia University and Union Theological. He was awarded a fellowship to study forms of non-dual meditation in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal from 1981-1982 and has studied with teachers from around the world. He studied Buddhism with Professor Lily de Silva at the University of Kandy, Sri Lanka, Insight Meditation with Godwin Samararatne and at the Theravada monasteries, Inter-Spiritual Contemplative Meditation with Fr. Bede Griffiths and Anthony de Mello, Advaita at Sri Ramana Ashram, and Dzogchen and Sutra Mahamudra with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in Nepal. Loch spent 10 years establishing homeless shelters and community lunch programs and working in a community mental health clinic in Brooklyn, New York. He also served as Coordinator of Counseling and Interspiritual Chaplain at Union Theological Seminary and worked extensively with families recovering from the trauma of 9/11.

Lama Surya Das embraces the dance of Rigpa as he explores how Bodhisattva actions means being responsive, as needed, to the higher vision of life.

Professor Thurman and Dr. Nida Chenagtsang in this two part podcast discuss the history of Buddhist Medicine's origins in the teachings of the Buddha and elaborate how it found it's synthesis with other medical traditions in Sowa Rigpa or the Tibetan Science of Health as founded by Yuthok the Elder and carried on in Tibet and the Himalayas. Opening this week's episode with a recommendation of "The Mirror of Light" by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang and introducing the Buddha as a physician of the body, mind and of wider society Robert Thurman gives a detailed history of the healing nature of the teachings and of the medicine tradition of Sowa Rigpa which they gave rise to. Explaining the Buddha's insight into the blissful nature of reality and it's connection to selflessness Robert A.F. Thurman shows how the transcendent nature of enlightenment transforms the individual into a pulsar of encouraging energy to all those who encounter them. Second half of this week's episode includes an exploration of the Yuthok Nyingthig, the unique cycle of Vajrayana Buddhist practice connected with Tibetan Medicine, short biographies of Yuthok the Elder and Younger, generosity as a vehicle for spiritual development, Buddhist mantras as form of psychotherapy and a guided meditation on selflessness. Podcast concludes with a reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem The Sunflower Sutra by Gary Gach. Tibetan Medicine : Yuthok the Elder & Sowa Rigpa - Episode 199 the Bob Thurman Podcast Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash. Tibetan Medicine : Yuthok the Elder & Sowa Rigpa - Episode 199 the Bob Thurman Podcast is an excerpt from the “Tibetan Secrets of Longevity Third Session with Dr. Nida Chenagtsang & Robert A.F. Thurman” Video. Recorded at Menla’s Nalanda Conference Center in Phoenicia, New York, July 2017 the Annual Kalachakra Study + Practice Intensive Retreat. This week’s episode’s of the Bob Thurman Podcast was brought to you in part through the support of the Tibet House US Membership Community and Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York. To learn more about this year’s program with Robert A.F. Thurman and Dr. Nida at Menla please visit: www.menla.us Gary Gregory Gach is an author, translator, and editor living in San Francisco. A dynamic speaker and teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism his works include the anthology “What Book!? Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop” and the forthcoming “Pause Breathe Smile – Awakening Mindfulness When Meditation is Not Enough”. The song ‘Dancing Ling’ by Tenzin Choegyal from the album ‘Heart Sutra‘ (2004) by Ethno Super Lounge is used on the Bob Thurman Podcast with artist’s permission, all rights reserved. To listen to more recordings from past Robert A.F. Thurman programs please consider becoming a Tibet House US Member.

Professor Thurman and Dr. Nida Chenagtsang in this two part podcast discuss the history of Buddhist Medicine’s origins in the teachings of the Buddha and elaborate how it found it’s synthesis with other medical traditions in Sowa Rigpa or the Tibetan Science of Health as founded by Yuthok the Elder and carried on in Tibet, the Himalayas, and the Mongolias by Yuthok the Younger. Opening this week’s episode with a recommendation of “The Mirror of Light” by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang and introducing the Buddha as a physician of the body, mind and of wider society Robert Thurman gives a detailed history of the healing nature of the teachings and of the medicine tradition of Sowa Rigpa which they gave rise to. Explaining the Buddha’s insight into the blissful nature of reality and it’s connection to selflessness Robert A.F. Thurman shows how the transcendent nature of enlightenment transforms the individual into a pulsar of encouraging energy to all those who encounter them. Second half of this week’s episode includes an exploration of the Yuthok Nyingthig, the unique cycle of Vajrayana Buddhist practice connected with Tibetan Medicine, short biographies of Yuthok the Elder and Younger, generosity as a vehicle for spiritual development, Buddhist mantras as form of psychotherapy and a guided meditation on selflessness. Podcast concludes with a reading of Allen Ginsberg’s poem The Sunflower Sutra by Gary Gach. Tibetan Medicine : Yuthok the Elder & Sowa Rigpa – Episode 199 the Bob Thurman Podcast Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash. Tibetan Medicine : Yuthok the Elder & Sowa Rigpa – Episode 199 the Bob Thurman Podcast is an excerpt from the “Tibetan Secrets of Lo

In this candid interview I talk with lucid dreaming teacher and Hay House author Charlie Morley. We delve into the mysteries of lucid dreaming and and how we can use the practices of dream yoga to harness the third of our lives we spend sleeping as an inner laboratory of exploration, adventure, and even healing. We also discover how a book by the Dalai Lama radically changed Charlie's path from a life of gang violence and drugs to a passion for Buddhism, Charlie’s devotional relationship with his guru Lama Yeshe, and why the guru-disciple model is so often fraught with controversy. Topic include: - Lucid dreaming defined - How lucid dreaming can be used for fun, spiritual practice, and psychological healing - Why Charlie adds modern scientific and psychological applications to traditional dream yoga techniques - The real heart of dream yoga - Shadow work in the dream state - Charlie’s early childhood lucid dreaming experiences - Surprising signs that a child is a lucid dreamer - How Charlie can have 3-4 lucid dreams a night despite not being a natural - Dream work in other traditions and why Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t have a monopoly on dream yoga - How reading a book by the Dalai Lama radically changed Charlie’s life path from drugs and gang violence to Buddhism - Why a lust for partying and excess can actually be a strong indicator of spiritual potential - Was Charlie a dream yogi in a past life? - Charlie’s motto for the spiritual path and living a meaningful life - The guru disciple relationship and Charlie’s devotion to his guru Lama Yeshe - Disempowering the ego to empower the Buddha Nature - The golden shadow and how we often deny our divine nature - The guru disciple relationship as a skilful means of working with psychological projection - Why Charlie was initially unimpressed with Lama Yeshe - Lama Yeshe’s spiritual attainments - Charlie’s advice for how to wisely choose a teacher - Charlie on the controversy at Rigpa and the dangers of the corrupting influence of power - Crazy wisdom and learning from scandal - Charlie’s motivation to help connect people to their spiritual path - Why Lama Yeshe calls Charlie his joyful ambassador - How Charlie became officially authorised to teach by the Karma Kagyu lineage - The safety net of lineage - Why dream yoga gives you keys to the labratory of your mind every night - Charlie’s top tips for maximising lucid dreaming Find out more about Charlie at www.charliemorley.com. Visit www.guruviking.com for more interviews, audios, and articles. Music 'Deva Dasi' by Steve James

In this episode Stuart & I discuss Buddhist cults and cultish behaviour in Buddhist groups. We look at cultish behaviours in particular and how they manifest in even innocuous Buddhist groups. We discuss the wider implications of the trade off between belonging and autonomy and the three core theories that explain why people get involved in Buddhist groups. We also look at the difference between cults and new religious movements and the difficulty in the academic world of defining a cult. To avoid such a trap, we focus on cultish behaviours instead and ask to what degree each of the organisations we discuss exhibits them. We invite listeners to consider to what degree their own Buddhist group may exhibit such behaviours and why they are present. We cover the NKT, Rigpa, Shambhala, Michael Roach and HH, Maitreya Ron Spenser. In this episode, someone is bound to get offended, but it's all good as Stuart and Matthew get culty. Second additional note (07/09/2015): Dear Listeners, We recently put out a podcast episode covering cultish behaviour in Buddhism and discussed some of those behaviours along with how they are expressed in a number of small and large Buddhist groups. We also managed to make a mistake which needs clarifying here. In that episode, which has since been edited to remove the offending section, we, or better I, made three assertions concerning the figure of Indy Hack. This was an unfortunate mistake on my part and I wish to clarify that mistake here so listeners who may have heard the earlier edit can be clear on the issue. Indy Hack has asked me to clarify three points and I am happy to do so here for the benefit of mutual understanding and good faith. 1. Fabrication of articles: I wrongly stated that Indy Hack fabricates articles. I have understood from Indy hack that this is not true and I apologise for stating so. This was a mistake on my part. 2. Membership of the NKT: I unwittingly assumed Indy Hack was a member of the NKT. Indy Hack has informed me that this is not true so again this was a mistake on my part. I apologise for making this assumption. 3. CIA & the Dalai Lama: I incorrectly associated a story I had heard about the CIA and Dalai Lama to Indy Hack. This was a genuine mistake. Indy Hack has not told this story and again it was a mistake on my part to have made this link. It is worth noting that Indy Hack has been helpful in clarifying these issues and we at the Imperfect Buddha Podcast will strive to do better with future episodes. We wish Indy Hack all the best with his work. We also wish clarity and wisdom to all those venturing into the public sphere with podcasts. This is the last I will mention of this unless events take a strange turn. Matthew O'Connell

In this episode Stuart & I discuss Buddhist cults and cultish behaviour in Buddhist groups. We look at cultish behaviours in particular and how they manifest in even innocuous Buddhist groups. We discuss the wider implications of the trade off between belonging and autonomy and the three core theories that explain why people get involved in Buddhist groups. We also look at the difference between cults and new religious movements and the difficulty in the academic world of defining a cult. To avoid such a trap, we focus on cultish behaviours instead and ask to what degree each of the organisations we discuss exhibits them. We invite listeners to consider to what degree their own Buddhist group may exhibit such behaviours and why they are present. We cover the NKT, Rigpa, Shambhala, Michael Roach and HH, Maitreya Ron Spenser. In this episode, someone is bound to get offended, but it's all good as Stuart and Matthew get culty. Second additional note (07/09/2015): Dear Listeners, We recently put out a podcast episode covering cultish behaviour in Buddhism and discussed some of those behaviours along with how they are expressed in a number of small and large Buddhist groups. We also managed to make a mistake which needs clarifying here. In that episode, which has since been edited to remove the offending section, we, or better I, made three assertions concerning the figure of Indy Hack. This was an unfortunate mistake on my part and I wish to clarify that mistake here so listeners who may have heard the earlier edit can be clear on the issue. Indy Hack has asked me to clarify three points and I am happy to do so here for the benefit of mutual understanding and good faith. 1. Fabrication of articles: I wrongly stated that Indy Hack fabricates articles. I have understood from Indy hack that this is not true and I apologise for stating so. This was a mistake on my part. 2. Membership of the NKT: I unwittingly assumed Indy Hack was a member of the NKT. Indy Hack has informed me that this is not true so again this was a mistake on my part. I apologise for making this assumption. 3. CIA & the Dalai Lama: I incorrectly associated a story I had heard about the CIA and Dalai Lama to Indy Hack. This was a genuine mistake. Indy Hack has not told this story and again it was a mistake on my part to have made this link. It is worth noting that Indy Hack has been helpful in clarifying these issues and we at the Imperfect Buddha Podcast will strive to do better with future episodes. We wish Indy Hack all the best with his work. We also wish clarity and wisdom to all those venturing into the public sphere with podcasts. This is the last I will mention of this unless events take a strange turn. Matthew O'Connell is a life coach and the host of the The Imperfect Buddha podcast. You can find The Imperfect Buddha on Facebook and Twitter (@imperfectbuddha). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This session continues the pointing out instructions from Padmasambhava, to cut through the substrate to pristine awareness (rigpa). Alan gives a preface to the meditation, explaining the ‘eight extremes of conceptual elaboration’ that Padmasambhava uses, and that identifying rigpa is a process of elimination. He also touches on that for something ‘beyond speech and thought’ there is so much written about it, and how to approach the guidance. The later part of the session takes the idea of the mind as empty, and when you emerge from shamatha, appearances are illusory even while engaging in a physical world. Alan quotes suicide statistics, suggesting that many choose suicide due to being enmeshed with the mind. They are betting their lives on the belief that the appearances to the mind exist inherently. Let your awareness be still between sessions. We are on the move, that’s what it means to be a sentient being. Whereas rigpa is still: not because it is held still, it is still because it is beyond time. It is not still versus movement, it is stillness behind coming and going. Meditation starts at 16:41

This session continues the pointing out instructions from Padmasambhava, to cut through the substrate to pristine awareness (rigpa). Alan gives a preface to the meditation, explaining the ‘eight extremes of conceptual elaboration’ that Padmasambhava uses, and that identifying rigpa is a process of elimination. He also touches on that for something ‘beyond speech and thought’ there is so much written about it, and how to approach the guidance. The later part of the session takes the idea of the mind as empty, and when you emerge from shamatha, appearances are illusory even while engaging in a physical world. Alan quotes suicide statistics, suggesting that many choose suicide due to being enmeshed with the mind. They are betting their lives on the belief that the appearances to the mind exist inherently. Let your awareness be still between sessions. We are on the move, that’s what it means to be a sentient being. Whereas rigpa is still: not because it is held still, it is still because it is beyond time. It is not still versus movement, it is stillness behind coming and going. Meditation starts at 16:41

In this meditation we send the awareness out into space, starting with the space above, then to the right, to the left and downwards. This method of shamatha without a sign, where we release awareness into an open expanse without any target (again to be done for just one day), is like warming up, the stretching before the final marathon of merging mind with space that should be done until shamatha is achieved. Then we go through some Sanskrit vocabulary that often comes up in Dzogchen teachings, like cittata, tathata, tathagatagarbha etc. We then compare the Western definition of “universe”, which means one (uni) world out there that exists independently of the observer, with the Dzogchen perspective of multiple worlds, one universe for every sentient being. And each universe arises in dependence upon a consciousness, it arises from the karma of the sentient being. So it actually reflects the consciousness, changing with it. When reaching the culmination of the path and you are just about to cross the threshold to awakening, what’s your universe like? From outside you are just located somewhere in Chicago or Phuket, but from the inside you are actually in Akanishta. As you shift your citta, your perspective of viewing reality to rigpa, you shift your whole universe and all the appearances within it. But if you only get a glimpse of rigpa, i.e. by way of instructions being pointed out to you, you slip right back into your ordinary perspective afterwards. So what is obscuring rigpa? The substrate consciousness is obscured by the five obscurations. Rigpa itself is obscured by different layers, like the layers of impure appearances that we see due to our impure vision, then the grasping onto the sense of identity of being a sentient being, the cognitive and afflictive obscurations and on the basis of all of this, the wandering mind. Meditation starts at 15:19 min

In this meditation we send the awareness out into space, starting with the space above, then to the right, to the left and downwards. This method of shamatha without a sign, where we release awareness into an open expanse without any target (again to be done for just one day), is like warming up, the stretching before the final marathon of merging mind with space that should be done until shamatha is achieved. Then we go through some Sanskrit vocabulary that often comes up in Dzogchen teachings, like cittata, tathata, tathagatagarbha etc. We then compare the Western definition of “universe”, which means one (uni) world out there that exists independently of the observer, with the Dzogchen perspective of multiple worlds, one universe for every sentient being. And each universe arises in dependence upon a consciousness, it arises from the karma of the sentient being. So it actually reflects the consciousness, changing with it. When reaching the culmination of the path and you are just about to cross the threshold to awakening, what’s your universe like? From outside you are just located somewhere in Chicago or Phuket, but from the inside you are actually in Akanishta. As you shift your citta, your perspective of viewing reality to rigpa, you shift your whole universe and all the appearances within it. But if you only get a glimpse of rigpa, i.e. by way of instructions being pointed out to you, you slip right back into your ordinary perspective afterwards. So what is obscuring rigpa? The substrate consciousness is obscured by the five obscurations. Rigpa itself is obscured by different layers, like the layers of impure appearances that we see due to our impure vision, then the grasping onto the sense of identity of being a sentient being, the cognitive and afflictive obscurations and on the basis of all of this, the wandering mind. Meditation starts at 15:19 min

Alan continues "taking off another layer" and assisting us to overcome our addiction to doing and trying in this meditation. He gives an analogy of a car in neutral gear. Not going forward or backward but knowing it is running. After the meditation talks about the difference between the Dzogchen meditation and Shamatha Without a Sign. Moving to the text we examine the seven qualities of our own Rigpa, before moving on to Padmasambhava's parable. This gives us an opportunity to consider a convergence between Buddhism and other contemplative traditions and modern science. Meditation starts at: 24:23

Before the final (silent) meditation session on settling the mind in its natural state, Alan compares this mode of Shamatha with Vipassana (four applications of mindfulness). While settling the mind in its natural state has some resemblance of the Vipassana’s close application to the mind and both give rise to insight, what differentiates Vipassana from Shamtha is the degree of inquiry. In Shamatha, the main mode of meditation is simply placing attention on the chosen object (non-judgmentally). In Vipassana, on the other hand, it is close examination of the object. Hence, settling the mind in its natural state is a perfect preamble to Vipassana and a natural Segway toward it. After the meditation, Alan gives his second commentary to the Atisha’s aphorism: “Examine the unborn nature of awareness.” Alan starts with a quote from Padmasabhava, who said that there is something called mind and different schools of thought point into the common reality, while calling it by different names and starting from a different conceptual framework and modes of investigation. Also, while all the schools have a different degree of insight into this reality, there is a degree of convergence as to the nature of reality they talk about. After that, Alan moves onto explaining the difference between the space of the mind, substrate consciousness, and pristine awareness (Rigpa, primordial consciousness, the ground of being). He also presents an overview of the modern science’s perspective on primordial consciousness, which is equated to the vacuum the universe is made of and shares similarities between Dzogchen teachings and the findings of quantum mechanics. Meditation starts at: 10:11

Teaching: All the teachings are included in settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state. According to Asanga, sensations of the breath become increasingly subtle until prana dissolves into space. Conceptualizations diminish further and further until mind slips into non-conceptuality. Keep it simple. It’s the nature of the practice. Meditation: Mindfulness of breathing preceded by settling body, speech, and mind. 
1) settling body, speech, and mind. Let your awareness illuminate the non-conceptual space of the body. Settle the body in ease and comfort. Settle the speech in silence. Let the breath flow in its natural rhythm. With every out breath, relax more and more deeply without losing clarity, utterly release the breath and let go of rumination, so your are especially silent and present at the end of each out breath. The in breath comes of its own accord. Release all thoughts of the past and future, and settle awareness in stillness in the present.
2) mindfulness of breathing. When the in breath is long, know that it is long. When the out breath is long, know that it is long. When the in breath is short, know that it is short. When the out breath is short, know that it is short. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and whatever tactile sensations arise therein, without distraction, without grasping. Awareness is not fused with the space of the body and its contents. Mindfully breath in and out, attending to the whole body. Q1. In equanimity, does it mean we should react with satisfaction and contentment with things as they are? 
Q2. In formal and semi-formal shamatha retreat, should we hold the view between sessions by visualizing oneself as the deity and the environment as a pure land? If so, should we recite the mantra as well? 
Q3. As for the dying process, how can we help? How can non-buddhists prepare? 
Q4. How is remote viewing possible without dependence on the visual cortex? 
Q5. Returning to a socially engaged way of life, the qualities of relaxation, stability, and vividness will decline. Should we do intermittent short/long retreats for upkeep? 
Q6. According to the Madhyamaka, rigpa and buddhanature are also empty, suggesting nihilism. Rigpa and ultimate reality are in some sense real, but if we say they are real, that may be construed as eternalism. Nihilism is more prevalent in the modern world, and of the two, eternalism appears less dangerous.
Q7. How should we plan practice at home? Should we maintain a weekly structure as we have here, or do whatever we feel like? Practice shouldn’t be just limited to shamatha. Meditation starts at 5: 35

Welcome to Already Calm. In this episode, you will be guided through a simple, short meditation practice, using the breath as the object of our awareness. If you would like to find a meditation teacher near you, or have any questions, please email Lyndi at thealreadycalmpodcast@gmail.com.

Welcome to Already Calm. In this first episode, we explore some of the basics of meditation as mind training and how it can help you in your daily life. If you would like to find a meditation teacher near you, or have any questions, please email Lyndi at thealreadycalmpodcast@gmail.com.

Welcome to Already Calm. In this episode, we explore some practical things to bear in mind before you begin your meditation practice. If you would like to find a meditation teacher near you, or have any questions, please email Lyndi at thealreadycalmpodcast@gmail.com.

Reading from Vajra Essence regarding the difference between consciousness, substrate consciousness and Rigpa. Meditation on awareness of awareness expanding out to all directions (26:30) Questions (51:23) How does the "naked" healing process of the mind by way of settling the mind happen with other shamatha methods? How lasting or fleeting are the changes to the coarse and subtle bodies caused by altering the flow of prana through shamatha practice? Person getting headaches from meditation – what suggestions to prevent it? Question related to rigpa being necessary to explain extrasensory perception such as precognition and remote viewing What is meant by the compassionate display of rigpa? Difficulty seeing rigpa as compassionate. Question regarding how to move away from not liking oneself and feeling guilty over past unwholesome activities.

In this afternoon session, (today's morning session did not include any guidance or teachings and was not recorded) Alan Wallace continues to teach on vipashyana. We begin this afternoon with a 24-minute meditation [1:10] with guidance from the direct words of Padmasambhava. After the meditation, Alan elaborates and gives commentary on the text, which is available online. We conclude the session with a brief (7 minute) guided tonglen meditation.

Alan begins this afternoon session with a profoundly wise and skillful dharma talk on the deepest kind of equanimity: that which is viewed from the perspective of rigpa. This 55 minute talk is followed by the unguided meditation (not included) and one question from the group: Sometimes I rephrase your guided meditation questions to suit myself. Is this okay?

Alan Wallace begins this afternoon's session with the question, "When a desire arises, how does one know whether it is desire (wholesome) or craving (unwholesome)?" He explores practical answers to this question, then proceeds to a guided meditation on the immeasurable of uppekha, or equanimity, focusing on a Theravaden approach, cultivating an evenness of mental imperturbability, a mind unaffected by mental afflictions. The guided meditation begins at 14:37 in the recording. Afterwards, Alan gives an interesting and engaging answer to this question from the group: 1. Any time I've heard the question, "How or why did ignorance-marigpa begin?" the answer given is that, "It never began; time is beginningless, and the dharmakaya and ignorance have just always existed, neither came first." And then, from the teacher, "And why do you want a beginning or first moment anyway?!" I can accept the notion of beginningless time - ie: present moment arising from the previous ad infinitum, and that from the perspective of Rigpa, its not really happening anyway - at least, that it IS a dream, but I still have difficulty with how marigpa ever happened at all, and if self-grasping is "prior" to the objectification of appearances, how did "karma's stirring" give rise to Substrate Consciousness? Do you have any insight, or is there insight from psychology perhaps as to why we "want" a beginning? PS: Do these questions really matter, or should I just sit down, shut up, and watch my breath?

There are some terms we shouldn’t misunderstand, because if we do, we can waste a lot of time of practice. Alan gave an explanation of such terms: mindfulness, open presence, Rigpa, according to the Buddhist and non-Buddhist perspective in order for us to see the difference. After his brief lecture, this morning we came back into the first method of Awareness of Awareness (4th cycle), where we simply rest in the experience of being aware; a second part of the session followed by oscillating the awareness out into space, and inwards, inverting awareness into awareness itself, sustaining the flow of knowing.

This morning we had the last guided Shamatha meditation. Alan explained how in this transient world in which all things that are born have to die, we can tap into the substrate consciousness and even though it is also impermanent in the sense that it changes moment by moment, it is a continuum that carries from one life to the next. It is present even during deep dreamless sleep, comatose and general anesthesia and that’s the reason that we can wake up again. When dying, if you have achieved Shamatha you can follow the process. After the black out if you have Shamatha it will be luminous, then your substrate consciousness dissolves into the clear light of death and you get access to Rigpa. When resting in the clear light there are physical signs that have been witnessed by medical doctors several times, even though the breathing and heart beating has stopped, there is no decomposition of the body, the skin is fresh and the area of the heart remains warm.Then we practiced awareness of awareness directing our attention to the space in different directions.

In this session we practiced awareness of awareness. According to Padmasambhava, by doing this practice you may realize Rigpa or Pristine awareness. Alan talked about the differences between coarse impermanence and subtle impermanence. He referred to the individual stream of consciousness as one which is impermanent yet never terminates. Rigpa, however, is beyond change, it does not arise upon causes and conditions and it’s a dimension of awareness that transcends the concepts of permanence and impermanence. Letting go of categories, concepts and even the grasping to the experiences of bliss, clarity and non-conceptuality, we might be able to recognize Rigpa.

The introduction to today's practice was tailored to us here in Phuket in the sense that we are coming out of retreat soon, but it can be applied by everyone. Alan talks about including the people we are going to see soon into our Loving Kindness meditation, and talks about the quite palpable effects that this can have on our relationships with such people in the (near) future. He includes his experience of this when dealing with Indian customs officers in Delhi, and if you feel skeptic about the effects of doing this meditation the best thing you can do is try it!(And then keep your eyes open). For what it counts, I can also vouch for this.After the meditation, which consisted of brief instructions followed by silence, we had a question from... Noah! So you probably know where this is going.The question contains several parts, all dealing with Bodhicitta, and actually becoming a Bodhisattva. Alan talks about the path to bodhicitta, including the importance of cultivating the Four Immeasurables, first at their "boundless level" and then going Maha (Great). The question not only deals with the achievement of bodhicitta (which in itself is radically profound), but also explains the process of sealing this bodhicitta (making it gold-like) with great wisdom. Alan includes very valuable tips that can help us orient ourselves towards this great aspiration of bodhicitta starting today, and the episode magestically culminates in the achievement of Rigpa (pristine awareness).By the way, for clarification on any of the above points (including Maha-4I) you might want to check several of the previous episodes where they were covered in detail!And by now I don't think I need to give much explanation regarding why this picture is so relevant.

It’s Sunday (for us!) and here is the bonus I promised! After yesterday's practice on Equanimity, Alan said he had to add a couple of "footnotes" to the question about Nirvana and Rigpa from two days ago. You can expect what follows: 30 minutes that capture you and just keep escalating and escalating into a pure jewel of a lecture. And I say escalating because as we approach the end of the podcast, well... just listen for yourself! I will (humbly) say from my opinion that listening to this is probably one of the best ways you can use 30 minutes of your life.Several of my fellow Phuket Sanga members asked me to make sure that this recording was going to be available in the future, and with very good reason. We love this kind of stuff over here, so as Alan ocassionaly says after these kinds of talks "Hopefully that wasn't a waste of time for you. It certainly wasn't for us!"

Thirty Pieces of Advice from the Heart: Stanza 4-17

Thirty Pieces of Advice from the Heart: Stanza 18-30

Thirty Pieces of Advice from the Heart: Stanza 1-3

Kirsten DeLeo, M.A., is a longtime student of the Tibetan master Sogyal Rinpoche, author of classic bestseller The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and a senior educator in Rigpa's Spiritual Care Program. Kirsten organizes and co-facilitates hospice and nursing home volunteer trainings, as well as workshops for medical professionals and the public on healing, aging, illness, bereavement, and death and dying. She has volunteered at the Zen hospice and Maitri in San Francisco for many years and is trained in the Hakomi method of psychotherapy. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter