Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Rinpoche originally originally gave this teaching on February 2, 2014 in Crestone, Colorado. In this talk, Rinpoche speaks about the importance of cultivating maitri or unlimited friendliness toward oneself and others as a way to cheer ourselves up and experience a lightness of being, especially in times of difficulty.

Speaker: Ava Evans. Ava gives a personal account of how her practices of bodhicitta and tonglen have been essential in navigating grief and loss. Her commitment to walk the path of a bodhisattva and follow Rinpoche's advice that, "our hearts must be strong and brave" have provided the support she needed to care for her brother during his battle with brain cancer until his death, and her father's decline into dementia. Turning toward suffering and bearing witness to their pain allowed Ava to...

Speaker: Pat Noyes. Pat talks about her exploration of the Dharma as it pertains to a current mental health challenge within her family. She offers a compilation of foundational teachings, practices and contemplations that have helped in understanding the pain and fear she experiences. Starting with the four noble truths, Pat shares her search for a way through suffering by drawing on the words of her teachers. What gets her to the cushion when times are bleak are Rinpoche's teachings on the...

Speaker: Michael McIlmurray. Michael describes how working with honey bees is a vehicle for his practice of mindfulness. As an example, a beekeeper's movement in the apiary can accidentally squash and kill the bees. Honoring his bodhisattva vow of not harming others, he brings mindful awareness and patience in caring for the bee colonies. His practice of patience also includes accepting his mistakes. Michael describes how being stung by a bee may result in a flash of anger or resentment,...

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is the second part of a two-hour teaching Rinpoche gave in 2018 at the annual, Source of Mahamudra program held at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling in Vershire, Vermont. The talk was split for rebroadcast over two consecutive weekends while Rinpoche and the Sangha were engaged in the annual Shedra program. In Part 1 (MSB podcast LINK #726), Rinpoche spoke about negative thinking and attachment, and the importance of mind training especially as we age. In Part...

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is the first part of a two-hour teaching Rinpoche gave in 2018 at the annual, Source of Mahamudra program held at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling in Vershire, Vermont. The talk was split for rebroadcast over two consecutive weekends while Rinpoche and the Sangha were engaged in the annual Shedra program. In Part 1, Rinpoche speaks about negative thinking and attachment, and the importance of mind training especially as we age. In Part 2, he provides the...

Speaker: Elizabeth Ready. Elizabeth discusses various pith instructions of the guru, from Dzigar Kongtrul's request to generate bodhicitta before we listen to the teachings, to Patrul Rinpoche's encouragement to generate the unsurpassable skillful means of the Mantrayana. She recounts Bob Reid's talk on the three supreme methods: the supreme aspiration for the benefit of beings, the supreme view of trutal, the ineffable, luminous nature and the supreme dedication that all attain enlightenment...

Speaker: Mark Kram. Mark shares his experience exploring emptiness, the foundational Mahayana teaching that is distilled in the Heart Sutra, 'The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom'. He explains that our wisdom increases directly as a function of how close we are to understanding this teaching. Each of us must arrive at the realization of emptiness through our own process of contemplation and meditation. Yet, because the Heart Sutra so profoundly upends our ideas about what is real, it is...

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded Personal LINK was given by Rinpoche on May 30, 2004 at Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado. It was re-broadcast in two parts, Part 1 on September 1st and Part 2 on September 8th, 2024. Please refer to Part 1 for a full summary of the talk.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded Personal LINK was given by Rinpoche on May 30, 2004 at Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado. The talk was split into two parts, aired on consecutive weekends while Rinpoche and the Sangha are engaged in the annual Mahayoga and Sadhana of Mahamudra programs at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling in Vershire, Vermont. In this talk, Rinpoche encourages us to not waste this precious tendrel of having met the Mahayana and Vajrayana Dharma. He stresses...

Speaker: Inigo Batterham. Inigo shares his experience with mental illness and addiction, juxtaposed against an unfolding Dharmic path. He emphasizes how his life has been indelibly altered by great masters such as H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and how Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's guidance and constant presence have helped him manage his addiction and mental struggles and turn his mind towards the Dharma.

Speaker: Bob Reid. Following up on his talk from August 11, 2024, Bob discusses the three supreme methods and the four metaphors, laying the framework for a further talk on bodhcitta. He shares some ‘provocative contemplations’ that he uses in his own practice, arising from the implications of the second of these supreme methods. The inseparability of the ground and fruition and the illusory nature of reality mean we should avoid a goal-oriented or materialistic attitude towards our practice....

Speaker: Bob Reid. In the first of a two-part talk, Bob speaks about the four immeasurables, reviewing two of the three supreme methods: to arouse the bodhicitta, and while carrying out an action, to avoid getting lost in any conceptualization. He describes bodhicitta as an attitude where you wish for others the happiness that you have, with a broad mind and perspective. He points out that it is the truth of suffering that brings us to engage in the path of Dharma. Relating to the second...

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la describes the spiritual path as a path of getting know oneself. Having grown up in a Dharmic family, the practice of self reflection has been a constant in his life from a young age. Being a Dharmic person means going beyond improving the self based on worldly concerns, to develop a relationship with one’s internal world of thoughts and emotions. A daily practice of meditation is foundational to self-knowing. By observing thoughts and emotions arising...

Speaker: Jennifer O'Keeffe. Jennifer describes how the Lojong practice supports us in transforming adversity into a path of awakening. As a mind training tool, Lojong helps to liberate ourselves from attachment to self cherishing and to cultivate a compassionate heart. In today's talk, Jennifer covers slogans 11-14: (11) ‘When the world is full of evil, transform misfortune into the path of awakening’: When we bring our obstacles onto the path, they help clarify our practice; (12) ‘Realize...

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded teaching was given by Rinpoche at the 2023 Nyingma Summer Seminar on July 8, 2023 at Phuntsok Choling in Ward, Colorado. Opening the Hinayana section of this annual summer program, Rinpoche discusses self-awareness and how Dharma is the medicine to reduce self-attachment.

Speaker: Jennifer Shippee. Jennifer speaks about excerpts from Rinpoche's upcoming book on diligence. She investigates both discipline (Tib. tsultrim) and diligence (Tib. tsöndrü), how their meanings differ and overlap, and explains how to harness diligence based on Chapter 4 of Shantideva's ‘Bodhisattvacharyavatara’. The first step in harnessing diligence involves understanding the inner obstacle of laziness, which comes in three forms. The first is an attachment to sleep and idleness, the...

Speaker: Katsutoshi Okabayashi. Oka-san shares his thoughts on the importance of establishing a daily reflection on the precepts of Bodhicitta. He has been examining how he might engage with his world each day versus how he might habitually engage with a world full of stressful, confusing or annoying situations. Although difficult because of years of habit, it is important for him to re-commit each day, keep a more awakened attitude of mind, and practice viewing daily stressors with curiosity...

Speaker: Christine Anisko. Christine addresses the ways in which our preoccupations with material reality and the fast-paced nature of our lives block our awareness of an expansive spiritual realm. When Christine's parents recently passed away, she experienced firsthand how the animation of being alive suddenly ceases. To avoid the pain of becoming invisible we distract ourselves with external preoccupations, which prevent us from contemplating the true meaning of death. Only through...

Speaker: Michaela Ledesma. The Outer, Inner and Secret Refuge Prayer of Tangtong Gyalpo and the power of its tremendous blessings is the focus of this talk. Michaela shares stories about her personal connection to the prayer and her continuing relationship with Tangtong Gyalpo in her own life. Drawing on the namthar, or spiritual biography by Cyrus Stearns entitled, ‘King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo’, she provides background information on this great...

Speaker: Susan Walp. Following Rinpoche's advice, Susan shares her personal journey in learning to practice the Dharma from a place of enjoyment, rather than discipline. Discipline is important for the practitioner, but there are two kinds of discipline: one that comes from a feeling of obligation, competitiveness and wanting to be a good student, and the other which has enjoyment as its basis. In examining what inspires her to practice, she is learning to approach her practice from a place...

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores the practice of self-reflection as the way of finding our true north as practitioners. We can use the interrelated methods of analysis (‘tokpa’, in Tibetan) to look at things in general and ‘chopa’ to examine details for clarifying our own thought process. With the internet and social media we meet with many contrasting perspectives and narratives that push agendas. Dungse-la encourages us to align ourselves with the perspectives of the Buddhas...

Speaker: Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz. Sasha describes how discipline is a natural feature of our longing to attain a state of awakening. The Latin word ‘disciplina’ refers to teaching, learning and knowledge. A disciple is someone who listens and learns. In the conventional world, our lives are not patterned towards practice; practice feels inconvenient and seems to contradict our belief in finding happiness in samsara. The diligent practitioner recognizes that discipline aligns our actions and...

Speaker: Jill Oppenheimer. Jill explores the practice of self-reflection and shares her experience of working with hindrances that can arise as part of this process. The point of all Buddhist teachings is to reduce self-importance and make room for the truth, and this begins with self-reflection. It involves turning the mind inward and looking without judgment at whatever arises in our experience. Jill explains the necessity to pause before engaging in self-reflection as it is only with the...