Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Jampal talks about the necessity of find a balance in our lives between dharma (including bodhicitta practice) and taking care of the activities necessary to live a healthy life.

Natasha explores service and practice, finding in their essence they are not different. These practices have given her the courage to let go into the awakened rawness of her own life, using self inquiry as the tool.

Hillary describes how growing up in a dharma family from a very young age has influenced her life and her path, establishing the ground and motivation for her own practice.

David recalls the various teachings on the first noble truth that suffering exists, and offers various practical methods to recognize suffering in our lives and mitigate furthering the suffering of ourselves and others.

Leah addresses everyday issues that are important to women such as cultural gender identity, relationships, abortion and rape. She discusses the intersection of those issues and Buddhism.

Dungsela talks about how to strike the proper balance between external ordinary activity that we need to do to maintain our lifestyle and the internal contemplative activity necessary for a rich spiritual life.

Kristin talks about her experience of practicing the dharma with her teacher and sangha. She explains how her lack of self acceptance manifested as trying to hide who she was, and how continued practice brought freedom, joy and confidence to her life.

Scott describes how the practive of self reflection and meditation helps us to examine ourselves and find our way through identity crises.

Michael leads us through a contemplation on the precious human birth.

Dungsela talks about how we live in a time when we often feel overwhelmed by external or internal events and offers the instruction to "just keep sitting (swimming)" to recognize our neuroses and be where and how we are.

Suzy talks about our motivation for developing a daily practice and how to actually connect with our shamata and vipassana practice in a fundamental way.

Mary talks about her practice and how she integrates into her life. She recounts contemplations that have enriched her life, especially questions about devotion.

Dungse-la talks about the difference between true renunciation and rejection, and the way true renunciation can arise naturally. Renunciation is based upon an intelligent analysis of what will bring genuine happiness to our life and rejection is based upon ignorance and aggression.

Mary talks about how the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death can generate genuine compassion. She describes her own personal losses, how they has breathed new life into the refuge and bodhisattva vows and how loss can actually bring out the best in us.

Clare speaks of the popularity of zombie/apocalyptic themes and how it reflects our own personal fears of being overwhelmed. She describes her own fears and anxieties of engaging with the chaos and the mass of people in India where she lives as a feeling of contraction.

Mark recounts his experiences as a 40-year practitioner. He likens the fruition of his cumulative, steady practice to the "dance of 1000 veils": fruition has come in both sudden and gradual rythms. The path is to follow the inspiration of that.

Dungse-la talks about what it means to genuinely take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and underscores the importance of effort to practice the path, and having faith in the three jewels to lead us to enlightenment.

Maki-san uses the key phrase "Nowhere to Escape" as her reminder to remember practice in daily life and the how the closeness of the Japanese Sangha provides this kind of support for each other, despite having busy conventional lives.

Dana recounts his experiences in the translation program over the past five years at Guna Institute in Bir India. He describes how the three pillars of practice, study and service were integrated in the Institute' s program.

Rinpoche gives his annual Losar address from Crestone Colorado.