Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

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 all faults spring from one source: Ego clinging, belief in "I"’: Rather than blaming others for challenging circumstances we turn to our own minds, analyzing how all phenomena result from multiple causes and conditions; (13) ‘Meditate upon gratitude toward all’: Being grateful for beings who do us harm or irritate us, seeing their provocations as our true teachers; (14) ‘Use whatever you face as a practice immediately’: With awareness, our suffering can be a gateway to bodhicitta with such practices as tonglen, the four imm

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 second, an attachment to mundane distractions and the third is self-denigration. To counter these obstacles, one can rely on the four allies: aspiration, steadfastness, moderation and taking breaks. Explaining this and more in great detail, Jennifer views these exercises as a fundamental part of our Dharma education where we are taught how to work with our mind and ultimately experience deeper meaning in our lives. As Shantideva reveals, working with diligence uncovers tremendous joy.

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 and when possible, with humor.

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 meditative awareness can we access the expansive invisible realm in which the death of a body marks a passage of continuation towards future incarnations.

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 lineage master and his impact on the mystical tradition of Tibet. He is known as a mind emanation of Guru Padmasambhava and is believed to have recovered numerous caches of terma (hidden treasure teachings) concealed by the Indian master.

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 of appreciation, warmth, creativity and inner joy.

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 by being honest with ourselves, holding ourselves accountable to mind training and facing our mind with equanimity. We learn to trust ourselves as the primary witness. Then, we do not build new stories of ourselves or the nature of reality. We transform the negative emotions by seeing they are ultimately empty of intrinsic characteristics and remain natural- a child of illusion.

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 intentions, fortifying us against neurotic habits. The discipline of directing our minds towards the Dharma and away from ego-clinging provides us with a greater experience of confidence and freedom.

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 discipline of shamatha and vipashyana that the wisdom to self-reflect is available. She explores how confusion can arise if we hold hopes of certain outcomes and try to use the practice of self-reflection to fix things. We also need to appreciate that self-reflection is not just a single practice but involves many skillful means such as simmering practice, analytical meditation, mindfulness, observing thoughts without judgment and contemplating the eight worldly concerns and the four immeasurables.

Speaker: Chris Holland. Chris examines buddhanature as the foundation of enlightened qualities, including love. In this talk, he sets the stage to understand the genuine or absolute ground of buddhanature in order to see how the path functions. He describes absolute ground as a living presence, primordially existent with radiant qualities, the "enlightened essence" or absolute nature. Love is the radiance of absolute nature. Chris sees the Four Immeasurables practice as the "structure" of enlightened essence because the practice stirs up the qualities of enlightened essence (wisdom, love and power). Enlightened essence is the limitless source of all worlds, all positive qualities, all goodness. What separates us from allowing this essence to flow freely through us is grasping to a limited self; the path is simply to purify the obstacles that block us from recognizing the absolute nature. From there, we become a limitless source of love.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la shares his experience of travel and the unique opportunity it brings to step out of our comfort zone and actively engage with our mind. He describes the difference between being a pilgrim or a tourist, the latter being one who seeks fun and comfort, the former being one who brings Dharma practice along for the ride, perhaps even seeking discomfort. Experiencing his own discomfort, Dungse-la closely examined his own mind and discovered that his experience was dependent on his attitude. Knowing there is no happiness to be found in outer circumstances, he allowed himself to relax into his discomfort and a positive mindset blossomed. That mindset allowed him to walk through the world and offer everything as if he owned it; his enjoyment and appreciation became a mandala of offering.

Speaker: Greg Seton. Greg delves into working with emotional pain, outlining the process from a ground, path and fruition perspective. Emotional pain or "klesha" in Sanskrit is loosely translated as "affliction". It causes pain and contaminates our thoughts, feelings and actions. The afflicted ego-mind is the cause of klesha. It is afflicted because it struggles to maintain what it constructs as self-image and becomes attached to that mental image. This fixation is painful and causes one to interpret everything through the ego-image as a stream of thinking, which then sets up false duality. In the path, we need to first learn to recognize our emotions, then apply antidotes. For learning about the relative-based Mahayana approach, Greg recommends reading 'Light Comes Through' by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche as it covers the five, self-centered emotions and their antidotes. For the absolute-based Vajrayana approach, he suggests we bring the pain of the emotion into our experience and then stare at it, looking at it

Speaker: Scott Kleihege. Scott delves into the topic of conceptual mind in this LINK given from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Speaker: Catherine Houston. Catherine shares her experience of the parinirvana of her root teacher, Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, and her experiences in retreat following his passing.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a previously-recorded talk given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche from Northshire Book Store in Manchester, Vermont on August 31, 2018. The talk was from Rinpoche's 2018 Book Tour, 'Training in Tenderness: Buddhist Teachings on "Tsewa", the Radical Openness of Heart That Can Change the World'.

Speaker: Kate Dobbertin. Kate speaks about her journey to bring her heart to a state of well being by breaking down the false realities within herself. Kate describes how being nearer to her mother during a time of illness and her siblings brought to light various attachments and storylines to reflect upon and investigate more deeply. Being part of a lineage built on self-reflection, coupled with Kate's hunger to shift her consciousness to a larger reality, she delved into what obscures her heart- a solidified sense of self. Kate describes how samsara, karma and attachment cut deep into the idea of self, and describes samsara as what we experience when we have preferences. It is represented by a constant wish that things were different from the way they are, driven by our own individual karma. She believes that every practice in this lineage offers healing, and healing is creating a state of well being, or a heart unburdened by layers of self-deception.

Speaker: Natasha Carter. Natasha discusses how the practice of staying open allows her to see more clearly her patterns of mind, particularly when the mind is disturbed and agitated. Caring for elderly parents can be challenging, but Natasha uses this as an opportunity to lean into her discomfort to cultivate self-awareness. Reading Rinpoche's book, "Peaceful Heart" with her mother has provided a framework for reflecting on her repetitive patterns of anger, irritation and remorse that sometimes arise while relating to her parents. In particular, she examines how the eight worldly concerns (pleasure and pain, loss and gain, praise and blame, fame and disgrace) show up to hook her, causing pain to herself and others. Rather than criticizing, she remains curious about her own disturbance of mind. The willingness to face these destructive mindsets takes humility, courage and resolve. It also requires an agile mind: the capacity to think clearly in the face of reactivity.

Speaker: Dai Inaba. Dai-san analyzes the ways in which he's dealt with unexpected life events, including things about himself he hasn't wanted to face. Dai-san described some recent, unexpected events that caused damage to the entrance gate at Tashi Gachil. Staying present with the events and calmly investigating the source, Dai-san was able to respond with equanimity, instead of panic and blame. In looking back over his 25 years as a student of Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, he remembered being very hard on himself, but now sees clearly the source of his pain as self-clinging. Practices such as Lojong allow Dai-san to view his own suffering as a way to decrease the suffering of others. This has helped him disrupt habitual self-clinging, and focus more on alleviating the suffering of others, with meditation and prayer.

Speaker: Mary Cobb. Mary shares her experience of meditation on the Vajrayana path of Tibetan Buddhism.