Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Speaker: Scott Gallagher. Reflecting on the 2023 Nyingma Summer Seminar, Scott was particularly struck by Rinpoche's encouraging students to approach practice with a state of ease. Scott differentiates the notion of ease from his habitual ways of relating to practice, characterized by a focus on challenges, dwelling on areas for improvement and fixating on whether or not he's doing "it" right. He investigates ease in practice through an example of a friend who looks forward to curling up and enjoying a good book. What would it take to shift one's practice from a problem-centered approach to one of such enjoyment and immersion? Scott presents various ways to let go of habitual, discursive thinking and direct our minds towards a more relaxed approach to practice: We can confidently rely on the lineage and deities as our supports. We are not in this alone. We can remind ourselves of the precious opportunity we have to become liberated. We can make genuine, heartfelt aspirations to benefit all beings, which allow

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded LINK talk was given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche on March 29, 2015 at Phuntsok Choling in Ward, CO. Rinpoche illustrates the necessity of self-awareness to cleanse one's mind and reduce suffering. With practice, we develop the wisdom and skillful means to free ourselves from ego's drives.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded LINK talk was given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche on March 29, 2015 at Phuntsok Choling in Ward, CO. Rinpoche illustrates the necessity of self-awareness to cleanse one's mind and reduce suffering. With practice, we develop the wisdom and skillful means to free ourselves from ego's drives. He describes the practice as our capacity to turn a "junk pot into a flower garden".

Speaker: Markus Stobbs. Markus reflects on how the guru principle has acted as a guide on his ever-unfolding path both within the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Markus describes how the guru can accelerate our awakening through their teachings and their physical presence. He gives examples of the different aspects of the guru principle, weaving a thread through his journey starting with his first "guru" being his mother, many years as a student of Hinduism, to his current guru, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Markus's devotion to the guru shines bright throughout the talk.

Speaker: Diane de Ford. Diane contemplates how the meaning of the phrase "having a bone in one's heart" expresses the essence of bodhicitta. To have a bone in one's heart is to have both the courage and the compassion that are required to gather insight into the nature of our own afflictive emotions, to overcome self-cherishing, and to create the conditions that allow us to put others before ourselves.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded talk was given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche on December 10, 2017 at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche explains how remorse and forgiveness are the essential ingredients of the Buddhist path and their practice results in the experience of grace.

Speaker: Owen Ziols. Owen reflects on how he understands and cultivates renunciation. Renunciation may be understood in the context of ground, path, and fruition, the four thoughts that turn the mind to the Dharma, and the eight worldly concerns. Underlying all approaches, however, is the need for self-reflection and skillful means.

Speaker: Polly Banerjee-Gallagher. Polly Gallagher tells the story of how she and her siblings held vigil at her mother's deathbed a year ago and how Rinpoche and the Sangha showed up for her family during that time as well as later when she took her parent's ashes to India. She also shares details about her mother's generous approach to life and reflects on the impact of the Dharma in her life.

Speaker: Ram Jyoti. Drawing from a broad array of sources, including the Dharma, the enneagram, A Course in Miracles, Carolyn Myss, and The Gnostic Gospels, Ram Jyoti reflects on what she has learned about confession, despair, aspiration, and kindness. Confession requires us to look honestly at ourselves, offering in return a sense of relief and purification. Cultivating the courage to "simmer" prepares us to learn the lessons that can be taught only by experiencing betrayal and despair. Extending patience and tolerance to our neuroses engenders kindness to all beings, and generates the aspiration to liberate all beings.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu.

Speaker: Paddy McCarthy. Paddy reflects on how we can use the process of aging as an opportunity to meet the challenges of dying, training ourselves to pass with fearless confidence through illness, dissolution, and the bardos. Learning how to accept the process of aging teaches us how to die with clarity and openness. By doing so, we can increase the likelihood of attaining either enlightenment or an auspicious human rebirth that will enable us to continue on the spiritual path.

Speaker: Bill Filter. Bill recounts the story of how he came to the Dharma and met Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la, speaking from the 2023 Nyingma Summer Seminar, reminds us that the Buddha's first teaching in Sarnath was that there is suffering. The Buddha went into great detail about his investigation into how we suffer. Our suffering springs more from our own mind and attitude than from the our physical conditions, as evidenced by people in developing countries. Our neurotic self-attachment and the five destructive emotions spin the wheel of samsara. The Dharma teaches that the path to the cessation of suffering involves working with karmic cause and effect in an open-eyed manner, seeing the results of our negative and positive actions and steering our life toward a dharmic life using practices like the Noble Eightfold Path and the Four Immeasurables. Karma is not about fault or punishment, but simply about cause and effect, our action and Nature's reaction, the wonders of interdependent arising. As practitioners, we drip-feed samsara into our practice to develop a healthy relati

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la, speaking from the Illustrious Moon children's program, explores karma or cause and effect. Each of our actions and the primary tone of our approach to life will eventually come back to us as karmic results. The effect will be related to the cause, so if we're angry a lot, the effect will be related to anger. Our intention matters and amplifies karmic results. Lojong mind training slogans like "don't be so predictable" remind us to be less habitually reactive to karmic results that appear in our life and respond in new ways that gradually shift our karma in a positive direction due to the workings of cause and effect.

Speaker: Gretchen Kahre-Holland. Gretchen reflects on two opportunities presented by the pandemic: to go into retreat, and to emerge with a fresh perspective on how to relate with our own minds and with others. Rinpoche once advised his students to "pray that your life falls apart---but not to put it back together in the same way"; more recently, he advised us to treat the pandemic as a retreat. As we emerge from this "retreat" and prepare to gather at NSS in person for the first time since 2019, we have an opportunity to apply Rinpoche's advice. As we put our lives back together, we can reflect on how we want to engage with our own minds and with the Sangha, using our experience and natural intelligence to cultivate an open, curious, and fresh approach. In this way, we can overcome the cycle of discontent, craving, and speed that characterizes modern life.

Speaker: Jonathan Hulbert. Jonathan contemplates how taking refuge in the Three Jewels requires faith, trust, and devotion. Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is an ongoing process to free ourselves from the suffering that arises from the dualistic belief in a self that is real and separate. In general, taking refuge implies seeking shelter or protection from danger. Paradoxically, however, in the context of the Dharma, this protection can be attained only by choosing to be "in the open".

Speaker: Robin Correll. Robin reflects on how cultivating the five strengths helps us develop a brave heart that allows us to meet challenging circumstances with confidence, openness, curiosity, and courage. The five strengths identified by the Dharma are determination, familiarization, seeds of virtue, reproach (remorse, exposure), and aspiration. We can develop these strengths through the consistent practice of mindfulness, self-reflection, prayer, and contemplation.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores how the practice of bodhicitta (awakened mind) includes investigating one's own egoic reactions in daily life. Holding onto our history with self-importance results in emotional baggage that leads to habitual reactions in the present that cause suffering. Our emotional baggage is not who we are; it is not intrinsically existent. We can transform it as it surfaces through self-reflection using lojong mind training teachings like "transform obstacles into the path of awakening". Using the four immeasurables to meditate on our "enemies" and objects of hurt or heartbreak can change our relationship with them, turning them into a source of inspiration. Waking up includes letting go of the dream.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. In a previously recorded LINK talk given on June 13, 2004 at Osel Ling in Crestone, Colorado, Rinpoche gives commentary on the text, "Vast As The Heavens, Deep As The Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta".

Speaker: Jen Kern. Jen reflects on how we can liberate ourselves from shenpa--the raw, uncomfortable energy of self-clinging---by engaging fully and deeply in the practice of confession. The Lojong teachings encourage us to work on our strongest reactions first. To do so, we have to recognize and reflect on our shenpa, resolve to overcome it, and confess it in the presence of the Three Jewels. Although we might resist confessing because we fear the shame and guilt that may accompany it, we can overcome this fear by recognizing that shenpa, too, is impermanent; it is merely the expression of ego itself. We do not have to be critical of our emotions. Acknowledging this frees us to confess deeply and without self-aggression, cleansing our hearts and allowing bodhicitta to increase.