Planet Dharma - The Launch Pod

Teachings based on the book "Gems of Dharma, Jewels of Freedom" by Gampopa.  --- The Four Impediments to Awakening Why don't you want to awaken? Get ready for impact. Talk given at winter retreat in Dec. 2009, Miki, Hyogo, Japan. Note: Quote attributed to Neils Bohr > actually by Schrodinger to Bohr. http://www.planetdharma.com/

Some topics covered in this talk: skandhas (composites), the awakening experience, dealing with pain, "karma is cetana (will or decision)", being hurt and how to forgive http://www.planetdharma.com/

Part 3: Seven Types of Meditation In this talk: Samatha meditation (develops calm and concentration resulting in bliss) Six types of samatha meditation: visualization, mantra, mudra, devotional, energy, and breathing. Plus, Vipassana meditation: insight --- In this talk: Samatha meditation (develops calm and concentration resulting in bliss) Six types of samatha meditation: visualization, mantra, mudra, devotional, energy, and breathing Vipassana meditation: insight What is reality? From the point of view of Buddhism, there is no object to be found in the universe anywhere. All objects are made up of composite parts. A human being is made up of these composite parts: form, feeling, perception, consciousness, factors of consciousness. http://www.planetdharma.com/

Part 2: What is Meditation? The separation between the mind that's experiencing a state and the state that you're experiencing is fundamentally meditation. Meditation practices are tools that you use to get between you and your habitual run-on mind. --- "Fundamentally, meditation means the ability to witness what's going on in consciousness while it's going on in consciousness." "If you don't see that the state you're in right now -- while you're in a state of anger or in a fight -- is more important than the outcome of the fight, you'll always be fighting. [...] If you put the state you're in right now first, you're meditating, which doesn't mean you have to say to yourself 'I'm not angry.' You step back from the state you're in to look at what it's like to be in that state." "Meditation is the process of learning how to observe the state you're in -- physically, emotionally and mentally -- without getting all bent out of shape about it." "Meditation practices are basically levers or wedges to get in betw

Part 1: No More Quiet Desperation We don't have to lead lives of quiet desperation. Sensei tells us: "The key to awakening is being aware of your own state, almost as if it's not your own." --- We don't have to lead lives of quiet desperation. Perhaps we are too lazy to investigate the nature of our own consciousness, perhaps we have doubts. We fool ourselves into thinking we can get true happiness from objects that are transitory and fundamentally... unsatisfactory. Sensei tells us: "The key to awakening is being aware of your own state, almost as if it's not your own." "Ask yourself one question: 'What is inherently unpleasant or uncomfortable or undesirable in this thing?' "In the process of taking apart your views of things, you find that a lot of the things you're building your happiness on are doomed to end. Can they possibly, then, create everlasting peace?" http://www.planetdharma.com/  

We're obsessed with our lives. We reference everything back to ourselves. We need to let go of this obsession in order to access that which is greater than ourselves. You can't be busy with distractions. --- "The problem is that you want to have your cake and eat it, too. So you try to do the job and career and relationship thing AND stand on the edge of the cliff, but because you're clinging to the job and career and relationship, you're not actually ON the edge of the cliff. You try to convince yourself you're on the edge of the cliff when you're 15 miles from it. The teacher's job is nothing other than to disabuse you of the fact that you're not standing at the edge of the cliff, and to point where the edge of the cliff is." Terms used in the talk: "alaya vinjana" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_consciousness) Jataka tales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales) Jodo Shinshu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodo_Shinshu) Kyentse Norbu Rinpoche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzongsar_Jamyang_Khyentse_

Are We Our Thoughts? Part 1 of 2 The mistake we make that hinders our spiritual development is that we take things personally, which feeds experiences back into the conditioned responses that we call the self. So what is the self? Our thoughts? Our emotions? Our body? --- Wake up in the morning and set your aspiration for the day. It's fundamental for "working the bowl upstream into the more radiant fields of consciousness." The mistake we make that hinders our spiritual development is that we take things personally, which feeds experiences back into the conditioned responses that we call the self. So what is the self? Our thoughts? Our emotions? Our body? This talk was given in March 2009 at Clear Sky Center, B.C., Canada. http://www.planetdharma.com/

To meditate, you don't have to be "smart," says Doug Sensei. You just have to see clearly. --- In this edited talk excerpt, Sensei discusses "the Purification of View" (from the Abhidhamma) and provides a useful meditation exercise to help one come to understand nama and rupa (mind and matter), the knowledge of which constitutes the first stage of insight and leads to overcoming doubt on the Path. http://www.planetdharma.com/

What does it mean to purify one's morality? --- In this short excerpt from a talk given in Calgary, B.C., Canada, Doug Sensei discusses "the purification of virtue (sila)" as part of the traditional "seven stages of purification" and defines sila as being in a state of fundamental friendliness toward self and others. Sanskrit terms: sila: "coolness" or  "cool-headedness" kusala: skilful, virtuous http://www.quangduc.com/English/kusala.htm http://www.planetdharma.com/

A discussion on the seven types of meditation, includes the Sanskrit terms samatha, vipassana, and rupa/arupa jhana Full talk: Part 3 of 3 Sanskrit terminology used in this talk include: bardo and Tathagatagarbha. http://www.planetdharma.com/

A discussion on the seven types of meditation. Full talk: Part 2 of 3 --- Continuing with this discussion on the seven types of meditation, you’ll encounter the following Sanskrit terms: Tathagatagarbha, alaya-vijnana References are also made to Mahākāśyapa, the Flower sermon disciple, and Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism. http://www.planetdharma.com/

A discussion on the seven types of meditation. Full talk: Part 1 of 3 --- In this discussion on the seven types of meditation, you'll encounter the following Sanskrit terms: samatha, vipassana, rupa/arupajhana Talks are edited lightly to remove extraneous material. For more information on the activities of Doug Sensei, please visit: http://www.planetdharma.com/

With the purification of consciousness, you realize that you are a wave and you are an ocean. In essence you are water -- all the same water. Water is the six senses in this metaphor. --- This talk was given for a retreat in Guatemala on Feb. 26, 2004. Part 2 of 2. For more information on the activities of Doug Sensei, please visit: http://www.planetdharma.com/

Purification of the sense doors is probably the most important work you do on the path, leading to a body of radiance. --- This talk was given for a retreat in Guatemala on Feb. 26, 2004. Part 1 of 2. For more information on the activities of Doug Sensei, please visit: http://www.planetdharma.com/ podcast.clearskycenter.org

The root of the path is sila, samadhi and panna. 1. The Golden Rule works. 2. Concentration -- requires and effort that goes beyond your preference mind (you get bored). Important for right-hemisphere brain if mind is wandering around in the left brain. 3. Wisdom -- Complete View: fundamentally, reality from a Transcendent point of view is self-aware, luminescent, spacious. From that platform all phenomena appear. --- Part 3 of 3 of a talk given in Kyoto, Japan, in November 2008. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

All the objects of your mind are impermanent. Liberation from suffering/Nirvana/Christ consciousness is a right-hemisphere experience but the left hemisphere is the hemisphere that knows about it. --- This talk was given in Kyoto, Japan, in November 2008. It is Part 2 of 3. podcast.clearskycenter.org http://www.planetdharma.com/

When studying the mind, if you're busy with your thoughts, feelings and sensations, you're getting caught up with what's in the mind, not the nature of the mind itself. "M" Mind is aware, spacious, naturally luminescent and clear. --- This talk was given in Kyoto, Japan, in Nov. 2008. Part 1 of 3.