A Yogi’s Perspective on Dharma

The Dharma lives within the yogi,

The yogi follows the Dharma.

If you really follow the Dharma, nothing can harm you.

Even if they take this life, they can’t take your next life.

~ Drupon Samten Rinpoche

(source: the film, The Secret Yogis of Tibet)

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Teen Meditation Retreat With Tara Brach

Here’s some information about an upcoming meditation retreat for teens with Tara Brach and a non-profit group, Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) is dedicated to improving the lives of teens, parents, and professionals. At iBme, we teach teens proven awareness & concentration practices that have been used for thousands of years. Teens learn how to settle a busy mind; how to skillfully handle emotions and thoughts; how to direct and sustain attention; how to cultivate compassion; and how to truly listen and communicate. Through mindfulness meditation, small group discussions, and fun workshop activities, participants experience a sense of connection and safety that many have never felt before.

 At our teen mindfulness retreats, we offer teens, ages 14-19, an amazing opportunity to explore their body and mind through the practices of insight meditation; qi gong and yoga; delicious organic meals; and tools to deepen their listening and speaking skills through group mindfulness exercises and workshops in creative expression. These retreats are fun and transformational for teens and staff alike.

Tara Brach is a leading teacher of meditation, emotional healing and spiritual awakening, with over 35 years’ experience. She is a clinical psychologist, the senior teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, and author of the books Radical Acceptance and True Refuge—Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart.

 This weekend teen retreat is being held at Sevenoaks Retreat Center, in Madison, Virginia, from Friday, October 5 to Sunday, October 7.

 Please contact La Sarmiento at 202-997-1399 or

a@ibme.info for more information.  Here’s the flyer:

VA-Fall-Weekend-Flyer7-5-12

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: How Does the Self Appear

In order to understand emptiness we need to begin by analyzing how the sense of self appears to us in daily life. Khensur Rinpoche gave a few examples of how we typically describe finding our self:

• as something solid inside of us like a stick
• as something in the core of our being like at the heart
• as the body itself
• as a kind of darkness inside
• as a space-like expanse

The Buddha taught that although the self might appear to exist in these ways, it does not.

Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 14, 2012

Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Dissolving the Guru at Your Heart

One of the practices common to the sutrayana and tantrayana traditions is visualizing your lama dissolving at your heart. Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa described the feeling:

“When you dissolve the lama at your heart, this experience should be palpable, even overwhelming, like when you suddenly acquire something very valuable. Or, like when a son is re-united with his mother after a very long time.”

Mahamudra Retreat, NYC, August 12, 2012
Translator: Art Engle

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa: Meditation on the Breath

During his Mahamudra commentary, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa explained the 8 point Vairochana posture. The first seven points describe the physical body posture. The 8th point is the meditation on counting the breath. After describing how to do the meditation, he said that we should not underestimate the effectiveness of this practice. Done correctly, it can lead to the generation of calm abiding.

Rinpoche advised us to do the practice in the morning. By counting 1,000 cycles of breath (one cycle being an inhalation and exhalation) for ten days in a row, we will definitely experience a cumulative effect — it will prevent illness, extend our life span and cause joy and a sense of ease.

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Book Review: Bodhisattva Attitude by Lama Zopa

Bodhisattvas want to be used by sentient beings. That is what the bodhisattvas’ attitude is. They actually accept it. The worldly mind things that being used by others is bad, it is the worst thing, but bodhisattvas are most happy to accept this. If you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to practice bodhicitta and this is EXACTLY what the bodhisattvas’ attitude is. Their happiest practice is to be used by sentient beings. It is what they are always looking for. ~ Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Ven Sarah Thresher has carefully designed a collection of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s teachings on bodhicitta. She is one of Rinpoche’s most devoted, and most self-sacrificing students. Her respect and love for him is evident in the effort she put into transcribing his teachings, editing and organizing them. Designed for busy practitioners, the book presents the subject as a series of meditations of varying lengths.

Part one presents selected verses from Shantideva’s Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Part two contains five of Rinpoche’s teachings titled:

1. Everything Depends on Your Attitude: an introductory talk
2. Cutting the Concept of Permanence: bodhisattva motivation for life 1
3. Give Up Stretching the Legs: bodhisattva motivation for life 2
4. Bodhisattva Attitude: how to dedicate your life to others
5. Four Wrong Concepts: a motivation for taking the eight Mahayana precepts

The teachings sparkle with Rinpoche’s humor and reflect the radiance of his wisdom. Reading them brought back memories of being with Rinpoche during the Light of the Path retreat in North Carolina.Part three contains a long version of the motivation based on the teachings. Finally in part 4, based on her many years of teaching, Ven Sarah distilled each teaching to its essence. She presents it in an easy-to-read format to gently guide the meditator’s stream of thoughts.

The appendices contain the mantras that Rinpoche suggests we offer every morning to multiply the merit of our virtuous acts. Other short teachings and advice on practicing bodhicitta are also included. In short, everything you need to support your meditation on bodhicitta is brought together in this single volume.

You may wish to progress through the sections sequentially. For example, you could read one of the teachings several times until you developed a sense of ease with it and then use the long version of the motivation. Or, you may already be so comfortable that you could just meditate on a short motivation before your daily practice.

In some ways, Bodhisattva Attitude is more accessible to a general audience than The Heart of the Path, the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive’s publication of Rinpoche’s guru devotion teachings. Everyone feels the benefits of cultivating a mind of loving kindness towards oneself and others to some extent. Relatively few people, however, deeply understand the role a spiritual teacher teacher plays, and even fewer have a guru. The two books complement each other for by practicing bodhicitta with a pure motivation, we create the causes and conditions that will enable us to find and serve a guru.

Bodhisattva Attitude is an expression of Ven Sarah’s guru devotion. She shares the Dharma so we may recognize that every moment of consciousness is a fleeting opportunity for serving others. We can’t attain Enlightenment without serving others, and there’s no reason to seek Enlightenment other than to help others.

Bodhisattva Attitude is one of many books available for free on the LYWA website. Donations to support LYWA’s publication efforts can be made online: http://www.lamayeshe.com, or by sending a check to:

Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
PO Box 636
Lincoln, MA 01773 · USA

Please share your comments about the book.

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Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa Path to Bliss Recordings Now Available

In February 2012, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa completed his commentary on “The Path of Well-Being for Those Traveling to Omniscience: Essential Guide to the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment” by the First Panchen Lama. Recordings of the February classes are now available on the Center website along with the earlier classes in the series. This is a beautiful short  text with clear instructions on how to meditate on the subjects that make up the Lam Rim.

Have you used the Path to Bliss in your daily meditations? What lasting impression has this series of teachings had on your practice?

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The Circus Is In Town

Here’s the link to an article that I wrote with help from Venerable Tenzin Lhamo: Elephant Walk tests the Buddhist principles of a trained mind and inner peace. The Post published it the day after Ringling Brothers paraded six elephants and 24 horses through the streets of D.C. at night.

Actually, the article is primarily about meditation and mind training.

See the related articles and join the discussion. If you look closely at the photos, you can see the bull hooks:

Nighttime circus parade entertains all generations of Washingtonians

PETA prodding city over Ringling Bros. elephants

Thank you.

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Book Review: When the Chocolate Runs Out by Lama Yeshe

When the Chocolate Runs Out is a handsome little book from Wisdom Publications that contains all of Lama Yeshe’s central themes. The style is definitely Lama Yeshe’s, his directness and playful sense of humor come through clearly. He warns about the danger of fantasizing about Enlightenment but not making an effort on the path, “If you have no method, no key to open the storehouse of wisdom, no way to bring the Dharma into your everyday life, you’d be better off with Coca-Cola. At least that quenches your thirst.”

The book contain subjects for analytical meditation such as karma as well as advice on integrating Dharma into daily life. The chapter “The Meaning of Emptiness” is a beautiful presentation of how and why understanding emptiness is not a dry intellectual exercise but rather a way to open a window onto our own minds and hence to self-discovery. With characteristic directness, Lama Yeshe said, “The key during both life and death, is to recognize illusions as illusions, projections as projections, and fantasies as fantasies. In this way we become free”. The last two chapters, “How to Meditate”, and “An Inner Revolution” are Lama Yeshe’s classic instructions on the practice of meditation and equalizing and exchanging self with others.

The editors, Nick Ribush and Josh Bartok, present the text as a series of short paragraphs that are almost verse-like in their density. Each passage is a meditation topic in itself, so it’s meant to be enjoyed slowly, sentence by sentence. Better yet, read a short passage at the end of the day together with a friend.

Lama Yeshe, edited by Nick Ribush and Josh Bartok. When the Chocolate Runs Out. Wisdom Publications: Boston. 2011

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Punch Buggy No Punch Backs

If you’ve been around elementary school kids recently, you may have heard them say, “Punch Buggy, No Punch Backs” whenever they see a Volkswagen Beetle. Then they punch each other gently on the arm and call out the color. I wonder if this is something that Volkswagen surreptitiously started somehow. So what does this have to do with mindfulness, you might wonder.

For me, it’s like a mindfulness check — so no matter what’s going on in the car – if we’re talking, having an argument, reading, playing a game, etc. — Tenzin and I have to stop if we see a Beetle and yell “Punch Buggy, No Punch Backs!”  It’s particularly helpful if we’re in the middle of a disagreement because it breaks the tension.

Fortunately, the Beetle is a popular car in Northern Virginia!

You can also try this with stop lights, tail lights, whatever catches your attention. The point is just to have something that you use  to check your mind. If you do it with someone else, it’s more fun, and it’s a way of staying in tune.

If you have a mindfulness trick to share, please comment below.

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