The Dalai Lama’s Visit to Madison WI

A thoughtful article published in Madison Magazine describes His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s relationship with University of Wisconsin (UW) neuroscience professor Richard Davidson (Center for Investigating Healthy Minds) and the director of UW’s Global Health Institute, Dr. Jonathan Patz. The article also mentions Geshe Sopa and his monastery, Deer Park.

Another article describes the Change Your Mind Change the World conference that His Holiness, Dr. Davidson, Dr. Patz, Mattieu Ricard and others participated in during his visit at UW.

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Important Information for Triple Empowerment March 23

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche will confer the Triple Empowerment of Hayagriva, Vajrapani, Garuda on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at the Vienna Community Center in Vienna, VA. Participants should note the following:

• As is customary for lower tantra empowerments, it is best not to consume onions, eggs, garlic, or meat prior to the empowerment.
• There is a mantra recitation commitment for the empowerment.
• The discussion on Sunday afternoon on the topic “Truth, Path, and Buddha Nature” will be led by Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa
• Please bring your own cushion and a towel or mat to sit on if you would like to sit on the floor instead of a chair.
• If you are planning on staying for dinner on Saturday, please email the organizer Pema Dechen (pema2011@yahoo.com)

Please contact Pema Dechen if you have any questions about this event by phone: (571) 643-4233 – mobile , or email.

This event is sponsored by:

Partners for Tibetan Education (PTE) http://www.partnersfortibetaneducation.org 1875 Connecticut Ave, NW., Suite #410 Washington D.C 20009

The schedule of events is available here

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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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Ani Ngawang Pema in Solitary Retreat

Once in a while it’s good to remind ourselves that there are true spiritual seekers in the world today. Ani Ngawang Pema is a Tibetan Buddhist nun who has been meditating alone for the past 45 years. Here’s a short video about her.

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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: Emptiness of the Self

The self exists in dependence on a basis of ascription, but it’s not identical to the basis of ascription. It exists only in a provisional manner. The self does have a conventional nature. It comes into being based on the six elements (earth, water, fire, air, space, etc). On the basis of the six elements, we formulate the idea that a self exists.

Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Losang Jampa
Translator: Art Engle
Mahamudra Commentary Retreat, NYC, August 15, 2012

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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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