Note: This article first appeared on elephant journal here. There is a phenomenon I would like to explore that involves a person beginning and traveling a meditative or yogic path that is in complete contradistinction from the spiritual or religious position of their family and upbringing. Maybe Westerners who have become Buddhists or serious yoga…
Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. We are all alone. In Sophie Fiennes’ wonderful documentary starring the contemporary celebrity philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, Zizek speaks of the spontaneous arising ideology that we all employ to help us manage our lives, but which instead keeps us from seeing what’s…
Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. Find the place inside where the awareness waits to be discovered. It is there, always, underneath the sediment floating in the pond of our minds. In Buddhism, we practice contemplating the Four Reminders that Turn the Mind Towards the Dharma. The first one is precious human…
Author’s note: The title of this article is a quote, taken out of context, from a talk that Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche gave at an advanced assembly several years ago. The following is my processing this idea while sitting in the dining hall at Karme Choling as we waited for Rinpoche to invite us in the…
Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. Pema Chodron, the Rockstar Nun, made this enlightening statement to an audience at Shambhala Mountain Center for the first Shambhala Sangha Retreat in 2009: “There’s nothing more important on our spiritual path than developing gentleness to oneself.” This key practice translates into gentleness towards others and…
Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. In 2009, Pema Chodron and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche co-led a week long meditation retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado entitled Cultivating Gentleness and Strength. When Pema Chodron speaks about relating to life in a sane way, people listen. They listen because of her friendly demeanor,…
Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. One of the best results of a dedicated meditation practice is learning to relax. Not in the floppy sense, but in the lightening up sense. Meditation allows one to see, to varying extents, that there is a possibility of having an experience that is not dominated…
*Note: This piece first appeared on elephant journal, here. More and more what I’m noticing about what it means to me to be a Buddhist is that it is really simply about being human. I am a Buddhist in order to be more fully human. Buddhism is just a word—and a word that has a…
*Note: This piece first appeared on elephantjournal.com here. During meditation instruction I try to convey some importance about the part of the technique that involves letting go of our thoughts and returning to the breath. But, I don’t think that I really do it justice. When Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche visited my dathun (month long retreat)…
We started a new class at the Shambhala Center last Wednesday based on The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma by Chogyam Trungpa. The Profound Treasury is a three volume set of teachings taken and organized from the thirteen three month long seminaries that Trungpa Rinpoche taught in North America from 1973-1986. Described as…
What isn’t basic goodness? Or, an expression of basic goodness? In The Supreme Thought, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche describes ultimate bodhichitta as the experience of threefold purity (seeing the basic goodness of self, other, and action) as being synonymous with Buddhahood. So, if one were embodying the quality of things as they are (basic goodness) they…
I jotted this down after coming home from viewing the excellent Occupy Love documentary with the excellent people at The Roosevelt 2.0 in Ybor. If you’d prefer to hear the message coming from The Dude view the video above. What is the biggest problem facing this country today? To answer that, it seems, we…
