Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded Personal LINK was given by Rinpoche on May 30, 2004 at Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado. It was re-broadcast in two parts, Part 1 on September 1st and Part 2 on September 8th, 2024. Please refer to Part 1 for a full summary of the talk.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously-recorded Personal LINK was given by Rinpoche on May 30, 2004 at Samten Ling in Crestone Colorado. The talk was split into two parts, aired on consecutive weekends while Rinpoche and the Sangha are engaged in the annual Mahayoga and Sadhana of Mahamudra programs at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling in Vershire, Vermont. In this talk, Rinpoche encourages us to not waste this precious tendrel of having met the Mahayana and Vajrayana Dharma. He stresses that our connection to Guru Rinpoche is not random. The path we follow being part of the Nyingma lineage comes directly from Guru Rinpoche and his great kindness. Not only is the Nyingma path connected to Guru Rinpoche, but all the schools have a strong connection to his enlightened mind and have flourished due to his kindness. As such, he strongly encourages his students to make daily, heartfelt aspirations to be reborn in the Glorious Copper-Colored Mountain.

Speaker: Inigo Batterham. Inigo shares his experience with mental illness and addiction, juxtaposed against an unfolding Dharmic path. He emphasizes how his life has been indelibly altered by great masters such as H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and how Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's guidance and constant presence have helped him manage his addiction and mental struggles and turn his mind towards the Dharma.

Speaker: Bob Reid. Following up on his talk from August 11, 2024, Bob discusses the three supreme methods and the four metaphors, laying the framework for a further talk on bodhcitta. He shares some ‘provocative contemplations’ that he uses in his own practice, arising from the implications of the second of these supreme methods. The inseparability of the ground and fruition and the illusory nature of reality mean we should avoid a goal-oriented or materialistic attitude towards our practice. Bob explains how this teaching can inspire our courage and confidence as it gives us an important perspective on the illusory notions of time, the path and enlightenment. Bob then explores how Rinpoche's teachings on self-reflection and natural intelligence open our hearts to bodhicitta and to our own Buddha nature.

Speaker: Bob Reid. In the first of a two-part talk, Bob speaks about the four immeasurables, reviewing two of the three supreme methods: to arouse the bodhicitta, and while carrying out an action, to avoid getting lost in any conceptualization. He describes bodhicitta as an attitude where you wish for others the happiness that you have, with a broad mind and perspective. He points out that it is the truth of suffering that brings us to engage in the path of Dharma. Relating to the second method, Bob says it is from the state of confusion that there is a journey to be made at all. From the perspective of genuine reality there is no independent, singular and permanent self to make this journey. Ultimately, it is waking up from the dream that is the aspiration, as all beings are Buddhas who have not yet recognized it.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la describes the spiritual path as a path of getting know oneself. Having grown up in a Dharmic family, the practice of self reflection has been a constant in his life from a young age. Being a Dharmic person means going beyond improving the self based on worldly concerns, to develop a relationship with one’s internal world of thoughts and emotions. A daily practice of meditation is foundational to self-knowing. By observing thoughts and emotions arising and dissipating, the habit of identifying with them as belonging to one's self begins to unravel. Looking more deeply at our thoughts, feelings and emotions in the context of the five skandhas uncovers the concept of looking-but-not-finding, which brings great relief. Self-knowing that arises from not finding a single, intrinsic self is referred to as ‘Egolessness of Self’. It is the foundation for discovering who and what we truly are: intrinsically enlightened. In sum, self reflection is the practice that leads us to rec

Speaker: Jennifer O'Keeffe. Jennifer describes how the Lojong practice supports us in transforming adversity into a path of awakening. As a mind training tool, Lojong helps to liberate ourselves from attachment to self cherishing and to cultivate a compassionate heart. In today's talk, Jennifer covers slogans 11-14: (11) ‘When the world is full of evil, transform misfortune into the path of awakening’: When we bring our obstacles onto the path, they help clarify our practice; (12) ‘Realize all faults spring from one source: Ego clinging, belief in "I"’: Rather than blaming others for challenging circumstances we turn to our own minds, analyzing how all phenomena result from multiple causes and conditions; (13) ‘Meditate upon gratitude toward all’: Being grateful for beings who do us harm or irritate us, seeing their provocations as our true teachers; (14) ‘Use whatever you face as a practice immediately’: With awareness, our suffering can be a gateway to bodhicitta with such practices as tonglen, the four imm

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded teaching was given by Rinpoche at the 2023 Nyingma Summer Seminar on July 8, 2023 at Phuntsok Choling in Ward, Colorado. Opening the Hinayana section of this annual summer program, Rinpoche discusses self-awareness and how Dharma is the medicine to reduce self-attachment.

Speaker: Jennifer Shippee. Jennifer speaks about excerpts from Rinpoche's upcoming book on diligence. She investigates both discipline (Tib. tsultrim) and diligence (Tib. tsöndrü), how their meanings differ and overlap, and explains how to harness diligence based on Chapter 4 of Shantideva's ‘Bodhisattvacharyavatara’. The first step in harnessing diligence involves understanding the inner obstacle of laziness, which comes in three forms. The first is an attachment to sleep and idleness, the second, an attachment to mundane distractions and the third is self-denigration. To counter these obstacles, one can rely on the four allies: aspiration, steadfastness, moderation and taking breaks. Explaining this and more in great detail, Jennifer views these exercises as a fundamental part of our Dharma education where we are taught how to work with our mind and ultimately experience deeper meaning in our lives. As Shantideva reveals, working with diligence uncovers tremendous joy.

Speaker: Katsutoshi Okabayashi. Oka-san shares his thoughts on the importance of establishing a daily reflection on the precepts of Bodhicitta. He has been examining how he might engage with his world each day versus how he might habitually engage with a world full of stressful, confusing or annoying situations. Although difficult because of years of habit, it is important for him to re-commit each day, keep a more awakened attitude of mind, and practice viewing daily stressors with curiosity and when possible, with humor.

Speaker: Christine Anisko. Christine addresses the ways in which our preoccupations with material reality and the fast-paced nature of our lives block our awareness of an expansive spiritual realm. When Christine's parents recently passed away, she experienced firsthand how the animation of being alive suddenly ceases. To avoid the pain of becoming invisible we distract ourselves with external preoccupations, which prevent us from contemplating the true meaning of death. Only through meditative awareness can we access the expansive invisible realm in which the death of a body marks a passage of continuation towards future incarnations.

Speaker: Michaela Ledesma. The Outer, Inner and Secret Refuge Prayer of Tangtong Gyalpo and the power of its tremendous blessings is the focus of this talk. Michaela shares stories about her personal connection to the prayer and her continuing relationship with Tangtong Gyalpo in her own life. Drawing on the namthar, or spiritual biography by Cyrus Stearns entitled, ‘King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo’, she provides background information on this great lineage master and his impact on the mystical tradition of Tibet. He is known as a mind emanation of Guru Padmasambhava and is believed to have recovered numerous caches of terma (hidden treasure teachings) concealed by the Indian master.

Speaker: Susan Walp. Following Rinpoche's advice, Susan shares her personal journey in learning to practice the Dharma from a place of enjoyment, rather than discipline. Discipline is important for the practitioner, but there are two kinds of discipline: one that comes from a feeling of obligation, competitiveness and wanting to be a good student, and the other which has enjoyment as its basis. In examining what inspires her to practice, she is learning to approach her practice from a place of appreciation, warmth, creativity and inner joy.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores the practice of self-reflection as the way of finding our true north as practitioners. We can use the interrelated methods of analysis (‘tokpa’, in Tibetan) to look at things in general and ‘chopa’ to examine details for clarifying our own thought process. With the internet and social media we meet with many contrasting perspectives and narratives that push agendas. Dungse-la encourages us to align ourselves with the perspectives of the Buddhas by being honest with ourselves, holding ourselves accountable to mind training and facing our mind with equanimity. We learn to trust ourselves as the primary witness. Then, we do not build new stories of ourselves or the nature of reality. We transform the negative emotions by seeing they are ultimately empty of intrinsic characteristics and remain natural- a child of illusion.

Speaker: Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz. Sasha describes how discipline is a natural feature of our longing to attain a state of awakening. The Latin word ‘disciplina’ refers to teaching, learning and knowledge. A disciple is someone who listens and learns. In the conventional world, our lives are not patterned towards practice; practice feels inconvenient and seems to contradict our belief in finding happiness in samsara. The diligent practitioner recognizes that discipline aligns our actions and intentions, fortifying us against neurotic habits. The discipline of directing our minds towards the Dharma and away from ego-clinging provides us with a greater experience of confidence and freedom.

Speaker: Jill Oppenheimer. Jill explores the practice of self-reflection and shares her experience of working with hindrances that can arise as part of this process. The point of all Buddhist teachings is to reduce self-importance and make room for the truth, and this begins with self-reflection. It involves turning the mind inward and looking without judgment at whatever arises in our experience. Jill explains the necessity to pause before engaging in self-reflection as it is only with the discipline of shamatha and vipashyana that the wisdom to self-reflect is available. She explores how confusion can arise if we hold hopes of certain outcomes and try to use the practice of self-reflection to fix things. We also need to appreciate that self-reflection is not just a single practice but involves many skillful means such as simmering practice, analytical meditation, mindfulness, observing thoughts without judgment and contemplating the eight worldly concerns and the four immeasurables.

Speaker: Chris Holland. Chris examines buddhanature as the foundation of enlightened qualities, including love. In this talk, he sets the stage to understand the genuine or absolute ground of buddhanature in order to see how the path functions. He describes absolute ground as a living presence, primordially existent with radiant qualities, the "enlightened essence" or absolute nature. Love is the radiance of absolute nature. Chris sees the Four Immeasurables practice as the "structure" of enlightened essence because the practice stirs up the qualities of enlightened essence (wisdom, love and power). Enlightened essence is the limitless source of all worlds, all positive qualities, all goodness. What separates us from allowing this essence to flow freely through us is grasping to a limited self; the path is simply to purify the obstacles that block us from recognizing the absolute nature. From there, we become a limitless source of love.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la shares his experience of travel and the unique opportunity it brings to step out of our comfort zone and actively engage with our mind. He describes the difference between being a pilgrim or a tourist, the latter being one who seeks fun and comfort, the former being one who brings Dharma practice along for the ride, perhaps even seeking discomfort. Experiencing his own discomfort, Dungse-la closely examined his own mind and discovered that his experience was dependent on his attitude. Knowing there is no happiness to be found in outer circumstances, he allowed himself to relax into his discomfort and a positive mindset blossomed. That mindset allowed him to walk through the world and offer everything as if he owned it; his enjoyment and appreciation became a mandala of offering.

Speaker: Greg Seton. Greg delves into working with emotional pain, outlining the process from a ground, path and fruition perspective. Emotional pain or "klesha" in Sanskrit is loosely translated as "affliction". It causes pain and contaminates our thoughts, feelings and actions. The afflicted ego-mind is the cause of klesha. It is afflicted because it struggles to maintain what it constructs as self-image and becomes attached to that mental image. This fixation is painful and causes one to interpret everything through the ego-image as a stream of thinking, which then sets up false duality. In the path, we need to first learn to recognize our emotions, then apply antidotes. For learning about the relative-based Mahayana approach, Greg recommends reading 'Light Comes Through' by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche as it covers the five, self-centered emotions and their antidotes. For the absolute-based Vajrayana approach, he suggests we bring the pain of the emotion into our experience and then stare at it, looking at it

Speaker: Scott Kleihege. Scott delves into the topic of conceptual mind in this LINK given from Fort Collins, Colorado.