Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Blog, page 25

Berkeley Shambhala 5/4-5/12

 

One hundred people filled the elegant dharma hall on Friday night, May 4th at the Berkeley Shambhala Meditation Center to hear Rinpoche speak about his new book, Open Heart, Open Mind. Rinpoche emphasized how we need to be kind to ourselves to restore essence love and find a child’s heart with an adult’s fully functioning mind. This is the combination of the playful and loving “Nepali heart” with the reasoning and organizing ability of the modern world’s mind. On the next day, he taught two sessions focusing on how to deeply let go and relax to heal our subtle body, the importance of dropping our identity as “this and that” and rest in the nature of mind. He told many great stories, each with many layers of meaning, yet punctuated with humor and a lot of laughter.

 

 

 

Nalandabodhi: Nalanda West 4/27-29/12

 

The weekend retreat at Nalanda West went very well. The large hall was full for the whole weekend with over 120 pre-registered yogins. The book tour event Friday evening was open to the public and so even more people were able to attend. Rinpoche was very playful with the audience and told many stories (even more than usual) to roaring laughter and warm smiles. The crowd was a mixture of some familiar faces and mostly newcomers, including many people associated with Nalanda West’s Seattle Dharma community.

 

 

The basic structure of the teaching was the four foundations of mindfulness, delivered in Rinpoche’s unique style. His presentation of mindfulness of space (the fourth in his system) was particularly unusual and profound. Rinpoche also emphasized the four “I’s”, giving detailed descriptions of the mechanisms of ego development and fixation. He offered the analogy of the tough kung fu gangs who look flashy and intimidating, but because their strength is solid and pumped up with pride, they can take hard hits and be defeated. The real kung fu master is the old sweeper in the corner with nothing to prove. Content with being nobody, his body is soft and pliable, his attitude gentle and relaxed. He only fights when he’s needed. Nobody can beat him; in fact nobody can even touch him, because there’s nobody ‘there’ to touch. Rinpoche’s kung fu impersonations had everyone in stitches. He connected this analogy to a moving description of the true beauty and simplicity of a Dharma master, whose activity is the mere radiance of compassion, with no solid “I” underneath the display. The event concluded beautifully with Nalanda West giving Rinpoche a little squeeze doll with an intense, piercing laugh. Of course Rinpoche loved it and ended up giving people head blessings with the laughing doll during the kata offering line.

 

Tricycle Talks: Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Sharon Salzberg on Essence Love

 

Please click here  to listen to a recently recorded audio talk with Rinpoche and Sharon Salzberg speaking about topics from his latest book Open Heart, Open Mind.  They will be speaking together at Insight LA on May 17th at 7 p.m. also.

healing wounded love 4.20-22.12

 

At the seminar on “Healing Wounded Love” at Kripalu, Tsoknyi Rinpoche spoke with Daniel and Tara Goleman about love and the wounded emotions that prevent its proper expression. It was a wonderful weekend, which synthesized the different perspectives of the presenters.

 

The Golemans emphasized primarily a psychological (and neurobiological) perspective. The psychological perspective tends to engage directly with emotions, analytically seeking the cause of the disturbing emotion in order to clarify the underlying issue.

 

 

Rinpoche emphasized the Buddhist perspective, in which the way to deal with negative emotions (or kleshas) is to simply observe them without allowing them to take control.

 

In both cases, the goal of working with our emotions is to prevent the maladaptive “emotional hijacking” that results from our bodies remembering things that are, to quote Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Real, but not True.”

Tricycle Talks: Tsoknyi Rinpoche & Sharon Salzberg

In this week’s Tricycle Talk Tsoknyi Rinpoche speaks with Sharon Salzberg about topics from his new book Open Heart, Open Mind: Awakening the Power of Essence Love. What is “essence love”? Is everybody capable of experiencing love? How can we, in Rinpoche’s words, “combine grown up mind with childlike heart”?

 

Please click this link below to hear Tricycle interview Tsoknyi Rinpoche on the meaning of essence love:

http://www.tricycle.com/blog/tricycle-talks-tsoknyi-rinpoche-and-sharon-salzberg

Tsoknyi Rinpoche on the Lesson of a Leaf

“As we work with the various meditation practices,” writes Tsoknyi Rinpoche for The Huffington Post, “a genuine transformation begins to occur. Our attachment to a self as a solid entity begins to soften and melt, and we begin to reconnect with the openness and warmth of our essential nature.

 

Unfortunately, many of us get caught up in the resulting sense of well-being and forget the most important of the Buddha’s teachings: that until all of us are free, none of us are free.

 

We rest in our own comfort zones, our contentment dimming our awareness of the pain and hardship that others around us may be feeling. We get caught up in a stage of practice that I’ve learned to describe as ‘cozy realization,’ where we think, ‘Yeah, I’ve done a really good job. I’ve made a lot of progress. My life is so good. I’m so happy.’

 

Yet lurking just beneath that self-congratulatory satisfaction is a nagging discontent, a feeling that the path we’ve undertaken offers something much grander and more fulfilling than coziness. Sometimes – if we’re lucky – that discontent become very uncomfortable.”

 

To read Rinpoche’s full essay, visit The Huffington Post.

 



Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s new book OPEN HEART, OPEN MIND: Awakening the Power of Essence Love is now available wherever books are sold. Check to see if Tsoknyi Rinpoche will be in your area on his coast-to-coast Open Heart, Open Mind book tour.

Insight Meditation Community of Washington hosts Rinpoche 4.18.12

Offered by *Tara Brach:  “Our evening in Washington, D.C. with Tsoknyi Rinpoche was so vibrant and alive! The meditation Rinpoche led was beautiful. I loved having some time with each foundation, and then practicing dropping. It opened me to very empty, clear space. There was room for what was arising to pass through. Others also mentioned that they found it powerful. After the meditation, Rinpoche talked about essence love, and I could feel all of us in a similar place–knowing that we wanted to touch this source of our being. Through the evening Rinpoche’s stories and teachings were woven together with beautiful readings from the book. For me, having another (Esteban’s) voice reading Rinpoche’s words about his father, his early experiences in the monastery, his experiences of awakening–added a rich and intimate feel to the evening. And then the stories! Rinpoche has the knack–the humor and presence–to bring alive a story. We were immersed, entertained and uplifted. I’m not surprised that the evening ended with a long line of people eagerly waiting to get their signed copy of Open Heart, Open Mind!”

 

[Rinpoche’s talk, “In Conversation with Tara Brach” was podcast to 15,000 people across the world. It was recorded by IMCW and will be available soon on their free-listening web site at http://imcw.org]

 

*Tara Brach is a leading western teacher of Buddhist meditation, emotional healing and spiritual awakening. She has practiced and taught meditation for over 35 years, with an emphasis on vipassana (mindfulness or insight) meditation. Tara is the senior teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. A clinical psychologist, Tara is the author of Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

and the upcoming book, True Refuge-Three Gateways to a Fearless Heart (Bantam, 2012). Tara is nationally known for her skill in weaving western psychological wisdom with a range of meditative practices. Her approach emphasizes compassion for oneself and others, mindful presence and the direct realization and embodiment of natural awareness.

Rigpa NYC 4.16.12

 

Over 90 people attended Rinpoche’s teachings on the main themes of Open Heart, Open Mind at Rigpa NYC center at the invitation of its director, Pedro Beroy, who also kindly offered his home to Rinpoche. The atmosphere was electric and full of joy, in the sense that so many long-term, devoted students had waited to see him for some time, and we all enjoyed his delightful humor, warmth and deep insights. He led us in learning how to drop and let go of ‘big city speed‘ and the need to be active, and rest in essence love instead. Rinpoche taught that we all need to start first from reconnecting to the basic spark of genuine self love, so that our compassion and loving kindness can express the truth of our nature in every moment.

 

 

Note: There is a 30 second leader before Rinpoche starts speaking, so please keep listening!

Jewel Heart Center, NYC Teaching & Discussion

 

Rinpoche taught a group of young Tibetans and other students about the distinctions between the essence of dharma, cultures that arise and fall over time, and specific customs. He explored the differences between dharma and cultures in which it is practiced, looking at key differences between the two, noting the distinctions between cultures that support healthy human development and those that do not, or those that are simply out of date.

 

One key point for Tibetans who are new to this country and from a very different setting is to understand that the external supports for dharma are not manifest here as they are in Asia, and so they must be internalized as new forms of dharma-expression gradually evolve. Rinpoche also said that social activism, in light of recent hunger strikes at the United Nations, should be demonstrated as much as possible with a mind and heart in touch with genuine compassion, instead of coming from the place of a wounded heart.

 

A spirited, exploratory discussion ensued on how to connect with relevant and meaningful dharma amidst the struggles to make a living and raise children, learn a new language, preserve cultural identity, and see the positive and negative aspects of the American way. Rinpoche pointed out that unlike many immigrant cultures coming to America from Asia and across the world over time, the Tibetans could look to His Holiness as an example of how to flourish in exile, and show how essential dharma is alive and appreciated now across the globe.

 

Our thanks and appreciation to Amy Head from the Conservancy for Tibetan Art and Culture, for hosting this event and to Gelek Rinpoche for opening up his center for this teaching.

Northshire Books/Manchester, VT

Rinpoche with his students surrounding him

 

Rinpoche gave a wonderful talk at Northshire Books in Manchester, Vermont, Wednesday, April 11th. Northshire is a large independent bookstore that has been hosting authors for years. Held in the Children’s books section and surrounded by large stuffed animals, it was a ‘standing room only crowd’ after 160 seats were filled. Excerpts from the book were read, and then Rinpoche spoke about how his students in the West inspired him to write the book. He had realized after teaching for several years that the traditional system of teaching Buddhism wasn’t softening the hearts of Westerners. They had a wonderful intellectual capacity, but their hearts were wounded by the fear and competition that is part of every child’s life here. His book was written to help Westerners understand how to heal. Rinpoche’s unique blend of Buddhist wisdom and personal experiences kept the large audience of 175 laughing and nodding their heads in recognition.

 

The audience sitting in the Children’s section

 

In the audience were several long-time students of Rinpoche’s who have been receiving his teachings in Vermont, as well as many newcomers who were thrilled to experience his wisdom first-hand. Vermont thanks you, Rinpoche, for your generosity in coming to the ends of the Earth.

 

Here are some quotes by happy participants and more terrific photos from the event:

 

Rinpoche with bookstore owner and student, Chris Morrow

 

“Tsoknyi Riinpoche’s talk was delightful. I felt as though I was listening to an old friend tell me what happened during his day. I heard how humor and self-awareness were woven throughout his story, and I said to myself, “Hey that’s happened to me–I can respond that way too.” ~ Noralee Hall

 

Rinpoche showing us how to embrace a child–not too close and not too loose

 

“…his stories were a perfect blend of humor and insight.” ~ Lucia Corwin

 

Ken Ketchum waiting in line for his book to be signed

 

“Rinpoche is a master at listening to a question and then answering the question-behind-the-question with compassion. He offers dignity to the pain the question reveals and leaves the questioner with a Path to the solution. How awesome!” ~ Sally Warren

 

Sally Warren reading from Open Heart, Open Mind

 

“Tsoknyi Rinpoche spoke directly to the truth of things with humor, kindness and wisdom. More importantly, he really embodied what he was teaching, showing us directly what essence love looks like in action. It was wonderful. And during the talk, I kept calling back to mind the image of Rinpoche in the small room with Tulku Urgyen, experiencing space. It all went together quite seamlessly.” ~ Claire Stanley

 

 

Outside the Inn at Manchester                               With bookstore host, Chris Morrow

 

Listening to Tsoknyi Rinpoche speak

 

In front of his room at the beautiful Manchester

 

Kate Wylie, Sally, & Rinpoche in front of the beautiful book display for Open Heart, Open Mind