Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Blog, page 8
October 29, 2018
4 Syllables of Mahamudra
from Crestone 2018 retreat ~
“Having severed the basic root of mind, may we see the natural face of the view. By knowing the uncontrived ways of resting, may we be steady in the naturalness of meditation. Through taking whatever occurs on the path, may we find the natural spontaneity of the conduct. By freeing errors into basic space, may fruition spontaneously manifest!”
~Kunpang Sherab Gyamtso: Profound Instruction on the Four Syllables of Mahamudra
From Crestone, August 2018
“Having severed the basic root of mind, may we see the natural face of the view. By knowing the uncontrived ways of resting, may we be steady in the naturalness of meditation. Through taking whatever occurs on the path, may we find the natural spontaneity of the conduct. By freeing errors into basic space, may fruition spontaneously manifest!”
~Kunpang Sherab Gyamtso: Profound Instruction on the Four Syllables of Mahamudra
September 15, 2018
Awakening Mind Essence in This Life and the Bardo – Nova Scotia 11/2-8/18
In our daily lives, every moment offers us the possibility to realize the essence of our mind nature. In this retreat, Tsoknyi Rinpoche teaches how to skillfully practice the teachings of Dzogchen to prepare for the bardo experience.
This is an advanced retreat. Qualifications are: a full open retreat with Tsoknyi Rinpoche or Mingyur Rinpoche where pointing out instructions were given or long-term students of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Students who attended all of Rinpoche’s teachings at the Halifax Shambhala Center in 2012 are eligible to register for this advanced retreat.
Visit: https://tsoknyirinpoche.org/programs/10335/awakening-mind-essence-in-this-life-and-the-bardo-nova-scotia/ for more information and the registration process.
July 10, 2018
Water Blessings
From a beautiful film by DeAnne Elliott, Rinpoche gives water blessings at Cottonwood Creek, Crestone, Colorado, in 2011. May gentle rain come forward ending this season of drought. Thanks to Doug Beechwood for filming this exceptional moment.
June 8, 2018
On Fundamental Happiness
This is a meditation and talk given in the Fall of 2017 at the First Presbyterian Church in Salida, CO. Mark Elliott of Crestone Films has been kind enough to provide us with this wonderful piece. https://youtu.be/5i8zCEaPWBA
May 25, 2018
On Essence Love: Why We Need It, Even Though We Are It
(An exquisite offering by student Tim Hinkle while recently on retreat in Northern California with Rinpoche)
To be human in these times is to have a backlog of unmet, unloved issues (“bananas, German sausages, beautiful monsters”) within us. Whether we want to be happy, healthy citizens of samsara or we aspire to dissolve our karma for corporeality altogether into the subtle elements and ultimately the rainbow body of light, there is no way to get “there” without essence love. By this I mean the ongoing unification of the warmth and clarity of the heart with the totality of our somatic expression. We start in the clouds, utterly divorced from this earthy body. Modern culture gives us countless convincing reasons to avoid intimate vulnerability with our body and capitalists are all too willing to sell us deeper and more efficient estrangement from ourselves. Yet, your body never stops aching for your attention, love, and presence.
Woven into the body’s cellular matrix are all our past unmet hurts and joys—this body is the world of 10,000 joys and sorrows, or as the 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje put it, “This body is the alaya.”
To know the present moment, let alone the dynamic display of the fourth time arising in/as embodiment—the subtle five elements in ceaseless unborn play, we must bring essence love together with soma. In all likelihood, the experience will not be pleasant. Your soma will not be impressed by your sudden change of heart. It remembers the decades of abandonment and dissociation. You will meet numbness, confusion, tightness, trauma, and pain on the way to joy. You will want to turn back, and you will—countless times. You will retreat into fantasy and the mediocrity of concept. Come back. Come back. Come home.
You will meet yourself, and who you are will surprise you. The shallowness of a mentally imagined identity cannot compare to the liquid flow of unplanned embodied being. The soma, unconstrained and unburdened of abandonment, is so close to your true nature. You cannot bypass it. In any case, some purely mental rigpa would prove to be a dry and arid wasteland that would make the samsaric lives of your relatives and high school friends seem utterly compelling by comparison.
The good news/bad news is: there is no arriving. What fun would that be anyway? You will not arrive at some static place called a healthy subtle body or a wisdom subtle body. This is not something you can check off your to-do list. To be in the flow of essence love means never arriving. Destinations are a fantasy of the immature dualistic mind. So, take this out for a spin:
there is no arriving
Walk a mile or 500 in these shoes. You are not a thing. You are this mysterious unceasing flow of awareness, manifesting as warmth and tenderness that exists without reason or condition. This warmth lives in/as your heart and, if unshackled, will pervade every square inch of your world. It is in fact your world. But now, there remains a gap between our anxious conceptual mind and this warm presence. The only way to bridge it is by feeling everything.
Good luck ~ Tim
These spontaneous words came forth when heart, soma, and awareness joined in lucid tenderness. They are inspired by the generous and timely teachings of Tsoknyi Rinpoche, who has the integrity to feel everything.
May 21, 2018
Life of Milarepa: Tibet’s Supreme Yogi
Adapted for stage by the 17th Karmapa, this live performance depicts the Life of Milarepa. Tsoknyi Rinpoche will not be in attendance, but wanted you to know about it, especially those in the New York area. The production will be at the Laguardia Performing Arts Center on July 1st from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. For more information and purchasing tickets, please visit the web site: http://www.milarepa.us or call 718-278-8700.
April 29, 2018
Essence Love: how to talk to monsters
Tsoknyi Rinpoche is sharing this video with you containing great advice on how to deal with your monsters. Thank you to Pundarika Taiwan for providing the link. Enjoy!
April 12, 2018
Real Love/Essence Love: A Conversation
Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Sharon Salzberg will be discussing this topic at the Festival of Faiths in Lousville, Kentucky, on April 27th at 4:30 p.m. (EDT)
We hope to be able to livestream this event or at least record it for future sharing. More information about whether we can or cannot connect via livestream will be posted when we are closer to the actual event.
February 15, 2018
Losar 2018 Video from Rinpoche
Tsoknyi Rinpoche shares his Losar 2018 greetings!
