Exploring the Nature of Mind: Tergar Int’l/St. John’s College, Collegeville, MN, 6/9-13/12

 

Rinpoche shared the precious nature of mind teachings from the text Flight of the Garuda, which contains the heart advice of Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol, one of the most beloved Dzogchen masters. Over 160 people attended these teachings held at St John’s University, Collegeville, MN, a university known for its tradition of Benedictine hospitality.

 

To prepare the participants for the mind teachings, Rinpoche emphasized the importance for participants to relax or feel the body.  “This is the missing piece in the West,” he said. He said that frequently Westerners don’t pay attention to the “emotional speed” with which we do things and that our over-striving to achieve causes stress in the body and the mind.

Rinpoche also said that Westerners are fixated on achieving goals. We’re always trying to get to the top of the mountain. Eventually, after hiking up countless mountains, he said, “You ruin the subtle body,” the energy channels in the body or, in Tibetan, lung. Feeling the body, curtailing our hunger to continually “want something” and working with our mind to let go of thoughts eases the “speediness” and allows the body to settle into its natural state—where heart and mind are connected. In this place, we can access essence love.

“Essence love is your innermost home,” he told the audience. Essence love is described in his new book Open Heart, Open Mind.

Rinpoche was teaching his own students as well as his brother Mingyur Rinpoche’s students, while Mingyur Rinpoche is on a three-year wandering yogi retreat. The retreat participants were deeply grateful for Rinpoche’s teachings and entreated him to return next year.