Dharma Teachers
In Beyond BeliefWe see how important it is to recognize and cherish authentic teachers—especially in Tibetan Buddhism, where allowing devotion to lapse is not only harmful to one’s enlightenment, but to one’s health. Today is the twenty-fifth parinirvana of my teacher, the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. A great teacher’s death is called a parinirvana (“highest nirvana”), because…
Read MoreEnlightenment Came With The Rain
In PoetryEnlightenment Came With the Rain What I have always been, but never realized, came with the rain. The true nature streamed from the sky, From above, as blessings do. No cares now, only the rain pattering. What pleasure to be free of mind’s choices, To perceive without attachment. Without hoping for perfection or fearing its…
Read MoreEnlightened Awareness
In InsightsThe true nature of mind has two major components: emptiness and awareness. We have discussed emptiness earlier, and in this blog we will turn to awareness, the second aspect of mind. We can think of awareness from either an everyday or enlightened perspective. For most people, what experiences the world feels like something they possess…
Read MoreMeditation
In The Buddhist PathAll Buddhist traditions practice meditation, because the Buddha did so as a means to attain enlightenment. Meditation varies in different disciplines, but the rationale for doing it, in every one, is enlightenment. Enlightenment involves experiencing the true nature of mind, so it makes sense to look at mind with meditation until its nature reveals itself.…
Read MoreDuality
In InsightsThe language I am using is dualistic. It accepts that there is always a subject that does something (verb), to another (object). So, from the very start the topic of duality is confused by the language used to explain it. To give an example, let’s take the following very common instruction a beginning meditator receives.…
Read MoreEmptiness
In InsightsFor a more detailed treatment of emptiness from The Truth about Enlightenment: How to Find Egolessness, Nonduality, and Wisdom on the Buddhist Path, view this sample chapter. Emptiness is a pivotal term and experience in the Dharma. A nice way to think of it is as being without thingness. That which is empty has no…
Read MoreSelf in Buddhism
In InsightsTo those who meditate, self is what does their thinking, breathing or anything else they consider to be meditation. For them, there is meditation and a meditator that does the meditation. What performs their meditation, or anything else in their life, is construed as self. The realized or enlightened, those who experience the true nature…
Read MoreThe Relative and Absolute World
In InsightsMost of us live in the relative world. It is a dualistic world split into a self that we feel is inside us and a world outside that we try to align with self’s wishes. The interaction between self and what lies outside it creates three types of behavior: wanting, rejecting and ignoring. These behaviors…
Read More