Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores lojong slogan 21, always maintain a joyful attitude, and touches on our negativity bias as biological organisms wired for survival. Humor has a great power to cut through our seriousness in the face of suffering.

Speaker: Maki Okabayashi. Maki explores how honesty arises from the willingness to reflect on our intentions, perspectives and attitudes. Being honest involves more than simply not cheating, holding back from, lying to, or manipulating other people; it also involves recognizing how the ego diminishes our ability to see the truth. Led by the ego's self-protecting desire to avoid discomfort, our view solidifies, contracting our ability to respond with flexible, open-minded objectivity. To overcome the resistance of ego we should summon both the courage to reflect deeply on the benefits of honesty, and the determination to cultivate flexibility and open-mindedness.

Speaker: Nick Carter. Nick reflects on how recognizing the impermanence of all things guides us to see that the wisest way to use our precious human birth is to engage in practice. Although habit and attachment lead us to view things as permanent, it is clear that they are not: seasons end; people die. The three marks of existence according to Buddhism-suffering, impermanence, emptiness-teach us that viewing impermanent things as permanent and solid gives rise to suffering. Contemplating the impermanent nature of all things offers us the opportunity to connect to the truth of the Dharma and supports our aspiration to devote our precious human birth to progressing on the path.

Speaker: Kate Dobbertin. Kate explores how self-cherishing creates samsaric experience and separates us from the freedom of pure perception. Samsara can be understood not as a set of circumstances, "how things are" but as the result of relating to reality through the perspective of a solid, separate self. Viewing ourselves and the world through the lens of a small self distorts and limits our perceptions of reality. Clinging to this self also leads us to become distracted by the concerns of the material world and attached to the belief that protecting this self will free us from suffering. Yet attachment to this small self is actually the source of our suffering and the obstacle that prevents us from experiencing the pure perception of the unseen world that is within our reach at every moment. The effort and insight required to shift our perception is not necessarily comfortable, but it is the only way to free ourselves from a samsaric relation to experience.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. Rinpoche delivers his annual Losar Address for the 2021 year of the Metal Ox from Crestone, Colorado.

Speakers: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel. In this re-broadcast of the Open Question Podcast #201, Elizabeth speaks with her own teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, about the practice of patience described in Rinpoche' s new book, "Peaceful Heart: The Buddhist Practice of Patience". This practice, Rinpoche says, can protect our hearts and minds in a complex world, opening up new vistas of peace and richness for ourselves and others. It is, as the Buddha said, "a great armor". Together Elizabeth and Rinpoche explore what it means to practice patience as a skillful means on the spiritual path.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. In this pre-recorded talk given on October 27, 2001 at Samten Ling, Rinpoche explains the term nangwa chi lok. When appearances are seen as separate from the mind, dualistic tendencies arise. Rinpoche reminds us how the essence of Patrul Rinpoche's teachings are to encourage us to withdraw from looking outward and to take refuge, instead, in the mind itself. To believe that obstacles are outside the mind is to lose the game of noble achievement. We must constantly search for a deeper notion of how to relate with the mind. Whatever arises in our experience we must learn to meet it, meet the habit, meet our situation. This is being responsible and present. If one can meet the situation, no matter how difficult, one can get through the world of pakchak. On the other hand if one complains like a prince or princess, one leaves the responsiblity of one's peace of mind in the hands of outer circumstances.

Speaker: Mary Lee Mooney. Mary contemplates how we can apply the medicine of Dharma to recognize and purify aggression and anger. We unconsciously mistake ourselves to be singular, independent and permanent. This view arises from and reinforces our habitual tendency to protect ourselves with self-importance and aggression, reactions that in turn lead to more pain and less freedom. To liberate ourselves from self-importance and aggression, the Dharma teaches us simply to observe our thoughts and feelings, neither suppressing nor identifying with them. As we learn to recognize and tolerate uncomfortable experiences, we gain greater awareness of their true nature, and greater confidence in our own buddha nature.

Speaker: Stephanie Kindberg. Stephanie reflects on how the Covid-19 pandemic has renewed her determination to view adversity as an opportunity to cultivate lungta by practicing self-reflection, patience and sympathetic joy. Lungta, "windhorse," is the subtle energy that determines the direction our mind pursues. As thoughts arise, we decide how to react to them and it is this reaction that determines our attitudes, self-confidence and determination. Training our minds to embrace challenges develops our capacity to engage fearlessly with suffering: the essence of the bodhisattva path.

Speaker: Vanessa Waxman. Vanessa relates how she emerged from an intense experience of discomfort, unworthiness, and shame with a more profound appreciation for the healing power of Dharma. Despite the good fortune of enjoying auspicious circumstances, anyone can fall prey to afflictive emotions from which it seems impossible to escape. Initially, awareness of such feelings may generate shame, despair, and a sense of hypocrisy. But this suffering can also lead to a deeper appreciation for the healing power of Dharma, which reminds us that all beings suffer in these ways. The Dharma offers the means to understand, work with, and overcome afflictions and their root, self-grasping ignorance. One fundamental practice, the Ngondro, enables us to identify the full range of samsaric suffering and provides methods to develop the wisdom to overcome them.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la reflects on 2020 as a year of learning through adversity. When the defects of samsara are so plainly evident, so is the opportunity of working with our mind by honestly investigating our reactions to impermanence and other difficulties, noticing where we contract into self-centeredness.

Speaker: Scott Gallagher. Scott reflects on Rinpoche' s new book "Peaceful Heart": In order to extend warmth and open-heartedness (Tibetan: tsewa), we need to cultivate patience, tolerance and forbearance. We can do so by applying a variety of skillful means. Instead of shrinking from situations that challenge our patience, we can choose to view them as opportunities to grow. In addition to changing our perspective about future events, we can explore past experiences, reflecting on why we were unable to align our actions with our intentions, identifying the habits and tendencies that disturbed our mind, and applying lessons learned from the past to meet future circumstances more effectively. Through the practice of shamatha, contemplation, and the cultivation of curiosity, humor, and a nonjudgmental attitude, we can gain greater awareness of our habitual responses and empower ourselves to meet any circumstance with greater self-confidence, open-mindedness, and fearlessness.

Speaker: Rebecca Henry. By applying the five slogans of Machik Labdron to our experiences we can challenge our ego, cut through assumptions and false beliefs, and gain skillful means and wisdom. The slogans are: 1. Confess your hidden faults. 2. Approach what you find repulsive. 3. Whoever you think you cannot help, help them. 4. Anything you' re attached to, let it go. 5. Go to the places that scare you.

Speaker: Jennifer Shippee. To gain liberation from suffering, we need to investigate how our experiences arise from a mistaken understanding of the self. Failing to recognize our Buddha nature, we misperceive the self as separate and solid, a view that gives rise to the desire to protect and cherish ourselves. In turn, the attachment and aversion that arise from self-cherishing generate neurotic tendencies that cause suffering. We can liberate ourselves from this cycle of misperception, affliction, and suffering by noticing how the self manifests in the continual appearance of the "little" things we experience---the moments of tension, reactivity and irritation that reveal self-clinging and self-protection. As we investigate and reflect on the experience of suffering (dukkha), we begin to see precisely how our mistaken view of self generates suffering. From this insight the liberating release of renunciation arises naturally. The four maras, which exemplify the obstacles produced by a deceptive understanding of self, are dispelled once we realize they are illusions produced by our misapprehension of our true nature.

Speaker: Natasha Carter. We cultivate the blessings of the lineage by contemplating the four thoughts that turn the mind to the Dharma, by keeping an open heart, and by remembering the ultimate purpose of engaging in the three pillars. The four thoughts that turn the mind towards the dharma---our precious human birth, our impermanence, the karmic effects of our actions, and the truth of suffering---remind us of the importance of taking advantage of our good fortune in being able to practice Dharma. The purpose of engaging in the three pillars of the path---practice, service, and study---is to renounce self-centered attitudes and self-grasping ignorance in order to discover the ultimate truth and to benefit beings. It is only by accumulating merit in these ways that we can receive the blessings of the lineage and progress on the path.