Dharma Ocean

In today’s episode, Reggie reflects on the importance of expanding our awareness beyond our expectations, prejudices, ideas, and biases. When we open to boundless space in this way, we are extending an open-ended invitation to the universe, and many unexpected guests will show up at our door. This talk was given at the 2006 Winter Dathün, a month-long retreat held in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, to find out about upcoming retreats, and to explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit www.dharmaocean.org/welcome.

When working with a spiritual teacher, a community must consider how to carry on the lineage once the teacher dies. In this talk, Reggie says that the authentic lineage of Chögyam Trungpa will only survive into future generations if integrity trumps strategy and the individual journey of each student is held as inviolable. This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathün, a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

In this episode, Reggie discusses the continuation of Chogyam Trungpa’s lineage within Dharma Ocean. Instead of worshipping the lineage footsteps of the past, Reggie encourages us to make a relationship with the lineage as a living force that is communicating within us right now. This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun, a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

This is a talk Reggie offered on the life and teachings of his teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He discusses the Vajrayana foundations of Tibetan Buddhism, Trungpa’s early training as a Vajrayana master, and his unique expression of the dharma in the modern world. This talk was given in 2011 as part of a class on the Sadhana of Mahamudra held in Boulder, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

Today, we’ll listen to brief excerpts from an assortment of talks Reggie gave on the life and teachings of Jesus from a Buddhist perspective. He explains how Jesus was a contemplative prophet who exemplified non-theistic compassion through his rejection of religious materialism and embrace of the pain and suffering of this world. He says that Buddhists can learn important lessons from the story of Christ’s inner and outer journey: that true spiritual practice is not a way of escaping political society, but rather helps us develop the courage to speak honestly and straightforwardly to the confusion, injustice, and corruption of the samsaric world. These excerpts are taken from a variety of Winter Dathun retreats. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

Winter solstice is a time of journeying inward, into the depths and darkness of our being. This podcast features excerpts from two talks Reggie gave on the importance of opening to darkness in spiritual practice. In the first excerpt, he explains how the difficult, ugly, and unwanted aspects of our experience hold tremendous richness and life. The second excerpt is from a winter solstice talk on the meaning of darkness as a cosmic phenomenon in the cycle of death and rebirth. Darkness, he says, is essential to spiritual awakening, because it is only when we let go into absolute emptiness that the universe can give birth to new light and new life. These excerpts are taken from talks given at the 2010 Winter Dathun and a 2009 Dharma Ocean Community Weekend. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

Today, Reggie discusses the narrow world of ego. We typically perceive the world beyond ego as shadows and darkness; however, when we enter the unknown depths of the body through the practice of meditation, we tap into the boundlessness of the universe. When we encounter this vast expanse, we can either take a risk and choose to open to it, or pretend that it does not exist, seeking a temporary sense of security in ignorance. Meditation shows us how to open with trust and gentleness and be with the full gamut of feelings that inevitably arise when we let go of our cherished versions of reality. This talk was given at the 2007 Meditating with the Body retreat held in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

What does the word enlightenment really mean? How does it define Buddhist cultural roles and perceptions? Is the spiritual ideal of enlightenment really that helpful to modern meditators? These are some of the questions Reggie poses in this talk on the importance of deconstructing the concept of enlightenment and critically examining its pervasive use in both ancient and modern expressions of Buddhism. He explains how his teacher, Chögyam Trungpa, jettisoned stereotypical ideas associated with the enlightened image of a Tibetan rinpoche. Instead, Trungpa showed that the true mark of realization in a teacher is a willingness to become ever more human and transparent in sharing one’s own individual process, journey, and emotions with students, communicating awakening through genuine responsiveness – not hierarchical authority. This excerpt is from a talk given at the 2006 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

Buddhism is often seen as an organized Asian religion that is historically tied to entrenched power structures, authoritative texts, and definitive roles. In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the importance of giving up our ideas and preconceptions about the dharma and Buddhism. At this point in history, he says, many practitioners are called to take part in the unique unfolding of what the dharma is right now: a deeply creative process of questioning, discovery, and sharing. He encourages us to trust our own personal discoveries in meditation, and understand that our unique expression of the dharma is integral to the life of the sangha right now. This excerpt is from a talk given at the 2010 Winter Dathun – a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

The journey of meditation shows us how our ideas about everyday life are too small, regimented, and suffocating. In this talk, Reggie explains that modern spirituality requires a certain bravery, a willingness to be dismantled by the raw reality of our humanity in the midst of everyday circumstances. It's a journey that requires trust in the radical longing to open up our entire being in a completely undefended way. This approach to spirituality, he says, "is not for all people, but for the people it is for, there is a hunger to know what’s going on beyond reactivity, stories, and defensiveness. When we allow this hunger, then life becomes very interesting.” This talk was given at a public program Reggie taught in Boulder, CO in 2011. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of recorded talks and practices to assist you on your spiritual journey, please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

Reggie discusses the ways meditation helps us shed habitual patterns so we can discover the true purpose of our life. The human journey, he says, is not about getting rid of our ego but rather connecting more deeply with our authentic person. Then the ego can help us on our path. Today’s teachings are drawn from a talk hosted by members of the Crestone, Colorado community. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of audio listening guides to assist you on your spiritual journey please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

“Space and the awareness of space. This is the basic message.” In today’s podcast, Reggie comments on this profoundly simple practice instruction. In meditation, he says, we learn to relate to the basic space of reality. However, when we experience the vastness of space — and lose our habitual reference points — we can experience an ego “freak out.” Reggie encourages us to trust these moments of uncertainty and open further, beyond the confines of ego. These excerpts are taken from two different talks given at the 2005 Winter Dathun and the 2006 Meditating with the Body retreat held in Crestone, CO. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of audio listening guides to assist you on your spiritual journey please visit dharmaocean.org/welcome.

An impediment to the practice of Mahamudra for modern people is the notion that we are insufficiently equipped to make the full spiritual journey: that we are too busy, too materialistic, and too distracted. In today’s episode, Reggie offers an alternative, more optimistic perspective on the spiritual capacity of modern people, examining the traditional context of Mahamudra practice and highlighting the opportunities that modern life offers to us as meditation practitioners. Today's episode is drawn from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive audio training course produced by Sounds True. Mahamudra for the Modern World is available for download at dharmaocean.org/mmw.

"The purpose of Mahamudra is to bring us into a state where our mind is so peaceful and so open and so available that every human experience appears as a kind of miracle.” So Reggie begins his description of Mahamudra, the topic of today's podcast. This profound tradition of Tibetan Buddhist meditation provides a unique entry into the great space of our basic nature, grants us the freedom to be who we fully are, and shows us that our ordinary life is intensely real, vivid, and filled with meaning. Today's episode is drawn from Mahamudra for the Modern World, a 37-hour intensive audio training course produced by Sounds True. Mahamudra for the Modern World is available for download at dharmaocean.org/mmw.

Vajrayana Buddhism is sometimes called "the quick path to realization." In today’s episode, Reggie describes the travails, inspiration, and bravery of practitioners who choose the quick path, an approach to dharma whereby one places meditation at the very center of life. Practitioners who take this approach to the spiritual journey often face “gradations and domains of fear most people can only guess about.” Through a willingness to experience fear, students on the quick path learn to appreciate and explore the full range of possibility in life. This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings, find out about upcoming retreats, and explore a variety of audio listening guides to assist you on your spiritual journey please visit www.dharmaocean.org.