Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link

Speaker: Amalia Steinberg. Amalia contemplates the tendency to fall into nihilism and eternalism and offers skillful means to adopt the view of the middle way. The view of nhilism rejects the idea of cause and effect and engenders fear, anxiety, and clinging. The view of eternalism engenders a false sense of permanence and solidity that leads to fundamentalism. The middle way is not "halfway" between these two view; rather, it acknowledges the interdependence of all phenomena and offers the opportunity to exert agency. In acknowledging our deep connectedness with all beings and situations, it fosters respect, kindness, and an open heart.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la teaches from the most famous lojong text, Seven Points of Mind Training, drawing on commentaries by great lojong practitioners in this weekend program held December 4-5, 2021. Lojong, the Buddhist practice of mind training, gives us the tools we need to journey through our constantly changing lives and meet unexpected and unwanted experiences with confidence and clarity. The training begins with getting to know ourselves and finding solidarity and friendship with our own minds. Gradually the practice frees us from the negative habits that prevent us from realizing our full potential to benefit others deeply.

Speaker: Wendy Conquest. Wendy reflects on how she gained a deeper understanding of the root causes of a life-long experience of anxiety, and how she applied the Dharma to work with it. During the pandemic, engaging in new and challenging service to the sangha heightened her tendency to be anxious and to worry, and led her to resolve to re-examine the assumption that this habit was a sign of conscientiousness. The realization that it was actually a form of suffering generated by self-clinging led her to contemplate how to apply the Dharma to overcome this obstacle. By applying the antidotes of self-reflection, mindfulness, vigilant introspection, and supplication, she was able to cultivate more awareness and equanimity and appreciation for the sangha and for the benefit of service to it.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la asks some big questions about how we are approaching life. As we ponder the changing world and issues like climate change and our own mortality, are we just trying to get by in samsara or are we truly applying the Dharma to cut through our negative emotions and cross the ocean of samsara? How are we responding to the challenges of life? Are we contemplating and applying the teachings in a way that penetrate samsara?

Speaker: Elizabeth Ready. Elizabeth unfolds the meaning she has gained from contemplating the "Supplication to Guru Rinpoche", a prayer written by Dzigar Kongrul Rinpoche for the MSB Sangha. She reflects on how the prayer, recited at the end of MSB programs and practices, invokes all the qualities that practitioners of all three yanas seek to cultivate: longing, refuge, aspiration, bodhicitta, conviction, confidence and devotion. She also includes details on the three types of devotion as defined by Khandro Rinpoche, and cites a recent program honoring the parinirvana of the 16th Karmapa, which is available on Youtube.

Speaker: John Cobb. John addresses the challenges that sanghas have to identify and work to overcome. He points out four questions that sanghas need to consider in the context of their aspiration to establish Buddhism in the West. First, sanghas need to examine how responsibility is assigned ("delegating upward"); second, they need to recognize when it is appropriate and beneficial to seek external guidance and expertise. Third, they need to distinguish the tendency to cling to the "good old days" from the valuable wisdom gained through experience, and to balance the value of their history with the benefits of welcoming fresh perspectives. Finally, they need to develop a beneficial and open connection to the external culture without sacrificing the integrity of the sangha ("barbarians at the gate"). He cites three principles of accountability, transparency and inclusivity that can guide the sangha in establishing a code of conduct that supports the other two jewels, the Buddha and the Dharma.

Speaker: Bill Filter. Bill describes therapies that use psychedelic drugs to help Navy SEALS struggling to cope with depression and addiction, and explains how he introduces meditation practices to veterans who have undergone these therapies, helping them integrate their therapeutic experiences and provide enduring relief from suffering. He teaches them the practices of shamatha and tonglen, using the metaphor of projector, light, film, and screen to enable them to understand and integrate their experiences of ego dissolution. At the same time, he notes that, however beneficial the use of psychedelics may be for people struggling to come to terms with such strong suffering, it cannot replace the practices of the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana paths, which gradually cultivate the insight needed to dissolve the ego and prepare us for successfully navigating the experience of the bardo.

Speaker: Sasha Dorje Meyerowitz. Sasha explores how analytical meditation promotes our understanding of the truth and generates growth and faith on the path. Initiating the investigation by tracing the history of the concept of "being present" in the West, he cites the analysis of the Prasangika-Madhyamika philosophical school to explain the nature of time and the relationship between cause and effect. By breaking time down into smaller and smaller increments, we discover that we cannot find a single, discrete moment. Instead, we come to appreciate the interdependent, impermanent, and composite nature of past, present, and future. Similarly, questioning the concepts of cause and effect can transform our understanding of how objects arise and cease. Further, we can apply the insights gained from these investigations to our own experiences, using analytical meditation to understand their absolute nature as empty of objective existence. Engaging in the reasoning of analytical meditation ultimately leads us to a

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded talk was given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche on November 5, 2017 at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche addresses the importance of having strong perseverence to accomplish one's goals on the path.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded Personal Link was given by Rinpoche to the local sangha on March 19, 2006 at Osel Ling in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche spoke in how we can move forward in our path as individuals by having clarity and intention, commitment and endurance.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This previously recorded Personal Link was given by Rinpoche on February 5, 2006 at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling in Vershire, Vermont. Rinpoche talks about how devotion in the Vajrayana is fuel to excel in accomplishing the path.

Speaker: Ani Nyima Dolma. Ani Nyima reflects on how the monastic life and the practice of the four immeasurables support the freedom from attachment that leads to sympathetic joy. Drawing a distinction between mundane happiness and sympathetic joy, she explains how becoming ordained liberated her from worldly concerns and enhanced her capacity to generate the virtues of equanimity, happiness, compassion and great joy.

Speaker: Suzy Greanias. Suzy addresses the importance of learning how to train the mind in order to cultivate bodhicitta. When we become aware of our thoughts and of the circumstances that generate them, we recognize that they are temporary and dependent on causes and conditions. This leads us to realize that we don't need to identify with them. Meditation and contemplation train the mind to recognize how our habitual responses and concepts merely obscure the true nature of our mind. Contemplating the four immeasurables, beginning with equanimity, gives us the spaciousness to cultivate the wisdom, equanimity and patience necessary to arouse bodhicitta.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a re-broadcast of a Personal Link Rinpoche gave on 4/09/2006 at Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche discusses the topic of devotion.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a re-broadcast of a Personal Link Rinpoche gave on 8/15/1999 at Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado. Rinpoche discusses the benefits of keeping a positive attitude toward all experiences.

Speaker: Matthew Minier. Matthew contemplates how staying open to the suffering in the world allows us to support our aspiration to benefit beings and to liberate ourselves from samsara. Succumbing to the temptation to avoid discomfort only leads us deeper into our cocoons, narrowing our understanding and ability to respond to painful situations. But if we instead choose to face painful situations directly, we cultivate the means to benefit ourselves and others. Our ability to respond to suffering supports others. It enables us to respond compassionately and to recognize unforeseen possibilities for relieving pain; it develops our sense of grit and perseverance, preparing us to meet future adversity with equanimity and courage; and it enriches our lives with the understanding that the stories we tell ourselves about "how things are" do not actually represent what is true or what is possible.

Speaker: Greg Richardson. Greg Richardson explores how Dharma is established in new cultures and how practitioners can best adapt aspects of their culture to further their attainments on the path. Focusing in particular on the establishment and practice of Dharma in the United States, he cites the American qualities of vigor and grit as traits we can apply to cultivate our own practice. Stripped of competitiveness and re-oriented away from external achievements, vigor can help us overcome the three kinds of laziness (distraction, procrastination, and self-doubt); grit can provide the determination to develop and perfect the skills we need to attain enlightenment and buddhahood.

Speaker: Karuna Chung. Karuna reflects on the importance of contemplating impermanence to make our life meaningful and to prepare for death. Cultivating bodhicitta gives our life meaning by opening our hearts to others; practicing meditation, especially meditation on impermanence, stabilizes our mind, clarifies our understanding of our own buddha nature and deepens our understanding of our mortality. Meeting painful circumstances fearlessly strengthens our renunciation, heightens our appreciation for our lives and encourages us to embrace death as an opportunity for liberation from samsara.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores the aspiration to live a meaningful life and how freedom from the need to validate our own identity leads to the development of true authenticity. As we make the commitment to turn to the path of the Dharma and see through our neurotic grasping at a self, we can find a naturalness that goes beyond self.

Speaker: Mark Kram. Mark Kram reflects on how appreciating and working with our teachers, attaining genuine renunciation and realizing the wisdom of emptiness all require a shift in perspective. Emphasizing the importance of personal experience and contemplation, he points out how the gap between the levels of experience and insight may present challenges to both students and teachers. This gap calls for students to recognize how their own assumptions and projections may limit their understanding of the teachings. The effort to cultivate qualities embodied by the teacher such as lovingkindness, compassion, and devotion, also calls for students to question the belief in "real" self. Realizing the emptiness of self calls for shift in perspective that is ultimately nonconceptual, and that makes it possible to overcome self-cherishing. Finally, a shift in perspective generates the recognition of the cause of suffering---the mistaken belief in a real self---and a new insight into how to attain freedom from it.