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SACRED JOURNEYS

THE FORBIDDEN CITY: EARTHLY PALACE OF A CELESTIAL RULER

Chogyam Trungpa creates a subtle link to the power of this Shambhala ancestral sovereign and that is why I was interested in exploring, on this latest journey to the Forbidden City. But the best part of the story was in something special the emperor created and also that he gave the 5th Karmapa something that links Chinese history to the Kagyu lineage forever. My journey there is part of that link.

MEETING HOLINESS

When we reached Kushalnagar at 11 the next morning we found a bustling, heaving Indian cacophony. Looking around after we disembarked and wondering what in the world we should do next, we were startled by a small monk running up and shouting as he pulled my arm, “Come, Rinpoche waiting!”

BE HERE NOW 2.0

Each time I try to grasp the past, present or future, they slip through my fingers as if trying to grasp air. Try it for yourself. Can you find the now? Can you find the present moment? If we really investigate and look closer, we start to see that both the now and the present moment can not be found.

EMPOWERING CAREGIVERS WITH MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness and meditation is a practice, resting on time-tested three pillars for anything we want to do: patience, persistence and perseverance. It’s about empowerment for ourselves so we no longer will say, I cannot do this because I don’t have it. This in turn will empower our kids. Because we cannot give others something that we do not have. Empowerment ignites empowerment.

SUBLIME BALANCE

To soar effortlessly, the mighty eagle needs two wings. One is just not enough. My teacher Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche often said this to illustrate, that a sublime balance of mind is needed when facing challenges, both from outside and from inside oneself. In good times and bad times, a much coveted secret is how to maintain an even keel, no matter what happens.

MINDFULNESS & GROWING PAINS

A mindfulness teacher and executive coach discusses some of the current challenges facing the development of mindfulness and how to integrate a deeper meaning and practice that is consistent with Buddha’s path.

RETHINKING MINDFULNESS

An invitation to broaden our understanding of mindfulness by looking at the original sources, the importance of ethics and our intention. Includes a discussion on how mindfulness teachers can upgrade their skills.

POEMS FROM A RETREAT CABIN

I sit in the same seat, staring at the same sky, as I have the last three years, on the bones of the morning, fleshing out with joyful diligence my heart’s expanse, that lucid cognizance, the sun’s rays bring to the sky.

SPIRITUAL BYPASSING

Unfounded and unguided spiritual training like excessive detachment ability, one-sided focus on positive thinking, fear of anger and artificial kindness, neglect of emotions and difficulty in setting limits.

AUTUMN WALK

As I walk on, streams of clouds sedately roll past on a pale blue sky illuminated by a milky-white sun. I center deeply in my breathing as if to gently cradle the world in my arms. For a split of a moment it seems that my consciousness is ceasing the subtle motion in all elements.

AWARENESS IN THE CLASSROOM

Practicing mindful breathing, sitting, walking and communicating, students can discover that there are so many things in their daily lives to notice, to enjoy, to explore. In fact everything inside and outside, everything in their life experience and everything in their surroundings are changing and impermanent.

SURFING ON THE STREAM OF CONFUSED THINKING

When we open our hands, minds, and hearts, moving into the flow of the stream, we either can paddle forward to or float back to the bank of our true identity much more easily. Practicing meditations helps us to recognize our mind patterns and habits, and helps us to see our choices.

SWORD OF FUDO

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A live sword of Fudo — who has it? We often hear that just reading and intellectualizing teachings are not enough, we have to practice and embody them. Only then we can see if they work and only then we can see a change.

MING GUGONG

Rolpe Dorje Rinpoche, a Gelugpa Mongolian tulku who spent nearly his whole life in the Qing Court, first with the 2nd Yongzen Emperor, then with the great emperor, Qianlong. He was the Dorje Löppon of Qianlong for Chakrasamvara and Kalachakra.

A PILGRIMAGE TO THE TIGER’S NEST

Taktsang is indeed a special place. It is the most holy and revered temple in all of Bhutan, perched dramatically on the edge of a cliff with a 900 meters drop beneath. The Indian yogi Padmasambhava, affectionately known as Guru Rinpoche in the Himalayas, flew to this cave on the back of a tiger.

A GIGANTIC ART EXHIBITION IN AFRICA

Deep in the heart of Africa lies the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, a forest along the banks of the Osun river in Yoruba land of Nigeria. It is a gigantic art exhibition sustained by spiritual culture, the last of hundreds of sacred forests which used to adjoin the edges of most Yoruba cities.