ZaChoeje Rinpoche’s 2012 series of teachings will be on the Courage of the Bodhisattva. With his precise explanations, knowledge and humor, Rinpoche will guide us in understanding the two difficult subjects of the Perfection of Meditation and the Perfection of Wisdom. These teachings from Chapters 8 and 9 of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way [...]

Pema Chödrön’s three day retreat in California is sold out—but you can still attend online, wherever you happen to be. And enrolling in the online version gives you access to additional materials that enable you to revisit the retreat whenever you need a refresher. The “Smile at Fear” retreat is a rare opportunity to practice [...]

Most of the single most important qualities for happiness, success and even health is self-confidence. This powerful quality of confidence is the bedrock of a good life. There is a new series out by Pema Chodron called, Unconditional Confidence: Instructions for meeting any experience with trust and courage. It is being released just when we [...]

Have you experienced true bliss? Bliss streams from the intuitional body, also called the the Buddhic or Love-Wisdom Body. Bliss is impersonal energy of unconditional love, deepest joy, great creativity and unimaginable sense of oneness with all beings. In the Buddhist tradition they call it Bodhicitta. You can cultivate it deliberately throughout the daily wishing [...]

Clearing Karmic Imprints or Negative Habits of Mind The Kagyu school is one of the four major lineages of Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism. The four lineages are: Nynigma, Kagyu, Gelup and Sakya. Each of these schools has a slightly different emphasis. However, they all honor one another, and adhere to the universal principles of the [...]

How To Be Happy by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Book review…. I recently reviewed the pocket book, How to Be Happy, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. I found this recent work, How To Be Happy, to be concise, profound and cuts through our ordinary selfish, ego-clinging mind with the sword of compassionate clarity. This is the type [...]

“After our daily labors, let us gather to discourse about the heart. It will lead us beyond the domains of Earth toward the Subtle World, in order to bring us closer to the sphere of Fire.” Master Morya, Signs of Agni Yoga, Heart, 1932. When I am feeling lonely, isolated or weary, I read from [...]

Is compassion is the best response to harmful actions of others? Unless what a friend or family member is doing is physically or financially destructive to you in the near term, requiring immediate action to protect yourself, then it is often best to carefully consider the next course of action. Responding rather than reacting is [...]

Awakening Compassion, Meditation Practice for Difficult Times is one of my favorite series that everyone can benefit from listening to again and again. For more than 800 years, Tibetan Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama and hundreds of thousands of monks, lamas and spiritual teachers have used the practice of lojong, or mind training, to [...]

This fall’s intensive teaching series THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION will have 9 consecutive sessions held over the course of 7 days is based on Chapter 8 of Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Venerable ZaChoeje Rinpoche will offer teachings on meditation from this classic Mahayana text. Each of the 9 PRACTICE OF [...]