Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, March 2022
Prostration in its true sense is the physical, verbal or mental expression that naturally emerges when we are captivated in awe of the qualities of the Lama or Three Jewels.
True prostration
Teachings
Fine dining (with flies)
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, March 2022
After the first cycle of retreat at Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, the retreat lamas and I went on pilgrimage with Kyabje Thrangu Rinpoche in south India. At that point I had not had so many personal meetings and interactions with Kyabje Rinpoche. But nevertheless I did have some faith in him and believed he was […]
Dharma practitioners and worldly people
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 27 September 2021
Those who seek out their own faults are dharma practitioners. Those who seek out the faults of others are worldly people.
Sacrifice
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, Autumn 2021
Without at least a little sacrifice on our part, we will not be able to help another in any significant way.
Mahamudra Please
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, November 2022
A reply to a student’s request for advanced meditation instruction. I sincerely wish for you to know Mahamudra. Perhaps I feel a greater sense of urgency about it than even you do yourself. You may wonder why I teach meditation when I travel abroad, but not to you here in the retreat centre. Well, truth […]
If You Find Such a Place
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat, Nepal, 24th January 2022
Today a Chinese nun came to see for advice about where to go for the dharma. She said since it seems like she doesn’t have the opportunity to stay here in the retreat centre, where could she go to get good opportunities for the dharma. I was stumped, I didn’t know what to say. The […]
Meeting a New Lama
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 25th January 2022
If you are going to approach a lama with a request for teachings, it is best to approach them with humility and conduct yourself humbly. That is if you think that the lama has the mentality of a real practitioner and you truly wish to be taken on as a student. I wouldn’t advise approaching […]
Faith – The Catalyst
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, January 2022
What do we need in order to attain the realisation of mahamudra? First, we should know how it is NOT attained. There is a quote by Master Shang in the Ocean of Definitive meaning, which reads: “This [i.e., mahamudra] is not realised through extensive study. It is not realised through great knowledge. It is not […]
The Greatest Fortune
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, December 2021
The greatest fortune in my life is having met the lamas that I did. Due to having witnessed their ways of being, faith in the dharma remains in my heart. Without this, now when the world is full of people claiming to be Buddhist but you can hardly find anyone who acts in line with […]
Integrating the Practice
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat, Nepal, Summer 2021
It’s very important that right from the beginning we link our dharma practice and our everyday experience as much as possible. If we continue to see our practice as something we merely imagine as we sit on the cushion, unrelated to the rest of our experience that we call ‘real life’, we will never come […]
Giving Yourself the Best Opportunity
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 2021
Whether you’d like to admit it or not, the fact remains that you cannot study the dharma extensively in English or other European languages at the moment. When I say ‘extensively’ I mean to the level that one can study the dharma in the shedras (Buddhist colleges), for example. For a start, many of the […]
First Impressions
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal 4th January 2022
Earlier today someone sent me some pictures of Khenpo Chokhyab. As soon as you see a picture of him you get the impression, ‘Here is someone with renunciation.’ At least that is what comes to mind for me when I see his picture. There are many lamas of his generation like that. A hardheaded cynic […]
If it’s not Broken…
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, December 2021
You hear people say things like the dharma should be updated to suit people of the 21st century because it was taught that the dharma should be imparted in ways that suit the student. Personally, I cannot agree that the dharma needs to be changed to suit modern people. I don’t think that is what […]
Traits of a Mahamudra Lama
24th December 2021, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal
A mahamudra lama needs certain attributes and these are taught at length in the texts. To put it very simply though, they must have the way of thinking that we find explained in the mahamudra teachings. This means that they have little concern for this life, they are uncomplicated, and remain unswayed by circumstances. The […]
Everyday Life is Buddhism
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, June 2021
The teachings of the Buddha relate to our everyday experience, the way we perceive life. This is true across the board, from the most basic teachings to teachings on the ultimate view. So of course this is true in our practice of the dharma too. Our practice must relate to what we see, hear and […]