Meditation Retreat, Kagyu Samye Ling, Scotland, 10th Oct 2016
In general we should set aside a particular time for formal practice, and keep to it very conscientiously. Within the sessions we should apply the methods taught for clearing agitation and dullness, and do our very best not to fall under their sway. The level of concentration and care with which we should try to […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 3rd June 2021
In the Buddhist view we each have to take responsibility for ourselves. We cannot expect the Buddha to bless us out of our suffering. For example, Devadatta was born in hell before the Buddha’s very eyes and the Buddha couldn’t stop it from happening. We each experience the results of our own actions. What the […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 3rd June 2021
A few years ago a middle-aged Tibetan man, a shopkeeper in Boudha, Nepal, came to see me to receive transmission and instruction for a practice he wanted to do. We had a chat and he said something that made me feel he had a better understanding of the teachings on the preciousness of human life, […]
The three jewels are not outside of our own mind, if they were, they wouldn’t be able to give us refuge or protection.
The more we understand emptiness, the more confidence we will have in the law of causality.
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 14th March 2021
Whether we come to have a good understanding of the dharma or not is determined by how well we are able to understand the intention of the lama who is teaching us. In truth, what we are trying to learn in the dharma is nothing other than the intention and view of the lama. It […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 8 December 2020
I sometimes think that I am a faithless individual, because I rarely have faith in the types of lamas and things that other Buddhists seem to have faith in. At other times I think I have very strong faith, but it is just a bit unusual. For example, I can come across an old Nepali […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 20 August 2020
Everyone on the planet is busy doing something or other; you almost never see anyone spending their life just lying around doing nothing. Nevertheless, only a few achieve great and meaningful things in their life, the vast majority do not. Why? It is because most people are aimless, they are only contending with the things […]
Teachings on the "Torch of Certainty", 2015
When people hear the word ‘Buddhism’, the first thing that comes to mind is probably meditation; they feel that meditation is the essence or the root of Buddhism. There is good reason for that but there is another perspective that is less common, which is that study is foremost in Buddhism. One of the many […]
Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 2nd September 2020
Why is the mandala practice so meritorious? One reason is that most of our suffering is our own creation. We fabricate ideas about ourselves and the world, cling to them as real, and suffer as a consequence. So our practice, whatever it is must reduce our clinging if we are going to overcome suffering. In […]
Online Teaching from Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 14 June 2020
Question: If we truly want to follow the path of the Mahamudra in this life, is it possible to do this whilst engaging in an “ordinary life” with jobs, partners, houses and so on? Or, if we want to make the most of this precious human birth and follow the gift of dharma, do we […]
Online Teaching from Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 13 June 2020
Many people see mahamudra and dzogchen to be rather easy. But the early masters of Kagyu lineages didn’t see them to be easy, just look how hard they worked and what they put themselves through to attain them. For example Naropa was already a pandita, had advanced practice generation stage practice, and even had visions […]
Online Teaching from Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 12 June 2020
It is difficult to determine whether a lama is good or not, because we only see the outside. But that which makes someone a genuine lama lies inside. We are told that we need to examine the lama, but in order to do this effectively we have to be quite knowledgable about the dharma. These […]
Online Teaching from Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 11 June 2020
Activities of the world are like waves breaking on the shore, they inundate us one after the next without end. They only stop when we decide to drop them.
Online Teaching from Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal, 10 June 2020
When we hear that Tilopa received teaching directly from Vajradhara, it is difficult to understand. We think the three kayas of a buddha are different buddhas, teaching in different places at different times. But in reality it is not like this, it is simultaneous. What we perceive depends on our level, our perception. Those with […]
