Traditionally intended to request permission and blessings from the earth in order to create auspicious conditions for building on the land and supporting future beneficial dharma activities, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche presided over a Land Blessing Ceremony in Colorado on February 1st (2025) and visited Nalandabodhi Colorado the next day.
What can we learn from the events or problems that encourage us to pause? My hope for us all is that we will not resist the challenges that arise, but see them as opportunities. I hope we will welcome these obstacles, these pauses, these moments of reflection. And while we do, let us practice loving-kindness toward ourselves and those around us.
The First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa (1110-1193), was one of the greatest students of Gampopa (1079-1153), a legendary master of mahamudra meditation. Mahamudra is considered the peerless method for attaining enlightenment. Passing on the mahamudra lineage became a centerpiece of the Karmapas’ activity. An unbroken succession of teachers have held the title, or name, Karmapa after Dusum Khyenpa.
In the new year it is common to make aspirations and resolutions. Start the Year of the Wood Snake with a commitment to deepen your understanding of mind, interconnectedness, and meditation! Immediately following Losar (Tibetan New Year), Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen will guide us in dealing with our minds through meditation and contemplation. Sundays, March 2–April 13, 2025, 10a-12noon PT.
What is the quality of your mind, right now? That was the question Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen posed at the beginning of a weekend teaching on the topic of Mahāmudrā and Bodhicitta at Milarepa’s Yak Horn, our center in Hong Kong.
Christmas, New Year, all samsaric things like this naturally come. However, to practice Dharma, making a deep connection with our own mind, requires a lot of effort. Rather than turning inward, Lama Rabten Tshering noted that we tend to choose samsara– suffering. Why?
