Making Meditation Easy
Mindfulness is an invitation, an opportunity to join together as community and to reintegrate our own mind’s disparate voices into a cohesive whole. In meditation, we learn to watch the arising of thoughts and feelings with calmness and clarity—to see the habit of reacting habitually without getting caught up in it.
The first step in learning to respond differently to reality is to realize what we are doing—to stand back and observe how we create it.
Escaping the obsessive nature of thought, we’re able to realize a radical paradigm shift that brings freedom from fixation and opens up a whole new view of reality. The dynamic process of awareness is thus realized. Between the first step and nondual awareness is a lot of wonderful, hard work.
The mindfulness meditation will be facilitated by Lama Zangpo, a Western lama who studied with the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche.
Pure View and the Role of Faith
Visualization is a Buddhist meditation method to refine away the obscurations of mind, which are relatively superficial. It works because there is something inherent and valuable about mind to reveal—its fundamental buddhanature—like gold in gold ore.
A sacred outlook on reality is the grounding framework of visualization. Lama Zangpo will discuss this outlook, called “pure view,” which is the inspiration of the spiritual path, and the role of faith in our ability to forge that path.
What Is the Vajrayana Spiritual Approach?
Consciousness gets caught up in self-identity when we take ourselves to be the people described by our personal histories. How consciousness is experienced changes dramatically when we become free of that mis-identification. The pitfalls of self-representations can be recognized for the fictions they are.
A fundamental perspective of all spiritual traditions is that humanity is generally asleep, spiritually speaking. This is especially evident in the way consciousness is directed outwardly in relationship to phenomena at large, to the neglect of our inner lives. That insidious barrier to spiritual development is overcome by looking inward in meditation.
Yogins are fundamentally curious about mind-reality and use all manner of methods to disclose its true nature. Lama Zangpo will explore the traditional Vajrayana methods of experiential inquiry used to awaken from spiritual slumber.
Contemplation and Meditation on the Four Thoughts
The topics of impermanence, precious human rebirth, karma, and suffering are the grounding framework of the entire Buddhist path. Traditionally, the mind is trained by exploring these truths in alternating phases of contemplation and meditation. Their truth is brought first to the light of conceptual consciousness and then the light of nondual awareness.
Using the traditional framework of contemplation and meditation, Lama Zangpo will introduce these Four Thoughts, which are designed to turn the mind away from a merely worldly perspective of life and toward a spiritual view of it.
Faith, Refuge, and Bodhicitta
Faith is a belief that something good will happen, a trust that what seems impossible becomes possible, a perception of light within darkness. This describes well our relationship with the sources of refuge, which is the cornerstone of the Buddhist path.
Faith is an awareness of life’s mystery, mirrored to us in relationship with the Buddha, dharma, sangha. The blessings of these faith-worthy supports endow us with the qualities necessary to fulfill our bodhicitta commitment—to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
Doubt, which is an essential uncertainty about our identity and the purpose in life, is considered the only obstacle to enlightenment. Lama Zangpo will discuss how a faithful relationship with the sources of refuge resolve the questions of personal identity and make spiritual development possible.
Faith is a belief that something good will happen, a trust that what seems impossible becomes possible, a perception of light within darkness. This describes well our relationship with the sources of refuge, which is the cornerstone of the Buddhist path.
Faith is an awareness of life’s mystery, mirrored to us in relationship with the Buddha, dharma, sangha. The blessings of these faith-worthy supports endow us with the qualities necessary to fulfill our bodhicitta commitment—to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.
Doubt, which is an essential uncertainty about our identity and the purpose in life, is considered the only obstacle to enlightenment. Lama Zangpo will discuss how a faithful relationship with the sources of refuge resolve the questions of personal identity and make spiritual development possible.
The Circle of Mindfulness
The Circle of Mindfulness is an invitation, an opportunity to join together as community and to reintegrate our own mind’s disparate voices into a cohesive whole. In meditation, we learn to watch the arising of thoughts and feelings with calmness and clarity—to see the habit of reacting habitually without getting caught up in it.
The first step in learning to respond differently to reality is to realize what we are doing—to stand back and observe how we create it.
Escaping the obsessive nature of thought, we’re able to realize a radical paradigm shift that brings freedom from fixation and opens up a whole new view of reality. The dynamic process of awareness is thus realized. Between the first step and nondual awareness is a lot of wonderful, hard work.
The Circle of Mindfulness will be facilitated by Lama Zangpo, a Western lama who studied with the late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche.
