Month: March 2019

Student's Question

How can I develop compassion towards myself?

I often get asked about compassion towards oneself. A lot of people feel more comfortable when they are suffering than when they are enjoying themselves. It is curious isn’t it? All this is very confused thinking and needs to be sorted out right at the beginning of the path. Otherwise there will be a tendency to look on meditation and Dharma practice as some kind of self-punishment and that won’t lead to liberation, peace and happiness at all! Continue reading How can I develop compassion towards myself?

Awakened Heart Sangha
how to not be a dharma doormat
Lama Shenpen Teaching, Student's Question

How can we balance not getting walked over and letting go of our ego grasping habits at the same time?

We have to be strong and stand up for ourselves, but not in the sense of trying to prove anything. We have to learn to respond to forces that come to us from outside in an open, clear and sensitive manner and that doesn’t mean caving in all the time. It often means really allowing that force to express itself as we open to it and then taking the energy of the force itself into the spaciousness of our being. There we will find an appropriate response – even if not at first. Continue reading How can we balance not getting walked over and letting go of our ego grasping habits at the same time?

Loshi1 Comment
Lama Shenpen Teaching, Student's Question

The Trouble with Truth: Confusing the terms Relative and Absolute Truth – Why Lama Shenpen Prefers to teach about One Truth.

I like to emphasise that there is one Truth, we already intuit it, we are already it, and the best things about us are related to that. We’re already ‘there’ but we overlay it with all these doubts and confusion, which is what we’re working with. Continue reading The Trouble with Truth: Confusing the terms Relative and Absolute Truth – Why Lama Shenpen Prefers to teach about One Truth.

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Hookham Female British Tibetan Buddhist Teacher
Lama Shenpen Teaching

How does Lama Shenpen tailor her teachings for a Western audience?

I start where people are. I start with what is motivating people to come to learn about Buddhism in the first place. They are looking for a spiritual path, for meaning, for truth, for peace of mind, for a path to happiness, for a way of overcoming their feelings of hopelessness and lack of direction in life. They are looking for something that will make their life make sense to them and enable them to live out their deep wish to be of benefit to others and to the world. Continue reading How does Lama Shenpen tailor her teachings for a Western audience?

Awakened Heart Sangha
Lama Shenpen Teaching

Letting Go of Clinging

Letting go of clinging does not mean being hard on yourself. The Buddha taught that we suffer because we cling to what is impermanent, unsatisfactory and unreal (not-self) as if it were permanent, satisfactory and real. 

It’s about just noticing that letting go of clinging means letting go of what is going to go anyway, what was not satisfactory anyway, what was not real anyway. Letting go of egocentricity means letting go of ideas about yourself that are not actually true and which bring you no lasting happiness.  Continue reading Letting Go of Clinging

Loshi
Article, Lama Shenpen Teaching

Article: What is Adhistana? How do we connect and open to Openness, Clarity & Sensitivity?

The Mahayana Buddhist tradition teaches that the three inseparable qualities of Openness, Clarity and Sensitivity are actually the nature of the Universe itself. It is true, up to a point, that we have only our own Openness, Clarity and Sensitivity to rely on, but actually our Buddha Nature is not some kind of isolated entity separate from the Universe and everyone else’s Buddha Nature. Continue reading Article: What is Adhistana? How do we connect and open to Openness, Clarity & Sensitivity?

Loshi