The chances are that your actions are mixed with some elements that could be purer but if we had to be pure before we could accumulate punya how would any of us purify ourselves? Good actions that are directed at benefitting others always bring punya (often translated as merit) – i.e. good karmic results. Continue reading Am I a fraud? Am I craving the approval of others through my good actions?
Trying to be more open means adopting a particular attitude which could be called turning towards experience. This means giving whatever experience that arises sufficient space to be fully aware of it. Continue reading What does it mean to be open & turn towards our experience?
There are many other ways that we can show our appreciation and respect in the shrine room as well as in practice situations by gestures of honouring and appreciation as we encounter the sacred. One way to do this is to place gifts on your shrine. We use the Tibetan tradition that comes from India of offering seven or eight bowls of water. Continue reading What do the bowls of water on a shrine represent?
Even the feeling of heaviness associated with self-loathing can be seen as simply sensations, the habitual negative thoughts as just thinking. A possibility of being simple about the whole thing presents itself. A possibility of opening into something vaster, yet more intimate – the light at the end of the tunnel. Continue reading How do we practise with feelings of unworthiness?
In general I think that when we are feeling very emotional it is important to be gentle with ourselves and trust our underlying sanity. When it is time to sit in meditation, don’t have some huge project or demand – just sit in order to sit and just be. Continue reading How to meditate with strong emotions
Lama Shenpen gave a teaching a few weeks ago from The Hermitage in North Wales, on Buddha Nature. Watch below or on our YouTube channel. Her next teaching will be given on Saturday 28th September. The teaching can be attended in person in North Wales or watched live online via Zoom. Full details about how to book or attend online are on the event page … Continue reading Video: Lama Shenpen Teaching on Buddha Nature
We can train ourselves to notice the impulse to fill up every moment so that there are no gaps – the disease of our age – and we could let that go sometimes. Instead, we could start programming gaps into our day. Relaxed unfocused awareness is the very ground of our being; it is that space that we both long for and are terrified of. We must be careful not to use our Dharma practice as another way to distract ourselves from this great ‘nowhereness’ that is right under our noses and that we are trying to deny. Continue reading Making space for ‘Gaps’: Are you filling up every moment of your day doing something or distracting yourself, so there are no gaps?
