You could think of it as a kind of distorted compassion. Having failed to recognise openness, clarity and sensitivity as the true nature of reality, avidya tries to protect a separate individual self from the overwhelming nature of these qualities. Continue reading The power of Avidya – primordial ignorance – is an expression of the fundamental quality of sensitivity.
There’s the teaching, and, of course it has to come from a teacher, and there’s a time. But if the teacher teaches at one time and it’s recorded and transcribed, then it’s like it’s happening over a long time. It happened at one moment, or at one event, but then it actually kind of reverberates. If you then think about the nature of reality, and about time… is time real? If it’s not real, then actually all the reverberations are happening at the same time. So the time of the teaching is the whole time that it lasts until it stops reverberating, it’s one time. That’s a very inspiring thought, isn’t it? Continue reading The Five Certainties & the Power to Gather
People often ask how to balance caring for others while looking after ourselves. If we look in our hearts and realise that what we really want is the happiness of others, then we may feel inspired to try and make everyone happy. What often happens though is that we can’t do it: instead we get exhausted and decide that what we really need is to look after ourselves. But that doesn’t sound like Bodhisattva activity does it? Continue reading How can we balance caring for others while looking after ourselves?
How do you feel when you open yourself to the suffering of others? Does it leave you with a hopeless feeling? Do you find yourself closing off very quickly? Since others are always going to suffer is it possible ever to experience complete joy and freedom from suffering? The Buddha, the Awakened One, said it was… Continue reading How do you feel when you open to the suffering of others?
In the short video below Lama Shenpen talks about the importance of having clarity of intention and following through on whatever intention you have – when things get tough, we don’t have to abandon our goal, we just return to the original intention. “…That’s a really good message for this time, that it isn’t all hopeless and useless… Continue reading Video: The importance of having clarity of intention – our intentions in this life carry on to the next
Notice moments when you have a strong impulse to deny, resist or try to ignore change. Instead of trying to ignore or shut off the experience, stay with the feeling and let there be a gap or a space for that feeling to spread into. Continue reading Reflection Exercise on Responding to Change/Impermanence
On Saturday 25th April, Lama Shenpen gave a wonderful live teaching on the Metta Sutta as part of the Love & Compassion Practise Day, broadcast live from The Hermitage. The recording of the teaching can now be viewed above or on our YouTube Channel. Continue reading Video: Teaching on the Metta Sutta
Loin Lama Shenpen and the Awakened Heart Sangha for a 4 day retreat with daily meditation sessions and teachings on Lojong mind training and Tonglen.
The retreat starts on Friday 1st May at 7pm BST and continues until Tuesday 5th May at 1pm.
The retreat is available to everyone and will be broadcast live on Zoom and YouTube. Continue reading Limitless Love & Compassion Online Retreat 1st – 5th May
Reflect on the poignancy of impermanence and on the inevitability of death. Let the significance of that really strike to your heart and reflect on what is most important in life in the light of that fact. Notice how this thought heightens your awareness and how it could be used to intensify your heart wish for clarity and confidence in relation to the path of awakening Continue reading How the Inevitability of Change & Impermanence Heightens Our Clarity/Awareness
Sharing Lama Shenpen’s advice on doing a home retreat from her booklet about practising at home. During this difficult and uncertain time of the coronavirus pandemic, many of Lama Shenpen’s students are using this time at home for retreat purposes. Continue reading Setting Up a Retreat at Home
