Category: Lama Shenpen Teaching

Article, Lama Shenpen Teaching

Long Read Part 1: What is a Pure Land? And Why pray to be reborn there?

First of all we need to know what a Pure Land is and what it means. Eventually we learn that the pure land is nothing other than our true nature. The pure land manifests in the heart when we realise that our true nature is our Buddha nature. So why call this a pure land? Why a place? We are Buddha nature. We are expressions of Buddha nature so why talk about it as if it were a Pure Land? Eventually it’s a matter of seeing this world we are in now as being the Pure Land. Continue reading Long Read Part 1: What is a Pure Land? And Why pray to be reborn there?

Awakened Heart Sangha
Avidya Ignorance Lama Shenpen Hookham UK Tibetan Buddhist teacher
Lama Shenpen Teaching

The power of Avidya – primordial ignorance – is an expression of the fundamental quality of sensitivity.

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.

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Hookham UK female Buddhist teacher
Lama Shenpen Teaching

The Five Certainties & the Power to Gather

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

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Teaching

How can we balance caring for others while looking after ourselves?

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?

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Teaching

How do you feel when you open to the suffering of others?

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?

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Teaching, Video Teaching

Video: The importance of having clarity of intention – our intentions in this life carry on to the next

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

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Teaching

How the Inevitability of Change & Impermanence Heightens Our Clarity/Awareness

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

Loshi
Lama Shenpen Teaching

Listening, Reflecting & Meditating – Meditation as Integration and Attentive Viewing

There are three stages to all Buddhist practice called listening, reflecting and meditating. In fact these three stages are integral to any effective learning or process of discovery, even if usually we do no more than touch on each stage. The art is to give sufficient attention to each stage…For Buddhists, meditation is attentive viewing that opens into a process beyond the conceptual, thinking mind. Continue reading Listening, Reflecting & Meditating – Meditation as Integration and Attentive Viewing

Loshi