The core of all spiritual training in the Awakened Heart Sangha is Discovering the Heart of Buddhism (DHB). This training introduces the underlying principles of Buddhism through the process of discovering truth in our direct experience. All students are strongly encouraged to engage with this training thoroughly before looking at further areas of Living the Awakened Heart, and this usually takes at least one or two years.

Heart of Meditation is the first part of this journey. It introduces formless meditation, the core practice of DHB.

Heart of Meditation is followed by a set of teachings and reflections written by Lama Shenpen to explore the core principles of Buddhism and to deepen experience of formless meditation:

Indestructible Heart Essence, Confidence, Heart Wish, Openness, Clarity, Sensitivity, Mandala Principle.

Indestructible Heart Essence (IHE) – This is the central theme of DHB, exploring the essence of the heart. At whatever stage we come to this theme, linking into the experience of the Indestructible Heart Essence is both the beginning and the end of the training.  First we have to realise that it is actually what we are from the very beginning and finally we have to realise the full implications of what that means.  What in Buddhism is called ‘the path’ is the dawning process of full realisation.   

Confidence – All learning in DHB can be seen as gaining confidence in the Indestructible Heart Essence.  In fact, the whole path of Awakening can be viewed in this way.  Complete confidence comes from complete knowledge and experience.  This comes from following the path of the Buddha through to its end, which is the full revelation or emergence of the Indestructible Heart Essence as the Endless Compassionate Vision, which can be called Buddhahood or simply Awakening or Enlightenment.  The whole path of Awakening revolves around and returns to confidence in the Indestructible Heart Essence.  

Heart Wish – The aim of this theme is to awaken the heart’s deepest wish for our happiness and the happiness of others and to let this resonate and expand throughout the whole structure and dynamic of our life and being.

Openness – Throughout DHB, we learn to relate to openness and spaciousness in our meditation and daily life awareness.  This part explores this theme with a slightly different emphasis.  It focuses more closely on this aspect of the Indestructible Heart Essence by exploring more deeply what the words ‘openness’ and ‘spaciousness’ suggest in our experience.  It links our findings to what in Buddhist literature is referred to as emptiness, the fundamental nature of reality.

Clarity – We use the words clarity and awareness loosely to refer to certain aspects of our experience, but we do not always stop to think what exactly they are referring to.  The meaning of awareness overlaps with mind but has a whole different range of associations and connotations.  Clarity, again has a range of associations all of its own.  All these associations tell us something more about the nature of the Indestructible Heart Essence.  Openness and Clarity are not different things; they are merely names for the same reality talked about from different points of view.  Both the space and the clarity of our experience are indestructible. This tells us something about what is meant by awareness or clarity in this context.  The next step is to apply this observation to our own experience in order to discover whether it is true or not. 

Sensitivity – This is the third fundamental quality of the Indestructible Heart Essence.  It is the quality that underlies and gives power to the Heart Wish. It has three main aspects:  sensitivity, responsiveness and a sense of well-being.  You could say it is the goodness of the Indestructible Heart Essence itself, which manifests as our love of beauty, truth, freedom and play.  It is the power of love and compassion and its nature is happiness or bliss.  When it is distorted it is experienced as pain, suffering, unsatisfactoriness and all the negative emotions.   

Mandala Principle – The scope of Mandala Principle is vast. It is not a simple thing, the significance of which we are expected to be able to grasp immediately. Rather, it is a deep and far reaching principle. All the more elaborate Buddhist teachings are based implicitly on the Mandala Principle so to have some introduction to it provides a way into understanding more complex teachings and customs. Perhaps even more importantly, it provides a tool for helping us become aware of, and for talking about, complex patterns in everyday life and experience, with the hope of introducing more openness, clarity and sensitivity into situations.  

“So openness is the space which allows experience to arise, clarity is the power and precision of its manifestation, and sensitivity is the emotionality and living responsiveness of its nature. These three qualities are not actually separate from each other; they all describe aspects of the Indestructible Heart Essence.” – Lama Shenpen