Over the years I’ve been recording some of my favorite Buddhist books, and short teachings, and putting them online. These include The Dhammapada, The Treatise on Buddha Nature, Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, and Becoming Your Own Therapist, by Lama Yeshe.
These, and more, can be found here.
Out of night’s troubled dream,
I wake and hear cries,
shouting,
and people running down the hallway
I gather myself and listen –
Our house is on fire.
Of the categories in metta, or Buddhist loving kindness practice, of self, friends and those closest to us, neutral people, those we have difficulty with, and all beings, the one that gets talked about the least is clearly the neutral person. This is understandable, after all. The dear person category is easy, and enjoyable, and everyone who takes up metta practice wants to at least lessen their aversion to the enemy category. ‘All beings’, also, feels good even just to think about. But where does that leave the group of those people we don’t know personally? As we’ll see, all the categories in metta practice are important, and have an essential role to play.
When we think about it, this category of metta for neutral people forms the bridge between those we know and care about, and those we do not, and almost certainly will never know personally. This expands the field of our metta practice immeasurably…
The Supreme Siddhi of Mahamudra Retreat, by Ani Tenzin Palmo, Vajrapani Institute, Boulder Creek, California, June 8th through 10th, 2018.
Commentary on Advice for Mountain Retreat, by the Eighth Kamtrul Rinpoche
Complete audio recordings:
Friday evening, June 8th, 2018
Saturday, June 9th, 2018, morning session – I
Transcript of an excerpt, A Healthy Sense of Self
Saturday, June 9th, 2018, morning session – II
Saturday, June 9th, 2018, evening session – audio,
On the meditation section of the text:
Saturday, June 9th, 2018, evening session, questions and answers
Sunday, June 10th, 2018, closing session
Friends, a couple of months ago I came across a wonderful podcast called ‘This Esoteric Life’. In it, Christopher ‘Free’ covers a broad range of subjects from The Western Esoteric Tradition, and he does so in an inspired way. So I sent him a message and suggested we do a program on Buddhism and A Belief in the Miraculous as a starting point, and here it is. The program we did together is titled, ‘Esoteric Buddhism‘.
This all started innocently enough… Back in 2010, I was working at a local bookstore, spending many hours a day looking at small print, and cleaning and pricing books. On account of this, my eyesight started to suffer, and after work I found it more difficult to read. This made me think of what I would miss most of all if I couldn’t read… Continue reading
In 2010, I began recording Buddhist texts to listen to and reflect on. Among these was the first chapter of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, and the Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom. Continue reading
The value of reading out loud, and recording, and listening to useful teachings comes from their being expressions of the truth. It does not depend on their being read with a mellifluous voice, or on the translation. Something deeper is at work, which I call the esoteric power of the word.
First Corinthians, chapter 13
Though I may speak in the tongues of men and of angels, if I have not love, I am but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove….