Volume 23, Number 2/ April 2023
Letter from the Editors
Precious Moments
Dear Friends,
We are happy to share a recent teaching by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche that helps us to recognize where our attention and focus can guide us or lead us astray, and how our awareness can bring us home to the precious moment and the truth of who we really are.
There are new details about the upcoming Summer Retreat at Serenity Ridge! Plus we have a previous interview with His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizin, from his last visit to Serenity Ridge in 2019 for you to enjoy; we are so happy he will be back for this summer's retreat. E Ma Ho!
Lots happening this spring and summer with Ligmincha:
- Serenity Ridge Annual Spring Retreat: Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will be held in person and on Zoom April 13-16, 2023.
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's 2023 schedule.
- Registration now open for the Serenity Ridge Summer Retreat June 24-July 1 & July 2-8 on Tummo, Part 3, with honored guest H.H. the 34th Menri Trizin.
- New book translated by Raven Cypress-Wood, Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind.
- Upcoming CyberSangha events.
- Consider CyberSangha volunteer opportunities.
- Ligmincha Learning online course with Marcy Vaughan begins April 14.
- Learn about The 3 Doors upcoming programs plus a summary of Rinpoche's two-day retreat last September.
- GlideWing online workshop, Tibetan Dream Yoga, begins April 29.
- Rinpoche's speaks about what compassion means to him in the Student and Teacher article.
- Read the Spanish translation for the February VOCL.
In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher
Deepening Our Attention and Focus and Finding Wholeness
An Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's February 2023 Teachings
This excerpt of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teachings is from an online dialogue on Training Attention with Meditation. Rinpoche's conversation with contemplative neuroscientists David R. Vago and Amishi Jha was hosted by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and has been edited for length. You can find out more on cybersangha.net, where there is a rich archive of all the conversations.
A common gift that we have is the ability to put our attention on something that we like. Everybody can do that, addicts can do that. Teenage kids can play a video game for 10 hours straight with an amazing focus of attention. But the ability to focus on something that you don't like but that you need for your growth is harder. It requires more discipline. So both are forms of attention, but sometimes people cannot put their attention where they should put their attention, and they are very good at putting their attention where they should not put their attention, or where it is not necessary for them to put their attention.
Attention and focus are a very important part of one's early development in any of the deeper contemplative traditions including sutra, tantra and dzogchen. There is always this distinction made between focused attention and open attention, or we can also call them zhine and lhatong, or shamatha and vipassana, the focusing of attention on an object versus the focusing of attention on your being.
Many times we talk about attention on what you do, but there is not so much consideration about attention on what you feel or what you're thinking or who you are. It is a key distinction, this other aspect of being aware of yourself and your feelings and your thoughts and your intention in what you are trying to do, as opposed to only being aware of doing something. Very often people will come to recognize only after they've done or said something that they should not have said or done that. They become aware of these things afterwards, right? So in that way, these two kinds of focus are very different.
In our tradition we have what is called the Fivefold Teaching of Dawa Gyaltsen. The first of the five main lines in that text is, Vision is mind. Vision means your outer experience, where you are focusing your mind. This means that in this first cycle of meditation your attention is on the object.
So let's say that the object of attention is a particular problematic person for you. I'm focusing on a problematic person, I'm focusing on a problem, I'm focusing on my pain, I'm focusing on my conflict, I'm focusing on what is not working. In this practice what you are trying to do in saying vision is mind is to investigate and come to recognize that the source of your problem is primarily not out there, rather it's your mind. In this way it becomes clear that the seemingly problematic person or situation is not bad inherently; rather, you are seeing them/it as bad. Our attention at this stage of the practice is very much on the object, and we meditate, meditate, meditate, and at some point we are able to be clear and to recognize that the object is not bad in itself. And you now see that directly and are able to distinguish that. In this way you are able to have more peace with the environment around you.
The second line of this teaching says, mind is empty. So now your attention is no longer on the object; rather, it is on the subject that was centered on the object and creating all of the stories. So here we look inward to see, what is my mind? I am looking at my mind, putting attention on my mind, and like a camera lens I am zooming in closer and closer, and at some point it gets so close that I cannot see any actual images anymore; I see only pixels, dots of light. That's all I see. I don't see any stories or pain. I just see a dot of light. And my mind is empty and luminous. At that point, I have accomplished the turning of my attention back to my mind, and now I'm aware of my mind.
This fivefold teaching continues on for three more cycles of meditation, which I won't go into right now. I've written a whole book on it, though, called Awakening the Luminous Mind, so you can find out more if you want. But these are the first two areas of focus of our attention at this point. The first area of focus is on the object, because that's where the story is projected. And the second area of focus is on the one who is actually creating the story. Focusing our attention in this way is a very important aspect of how we can change or upgrade and prioritize our attention to go to a more introverted, more subtle, more impersonal mode of attention. The value here is in not going outward, because externalizing and concretizing our conflicting stories is not the way that we will come to value and prioritize our attention.
For humanity as a whole, clinging onto who you are not is the nature of samsara. That's how we suffer. And if you are not clinging onto who you are not, then you are not qualified to be in samsara, right? [laughter] The degree of emphasis on that clinging, though, is so strong here in the West, and I think that's because it's a very materialistic culture, no?
I think that in everyone's life, though, we each go through our suffering mode, and we are forced to reflect, and we see the value of reflecting. If we see it enough, then we naturally see the value of letting it go and resting; I think it's a natural process. However, in Buddhism there is a lot of emphasis on that. There are very sophisticated stages of development in it and values in it. There's so much richness in it. But when it is about the peace of no-self, then that stage of awareness is not acknowledged enough in the West. Oh yeah, in Buddhism they talk about no-self, sure. People don't like it. But it is because they don't see the richness and value in that. That's what I feel, and as I said earlier, healing, health and world peace would come about much more in society if there were a little bit more effort to understand what this nonconceptual mind, or being, means, and people were not always identifying with pain.
Every given challenging moment, you just have to be more open to that moment. In the practices that we do, there is what I call taking three precious pills in these moments of real situations in life. The three pills are the white pill, or being more still in your body; the red pill, or being more silent in your speech; and the blue pill, or being more open in your mind. So when you are in a dangerous moment or a riskier moment, take these three pills. There are no harmful side effects [laughter]. But doing so will protect you and it will protect other people too.
When we think of the term rigpa it means seeing or knowing or being aware. Rang rig means self-aware or self-knowing. The question is, what is the self? In the West, the moment that you say self-aware, most of the time, unless the people are into Buddhism or reading that kind of literature, most mainstream psychologists would refer right away to the wrong person. Instead of the self that is beyond the pain identity, they point to the self that is identified with conditions and with pain. Self-awareness, though, really means knowing that you are no one, and you can be anyone. So this idea of self-awareness is really the power of being no one and the ability to be anyone. The true recognition of that power is where big attention or mega awareness lies. But in order to experience that, it requires our attention to all of the conditions; it requires our attention to the object.
A familiar object that is easy to bring our attention to would be what I've called one's famous person. This means that I think about this person a lot; what this person is doing, what they have done, what they are planning to do, and it takes my smile away and my sleep away. That person is one's famous person, right? So if you have people like that in your life, then you have to deal with that. In effect, you are addicted to having attention focused toward those people. You even dream about them.
So how do you take a break from focusing on them? You cannot take a break from them unless you know who it is that is prioritizing and putting that amount of attention there. It is the pain that does it. Joy doesn't do that. Joy feels free. Joy is a little bit more crazy and focuses on, and does, whatever comes in the moment and enjoys it. But the pain is very predictable and focuses on only a few things, and it keeps on focusing on them. There is a lack of awareness.
I am very fascinated with this whole notion of how much our health has to do with our pain identity, what we identify as ourselves. We need to address this more, even though many people will not understand; I can see that. But if we keep talking about it in a little different way, a better way, then at some point they will get it and see that the source of the problem, the pain identity, is what they are identifying with. That identity is possible for everyone to change. They can shift it. So I think it's an incredible topic to talk about.
Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo
Spring Retreat April 13-16 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in person at Serenity Ridge or online on Zoom April 13-16 for this special retreat on Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo. This core dzogchen teaching, also known as Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, provides methods for introducing the nature of the mind, which remains hidden behind clouds of thoughts and emotions until a master directly points out the source, the essence, the Heart Drop. This is the method of direct introduction to dzogchen, the highest and most subtle path of meditation in Bon.
Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo was composed by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1935), a Tibetan master who attained the rainbow body. He was one of the most influential teachers of his time, and his works are still used as textbooks in many Tibetan monasteries.
These are meditation methods that help the practitioner free the stories, memories, fears and anxieties that bind, allowing the discovery of the freedom and infinite potentiality of one's natural mind.
A translation of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen's text and commentary on these essential teachings by Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche is presented in the book Heart Drops of Dharmakaya. Yongdzin Rinpoche is widelly revered as the greatest living dzogchen master of the Bon lineage. A translation of the root text by Geshe Sonam Gurung and Dan Brown, Heart Drops of Kun tu bZang Po, also is available from Ligmincha's bookstore & Tibet Shop at the link above.
Register to attend in person
Register to attend online
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Worldwide Teaching Schedule
April to August 2023
Here is Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teaching schedule. Following the spring retreat at Serenity Ridge in April, Rinpoche will then be traveling throughout Europe to Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and Austria before returning back to Virginia for the annual two-week summer retreat in June and July and then back to Poland and Germany for the August retreats.
You can find the latest listings and any changes in the Events section of the Ligmincha website or the Serenity Ridge website. Please register for these online retreats through the specific Events box on the website. Updates will be provided on the website as they become available.
- April 13-16, 2023: Serenity Ridge Spring Retreat, Heart Drops of Kuntu Zangpo
- April 21-23, 2023: Lisbon, Portugal, Dream Yoga
- April 28-30, 2023: Ligmincha Spain, Awakening Sacred Breath
- May 5-7, 2023: Ligmincha Netherlands, The Six Lamps, Part 2
- May 12-14, 2023: Ligmincha Italy, Rome, The Six Lokas
- May 19-21, 2023: Ligmincha France & Suisse Romand, Bulle, Switzerland, Sherap Chamma & Retinue
- May 26-28, 2023: Ligmincha Austria, Vienna, Living with Joy, Dying in Peace (Part 1)
- June 2-4, 2023: Ligmincha Berlin, Nine Winds
- June 24-July 1 & July 2-8: Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Shipman, Virginia, Tummo, Part 3, with honored guest H.H. the 34th Menri Trizin
- August 8-13, 2023: Chamma Ling Poland, Wilga, Tummo Part 3
- August 14-20, 2023: Buchenau, Germany. The Six Lamps and Tummo
Registration Open for Serenity Ridge Summer Retreat on Tummo, Part 3
With Honored Guest His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizin
His Holiness the 34th Menri Trizin and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, summer 2019Registration is now open for Ligmincha's Annual Summer Retreat at Serenity Ridge! Join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and His Holiness the 34th Gyalwa Menri Trizin Rinpoche, Lungtok Dawa Dhargyal Rinpoche, spiritual head of the Bon tradition for one or both weeks.
Week 1: June 24-July 1, 2023
Week 2: July 2-July 8, 2023
Ligmincha is honored to welcome His Holiness back to Serenity Ridge. He was last here in 2019 Summer Retreat while on his worldwide tour after being enthroned in early 2018. He will be with us for the full two weeks of the summer retreat. You can attend one or both weeks of the retreat, either in person at Serenity Ridge or online on Zoom. His Holiness and Rinpoche will teach separately each day on different topics.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will teach Tummo, Inner Fire of Realization, Part 3, third in a four part series. Tummo refers to inner heat, and its teachings are designed to burn away subtle obscurations and cultivate bliss. Rinpoche will teach from the text Ku Sum Rang Shar (Spontaneous Arising of the Three Kayas), written by Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, a Bon master who attained the body of light (rainbow body) in 1934.
His Holiness will teach from the Twenty-Four Masters, and will give the oral transmissions (lung) of the chapters from the Bon Mother Tantra on Dream Yoga, Elements, Chod, Powa, Bardo and Sleep Yoga. In addition, His Holiness also will offer the Sherap Chamma initiation (wang) on Saturday, July 1.
You may attend one or both weeks of the retreat. New students are welcome to attend, and the retreat is open to everyone. If only able to join for one week, Rinpoche advises those new to these teachings to come to week one.
We hope you can join us!
Learn more/register for onsite retreat at Serenity Ridge
Learn more/register for online retreat on Zoom
Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind
New Book Translated by Raven Cypress Wood Available
Ligmincha President Rob Patzig offers his review of the newest book published by Sacred Sky Press. The book is now available through the Ligmincha Store.
The newest publication from Sacred Sky Press is now available: Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind and Other Divine Writings, by Kundun Sonam Lodro, the 22nd Menri Trizin, translated by Raven Cypress Wood.
The book presents four short texts by the 22nd Menri Trizin (1784-1835) and a series of appendices by the translator that offer valuable context, background and explication for the reader. The main text, the Forty-Three Mind Trainings, outlines in a clear and quintessential way the conditions necessary to experience and realize one's own nature of mind, the methods for developing and expanding it, and the fruit of practice.
Through his boundless wisdom and compassion, Kundun Sonam Lodro's teachings reflect the views of sutra, tantra and dzogchen all at once. He teaches the paths of renunciation, transformation and of leaving it as it is. As such, his verses are not easy to paraphrase or summarize. Almost every verse can stand alone and merits reflection.
Consider Verse 4: Attachment to friends and relatives is like boiling water. Hatred towards enemies is like a blazing fire. Designating what to accept and what to reject is like being enveloped in the darkness of close-mindedness. By abandoning the homeland, the root of virtue is established.
Here we see advice to turn away from worldly attachment in the first sentence, in keeping with sutric teachings. In the second sentence he warns about the poison of anger and aversion, but also brings in a tantric viewpoint, transforming that energy into bodhicitta, or unbounded compassion. Abandoning what to accept and what to reject, we move toward the nonduality of the dzogchen view. Finally we are advised to abandon our homeland. This can be read as a method of renouncing outer obstacles of home and place, or of allowing one's own naked awareness to become empty and rootless, similar to the advice found in the Invocation of Tapihritsa. Every verse of this text is equally rich and worthy of contemplation.
Without exception, suffering and misery arise from desiring happiness for only myself. A perfect buddha arises from a mind that benefits others. Because of that, I will develop the doubtless ability to exchange my happiness with the suffering of of others.
Forty-Three Trainings, page 22
While Forty-Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind is a largely analytic text, guiding us to see and understand the causes of suffering and the path that leads from it, it is followed by three more experiential prayers that lead us to contemplate our own suffering and its causes and to seek dharma as the medicine. The first is a meditation on the causes of worldly suffering and a prayer to the root lama to lead us to great bliss. The second is a prayer to the lama to remove the obstacles along the spiritual path that lead to suffering or block realization.
The third and longest of the prayers begins with a supplication to Kuntu Zangpo and the ultimate state of one's own realized mind. This is the goal of practice. Taking refuge in all worthy beings and objects, it then guides us to purify our mindstream by experientially encountering the enlightened wisdom of the buddhas in each of the six lokas and chakras of the subtle body, and then realizing the inseparability of all the buddhas from one's own awakened awareness. Finally, His Holiness the 22nd Menri Trizin reveals how awakened awareness manifests. This beautifully translated prayer can inspire one to a deeper place of devotion, connection and commitment to practice and benefit others.
Forty Three Trainings for an Enlightened Mind is a very short text, with 27 of its 92 pages the Tibetan language version of the four translated texts. Following the Tibetan texts, the translator provides four explanatory appendices and a glossary of terms. But in that space it unpacks all aspects of practice, from what is needed to practice successfully in the first place, to the outer conduct and meditations that will tame our mindstream, to all the inner signs of realization. One would be hard pressed to find a more clear, concise or beautifully rendered description of the path of practice.
Upcoming CyberSangha Events
Next Live Broadcasts with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
You are warmly invited to join Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, special guests and fellow participants for any or all of these upcoming online events. Free and open to all, these events are part of Embracing Life with Wisdom & Compassion, Rinpoche's new free yearlong program.
Tuesday, April 4, 12 noon New York time
Live online teaching and guided meditation with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Embracing Anxiety, Cultivating Calmness
Our focus this month is on meeting any anxiety we may experience in our body, speech and mind with openness and warmth, clearing and opening the pathways of calmness that are inherent to us.
Learn more & view live
Wednesday, April 5, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice, introduced by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich
Embracing Anxiety, Cultivating Calmness
Join us online for a guided meditation followed by a 24-hour session of mantra recitation, contemplative breathing practice and further periods of guided meditation. Unlike Rinpoche's CyberSangha Facebook Live broadcasts, the 24-hour full moon practice takes place via Zoom. It is open to all and there is no cost to participate, but registration is required.
Learn more & register now
Thursday, May 4, 12 noon New York time
Live online teaching and guided meditation with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Embracing Loneliness, Cultivating Connection
Our focus this month is on meeting any loneliness we may experience in our body, speech and mind with openness and warmth, clearing and opening a deeper, more fulfilling sense of connection to ourselves and others.
Learn more & view live
Friday, May 5, 10 a.m. New York time
24-Hour Full Moon Practice, introduced by Marcy Vaughn
Join us online for a guided meditation followed by a 24-hour session of mantra recitation, contemplative breathing practice and further periods of guided meditation. Unlike Rinpoche's CyberSangha Facebook Live broadcasts, the 24-hour full moon practice takes place via Zoom. It is open to all and there is no cost to participate, but registration is required.
More details coming up
CyberSangha Volunteer Opportunities
New Ways to Serve, Share, Be Part of the Team
For the past seven years, the CyberSangha team and I have been putting a lot of energy into serving our CyberSangha community. As we continue to do so, we need more support from people who have benefited from our services and would like to help others in return as part of our team of volunteers. A few options are listed below. Please let us know if you would like to support us.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The CyberSangha team, which helps introduce to the world the wonderful online offerings that you can find at cybersangha.net and on Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Facebook page, is seeking volunteers to play key roles in supporting CyberSangha's vibrant and engaged online community.
COMMUNITY MANAGER
We're seeking one or more community managers to serve as key ambassadors of CyberSangha to our public audience. The community manager will help to create, manage and grow CyberSangha's presence through interacting with our social networks; work closely with our social media marketing communications teams, helping provide direction for our public communications, and provide support to the CyberSangha community, answering questions received via email and social networks and overseeing any online feedback forums. Must be available for one to five hours per week.
Qualifications
- English speaker with good writing skills.
- Considerable experience with social media. Experience managing Facebook pages or a community app like Mighty Networks is also helpful.
- Outgoing personality, comfortable introducing yourself to strangers, able to multitask.
COMMUNITY APP MANAGER
CyberSangha is in the initial stages of establishing a community app using Mighty Networks. We're seeking volunteer(s) who can be playful, open and curious about exploring this tool for use by the CyberSangha community, provide support in implementing its launch, and offer ongoing support to users and administrators after launch. The community app manager will work closely with the community manager and community app development team, suggest improvements, and oversee and monitor the community app's settings. Must be available for up to five hours per week, and be particularly available and flexible around the time of launch.
Qualifications
- Conversational English.
- Experience with/good understanding of social media. Experience/knowledge of Mighty Networks is a plus.
- Good at teamwork and internal communications, as well as working independently.
- Reliable and responsive to others' needs.
COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST
We have an ongoing need for communications volunteers who can help with one or more aspects of writing, editing, proofreading, website content entry and social media promotions. Specifically, we are seeking:
- Someone who feels close to the online and/or in-person teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and is passionate about helping others learn about and benefit from them.
- A native English speaker with at least three years of professional experience in copy editing and proofreading.
- Experience and ongoing interest in social media communications.
- Strong project management and organizational skills.
Vision, mission and values of Rinpoche and CyberSangha
Ligmincha Learning Course with Marcy Vaughn
Sherap Chamma Mother of Wisdom and Love
Ligmincha Learning is pleased to offer an online course with Marcy Vaughn on Sherap Chamma Mother of Wisdom and Love beginning April 14, 2023. This online course features beautiful video teachings, guided meditations, readings, journal writing activities, and the opportunity to interact with senior mentors and classmates from around the world.
Sherap Chamma, Mother of Wisdom and Love
April 14-May 13, 2023
In this online course, participants will learn a beautiful and simple meditation practice enabling each to directly connect with the divine feminine energy. Within the support of the group, we create an environment to promote profound healing of physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual dimensions of life. With visualization, the sound of mantra and deep contemplation, we make a personal connection to this sacred form of the universal mother, Sherap Chamma, and are guided through this connection to our innate wisdom and the love and compassion that naturally radiate from that wisdom. Those experienced in meditation as well as those who are beginning are warmly welcomed.
Free courses; enroll at any time. Starting a Meditation Practice; The True Source of Healing; Living with Joy, Dying in Peace
Learn more at ligminchalearning.com. (Find descriptions in the top menu under Courses.)
Upcoming Programs with The 3 Doors
Plus Summary of 3 Doors Retreat with Rinpoche
The 3 Doors is pleased to announce these upcoming events and programs to support you in deepening your practice and connecting with community. They include a free 3 Doors International Practice Day, a new European 3 Doors Academy, the eighth annual Compassion Project and a 3 Doors weekend retreat in December 2023 with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on Zoom.
Be sure to read the article by Joan Duncan Oliver about Rinpoche's two-day retreat, Opening Your Heart to the World, held last September on Zoom for 3 Doors participants. (See link below.) Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is the founder of The 3 Doors, an international organization that offers meditation programs with practical applications for everyday life. The article includes a summary of Rinpoche's teachings during the retreat, including a simple but profound practice to support us in opening to whatever arises.
View the article on The 3 Doors website
The 3 Doors International Practice Day
June 10, 2023
This event is free to attend and open to all. Guided practices will be provided by 3 Doors teachers from Germany, Mexico and the United States. Anyone who may be interested in experiencing The 3 Doors meditation is invited to join. English, Spanish and German translation will be available; more languages will be announced soon.
Third European 3 Doors Academy
September 2023-March 2026
The Academy is a 2.5-year immersive meditation training that provides participants with the opportunity to engage deeply in the process of self-discovery in the warmth of community. It is rigorous in the sense that all are asked to make an active and ongoing commitment to self-reflection and meditation. It is challenging at times and it is frequently joyful, since the freedom of going beyond perceived limitations and experiencing the abundant resources of one's true nature is transformative.
Learn more
The 3 Doors Compassion Project
October 2023-June 2024
This October, the Compassion Project will begin its eighth year. This nine-month program was originally developed for those in caregiving roles and now supports anyone motivated by compassion and interested in embodying the practices and teachings of The 3 Doors in everyday life. Participants will be supported to discover how to open to their inner wisdom to make real personal transformations, enabling greater compassion for self and the lives of others. More information will be posted soon on The 3 Doors website.
A Weekend Retreat with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
December 2 & 3, 2023
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will be leading another online weekend retreat with The 3 Doors this December. Details will be posted as soon as they are on The 3 Doors website.
Plans for the seventh North American Academy, which begins in April 2024, will be announced soon.
Additional programs offered online and in-person around the world can be found The 3 Doors homepage.
Tibetan Dream Yoga
GlideWing Online Workshop Begins April 29
GlideWing is pleased to offer Tibetan Dream Yoga, a four-week online video workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche from April 29-May 28, 2023. Participants will practice from their own homes, at their own schedule, with guidance from Rinpoche. Spanish subtitles available.
The practice of dream yoga is about understanding more about appearances and what they truly are. And ultimately, it is about understanding who we are, the true sense of self.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
In this four-week workshop, students will explore and practice the ancient Bon Buddhist teachings of Tibetan dream yoga. The workshop provides detailed instruction for dream yoga practice, with discussions of the relationships between dreaming and waking and between dreaming and death. Rinpoche also will provide instructions for foundational practices done during the day and for the uses and methods of lucid dreaming.
Through dream yoga practice, we can cultivate greater awareness during every moment of life. If we do, freedom and flexibility continually increase, and we are less governed by habitual preoccupations and distractions. Eventually we may develop a continuity of awareness that allows us to maintain full awareness during dreams as well as in waking life. When we fully develop this capacity, we will find that we are living both waking and dreaming life with greater ease, clarity and appreciation.
Upcoming: Awakening the Sacred Arts, June 10-July 9, 2023.
Ongoing: Focusing and Calming Your Mind, The Tibetan Practice of Zhine, a free two-week self-guided online workshop.
Learn more at glidewing.com
Sharing the Timeless Joy
An Interview with H.H. the 34th Menri Trizin from the Archive of VOCL Newsletters
Here is an excerpt from an interview with His Holiness Lungtok Dawa Dhargyal Rinpoche, the 34th Menri Trizin, that was held at Serenity Ridge, June 29, 2019. This article was previously published in the August 2019 VOCL.
The Voice of Clear Light team was very grateful for the chance to speak with His Holiness one evening during the 2019 Summer Retreat at Serenity Ridge. His warmth and kindness, along with his openness to all of our questions, was natural and also remarkable. We give special thanks to Tsering Wangmo for translating during the interview, to His Holiness's attendant, Geshe Tsewang Ngodup, for translation assistance, and to Melissa Katz for her photographs taken during this interview.
His Holiness was selected as the 34th Menri Trizin, the spiritual leader of the Bon tradition and abbot of Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India, on January 1, 2018, following the passing of the 33rd Menri Trizin, His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, the previous September. In February 2018, Bonpos worldwide joined in celebrating the selection of the 34th Menri Trizin at Menri Monastery. On September 6, 2018, a formal grand enthronement ceremony took place at Menri.
VOCL: How and when did you come to Menri Monastery in India?
His Holiness: My main objective, and most of the Bonpo people's main objective in leaving Tibet and coming to India, is because after the cultural revolution, all of the great teachers like Ponlop Rinpoche [His Eminence Menri Lopon Trinley Nyima Rinpoche], Menri Trizin [His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche] and Yongdzin Rinpoche [His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche] are all located in India. So Bonpos leaving for India all want to get the teachers' blessings and their teachings and transmissions and lung. I was 25 years old when I first came to India.
VOCL: Who were your main teachers?
His Holiness: Before I came to India I had trained to become a geshe in Tibet. I received my geshe degree at Gamel Yungdrung Dargyal Ling Monastery, located in my village. During that time my lopon was Yeshe Gyeltsen. My initial training, starting with learning the alphabet, was at Yungdrung Ling Monastery in Shigatse Prefecture in Tibet. Geshe Dratok Pelchen Kyapchok was my very first teacher.
When I arrived in India my main teacher was the 33rd Menri Trizin, and Ponlop Trinley Nyima was my other main teacher. There also were my teacher at the dialectic school and several other teachers as well. But my main teacher was the 33rd Menri Trizin.
VOCL: Would you share a story of your experience with His Holiness, the 33rd Menri Trizin?
His Holiness: We are both from the same village and province. When I first came to Menri Monastery, the 33rd Menri Trizin had high hopes for me. He became very happy that I had come. I had already finished my geshe degree in Tibet, and I had still come to India to continue my development. So maybe that's one of the reasons he had great expectations of me.
Once I was there, the 33rd Menri Trizin gave me many responsibilities and duties, and I tried to perform and fulfill all of those duties and responsibilities. Initially I was given the responsibility of cleaning the rooms, the gompa, the compound and the surrounding area. I did that. Then I was put in the kitchen to cook for the lamas and do the dishes. I did that. Then I was also asked to run errands outside the compound. I did that. Then I was appointed as the administrative assistant. I did that. So wherever I was sent, I worked hard to perform all of the duties required of me for that position.
VOCL: We know that you have many responsibilities as the 34th Menri Trizin. Would you tell us what you do on a typical day at Menri?
His Holiness: Since I have been appointed, I have had no free day. Every day there are visitors getting blessings or simply just coming to visit. And the nunnery, the dialectic school and so on all have their own supervisors, but for the final decision-making, they come and ask me.
VOCL: What's the most interesting part of your job?
His Holiness: I mostly like to meditate whenever I get the time to do that. I like to read my prayer book. I like to be a little peaceful and calm. When I have lots of visitors, though, I end up chatting with them, and it can move this peacefulness some! [laughter]
Read the entire interview here in the VOCL archives
Student and Teacher
Together on the Path
This excerpt is from a talk between Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Chogyal Rinpoche during Chogyal's online series HeartTalk in February 2023. In this talk Chogyal Rinpoche asks Tenzin Rinpoche about what compassion means for him.
Chogyal Rinpoche: What is compassion or what does bodhicitta mean for you? How do you practice in your real life?
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: Compassion in a general sense means to care about others and support others. Typically in Buddhist terms, though, when we say compassion or bodhicitta, it is about our focusing on achieving enlightenment in order to help other people; may I achieve some sense of awakening or liberation in order to help other people. The focus here is twofold: a focus on oneself achieving something, awakening; as well as very much a focus on others, so I can help others. It's going beyond the suffering of myself and the suffering of others. That is the core part of the traditional Buddhist definition of compassion. We have a word, nying je, which means may all the beings not suffer. May they go beyond suffering. Sem je is another term. So two different words, nying je and sem je, but both are equally good. That's more of a classic definition.
I've been thinking about this a lot, and it's always a deep sense of openness that matters the most. Openness means being open to everyone, whether they are friends or enemies, people I know or don't know. So I think fundamentally being open is the core part of good compassion. You cannot really have good compassion unless you are open, because otherwise you will be biased. Sometimes one's compassion can be a very self-centered compassion. I'll do that if you do this for me. I'll care about you if you love me. I'll care about you if you are a good Buddhist. This kind of compassion is always conditional. So it's not so helpful.
Personally for me, I feel I'm always just trying to be optimistic, and I'm trying to help anybody, anybody who is in need. And it is something that I can do. I feel like if at any time I can do anything for anybody, then that is the only moment when I have that opportunity to do it. If I don't take action in that moment, then I might not be able to do it the next time, because maybe I won't have the resources to do it then, or the time, or I might not be capable of doing it later because of conditions of health. Or even because the person may not ask me next time.
So I see that every moment in life is a very important moment of helping and serving others. And to do so as selflessly as possible. Because selfless means openness. The more selfless you are, the more open you are.
Of course as a human being, we always have some conditions. Boundaries are there. But recognizing a boundary and trying to open up as much as possible is the practice. Yes, we all have some weaknesses. But the ability to watch yourself all the time, amidst conditions, and to develop the ability to see the opportunity that you have in every given moment to support others, that's what I feel is most beneficial, and that's the way I try to live.
Spanish Translation of VOCL
Link to February 2023 Issue Now Available
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