Peaceful Heart – The Buddhist Practice of Patience peaceful heart

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

An introductory guide to cultivating patience and opening your heart to difficult circumstances.

In the Buddhist tradition, “patience” is our mind’s ability to work positively with anything that bothers us—a vast spectrum of particulars that all boil down to not getting what we want or getting what we don’t want. In fluid, accessible language, Dzigar Kongtrul expands on teachings by the ancient sage Shantideva that contain numerous powerful and surprising methods for preventing our minds from becoming consumed by what bothers us—especially in anger. The result of practicing patience is a state of mind where we can feel at home in every situation and be fully available to love and care for others. Patience is the lifeblood of a peaceful heart. Purchase Peaceful Heart >>

Training in Tenderness:  Buddhist Teachings on Tsewa, the Radical Warmth of Heart That Can Change the World

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

This is a call to a revolution of heart. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is taught that one of the most essential qualities of enlightenment is tsewa, a form of warm energy and openness of heart. It is the warmth we express and receive through empathy with others, especially those closest to us. In this compact gem of a book, Dzigar Kongtrul opens the door to this life-changing energy and shows us how to transform our attitude toward ourselves and those around us through its practice. And through its practice, we can actually heal our fractured world. Purchase Training in Tenderness >>

Heart Advice:  Selected Teachings from the MSB Dharma Blog by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche (Volume 1)

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Within these selected teachings, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche presents his earnest and heartfelt advice. Acknowledging the complexity of modern living, he addresses with characteristic style and insight the obstacles faced by Westerners in particular. His thoughtful counsel reflects his desire to connect the Buddha’s teachings to our deepest concerns. With meditative clarity, he examines core ideas in the first section (Foundational Teachings), including the significant Tibetan terms, shenpa and lenchak. Throughout the second section (Developing A Good Heart), Kongtrul Rinpoche discusses bodhicitta — that most central of motivations on a spiritual path — and the very basis of altruism, faith, and devotion. The third section (Meeting Life’s Challenges) includes guidance about subjects that lie at the center of a productive life: overcoming fear, living spontaneously, abandoning grudges, and particularly, gaining a sense of liberation. Purchase Heart Advice >>

It’s Up to You:  The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

On the spiritual path we speak of enlightenment. But how do we reconcile enlightenment with what we see when we look in the mirror — when insecurities, doubts and self-centered tendencies arise within our minds? Dzigar Kongtrul suggests that we need not feel “doomed” when these experiences surface. In fact, such experiences are not a problem if we are able to simply let them arise without judging them or investing them with so much meaning. This approach to experience is what Kongtrul Rinpoche calls self-reflection. Purchase It’s Up to You >>


Light Comes Through:  Buddhist Teachings on Awakening to Our Natural Intelligence

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Our thoughts and emotions can take us anywhere. In an instant they can bring us down or lift us up. If we don’t attend to the mind, the source of all our thoughts and emotions, it can seem like a runaway train. Yet, when guided by wisdom, our mind can lead us to awakening. How do we utilize this resource?
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Uncommon Happiness:  The Path of the Compassionate Warrior

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

From 2005 to 2007, teacher Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche gave classes on Buddhist scholar Shantideva’s The Way of the Boddhisattva at a noted retreat center in Northern California. His commentaries revealed such a deep understanding that practitioner Marcia Binder Schmidt decided to collect them for other students of Buddhism as an independent work. This book is the result.
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Like a Diamond:   Transformation in the Three Yanas

By Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

This hardcover book is a compilation of edited transcripts of the complete 2002 Nyingma Summer Seminar, and is only available through MSB. It is not sold in bookstores.

“If we think we’re going to practice next month, next year, or in some years to come, only after we have gathered all our needs and circumstances, then we have not realized the impermanence of life or the impermanence of all phenomena.” — Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, NSS 2002

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Light Coming Through:  The Paintings of Kongtrul Jigme Namgyel

“For me, painting is a means to express the truth one discovers through meditation.”

— Venerable Dzigar Kongtul Rinpoche

Light Coming Through provides infinite opportunities for reflection on the expressive potential of our minds. This exquisitely reproduced catalog takes you on an intimate tour of Rinpoche’s first public exhibition, in Taipei, Taiwan, in April 2005. Large color plates bring the texture, strokes and energy of the work vividly to life on the page. The texts in both Mandarin and English include Rinpoche’s own foreword, “The Mark of Non-Creating,” plus a collection of essays by Yahne Le Toumelin, Joel Meyerowitz, Simon Zalkind, Stan Lai and Tatjana Krizmanic, which approach the work from personal as well as art-historical perspectives. The 170-page catalogue contains 90 color plates.
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Natural Vitality:  The Paintings of Kongtrul Jigme Namgyel

“When we speak of natural creativity and its expression we are not talking about something separate from our own mind and experience.”

— Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Rinpoche’s second art catalogue — now a true collector’s item — gives us a glimpse into the October 2007 exhibition Natural Vitality at the Tibet House in New York City. This catalogue of large format oil paintings opens with Rinpoche’s own essay on the union of art and wisdom. The 136-page volume features 73 color plates which faithfully reproduce the paintings, including detail images. In addition, the book’s candid photos of the artist in his studio and Rinpoche’s impromptu pen-and-ink sketches afford a rare, intimate glimpse into the unique artistic expression of a meditation master.  Purchase Natural Vitality >>