Speaker: Greg Seton. Greg offers a framework for purifying our minds by transforming negative mindsets into a mindset of awareness. Mindsets are complex, habitual, often unconscious attitudes that shape our perceptions, form our attitudes and drive our intentions. Mindsets generate and are generated by our storylines about ourselves and the world. Negative mindsets are the source of suffering, but because we create them, we can transform them. We can do this by cultivating renunciation, compassion, and devotion. We generate genuine renunciation by gaining the wisdom and insight to see for ourselves the relation between our suffering and our negative mindsets. Compassion arises from renunciation. It is the desire for the suffering of all beings to end. By recognizing that, like us, all beings suffer from negative habitual mindsets, we overcome our self-centered attitudes and generate the wish for all beings to be free. Devotion, which arises from renunciation and compassion, cultivates an even deeper yearning to free ourselves from suffering. Expressed through supplication, devotion generates a sense of humility that frees us from our fear of seeing ourselves clearly and encourages us to see ourselves from a broader perspective. By generating renunciation, compassion, and devotion when we meditate, we can tame and purify our minds, cultivate the mindset of awakening, and gain freedom for ourselves and all sentient beings.

Speaker: Kelly Smith. Kelly tells stories of how Rinpoche’s vision for the land in Crestone came to fruition and the MSB Sangha was formed.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la explores lojong slogan 21, always maintain a joyful attitude, and touches on our negativity bias as biological organisms wired for survival. Humor has a great power to cut through our seriousness in the face of suffering.

Speaker: Maki Okabayashi. Maki explores how honesty arises from the willingness to reflect on our intentions, perspectives and attitudes. Being honest involves more than simply not cheating, holding back from, lying to, or manipulating other people; it also involves recognizing how the ego diminishes our ability to see the truth. Led by the ego’s self-protecting desire to avoid discomfort, our view solidifies, contracting our ability to respond with flexible, open-minded objectivity. To overcome the resistance of ego we should summon both the courage to reflect deeply on the benefits of honesty, and the determination to cultivate flexibility and open-mindedness.