Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la stresses the importance of aspiration to navigate life’s circumstances and work with them in an uplifted manner. For example, when we get lost in our daily activities, not moving in any particular direction, he advises us to apply ourselves to a meaningful goal, or aspiration. In this way all our intentions culminate toward that goal. He speaks at length about having a fierce intention to return to aspiration bodhicitta, the vehicle that transforms an obstacle into a blessing. In this way we avoid the subtle neurosis of ego-grasping, which can turn blessings into obstacles.

Speaker: Suzy Greanias. Suzy delves into the two truths, the worldly relative truth and the supreme ultimate truth, which are the framework in which the Buddha taught. As Buddhists, we are familiar with the words of the Heart Sutra, “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form”, but rather than understanding their profound inseparability, many of us have the tendency to split these two truths. We all want the realization of emptiness, but we regard the appearance of compounded phenomena as painful, a kind of a nuisance. This lead Suzy on a journey to unpack the three types of valid cognition, which we can use to investigate the absolute and the relative. She then spoke about the nature of things within the Mahayana and how the Buddha’s teaching on non-self is one of the main tenets of the two truths.

Speaker: Nicholas Carter. Nick shares something Rinpoche told him on his 19th birthday: “Remember Nicholas, a bodhisattva has only one wish”, but Rinpoche did not say what that wish was. Since then, Nick has come to learn that the path of the bodhisattva is a very personal path of discovery- discovery of the truth, in Sanskrit, “Dharma”. We start with ourselves. We examine how we feel, how we behave, and we examine our motivations, which inevitably lead us to the truth of emptiness and dependent origination, the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. Over time, and through the application of the three principles, we come to appreciate more fully the profundity of the four immeasurables in discovering for ourselves the path and wish of the bodhisattva.

Speaker: Lindsay Heppner. Lindsay describes how everyday life provides her with meaningful opportunities for practice “on the spot”, including tonglen, mantra recitation and shamata meditation. Recent natural disasters such as the earthquake in Tibet and the fires in Los Angeles, as well as past travels to India allowed her to feel acutely the suffering of others, provoking a sincere wish to alleviate that suffering. In these cases, Lindsay relied on the practice of tonglen. Feeling the pain and suffering of others, Lindsay inhales their pain into herself and in return, and exhales while sending them love and complete relief from their suffering. After having been injured in a recent ski accident, Lindsay described how reciting the 100-syllable mantra in the moment provided immediate relief from her own fear and suffering. Whether performing her work as an in-home, elder care counselor or as a mother relating to her teenage sons, she has found shamata meditation to be a reliable practice to maintain a calm and peaceful state of mind, allowing her to remain present in her interactions with others.