Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la asks some big questions about how we are approaching life. As we ponder the changing world and issues like climate change and our own mortality, are we just trying to get by in samsara or are we truly applying the Dharma to cut through our negative emotions and cross the ocean of samsara? How are we responding to the challenges of life? Are we contemplating and applying the teachings in a way that penetrate samsara?

Speaker: Elizabeth Ready. Elizabeth unfolds the meaning she has gained from contemplating the “Supplication to Guru Rinpoche”, a prayer written by Dzigar Kongrul Rinpoche for the MSB Sangha. She reflects on how the prayer, recited at the end of MSB programs and practices, invokes all the qualities that practitioners of all three yanas seek to cultivate: longing, refuge, aspiration, bodhicitta, conviction, confidence and devotion. She also includes details on the three types of devotion as defined by Khandro Rinpoche, and cites a recent program honoring the parinirvana of the 16th Karmapa, which is available on Youtube.

Speaker: John Cobb. John addresses the challenges that sanghas have to identify and work to overcome. He points out four questions that sanghas need to consider in the context of their aspiration to establish Buddhism in the West. First, sanghas need to examine how responsibility is assigned (“delegating upward”); second, they need to recognize when it is appropriate and beneficial to seek external guidance and expertise. Third, they need to distinguish the tendency to cling to the “good old days” from the valuable wisdom gained through experience, and to balance the value of their history with the benefits of welcoming fresh perspectives. Finally, they need to develop a beneficial and open connection to the external culture without sacrificing the integrity of the sangha (“barbarians at the gate”). He cites three principles of accountability, transparency and inclusivity that can guide the sangha in establishing a code of conduct that supports the other two jewels, the Buddha and the Dharma.

Speaker: Bill Filter. Bill describes therapies that use psychedelic drugs to help Navy SEALS struggling to cope with depression and addiction, and explains how he introduces meditation practices to veterans who have undergone these therapies, helping them integrate their therapeutic experiences and provide enduring relief from suffering. He teaches them the practices of shamatha and tonglen, using the metaphor of projector, light, film, and screen to enable them to understand and integrate their experiences of ego dissolution. At the same time, he notes that, however beneficial the use of psychedelics may be for people struggling to come to terms with such strong suffering, it cannot replace the practices of the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana paths, which gradually cultivate the insight needed to dissolve the ego and prepare us for successfully navigating the experience of the bardo.