Sundays, 6:00 – 7:00 PM / Dharma Talk or Gathering

January 7: Megan Wainman  “Bringing Compassion Practices from the Meditation Cushion into the World”   Like the sun, which emits countless rays, compassion is the source of all inner growth and positive action. (Tarthang Tulku)   During angry and difficult times, how does one bring compassion from the meditation cushion into the home, workplace, and public sphere? In this talk by long-time Nyingma student Megan Wainman, she will feature readings, practices, and tips to help cultivate compassion when out in the wider world.

January 14:  Dave Abercrombie   “What is Kum Nye? Traditional? Modern? Or…?    What is Kum Nye? Of course one answer is simply the teachings and practices provided by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche’s books Kum Nye – Tibetan Yoga and The Joy of Being. What about the history and tradition of Kum Nye? For example, it can be tempting to answer this question by looking at traditional Tibetan medical texts and collections such as the Tripiaka. But it is probably more fruitful to consider Rinpoche’s introduction of Kum Nye to Western students, his challenges and motivations. This talk will explore this question, with time for discussion and practice. David Abercrombie, who has been teaching Kum Nye for 15 years, will lead this talk.

January 21: Hugh Joswick:Four Foundations of Mindfulness: Exploring the body”  The Satipatthana Sutta describes ways to establish mindfulness in daily life and provides one of the fullest treatments of meditation in the Buddhist tradition. In this sutta, the Buddha lays out a direct path to liberation through four foundations of mindfulness in the body, feeling, mind, and phenomena (mind-objects or dharmas). The instructions in the sutta are very clear and precise and were important for establishing the mindfulness movement in recent times. In this talk, Nyingma Institute instructor, Hugh Joswick, instructor of Dharma Studies, will discuss and present practices associated with the application of mindfulness in the body.

January 28: Women’s Meditation

February 4: Dave Abercrombie  Kum Nye – The Joy of Being”   Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche published the first books on Kum Nye in 1978: Kum Nye – Tibetan Yoga. It focused on physical aspects of being: massage, breathing, postures, and movement. In 2006, he followed-up by publishing The Joy of Being. This book goes more deeply into inner, aspects of being –  the senses, including the mind, and the inner massage of feeling. How does one best study and make greatest use of the more recent book? Dave Abercrombie , Kum Nye instructor, will explore this question, with time for discussion and practice.

February 11: Emily Provosty  “The Friendly Embrace of Patience”  The balanced energy of patience radiates a friendly and productive attitude from our hearts into every aspect of our existence. (Tarthang Tulku)  As one of the Six Perfections, Patience is considered necessary in achieving enlightenment and is a direct antidote to anger. According to the Buddha, Bodhisattvas can benefit beings through cultivation and application of patience “by not even considering their own impoverishment, harm, or scorn” (Wisdom of Buddha). How might we be able to benefit the beings in our own lives, as well as ourselves, through applying patience in our hearts and minds? Are we capable of withstanding harm and obstacles with a friendly gentleness? In this Dharma talk given by Emily Provosty, Nyingma Institute staff volunteer, she will explore patience by reading the Jataka Tale, “The Magic of Patience”, and offer practices from Rinpoche’s book Hidden Mind of Freedom. 

February 18: Peter Kime  “Illuminating Paradoxes”  Relative truth and absolute truth: in the first, all is a myriad, a differentiated many; in the other, all is one (or, not two). Bodhisattvas are everywhere between, dedicated to awakening us to a knowledge that samsara and nirvana are the same. Buddha nature is already and always. At the beginning and the end, throughout and also never. “The infinitesimal instant implies all the angles of time,” along one of which I run to catch my bus.  Can these and other such paradoxes light awareness rather than merely confound? Peter Kime, student of Tarthang Tulku and the “Time, Space, and Knowledge” vision, will explore and engage this question through shared reading, visualization, and discussion, drawing upon passages from Lotus Trilogy, Lotus Sutra, and other Dharma sources.

February 25: Women’s Meditation

March 3: Olivia Hurd  “The Dharma Within” What is it about the Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, that motivates us to pursue them?  Can the Dharma solve all our problems, make us happy and free us from confusion and depression? What about our desires?  Will it fulfill them? If we look to the Dharma to solve all our problems, we are often disappointed. … the  power that comes from someone else cannot be relied upon… the real experience of enlightenment can come only through our own actions; we must make whatever we do contribute to our growth.  There is never a lack of opportunity to test ourselves, to face ourselves, to be honest and sincere.  Nyingma Psychology instructor Olivia Hurd will discuss ways we can deepen our understanding and commitment to the Dharma, open our hearts to the Dharma, without allowing self-interest to taint our resolve for awakening.  (Openness Mind by Tarthang Tulku)

March 10: Santosh Philip and Iris Maitland   Applying the Knowledge and Wisdom of Kum Nye, in Working with Pain” Santosh Phiip and Iris Maitland, are both long-time teachers of Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga, and involved in the current Kum Nye Teacher Training Program.  Kum Nye, a practice of integrating body,mind, senses,and.feeling,  can be a valuable tool for exploring and transforming our personal experience of pain. Practices and discussion will be presented from their own experiences in shifting and opening the experience of pain.

March 17: Laurie Hopman   “Sympathetic Joy: Rejoicing in the Happiness of Others”   How is being joyful a Dharma practice? In Words of My Perfect Teacher,Patrul Rinpoche tells us: The meaning of sympathetic joy is to have a mind free of jealousy. You should therefore try to train your mind with all sorts of methods to prevent those harmful jealous thoughts from arising.  When we relax deeply, open to sensations, releasing tensions and opening our hearts, we can touch feelings of great joy. What are some steps we can take, both on the cushion and as we go about our daily lives, to increase and share those joyful feelings? In this talk, long-time student of Tarthang Tulku, Dr. Laurie Hopman, will explore how we can use a light touch of awareness to cultivate this state of sympathetic joy.

March 24: Patricia Kilroe  “Dream and Illusion: Exploring Dream Yoga”   “Once we truly understand that our waking experience is dreamlike, we no longer have to treat life as a serious problem.” –Tarthang Rinpoche, Hidden Mind of Freedom. The practice of dream yoga on the Buddhist path has a long history. Just as we recognize that the dreams we experience while asleep seem real to us while they are occurring but are easily seen to be illusory when we wake from them, so through dream yoga practice we can sharpen our awareness that our mental patterns in the waking state are also illusory. This recognition offers us an opportunity to free ourselves from attachment to ordinary experience. As Tarthang Rinpoche tells us: The teachings of dream yoga show us how to see the dreamlike quality of waking reality. One of the initial techniques of dream yoga is to practice lucid dreaming, that is, the state of awareness during nighttime dreams that you are dreaming, and from there to appreciate the malleability of the dream by shaping its content. Drawing from chapters in Tarthang Rinpoche’s Openness Mind and Hidden Mind of Freedom, dream researcher and Nyingma Institute volunteer Dr. Patricia Kilroe will discuss the purpose of dream yoga within Buddhism and offer a basic practice intended to help participants engage in lucid dreaming.

March 31: Women’s Meditation

April 7: Erika Rosenberg   “On the Immeasurable Benefits of Compassion: Why Growing your Compassionate Nature can Help with Everything”   In Buddhist thinking, Compassion is regarded as one of the Four Immeasurables, or the four Brahmaviharas, which means it is expansive and boundless in nature – you never run out of it, nor ever tire from it. In this talk, Dr. Erika Rosenberg, a Founding Faculty at The Compassion Institute, and researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain, UC Davis, will expound on compassion’s limitless benefits – for you, for others, for everyone you interact with, for all beings, and for planet Earth. Her talk will come from the perspectives of Nyingma psychology, Buddhist meditation, and current scientific thinking.

April 14: Suellen Ehnebuske   “Finding Refuge”  In traditional Buddhist teachings, when we take the vows of refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the Three Treasures, we are committing to find refuge within our own lives.  This taking of refuge is not some kind of escape or avoidance, but is the anchoring of our ‘selves’ deeply into the nature of being. In this talk, meditation instructor Suellen Ehnebuske will investigate each of these traditional sources of refuge and seek to expand their application in our ordinary lives through contemplative practices and growing our understanding of each of these “treasures’.

April 21:  Mark Henderson  “Mastering Successful Work along the Way of the Bodhisattva”   Tarthang Rinpoche’s Mastering Successful Work is a modern masterpiece providing us with more than 80 exercises that help illuminate and vitalize our daily working life. His central theme is to radically increase our awareness, concentration, and energy in order to utterly transform our work experience from the inside out. This approach of skillfully developing our inner resources finds several parallels with the distinctively spiritual approach that Shantideva develops in his Indian Buddhist classic Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva.  This talk by longtime Nyingma Institute instructor, Mark Henderson will attempt to clarify these connections so that we might find a way forward that fully integrates our present work life with our long-term spiritual goals.