Sundays, 6:00 – 7:00 PM / Dharma Talk or Gathering
April 16 Mark Henderson, “The Nyingma World Peace Ceremony–Nourishing the Roots of the Nyingma Tradition Beneath the Bodhi Tree” For thirty-four years Tarthang Rinpoche has sponsored the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo at Bodh Gaya. During this ten-day ceremony high lamas, members of the monastic Sangha, and devoted lay people gather to pray at the site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. In this talk, Mark Henderson, who has participated in the ceremony several times, will describe the spiritual beauty and power of the Nyingma World Peace Ceremony through photos, traditional text, and anecdotes. The benefits of supporting and personally participating in the ceremony, wherein one can easily enter into the natural flow of meditation, will be presented.
April 23 Santosh Philip, “Using Kum Nye Tibetan Yoga to Open the Gates of Meditation” Kum Nye and Meditation instructor Santosh Philip will introduce Kum Nye exercises prior to silent sitting meditations for the purpose of deepening experience. Our practice of Kum Nye can help us loosen up tendencies to hold on tightly to concepts and expectations. It can help us notice and relax the internal ‘watcher’ , that which tenses mind, nerves, and senses and numbs our experience, and it can support the patience necessary for experience to develop. In the same way we have learned to surrender to the flow of beautiful feelings, we can surrender to the silent calm of meditation. In the openness of relaxation, nourished by the vital energies awakened by Kum Nye, the open awareness of meditation begins to develop. (JOY OF BEING: Tarthang Tulku) Santosh will speak on the importance of trusting your experience to allow a sense of inner ease to develop, and guide both Kum Nye and meditation practices to support a deepening interconnection of mind and body.
April 30 Women’s Meditation
May 7 David Abercrombie, “The Seven Gestures: How to Sit” We usually begin Kum Nye and other Nyingma practices by just sitting still and relaxing. Then after an exercise or meditation, we also sit quietly and open, letting the energies and feelings develop and expand. So it is important to know how to sit in a balanced way that allows energy to circulate well throughout the body. Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche writes “The Seven Gestures posture is so effective in promoting relaxation, balance, and integration that it can be used as a complete practice in itself.” David Abercrombie is a long-time Nyingma Institute student and Kum Nye instructor, and will share practical tips he has learned during his thirteen years of teaching people how to sit and relax.
May 14 Hugh Joswick, “Impermanence and the Illusion of Now” Impermanence is a fundamental characteristic of experience, but our unwillingness to fully acknowledge impermanence distorts the open potential time presents. Holding tightly to the identity of self and objects, we are squeezed by the linear momentum of past, present, and future. In our pressured world, we may feel there is never enough time. The past is not now, the future is not yet, and the present is already gone before you can even finish saying “now.” Faced with impermanence, we try to live in the present, but we can’t find that illusive moment, and “all we do in our earnest anticipation is reinforce our dualistic mind,” Tarthang Tulku writes in Openness Mind. Can we be with time differently? Using passages from Rinpoche’s works, we will explore through discussion and practice the possibilities time offers in each instant and come to appreciate impermanence more fully.
May 21 Olivia Hurd, “Invitation to Prayer” What is this everlong yearning we feel, to connect with something greater than ‘me’? The need to relate to something true and greater than our individual, separate selves seems to be deeply embedded in human nature. … to stand in the presence of the sacred, to realize oneness with universal being … to what transports us beyond our limited sense of self, … is the very heart of prayer. (Tarthang Tulku, PRACTICES ON THE BUDDHIST PATH.) Nyingma Psychology and Meditation instructor Olivia Hurd will discuss her experience with prayer; how it can ignite the energies of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas so that we can all learn how to experience them directly. Practice will be included.
May 28 Women’s Meditation
June 4 Suellen Ehnebuske, “The Three Wisdom Tools” In our fast-
paced modern world with its limitless distractions, we are truly blessed to have the teachings of Buddhism available to us. But so often—despite our best intentions and efforts—after a class ends, or a dharma talk is completed, much of the wisdom is lost on us. How can we better integrate and embody these precious teachings into our hearts and minds, and bring the wisdom to our everyday lives? The Three Wisdom Tools, Listening, Contemplation, and Meditation, is a contemplative process that supports the integration and embodiment of the teachings. In this talk by meditation instructor, Suellen Ehnebuske, we will explore each of the tools as distinct phases of learning.
A series of short practices will be offered to get a feel for the potentiality of this wise approach to deepening learning and awareness.
June 11 *Cancelled*
June 18 Richard Kingsland, “The Life Stories of Dudjom Rinpoche (1904 – 1987) and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910 – 1991)” Richard Kingsland, student of Tarthang Tulku for fifty years, will talk about these two great inspiring master practitioners and teachers, the first two official heads of the Nyingma Lineage in exile.