Tag: Buddhism

Making the Most of Your Life: Lama Yeshe

In Lama Yeshe’s and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s first trip to Europe they offered a weekend seminar based on their famous month-long Kopan meditation courses. Preceded by Lama Yeshe’s lecture on meditation at Kensington Town Hall, these teachings at Royal Holloway College, Surrey, encompass the entire Buddhist path to enlightenment. Please also visit us at http://www.LamaYeshe.com

Tukdam: The Point of Death

Irish director Donagh Coleman and Wildfire Films explore the extraordinary phenomenon of Tukdam, whereby some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners are able to forestall physical decay at the point of clinical death for days, even weeks, by entering a deep meditative state. Supported by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who appears in this film, a group of leading scientists conduct groundbreaking research into the phenomenon, which challenges Western medical understanding of the line between life and death.

This feature documentary explores a phenomenon that blurs life and death to an unprecedented degree. In what Tibetan Buddhists call ‘tukdam’, advanced meditators die in a consciously controlled manner. Though dead according to our biomedical standards, they often stay sitting upright in meditation; remarkably, their bodies remain fresh and lifelike, without signs of decay for days, sometimes weeks after clinical death. Following ground-breaking scientific research into tukdam and taking us into intimate death stories of Tibetan meditators, the film juxtaposes scientific and Tibetan perspectives as it tries to unravel the mystery of ‘tukdam’.

Padmasambhava – SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH SEEING WITH NAKED AWARENESS – Dzogchen (Audiobook)

A text belonging to the same cycle as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, this instruction on the method of self-liberation presents the essence of Dzogchen, The Great Perfection, regarded in Tibet as the highest and most esoteric teaching of the Buddha. Teaching the attainment of Buddhahood in a single lifetime, this text was written and concealed by Guru Padmasambhava in the eighth century and rediscovered six centuries later by Karma Lingpa. Translated by John Reynolds.

The root text can be found here: http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/Awar…

Alan Watts: INNER VOICE Lecture (Rare) | ORIGINAL FORM

Alan Watts lecture and philosophy, uninterrupted and no music added. Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born American philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he received a master’s degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest in 1945, then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.

Robert A.F. Thurman interview with Venerable Geshe Lhakdor la

Robert A.F. Thurman was a Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, Co-founder and president of the Tibet House U.S., and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University.

Thurman is known as a talented popularizer of the Buddha’s teachings. He is a riveting speaker and an author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, including The Central Philosophy of Tibet, Circling the Sacred Mountain, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Why The Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, and, most recently, with Sharon Salzberg, Love Your Enemies.

He was awarded with the prestigious Padma Shri Award in 2020, for his help in recovering India’s ancient Buddhist heritage.

In October 2022, during his visit to Dharamshala to participate in the Mind and Life Conference he graciously accepted our request for an interview with Venerable Geshe Lhakdor la where he talked about how he met with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, got known about Tibetan Buddhism and his journey since then.

Thich Nhat Hanh – Oprah Winfrey | Full Length Interview

This is the full-length version of a truly insightful, deep and powerful Interview. Oprah Winfrey talks to Thich Nhat Hanh about becoming a monk, meeting Martin Luther King Jr; The powers of mindfulness, insight, concentration and compassion, how to transform warring parties and how to deeply transform relationships.

Inquiring Mind-Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

From 1984 to 2015 Inquiring Mind was a semiannual print journal dedicated to the creative transmission of Buddhadharma to the West. This archive contains interviews, essays, poetry, reviews and art from the issues shown below. Our goal is to ultimately offer all thirty-one years of the Mind for your enjoyment.

https://www.inquiringmind.com/

 

PAPAJI – Look within yourself and you will find that You Are God

The first 9 and half minutes of this amazing satsang from the 12th of February 1993 are in silence. Papaji speaks about Consciousness: “You are already free, and this freedom is consciousness. You think that contact with the objects of the senses gives you happiness, therefore everybody is involved with the objects of the senses. Whenever there is pleasure, it is from the Self, of the Self, of the consciousness; not of any objects. Objects are temporary. It is the Self that is bliss. Once you know it and you are one with it, then whosoever you will meet, you will meet from the Self and you will not find any difference between you and other objects. Your love will be forever; not with the name, not with the form, but of the Self, to the Self, of the Self, within the Self.” Highlights of this satsang are: *Riya: “All doubts have been removed. All that was ‘I’ has disappeared into stillness. Who is free? It isn’t ‘I’ because ‘I’ isn’t there.” Papaji quotes Kabir: “Let the body be still, and let the mind be still, and let the intellect be still. That’s all you have got to do, and then this stillness will attract what is called enlightenment, freedom, emancipation, emptiness. They will follow behind.” Papaji gives her the name Aruna. He speaks about no need for any sadhana, and asks her to explain her experience. Aruna: “I realized that there was no ‘I.’ It was like the ‘I’ was absolutely a thought and had nothing to do with anything else. It was fiction. And when I realized that it was fiction everything else disappeared. And every thought that came, I asked to whom is this thought addressed? And I got nothing. It disappeared.” *Sambuddha: “I get hooked wanting to open my heart more to deepen my understanding.” Papaji: “This ‘I’ is a hook, and you are being fished. Around that ‘I’ some meat is there and everybody goes there. So, wiser are the fish who don’t touch it. This net is samsara, slowly moving. Get out of it any time.” *Angelica: “Please talk to me about love.” Papaji: “Love can be only of the Self. All the rest is lusting about. If you want to see what is love, direct your mind not to any person but to the source of the mind. Love is so pure, immaculate and there’s no demand, no command. Love is to give away without any kind of interest, to give yourself up. Nothing in exchange. Only that person can be happy who loves That.” *Jerry: “I am consciousness.” Papaji: “You are that which has no limitations, and no time, and no space also. Everything is included into this consciousness because there are no limits. We construct a veil between emptiness and ourself, therefore we get into trouble. And emptiness, consciousness can never be touched. Look within yourself and you will find that you are God.” *Sammy: “In a flash I experience that the Self is everyone, everywhere, everything; that the Self manifests in whatever form, or as whatever experience is needed to lead one back to the Self. Sometimes I see a bright white dot in front of my eyes. Is there any, any significance to this?” Papaji: “All lights are still subtle mind. You have become seer to see the lights, then light has become object.Let your mind not abide anywhere, let it be anything, gross or subtle, light or darkness. You go on going, go on going, without abiding anywhere, and then you will continuously go on going.” This is the official YouTube channel of H.W.L. Poonja, well known as Papaji, run by the Avadhuta Foundation, a non-profit organization supported by donations and grants. To donate (thank you) to help this channel continue and keep all content accessible for everyone, visit http://avadhuta.com/donate To learn more about Papaji and his teachings, visit http://avadhuta.com To buy physical copies in India of Papaji videos, books and audio CDs, see http://satsangbhavan.net