Online Resources
Gomde California is working closely with our global Shedrub mandala in an effort to make more resources than ever available online. We now live-stream practice sessions every Sunday morning (8 am Pacific Time) on our Facebook page, and DharmaSun, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s online home, continues to release teachings, both newly recorded and from the archives. There is also a compilation of related resources at Shedrub Online Dharma Resources.
Here we feature one particularly poignant instruction on the heart of our practice, given by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche this past summer at Gomde California, with more teachings from our resident teacher Lama Tsultrim Sangpo below.
Assembling the Conditions for Realization
Gomde California Summer Seminar, July 2019
In this teaching, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche emphasizes that the heart of Buddhist practice is to sustain the motivation to gain realization in order to liberate all beings and establish them in a state free from suffering. This altruistic mind of bodhicitta is the nature of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It is with this motivation that we study, contemplate and meditate on the teachings, as well as prepare for the main part of Vajrayana practice. Rinpoche clearly states that our ultimate refuge is the nature of mind – rigpa. If we have prepared correctly and possess the necessary qualities of devotion and pure perception, and if we have met a qualified guide who embodies the Three Jewels, then when we go to practice, this realization of rigpa will dawn by itself.
Translated by Catherine Dalton
Eight Verses of Training the Mind
RYI Buddhist Studies Summer Program, July 2017
In these practical teachings given at Gomde California, Lama Tsultrim Sangpo offers an accessible explanation of the Eight Verses of Training the Mind by Geshe Langri Thangpa. These lojong teachings are primarily about relative and absolute bodhichitta, and how we train our conditioned mind to approach and access ultimate truth. First, we are taught the importance of acknowledging the kindness of others and of reducing our pride. Next, we learn how to abandon negative emotions, the source of all our difficulties and how train in patience, the supreme austerity. We are taught how to bring unpleasant words on to the path as part of the heart of the lojong teachings, and how to remain patient when someone returns our kindness with abuse. We then receive a summary of the verses as methods for awakening. In the final verse on wisdom, Lama Tsultrim Sangpo teaches us how to approach the eight worldly concerns from the perspective of a genuine practitioner.
Translated by Catherine Dalton