with Alan Muller Atisha's most celebrated text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, sets forth the entire Buddhist path within the framework of three levels of motivation on the part of the practitioner. This retreat will concentrate on the sections of the text which cover meditation and wisdom. Sessions will include guided meditations associated with [...]
Update June 2023: The gravel road from the Rietvaly turnoff 9 km after Groot Marico has been fixed and graded and is passable once more in a normal sedan car. A reminder to drive slowly and you will arrive with all 4 tyres intact! As you may have seen, we have started recommending that [...]
Drupon Rinpoche often teaches that the way to understand the Dharma is to look at yourself. He suggests looking at your ways of thinking, talking, and conducting yourself and seeing if your words and conduct are consistent with the Dharma. It has been an interesting week, I faced two difficult situations, one business, and one [...]
As a first-time visitor to Tara Rokpa Centre, it was easy for me to blend into the environment simply because of the scenery and it was what my heart had been yearning for, for a very long time. Completely different from what you get at a vacation, for me, a vacation means how do I [...]
A Transforming Retreat with Melanie Polatinsky The legends of Guru Rinpoche/Padmasambhava, also called the second Buddha, are rooted in a historical figure, miraculously born, who came to Tibet in the 8th Century to bring the highest Buddhist teaching and subdue the darkness in the land. His consort and disciple, Yeshe Tsogyal recorded all these teachings [...]
The 3rd of March is the Tibetan New Year of the Water-Tiger. The first fifteen days of the lunar year are known as the fifteen days of the Buddha's miracles, when the Buddha, who was usually reluctant to show his miraculous powers, did display miracles in order to increase the faith of his followers.
On my first visit to India, after attending teachings by H.E Tai Situpa, I decided to go to McLeod Ganj where H.H. Dalai Lama was giving all-day transmissions at his monastery. Anyone who has visited this monastery will know that approaching and entering it is not straightforward for a first-timer. I arrived when the teachings [...]
A Contemplation from Alan Muller "With shamata practice, we learn to detect impulses in their early stages. We can check an impulse toward anger before exploding like a volcano. If we do not recognize that impulse, then the repetition of angry outbursts strengthens the tendency toward anger and creates its own karmic energy, it's own [...]
In the midst of the dramas of our karmic circumstances, it’s so difficult to realise that this is a relative movie AND that we, ourselves, have created the players and places!! Join us in the tranquil, spiritual setting of TRC for a weekend with Melanie, of MEDITATION and EXPLORATION of our minds beyond our SELF-CREATED SUFFERING. Melanie [...]
I went a round in the ring with impermanence the other day and I gotta tell ya, impermanence whipped my butt. Am I allowed to say butt in a Buddhist newsletter? It’s politer than the alternative I had in mind. Anyway, the lead up was typical of your average boxing match. Both parties go in [...]
