Monday, September 23, 2019

Daylong Retreat: Resting in Nature of Mind

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Event to be held at the following time, date, and location:
Sunday, October 20, 2019 from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM (PDT) 

Private Residence
Green Lake
Seattle, WA 98103
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Join us for an immersive meditation experience in a supportive environment. This daylong retreat focuses on the foundations of the Dzogchen view and meditation. Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection, is the heart essence of all of the Buddha's teachings. These teachings reveal how we can live more deeply in the world in a simple but direct way.
  • Be introduced to the unique Dzogchen view
  • Learn how to recognize and rest in the nature of mind
  • Learn how the practice of resting unfolds to reveal pure presence
  • Understand how we stray in the practice and how to eliminate errors in our meditation
Retreat includes:
  • Tea, snacks and vegetarian lunch
  • Guided seated and walking meditation
  • Learn structure of personal retreat
Limited spots are available. No prior meditation experience necessary, advanced students welcome.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Give yourself the gift of your practice.

"What am I going to get out of this?"

My Qiqong teacher Kim Ivy was posed this question recently. The beginner wants to have a glimpse of the promised result. They want to know that what they are doing is going to be of benefit. Most likely, they want to get rid of the fear of being a beginner and feeling awkward about what they are doing. Most of us feel enough insecurity and uncertainty as it is, why put ourselves in situations that expose our insecurities?

You might practice yoga, qiqong, meditation or any other form of the internal arts. Each of these benefits our body and mind, improves our health and prolongs our longevity. Each of these encourages a sense of well being, and that might be all that you need to get out of them.

My experience has been that our bodies and mind as largely a mystery to us. You notice this most when you are sick or endure an injury, the question of "How do I get better?" becomes paramount. Even in otherwise healthy states we still experience weird sensations in our bodies, our minds run scripts we can't seem to shake, and we feel a sense of dissatisfaction and unease. Sit still for a moment in meditation and you might notice just how uncomfortable you are in your own body- shifting your leg, scratching an itch, straightening your neck.

We often feel at odds against ourselves.

The curious thing about practices like yoga, qiqong and meditation is that they train you to look at your experience. They teach you, slowly, to not react to what is coming up in your experience. They expose imbalances and resistance, teaching you how to correct and find balance. Interestingly enough, you learn not to fight your body and mind, but how to work with your body and mind.

Over time, we learn to be friends with ourselves. We learn to be comfortable in our own skin. Being more accepting of ourselves, we can be more present and available for others. Instead of protecting ourselves and hiding our insecurities, we learn to stand with dignity in openness and vulnerability. Like a child learning to walk and falling often, we can learn to walk through the world with this type of posture. Of course we too will fall, and that is why we always come back to our practice.

Learning to check in with yourself, to look into the great mystery of our body and mind, and to gain some understanding of the complexity of this human life- this is one of the greatest gifts that we can give ourselves.

It is also one of the greatest gifts that we can share with the world.

Get comfortable with not knowing what you are going to get out of this. Give yourself the gift of showing up and simply devoting yourself to the practice of self-discovery.

You might be surprised at what you find.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Upcoming Meditation Workshop: Heart of Awakening

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Event to be held at the following time, date, and location: 

Sunday, September 22, 2019 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (PDT)
Wise Orchid Taijiquan & Qigong
2002 East Union Street
Seattle, WA 98122
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Join us for a weekend workshop on giving rise to the heart of awakening, or bodhicitta. Learn how to meditate, ask questions, engage in dialogue with other practitioners. Learn the foundational practices for the practice of compassion and how these practices shape how we move through the world, what inspires and guides us, and how to live a life well lived.  

No prior meditation experience necessary, all students welcome.
  • Understand the human predicament and our shared experience of suffering
  • Learn how self-awareness leads to the practice of compassion and love
  • Learn how to practice Tonglen and work with the art of compassion
  • Understand how the practice of bodhicitta guides us on our journey of awakening

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Dzogchen view and practice.

It is crucial to have a grounded understanding of the four noble truths in order to appreciate the Dzogchen view and practice. The four noble truths teach us to:

Understand the human predicament.
Let go of the arising of attachment, aversion and ignorance.
Actualize the state of cessation.
Practice the path.

In the first turning of the wheel of dharma, the Buddha did not go into great detail on the third noble truth of actualizing or beholding the state of cessation. In the first turning, the Buddha described the state of cessation as what it was free from, namely attachment, aversion and ignorance. He did not go into depth about the actual experience of that state.

In the second turning of the wheel of dharma he made it more clear by introducing the five features of emptiness, but even this is a more conceptual and elaborate way of understanding and recognizing the truth of cessation. By understanding the relative and ultimate truth, we can better understand the nature of the mind and gain clarity about the resultant state of the nature of our own mind.

In the third turning, the Buddha explicitly described the truth of cessation, introducing the tathagatagarbha or buddha heart. By understanding our primordial state as originally pure and ever-present, the resultant state is not something newly acquired but instead something that we come to recognize or reawaken. It is as though we have lost something for a long time, only to find it and at that same moment experience complete resolution and certainty.

The third turning of the wheel of dharma and the teachings on the tathagata-garbha opened the door to the Vajrayana, including practices like Buddhist tantra, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Tantra introduced the buddha heart as something to purify and transform. It is only in Mahamudra and Dzogchen that we find the completely unelaborate introduction to the nature of the mind itself as the basis of the path. While Mahamudra and Dzogchen are similar in many aspects, they do have critical differences in terms of method of introduction and differences in working with the resultant state of awareness.

Dzogchen, or the Great Perfection, is a direct introduction to our primordial state of authentic presence, our intrinsic awareness or rigpa in Tibetan. However, being introduced to rigpa is not enough, we must engage in the practice of Dzogchen in order to actualize the resultant state of awareness. Garab Dorje introduces the Dzogchen path in this Three Statements that Strike the Vital Point:

One is introduced directly to one's true nature,
Be decisive about this unique state,
Continue directly with confidence in liberation.

The teacher directly introduces the student to their intrinsic awareness, or rigpa, which is the primordial state of authentic presence. There are many methods and teachings which can introduce rigpa, my own teacher Younge Khachab Rinpoche wrote a short mind treasure entitled Drop of Secret Nectar which introduces the primordial state of rigpa. When one has recognized rigpa in their own experience, they can study Longchenpa's Way of Abiding to gain a deeper understanding of that state as the four samayas of Dzogchen.

After one has been introduced to rigpa and recognized that primordial state of being, you need to be decisive about this unique state. This can only be resolved through the practice of meditation, in which you work with and resolve all that appears and exists. As you learn to work with the unceasing display of the primordial state, you move through the practices of trekchod to come to a decisive experience of one's own nature as the unborn awakened mind, or ultimate bodhicitta. Longchenpa's masterpiece on coming to the decisive experience of awakened mind can be found in the first nine chapters of the Choying Dzod, the Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena

Having come to a decisive experience of rigpa, our own primordial state of authentic presence, one perfects the practice of trekchod and the practice of thogal naturally unfolds as one continues with confidence in liberation. Much can be said about the practice of thogal, and of course their are books to read, but by the time you get to this state in your practice you recognize that you already have all the teachings you need. You have been decisive after all, haven't you?


The easiest part of Dzogchen is the introduction. You can get introduced to your own awareness as the primordial state of being. You can be introduced to the result, the truth of cessation, directly, in your own experience. Many do, and then they leave it at that. Off to the next thing. Just like meeting a person and then later forgetting their name, the introduction itself it not enough.

The hardest part of Dzogchen is to be decisive about this unique state. That second point of Garab Dorje's.  Padmasambhava, the "Guru Rinpoche" who brought the Vajrayana to Tibet, spent twelve years contemplating Dzogchen in the charnel grounds of India after he was introduced to his primordial state by Shri Singha. Twelve years for one of the greatest Dzogchen masters. If you want to practice Dzogchen, much less realize the natural Great Perfection, you need to meditate. Demand clarity in your practice. Demand confidence in your realization. Be decisive. Then you continue with confidence in liberation, which connects back to the fourth noble truth. Practice the path.

An important aside: it is probably going to help if you have a good teacher and some supporting companions on this journey. You know where to find us.


Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Meaningful activities to do today.

Copying texts, making offerings, charity,
Study, reading, memorizing,
Explaining, reciting aloud,
Contemplating and meditating—
These ten activities
Bring merit beyond measure.
~Maitreya
Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes
What does a dharma practitioner do with their time? What type of activities are worthwhile and meaningful? Other than taking care of our daily responsibilities and work, what should we do in our free time? 

Our culture of accomplishment encourages us to be doing all the time. The habit of having to accomplish something, ship something, create something can create a lot of unrest and dissatisfaction when we are not engaging in those activities. Learning how to spend your downtime is a useful skill to have, since most of us can agree that surfing the internet or social media produces little benefit and often sucks us into a wormhole of mental wandering. 

Here are ten activities that Maitreya recommended all bodhisattvas on the path of awakening engage in:

Copying texts. A thousand years ago, copying texts was the only way to preserve them. Today we could say sharing texts, sending someone a book that impacted you, or sharing a cliff notes version of books that you are reading.

Making offerings. Be generous and kind. Share a smile. Talk to a stranger. Random acts of kindness are easy to share and make a positive impact in our community and in our own life. 

Charity. Donate, contribute and work for projects or organizations that are making things better in the world. Helping others in whatever form it takes is meaningful work worth doing. 

Reading. Read widely and deeply. There are no subjects or interests that are out of bounds here. Reading is a virtue. 

Study. Take notes. Systematize, draw out the implications and summarize the essence. Whatever you are reading is a good area to deepen your study. 

Memorization. In a time when books were not widely available, memorization was the only way to commit something to memory in order to keep it with you. In modern times, this can mean having a system or process by which you can easily retrieve and access needed resources. Google takes this category for most information, but how do you retrieve patience when you need it? How do you access compassion and responsiveness when you are tired and hungry? Build a habit for accessing your emotional intelligence. 

Explaining. Write a blog post on a book. Share your insights on what you have learned. Join a discussion group with a shared interest. 

Reciting aloud. Reciting a text was part of a regular practice to preserve and share the blessings of the tradition. This could be done alone or with a group for special ceremonies. Their is an unspoken blessing that one encounters when you have done something again and again by yourself, and then you encounter a group with a shared interest and everyone engages in the same activity without missing a beat. It is hard for a modern westerner to comprehend this, but we can all relate to cheering for a football team at home and then the shared experience in the stadium. There is a shared sense of belonging or affiliation that we experience that is beyond words. 

Contemplating. Think about what you are reading and studying. We need space and time to contemplate. You need some boredom in your life to enjoy contemplation. Build some time into your day for not doing anything, but being present and observe the world around you. You might also want to have a notebook or sheet of paper with you;)

Meditating. Rest naturally. Sit with intention. Experience your authentic condition. Build some time into your day for being, not doing.

These ten activities will make your day worthwhile. What other activities can you think of that are meaningful and worth committing to on a regular basis?

+2 important additions: exercise and mindful eating.

Choose a regular exercise, could be taking a walk, doing yoga or qiqong, or going for a run. Dr. Jivaka recommended the Buddha instruct all his disciples to do walking meditation everyday to strengthen their bodies and improve their mental focus.

Mindful eating. Enjoy your meals. Eat simple, nutritious food. Our meals can support our practice and encourage us to appreciate our connections to the world around us.