Dharma Conversations Podcast

 

Subscribe to our new Dharma Conversations Podcast

Dharma Conversations is produced by the Younge Drodul Ling Sangha and aims to connect new and experienced practitioners for mutual inspiration, growth and support. Dharma conversations are some of the greatest gifts that we can offer to ourselves and others, drawing out questions that are often unanswered and unexplored. They create wellsprings of reflection and insight in our own life and practice. The conversations that we have shape how we understand ourselves, how we interpret the world, and how we treat each other. They honor the difficulty that we all face and the complexity of what it means to carry the practice into our everyday life. By listening, asking questions and sharing our own experience and struggles, we can open a doorway to meaningful friendship and a supportive community.

Join us for Dharma Conversations, where we pursue wisdom and compassion to awaken inner life, outer life, and life together.

Subscribe and listen to Dharma Conversations now with Apple Podcasts or on whatever podcast player you use.  

Here's one of our recent conversations:

Imminent revelation.

There are moments that are always presenting themselves, moments to lend a hand, moments to share a kind word, moments to help or guide those who are struggling along the way. At times we recognize our capacity and resourcefulness and act with genuine kindness. Most of the time, we find ways to hold back and keep moving along in our own lane.

Pure presence or awareness (Tib. rigpa) is completely open, receptive and responsive. It is an awareness in which we are not holding onto anything. This genuine presence places us in a world of imminent revelation, where we become active participants in the ongoing creation of the world around us.

The ego would have us move away from the present out of fear, uncertainty and hesitation. Ego seeks to be distracted or to escape, leading us into worlds that don't exist around us, in which we are further disconnected and disembodied.

In this sense, awakening to greater presence connects us to the fundamental creativity that is a continually unfolding reality. This elusive yet ever-present creativity can only be witnessed in a state of open and receptive awareness, in which the play of the world and beings moves like a dance in the pavilion of space.

We can catch glimpses of this in our ordinary waking life. We all have moments when we are open and receptive, catching moments of insight and divine inspiration. But soon we close in on thoughts, wrapping ourselves in stories and ideas that insulate us from what continues to unfold around us.

Imminent revelation is reality revealing herself to pure presence. It is a tender witnessing of the uniqueness of this present world. Its very nature is beyond thought, word or expression, and yet in those moments we find the words and the actions that need to be expressed.

Of course the ego would not have us be so generous. The ego would tempt us to hold back, to give a little less, to not be quite so vulnerable. "Next time you can do something remarkable," as the beacon of light that is genuine presence fades into hiding and not being seen or heard.

Recognize when you are being called to presence
and when you are shutting down and holding back.
Go beyond yourself.
Step into a world of imminent revelation
and do the thing that needs to be done.

Answering the call.

There is something inside of each of us that is calling for us to be more deeply present in the world, to participate and contribute to the world in some way. Answering that call opens the doorway to the path.

When we feel called to step beyond our narrow conception of self and our abilities, we usually experience vulnerability, hesitation and fear. We feel called to step out into the open, but when the time comes to do so we hold back, we wait, we turn back.

That is why we need a practice, a teacher and mentor, a supportive community. We need stories and examples of those who have traveled this path. We need support and feedback and guidance from those who are currently traveling.

On this journey, we often feel alone and isolated. But there are those who walk with us, among us. There are those waiting for us just ahead and around the corner.

By showing up and listening to our own calling, we show up for others and continue to inspire them in their own path. Answering the call fulfills our own aims and brings about the aims of others.

I can't see the path.

If you can't see the path, you aren't going to be able to walk it.  

This path that we are on, this way of life and the intention that we carry day to day, its all really new to us.  We look around our family, our workplace and community and we don't see a lot of examples of how to walk the path. 

So you need to search out the path.  You need to find those that have gone before. 

Read the life stories of past masters.  Read the life story of present day practitioners.  Listen to the stories others share. 

There is a wealth of inspiration and wisdom in these stories.  Experience and wisdom that shed light on our own path so that we can forge ahead.  

Your path won't be like theirs, and it doesn't have to be.  But if you find yourself totally lost and without aim, maybe reach for a biography or two. 

Here are a few I have enjoyed:

Longchen Rabjam

Jamgon Kongtrul

Padmasambhava