Volume 22, Number 1/ February 2022
Letter from the Editors
Allowing Yourself to Shine
Dear Friends,
With a new year upon us, we often place a lot of expectations on ourselves for new beginnings, resolutions, goals, or changes, all with good intention and aspiration. But these expectations can end up feeling like a lot of pressure and effort to accomplish, and actually can make us feel worse. So what does it really mean to let go of old patterns, old habits? How can we be more open? How do we change? How do we try new things? In this issue's teaching excerpt, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche beautifully points out how we can do this, and how we will avoid feeling drained or exhausted doing it. It's easier than you think. Thank you, Rinpoche!!
In this issue:
- A NEW book by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on The Seven Mirrors of Dzogchen will be available in the Ligmincha Bookstore in mid-February.
- Online retreat with Marcy Vaughn February 5-6: Sherap Chamma: Mother of Wisdom and Love.
- Tashi Delek Losar! Join Ligmincha in celebrating the Tibetan New Year. This year Losar is March 3-5.
- Learn more about raising prayer flags for the new year with Raven Cypress-Wood.
- View Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's upcoming live teaching schedule, including new dates for 2022.
- Serenity Ridge Spring Retreat March 31-April 3: The Nine Winds: Exploring the Union of Breath and Awareness.
- Ligmincha Learning: Past, Present and Future.
- Check out Ligmincha Learning's online courses beginning in February and March.
- View the latest CyberSangha offerings.
- Student and Teacher article features a question about self-reflection and integration.
- GlideWing's next online workshop begins February 12: Tibetan Sound Healing.
- Spanish translation link for the December VOCL.
In Bon,
Aline and Jeff Fisher
Bringing the Magic of Allowing to Life
An Excerpt from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Winter 2021 Retreat
We begin the new year with good vibrations, good energy, a sense of good connectedness and maybe one simple word, allowing. [Rinpoche smiles] Sometimes regarding meditation we say, don't try to have the experience, rather allow the experience. In the same way, don't try to be something, just allow yourself to be yourself, whoever you are. There's more strength, more potentiality, more power in allowing from the source than in effortfully trying, isn't there? The trying itself has been the whole issue all along. It's behind all of the exhaustions of body, speech and mind that we have been looking at.
If you were to say, I allow myself to breathe only when I give myself the command to breathe, and otherwise I won't breathe, then you would die. But if instead you say, I allow myself to breathe, then you will be breathing naturally. You will be doing things and breathing; you will be talking and you will be breathing; you will be thinking and you will be breathing; you will be sleeping and you'll be breathing. You'll be breathing all of the time. And you will be benefiting from the breath regardless of whether or not you make a comment about it. In a similar fashion, I think that in life you should try to allow more things rather than controlling them. That's what I'm saying. For sure, at least have the direction that you're headed in life be more towards the allowing of things.
Consider these dual aspects of our life, our weakness and our strength; or our pain and our pleasure; or what we can't do and what we can. It's clear that presently in all of these areas, we don't allow. We may at times feel, I'm okay, and I'm pretty happy about what I do and the way that I live. And that is a nice feeling. But at the same time, if we bring a little bit more awareness and attention there, we see how many times friends may have asked and invited us to do something good, some fun thing. Inviting us to come out of our box. And how often have we said, No, no, I admire your doing that wonderful thing yourself, but I don't want to do it. Think about the list of things that others do that you admire, but that you don't do. You don't take the new step, enter the new situation or the new place. So with many wonderful friends' invitations, we respond with doubt and are suspicious. We don't trust ourselves. We love our box. We don't allow; rather, we are resisting all the time.
So think about it, it's a new year. We can say, I won't be doing everything that you are inviting me to do, but I am open now. I'm open to changing some patterns. I'm open to doing some new things. And it looks like it's not so effortful to participate in some things, either. So a minimum of change will result in a maximum enrichment of life. Often, more energy and time is used up in resisting what is happening, what is around us, what we're exposed to. So let's open up and invite and allow new joys.
We count on our intelligence to make better decisions in life, yet even people who think they are smart and are making some good decisions, still are making decisions based on their bias. So allowing, right? Simply saying, I'm open. Even if in a given situation you might have some small preference, you can still say, Well, I'm open. Try it sometime, just for the fun of it just to see how you feel! If someone asks, what kind of tea would you like? You can say, Well, I'm open! What kind of coffee would you like? Well, ummm . . . I'm open! Sugar or no sugar? Well, I'm open!
Do you see? I'm not saying to never use your awareness in choosing. But what I am saying is to recognize this rigidity that you have about things in your life. And see when you are not allowing your life to fully embrace what life has to offer, due to your idea and ideology and your sense of right and wrong. It's a good idea to better your friendship with your demons, not just the dakinis! That transforms the demon into a god. Then you will have a better relationship to your joy; then the pain becomes a joy! So rather than living in a totally individuated, separated world and not being aware at all, instead allow this richness of life, and trust that when something is happening, there's a purpose, a reason to why it's happening that is beyond one's grasp. Have some sense of respecting and trying to learn from the experience, and of being curious about what it is that it is teaching us here.
With that allowing, then life changes! Life changes so fast. Clearly if you think about all the enlightened beings, they would never resist giving you wisdom if it's theirs to give. An enlightened being would not say, Well I want to give you the wisdom, but I don't like your behavior. So, I am only going to give you this much wisdom this year, then I want you to suffer for a year, and then I will give you some more wisdom next year. They will not limit all they are capable of giving you with some kind of bias; they will not do that. And I don't think the universe does that, either. Every given moment, the universe is giving you everything you need. And the universe is also taking away a lot of things that you don't need. So have this sense of allowing of the gifts of life to manifest. And be a little more aware of whenever we control, whenever we block, whenever we reject, whenever we close. Just the simple things, you know? So allow things in life. Embrace things in life. See every piece of it as having some meaning in that moment in your life, having some message for you. Regardless of whether you like it or not, it has some message for you. And try to see, what is the universe trying to teach me today?
So allow all the joys of life that have been waiting for you to let them in. Imagine the lines of joys that have been forming, all of them waiting and wanting to come into your life while you have been saying to them, Not now! In the future. Not at this time, not in this situation. Just imagine that you are saying to them, now you all are free to enter! Picture them lined up like a long queue of passengers waiting at the gate of an airport for their plane to finally open its door. And at last the airline, which up until now was controlled by fear, flings open its door and announces, Traveling is now FREE! All the joys can come in now! And then they come in and your life is filled with joy!
Don't forget to allow the pain, as well, the pain you have been fighting. You are so exhausted from having tried all of this time to close the door on that pain. You're drained so much from that. And you didn't realize that the pain is already here on your side of the door that you are trying so hard to shut. You see, actually, the pain will not exhaust you so much, especially when you're sensing the pain is a positive sign. It's a good sign that it's releasing, it's clearing it's moving, it's leaving. If you are aware of that, then what you do is accommodate. Sometimes it's just a little thing that you have to allow and not force. So now you are saying, allow! And all the pains are allowed. The pains know how to process themselves so well when you don't create extra ones that are not needed in your life.
Generally in our lives we do not simply allow the things that are there; instead, we pressure them. We pressure love, we pressure acknowledgment, we pressure others, we pressure ourselves. We pressure ourselves to be happy, we pressure ourselves to not be in pain. We don't allow. It's so much more exhausting to control a problem, pains, challenges. But if you allow them, they dissolve. So this is in some way the very unique, really great insight of dzogchen meditation. It says to allow it. When you allow it, it doesn't stay in its form for too long.
Recognize the many things that we have controlled over these past two years. And particularly where we've been controlling our pain, or controlling someone, or controlling some situation. See clearly those times in the last two years where pain needed to come out, where the body needed to breathe, where the space needed to be open, where a new possibility needed to be allowed, where the new growth needed to be encouraged, and yet we controlled them; we didn't allow them. When we don't allow the pain, then the pain gets worse, the conflict gets worse, the struggle gets worse, and we get more exhausted. Then at some point it will all come out in a full-blown way, and at that point it may be very hard to handle.
With regard to your own pain, when you feel it, then simply allow it and recognize you're feeling it. Welcome yourself to feel it. Be there when you're feeling it. Stay connected when you're feeling it. And it will go so fast, it will heal so fast, because you are experiencing it with awareness. Allow your pain equally as much as you are trying to bring the joy or find the joy. You see, joy can never be there when you have a bad relationship to the pain. When you have a good relationship with the pain, then that is a joy. A good relation to the problem is a solution. A good relation to the obstacle is your growth. A good relationship to your weakness is your source of strength. It's true! If you look around, you can see that.
So for this new year just think this way a bit, I allow. I am going to allow. That could mean so many things. For instance, I will not really, really push in an artificial way to try to reconnect with my brother, sister, father, my children with whom I have been disconnected. Rather, I will allow them to connect to me. I will not ask for connection. Don't ask for love. Allow the connection to happen, and love to happen. Don't ask for it, don't try, don't try too hard. Don't demand, don't fight. Do nothing. Give space and allow.
When you do that even the pain will say, Thank you so much. I've been with you all of this time, and I've been trying to breathe all of this time, I'm trying to express. I have no interest in being with you, I only wanted to pass through you and be free. Your pains are not there to be with you, they're there to process and become free from you. Thoughts are like that, emotions are like that, and pains are like that. Allow them.
Even regarding pain in the body that's hurting you, how often do you hear, I hate this pain. You can see the resistance toward that physical pain or exhaustion, versus allowing and embracing it, having peace with it. When you do allow it, then right away, even, you can feel that the energy of that pain and emotion is healing. That is called the power of awareness of openness. Allowing it. Of course, if you observe clearly, all of human experience, when we allow it, is not that harmful. When we resist it, when we control it, when we suppress it, it's much harder and more difficult.
So allowing is a beautiful practice of dzogchen, and it is a beautiful practice of new beginning. May you bring this sense of allowing more into life, and particularly to the internal experiences of thoughts and emotions and physical pains and sickness; it's such a powerful way of relating to those internally. We know that it changes the relationship, and we know that the process of healing will be faster. We know that it opens you up to a totally new dimension. Life opens to a new dimension. So allow. Allow all of the joy and happiness and potentiality of this new year of 2022. I hope you are feeling that.
New Book by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche Available Soon
The Seven Mirrors of Dzogchen: Teachings and Commentary on an Ancient Dzogchen Text
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's newest book will soon be available in the Ligmincha Bookstore and Tibet Shop! The Seven Mirrors of Dzogchen: Teachings and Commentary on an Ancient Dzogchen Text, comes from teachings that Rinpoche gave during his 2020 summer retreat, which was held completely online and drew more than 600 participants from 43 countries around the world. The book is expected to be available in mid-February, and you can sign up to be notified when it arrives.
The teachings and commentary in this book are based on a profound text on the nature of mind called The Seven Mirrors of Dzogchen by Drenpa Namkha. He was a great Tibetan master in the late seventh/early eighth century from the ancient land of Zhang Zhung, which later became part of Tibet. It is one of the essential texts of dzogchen, the highest teaching in the Tibetan Bon tradition and some Tibetan Buddhist lineages. Dzogchen, known as the "great perfection," points out the nature of one's mind as clear and open, aware, and the source of all positive qualities in life.
With his trademark ability to bring the deep teachings of ancient texts into the modern world and make them relevant and engaging for his students, Tenzin Rinpoche, through commentary and meditations, brings these ancient teachings to life. He shows how the mirrors, which are the reflection of our highest potential, are as applicable today as they were in the past. The book focuses in particular on the first four mirrors of dzogchen: the view, meditation, result and conduct. Exploring these teachings and applying them in our lives can help us open to our true nature.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, is an accomplished author as well as a highly respected and beloved teacher to students around the world. His other books include Awakening the Sacred Body, Awakening the Luminous Mind, Tibetan Sound Healing, The True Source of Healing, and Spontaneous Creativity, among others.
Rinpoche's new book, The Seven Mirrors of Dzogchen, is published by Sacred Sky Press, a division of Ligmincha International committed to making the sacred teachings and practices of the Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition more widely available. Another book forthcoming from Sacred Sky Press in early summer 2022 is Rinpoche's detailed teachings on the A-tri Dzogchen cycle, based on retreats given in the Netherlands over the past seven years.
Learn more/sign up to be notified
Online Retreat with Marcy Vaughn February 5-6
Sherap Chamma: Mother of Wisdom and Love
In many cultures the primordial female energy is seen as the origin of existence and the source of all positive qualities. As such, Sherap Chamma, Mother of Wisdom and Love, is the source of wisdom, and her medicine is love and compassion. The teachings of Sherap Chamma comprise one of the most important tantric cycles of the ancient Bon tradition.
In this retreat, participants will learn a beautiful and simple meditation practice enabling each to directly connect with the divine feminine energy. Within the support of the group, an environment is created to promote profound healing of physical, energetic, emotional and spiritual dimensions of life. With visualization, the sound of mantra and deep contemplation, participants can make a personal connection to this sacred form of the universal mother, Sherap Chamma, and are guided through this connection to innate wisdom and the love and compassion that naturally radiate from that wisdom.
Those experienced in meditation as well as those who are beginning are warmly welcomed.
Languages of live translation will be available.
Happy Losar!
Celebrating the Tibetan New Year
Join us in celebrating Losar, the Tibetan New Year! This is the year of the water tiger and according to the Tibetan lunar calendar, in this year 2149 Losar falls on March 3-5. Ligmincha is working to organize events for this time. The annual Losar celebration will take place online this year, with practices and celebrations from teachers and sanghas around the world.
Losar is an auspicious time with festivals and celebrations throughout the world. It is a time to say goodbye to the old year, the positives and negatives; a time to express gratitude and offer prayers; and a time to invite all good things for the new year! Traditionally, it is a time clean one's home, decorate with flowers, hang prayer flags, make offerings, burn incense and cook special meals, such as traditional gu-thok noodle soup, and chang (barley beer).
We will post information on the Ligmincha website and Facebook page as soon as details are arranged. All activities will be free of charge, and all are welcome to attend. Last year, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche shared a message, and many of Ligmincha's resident lamas offered greetings. The event included a short guided practice and greetings from sanghas around the world. This is a wonderful time to gather online share good wishes and enjoy each other's company.
Practice groups and centers may be organizing activities on that day. Please check your local webpages and social media for more information about these opportunities.
Raising Prayer Flags
Raven Cypress-Wood Shares a Brief Description
Prayer flags at Serenity RidgePrayer flags are often raised on Losar, the beginning of the Tibetan New Year. Raven Cypress Wood, who maintains a website of ancient wisdom from the Yungdrung Bon tradition called Nine Ways, shares a brief description of raising prayer flags.
Prayer flags are familiar to spiritual practitioners and nonpractitioners alike, but their meaning and benefit are less well known. Prayer flags originated with the Yungdrung Bon religions tradition and the teachings of Buddha Tonpa Shenrap Miwoche. According to the eminent scholar Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, in ancient times the Bonpo would blow mantras and prayers onto strips of colored wool. These strips of wool were then draped over the branches of bushes and trees. This practice eventually evolved into the kind of prayer flags that we are familiar with today.
Prayer flags are made of cloth, using the five colors of the five elements, upon which is written prayers and mantras of aspiration and good luck. The correspondence of colors to elements is yellow: earth, blue: water, red: fire, green: wood or air, and white: metal or space. These five elements are the foundation of our health, vitality, life-force, personal power, lungta and soul. Activating these colors develops the corresponding elements.
The prayers and mantras written on the prayer flag are activated when the flag is moved by the wind. For this reason, they are usually placed outside in areas exposed to the wind, especially in areas that are holy, on mountaintops, or at spiritual retreat or pilgrimage places. Once they are raised, traditionally they are left to dissolve back into the elements. The best time to raise prayer flags is in the morning before noon on auspicious days such as during the Tibetan New Year, during the four monthly auspicious days of the full moon, new moon and two quarter moons, or on other auspicious days.
There are many types of prayer flags with a variety of prayers and mantras, but one of the most common types is a lungta prayer flag. "Lungta" literally translates as "windhorse, and this image is imprinted in the very center of the prayer flag. The windhorse symbolizes something that moves very fast and without any hindrance. Using this image symbolizes the swiftness of the prayers and mantras being fulfilled. These prayers and mantras are commonly related to the development of the five elements, longevity, prosperity, health, good luck and harmonious circumstances.
Prayer flags are consecrated and then raised while taking refuge and feeling sincere compassion and a wish that they bring benefit and happiness to all suffering beings. Raising them in this way, their power to bring benefit is unimaginable. According to Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, any sentient being who merely sees a prayer flag with their eyes will obtain a state of happiness. Even very harmful or negative actions can be purified by raising prayer flags. They increase positive forces and qualities and remove obstacles. Again, according to Shardza Rinpoche, "Raising 1,008 prayer flags is better than a shen of magical power erecting a statue of the Buddha made of pure gold."
For more details about prayer flags, see the article in Nine Ways.
Prayer flags are available in the Ligmincha Store.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Upcoming Live Teaching Schedule
Includes New Dates for 2022
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teaching schedule for 2022 continues to grow! And more dates will be added soon. At this time, four seasonal retreats at Serenity Ridge are planned to be offered both in person to a limited number of participants, following social distancing guidelines, as well as online.
You can find the latest listings and any changes in the Events section of the Ligmincha website or the Serenity Ridge website, including locations where Rinpoche will be teaching in person. Please register for these online retreats through the specific Events box on the website.
- March 25-27, 2022: Berkeley, California, Twenty-One Nails, Part 1
- March 31-April 3, 2022: Serenity Ridge Spring Retreat, The Nine Winds
- April 6-10, 2022: Ligmincha Mexico
- April 29-May 1, 2022: Bourg-en-Bresse, France
- June 19-July 2, 2022: Serenity Ridge Summer Retreat
- August 8-14, 2022: Buchenau, Germany
- August 16-21, 2022: Chamma Ling Poland, Tummo Part 2
- September 2-4, 2022: Budapest, Hungary
- September 23-25, 2022: Chamma Ling Colorado, A-tri teaching Part 2
- October 11-16, 2022: Serenity Ridge Fall Retreat
- October 28-30, 2022: Berkeley, California, Twenty-One Nails, Part 2
- December 26, 2022-January 1, 2023: Serenity Ridge Winter Retreat, Experiential Transmission of Zhang Zhung, Part 3
Serenity Ridge Spring Retreat on Breath and Awareness
Scheduled for Onsite and on Zoom March 31-April 3
Join us March 31-April 3 at Serenity Ridge in Virginia or online via Zoom for Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's spring retreat. Rinpoche will be teaching on The Nine Winds: Exploring the Union of Breath and Awareness.
The winds (lung, prana or chi) are the essential energy underlying all of existence. In the chapter of the Bon Mother Tantra, "The Unceasing Sphere of Light," nine winds describe the movements of the layers of consciousness from gross to subtle. These winds move not only within us, but also collectively, through our families, communities and our whole world-system. Everything, from the subtlest reality of the nature of mind to the grossest physical forces, moves according to the forces of these winds.
In this retreat we will engage in practices of breath and awareness that support the transformation of suffering due to four of the nine winds: blockages causing disease, karmic patterns held in our body and energetic field, emotional wounds, and obscurations of the conceptual mind that impede self-realization. As we open, we enhance pathways that support positive expression, transforming our perception of self and other, bringing benefit to the health of our body, our relations, and our world.
Learn more
Ligmincha Learning Past, Present and Future
New Programs, Other Changes to This Online Learning Platform
Ligmincha Learning began in 2009 as a way for Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche to share detailed instruction on Bon practices with students outside of a retreat setting. Over the years, many new programs and features have been added to this online learning platform, and plans for further expansion are under way.
In 2009 Rinpoche wanted a way that students could deepen their understanding and experience with certain practices outside of his regular retreats, and with more support than could be provided by a book. Always an innovator with technology, he saw an opportunity to create online courses. These courses would combine prerecorded videos, audio files, print materials and a moderated discussion forum where students could discuss the practices, share experiences and ask questions.
Back then (a long, long time ago in internet time!), very few dharma organizations had online learning platforms of their own. John Jackson, a longtime student of Rinpoche's, had been successfully building and supporting an online learning platform for the University of Virginia College of Medicine, and he saw an opportunity to use his technology and videography skills to create a platform and fulfill Rinpoche's wish. Because Ligmincha had far fewer resources than it has today, Ligmincha Learning was started as a separate business. John identified the technology needed, built the site, planned the initial courses with Rinpoche, shot the video footage and edited the videos into courses. He also served as the guide (what Ligmincha called a student supporting Rinpoche's or another geshe's courses) for all the courses as they went online.
For years Ligmincha Learning ran happily along, offering instruction in the Three Heart Mantras, Five Elements and the Six Lokas. Then, beginning in 2014, as Ligmincha began to expand in scope the opportunities for Ligmincha Learning grew, too. To take advantage of those opportunities and to better integrate Ligmincha Learning with Ligmincha International's other programs, Ligmincha acquired the online learning platform from John in 2015.
Ligmincha began to think of how to expand its use, not only for new courses, but with more teachers and for new purposes. A course on the practice of Sherap Chamma with Marcy Vaughn was added in 2017. The first training program, the "Host" program, was added to train and support students who want to share Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's teachings with others. Ligmincha Learning began to offer free courses in 2017, introducing the Nine Breaths of Purification, the External Tsa Lung and basic meditation instruction. A nine-month program for the Ngondro from the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu taught by Rinpoche was launched in 2018, and a course on the Treasures of Bon co-taught by Geshe Denma Gyaltsen and John Jackson came about in 2019. In the same year, a second training program was developed to support Ligmincha's umdzes, or practice leaders, helping deepen their knowledge of Ligmincha's core practices and providing advice on how to support a practice group. In 2020 two new online courses began, Sleep Yoga with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Meditation, Breath & Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich. Beginning In 2021, Lourdes Hinojosa also stepped forward and began to serve as a guide for the Three Heart Mantras course.
With covid, no new courses were produced in 2021, but many other changes took place during this year. The entire Ligmincha Learning website was rebuilt to make it not only mobile friendly, but accessible by a mobile app now that gives all of the desktop functionality to mobile phone users.
A truly important update to the platform was made with the inclusion of subtitles in languages other than English. The Sherap Chamma course was the first to offer a second language option (French) beginning in 2018, and non-English versions of courses have become available in Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish as well. The intention is to make more courses available in these and other languages as soon as possible. This work is supported by volunteer native speakers in the different countries.
A major change for Ligmincha Learning in 2021 is that John Jackson began to step back from involvement with the platform. He has relinquished the technical support of the platform to Sean Quinn-Parziale, Ligmincha International's new tech support person, and to internet hosts at Xubium in Peru. All registration is now overseen by Johanna-Mae Mariano. John continues to serve as guide for The Five Elements: Healing with Form, Energy & Light, Treasures of Bon: History, Lineage & Practices, and some of the Transforming Our Emotions Through the Six Lokas courses. Ligmincha is deeply grateful for all that John has done over these many years to bring online education to the western Bon community, and for his continued involvement in certain courses.
The year 2022 will see further expansion of Ligmincha Learning! Soon a Spanish language version of the Three Heart Mantras course will be available, and it will be the first course to be dubbed rather than subtitled. A new self-paced and self-guided course (done without a discussion board) will be offered by Rinpoche's wife, Khandro Tsering Wangmo Khymsar, this spring. Her course will teach participants how to raise lung-ta, or prosperity and luck, with prayer flags and through ritual.
Online learning offers many advantages for Ligmincha's globally dispersed community. With Ligmincha Learning, we can access teachings on our own schedule and according to our own interests. We can take more time to deepen our knowledge and integrate the practices. Certainly, prerecorded content does not replace the profound experience of a live teaching, either in person or online, but it is a powerful support, nonetheless.
Please take a look at the many course offerings on ligminchalearning.com. We have a full calendar in 2022 and hope you will join us there!
Ligmincha Learning's Upcoming Online Courses
Several Courses Offered in February and March
Ligmincha Learning is pleased to offer several upcoming video-based online courses beginning in February and March: The Three Heart Mantras with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche; Meditation, Breath and Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich; and Ngondro: The Foundational Practices with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. These courses feature beautiful video teachings, guided meditations, readings, journal writing activities, and the opportunity to interact with senior mentors and classmates from around the world.
February 25-April 2, 2022
The Three Heart Mantras with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The Three Heart Mantras are said to be the essence of enlightenment in sound and energy, and as we sing or chant the mantras our awareness is transformed to be in union with the Buddhas.
Learn more/register
March 4-April 2, 2022
Meditation, Breath and Movement with Alejandro Chaoul-Reich
Tsa Lung is a series of ancient yogic practices that bring balance and harmony to our physical body, energy and mind. These exercises are easy to perform and are beneficial for everyone. Taught in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Learn more/register
March 11-December 17, 2022
Ngondro: The Foundational Practices with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The ngondro teachings are a set of nine practices that offer complete instructions for taming, purifying and perfecting the suffering mind.
Learn more/register
The Latest CyberSangha Offerings
New Full Moon Series Plus 'Favorite CyberSangha Video' Program
The CyberSangha team warmly invites you to participate in the following new offerings! They include a 24-hour full moon practice on February 16 and a free February 5 screening of Rinpoche's most-watched CyberSangha video.
Next 24-Hour Full Moon Practice
In the Tibetan tradition, many sacred rituals and practices, including the celebration of the Tibetan New Year (Losar), coincide with the phases of the moon. It is said that the beneficial effects of one's meditation practice multiply exponentially at the time of the full moon.
On February 16, 2022, our next 24-hour Full Moon Practice begins with a meditation guided by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich at 10 a.m. New York time. Hosted on Zoom by Ligmincha International practice leaders around the world, the practice focuses on "Finding Peace Through Spaciousness of the Mind" and continues with sessions of mantra recitation, contemplative silence and further guided meditations. Open to all.
New: Following the February practice, at Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's suggestion the full moon series will continue with a fresh new perspective beginning on March 17, on the first full moon after Losar 2022. More information about the yearlong program is coming soon!
What's Your Favorite CyberSangha Video?
On February 5, 2022, at 11 a.m. New York time, you are invited to view a free screening of "Freeing Yourself from Guilt, Blame and Shame." This 88-minute recorded live webcast, originally broadcast in 2012, is the most-viewed teaching video by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, which makes it a fitting choice for the launch of "What's Your Favorite CyberSangha Video?" program. View the screening on Rinpoche's Facebook page or at cybersangha.net.
Submit your own favorite! We invite you to nominate your favorite teaching, guided meditation, or other video from the CyberSangha archives. Which recorded live broadcast has helped you the most in recent months or years? Based on the feedback, a selection of favorites will be rebroadcast in coming weeks, so others can benefit.
Visit cybersangha.net for schedule updates. Real-time translation is available in multiple languages.
Student and Teacher
Together on the Path
Student: Could you speak about self-reflection and how one can extend this more into one's everyday life? I am able to reflect during my sitting practice and realize, for example, not to do something, but then it is so easy to forget in daily life and react with negative emotions like anger. How can we be more conscious during the day?
Rinpoche: First of all, the ability to self-reflect, to have self-awareness, is a very valuable thing. Sometimes people have it; sometimes people learn it; sometimes people don't have it; and sometimes people don't realize that it is lacking, and then don't learn it.
Most important is to see the richness and the value of it, because if you like it, then you will come to exercise that awareness more. For example, generally in our life, if we pay attention we see that we always are looking out. Our eyes are looking out; our ears are listening for sounds outside us. And constantly we are judging. We are perceiving something, and very often we are then engaging with our weakness. We say something like, oh, I don't like that, instead of saying what we do like.
We talk more about what the problems are in the world, don't we? Every day in our life, we engage our attention with the things we can't do, with the things we are not able to do, with our limitations, our problems; we engage with that. Sometimes, though, you can realize, Well, I don't have to think about this all the time. I can think about what I can do. It's simple logic like that. What wonderful things can I do today? It gives the brain something to work on differently. Immediately the mind says, what can I do? And immediately it looks into and exercises different possibilities. Or you see that you are feeling so depressed or down this morning, because you are not able to do what you are supposed to do. Maybe your flight got canceled; your appointment got canceled; traffic is heavy. So the ability to self-reflect in cases like these is very, very valuable. Try to notice yourself all the time. And value that more.
It's as if you now have a toolbox, a good toolbox. Now if you saw that something was broken, would you simply be thinking, it's broken and I'm depressed that it's broken. Would you do that? Or instead would you know that you have a toolbox, and open the toolbox and then fix what is broken? See, you are now aware that you have so many different ways that you can fix it, and you will fix it.
But most of the time people don't know that they have such a toolbox; they don't remember that they have a toolbox and can work with the help of their toolbox. Instead they sit with this pain and then complain about life, and then exhaust themselves. It is almost as if they assume that exhaustion will help them figure out a solution. No. Exhaustion does not fix the problem. Resting does.
So I think it's so good, this sense of deep respect for that mirrorlike wisdom, that ability to self-reflect. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. And so is keeping the intention: may I have the ability in every moment, all moments, to self-reflect.
Upcoming GlideWing Online Workshop
Tibetan Sound Healing Begins February 12
GlideWing is pleased to offer Tibetan Sound Healing, an online workshop with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche from February 12-March 6. In this three-week workshop participants will learn to use the healing power of the five sacred seed syllables known as the Five Warrior Syllables. Participants will practice from their own homes, at their own schedule, with personal guidance from Rinpoche.
The Tibetan Bon Buddhist tradition is one of the most ancient spiritual traditions to use sound and its vibration as an essential tool for healing and spiritual development. Guided by the mind and carried by the breath through subtle channels within the body, the power of sound can open the potential to bring joy and love to your life, facilitate personal healing, dissolve energetic disturbances and awaken positive action in the world around you.
Tenzin Rinpoche's teachings are based on his popular book Tibetan Sound Healing.
Upcoming: Tibetan Dream Yoga, April 210-May 29, 2022.
Ongoing: Focusing and Calming Your Mind: The Tibetan Practice of Zhine, a free two-week self-guided online workshop.
Learn more at glidewing.com.
Spanish Translation of VOCL
Link to December Issue Now Available
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