Mangala Shri Bhuti - The Link Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Dungse Jampal Norbu and students

Speaker: Chris Holland. Chris examines buddhanature as the foundation of enlightened qualities, including love. In this talk, he sets the stage to understand the genuine or absolute ground of buddhanature in order to see how the path functions. He describes absolute ground as a living presence, primordially existent with radiant qualities, the "enlightened essence" or absolute nature. Love is the radiance of absolute nature. Chris sees the Four Immeasurables practice as the "structure" of enlightened essence because the practice stirs up the qualities of enlightened essence (wisdom, love and power). Enlightened essence is the limitless source of all worlds, all positive qualities, all goodness. What separates us from allowing this essence to flow freely through us is grasping to a limited self; the path is simply to purify the obstacles that block us from recognizing the absolute nature. From there, we become a limitless source of love.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la shares his experience of travel and the unique opportunity it brings to step out of our comfort zone and actively engage with our mind. He describes the difference between being a pilgrim or a tourist, the latter being one who seeks fun and comfort, the former being one who brings Dharma practice along for the ride, perhaps even seeking discomfort. Experiencing his own discomfort, Dungse-la closely examined his own mind and discovered that his experience was dependent on his attitude. Knowing there is no happiness to be found in outer circumstances, he allowed himself to relax into his discomfort and a positive mindset blossomed. That mindset allowed him to walk through the world and offer everything as if he owned it; his enjoyment and appreciation became a mandala of offering.

Speaker: Greg Seton. Greg delves into working with emotional pain, outlining the process from a ground, path and fruition perspective. Emotional pain or "klesha" in Sanskrit is loosely translated as "affliction". It causes pain and contaminates our thoughts, feelings and actions. The afflicted ego-mind is the cause of klesha. It is afflicted because it struggles to maintain what it constructs as self-image and becomes attached to that mental image, which is painful. In the path, we need to first learn to recognize our emotions, then apply antidotes. To learn about the relative-based, Mahayana approach, Greg recommends reading 'Light Comes Through' by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche as it covers the five, self-centered emotions and their antidotes. For the absolute-based, Vajrayana approach, he suggests we bring the pain of the emotion into our experience and then stare at it, seeing its emptiness and luminosity. Thus, the fruitional aspect (the goal of the Mahayana and Vajrayana) is not to end up emotionless but to have one's nature shine forth with non-dual wisdom and compassion.

Speaker: Scott Kleihege. Scott delves into the topic of conceptual mind in this LINK given from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Speaker: Catherine Houston. Catherine shares her experience of the parinirvana of her root teacher, Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, and her experiences in retreat following his passing.

Speaker: Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. This is a previously-recorded talk given by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche from Northshire Book Store in Manchester, Vermont on August 31, 2018. The talk was from Rinpoche's 2018 Book Tour, 'Training in Tenderness: Buddhist Teachings on "Tsewa", the Radical Openness of Heart That Can Change the World'.