The Way of the Bodhisattva

The Three Aspects of the Enlightened Heart-Mind

Expanding on the teachings last week on the topic of refuge, we will be taking this week to look deeply into the special qualities of our true nature: it's empty and open essence, it's luminous quality of knowing, and it's radiant expression as love and compassion. Each of these qualities is a doorway into the heart essence of that boundless and loving reality within which "we live and move and have our lives."

5. Opening the Heart to the Presence of Love: A Path to Wholeness and Empowered Action

In this talk, we explore the way in which opening to the presence of love within our own being opens our minds to our inherent wholeness and empowers us to act fearlessly in the world from a place of inner strength and compassion.

4. The Liberating Practice of Naturalness and Joyful Presence

In this session, we explore the idea of naturalness and joyful presence in the Dzogchen tradition, including the implications of the translation of the word "yoga" in Tibetan as "merging with the natural state."

3. The Constructed Nature of the Self: Searching for the Self, Unraveling Self-Concepts, and Discovering Unconditioned Freedom

In this teaching, we explore the constructed nature of the self and identify the fundamental duality holding conditioned existence together: the subject and the object. By dissolving the self-concepts that arise in our minds, we release into an experience of unconditioned freedom, which is not held together or created by anything or anyone. Meditation is on the search for the self within and beyond the body and mind.

2. Being in the World But Not Of It (Awake in the Dream): Understanding the Relative and Ultimate Aspects of Reality + Introduction to Mindfulness of the Body

In this teaching, we explore the question of how we can live in an enlightened way amidst the movements and challenges of the outer world. To answer this question, we look into the Buddhist meaning of "non-abiding nirvana," the union of awareness (or emptiness) and appearances, the analogy of a dream and a moon in water to describe the illusory nature of reality, and the way the Buddha returned to the world after his awakening to guide beings on the path to freedom and enlightenment. For the meditation, the practice of mindfulness of the body is introduced as a basis for the cultivation of lucid awareness in meditation and daily life.