Dharma Refuge

Registration is now open for the 8-week Sustainable Compassion Training program. https://www.dharmarefuge.com/winterpracticeprogram.html

Tomorrow evening. Please join us.

Saturday morning meditation tomorrow online:

A guide to getting through election night

Join a special upcoming Two-Day Online Tara Meditation Retreat with Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche on November 14th - 15th! Tara is a manifestation from ultimate reali...ty, an enlightened being in female form. She embodies all Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and enlightened beings, and all enlightened qualities are perfectly complete within her. She provides us with a fearless mind, removes obstacles, and clears mental and emotional pollution. In this two-day meditation retreat, Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche will give instructions and guided meditation on the practice of Tara. The retreat will be held Online and will include live streamed video and access to on-demand audio and video recordings. To learn more and register, visit: https://pristinemind.org///online-tara-meditation-retreat/

Tomorrow evening online meditation...

The purpose of meditation is to realize the nature of mind. You should begin your meditation by taking refuge and cultivating boundless love because when you me...ditate on the basis of love, your mind becomes all-pervasive, and only in such a boundless state will you realize the nature of mind as it truly is. Love is also your actual refuge, your actual protection. If you meditate without boundless love as a basis, if meditation is based on a mere intellectual understanding of emptiness, it will become merely conceptual. Once you have given rise to boundless love, rest in a natural state while sustaining clear awareness. Clear awareness recognizes all thoughts and feelings that arise in your mind. At times, there will be a moment where no thoughts are present, a space in-between thoughts, and in this space you will experience the nondual nature of mind. As you continue your practice of sustaining awareness, this space of knowing your true nature will become longer, until it always remains. In order to realize the true nature of mindthe blissful dharmakayayou must realize that the way things appear, pleasant or unpleasant, is your own mind. Samsara is nothing else but the grasping at these thoughts and feelings. All happiness is a thought; all suffering is a thought. All thoughts arise from the belief in duality, the belief in a self existing separately from the other. In reality there is no delineation between self and other. When you meditate you gain a direct experience of this. However, while many people are able to control their mind during meditation, only a few are able to bring this experience into their daily lives. If we do not merge meditation with daily conduct, we will miss the whole purpose of meditation, which is to diminish our clinging to thoughts and emotions. Once you have experienced your true naturethe blissful dharmakaya of boundless loveand merge it with your daily life, all external appearances and inner thoughts will appear as dream-like illusions. H.E. Garchen Rinpoche (Meditation instructions given on October 17, 2020, at GBI)