Dearest PBC Sangha Members and Friends,
I hope that this message finds you safe and secure, and filled with courage and confidence.
During this difficult time, it is important to support each other and to remember the Dharma, seeing this as an opportunity to practice compassion and loving-kindness for ourselves and others.
The Padmasambhava Buddhist Centers are taking several steps to help us all do this.
Firstly, as my heartfelt offering to deepen your meditation and retreat with day-to-day study and practice, below please find general guidance and resources for doing retreat at home. This includes relevant videos and lineage heart essence instructions. If you have any questions, email us at: jowozegyal@catskill.net
Secondly, to help us stay in touch, we’re creating a private message board for each PBC Center’s website where we can leave notes, encouragement, and offer help to other Sangha members.
Thirdly, next week we will inform you of livestream practices from Padma Samye Ling monastery and retreat center beginning sometime in April, so that we can all practice and meditate together with myself and the lamas online.
In addition, here are special prayers we published last week in response to requests from our Sangha, including White Tara practice and others, which I have asked everyone to participate in if possible.
Recommended prayers and mantras
Requested White Tara practice and mantras
For the safety and heath of all PBC Sangha Members and Friends, all PBC Centers are temporarily closed until further notice.
I ask that you pray for the well-being of all sentient beings, and follow the advice of your health professionals.
Please be careful to monitor yourselves for symptoms of the Covid-19 virus, and contact your health care providers if you start to show any symptoms. This is a practice of loving-kindness, taking care of both yourself and those who you come in contact with.
May we all emerge from this difficult time more courageous, stronger in our commitment to the Dharma, and filled with even more bodhichitta.
Yours in the Dharma,
Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
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Useful sites for further information:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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If you’re at home and would like to do additional Dharma study and meditation practice, here are some general suggestions for organizing a week retreat.
Each day includes some PBC YouTube videos, reading selections, and meditations to supplement your usual daily practice schedule.
This week of study and practice could easily be extended, repeated, or supplemented.
Thanks for taking advantage of this special opportunity!!!
Day 1: Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind from Samsara
Videos:
Benefits of Reflecting on the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind Towards the Dharma
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ywocWN8r2Q&feature=youtu.be
Renunciation, Bodhichitta, and Pure Perception
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q369C5DM7hw&feature=youtu.be
Thoroughly Investigating Impermanence
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6q641qA7Ww&feature=youtu.be
Karma
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQaJOxoSV4&feature=youtu.be
Don’t Be Too Attached to Worldly Things: Understand Suffering and Its Cause
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz9HG2mJ3wc&t=57s
How to Keep Your Practice Fresh
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugRZOvnsaAw
Readings:
“The Preparation—The Four Thoughts That Reverse the Mind”
Illuminating The Path: Ngondro Instructions According to the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism (pgs 65-76)
“Chapter 4: The Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind Towards the Dharma”
Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha: The Path to Freedom (pgs 29-50)
“How to Meditate”
“Framing Your Practice with the Three Noble Ones”
“A Simple Meditation Practice”
Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha: The Path to Freedom (pgs 115-135)
Practices:
20-minute Shamatha Calm Abiding Meditation (multiple sessions)
Ngondro Foundational Practice
- • •
Day 2: Refuge
Videos:
The Essence of Refuge
www.youtube.com/watch?v=StxuTeO3sMU&feature=youtu.be
Essential Meaning of Taking Refuge
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifbpwAA9wec&feature=youtu.be
Serving the Three Jewels in Post-Meditation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXiDMcs8hEA
Readings:
“Taking Refuge”
The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism (pgs 23-25)
Chapter 3: Discovering a Reliable Refuge
Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha: The Path to Freedom (pgs 17-25)
“Going for Refuge”
Illuminating The Path: Ngondro Instructions According to the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism (pgs 77-92)
Practices:
20-minute Shamatha Calm Abiding Meditation (multiple sessions)
Ngondro Practice
- • •
Day 3: Bodhichitta
Videos:
The Key Point of Motivation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2jQNCj9LNk&feature=youtu.be
Immense Heart of Wisdom and Compassion
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh6h9mLbrBc
The Essence of Bodhichitta
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s04g4F6MxQo&feature=youtu.be
Readings:
“Four Thoughts the Turn the Mind Towards the Dharma”
Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha: The Path to Freedom (pgs 29-50)
“The Power of Compassion”
and “The Inseparability of Compassion and Emptiness”
The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism (pgs 41-48)
“The Generation of Bodhichitta”
Illuminating The Path: Ngondro Instructions According to the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism (pgs 93-102)
Practices:
Four Boundless Meditations
Tonglen
Ngondro Practice
- • •
Day 4: The Heart Sutra
Videos:
How to Practice Shamatha Concentration Meditation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGo5BU234c&t=4s
How to Practice Vipashyana Supreme Seeing Meditation According to
Mahamudra and Dzogchen
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OESFl7Hq0OY&t=3s
How to Develop Your Meditation by the Great Master Kamalashila
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqgX3NWghUM
Readings:
“Prajñāpāramitā and the Heart Sūtra”
and “The Two Truths” and “Ground, Path, and Fruition”
Ceaseless Echoes of the Great Silence:
A Commentary on the Heart Sutra Prajnaparamita (pgs 13-17 and 40-52)
Practices:
Heart Sutra Prajnaparamita Practice
Ngondro Practice
- • •
Day 5: Foundational Ngondro Practice
Videos:
Waking Up from the Deep Slumber of Ignorance
Day 1: Morning Session
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmkcKAwqCY0&feature=youtu.be
Essence of the Three Samadhis of Tibetan Buddhist Visualization
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLYntT-Ons
Readings:
“Ngondro Practice According to the Dzogchen View”
Illuminating The Path: Ngondro Instructions According to the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism (pgs 19-26)
Practices:
Ngondro Practice with Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAL9TPI2eo0&feature=youtu.be
- • •
Day 6: Supplication to Guru Padmasambhava
Videos:
Guru Padmasambhava Embodies All the Buddhas
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECuOBOuPf30&t=24s
How to Practice Dzogchen and Guru Yoga
www.youtube.com/watch?v=90sIIa__1q0&feature=youtu.be
Connecting to the Lamas of the Lineage
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQfcxKCSoMY&feature=youtu.be
Readings:
“Guru Yoga Practice”
The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism (pgs 93-96)
“Introduction”
Liberating Duality with Wisdom Display:
The Eight Emanations of Guru Padmasambhava (pgs 7-20)
Practices:
Seven Line Prayer of Guru Padmasambhava
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxialRhyXl4
Guru Yoga of Padmasambhava
- • •
Day 7: Supplication to Noble Lady Tara
Videos:
You Are Tara
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIElcPYODc0&feature=youtu.be
Introduction to Tara Empowerment
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NStIPb2df2o&feature=youtu.be
Readings:
“Understanding Tara at the Relative Level”
and “Understanding Tara at the Ultimate Level”
Tara’s Enlightened Activity: An Oral Commentary on the Twenty-one Praises to Tara (pgs 17-32)
Practices:
How to Practice Any Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (Kurukulle Sadhana)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVKdHw2NmJc&feature=youtu.be
- • •
Daily Supplemental Practices
- Dharmapala Protectors
- Great Cloud of Blessings
- White Umbrella
- Lion-Faced Dakini
- Tara Mantra Accumulation
- Vajra Armor Mantra
- Additional Mantra Recitations from the PBC Daily Prayers Sadhana
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