It’s when we lose the illusion of control—when we’re most vulnerable and exposed—that we can discover the creative potential of our lives. Pema Khandro Rinpoche explains four essential points for understanding what it means to let go, and what is born when we do. We are always experiencing successive births and deaths. We feel the death of loved ones most acutely—there is [...]
Consider This Before Going on a Buddhist Retreat
Christine Skarda has been on retreat for the past twenty-five years. She offers advice on preparing for a successful retreat. Let go of the idea of a perfect retreat place There is no such place! After all, this is samsara, not nirvana. When we think about doing a retreat, we tend to recall famous practitioners and want our retreat to be like theirs: done in perfect [...]
Find Your Heart in Loneliness
Teaching on the Tibetan yogi Milarepa, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes the experience of desolateness. Like Milarepa when he meditated in his cave, when we are alone, we may begin a love affair with sadness. The first meeting with oneself, with aloneness, is meeting one’s real ego without clothing—naked ego, assertive, distinct, clear, definite ego. The experience of [...]
9 surprising facts about Henry Miller’s affinity for Buddhism
As someone who spent far too much time hiding in my college’s library, devouring the stories, plays, and letters of Henry Miller, I am flabbergasted now to learn of the depth of Miller’s appreciation of and preoccupation with Buddhism. (Perhaps, given my age, I was focused more then with the more prurient aspects of his work. As Erica Jong once put it, using somewhat faint [...]
Reviews: Milarepa, He Started Like Us
The Yogin & The Madman By Andrew Quintman Columbia University Press, 2013 336 pages, $105 What is it that makes a spiritual biography appealing? If the person is portrayed just like us mere mortals in every way, the story is hardly inspiring because it is simply too similar to our own lives. By contrast, most Tibetan biographies of great masters present stereotypes [...]
The Eight Bardos
According to Tibetan Buddhism, all life and death take place in the gap, or bardo, between one state and another. While the most famous bardo is the one between death and rebirth, there are others that also shape our lives. Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen presents a commentary on Milarepa’s song of realization “The Eight Bardos.” Milarepa's style of teaching is called “direct [...]
Twelve Kinds of Yogic Joy
Milarepa describes the happy life of the wandering yogi. Like a criminal gaining his freedom from a dungeon hole The yogi who gives up his native country knows bliss. Like a spirited horse that’s freed of hobbling chains The yogi who slips from perceived and perceiver knows bliss. Like a deer that has been wounded will lie low The yogi who lives on his own all alone knows [...]
Shining in Freedom
When you experience the three realms as self-arisen and self-liberated, says Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso in this commentary on a song by the great yogi Milarepa, you realize their true nature is shining in freedom. Outside the three realms are shining in freedom Inside the wisdom, self-arisen, shines And in between is the confidence of realizing basic being I’ve got no fear [...]
Smile at Fear
When we face difficult circumstances—as so many people do these days—fear can overwhelm us. Carolyn Gimian shows us how we can discover the fearlessness of the great meditators—by welcoming fear as a precious opportunity to open up and let go. And that can make us smile. Spiritually speaking, I come from an eccentric family. The patriarch of my family was the Indian mahasiddha [...]
The Eight Flashing Lances
In this commentary on a famed yogi’s spontaneous song of realization, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso explains why Mahamudra practice makes our view, meditation, and action free and unhindered, like a lance flashing free in the open sky. The Eight Flashing Lances is a song of realization sung by Gyalwa Gotsangpa (1189-1258), who was renowned as an emanation of the lord of yogis, [...]
