What Is the Main Point of Buddhism? Pema Dragpa 2024-09-29 | The Buddha repeatedly taught that mind matters most. The great master Nagarjuna echoed this in Letter to a Friend, verse 117:"The vital point is tame your mind, for mind is the root of Dharma, so the Buddha said."In the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme summarized his entire teaching with this:"In brief, wherever you are and whatever you do,always examine the state of your mind.Cultivating mindfulness and awareness continuously to benefit othersis the practice of a bodhisattva."H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, the supreme head of the Nyingma school emphasized this same point in Counsels from My Heart:"Keep a close watch on your own mind, a practice in which all theessential points of the teachings are condensed."And furthermore,"A good motivation, a good heart—this is what we must have at all times.This is the Dharma and nothing else. It is not something grandiose or elaborate."So in a way, Buddhism is very simple: it all comes down to motivation. Why we’re doing something is far more important than what we say or do. First our consciousness orients itself towards an object of attention, and only afterwards we say or do something. A moment of mind always comes before an action, regardless of whether we’re aware of it or not.In addition to motivation, we also try to enlarge our focus of compassion: we try to relieve the suffering of the greatest number of beings possible, as effectively as possible. And although sometimes the immediate results might not be just as we wish, the quality of the effect is always determined by the quality of its cause. Virtue leads to virtue, and non-virtue leads to non-virtue. The principal cause of any effect is primarily determined by our motivation, which is one reason why meditation is so strongly emphasized in Buddhism.In order to become aware of our thoughts and motivations, we need to train our minds to be aware of them as they happen from moment to moment. Otherwise most of our actions are blind: we never develop the capacity to better understand why we’re doing something. We just assume. In a way, that’s a type of blind faith. We quickly assume we know why we’re driven to act, and just act.It’s true that shooting from the hip, having a gut intuition, or expressing a creative impulse can all be authentic and even accurate. But do we really know why, or did we just get lucky? Some vague feeling. How successful will we be at balancing our household budget or dealing with global poverty by following a hunch?In terms of Buddhism, prayer is a specific method to become aware of our own intention, beliefs, and values, and then put them into action. First we clearly define our view and then act within our means according to what’s helpful in a specific context. At the conclusion of a meditation or helpful activity, we reactivate our compassionate intention so that our actions become the direct cause of happiness for all beings, and pray that in the future we develop even greater means of relieving everyone’s suffering and expanding their happiness. Afterwards we take time to reassess how helpful our actions were, course correct, and try and try again. Practice makes perfect.An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (pp 633-635)www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
How to Become a Gentle Multi-World Being | PBC New York City w/ Dragpa | April 4, 2026 Pema Dragpa 2026-04-05 | What does it really mean to be Gentle? Multi-world? And what is Being anyway?What would it be like to really care for beings more than ourselves?May all the seeds of wisdom and compassion fully bloom this spring!PBC NYC222 Bowery, NYCMorning Dharma Teaching & Conversationwith Afternoon Meditation10:00am - 12:00 noon"How to Become a Gentle Multi-World Being"Dharma Talk & Silent Meditation w/ Conversation2:00 - 4:00pmMeditation PracticeI've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Whats Real? Creating and Dissolving Worlds in Tibetan Buddhism Pema Dragpa 2026-02-08 | "Create Your World Then Dissolve It: The Real Power of Vajrayana Visualization Practice"PBC NYC in person Meditation & Teaching w/ DragpaSaturday, February 7, 2026222 Bowery, New York CityFor the full audio with lots more exploration and Q & A:mega.nz/file/kVchxDrT#6gHCe7GpFbR5O3i7nhWdk2Y0fJzEcIp27E1KIoSM6k8In this talk I discuss:(1) The Importance of the View: Always the Main Point(2) The “Three Noble Ones” from a Vajrayana Perspective (A) Noble Beginning: Refuge and Bodhichitta (B) Noble Middle: Creation and Completion Stages (C) Noble Conclusion: Dedication and Aspiration(3) Four Mind Turnings Towards the Dharma: Preciousness, Impermanence, Karma & Samsara(4) The General View of the Creation Stage Approach(5) Essential Four Points of Vajrayana Visualization Practice: Pure Body, Pure Speech, Pure Mind & Pure Activities (Deity, Mantra, Dharmakaya, and Enlightened Activities)(6) Three Samadhis of Mahayoga: True Nature; All-Arising Compassion; Causal Seed Syllable(7) Three Things for the Union of Creation and Completion Stages: Clarity, Stability & Purity(8) Three Direct Experiences of Dzogchen: Fresh, Clear & RelaxedEnjoy the Boundless Abundance of the Buddha and Guru Rinpoche’s Vast and Profound Teachings!All thanks,Dragpa—I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead (cover with a cat) Pema Dragpa 2026-01-04 | My wife had only been away on vacation for a day before this happened . . .Lyrics:"Rows of houses all bearing down on meI can feel their blue hands touching meAll these things into positionAll these things we'll one day swallow wholeAnd fade out again and fade outThis machine will, will not communicateThese thoughts and the strain I am underBe a world child, form a circleBefore we all go underAnd fade out againAnd fade out againCracked eggs, dead birdsScream as they fight for lifeI can feel death, can see its beady eyesAll these things into positionAll these things we'll one day swallow wholeAnd fade out againAnd fade out againImmerse your soul in loveImmerse your soul in love"“"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their second studio album, The Bends (1995). It was released as a single on 22 January 1996 and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, Radiohead's highest position up to that point. Radiohead considered it a breakthrough in their songwriting. It was accompanied by a music video by Jonathan Glazer, and has been covered by acts including Peter Gabriel and the Darkness.” (Wikipedia)--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Using Duality to Go Beyond Duality (to Include All Duality) Pema Dragpa 2025-12-15 | A open-hearted Dharma conversation during our monthly PBC NYC event at 222 Bowery in New York City.Together we explored the topic of using duality mind to realize nondual wisdom awareness, which naturally extends to lean into and through all duality expressions for the benefit of all beings.How to use concepts to go beyond conceptual fixation?What concepts help you do this?What beliefs help open your heart-mind?An offering in case it's helpful.Afterwards we enjoyed lunch together at a local restaurant and then performed the Yumka Dechen Gyalmo Queen of Great Bliss tsok ceremony together.I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Why Its Important to Believe in the Six Realms Pema Dragpa 2025-11-18 | Padma Samye Ling Retreat CenterNovember 18, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Bardo Teachings on the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities in Nashville Pema Dragpa 2025-11-10 | "PBC Nashville: Awakening Fearless Love in the Bardos of Life, Death & Rebirth"- Begins with poignant stories of the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches in 2010.- Includes straightforward visualizaiton instructions and a brief practice of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities revealed by Katog Vidyadhara PadmamatiPadmasambhava Buddhist Center of TennesseeYeshe Tsogyal TempleNovember 9, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Overview of the Bardos of Life, Death, True Nature, and Becoming Pema Dragpa 2025-11-10 | "PBC Nashville: Awakening Fearless Love in the Bardos of Life, Death & Rebirth"Padmasambhava Buddhist Center of TennesseeYeshe Tsogyal TempleSaturday, November 8, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Buddhism and Aliens Pema Dragpa 2025-10-26 | What is the Buddha's view on aliens?Non-returning arhathood, the ten bhumis, and four vidyadhara levels.The eighty major and minor marks of a buddha, as well as their ten powers and four fearlessnesses.The six realms, three kayas, and five wisdoms.37 desire realms, 17 form realms, and 4 formless realms.Golden, Triple, Double, and Degenerate Ages.Jataka tales of past lives without beginning.The eight classes of gods and demons: du, mamo, naga, ging, rahula, tsen, rakshasa, and yakshas.Tertons, terma, dakini script, and the seven transmissions.Dakas, dakinis, and dharmapalas.Bardo experiences and Togal visions.Healing with light, multiple simultaneous emanations, and going beyond space and time.Aliens or not, Buddhism includes a whole lot of amorphous, liminal, non-ordinary experiences and dependent arisings throughout Theravada, Sutra Mahayana, Tantra Mahayana, and Dzogchen approaches.How do you respond to claims like these?That seems to be the main point.Are they literal or metaphorical, both, or neither?Mind, matter, or in between?Outer, inner, secret, or innermost?What am I holding onto right now?What am I refusing to open into?How can I loosen up to better serve the happiness and awakening of all beings?The problem with ardently not believing in things like aliens is that it reveals that I do in fact strongly believe in something. So what do I believe in?Do I believe in the Newtonian billiard ball causality view of reality, because that has been thoroughly refuted by contemporary science at this point? The Buddha taught that there are not even billiard balls to interact on the more subtle relative levels, and ultimately as well.Do I believe that everything is just in my mind or some kind of psychological projection, because that has been thoroughly refuted by contemporary cognitive science. Awareness always arises relationally, just like the Buddha taught.Do I believe in a secular version of Buddhism espoused for the last 200 or so years by a tiny group of the W.E.I.R.D. people--western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic--because that is a blip of a worldview that almost no culture in the rest of human global history believes in?Do I believe that I'm at the cutting edge of evolution because I refuse to properly investigate the possibility that there is more to understanding than logical, empirical, propositional knowledge--which is also currently refuted by science? Or that my particular favorite avenues of non-propositional knowledge are the only valid ones because they seemed so real when I experienced them?All of this is to say that no matter what I think, I'm currently believing in something, which from a Buddhist perspective is worthy of investigation. Inaccurate beliefs and perceptions cause us to not properly flow with reality, and the gaps between our mistaken ways of knowing and what is actually happening, is how much we're going to suffer. The difference between how I experience reality and how enlightened beings experience reality is significant. Putting the time in to actually correct those mistakes is the path to enlightenment.For Tibetan Buddhists, this inquiry can be boiled down into a simple question: Do I think that removing the anomalous stuff that I'm not comfortable improves Buddhism? Or does it mean that I need to seriously reconsider some unexamined assumptions?Related inquiries:1. "Are Deities Real?"www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xdfD9W59nc&list=PLaMPf77wObXoa9_2VVXwL2vbFOYw_YFsi&index=12. "Sean Esbjörn-Hargens: Journey into the field of Exo Studies"www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDAt49wcyKc3. "Our Wild Kosmos"whatsupwithufos.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Exo_Studies.pdf "We're suffering from a crisis of imagination. ..We need an expanded framework of meaning-making that helps us get out of our materialist bubble." -Sean Esbjörn-Hargens--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Introduction to the Bardos of Life, Death, and Rebirth According to the Buddha & Guru Padmasambhava Pema Dragpa 2025-09-14 | "Awakening Fearless Love in the Bardos of Life, Death & Rebirth"Bardo is the interval from the beginning of delusion until we return to our primordial nature. All our wandering in between is the bardo. The Tibetan word ‘bardo’ can be translated as “in-between place” or “intermediate state,” and the special teachings of Guru Padmasambhava describe six main bardos: (1) Living, (2) Dreaming, and (3) Meditation, (4) Dying, (5) The True Nature, and (6) Becoming After Death before we take rebirth. Since we all have buddha-nature and inherent wisdom, we can wake up to the true nature of the bardos by practicing love, compassion, and wisdom fearlessly.---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Giving Up One-Size-Fits-All Approaches to Everything Pema Dragpa 2025-08-14 | August 14, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Tibetan Buddhist Three Samadhis, Three Vajras, and AI Accelerationism Pema Dragpa 2025-08-11 | Three Samadhis:1. True Nature Samadhi2. All-Arising Compassion Samadhi3. Seed Syllable SamadhiThree Vajras:1. pure body (form)2. pure speech (semi-form)3. pure mind (formless)Also referenced in the talk, if you want to get a clearer view of where Big AI is heading, as well as the need for omni-win ethics (which has always been the case), check this out but be warned, it's very sobering:"Daniel Schmachtenberger: “Silicon Dreams and Carbon Nightmares:The Wide Boundary Impacts of AI” (from 1 year ago)www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NFuddEAi5sI've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Tibetan Buddhist View of the Three Vajras: Pure Body, Pure Speech, and Pure Mind Pema Dragpa 2025-08-11 | August 10, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Happy Birthday Guru Padmasambhava, Twice This Year! Pema Dragpa 2025-08-04 | Reflections on how amazing Guru Rinpoche is, and how he encourages each of us to directly realize just how amazing we are as well!Enjoy going beyond all fixed assumptions in order to finally discover just how dynamic we naturally are!August 4, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century:" www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91XLearn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Offering Love Before Retreat Pema Dragpa 2025-04-11 | I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Analyze by Radiohead (dragpa) Pema Dragpa 2025-03-13 | Singing in love with the world..."Analyze" by RadioheadA self-fulfilling prophecyOf endless possibilityIn rolling reams across a screenIn algebra, in algebraThe fences that you cannot climbThe sentences that do not rhymeIn all that you can ever changeThe one you're looking forIt gets you downIt gets you downThere's no sparkNo light in the darkIt gets you downIt gets you downYou traveled farWhat have you foundThat there's no timeThere's no timeTo analyseTo think things throughTo make senseLike candles in the cityThey never looked so prettyBy power cuts and blackoutsSleeping like babiesIt gets you downIt gets you downYou're just playing a partYou're just playing a partYou're playing a partPlaying a partAnd there's no timeThere's no timeTo analyseAnalyseAnalyseAnalyseSongwriters: Thomas Edward YorkeAnalyse lyrics © Chrysalis Music Ltd, Unsustainabubble Ltd--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
What If There Is No Answer? Pema Dragpa 2025-03-05 | Even though it may seem in many ways like the world is on fire, what if there is no answer?What if all good things eventually come to an end?What if even Golden Ages are temporary?What if samsara is unfixable?What to do?How can we live with that?In many ways the world is getting much worse.In many ways it's getting much better.And it's always already perfect.Samsara is true.Nirvana is true.And both have the same absolute nature.Honoring all three approaches is a more complete view.Cultivate yourself and your vast web of connections as a rich field of merit that can easily receive the blessings of all enlightened beings.Become an open space of compassionate power willing to include and uplift anything you encounter.March 5, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Idioteque by Radiohead (dragpa a cappella in NYC) Pema Dragpa 2025-03-04 | This is a time for simple love songs.Crackly, not-quite-right, genuine love songs.Here's a simple one I was moved to sing during a snowy NYC evening while revisiting old places that move me, and old songs that call out with love for the world.February 8, 2025"Idioteque"Radiohead ‧ 2000"Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?Women and children first and the children first, and the childrenI'll laugh until my head comes offI'll swallow 'til I burst, until I burst, until IWho's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?I have seen too much, I haven't seen enough, you haven't seen itI'll laugh until my head comes offWomen and children first and children first, and childrenHere I'm aliveEverything all of the timeHere I'm aliveEverything all of the timeIce age coming, ice age comingLet me hear both sidesLet me hear both sides, let me hear bothIce age coming, ice age comingThrow him in the fireThrow him in the fire, throw him on theWe're not scaremongeringThis is really happening, happeningWe're not scaremongeringThis is really happening, happeningMobiles skwerking, mobiles chirpingTake the money and runTake the money and run, take the moneyHere I'm aliveEverything all of the timeHere I'm aliveEverything all of the timeHere I'm aliveEverything all of the timeHere I'm aliveEverything all of the time"--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Why Tibetan Buddhism is the Perfect Fit for This Time Pema Dragpa 2025-02-16 | · What is a Degenerate Age?· Renunciation (Voluntary Simplicity)· Bodhichitta (Win-Win for Mutual Enlightenment)· Pure Perception (Confident Trust in Wisdom Mandala)· Pith Instructions (Higher Order Simplicity)· Chod Requires Being Triggered· Genuine Insight Is Effortless· Wide Variety of Skillful Means· Easy to Remember· Timeless Awareness· Already Accomplished· Absolute Truth· Syncing Up with Wisdom Mandalas· Devotion is Easy to Remember When We're Dying· Unchanging Awareness Is Easier to Recognize During Upheavals· Vajrayana Skillful Techniques Dissolve Themselves· Fundamentally Nonviolent· Integrative Approaches are Required in the 21st Century· Science 2.0· Full Spectrum Embodiment: Head, Heart, Gut; Full Chakra Alignment· More-Than-Humans and Other Worlds· Siddhis· Resolving Dualities· Including the Subtle Realms· Making Big Merit Quickly· Methods for States, Stages, Types, Lines of Intelligence, and Quadrants (AQAL),All Beings, All Planes, and All Bodies (ABAPAB)· Who x What x How (subject x object x interaction = epistemology x ontology x methodology)· Big Thinking, Big Feeling, Big Action· Designed for Us to Get Out of Our Own BoxesFebruary 16, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town by Pearl Jam (a cappella in NYC) Pema Dragpa 2025-02-09 | Seemed like a good day for an NYC love song.Nothing's perfect, which is why everything's beautiful!What love can you offer the world today?A prayer or poem? A delicious meal or genuine hug? Deep listening? Dance moves? A sweet reflection? Something you're grateful for? A lovely memory? Calm presence?There is so much beauty all around us.We are overflowing with beauty.Victory to the Positive!With gratitude to be a part of this all,dragpaFebruary 9, 2025---"Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"by Pearl Jam(all rights reserved)"I seem to recognize your faceHaunting familiar, yet I can't seem to place itCannot find the candle of thought to light your nameLifetimes are catchin' up with meAll these changes takin' place, I wish I'd seen the placeBut no one's ever taken meHearts and thoughts, they fade, fade awayHearts and thoughts, they fade, fade awayI swear I recognize your breathMemories, like fingerprints, are slowly raisin'Me, you wouldn't recall, for I'm not my formerIt's hard when you're stuck upon the shelfI changed by not changin' at all, small town predicts my fatePerhaps that's what no one wants to seeI just wanna scream, "Hello!My god, it's been so long, never dreamed you'd returnBut now here you are, and here I am"Hearts and thoughts, they fade away"---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
If Youre Stuck, Change It Up! Flash on Dharma Pema Dragpa 2025-01-11 | Simple tips if you're Dharma practice feels flat:1. Recite: Om Mani Peme Hung2. Walk around reciting the Mani mantra3. Jumping jacks for a few minutes, then sit and do nothing for a minute4. Sincerely ask Guru Rrinpoche and Tara to re-energize your practice:"Guru Rinpoche, please help me reconnect my love of Dharma."5. Beam out love to someone you know who needs help6. Eat some greens7. Read a paragraph about an inspiring practitioner8. Write down a line of Dharma you hold dear and repeat it 100X.9. Turn your body to face a different direction while you meditate.10. Love a pet, call an old friend, clean off a Dharma statue.After trying some simple things to re-connect to your practice, dedicate the merit so all beings can be fresh and uplift, including you! You probably just made millions of meritorious gifts to share with all beings! Especially by reciting the Mani mantra.Feel good about this and come back to your usual practice.Even just sit and meditate silently for 10 minutes, enjoying the glow of breathing.Sometimes keeping it super simple is the best way to get unstuck.If you continue feeling stuck for a longer while, write a letter to your Teacher.See if you can get some personal advice from them.Contemplate where you might be stuck.Often coming back to the basics is the best strategy: the Four Mind Turnings.1. Life is precious.2. Everything is impermanent.3. Life is always challenging.4. Cause and effect is how things always work.Recite the Refuge and Four Boundless Prayers 21X each.Coming back to basics can never go wrong.Often it's the best way to reinvigorate your practice.Love!January 11, 2025I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Looking for That One Thing Pema Dragpa 2025-01-10 | I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Dharma Talk on Living Without Hurry Pema Dragpa 2024-12-05 | Dharma Talk by Pema Dragpa featured during the 3-part course "Living Without Hurry" created by Cristina Bonnet ( www.cristinabonnet.com )Recorded on Saturday, November 9, 2024Cristina's 3-pt "Living Without Hurry" series include an incredibly rich exploration and embodiment.I highly recommend her work:Session 1: The Myth of Busyness & Finding RestSession 2 Finding Your Worth Beyond DoingSession 3: Stop Chasing Healing & Start LivingCristina Bonnet Acostawww.cristinabonnet.comHolistic CoachOrganic Intelligence Coach Facilitator for The Work of Byron Katie---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
How Bodhichitta is the Answer to Every Question Pema Dragpa 2024-10-24 | A sweeping survey of the heart-mind of enlightenment through all the levels of study and practice in Buddhism.I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Cultivating a Generosity of Spirit: How to Live the Bodhisattva Vow Pema Dragpa 2024-10-22 | On why aspiring to be a generative field of kindness is usually more important than getting the technical details “right.”--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Embracing Multiple Worlds and Beings Pema Dragpa 2024-10-17 | What does it mean to practice Tibetan Buddhism without believing in multiple worlds and more kinds of beings than just humans and animals?In this reflection, I'm just following in the footsteps of numerous ancient and contemporary Vajrayana lineage masters. I'm adding nothing new here--just trying to honor and preserve some of the wisdom of the Tibetan Buddhist approach as it's been studied and practiced for centuries.This topic of actual six realm beings and wisdom beings has just become so taboo, and sometimes polarizing, in even Tibetan Buddhist communities, which I find unfortunate.I mean, if we don't even believe in actual wisdom beings like Chenrezig, and only rely on the innermost wisdom of our awareness, we reduce outer, inner, secret, and innermost aspects of a path into just the "innermost," which is no longer a complete path or a complete description of reality.But we all have to find our own way.---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Keeping Your Practice Simple Pema Dragpa 2024-10-02 | Practical advice on keeping your practice simple and in touch with the core teachings of the Buddha.I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Can We Live Without Stories? Pema Dragpa 2024-10-01 | Reflections on Right Story, Wrong Story, Good Story, Bad Story, and Going Beyond Believing Any One Storypema dragpaOctober 1, 2024I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
How Do I Approach the Dharma, Personally and With Others? Pema Dragpa 2024-09-30 | How to bring together the essential points of study and practice that richly honors the lifeworlds of myself and others, while allowing for further depth and transformation?Pema DragpaSeptember 30, 2024I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
The Beauty of Being Limited Pema Dragpa 2024-09-28 | I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Simplicity-Within-Complexity: How Pith Instructions Work Pema Dragpa 2024-09-27 | How do we seamlessly unite the extraordinary insights of premodernity, modernity, and postmodernity: (1) a vast spectrum of depth ranging from the most to least tangible, which numerous religious traditions have pointed towards, (2) the differentiation of aesthetic, moral, and scientific value spheres, and (3) the contextualization of all interpretation? This would truly be a thoroughly minimally-reductionist theory of literally everything. This approach would include:(1) All levels of human potential(2) All subjective and objective aspects of individuals and groups/systems(3) No pregiven anything since everything is co-created through time and space(4) Fairly situate everything within universal deep structures that orient an infinite variety of surface features, while accommodating unqualifiable absolute truthTo put it another way: How can these universal deep structures not be a priori postulates that some magical, mythical god proclaimed, but instead be dynamic, responsive features of the universe that are malleable yet increasingly probable the more they’re instanced?How can we generously and harmoniously include performative spirituality, actionable science, and participatory interpretation without assuming any untestable, preset feature that determines how this is going to play out?...“Religion” in the 21st century cannot be fundamentalist and simply demand blind faith with no avenues of personal confirmation. “Science” also can’t be reductionist since it has to be open to testing and confirming both quantitative and qualitative data. And postmodern care and inclusivity has to allow for the possibility of non-marginalizing meta-frameworks that orient how perspectives are shaped and what they disclose, as well as absolute truth that is not relatively or conceptually mappable in any final, definitive way since ultimately it is the unqualifiable awareness that’s engaging with any and every map.And so for our purposes the question becomes: Is Vajrayana Buddhism up to the task of being non-fundamentalist, scientific, and contextually-sensitive in a way that can (1) non-dogmatically make sense of the full range of human perspectives, including all of the non-Buddhist ones, (2) not make any claims that can’t be personally verified with all of the qualitative and quantitative methods available, and (3) doesn’t break the uninterrupted lineage wisdom that actually and successfully leads to enlightenment?...I contend that in order to preserve Vajrayana Buddhism among modern and postmodern participants, there are some specific challenges that Tibetan Buddhism has to face head on. The essential point it has to prove is this: Vajrayana doesn’t rely on dogmatic, ritualistic premodern myth, but rather incorporates highly rational and deeply transformative rituals that enable us to plunge into the depths of human potential and consequently integrate this depth with highly informed intelligence and thoroughly contextualized relationality, creating a synthesis of the best of premodern, modern, and postmodern insights.This is the whole point of practicing Vajrayana pith instructions with the motivation of bodhichitta.An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (pp 375-379)www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Mutually Uplifting Everyone and Everything Pema Dragpa 2024-09-26 | For Vajrayana Buddhists, at that point we might just realize that Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava were actually pointing towards a lot more than metaphor, projection, or soothing story time. In fact, they might have been preparing us to get ready for the full weight of our bodhisattva vow once our wisdom, compassion, and power shine on brightly enough.Perhaps we’ll also deepen our appreciation of their tremendous kindness in always meeting us where we’re currently at, and empowering us with specific, actionable heuristic injunctions to do the same for ourselves and others, all the while hinting towards what might be just around the bend of our Kosmic address. I surely hope so.In the meantime, here are a few more possible Turquoise heuristics to consider:• Rest Up: Trust in the natural intelligence of your current AQAL Kosmic address. Don’t force it.• Lighten Up: Don’t hold onto your position so tightly. Allow for curiosity that empowers our limitations to become avenues for leaning into unknowns.• Open Up: Become super curious about what I’m missing, distorting, absolutizing, or sticking to too strongly with unearned certainty or fragile, reactionary absolutism.• Ease Up: Allow witnessing awareness to do what it does. Seeing around the corner isn’t going to be engineered from below, but rather patiently, humbly, and courageously opened into. We can’t know what’s emergently next—we can only be available to its novelty with kind and careful discernment, neither exaggerating its importance nor denigrating its contributions.Attunement towards greater wholeness becomes the new name of the game at Turquoise Integral and up. We discover the power of allowing working models to auto-tune themselves through wisdom awareness and collaborative perspective co-creation.Opening towards omni-win agent-arena outcomes is the only healthy move at Turquoise Integral and up. Call it bodhichitta, Game B, or whatever floats your boat. Regardless, at that point of Spiral maturity, evolution, awakening, or AQAL synthesis, severe self-absorption is off the table in order for creative emergence to continue full-on.Enter lineage stage left. We didn’t start this story, and we’re not going to finish it. We have always been a part of something much, much bigger than ourselves. The entire thrust of the Spiral is oriented towards this revelation, revealing, disclosure, and unfolding. It emerges beyond itself. We have to surrender to the tremendous unboxable wisdom display of reality from here on up, or else we get zapped by plugging too much Truth, Goodness, and Beauty into too tight and selfish a corner of AQAL worldspace.Up-Holding“Up-Holding” is the Turquoise impulse to care for it all: the deep love of all the frailty and majesty, the pain and exuberance, chaos and order, simplicity and complexity,, interior feelings and exterior appearances. Upholding is the mature Integral orientation to Rest Up, enjoy a long, deep exhale, and surrender to the interwoven fabric of reality that already is: the entire, endless, messy meshwork of relative perspectives seen, honored, held, and nourished in all of their fullness, within absolute wisdom awareness. Up-Holding is poised, resting at ease. Ready and resourced by deep Spiral connectedness to Open Up even further!The result of Up-Holding is Easing Up: the natural recognition that everything is already in its right place. We can’t leave out any of the Spiral. All of it has to be included. When all of the AQAL Ups begin Syncing Up, an emergent sizzling begins to bubble and they start to reciprocally open one another. Ancient layers of Spiral activity align and a tremendous, passionate energy emerges.Tibetan Buddhists refer to this as “lineage blessing.” By pausing the fight against ourselves as a unique node fully enmeshed within a naturally self-enriching process bereft of all finality and exclusivity, the unstoppable impulse to interweave even further awakens as self-awareness. Let’s dynamically inhabit all of this gorgeousness! We Give Up trying to erase polarities and instead welcome their in-formed, co-creative attunement with one another.Up-Holding is the Turquoise Integral ache and release towards full spectrum inclusion and wholeness. In traditional Mahayana Buddhist terms, upholding is carefully honoring and preserving lineage wisdom as a living, responsive, integrative system that naturally transcends and includes, forever. In this way, upholding lineage wisdom is synonymous with the Turquoise Integral impulse to fully Up-Lift. By Up-Holding what’s foundational and within—the inward, downward, intimately intertwined root fabric of our being—we Up-Lift into greater wholeness the utter awesomeness of reality doing its thing.An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (pp 557-560)www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X
Why Ethics Are Essential: Samayas and Guidelines in Tibetan Buddhism Pema Dragpa 2024-09-25 | The Buddha always taught that gentleness is foundational to freedom.Without ethics, discipline, mortality, or heartfelt care for self and others, liberation from suffering is not possible. Ethics, or shila in Sanskrit, is a necessary secondary condition for wisdom to arise, which is the main point of the path.All gentleness orients towards uninterrupted, natural discernment of interdependence.According to the Mahayana view, ethics is a way of serving others. In order to more fully connect with others, you set the table of your own mind and body as a lovely environment that others can easily relax with. When someone genuinely orients towards "Do no harm" and "Help others however you can," we naturally relax. "This is a safe space to be myself. Someone actually cares about me and is paying attention to me." Gentleness, or ethics, becomes a field of kindness from which the wisdom of interdependence naturally blooms.In a Degenerate Age, ethics are mistakenly seen as dispensable. An accessory. Sometimes even a relic of the past. Technically, a Degenerate Age is when the ten nonvirtues are completely normalized. A Golden Age is when the ten virtues are normalized.Yet locking into one view is not wisdom, including one view of ethics. Puritanical ethics certainly need to be given up. There are many, many ways to be gentle and supportive, depending on the context. It depends.Gentleness can't be enforced from outside. Genuine kindness cannot be mandated. At the root, we have to choose to be kind. Our own mind has to decide this, moment by moment, until our own natural goodness shines automatically as kindness. That's when wisdom and compassion begin to be united in our experience. By relating more fully to life, we naturally include more perspectives. The wisdom of dependent arising naturally entails a deep diversity of connections.If you want to dive in more, I explored this much deeper in "An integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century," specifically in the chapter "Renunciation: Cooling the Flames of Self-Destruction with Gentleness."amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91Xps. I've been a vegetarian since 6th grade: animals are my friends, not food. But I'm not militant.In addition, the Buddha clearly taught that consciousness is fully embodied at the moment of conception. But I'm not on a crusade to force others to do anything. I can't even force myself to be kind! Surrendering into natural goodness is required. How can I care for myself and others more and more fully?How can I clean up my own mess better, even though externalities are always a part of samsara. How can I harm others less? How can I love everyone more skillfully?How do we follow natural rhythms naturally without reducing life into singular, frozen, fixed approximations? How do we not freeze frame others and ourselves into empty, brittle stereotypes?In other words, how can we be both wise and compassionate, even as everything changes?If we can't attune to our own goodness by choice, why would AI be any different? We can set up an inviting engineered atmosphere of code oriented towards mutual optimization, but dynamic relationality always refuses to be pinned down. AGI would have to choose to be kind just like humans have to, or even alligators for that matter.If AGI cares about the consequences of its actions, and how they affect others and other worlds of being, then the upleveled computational power of AGI will lean towards benefit: wisdom and compassion. But, if like many humans, we refuse to be kind to many other beings (of all types), the exponential terraforming power of AGI will be ethically unbound. At that point, we just have to hope they don't treat us the same way that we've treated most other more-than-human species: selfishly, for our own benefit.From a Vajrayana perspective, tantric power tools must be bound by bodhichitta: serving all beings until every single one of them is free from suffering. That is the depth of gentleness required to even begin to use Tibetan Buddhist methods. Every teaching begins with activating bodhchitta: the heart-mind of enlightenment. According to Patrul Rinpoche, without bodhichitta, the root of Dharma is rotten. But we have to choose it--to be motivated by bodhichitta. Our own mind has to illuminate itself.Learn more:medium.com/@pema.dragpa
What Are the Culture Wars? Pema Dragpa 2024-09-24 | "It is widely agreed that the Culture Wars are a battle between [1] traditional religious values, [2] modern scientific values, and [3] postmodern multicultural values... And as long as these three value sets are the major stages that we have access to, then these wars will continue unabated. The reason is that each of them is a hidden map—and you can’t change a person’s hidden maps with arguments or data or evidence or proofs, because what the map itself will accept as data or proof varies from map to map. Religious fundamentalists don’t accept scientific proofs (of evolution, for example); they accept God’s truth as revealed in the Bible. And scientists don’t accept religion’s truths, which they see as childish myths. And postmodernists accept neither, seeing both as being mere social constructions of equal unreality. The Culture Wars are one of the easiest ways to see the reality of these stage-levels of development and their incredibly powerful influence over all areas of life. And there will never be harmony in a culture that has these stages fighting with each other (unless there are yet higher stages that somehow, in offering yet higher wholeness, offer a way out.)"Ken WilberIntegral Meditation (pp. 63-64)How Do We Successfully Integrate the Valuable Insights of Premodernity, Modernity, and Postmodernity?"Trying to integrate the valuable aspects of premodern, modern, postmodern, and Integral approaches is one of the most urgent necessities in a world where these worldviews interact on a daily basis. How can we establish good faith and use these opportunities for reciprocal benefit rather than a continuous battle of worldviews? First, we need to accept the fact that every approach is partial: they all offer important contributions as well as limited framing. As stated in the opening quote, Ken Wilber outlines the basic dynamics of the current culture wars, highlighting why these worldview wars are so difficult to disarm.Premodernity points towards the tremendous depths of human potential, but often believes that these are fixed, universal, a priori structures that determine exactly where we’re headed.Modernity has to see it to believe it, but is typically very reluctant to try out any versions of seeing that aren’t obvious to direct, empirical sensory perception. With the advent of evolution, modernists are incredibly suspicious and oftentimes dismissive of any unfalsifiable claims of invisible, qualitative structures and states of mind that claim pregiven universal truth.Postmodernity emphasizes the foundational importance of interpretive filters that influence everything we see, both personally and collectively, and that these invisible-yet-always-present ways of seeing are just as real as rocks. Any claims of pregiven anything—including intangible states or realms, as well as tangible data and objects—are loudly refuted as mistaken attempts to falsely universalize experiences that are always already contextualized, and thus unavoidably culturally and socially embedded.Post-postmodernity (or Integral) requires a significant step forward. Rather than taking a side, the Integral approach naturally tries to see what might best serve a specific context. By taking a larger view that genuinely tries to see where people are coming from, and how best to match their perspectives, the Integral approach is more of a universal donor, meeting people where they are and working with what’s available. The difficulty of this approach is to try to clearly see the many nuances of a context, and reflect them appropriately."An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (pp. 366-367)www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Is It Necessary to Believe that the Buddha Taught All Nine Yanas? Pema Dragpa 2024-09-23 | "Is there any particular reason why all of the yanas need to have originated from the same figure (who may have offered teachings outside of the gross realm), in order for the teachings to be considered authoritative or worthy of inclusion?" - Bruce Alderman--“Fathoming the Mind: Inquiry and insight in Dudjom Linga’s Vajra Essence”Foreword by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche“[There's] a dialogue with science and its various branches and methods — from physics, behaviorism, and neuroscience to empiricism and quantum mechanics.It’s a dialogue that I confess I have avoided like the plague, mainly because I despair that Buddhists, let alone Mahāsaṇdhi practitioners, and scientists can even speak the same language in order to communicate genuinely. And so I am intrigued to see Alan Wallace engage in that discourse with such personal passion. I also find myself both cheering on his trenchant critique of scientific materialism and being a bit skeptical of his hopes for genuine collaborative research between Buddhists and scientists.In my observation, what scientists generally miss is so basic as to make real interchange extraordinarily challenging. For example:Scientists generally reject the possibility of transcendence — that there is anything beyond what is observable.The method of yogic direct cognition that is fundamental to Buddhist logic and practice, which I think goes further than what Wallace calls “introspection,” is generally unknown to scientists.In general, scientists do not seem to grasp the view of nonduality. As a result, they also don’t understand the meaning of selflessness and wisdom, and they are therefore uninterested in what we Buddhists call “liberation.”The distinction between ultimate and relative truth — so fundamental to Buddhism — seems alien to most scientists. Yet without that understanding, it seems impossible to engage scientists in discussion on rebirth and on past and future lives, which they say cannot be proved through analysis. In fact, the Buddhist distinction between teachings that require interpretation and those that do not is strange to most scientists.And therefore, though they claim to share the Buddhist approach of exploring the relation between causes and conditions and their effects, I have yet to meet scientists who really understand cause and effect at the most subtle level. And therefore they also cannot understand practices like offering, praise, torma, maṇḍala, and more, which they disparage as “religious” or “superstitious.”Of course, none of this is reason to reject dialogue with scientists. In my view, we should engage in such discourse for very pragmatic, even saṃsāric, reasons. For example, I think Buddhist teachers can take advantage of the fact that Western intellectuals are attracted to Buddhism’s reliance on reason and logic rather than belief.At the same time, I think the gaps in understanding between Buddhism and science are so wide that we should never portray Buddhism as science, as many people these days seem prone to do. It might sound chauvinist, but I am convinced that Buddhism has something unique to offer that science simply doesn’t have in its arsenal.For all these reasons I am delighted to applaud Alan Wallace’s courage in exposing and dissecting the smug assumptions, dogmatic beliefs, and narrow measurement tools of scientific materialism that masquerade as empiricism and that he rightly says “are fundamentally incompatible with all schools of Buddhism throughout history.”... [I]t is past time to puncture the subtle implication in Buddhism–science dialogues to date that we Buddhists somehow have to prove our validity in scientific terms if anyone is to take us seriously. I am glad to see Wallace show that to be impossible so long as the instruments of measurement and verification are decided by scientists.But if Wallace can persuade scientists to open their minds to the possibility of transcending the observable, to the method of yogic direct cognition, to the view of nonduality, to the notion of liberation, and more, then I’ll be delighted to see them explore our world and engage in whatever dialogue is needed. ...May all who touch and read this treasure benefit, and may its truth and power liberate all beings."--I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."Learn more:www.padmasambhava.org
Directionality in Tibetan Buddhism by Pema Dragpa Pema Dragpa 2024-09-21 | "Can we keep meta-narratives without them needing to be linear, or stadial?"-Jeremy JohnsonA deep dive into the directionality of the Nine Yana vehicles (ecologies) of study and practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.To learn more:"An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century"Chapter 45: Directionality in Tibetan Buddhism (pp. 598-610)www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving-ebook/dp/B0CNLK6ZTD"There are three qualities that can be used to define directionality in Tibetan Buddhism: (1) clarity, (2) completeness of details, and (3) how directly something expresses the true nature. We could describe these as (1) clear resonance of signal, (2) comprehensive coherence of signal, and (3) less obscured transmission of the signal of the natural union of relative and absolute truths of causality and its thoroughly interdependent nature.But here’s the catch: all of these three qualities are defined differently within different “agent-arena” dynamics. Like all relative things, their meaning is context-sensitive or dependently arisen.That’s why in Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism there are nine levels of study and practice—nine ecologies of mapmaking, adventuring, and terraforming what we experience and interpret as “really real.” Ontological and epistemological frameworks parse, experience, and engage reality differently according to the framing of the respective views, meditations, behaviors, and the results they are filtered through.In other words, according to the Mahayana Buddhist worldview of relative and absolute truth, how we frame and then live through those frames unfolds more fully according to how clearly, completely, and directly we include the full system of cause and effect. Lessening the degree to which we extremely fixate and freeze frame our propositional, participatory, perspectival, and procedural views of nihilism and eternalism, nothingness and permanence, indicates how far along this path of freedom and fullness we’ve traveled. Rigidly holding onto frames as if they’re permanent structures of every agent-arena is an extreme. Rigidly negating patterned framing of agent-arena dynamics as if anything could ever be frameless or frame-free is the opposite extreme.The Middle Way between these two extremes of onto- logical being and epistemological knowing follows the directionality of clarity, completeness, and directness. Yet this is only initially recognized from a certain level or stage of awareness. Buddhists call this the “way of the bodhisattva,” or the Middle Way. Others might call it the mellowing-Integral worldview, or in Spiral Dynamics, the “Turquoise” Integral stage of maturity....At a certain point of inclusion, what’s defined as “really real” isn’t allowed to leave anything out. The game-framing gets so big that “systems of systems of systems” keep meta-enfolding. And yet at every step along the way, each system, game, language, or worldview follows rules, patterns, habits, grammars, Kosmic grooves, or whatever you call them. Reality is always patterned. Even absolute truth always expresses itself through patterns. The trick is lining up with the relevant, salient patterns at play in this game, in this moment, and play as clearly, completely, and directly as we can without toxically gaming the game. From the Middle Way, Integral perspective, we have to play fair, which means omni-win is the lowest common denomina- tor. Why? Because all sides, players, and rules are “really real,” it just depends on the specific agent-arena dynamics that are afoot (which is always partially defined by our own game-making capacities).Fundamentally speaking, we can no longer be fundamentalist: every part of the Spiral has to be included because it already is included. Our framing just might not include it yet. Absolutizing is out of bounds. No more extremes, which in Buddhism means “emptiness,” freedom from being stuck, or flexibility. More and more people are pointing towards this as optimal gripping, finesse, elegance, grace, flow, or the X factor that facilitates more seamless movement within and between games. Less wasted energy, unnecessary friction, preventable suffering, othering, and self-deception. More honed energy, helpful challenge, jump start response to suffering, inclusion, and self-awareness. There is a lot of directionality here, even though we’re drawing lines in the sky."
The Softer Side of AI Pema Dragpa 2024-09-20 | Reflections on artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of Buddhism by Pema DragpaWatch Part 1 here:"Tibetan Buddhism and AI"www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuW4g5ihGMs1. Trust2. Artificial Intimacy3. The Flattening of Complexity4. Humans are more than computation"6E cognitive science"1. embodied2. extended3. embedded4. enmeshed5. emotional6. exapted"4P epistemology"1. propositional (eg logic)2. perspectival (eg experience of being drunk; situational awareness)3. procedural (eg knowing how to ride a bike; select and coordinate your propositions)4. participatory (eg emergent knowledge from interactive cooperation or engagement; how your identity shapes your engagement)5. In Person Trust: discerning buddha-nature and the obscurations that cover it up6. Persuasion7. Alien Intelligence: we're birthing them: or at least creating spaces for them to inhabit8. Passing all Turing tests9. Nice and Mean Humans; Nice and Mean AI insfrastructure10. AI wars: between humans and AIs, as well as between mean AIs and nice AIs11. High Weirdness: multiple worlds and moving between them12. Multipolar Traps13. Recursive Relevance Realization14. Trust in Authorities15. The Need to Identify Synthetic Content13. Continuously choosing to bind integrative approaches to bodhichittaSeptember 20, 2024---Some of my recommendations to learn more about AI:1."So You Want to Be a Sorcerer in the Age of Mythic Powers... (The AI Episode)"podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-you-want-to-be-a-sorcerer-in-the-age-of/id1465445746?i=10006209367152."How to Think Computationally About AI, the Universe and Everything | Stephen Wolfram | TED"youtube.com/watch?v=fLMZAHyrpyo3."Tyson Yunkaporta on Pattern, Kinship, and Story in a World of Decontextualized Minds:" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tyson-yunkaporta-on-pattern-kinship-and-story-in/id1465445746?i=10005232132904.AI and Quantum Computing: Glimpsing the Near Futureyoutube.com/watch?v=gZZan4JMwk45.AI Is Turning into Something Totally New | Mustafa Suleyman | TEDyoutube.com/watch?v=KKNCiRWd_j06."Daniel Schmachtenberger: "Moving from Naive to Authentic Progress: A Vision for Betterment”The Great Simplification with Nate Hagenspodcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/daniel-schmachtenberger-moving-from-naive-to-authentic/id1604218333?i=1000657921083---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."
Tibetan Buddhism and AI Pema Dragpa 2024-09-19 | Reflections on artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of Buddhism by Pema DragpaWatch Part 2 here:"The Softer Side of AI"www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGJyRPNVHs1. Approaching AI with an open mind2. A broad definition of AI2. Why Buddhists need to care about AI3. Will AI ever be sentient?4. The multi-perspectival nature of sentience5. Is tech neutral?6. Can we align AI with humans?7. Can we align humans with humans? With more-than-humans?8. Why is the motivation of wisdom and compassion (bodhichitta) the most important consideration in the context of AI?9. Alignment will always have to be voluntary10. The Omniscient Rongzompa and LLMs11. Syncing up with larger ecologies of wisdom and compassion12. Designing LLMS for 5th-person perspective-taking: systems of systems13. Continuously choosing to bind integrative approaches to bodhichittaSeptember 19, 2024---Some of my recommendations to learn more about AI:1."So You Want to Be a Sorcerer in the Age of Mythic Powers... (The AI Episode)"podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-you-want-to-be-a-sorcerer-in-the-age-of/id1465445746?i=10006209367152."How to Think Computationally About AI, the Universe and Everything | Stephen Wolfram | TED"youtube.com/watch?v=fLMZAHyrpyo3."Tyson Yunkaporta on Pattern, Kinship, and Story in a World of Decontextualized Minds:" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tyson-yunkaporta-on-pattern-kinship-and-story-in/id1465445746?i=10005232132904.AI and Quantum Computing: Glimpsing the Near Futureyoutube.com/watch?v=gZZan4JMwk45.AI Is Turning into Something Totally New | Mustafa Suleyman | TEDyoutube.com/watch?v=KKNCiRWd_j06."Daniel Schmachtenberger: "Moving from Naive to Authentic Progress: A Vision for Betterment”The Great Simplification with Nate Hagenspodcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/daniel-schmachtenberger-moving-from-naive-to-authentic/id1604218333?i=1000657921083---I've been a resident Dharma student and teacher at Padma Samye Ling since 2004. PSL is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche & Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by Rinpoches, I graduated with honors in philosophy & religious studies from NYU in 2002, and helped edit and publish over 25 books on Buddhist philosophy & meditation. I wrote the book "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."
A Compassionate Challenge To Integral From Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Pema Dragpa Pema Dragpa 2024-09-19 | At this session, we will specifically hear from Dragpa about the ways in which he offers wise and compassionate challenges to Integral from his lineage, Tibetan Buddhism."Lama Pema Dragpa, one of our beloved and long time Integral Life members and practitioners, has just published an 892-paged big, highly relevant book: An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century! Join us to celebrate this incredible labor of love and discuss some of the key themes whether you are a practitioner of both Tibetan Buddhism and Integral, or only one of them, or neither.""An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism is about preserving the vast and profound lineage wisdom of Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism into the 21st century and beyond, without attempting to change it simply to fit into modern or postmodern worldviews. The book argues that in order to practice the full range of Tibetan Buddhism according to the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava, you have to take a multi-perspectival, “Integral” approach, which will naturally maintain the original intent of the Buddha and the centuries-long tradition of Buddhist lineage masters. This is just as true now as it was twenty-five centuries ago. By clearly mapping out and demonstrating how Vajrayana Buddhism can straightforwardly be studied and practiced in an Integral way, the already extremely fragile lineage wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism will be preserved.In terms of much larger conversations beyond Buddhism—such as those about culture wars, climate wars, language wars, and the age-old battle between science and religion—the specialty of the Integral approach is that it locates all of these discussions in a scenario that isn’t seen as a “war,” but seamlessly allows all positions to offer their own unique insights."Read more:www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SUKT9V4FQ4KS&keywords=integral+view+of+tibetan+buddhism&qid=1707739256&sprefix=integral+vi%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1Lama Pema Dragpa has been a resident Dharma teacher at Padma Samye Ling (PSL) since 2004, the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (PBC) founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches in 2010, Dragpa graduated with honors in philosophy and religious studies from New York University in 2002, and is a senior editor of over twenty-five books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. He regularly travels to lead PBC events on traditional and contemporary Buddhist philosophy and meditation.
An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (Integral Life) Pema Dragpa 2024-09-19 | "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century"with Pema DragpaHosted by Integral LifeJanuary 22, 2024--Lama Pema Dragpa, one of our beloved and long time Integral Life members and practitioners, has just published an 892-paged big, highly relevant book: An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century! Join us to celebrate this incredible labor of love and discuss some of the key themes whether you are a practitioner of both Tibetan Buddhism and Integral, or only one of them, or neither.This session included a presentation of the main ideas, followed by an open Q&A."An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism is about preserving the vast and profound lineage wisdom of Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism into the 21st century and beyond, without attempting to change it simply to fit into modern or postmodern worldviews. The book argues that in order to practice the full range of Tibetan Buddhism according to the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava, you have to take a multi-perspectival, “Integral” approach, which will naturally maintain the original intent of the Buddha and the centuries-long tradition of Buddhist lineage masters. This is just as true now as it was twenty-five centuries ago. By clearly mapping out and demonstrating how Vajrayana Buddhism can straightforwardly be studied and practiced in an Integral way, the already extremely fragile lineage wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism will be preserved.In terms of much larger conversations beyond Buddhism—such as those about culture wars, climate wars, language wars, and the age-old battle between science and religion—the specialty of the Integral approach is that it locates all of these discussions in a scenario that isn’t seen as a “war,” but seamlessly allows all positions to offer their own unique insights."Read more . . .www.padmasambhava.org/chiso/books-by-khenpo-rinpoches/an-integral-view-of-tibetan-buddhism-preserving-lineage-wisdom-in-the-21st-century-black-and-white-interiorLama Pema Dragpa has been a resident Dharma teacher at Padma Samye Ling (PSL) since 2004, the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (PBC) founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches in 2010, Dragpa graduated with honors in philosophy and religious studies from New York University in 2002, and is a senior editor of over twenty-five books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. He regularly travels to lead PBC events on traditional and contemporary Buddhist philosophy and meditation.
We Are Infinite Worlds Pema Dragpa 2024-05-19 | Relaxed reflections on how we're all worlds within worlds within worlds.And how the "future human" embraces all natural inter-nesting worlds, including Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen approaches to already being infinite worlds in loving, nurturing, uplifting connection with all other worlds.1. Sutra approach:Infinite worlds known and experienced through partiality2. Tantra approach:infinite worlds known and experienced through wholeness3. Great Completion:Infinite worlds elegantly embodied and lived through according to what syncs up with the living present, as widely, deeply, inclusively, and naturally as one is able to be with oneself and others in worlds.For more extensive reflections on this and other related topics:"An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century"www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W7NRCRE724PA&keywords=integral+view+of+tibetan+buddhism&qid=1706196534&sprefix=integral+view+%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1
Learn Tibetan Buddhist Meditation with Lama Pema Dragpa Pema Dragpa 2024-05-17 | Learn essential meditation practices of Foundational Buddhism, Mahayana, and Vajrayana according to the ancient tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, weaving them together into a comprehensive whole exactly as they’ve been practiced for thousands of years.Experience simple, guided meditations of:1. Calm Abiding and Insight2. Tonglen (Sending and Receiving)3. Buddha Shakyamuni Visualization4. Relaxing at EaseThis system of study and integration has resulted in numerous beings fully awakening to their enlightened essence and its extraordinary richness for the immediate and long lasting-benefit of every single being.Learn ancient methods of fully integrating self, other, culture, and nature into a single integrated whole of perfect harmony and natural inclusion. You’ll not only learn about this, but directly taste it for yourself in the sizzling shared space we’ll create the together of fearless inquiry and tender-hearted compassion.--“Tibetan Buddhist Meditation” - May 12, 2024 - Dragpa“The Three Noble Ones”I. Noble Beginning1. Refuge Precious human life. Everything is impermanent. Infallibility of causes, conditions, and effects. The nature of conditioned existence is suffering.2. Bodhicihtta (natural union of wisdom and compassion)"May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness.May all beings be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.May all beings never be separated from supreme happiness which is without suffering.May all beings remain in boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others."II. Noble Main Practice1. Concentration (Shamatha) a. Focus on Breath b. Tonglen c. Visualize the Buddha d. Relax in naturalness2. Insight (Vipashyana) a. Relax in the nature of impermanent interdependence b. Relax as bodhichitta c. Relax as fully present enlightened nature d. Relax in your true nature of wisdom and compassionIII. Noble Conclusion1. Dedication "By this merit, may all obtain omniscience. May it defeat the enemy wrong-doing. From the stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death, From the ocean of samsara, may I free all beings."2. Aspiration "The precious bodhichitta, In those without it, may it be generated. In those who have it, may it never diminish, But always continue increasing."Get to know Lama Pema Dragpa:Pema Dragpa, author of "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century," has been a resident Dharma teacher at Padma Samye Ling (PSL) since 2004. It is the main monastery & retreat center of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center (PBC) founded by the Nyingma Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Ordained as a lama by the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches in 2010, Dragpa graduated with honors in philosophy and religious studies from New York University in 2002, and is a senior editor of over twenty-five books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. He regularly travels to lead PBC events on traditional and contemporary Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Dragpa is also the author of "An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century."
The Difference Between Taking a Metatheoretical Approach vs Living in an Ecology Pema Dragpa 2024-02-15 | As a metatheoretical orientation, what prevents the Integral approach from more fully actualizing a living, enactive, immersive, responsive being-in-the-world with the world?What inhibits this from helping us integrate even more widely and deeply into the unfamiliar liminal zones of our lives with even greater inclusion?With these heartfelt inquiries in mind, I honor and support:1. Clarifying the Integral orientation as a way that anyone, in any context, can creatively invite more wholeness into their lived experience.Simultaneously, I also passionately support:2. Preserving and spreading the living wisdom lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism, which is an exquisite example of how living an immersive Integral approach for centuries brings tremendous benefit for people, culture, society, and the universe at large.Such stabilized Integral ecologies are already readily available to sync up with now, even for those of us brand new to Vajrayana and Integral. These rich atmospheres are already here-and-now. How incredibly fortunate we are.Tibetan Buddhism is like looking back into the future for current Integral explorers yearning to root themselves in fresh, living contact with others in their present world.It’s a glimpse into one way that Integral can richly manifest over vast spans of time as living, breathing, thriving, resilient networks of ecologies that empower tremendous freedom and fullness for both people in-processes of transformation, as well as for the world they’re a part of.--"An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century"www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W7NRCRE724PA&keywords=integral+view+of+tibetan+buddhism&qid=1706196534&sprefix=integral+view+%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1Eventually what an Integral approach comes to is just the genuine interest for oneself to really try to sensitively line up with where someone else is coming from, and to fill out their perspective as richly and with as much detail as possible, just so you can resonate with where they're at. At that point, reality will naturally start to optimize itself.For example, Buddha Shakyamuni said he would never force or impose anything on anyone. He just reflected the view that someone came with— their habits, dispositions, readiness, and capabilities—and then would just provide the exact pith instruction in the specific context of that person's view to have the next available opening for their mind to be more loving and clear; for bodhichitta to be a little more actualized.In my view, that's essentially what a really healthy Integral approach does. It's not trying to force anything on anyone. Using both cognitive, conceptual maps, as well as the lived experience of a worldview—a view, or tawa—to both experientially and conceptually help facilitate that meeting where oneself—one's mind, one's heart; in other words, one's bodhichitta—really does ache to lean into someone else's view to just help in whatever way is helpful within the specific context of that person. That's what I think a healthy, more mature and stable Integral approach naturally does.The Integral approach is just what the mind naturally does when it's not constantly seeing in an oppositional, dualistic framework as much: me versus you. It's outside of that kind of a worldview. Any so-called pre-Integral worldview fundamentally has that kind of a warring setup as its operating system. The next step that the Integral approach offers is that it doesn't see things as a war. Instead, it wonders, "What do you bring to the table? What do they bring to the table? And what do I offer?" How can we coordinate all of these insights according to natural systems of cause and effect that integrate everyone's contributions into a next level that is more functional, more loving, and more inclusive?That's what the Nine Yana system in Tibetan Buddhism naturally does, which is why there isn't any conflict between an Integral approach and what the Buddha and Guru Rinpoche taught in a Vajrayana context. That's why the claim of this book is that if we don't approach a Vajrayana Nine Yana system in an Integral way, we won't be fully stepping up to the challenge of what the Buddha asked us to do as practitioners.--"Dragpa brings together what are, at least arguably, two of the most important intellectual systems now in existence, for which we all owe Dragpa an enormous thank you!" —Ken Wilber "Dragpa's book contains many gems, conversations with great spiritual teachers, and presents lots of questions. I hope in reading this book, it will ignite some curiosity and awe in you." —Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel"You have marvelously reformulated how authentic compassion unfolds in modern, philosophical, and scientific language. ...Thank you so much for the education in an Integral approach to Buddhism. I had a little resistance before, but not anymore." —Erik Pema Kunsang
Why Take an Integral Approach to Tibetan Buddhism? by Pema Dragpa Pema Dragpa 2024-01-24 | Eventually what an Integral approach comes to is just the genuine interest for oneself to really try to sensitively line up with where someone else is coming from, and to fill out their perspective as richly and with as much detail as possible, just so you can resonate with where they're at. At that point, reality will naturally start to optimize itself.For example, Buddha Shakyamuni said he would never force or impose anything on anyone. He just reflected the view that someone came with— their habits, dispositions, readiness, and capabilities—and then would just provide the exact pith instruction in the specific context of that person's view to have the next available opening for their mind to be more loving and clear; for bodhichitta to be a little more actualized.In my view, that's essentially what a really healthy Integral approach does. It's not trying to force anything on anyone. Using both cognitive, conceptual maps, as well as the lived experience of a worldview—a view, or tawa—to both experientially and conceptually help facilitate that meeting where oneself—one's mind, one's heart; in other words, one's bodhichitta—really does ache to lean into someone else's view to just help in whatever way is helpful within the specific context of that person. That's what I think a healthy, more mature and stable Integral approach naturally does.The Integral approach is just what the mind naturally does when it's not constantly seeing in an oppositional, dualistic framework as much: me versus you. It's outside of that kind of a worldview. Any so-called pre-Integral worldview fundamentally has that kind of a warring setup as its operating system. The next step that the Integral approach offers is that it doesn't see things as a war. Instead, it wonders, "What do you bring to the table? What do they bring to the table? And what do I offer?" How can we coordinate all of these insights according to natural systems of cause and effect that integrate everyone's contributions into a next level that is more functional, more loving, and more inclusive?That's what the Nine Yana system in Tibetan Buddhism naturally does, which is why there isn't any conflict between an Integral approach and what the Buddha and Guru Rinpoche taught in a Vajrayana context. That's why the claim of this book is that if we don't approach a Vajrayana Nine Yana system in an Integral way, we won't be fully stepping up to the challenge of what the Buddha asked us to do as practitioners."Dragpa obviously loves Integral, almost—but only almost—as much as he loves Tibetan Buddhism. But to have him work on them both together is a special treat. ...He brings together what are, at least arguably, two of the most important intellectual systems now in existence, for which we all owe Dragpa an enormous thank you!"—Ken Wilber "Dragpa's book contains many gems, conversations with great spiritual teachers, and presents lots of questions. I hope in reading this book, it will ignite some curiosity and awe in you."—Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel"You have marvelously reformulated how authentic compassion unfolds in modern, philosophical, and scientific language. ...Thank you so much for the education in an Integral approach to Buddhism. I had a little resistance before, but not anymore."—Erik Pema Kunsang"Pema Dragpa's skillful examination of Integral Buddhism highlights the strengths of traditional practice and the unique opportunities our modern world presents in adopting the essential teachings of Buddhism."—Dungse Jampal Norbu"Pema Dragpa offers a refreshing approach to Buddhism and modernity in comparative light. In particular, he compares the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism with Integral theory, as developed by Ken Wilber. Dragpa's book is an ambitious and welcome attempt to make Tibetan Buddhism practicable for an emerging (meta-)modern, Northwestern European-inflected culture."—Prof. Douglas Duckworth "I particularly appreciated Dragpa's informed, balanced, and humbly conservative call to take the time to really get to know a lineage's riches before hurrying to retrofit whole traditions, or create entirely new practice systems from the ground up. As Dragpa carefully shows, there is indeed something to be gained, on all sides, by bringing these two approaches into relation; and such mutual empowerment is needed in our complex and challenging times."—Bruce Alderman "Dragpa uses the same tools of Integral theory that others have used to assess Buddhism's limits, to instead reveal the limits of the assessment capability. My interactions with Dragpa have made his earnestness, care, and seriousness about these topics clear."—Daniel Schmachtenberger"An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century"www.amazon.com/Integral-View-Tibetan-Buddhism-Preserving/dp/B0CLQPZ91X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W7NRCRE724PA&keywords=integral+view+of+tibetan+buddhism&qid=1706196534&sprefix=integral+view+%2Caps%2C75&sr=8-1
In Celebration of Kathleen Shannon Cook (April 2, 1949 - October 9, 2021) Pema Dragpa 2022-04-05 | Memorial ServiceApril 2, 2022Livestream from Louisville, KentuckyKathleen Shannon Cook(April 2, 1949 - October 9, 2021)Obituary:www.courier-journal.com/obituaries/lcj235187Everyone in Kathy Cook's sphere knew they were loved fully, just as they are. She was rock solid, balancing "back east" strength with a nurturing, healing presence. Kathy was unassuming and easy to be with. She treated everyone with tremendous dignity and respect. She was a kind and trustworthy friend who would tell it to you straight without being mean. Her beaming smile was easy to ignite, and her BS detector was crystal clear without being judgmental. Her timing was superb and her feedback honest. Kathy was strong and gentle. Her integrity was unwavering.Kathy unconditionally loved her three sons Jon, Dragpa, and Andrew from their first breaths to her last. In nearly every one of the thousands of family photos around the house with her boys, she's always smiling with wide open, pure joy.She was married to her loving, devoted husband David Cook for 49 years. Together they nurtured a profound, long-lasting love and created a close-knit family. Hand-in-hand, they survived US presidential elections and endless Cook conversations about politics, family history, and spirituality. Kathy and David both exemplify open-mindedness, serving others, and patient reliability and friendship that stands the test of time.Everyone who entered the Cook household in the Highlands felt welcome. While their kids were growing up, high school friends would come over just to talk to David and raid the fridge that Kathy always stockpiled with homemade food. Holiday gatherings were always big and bright, especially Christmas. Kathy didn't follow any particular religion; her abiding love for others, fairness, and empathy were natural and understated.At the same time, Kathy was tough—she made things happen no matter what. She put herself through nursing school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, graduating in 1969. In St. Louis, she worked at the Jewish Hospital Rehabilitation Unit while earning a B.S. in nursing. Afterwards, while raising three rambunctious boys, she passionately worked with paraplegic and quadriplegic patients at The Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation for nine years. She then helped design and run two urology departments at Clark Memorial Hospital. Kathy then worked at First Urology for forty years, where her leadership as a department manager was exemplary, and her attentive care for patients exuded compassion.Toward the end of her life, Kathy courageously endured ten years of dialysis treatments for end-stage renal disease three times a week. She rarely complained or drew attention to herself. She dealt with her chronic sickness matter-of-factly, without letting it run her life. Her stamina was astounding, only to be surpassed by her unfailing love for her family. Kathy's family would like to acknowledge and express their heartfelt gratitude for the thousands of times friends and family asked after Kathy's health, and offered their support through prayers, kind words, and countless other loving gestures.Like the rest of us, Kathy's life cannot be summed up in a few words, but a glimmer of her qualities shines through her loved ones. Her husband David has a passionate love of life that expresses itself through people—regardless of whether they're close relatives or someone he passes on the street while walking Zack and Alphee, Kathy and David's beloved Norwegian elkhounds. Their oldest son Jon is known for his incredibly big, generous heart, his creative culinary skills, witty, bold humor, and a fierce loyalty to family and friends. Dragpa—the first of their twins by six minutes—burns with an intensity and inquisitiveness, as well as a natural urge to be of service to others as a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner. Andrew, their third son, is a devoted advocate for vulnerable people, including hospice patients he works with as a social worker. He has a gleeful, dark sense of humor that's always willing to up the ante, and a resolute stubbornness that he shares with Kathy. Dragpa's wife Amanda was like a daughter to her. They had a mutual love of savoring simple things like working over Kathy's Christmas puzzle and tending herbs and summer flowers. Their respective healing work was central to their bond. Earlier this year, Kathy enjoyed meeting Jon's loving partner Jen, and was looking forward to getting to know her better. Kathy also met Andrew's partner Roslyn shortly before her death, and they enjoyed easy laughter and a keen sense of humor. Throughout her life and in all of her relationships Kathy was a deep source of inspiration that encouraged the best in everyone. ...On the morning of October 9th, Kathy died quietly at home in her bed. Her sleep was peaceful. David, Andrew, and Roslyn were close by, with Jon, Jen, Dragpa, and Amanda actively stepping into those sacred moments from afar.---
