Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 18 (Bodhicitta III) - includes DJKR Moscow teaching on Bodhicitta from 17 July

On 25 July, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher, continuing with Chapter Two, "Arousing Bodhicitta: The Root of the Great Vehicle" (continuing with section III.2, "Training in the bodhicitta of application: the six transcendent perfections", starting at "Transcendent concentration", p.248 in the First Edition).

We started by listening to and discussing Rinpoche's teaching on bodhicitta given in Moscow on 17 July, which was part of his ngöndro teaching on The Excellent Path to Enlightenment (Rinpoche's teaching is included as part of the recording of today's conversation).

The topics we talked about included:

• The importance of aspiration bodhicitta and not being too hard (or too loose) with oneself
• Reducing the distinctions among the Eight Worldly Dharmas during the journey towards realising ultimate bodhicitta
• The importance of giving up distractions and creating a protected space (or retreat boundary) in order to support one's practice (see section III.2.5.1 "Giving up distractions" in The Words of My Perfect Teacher)
• How any action includes all six paramitas, and how we can use this as a checklist to check our own practice of application bodhicitta (see section III.2.6.3 "Wisdom through meditation" in The Words of My Perfect Teacher)
• Atisha's teaching that "The best diligence is to give up activities"
• Jigme Lingpa's teaching that "Transcendent generosity is found in contentment; its essence is simply letting go"

A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 17 (Bodhicitta II)

On 11 July, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro, TheWords of My Perfect Teacher, continuing with Chapter Two, "Arousing Bodhicitta: The Root of the Great Vehicle" (starting at section I.4 "meditation on sympathetic joy"). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Words of My Perfect Teacher - Week 16 (Bodhicitta I)

On 27 June, we continued Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the Longchen Nyingtik ngöndro,The Words of My Perfect Teacher, starting Chapter Two, "Arousing Bodhicitta: The Root of the Great Vehicle" (from p.195). A recording of our conversation is available here.

Bodhicitta, Post-Meditation and 'Good Work'

In our conversation on 1 November (where we were joined by sangha members from Victoria and Edmonton via skype) we explored bodhicitta and post-meditation, looking at the question of what does it mean to benefit beings in our everyday lives, particularly in our work. We based our conversation on Howard Gardner's articles 'What is Good Work" & "Achieving Good Work in Turbulent Times" (available here). A recording of our conversation is available here.

The topics we covered include:

• The importance of mentorship (especially for younger people)
• The contrast between work and spiritual life, and what does "spirituality at work" actually mean (what Christian/Buddhist perspectives might have in common, and where they differ)
• Broadening our circle of concern and sphere of influence
• How it's often unclear what is the right or best thing to do from an ethical perspective (i.e. even if we have an enlightened intention, what should we do?)
• Action and enlightened engagement (from the perspective of Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika)
• Western approaches to ethics (Aristotelian virtue ethics, Kantian deontology, consequentialism and utilitarianism) and how these are different from bodhicitta and Buddhist approaches to ethics (in particular the role of intention/motivation)