Andrea Sherman
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There is new evidence from a University of Pennsylvania study that suggests that the regular practice of meditation can ease the symptoms of early dementia. Results from a study indicate that those who meditated 12 minutes a day over eight weeks, had significant improvements in memory. Participants included 20 patients who had some form of memory loss and were from ages 52-70, In fact brain scans revealed dramatic increases in blood flow to the area of the brain that is associated with learning and memory.
According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Andrew Newborn, MD, who conducted the study: “For the first time, we are seeing scientific evidence that meditation enables the brain to actually strengthen itself and battle the processes working to weaken it.” So is it possible for meditation, and for mindfulness to protect against the mind’s diminishment?
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Rinpoche distinguishes between wisdom based compassion and ego based compassion. Wisdom based compassion is vast and spacious. Bodhichitta is the union of emptiness and wisdom. For me it is also helpful to think about bodhisattva’s who cultivate bodhichitta, wisdom, and compassion. Wisdom based Bodhichitta is vast like the sun (not the small candle flame)~great compassion~all pervasive compassion. I’ve experienced a taste of Bodchitta at the bedside of people who are dying.
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Hello all. My interpretation of this is that the world is luminous, pure, sacred. And, that it is also ungraspable. We rest in that view.
Rinpoche also says that phenomena is expression of the mind. What is unclear is the mind of the practitioner.Yet everything is arising from mind. Our essence is pure and uncorrupted~~Buddha nature. Whatever arises is fresh, the essence of realization.
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Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very impressive achievement, and inspiration to us.
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Good morning and Happy 2016 to all.
Two questions about Vajrasattva practice:
1 . How far above our heads do we imagine Vajrasattva? I read it is an arrow’s length, is that correct?
2. How big should the Vajrasattva image be? What is the size?
Thanks so much,
yours in the dharma,
Andrea Sherman
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Many thanks for the reading list!!
warmly, Andrea
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For me the noticing seems less emotional than the judging. Judging seems to have an emotional quality to it that carries me away And then, I notice and return. Thanks, Andrea
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Last weekend my husband Kevin and I went to Gomde to do a Ngondro self-retreat. We were able to practice in the shrine room 3 or 4 times daily and this really energized our practice. Since our return home my practice has both increased in understanding and in duration of the session. I learned from Matthew who went through the entire Ngondro with us, learning more about when to pause, how loud to recite in a group, and gained a sense of Ngondro in its entirety. Don’t know if it is possible to practice online together, but a place to count our daily Ngondro would be great. Warm regards, Andrea
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Hello everyone. My name is Andrea Sherman, I am 68 years old and a student of Phakchok Rinpoche. Recently I am involved with the Veterans Affairs in Bronx, NY in a virtual learning community of interdisciplinary health care students and professionals. My speciality is in aging.
I am helping to think about the learning platform of Samye with Hilary and Kevin Gormley.
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Greetings to all,
These are some of the ways that I support my Ngondro practice:
a. Be open to receiving blessings.
b. Feel the lineage during practice.
c. Pause after each of the 4 main practices. Dissolve and purify at the end of each.
d. Think of the practice as a journey
e. Be grateful for the teacher and the teachings.
Warmly,
Andrea