Buddhist Practice

Phakchok Rinpoche shares a little bit of his new book, “In the Footsteps of Bodhisattvas”, in which he teaches how the essence of meditation naturally arises when we properly line-up the right conditions within our lives.

On the auspicious day of the birthday of Maha Guru Padmasambhava, Phakchok Rinpoche reminds his students about the importance of developing dignity.

Chou Chen shares their experience with mantra practice.

How do we begin Buddhist practice? We can first listen to explanations from a qualified teacher, and take time to reflect on what we have heard–trying to understand a little more. Then, after a lot of studies we then gradually encourage ourselves to try some of the practices.  That summarizes one approach. Phakchok Rinpoche advises students with this inclination to enter the pathway of the Nine Yanas. Another method is to approach the practice with a degree of trust–we think this seems right–and we begin practicing what we hear right away.  As we do that, we take time to reflect on our own experiences. When we follow this method, we observe our own experience and notice any changes and improvements right away. Rinpoche calls this method the Path of Meditation.

Buddha-nature refers to the ground, the basic nature that we all share.  It is our “starting point”, so to speak. We refer to the ground of all sentient beings, the ground of the Buddha, the ground of all dharmas, and all phenomena. What is the common ground of all of this? We share the common ground of emptiness.

Ethical behavior occupies a central role on the Buddhist path to awakening. Yet often, modern presentations of Buddhist teaching skip over these fundamental principles. In our hurry to jump to the “good stuff,” however, we may be missing some crucial points.

Happy Guru Rinpoche Day! In today’s video, Phakchok Rinpoche introduces Raksha Tötreng, the manifestation of Guru Rinpoche who is known to protect against uncertain time of death. Related with this, Rinpoche explains the importance of wearing protection chakras and requesting prayers from authentic lamas and nuns.

For today’s message, Phakchok Rinpoche offers insight into Kyepar Pakpey, the seventh manifestation of Guru Rinpoche. At the heart of this practice is making peace with all sentient beings and showing respect for the environment and those beings and aspects of our world that we tend to forget.

When we interact with our partners, our parents, our children, and our extended family, we should always switch our perspective back and forth between ourselves and others. This helps us maintain a balance. This sense of balance reduces the likelihood that we harm others too much.

Let the Dharma resonate fully by accumulating merit. This is the best method, Rinpoche advises. But we do this without lots of expectations and thoughts that there is some sort of magical Pandora’s box that will transform us. That is not how it works. The journey of the path needs to bring changes.

Persistence in practice is something we often don’t talk much about. But being persistent can make a big difference in our progress on the path. Phakchok Rinpoche, in this video clip from a teaching in Taiwan, has some advice for us. The teaching is in English with Chinese translatio