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Practice

Introduction to meditation
Lama Tempa Dukte
08-02-2007


Meditation is the process of observing the stream of our consciousness with mindful and open attention to create a calm and peaceful space within ourselves so that the emotional chaos and mental distraction can come into rest. Meditation is the application of our mind and sense fields in order to retain stability of mind and stability of emotions. We are maintaining a stable, open presence that holds sensual impressions in its space of awareness without being carried away, yet also without excluding anything.

 

How can we use our meditation practice to really transform our lives from suffering and to move forward towards the direction of awakening? This is not possible if we do not have the heart and mind to look deeply into our afflictions and our reactivity that are caused by our ignorance. We do this with the deep wish to change the habitual conditioning that our afflictions are based in. This motivation is very important. It is not the number of mantras that we accumulate, or the hours spent sitting on the cushion. If we come to our practice with the sincere heartfelt wish to transform ourselves, to become more selfless, then even a short meditation session can change us deeply.

 

The gifts of meditation can be immeasurable. And meditation can be done in ten thousand different ways yet with one inherent quality. This quality can be a good heart. Having a good heart means having a good intention or wholesome motivation. However, motivation does not have to mean that we are doing our meditation to save all sentient beings. Meditating with this motivation is one way of looking at it. However, it may not be possible for us to save all beings if the foundation of our meditation is unstable. We need to be really clear why we are meditating. This is really important. If we don’t know why we are meditating then our meditation can be a trap, rather than the doorway to liberation. We might think that we are doing something good for others and for ourselves or that we are saving all beings while in fact we might be feeding our delusions.

 

This can happen because we are not really aware of and accepting the parts of ourselves that are less conscious than our motivation to do good. Accepting all of ourselves, including our shadow and delusions is so important in the path of meditation. It is also often difficult. In fact, we may be practicing because this acceptance is so difficult and we are actually looking for a way to leave our shadow behind. However, in order to be able to touch into the awakened mind that is beyond the grasp of suffering we need to first become close friends with our suffering and pain and its nature. We need to look deeply into the relationship between our practice and our afflictions, our suffering that we would like to transform. We may think that we are working on transforming our suffering, but in actuality we may be pushing away the parts of ourselves that we do not like. This is very restricting to the birth of awakened mind within us.

 

We have a saying in Tibetan: “gom pa mayin goms pa yin”. This means: “It is not about meditation, what it is about is to become familiar”. This means to become familiar with the nature of ourselves, both wholesome and unwholesome, and with the nature of reality. It means to become familiar with the stream of our consciousness and its function. It means to develop a quality of heart and mind that is able to perceive unfamiliar perceptions or situations without reacting under the control of ignorance. And it means to become more and more familiar with the qualities of our true nature: compassion, generosity, openness, equanimity, joy and innate purity. When we develop this quality of heart and mind our suffering is reduced. At the same time this will bring ease and joy into our life on the physical, mental and emotional level.

 

Why is this familiarity so essential to the practice of meditation? It helps us to know ourselves intimately. And it protects us from becoming the victim of judgment. It protects us from entering the state of mind where we judge another being, or where we judge ourselves on the basis of our habitual conditioning. When we take time away from external influences to be quietly by ourselves we get to know ourselves in a very intimate way. We become familiar with ourselves the way we are. We become familiar with the stream of our consciousness and the way that our emotions are produced. We become familiar with the way that we live our life. We become familiar with the process that happens in us when we become agitated, familiar with our weaknesses and strengths. We become familiar with what is it to be sitting with strength in the face of depression. We become familiar with our ego, with our attachment to our physical body, our afflicted emotions, and our fear of death. We become familiar with our addiction to our fear. Through becoming familiar with what is causing us pain and suffering we will be able to see what is subtly exhausting and killing us internally through jealousy, anger, fear, sadness, insecurity, embarrassment or loneliness. Through this process we can develop the heart and mind to distinguish between what to renounce and what to accept. And we become familiar with our innate healing wisdom and with the true nature of our mind. We become familiar with the Buddha within.

 

The Buddha said that you are your own best friend and your own worst enemy. The practice of meditation can give us the strength to see the qualities of a friend and of an enemy within ourselves. This can help us to observe the stream of our consciousness and its contribution to our physical, mental and emotional distraction and instability. Also, meditation can help us to calm our mind from wandering.

 

The practice of sitting still is essential. In our lives, there is stability on the one hand and arousal of anger, depression, sadness, joyfulness, passion and desire-attachment on the other. There is so much chaotic energy coming in and out of our mind and body. This is why we need to learn to coordinate the calmness or stability of mind that we cultivate in our meditation with the movement of our energy. Sometimes we may think that meditation will take care of all our problems if we can generate enough calmness. However, this is not possible unless we learn how to integrate this calm state of mind with the chaotic movement of our energy. Just sitting by itself does not bring ease and eternal joy although it helps to settle this monkey mind that constantly moves from here to there. The calming of our mind is not realization in itself. Our actual realization is of liberation from the cyclic continuum of suffering. This is only possible if we become familiar with our afflictions and know how to integrate our calmness and our concentration with the chaotic movement of energy of these afflictions.

 

At the same time, our meditation has the power to familiarize us with the qualities of our true nature, our potentiality of Buddha within. In the Bon Buddhist tradition we have a set of practices called preliminary practices. We do these practices to turn our mind towards our innate compassion, wisdom, purity and equanimity. At present, we are not familiar with these qualities. We are not accustomed to them. The preliminary practices help us to gradually bring our mind back to its true nature. If you have a notion that you want to build a garden, before you can do that, you have the vision, the view of what the garden will look like and this will affect yourself, the place, and your actions. But that is not enough. This is just an idea, a concept. So now we have to actualize it. How do we do this? We gather the seeds, and we research how to cultivate them, what ingredients are needed and how to take care of the young plants. And still this is not enough. We need to till the ground, then put the seeds in, mix them up and take care of them day by day. Still, after all this care we don’t know whether the seeds are going to come out. If they don’t come out at all, how will we feel? What the preliminary practices do is to create the foundation for our gradual recognition of our true nature. Through our steady, dedicated practice we become accustomed to its qualities, we become familiar with generosity, with the mind of compassion and awakening, and with our pure nature. The practice imprints itself onto our mind and body in the form of qualities such as patience, openness and acceptance. One of the most beautiful gifts of these practices and of meditation practice in general is that it keeps us connected with the process and the miracle of each moment. It allows us to see the beauty in each thing and in every moment and how these small things affect us. It helps us to detach ourselves from our attachment to the projected idea of a result. On the other hand, it points us towards the reality of life by allowing us to use both suffering and happiness as part of our practice towards the realization of our awakened heart and mind.

 

Challenges of meditation

In Bon Buddhism we refer to the afflictions and delusions within ourselves that distract us from the awakened mind as ‘Maras’. It is important to understand that our Maras are not external forces but part of ourselves. In fact, our Maras draw their power from the separation that our conditioned mind projects between ourselves and our pure nature. As long as we project this separation we cannot develop real confidence into our practice and in ourselves. If we are not confident we may feel the need to constantly defend ourselves against anything that might expose our weaknesses and against the differing views and ideals of others. At the same time we may not be able to benefit fully from our practice of meditation. If we are open towards acknowledging and accepting our weaknesses, our Maras, a lot of fear and a lot of judgment towards others drop away. And it is this very openness and acceptance that makes it truly possible for us to learn. This motivation is not just something that we need for the practice of meditation, it already is meditation itself. We cannot have a dualistic motivation and expect that it will carry us into non-duality. We cannot learn to really love others without fear and judgment if our motivation and meditation practice are based on an attitude of not accepting ourselves. Aversion will not bring forth love. If we can learn, however, to make friends with all our qualities, including our problems and suffering, all of a sudden it becomes possible to use virtually everything we encounter for our practice. So, let us look more closely at the different forms that our Maras can take and how we can work with them.

The first obstacle or Mara is the Mara of ego. During our meditation we may experience a strong grasping onto the self. This grasping arises in a very subtle way. If we fail to recognize it then it will mix with everything and it will disturb us. We develop a sense of self-identity and this will dominate all our experience. On the other hand we may experience emptiness of no thought during meditation and grasp onto this as the ultimate realization. It is our notion of an existing self which develops this attachment to the ego concept. How can we work with this Mara through our meditation practice? We can try not to hold on to a particular faith, belief or view. We can practice not holding on to the expectation of outcome but rather to follow the path of meditation practice with a quality of determination and acceptance. Keep watering the seed and do not let any idea or concept of outcome carry us away and distract us from the path of meditation practice. The greatest practice to open the doorway of liberation for this Mara is the practice of loving kindness. True loving kindness means that all beings are included into our meditation.

 

To practice meditation on loving kindness, we can begin by bringing someone who is going through a difficult time, or a situation of destruction or war into our mind and heart. Then we look deep into the nature of their pain and suffering and generate the deep feeling of non-separateness. If we do this sincerely we may feel that our heart and mind are breaking. They are breaking because they are beginning to open. Let your heart and mind break wide open through touching the pain and suffering of another. As we do this, the very natural unconditional love and compassion of our innate nature can emerge from the treasure box hidden within us. In the beginning we do this exercise with someone whom we feel close to, someone whom we love or feel connected to. Later when we feel more comfortable and more at ease with this practice we extend it to all beings throughout space and time. This can be a powerful practice that we should not underestimate. Even if we do it for just two minutes every day, the miracle of continuous practice imprints the qualities of this practice into our heart and mind. This is like a bird flying in and out of a stone cave every day and over time leaving a mark of its wings on the stone, or like a small drop of water, dropping continuously, that can make a hole into a rock over time. We too can make out of our practice whatever we want, if our motivation unifies with the quality of determination and with our meditation practice itself. It is important that our motivation is born from the wish to help all beings, including ourselves. Sometimes in search of others’ well-being we forget ourselves. However, we need to first make ourselves strong and stable mentally, emotionally and physically, and in order to do so we have to include ourselves into our motivation and accept ourselves and our suffering with great compassion. Otherwise, the overwhelming intensity of suffering in the world might burn us. If one does not know how to swim but jumps into the river one will be carried away with the river’s flow.

 

The second Mara is the Mara of the five aggregates. This Mara is our attachment to our physical body and to the five aggregates of form, feelings, mental formations, perceptions and consciousness. We grasp onto the self based on our dualistic notion of right and wrong. In doing so, we develop a strong attachment of care towards the things that are close to us, and a strong attachment of hatred towards those that we dislike or even regard as our enemies.


The third Mara is the Mara of afflicted emotions. This Mara keeps us attached to our afflicted selfish emotions. And it acts as the main cause of our emotional distraction and instability. Meditation practice of concentration can subdue this Mara. In the practice of concentration we work with a subject and an object of meditation. The object of meditation can be anything. It can be a visual object like an image to which we feel connected, it can be our breath, it can be musical sound. It can be of any nature. We use our object of meditation as the focal point of our attention. We bring our attention to the object of our meditation and let it rest there for a period of time without distraction. We observe the rising and dissolving of our thoughts. We watch the movement of energy in our body. And we observe the interdependent nature of our mind and body and how it gives rise to emotional feeling.


While we are doing the meditation practice of concentration we may encounter different kinds of disturbance such as drowsiness, dullness and agitation. If we experience any of this it is the sign of a loss of our energy. In that case we need to renew our energy of strength, clarity and stability. Otherwise our meditation may not be very productive. For this reason we do not force ourselves to carry on the practice of meditation. If you are feeling drowsy that means that your energy or strength is weak. To work with this you might move your body or do some movement, yoga, strong breathing or walking meditation or chanting. If you are practicing inside a building, then open the window. Sometimes we are so tired and exhausted after our long day of work and nights in which we could not sleep well. It is not very healthy to do meditation in that state of tiredness and low energy.

 

Sometimes during the practice of meditation a sense of dullness may arise. Our object of meditation is not clear but rather dull. Also, our visualization is not very clear and sharp. In such a case we might tend to force ourselves in order to get more clarity. We might think that doing meditation will reduce our stress. However, if we force too much in such a situation it might damage the proper functioning of our brain. A simple helpful approach when we feel dullness in our meditation is to do the meditation practice in a number of short sessions.


Sometimes we might experience feelings of agitation during the practice of meditation. We may try to concentrate or to apply more focus, but we find ourselves easily disturbed by the arising of thoughts and by external objects. If we feel too agitated then it is very important to stop our meditation and take a long break. If we are not too agitated we can learn to work with our arising thoughts. In the meditation practice of concentration we stop the arising of afflicted thoughts and we do not create a new thought of the same nature. We calmly abide in the space between two thoughts, the space between the arising of a new thought and the dissolving of an old thought. Now there is a tendency of activating our Mara of attachment if we hold onto that space between two thoughts. Our mind then grasps onto that empty space and dwells in it. In such a case we develop a concentration of grasping. This means that we experience a blissful state of mind and concentrate on it, but our concentration is one with grasping. Then the state that we are experiencing imprints itself onto our mind and we develop desire-attachment towards it. The next time that we do meditation practice, if we do not get to that same state of experience, we feel that something is wrong, and we suffer. Holding on with the power of grasping we always want more – and we become addicted. Actually meditation practice is to break through this kind of attachment. It means to let our concentration be one with awareness, with just noticing, without grasping onto what we are experiencing. Concentration of grasping is always directed toward desire-attachment, whereas meditation is directed towards awareness. If our concentration is one with awareness, rather than one with grasping, then our experience of whatever happens can flow freely without obstructions, and without creating suffering for ourselves. On the other hand, if our mind grasps onto the blissful state of our meditation experience, this means that we cannot go beyond our grasping of concentration and our meditation won’t be able to affect us positively and to change our engraved conditioning.


The fourth Mara is the Mara of mortality. This Mara is our attachment to the continued preservation of our ego and the fear of its death or total annihilation. We need to practice the acceptance of the truth of mortality or the impermanent nature of all compounded phenomena to get to understand this Mara intimately and overcome it. Practicing the acceptance of the truth of mortality cuts the root of our ego. It cuts the Mara of mortality at its root. In the Bon tradition we have a very beautiful and powerful practice called Khandro Sang Chod. Chod means to cut off. What is cut off in this practice is our attachment to and our grasping of the self, and our attachment to its continuation. Our holding on to the self feeds the Mara of mortality and imprisons ourselves in the cyclic continuum of suffering.

 

Stabilizing the mind

The practice of calm abiding is a powerful practice to help us develop a quality of mind that can hold a great sense of focus and presence. With this practice, eventually we will manifest the mind that cuts through all delusions, the mind that dispels the darkness that prevents us from seeing the other side of the shore. The stabilization of our wandering mind and the realization of self-awareness proceed in stages. First we become familiar with the wandering of our mind without grasping onto mental formations. This is carried out through concentration practice. The second stage is to stabilize the mindfulness that we begin to cultivate. This is also referred to as insight meditation. The third stage is to realize self-awareness. At this point, our concentration practice becomes unconditioned. This means that the one who concentrates, the act of concentrating and the object of concentration become one. This is self-awareness.

 

In the practice of concentration there are three essential aspects that we have to consider:

1. The body posture.

2. The object of our attention and concentration.

3. Training of the mind, and Mind itself.

 

We begin with the proper body posture which allows our mind and body to unify. The flow of our energy in the form of the circulation of our blood or the circulation of our breath links our body and mind with each other. When our body and mind become one we experience a sense of relaxation. Let us consider an example: When there is an earthquake everything on the earth moves. In the same way, when our body moves our mind will move also. This is because of the link between our body and our mind. We could say that our body is a container that contains our mind. Our mind is used to reacting whenever our body moves or is affected. It is therefore essential to settle our body first and then work towards settling the mind.

 

Traditionally, the essential aspects of the body posture are to sit cross-legged with our spine straight, to gaze in a line that extends directly and very slightly downwards from the tip of the nose, to sit up with the chest open, and to rest our hands on our lap with the tips of the fingers of the two hands touching and the two thumbs touching the base of the respective ring finger. However, the most essential aspect of body posture is to find a posture with which we can feel at home. When there is a sense of alienation or resistance then it will be difficult to go beyond this. Rather this may take us into the direction of aversion. We are practicing meditation to nourish our life and to reduce our level of suffering. And we are practicing to help others. We are not practicing to add more pain and suffering into our life and the lives of others, even if it is just a back pain or knee pain. This means that in our meditation practice we do not do anything that hurts ourselves, and others. Rather, we carry out our meditation in a very skillful way that allows our mind and body to settle and to feel at home. Through this we can touch into the essence of transformation.

 

Some of us are very new to the practice of meditation. It is essential to take it easy and slowly. I remember participating in one retreat with eight days of sitting meditation. Every day we began our practice at 5:30 in the morning and ended the practice session at 10 at night, with just a little break in between. I really liked it so much. Just being with myself in a very intimate way. But there were many other participants who had never done such meditation practice before. Besides, we were asked by the teacher to attend the meditation sessions no matter what condition we were in. On top of the demands that these external conditions may place on us, our ego may be pressuring us with feelings of shame, guilt and the thought that we are weak. We want to be strong in front of others although our back and knees are in great pain. And we want to sit on the cushion just like others. We think that if we sit on a chair this will make others think that we are not strong enough. In this way we force ourselves to engage in an action that goes against the capacity of our body and mind. When there is pain there is duality, and when there is duality, the nature of our mind is divided and disturbed. Besides, we put ourselves into the hands of our Mara. This is an expression of corrupt morality. It is very important to take a posture that is comfortable to us in the beginning. Then we can slowly adapt it as we get used to it. It does not matter whether we sit on a chair or on a cushion, in the full lotus or half lotus. The important thing is that we keep our body firm and grounded so that our mind can take refuge in the firmness of our posture.

 

Once we are well settled into the firmness of our body posture, the next essential aspect of meditation is our focal object of attention. We use this object of meditation in order to become familiar with the working of our mind. We can choose any object on which we can bring our attention so that our mind has a place to rest. It can be of great help if we choose an object that we feel connected with. This will make it easier for us to pay attention and we do not have to use a lot of forceful effort to develop concentration. Also it is important not to change the object of our meditation too often but rather to stay in touch with just one object at the developing stage. In many meditation traditions people use their breath as the object of their concentration. I think that this is very effective and beautiful. Our breath is always with us, whether we are aware of it or not. We are deeply familiar with the process and nature of our breath. And we know how important it is to our very life. It is also very helpful that our breath is something that we do not have to create by any means of method. It is already there with us from the very day of our birth. The sign of progress in using an object of concentration is that our mind is stable and that there are less distractions by external objects or afflicted thoughts.

 

The third essential aspect of meditation is to train our mind in such a way that it supports our body posture and our focus on the object of our attention. This means that the mind becomes familiar with our body posture and with the object of our attention in an intimate way. After a while we experience a feeling of our mind coming home as it rests on the union of our body, our mind and the object of our attention. How do we do this? Do not speak or think. Do not follow after discursive thoughts. Do not create discursive thoughts by inviting past experiences of any nature or by anticipating into future plans. Simply stay in the state of being aware in the present moment. In doing this, do not fall into a state of unconsciousness. Leave everything as it is with a strong presence of awareness. Do not try to fix or change anything. Just abide in this state of being as long as possible. Even if it is just for one minute we will experience the great gift of this practice.

 

There will be moments when our mind tends to wander under the influence of internal or external distractions. We might think that we are in a state of just being aware or focused, but later we realize that we have disconnected ourselves from the object of our attention quite a while ago. If we resist and push against that experience of constant distraction it will cause us a great deal of exhaustion. This subtle unconscious mental and physical exhaustion can lead us to a point where we feel agitation or loss of our energy. In such a case, our Maras can take advantage of our vulnerability. On the other hand we might blame ourselves as failure and feel discouraged. This will hinder our practice. One of the most beautiful gifts of mind training meditation is that when the mind is distracted or has become carried away by one of our Maras, we can use that very moment as an opportunity to cultivate a quality of awareness characterized by self-compassion, forgiveness, patience and determination. If we can do this it means that our meditation is developing. It is moving towards its essence. Self-compassion and forgiveness will put an end to our thoughts of blame and provide a space for confidence. This helps us to bring our mind back in a gentle way rather than forcing it. On the other hand, patience and determination will keep us on the path of practice with strength and dignity.

 

On the long run one might learn to place the awareness on the natural flow of one’s energy. This is very natural. Anything that we do against the natural flow of our capacity might cause pain and suffering in our lives. Furthermore there is a chance of becoming psychotic. This is because of the pressure that we put on our brain. In the meditation practice of concentration the mind is forced to control its own functions along with the chaos of our emotions. On the one hand we are trying to control the mind and its mental formations, on the other we are using the mind itself to carry out this activity of controlling itself. So it is necessary to be gentle and open when we do our practice of meditation.

 

The practice of self-awareness

Once the quality of our concentration has become quite deep, our meditation may proceed to the realization of self-awareness. During our concentration practice our effort is needed to bring our attention to a single point. Our practice requires diligence, effort and the qualities of determination and persistence. Our concentration is not permanent. It is temporary. It can be broken or interrupted by our habitual conditioning, habitual reactions or by external objects at any moment. In concentration practice we have an object of attention that is being observed, we have an observer who is doing the observing and we have the act of observing or concentrating. As long as these three remain separate, our practice remains limited and self-awareness cannot be realized. This is because there is an act of grasping onto the state of being focused on the object of meditation and onto the corresponding sensational experience. This sensational experience may be a blissful state of relaxation, it may be a sense of seeing, a sense of touch, a sense of the movement of the energy within us, or an attitude of qualities such as love, compassion, or peace. When we grasp onto the particular taste of an experience this prevents the full potential of our self-awareness from manifesting. For example, when we are focused on one thing we might not be able to receive beyond that what is happening around us, because we are so absorbed into the act of focusing on the object of our attention. And if the sensational experience caused by an external object, for instance a sound, is stronger than our focus on our object of concentration we will be distracted – and this may happen without our being aware of it. In this case our object of concentration is not the actual one but the sound becomes the object of our attention. The quality of self-awareness is to be aware of such subtle internal activities of our consciousness and of what is happening around us externally. We do this without the distraction of judgment, aversion or blame, so that we can be fully present with one thing at a time.

 

Once our concentration becomes deep enough so that it sustains itself without forceful effort, its nature becomes unconditional. At that point we are not just paying attention onto one object as a focal point but rather we are bringing the whole of our being, external objects, internal sensations, or experiences of the movement of the energy within us into the field of our self-awareness. When everything is brought into the field of self-awareness the concentration of equanimity is born. This is where the third stage of meditation comes into being. The concentration of our mind becomes objectless. This means that we are doing meditation without an object of concentration. We do not hold on to anything. There is freedom from grasping. When there is freedom from grasping we are actualizing the vast nature of reality. This is the realization of spontaneous concentration or self-awareness that further allows us to gain insight into the innate awareness, the nature of our mind, which is unconditional and free from all afflictions. Self-awareness is like the sun that has the capacity of illuminating its surroundings but that also illuminates itself. It is self-luminous. Innate awareness on the other hand is the innate potential of our mind, the clarity that is the unification of emptiness and awareness.

To practice insight into self-awareness we direct our attention towards the observer himself or herself to experience the innate quality of the individual. The observer himself or herself is selflessness or hidden wisdom. When we turn our attention towards the mind in the form of the observer this means that we go beyond the grasping onto our meditation experience of sensational relaxation, and carry out our inner journey of self-inquiry so that we can experience the true nature of our being. The true nature of our being is pure and not afflicted. Through the act of merely observing without reacting in the presence of self-awareness one clears the afflictions produced by one’s intellect. This is because the power of spontaneous concentration brings the stream of our consciousness and its activities into a state of stability and equanimity. When the mind is in a state of equanimity, the activities of our stream of consciousness that give rise to afflictions come to an end. For instance, if at the moment when you look at a flower your mind passes through your eyes, your eyes, mind and the flower will become one. At that moment your stream of consciousness is in a state of equanimity. It is free of the affliction of intellect such as judgment or resistance and aversion. Thus, the experience of your stream of consciousness retains its nature without distraction. When the meditation becomes spontaneous, the arising of wisdom becomes possible.

 

In this third stage of meditation, our attention and concentration become one and take another form. This form is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the unbroken form of concentration. When the subject and object and the process carried out by the subject become one, the totality of oneness is experienced. This results in self-realization and the state of experiencing great bliss. When all the afflictions, the chaos of our emotions and the wandering of the mind come to rest, that is self-realization.

 

The stabilization of our mind is indispensable for our insight into self-awareness. The stabilization of our mind is the quality of mind that can place us into the state of open presence. And it is the quality of mind that allows us to be more mindful in all our activities. Without this quality of a fundamental base of concentration practice, our practice of insight meditation or meditation of self-awareness would be like a flower without a root embedded into the earth. It would be like a flower that is in a beautiful vase with water in it. The water can keep the flower alive for a while, but in the absence of its root its life cannot last for a long time.


Lama Tempa Dukte is a lama of the Tibetan Bon tradition. He was born into a Buddhist family in Humla, Nepal, and trained as monk at Menri monastery from the age of 6 in Dolanji, India, under the close guidance of His Holiness Menri Trizin Rinpoche, Longtok Tenpai Nyima, the worldwide spiritual leader of the Bon tradition, and Chongtrul Rinpoche. Later he lived and taught for five years at the Upaya Zen Center on the invitation of Abbot Joan Halifax Roshi. Since his departure from Upaya in 2005 he has been living and teaching in the US and in Germany. Lama Tempa has a very deep interest in helping people to transform the pain and suffering in their lives and to bring their practice into all situations of their life.

 


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