We have to destroy our tendencies in order to become enlightened. “Tendency” in Tibetan is called bakcha, the force or power of a thought or emotion. Emotion itself is not a threat to our well- being. The threat actually comes from our tendencies. Anger without the tendency, without the force behind it, is not so powerful. Think of actors in a play. The actors get angry, but there is really no bakcha or tendency of getting angry and, therefore, the anger is not harmful. It’s just a play. Unless we as practitioners make changes to our tendencies, destroying one, two, or three thoughts is not go ..read more

Excerpt from THE BEE STORY, Teachings on Patrul Rinpoche’s The Drama of the Flower-Gathering Garden by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche This beloved story, written in Tibetan by Patrul Rinpoche, is based on the true story of a prominent couple from Derge in Eastern Tibet. The man in the story would go on to become one of the most important siddhas in the Derge kingdom and was also the general secretary of the Derge king. His wife was a beautiful woman from an esteemed Tibetan family and was admired throughout the country as a great lady. Their tragic story unfolds as they are compelled to separate in ..read more

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche’s commentary from the 2021-22 Ngondro Retreat, Talk 4 given on 12-29-21. Reposted from the 2022 Crucial Point.   WHEN DOES A HUMAN BIRTH BECOME TRULY PRECIOUS? What is spoken of in the ngöndro as a precious human birth is not because we are human or smart. Regardless of how smart you are, this is not what we contemplate to be a precious human birth. More specifically, it is that we are human, and we possess this rare and very precious opportunity to embrace the Dharma in our own personal lives to reduce our suffering and the causes of suffering. Everyone hold ..read more

All sentient beings want to feel bliss and not to feel pain. But at the same time, we’re duped by our habitual, deep mental fog. Sadly, we don’t have the agency to discern very sensitively what causes us to suffer. If we want to walk north but somehow end up walking south, our mental capacity isn’t functioning very well. If we want to go to north, we should be walking north. Why would we head in the opposite direction unless something is wrong? The Tibetan word for this deep mental fog is timuk, and muk means fog. It’s not an emotion in its own right, but it actually makes up all the othe ..read more

In a teaching on the Link from April 3, 2022, Dungse Jampal Norbu raises questions about what resources we turn to when “our weak links are tested.” In particular, when situations provoke outrage, how do we identify and apply a genuinely compassionate response instead? In times of dramatic change or conflict, it’s interesting to see how I personally—and maybe we as a society—tend to turn to our default habitual settings. Yet, we may not be clear what our default is. We think of ourselves as individuals with a certain amount of autonomy or control and good qualities. There are so many Dhar ..read more

This talk is a lightly- edited version of Rinpoche’s 2022 Losar Address in the Sangdo Palri Temple at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado. As a deep mental fog manifests on an unimaginable scale in the world right now, Rinpoche encourages us in his Losar Address to make a strong resolution to deepen our practice and to pray for all beings.  Seeing the conflicts that are unfolding in the world, Rinpoche emphasizes how important it is to work on our own minds. All conflicts start from internal suffering, which we can overcome only by cultivating the three wisd ..read more

Nothing can be done to change the karma of beings. If that were possible, the buddhas and bodhisattvas would have done it a long time ago. When we read the teachings of great wandering renunciants such as Patrul Rinpoche, and contemplate their lifestyle, we appreciate them. But we cannot expect everyone to adopt that lifestyle or have the same response to Patrul Rinpoche’s teachings. We have a saying in Tibetan, “Renunciation is like a fuzzy dandelion. From a distance, the seed head can appear very thick and furry, but when you blow on it just slightly, it goes poof! It all just flies up into ..read more

Rinpoche exhorts practitioners when faced with conflict to stay the course of their dharma path, and honor the commitments of their bodhisattva vow, by self-reflecting on their own self-attachment rather than escalating a divisive situation. This is a lightly edited version of Rinpoche’s 2021 Losar Talk in the Sangdo Palri Temple at Longchen Jigme Samten Ling Retreat Center, Crestone, Colorado. It is a new year, the year of the Tibetan Female Ox. And in this new year I would like to extend my warmest greetings to you all, and to make strong, strong aspirations for all of us who are ..read more

1999 Losar Address We all have chosen to be Dharma students. We all have chosen to take refuge in the Three Jewels. We all have chosen to be on the path of Vajrayana. We made these choices with intention rather than casually or because of the expectations of our family or a cultural tradition. Hopefully, we have chosen to be Dharma practitioners of a Vajrayana linage and taken refuge in the Three Jewels with a sense of depth and a profound interest in knowing ourselves and our minds better. When we identify ourselves as a human being, a Westerner, an American, Asian, or European, we already ..read more

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and the Sangha of Mangala Shri Bhuti, Would like to honor and acknowledge, with immense gratitude and deepest appreciation and respect, all those who, day after day, bravely and tirelessly risks their well-being to serve others in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. We all thank you from the very bottom of our hearts. The first responders: EMTs, ambulance drivers, firemen and women, policemen and women, their captains, detectives, 911 operators, all responding to tens of thousands of calls for help. The Medical professionals: ER and ICU doctors and nurses, specialis ..read more