Clarity’s blog

if relationships are setups to complete us, we never actually relate
to another human being, and what they need, what they are, we
are only looking at what we need.

Judith Simmer Brown

via Danny Fisher

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Well, I think Rinpoche would have quite a laugh about this (look at the left guys arm):

Rambo: (L-R) Reese (Jake La Botz), Diaz (Rey Gallegos) and Lewis (Graham McTavish) - MovieWeb

A better picture of the same arm:

(via Corpus Mmothra)

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I Believe in Love - A Talk by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
It is also important to acknowledge pain. Recognizing that there is pain rather than trying to ignore it brings tremendous joy. It helps us realize how precious our situation is.

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seems to have gone pretty well… I do need to work on the structure a bit more, I think, but overall I think it was quite OK. Blogger Luka and his girlfriend also managed to come and he wrote a post about it. It is really too bad we didn’t have time to talk!

The lecture itself is also now available on the Shambhala website or as a direct download here.

Since this is now going to be regular monthly thing, I was thinking of making a podcast out of it, so people can subscribe to the lectures. We’ll see if I find some time.

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If anyone is interested…

Pot meditacije - pot nežnosti, pristnosti in vpogleda
sreda, 26.9.2007

Budistična tradicija, znanost uma, ki je stara že več kot 2600 let, nam pravi, da je naš um kot dragulj, ki nam lahko izpolni vse želje. A če pogledamo v svoje življenje, velikokrat odkrijemo, da je naš um vse kaj drugega, kot to - je divji, neukročen, nenehno begajoč od ene stvari h drugi, nenehno išče zadovoljstvo in udobje, skače od enega čustva k drugemu,… Utrujajoče je.
Je možno kako drugače? Je možno res odkriti ta dragoceni dragulj, ki nam lahko izpolni vse želje, v našem lastnem umu? Lahko odkrijemo radost našega odprtega uma in srca in ga podelimo z drugimi?
Kako se tega lotiti? Je to sploh mogoče v današnji družbi ?

Buda je že pred 2600 leti odkril, da je to mogoče za vsakega, da ima vsakdo od nas potencial da se prebudi, da postane gospodar svojega uma. Tehnike, ki jih je odkril, so se prenašale od učitelja do učenca v nepretrgani liniji do današnjega dne, in so danes ravno tako učinkovite, kot so bile tedaj. Da jih uporabljamo, nam ni treba biti budist ali verovati v karkoli. Potrebna je le motivacija, da se vsedemo sami s sabo in začnemo trenirati svoj um.

Predaval bo g. Robert Ivanc, mlad učitelj in meditacijski inštruktor v mednarodni budistični organizaciji Šambala International. G. Ivanc študira in prakticira budizem približno 13 let, izobraževal se je v samostanih v Franciji, Kanadi ter Indiji. Je učenec Sakyong Mipham Rinpočeja, duhovnega vodje Šambala tradicije tibetanskega budizma.

Predavanje bo potekalo v sredo, 26.9.2007 ob 18h v Vodnjaku znanja, Celovška 61, Ljubljana.

Vstopnina: prostovoljni prispevki

 http://shambhala.si

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I’m sitting on Brnik airport as I’m writing this, waiting for my flight to Paris. I’m off again to our land center in Europe, Dechen Choling, where I’ll be attending a Shambhala Dzogchen retreat with the Sakyong. This will be the main Vajrayana program in our mandala this year and it will be a gathering of all the vajrayana practitioners. In the mornings we’ll be doing our respective practices (both ngondros, Vajrayogini, Chakrasamvara, Werma) and in the evening the Sakyong will give talks on the Dzogchen teachings. I am very much looking forward to all of this, it’s sure to be a great feast.

I’m taking my camera with me, so I’ll perhaps I’ll post some photos while being there. If not see you all when I get back!

And sorry for the light (nonexistent?) bloggin lately, psychotherapy studies have been occupying most of my time lately…

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There is no time to be cowards anymore,
no time to wallow in self-pity,
to moan and cry about how terrible we are,

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A lot of us feel attacked by our own aggression and by our own misery and pain. However, even in the darkest of the dark age, there is always light. That light comes with a smile, the smile of Shambhala, the smile of fearlessness. That cheerfulness is what we call the Great Eastern Sun. We are capable of smiling beautifully, utterly, extraordinarily. We can always cheer up.

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I’m off to a great Gathering of Shambhala Warriors at the Place of Great Bliss, where we will practice together, celebrate together and generally enjoy each others company and practice. (hah!)
The practice we will be doing is callled Primordial Rigden Ngondro, and is a preliminary practice that enables one to prepare one’s body and mind to receive the Rigden Abisheka. Personally, I really love this practice, and I can’t wait to do it together with so many people. We will raise so much windhorse, DCL might burst from all the brilliance! See you in roughly one month!

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This is from Ocean of Dharma quotes of the week. It is just to excellent to not post!

Give yourself a break….Just enjoy the day, your normal existence. Allow
yourself to sit in your home or take a drive into the mountains. Park your
car somewhere; just sit; just be. It sounds very simplistic, but it has a
lot of magic. You begin to pick up on clouds, sunshine and weather, the
mountains, your past, your chatter with your grandmother and your
grandfather, your own mother, your own father. You begin to pick up on a
lot of things. Just let them pass like the chatter of a brook as it hits
the rocks. We have to give ourselves some time to be….We have to learn to
be kinder to ourselves, much more kind. Smile a lot, although nobody is
watching you smile. Listen to your own brook, echoing yourself. You can to
a good job. In the sitting practice of meditation, when you begin to be
still, hundreds of thousands, millions, and billions of thoughts will go
through your mind. But they just pass through, and only the worthy ones
leave their fish eggs behind. We have to leave ourselves some time to be.
You’re not going to see the Shambhala vision, you’re not even going to
survive, by not leaving yourself a minute to be, a minute to
smile….Please give yourself a good time.

From “Blamelessness: How to Love Yourself” in GREAT EASTERN SUN: THE
WISDOM OF SHAMBHALA, pages 122-123.

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You should appreciate yourself, respect yourself, and let go of doubt and embarassment so that you can proclaim goodness and basic sanity for the benefit of others. The self-existing energy that comes from letting go is called windhorse in the Shambhala teachings. Wind is the energy of basic goodness, strong, exuberant, brilliant. At the same time, basic goodness can be ridden, or employed in your life, which is the principle of the horse. When you contact the energy of windhorse, you can naturally let go of worrying about your own state of mind and you begin to think of others. If you are unable to let go of your selfishness, you might freeze windhorse into ice.
VCTR

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Well, the weekend is over and it went surprisingly well. The whole structure of these levels is so well made, that as my friend Jim said, it’s almost teacher-proof. Almost but not quite!
It is amazing though, how people can go so deep in only a weekend, and how the experience of the participants tends to really go with the teachings that are presented, actually anticipating the teachings.
Level 3 actually marks quite a profound shift, from shamatha mindfulness/awareness to the open space of vipashyana, with much more emphasis on postmeditation and practice being continous - off and on the cushion.
Beginning of that, of course, but still a big step. Things are shifting from THIS to THAT. It was quite interesting to see how that provoked irritation and poverty mind - how can we expand out, what about me? Isn’t this about working on me?
You mean, I can just let go of this and go out? What about my dramas ? I need to experience myself, feel myself.
We had lots of fun exploring these kind of questions.
I’ve also learned a lot, about the teachings and more so about my own cocoon, fears and insecurities. And also that I’m not stuck in them, and can just go out,relax and do it.
A tremendous gratitude to the lineage of warriors who brought these teachings to the world, these teachings that are so timely for this dark age. I bown down in gratitude and love.

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some lessons from yesterdays talk:

• If I see that I’m getting distant, that I’m not connecting, I try harder. Of course that makes it worse, and is indeed part of my cocoon
• it’s fine to stop, even if I haven’t covered all the material that I “should’ have covered. Believing in this should makes me try harder, and I get more distant. see no. 1.
• trust the first thought glimpse and have the courage to stay with it and honor it.
• if i feel tired, i try harder, making myself feel more tired. Beginning to see a pattern?
• it’s fine to say that I can’t answer this question at the moment. instead of trying harder.

all in all it went well, although too long, and the last part of the talk was a bit of a drag. see points above. The main message got across though, people seem very interested and curious, and I’m looking forward to how the rest of the weekend will go.
It seems the main theme for me is going to be “daring to be genuine in every moment” and learning what that really means.

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in 3 hours the weekend program will start, and i’m really beginning to get nervous.

i think the following teachings are in order:

• Abandon all hope of fruition (Thanks Nina for reminding me!)
• threefold purity - there’s no teacher, no students, and no teachings being given - what a relief!

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You trust, not in success, but in reality.
VCTR

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