I continue to be grateful for the time I’ve had in the 2021 to focus on this project and my personal practice. Despite have very little professional work, I was able to get by financially and continue refining this project have more clarity. I was made my goal of being about to interview 12-15 people per year and visit a few new cities that I hadn’t been to before. In particular, I go the chance to make […]
I heard from various sources that Crestone CO was the seat of many buddhist retreat centers for a very small town and I had thought it was because of some government policy that encourage this type of concentration. As it turns out, there was a land grant by one of the 16th Karmapa’s student that promoted the development all these centers. Since I spent most of the time interviewing people of the project, I didn’t […]
So my first anniversary of ngondro practice is coming up in a few days and I’ve been thinking about the significance of the practice in my life. I can’t quite say it has been so transformative that I quit my life in suburbia and went off on some pilgrimage to find my ‘spiritual’ home of sorts. Alas, I have certainly thought about making such a drastic change and asking my teachers if I should do […]
The importance of a consistent contemplation practice became an experiential realization in the past year. I vaguely recall reading a passage from ‘Words of My Perfect Teacher‘ in the past year about the how critical the teaching on impermanence is. When I picked up the books many years ago, I knew it was a ‘classic’ Vajrayana text and enjoyed reading it but I wasn’t actually practicing ngondro at that time. In the past year, I have […]
I stumbled on this video piece while researching Drupchen and it is a beautiful example of the kind of work I would like to make in the future. I had the chance to attend a Drupchen retreat at Pema Osel Ling a few years ago and at the time, I felt that it was a bit overhead in terms of practice. Watching one of my favorite teachers in one of his more ‘traditional’ roles is inspiring on […]