SXE04 Guru devotion and scandals

Does the Christian Trinity have a Buddhist parallel? To the Three Jewels, perhaps? No. But the matter of the Three Bodies, the Trikaya, is more interesting.

A bit about kanglings, including tips about forming the mouthpiece. Best seen on video at YouTube.

When Buddhist teachers give teachings to westerners, live interpreting into the main language of the locale is often crucial. It can be done well. But sometimes it is done badly. Here are some of the issues. #interpreting #buddhism #tibetan

After a masterpiece of a life, Lama Lodro finally left us at the age of 100. #Lama #Lodro #eulogy #Tibetan #Buddhism #Edgbaston

There have been a depressing number of scandals in major Tibetan Buddhist organizations, particularly (though not only) in the West. It clearly has systemic roots - can the disease be identified? PS. How unprofessional! I uploaded the sound file without the delightful music. This is now the correct one.

The podcast will have to take a back seat for some months as I work on a project aimed at publishing biographies of a few of the nuns, and the sometimes heroic journeys they undertook to arrive at the caves above Tsopema (Rewalsar) to live and practise. A Tsopema Nuns blog gives a few details. It should help to find missing pieces in the jigsaw of names and places.

"To get enlightened" is such a watery explanation. Mindfulness largely misses the point. This was a retreat about a specific deity. Whatever that is! #Tibetan #Buddhism #Vajrayana #Retreat

Really intended as a brief video on YouTube. Is the Vajrayana "just" a clever technique within conventional Mahayana, or is it really something different.

Goodbye to Series 2 - and what of the future?

You've been looking at Tibetan Buddhism? You want to start? But you still don't know how? This might help.