Cultivating Choice (Link #755)

Speaker: Jennifer Shippee. Jennifer expounds on how all sentient beings, without exception, are connected in their desire to be happy and to avoid the pain of suffering. Jennifer invites us to contemplate equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy on a daily basis. By establishing a deep familiarity with the bodhisattva vow and the four immeasurables contemplation, how we relate to the world will naturally shift.

Speaker: Sarah Ellsworth. Sarah shares how the Dharma informs and enriches her work as a nurse and midwife. Although shift work and long hours can make it challenging to maintain a consistent meditation practice, her professional life offers profound opportunities for spiritual growth. She reflects on how her contemplations of the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind Towards the Dharma are vividly present in her daily work. Sarah describes how the Dharma softens and ripens the heart and mind, which has lead to a deep sense of contentment and happiness in her personal relationships. The inner shift that Dharma brings not only transforms one's own experience but also creates space for those around us to change and grow as well.

Speaker: Katherine Teahen. Katherine recounts the sights and sounds of a pilgrimage she made to Tibet thirty years ago, reflecting on how the journey profoundly transformed her relationship with the Dharma. Drawing from her journal entries written during the trip, she offers a vivid portrayal of the sacred sites she visited. Her time spent in caves and shrines associated with great masters such as Vimalamitra, Guru Rinpoche, and Longchenpa became moments of deep connection with the lineage and teachings. By retracing her steps to Lhasa and sharing these reflections, Katherine hopes to inspire other practitioners to embark on their own pilgrimages and deepen their spiritual practice.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. Dungse-la shares open questions he is exploring on how to develop genuine confidence in our own direct experience of life in a world full of contrasting information. He describes the complexity of making a commitment to the path amidst contemporary discourses overloaded with opinions. Rather than providing answers, he offers a few questions for reflection including, (1) How do we reconcile the universal insights of Dharma with our culturally conditioned narratives, including those shaped by culture, family, and personal identity? (2) How can we have genuine confidence in our experience in an age dominated by relativism, where our experience is constantly questioned by cultural trends and competing worldviews? (3) How do we cultivate a healthy sense of self that is not rooted in ego clinging?

Speaker: Bill Bothwell. Fresh out of retreat, Bill shares his journey from a young poet and songwriter to his encounter with the Buddhadharma and becoming a student of Choygam Trungpa Rinpoche. Taking to heart Rinpoche's instruction that working within society is a necessity on the spiritual path, Bill became a lawyer. He recollects the essential teachings of his root teacher who challenged his students to embrace the view that conventional society was an expression of the ultimate truth, and that our tendency to judge others and our habit of wanting to fix things disrupts our ability to experience the natural purity of the world. Bill also shares experiences of his time at Naropa University with Alan Ginsburg, and Trungpa Rinpoche's instruction that his students call themselves Buddhist in order to establish an enlightened society of serious practitioners while living a conventional life.

Speaker: Vaishali Mamgain. Referring to herself as a "brainiac" who is more comfortable with wisdom than compassion, Vaishali shares how she used to approach the Dharma as a mental exercise. In her recent travels to Sri Lanka, surrounded by beauty and kind and humble people, she learned the value of simple ways of being. This experience opened up a path of embodiment, and discovery of new practices helping her to slow down, take care of herself, appreciate the wisdom of her body, feel gratitude for the natural world and deepen compassion toward herself and other people. Becoming more embodied has allowed Vaishali to work through her own trauma and become more sensitive to others.

Speaker: Bob Reid. Bob delves into the Four Immeasurables: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity as the foundation for arousing bodhicitta, the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Drawing from the Mahayana tradition, Bob explores how these boundless qualities open the heart and mind to the vast path of awakening.

Speaker: Morgan Starr. Morgan describes how navigating personal challenges has allowed him to explore the idea of turning toward suffering rather than avoiding it. Leaning into grief and heartbreak rather than resisting or numbing it has opened the door to compassion, presence, and growth. He recalls a sense of sacredness and wonder he felt in early life, which has faded over time but is now restored through his spiritual practice with MSB. Morgan recounts multiple quotes from Rinpoche about pain, which, when met with courage and curiosity, can serve as the gateway to liberation. Choosing to soften, lighten up, and cultivate self-awareness and love for others can create spaciousness and clarity even in moments of heartbreak.

Speaker: Dungse Jampal Norbu. This LINK was originally given on August 2, 2015. In this talk, Dungse-la describes how careful introspection coupled with the study of karma cultivates choice, changes perceptions, clears habitual tendencies and creates one's environment.

Speaker: Stanton Dossett. Stanton contemplates the phrase, ‘connecting the dots’, used by Rinpoche in his book The Intelligent Heart. The first dot is suffering. For Stanton, it is only with the aid of daily practice that the dots become connectable, and the relationship between self-importance and negative karma can be understood. When walking one day in his local neighbourhood, Stanton had a sudden, vivid insight that everyone wishes, just like him, for happiness and to be free of suffering. Contemplating this insight and the aspiration of the Buddha to become enlightened for the benefit of all beings was a profound experience that stayed with him on the MSB Dana pilgrimage to Bodhgaya. Aware of the passage of time, Stanton encourages us to ask ourselves, as he does, "At what point do I commit completely to the aspiration of the Buddha, putting Dharma at the centre of my life?"