Contemplative Studies Program Blog
Lam Rim on the Road: Severed Feb 17, 2022

Part One in a Mini-Series on Death & Rebirth

As I reflect on a term I heard in a documentary yesterday, “reemergence,” a small, delicate object lands on the table. It looks like a leaf or flower. Wind from the fan blows it onto the ground. Something pulls me to look at it again. I...

Continue Reading...
The Defects of Samsara | Step 13 of Awakening in 30 Steps Jul 27, 2021

The Defects of Compulsive Life Inspire Disinterest.

It’s not that life is suffering, it’s that the compulsive, mindless, unconscious life called samsara is suffering. In order to prompt our waking up from the long sleep we are asked to take a sobering inventory of just how...

Continue Reading...
Preciousness of Human Life Inspires Appreciation | Step 9 of Awakening in 30 Steps Jul 20, 2021

Life is beginingless and consciousness is infinite.

Over the course of evolution our karma has compelled us to ascended and descend to various pleasant and unpleasant states of existence. But fundamentally we have always been trapped in a condition of blindness, not knowing who we really are,...

Continue Reading...
 
The Two Causes of Refuge Oct 10, 2020

Think about the worldly refuges first. The worldly things that we take as our refuge, as our sources of comfort, our sources of guidance. 

The iPhone... food... the doctor... Netflix... friends and family... fishing... leisure activities...

How well a source are they for the ultimate or...

Continue Reading...