The Maitripa College Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 13. Finding The Source For Enlightement: A Non-Dual Approach with Yangsi Rinpoche Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

In Finding the Source of Enlightenment: A Non-Dual Approach, Yangsi Rinpoche teaches that by traversing negative emotions, we gain access to the non-dual, fundamental source of meditation and, ultimately, to enlightenment. Compassion, Rinpoche offers, is the natural result of the healing that comes from familiarizing oneself with how our reactive minds habitually discern positive vs. negative, good vs. bad, this vs. that, and so on. Enjoy this beautiful, timeless teaching from Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, Washington.

Episode 12. Getting Unstuck: Balancing the Ultimate and the Conventional with Yangsi Rinpoche Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

Yangsi Rinpoche addresses the Maitripa College Sunday Morning Community Program with a discussion on Getting Unstuck: Balancing Ultimate and Conventional Natures. In order to “survive samsaric suffering” Rinpoche advises to navigate through meditation on conventional reality with the ultimate, clear light nature of the mind.

Episode 11. The Space-like Practice of Compassion and Emptiness with Yangsi Rinpoche Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

Yangsi Rinpoche teaches on the space-like practice of compassion and emptiness in Seattle, WA at the Dharma Friendship Foundation. In order to overcome the “karmic chaos” in our own minds, Rinpoche recommends spending time each day meditating on compassion and emptiness in an expansive way, in order to develop practice with a spacious view that ultimately pacifies challenges before they arise. This is a precious teaching that covers both “wings of the bird” in a profound and practical way.

Episode 10. Independent Investigation on One's Own Ego with Yangsi Rinpoche Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

In reflection on the question: how do we deepen our meditation?, Rinpoche asks us to expand our concept of our relationship to others by considering the power of lineage. Although in the material world, self-reliance is most important, when it comes to spiritual practice, relying on the teachings, teachers, and our community become more relevant. Rinpoche explains how to create a healthy sense of self through a thorough investigation of the way our ego functions, without either trying to control or ignore our habitual patterns. From this healthy, nourished basis, we can deepen our understanding of the emptiness of self--the actual “lifetime guarantee” of a stress-free life!

Episode 9. Introduction to Mahamudra: Looking Deeply, Looking Beyond with Yangsi Rinpoche Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

By guiding us through meditation on emptiness, and investigating our intrinsic sense of self, Rinpoche leads us on a journey through our own negative emotions and karmic habits into “the lab of meditation.” While we might think of meditation on emptiness as unattainable, too difficult, or something we aren’t yet ready to practice, Rinpoche’s instruction provides an accessible, realistic approach to understanding reality through deeply looking at this current moment of our experience. This, Rinpoche reassures us, is the ultimate form of healing all types of suffering. Once we have learned how to create the right environment within our mind, we can apply the concentration that naturally arises, without forcing, to all aspects of meditation practice. By building up our own “emotional immune system” in this way, we nourish ourselves, and growth and real freedom are possible.

Episode 8. Conversation with Carl Jensen, Maitripa College Alumni May 28, 2019

Show notes

Carl Jensen, MDiv, is a chaplain at Portland Providence Medical Center. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Carl has lived all over the world. He first encountered Buddhism when he and his wife, Heather, were serving as Peace Corps volunteers in western China. After their Peace Corps service, Carl and Heather attended the annual month-long November Course at Kopan, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s monastery in Kathmandu, where Carl learned about Maitripa College. As a chaplain, Carl says, his work is “informed by my practice on a daily basis. The opportunity to develop a meditation practice with Yangsi Rinpoche is the foundation for engaging with the situations I encounter, and is what sustains me in doing this work.” Carl is an important part of the Maitripa College community, teaching the Discovering Buddhism program and leading meditations and ceremonies for the community.

Episode 7. Equanimity: The Middle Way Of Our Awareness by Yangsi Rinpoche May 14, 2019

Show notes

Yangsi Rinpoche leads us on a deep dive into understanding equanimity practice as it relates to generating compassion and bodhicitta. Is it easier to practice equanimity with strangers, or with our closest loved ones? Through a close look at the play of attachment, desire, and expectation, Rinpoche engages the Seattle Dharma Friendship Foundation Community in dialogue on the way we actually relate to equanimity, and a way to skillfully approach the practice of compassion and equanimity in our daily lives.

Episode 6. How to Awaken Inspiration Through Lojong with Geshe Kalsang Damdul Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

Recorded during his visit to Maitripa College in March, Geshe Kalsang Damdul shares personal stories and experiences from his own life, and relates them to lojong, or the Tibetan Buddhist psychological practice of mind training or thought transformation. With warmth and humor, Geshe-la recalls anecdotes about growing up in Tibet and in exile in India; his mischievous activities as a very “naughty boy” at the Tibetan Children’s Refugee School in Mussoorie; his later ordination and studies with some of the greatest Tibetan Buddhist masters of our time, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama; his life’s work at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, and so on. Geshe-la recalls a life in exile with optimism and joy, showing us by example that even the greatest of adversities can be transformed into the path of Dharma.

Episode 5. Why Tsongkhapa Matters with Roger Jackson, PhD - Part 2 Apr 16, 2019

Show notes

In this second session of a two-part talk, Maitripa College visiting faculty member Roger Jackson, PhD, shines light on the continued relevance of the teachings of Tsongkhapa over centuries and across continents.

2019 marks the 600th anniversary of the passing of Tsongkhapa, one of the greatest figures in Tibetan Buddhist history, and is an appropriate occasion to examine his remarkable life and contribution to religion, philosophy, literature, and society.

Throughout the talk, Professor Jackson presents Tsongkhapa as a complex figure: the founder of the Geluk school who studied with masters of all the traditions of his era; a respected intellectual who also had a rich inner life; a prolific author and lecturer who spent as much time as he could in retreat; and a master very much of his own time and place who nevertheless remains relevant in our 21st century world.

Episode 4. Why Tsongkhapa Matters with Roger Jackson, PhD - Part 1 Apr 02, 2019

Show notes

In this first session of a two-part talk, Maitripa College visiting faculty member Roger Jackson, PhD, shines light on the continued relevance of the teachings of Tsongkhapa over centuries and across continents.

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