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Category Archives: Year One 2008
One Year
December 2008 This is the final month of our first year of three-year retreat. On January 5, 2009, year two begins. Lama Norlha Rinpoche used to say that during the first year of retreat, everyone always thinks they made a … Continue reading
Posted in Year One 2008
Tagged birds, Groundhog Day, impermanence, mantra, silence, walnuts
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28 Years
November 2008 I took refuge with Lama Norlha Rinpoche on October 29, 1980. I had met him just a few days earlier, when I attended a meditation session at his center in New York City with my friend Carolyn. I … Continue reading
Walnuts of Mindfulness
Three-year retreat, year one, month 12 Our mindfulness of impermanence at Nigu Ling is heightened at this time of year by two venerable black walnut trees overlooking our tiny fenced yard. From midsummer through early fall, there is a continual … Continue reading
September 2008, 4:00 a.m.
Ha, ha, it’s not really 4:00 a.m. as I write this. I just wanted to echo the title of the first post I wrote, a year ago this month. Normally at 4:00 a.m., we are starting our first meditation session … Continue reading
Posted in Year One 2008
Tagged birds, bodhisattvas, calm abiding, Kalu Rinpoche, thoughts, tonglen
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Same Old Raccoon
August 2008 Lama Norlha Rinpoche, when he teaches meditation, sometimes illustrates his instructions with a classic example: If we become accustomed to sitting in meditation with a spaced-out, blank mind, it is said that we are sowing seeds for rebirth … Continue reading
Raccoon Story
August 2008 For the past few weeks, we’ve been entertained almost every day by a family of raccoons: a mother and five cubs. The cubs are SO cute! They climb the chicken wire enclosure where the guinea hens used to … Continue reading
Down the Rabbit Hole
July 2008 Just a few days into three-year retreat, almost seven months ago, I was helping a fellow retreatant polish some shrine bowls. It was during the lunch break, the only time talking is allowed, and we discovered that we … Continue reading
Posted in Year One 2008
Tagged isolation, Kalu Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche
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Equal Taste
June 2008 Three-year retreat is the best possible place to be; and most of the time it feels like the best possible work to be doing, and I am very mindful of how lucky I am to have this rare … Continue reading
Posted in Year One 2008
Tagged bodhisattvas, equal taste, equanimity, happiness, Mingyur Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche
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The Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa
May 2008 In its thirty years of existence, KTC Monastery has hosted many great Lamas, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche (under whose guidance KTC was founded), Chamgon Tai Situ … Continue reading
Efficiency Expert
February 2008 As Buddhists, we are encouraged to spend a lot of time contemplating the impermanence of all phenomena and, in particular, the inevitability of our own death. We realize that if we are going to reach enlightenment, we had … Continue reading
Posted in Year One 2008
Tagged efficiency, enlightenment, Groundhog Day, impermanence
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