Category: SnowFlower Blog (page 2)

Discourse on the Dharma Seal from a talk by Jim Roseberry (Spring, 2013) What is the essence of this discourse in which the Buddha identified the Dharma Seal as the Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness. To answer this,…

Tonglen Loving Kindness from a talk by Cheri Maples Tonglen is a loving kindness practice that has its roots in the Tibetan tradition. Interestingly, it is actually the reverse of the loving kindness meditation we usually practice. Normally we breathe…

APRANIHITI – the Third Door of Liberation from a talk by Amy Krohn Thay gives us many touchstones to rely on in our practice, so beautifully pulling profound concepts into simple explanations, and then encouraging us to practice and work…

Practicing  Compassion  Amid  Chaos  &  Illusion from a talk by Jim Roseberry  in 2016 The term ‘compassion’ maintains an exalted status in Buddhism. Avalokiteshvara (or Kwan Yin) is revered as the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Along with loving kindness, joy, and equanimity, compassion is…

Where is Thich Nhat Hanh Right Now? from a talk by Steven Spiro, Spring, 2015 Thay is known for saying that the next Buddha will be the Sangha. In Buddhist tradition the next Buddha is called Maitreya {from Sanskrit ‘maitri’,…

Compassion from a talk by Gloria Green Compassion is the strong wish of the heart to alleviate suffering. Our hearts open to the suffering that is there with a feeling of connection to those suffering. Thay says that compassion is…

A  Cloud  Never  Dies from a talk by David Zeman “What Happens When We are Alive and What Happens When We Die?” This was the theme of a retreat with Thay at Plum Village that I attended a few years…

Interplay of the Divine Abodes from a talk by Gloria Green Loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity are called divine as they teach us how to lessen suffering, and they are called abodes because they are our true home.…

Letting Go The type of practice in which I am engaged is letting go by giving everything (bestowing in imagination) to the sources of wisdom, which I call “the Buddhas”. It involves imagining giving everything away as an offering. A…

Embracing the Sacred and the Mundane As many of us recognize, at least intellectually, the sacred and the mundane are one and the same. The sacred is this material world, freed from the prison of conceptual mind. What makes this…