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2025 Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows Ceremony
By Alison Driscoll Hearing about the teachings before taking the vows The Refuge & Bodhisattva Vow ceremonies took place at Pawo Khandro Ling, The Wisdom Seat meditation hall, both live and online, on Sunday, September 28th. Capably led by Michael Carroll, as preceptor, the ceremonies were uplifted and inspiring. Michael spoke about the view, practice, and conduct of each of the Refuge and Bodhisattva vow and prior to the ceremony spoke with each of those who took one or the
Sep 28, 2025
SEPTEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching At the end of the month The Wisdom Seat will be offering Refuge and Bodhisattva Vows. As many of you know these vows are a proclamation to formally claim one's identity as a Buddhist. Why would one want to take this leap? You might ask yourself "Who needs to join a religion?" Maybe in your study of buddhism you came across the teaching of "egolessness", so yo
Aug 31, 2025
Sanskrit for Mere Mortals
A Mindful Gathering with Dr. Varun Khanna Watch the recording: https://youtu.be/17XM3Gq2XxU Ever wonder what you're actually saying when you chant "Om" or mumble through "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha"? Join us for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Varun Khanna, who studied traditional Sanskrit grammar in India and did his MPhil in Sanskrit and PhD in Hinduism at the University of Cambridge, UK . We explore how ancient practitioners understood Sanskrit as vibra
Aug 31, 2025
A message from The Wisdom Seat Board of Directors
Like all things, The Wisdom Seat is ever-changing, and we are writing today to start a dialogue with you, our community, about how we can best shape our organization to serve our precious sangha in the years ahead. Whether you consider Wisdom Seat your sangha, donate time or funds, come to events, or simply read our newsletter, we consider you to be part of The Wisdom Seat community, and we want to hear your voice. We will be soliciting your opinions and ideas in the weeks to
Aug 7, 2025
AUGUST 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA This is Sanskrit. I didn't know I've been chanting Sanskrit for years, and how important the language was to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Did you know Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche often preferred his students go back to the original Sanskrit instead of using Tibetan terms? "He(CTR) even decided, whenever possible, to choos
Jul 31, 2025
Exploring the Four Immeasurables: A Deep Dive into Buddhist Teachings
A Mindful Gathering with Michael Carroll and Bill Moriarty Watch the full discussion below: (I didn't record this one in the usual way, so only the hosts' video is displayed. My mistake -Bill) In our Mindful Gathering of July, we had an open conversation about the Four Immeasurables: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. This discussion featured insights from Michael, a long-time practitioner of Buddhism, who shared his personal connection to these tea
Jul 15, 2025
JULY 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching I've just returned from being in a country where I couldn't speak the language. My wife, our 14-year-old, and I went to South Korea to visit our extended family. We spent two weeks traveling around and met about 15 relatives for the first time: aunts, uncles, grandparents, young cousins...and I couldn't converse with any of them. In Korean, I could only say yes
Jun 24, 2025
Summer SOULstice with Corina Benner Yoga
This Summer SOULstice gathering was the third annual mini-retreat, and the excitement in the air was unmistakable. Coming together in person felt incredible. Sharing food and practicing together were highlights of the day. The pot-luck format encouraged everyone to contribute their favorite dishes. It was a beautiful reminder of how food can unite us, fostering connections and lively conversations that flowed as freely as the laughter around the table. With around 15 people a
Jun 21, 2025
Building the Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library with Carolyn Gimian
A Mindful Gathering with Bill Moriarty and Carolyn Gimian
Jun 10, 2025
June 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching I’ve been thinking a lot about equanimity lately. I can be overwhelmed by the news of the day across the globe, and how people are going through unimaginable suffering, loss and fear. There’s a common misunderstanding that being equanimous means experiencing an absence of big emotions, that to feel peace, we need to detach. Buddhism teaches something different
May 20, 2025
MAY 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching Steve McCurry, Tofuku-ji Monastery, Kyoto, Japan, 2005. The Great Gift Richard Driscoll Sometimes as practitioners the Dharma turns up in unexpected places or we may see something in a newer, more Dharmic light. Something like this happened to me with an excerpt from the poem, “All Night, All Night” by Delmore Schwartz which I read long ago in my pre-Buddhist d
Apr 30, 2025
Being with a Dying Person
A Mindful Gathering with Marybeth McMurray, Margerie Strousser, Michael Carroll, and Bill Moriarty
Apr 29, 2025
APRIL 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching The irony of the Buddhist path Michael Carroll The Buddhist path is fraught with countless ironies: to journey, one must sit still; to understand reality, one must stop trying to understand; to “ get a grip ”, one must “ let go ”. And of course, the best of all: to attain enlightenment, one must recognize that doing so is impossible. Such ironies seem tense w
Mar 27, 2025
What AI Actually Is and Why Buddhists Should Care
A Mindful Gathering with Bill Moriarty
Mar 18, 2025
3 Brushes: Art, Meditation, and Teaching as a Creative Practice
A Mindful Gathering with Al San Valentin and Bill Moriarty
Feb 25, 2025
MARCH 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching Pawo Khandro Ling, 2025 Greetings friends and fellow aspiring practitioners! I hope that you are finding workability in the world as it is presenting itself to you. It’s cliché at this point to say that we are in a time of unprecedented change on many fronts – ecologically, governmentally, and personally. And it seems like the pace of change is occurring at a h
Jan 30, 2025
FEBRUARY 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching Steve McCurry, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2005 As I was thinking about what to write for this introduction I thought a lot about numbers, namely how we use numbers to track the passage of time. Time is named by numbers. Sometimes we even name a group of numbers with an actual name - in the case of this writing and according to the Gregorian calendar, the 24-hours are
Jan 30, 2025
The Unexpected Path: A Journey into Buddhism
A Mindful Gathering with Jacqui Merrell and Bill Moriarty.
Jan 14, 2025
The Wisdom Seat Retreat 2024
By Susanna Lack, Retreat Director In October 2024, we held the first Wisdom Seat (TWS) Retreat at the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD) monastery in the delightful upstate New York Catskill Mountains. Michael Carroll, cofounder of The Wisdom Seat, led this transformative 8-day practice intensive, supported by members of TWS staff. The retreat was designed to help participants deepen their mindfulness-awareness meditation and integrate it into daily life. The retreat includ
Nov 27, 2024
JANUARY 2025 NEWSLETTER
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: • From The Wisdom Seat • The Wisdom Seat Events • Programs To Consider • A Teaching Steve McCurry, Red Feather Lakes, USA, 2004 Here we are in 2025 - a new calendar year and the traditional time to make resolutions. Resolutions are defined in the dictionary as “a firm decision to do or not do something.” As you reflect on resolutions you have made over the years, how many times have you held to the resolution? Can you even recall the resolutio
Nov 26, 2024
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