IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
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 resolutions you’ve made over the years?
The point in asking these questions is not to assert that they are fleeting or do not work, but rather to encourage you to look more deeply into the view that underlies your decision “to do or not do something."
This is very much in accord with the dharma, where the first step on the Eightfold Path of the Fourth Noble Truths, as codified by the Buddha, is right (or wise) view followed by right (or wise) intention/resolve.
And the right or wise view is essentially seeing things as they are, without self-deception or wishful thinking - taking an honest look at one’s life and capacity on a daily basis through meditation and the teachings of the Buddha to alleviate one's own and other's suffering and to live life in accord with the dharma.
In my own experience as a dharma practitioner, contemplating and taking to heart the Eightfold Path - wise view, intention/resolve, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration - creates the supportive foundation by which every step on the path, including intention or resolution of what “to do or not do,” takes root in your life. So whatever resolution you make is much more likely to come to fruition and to be of benefit not only to yourself, but to others.
Alison Driscoll
The urgency of offering the Great Seal
By Jeremiah Fruchtman
December 26, 2024
When I learned that the teachings of the Great Seal Mahamudra were, for centuries, passed down in secret from teacher to student, it dawned on me how incredibly rare and potent these teachings were. When I learned that Gampopa opened this tradition further and spread these teachings more widely, I was filled with joy at the mere possibility of receiving these profound teachings.
During Gampopa’s time, he united the monastic discipline and scholastic rigor of the Kadampa lineage with the experiential, yogic tradition of Mahamudra. It is said that this synthesis was made possible through Gampopa’s boundless compassion when in the 11th and 12th centuries, Tibetan Buddhism emphasized sharing teachings that could bring swift realization.
While Gampopa spread the Mahamudra teachings widely, we can recognize also that these teachings were not easily brought to fruition by any individual. Many known and unknown students endured unimaginable hardships to ensure the survival, realization and transmission of these teachings. Their devotion and tireless effort made the growth of Mahamudra possible, often at great personal cost.
In the late 1950s, when the Chinese invasion of Tibet intensified, Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo gave Mahamudra and Dzogchen transmissions more widely than ever before. It is said that he acted out of an urgent need to protect these teachings, opening them to both monastics and laypeople alike. He focused on direct experience of the mind's nature, cutting through complexity in favor of clarity and immediacy.
For me, Gampopa’s and Khenpo Gangshar’s urgency to make the Great Seal teachings widely available offers a powerful teaching: there is nothing quite like having a “spiritual gun”pointed at you to bring your entire being into the present moment. What you do next may be relative, but the raw awareness of the moment is absolute—so, why not meet it with a smile?
In a sense, this is what the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche confronted when he came to the west, shedding his monastic robes and engaging thousands of us in an open and direct conversation about reality. He too saw the urgency of making the Great Seal teachings widely available and now the urgency grows as our world swells with aggression, “artificiality” and rumors of war. So-called “convenience” steals our attention and personal confidence, slyly addicting us to the seeming pleasures of our own ignorance. Yet, this very chaos gives us the opportunity to stare down the barrel of this “spiritual gun” and, perhaps, smile with the same urgent wisdom of Gampopa, Khenpo Gangshar and Trungpa Rinpoche.
Notes from Bill
Starting this month, our next A Mindful Gathering will be with Jacqui Merrell, discussing what the path actually is, and how it unfolds. This is rescheduled from last month.
Our last few A Mindful Gathering recordings are available on our Past Events webpage. https://www.thewisdomseat.org/past-events
Check out this video featuring the Milwaukee Shambhala Meditation Center. https://youtu.be/YwJ-pMrXwJI
take care,
Bill Moriarty from The Wisdom Seat
We would like to remind you to take some time and visit our Instagram page, @wisdomseat_stevemccurry. Here, you will find an array of enlightening teachings and breathtaking images that are bound to inspire and awaken your mind and spirit. We have curated these posts with utmost care and diligence to provide you with a source of inspiration and learning.
We are thrilled about our collaboration with Steve McCurry Studios, a partnership we believe will bridge our communities. Through the combined power of beauty and wisdom, we aim to create deep and meaningful connections among us all. We look forward to your continued support and engagement with our content.
The Unexpected Way - How the Path Actually Unfolds
Tue, Jan 14
Join us for A Mindful Gathering with Bill Moriarty and Jacqui Merrell. Let's talk about the path...the fact that we don't always know what it is, what it looks like, and how it happens.
Wednesday Meditation
Ongoing offering: Online meditation every Wednesday evening 6:15 to 7:30 PM EST
Worldwide Wednesday evening online sitting meditation practice.
We, at The Wisdom Seat, invite you to meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 – 7:30 PM Eastern Time to practice the sitting meditation discipline as taught in the Buddhist & Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Nyinthun: Everyone is welcome!
Ongoing offering: Nyinthun (in-person and online)
The first Sunday of every month.
All day sitting interspersed with walking meditation. The word nyinthun*, is Tibetan for “day session.”
In understanding dharma, Trungpa Rinpoche placed a strong emphasis on mindfulness/awareness meditation practice. This community practice of Nyinthun - all day sitting interspersed with walking meditation - gives us the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of our mind, make friends with our immediate experience and rediscover our natural sanity.
Please take a look, and sign up to join us for some nyinthun retreat days. It is ok to join for as much of the day as you can.
Collaborative practice undertaking with The Wisdom Seat & The Profound Treasury Retreat
The Wisdom Seat encourages as many opportunities for practitioners to engage in the discipline of mindfulness/awareness (shamatha/vipashyana) as one can engage in. We are happy to invite the Profound Treasury Retreat (PTR) with their offering of Sunday sitting.
PTR community is hosting a 2-hour sitting session from 9:30am to 11:30 am EST
There will be meditation instruction every third Sunday of the month, given by a qualified meditation instructor.
Dates: Jan 12th, 19th, & 26th
Here is the Zoom link for this session: Sunday Sitting Zoom Link
All are welcome to attend.
WESTCHESTER MEDITATION CENTER
The WMC Annual Retreat at Garrison Institute
February 7-14, 2025
With Judy Lief and the WMC Senior Teachers
Open to all, and includes a separate track for vajrayana practitioners.
Scholarships are Available!
Meditation is meant to transform our experience not only "on the cushion," but throughout our entire life, encompassing the difficulties of the so-called real world. To do this, we cultivate an attitude of acceptance and imperturbability which is flexible and open, not tight and fixated. This year we will focus on fine-tuning our meditation practice to sustain us in all aspects of our experience, cultivating warmth and openness to bring to a world increasingly in need of those qualities.
The focus of the track for vajrayana students will be on the practice of Mahamudra, supported by studying the wonderful, famous and pithy Song of Mahamudra by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye.
An immersive retreat is a powerful way to settle one’s mind, deepen one’s practice, attune to one’s innate well-being, and open one’s heart. Surrounded by natural beauty and far from the clamor of our busy lives, Garrison Institute offers the ideal environment for contemplative practice.
Just as the crow that has flown from the ship, after seeking but finding no land, must return and settle on the ship again, so the mind sent questing by our desires must eventually return and settle in the unchanging nature of mind itself. Unmoved by stimuli, free of hope and fear, the hidden motivations destroyed and the root cut – this is the sky-like Vajra-mind itself.
- Mahasiddha Saraha – (8th century)
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