Great Pond Sangha

18/06/2024

09/02/2024

“The Buddha, in his very first teaching, said, “There is suffering”. Sometimes we mistakenly interpret this to mean that we are doomed to suf­fer. I take the Buddha’s words as an invitation to practice nonviolence toward my inner and outer worlds. In this simple but powerful statement, the Buddha suggests that suffering is not some­thing we can fix, ignore, or get rid of. Rather, he is intimating that practice provides the ability to make ourselves big enough to include both the pain and beauty of the human condition—not only our own but also that of others.
Our ability to bear witness to suffering with­out pushing it away or getting overwhelmed is linked to liberation. What is experience before we shrink from it, try to subdue it, or manipulate it? This is the question for practitioners.”
Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel

08/02/2024

06/02/2024

“When You Are Ready…”
By Lama Willa Blythe Baker

In her recent article "When You Are Ready...", Lama Willa reflects on the many forms in which our teachers might manifest.

While humans are sometimes teachers, it said, so are books. And so is the natural world: fire, water, earth, wind, and sky are spiritual teachers. The teacher, the handbook continued, is everywhere, arising symbolically through everything. Sometimes the teacher is not outside the self at all, but rather is the deepest part of you, the part that sees beyond the veil of separateness.

Read it in print in the Winter 2023 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly or find it online at the website at https://buff.ly/3SFnlsf

04/02/2024

Highly recommended!!

🔥🔥🔥 Waking Up to the Wildness of Love: A Retreat on Crazy Wisdom�A Hybrid Retreat With Lama Liz Monson and Matthew Bellows

March 21 - 24, 2024

In a world facing immense challenges, how can we respond to the suffering we see and experience? War, violence, and environmental breakdown have plunged us into overwhelming fear, threatening the future of humanity and other life. What resources do we possess to navigate this darkness and find the resilience and compassion needed to move forward? If these concerns keep you awake at night, this retreat is for you.

This Hybrid retreat is offered in person at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, NH and Live via Zoom.

Register at https://buff.ly/3vZVdr6

Tag a friend to join you 👇

30/01/2024

Tonight on Zoom. 7pm ET

Relaxing in Space: Exploring the Role of the Natural State in Psychedelic Journeys
Online Event

Tuesday, January 30 at 7 pm ET

Explore the depths of awareness with Lama Liz and Psychedelic Sangha. Discover the transformative power of inner peace as your vehicle for navigating the ever-expanding realm of consciousness.

Learn more and register at https://buff.ly/3Saemy5

22/01/2024

Relaxing in Space: Exploring the Role of the Natural State in Psychedelic Journeys
Online Event

Tuesday, January 30 at 7 pm ET

Explore the depths of awareness with Lama Liz and Psychedelic Sangha. Discover the transformative power of inner peace as your vehicle for navigating the ever-expanding realm of consciousness.

Learn more and register at https://buff.ly/3SnKBeq

09/01/2024

31/12/2023

The passing of a great one, a Dzogchen master, a kind and generous teacher. I had the joy and privilege of sitting with him in Cambridge in the early 1990's at the beginning of my foray into Buddhist practice. Many people were first introduced to Buddhism through his book, The Healing Power of Mind. https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Power-Mind-Meditation-Enlightenment/dp/1570623309/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3I1O55JW15KQK&keywords=tulku+thondup&qid=1703987816&sprefix=tulku+%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-7

by Sam Bercholz
December 29, 2023
The Buddha of Cambridge
An appreciation of the life and legacy of Tulku Thondup Rinpoche
One of the great lights of this world, one of the vanguards that first introduced Westerners to the wisdom teachings of Padmasambhava passed into mahaparinirvana last night. That man is Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, who just asked those he met, his friends, and those close to him to just call him “Tulku” like one would call a friend Jane or Joe. Tulku in the Tibetan refers to the nirmanakaya or body form of Buddha. Through his wisdom being, his evenness, his devotion, his unceasing kindness, his delightful sense of humor, and his joyful simplicity he truly appeared (at least to those who were blessed by his wakefulness) to be The Buddha of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived since his arrival as a Harvard visiting scholar in 1980.
There is a perfection about Rinpoche that expressed itself in a diversity of ways. He was the perfect scholar. Through his dharma teachings and the books that he translated or wrote, there is the clarity of pure dharma. His speech, either recorded or in written form, is the enlightened speech of pure perception. There is so much to be learned from his work, whether one is new to Buddhism or a so-called advanced practitioner. He wrote several books on healing, books on various aspects of the Tibetan Buddhist path, especially through his own insights like Enlightened Journey and Enlightened Living. He expounds in those books how to mix meditation and devotion—he is master of both. His two favorite books are Master and Miracles of Meditation where he presented the biographies of 35 enlightened masters who hold the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, a cycle of mystical teachings revealed by the great scholar and adept Jigme Lingpa. It is his “masterpiece”. His Heart of Unconditional Love is the other book that he was most happy about, in that he could share his own inner practice so that anyone so moved could actually do the same practice and ultimately attain the same realization. It expounds the essential teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana directly, with no prior experience needed. It is an amazing synthesis of profound insights and the best means to meet his mind and speech and to become awakened through that meeting.
He was the perfect disciple. He served his lama, the Fourth Dodrup Chen impeccably through his deep faith, and by doing anything and everything his lama asked, including taking care of Dodrup Chen’s western students and his Mahasiddha Nyingmapa Center in Hawley, Massachusetts.
He was the perfect teacher. He made a point of not having disciples, but through his wisdom activity he had many that considered him to be their teacher, including the Western students of Dodrup Chen Rinpoche. Spending time with him in his small apartment off Harvard Square was extraordinary, in that he created an atmosphere where he could impart the Buddhist teachings of all the nine yanas from the point of view of ati yoga or Great Perfection. To be with him was an unceasing rain of blessings. The great Nyingma teacher, Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, mentioned many times that “Tulku Thondup style is the best style”.
He was the perfect spiritual friend. He was extraordinarily available to those who needed spiritual advice, needed help with diseases of body or of mind, needed help to die fearlessly, needed help on how to be with ill or dying friends or relatives. He gave Buddhist vows to those who were ready, blessed young children, performed occasional marriages. He offered help to scholars and aspiring scholars. His presence was a beacon of sanity and trustworthiness. His relationship with his wonderful wife, Lydia Segal, was an example of pure love.
He was the perfect truth teller. Everything that he said was dependable and shockingly practical. Tulku uttered that not everyone has the karma of attaining enlightenment in this lifetime. He pointed out through very simple practices like those outlined in his Unconditional Love that one could develop the faith to be reborn into Amitabha’s Pure Land. He was a bit surprised that so few Western students had taken interest in the Pure Land teachings, which are a very important aspect of the Mahayana and Vajrayana in Tibet. He said numerous times that he wished to be reborn into Dewachen, the pure land, to be of benefit to as many beings as possible. May the sublime wishes of The Buddha of Cambridge provide inspiration to us all.

The true nature of our minds is enlightened and peaceful, as the depth of the ocean is calm and clear. But when we mentally grasp and emotionally cling to our wants and worries with all our energy, we lose our own enlightened freedom and healing power, only to gain stress and exhaustion, sufferin...

31/12/2023

https://www.shambhala.com/remembering-tulku-thondup-rinpoche/

It is with the deepest sadness we share the news that Tulku Thondup Rinpoche passed away on December 29, 2023.

05/12/2023

Diving Deep with the Divine Feminine Online Course with Lama Liz Monson
January 10, 2024 - February 14, 2024

A six-week course, Wednesdays, 5:30–7:00 pm ET

In this unprecedented time in human history, when we are facing radical shifts in living conditions and an ongoing destabilization of both the natural world and our personal human spheres, discovering and harnessing the powerful healing energies of the divine feminine may help us to navigate the challenging emotional experiences and energies that arise. While all beings possess these energies, they have not been as actively explored or engaged as the more dominant masculine energies that frame much of the dominant world view and our human experience.

By invoking the energies of the Divine Feminine into our practice and our lives, we can discover the innate power we possess for nurturing resilience, peace, fierce compassion and love.

Register at https://buff.ly/3Nb8TVV

26/11/2023

What does it mean to honor our incarnations rather than turn away from them?

22/11/2023

Join us for The Wonder of Awareness: Natural Dharma Fellowship’s Annual Online Winter Retreat with Lama Willa Blythe Baker, Lama Liz Monson and Laura Sicari

January 4 -7, 2024, Online Via Zoom

Just as the quiet beauty of snow-covered mountains hosts an indescribable peace, our awareness is home to a lucid wakefulness, a peace within. Mixing our experience, no matter what it is, with practice, we discover how meditation can provide a powerfully transformative container for everything that arises.�
Join our community this new year for a deep home retreat as we explore the wonder of awareness through live teachings with Lamas Willa and Liz, meditation practice, yoga sessions with Laura Sicari and daily small group meetings.

Suitable for all levels.

https://buff.ly/47fnRSK

18/11/2023

The path of the shaman asks us to sacrifice the roles we play, the masks we wear and the stories we tell long enough for the transcendent part of our nature to impress itself on our world and make a difference.

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” Lao Tzu.

My choices in life were not completely a series of consciously chosen paths that lead me to this point in life but a series of trials and errors that lead me to the inevitable conclusion that what excites me and actually works for me is to be in service to the soul, learning and teaching ways of awakening and ending suffering.

We all have our paths and we can be good medicine in our particular worlds. The fundamentals of compassion and empathy extend into all career paths and ways of being in the world.

We are all asked to rise into the level of care-taker for our world so that we survive and thrive in the worlds ahead. Shamans are legion. They exist in all walks of life and cultures.

Kelly Nezat

07/08/2023

“From the soul’s point of view, you come to appreciate that each one of us is living out his or her own karma. We interact together, and those interactions are the grist for each other’s mill of awakening. From a personality point of view, you develop judgment, but from the soul’s point of view, you develop appreciation. This shift from judging to appreciating — to appreciating yourself and what your karmic predicament is, and who other beings are with their own karma — brings everything into a simple loving awareness. To be free means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the universe.”

- Ram Dass

Art by

13/06/2023

Tsoknyi Gechak School is seeking energetic, flexible and creative English teaching volunteers to join the nunnery community and teaching team at Tsoknyi Gechak Ling in Kathmandu, Nepal this August or September. Experience in teaching English (especially phonics for the younger grades) and familiarity with Nepal and Tibetan Buddhist culture a plus. Please see the volunteer page for more information: https://www.tsoknyigechakschool.org/volunteer/

17/04/2023

"Writing becomes an act of compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our suffering, and set us free. This is the sorcery of literature. We are healed by our stories.”
Terry Tempest Williams

13/04/2023

Dear Friends,

Our precious guru is sitting in meditation at Kopan Monastery.

Rinpoche had been up in the mountains in the Tsum Valley since Monday, and had to be brought down urgently as Rinpoche was experiencing altitude sickness.

On arrival back in Kathmandu this morning, Rinpoche stopped breathing. The main doctor at Karuna Hospital tried for some time to revive Rinpoche, but that was not successful. Rinpoche entered meditation at about 9.30am Nepal time, today Thursday April 13th.

His Holiness has been informed, and is giving advice.

The lama gyupas and monks are taking turns in sessions offering Cittamani Tara with Rinpoche, as advised by His Holiness. Other pujas and prayers are being offered here in Kopan.

Khadro-la has advised that this is a most important and precious time for students. Khadro-la went on to advise that the best thing for the students to do at this time is to practice bodhicitta in particular, as well as impermanence in the context of the lamrim, and then also as much as one can to help fulfil the guru's holy wishes.

Khadro-la insisted that we should take this opportunity to try to achieve all or some of the lamrim in our own practice. Meditating and praying to the guru to receive his blessings and guidance is very important. And to try as much as possible to complete Rinpoche’s projects and holy wishes, so already to generate that wish that we'll be able to do that.

Please pray and dedicate for Rinpoche to be reborn as quickly as possible in a place where he can be very quickly recognized and be of most benefit to sentient beings.

Please keep trying to fulfil Rinpoche’s holy wishes, especially to practice impermanence and bodhicitta in the context of the lamrim. Fulfilling the gurus' holy wishes is a very important part of inviting the guru to return.

As you know, Rinpoche was the embodiment of bodhicitta, and always stressed the importance of remembering impermanence, and the essential need to put the teachings into practice. This is what we can do for our precious guru now – please try to follow Rinpoche's heart advice. We can all connect with the guru and receive the guru’s blessings in this way - NOW is a very important time for this.

We will be sending out further updates regularly.

Our hearts are breaking, we take all our support from Rinpoche’s teachings, and the guidance of His Holiness and our teachers, and in our FPMT family.

Big love.

On behalf of Ven Roger Kunsang
FPMT International Office

11/02/2023

“I would say to something like, ‘How long do you think we are going to be on the road?’ and he would say ‘Don’t worry about the future, just live now.’ So we would be silent for a while, sleeping on our wooden beds and I would say, ‘Gee, this sure is strange in relation to the past. You know when I used to…’ and he would say, ‘Just be here now.” – Ram Dass

10/01/2023

On Belonging.

From the moment we take breath, our bodies know when to breathe and our hearts know when to beat, no one teaches us the simple wisdom of being alive.

We live, just as a million others have lived, through the fall and steady rise of seasons. The same moon waxes and wanes; the same sun rises and falls and the same constellations cast their sweeping nets across the night. Over every nation and every time. And over every spark of life.

There is a centre, a universal rhythm to things.

It's not until we relinquish this idea that we are different or apart, that we are special or don't belong, that we can re-member and reclaim our sacred birthright in the Great Cycle. That we can surrender to the mystery of how those same, wise rhythms transform us - in both the inner and outer worlds.

We can stare up at the sky and know that we are alive. We can swim in a swelling ocean and know its waves have kissed every shore, and in every age. We can find our own soul in the fleeting glance of a stranger, or the eyes of a fellow creature; hear the soul in the brush of leaves in the woods, or connect to the new and trusting being of a child, hand held safely in our own. And each transforming sunset, and every changing season reminds us that with and without us - it will all go on. The precious moment is now. Each joy and trouble is fleeting.

There is a freedom to honouring our fleeting place in it all. And a sober responsibility too, that the indigenous peoples have always understood - that everything in life is deeply connected.

And at the same time, when we find that Centre, we can experience our own. That we are whole in and of ourselves, that our eyes and breath, and soul, are the songs of a whole planet. Nothing is lost. And there, in the connection to our own heartbeat we can find a stride that matches the heartbeat of the World, and in that stride find the gentle, embodied power of our own significance. This is the power of the Feminine. Where light and dark, sorrow and joy, life and death are contained in the ancient embrace of The Mother, where her children might grow.

Every voice tells us to forget that we belong - here, and to one another, you and me. Instead we name differences, we demand perfection, we are blinded by all that separates and creates divides. We are told that we must fight and conquer, to earn our place in a world we already call Home. Have letters or titles after our name to be heard, respected. That we must be unblemished, untouched by life, perfect to be loved, *seen* - when all it takes is to catch another's eye to see the part of us that is here, learning, struggling, *being*; and that is eternal. All part of a grand web of life in a unique world, in a universe that is itself, a miracle.

It is the soul that remembers the perfect unity of our life here, together. Love that crosses distance and heals the divide, in ourselves and with one another; humility that reminds us each day that we participate in a short moment called Life.

We've built entire civilisations to compensate for this loss, this disconnect - but if we are quiet, we will still hear it. For each day our heart and our souls commune with this Great Mystery. For they are the very impulse of Life itself.

~ Rachel Alana Falconer

02/01/2023

Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

― Rumi

10/10/2022

Interesting essay by Matthew Fox

The historical Christ and Buddha lived and taught thousands of years ago, but their ultimate nature is always present. Renowned theologian Matthew Fox looks at buddhanature and the Cosmic Christ and how we can find them within us.

03/10/2022

We are resuming some in-person meditation sittings each week as "hybrid" offerings. Some activities will remain on Zoom. For up to date info via email newsletters please join
https://groups.google.com/forum/ #!forum/greatpondsangha
for zoom links/news or email greatpondsangha@gmail.com
Mon 11:30am-12:15pm Female Buddha Tara Practice
Wed 7:00pm-8:30pm Guided Meditation & Discussion
Fri 8:30am-9:15am Silent Sitting & Walking Meditation. Also, Dharma talks, instruction, guest teachers, retreats, potlucks, social gatherings. Free/just drop in. Please support our sangha & teachers with a tax-deductible donation: https://onrealm.org/NorthParish/give/Sangha
Newcomers/Beginners/Teens/ All welcome.

05/09/2022

“In the Lakota/Sioux tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most wakan, most holy. There's a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world. The prayers of those who grieve are considered especially strong, and it is proper to ask them for their help.
You might recall what it's like to be with someone who has grieved deeply. The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend. The mystery is looking out through that person's eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future. In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom.”

― Tara Brach
Picture Credit: Unknown

18/06/2022

Do not miss this!! I heard Lama Willa speak on this recently and it was fabulous. Donations optional but you must register in advance

DHARMA SUNDAY | June 19 | 10am-12pm ET
REGISTER: https://naturaldharma.org/schedule/online-dharma-sunday-6-19-topic-tba/

What does it mean to belong? Deep in our hearts is this natural human need to belong, to feel held in a circle of connection. This Dharma Sunday, we will explore the deep human desire to belong, to live in a way that is connected and embedded. How can we fulfill that need? What is required on our part?

Join Lama Willa and the NDF community for Dharma Sunday as we explore and experience what it means to belong.