Heart of Compassion : The Teachings of Tonglen

Tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice, means taking in and sending. We take in suffering and send out light, ease and healing. 

Myoshin Kate McCandless, has learned this powerful practice from two American teachers of Tibetan Buddhism and shares a step-step sequence to develop the capacity for deep compassion for oneself and others.  

The following is the approximate timing. Please feel free to pause the recording if you need more time between each section. 

Welcome

(2:10) Avalokiteshvara meditation 

(19:00) Ultimate/relative bodhicitta  

(58:00) Four immeasurables meditation

(1.14:30) Tonglen

(1.29:00) Tonglen for world  

(1.43:00) everyday Tonglen

Notes can be found HERE

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Everyday Zen (9/9): Service

Shinmon Michael Newton gives the last talk in our Dharma Seminar on Charlotte Joko Beck's Everyday Zen - Love and Work, offering further insight into a formidable zen teacher. 

What would it be like to live a life of no exchange?

Religion's Relevance to Contemporary Society

Mysoshin Kate McCandless emphasizes that religions can not only provide solace and inspiration, but also need to reckon with harms done in the name of "god".

Everyday Zen (8/9): Boundaries

Using Joko Beck's Everyday Zen as a springboard, Myoshin Kate McCandless asks us to consider what kind of boundaries we are attached to, and which of the worldly winds blows us off our path.

Everyday Zen (7/9): Choices

Nin-en Susan Elbe picks up the thread of Charlotte Joko Beck’s Everyday Zen by offering a talk on Chapter 8. 

How do the paramitas help us make difficult choices?

Not One Not Two: Art and Practice – a ZED talk by Onsen Kerr

ZED Talks (Zen Engaged Dharma) invite sangha members to tell their stories about how Zen practice manifests in their life.

Zen priest Onsen Kerr from Middle Way Sangha in Victoria discusses how her art practice is one of realization and disruption, and explores the question of how Art and Zen co-exist – and for whose benefit? 

See Onsen's work (as described in the talk) at:
https://www.colleenkerrartworks.ca/newwork

Dogen Intensive: Moon (3/3)

To end our month long Genzo-e, Shinmon Michael Newton underlines that the moon is a symbol for awakening to non-dual reality and to impermanence.

Dogen Intensive: Moon (2/3 - Closing Retreat)

In this talk, Shinmon Michael Newton encourages us to not reject the incomplete and to not hang on to what is complete, but rather just to practice; to actualize the complete moon that is not yet full.