Chinese espionage and terror plot against Tibetans uncovered
- Chinese espionage and terror plot against Tibetans uncovered
- Josh Korda on “Awakening Together”
- IDP: Bringing Practice to Life Monday Nights 6/10 – 7/29
- Need a meditation reality check? You’ll find one in the Summer Buddhadharma magazine.
- Obituary: Diane Hittleman, yoga teacher
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Posted: 23 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT
Penpa Tsering, the alleged spy The plot came to attention after Tsering was exposed by Tashi Gyaltsen and Karma Yeshi, the two young men was planned to poison. Read More @ Source |
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Posted: 23 May 2013 07:00 AM PDT
 Photo (detail) by Gianna Leo Falcon. Over decades of spiritual practice it becomes clear that some of the most profound experiences occur within the arena of engaged interaction: It is in hearing fears and yearnings—too long considered shameful, swallowed, and unspoken—being expressed that allows us to climb out of our sense of isolation and uniqueness. The expression of sadness, loss, rejection, frustration, confusion, anger, and so on permits us to grasp and relax into the fundamental universal quality of our experience; our suffering is more uniform than we often suspect. Until we develop the courage to open up in partnership with others, we bury many of natural and authentic vulnerabilities beneath all of our reactive coping strategies: suspicion, doubt, micromanaging, suspicion, defensiveness, knowing-it-all, seeking attention at all cost. As a result we wall ourselves off from deep emotional connection, believing we are safer when our thoughts take charge but our hearts are not engaged. Choosing to awaken through conscious interaction is not a specifically Buddhist practice. It involves listening deeply when someone speaks, pausing to hear more than what the words alone are conveying. Communication often conveys far more than a single idea; what people say and mean can be tangled or entirely at odds. Can we take in facial expressions, body language, pauses, underlying pleas for love and/or attention? Can we open to the sensations that are occurring in our bodies, propelling us to speak. Can we relax into awkward silences? Can we live in the moments of vulnerability and lack of resolution? Can we reach agreements through eye contact or a knowing smile, or are we limited to connecting only through words? When we take the risk to step out from behind the wall of our social mask, we grant ourselves and others a safe space to be authentic. In being vulnerable we may experience, at times, the feeling of not being met, understood, or wounded. Yet we must continue. For the real misery and emotional pain lies in staying remote and hiding behind our views and opinions, rather than our empathy and compassion. The reward of taking risks and daring to be emotionally exposed is that, with persistence, it will lead to real deep connection and growth in unison with others. Josh Korda has been the teacher at New York Dharma Punx since 2005. He has also taught at New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and New York Insight Meditation Center.More from Josh Korda: Read More @ Source |
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Posted: 22 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT
In this eight-week workshop we'll explore the primary obstacles and hindrances to bringing our practice to life, and we'll learn several ways to incorporate new attention and techniques, including how to use meditation to illuminate formerly neglected areas such as interior emotional life and interpersonal relationships, how to skillfully work with unconscious obstacles to contemplative practice, and how to apply the teachings to every aspect of our life. Each class in this transformative series will include meditative practice, presentations by the teachers, discussion, and question & answers with the IDP community.
This class is taught by Dr. Jeffrey Rubin, a Contemplative Psychotherapist and the author of the books Meditative Psychotherapy, and The Art of Flourishing. Registration & Classes are also available for online access. Read More @ Source |
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Posted: 22 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT
 Are you struggling with your meditation practice? You'll find your meditation reality check inside the Summer Buddhadharma magazine, on newsstands now. It features a forum discussion on the obstacles to meditation — including laziness, forgetting the instructions, wildness, drowsiness, carelessness, and "an inability to coordinate the whole thing" — and how we can work with them. You can read the introduction to the forum here, and you'll find the whole discussion inside the magazine.There's lots more inside, too: Zen practitioner Gregory Shepherd looks back at his time in a monastery and the nagging question of whether he ever experienced enlightenment, Anyen Rinpoche discusses developing certainty in the path, and Zen priest Catherine Toldi addresses the painful conflicts that can arise in sanghas and how to handle them. Plus: Tulku Thondup shares a meditation on Guru Rinpoche and his pure land. Plus: Sumi Loundon Kim on creating dharma programs that meet the needs of children and their parents, a profile of Noah Levine's Against the Stream sangha, and much more.  Click here to sample everything inside the Summer Buddhadharma. If you're not a subscriber, click here to subscribe and save. Read More @ Source |
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Posted: 22 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT
Diane Hittleman was a yoga teacher who helped introduce and popularize hatha yoga in the U.S. in the 1960′s. She died last year. Her son Bret wrote this obituary, which we're pleased to publish.
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Diane "Janabai" Harrison, formerly Hittleman, passed in July 2012. She was 82 years old. Born in Pennsylvania, she was valedictorian of her high school class and attended university at Syracuse and Miami. Diane (my mother), along with my father Richard, helped to introduce and popularize hatha yoga in America with their 1960′s television show "Yoga for Health," filmed at KTLA in Los Angeles. My mother was simply known as "The Beautiful Diane" and never spoke a word on the show, while my father discoursed and had her demonstrate the various asanas. The show, and Richard's books, were incredibly popular, and they received fan mail from around the world from people of all walks of life, from celebrities and event President John F. Kennedy. She was a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she actually got Johnny on the floor and into the Cobra posture. While living in Hollywood. Diane was offered many media opportunities to capitalize on her popularity and fame but she preferred to maintain a modest low profile. She was indeed very beautiful physically as well as spiritually. She was a mother of 4 sons, a Buddhist, an artist, a writer and an adventurer, traveling to and living in many countries around the world in the course of her studies and teaching.
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Always a teacher of spiritual subjects and self-improvement, she taught yoga, meditation and "Rebirthing" and worked with Leonard Orr for many years. With my step-father, Don Harrison, she operated an ahsram in the Oakland (Calfornia) hills under the auspices of Swami Muktananda in the 1970′s where thousands of devotees and others came for Satsang when Baba was there. She was given the Hindu name Janabai by Baba. She loved the Dalai Lama and contributed to many charitable causes. She never accumulated material goods but rather chose to have the minimum number of possessions required for her needs.
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In her later years she lived in Thailand, and then Portland, Oregon and enjoyed a quiet life. Diane passed from this life fully prepared for the next one. After suffering a stroke she was unable to make a comeback and stopped eating – choosing to go out on her own terms. Her ashes were sprinkled in the ocean at Kahala Beach in Hawaii a place she had lived and loved for many years. She is survived by 4 sons and 5 grandchildren.
. The Beautiful Diane — may you rest peacefully in Dharmakaya. . before the beginning alone – the dead know peace life is a snowball turning in the sun –Nandai .
Bret welcomes readers to contact him at brethittleman[at]yahoo.com.
Read More @ Source |
