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How To Change the World, Part Two: Seeing Things Coming from You and Not At You

Lama Marut completes the teaching on the six perfections -- how we train to become a bodhisattva -- and then looks at why it is a bodhisattva activity to understand the distinction between deceptive reality and ultimate reality.
 
This podcast was taken from a teaching on Tonglen given at the Compassion Retreat held in South Lake Tahoe in 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

How To Change the World, Part One: Introduction to the Six Perfections

Lama Marut has said that the secret to happiness is to stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking about and doing things for others.  A bodhisattva dedicates their life to the service of everyone else and trains in the six perfections.  Here Lama Marut talks about the first three of these perfections.

This podcast was taken from a teaching on Tonglen given at the Compassion Retreat held in South Lake Tahoe in 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Developing Bodhicitta

Bodhicitta is the wish to get enlightened as quickly as possible for the sake of all sentient beings. A bodhisattva is somebody who has bodhicitta. Being a bodhisattva is way more than just being a nice guy. What would it look like to have bodhicitta in our modern world?

This podcast was taken from a teaching on Tonglen given at the Compassion Retreat held in South Lake Tahoe in 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Big, Gnarly Warrior

The greatest enemy underlying all mental afflictions is self-grasping or self-cherishing. In this exciting and animated podcast, Lama Marut talks about how to use an energy that symbolizes a big, gnarly warrior to fight this enemy and end suffering.

This podcast was taken from the annual Thanksgiving Retreat in Lake Tahoe in November of 2007.

For the text referred to in this podcast, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org/ALLAUDIO/DE_XIV/DEXIV.pdf

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Secret of Happiness

Reprioritize your life: Stop killing time and instead realize happiness. Lama Marut teaches us two methods to become happy, maitri ("loving-kindness") and karuna ("compassion").

This podcast was taken from the annual Thanksgiving Retreat in Lake Tahoe in November of 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Finding Your Teacher

Lama Marut concludes an interview with a discussion of how to approach a spiritual teacher, why the teacher is so important, the fears that surround the idea of a guru, and what the job of a teacher really is.

This podcast was taken from an interview conducted with Lama Marut by Cindy Lee on Oct. 14, 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Addiction, Meditation, and Addiction to Meditation

The goal of Buddhism is to be free – to become unaddicted.  Lama Marut urges us in this segment of an interview to work with the tool of meditation in order to regain control of ourselves and be free of our addictions.  But he also warns us to not just get re-addicted to the peaceful, narcotic states of mind meditation brings.

This podcast was taken from an interview conducted with Lama Marut by Cindy Lee on Oct. 14, 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

We're Stuck With Causality

Lama Marut continues in an interview setting to speak about being consistent in one’s worldview.  Things don’t happen for no reason, but the belief in karma and causality is hard to maintain in times when it’s difficult to do so.

This podcast was taken from an interview conducted with Lama Marut by Cindy Lee on Oct. 14, 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Westernizing Buddhism

In this interview, Lama Marut discusses Buddhism as it has come to the modern West and how we have a unique advantage of realizing the goals of this religion.

This podcast was taken from an interview conducted with Lama Marut by Cindy Lee on Oct. 14, 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Guided Meditation on the Teachers in Our Lives

Lama Marut leads us through a meditation on the possibility that the people in our lives – especially the difficult ones -- are all teachers.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Giving Yourself a Different Backstory

The only past that exists is part of present mind and is therefore changeable.  If we change our conceptualization of who we think we were we will think of ourselves now differently.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Trying to Find the Self

If there was a self the way we think there is, it would have to be the same as or different from its parts.  The only self that exists is just a concept or idea of a self.  The self is therefore perfectible if we create the karma that would force us to have a different conceptualization of ourselves.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Deeper End of the Pool

Things exist only interdependently, but the relationship of dependence itself is dependent on the mind that perceives things dependently.  Cause and effect, for example, is itself only a projection, and Lama Marut here shows us why.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Just the Facts Ma'am

According to modern science, things are changing at a rate of three trillion times a second.  But it doesn’t look that way.  And it doesn’t look as though everything exists dependently and not independently.  But subjects cannot exist without objects to perceive, and objects cannot exist without subjects to perceive them.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

Things are Empty. . . and Therefore Changeable

If things weren’t empty, change would be impossible.  Everything around us is constantly changing, but we are in denial about reality and we suffer as a result.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Frog in the Well Syndrome

Is it possible that your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, son or daughter, father or mother could be a divine being?  Lama Marut here urges us to suspend our disbelief in order to entertain the possibility that there are forces at work that we don’t understand.

This podcast was taken from a teaching at the annual Windhover Retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, August of 2009.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Perfection of Wisdom

The world is not what it seems and wisdom helps us penetrate the illusion. Lama Marut here lays out a three-step process about how to get rid of irritating people through substituting wisdom for ignorance.

This podcast comes from a teaching given at the Vipassana Center in Santa Cruz, California, in June of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Perfections of Patience, Joyful Effort, and Meditation

Patience is the opposite of anger, the greatest enemy to happiness. Joyful effort means working hard for things that really matter. And the perfection of meditation is to learn how to concentrate one-pointedly on something that will lead to a happier life.

This podcast comes from a teaching given at the Vipassana Center in Santa Cruz, California, in June of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Perfection of Ethics, Pt. 2

One of the principal ways of motivating and focussing more carefully on our ethics is to remember that life is short and death is coming for sure, and thinking through carefully that fact that karma is certain.

This podcast comes from a teaching given at the Vipassana Center in Santa Cruz, California, in June of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

The Perfection of Ethics, Pt. 1

The foundation of a happy life is restraining from harming others and from taking pleasure in their suffering.

This podcast comes from a teaching given at the Vipassana Center in Santa Cruz, California, in June of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org