Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Lama Samten to receive homage from the state of Parana
It is with great joy that I let you know that Lama Samten will be in Curitiba (my hometown) next Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008; to be declared Honorary Citizen of the state of Parana. The government of Parana* will hold a ceremony to honor Lama Samten, and he will be giving a speech on the Positive Perspectives for the Community. Lama Samten will be in Curitiba for the rest of the week giving lectures and teachings on subjects such as conflict management, building positive relations and deep teachings on meditation (source: http://paramitta.org/site/).
Parana is the first state from top to bottom of the South Region of Brazil. Its capital is Curitiba. Lama Samten is from Rio Grande do Sul, the southern state of Brazil.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
In the beginning of the path...
This is the first posting of this blog, after the first meditation session here in Calgary. This blog not only will serve as a channel of communication among those who are taking part of the sessions, but to all of those who are interested in learning about the benefits of meditation. It will also serve as a space for presentation of topics that will be useful in giving us insights for our practices.
In our first meeting, held on November 8, 2008; we saw an introduction to the kind of meditation we will be seeing along the course. At first, we will be seeing two kinds of meditations. The first one is for stabilization. We need to stabilize our minds, settle down our daily worries and be prepared to receive instructions and gain insights. The next form of meditation, the analytical meditation, we will use to question and analyze the reality we perceive through our senses, searching for liberation from the conditioning factors we set for ourselves automatically. Also, as a foundation for this meditation, we will need some teachings which will serve as skillful means of analyzes.
In our first meeting we also saw that, as the background of those meditations, we will be using the Buddha’s teachings under the lights of the Tibetan Buddhism, with the approach of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Padma Samten’s, whose biography we went through shortly, seeing his background and his path from Quantum Physics Professor in the University to becoming a Lama, ordained by His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. I will soon start working on the translation to English of Lama Samten’s texts, DVDs, and books.
The other very important thing we saw in our first meeting was the importance of the motivation behind our meditation practice. Our main motivation to sit and practice is to overcome our own conditioning mindsets in order to have a better understanding of reality, therefore, enable us to bring real benefits to all beings. We all establish relations among ourselves, human beings, as well as with other animals, the environment and the planet. The way we establish those connections can be either beneficial or harmful, so the clearer our mind is, the better we relate.
In our next sessions we are going to be talking about the body posture and the first instructions to stabilize the mind, and last, but not least, the importance of the dedication of merits at the end of each practice.
Peace!
Cris
In our first meeting, held on November 8, 2008; we saw an introduction to the kind of meditation we will be seeing along the course. At first, we will be seeing two kinds of meditations. The first one is for stabilization. We need to stabilize our minds, settle down our daily worries and be prepared to receive instructions and gain insights. The next form of meditation, the analytical meditation, we will use to question and analyze the reality we perceive through our senses, searching for liberation from the conditioning factors we set for ourselves automatically. Also, as a foundation for this meditation, we will need some teachings which will serve as skillful means of analyzes.
In our first meeting we also saw that, as the background of those meditations, we will be using the Buddha’s teachings under the lights of the Tibetan Buddhism, with the approach of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Padma Samten’s, whose biography we went through shortly, seeing his background and his path from Quantum Physics Professor in the University to becoming a Lama, ordained by His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. I will soon start working on the translation to English of Lama Samten’s texts, DVDs, and books.
The other very important thing we saw in our first meeting was the importance of the motivation behind our meditation practice. Our main motivation to sit and practice is to overcome our own conditioning mindsets in order to have a better understanding of reality, therefore, enable us to bring real benefits to all beings. We all establish relations among ourselves, human beings, as well as with other animals, the environment and the planet. The way we establish those connections can be either beneficial or harmful, so the clearer our mind is, the better we relate.
In our next sessions we are going to be talking about the body posture and the first instructions to stabilize the mind, and last, but not least, the importance of the dedication of merits at the end of each practice.
Peace!
Cris
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