Dharma Glimpses with Judy Lief

I'd like to introduce three simple short meditation practices that help us tune in to the rich and ongoing process of exchange that marks our lives altogether  •  we're always giving something out to…

One of my favorite nursery rhymes contains quite a bit of wisdom: “Row row, row, row your boat gently down the stream; merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream”  •  if we think of the stream as…

We tend to think of hope and fear as opposites, but they are intimately entangled with one another  •  they are both based on our desires and our hopes, our expectations of what the future might brin…

Trungpa Rinpoche often spoke about the importance of a sense of humor on the spiritual path, but what did he really mean by it?  •  he was obviously not referring to telling jokes or being some kind …

Many people associate the practices of Buddhism with stillness; but actually the path of dharma is one of continual movement and growth  •  it's an organic process, one where everything cycles and ev…

Continuing our discussion of the sense perceptions, and how they are connected with a subtle kind of grasping  •  in Buddhism we talk about the senses as having three components: the sense organ, the…

In Buddhism there is a lot of interest in the sense perceptions  •  traditionally, it is said that there are six senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking  (in Buddhism, the …

When we contemplate impermanence, we're basically looking at the facts of life  •  the fact is that we all die; we all have losses, sorrow and heartbreak  •  we don’t contemplate impermanence as a wa…

Of all the contemplative practices of Buddhism, it is said that the contemplation of impermanence is the most useful  •  dealing with change isn’t easy: we’d like to put things together and have them…

The six paramitas challenge the mistaken view that we can make ourselves secure by grasping more and more tightly  •  to practice the paramita of generosity, we need to make a point of letting go, of…

In continuing our exploration of the prajna paramita, I'd like to focus on the inseparable trio of prajna (knowledge or wisdom), shunyata (emptiness), and compassion (karuna)  •  according to Trungpa…

The sixth and final paramita is the prajna paramita  •  the sanskrit term “prajna” means supreme knowledge—the best of knowing, the best of cognitive mind  •  even though the Buddhist tradition is wi…

The topic of meditation reminds me of the old saying, “all roads lead to Rome”  •  in the Buddhist tradition, all teachings seem to lead to meditation  •  sometimes we think of meditation as just sti…

In the Buddhist tradition there’s a lot of talk about practice, which is connected with the paramita of exertion  •  practice is something that you do over and over again, and as you do so, hopefully…

In the English language, the words “patience” and “patient” derive from the same word, meaning “to suffer” •  the Tibetan term for patience has more of a sense of forbearance; in Sanskrit, it has mor…

Coming from the vast and expansive ground of the first paramita, the paramita of generosity, we now turn our attention to the second paramita, the paramita of discipline  •  discipline has to do with…

[Continuing our exploration of the paramita of generosity]  •  generosity is like the expanding universe: it just keeps expanding and expanding without limit  •  the practice of generosity challenge…

The English word “generosity” comes from the Latin meaning “noble birth”  •  in talking about the bodhisattva path, this doesn't mean elitism or nobility in the sense of being kings and queens, but n…

In this episode, and in the next few episodes, we will explore the paramitas—what Trungpa Rinpoche referred to as “techniques of non grasping”  •  these techniques help us cultivate the two foundatio…

Bodhisattvas are those who dedicate their lives to attaining enlightenment themselves, and to providing situations that lead to the enlightenment of everyone  •  in approaching this high aspiration, …