Germany, 11 Mar 2020 - 22 Mar 2020

Forgive and Trust

Forgive and trust are important skills: for one's own inner peace as well as for peace within a community. People who overcome grudge, who can forgive, are in harmony with themselves and their environment - and they are happier. If we learn to forgive, we can prevent long lasting suffering.

Forgiving and trusting others, but especially oneself, can fundamentally change our life: we become free from the shadows of the past, can let go of fears and doubts and learn to trust - our fellow human beings, life and ourselves.

When we forgive ourselves and others, when we trust, our own thoughts and feelings change and we can become happy people.

In this seminar Tulku Lobsang shows us simple ways how we can learn to forgive and to trust.

The Power of Gratitude

Our life is full of beautiful things, occurrences and encounters. Too often, however, we only see the negative aspects - what doesn't work, what we don't achieve - instead of being happy and grateful for everything beautiful in our daily live. Also and especially for the little things.

Thankfulness is an incredibly powerful force. When we are consciously thankful, our life becomes easier, more relaxed and happier. If we complain about everything that happens to us, we become negative-thinking, frustrated and embittered people.

In this lecture we will learn from Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche about the deep impact thankfulness has on our live and how we can practice thankfulness in a simple way. To make our live easier - and make us more contented.

DREAM MEDITATION

In Dream Yoga or Dream Meditation, we try to recognize our dreams as dreams and this way learn to understand illusion. Throughout our lifetime we spend about 240,000 hours sleeping. As Buddha taught, this is precious time that can be used to develop our spiritual practice.

When we are awake, we simply know that our dreams are just an illusion. Yet, somehow, when we are immersed in our dreams, we typically are not conscious of their illusory quality. Through the practice of Dream Yoga, we can learn to recognize the illusion as illusion. This helps us to realize that even our waking life is an illusion. This is important to understand because illusion always creates suffering.

Dream Meditation, or Dream Yoga is the practice of lucid, conscious dreaming: first, we become conscious of the fact that we are dreaming while we are dreaming – so that we are then, in a second step, able to control our dreams. In this dream state of mind, we can willingly evoke situations which cause us problems in our daily life, in order to re-live them during the dream state and learn how to better deal with our difficulties.

On a deeper level, Dream Yoga offers us the opportunity to affect our dreams in ways that shed light on the ultimate nature of reality and of the mind. This is a wonderful way to develop our spiritual practice and increase our happiness.

Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche teaches us body postures, mantras and visualizations, which prepare us for the practice of Dream Meditation.

THE POWER OF DESIRE

Desire and wanting are strong forces in our lives. They largely determine what we do and what we don't do. While we all wish to be happy, we are wrong to believe that we will be happy once our desires are satisfied and our wishes are fulfilled. In other words, we tend to need a reason to be happy, which is why we are always running after something. The outcome, however, is exactly the opposite: we are unhappy, dissatisfied and often hurt our fellow human beings.

Tantrayana Buddhism offers effective methods of using the inherent power of this constant desire and wanting in a positive way by transforming it into unconditional love and compassion. In this lecture, Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche gives an introduction to this exciting topic.

Through Guru Yoga we set our hearts and minds in the right way so that we receive the teachings as purely as possible.

Guru Yoga is the root of Tantrayana practice. Whatever practice we are doing, Guru Yoga will empower our practice. The reason for this is devotion. The cultivation of devotion is not for the benefit of the teacher. It is us, the students, that benefit from devotion. The cultivation of pure love and devotion opens our hearts, clears our minds of delusion, and reduces our ego. This is the way to truly receive a teaching.

If we come to a teaching from a place of ego or pride, we may not hear it correctly, or we may misunderstand. It may be the perfect teaching, given by the perfect teacher, but with ego and pride, it will not help. Guru Yoga enables us to come from a place of devotion and connection.

In Buddhism, the connection between the student and the teacher is very important. Although we all carry Buddha nature within us, we are often not capable of recognizing it. We need a teacher, a guru, to guide this realization within us. The teacher introduces us to ourselves. This connection is the key. We can read a book, but a book cannot read us. A good teacher reads us and holds up a mirror so that we can see ourselves.

Guru Yoga helps us to cultivate pure motivation and deep devotion for the teacher and the teaching. This, more than anything, will help us to receive the most benefit from our practices. It also enables the wisdom and realization of the Lama to melt within our mind. It is not sufficient to carry the seed of Buddha nature in us. We need faith and devotion, so that our Lama can transfer blessings upon us.

Tummo – awakening our inner fire

Tummo is our wisdom fire. It is something we naturally have within our bodies. This fire, this inner warmth, can be found in the area below the navel chakra. On a physical level it is responsible for the temperature of our body—the heat of digestion and metabolism, the heat that powers chemical reactions and builds hormones. But Tummo is much more than this! On an energetic level, the Tummo fire blazes through the channels, melting away the subtlest blockages and surging energy throughout the body. On the level of mind, Tummo is the source of love, joy, happiness and bliss.

Unfortunately, as we become older we start to lose this natural warmth. Then, our hormones and essences automatically reduce. But it doesn’t have to be this way! The Tummo practice will reignite our inner fire. Through a combination of movements, breath techniques and visualizations we generate the Tummo flame and spread it throughout the body. The flame grows, starting from below the navel and rising higher and higher. It softly penetrates each of the main chakras, spreading to all the branches and every pore of our body.

The chakras are secret doors to our being. Opening them and connecting with our Tummo fire brings us great realizations. In this way, we tap into our inner wisdom. From this great presence we can realize the true nature of our mind, fundamental wisdom, and unconditional love and compassion.

Tulku Lobsang has a very special connection to Tummo. This is his specialty and he can teach it like no other. An amazing opportunity!

Problems – our best teachers

Life is full of problems—as long as we are alive, there will be problems! Pushing them away only increases our suffering and creates more problems. This is because rejecting them is also a denial of our nature.
Tulku Lobsang offers us another method. In the Tantrayana Buddhist tradition, we learn to use our problem to come out of the problem. The problem itself can be the solution to the problem. A simple example is rather than just renouncing a negative emotion such as anger, to take that anger and redirect it at the anger itself. In this way, the anger can become a major motivation to purify one’s mind and develop spiritually. We will decrease our suffering and increase our wisdom when we shift our perception of problems. We should embrace our problems and give thanks for them! Problems teach us great lessons. They are our best teachers. They are opportunities for developing ourselves. Therefore, we must have respect for those that create problems for us, because this helps us to better know ourselves. In fact, this method is fastest way to reach enlightenment. By transforming our problems, we also transform ourselves. By transforming our perception, we expand our desire for all things. Rather than wanting some things and rejecting other things, we accept all things as beneficial. When we view our problems as medicine, we have the opportunity to develop great joy and wisdom.

Tulku Lobsang is a high master in the Tibetan Buddhism who has intensely studied the Buddhist methods, including astrology, philosophy and Tibetan medicine – in Tibet as well as in Indian exile. Tibetan medicine is an ancient healing knowledge based on the understanding of the interdependence of body and mind.

During consultations, Tulku Lobsang gives advice on how to compensate a possible imbalance through a change in diet, by movement as well as breath or meditation techniques. He also answers questions about the own personal spiritual practice.

Four steps to heal body and mind

We live in a modern world where we all often suffer from mental or physical diseases. We are in an emotional imbalance our body and mind and do not take the time to rebalance them. Tibetan medicine bases on the conviction that negative emotions are the cause of every disease. Even the environment we live in as well as the way how we lead our lives have direct effect on our health state. The same is to say about the mental state we encounter our fellow beings and the nutrition which plays an important role in the health of our body and mind. Tulku Lobsang teaches us four steps to heal our body and mind and tells us which are the basic principles for being balanced mentally and physically. This is how the problems we encounter will not throw us out of the track.

Forgive and Trust

Forgive and trust are important skills: for one's own inner peace as well as for peace within a community. People who overcome grudge, who can forgive, are in harmony with themselves and their environment - and they are happier. If we learn to forgive, we can prevent long lasting suffering.

Forgiving and trusting others, but especially oneself, can fundamentally change our life: we become free from the shadows of the past, can let go of fears and doubts and learn to trust - our fellow human beings, life and ourselves.

When we forgive ourselves and others, when we trust, our own thoughts and feelings change and we can become happy people.

In this lecture Tulku Lobsang shows us simple ways how we can learn to forgive and to trust.

Bliss – Meditating on substantial Love

Everyone wants to be happy.

More often than not, though, we depend upon external factors for our happiness: we think we need a reason to be happy. The way to liberate ourselves from this heavily dependent version of happiness is the practice of bliss. We do not need a reason to experience bliss. Unlike happiness that is experienced conceptually in the mind, bliss is direct perception through the body.

Tantrayana Buddhism often uses the body to attain the "clear light" mind. Reaching this clear-light state of mind is easier and faster when we do it by working with our body. That is what is special about Tantrayana. In this Retreat Tulku Lobsang teaches us how to create physical bliss – to practice love of the body - through specific bodily movements, visualization and breathing techniques. This physical bliss dissolves all conceptual thought. Only the perceptual mind remains. This means we have reached a mind full of bliss, or the “clear light” mind. This is the highest goal in Tantrayana, because through experiencing a blissful mind we discover the true nature of our mind.

The more bliss we feel, the less we distinguish between 'I' and ‘you.’ Feelings of attachment, desire and anger are significantly reduced allowing for all our negative emotions to gradually decrease. The practice of bliss is the best technique to overcome all negative emotions.

The difference between women and men

“Opposites attract each other”: women and men have just little in common. They think, feel and act in very different ways - and that this results continuously in misunderstandings. In the Tibetan medicine there are simple explanations for this: Men are more connected with their navel area, also called navel chakra, women with the heart, the heart chakra. For this reason, women act more emotionally, men more rationally.

Tulku Lobsang illustrates in a humorous way how this gender-specific connectedness with the elements and chakras can easily lead to conflicts – and he gives tips on how we can find more mutual understanding through this knowledge of the differences.

Tulku Lobsang is a high master in the Tibetan Buddhism who has intensely studied the Buddhist methods, including astrology, philosophy and Tibetan medicine – in Tibet as well as in Indian exile. Tibetan medicine is an ancient healing knowledge based on the understanding of the interdependence of body and mind.

During consultations, Tulku Lobsang gives advice on how to compensate a possible imbalance through a change in diet, by movement as well as breath or meditation techniques. He also answers questions about the own personal spiritual practice.

The avoidance of disease

The fundamental reason for many illnesses is our ignorance. As long as we are ignorant, we will continue to experience illness, pain and suffering. Ignorance only can be overcome by awareness. We reach awareness when we realize and understand which actions bring us happiness and which cause us suffering. When we see things as they really are and not as we want to see them, then we have a clear, seeing mind. The clear mind causes us to be aware of our own thoughts and to understand that our negative thoughts and negative emotions are the root cause for suffering.

Through different techniques we can learn to overcome our negative emotions and our ignorance and this way avoid illness and improve our health.

Traditional Tibetan Mindfulness Meditation

Tibetan Buddhism offers us a clear system to develop those qualities of the mind that enable us to realize our full potential. Learning and cultivating mindfulness is one of the main practices on the path to inner peace, equanimity and happiness. Mindfulness is the root of Buddha's teachings, it is a fortress for our mind. When we lack mindfulness, we are overwhelmed by our negative emotions and cannot reach our goal - unconditional love and unconditional happiness.

In this seminar, Tulku Lobsang teaches us methods suitable for everyday use on how to train our mind according to the Tibetan tradition in order to develop and cultivate mindfulness. Accessing this ability we can increasingly realize our potential: assets like concentration, tranquility and awareness are improved and we learn to create truly loving relationships.

Lu Jong is an old Tibetan practice. The body exercises have been developed in order to activate our self-healing-energies. With the help of the exercises we can support healing processes positively, overcome negative emotions and increase our energy. 

Lu Jong is based on Tibetan medicine, where the human body is seen as a composition of the five elements earth, fire, water, wind and space.  It is important to understand the connections and interdependence of this five elements. When the elements are out of balance, then it is quite probable to suffer from a disease. Therefore the goal is, to balance the five elements – here the 5-elements-exercises of Lu Jong are very helpful.
Through the combination of position, movement and breath Lu Jong can open physical channels and blocks in a soft way and mobilize misdirected energy. In this way our physical health, mental clarity and vitality are improved. These characteristics are the base for spiritual practice.

Tulku Lobsang will teach us the moevmentes of the five elements and the knowledge of the elements, which can be found in our body as well in nature. Knowing this, we can shape our daily life in a way where the elements support us in dealing with our tasks, instead of interfering.

In our fast moving times, with our daily lifes characterized by stress, insecurity and emotional imbalance, we often crave for a quiet, peaceful mind.

In Tibetan medicine a close connection between mental balance and physical health is assumed. This deep understanding of the connection between our mind and physical health is the basis for the conviction that we have to overcome negative emotions to be healthy. There are techniques which help us to control our thoughts and emotions. Through them we are capable to remain healthy and overcome stress and insecurity.