Did you know that prior to becoming the Buddha, he was a prince named Siddhartha? Read excerpt from Lama Tsomo’s recent book “Ancient Wisdom for Our Times: Tibetan Buddhist Practice: Why Bother? An Introduction”
Namchak Community Blog
Understanding the Four Immeasurables and Their Near and Far Enemies
The Four Immeasurables, also called the Four Boundless Qualities, and the Four Brahmaviharas are the Buddhist virtues of Equanimity, Loving Kindness, Compassion, and Sympathetic Joy.
How to Start Meditating
On the Buddhist path, Calm Abiding serves as the foundation for all other practices. It is a technique used to develop our power of attention and bring our coarse and subtle thoughts to a restful state. In other words, it is resting or abiding in that peaceful state.
What are the Six Perfections or Six Paramitas?
The Mahayana Path of Buddhism, where we at Namchak find our roots, focuses upon the Six Perfections also known as the Six Paramitas.
The Noble Eightfold Path
The Theravada tradition focuses on the Noble Eightfold Path, according to the Buddha, the Noble Eightfold Path consists of Right View, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. We like to think of the first seven as pillars that support Right Concentration.
The Three Yanas: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana Explained
After the Buddha passed into nirvana, Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism became the two prevalent paths that spread throughout Asia There are many differences between the two traditions and depending on who you ask, those differences can be great or quite small.
The Three Poisons
Unfortunately, the Three Poisons we discuss often in Buddhism do not come with attention-grabbing labels. They tend to sneak into our lives and cause suffering until we gain an awareness of them. Though not always pleasant, gaining that awareness and learning to work...
Journal Prompts for Introspection and Self-Awareness
We often take time for journaling at our meditation retreats, events, and online courses
4 Guided Meditations to Invigorate Your Practice
With the change of seasons comes the opportunity to reinvigorate our practice. Whether you’re feeling burned out or just ready for a change, here are some of our favorite guided meditations for you to try. Clearing the Stale Energies. Not sure how to start off your...
Shamata: Tibetan Style
Like the rest of the world, we’ve shifted the way we do things in order to navigate the ever-changing COVID-19 crisis. When physical distancing became the norm to keep us all safe, we started brainstorming how best to support our community during these new times. We...
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