Namchak Community Blog

Compassion in Action Fellowship Update

Given the active Coronavirus developments and school closures, along with the many unknowns for the months ahead, we have decided to postpone the Compassion in Action Fellowship until the 2021 - 2022 academic year. We are deeply grateful to all who have applied,...

Separate but Together-My first online retreat

I was planning on celebrating my one-year Namchak employment anniversary with my co-workers and Namchak Khen Rinpoche in New York City. I was excited to see people I met at my first retreat a year ago and to connect with new friends. But a microscopic virus threw a...

Female Deities of Tibetan Buddhism: Palden Lhamo

Did you know that Tibetan Buddhism has many different deities? The deities represent different aspects or elements that you may try to channel while meditating. Think of them as aspirational figures with capacities that you are growing, like compassion for yourself...

A personal note of care and compassion from Lama Tsomo

I hope this message finds you well during these times of uncertainty and rapidly changing conditions. We are sending love and compassion to all those affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19)—in both big and small ways. While monitoring the situation carefully, we...

The Near and Far Enemies of Loving Kindness

Each of the Four Immeasurables has a near and far enemy. We’ll be focusing on Loving Kindness in this piece. Think of a far enemy as a complete opposite in this context. The far enemy or complete opposite of Loving Kindness is ill will or hatred towards another being....

Cultivating Self-love & Acceptance

For some of us, trying to cultivate self-love and acceptance through a Loving Kindness practice can be like trying to go to the moon: we know it’s possible, but the journey seems impossible. It’s so much easier to worry about our endless responsibilities than to sit...

3 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic

Our internal critic can be harsh and unrelenting, especially in times when we’re triggered. That critic can be hard to silence fully without suppressing or repressing it. So how can we acknowledge the inner critic without nurturing its presence to grow in our minds...

The What and How of Loving Kindness

This month we are focusing on Loving Kindness, or metta meditation. It is our hope that this month will be a time of wishing happiness for all beings. Perhaps we can use all of the Valentine's Day advertisements as reminders to do this practice instead of buying boxes...

Let’s Say Goodbye to Perfection

Do you ever find yourself worrying that you’re not measuring up to a yardstick of perfection? Whether we’re talking about our meditation practice or just things we want to accomplish, it can be easy to get frustrated and discouraged if we don’t hit the impossible goal...

Recommended Articles

The Path to Happiness

The Path to Happiness

In her book Why Bother? An Introduction, Lama Tsomo discusses why she bothered with meditation and the benefits she has experienced

The Bodhisattva Path to Enlightenment

The Bodhisattva Path to Enlightenment

The demands and pace of modern life tend to leave us with little time to think through all of our decisions and actions. Even on normal-seeming days, we wake up to a mountain of decisions: what to eat, what to wear, how and with whom to communicate, and how we show up...