Reflect and discuss: 🧐

• How has practicing each Perfection impacted your life? 
• What are the afflictive mental and emotional states that Generosity, Ethical Discipline, Patience, Joyful Effort, and Meditative Concentration help alleviate?
• Which Perfection has been the most challenging to practice and why?

Read from the Namchak Blog: 📖

• What Are the Six Perfections or Six Paramitas?
• The Perfection of Generosity in Action
• Practicing the Perfection of Ethical Discipline
• Practicing the Perfection of Patience
• Practicing the Perfection of Diligence or Joyful Effort
• Practicing the Perfection of Meditative Concentration

Talks with Justin Kirkwood, Namchak YouTube Channel: 🎥

• Introduction to the Six Perfections or Paramitas
• How the Six Paramitas of Buddhism Build on One Another
• A Dharma Teaching on the Paramita of Generosity
• A Dharma Teaching on the Paramita of Discipline
• A Dharma Teaching on the Paramita of Patience
• The Paramita of Diligence or Joyful Effort
• A Dharma Teaching on the Paramita of Patience

Listen: 🎧

• A Deeply Healthy Kind of Perfectionism | Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (Ten Percent Happier Podcast, www.tenpercent.com)

Practice: 🧘🏽‍♂️

• Sixteen-minute Meditation for Tuning into Wisdom through Sensation: Using the grounding practice of Shamata, we focus and ultimately calm the mind. Then, Lama Tsomo guides us through a Body Scan meditation for tuning into sensation. This enables us to develop equanimity for what is, so we can move through our day with more wisdom, awareness, and ease.

This month’s book recommendation from Namchak teacher Justin Kirkwood: 📚

Ornament of Precious Liberation by Gampopa*

From Justin:
“I have been teaching from the Ornament of Precious Liberation by Gampopa. I find it has a great balance of concise and complete explanations. It is somewhat technical and many passages are taught from the perspective of a renunciate monk or yogi. It is important to learn to take the lessons as they may apply to oneself rather than write it off as only applicable to monastics.”

*Namchak Foundation and Lama Tsomo do not receive any monetary or other benefit from the purchase of this book.

This month we spotlight the Morning Meditators, a group of Namchak students who come together each weekday morning starting at 7 am PT/ 8 am MT/ 9 am CT/ 10 am ET for a 20-minute meditation. Hosted by volunteer members of our Sangha, these morning meditations are a chance to start each day with a dose of Dharma.

Pam, from that group, had this to say:

“We all have morning rituals. Over the years, I’ve concluded that these routines have become a habit for me because they serve at least one purpose I have identified as beneficial to me. Setting an alarm enables me the opportunity to accomplish things I’ve deemed important/desirable that day.

“Morning coffee wakes me up and sometimes warms me up. Brushing my teeth refreshes my mouth and helps with personal hygiene. Straightening my bed appeals to my aesthetic preferences of order and neatness. Morning meditation helps ground me in the present.

“Even though my morning routines benefit me, I’m not always consistent in doing them. It’s pretty easy to let other things such as thoughts, ideas, obligations, activities, and preferences distract me from these beneficial rituals/routines. And that’s one of the reasons I really love to do my morning meditation practice in community. Sometimes it’s easier to do something out of commitment to others than it is to keep a commitment just to myself. And when I meditate in community, the reality that I am part of a larger whole reminds me that I am not alone.”