This week’s episode presents part two of Reggie’s talk on the lives of the tantric saints in ancient India given at Stanford University in 2009. Here he discusses the essential role of desire in Vajrayana Buddhism. He begins by asking, does an embrace of desire imply that the Vajrayana tradition is not recognizably Buddhist? In taking up this question, Reggie explores how passion, sexuality, and the body are intrinsic to human experience. He says that according to tantra, any attempt to renounce desire reflects a rejection of our basic humanity. Instead, tantric meditation invites us to take desire as the path and to discover a burning love for our embodied human life, right now, in this world. For Vajrayana Buddhism, this love is the gateway to boundless awakening.

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In this symposium lecture, given at Stanford University in 2009, Reggie discusses the prototype of the tantric saint in ancient India. As he explains, the tantric path is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by several characteristics: an emphasis on enlightened female lineage holders, an embrace of ordinary “householder” lifestyles, and a recognition of the liberatory potential of desire, anger, and other so-called “defiled” mind states. However, although the Vajrayana tradition is unique in its unconventional expression of the dharma, it nevertheless shares a basic understanding of emptiness that is common to all Buddhist lineages.

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In this week’s episode, Reggie responds to the commonly held notion that passion and attachment are obstacles to the practice of meditation. He explains that the animating life force of the universe is fundamentally an unbridled attraction that we ourselves discover when we fully open to our hunger, wanting, and longing. Tantra invites us further into desire and shows us a thread of longing that underlies our entire existence. For the tantric practitioner, this thread serves as a trusted guide on the spiritual journey.

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In this talk, Reggie challenges the notion of spirituality as a journey of attainment – of progressing towards higher states of enlightened being. He explains that, according to the tantric tradition, true spirituality is actually a downward journey – into the unconscious, into the earth, into the grittiness of our humanity.

This talk was given at a weekend program in Portland, OR in 2009. 

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In today’s episode recorded on a Christmas Day, The Example of Jesus, Reggie speaks on the life and crucifixion of Jesus. He says that we, as modern practitioners, can look to Jesus as an example of someone who maintained integrity in the face of the brutality and materialism of the dominant culture. Further, he recognizes that within the beauty and power of the Western spiritual tradition is an important imperative: to make compassion real in the world – to create a society where people can live the teaching.

This talk was given on Christmas Day at the 2003 Winter Dathun, a month-long meditation retreat. 

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In Bravery of the Bodhisattva, Reggie discusses the bodhisattva — one who has committed their life to relieving the suffering of others. Far from being an unattainable ideal, the way of the bodhisattva is discovered in how we express our own innermost nature. When we overcome our habitual thinking, we realize that everything in our life is a source of joy and nourishment. Having tasted this life-giving “water” for ourselves, we are naturally compelled to offer our lives to others, no matter the cost. In the end, following the Dalai Lama, Reggie says, “the only way to find happiness is to love other people.”

This talk is from a bodhisattva vow ceremony that was offered at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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In this episode Reggie discusses tonglen, a Buddhist compassion practice, within the context of the Vajrayana understanding of interdependence. He says that when we encounter any difficult person, situation, or emotion we are meeting a part of ourselves that we have rejected. By opening to these rejected aspects we become whole.

Today’s episode was drawn from two talks given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado.

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In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the somatic experience of knowing the world through our hearts. He says that the thinking mind has become the primary way of knowing in modern society and as a result we’ve lost touch with the intelligence of our hearts. By connecting with our hearts in meditation practice, we regain the ability to meet the world in a non-conceptual way.

This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. To download more of Reggie’s teachings and to explore a variety of audio listening guides to assist you on your spiritual journey please visit our store.

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Although meditation has become popularized as a tool for stress reduction and basic wellness, it can, in fact, take us much further. In this week’s podcast, Reggie discusses how the practice of meditation can carry us beyond the confines of ego to true liberation.

This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Today’s teaching, Meditation and the Path of Healing, expands on the previous podcast’s theme of the importance of healing on the spiritual journey. Reggie shows how healing begins when we open to our deepest pain and trauma. Surrendering to the reality of our lives, painful though it may sometimes be, is how we transmute our suffering and discover unconditional freedom.

This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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In this talk, Healing, Wholeness, and Compassion, Reggie shows how the human journey of spirituality involves three aspects: healing, wholeness, and compassion. He explains that in order to progress in our meditation practice we must look at our overall health and work to resolve our pain and traumas in an integrative way. This work, he says, is also how we heal the earth.

This talk was given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado.

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In Refuge in the Sangha, as we finish our exploration of the meaning of Refuge, Reggie discusses the intimacy we share with one another in retreat and how that intimacy gives rise to a sense of profound devotion to our community of fellow practitioners.

These excerpts were taken from two different talks given at the 2003 and 2006 Winter Dathuns in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Today’s talk, Refuge in the Dharma, is a continuation of last week’s topic: the role of refuge on the Buddhist path. In this episode Reggie discusses refuge in the Dharma. He shows how our understanding of the meaning of dharma deepens in profound ways as we grow in the different stages of the journey.

This talk was given at the 2006 Winter Dathun, a month-long retreat held at the White Eagle Conference Center in Crestone, Colorado.

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What does it mean to take refuge in the Buddha? In this episode, Reggie explores this question from the standpoint of the outer, inner, and secret dimensions of the Buddhist journey. He explains that fundamentally the Buddha is the very essence of our being — the very source of our life.

This talk was given at the 2006 Winter Dathun, a month-long retreat held at the White Eagle in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Refuge is an important moment in the Buddhist journey. It is a ritual event in which we have the opportunity to commit to the practice of meditation as a spiritual path. In today’s talk, Reggie discusses how in taking refuge we learn to abandon distractions and leap to the choicelessness of each moment.

This talk was originally given at the 2011 Winter Dathun — a month-long retreat held at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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This week’s episode features three talks originally recorded at Dharma Ocean community weekends in Boulder, Colorado.

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Renunciation is an important topic in the traditional teachings of the Buddha, and is commonly misunderstood. In today’s talk, Reggie explains that renunciation is not about turning away from our relative lives, but instead is a natural outgrowth of meditation practice. Renunciation spontaneously occurs when we stop following our habitual impulses and expectations in everyday life and connect with what is called in the Zen tradition “our true life.”

This week’s episode, View of Renunciation, features a talk originally recorded at the 2005-06 Winter Dathün, a 28-day meditation retreat held annually at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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In Relating to Groundlessness, Reggie addresses the experience of groundlessness that often occurs when we engage in intensive meditation practice. He explains how we can trust those moments when we lose our sense of identity and encourages us to open to the uncertainty we feel when we encounter the limitless domain of our being.

This week’s episode features a segment of a talk given at the 2010-11 Winter Dathün, a 28-day meditation retreat held annually at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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In this week’s episode, Journey of Authentic Becoming, Reggie expands on the topic of Buddha Nature offered in last week’s podcast. When we are able to surrender into our own basic nature, we begin to uncover our unique authentic person. Through the practice of meditation, we discover that the imperative of our spiritual journey is to become fully who we are, without reservation.

This talk was taken from a longer teaching Reggie gave at the 2010-11 Winter Dathün, a 28-day meditation retreat held annually at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Reggie discusses the unique spiritual imperative facing modern people and in particular the state of disconnection that is prevalent in modern society. He explores how invaluable the Buddhist-inspired journey is at this time and how we can discover our own Buddha Nature afresh in each moment through the felt sense of our embodied experience. Wisdom, he offers, “is contained within every cell of our body.”

This episode features a segment of a talk recorded at the April 2009 Meditating with the Body Retreat at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Over the last fifteen years, drawing on Tibetan yoga, Reggie has developed a unique system of practices called Meditating with the Body. In this episode Reggie offers an introduction to the view of the body in Vajrayana Buddhism. He discusses the importance of the practice of meditation and the particular role of the body in meditation. Reggie explores how in the Vajrayana, the body is understood as the gateway through which the entire universe is discovered.

Episode 2 features a teaching originally recorded during the 2010-11 Winter Dathün, a 28-day meditation retreat held annually at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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Reggie explores Buddhist tantra as a spiritual path and discusses inspiration in the practice of meditation. He offers guidance for how we develop trust in the magic and perfection of our lives and explores how the practice of meditation is about dismantling our doubt.

This episode features a talk originally recorded during the 2010-11 Winter Dathün, a 28-day meditation retreat held annually at the Blazing Mountain Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. 

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