Dharma Ocean Podcast

In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the loss of control we feel when facing the uncertainty of life through the practice of meditation. Chaos, he says, is a sign that reality is trying to get through to us. When we heed the call and surrender our grasp, our lives...

In today’s talk, Reggie encourages us to trust the unique unfolding of our personal journey on the path of meditation. He says that the greatest gift we can offer ourselves, and others, is confidence in the sacredness of our specific life. This talk was given in 2009...

Spiritual materialism is an approach to meditation in which we fixate on goals of perfection and try to secure a sense of accomplishment. In this talk, Reggie explains how the dance of reality always undermines such reference points and cuts through the momentum of...

Today, we conclude our month long exploration of the mahamudra tradition. In the following talk, Reggie discusses how mahamudra is being translated from Tibetan Buddhism to the modern world. He says that the appeal of this tradition is that it invites us to discover...

In today’s episode, Reggie talks about an aspect of experience that brings many people to the practice of meditation: unceasing thoughts. He says that the mahamudra tradition does not see thoughts as problematic. Rather, they are understood as primal expressions of...

Today, we continue our exploration of the mahamudra tradition of meditation. In this talk, Reggie shows how the vast space of being that he discussed in last week’s podcast expresses itself as love, and how this love manifests as our unique life. This talk is...

In this episode, Reggie talks about the open, empty, clear awareness that is our fundamental nature. This great space of being, he says, is endless, unborn, and does not die. When we discover that this vast expanse of awareness is the source of our life, we feel free...

Today, we begin a four-week exploration of the mahamudra tradition of meditation – an ancient approach known for its remarkable simplicity and profundity. In this talk, Reggie discusses the way in which mahamudra meets our longing to connect with the vast space of...

In today’s episode, Reggie reflects on the importance of expanding our awareness beyond our expectations, prejudices, ideas, and biases. When we open to boundless space in this way, we are extending an open-ended invitation to the universe, and many unexpected guests...

When working with a spiritual teacher, a community must consider how to carry on the lineage once the teacher dies. In this talk, Reggie says that the authentic lineage of Chögyam Trungpa will only survive into future generations if "integrity trumps strategy" and the...

In this episode, Reggie discusses the continuation of Chögyam Trungpa’s lineage within Dharma Ocean. Instead of worshipping the lineage footsteps of the past, Reggie encourages us to make a relationship with the lineage as a living force that is communicating within...

This is a talk Reggie offered on the life and teachings of his teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He discusses the Vajrayana foundations of Tibetan Buddhism, Trungpa’s early training as a Vajrayana master, and his unique expression of the dharma in the modern world....

Today, we’ll listen to brief excerpts from an assortment of talks Reggie gave on the life and teachings of Jesus from a Buddhist perspective. He explains how Jesus was a contemplative prophet who exemplified non-theistic compassion through his rejection of religious...

Winter solstice is a time of journeying inward, into the depths and darkness of our being. This podcast features excerpts from two talks Reggie gave on the importance of opening to darkness in spiritual practice. In the first excerpt, he explains how the difficult,...

Today, Reggie discusses the narrow world of ego. We typically perceive the world beyond ego as shadows and darkness; however, when we enter the unknown depths of the body through the practice of meditation, we tap into the boundlessness of the universe. When we...

What does the word enlightenment really mean? How does it define Buddhist cultural roles and perceptions? Is the spiritual ideal of enlightenment really that helpful to modern meditators? These are some of the questions Reggie poses in this talk on the importance of...

Buddhism is often seen as an organized Asian religion that is historically tied to entrenched power structures, authoritative texts, and definitive roles. In today’s episode, Reggie discusses the importance of giving up our ideas and preconceptions about the dharma...

The journey of meditation shows us how our ideas about everyday life are small, regimented, and suffocating. In this talk, Reggie explains that modern spirituality requires a certain bravery, a willingness to be dismantled by the raw reality of our humanity in the...

Reggie discusses the ways meditation helps us shed habitual patterns so we can discover the true purpose of our life. The human journey, he says, is not about getting rid of our ego but rather connecting more deeply with our authentic person. Then the ego can help us...

our store.“There is no such thing as absolute nothingness. We think that there might be — that’s our deepest fear. As a practitioner, you run into nothingness, but there’s something more, there’s something deeper. And that deeper thing is the warmth of infinity, the...

In this episode, Reggie explains how meditating in an embodied way allows our lives to flow freely. We are used to thinking that we are never enough — that we are lacking in so many ways. The practice of meditation gives rise humor and joy, through the insight that...

This week, Reggie reflects on the meaning of the first line of the Dharma Ocean aspiration chant: “May I develop an attitude of complete acceptance and openness to all situations, emotions, and to all people.” He explores this teaching in the context of Buddhist...

In today’s podcast, Reggie shows how freedom is found when we refrain from judging our experience. By embracing some aspects of experience and shunning others, we drive the painful, difficult, and unwanted parts of our being into the shadows. These tormented and...

In today’s teaching, Reggie shows how the fundamental truth of the universe is discovered within the human heart. To trust in the heart means being willing to open to what we are feeling and explore the immediacy of life, no matter what we might think about it. This...

In this talk, Reggie emphasizes the importance of trusting in the heart on the journey of meditation. He describes how distracted we are by what we think our life is and how meditation brings us back to the true essence of our fundamental life force. The first stage...

This week, we listen to a talk Reggie gave on the relationship between mahamudra meditation and the bodhicitta practice of awakening the heart. Mahamudra practice allows us to explore the vast space of reality as the ground of our basic nature. Practitioners of...

In today’s episode, Reggie reflects on the sacredness of our human experience. When we relinquish our preconceptions and ideas about ourselves, he says, we glimpse how truly limitless our experience of life can be. This insight often awakens a longing in us to...

Today’s podcast features the second part of Reggie’s talk on the wisdom of emotions. Emotions in themselves, he says, are not a problem — they are simply explosions of awakened energy. The problem occurs when we attach self-referential storylines to emotions, judging...

A distinctive feature of Vajrayana Buddhism is the view that emotions are intelligent expressions of energy. Today, we begin listening to a talk Reggie gave on the role of emotions on the meditative journey. He says that to understand the wisdom of emotions, we must...

“Confidence means willing to be with your experience with an open heart and not do anything about it — that’s the Vajrayana path.” In this episode, Reggie discusses how the ego reacts to the play of energy that arises when we open to vast space in the practice of...

In today’s episode, we explore how energy manifests as the rich display of our personal experience: our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sense perceptions. Reggie offers that, rather than being a solid individual self, each of us is a continually unfolding process of...

Today, Reggie invites us to consider a recent discovery in modern physics: that everything in the universe ultimately is born from nothing, from the universe itself down to the tiniest particles at subatomic levels. We are able to have direct experiential knowledge of...

“Deep space is completely unconditioned. It’s where everything that’s going to come to birth is held. It’s the origin — the source.” In today’s episode, Reggie explores how our relationship with deep space connects us with the fire of primordial creativity. Boycotting...

When there is a gap in our thoughts, or we suddenly lose track of who we are, that is a moment of protection—reality cuts through our habitual patterns, thus protecting our connection to the fundamental nature of everything. Reggie discusses the way that space—alive,...

“Space and the awareness of space. This is the basic message.” In today’s podcast, Reggie comments on this profoundly simple practice instruction. In meditation, he says, we learn to relate to the basic space of reality. However, when we experience the vastness of...

our store.An impediment to the practice of Mahamudra for modern people is the notion that we are insufficiently equipped to make the full spiritual journey: that we are too busy, too materialistic, and too distracted. In today’s episode, Reggie offers an alternative,...

Vajrayana Buddhism is sometimes called "the quick path to realization." In today’s episode, Reggie describes the travails, inspiration, and bravery of practitioners who choose the quick path, an approach to dharma whereby one places meditation at the very center of...